Ch 13 Magical Familiar

The air inside the purple barrier was now stifling and oppressive.

Just a few feet away, the sickening sounds of wet impacts and torn fabric echoed in Ivan’s ears. It felt like being caught in a chaotic, bloody nightmare.

And yet, standing right in front of him, having his back to the violence, was a pocket of tranquility.

Ivan couldn’t see the entity looming over him, but he could feel him. The mana pressing down on his shoulders were unlike anything the boy had ever experienced in his entire life. It didn’t feel like the sharp, sometimes scrappy mana the academy professors boasted about.

This was… unfathomable. Ancient. The smell of the vast sun-baked forest was so pure and close now that Ivan’s lung actually burned as he tried to draw breath.

Ivan pressed himself flat against the damp earth.

The stump of his arm throbbed where his wooden prosthetic had just been callously stomped to splinters. He was covered in dirt, bleeding, and entirely at the mercy of whatever invisible god was currently speaking to him in the… casual, annoyed tone of a bored upperclassman.

The voice drifted down again.

“Number one: it was a single-use magical artifact. Number two: it’s a family heirloom, and using it once completely destroyed it. Number three: so don’t ever ask about it again.”

Ivan stared blankly at the empty space where the voice was coming from, his mind struggling to process.

An artifact? A family heirloom?

Ivan was a commoner.

The idea that his familly possessed a magical heirloom—let alone one powerful enough to draw the attention of Lenia, the most notoriously obsessive research maniac among the first years—was laughable.

“W-what?” Ivan stammered as he dared to question the horrifying presence. “But I never had a magical artifact…?”

There was a heavy sigh.

It was a deeply human sounds of exasperation from a being that felt anything but.

“That’s exactly why I’m telling you to say it. If she keeps bothering you, just pretend to be asleep. Got it?”

Ivan’s mind spun frantically. Why would Lenia bother with him in the first place? Yet, this invisible entity was feeding him an alibi for something he hadn’t done.

“You got that memorized?” the voice pressed, the temperature in the air seemingly dropping a few degrees.

Ivan didn’t understand a single thing about the situation, but his survival instincts were sharp. He nodded frantically, his chin scraping against the rough dirt.

He complied because right next to him, Barto let out a strangled roar, biting down hard on Kale’s shoulder while Kale shrieked in pain. This entity had orchestrated that dogfight with nothing but a flick of his will, rewriting the minds of three noble students.

Ivan didn’t want to end up slapping himself in the face just like those idiots were doing to each other.

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“Oh, and one more thing.”

Ivan jerked, his good hand digging into the soil as he braced himself for a threat.

“Y-yes?”

The pause that followed felt like hours. The setting sun outside the barrier cast long, contorted shadows through the thick purple fog, painting the surroundings in dim, muddy hues.

Ivan waited for the ultimate command.

“Don’t skip class.”

Ivan opened his eyes.

…What?

Those words must have been final, because the pristine scent of mana that had been tickling his nose vanished like it was never there. The sudden absence of that overwhelming pressure left Ivan feeling lightheaded, like he breached the surface of the water after holding his breath for far too long.

At the same time, the purple fog blanketing the corner of the academy courtyard rippled, dissipated into nothing.

The cool, natural breeze of the indigo evening swept through, carrying away the stench of blood and replacing it with the crisp scent of approaching nightfall.

“Huh?”

Ivan pushed himself up on his good arm, his chest heaving as he blankly looked around.

Ivan blankly looked around.