Beatrice declared the result of the duel.
As everyone had witnessed, Ex was the victor.
When Ex drew back his sword, blood trickled down Circe’s cheek.
The blade was sharp enough to rival any famed sword, and merely touching it had been enough to cut her.
It was the exact same spot where Lola had been wounded.
“Ngh…!”
Circe shuddered from the tiny cut.
But the wound itself wasn’t what had shaken her. It was everything that had happened during the duel.
“How did you do that?”
Her voice rose.
“How the hell did you do that?!”
“Do what?”
“All of it! From beginning to end!”
She had every right to be stunned.
Ex knew Circe’s entire fighting style inside and out.
He had watched her fight over and over again, all the way to the novel’s conclusion.
Even if he’d wanted to forget, there was no way he could have.
‘She fought exactly the same way she did during her first appearance.’
There was a scene in the original novel where Circe made her debut.
It happened during a magic spar against another student.
The entire scene had been written to emphasize that Circe was the Reincarnated Sage, meticulously showcasing how intelligently and efficiently she used magic in battle.
‘She started by probing me to figure out what I could do.’
That was why Ex had deliberately pretended to be ordinary.
He’d fought like a fairly clever Tier 1 mage and nothing more.
He’d used the best tactics available to a Tier 1 mage without giving her any reason to become suspicious.
‘Then I waited for her to use grand magic.’
The method for breaking her grand magic was simple. He only needed to destroy the Ice Arrows that made up the grand magic circle.
Once the arrows began to move, he just had to destroy the exact number necessary to collapse the formation.
‘Then I blocked her view with fire and gave myself a little boost.’
The wall of flames had been meant to cut off her access to information.
And behind it, Ex had used every last item from the Mystery Gift Box.
He drank all three stat-boosting potions.
He coated his sword with magic-nullifying oil.
Then he sprayed presence suppressant over every inch of his body.
Thanks to that, his stats had temporarily risen above 2.0.
At the same time, Circe had become completely unable to sense his presence.
Of course, that alone hadn’t been enough.
‘The important part was blinding her somehow.’
He had needed one decisive attack that would throw her vision into chaos and leave her reeling.
That was why he’d chosen Fireball.
But for Ex, a Tier 1 mage, rapidly casting a Tier 3 Fireball was nearly impossible.
So he had borrowed power from elsewhere.
『[Forcefully manifest a spell despite the risk of Rebound] Required Points: 350』
Ex had memorized the Fireball magic circle from the setting guide down to the smallest detail.
He was confident that even a low-tier mage could cast it under the right circumstances.
He might not have been able to keep up with the pace of his magic classes, but he had continued studying without fail.
There were more than enough reasons why he should theoretically be capable of using the spell.
He had only used Setting Edit to make absolutely certain it would work.
Circe knew none of that, leaving her trapped in a pit of unanswered questions.
“What happened to my spell at the end?”
“…What spell?”
“Don’t play dumb! What did you do to it?!”
Circe had cast Tier 5 Physical Reflection Magic as insurance.
Ex had erased it with the magic-nullifying oil.
He had known that whenever she fought a warrior, she always kept that particular spell active as a safeguard.
There was no point in explaining it. Doing so would probably earn him another Plausibility Penalty, so he had no intention of telling her anything.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You must’ve made a mistake.”
“You think I’d make a mistake with magic…?!”
“You did.”
Ex’s expression turned glacial.
He motioned toward Lola with a slight tilt of his head.
She still hadn’t received proper treatment and was pressing a white cloth against her cheek.
Even now, Lola was watching Ex with open anxiety written across her face.
After making sure Circe had seen her, Ex spoke in a voice cold enough to cut.
“You drew blood against a kid, and now you’re claiming you don’t make mistakes?”
“Th-That was…”
“Go ahead. Let’s hear your excuse. You’re so confident you’d never make a mistake with magic, so I’m sure you had an excellent reason for making a kid bleed.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You’d better have one.”
The icy dagger of his words drove straight into Circe’s conscience.
She couldn’t answer.
No matter how she tried to look at it, what she had done was an indefensible mistake.
“…That was quite an impressive result.”
The moment Beatrice spoke, Ex sheathed his sword and immediately turned to address her with the proper respect.
Beatrice studied him with open interest.
A Tier 1 had just defeated a Tier 4. Even she couldn’t help being surprised.
It was certainly an entertaining turn of events, but first, she had a result to formally announce.
“As the victor, you may make one demand of the loser. On my honor, I promise that your demand will be fulfilled.”
