The Villain Bought the Female Lead - Ch. 75
Crash!!
The thick aura surrounding Leon’s fist pierced through the thin layer of aura covering Finn’s abdomen and struck him with force.
Ugh!
Finn spat up stomach acid. His pupils dilated, and the strength drained from his body.
The more this happened, the harder he had to grasp his fleeting consciousness. This time, he would land a decisive hit…!
Finn quickly changed his grip on the wooden sword to a downward strike aimed at Leon’s wrist.
However—
Smack!
Leon’s spinning kick struck Finn in the face, sending him crashing into the wall of the training ground before he finally fell to the ground.
Blood mixed with his breath as he hiccupped. To an outsider, it might have looked less like training and more like a fight to the death.
“Oh, you’re getting up again. Impressive, Finn!”
The problem was that Finn was the only one treating this as a life-or-death struggle. His thighs, legs, arms, and face… Finn’s body was covered in bruises and wounds.
His body, struggling to take in breath, no longer wanted to move.
“Please… one more time.”
“Hmm! Those are words that strike a chord.”
But Finn forced himself to his feet and continued Leon’s grueling training.
Leon, seemingly satisfied, nodded once and immediately rushed in, landing another merciless punch to Finn’s abdomen.
Finn tried to read Leon’s moves through his trembling eyes, but it was impossible.
Leon’s aura, known for its extreme hardness and strength, once again inflicted excruciating pain on Finn’s body.
“Urgh…!”
As Leon stepped back to assess Finn’s condition, Finn hurriedly tried to cover his mouth, but it was too late.
Finn vomited blood and bile.
The cumulative damage had overwhelmed him, causing his stomach to expel everything inside.
Seeing this, Leon nodded as before and called out to one of the members of the group who had been watching their duel.
Signaling for them to clean up after Finn, he effectively ended the session.
“You should go easier on him. You know he’s pushing himself too hard. If you keep this up, he could die.”
Bell, one of the members helping to clean up after Finn, voiced his concern.
Though no one had asked him to, he voluntarily wiped up Finn’s vomit with a rag and helped him to his feet.
Hearing his words, Leon quietly looked at Finn. With his hands confidently on his waist, he waited for Finn’s response.
From Finn’s trembling lips, a soft but determined voice emerged.
“Just a moment… I… I can still go on.”
“Stop being so stubborn! Do you even realize the state your body is in?”
Bell, who had been training with Finn for several weeks, had seen how he pushed himself to the extreme, both physically and mentally.
Finn was crazy.
He was out of his mind.
No matter how much he trained his body to become a hero, there were limits for every living being.
Every day, Finn crossed that line, subjecting himself to what was more torture than training.
For Bell, whose top priority was peace and stability, Finn’s behavior was incomprehensible.
“You’ve already grown so much in such a short time. How much more are you going to push yourself?”
With the relic given by the great hero Helion, Finn had grown rapidly. Previously, he had been no match for Bell, but after only three weeks, he had become his equal.
Bell wasn’t particularly confident in his own strength, only hovering around the average level at the Academia, but considering Finn’s entrance scores, his progress was unbelievable.
“I’m… still… far from ready. This isn’t… enough.”
Bell’s voice didn’t reach Finn.
His eyes were fixed on Leon standing in front of him, not glancing around at all.
From his throat came a sentence filled with desperate resolve.
Though his eyes seemed unfocused, they were clearly locked onto his goal.
“I want… to become a hero who protects humanity.”
Leon, pleased, let out a hearty laugh.
Hahaha!!
His laughter was so loud that it immediately drew the attention of everyone training in the hall.
He was always loud, but this time, his voice was even more powerful.
“Finn! You will definitely become a strong hero. I guarantee it!”
Thud.
Leon pounded his chest with his fist. A simple punch, without aura or mana, vibrated through the air.
Leon Banteolo Ocell.
He staked his name on Finn’s future success.
“You could even make it into the top 10 of the hero rankings at the church!”
Leon boasted.
Knowing the immense weight of that name and number, Bell blinked in disbelief.
To be honest, Finn was just barely getting stronger enough to possibly become a hero.
But to say he could make it into the top 10 of the hero rankings?
For a long time, aside from Helion, no one called a genius had even come close to that spot. No matter how much he wanted to encourage him, wasn’t Leon giving him too unrealistic a goal?
Setting an overly unattainable goal could have the opposite effect…
Oh.
No.
Looking at Finn’s determined eyes, he understood.
Leon wasn’t saying this just to give him hope… yes, that was right. This was who Leon was.
“Even Vargan believed in you, which is why Helion chose you as his mentee! Hahaha!!”
He was serious.
He truly believed that relentless effort could surpass talent.
“I ask you… once more… for a duel.”
“Hmm! I don’t mind. Let’s keep at it all night.”
Haha….
They probably really would train all night without rest.
What extraordinary people.
Bell sincerely thought so.
“Bell! You join in too!”
“Huh?! M-Me too? Ah… okay… if you insist.”
The flames of the training ground would not be extinguished, even as the deep night approached.
***
Recently, after finishing my training with inspection on Alicia, I headed to the ancient dragon’s tomb every day.
I did this to help Francesca with her research on the rituals related to the ancient dragon.
There was a reason based on the original work.
Francesca, the necromancer.
