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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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Chapter 143
The children murmured, looking at Leciel heading towards the podium.
“Oh, what’s this?”
“What’s going on?”
“Oh, I was going to do that.”
Everyone was surprised by the unexpected resource.
Of course, everyone knew that Leciel was very enthusiastic about class.
But it was the first time they had seen her take the lead like this.
She usually avoided attention.
“……”
But for some reason, Leciel, with eyebrows narrowed in displeasure, continued to walk confidently towards the podium.
In her mind echoed a conversation she had with Evergreen a few days ago in the indoor archery practice hall.
“How come you’re so popular with the professors?”
“Uh… am I? Hehe. I haven’t really thought about it.”
Evergreen was modest, but it was a well-known fact.
All the professors of the lectures she attended adored Evergreen.
Some had already offered her a teaching assistant position.
Of course, Evergreen declined due to circumstances.
Anyway, in response to Leciel’s repeated questions, Evergreen revealed her secret.
“It’s nothing special, really. Um, ask lots of questions? Do assignments well… Oh, if they need a demonstration, I always volunteer.”
“Um….”
“But are you doing it to impress a certain professor? Most professors would already like you.”
“……”
Although it wasn’t a lecture directly hosted by the Hero, it was a supplementary lesson entrusted to a close colleague.
When the Hero returned, they would be the first to ask about the class.
There was no way they wouldn’t mention a student who performed the demonstration perfectly and flawlessly.
… Leciel calculated as she met the curious and expectant gaze directed at her.
“Do you know how the demonstration will proceed?”
“Wearing blindfolds and earplugs, using only detection to avoid the dummy?”
“Exactly. The demonstration will last about 5 minutes…”
Felson nodded, picking up the dummy.
“If it seems difficult to avoid, put mana on the hit area. I’ll swing gently, but the dummy may hurt more than you think.”
…That seems about right.
Leciel silently stared at the sturdy dummy.
Even when wrapped in her hand, it seemed like it would last a while.
“It will take some time to adapt to the absence of senses, so when you’re ready, let me know.”
“Yes.”
“If you want to stop, just say so.”
… That would never happen.
Leciel’s hand reached for the blindfold and earplugs on the desk.
.
.
.
Wooong-!
As the mana penetrated her eyes and ears, Leciel staggered for a moment.
At the same time.
Felson swung the dummy and stretched his body.
The bright sunlight streaming into the classroom through the window.
The ticking of the clock on the wall.
The children’s murmuring voices all instantly faded away.
As expected, the blindfold and earplugs were artifacts.
Leciel hesitated, opening and closing her mouth several times.
‘I can’t see or hear anything.’
Despite the abnormal lack of vision and hearing, she wasn’t surprisingly panicked.
It was because of the unexpected sensation.
It was when she stayed at the main house.
“Don’t do anything useless and go to bed early. It helps with recovery.”
In her small room, everything that disturbed her sleep was cleared away.
Thick curtains that didn’t allow a handful of moonlight or starlight.
In the quiet darkness, she would lie still, afraid of feeling nothing at all, sometimes pinching her own arms before falling asleep.
‘It’s similar… to that.’
Wooowooong-!
After a brief flashback, Leciel slowly extended her mana forward.
With her vision and hearing excluded, her mana felt sharper than ever.
Her control was also more precise.
The classroom was vividly drawn before her, even though she couldn’t see.
She felt she understood why senses were restricted in detection training.
‘Okay, this should be enough.’
Leciel’s mouth opened.
“I’m ready.”
Although her tongue and lips moved, no sound could be heard.
Even the slight head movement in response to the strange feeling was brief.
Leciel stood up straight.
‘…A good performance. A perfect performance.’
Avoid everything without missing a single one.
In that moment of determination.
Tsstststst-!
Something was caught in the threads of mana spread out like spider silk.
The vivid illusion of the dummy emerged from the pitch-black darkness.
Leciel quickly turned her body in the opposite direction.
A strong wind brushed past her shoulders.
‘…It’s fast.’
Dodging attacks without seeing or hearing was more difficult than she thought.
A push towards the abdomen.
A thrust towards the head.
A kick towards the legs.
The dummy’s attacks were cunningly timed, and Leciel hurriedly moved her body according to the information provided by her detection.
She was moving so quickly that she didn’t even think about letting her hair, which was floating in the air, come down.
‘Hold on for 5 minutes?’
Thud-
As she stepped back and her back touched the wall, Leciel’s expression twisted.
Focusing only on the front detection had blurred her spatial awareness.
And…
‘It’s risky.’
No blows were allowed.
But one kept hitting her body.
Leciel bit her lip.
…Actually, even just doing this much exceeded Felson’s expectations.
In the first place, hearing and vision are essential elements in evasive maneuvers.
To avoid attacks perfectly with only detection, while binding these two, was a task even seasoned heroes found difficult in real combat.
