I Became a Murderer in the Academy.-Chapter 127

When I had rampaged that day, the territory I had dismantled wasn’t limited to just Dusty Lane. A wider area had been buried in ruins surrounding it.

If there were criminal hideouts, they would likely be located there.

'But I’ve caused considerable damage to the Empire during my time here.'

Today, in order to gather blood, I decided to do one last thing for the Empire.

Before I leave, I would clean up the back alleys one final time.

“...”

Monsters that eat humans emerge from the back alleys of the Empire.

Such rumors had spread throughout the Empire. Most citizens seemed to dismiss them as mere rumors and did not believe them.

But could it really be just a rumor?

To put it simply, the rumors about the back alley monster were true. Iria was the culprit.

Then, how many people knew the truth about the monster in the back alleys?

At least those criminals who made the back alleys their main base would likely know. Iria thought so.

'There’s no way they wouldn’t know.'

Even if they disliked me, they were using the same back alleys. They would have their eyes and ears open.

There would certainly be those who, by bad luck, had stumbled into my territory and met their end.

So some of them might have relocated their hideouts to avoid Iria.

Finding a hideout located somewhere in the back alleys wasn’t particularly difficult. My senses were sharper than those of humans.

I walked toward the direction where I could smell something foul and hear some sounds.

How long had it been since I started walking?

I came face to face with a group of humans gathered in a secluded area of the back alleys.

Typically, humans who came to the back alleys were hardly civilians. It had always been a place with poor security, and after the rumors of monsters appearing, people's visits had dwindled even further.

So it was safe to say that those standing before me were all criminals.

After making eye contact, I read their memories, revealing they were part of a rather infamous hitman organization in the area.

“What are you?”

“You don’t look like a civilian. Are you from the Empire?”

“It can’t be helped that we’re in this position. Just kill her.”

The men with fierce looks began to draw their weapons the moment they saw Iria.

Seeing their actions, Iria momentarily drifted into old memories. The group in front of her reminded her of those who had tormented her and Liana when she first stepped into the Empire.

'Back then, I could do nothing but run away in fear.'

But.

'Things are different now.'

Just as they drew their weapons, Iria pulled a dagger from her own possession.

The time it took her to clean up one section of the back alleys wasn’t long.

Today, the back alleys reeked of blood.

I had eaten well and gathered more than enough extra blood.

The number of glass bottles I packed was roughly twenty.

Without consuming blood, I could endure for about a week, so I had gathered enough sustenance for nearly half a year.

Considering that these little bottles could sustain me for such an extended period, I felt that a monster's body had a better energy efficiency than a human's.

I could obtain a significant amount of energy from a small quantity.

In any case, even after fully preparing to leave, there were still three days remaining.

I wondered what the other members were doing. I recalled that everyone was spending their time in their own ways.

Suddenly curious, Iria decided to pay a visit. She would go to Sera first.

'Wasn't she doing private tutoring?'

In truth, Iria had the highest opinion of Sera's talent among the members of the hero party.

After all, Ariel and Clana were both of a different caliber from others, having been born differently from the start. It could be said they started from a different starting line.

In contrast, Sera had been born as an ordinary human but had managed to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

'Just like Serthia had in the previous hero party.'

If we were to consider individual talents, Sera was likely the most outstanding. After recently receiving personal training, she had learned how to manage her own strength.

I was curious to see how much she had grown during that time. Just as Iria opened the door to the training hall.

-Whoosh!

What blew in through the slightly opened door was a bone-chilling cold and an intense heat that offset it.

The sparring between Sera and Reina was fast and intense.

It wasn’t just flames and frost swirling in the center. Countless spells and maneuvers intertwined with brief exchanges of magic.

This was what a battle looked like between mages who had reached a certain level of mastery.

If an attack was made, a defense must also be enacted. They read the trajectory of the spells being fired at them and moved their mana accordingly.

They would intercept spells with spells or block them with barriers formed from mana.

“Cry.”

“Twist.”

Another large spell clash occurred.

And following that, they executed their defensive maneuvers.

Sera deflected the spells flying toward her with a gust of wind, while Reina erected a wall of ice to block.

After defending, they immediately retreated to change positions.

Standing still against a mage would easily make one a target.

For Iria, who had learned magic lightly from Reina, this level of battle was beyond her comprehension.

The two executed their moves as if it were the most natural thing. While Reina was the commander of the Empire, Sera's growth was astonishing.

She was now competing on equal terms with a mage who had single-handedly vanquished the seed of the Demon Lord during the academy attack. While what was visible wasn’t necessarily her full power, it was still impressive considering the context.

Their battle no longer resembled a personal tutoring session between a student and a professor.

“Phew...”

After taking a step back, Reina gripped her ice sword and took a deep breath.

In the half-frozen training hall, Reina planted her feet firmly on the ground. She struck the icy floor hard enough to make it crack.

-Clang!

Simultaneously, Reina’s form vanished.

It was an application of body enhancement using mana. Having accelerated briefly, Reina immediately closed the distance to Sera’s eyes.

With the mid-range magic exchange over, this was now Reina’s trial aimed at Sera.

Most mages falter when it comes to close combat. That was when all the theoretical knowledge they had learned crumbled.

It was a chronic weakness of all mages. The most challenging problem for mages who had stepped into real combat.

How had Sera managed to overcome it?

In that fleeting moment, Reina swung her sword. Then, in the gaze of a superhuman where the density of time shifted, she observed Sera’s reaction.

If she couldn’t react to this, she would have intended to stop.

Reina, who had been continuously evaluating Sera as unqualified, was trying to render the same evaluation as before.

But in that extremely brief moment, Sera reacted.

She was not just a mage who had accumulated theoretical knowledge. Among all the students in the academy, she had the most combat experience.

Sera had fought against not just swordsmen and mages, but also hybrid mages, and she reacted mechanically.

As if she knew exactly where Reina would strike.

-Flame!

At the same time that Sera’s eyes focused on Reina’s sword, flames ignited in her right hand.

And.

She struck at the incoming sword with her fiery fist.

The collision between Sera’s flame-wreathed fist and Reina’s sword met in the middle.

A massive wave of impact erupted.

Even though flames and frost intertwined to create a vast amount of steam, neither of the two budged from their spots.

They stood firm until the explosion completely dispersed.

Only after a brief moment did Reina retract the sword she had held and gather the mana that had spread in the air.

“...I acknowledge it.”

It was the moment when the personal training that had lasted more than two weeks with Reina came to an end.

It was only just before embarking on her journey that Sera finally received her approval.