TN: Thank Llama for the chapter.
TL/PR: Ruminas; ED: novicelily
Rumors are scarier than one might think.
Words have no form, so it’s difficult to stop their spread, and once they take hold, it’s nearly impossible to clean up.
Iria has allies, but many more enemies. It’s extremely hard to stop rumors that spread insidiously and unseen.
At least Iria doesn’t know how; perhaps there is no way to stop them.
So Iria decided to do what she’s good at.
She’s clumsy with words. That’s why she resorts to force. It’s the only thing she really knows how to do in the first place.
“Weaker than I thought.”
Having fought three students at once in the training hall, Iria put away her broken wooden sword.
In front of her lay students who had fallen with injuries.
They might be crawling on the ground now, but they were also top students—third-years, at that.
Iria easily defeated these elite students without receiving a single injury herself.
‘Did I overestimate them too much? They were certainly different from the first-years, but how should I put it…’
After seeing Sera and Ariel in the second year, maybe that’s why, but it felt more disappointing than expected.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have compared them to those two in the first place.
At this point, treating the novel’s protagonist and main characters differently from the other extras seemed right.
Iria slowly walked toward the fallen students.
“Ugh… don’t come any closer…”
“Please, just stop… we’ve lost, so…”
They must have been beaten so badly that now they’re terrified just seeing Iria’s face.
Using their hands to push against the ground, they tried to distance themselves and her.
But naturally, there’s a difference in speed between crawling on all fours and walking.
Even though her pace was leisurely, she caught up to them quickly. The third-years let out screams.
Iria’s chilling red eyes looked down on them. They didn’t know an expressionless face devoid of any emotion could be so frightening.
They learned a new kind of fear today, probably feeling it deep in their bones.
“Where is Amelia?”
Iria asked in a cold voice.
Even though it was her usual tone, it felt especially icy – perhaps because they had learned the emotion of terror so thoroughly this time.
They tried to say something muffledly, but it was too late.
Before they could speak, Iria had already obtained the information by making eye contact and promptly turned her back.
As if she had no interest in the already defeated students.
“……”
Her reason for seeking out Amelia was simple.
It was to challenge her to a duel, just like the students she had beaten a little while ago.
Iria had been finding and dueling those who badmouthed her, and Amelia was one of them.
What Amelia wanted was fairness.
It wouldn’t be fair if some were punished while others weren’t for doing the same thing.
Iria didn’t discriminate.
She had always shown a consistent attitude, regardless of who she was up against, and didn’t think what Amelia said was entirely wrong.
So, she was putting it into practice.
‘You can’t capture the king first.’
After purging enough individuals who committed the same crime as Amelia to satisfy her, she would call her to the dueling grounds.
That’s how Iria walked through the academy building. There were still quite a few humans left to catch.
***
At this point, to the third-years, Iria was literally an object of terror.
To be honest, when Iria single-handedly antagonized all the third-year students, it seemed quite ridiculous.
No matter how great an individual’s power, they’re just one person. They thought there would be a limit to how many people she could take on alone.
“So, what can Iria even do? There’s no way she can win against all of us even if she makes us her enemy.”
Most reactions were along the lines of acknowledging her strength but questioning what she could accomplish by herself.
However,
“Huh…?”
Iria was actually pulling it off. She was suppressing the spreading rumors with nothing other than brute force.
They had wondered if it was even possible, but unexpectedly, it wasn’t impossible.
With power, there are more things you can do than things you can’t.
If something is impossible, you should question whether your power is insufficient.
That’s how Iria beat down the students.
Even after rendering dozens of students like that, she showed no signs of fatigue.
She simply listened attentively, checking to see if they brought up any stories about her.
Perhaps as a result of the duels, fewer people carelessly mentioned her name compared to before.
But it wasn’t as if there were none at all.
“Never mess with Iria. Don’t even say her name. If you do, we’ll all die. I’m so scared of Iria.”
“Huh? Didn’t you just say ‘that name’ yourself?”
“Ahhh, I’m screwed!”
Now, it was the terrified people babbling.
After listening carefully, Iria thought for a moment.
“……”
They hadn’t really said anything bad. They were just frightened.
But they had uttered her name. Did that mean those people also needed to be purged?
The contemplation didn’t last long.
‘No exceptions.’
That would be the ‘fairness’ Amelia spoke of.
Iria doesn’t distinguish between good and evil people. In her sense of values, the concepts of good and evil were very ambiguous.
They were divided not into good and bad students but weak and strong students—that’s how they were.
Iria grew up in back alleys where only the strong survived. As the strongest there, she became the last remaining resident of the back alleys, the only one to survive.
That’s why her thoughts also inevitably flowed in that direction.
Power is the most definite self-justification. Iria didn’t doubt the path she walked.
“Ahh! It’s Iria! Everyone run!”
“……”
Now, they run away just from making eye contact.
It seemed like it would take some time to catch them all.
***
At this point, one student was trembling in fear the most.
A girl who checked the hallways several times a day, worried that Iria might come find her.
“She’s totally crazy!”
Amelia shouted as she watched Iria beat down the students.
She couldn’t bear to watch up close, so she observed from a distance. She tapped her foot restlessly.
Iria was putting into practice the words Amelia had just thrown out.
“Is she seriously doing it?”
Watching her subdue the students who charged at her with a cold expression, she seemed like someone broken in some way.
No–she was definitely broken.
This was Amelia’s second time seeing a girl this mentally deranged.
Incidentally, the first was Sera. Could it be that the madness had spread from hanging out together recently?
No, it wasn’t just to that degree. She had been a loose screw from the beginning.
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
Amelia said that while biting her nails.
It was an action to try to shake off the anxiety rushing in. But as expected, it didn’t go as she thought. There was no time to be doing this right now.
After disciplining the third-year students, Iria would come for her.
It was impossible to avoid her for a lifetime. They would inevitably have to face each other someday.
So what should she do?
“Hah……”
Amelia let out a deep sigh.
Purple sparks flew around her.
“Alright, you want to try it?”
What else was there to do – it would be over if she won.
If Iria thought she could beat Amelia even in a state of exhaustion after numerous duels, she was mistaken.
Amelia was also the top third-year student. No matter what, wasn’t she underestimating her too much?
Iria’s victory over Sera was simply a matter of luck. At least, that’s what Amelia thought.
Fire magic was not very effective against a skilled wind mage. On top of that, Sera must have let her guard down since her opponent was a first-year.
On the other hand, she was different.
Separate from her devious personality, Amelia was more meticulous than anyone when it came to combat.
She never let her guard down, no matter who she was up against.
And unlike Sera, Amelia had an advantageous matchup against Iria.
She had been momentarily flustered by the antics Iria was pulling, but in the end, when you looked at it, Amelia clearly had the upper hand.
Now that she thought about it, there was no reason to fear.
‘Because there’s a limit to human mana in the end.’
Human strength mostly comes from mana. That’s usually the case unless you’re a special case like Ariel.
And there’s a limit to how much mana a human can regenerate in a day.
Ultimately, if Iria was human, she wouldn’t escape that constraint.
It was impossible for her to beat Amelia with depleted mana.
That’s why she smiled.
“Come on up and face me if you’re so confident.”
For now, Amelia was self-assured.