Moreover, with Felson’s exceptional skill, and wielding the dummy, it said enough.
Yet, despite swinging loosely, Leciel skillfully avoided nearly thirty attacks without major danger.
‘I thought She’d get hit once or twice. If Dietrich is to uphold reputation as the master of detection, I’ll have to work harder.’
Both Felson swinging the dummy and the children in the classroom were amazed by Leciel’s movements.
Cheers, admiration-filled faces, sporadic applause were directed at the girl.
But Leciel couldn’t know this.
Because she couldn’t hear anything or see anything.
In fact, she anticipated people’s disappointment.
‘I need to do better.’
Leciel grew increasingly anxious.
Unfortunately, anxiety was an emotion that didn’t help with detection.
At a moment when her entangled mana became loose.
Thud-
“Ugh.”
The dummy lightly tapped her forehead.
It wasn’t terribly painful, like Felson had feared, but it was somewhat humiliating.
Gritting her teeth, Leciel leaped to the side.
Thud-
“Ow.”
One, then followed by a poke to her stomach.
It was a thrust with minimal force, but the hit was painful due to the vulnerable area.
The abdomen.
There was a world of difference between allowing an attack while being aware of it and being hit without knowing it.
A feeble cry escaped her lips as the soft abdomen was pressed against the dummy.
Even though she couldn’t hear it, it must have been pathetic.
Leciel shook her head irritably.
“…What’s going on?”
Something felt a bit off.
The sensation of the attacks was different.
It felt as if someone else was holding the dummy.
——————
HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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Initially, it felt like a demonstration, but the attacks became faster and more relentless over time.
‘Did professor Felson change his attack pattern?’
Leciel pondered this question as she narrowly avoided the next few attacks.
However…
Thunk-
“Ah!”
Thud-
“Ugh!”
Thwack-
“Eek!”
Thud-
“Ow.”
She had dodged them all until now.
But since the change in the attack pattern, it seemed like she was getting hit three out of four times.
Moreover, the one she missed at the end hit her square in the nose.
This one hurt a bit more.
‘It hurts.’
Leciel remembered that even a slight hit to her nose would make her eyes water.
But what hurt more was her shattered pride.
‘I messed up.’
Due to her dizzy mind, her detection network became even more sloppy.
Continuing like this would only further tarnish her reputation.
Leciel bit her lip again.
…I should have practiced detection more.
It was a problem that arose from hearing that the Hero spent an hour practicing archery every day, so she removed two hours from her schedule.
The thought of what the professor might say to the Hero as a result filled her with dread.
“I’ll… stop.”
Leciel removed the blindfold and earplugs with a dejected expression.
It took a few more seconds to adapt to the suddenly brightened vision and the noisy sounds assaulting her ears.
“Wow, how did you avoid the professor’s attacks so many times?”
“Was it four hits? Leciel is truly a legend.”
“Hey, I tried sensing with my eyes closed and ears covered too. How did she do that?”
“Difference in detection…”
“Did you make holes in the blindfold?”
“Gerald.”
“Yeah, I’ll shut up.”
The children who she had expected to be disappointed were unexpectedly exclaiming in admiration.
Their reaction was quite pleasing.
Leciel silently gazed at the Hero dressed in travel clothes.
She just watched.
Coincidentally, he had also put down the dummy.
“……”
Disappointment?
Relief?
Embarrassment?
She couldn’t tell.
When she noticed a whirlwind of emotions swirling within the Hero’s eyes, Leciel completely forgot how she had been feeling just a moment ago.
Satisfaction.
Even she, who was insensitive to others’ emotions, could distinctly sense satisfaction emanating from the Hero.
In fact, as the Hero, he couldn’t help but be satisfied.
It had only been two weeks since he left Rosenstark.
‘…But to achieve such results in such a short time.’
At a glance, the Hero realized that Leciel had learned Felson’s techniques well and achieved significant progress.
For him, who felt pressured to deploy the children into real combat in a few months, there couldn’t have been better news.
As the Hero’s voice reached Leciel, who was pursing her lips slightly.
“You did well.”
Leciel didn’t know what to do for a moment but eventually bowed her head.
She had even forgotten that her nose was hurting.
.
.
.
The laboratory, which had been quiet as if time had stopped, was filled with a sense of tranquility.
Pia must have taken good care of it, the documents that needed approval were neatly arranged on one corner of the desk, and the floor was free of dust.
The feeling of emptiness came from the fact that someone who should have been sitting there with tousled hair and tired eyes was absent.
‘Pia…’
The Hero discovered a note and unfolded it.
Neat handwriting caught his eye.
[Have you safely finished your tasks? Thank you for coming earlier than scheduled, and I’m sorry I couldn’t welcome you in person… Why did there have to be an ‘Awaken’ clinical conference today of all days! I wanted to have a meal together at least. I’ll come see you early tomorrow morning.]
