Elia couldn’t help but laugh when she saw Wade’s bewildered expression.
He had been so full of himself at school, yet now he was at a loss in an unfamiliar situation.
Perhaps, deep down, the man sensed his own fate.
“Why are you here?” Wade asked, feigning composure.
Elia responded with her usual smile, also feigned.
“Am I not allowed to be here?”
“What is this place? I was definitely on my way to my lodging, so why did I end up here?”
“I wonder.”
“There’s no one here, and what’s with that red moon floating up there? I have no idea what’s going on.”
Wade looked up at the blood-red moon, then scanned his surroundings with uneasy eyes.
Seeing his foolish and helpless demeanor made Elia’s mood brighten.
He likely didn’t even realize he was already in the palm of her hand.
Even if he did, there was nothing he could do about it.
After a long pause, Wade glared at Elia with a face full of hostility.
“Don’t tell me… this is your doing?”
“Why would you think that?”
“You’re the only one here, so who else would I suspect? Besides, right after I said I knew your secret, this happened.”
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence that I’m here. And I still don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Stop playing dumb.”
Shing!
Wade drew his sword.
“I’ll say this nicely: undo this barrier. If you don’t, you’ll regret it.”
“Didn’t you hear me? Break the barrier. I know you’re doing this to shut me up. But if you think I’ll just take this quietly, you’re making a big mistake.”
Elia burst into laughter, unable to hold it in any longer.
Had he not grasped the situation yet?
This wasn’t Arcana.
Standing before him wasn’t the ordinary student Elia pretended to be, but a predator with prey in her sights.
This mediocre man seemed to think that raising his voice like he always did would resolve the situation. It was amusing in its own way.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh… I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help but laugh at how a piece of trash like you is acting as if you have some authority over me.”
“So, it is you.”
“Yes, that’s right. I brought you here, and I created this barrier.”
Elia spread her arms.
“And now that you know, does it change anything?”
“You’d better release this barrier. Kalian will come to my rescue soon. Do you think you can handle him?”
“That’s fine. You wouldn’t know, but this barrier is designed to be unnoticeable from the outside. No one can interfere until everything is over.”
From the building emerged Elia’s dolls—dozens, then hundreds of them.
Dolls made from living or dead people, moving as if they had a will of their own, approached Wade.
Wade stepped back.
“Dammit…”
“Why are you so nervous? You’ve seen this before in Noirn.”
“Stop it, Elia. I have evidence of your crimes. If I die here, that evidence will reach Kalian. Are you okay with that?”
Elia flinched.
Could that be true?
If it was, killing Wade here wouldn’t be an option.
She didn’t care about anyone else knowing her true nature, but not Kalian.
If he learned the truth, there was no way he would like her.
But if she let Wade live, would he keep quiet about all this? That was impossible.
“Then I’ll just kill you and all your allies as well.”
“No matter how powerful you are, do you really think that’s possible?”
“I’ll pull the information about your allies from your mind. I can even see the memories of the dead.”
“You… damn it!”
Hearing this, Wade immediately turned and fled.
Elia followed him with a cheerful smile, accompanied by hundreds of dolls.
Wade, who had run into an alley, was soon cornered.
Escaping the barrier was impossible from the start, but being surrounded by hundreds of dolls meant he couldn’t keep running for long.
“Hah… hah… damn it…”
With his back against the wall, Wade raised his sword, aiming it at the approaching dolls.
Elia took a seat nearby, watching his struggle with amusement.
“Is the game of tag over?”
“I’m not dying here. I’m not going to let someone like you kill me.”
“Is that so? Then keep trying. Who knows? Maybe I’ll run out of strength before you die.”
It was a lie.
Elia’s puppetry didn’t consume her own mana—it relied on the dolls’ mana.
But foolishly, Wade seemed to find hope in her lie.
“I won’t die here,” he muttered, cutting down the dolls one by one.
Despite being a mediocre student, Wade managed to hold out longer than expected, likely due to his training at Arcana.
The narrow alley also worked in his favor, limiting the number of dolls that could attack him at once.
