Genius Wizard who sees Rainbows- Chapter 160

#160. Frozen Things (4)

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—Be careful of Binjin.

The moment she said that, two emotions coexisted in Ayla’s expression.

Gratitude toward me.

And fear of Binjin.

…Was that meant as a kind of warning?

“Ray, what did unni say to you?”

“She said you were pretty.”

“Ah…! Really?”

Answering absently to the question from beside her, Ray suddenly realized something.

“But Veronica, we’re not family. Was it really okay for us to eat at a *family* restaurant?”

Veronica gave her a look that said, *What the hell kind of question is that?*

But then, realizing it was Ray who had asked, she kindly answered.

“I mean, it’s targeted mainly at families, sure. But I don’t think they’d kick out someone who can pay for their meal…? And it’s not like the word *family* is reserved only for blood relations.”

Veronica pointed to a recruitment poster by the restaurant entrance.

> [Join the family of Quant Restaurant. Even if you’re inexperienced, you can learn and grow.]

> [One day off per year. 98-hour work week. Salary negotiable. 12-month probation period paid at 70%.]

“See? They use the word *family* here too.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

“We also say ‘like family’ when people grow close and harmonious.”

Ray thought for a moment and asked,

“Then are you and I family too, Veronica?”

“Uh…?”

“We’re way closer than just acquaintances, right?”

“Well… but we’re not *family*.”

If we were, we couldn’t be together.

“Then are we not as close as family?”

“That’s not it either…”

If *you* and *I* aren’t close, then who is?

“So we *are* family?”

“No, we’re not…”

“We’re not family?”

“That’s…”

“Family?”

“…….”

Veronica realized she had walked right into a terrible trap.

“Oh! It’s time to feed Nero! Here, this is the revised spell array formula I asked you for yesterday! I’ll be going! Bye!”

Checking her bare wrist like there was a watch there, Veronica hastily handed over a note and bolted from the spot.

“……”

Watching Veronica shrink to a dot in the distance, Ray turned and headed toward her next destination.

He needed to stop by Amon’s office and retrieve the Ignis black card that had been re-registered under his new master.

After that, he had to sneak into the Tower while Binjin was teaching and investigate.

**Tap— Tap— Tap—**

As he walked through the streets, Ray suddenly felt a strange tightness in his chest.

‘Did I eat too much meat?’

He pondered briefly but concluded that wasn’t it.

He always stuck strictly to regulated portions to maintain optimal condition.

This wasn’t a physical discomfort but more like…

*A heaviness of the heart.*

Why?

**Tap— Tap— Tap—**

It wasn’t until he’d passed through several streets that Ray pinpointed the cause.

> “You should care about yourself.”

> “Stop worrying about others and start worrying about yourself.”

> “You have to love yourself before you can love others.”

Because the words he had said back at the restaurant didn’t seem to be directed solely at Ayla.

“……”

The boy’s steps slowed, then stopped.

‘But still, if it’s me…’

If it’s me.

If it’s me…

If it’s really me…?

“……”

**Tap— Tap— Tap—**

His pace quickened again, but the heavy feeling inside kept swelling like a balloon.

And yet, the balloon never burst. It just weighed heavier and heavier on his heart.

Maybe because of that.

‘Am I… irritated right now?’

A strange emotion began to rise.

It felt similar to what he had felt when the slate’s story had ended, but he couldn’t be sure.

The boy didn’t yet have enough experience or knowledge to accurately diagnose his emotional state.

Still, if this unpleasant feeling *was* irritation…

‘It’d be nice if I had a way to vent it.’

Almost at the same time, Ray sensed several presences following him from a distance.

‘Lucky me.’

Ray immediately turned and led the presences deep into a narrow alley.

Once he reached a dead end, the others appeared, blocking the only exit.

“Is this guy an idiot? He’s handing us the perfect spot himself.”

“No, he came here on purpose. He must be confident in his skills.”

“Whatever. Doesn’t change the fact that bastard’s dead today.”

Four figures appeared.

All were Binjin’s Class A students.

After losing in the Mana manipulation game, they had been consumed by inferiority and malice.

And now, that inferiority and malice had swollen far larger than yesterday.

One of them raised a hand to quiet the others and stepped forward.