“Thank you, Imperial Princess Beatrice.”
The instant she finished speaking, status messages flooded Ex’s vision.
『Potion Addict! You consumed multiple absurdly powerful potions in a single battle.』
『A Sword Without Fear! A blade consumed by recklessness knows no fear.』
『Stunning Upset! You achieved victory against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy!』
『Title [Potion Addict (F)] acquired.
100 Editing Points acquired.』
『Title [Reckless Duelist (D)] acquired.
1,000 Editing Points acquired.』
『Title [Comeback Warrior (A)] acquired.
100,000 Editing Points acquired.』
『New Titles
Potion Addict (F): Increases the chance of addiction when consuming potions.
Comeback Warrior (A): Permanently increases stats upon defeating a powerful enemy.』
『Upgraded Title
Foie Gras (E) -] Reckless Duelist (D): Slight increase to mental resistance. Slight increase to Infamy.』
‘…Holy shit.’
Potion Addict was one thing, but Comeback Warrior and Reckless Duelist were gains beyond anything he’d imagined.
When Foie Gras evolved into Reckless Duelist, the penalty that reduced his Luck disappeared.
As for Comeback Warrior, it permanently raised his stats.
It was an outrageously powerful effect.
That was precisely why it felt strange.
‘…Isn’t the status window supposed to be trying to screw me over?’
『Potion Addict (F): Your stomach is full of potions. Drink even more. Your future will become as colorful and varied as the potions you consume.』
『Comeback Warrior (A): As the weakest, you defeated the strongest. A comeback is a gift bestowed upon those prepared to risk everything.』
Even the descriptions for Potion Addict and Comeback Warrior were completely different.
It was almost as though they had been written by two different people.
‘…What the hell is going on?’
He didn’t have long to think about it.
The metallic taste of blood suddenly flooded his mouth.
Blood forced its way up his throat and spilled past his lips.
The moment that happened, Ex realized what was coming.
“Are you insane?! What were you thinking?!”
Lola rushed over and grabbed his arm.
Her face had been filled with worry for a while now.
She stared at him in horror and shouted.
“What are you going to do about the Rebound?!”
Only then did Ex understand.
The Mana Channels that ran throughout his body like blood vessels began to burn.
His body was being destroyed from the inside as the price for channeling more magic power than it could withstand.
The Rebound had begun.
“Kgh.”
He could force himself to ignore the pain of his entire body being torn apart.
What he couldn’t ignore was his body slipping completely beyond his control.
“Aaah! Ex! Ex!!”
All the strength drained from him, and he collapsed.
The only thing he could still do was cough out the blood clogging his throat.
Circe watched him fall, her face twisting into a grimace.
“What were you thinking, using a Tier 3 spell? Rebound can leave you crippled for the rest of your life if it goes wrong.”
Ex already knew that from the setting.
But knowing about something and experiencing it firsthand were entirely different matters.
‘So this is Rebound…’
Only now did he regret underestimating it.
The agony was so overwhelming that he felt as though he could die at any moment.
His skin began to split across his entire body, blood leaking from the wounds.
As more blood escaped, a terrible cold rapidly took hold of him.
“Kgh… Khak…”
“Stay awake! I’ll get a potion…”
“Potions won’t work. Even an elixir can’t cure Rebound. It’s the price he has to pay. All we can do is pray the price isn’t too severe.”
Circe approached and looked down at Ex as he coughed up blood.
For some reason, her expression was complicated.
Her eyes trembled violently before she squeezed them shut.
“…Make your demand as the victor before you die.”
Ex had already decided what he wanted.
“When you’ve done something wrong… there’s only one thing you’re supposed to do first.”
“…What?”
Had she really failed to understand?
Ex gathered every last scrap of strength and forced himself to speak again.
“I said I want to hear you apologize.”
“…You did all of this just to get an apology?”
“Not to me. To her.”
With a trembling hand, he pointed at Lola.
He glanced at the scab that had finally begun to form over the cut on her cheek.
“You’re old enough to know better, so start acting like an adult… What did a kid who’s still learning ever do to you that you had to go after her like you wanted her dead…?”
“You keep calling me an adult… What are you talking about?”
Ah.
That had been a slip.
But the words were already out.
He no longer had the strength to explain.
His eyes slowly began to close.
‘There’s a chance I can survive the Rebound. It was only a Tier 3 spell. There’s still hope…’
At that exact moment, something appeared to crush that hope beneath its heel.
『Warning! It is impossible for worthless vermin incapable of properly using magic to completely see through the strategy of the ‘Reincarnated Sage.’