In the original storyline, she half-heartedly resurrected an ancient dragon, failed to subdue it, and ended up losing her own army of skeletons.
She tried to neutralize them with the help of the protagonist Liam and his party, but the endless power of the dragon kept the soldiers awake, attacking people.
The festival was the only event where outsiders, not related to the hero, could participate.
Most of the professors and students were too busy trying to protect everyone, and with the third- and fourth-year students absent, they were short on numbers.
Liam concluded that the only person who could solve this problem was Francesca, the original caster. He managed to find her and attempted to persuade her with his specialty, and miraculously, it worked.
In the end, they figured out a way to resolve the situation and put an end to it.
As expected of those who were skilled at saving people, there were zero casualties despite all the chaos. Everything worked out well, didn’t it? Not a chance.
Later, Francesca, who had joined Liam’s harem, committed suicide two years later. She was the second official heroine to die, after Emily.
Our protagonist lost his mind here. It was a time when Altife’s attacks were frequent, so he had no time to lose his composure.
Anyway, since Liam had an almost unbelievable level of intelligence and judgment, I had to step in. What else could I do? She was too valuable an asset to let die without doing anything.
Oh, of course… in my own way. I would make it so that I gained the most. If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten involved.
“In this technique, it seems that applying the third-tier mana formula used in summoning magic would provide a more efficient supply of mana.”
“Indeed… it seems correct. If we calculate it directly… yes, that will improve the flow of mana by approximately 1.19 times.”
For the sake of the plan.
I was trying to help her and form a relationship that could be called a bond, so I could manipulate her during the second semester’s festival episode. But this ritual research was also helping with the development of my curses and familiars more than I expected.
Francesca’s knowledge of necromancy and ritual systems was extensive, and I’d learned a lot from her, resulting in mutually beneficial outcomes.
“Oh, then we can use a multi-dimensional function time transformation here to give it time complexity.”
“In that case, the output also increases by 1.19 times. Impressive.”
We continued our discussion about the ritual for a while, and before we knew it, three hours had passed.
In a couple more hours, the morning sun would begin to chase away the darkness.
Francesca, sitting in a suitable spot to cool her overheated mind, inhaled the still-cool morning air through her lips and exhaled it slowly.
Her eyes, devoid of interest in other things or phenomena.
Except when researching necromancy, her eyes never emitted an intellectual glow.
But now, she was showing a bit of interest.
“Why are you helping me so much?”
Even though we were in the same research group, a complete stranger suddenly offered to help and had been assisting with the research every single day without fail.
Moreover, the situation was suspicious since I found out about her secret of trying to resurrect an ancient dragon by researching its bones.
Her suspicion and doubt were justified.
“I told you at the beginning, didn’t I? For mutual benefit. But you still don’t seem to believe me, even though we both cursed each other. If I may add, I have no intention of backing down or giving up any more ground.”
“Right….”
Her eyes, seen in the early morning, seemed lifeless. The faint light around her bounced off her retinas, refusing to let it in.
“… it doesn’t matter.”
A weak word slipped from her lips.
Francesca, who handled skeletons, had lips tinged with the cold energy of a dead person’s grudge.
“Let’s stop here for today. We’ve made a lot of progress, and the first years have to move for their finals today.”
“Alright, let’s do that.”
During the summer vacation, I wouldn’t be able to help Francesca, so she would have to continue the research alone as she had done so far.
However, even if she did it half-heartedly, she could still breathe life into the bones of the ancient dragon by herself.
There was still some leeway after the second semester started, so it wouldn’t be too late to cooperate again then.
Looking around, I saw the first signs of dawn breaking.
The massive clouds in the sky were getting ready to change their color.
***
The final exams would be held at a location that took a full day to reach by airship.
A massive airship capable of accommodating all the members of the Academia.
Unlike the usual models in operation, this large one was only used when more than one grade level moved as a group.
From now on, we would be flying in that giant thing for a day.
“Are you alright, Finn? You don’t look too well….”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I just got a little hurt while training. Thanks for worrying, Alicia.”
“But… it’s not just a little, is it….”
“Right. Isn’t this going to be a problem when we take the finals tomorrow?”
Poke, poke.
Frieda poked Finn’s bruise with her finger.
Each time, Finn’s face twisted in pain, but he tried to smile and continued acting as if nothing was wrong.
With a bit of emotion, he said, “I’m fine, but could you please stop touching it?”
“And why are you here anyway? You’re not in the same group or class.”
“I don’t fit in with my class, so I have nowhere else to go but here.”
“For someone saying that you’re pretty bold….”
“It’s because I’m the one avoiding my classmates. Besides, Vargan and Alicia are here.”
Frieda hugged Alicia and rubbed her face against her. It looked like an animal rubbing against someone it had bonded with. With orange ears and a tail, it looked even more so.
“Oh, and of course, Emily and Serena too.”
“That’s enough, you.”
Emily brushed off Frieda’s words, who had belatedly included her. It wasn’t just because she was sulking; there was another reason.
“It looks like we’re about to leave?”
As if her words were prophetic, an amplified voice reached our ears. It was the playful and familiar voice of Paula.
“Attention, please! This airship will soon take off to head to the final exam site, so please follow the… oh, whatever. Just hurry up and get on board! We’re about to depart.”