Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent
Chapter 97: How Could You…

Chapter 97 – How Could You…

Becky had a dream.

A blue sky.

The objects on the ground looked like mere toys, and the clouds were like stepping stones to jump and play at a dizzying height. 

The world was a canvas dyed in navy blue.

“Hehehe…”

The girl sat on a cloud next to Flan, using it as a chair. 

She rested her head on his shoulder, forgetting all the worries and troubles she usually had.

She was enjoying the moment.

Whizz.

A small sound interrupted her peace.

A cool sensation tickled her ears, strangely vivid.

“Hmm…”

Whizz.

The sound grew louder.

Suddenly, Becky realized that her hair was flying in the wind.

“…?”

She felt her senses sharpen. 

The wind was fierce, as if she was caught in a typhoon. 

She could barely open her eyes.

And then, she heard Trixie’s voice.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“Use your magic. Unless you want to die.”

As soon as he said that, she heard a whoosh and a flame from his side. 

Becky barely managed to open her eyes then.

“Magic…? What magic…?”

Why did she have to use magic? 

She didn’t understand.

“…”

Sky. Nothing but sky.

She couldn’t tell how high she was. 

Becky’s body was falling vertically from the sky.

“Ah, ahk! Aaahk!”

Becky panicked and used all her strength. 

She tried to find her balance somehow.

She would die if she fell like this. 

There was no way she could survive.

“Help, help me! I’m falling! I’ll definitely die if I fall like this! Aaah!”

The girl flailed her arms. 

At some point, she grabbed Trixie’s thin calf, and she glared at her.

“What, what are you doing? Why are you clinging to me?”

“Help me! We’re on the same team, right? Aak!”

“Save yourself. Come on!”

She had closed her eyes comfortably in the warm room. 

That was Becky’s last memory.

But when she came to, she was falling from the sky. She had no idea what had happened, and it made no sense to her.

“Aaah!”

But she had no time to think. 

The distance between her and the ground was getting closer at a terrifying speed.

“You. Don’t ever look up.”

“Trixie! Help me too…”

Thud!

She looked up without realizing it, and Trixie’s footprint was stamped on her face. 

Becky teared up and lowered her head.

‘It hurts so much!’

Why did she have to stomp so hard? 

She didn’t care about heris teddy bear underwear at all…

Whizz!

The ground was really close now. The things that were just dots grew bigger in real time.

“Aaaah! I don’t want to die!”

Becky drew a formula in her head.

She muttered to herself as she calculated, wrote down the mistakes on her palm and corrected them, and did everything she could.

“Please, please, pleeease!”

She saw the ground in front of her eyes. 

To avoid becoming a pancake, Becky used her last bit of strength to cast her magic.

“Uuuu!”

She finally created a huge ice slide.

Becky rode on the curved slide and bounced into the air again. 

She created another slide and bounced lower this time… She repeated this process frantically.

And finally.

Thud thud thud!

Becky’s body rolled on the ground several times. 

Luckily, she didn’t feel much pain.

‘I did it!’

It was a noisy way to land, and she was covered in dust, but she was alive. 

That was enough. 

She could breathe normally and move her body without any problems.

“This is tougher than I thought.”

Becky tapped the pointed hat on her head with her index finger. 

Come to think of it, this thing had stuck to her head ever since she fell.

Brushing off the dirt from her palms, Becky slowly surveyed her surroundings.

“…Was there an explosion?”

She was standing on the edge of a broken rail.

Now that she looked, the front of the train was smashed. 

To make matters worse, the rail was completely severed.

Becky quietly imagined.

If she hadn’t landed properly, and had fallen off the cliff below that had no visible bottom…

“Ugh…”

She covered her mouth with one hand without realizing it. 

She felt dizzy just looking down, let alone imagining what would have happened if she had fallen.

“…!”

And then. She was shocked again.

“What, what is that?”

The train was pointing straight up to the sky.

The head was stuck to the ground, but the tail was pointing up as if someone had pulled it.  Sᴇaʀᴄh the ɴøvᴇlFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

A strange shape.

It escaped from the gravity that bound it, and seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky like a work of art.

A magician who could make such a thing possible.

Becky thought of only one person.

“Flan…”

At the same time, she realized he was not by her side. 

The girl shouted his name.

“Flan─!”

But he was not the only one who was not visible. Trixie and Louis were the same.

“Flan! Trixie! Louis─!”

There was no answer.

She felt anxious. 

Had they left her alone?

She couldn’t think that way. 

