Why Did I Have to Enroll

Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 173

Lesson 34. Free Subordination - 8

“Those Exodus guys are really petty. I can’t believe they sent their main force against first-year students.”

Aneri Dedota, a kunoichi who had just sunk three enemy ships from the main force, clicked her tongue and muttered.

“Or maybe they got paid a lot.”

“Whether it’s a plus or a minus, it means they quickly realized how important these guys are.”

Quiran Luchato, having given up on rescuing his comrades and regaining his composure, replied. His eyes, filled with a murderous intent, were much different from when he faced Dokgo Yeon.

“So… what are we going to do?”

“Dokgo Yeon, I can’t handle that man.”

“So please, Dokgo Yeon, face him head-on. I’ll move from behind.”

“But there were still things I wanted to hear.”

“You don’t talk to dimensional pirates! Especially not Exodus.”

Aneri smiled awkwardly at Dokgo Yeon’s response.

“Exodus is a religious group. Plus, they’re good at spreading convincing lies, which makes them tricky.”

“…Is that so.”

Dokgo Yeon didn’t think what the guy was about to say earlier was a lie, but she decided to agree with Aneri since there was no room for distraction against an enemy.

“Then I’ll go first.”

The light wings fluttered as she took off.

Death surged over the small sword Dokgo Yeon held.

“Fight head-on? You seemed smarter than that.”

Quiran lifted his mechanical arm with a twisted smile. A black laser rose from it, maintaining the thickness and length of a sword, forming a sharp blade.

If Ban Yu-won had seen it, he might have shed tears of blood, muttering “beam saber…” at the perfect structure of the light sword. However, since the light was dyed black, it should be called a Dark Sword instead of a Light Sword.

“Because of that woman, we’ve suffered a lot. It means we can’t just end it with words like before.”

“Your tongue is too long.”

Dokgo Yeon leaped from the back of the light wings, slashing her sword diagonally. Quiran, who had erased his twisted smile, swung his sword with sharp eyes, but there was no sound of collision. The darkness forming the Dark Sword vanished cleanly upon contact.

The blade, losing no momentum, sliced through its intended target.

The eye not covered by the eyepatch.

—Swoosh

“Argh?!”

Even with a mechanical arm, the blood that spurted into the air was a hot red, proving the contents were human.

But as Dokgo Yeon was about to retrieve her sword and decapitate the enemy, she instinctively leaped to the deck.

After landing steadily, she turned to see the darkness surging from Quiran’s entire body, invading the space she had been in.

“Dark Magic Power…”

It wasn’t just limited to his weapon; Quiran himself was controlling and wielding Dark Magic Power.

“Your senses are sharp. Moreover, you managed to erase my sword temporarily. Who… what are you?”

Quiran growled, covering his injured eye with his non-mechanical hand. Reflexively, he raised the gun barrel of his mechanical arm, aiming it precisely at her face, even though he knew it wouldn’t work on Dokgo Yeon.

Dokgo Yeon calmly replied, gripping her small sword.

“Death.”

The Dark Sword, formed by condensing Dark Magic Power, had the property of distorting material structures upon contact, making it a powerful authority in close combat. However, Dokgo Yeon’s authority was more specialized in killing concepts, magic, and authority than material.

A wooden sword wrapped in magic would have been better than the Dark Sword. At least then, he might have realized her danger and had time to block his face when the swords clashed.

“What nonsense… I quite liked you, but you need proper education.”

“In the end, you start saying the same things as the other vermin.”

“I’ll personally educate you.”

When discussing the secrets of the Constellation and the Tower, he seemed more confident, but after taking a hit from her, he was in this state. No different from the other vermin who stubbornly insisted on making her kneel.

Dokgo Yeon sighed languidly in front of the man’s anger, which she had always experienced whenever she revealed her strength, now feeling nothing but exhaustion.

But she didn’t get the chance to give the presumptuous man a lesson as usual.

“That won’t be allowed.”

“――?!”

Quiran Luchato’s head flew off.

His face rolled in the air, his eyes blinking at Dokgo Yeon, then trying to look back at his killer, and finally closing in resignation as he realized he no longer had a neck. It all happened in the blink of an eye.

“Did he escape?”

A man who landed on the deck, replacing Quiran, clicked his tongue with a heavy voice.

Escape? With only a head left?

Dokgo Yeon frowned, unable to comprehend, but the ‘enemy’ who had newly appeared before her seemed uninterested in solving her questions.

“This is why I can’t work with vulgar pirates. Not only do they disobey orders, but they also covet others’ possessions and ultimately abandon their comrades to escape. Such lowlifes…”

“More vulgar than a professor who hires dimensional pirates to kidnap students.”

Dokgo Yeon mocked the man before her, gripping her sword tightly.

Ryu Cheol-myeong, the man who had appeared as if he had been watching them all along and had beheaded Quiran, did not respond to her words and instead raised his greatsword, aiming it at her.

“The difference in power is clear, so don’t force unnecessary labor on me and surrender.”

