I muttered while looking down at the terrified eyes.
"Isn't this perfect for creatures like us, born from the dirt and returning to the dirt? Go on, eat some dirt and try to find your humanity."
"Uup, mmph…!"
"Might even be good for your core. At least it's better than a rat. Right?"
The bastard struggled and kicked at my clothes. At the same time, a flash of light burst across one side of my vision.
Kwaaang—!
I raised my arm and blocked the magic. The dirt I had been holding scattered into the air.
A student, his face pale, pointed his wand and shouted.
"Y-you… you could use magic all along!"
"You saw wrong."
I answered simply and shrugged. At my absurd reply, he stared at me, dumbfounded, unable to close his mouth.
"Y-you…!"
While I was answering the other guy, the student who had been grabbed by the collar swung his wand.
Kwaaang—!
I immediately wrapped a barrier around myself and reflected the magic. After training with Leo, emotion-filled attacks didn't even look like attacks anymore. Maybe he got hit by his own magic, because the student clutched his eyes and collapsed to the floor.
"Aaagh! Hey, do something about this bastard!"
"I am doing something already!"
A student somewhere screamed back.
I deflected the attack, looked around, and moved the animal that had fallen on the ground to a safe corner.
'For something they claim they're "doing," this is ridiculously easy to block. Looks like it's definitely within the level my Holy Power can handle.'
At the same moment, a student gulped as he relentlessly poured attacks onto Lukas.
'It's not working at all.'
Cold sweat formed on the hand gripping the wand.
None of this felt real. Even with three people attacking at the same time, the barrier showed no sign of breaking. Attacks that slipped outside the defensive range were meaningless as Lukas countered them with magic of similar power, nullifying them.
Paaang—
The student was pushed back after taking Lukas's attack.
The sheer fact that Lukas was using magic felt so unreal that the pain was forgotten.
'No, I mean, sure, he could use magic.'
That kindergarten-level magic seen in class was something anyone born into a family with even a single title could use. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that ninety-nine percent couldn't go beyond that, so it was natural to assume this guy was the same.
But…
'To think he could use it this cleanly.'
Askanian was a family that ranked among the top in the Empire based on magical power alone, so that part made sense.
But not this guy. He was the one who entered this place through an unprecedented donation admission in the school's history.
'Don't tell me he really drank blood to gain magical power….'
No matter how much of a Pleroma he was, when he couldn't use magic, he was just pathetic and unsettling.
At times, I even suspected he was pretending to be a Pleroma simply to protect himself.
After all, being feared was better than being ignored.
But this situation shattered every assumption made so far.
Through the flashes of light surging from all directions, the student looked at Lukas's face.
Unlike his friends charging in while screaming, Lukas merely narrowed his eyes in displeasure, flicking his wrist casually.
Hwaak—
Lukas scattered the barrier fragments that had splashed near his cheek into the air. With three people firing magic continuously, even while reinforcing the barrier, the impact was transmitted directly.
'No matter how bad you are, three at once is still a bit much.'
No point dragging this out. Time to wrap it up.
Lukas swept his wand diagonally, pushing two students back, then lightly swung it horizontally toward the remaining one.
"Huh?"
Before he could even grasp what was happening, the student's center of gravity collapsed. When he opened his eyes again, damp dirt filled half his vision, and the hand that had been holding the wand was caught in Lukas's binding magic.
"…!"
"Isn't that a little too easy to accept? You should at least be able to deflect this much."
Lukas sneered down at the student who had lost his balance and fallen. The student screamed in rage.
"Hey! Do the same thing to this bastard!"
"In situations like this, removing the binding magic should come first…."
As the student realized this and was about to scream again, Lukas let out a hollow laugh and kicked him. Then he immediately turned his body and blocked the attack coming from behind.
'Now I get why they're so obsessed with hierarchy.'
Because there's nothing inside.
The fact that someone who hadn't exercised for ten years and had only learned magic for two weeks was holding his own already meant these guys were hopeless. Even accounting for differences in magical power, this was pathetic.
Lukas deflected the remaining two's attacks and strode toward them. The two students hesitated and shouted.
