"Cough...!"

Holding my mouth, I forced myself to lie on the sofa.

"Fucking hurts..."

Every part of me hurt.

".....Why do I even do this to myself?"

While it was true that I could withstand pain, it didn't mean that I was immune to it. It was uncomfortable.

But still,

"Ugh."

There was something else that was taking over my mind.

I stared at my hands.

They were both trembling.

"Haa... Haa..."

My breathing was quick as well. The back of my hair stood, and from time to time, I'd look behind me to check if someone was there.

That alone felt more annoying than the pain I was experiencing.

There was a reason why I tended to not use the first leaf. The side effects of using such a skill were not something I looked forward to.

"...Damn it."

It was an annoying feeling.

And yet, I knew that I couldn't do without it.

I had managed to rank up my [Fear] thanks to the skill. Unlike the second leaf, the first leaf produced far better results.

But it came at a price.

"H-huu..."

Taking a deep breath, my chest trembled.

Emotive magic.

.....It was powerful. The fact that I was able to beat Leon showed just how powerful it was.

Unfortunately, it wasn't there yet.

I wasn't there yet.

"I need to improve it."

For now, [Fear] and [Sadness] were the only spells I could use to induce the emotions through my voice.

The other spells weren't quite there yet.

From the fact that I needed to touch someone to use them, to the fact that they weren't still powerful enough to completely break someone down.

I needed to find time to improve those.

Other than that, I wanted to get [Fear] and [Sadness] to the next level. I was curious as to what that would bring.

"Perhaps affect more than one person?"

Currently, I could only affect one person with my voice. It was good when facing one opponent, but when dealing with multiple it was useless.

But what if I could directly influence a lot of people at the same time with just my voice?

That would be pretty handy.

"H-haa."

But those were all thoughts for later.

Right now, I was not in the right state of mind.

Laying down on my sofa, I placed my forearm over my eyes and took a deep breath.

My main priority right now was to not let myself be consumed.

Consumed by fear.

***

In a different room.

Leon sat by his desk, placing ointment all around his wounds. There weren't many. Rather, there was more on his face than anywhere else on his body.

It was almost as if he had purposely only just targeted his face.

"....."

His left eye twitched.

.....He recalled a certain memory.

'Your face looks stupid.'

"Ugh."

His face flinched as he felt a sharp pain in his rib area. Looking down, he spotted a massive bruise.

He quickly dabbed some ointment over that area.

Almost immediately after doing that, he felt better. It was probably going to take a few days to heal.

Leon went on to do this for the next half hour.

Once he was done, he sat in his room in silence.

"....."

His thoughts continued to drift away to the fight.

'I should've done that.'

'...I was careless.'

'How could I forget that.'

'I just wasn't ready. If I had been ready...'

'I didn't know he could do that.'

A thousand different excuses floated in his mind.

"Haa."

At some point, Leon closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Losing...

It wasn't as though he had never lost before.

Coming into the fight, he had expected the match to be difficult. Losing also seemed like a very real possibility.

It was just that,

"...I should've done better."

For the majority of the fight, he was the one who had the upper hand.

Though he wasn't sure why Julien hadn't used the same power he had demonstrated back in the mid-terms, Leon felt like he should've won that fight.

.....All until he used his emotive magic.

Even now that a while had passed, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

His hands... They were still shaking from the experience.

Not just his hands.

His entire body and mind remembered.

It was hard to forget the suffocating feeling he felt during the fight. It felt almost as though he was slowly sinking into the depths of the ocean with no way up.

Such feeling.

It was hard to forget.

"....."

In the silence that took over the room, Leon closed his eyes.

He was frustrated by himself.

However, he also accepted the result.

At the end of the day, Julien was the Black Star.

He had only proven why he was the Black Star.

And,

".....He's also the one I serve."

***

The days flew by.

It was the day of the demonstration between Evelyn and Leon.

Their fight wasn't going to be broadcast anywhere, but all the first years had been called to the arena grounds to witness their fight.

The representatives of the major Guilds were also going to show up.

There was some excitement about that.

"Huaam."

The sun was shining and it was pretty warm outside.

It was a great day.

"Huaam."

Of course, it would've been greater had I been able to sleep.

Hadn't been able to do so for the past couple of days.

'.....I regret so much.'

Every little thing bothered me in my sleep. The little sounds, and the occasional breeze that would make my hair stand on end.

It was clearly nothing, but under the influence of the first leaf, I started to get scared by the little things.

Just like,

"Ah, fuck, shit!"

I flinched and moved back.

"Where did this gremlin-looking midget come from?!"

"....."

