I Became The Academy’s Narrow-Eyes - Chapter 60: A New Master (1)
Smack!
The sharp-force punch of Adryn, filled with courage from her necklace, legitimately struck Lize’s face.
While there was no chance of Lize’s miniature appearance, something she proudly flaunted, being ruined thanks to the mana barrier, the unpleasant sensation of being punched in the face and the shock involved were fully transferred.
Thump.
Lize, who had finished her humiliating flight, crumpled onto the ground.
“Damn it!”
Having been flustered due to her experiences in the mental world, Lize composed herself.
Simultaneously as she attempted to get up, she pulled up all the mana from her body.
How dare she touch my face?
A wave of rage swept over her, dictating that even if nothing else, she would kill this insignificant bitch.
“This ugly bitch dares-”
The moment Lize glared at Adryn, her rage dissipated into nothingness.
Behind Adryn.
Ceylon was looking at Lize.
He’d returned to his usual state, appearing nonchalantly cheerful with no weight to his words, the very picture of idiocy.
However, Lize was analyzing his eyes, the pupils hidden under his eyelids.
Those golden pupils she had seen in the mental world-
She remembered the massive, white snake.
‘What was that, exactly?’
The black magic spell Lize had just used, The Nightmare Invitation, was the most potent black magic and mental magic she could use as a six-star black witch.
It constructed a subconscious world within the mental world using mana.
And within that subconscious world, she could invite avatars of the demons with whom she’d made a contract.
Lize called this black magic part ‘competing’.
It involved forcing her enemy to fight an avatar of a demon.
While demons possessed physical bodies in the material world, the middle world, their essence was the spiritual body located in the subconscious, the spiritual world.
Fighting against a demon’s spirit in the spiritual world was excruciatingly detailed compared to fighting a demon possessing a physical body.
Therefore, triumphing against an avatar of a demon conjured by The Nightmare Invitation was a formidable task.
Because of that,
The traditional strategy to dispel The Nightmare Invitation wasn’t to challenge the demon; instead, the target was the black witch who cast it or the mental world she created.
However, the man didn’t choose the traditional strategy.
He had defeated ‘Un Za’ in spirit form.
To be precise,
Something he had summoned engulfed Un-Za in spirit form.
That something was a massive, white snake.
What could that thing’s identity possibly be?
‘Demon…’
That was Lize’s conclusion.
The man must have summoned a demon he had made a contract within the subconscious world.
‘No.’
No.
No, he hadn’t.
To make that possible, one had to interfere in the alternate world created by others.
And even for Lize, a black magician who reached the level of six stars, it was a complex task.
Above all, to make that possible, one must possess a level of black magic and power similar to that of Lize.
Then-
‘This bastard is a black wizard at the same level as me?’
It was unlikely.
Therefore, the conclusion that Lize reached was as follows.
Regardless of the man’s will, the gigantic white snake, the demon had intervened arbitrarily.
‘Does it make sense…?’
The demons Lize knew were fickle beings.
Above all, they were bastards who only saw humans as bugs, prey, or slaves.
The reason why Lize was able to summon Un Za just now was because she had offered the member of Dalleye, whom she had just killed, as sacrifice.
Moreover, Un Za demanded even more sacrifices when this was over as if it were not enough.
If she couldn’t fulfill that quota, she should offer herself as a sacrifice.
However, to Lize’s eyes, the white snake that had just appeared did not seem to be demanding a separate reward from the man.
There were occasional exceptions.
Lower-ranking demons with similar thought patterns to humans establish an equal relationship with them.
However, no matter how you looked at it, the white snake was not something like a lower-ranking demon.
Just like Un Za, the ‘Baron’, it was a Great Demon that dominated the alternate world.
At the same time, it was a powerful demon that couldn’t be compared to the likes of ‘Baron’ Un Za.
After all, it was powerful enough to annihilate the very existence of Un Za through his avatar.
How can any demon demonstrate such an overwhelming aspect against Un Za?
It must be a being several notches above the ‘Baron’ Un Za.
‘A count…?’
At the very least, a count.
Then, is that man receiving the favor of a count?
“Darn it.”
Lize felt a strong sense of emptiness and frustration.
She is a special being who has achieved high accomplishments in both magic and black magic.
The meager attention of the ‘Baron’, which was the result of offering junk and treasures as sacrifices for a long time, was her reward.
It was an absolute hierarchical relationship analogous to the relationship between a lord and his citizens.
However, no matter how she looked at it, that man didn’t seem to be walking the path of black magic.
For instance, he didn’t try to win the favor of demons like she did.
And is he receiving attention from a being who is a count?
‘That sucks?’
That was a talent and blessing unparalleled to black magicians.
It was significantly greater than what Lize possessed by birth.
Lize was trembling at that unfairness.
Then-
‘Huh?’
She suddenly remembered.
At the same time as death, her power, which had originally been under Un Za’s control-
The power of black magic went under another control.
‘Could it be-‘
Lize focused her mind.
She tried to feel the power of her black magic and the entity controlling it.
‘…!’
Then, her focused mind turned towards the shocked face of the man.
Just until a moment ago, he was the shocked man that Lize treated like a bug.
To such a man, her black magic, the source of her confidence, was subjected.
It would have been a situation where Lize would have screamed in humiliation and fainted.
‘In this world…’
However, Lize shuddered with ecstasy.
Her power was not subject to that man.
It was subjected to the mighty demon – the white snake wriggling in his mind’s world.