– p.s There’s my favorite bakery bread in the drawer, so eat it if you want to. See you tomorrow.
The Hero tucked the note into his pocket and sat down at the desk.
He lifted the pen to finish the remaining paperwork, but soon lowered it again with a shallow sigh.
Unknowingly, his mind was occupied by the afternoon scene in the classroom.
“…Did I really do well?”
Leciel, whose hair and nose color had become identical.
“Wow, Professor! Welcome back!”
“It was so boring without you here!”
“All of us successfully completed our assignments, isn’t it amazing?”
Despite it only being two weeks, his students greeted him warmly as if they hadn’t seen him for months.
Felson watched them with a proud smile on his face.
…The Hero tapped the bread bag on the desk with his finger.
Crunch-
It was from a popular shop where you had to wait in line for quite some time.
A strange feeling enveloped him, one he had never experienced before.
The Hero chuckled in disbelief.
‘…I didn’t expect this.’
When he first came to Rosenstark, the students were more like tools to him.
They were resources that needed to be developed and essential elements for the goal of human survival.
In other words… he considered them merely as means to an end.
Thinking that way made it easier for him to put a heavy burden on their shoulders.
‘But it was an absurd thought.’
However, now it was impossible for the Hero to think like that.
The past few months had been enough time to get to know the children individually.
He had seen their human side, their pain.
The means to protect had turned into the purpose to protect in those moments.
Now, the thought of deploying the kids into real combat made him uneasy.
‘Real combat…’
The word felt unusually heavy today.
Considering the timing, they would probably go outside the academy with the children at the beginning of the second semester.
Naturally, memories of the “real battles” he had experienced flashed through his mind.
From the auction house, Longkers, Harlem, to the factory.
None of them were easy.
‘No matter how carefully we choose the targets for extermination and supervise them, we’ll inevitably encounter unexpected dangers.’
That’s why he needed to get stronger.
Controlling the variables and protecting the children was the only way.
Fortunately, the means and methods for this were already available.
Following the guidance of the Iris of Laplace.
In other words, they needed to find the treasures of Larze and the Wolf’s Statue.
‘But we’re not ready yet.’
The coordinates of the treasure pointed to the depths of the demonic realm.
When he asked Larze about it, she said that even she couldn’t freely roam around in a place with such heavily infested demonic energy.
“Demonic energy affects all judgments of mana negatively. Demonic energy is like poison to delicate and advanced mana like teleportation.”
“I see.”
“But why are you asking about this?”
“……”
The treasure of the Wolf’s Statue was presumed to be the blessing of Zero.
He didn’t mention it to Larze because he thought it was premature to talk about something related to Zero to someone like her who was obsessed with it.
‘Someday I’ll have to ask for her help, though.’
…Anyway.
To obtain the treasure, they would have to travel on foot from a point where teleportation was possible to the depths.
However, his strength was somewhat lacking for that.
‘No matter how strong I’ve become, it’s difficult to face the twisted monsters in the depths of the demonic realm alone.’
That’s why more training was needed.
They needed to quickly get the treasure of the Wolf’s Statue to maintain their current rapid growth.
There was no time to waste.
The Hero clenched his fist.
‘It’s foolish to trust in four years of time and be complacent.’
In fact, the anxiety felt by the Emperor had been harbored by him since before.
The demons always threatened humans with methods far beyond their expectations.
They might be pulling some strange trick this time too.
…It was calm before the storm.
Those who were unprepared would be swept away by the raging wind.
As his thoughts reached that point, the Hero postponed the paperwork for a moment.
He had planned to outline the next lecture, but it didn’t seem easy in this mood.
He wanted to have confidence that he had grown and could become even stronger.
And for that, the Iris of Laplace were the most suitable.
The Hero activated one of the functions of the Iris of Laplace for the first time in a long while.
▼
Would you like to view the list of available avatars?
▲
Wooooow-
Countless names appear in the translucent notice.
Among the list that was full of enemies that ‘Original’ had experienced, there were now a few enemies that he had defeated.
But there was something else he decided to deal with today.
The Hero began manipulating the settings in detail.
▼
“Factory of demi-humans” has been added to the list of deployable battlefields.
– Loading saved battlefield: ‘Factory of demi-humans’
▲
▼
Setting up a sparring avatar.
– The target has zero chance of winning.
– The target cannot be perfectly replicated.
– Depending on the function, only a portion of the original’s power will be reproduced.
– Would you like to proceed with the training?
▲
The Hero nodded silently.
There was no better opponent than this to intuitively realize how much he had grown.
It was someone who had always been strong, even when he was infinitely weak.
▼
Setting up the avatar: Battle with Ted Redymer.
▲
It was time to clash swords with him for the first time in a long time.
[TL/N: Damn. They all miss him a lot.]
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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Night]
[Proofreader – Gun]
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