I Became the Priest of Blasphemy of the Outer Gods

Chapter 46. Parachute Magic Professor (2)

Caelo Belacre.

He primarily mastered combat magic, especially dealing with wind element spells.

Although he hadn’t been ranked yet, thanks to his father’s significant support—who desired to establish their family as a renowned house of magic—Caelo was quite skillful.

‘Plus, he has a show-off complex, eager to flaunt his talents, and he just turned into an adult.’

Putting together this information…

‘He was a vigorous and confident kid.’

In other words, he was like a one-day-old puppy who didn’t fear tigers.

“I never expected the professor to come forward so boldly.”

Caelo smirked as he spoke.

“Usually, people avoid magic duels. Aren’t you underestimating me because I’m a first-year?”

“If you talk too much, your throat will go dry when chanting, student.”

I threw a cup that was on the desk.

Caelo, who received the cup without understanding the situation, blinked as he saw it fill with water.

“Without chanting…?”

Just as a priest recited prayers, a mage also had to chant spells one by one. However, as one’s understanding of magic deepened and calculation abilities improved, chanting could be shortened.

Non-chanting was the pinnacle.

Of course, even Eldritch didn’t have many spells he could use without chanting.

‘But just being able to do it was amazing. Using spells without any preparation was a tremendous advantage, even if they were simple ones.’

Even though it was a subtle show of dominance, Caelo still wasn’t intimidated.

He must have thought he could still win against a summoner whose strength relied solely on familiars.

Caelo threw the water cup to the ground and stepped forward. He pulled out a wand adorned with multiple green gems, clearly an enchanted item that enhanced wind-element spells.

‘There was no mention of this in the information…’

Well, no matter.

“I will let you have the first attack.”

“Then, I won’t hold back. Compress, wind. Become blades to tear my enemy apart. 〈Wind Cutter〉!”

The air compressed, making a sharp sound of wind. A crescent-shaped wind blade slashed towards my entire body…

“This won’t work on me.”

I was using Gluttony under my clothes. The magic of a first-year mage was effortlessly converted into mana without any issues.

Now it was my turn.

“Water, become arrows. 〈Water Arrow〉.”

I cast the water attribute offensive magic through Eldritch. Thin and sharp water arrows formed and shot towards Caelo.

“Compress, wind. Become a shield to protect me. 〈Wind Shield〉!”

Eldritch’s attack was blocked by a wind barrier. Even though it was a light exchange of attacks, Caelo’s expression wasn’t good. He was flustered because of my shortened chant and his complete failure to block the attack.

“Tsk… Roar, rampaging wind.”

Caelo began a rather long chant this time. Finding that minor attacks were useless, he aimed to unleash a strong, decisive blow.

‘Such a textbook mistake.’

I sent a hand signal; Eldritch nodded slightly in response.

“Become the teeth of a beast…”

Freshman mages often made such mistakes in games as well.

“Tear apart—”

*Clang!*

Caelo and the students were startled by the sudden sharp sound. Eldritch had used telekinesis magic to emphatically smash the cup on the floor, shattering it into pieces.

*Clatter.*

At that moment, the dice rolled.

It seemed there was a dice check whenever a spell was interrupted.

“… I failed anyway.”

I thought it might ruin the atmosphere since I failed to interrupt the incantation.

“Huh?”

Caelo stared at the broken cup, and naturally, the spell that lost its concentration was canceled.

“What’s this? Wasn’t it a check for the interruption?”

It seemed strange, but I decided to check it later…

“Water, seize the enemy. 〈Water Grab〉.”

Following that, a massive hand made of blue water grasped Caelo.

“The basics of a magic duel.”

I then proceeded with the prepared lecture.

“Either cast your magic faster than the opponent or use stronger magic than the opponent. Also, utilizing magic in an unexpected way is something we often teach.”

Caelo struggled hard, but it only made his clothes wetter.

“But there’s another important factor apart from that. It’s called ‘Interruption’.”

The students seemed interested and began paying attention to me.

“Interruption refers to all acts of disrupting an opponent’s magic, rather than casting a spell. Like just now, we can break concentration with unexpected sounds or shocks. Even without using any terrific methods, if you succeed in interrupting a spell casting, it can create a huge gap.”

“Professor! I have a question!”

A bold-voiced female student opened her mouth.

“A female. Light brown hair. Green eyes. Is it Sinia Purcell?”

Coincidentally, she was one of the five suspects.

“It seems like a pretty important factor, but why haven’t we learned it until now?”

“What is important for you now is to cast magic quickly, use stronger spells, and master various methods of operation. In other words, what’s more crucial is to develop your fundamental skills.”

When I signaled, Eldritch released Caelo, who fell to the ground looking like a soaked mouse.

“You don’t have to go into actual combat yet. It’s more important to focus on studying the nature of the magic itself, hence Interruption gets pushed aside. But as demonstrated by my partner Tako just now…”

When I gestured, Eldritch approached.