A Plausibility Penalty will therefore be applied.』
『Plausibility Penalty acquired: Rebound backlash intensified.』
‘…Well, I was being pretty obvious. I guess getting caught was unavoidable.’
He had expected a penalty to appear, so it didn’t surprise him.
He just hadn’t expected it to take this form.
‘I’m still not going to let you have your way for free.’
There was one final method that had occurred to him at the very end.
He tried it.
Fortunately, it worked.
It worked, but…
‘Look at that goddamn price. You piece-of-shit status window…’
Ex completed his final manipulation.
Then his consciousness went dark.
***
Several hours after the duel, deep into the night.
Circe sat alone in her private dormitory room.
Her face was grave, and one leg bounced uncontrollably with anxiety.
A single thought continued to echo through her mind.
— You’re old enough to know better, so start acting like an adult…
Something about those words wouldn’t stop bothering her.
It wasn’t only what he had said.
It was the way he had treated her.
He had spoken to her as though he knew exactly who she really was.
‘He fought as if he knew everything I was going to do.’
The assumption made no sense.
But dismissing it as a coincidence made even less sense.
After losing herself in thought and searching through every conceivable possibility, Circe arrived at a single conclusion.
‘…Could he be another reincarnator?’
It was the only possibility that could explain everything.
If Ex was a reincarnator, then all of his inexplicable actions suddenly made sense.
And not just any reincarnator.
He would have to be someone intimately familiar with Circe’s fighting style.
Someone who had been among the Hero’s companions in their previous life.
She herself had already reincarnated.
It was entirely possible that one of the others had reincarnated as well.
‘No. That can’t be.’
If that was true, Circe had made a catastrophic mistake.
A reincarnator who used both swordsmanship and magic.
Someone who knew exactly how Circe fought.
Only one person in all of history fit that description.
‘Protego…?’
If Ex truly was Protego, then this was an irreversible disaster.
It meant the Hero from her previous life was dying from Rebound.
All because of a fight that had begun with her own mistake.
“I have to find out…!”
Circe’s face went deathly pale.
She hurried toward Elyon Academy’s intensive treatment ward, where Ex had been taken.
Before long, she arrived outside his room.
Through the small window set into the door, she looked inside.
Ex lay unconscious on the bed.
He was surrounded by countless machines, magic circles, and other advanced medical devices, receiving the finest treatment available.
That had only been possible because the Imperial Princess had acted as witness to the duel.
‘As long as he’s alive, there has to be something I can…’
Just as Circe reached for the door, her hand stopped.
There was a girl asleep beside Ex, her upper body sprawled over the edge of his bed.
Her eyes were badly swollen.
Her blond hair was tangled into a wild mess.
It was obvious that she had been sitting there for a very long time.
The instant Circe saw her, the door became impossibly heavy.
She couldn’t bring herself to approach the girl.
Ex’s words clung to her wrists and arms, dragging her back.
— When you’ve done something wrong… there’s only one thing you’re supposed to do first.
The moment Circe finally understood what he had meant, she released the door.
She realized she had no right to enter.
“Student Circe.”
Someone approached from down the hallway and called her name.
“…Professor Amanda.”
“Why are you here? Were you planning to take revenge while Student Ex is in critical condition?”
Amanda’s gaze was cold.
Normally, Circe wouldn’t have spared such hostility a second thought.
Right now, however, she couldn’t dismiss it.
“No. I just came to see him.”
“Don’t expect me to look favorably on the fact that you started a duel during my class without permission. Your class participation grade is an F. Do you have any objections?”
“…No.”
Circe couldn’t care less whether she received a worthless grade like that.
But Amanda’s next words were much harder to ignore.
“Student Ex also participated in the duel, so I have no choice but to give him an F as well. I considered taking the circumstances into account, but a direct order came down from a senior faculty member. A disciplinary committee will be convened soon.”
Amanda’s expression hardened.
“And the committee intends to expel him.”
“Expel… him?”
“Congratulations. You didn’t like him, did you? Now you’ll be able to drive him out of the academy, exactly as you wanted.”
No.
That wasn’t what Circe had wanted.
“Whether he dies like this or survives only to be expelled, it seems every possible miracle leads straight to hell. What a cruel fate.”
Circe had never meant for things to go this far.
“Circe Odyssey. Personally, I hope you become someone capable of taking responsibility for your actions.”
Amanda’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re not a child.”
“Responsibility…”
“There’s nothing more for me to see here. I can only hope I don’t receive news of a student’s death after my very first class…”
Amanda gave her one last freezing look before turning away.
