‘Is this the future I’m supposed to see?’

Noah being criticized by everyone?

‘Explain properly!’

Like it was responding to my cry, the mirror’s image distorted and began to show another scene.

Meanwhile, my magical energy continued to drain rapidly. But I couldn’t pull my hand away from the mirror. I needed to confirm this future.

“Noah, congratulations on making it to the quarterfinals.”

“Now the real challenge begins.”

Lynen and I were looking at Noah with pride.

Noah looked somewhat tired but his expression was excited.

“I guess we won’t be able to meet until the finals are over. Take good care of yourself.”

“Yes. I’ll do my best! Let’s go, Mihail.”

“Right! See you later.”

So Mihail was there too.

Noah and Mihail picked up their belongings and entered the special area reserved for participants.

There had apparently been cases in the past where overzealous parents secretly gave artifacts to their children.

Or they would secretly carry tools to harass their opponents.

After several instances of such cheating and accidents, a rule was established that quarterfinalists in the martial tournament must remain isolated from the outside until they were eliminated.

“Lynen, why that expression? Worried?”

“…Of course I’m worried about a young child staying alone. Aren’t you?”

“It’s only two days, what’s the big deal?”

The me in the mirror shrugged.

“Besides, the participants are staying in the quarters used by the imperial palace’s knight apprentices. The empress’s guard knights are on security duty.”

I said there wouldn’t be any problems.

Even if the empress wanted to discipline me, she wouldn’t tarnish her own honor.

However, the next scene that appeared as the mirror distorted hit me like a slap to the back of my head.

CRASH!

A sudden impact sound.

A gray, fluctuating light was shooting out in all directions from Noah’s sword. Noah himself looked completely flustered.

‘Aura? Did Noah manifest an aura? But something seems wrong.’

The tournament officials quickly intervened to stop Noah’s outburst and began an investigation.

From my distant viewpoint, I couldn’t hear their conversation.

However, I could hear Dillen saying something, and shortly after, the criticism directed at Noah gradually rose from the audience seats near the arena.

“Get lost! You coward!”

“Did you want to win that badly?”

“Talentless scaredy-cat who only uses tricks!”

Noah stood alone, trembling, with his gaze fixed on the floor.

Moreover, something was wrong with the child’s body.

‘Why is his body so swollen? Like he has red lumps all over?’

“Monster!”

The mirror distorted again.

‘…This is Noah’s room.’

Noah was crouched in a corner of the bed. In the dark room without even a candle lit.

“I didn’t do anything. I really don’t know why the aura appeared. I didn’t use any artifacts or magical tools…”

‘…No way.’

Did he get falsely accused of cheating because of the aura?

Noah pressed himself closer to the wall.

“I, I’m really useless… I’m no help to Lady Calliphe.”

The vitality in his voice gradually faded.

Eventually, Noah curled up as small as possible, like being trapped in an egg, and buried his head between his knees.

“I’ll never… pick up a sword again.”

[Number 1. ‘Unparalleled Knight’ route has been blocked.]

[Number 2. ‘New Master of the North’ route has been blocked.]

[Number 4. ‘Celebrated Hero’ route has been blocked.]

…

System messages continued to appear one after another.

‘Stop! All the good futures are disappearing!’

When the lengthy messages finally ended, the light in the mirror completely went out.

My mind went blank for a moment.

‘So this is… Noah’s bad ending? Did I cause a bad ending that wasn’t in <Marino>?’

The two days when participants are isolated from the outside.

During that time, Dillen and Viscount Gallard must have played some dirty trick on Noah.

The reason Noah suffered like this was entirely because of me.

Viscount Gallard promoting Dillen earlier than in the original story and pulling these despicable stunts—it was all to interfere with me.

‘I’ll kill them, seriously.’

Rage boiled inside me.

‘I don’t have time for this. I need to get out now.’

I grabbed the Mirror of Truth and clenched my fist. I intended to punch my way out of this pudding-like interior using my ability application.

But as soon as I tried to summon my contaminated magical energy.

“…Hnngh!”

A strong impact hit me like someone had punched my heart.

All strength left my body.

‘My magic…!’

Only then did I realize that I had lost a dangerous amount of magical energy while viewing the future.

‘If my magical energy is completely depleted, I could die!’

I remembered cases of people who barely survived after having their magical energy drained by monsters or strange flora and fauna.

Some became paralyzed or developed various disabilities, and others reportedly shrank in size.

‘No, I need to get out quickly…!’

But before I could try anything else, my breathing reached its limit.

“…!”

* * *

The King Slime definitely had a large hole pierced through it.

But it regenerated at an astonishing speed.

The same happened when Lynen cut it with his sword.

Even Lynen, who had faced countless monsters, had never seen anything like it.

“How on earth… is that possible?”

At that moment, through the cut surface, some of the objects the King Slime was holding became visible.

Small gray and black spheres.

‘Monster cores?’

Its amazing regenerative ability seemed to be due to absorbing multiple monster cores.

But the monster cores were all unusually large. Larger than those of monsters found in this place.

There was a high possibility they came from outside.

‘These must have been dropped by the Special Monster Division. If I can retrieve them without destroying them—’

“Duke! Lady Calliphe is!”

Noah shouted urgently.

Calliphe, trapped inside the King Slime’s body, was struggling.

He thought she was trying to use her ability, but something seemed wrong.

“Calliphe…!”

There was no time to think twice.

Lynen directed powerful aura toward the monster cores he had just been carefully trying to retrieve.

SLASH!

“RAWR!”

As the monster cores shattered and dispersed into smoke, the endlessly regenerating King Slime also exploded and scattered.

Lynen quickly caught Calliphe as she fell.

“Ugh, cough cough!”

“Are you alright?”

“I’m… fine… cough. Ptooey! Blech. My mouth feels gross.”

“Lady Calliphe!”

Noah also rushed over and looked at Calliphe with concern.

“Are you okay?”

“……”

Calliphe stared at Noah for a moment before patting his head.

“I’m always fine.”

“Huh? Oh… yes!”

“But this thing won’t regenerate again, right?”

Lynen sheathed his sword.

“Since I destroyed the cores, it shouldn’t be able to.”

“Cores? There were monster cores?”

Lynen nodded and explained what he had just discovered and his suspicions.

He said it seemed certain that someone from the Special Monster Division had been moving monster cores through this dungeon.

“The monsters in this dungeon all had very small cores. But the ones this slime contained were large. They definitely came from other monsters.”

“The slime must have picked up what the Special Monster Division dropped.”

“They’re gone now though.”

“…Hmm.”

Feeling sorry, Calliphe glanced at Lynen. Noticing this, Lynen wiped off some slime residue from her cheek.

“You don’t need to feel sorry. We couldn’t have used them as evidence anyway.”

“W-well then.”

Calliphe, muttering awkwardly, looked around at the scattered remains of the King Slime.

“Still, shouldn’t there be at least one left? If we look carefully.”

Or if the creature were still alive, they could have asked it directly.

“It could speak after all…”

“Lady Calliphe. Look at that.”

Just then, Noah pointed at something.

One of the weap*ns the King Slime had been wielding—a skeleton’s sword.

Clatter clatter…

It was creeping away from Calliphe’s group on its own, like it was trying to escape.