LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 20
EP.20 Exam Assignment (4)
The essence of sorcery lies in transactions.
You pay a price, and in return, an appropriate phenomenon occurs.
That is the basis of sorcery, the Offering.
In that sense, sorcery shares a commonality with transactions with the stars. However, to be more precise, sorcery is closer to an act that mimics transactions with the stars.
Spells, rituals based on Balance.
Sorcerers who could not manipulate the stars, in their admiration for the stars, created their own scales by imitating Balance.
Sorcery, Offering.
The process is simpler than with Balance. It requires no complex calculations. It doesn’t demand high skill levels either. Instead, it only permits one way of payment.
The body.
The payment method for the Offering is the physical flesh of a living being. However, no one knows which part will disappear and how much.
Controlling that is referred to as talent in the sorcery community. In that sense, Belnoa had a talent for sorcery.
Crunch, crack.
The offered Belnoa’s fingers begin to bend.
“…”
Belnoa is silent. There is no change in his expression.
Of course, he feels pain. However, it’s not unbearable.
Repeated offerings.
The pain became something familiar through the process.
Belnoa calmly estimates the number.
‘Five.’
The offered fingers are five in number. Based on experience, Belnoa instinctively understands what can be stirred up with this amount of offering. Soon, Belnoa is assured.
‘This should be enough.’
An intuition born from experience.
As per his intuition, Belnoa moves.
“…!”
Lac, who was charging towards Belnoa, stops abruptly. A superhuman, beast-like intuition warns him to retreat.
Thud.
However, Lac does not retreat.
Instead, he digs in another step, shrugging his shoulders. The axe in his hand is imbued with a spell.
Acceleration.
The axe’s destination is Belnoa’s nape.
‘There’s no real barbarian like him.’
Belnoa clicks his tongue at the sight.
‘I had no intention of winning unscathed… but this is a bit harsh.’
He steels himself for the possibility of losing an arm.
At that moment, the transaction reaches its conclusion.
Snap!
Belnoa’s fingers bend completely, and the shadow he enveloped explodes. The offering of five fingers. The stars respond to that offering.
The exploding shadow heads straight for Lac’s nape.
Simultaneously, the accelerated axe also aims for Belnoa’s nape.
And then.
“Stop.”
Restraint.
Click.
With the noise of something being filled, everything freezes.
“That’s enough.”
With a chilling voice, the axe comes to a halt. The shadow is suspended in the air. In that artificially created stillness, footsteps can be heard approaching.
Clop, clop.
Belnoa tries to turn his head to see where the sound is coming from. However, his body does not move. The spell does not work either. The shadow does not budge either.
‘What is this…’
In his fixed vision, Belnoa gazes at Lac.
Lac is sweating profusely. His eyes are trembling. At the end of his gaze stands a woman.
With ashen hair and blue eyes.
Belnoa recalls her name.
‘Rania van Trias.’
The teaching assistant he saw on the platform.
She detached Lac from Belnoa. Then, as if to take his place, she stood directly in front of Belnoa.
“This.”
She points at the shadow cluster in front of Belnoa.
“Excessive competitive behavior was warned as a reason for halting the exam, wasn’t it?”
Her voice is as chilly as her eyes.
She reaches out her hand. Grabbing the shadow. Though it is a sharply honed shadow, it causes no injury to her hand.
Crackle.
Eventually, the shadow crumbles.
The shadow doesn’t just crumble. As she gestures, a scale rises into the air. Belnoa recognizes what it is at a glance.
‘Balance…?’
One side of the scale holds the shadow.
On the other side, Belnoa’s right hand moves by itself. The scale, which had tilted up and down a few times, finally achieves balance.
Thud, thud.
As if time is rewinding, broken bones reattach. Almost entranced, Belnoa watches the scene.
‘…Did she intercept the transaction?’
By placing the flesh he “paid” for on Balance, it was returned.
‘…Is that even possible?’
It’s a method he’s never heard of.
Belnoa blinks blankly. However, his reattached fingers remain unchanged. Pristine.
Click.
Eventually, whatever was binding them disperses. Belnoa, who has slumped to the ground, lifts his head. He meets the gaze of the woman looking down at him.
Chilling eyes.
Eyes full of animosity.
*
Sorcery mediated through shadows.
‘Shadow Weaving.’
A figure who practiced this sorcery suddenly pops into Belnoa’s mind. Although it’s a long-gone wound, he feels an inexplicable itch at the nape of his neck.
‘…There’s someone left who can use this.’
For now, he decides not to think too deeply about it.
He slightly shakes his head and just as he’s about to speak…
“I lost.”
Before him, Lac opens his mouth first.
Lac looks at Belnoa and continues.
“I couldn’t avoid it. I felt that certainty. So, I charged in. I thought if I tore off the arm controlling the shadow, the shadow would stop.”
“…”
“However, it seems not. Even if I tore off the arm, the shadow would still remain. Am I correct?”
“Correct.”
Belnoa admits openly.
“Offering… regardless of what happens, once the price is paid, it always lands. No matter what happens to me.”
“You should have blocked it.”
“…Blocking doesn’t mean it will be stopped, but it would have been the right choice.”
Hmmm, Lac nods.
“Then it’s indeed my defeat. Impressive. I admit my loss.”
Then Lac looks at me.
He seems quite relieved.
“I think I’ve lost, supervisor.”
