Chapter 23

“Hmph, I knew it. Foes, then. That’s all I needed to know.”

***

“Ugh…what the…?”

Luke awoke with an unsettling feeling that he couldn’t ignore. He still felt drowsy, and there were, of course, the usual unpleasant and irritating sensations that came along with that—but also something different. The way he felt was so unsettling that nothing else mattered to his muddled brain. It was intense, like nothing he had ever felt before.

The cause, however, was easily identified: All the spells that he had set up to be constantly active were, for some reason, not working.

“Huh?”

Slowly, he then realized that he couldn’t use any magic at all. Clearly something strange was going on. As his consciousness awakened, so did a deeper understanding of what was happening.

My mana is being stolen.

That brought a single possibility floating to the forefront of Luke’s mind:

“Dark magic.”

That’s it. Magic that swallows everything.

It was Luke’s first time experiencing the sensation for himself, but he was almost certain of its nature.

But that doesn’t matter now.

His thought patterns switched over, as if a line had been cut and all the tension released in an instant. Now intensely focused, he began to deal with the situation at hand.

I see…whoever gets their spell off first has the advantage, eh? That’s a good lesson to learn. I may not be able to use my spells, but I can still sense mana.

As Luke’s mana-detection abilities were constantly linked to his spells, his mind received a constant stream of information about the mana around him. This fact made his mana-detection abilities much more precise and wide-reaching than those of other magic users—so much so, in fact, that they could barely even conceive of what he was capable of. Luke focused his honed senses and quickly determined that something was on its way toward him…then sighed a little to himself at the realization.

“Not again,” he groaned. “More of this crap?”

There were a great many things in Luke’s life that had been causing him stress of late. Alice sleeping by his side was one of the direct causes of his stress. Despite his reservations, he’d found himself actually inviting her to his room more frequently these past few weeks. Not to mention the fact that his invitations ended up being closer to orders than offers .

Luke felt trouble on the way; he was familiar enough to know the signs. The situation gave him a pain in his stomach and a sense of disappointment and resignation that prompted his “Not again” response. His sigh was no indication of his inner thought processes, however, which were calm and collected. He compartmentalized all that to quickly and logically make calculations to deal with the unexpected circumstances that he was facing.

“Alice. Get up.”

“What’s wrong, Luke? Or…heh, are you perhaps in the moo—”

“Shut up. Just answer this question for me,” he snapped. “Can you use magic?”

“Hm? Of course I can…” She paused. “Not? No, it seems I cannot. Curious.”

“I see. At least it’s not just me, then.”

Luke got out of bed, headed over to his desk, and opened one of the drawers. Inside was the present that Alfred gave him upon his entry into the academy—a small but deadly dagger, with a real blade. As Luke looked down at it, a cruel smile twisted across his lips, and he remembered what Alfred had taught him:

“Master Luke, the main purpose of a concealed weapon is to catch your opponent by surprise.”

Alfred had taught him techniques for killing enemies, and the immoral nature of the moves had confused Luke at first, but that initial hesitation was a thing of the past.

Alfred-san…I really am so grateful for everything you’ve done for me.

Luke drew his dagger from its sheath. He hadn’t handled the blade in some time, but his body remembered.

I can do this.

“You should feel it too, no? Somebody’s coming this way.”

“Yes. So it would appear.”

“We don’t know if they’re friend or foe. You’re in my way. Get yourself hidden somewhere.”

“Wait. Can’t I help you somehow?”

“Without magic, what use could you possi—”

“I could be a decoy, at least.”

“…Huh?”

Luke was a little surprised at himself. In that instant, he realized he had unconsciously completely discounted the idea of using Alice as a decoy from his list of available options.

She’s right, it’d be easy to surprise these enemies if I used her as a decoy. But then why did I…? No, forget it. I don’t have time to think about that now.

Luke’s mind kept racing. He discarded his emotions, concentrating purely on finding the best solution to the present state of affairs.

It’s probably safe to assume that these intruders are foes of mine, and in that case, it seems likely that there’s more than one of them. If they’re on their way here to confront me directly, they must have this thing pretty carefully planned out. I mean, they’re almost certainly here for me, right? I doubt it’s a random, opportunistic sort of operation. But there’s just not enough clear information right now, and I can’t use my magic to learn anything further. They must have a Dark magic user with them, or some other sort of unique power… I also can’t discount the possibility that there’s some sort of technology that can do this. In any case, if I can’t beat them, then all of this is over.

Luke made his decision.

I’ll use Alice as a decoy and take advantage of the element of surprise to kill one of them outright. That should be the best way to increase my odds of victory. It’ll work out, and she’ll be fine…

Jeez. When did I get so soft?

For all Luke’s logical planning and cold calculations, there remained a part of him that wanted to avoid using Alice as a decoy.

“It’s okay,” Alice whispered. “I trust you, Luke.”

