Despite the fatigue, my personal training continued. Every single day, I worked on my defensive barrier, refining it so that it would become:
-
Automatic
-
Constant
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Paper-thin
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Completely invisible
I had almost reached the stage where the barrier would protect me reflexively, even if I was sleeping like a corpse.
And sleep... oh, sleep was my ultimate enemy. Humans needed it so desperately, but when I slept, my guard dropped completely. Even if the world were exploding around me, I might not wake up in time.
But that night... the world didn't need to explode. Because the explosion came directly to me.
I was sleeping peacefully. Starfish pose. Mouth slightly open. A sleep so deep that even the demons of my past would have looked at me and said, "Don't bother assassinating him, he's basically dead already."
But suddenly... somewhere deep in the recesses of my subconscious, a thin, alarming sensation flared.
Something in the room... is WRONG.
I slowly, carefully opened my eyes to a mere slit.
Through the window, slipping inside with the practiced grace of a professional assassin, was a figure. Silver hair glinted faintly in the moonlight. Icy blue eyes narrowed in serious concentration. Dressed in all black, looking like a royal ninja.
And in her hand...
A K N I F E.
...Princess? I thought numbly.
Elinia Laurel. The Crown Princess herself. In person. At 3:00 AM. In my dormitory room. Holding a knife.
And what was she doing? She crept closer to the bed, reaching out with the blade... trying to make a tiny, experimental cut on my arm.
SPRING!
Her knife bounced right off my invisible barrier.
She flinched, stepping back. "What?" she whispered in disbelief. "The knife... bounced off?"
She narrowed her eyes and tried again.
SPRING!
"...What the...?" She tapped a finger against her lips, her face scrunched in deep thought. "Hmm... So, he does have a constant barrier..."
I watched her through my eyelashes, still pretending to be dead asleep, but ready to throw an absolute fit at a moment's notice. You insanely curious little witch...
She leaned in closer, gripping the knife tighter. "Let's try one more time."
SPRING!
"WHAAAT?!" she hissed, barely keeping her voice down.
At that moment, I realized something: it was time to play a very cruel joke. Because if I didn't, she was going to stand there poking me with a knife until sunrise.
I took a deep, shuddering breath... and screamed at the absolute top of my lungs.
"A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!!! SOMEONE IS BREAKING INTO MY ROOM!!! AAAAAAAH!!!! THE PRINCESS IS TRYING TO ASSASSINATE ME!!!"
Elinia froze, her eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated horror. "...You BASTAAAAA—!!"
She didn't have time to finish the sentence. Because my scream had just woken up the ENTIRE DORMITORY.
From below, above, and the sides, dozens of doors slammed open. Footsteps thundered down the hallways.
"What happened?!" "Who's screaming?!" "An assassin?!" "A monster?!" "Is there a fire?!" "WHERE IS THE PRINCESS?!"
Students, teachers, and half-asleep noble heirs—EVERYONE came sprinting toward my room.
When they burst through the door, I was sitting up in bed, clutching my blanket defensively, pointing a trembling finger directly at the window.
"Her! Her! She was trying to stab me in my sleep!"
And there was Elinia. Standing halfway out the window. Dressed in black. Holding a knife. Looking at me with an expression that clearly said, I am going to murder you, Helvard.
The entire crowd fell completely, absolutely silent. The tension was so thick you could cut it with the very knife she was holding.
Elinia hissed through gritted teeth, "You absolute bastard..."
And with that, she threw herself out the window, teleporting away into the darkness before she even hit the ground.
I blinked innocently at the stunned crowd. "...I think she just wanted to watch me sleep."
Finn rubbed his eyes, thoroughly bewildered. "...With a knife?"
Edgar scratched his head. "Is this some kind of new royal tradition?"
Lucille sighed, adjusting her nightgown. "This is definitively the magic of utter stupidity..."
The Dark Magic instructor melted out of the shadows in the hallway. He looked at the empty window, then looked at me, and let out an incredibly long, exhausted sigh. "Helvard... what have you done this time?"
I smiled my most angelic, innocent smile. "Me? Absolutely nothing."
Another week passed in the Academy. Everyone was training relentlessly. Everyone was getting stronger. I was the only person in the entire school actively trying to become weaker so I wouldn't blow my cover.
But on the third week, the combat instructor made an announcement.
"Tomorrow is the 'Labyrinth' trial. You will be divided into pairs. Only one pair will win. The prize is the Novice Cup."