First of all, they were not like that, and secondly, there was nowhere to go in this situation where the rail and the train were cut off.

Then maybe, maybe…

“Did I survive alone…?”

Guilt and shock hit her like waves. 

Becky couldn’t overcome it and shook her shoulders.

She thought she had become a little closer to the representatives. 

Besides, Becky had never imagined academy life without Flan.

“Flan, everyone…”

But then.

“Ouch!”

Thud, a pebble hit the back of Becky’s head. 

Becky’s head reflexively turned to that place.

There were all three representatives.

“…Guys!”

Becky teared up and smiled.

“You guys were alive!”

But the girl’s joy didn’t last long.

“Becky, are you still sleepy?” “What are you doing over there?” “Hahaha… Becky, are you okay? You’re covered in dirt.”

“…”

Her warm heart cooled down in an instant.

With tears in her eyes, Becky walked limply.

“That’s too much…”

◈

We gathered at the head of the half-destroyed train.

The first one to break the silence was Louis.

“Hmm… So you mean you deliberately caused the explosion? To prevent us from reaching Verkel?”

“I didn’t cause it, but I didn’t bother to avoid or stop it either. This is also a necessary process.”

I rolled my eyes and looked down at the cliff covered in darkness. 

Soon, I detected the energy of countless ‘ghosts’.

It was exactly as I had investigated beforehand.

Becky swallowed her saliva and asked.

“So what are we going to do now? Walk all the way to Verkel… That’s not it, right?”

I shook my head. 

I had no intention of making them suffer a meaningless and futile hardship.

But I asked them this.

“You’ve never killed anyone, have you?”

When I said that, something started crawling up from the cliff below. 

Soon, they filled the tracks one by one.

“…!”

The representatives’ eyes widened.

“What, what are those? People…?” 

“Are they people? They climbed up the cliff with their bare hands.”

Their identity was ghosts.

The ghosts of the Misty Cliff were very different from the ‘semi-transparent and floating things’ that were commonly talked about in the world.

They had human-shaped bodies. 

Not just poorly imitating, but exactly the same.

They gradually surrounded us. 

In no time, we became like an isolated island floating in the vast sea.

The ghosts smiled. 

They looked like they had met old friends, and slowly narrowed the distance.

“They’re just ghosts, so just kill them. This will also count towards the score of the Hunting Competitionextermination test.”

I muttered lowly. 

It wasn’t a difficult thing to understand, so the representatives nodded as well.

But one second. Two seconds. 

Three seconds… Even though the ghosts kept approaching, no one cast any magic.

“Sigh…”

Trixie stretched out one arm with a cold expression.

She took a few deep breaths and eventually withdrew her hand.

“…They’re just kids.”

Trixie muttered lowly.

What made the representatives hesitate was the appearance of the ghosts. 

Just look at the girl ghost in front of them.

A tiny height that barely reached her waist, large eyes like a deer, a small hand that couldn’t even hold a fork, let alone a weapon.

“What are you hesitating for?”

“…”

I urged the three of them.

They had to kill them, no matter what they looked like. 

Without any hesitation. 

Easily.

The reason why Verkel had a bad reputation was simple.

In that place where most of the monsters were created by Main, ‘human-shaped’ monsters were rampant.

As long as they had a human origin, it was understandable that they would hesitate to kill something that was human-shaped.

But.

That was a hesitation that wouldn’t help them win, and it was also not beneficial for the representatives to protect themselves in the future.

I didn’t want them to become ruthless killers who didn’t hesitate to kill, but I didn’t want to see them scared or shaken by the appearance of their opponents.

“Sister, sister…”

The girl approached Trixie with a wobbly walk.

And the next moment.

The girl’s face twisted grotesquely. Her mouth split into four and tried to swallow the three representatives at once.

Puck─!

I flicked my finger. 

And at the same time, mana in the shape of a needle pierced the girl’s forehead.

“Uh…?”

The ghost returned to the girl’s appearance as if nothing had happened, and fell down with all kinds of expressions that would evoke sympathy.

The representatives’ faces were shocked.

“How pathetic. You’ll encounter things that will make you hesitate countless times in the future.”

I clicked my tongue.

“The price of hesitation is your life. Don’t you know that?”

I said to the frozen ones.

“Of course, you can hesitate. If you don’t value your life, if your determination was only that much… I won’t stop you.”

“…”

The representatives’ expressions became more resolute.

“I’ll give you another chance. Kill them.”

The same command as before. But this time, the representatives’ reactions were different. 

