<h4>Chapter 212</h4>


    I had discovered this new application of Self-Deception purely by chance.


    While sparring with Ellen as usual, I’d grown genuinely irritated after taking hit after hit (not that this was a rare urrence).


    In any case, I truly wanted to pierce through Ellen’s imprable guard. Just once.


    Just this one time, I wanted to knock her sword away and create an opening with a single blow.


    And so, I swung.


    “...”


    “...”


    But nothing happened.


    I still failed to knock her sword away, and her counterattack left me with her de against my neck.


    Ellen tilted her head in puzzlement. “That felt strange just now.”


    “... What did?”


    Though my attack failed, it had surprised Ellen.


    “It was different from usual.”


    Having sparred with me for such a long time, Ellen knew exactly how my blows usually felt, with or without my supernatural powers.


    She said that my attack at that moment had felt oddly more powerful than usual.


    Although I didn’t manage to pierce through her guard, that single blow had indeed been much stronger than usual.


    “Try it again.”


    Ellen didn’t know exactly what I had done, but asked me to do it again. After several trials, I realized a new way to use Self-Deception.


    Instead of overall physical enhancement, I could focus my supernatural power in one specific direction for a very short time—whether in attack, defensive reinforcement, or movement.


    It was simr to setting and selecting a preset for reinforcement types and calling it up as needed.


    By naming and remembering a specific application method, simply recalling it would activate the corresponding pattern of enhancementter on.


    Even so, having to mentally use these skill names that I concocted in my head filled me with immense self-loathing...


    At least I didn’t have to shout them out loud. That was a relief.


    Just thinking about them in my head dealt enough mental damage to me.


    One day, I’d probably end up shouting something like “Asura Attack!” or something simrly ridiculous. I definitely had the potential to do that...


    Lately, therefore, I had been trying to get used to using these skills, the products of my imagination, by employing them during my sparring sessions with Ellen.


    Of course, Ellen was the only one who knew about the imaginary nonsense I was having to do in my head.


    “... No matter how I look at it, it’s a weird ability.”


    “... I think so too.”


    Ellen seemed to think my ability, which could be this or that depending on the situation, was strange, regardless of its effectiveness.


    Being capable of doing almost anything was amazing, but the overall impact was still low, which made it more peculiar than awe-inspiring.


    Nevertheless...


    This was my first time using the new method of Self-Deception on someone other than Ellen.


    Oscar was keeping his distance, analyzing me. He hadnded a few attacks, but hadn’t dealt enough damage to knock me down.


    “... That’s annoying.”


    Using these Skills gave me a significant advantage. By suddenly focusing my supernatural power in one direction, my opponent couldn’t predict my movements, speed, or destructive force.


    Even Ellen had struggled the first time I used my ability in this manner; it was too unpredictable to counter. Of course, it didn’t take long before she got used to it and started beating me again.


    Eventually, Ellen grew so ustomed to how I used these new skills that she began to read my patterns, predicting exactly when I’d use what move. She could predict me impably, which made it impossible for me to score a victory against her.


    However, Oscar de Gradias wasn’t like Ellen.


    He was undoubtedly stronger than me, but he didn’t even know what my supernatural powers were. He could only guess that it involved some sort of physical enhancement.


    He hadn’t urately grasped my abilities, which gave me a clear advantage.


    I currently had three skills set up:


    Single Strike enhanced the sheer destructive power of an attack;


    Haste amplified my reactions and speed for both approaching and evading; and


    Harden maximized my body’s defensive capabilities when I had no choice but to take a hit.


    I had other skills in mind, but I wasn’t proficient with them yet. These three were the only ones with practical use in actualbat.


    <i>Kang! Ka-Kang! Kang!</i>


    “Ugh!”


    However, the gap in skill was too wide.


    I had been training hard, but only for a little over half a year.


    This level of effort was something ingrained in the daily life of Orbis ss students.


    Their culture was absurd, but it forced effort out of those within it.


    Despite its ws, it remained because it was effective, which proved to show that every system has its upsides.


    Fourth-year Oscar de Gradias had been consistently working hard in the Orbis ss.


    My talents were in Mana Attunement, Mana Maniption, and Self-Deception, but the two talents rted to mana were of no use to me at this point.


    Additionally, I had no talent for weapons, including swordsmanship.


    Aside from my supernatural powers, I held no advantage as a Royal ss student. The only difference between the Orbis ss and me was that single supernatural power.


    My opponent had more than three years of training over me, at least at the high-school level. Taking into ount any other training he might have undergone before that, and the mere difference in time put into training would be even greater.


    I could not bridge that difference in the umted time and effort using just my supernatural power.


    I had half a year of training with a supernatural power, while he had an advantage of at least three years of intense training.


    It was simple. I couldn’t beat him.


    <i>Bang!</i>


    “Ugh!”


    I was struck in the abdomen and staggered back a few steps, clutching my stomach.


    Had I not used Harden, I would have fallen right then. Even with a practice sword, such a thrust to the abdomen could be fatal.


    Oscar wasn’t holding back at all.


    “Seems like a first-year couldn’t have been a match for you. You’re quite a monster, aren’t you?”


    Oscar de Gradias sneered, recognizing my resilience despite the powerful blow.


    A monster...


    So, he had ultimately acknowledged me, but his smile felt unpleasant rather than joyful.


    “Doesn’t it feel unfair?” he asked.


    “... What are you talking about all of a sudden?”


    “I’ve been training with the sword since I was a child.”


    He still aimed his sword at me while maintaining his smile, twisted by various emotions.


    “Yet it seems unreasonable that someone like you, who looks like you haven’t even held a sword for long, can stand against me. You’ve endured several of my attacks, and though you may not be my equal, you can still engage in a duel with me. All just because you have supernatural powers... Does that make any sense to you?”


