“To seize… the King?”
Ibuki Rei’s gaze drifted slowly from the ointment on the ground to Lomio’s face.
She instinctively clutched the “Knight” chess piece hidden beneath her clothes, her tone tinged with the wariness forged in the marketplace.
“The Academy’s trial is far more complicated than you think. There’s still time to turn back.”
“I’m seventy percent sure.” Lomio’s voice was calm and unruffled.
“Seventy percent?”
Ibuki Rei seemed to have heard a joke. The corner of her lips curled into a mocking smile.
“That’s far too little. Even if you manage to win by luck, how will you handle being besieged by all the other teams?”
“With you, it’s a hundred percent.”
Lomio’s tone left no room for jest.
He stepped forward, his blue-gold eyes staring straight at her.
For a fleeting moment, Ibuki Rei even felt that gaze could pierce her flesh and see into her soul.
“Yes, Ibuki Rei. I’ve investigated you.”
“Your swordsmanship, your top-tier ability as a warrior to restrain opponents—these are precisely the final piece my team is missing.”
Of course, Lomio’s understanding came from the game’s background story, and from team compositions based on his gaming knowledge.
“A hundred percent?” Ibuki Rei’s smile deepened, but it was icy cold. “Dreams are always beautiful, aren’t they, young master?”
“You’re only approaching me now because of this, aren’t you?”
She took out the “Knight” chess piece and played with it between her fingers.
“Stop dreaming the impossible. Withdraw with me and pass this trial safely, and this piece will be yours.”
“That is my repayment for your help.”
She tried to regain the initiative, framing this encounter as a simple transaction.
“I don’t need the chess piece.”
But Lomio shook his head, suddenly turning away from her, his voice tinged with regret.
“Go ahead, follow that so-called fate of yours.”
“What happened today—just consider me meddling in other people’s business.”
“Fate?”
Those two words struck Ibuki Rei’s most sensitive nerve!
The composure on her face instantly shattered. She clenched her jaw, retorting word by word:
“What do you know of fate? Someone like you, born with a silver spoon in your mouth—even if others chewed up suffering and fed it to you, how much could you possibly understand?!”
Family, the past, everything—her memories were like formless shadows gnawing at her, turning into emotions that filled her exhausted chest.
“I truly don’t understand much.”
Lomio turned back, still smiling, confident of victory:
“All I see is a tragedy, someone cast aside by her family and pushed forward as a scapegoat.”
“A pitiful soul carefully set up for a slaughter here, so thoroughly that not even her bones would be found in the end.”
Boom!
Ibuki Rei’s mind went blank. The hand gripping her blade trembled violently, her breath caught in her throat.
He… how could he know?!
With the Academy’s confidentiality, to dig up all this, he could only have started before she even enrolled!
He came prepared?!
Lomio took a step closer. His voice wasn’t loud, but every word struck home.
“I told you from the start, this is a big deal.”
“And yet you don’t even have the patience to hear my offer. Truly disappointing.”
“That lofty ‘face’ of the Higan Chamber of Commerce can’t possibly uphold such a vast enterprise. Once the real ‘roots’ in the dirt are cut off, even the prettiest flower will wither.”
Ibuki Rei’s long and measured breathing was utterly disrupted.
Who was he?
Whose man was he, really?!
“What do you want? What can you offer me?”
“What I can do is simple.”
Lomio ignored Ibuki Rei’s agitation and simply extended his hand toward her:
“Just a bit of help. Let the ‘roots’ trampled underfoot cast aside their old form and bloom their own flower.”
“The condition is simple as well.”
“Help me win this trial. Join my team. Become my ‘Knight’.”
“And I will help you reclaim everything that should have been yours, in a way you never imagined.”
“If you’re interested, then follow me. If not…”
Before Ibuki Rei could reply, Lomio had already withdrawn his hand and activated [Concealment], becoming a blurred shadow:
“Let’s part ways here, then.”
With one or two minutes left, judging by the distance, it was enough for Lomio to keep his promise and meet up with Kafnir.
“Wait!”
Ibuki Rei called out, but Lomio was already running.
“Damn it, is this how you negotiate?!”
Realizing she’d been put on the spot, Ibuki Rei tore off her bandages, tied a knot at random, and immediately sprinted after Lomio.
To bloom.
Her mind flashed with the back of her elder sister, a figure she’d chased for over a decade, yet never managed to catch up to.
“Can I bloom too?”
The closer they got to the rendezvous point, the colder the air became.
On the forest floor, unnatural ice crystals began to appear.
At first, it was just a thin layer. Soon, heavy blocks of ice sealed leaves and earth beneath.
Ahead, the corpse of a demon wolf was frozen solid, its pose still fixed at the moment of pouncing, lifelike and vivid.
Further along, a second, a third…
The trees lining the path were covered in icicles, some branches so weighed down by ice that they’d snapped.
A world sealed in chaotic ice.