They all started to pull up their mana as much as they could.

*

Bang!

The death of the ghost girl was a signal for the rest of the ghosts to swarm us.

But the representatives didn’t hesitate anymore.

They had learned the price of hesitation, and they executed their magic flawlessly, even under pressure.

Boom!

With one explosion, the horde of ghosts fell off the cliff.

I lifted my head and looked up.

Something was shining in the tail car. 

The reporters’ crystal balls were capturing our image.

“Get it right.”

We were about to show them our remarkable growth.

◈

[I have arrived at Verkel. Soon, this place will become the stage of the Hunting CompetitionSubjugation Festival─]

The captainleader’s office of the number one guild ‘Mystic Canyon’.

In a space too large for one person to use, Captain leader Elysis was browsing the newspaper headlines.

“Hmm…”

Thanks to the crystal balls that the reporters had, the newspapers now showed not only the text but also the ‘scene’ of the event. 

Even though there was no sound, it was enough to immerse oneself in watching.

She scanned the eight newspapers that she had stuck on the wall.

[Newspaper 3] 

─The Knight of the Eternal Flame has revealed himself! How many times will he swing his sword this year?

[Newspaper 5] 

─The most likely candidate for the victory is… 

─Celestial Blessing, right? 

─Yes. There have been many changes this year, but still, Celestial Blessing is Celestial Blessing.

Hunting Competition, Hunting Competition Hunting Competition.Subjugation Festival, Subjugation Festival, Subjugation Festival.

Since the main event started, everything that could be called ‘mass media’ was dominated by the Hunting Competition.Subjugation Festival.

“They better do well.”

Of course, Elysis had more than just a simplejust simple interest in the Hunting CompetitionSubjugation Festival.

One of them was obviously ‘Celestial Blessing’.

The Holy Knight Order that had a close relationship with Mystic Canyon. 

Elysis hoped that they would perform even better on the stage of the Hunting CompetitionSubjugation Festival.

As she was lost in her thoughts, then.

“CaptainLeader!”

One of the members barged into the captainleader’s office without knocking. 

Normally, she would have scolded him, but his expression looked so urgent that she decided to listen to his report first.

“What is it?”

“Well, that is. It’s…!”

He took several deep breaths before he finally spat out something that could be called a sentence.

“The fourth train heading to Verkel was caught in a huge explosion. The tracks were completely severed!”

“Explosion… Don’t tell me.”

Something came to Elysis’s mind.

“The fourth train… Was it the ghosts again?”

“Yes. The Misty Cliff. There was also a confirmed mass appearance of ghosts.”

“Sigh…”

Elysis let out a deep sigh. 

What was wrong with these ghosts that they never ran out no matter how many they caught?

“And, captainleader…”

The member’s face showed a tense expression. As if he was about to say the main point.

“On the fourth train, there were the representatives of the magic department.”

“…Hm?”

Elysis widened her eyes.

The fourth train was not meant for ordinary passengers. 

It was filled with people who had the purpose of facing the demons, mercenaries who were willing to step into the wilderness.

In a short time, she wondered why Flan had boarded the fourth train.

“He must have known.”

A grand and meticulous plan, a certainty… Flan was a magician full of such things, as Elysis had seen.

She didn’t think he would have fallen into danger for a reason like ‘lack of information’.

“…Then, did he do it on purpose?”

It was not easy to deal with the ghosts of the Misty Cliff.

The first thing was the appearance of humans. They were killing them in large numbers, and sometimes even Elysis felt her mind exhausted.

And the second thing was the terrain. Anyone who wanted to live would never welcome a battle on the cliff.

That was why the leaders chose the safe route. 

The risk of being killed was too high to justify killing the ghosts for the points of the competitionsubjugation.

“Get ready. We’re leaving right away.”

Either way, she would see for herself.

Flan was also one of the students she had marked. Heris movements became faster as she prepared the defensive barrier.

But then.

“Captain!”

One of the members came to the captain’s room. He looked even more urgent than the one who had come before.

Elysis waved her hand.

“I already heard. Get ready to go.”

“No, no!”

“What do you mean, no? I said get ready.”

Elysis frowned, but the member shook his head vigorously.

“No, I mean we don’t have to go!”

“…?”

Elysis stopped her preparations.

She asked the member.

“What are you talking about?”

“The situation… It’s already over!”

Over.

The captain’s expression became serious at the two words.

“Over? You mean they all got killed by the ghosts?”

The member answered with a nervous expression.

“The ghost subjugation… It’s done.”

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