    His smile radiated hatred.


    I couldn’t tell what exactly he hated, but a twisted sense of acrimony was evident in that smile.


    Given the difference in the length of training, this guy should have taken me down in just one exchange. However, despite suffering hits, I didn’t copse, and he had been on the receiving end of several of my unexpected attacks.


    <i>‘Doesn’t that seem unreasonable? Unfair?’</i>


    Just because I was superhuman, I could disregard all the years and effort he’d spent training and face off against him.


    Oscar de Gradias was quietly fuming, and I had nothing to say to him.


    I might not have been born with anytent talents, but I’d obtained this power through a cheat beyond mere talent. It wasn’t to say that I hadn’t worked hard, but I couldn’t im that I’d achieved everything through effort alone.


    I had no words for Oscar, who was expressing his disgust and rage at how futile time and effort were when faced with talent.


    I didn’t even feel like mocking him.


    Someone born with natural talent could not say anything to those who did not have it without it sounding like pandering.


    “I hate effort more than anything else in this world. There’s just too much that can’t be achieved with effort alone,” he said.


    Oscar de Gradias...


    A member of the royal family.


    I had a vague understanding of what he was saying.


    He harbored hatred not only for talent, but for everything born with it, and was filled with resentment toward things unachievable by effort alone.


    <i>‘A royal who can never be the emperor...’</i>


    No matter what he achieved, he could never obtain what he truly desired. Therefore, he had to resent everything innate—all talent, and all birthrights.


    Saying that he was blessed because he was born royal was meaningless.


    A person who lived a life filled with such deprivation would never be able to see what they had.


    Oscar despised effort.


    He didn’t enter the Royal ss, but became the number one fourth-year in the Orbis ss.


    If the Royal ss were excluded, he would stand at the pinnacle among all fourth-years in the Temple.


    Those who devoted everything to effort end up in one of two ways: they either worshiped effort or despised it.


    Oscar de Gradias was thetter.


    Those who achieved nothing despite their desperate efforts often ended up that way.


    It was absurd.


    “A guy who hates effort is forcing that very thing on his juniors?” I said.


    Despite iming to hate effort the most, he was forcing it on his juniors.


    Why make them do what he himself despised?


    The expressions of the Orbis ss students were starting to twist a little.


    “If that’s all one can do, then that’s what has to be done. Isn’t that right?” he replied. “If you’re not born with anything, you must at least put in effort and time.”


    Even if one hates it, even if nothing can change it, if effort is all you can aspire to, then you have to do it.


    His words sounded like a self-pityingment.


    He seemed to believe that not being born with talent was a sin. Not having innate gifts was a crime, and that crime had to be paid for with effort.


    “Does ming the world change anything? If there’s nothing else you can do, you have to do that much at least,” he continued.


    It was a twisted, miserable mindset, close to self-hatred.


    Just like the students of Orbis ss who had been broken by this culture, Oscar de Gradias was also a broken human being.


    No—he had probably entered the Orbis ss as a broken person.


    He had to have fit into the Orbis ss more than anyone else.


    I didn’t know if Oscar de Gradias’s way of thinking was wrong.


    “If that’s what you believe, then live that way yourself, you bastard. Don’t drag innocent kids into the same way of living as you.”


    Making others who weren’t born with talent into criminals andpel them to put in effort was in no way justified.


    He knew full well that effort was not always enough to get everything that one desired, yet he was trying to force that false belief on others, trying to drag them into the same hell.


    That was who Oscar was.


    “You might be right.”


    <i>ng!</i>


    He suddenly tossed his practice sword to the ground.


    “But hearing those words from someone like you makes me feel twisted inside,” he said, his eyes burning with anger.


    He looked disgusted by the sight of someone born with talent, spouting words as if they understood those who weren’t.


    It seemed he was now ready to get serious.


    Discarding the sword wasn’t a sign of surrender.


    <i>Srrrr...</i>


    “Let’s end this quickly.”


    “...”


    I watched in silence as his body underwent a transformation. His golden eyes began to shimmer with a blue aura, and a blue energy enveloped his entire body.


    He was using Mana Reinforcement.


    A fourth-year who was ranked first in his Orbis ss meant that he was the strongest among the approximately ten thousand fourth-year students, excluding the students of the Royal ss. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that he could use Mana Reinforcement. In fact, it might have been expected.


    Achieving Mana Reinforcement meant that talent was already a given. Simply having the capacity for it was a blessing of talent. He was already in his fourth year, so his acquisition of Mana Reinforcement couldn’t even be consideredte.


    This guy hadn’t gained nothing from effort. He had certainly obtained something.


    Yet he despised effort.


    Did he think Mana Reinforcement was too insufficient a rewardpared to what he truly desired?


    “You bastard. You were a born genius too,” I said.


    “Really? I don’t see it that way.”


    “What is a genius if not this?”


    “Maybe my standards are just too high.”


    Everyone stared nkly at Oscar, wielding Mana Reinforcement.


    He discarded the practice sword because he didn’t need it. Using a practice sword while employing Mana Reinforcement in a nonbat situation was just cumbersome.


    Oscar revealed his Mana Reinforcement to end this fight quickly, thinking that prolonging it would only foul his mood even further.


    Even if he hadn’t used Mana Reinforcement, my chances of winning had been non-existent.


    His Mana-Reinforced fists underscored my impending defeat, but did not fundamentally change anything.


    I wondered how much it would hurt to take a Mana-Reinforced punch.


    “Here Ie.”


    <i>Thud!</i>


    <i>‘Harden.’</i>


    <i>-m!</i>


    Oscar’s fist struck me in the abdomen, surpassing the speed of my reaction.


    “...!”


    The impact was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even scream.