Finally, Lomio came to a stop.
Ibuki Rei followed his gaze, and her breath caught.
Ahead was a small clearing. At its center, a huge wall of ice rose from the ground, its arc-shaped form shielding two people within.
Beyond the wall, a massive magical beast was slamming its huge claws furiously against the ice.
It was a Tier-2 Advanced “Rock-Armored Bear,” its body covered in bony plates. Each strike sent tremors through the thick ice wall, cracking it with spiderweb fissures.
Behind the wall, Karenina pressed one hand to the ice, pale blue mana streaming in as she repaired the cracks.
Her face was pale, her breathing quick and labored.
Annie lay under a nearby tree, her left arm wrapped in blood-soaked cloth, gasping for air, clearly exhausted.
The standoff lingered in a precarious balance.
Sensing movement to the side, Karenina turned and saw Lomio.
Then she saw Ibuki Rei behind him.
“The end of the trial!”
Karenina broke into a victorious smile.
Lomio’s timely arrival meant she’d won this bet.
The beast tide, the endless magical beasts, this standoff—
All of it was his arranged trial.
A test to see the limits of her “Frost Mage” abilities.
A test of how long she could last in desperate straits.
“Its weakness is the inside of its knee.”
Lomio simply tossed out these words, then charged forward, drawing his remaining Magic Cards.
[Paralysis] [Explosion]
Boom!
The beast froze up, paralyzed, and the next instant, a fierce explosion erupted from its back!
“Instant-cast traps?!”
Ibuki Rei instantly recognized that the two Alchemy Cards he’d just used up were no ordinary items!
Without hesitation, she blurred into an afterimage, circling to the Rock-Armored Bear’s rear flank.
“Roar?”
The bear’s movements dulled for a moment, its giant head swiveling in confusion.
Now!
Karenina understood at once. She dispelled a portion of the ice wall, opening a clear path for Ibuki Rei to attack.
Swish!
A flash of steel.
Ibuki Rei’s long blade struck true at the joint of the bear’s left hind leg.
“ROOOAR!!”
Agonizing pain drove the beast into a frenzy. Abandoning the ice wall, it turned and swiped at Ibuki Rei.
“Too slow!”
In front of Karenina, the ice wall transformed in an instant!
A spike of ice, faster than the bear’s claw, shot up from the ground, piercing the bear’s lower jaw.
“Roar!”
The thick-skinned giant bear howled, struggling to break the icicle, but a shadow had already appeared behind its head.
“Pierce!”
Lomio leapt high, channeling all his strength into a kick at the back of the bear’s skull. The force—equal to that of a Tier-2—drove the icicle through its brain, spurting blood as it burst out!
Splurt!
The Rock-Armored Bear’s massive body crashed to the ground.
Blood, charged with powerful magic, gushed from its wounds and seeped into the earth.
What a blow!
Watching this, Annie actually felt a surge of relief—but it was quickly replaced by burning shame!
She struggled to her feet, glaring at Lomio with a mix of anger and guilt: “You coward! Only showing up after we finished the fight!”
Lomio ignored her.
His attention was fixed on the ground.
Where the beast’s blood flowed, ancient patterns shimmered, sketching a complex magic circle onto the earth.
The center of the clearing cracked open, and a stone pedestal slowly rose up.
Light converged.
A broken fragment of a key, forged from some unknown metal, lay silently atop the stone.
Lomio stepped forward and picked up the key fragment.
The moment his fingertips touched it, a line of text appeared in his mind, visible only to him.
[Phantom Sea Hidden Chamber Key Fragment 1/2]
Got it!
Lomio said nothing more, simply storing the fragment in his system inventory.
“A Rossulian…”
Ibuki Rei watched, then glanced at the calm-faced “Kafnir.”
That bearing, and the power just displayed, were no ordinary nobility!
So, a servant of a great noble of Rossul… No wonder.
But to seek out herself, the second daughter of the Higan Chamber of Commerce… Was it really just for business, to get the “King”?
“No, is he looking to groom a new agent?”
Ibuki Rei immediately recalled Lomio’s earlier words about roots and flowers.
If that was a hint, it meant that a certain Rossulian noble currently needed a trusted “agent.”
If so, then everything made perfect sense!
That thing that looked like a key fragment must be one of his targets too!
Karenina also looked at the fragment in Lomio’s hand.
Such a mysterious find…
Suppressing her curiosity, Karenina looked to Ibuki Rei.
If the examiner didn’t want to speak, she’d never pry.
Such was the awareness of royalty, of the tested.
And this girl… must be the so-called “reward” from before.
A warrior.
Exactly what the team needed most.
Lomio studied the fragment in his hand, in excellent spirits.
Everything went according to plan.
He put the fragment away, turned to the others, and wore his usual approachable smile.
“Well done, everyone.”
Back in the main story, the protagonist’s party never fought so cleanly, did they?
My teammates are truly fierce!