Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

As for the question Rafael had suddenly asked, the girl called Anno understood exactly what he was referring to.

She answered cautiously, “When someone is subjected to more unbearable pain than they can endure, there is a possibility of that happening.”

Rafael gave a soft laugh. The awkward tension from before seemed like nothing more than a fleeting dream.

Gentle light rippled through his silver-white eyes, yet in their depths, something dark seemed to have congealed, impossible to dissolve. “Then do you think Xiya has changed a lot?”

Anno froze for a moment before replying, “In the two years since Miss Xiya moved from the western territory to the capital on her own, she has suffered many grievances and much ostracism. Some change is normal.”

The smile vanished from Rafael’s face. “Ostracism?”

“…Yes.” Anno studied his expression, unease stirring in her heart.

In recent years, the Young Master’s episodes of unconsciousness had become more and more frequent, and each time he remained unconscious for longer than the last. Even his enrollment at the academy this time had only gone smoothly after several layers of seals were placed on him to temporarily suppress that curse-like slumber.

During this period, he also had to endure backlash at every moment.

Perhaps because of that, his temperament had become increasingly… unpredictable.

At times, he was gentle as water. At times, he was like a fragile bird, unable to withstand even the slightest disturbance. And at other times, he seemed to stand outside everything, utterly indifferent to all that happened.

And in the worst cases…

Thinking of those bloody, dismembered corpses, Anno’s heart sank. She hurriedly added, “Aside from the children of families opposed to Valensidra, the reason the other nobles targeted Miss Xiya seems to be because the Crown Prince gave orders in secret.

But Miss Xiya is not some pushover they can manipulate at will. I heard that right after school started, she publicly broke off her engagement with the Crown Prince when he provoked her. Judging from today’s battle and her reaction just now, Miss Xiya is certainly not the useless villainess they claim she is. Nor is she someone who will let herself be slaughtered. Please rest assured, Young Master.”

“…Is that so.”

Rafael turned a plain ring engraved with lily of the valley between his fingertips. His voice was as soft as a feather skimming the surface of water, its final note carrying a barely perceptible chill.

It drifted unpredictably, impossible to grasp.

Anno did not dare speak. As the shadow guard who had grown up by his side, she only hoped he could make it safely through these six years of academy life.

–

Meanwhile.

After Cynthia left the competition area, she did not go looking for her teammates. Instead, she returned to her department dormitory.

This match had not been meaningless. The instant she touched Rafael’s silver threads, her Spirit Weapon’s second skill awakened.

This skill… was very special.

[Sequence Skill ② awakened.]

Light and Dark Domain: You have two different choices-the Light Domain and the Domain of Death.

Under the protection of the Light Domain, you and selected targets gain a boost to defense and speed. If you pay 50% of your own Magic Element as the cost, the selected targets will also receive double healing effects.

(Note: A maximum of nine targets can be selected for enhancement at the same time. Also, the healing effect cannot be stacked on yourself.)

Under the protection of the Domain of Death, countless undead will become your guardians. They may transform into resentful ghostly vines to bind your enemies, or release eerie ghostly energy to erode the enemy’s mind.

If their willpower is insufficient, they will be dragged into a boundless abyss of nightmares and lose the ability to fight. And you will become the master who controls these human puppets.

(Note: Choice has never been a cost-free pastime. One must be faithful. Once Light and Dark Domain is chosen, only the corresponding domain can be used for the next three days, and it cannot be changed.)

This time, the pros and cons were explained fairly clearly, and Cynthia was quite satisfied with that.

The Light Screen lit up.

It was a private message.

Cynthia had been wondering if it was Rafael, but when she opened it, she saw it was from Richter.

The message in the chat box was very brief.
[My hand hurts so much.]

Cynthia glanced at her palm. The wound was deep, and with the toxin interfering, even after taking a potion, it wasn’t going to heal that quickly.

The wound on her shoulder didn’t hurt as much anymore, but it still hadn’t fully closed.

Everyone else’s matches were in the second half and hadn’t started yet, so they were probably sharing her pain right about now…

Richter: [Why are you ignoring me ꐦ≖ ≖? I’m going to die from the pain.]

Cynthia changed his contact name to Crybaby, then slowly typed back, [If it hurts, endure it. It’ll be fine soon.]

During these past few days of training, the four of them had suffered plenty because of this guy’s special constitution.

Now it was his turn to suffer a little.

[Did you win?] he replied almost immediately.

Although Richter and Eli treated each other like they were invisible, Richter’s attitude toward her hadn’t changed much.

These days, he still hovered around her like before, as clingy as ever. His temper, though… seemed to be getting worse and worse.

Cynthia was almost used to answering his questions by now. [Guess.]

Crybaby (Richter): [You won.]

If the location display hadn’t shown all four of her teammates in the academy dormitory, Cynthia would have suspected he’d gone to watch in person.

[If you know, why ask?]

Crybaby: [You’re the one who told me to guess ꐦ.]

Imagining how priceless his expression must be, Cynthia smiled and stopped paying him any attention.

After reading for nearly two hours, he sent another message.

Crybaby: [Isn’t Captain going to encourage her teammates?]

Cynthia checked the time.

1:00 p.m.

The four of them should be going on soon.

After thinking for a moment, she long-pressed the message, copied it, and sent it to each of them. [Good luck.]

The crybaby who had been making a fuss about wanting encouragement didn’t reply this time. Instead, the other three sent messages back one after another.

Vernel: [Okay.]

Sangmo: […Thank you.]

Even Eli, who had been half-treating her as invisible lately, surprisingly replied. [Mm.]

They were all brief, but at least they hadn’t ignored her.

Her body felt a little sore, so Cynthia lay down on the sofa and closed her eyes to rest.

But only a few minutes after she fell asleep, pain from all over her body jolted her wide awake.

Just how fiercely were those people fighting…?

Dizziness, blurred vision, and the pain of torn flesh had already become a familiar part of daily life. Cynthia quickly took a painkiller potion.

She was rather glad she’d been in the first half instead of competing at the same time as them.

Resonance could only stop them from beating each other up. Other than that, it had no benefits whatsoever.

Cynthia silently prayed for this semester to end as soon as possible.

Her drowsiness had been completely scared away, so Cynthia simply took out the unfinished books on poisons that the original owner had left in the Storage Ring and began studying them.

About half an hour later, Richter sent a message.

[Guess whether I won or lost.]

Cynthia: [Lost.]

Crybaby sneered: [Heh.]

The conversation ended there. In truth, Cynthia had guessed that he must have won.

After all, with his personality, if he’d lost, he definitely wouldn’t have taken the initiative to make a fuss about it.

It was only 1:32 p.m., and Cynthia had already finished an entire encyclopedia of poisonous plants. Reciting it backward wouldn’t have been a problem.

She was genuinely a little bored, so she simply began cultivating.

Cynthia absorbed all the surrounding Magic Element of different elements into her Soul Sea, wanting to break through to six-star as soon as possible.

But all the way until evening, her accumulated Magic Element remained stuck at a bottleneck, without the slightest progress.

Sure enough, the higher the star level, the harder it was to improve.

It seemed that if she wanted to break through, she still needed some kind of catalyst…