The first chapter, Kyler's Potion, begins just before the midterm assessment.
It was supposed to happen at the midterm because of a potion that was leaked just before the assessment, so I didn't expect it to happen now, just two weeks into the new semester.
"The altered future changed the scenario.
In the game, no matter how much I tried to change the future, the big picture didn't change.
This was an unavoidable limitation of the game, but I didn't realize that the real world is different.
'What changed was the outcome of the tournament and the unplanned exchange that followed. I didn't think it changed much, but the butterfly effect was unpredictable.
Kyler's apprentice, Gardian Fell, gambled away his entire fortune and sold Kyler's potions under the pseudonym Antonio.
If it were an ordinary potion, he'd get away with petty theft, but the problem is, the potion he's selling is anything but ordinary.
I clicked my tongue as I watched Grace's shoulders swell and grow more and more misshapen.
There were probably other students elsewhere who had taken the potion by now.
'If the future has changed, so have all the people who took the potion.
For now, I had to deal with Grace in front of me.
As long as she had taken the potion, he had no choice but to deal with her.
"Adrias Cromwell, come on, come on, are you afraid!"
The students, except for me, looked on in disbelief, watching me and the bizarre transfiguration of Grace.
That's just as well. She was going to be Keshurn's problem.
"I can do this legally.
For this moment, I'm grateful to Kyler's apprentice.
I didn't hesitate to lunge at Grace.
"Hahahaha, you're jumping in like a booger moth!"
"Shut up."
I set aside my magic and prepared my shifting sword.
What I felt when I unleashed the sword wind earlier was a pretty solid defense.
"I'll cut through it.
Sharply and with a single point.
The mana gathered in the sword thinned and gathered into a single point.
'And spin.'
The auror spun on the tip of the sword, and I stabbed straight through.
"It doesn't work!"
Kwagagagagak!
There was a tremendous noise and shards of mana flew everywhere.
Shards splattered against me, creating wounds, but I didn't care.
"Grace. You got cocky.'
My sword began to poke holes in Grace's mana shield little by little.
Panicked, Grace raised a dawn roar with her deformed, thick arms and unleashed a new spell.
"Yi, yi, die!"
The mana eros triggered at close range rained down.
However, I had already anticipated it and dodged to the side, preparing a new sword.
'It's cracked enough, now....'
Heavier, heavier.
The altered mana settled into my sword in an overwhelming mass.
I grabbed Galakshur with both hands and swung it from top to bottom, as if wielding a giant greatsword.
Quang-!
With a huge bang, the mana shield shattered.
However, my sword, which had lost its destructive power due to shattering the mana shield, was unable to kill Grace and was blocked by his thick arm.
"Argh!"
Grace grunted and stepped back as a raw slash appeared on his thick arm.
I chased after him and was about to attack.
"Stop! What are you doing right now!"
One of the students from Mirko Academy jumped out and blocked my path.
Even though their appearances had changed strangely, they still didn't know that Grace had taken a potion related to dark magic. Naturally, they would try to stop me.
I had planned to finish this when people were not fully aware of the situation, but Grace's defenses turned out to be stronger than I expected.
"No matter how much Princess Grace tried to provoke you, that doesn't justify trying to kill our Crown Prince! Are you out of your mind?"
I considered killing him first and then explaining, but how should I handle this?
During our brief standoff, Grace suddenly started behaving strangely.
"Huh? Your Highness?"
Grace grabbed the student who had protected her with her swollen arm, squeezing and crushing her with her hand.
Crunch.
The surreal sight enveloped the hall in silence for a moment, then screams erupted.
"Oh no! It's... murder!"
"Ah...!"
"Kyaaa!"
Although chaos filled the surroundings, Grace seemed unaffected and began devouring the student she had killed.
The shocking scene threw the students into a second wave of panic.
"She's turned into a monster."
Gradually, she would lose her sanity and eventually forget who she was.
I felt sorry for the student who died trying to stop me, but thanks to that, I now had a reason to kill Grace.
However, the body transformation didn't end there.
She would probably become even less human as time went on.
The students, who belatedly realized that something was off with Grace, began to be wary of her.
"Grr, get away."
Around Grace's mouth, blood dripped as she threw away the body she had held and smiled.
Her appearance was no longer recognizable as human.
Swish.
Whirr!
Suddenly, someone rushed at Grace.
"Vivienne."
Vivienne effortlessly cut through Grace's thick arm with her black, firm sword as she passed by.
"Aaah!"
Though I felt it again, Vivienne's swordsmanship had changed from before.
Previously, she swung her sword instinctively, driven by her instincts, but now she seemed to be directing her sword with intention.
Following Vivienne's attack, I also intervened.
Crunch!
Whirr.
Vivienne and I maneuvered past Grace like dancing, slashing at her with our swords.
The Grace, who had lost her sanity, only swung her grotesquely transformed arm recklessly, unable to put up any resistance, and eventually died.
"It's murder!"
Deiene's shout echoed.
As Vivienne and I stepped back, Deiene, who had prepared her metal magic for a long time, unleashed it.
"Iron Impale!"
A barrage of giant steel spikes erupted from the ground, piercing through Grace.
As expected, the firepower couldn't keep up with high-level magic.
"Wait, high-level magic?"
When did Vivienne become skilled in high-level magic too?
Her growth rate seemed to be accelerating. She might even be able to invent original magic before graduation, which was quite terrifying.
"Grrr, ugh."