“I wanted to introduce this as an advantage of summoning magic. Whether you use a familiar or summon a minion, attacking the summoner while ignoring these is something anyone might think of.”

Caelo avoided my gaze, startled.

“Especially if you aim to take the lead and cast a big attack suddenly… The moment the concentration is on the summoner, there arises a threat of being ambushed by the familiar or the summoned being.”

When Eldritch waved its hand, it seemed rather cute, drawing the students’ attention. Eldritch stiffened, realizing the attention wasn’t out of respect or amazement.

“Summoning magic inherently brings such advantages. I hope Caelo, who values combat, will understand this point.”

Caelo returned to his place, and the students’ eyes now gleamed with interest.

“Now, let’s officially start with the basics of summoning magic. The basic element of summoning magic, the summoning circle is…”

And those gleaming eyes soon filled with boredom.

It seemed I didn’t have the talent to make lectures interesting.

“Professor Magus! I’d like to request a duel too!”

“Me too!”

The students burned with competitive spirits wanting to challenge rather than listen to the lecture, which I didn’t mind much.

After all, I never intended to give a real lecture.

‘Quite convenient. There’s something I need to check with Interruption and the dice.’

Thus, I conducted consecutive duels, and every time an Interruption happened, the dice rolled repeatedly.

If the dice showed success, the Interruption succeeded as well, otherwise, all failed.

“Caelo was the only one for whom the Interruption worked despite the dice check failure. What’s the reason…?”

After the first class ended and it was just Eldritch and me, I finally caught my breath.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“Good grief, what a mess. I have to mumble for an entire hour about something I barely understand half of.”

When I grumbled, Eldritch handed me a glass of water with a smile.

“By the way, speaking of the interruption… How did you time it so precisely?”

“Hmm?”

“It may seem simple, but it’s quite tricky to get the timing right. Even mages don’t lose focus that easily.”

“Well, that’s true. It’s not easy to break their concentration with mere sounds like breaking a cup.”

“Could it be that they lack concentration because they’re first-years? They are supposed to be exceptional, but I guess age does play a role.”

I fell into deep thought for a moment. None of the other suspect students who attended today showed any unusual behavior. The worst was one who thought they weren’t being watched and dozed off behind another student.

“I think it’s worth investigating the student who didn’t attend today.”

“Definitely, Lily—”

“I’m sorry! I overslept and—”

Speaking of the devil, a disheveled female student with messy hair and crumpled clothes burst in.

“…… Lilybell Ospryng.”

One of the five suspects. She had a hunched neck, dark-ringed eyes, platinum blonde hair, pale skin, and a stark contrast of height around 178cm. Her most notable feature: she was a failing student.

“I-I’m so sorry…….”

“Student, the class ended a long time ago.”

“What?!”

Lilybell looked at me in shock. She looked around and flinched when she spotted Eldritch, blinking her eyes.

“Did you say you overslept?”

“Yes? Ah, yes…….”

“Until the afternoon?”

“I couldn’t sleep well…….”

Honestly, it didn’t really matter to me, but I decided to give a light reprimand to maintain my image as a professor.

“Are you conducting some personal research? No matter how important your research is…….”

“It’s not that… Oh, you know, I had a dorm room all to myself!”

“How could I know that? Even as a professor, I can’t keep track of every single thing about the students.”

In fact, I did know. She was a particularly sensitive student, so she had been assigned a single room.

“But the loud woman sent from Luminaries said there was no other empty bed and has been staying in my room for the past three days! She won’t leave, saying she’ll stay to monitor me!”

‘…… Arian.’

The lack of an empty room was definitely an excuse.

“Please reassign her room! She wakes up at dawn to pray, and even before sunrise, she insists we train together; I feel like I’m dying!”

“Telling me this won’t help, student.”

“My requests keep getting rejected! If you help me out… I’ll get you an invite to this!”

Lilybell frantically pulled out something crumpled. It was an invitation.

“An invitation to a party hosted by the Belacre family?”

“I got invited this time, but only promising students and a few professors were invited. Nobles will be there too, so it’s a chance to get sponsorships……”

Why was a failing student invited to such a party?

“Are the other students attending too?”

Lilybell nodded and even listed the names of the students. All five suspect students were scheduled to attend.

“Alright, I’ll accept. I’ll do my best.”

Lilybell repeatedly thanked me and left to deliver the invitation. I then penned a letter to Arian. Lilybell seemed suspicious, wanting to escape surveillance, so I asked Arian to keep a close watch on her. Later, when Lilybell would accuse me of breaking the promise, I could easily say the request got rejected or was still being processed.

‘No matter how sleep-deprived she is, isn’t she too careless for a mage?’

Well, it had led to a fortunate situation for me.

‘I can have Arian watch one of the suspects, and Arian won’t bother me either. Plus, I got an invitation to a party where all suspects will be present.’

Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a triple win.