“You never intended to step in directly. Why, did Ban Yu-won ruin all your preparations?”

“…”

Ryu Cheol-myeong remained silent.

Dokgo Yeon knew that his silence meant affirmation.

In reality, the dimensional pirate Exodus fleet was effectively blocked in the sky by the Beastmen, who had gained the means to fight thanks to Ban Yu-won.

The other assassination units dispatched to eliminate Ban Yu-won and create an infiltration route for the Beastmen had been annihilated, their curse techniques stolen by Ban Yu-won.

As a result, Ban Yu-won had acquired the power of the Forest Worm, burying thousands of Beastmen attempting to invade the Wolf Fang Tribe’s territory underground.

Now, Ryu Cheol-myeong had no choice but to step in himself.

‘Damn it, when I beheaded that lowlife, my body was fine, but the moment I faced a student, it started to weaken. Is it not time yet? [Ruler of the Forest]…’

He still had cards left to play.

When he decided to secure Dokgo Yeon and Luciel, the entities he negotiated with were not just dimensional pirates.

He was a man who knew how to calculate safety margins.

When he decided to meddle with the students’ special activities, he knew whose power to borrow to complete the task without being caught by that monster—the principal.

That was the Constellation.

“There’s more, isn’t there?”

Dokgo Yeon, having quickly assessed the situation, muttered with a displeased expression as she watched the silent Ryu Cheol-myeong.

“Fine, show me everything you’ve prepared. In the end, Ban Yu-won will make them all end up the same way…”

Dokgo Yeon was aware of her strength, but she also knew that her strength was not solely derived from physical power.

Ryu Cheol-myeong had spread his hands everywhere, throwing money and scheming, turning an entire star into a trap, and she didn’t think she could break it with her power alone.

Her task was to stop Ryu Cheol-myeong here and now.

Meanwhile, her versatile disciple would clean up the situation neatly.

“You seem to trust that vermin quite a bit.”

Ryu Cheol-myeong spoke with bravado to hide his weakened state.

“You don’t seem to know why I involved those weak Beastmen in this.”

“I know well. To block the camera’s view, isn’t it?”

Dokgo Yeon also needed time to confront Ryu Cheol-myeong.

As she focused death on the sword she held upright, she glared fiercely with her cross-shaped eyes.

“You underestimate me. Do you think mere artificial objects can capture me properly? Cameras were never part of the consideration.”

“Then?”

“There’s a transcendent being on this star targeting the same goal as me.”

She didn’t need to ask what the goal was or who the transcendent was.

She knew why it led to the Beastmen.

Recalling a possibility she had encountered before, Dokgo Yeon snorted in disbelief.

“No way.”

“The moment you arrived on this star, your defeat was as good as confirmed.”

A sinister smile spread across Ryu Cheol-myeong’s lips.

His eyes were fixed on a pillar of red light rising from a clearing in the forest, quite a distance from here.

“It seems the descent was successful.”

“Impossible! Ban Yu-won…!”

―Kwoooooooong

The entire star shook with the roar of a gigantic, colossal creature.

Dokgo Yeon realized that Ban Yu-won was facing the greatest crisis of his life, gritted her teeth, and raised her sword.

There was no time to turn her head to confirm the creature’s appearance.

In this situation, she had to defeat him as quickly as possible and go to help Ban Yu-won!

“Ugh…?!”

While learning the fox’s magic in a practical format and facing the dimensional pirates, Luciel suddenly felt intense pain and dizziness, collapsing on the spot.

“Luciel!”

“Mom.”

Lucia, who never usually showed surprise or raised her voice, was shocked and rushed to support Luciel, but Luciel sank back down.

“The Constellation, the Constellation is…”

“Could the tremor just now be…”

There was no need to search hard.

They could see the massive creature raising its head amidst the densely grown trees at the boundary of the Wolf Fang Tribe’s territory.

“To think he would even risk the consumption of authority to descend, that damn lolicon…!”

“Master is in danger.”

“Could it be―― your master is there right now?”

“Mom, I have to go.”

Since Ban Yu-won became her master, the Heart Furnace had been quiet, but now it was reacting violently to the presence of the Constellation, the original owner of the authority, in the same space.

But she couldn’t just hide here until everything was over.

Luciel felt that the time had come.

It was time to sever the Constellation with her own hands.

“To do that, I need to―― meet Master now.”

“Luciel.”

Luciel, enduring the rampaging Heart Furnace that seemed to tear her soul apart, gritted her teeth and began to move, forcing her trembling body to stand.

Lucia, unable to leave Luciel alone but also unable to abandon her position as she was handling more than half of the long-range firepower, bit her lip in frustration.

“It’s okay, Mom.”

Luciel forced a smile to reassure her.

“I’ll settle this and come back, so take care of Dad.”

That’s right. Luciel wasn’t the only one suffering from the Constellation’s descent.

Lucia nodded firmly at her daughter’s brave words and saw her off as she headed to the battlefield.

Then, to save her beloved husband, she used her fox abilities to soar into the sky.