She accepted it that way.
Then, what kind of existence is the white snake?
Firstly, it was a powerful demon that couldn’t compare with Un Za.
And despite being a demon, it was a very generous and interested entity towards humans.
It only focused its attention on such a pathetic guy and even gathered up her power now instead of eradicating it. This proved that it is interested in the man.
She caught the demon’s eye.
She was under the control of such a demon.
It was an incredible chance that couldn’t even compare with a second-class heroic artifact that all the black magicians of this continent would envy.
***
“Hehehe.”
Lize unwittingly let out a joyful laugh.
“What, what’s wrong? Why are you laughing all of a sudden? It is distasteful.”
Adryn was taken aback by the sudden change in Lize, who was flaunting her anger and murderous aura just a moment ago.
Then Mizu pointed at Adryn’s fists with her index finger, then pointed at her cheek, and then moved it to her temple and circled it around.
Does that mean she was punched and lost her mind?
Interpret it like that.
Even so, Adryn and Mizu remained tense.
Both of them didn’t know what Lize and Ceylon had experienced in the subconscious world just a moment ago.
On top of that, they felt a sinister aura from her when Lize was pulling up her magic power just a moment ago.
The Dalleye’s Solver, who is already an excellent magician, has a trump card left.
Adryn and Mizu tightened their grip on their weapons.
“Hey, milk-scented girls.”
Then Lize spoke, looking at Adryn and Mizu.
Her tone was still aggressive, but the clear hostility and contempt that was in it couldn’t be felt.
Judging by the slight smile on her face, it seemed that the Dalleye’s Solver was in a good mood now.
Being in a good mood immediately after being punched in the face.
Adryn and Mizu were confused and looked at Adryn’s spicy and heavy fist.
Adryn and Mizu, who were guarding Lize more tightly, had a ‘hunch’ there was some mysterious effect to it.
To those two, Lize declared, “I’ll let you two off, so just scram.”
“What?”
“Shove off with the necklace, fuckers. Before I change my mind. That guy,” she pointed at Ceylon, “I’ve got something to discuss with him. I don’t care about you two anymore.”
“…”
“…”
Adryn blinked at her with wide puppy eyes and asked Mizu, “What…what’s she saying right now?”
Mizu blinked her emotionless eyes and replied, “No…idea. Maybe-”
Mizu raised her index finger once again.
She pointed at Adryn’s fist, then her cheek, and placed it near her temple, making a circle.
Does it mean Adryn’s punch made her go crazy?
It was interpreted roughly with that meaning.
Adryn looked down at her fist seriously, “…Did I do that…?”
“Maybe you did.”
Enough with the jokes.
Adryn, once again looking at Lize, raised her voice, “Just who do you think you are? And you, you brat! It sounds like you are showing us mercy! Stop being arrogant! You can’t do anything to us!”
“Oh…cool…”
Mizu admired Adryn’s courageous face, which was emboldened by the courage contained in the necklace.
“Ah, fuck. Really every bloody thing.”
Lize sighed, looking weary, “You, just what makes you so confident to mess with me, huh?”
“I’m the one who should say that!? You, brat! Just what makes you so rude to us!? I’m Adryn of House Teln!!! The Eastern gale, Adryn of House Teln!!! You ignorant criminals!!! Daring to assault us Teln with such banditry!!!”
If Adryn had remained anonymous and endured all of this, she wouldn’t have been so angry.
But Adryn had already revealed her lineage.
Yet those criminals still attacked her.
That was a direct insult to her lineage.
She could tolerate insults against her, but never against her lineage.
Adryn decided now was the time to let out everything that had been held in her heart.
Lize just ignored her, pretending to be digging her ears with her pinky finger.
“Teln or anal, fuck. A girl who would’ve been defeated by me if it weren’t for the slanted eyes guy, talks a lot.”
“Yes! That’s right! But so what! We are-! You, brat!!! And stop addressing Ceylon in such a manner! I warned you!”
“What are you that I should heed you? Are you anything to him?”
Lize, with her developed derisive laughter, hit her palm with a fist.
“Bang!”
A crisp and sarcastic sound came out.
“…What’s that?”
Adryn asked, not understanding the meaning.
Looking at Adryn, Lize was smirking.
Adryn was taken aback by Lize’s attitude which seemed to treat her like a joke.
“Bang!”
Adryn boldly imitated Lize’s gesture and shouted.
“I don’t know what it is! But I’m closer to this and that than you are!”
“Oh my~”
Faced with Lize’s suggestive smile, Adryn felt a sense of inexplicable anxiety.
At that moment, Mizu poked Adryn’s side from the side.
“Huh?”
When Adryn looked at her wondering what was going on, Mizu stutteringly said to Adryn.
“That, Adryn, what you just did,…”
“…what about it?”
“What that means is…”
Whispering.
Mizu lifted her heels and whispered into Adryn’s ear, who was taller than her.
“…”
Heat gradually gathered in Adryn’s ears, and soon it was as if they were on fire.
Carefully, Adryn checked Ceylon’s reaction.
“Wow. The weather is great today, isn’t it?”
He was awkwardly mumbling while looking at the sky obscured by the eaves of buildings.
“…”
Adryn then looked back at Lize.
Squeeze.
“I’ll, I’ll kill her…! I’ll kill that woman and then kill myself!!!”
Adryn, with fire spreading from her ears to her face, yelled with spinning eyes.