CHAPTER 195: CHAPTER 195: TWO FAVORS

Lake watched the students scuttle out of the classroom with disgruntled expressions.

Although they wanted to stick around and hear more about his magic, Harper had already ended the class and ordered everyone to leave.

Still, it wasn’t a complete loss. At least they managed to confirm that Lake indeed knew magic and had a lot to digest with this new shift in their worldview.

Some of them were already considering switching classes to mage if it became available in the near future.

Whatever the case, after everyone had left, leaving only Lake and Harper remaining, the once noisy lecture hall was filled with silence.

The two of them were staring at each other without saying anything as a strange mood settled in.

Harper was looking up at Lake from the podium with a cautious gaze as she evaluated him, while Lake remained in his seat at the back, a carefree smile plastered across his face.

"Aren’t you going to come down?" Harper asked nervously. She would be lying if she said she didn’t feel slightly intimidated by him after the previous spectacle.

Without saying a word, Lake got up and walked down the stairs, his rhythmic footsteps echoing through the room.

Eventually he stood right before Harper, his expression turning gentle.

"Is this better?"

"Yes," Harper replied, her guard only raising due to Lake’s feigned friendliness.

"Then, can you answer my question? Can you replicate it on a larger scale if given the formula?" Lake asked again, this time his expression shifting to one of curiosity.

"T-That would depend on how the alchemic formulas work. I would need to see it myself and understand it before I could theorize how to replicate it."

"Is that so?" Lake spoke while bringing his hand to his chin, a thoughtful expression clouding over his face.

"If you can give me the alchemic formula and join me in the lab, we can start research right away!" Harper exclaimed suddenly, causing Lake to pause.

Although she was slightly intimidated by Lake, she still tried to maintain her composure and get Lake to agree to work with her.

After all, what Lake had demonstrated so far was essentially a piece of fiction thought to only exist in stories and movies.

Magic!

Real and tangible magic that could cause both devastating and miraculous effects, changing the very nature of how science and technology would be perceived.

If she could pioneer this topic with the help of Lake, she had the potential to go down in history!

She could even drag her family out of its current slump if all went well, but in order to do that, she needed Lake to be willing to work with her.

Awaiting Lake’s response, Harper could feel her heart beating out of her chest with nervousness.

Eventually, Lake’s expression shifted a bit, becoming unreadable as he spoke. "Yes, but before that, there is something we should take care of."

"W-What do you mean?" Harper asked nervously, not quite understanding what Lake was getting at.

She tried to figure out what he was thinking by observing his expression and saw that he was looking her up from head to toe.

’...! H-He couldn’t mean?!’

Harper felt her heart start to beat even wilder at the thought of that.

She had spent most of her life locked away in a lab, so she wasn’t accustomed to modern trends. Even when she did attend school, she was too arrogant and stuck-up to get along with others, let alone experience ’youth.’

If it wasn’t for her only friend back then constantly nagging her about it, the thought wouldn’t have even crossed her mind.

Those scenarios where those young and passionate students crossed paths with their cold and compassionate lecturers...

Harper was already blushing from the thought.

’N-No, I can’t go through with this. Even if it’s for my family, I-I can’t—’

Resolving herself, Harper was prepared to turn Lake down, who was her ten years junior.

"L-Listen, Lake, although I know the research may be important, as student and lecturer, there are some boundaries—" Before Harper could finish speaking, Lake cut her off as his King’s Aura enveloped her, instantly freezing her up.

’T-This...!’

Fear instantly gripped Harper’s mind as she realized she could do nothing under his aura.

She tried to shout for help, but her voice was instantly cut off with a snap of Lake’s fingers.

"Don’t speak, and don’t move," Lake spoke with a chilling gaze. His usual friendly or playful demeanor was completely gone, replaced by a stone-cold hatred.

Harper was on the verge of tears facing Lake’s intimidating aura. She was only a Low-Rank Martial Warrior and even then wasn’t a combat-focused one.

She was utterly helpless before him and could only look into his eyes as if pleading for mercy.

"...?"

Harper started to lose focus as she looked into Lake’s eyes. The anger and disgust filling them left her trembling.

’Wait, disgust?’

Suddenly realizing something, Harper started to pay closer attention to Lake’s gaze and noticed that he wasn’t actually looking at her, but above her head!

Whoosh!

Lake’s hand cut through the air, gripping onto an intangible substance squirming above her head.

Harper could sense a substantial amount of mana being concentrated above her as her body started to burn up.

"W-What is this?!" Harper shouted out as she felt the mana inside her start to move on its own.

Looking at Lake, she could see that he hadn’t once turned his gaze away from it, causing her curiosity to be ignited, almost overpowering her fear of the current situation.

’Just what the hell is above me?!’

While Harper was freaking out, Lake’s eyes were elsewhere.

’Hm, it’s gotten bigger...’ Gazing above Harper’s head, his eyes were locked onto the squirming black snake-like substance that had wrapped itself around Harper’s fate.

’Not only that, it’s snuffed out more of her golden fate.’ Lake’s eyes settled in understanding. It seemed the black snake had taken over most of Harper’s fate by now and was in the final stages of ’devouring’ it.

’Disgusting filth.’ Lake’s eyes gleamed with disdain as he actively ripped the snake off her fate.

It resisted strongly as black smoke sizzled off its squirming body.

"SCREECH!"

BAM!

The black substance made a noise akin to a scream as Lake violently ripped it off, causing a shockwave that sent Harper blasting back against the wall.

Gazing at his hand, he watched as the remnants of the creature continued to squirm, trying to wrap around his arm.

Lake clenched the fist gripping the creature’s neck, causing its body to quickly disintegrate. Afterward, he checked his mana reserves, which had almost been drained.

Just now, he had used his Writer of Fate authority to interfere with Harper’s fate and remove the parasite that had attached itself to it. Naturally, this took up a lot of mana, to the point he had to draw external mana from the atmosphere and even Harper herself to have enough to fully destroy it.

’But as a result...’ Turning his gaze back to Harper, who was groaning on the ground, he saw that her fate was slowly recovering its golden color.

With a smile, he walked up to her before crouching down to her level, their eyes meeting. At this point, Harper was feeling a mix of fear and anger lying beside Lake. His emotionless steel-blue eyes left a lasting impression on her.

’Wait... those eyes?!’ Harper’s mind was suddenly rattled as an earth-shaking thought appeared in her head.

She had seen eyes like Lake’s somewhere before but was only now able to recall it. The memory of that event, which had been engraved into her mind, reappeared.

At the bottom of a cliff, when she was on the verge of dying, he had appeared like a ghost. Covered in blood and dressed in black, his steel-blue eyes carried the same lingering hatred and disgust as he gazed at something she could not see.

"Y-You..." Harper’s mind buzzed with activity as the two figures seemed to merge in her mind.

Lake’s smile deepened almost as if he had read Harper’s mind. "Heh, now you owe me two favors, Miss Sun."