“Hmmm…”
Since he admits it himself, I can’t really add anything, but it’s somewhat unsatisfying. Belnoa also doesn’t look particularly pleased.
‘No, why did I pair these two in the first place?’
Was Apuria’s level so high that dropping one of them would leave space for the advanced class? It’s surely high, but I don’t remember it being that extreme.
‘What’s the advanced class anyway? Even if thrown onto the battlefield right now, I feel they could hold their own.’
It would be a waste of talent to drop one.
Lac’s intuition speaks for itself… Though it’s not my preference, the shadow sorcery Belnoa used had been a troublesome spell even for Kyle.
‘With just a little adjustment, I feel they could match up to a captain of the white encampment…’
The class I’ve been assigned is the advanced class.
There’s no need to place these two in the advanced class. Wherever they are placed, the capable ones will rise anyway. Nonetheless, I started feeling a bit greedy.
I want to try teaching just these two.
I don’t know why, but… clumsy as it is, these two seem to handle mana similarly to me. In other words, I can see it with my own eyes.
How to adjust it.
How to handle mana a bit more efficiently.
It feels like spotting a foreign object lodged in a finely tuned machine. With a little tweak, it could become more perfect. So, I’d prefer to keep both close by to observe…
‘But that would go against fairness.’
I need a plausible justification.
I ponder for a moment. The teaching assistants had clearly stated that the purpose of the exam was “control of mana.”
Control of mana… control…
“Oh.”
A thought suddenly flits through my mind.
Thinking about it, there couldn’t be a better way to test the control of mana than this.
“Follow me.”
I step forward.
Not towards the edge of the forest, but into the heart of it.
3.
“Where is this…?”
Belnoa blinks.
From the moment they entered the center of the forest, he sensed something was off. He pushed aside the possibilities he thought might happen.
However.
“This is the Mana Spring, isn’t it…?”
Seeing what lay before him, he found himself lost for words. Belnoa alternated his gaze between the supervisor and the boundary right in front of him.
A gift left behind by the Ancient Dragon Mage.
The Mana Spring.
It marks the area affected by its powers.
“Can’t you tell?”
Rania pointed beyond the boundary as if asking what he was asking.
“Go in for a minute.”
“Excuse me?”
“If you can hold out for a minute, I’ll let slide that sorcery of yours.”
What does she mean by that?
“…I’ve heard that just approaching the Mana Spring causes the mana in the veins to surge, tearing the limbs apart.”
“Hah.”
At that, she snorts.
“That’s only when you submerge in the spring at the center. We’re quite far from it here. Moreover, your limbs won’t tear apart. It’s just a little rupture in your veins.”
Somehow, her tone feels like someone who has gone through this firsthand.
“Lac?”
“Yes, yes.”
“You’re the same. If you can hold out for a minute, I’ll tell Professor Rosel to place you in the advanced class.”
Lac gulps.
Then, he slowly turns to look at Belnoa.
“What?”
“…Are you going to go in?”
“…I don’t know.”
Belnoa was indeed close to going insane.
Feeling the same sensation he experienced when a blade was pressed against his nape during ‘training,’ in a slum, saying ‘If you don’t kill, you die…’ Belnoa feels precisely that emotion now.
‘Is this person really a professor?’
He glares at Rania with half-open eyes, but only receives a chilling glare in return.
“…Are you really going to let it slide?”
“I swear on the name of Ashen… no, Trias. It wouldn’t be hard to tweak the results to show a draw.”
“…”
“So, what will it be?”
Belnoa contemplates.
Even if he were to claim victory, if that teaching assistant states that he used sorcery through the Offering… everything goes back to square one.
Even as a competitive exam, the manifestation of sorcery through the Offering is still a clear act of violence. Depending on circumstances, it could lead to expulsion.
‘Then that old man won’t… protect Chloe’s identity.’
That must not happen.
Clenching his teeth, Belnoa responds.
“I’ll do it.”
“…Then I’ll do it too.”
As if he was waiting for that response, Lac adds.
Belnoa tilts his head in confusion.
“…Why you?”
“If you do it, I’ll do it too.”
“So why?”
“The Northern warriors said. Accept defeat, but don’t fall behind. I don’t want to fall behind.”
What on earth is he saying?
Belnoa gives up trying to understand Lac. He steps forward towards the boundary, slowly gathering his breath.
“Hu…”
He exhales deeply and steels himself.
Belnoa takes a large step forward. The moment his foot crosses the boundary and touches the Mana Spring’s domain.
Thud!
Something, a crushing pressure overwhelms his body.
Gasp!
Belnoa gasps.
Veins burst in his eyes. It’s hard to breathe. Throat tightens, trapping air. Breathing becomes difficult.
Belnoa instinctively raises his hand. Lifting it to grip his nape. Looking down, his veins stand out.
‘I can’t breathe.’
And then.
“Fifteen.”
A voice echoes from behind, grasping his consciousness.
“Sixteen.”
The voice draws nearer.
“Seventeen.”
Finally, the voice moves beyond him. The sound of light footsteps hitting the ground can be heard.
“Eighteen.”
Belnoa barely lifts his head.
“Nineteen.”
In front of him, there’s ashen hair.
“Twenty.”
That ashen hair continues to recede.
After a while, the figure with ashen hair moves deeper into the forest. She turns back. Her hair waves gently.
“You’ve made it one-third of the way.”
There’s an unchanging breath in that.
No change in movement.
“If you can’t hold on, say so.”
That voice, it sounds leisurely.