Taken aback, a little child with black hair looked at me with wide eyes.

"Oh, it was you."

I placed my hand over my chest and sighed.

It was not good.

".....Gremlin-looking?"

Delilah blinked her eyes while looking at me.

She was currently in her child form.

Looking around, I sighed in relief when I noticed that nobody was around.

It would've been troublesome if they saw me like that.

"Why are you like this?"

"....."

Delilah didn't answer.

With her head lowered, she continued to murmur, 'Gremlin-

looking?'

I scratched the side of my face.

It wasn't exactly my fault. She had appeared out of nowhere, and with my mind not in the right state of mind, the words just slipped out of me.

Still, why was she in this form?

"Are you planning on watching the fight like this?"

Delilah looked up.

"Yes."

"Why?"

".....It's too bothersome to go in my normal form. I don't like the people from the Guilds."

"Ah."

That made sense, but...

"Wouldn't you be more noticeable this way?"

"Why?"

"....."

I looked at her.

Couldn't it be more obvious?

"It's fine."

Delilah interlocked her hands behind her back. Then, turning around, she made her way into the arena.

".....Nobody will notice."

'No, they will.'

I wanted to say such words but stopped myself. In the end, with a sigh, I followed her from behind and entered the arena grounds.

The grounds were somewhat familiar.

I had been here before.

During the mid-terms. But unlike in the past, I was now standing in the audience area where I could overlook everything from above.

It felt completely different.

"This is quite tall."

What was especially interesting was the fact that the seating areas were about five to eight meters above the arena grounds.

Holding onto the handrail and looking down, I felt slightly nauseous.

Superpower or not, if I were to fall from this height, I'd turn into a pancake.

"Who do you think is going to win?"

"Why are you even asking? The answer is already obvious."

"That's true."

Overlooking the arena grounds from above, I could hear the discussions from the cadets near me. All of them were talking about the fight and who they thought was going to win.

There was a general consensus among them.

....And that was that Leon was going to win.

I couldn't argue with that.

I also felt the same way. Having fought against him, I knew just how strong he was.

Evelyn was also strong.

However, she was a little lagging compared to him.

'I'd probably lose against her too.'

That was unless I used the first leaf. Perhaps then I'd be able to win against her.

It wasn't worth it, though.

"What are you doing?"

Hearing Delilah's voice, I turned around. Sitting on one of the seats, she pointed at the seat next to hers. Almost as if she was telling me to sit down.

"....."

I did just that.

For a moment, neither one of us said a word as we looked at the arena grounds beneath.

Delilah was the one to shatter the silence.

"Who won?"

"Hm?"

I looked down to meet her gaze.

Staring into her inky black eyes, I almost lost myself in them.

I was quick to snap out of it.

"Between you and Leon. Who won the fight."

"....."

I felt my heart stop for a second.

However, when I thought about it, I relaxed.

For her to know. I sort of expected it. There was no way she wouldn't have known considering that she probably had every area of the academy under her grasp.

"I won."

I replied after a while.

".....The fight. I won it."

It felt nice to say it.

I knew that if the two of us were to fight again, I probably wouldn't have won.

But still.

A win was a win.

"I see."

Delilah didn't seem to be surprised by the result.

Or was she? I couldn't tell. It was usually hard for me to read her emotions.

I was just about to turn my attention back to the arena grounds when a figure walked by. With long platinum hair and glaring red eyes, she stood out from the rest, attracting the gazes of all those that she passed.

She had just walked by me when she paused.

With a frown, she turned her head and our eyes met.

Then, lowering her head, her gaze fell on Delilah.

And then back on me.

"You're a father?"

"....."

"....."

I was at a loss for words.

The same was true for Delilah who looked at her with a blank look.

"No, she's not."

".....Kek, I know."

Kiera bent down and pinched Delilah's cheek.

"She cute though."

I opened my eyes wide and hastily looked at Delilah who was looking at Kiera with a blank look. To make matters worse, Kiera started to pinch her cheeks with both hands, pulling them apart and squeezing them back in.

"Feels like I'm touching marshmallow. Holy crap."

She pulled and squeezed.

"What a cute child."

Patting her head, and ruffling her hair into a mess, Kiera placed her hand in her pocket before tossing a small bar in Delilah's direction.

"Eat it."

After that, glancing at me, she left.

I sat rigidly with my back straight. Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, I turned my head to look at Delilah.

Expecting the worst, I thought of ways to calm her down, when,

"That girl..."

Delilah spoke, her eyes lingering over Kiera's fading back.

Crinckle~

"....She's a good girl."

Munch.

"....?"

"Good girl."