Luke silently looked over at her. Her eyes were filled with absolute, unyielding confidence in his every word.

…What a stupid girl, thought Luke, smiling.

“All right then. I’m counting on you.”

“Of course.”

Luke hid in the corner of the room and focused all of his attention on tracking the mana signatures he could sense coming his way. There were three of them. Luke considered the possibility that they might be using some technique to block their own mana, sending out false signals instead to trick him. They steadily grew closer and closer.

I knew it. They’re heading straight for this room.

Luke put his ear to the ground.

Yep, three of them. They’re fast, and their footsteps are quiet, methodical… They’re well trained.

The gravity of the situation could have easily caused Luke to panic, but he remained calm and focused. It was the first time in his life he’d ever experienced such danger, and he truly had no idea how powerful the enemies approaching him might have been, but Luke was confident. His calm demeanor was a testament to the infinitely arrogant belief he had in his own strength.

Such trifling foes could never pose a true threat to me.

Luke laughed faintly to himself as he gripped the dagger that Alfred had given him.

A graduation gift and proof of my mastery, eh…? Mwa ha…I never expected it would come in handy at a time like this.

A switch flipped in Luke’s mind; only the icy cold part of him remained.

“Oh my, welcome.”

“Wha—”

I knew it.

Their confusion demonstrated to Luke that the assailants had been aiming for him, after all. Following the man’s cry, everything happened quickly. Luke had already sensed that the man had clear murderous intent, and the moment the intruder took out his stiletto and directed it toward Alice, Luke made his move.

“Hmph. I knew it. Foes, then. That’s all I needed to know.”

In a flash, faster than the blink of an eye, Luke shot out of the shadows and ripped the man’s throat open with his dagger. Fresh blood spurted up into the air, splashing Alice with red—then with a wordless moaning sound, the man collapsed to the ground.

That was my first time killing another person. It was easier than I expected—now on to the next one.

Luke glanced over at the other two, quickly kicking off against the floor to close in on them.

The second man intercepted his strike in silence. The all too sudden loss of one of his comrades did, in truth, somewhat shake him. His body moved instinctively to respond, however, thanks to many years of practice. He launched a stab at Luke’s right eye, but Luke dodged it with the slightest movement of his neck and attacked again.

It can’t be. Those aren’t the moves of an amateur. This isn’t what our intel stated. Not at all.

The slight agitation in his movements proved fatal, as one of Luke’s incredibly accurate strikes embedded itself into the second man’s left shoulder. He couldn’t dodge the attack and, finding he could no longer lift his arm, dropped the stiletto that he had been wielding. Luke didn’t let up in his attack, stabbing at the man’s throat, then finally through his unguarded heart to finish him off. It was terribly elegant—a three-strike combo that flowed with smooth precision.

“Gah!”

The second man fell to the floor.

“Nobody warned me…nobody said anything about this…!”

The third man began to take slow steps backward, and for the briefest of moments, the thought of restraining him to obtain information floated into Luke’s mind. He quickly discarded the idea.

There are far too many unknown variables for that.

“Don’t let your guard down. Be most careful when you have driven your enemy back. Do not let up.”

Alfred’s words came back to him, and Luke made up his mind.

Kill.

The last man put a hand in his pocket, trying to take something out—and that was the moment that the dagger pierced his skull. Luke’s merciless throwing attack granted his target such an immediate death that he did not even have the time for a bitter, final cry before it was over.

“…”

Luke calmly exhaled a long breath. He looked down absentmindedly at the red-stained corpses that were sprawled out beneath him. He just stood there for a moment, a bit frozen and numb.

“Luke, are you—” Alice cried out, then stopped abruptly at the sight of him. “Luke!”

Alice ran over to his side, screaming his name. Her response was understandable, given the grim scene that only became darker the longer she looked. Luke had just dropped to his knees. He let his arms fall to the floor too. Something was clearly wrong.

“You aren’t injured, are you?! I-I’ll get Mia at once—”

He had no visible injuries, but Alice decided that some of Mia’s Healing magic was in order, just in case. That was the most reasonable conclusion she could reach as she struggled to find answers in her panicked state of mind.

“Why…? Seriously…” Luke mumbled to himself.

Seeing that his life didn’t appear to be in danger, Alice breathed sigh of relief and listened quietly to what he was saying.

“I just…why? Why are these people attacking me…? It’s the middle of the damn night! Why?! What the fuck is going on?!”

It was a cry that came from Luke’s very soul, the accumulation of days upon days of unrelenting stress and anxiety finally spewed out into the world.

***

Luke’s cry from the soul woke every student in the dormitories at once and immediately brought to light the unprecedented attempt that had just been made on his life, as well as the bloody aftermath. It was by far the biggest, most scandalous incident to take place at Aslan Magic Academy, and it shocked the people of the ­kingdom to their core.

“Quickly. Get the carriage.”

Luke’s father, Claude, was beyond outraged.