Observation

"Shaking me up like that is a waste of time! Wait—what!?"

The man's attacks weren't reaching me. My barrier kicked in at the very last second, leaving him completely wide open. It had sucked up a painful amount of my mana—seriously, I was going to be running on fumes at this rate—but the trade-off was worth it. This was the end.

"—See ya."

He wasn't going to be fast enough to dodge this. At least, that’s what I thought until the guy thrust his left arm out to intercept me. He’d slapped a Shield on himself, but a flimsy little thing like that wasn't going to stop my blade.

I smashed right through his barrier, tearing through the fabric of his sleeve and carving straight into the meat and bone of his arm. But the feedback felt weirdly light. It was a bizarre sensation, yet one that felt hauntingly familiar.

Wait, why does this feel like I just hit a training dummy?

Immediately after the impact, the man used Wind Magic to blast himself backward. His face didn't even twitch with pain; he just looked... shocked. While he was flipping through the air to regain his footing, he tried to sic his monsters on me, but Cynthia had my back. She wordlessly unleashed a barrage of ice to cover my advance.

"Sorry about that," I muttered.

"Not at all," she replied.

I took a breath and used Time Lapse to get a good, long look at the gash on the man’s left arm. As I studied the cross-section of the wound, I saw it—mana was leaking out of the gash.

Oh, so that’s how it is. That explains everything.

"What are you, human...?" the man hissed, his eyes narrowed. "Where does that power come from?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Beat me, and maybe I’ll tell you. Right, Roz?"

"...So you're Weiss Fancent," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "I’ve heard of you from the Demon Race. Is it really Future Prediction? Or is it something else...?"

His name was Roz Olfat. He was a General from the Country of Ataolas—a major power in the Demon World that could go toe-to-toe with the Kingdom of Ostrava. He’d clearly been confident in his skills, which was probably why my power had caught him so off guard.

But more importantly...

Cecil, notify everyone.

What is it? Cecil’s voice echoed in my head.

These guys... they’re wearing the exact same clothes as the Noblesse training uniforms.

—Understood.

Even if I managed to "kill" him, he’d probably just be subjected to a Forced Teleportation like the students. But I had Time Lapse on my side. If I played my cards right, I could take him alive. A hostage would be perfect for squeezing out information about Ataolas.

Haha! This was great. It had been a while since my inner villain felt this energized. My heart was pounding, and I’m pretty sure I had a terrifyingly huge grin on my face.

"Eyes, nose, mouth, ears... you've got a sturdy enough build that I could probably send you back to your boss in several different pieces. Between you and your buddies, I’ll have enough stamps to send plenty of letters back home, won't I? Right, Roz?"

(Wait, was that too much? I definitely sounded like the bad guy just now, didn't I?)

Roz stared at me, his expression hardening. "...I knew it. Humans really are better off dead."