“Our precious flower boy, the famed young heir of the Tower. Did you sleep well last night?”

It was Tenon, ranked number one in both theory and practice in Class A.

“Thanks for the lesson yesterday. I learned a lot. But I also started wondering. Are you really as capable in high-intensity real combat as you are in class? So I thought I’d boldly ask for a duel—”

“Your tongue’s too long.”

Ray cut him off.

“If you’re going to attack, hurry up and do it. If all you’re going to do is blab, I’ll rip your tongue out.”

The unexpected brutality of Ray’s words brought a heavy silence to the alley.

Then Tenon’s face twisted in anger as he dropped all pretense.

“You little shit. You really don’t know your place just because I showed you a bit of courtesy. Hey, brat. You think this is still our master’s estate? You think you’re still above us?!”

A fireball burst from Tenon and shot toward Ray.

**Fwoosh!**

But Ray immediately retaliated with a larger fireball that swallowed Tenon’s and snuffed them both out mid-air.

**Fwoosh! Fwoosh-fwoosh!**

Tenon unleashed a barrage of fireballs with full force, but the result was the same.

It was a clear demonstration of whose magic was superior.

“Huff… Huff… You son of a bitch…! So you *can* fight like this, huh…! But can you really keep that deadpan face after seeing *this*…!”

Gritting his teeth, Tenon pulled out a ring from his coat and slipped it on.

“Heh… Know what this is? It’s an artifact that can paralyze an opponent’s mana channels for a limited time! So what if you’re a 2nd Circle mage! If I shut down your mana, you’re nothing!”

Seeing Tenon losing ground, the other three regained some confidence.

“Yeah. No matter how good your magic is, if you can’t use mana, it’s worthless.”

“Tenon, do we really need to explain so much to that bastard? Shouldn’t we just kill him—?”

But Tenon shook his head with a chilling smile.

“No. I want him to know what’s happening before he dies. So he can writhe in despair, knowing that no matter what he does, he’ll never win. Just like we—”

The other three joined in with the same cruel smile.

“—Just like we did yesterday.”

“—Just like we did yesterday.”

They felt a chill run down their spines as they looked at Tenon.

They’d learned a lot under their teacher too, but this guy—his toxicity was on another level.

Like thick, stagnant sewage water about to overflow from a long-clogged drain.

Maybe it was because he’d spent ten years as a loser in the Tower, without even forming another circle.

“Hey, little flower boy.”

Now bolstered by his companions, Tenon addressed Ray.

“I didn’t mean to go this far, but I thought about it all night. I used to be superior. But because of you, I became *inferior.* But I’ve figured out how to be superior again. You know how?”

His lips curled into a vicious grin.

“I just have to kill someone more superior than me.”

He mistook Ray’s silence for fear and laughed nastily.

“I don’t care if you’re from some noble family. Getting rid of you without a trace is nothing. Guys like us who grew up on the streets—we have our ways. So, all I have to do is point this ring at you like this… focus… focus… focu—?”

Tenon suddenly felt something was off.

The ring wasn’t in his sight.

No—his *hand* wasn’t in his sight.

Blood dripped rhythmically from his wrist stump… and his severed hand lay on the ground.

‘What…? Why is my hand… over there…?’

His stomach churned.

Cold sweat broke out as his mind tilted sideways.

‘Ah… I see. That clean cut—it must have been a blade of wind…’

What brought him back to reality was—

“Kill him! Kill that bastard—!”

“H-how the hell did he cast a spell—?!”

“That psycho cut off Tenon’s hand! He’s nuts!”

—the screams of his enraged companions.

“AAAAAARGH—! MY HAND—! MY HAAAAAND—!”

Writhing in agony, Tenon collapsed clutching his wrist.

**Wuuuung!**

**Wuuuuung!**

The other three expelled their mana to cast spells.

But—

“What the…! I can’t cast magic!”

“T-the elements… won’t combine?!”

Ray’s interference with the elements prevented any spells from forming.

And in the next moment—

**Thud! Thud! Thud!**

**Boom! Boom! Boom!**

“Ugh! UUUUGH!”

“My body…! It’s not moving…!”

“It’s a weakening spell! It’s a weakening spell!”