"Isn't this guy completely insane?! Huh?!"
Without a word, Lukas kicked one's shoulder, knocking him over, and flipped him onto his back. The attack from the side was dealt with simply by pressing down with magic.
The overturned student twisted his head and shouted urgently.
"H-hey! Come on, human decency! This is too much…!"
"Human decency?"
"Aaagh!"
Lukas bent and held the guy's arm.
"When you slammed me into the wall, was that human decency? And now you're asking for it?"
"I-I didn't do it! He did everything!"
The student gestured indignantly toward the one clutching his eyes in the distance.
'…What a spectacle….'
As if it wasn't even worth responding, Lukas slammed magic into him and dealt with the last remaining student.
Maybe because he saw the others get beaten for saying unnecessary things, this one didn't say much.
Lukas finished off the two students and straightened up.
"Hoo…."
He had completely immobilized the students who might interfere. Lukas walked toward the student who had tried to feed him the rat earlier.
The student was gripping his wand tightly in one hand and pressing his eye with the other.
"Hand over the wand."
"N-no… agh!"
Lukas stepped on his wrist and yanked the wand free. The guy clutched his wrist and collapsed, groaning.
Turning the wand over in his hand, Lukas spoke.
"Using something nice."
"W-what…."
"Well, if you've got no skill, you've gotta at least throw money at it to stay here."
Perhaps finding it absurd to hear that from a donation student, the guy stared blankly at Lukas, then snapped back to his senses and shouted.
"You bastard, give it back! I'll report you for theft!"
"That's what you're worried about?"
Smiling, Lukas knelt down on one knee beside him.
"Did you have fun?"
"W-what are you talking about…."
"Ah, never mind. Why am I even asking? Experience is faster than listening."
Once again, Lukas grabbed a handful of dirt. Then he seized the guy by the shirt collar and pulled him forward.
"Eat."
"...."
The students sprawled around watched the situation, frozen stiff. The student being held by the collar was no different, his face blank.
When he did nothing but stare, strength went into Lukas's hand.
"I got to use magic thanks to you, and I enjoyed it. How about giving me a chance to return the favor?"
"…How am I supposed to eat this?! Say something that makes sense."
"And eating a rat made sense?"
"...."
"Either way, it's more realistic than telling you to eat a live rat."
Lukas glanced at the unidentified animal lying face-down in the distance, then held out the dirt.
"Are you going to make me say it out loud?"
The guy's hands trembled as he suddenly grabbed onto Lukas's arm.
"H-hey, hey. Let's not do this, okay…."
"Do what?"
"I won't mess with you anymore, so… let's stop here, yeah?"
"I don't want to."
Bang—!
Lukas mimicked the answer the student had given earlier and slammed him into the ground.
"Ghk, khh…."
"I've got a lot I could say, but honestly, I don't see what would be solved by saying it now. Just know one thing."
Lukas once again grabbed the student by the collar and lifted him up.
"If you don't do what I say, I'll report everything that happened today. My magic will be counted as self-defense, and the school will expel you because they won't want this reaching my father's ears."
"...."
"Do I need to say more?"
"Hey, even if it's disgusting, just close your eyes and do it! XX, we can report that bastard later ourselves!"
One of the students shouted angrily from afar.
Only then did the guy snap out of it and start desperately turning his head.
'…Of course, I never thought he'd actually consider reporting it.'
I thought he'd be like last year, unable to say anything, just hanging his head low no matter what. I didn't know he'd changed this much.
If he reported this, it really could lead to expulsion. And if that happened, there'd be no proper title inheritance.
A chill ran down my spine.
What did I even enroll in this school for?
Getting expelled was absolutely not an option.
'…There's no evidence, so should I just deny everything?'
No.
The student's gaze moved to the others around him.
If even one of them defected, it would be over. Someone might spill everything in exchange for avoiding expulsion.
'Or should I do that first?'
There was another problem.
There was no guarantee they'd accept that deal. If I tried to negotiate first, I might just be digging my own grave.
Honestly… what he was demanding was completely unreasonable, and this would go beyond self-defense.