After taking down dozens of dolls, the alley was littered with broken remains.
“Hah… hah…”
Wade barely managed to catch his breath, but it was clear he was reaching his limit.
“Ah, can’t hold out any longer? Just a little more, and I might run out of strength. Keep going,” Elia teased.
“You coward… If it weren’t for these dolls, you’d be nothing.”
“Excuse me? I’m a puppeteer. Of course, I hide behind my dolls. If you call that unfair, I find it unfair too.”
Elia tilted her head as if troubled but then came up with a fun idea.
“But maybe I should handle this myself. Against a knight of your caliber, I doubt I’d lose even in a direct fight.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If it’s just you and me, I guarantee you wouldn’t last a minute.”
“Let’s see if that’s true, shall we?”
She stood up and approached Wade, dismissing her dolls.
She decided to face him directly.
As expected, the result was one-sided.
Even without using a weapon, Elia completely overwhelmed Wade.
The difference in skill was far too great.
Wade couldn’t keep up with her movements, and even a light touch of her mana-infused hands sent him flying.
“Ugh!”
“You said I wouldn’t last a minute, yet here we are,” Elia sneered at him as he writhed on the ground.
Wade could no longer muster the strength to stand; he simply twitched on the floor.
“Wade? Get up. If you don’t, you’ll die,” she taunted.
“You need to hold on until Kalian arrives. Just a little more effort, and you might make it.”
She knew he was at his limit.
His body was covered in wounds, and his mana reserves were completely drained.
He couldn’t resist no matter what she did now.
And yet, that was why Elia continued to mock him.
She wanted to torment him as much as possible before he died, to see his face twist in despair right before the end.
In Noiren, he had tried to play the hero.
Try it again now.
There’s no one here, so show me how you crumble right before death.
“If you stay lying there, you’ll die. Get up and fight back,” she urged, as the dolls closed in, pointing their swords at Wade.
But then—
“Hahaha…”
He burst into laughter.
“Are you laughing? Are you seriously laughing right now?” Elia asked, perplexed.
Had he lost his mind?
In a way, it made sense, given the situation, but Elia found it a bit disappointing.
She had hoped he would cry and beg for his life.
Enough was enough.
She had toyed with him long enough.
The dolls simultaneously thrust their swords at him—or so she thought.
Boom!
An explosion erupted from within the circle of dolls surrounding Wade.
The dolls shattered into countless fragments, scattering in all directions.
What just happened?
Caught off guard by the unexpected turn of events, Elia stared intently at the center of the explosion.
There stood Wade.
But this wasn’t the weakling she knew.
The man standing there radiated overwhelming mana, an unmistakable presence of someone in an entirely different league.
“What…?”
She didn’t fully understand the situation yet, but her instincts screamed danger.
Without hesitation, she commanded her remaining dolls to attack.
Hundreds of dolls filled not just the ground but also the sky, converging on Wade.
Boom!
In an instant, the dolls were obliterated into fragments.
Finally realizing something was seriously wrong, Elia extended her hand, gathering the scattered remains of her dolls.
From the fragments, she reconstructed a monstrous amalgamation of countless heads and arms.
The creature was infused with the mana of hundreds, a monster no ordinary knight or mage could hope to face.
“Who… are you?” she asked, her voice betraying her unease.
This man—Wade—was supposed to be nothing more than a weakling, a failure among Arcana students.
She had witnessed his incompetence in classes and even in Noiren.
How could this be happening?
Wade dusted himself off, smirking.
“What’s so shocking? Did you think you were the only one in the world capable of hiding your true power?”
“Are you saying you’ve been pretending to be a weakling this entire time?”
“Just like you’ve been pretending to be a kind and innocent girl.”
This was bad.
The man before her was far stronger than she could gauge, and his intentions were a complete mystery.
Should she run? No… If she fled now, it would all be over.
Wade had uncovered her true identity entirely.
Wade began to approach her slowly.
“Don’t tell me you’ve given up already. If you’re so desperate to protect your secret, let’s see you try your hardest.”