Grace, unable to speak properly, bled and died as the massive metal spikes penetrated her body.
Though this outcome was a result of her own actions, it felt somewhat pitiful.
"I have a perfect excuse for killing that guy, but I didn't expect him to turn out like this because of the potion."
Though I dealt with Grace, I couldn't feel completely at ease.
As seen before, Grace was a magician, but she was able to withstand Vivienne's and my swords with her body transformation.
If a knight had consumed that potion, what would have happened?
"Outside must be in chaos by now."
For now, my only concern was Serena, Chris, and Lucia. As long as they were safe, everything else didn't matter.
But a strange conflict arose within me.
"Since I don't know who sold the potion to the guardian, I don't know where to start blocking."
Should I go to the Knight Department to help the two who had only just started? Or should I go to help Lucia, who might be locked up in her lab all alone?
As I pondered my options, Deiene, leading the other students, approached us.
They sent nervous glances while looking at Grace's lifeless body.
"What on earth happened? Is this really Prince Grace, the monster?"
"Is she dead or alive? What should we do?"
I stepped back slightly, leaving the bustling crowd behind me.
After much consideration, I decided to go to Lucia.
"Current Lucia is weak. She has talent, but she isn't strong enough due to her lack of effort. Moreover, being alone in the lab, she might not even know what's happening outside."
As I was organizing my thoughts, Vivienne approached me.
"Adrias, what are you thinking?"
"Vivienne."
Right, Vivienne was here too.
My soulmate.
"Vivienne, I have a favor to ask."
Ring-ring, ring-ring.
Lucia Everlast rubbed her sleepy eyes as the alarm signaled the end of the work hours. She started to tidy up the materials she had been researching.
When Adrias first told her about this research, she thought she had finally found the solution she had been looking for. She believed it could bring progress to her work, which had been stagnant.
"But when Adrias was here, it felt like I could see something."
Should she ask for help again?
Lately, she found herself increasingly reliant on Adrias, and her self-doubt about her abilities grew day by day.
"Is everything pointless? Am I destined to die?"
As self-doubt crept in, she became increasingly pessimistic.
She didn't want to feel this way and had tried to erase such emotions through sleep, but it seemed that even that had its limits now.
"Should I just give up?"
Now that she thought about it, her current research felt like a hopeless torture.
Even if she were to complete this research, there was no guarantee that it would lead to her cure.
Smack!
Lucia slapped her own cheeks with both hands.
Her cheeks reddened from the impact, but she shook her head and said to herself, "Let's go to sleep."
As she finished tidying up the shared research room and stepped outside, she heard a strange noise coming from outside the building.
Following the noise, she saw a person with a grotesque appearance.
"A human...?"
The figure that she thought was a person had four arms.
Moreover, the figure was unbelievably huge, almost reaching three meters in height, making it impossible to think of it as an ordinary person.
"Aruserunyamiya....."
The figure stood alone in the open area of the research building, bowing its head and making strange noises. Some students had gathered around, taking pictures with their tablets.
"What is that? Isn't it dangerous?"
"Did the monster they were raising accidentally escape? But I've never seen a monster like that before."
The figure that had been mumbling suddenly raised its head, looking at the students.
Apart from its two eyes, the eye on its long forehead and the mouth stretching to its ears added to the horror.
"I found you."
Wiiiiing.
As the mana gathered, the figure started using magic.
"Magic?"
Kwagagang―!
In an instant, the lined-up mana transformed into magic and struck the students.
The overwhelming speed caught a student directly.
"Aaah!"
"What, what is that? Isn't it dangerous?"
The panicked students couldn't respond properly, and once again, the monster's magic flew at them.
Thud! Crunch!
However, this time, the magic was blocked by someone.
As the students turned their gaze, they saw Lucia, who had set up a defense magic, taking out her staff from her side.
"Don't just stand there, run away."
Lucia calmly defended against the earlier magic attack and could tell that this monster was beyond what ordinary students could handle.
The monster, who had used magic again at the range level, now looked at the students and muttered.
"Capture. Kill."
After the monster, who had been using magic, suddenly rushed at Lucia.
Lucia hadn't even considered that they would end up in a physical fight. Though she was slightly taken aback, she calmly used magic.
Pavababak!
The magic arrows struck the monster, but they didn't pierce through; they just bounced off.
"Ah...!"
Lucia quickly rolled away to avoid the monster's attack, but its massive body and four arms kept chasing after her.
She hurriedly set up a barrier with mana, blocking its claws before they could reach her. However, the monster's magic was activated again.
"Melting. Killing."
Tremendous heat began to radiate around Lucia and the monster.
Soon, the surrounding ground started melting, and even Lucia, hiding within the barrier, felt her breath being choked.
"Lack... oxygen...."
Was she going to die like this?
Right. In any case, she was destined to die. If she could save people and then die, it was the best option.
Of course, she felt a bit regretful about dying without knowing the identity of this sudden monster.
...
...
...
... No.
Lucia desperately desired to continue living and did not wish to meet her demise.
She cried out, "I want to live...!"
Suddenly, a deafening noise resounded, causing her tear-filled eyes to widen. The cause of the uproar was the monster that had been using an immense amount of heat magic.
However, the creature was now lying on the ground, its body contorted and far from her.
"I apologize for my tardiness," a familiar voice spoke, reaching her ears.
She could see a figure standing in front of her - a person with a worn-out black sword and a drab-colored robe. Even though she only saw his back, she could recognize his seaweed-like hair.
"Adrias, senior."