The class buzzed with excitement. Finn looked ready to burn the building down. Siren offered a rare, competitive smile. Elinia raised a single, arrogant eyebrow, looking as though she already owned the trophy.
I just sighed internally. Great. But it might be amusing to see what humans consider a 'labyrinth' these days.
The instructor read the pairings aloud:
Me + Siren Walter (Of course. They paired me with the calmest, most observant genius in the class). Elinia + Edgar Finn + Lucille Tara + Astra Miella + Noah Reynar + Kairen
And so, knowing my fate was sealed, I stood at Entrance #12. Siren stood beside me—perfectly composed, looking as though he were waiting in line at a bakery rather than standing before a death trap.
"Ready?" he asked quietly.
"Of course," I replied with the tone of a man walking to the gallows. Why exert effort when playing weak was so much easier?
START.
We moved at a leisurely pace. I was mostly just curious to see what kind of traps the Academy had set up. Siren... well, Siren saw them all too.
"Don't step on that left tile," he warned.
"I know," I said automatically.
"You know?" He looked at me in surprise.
"Well... I just had a feeling." (I could literally see the explosive mana pooling under the stone, but whatever).
At the end of the first corridor, a Minotaur blocked our path. Huge. Horned. Roaring furiously.
"I'll handle this," Siren said.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
I didn't even have time to blink before the Minotaur was lying unconscious on the floor. Calling him a 'fencing prodigy' was a gross understatement.
We continued walking. A few minutes later, I spotted a highly dangerous, magically camouflaged teleportation trap. I saw it clearly. Siren did not.
"Hey, wait, there's a—"
CLICK.
The floor vanished beneath our feet, and we were instantly teleported.
We materialized in a massive, circular hall filled entirely with rusty suits of knightly armor. And, predictably, they all began to move. Golems. Dozens of them.
Siren stepped in front of me like a highly trained guard dog. "I'll cover you!"
"Uh... thanks," I muttered.
He carved through the knights with blistering speed and absolute precision, but... they just kept coming. It was a self-repairing horde.
I, however, could clearly see the flaw in the spell. One specific suit of armor in the very back was glowing with a slightly denser concentration of mana. It was the core. The master golem. It was hiding deep in the crowd to avoid detection.
This fight is going to take all day, I groaned internally.
I decided to discreetly speed things along. While Siren was distracted by three attacking knights, I casually flicked my finger. A microscopic, invisible needle of ice shot through the crowd and struck the master golem right in the joint.
The master golem jerked violently, as if it had just experienced a severe muscle cramp.
Siren's freakish instincts picked up on the anomaly instantly. "There you are!" he shouted, lunging through the horde and cleanly decapitating the master golem.
Instantly, the entire rusted army collapsed into heaps of scrap metal.
"Great job, Siren!" I cheered weakly.
Siren slowly turned around and looked at me. His eyes were narrowed in deep, intense suspicion. "..."
While Siren and I were taking a casual stroll, the rest of the class was experiencing absolute hell.
Elinia + Edgar Elinia was trying to assert her dominance as a leader. "Check the walls, Edgar. Look for magical patterns. You must learn to notice the finer details." "Well, I'm a blacksmith," Edgar shrugged. "I like metal. I work with a hammer—" SLAM! A trap triggered, locking them inside a solid iron box. "HA! I'll just smash us out!" Edgar cheered, rearing back his fist. He punched the wall. Z-Z-Z-ZAP! A massive electrical discharge shocked them both. "Let me try again!" Edgar yelled, winding up for a second punch. ZAAAAAAP!! Elinia, covered in soot and smelling faintly of ozone, turned to him slowly. "Edgar. If you strike that wall one more time... I will personally tear your arms off." "...Understood." They only managed to escape because Elinia used a high-level spell to temporarily sever their own pain receptors before breaking the door down. They emerged stumbling like zombies.