We did bring it to his mouth, but he didn't actually swallow it. If we said it was just a joke, maybe we could get out of it.
'Might even be possible to turn this around on him?'
And though I hated to admit it, aside from shutting my eyes and doing as he said once, I couldn't see a way out of this situation. He'd definitely use magic otherwise.
Lukas watched the student's expression and tilted his head.
"You're thinking real hard. How about you eat it yourself before I shove it into your mouth?"
The corner of Lukas's lips twisted upward.
Seeing that ominous smile, the student reluctantly and slowly brought his head toward Lukas's hand.
The friends around him let out groans and frowned.
"Ugh…."
"Ah, XX, there's no way I could do that…."
'You idiots were all about following orders earlier!'
Sure, I carried out everything myself, but dumping all the blame on me was too much.
Once this moment passed, I'd have no choice but to deal with Lukas first, then punch every one of those bastards at least once.
The student ground his teeth and touched his tongue to the dirt.
Watching that, Lukas furrowed his brow and laughed.
"No way… I tell you to eat it and you actually do?"
"…!"
"Spit it out. That's too disgusting to watch."
When the guy looked at Lukas with a face that hadn't fully grasped the situation, Lukas narrowed his eyes as if he didn't even want to imagine it and asked,
"You didn't swallow it, right? I don't think I saw your throat move."
"You… you told me to eat it earlier…."
"Obviously I was joking. Humanly speaking, how would anyone eat that? I feel like everything I ate today would come back up… you're something else."
Lukas snickered, then raised his eyebrows at the guy's dazed expression.
"So? Was it good? Since you already ate it, tell me in detail what it tasted like."
"You bastard…!"
The student threw a punch. He was so worked up that his aim was off—it was an attack easy to dodge—but Lukas only slightly frowned.
Pwak—!
"Ugh…."
He should've started swinging his fists earlier.
This was way more reliable than useless magic.
Lukas frowned and touched the corner of his eye.
It stung as if sliced by a blade, heat swelling up before suddenly cooling like an ice pack pressed against it.
It hurt like his skin had been torn, but unfortunately, flesh didn't tear that easily, so expecting that was unrealistic.
'Still, this should at least leave a bruise.'
Whether it hit wrong or the guy was just that strong, his head rang violently.
'This is dangerous.'
No—still, it probably wasn't a completely bad hit. If it really had been, a bone would've broken already.
As Lukas tightly shut his eyes against the spinning, drunken vision, the guy grabbed his collar and pulled his arm back taut.
At that moment, a student shouted urgently.
"Hey! Don't hit him!"
The shout made the student hesitate.
Only then did Lukas's expression come fully into view.
"Why stop? Keep going. Hit me until you feel better."
Lukas burst out laughing and opened his eyes wide.
Being told to hit more—of all situations, it reminded him of what Leo had said the day he properly used magic for the first time, and the laughter kept spilling out.
The student released his grip and stumbled back.
'W-why is he laughing?'
His friend's desperate shout telling him not to hit echoed again in his head.
There had to be a reason.
How many people in the world could laugh after being hit? When he'd slammed this guy into the wall earlier, there hadn't been a trace of a smile on his face—so why now…?
'…No way.'
The thought made the student's face turn pale.
From behind, another student squeezed out all the strength he had left and shouted again.
"That bastard's getting hit now so he can pretend to be the victim later!"
"Not pretending. I really am."
Lukas said, holding his still-ringing head.
"I never said my promise not to report this was a joke. If you act like this, don't I have no choice but to report it?"
"N-no… Lukas, I…."
As the guy flailed his hands in panic, Lukas smiled and shook his head.
"I know. You misunderstood. You just couldn't control your temper and threw a punch first. Right?"
"…W-wait, yeah. Really, it was a mistake. You know that!"
"I know very well."
Hope bloomed on the student's face.
"Then…!"
"Thanks for making that mistake. It's nice to have at least one visible piece of evidence."
The student's expression rotted away instantly.
Lukas put on a suitably pleasant smile and lightly patted the guy on the shoulder.