Circe stared through the window into the hospital room and muttered beneath her breath.
“Responsibility… Responsibility…”
What did it mean to take responsibility?
Had sacrificing her life to save the world still not been enough?
In their previous life, Protego had always been the one to carry every burden.
But Protego wasn’t here anymore.
Or perhaps he was lying beyond that door, slowly dying.
Circe lowered her hand from the door.
There was only one thing she could do now.
She stepped away from the room and left.
***
“Kgh—”
Ex’s consciousness rose back to the surface.
Status windows immediately appeared before his eyes.
A backlog of messages poured into view.
『Notification. Permanent physical damage has occurred. Changes to Base Stats detected.』
『Base Stats
Stamina: 0.1 [Decreased by 0.9]
Intelligence: 1.5 [Increased by 0.5]
Agility: 0.1 [Decreased by 0.9]
Magic Power: 0.1 [Decreased by 0.4]
Luck: 0.1
Charm: 0.1』
『Notification. Comeback Warrior effect activated. Intelligence permanently increased.』
‘It just keeps getting better.’
A sigh escaped him.
The stats he had nearly killed himself to earn had plummeted all over again.
At this point, he was fortunate he hadn’t been permanently crippled.
Base Stats could always be purchased again in an emergency.
‘At least my Intelligence went up to 1.5. That’s something.’
But there was something else he needed to check first.
He pulled up the system messages from before he lost consciousness.
『Setting Edit』
『[Survive the Rebound backlash somehow] Required Points: 100,000 — Approved』
『Current Editing Points: 1,100』
“So the price of ‘somehow’ surviving was having all my stats smashed to pieces? I nearly worked myself to death getting those up…!”
More than anything else, losing all 100,000 points was devastating.
How many Base Stats could he have raised with 100,000 points?
The thought alone made his chest ache.
‘Forget it. I survived. That’s what matters…’
Ex dismissed the status window.
Only then did he realize that he was surrounded by an enormous number of magic circles, machines, and other medical equipment.
Looking around, he found himself in what appeared to be a hospital treatment room.
When he turned his head, he spotted someone he never would have expected.
‘Why is she sleeping here?’
Lola was slumped over the side of his bed, fast asleep.
One look at her badly swollen eyes told him exactly why she was there.
Despite how she normally behaved, she was surprisingly softhearted.
Setting that aside, Ex began assessing his current situation.
First, he picked up the document that had been left beside his bed and read it.
A disciplinary committee would be held on Sunday.
His attendance was mandatory.
That was the entire message.
‘So it ended up like this after all.’
Since Beatrice had encouraged the duel, Ex had thought he might be able to avoid serious consequences.
If he was lucky, he had even hoped he might escape receiving an F.
But with his Luck sitting at 0.1, perhaps this outcome had been inevitable.
Even so, the duel had produced something valuable.
Something incredibly valuable.
Ex thought back to all the Plausibility Penalties that had appeared so far.
Then he recalled the titles whose descriptions had been filled with nothing but malice.
『Screamweed (F): You ruined the sacred entrance ceremony with your screaming. Your shriveled appearance and ear-piercing shrieks make Screamweed the perfect nickname for you.』
‘Every word is dripping with malice.’
In contrast, he recalled the description of a high-ranking title.
『Comeback Warrior (A): As the weakest, you defeated the strongest. A comeback is a gift bestowed upon those prepared to risk everything.』
‘That one is completely reasonable.’
Which brought him back to the fundamental question.
‘The entire concept of a Plausibility Penalty doesn’t make sense. If you really wanted to, you could justify almost anything somehow.’
The penalties never felt automatic.
‘It feels like someone is watching each situation and forcing in whatever punishment fits.’
There was only one conclusion he could draw.
‘Someone is interfering through the status window. Whoever it is hates me and is determined to kill me.’
Once he accepted that as the premise, another conclusion naturally followed.
‘But that person can’t interfere freely. There are rules restricting what they can do. Otherwise, they could’ve given me something like [Hold your breath for one full day. Failure results in death].’
Then who exactly was ‘that person’?
What kind of being had known him from the moment he entered this world and immediately tried to kill him?
A goddess?
An evil god?
The Demon King?
Some other unfathomably powerful entity?
No.
Why would any of them be hostile toward him?
More importantly, they had no reason to hate him.
Then who did have a reason?
‘What if they knew me before I ever entered this world?’
There was only one answer.
‘The author, 「Elysia」.’
At last, Ex understood the identity of his true enemy.
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won't get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt