novelraw Chapter 61 : Chapter 61
Chapter 61 : Chapter 61
Chapter 61
Theo, his face deathly pale, gulped down the still-hot tea and immediately rose from his seat.
"Theo-nim?!"
Lightly ignoring Tan's surprised call, Theo didn't look back, stood in front of the window, and jumped right down.
Theo, who landed lightly on the ground with wind magic, used the magic he had used in the Flowering Festival preliminaries and ran off somewhere.
Was he freed from his predicament for now?
"No, wait a minute!"
Hartain also jumped out of the window, following Theo, and started running.
The place Theo was heading to was where the 3rd-year lecture halls were.
Hartain's role was to hold Theo back until Lerwon and Fel's meeting was over.
Although he was flustered by the trap and the sudden action, he couldn't just let him go.
'Besides, he looked like he knew something!'
I can't let him go!
Hartain grit his teeth and ran after Theo with all his might.
Theo, who had been getting farther and farther away, finally began to come into view.
"How is he so fast!"
Tan, running at full speed, shouted in frustration.
It was actually Theo who wanted to say that!
He was running on the wind. Most monsters couldn't easily keep up with Theo's speed.
But Tan was somehow keeping up with Theo. Normally, he would have lost him right away!
'So he knows where he is too?!'
Just in case, how fortunate it was that I had taken away the magitool that could locate Lerwon after Fel appeared!
Theo kept looking at his watch and ran towards the 3rd-year lecture hall building.
"Uh, huh?!"
There was a student in his path.
Unfortunately, he was so engrossed in his book that he didn't notice Theo approaching him at high speed.
If he collided with him like this, the student would get hurt, and he would be caught by Tan.
Theo's golden eyes glinted sharply.
Wind gathered in a ball in his hand, and Theo took a deep breath and shot it at the ground.
At the recoil of the wind that shot out like a cannonball, Theo's body explosively launched into the air.
Theo's shoes, airborne, barely grazed the top of the student's head.
"Huh? What was that, wind?"
At the sight of the student, who had an indifferent expression at the event that had unfolded in an instant, touching his head and then going on his way, Tan let out a sigh of relief.
"Aaaaaah!!"
However, after rising for a moment, he immediately began to fall.
At this rate, he would undoubtedly be slammed into the ground.
"It's dangerous!!"
At Tan's shout, Theo's golden eyes glinted sharply.
It was a gamble, but he had to try!
Once again, the wind gathered. But this time, the wind was not in his hand, but in the sky. The swirling wind instantly became a path.
As Theo got on the path, the incomplete path swayed for a moment.
Theo almost fell, but he barely regained his balance and poured mana into maintaining the path of wind as he ran.
He didn't have time to go up the stairs anyway.
He was almost there!
Theo threw a circle of earth at the glass window with all his might, like a baseball.
Crash!
The sound of the glass window shattering was heard, and Theo went right through the hole.
Although he got scratches all over his body from the broken glass pieces, Theo didn't care and ran down the hallway.
It's close!
30 seconds left!
Finally, he heard a voice.
"─can you help me for a moment?"
Don't take that hand!
Theo created a gale behind his back.
At this rate, I'll be late! I have to stop them from holding hands!
"Ferdiel!!!"
As Theo shouted with all his might, Fel turned his head towards the sound.
The two people's hands, which were about to touch, crossed, and Theo's body, which had been shot like a bullet, stumbled for a moment and crashed into Fel.
BOOM!!
With a loud roar, Ferdiel and Theo's bodies were sent flying.
"Theo!"
In the succession of incomprehensible situations, Lerwon called Theo's name.
But Theo and Fel had long since disappeared somewhere.
"Theo?"
Only Lerwon's voice, left alone in the hallway, echoed emptily.
* * *
The moment I collided with Fel, my vision flashed.
And when I opened my eyes again, I saw a... white space.
"Ugh, where on earth am I."
The place where I had collided with Ferdiel throbbed painfully.
Did I break a bone somewhere?
I fiddled with the place where I felt a sharp pain.
If it weren't for the sword at my throat, I could have focused more on my injuries.
"Can you move this sword?"
"Could you tell me what you are?"
What am I? A pitiful and pathetic, weak NPC being tormented by a tyrant-like system.
I'm on the verge of tears, wondering how I ended up in this situation.
"Then what are you?"
"Did you forget what you spouted yourself? You called me 'Ferdiel', didn't you, clearly?"
"That was just a coincidence─"
As I tried to play dumb a little more, Ferdiel responded by closing the distance between the sword and my neck.
The blade entered my neck smoothly, but the pain was very sharp.
"So you're going to slit my throat right away if I say that?"
Ferdiel smiled instead of answering. To be able to smile like that with a sword at someone's throat was impressive in its own way.
I obediently raised both my hands to signal my surrender.
In any case, this place was completely Ferdiel's space.
A place commonly called a 'subspace'. But this place was a little more special.
Because it was a special magic skill called 'The Most Perfect Protection', which could only be used by those with powerful holy power.
It was a miracle that only Ferdiel could achieve in the present day.
"Ferdiel Levian."
As I called his name, Ferdiel frowned and dug the sword deeper.
If it weren't for self-heal, couldn't I have fainted from anemia?
Since I know how to escape this place, let's just have a leisurely chat for now.
"How do you know what even Count Lisitoel doesn't know?"
"My father wouldn't know."
An outsider of the Church, the prodigal and adopted son of the Levian family.
"There's probably no one as suspicious as me in your eyes, right?"
"You know well, don't you?"
Ferdiel's pure white eyes glinted eerily.
"The Sword of Doctrine has the right to summary execution. What will you do if I kill you right now with that?"
Even at the blatant threat of death, I was only calm.
"...Isn't it too calm for someone whose life is in my hands?"
"You're not that kind of person."
What Ferdiel Levian hates the most are greed and sacrifice.
So I can be sure that he won't do something as cheap as sacrificing me for power.
"What do you know about me?"
"A lot more than you think."
The 'I Am the Writer' skill.
A quill pen is held in my hand.
From now on, I have to focus all of Ferdiel's attention on me.
"Speak clearly."
I felt the sword at my throat get a little closer.
If it went in a little further, my carotid artery might be severed, and I might die.
If I had a question, it would be whether the world would reset and I could open my eyes again if I died like this.
But I won't commit the crazy act of dying to resolve that question.
"You've been suspecting me from the beginning. Wondering if I'm a person who deviates from God's will."
"Yes, I was."
"So, what's your impression?"
"High probability, a heretic."
His words were correct, for now.
After all, I had made a contract with the demon Baal.
But I was wronged. Albedo was only a demon in name, in reality, he was just a white lizard with a cute side.
"And yet, you think there's a low probability that I might not be a heretic, right?"
"……."
Ferdiel remained silent.
"You're also worried that the Descendant of the Hero might get involved."
There was no visible wavering.
But I felt Albedo, in my pocket, nudge my thigh.
He was hesitating, weighing this and that.
In that moment, a resolve formed in Fel's eyes.
He had another option. The right of summary execution, which only the Sword of Doctrine possessed.
Wouldn't it be better to just kill him immediately?
A clear dilemma would take root in his mind.
It just so happened that I had almost finished the writing I had been doing little by little so that he wouldn't notice.
"I have a question, why do you pledge allegiance to the Pope?"
"Because I am a cardinal of the Church."
It was a simple reason.
The Sword of Doctrine is a Heretic Inquisitor and a knight.
It was natural for a knight to pledge allegiance to the lord to whom he offered his sword, the Pope.
"You're a survivor of that basement."
However, there are exceptions to everything─ and Ferdiel had enough reason to be an exception.
A murderous glint flashed in his pure white eyes, and before the sword could completely sever my carotid artery, I completed the sentence.
「Theo loses consciousness.」
My vision blurred.
Feeling like I was falling into an endless abyss, I willingly closed my eyes as my body commanded.
* * *
The Most Perfect Protection, the magic so-called, has a fatal flaw.
Anyone inside the subspace, the moment they lose consciousness, is forcibly awakened from the magic.
It was a holy magic that was practically lost until Ferdiel became a Levian and used it. In other words, the existence and flaws of the magic were a secret known only to a very few within the Church.
A first-year transfer student who acted as if he knew all of that.
How on earth did something like this appear?
Fel, realizing that the scene before him was not his subspace but the Academy's hallway, immediately tried to take Theo and go somewhere.
If it weren't for the sword and the blade of wind at his throat, he would have.
"Where's Hartain?"
"The professor took him into custody."
Zephyros said calmly.
Oh dear, so his hands and feet are completely tied.
To kindly inform him of a fact that didn't need to be told was also a warning not to do anything foolish.
Clang, Ferdiel dropped his sword and obediently raised both his hands.
"I have no intention of fighting the Descendant of the Hero."
Lucian, who had been silent for a moment, readjusted his grip on the Holy Sword.
"That sounds like you would have fought if I weren't the Descendant of the Hero."
"As the Sword of Doctrine, I can't just be captured without putting up a fight."
But if the opponent is the Descendant of the Hero, the story changes. The Emperor who sent him here wouldn't want Lucian to get hurt either.
"I surrender."
"...If you come quietly, no harm will come to you."
"Should I say thank you for this?"
Ferdiel sneered.
Leaving Lucian behind, Zephyros hurriedly checked Theo's condition.
Had he lost consciousness due to anemia? If his condition was bad, he might have to be taken to the infirmary immediately.
"Sunbae, to the infirmary─"
"No, I think he'll be fine."
Lerwon frowned slightly and immediately wrapped Theo's neck with a handkerchief.
Blood stained the white handkerchief.
Lerwon, who had taken Theo, said firmly.
"Let's go to the hideout."
They couldn't go to the dormitory in this state.
At Lerwon's judgment, Zephyros and Lucian also nodded.
"I'd like the Sword of Doctrine to come with us as well."
"Whatever you wish."
Ferdiel leisurely raised the corners of his mouth.