Finn + Lucille "I'LL BURN IT ALL DOWN!" Finn roared. "Spatial magic is blocked in this sector! I can't—" Lucille started. "Don't care! FIRE!" BAAAAM. The walls opened, releasing three fire-resistant stone golems and three heavily armored pangolin-beasts that moved with the speed of elite assassins. The golems lumbered forward. But the beasts... shh-shh-shh... left only claw marks on the walls as they bounced around the room. "WHY AREN'T THEY BURNING?!" Finn shrieked, throwing fireballs wildly. "Because their scales are FIRE-RESISTANT, you absolute idiot!" Lucille screamed back, barely dodging a beast that left a bloody scratch on her cheek. She raised her hands. "Distortion Zone!" The space around the golems warped, causing them to stumble and lose their balance. "NOW I'VE GOT YOU!" Finn roared, charging in. A massive stone fist swung blindly and nearly took his head off. It was a brutal, grueling war of attrition. Finn desperately tried to melt through armor that wouldn't melt. Lucille kept teleporting chunks of debris to create makeshift barricades. The beasts tore at their clothes. The golems crushed the floor. Thirty minutes later, the monsters were dead, and Finn and Lucille collapsed side-by-side on the stone floor. "You... are a monster..." Lucille wheezed, covered in stone dust and soot. "Is that... a compliment?" Finn coughed, completely charred. They were both barely alive.
Tara + Astra They encountered a mist-wraith. A spectral lion with no physical body. "Where is the core?!" Tara shouted, slashing uselessly at the fog. "Hold on, hold on, I'm sensing it..." Astra muttered, closing her eyes. Ten minutes passed. "I think it's over there!" Astra pointed. Tara struck. Missed entirely. "Oops... not there," Astra apologized. Fifteen minutes passed. Tara was practically crying tears of absolute rage. When they finally found and destroyed the core, both girls could barely stand.
Miella + Noah They walked in silence. "Noah, do you even know how to speak?" Miella asked. "..." Suddenly, an illusionist-class monster appeared in the corridor. In a fraction of a second, it hijacked Miella's mind. She slowly turned around, drew her sword, and launched a lethal attack directly at Noah. Noah was thrown, sliced, and battered. He only survived because he was skilled enough to slowly dismantle the monster's illusion layer by layer while dodging his own teammate. When the fight finally ended, Miella dropped unconscious. Noah stood over her, trembling violently. "...I hate labyrinths."
Reynar + Kairen They stepped on a teleport trap and were dropped into a mana-draining sealed room. They pounded on the door. They screamed. They tried magic. They tried physical force. They tried praying to the gods. Thirty minutes later, the room unceremoniously spat their unconscious bodies out into the hallway.
Back to Siren and me.
After the golem room, we casually strolled into the massive central chamber of the labyrinth.
And as we stood there, waiting, I realized a very important fact: These kids really are incredibly strong. But while they were fighting for their lives, suffering through hell... I had essentially just been on a pleasant walking tour.
My greatest challenge wasn't defeating the labyrinth. My greatest challenge was making sure I didn't accidentally look competent.
Siren turned to me, his voice dangerously quiet. "You noticed the master golem's weak point, didn't you."
"Um... no..." I lied smoothly.
"That cramp it had was NOT luck." He stared at me with that piercing, analytical gaze. It clearly said: You are hiding something massive.
Before I could deflect, the heavy stone doors around the perimeter began to grind open. The others were finally arriving.
And I quickly realized one simple truth: EVERY SINGLE PERSON who had made it to the final room looked like they had been chewed up by a dragon, spat out off a cliff, and run over by a carriage.
The State of the Participants: Elinia: Hair wild, mantle torn to shreds, eyes completely manic. Edgar: Actual smoke was rising from his boots. Finn: Severely charred, face covered in black soot. Lucille: Covered head-to-toe in stone dust, the ends of her hair slightly singed. Tara: Literally crawling into the room. Astra: Frantically chain-healing herself as she limped. Miella: Unconscious. Noah was dragging her by the collar of her robes. Noah: Looked like he had aged thirty years in the last hour. Reynar & Kairen: Didn't even make it. Siren: Slightly bruised, but holding it together. Me: ...Not a single hair out of place. My robes were perfectly clean.
Everyone stopped and stared at me as if my pristine condition was a crime against the laws of reality.
Finn was the first to speak. "...How?"
I shrugged innocently. "We just... walked carefully."
"I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU," Edgar croaked.
Princess Elinia glared at me with such venom you'd think I had personally designed the labyrinth just to torture her.
And then... the TRUE NIGHTMARE began.
As everyone staggered into a loose circle in the center of the arena, the combat instructor's voice echoed from a magical projection above us.
"Welcome to the Finale. The Labyrinth is a test of endurance. The last student standing... is the winner."
The projection vanished.
YES. The teachers had literally just locked a group of exhausted, traumatized, highly destructive magical prodigies in a single room and told them to fight to the death. We were like starved wolves tossed into a pit.
The battle erupted like a full-scale WAR. No one hesitated for even a fraction of a second.