Particles of weakening magic settled on them like dust, and their bodies collapsed.

“What breaks a weakening spell?!”

“I don’t know!”

“Then why the hell did you bring it up, you idiot?!”

They struggled to move, tried to resist the fatigue—

**Thud!**

—but fell completely flat before they could lift their heads again.

The situation ended in an instant.

Ray looked down at the groaning enemies now kissing the ground.

‘Ayla’s clearly better.’

She was also 2nd Circle, but her elemental fusion was so solid, Ray couldn’t interfere at all.

He walked over to Tenon, who was kneeling and muttering incoherently.

He reached into the pool of blood and picked up the hand. Tenon suddenly looked up.

“My hand…! My ring…!”

“The hand’s yours. But I don’t think the ring originally was.”

“Give it…! My hand…! My ring…!”

“It looks exactly like the one Binjin always wears. Doesn’t seem like *the* one, though.”

“Give it baaack…! My hand…! Please give it baaack…!”

“Did Binjin give it to you as a gift? Doesn’t seem like him. So how’d you get it?”

“Give it baaack! Please! Please!”

Tenon just flailed toward the hand and didn’t answer.

His rolled-back eyes and cold sweat proved he was barely conscious from the pain.

Ray used a healing spell.

**Wuuuung!**

The bleeding stopped, and the pain subsided enough for him to answer questions.

But as soon as his mind refocused, Tenon shouted—

“You bastard…! This is all your fault…!”

Venomous curses spilled out like an overflowing dam.

“You fucking bastard…! It’s all your fault…! If only you hadn’t appeared…! If only you hadn’t provoked us with that damn class…! If only you hadn’t made us feel so pathetic…!”

Even as his body trembled in pain, Tenon laughed hysterically and kept spewing curses.

“Satisfied now?! Seeing things turn out like this?! You goddamn murderer…! Selfish freak…! You—you were born with everything! You don’t know how guys like us have to struggle just to survive…!”

Ray quietly watched Tenon’s desperate thrashing.

Hmm.

I don’t really think I was *born* with all that much.

From the boy’s point of view, he believed there was one vast, essential thing he hadn’t inherited.

*Emotion.*

He believed emotions were what gave humans the strength to keep moving forward.

How you handled them—and how well—could generate the energy for an entire life.

Even in Class A, there were students who had turned inferiority into motivation and drive.

“Bastard…! It’s all your fault…!”

Because of that, Tenon’s words… to the boy, they sounded like nothing more than excuses and justifications.

“Y-You were just born with everything…! Bastards like you will never understand us…!”

Rather, claiming to have something that was actually the most important thing—and which he didn’t—only made it more irritating.

Ray opened his mouth.

A line he’d learned from the embodiment of narcissism.

“So what.”

He said it.

Tenon stared blankly for a few seconds after hearing Ray’s words, then collapsed forward into the pool of blood and lost consciousness.

*Thud—!*

Ray looked down at Tenon for a moment, then retrieved the ring from the severed hand he’d been holding.

*A tool that can neutralize the circle.*

When Tenon had said that, there hadn’t been a significant ripple in his emotions.

Which meant it was the truth.

Of course, it was the truth as far as Tenon was aware… but seeing as Binjin had a similar item, Ray judged that the likelihood of it being real was quite high.

*They probably plan to use this on me on the day of the procedure.*

The exploitation magic was powerful, but it had a condition: the sacrifice had to remain entirely within the magic circle.

There was the bait of the “procedure,” but something unexpected could always happen on the day.

Considering Binjin’s personality, it made sense to assume there would be contingencies in place.

*I don’t know how many contingencies there are, but it’s safe to say this is one of them.*

One of the things he’d been cautious and wary about had now been resolved.

Ray lifted his head and looked at Tenon and the rest of Class A’s students.

“…….”

It wasn’t a situation he had anticipated, but as a result, he’d gained not a small amount.

What remained now was to test the ring’s function and squeeze out the pulp of well-ripened information to further clarify the shape of the situation.

With that in mind, Ray spoke toward the outside of the alley.

“Go ahead and run. If you get caught, I’ll cut your ankles so you can’t go any farther.”

He heard the sound of someone’s legs giving out as they collapsed to the ground.

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