Elinia vs. Finn "I will prove that FIRE is the king of the elements!!" Finn roared, unleashing a massive inferno. "Fire is but a spark! I AM THE STORM!" Elinia screamed back. They unleashed so much raw magical energy that even Siren's hair stood on end from the static.
Lucille vs. The Golems... That Weren't There Trauma is a terrible thing. Lucille suddenly snapped, began frantically teleporting empty air, and started screaming at the top of her lungs, "I WILL DESTROY ALL OF YOU!!!" There was absolutely no one near her. Finn nearly died laughing before a fireball hit him in the face.
Tara vs. Siren The twins decided to settle a family dispute and engaged in a blindingly fast duel of speed in the middle of the apocalypse. Every strike was just a blur: Clack-clack-clack-clack! It was terrifying to watch.
Astra The poor healer was just running frantically between the explosions. "Stop fighting! STOP FIGHTING! PLEASE STOP!!" Good luck with that.
Edgar The blacksmith's son had completely lost his mind. He just started swinging a massive metal club around like a windmill. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" He accidentally knocked Kairen's unconscious body halfway across the room.
And what did I do?
I quietly walked over to the far edge of the arena. I sat down against the wall. And I watched.
Sometimes, being the designated weakling was incredibly convenient.
Siren, dodging his sister's blade, was the only one who noticed. "What are you doing?!" he yelled over the din.
"Well..." I yelled back. "I just don't want to get in anyone's way!"
Siren shot me a look of pure, concentrated suspicion before Tara forced him back into the fight.
Eventually, the chaos began to settle. The combatants dropped one by one.
Finn had completely burned himself out. Lucille had exhausted her mana and literally fallen asleep standing up. Tara and Siren had struck each other simultaneously and both collapsed. Astra was lying flat on her back, too tired to heal herself. Edgar was curled into a ball, hugging a piece of scrap metal. Reynar and Kairen were still unconscious. Miella hadn't woken up once.
Finally, only two remained standing in the center of the ruined arena: Noah and Elinia.
Noah looked like he had lived a full, agonizing lifetime in the span of an hour. Elinia looked like she was ready to detonate the entire continent.
Noah raised his trembling hands. "Forgive me, Your Highness..." he whispered.
He clenched his fists. The mana in the air warped violently. A monstrous illusion began to form—a massive, terrifying shadow-wolf that roared directly into the Princess's face.
Elinia took a step back.
Sweat poured down Noah's face. "I... will... do this..." he gasped.
The illusion intensified. Elinia blinked. Her icy eyes began to glaze over.
Is she... falling asleep?! I thought in shock. Did he actually cast a sleep illusion on her while she was moving?!
Her head began to loll forward—
BUT! At that exact millisecond, she had already released her final attack. A massive, swirling sphere of fire and ice detonated directly between them.
BAAAAAAM!!!
The entire arena shook violently.
The shockwave blasted Noah backward, slamming him brutally into the stone wall. Elinia's eyes fluttered closed, and she collapsed to the floor, completely unconscious.
She looked incredibly peaceful. Sleepy. Calm. It was actually quite beautiful.
But... they were both down.
The smoke slowly cleared. Absolute silence fell over the devastated arena.
The heavy stone doors opened, and the combat instructor walked back in. He surveyed the utter carnage: scorched floors, shattered stone, and the unconscious, groaning bodies of the Kingdom's brightest prodigies scattered everywhere.
He blinked. "Umm... The winner is... whoever is still standing..."
Every single conscious head in the room slowly turned... and looked at me.
I was standing quietly off to the side. Alive. Clean. Completely unharmed.
The Princess was knocked out. Noah was down. Everyone was down.
The instructor cleared his throat. "The winner of the Labyrinth Trial is... Zenkhald Helvard."
The entire class groaned in collective, agonizing fury. "WHAAAAAAAAT?!"
Finn, barely conscious, slammed his fist weakly against the floor. "THAT IS SO UNFAAAAAIR!!!"
Lucille, waking up just long enough to complain: "He didn't even fight anybody!!!"
Astra: "I... I healed everyone... why isn't it me..."
Tara: "I... just want to die right now..."
Siren, staring at me with deep, unwavering suspicion: "You..."
Princess Elinia groaned, her eyes fluttering open just in time to hear the announcement and see me standing there flawlessly. "...I HATE HIM."
I just smiled my most polite, innocent smile. "Well... rules are rules."
Deep inside, I was absolutely beaming. Gods, it is so good to pretend to be weak.