As the two mindlessly sat in silence, with one other ignored entity siphoning a mystical rainbow cloud from Anna’s body, a creak was suddenly heard coming from the stairs to the side along with rhythmic footsteps.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Creak. Creak. Creak.

Arriving at the living room, Noel gave a cursory glance at the two and proceeded to approach them, but when a golden glow flashed in the invisible man’s eyes, he stopped and blinked his eyes in confusion.

“Uh…” he scratched his chin and looked at the kitchen with an unsure gaze. “I’ll cook dinner for now, yes, dinner. While I do so, you two better behave yourself.”

“Okay…?” Anna furrowed his brows as he glanced at Noel suspiciously. Weren’t we supposed to stu-

So annoying. Winston habitually exerted a bit of force using Fortune Stealer and Anna’s lively eyes turned dull for a moment as her thoughts were stolen, but he didn’t stop there. After forcefully erasing those traces of suspicions, a strange golden thread plunged deep into her forehead and Winston felt his mind connect with her’s.

With a temporary hold over Anna’s mind, he completely altered her mental state with skilled movements.

Sloth acted in tandem with Winston as his eyes also glowed with a bright golden glow. As a golden force erupted out of his body with him acting as the epicenter, the world itself seemed to glitch for a moment and the erratic invisible spirits moving around in the air came to a halt.

Then, they resumed their activities as if nothing happened, with the strange situation of Noel cooking dinner being ignored entirely.

Anna, who just regained her consciousness and control over her own mind and body, looked around the living room for a moment with a confused look before seemingly remembering something.

“Oh, right, what were we talking about again?” Anna chuckled awkwardly. “Sorry, I dozed off for a moment there.”

“Huh?” Winston, who was mindlessly staring at the ground, abruptly looked up and blinked in his eyes in confusion. “Oh yeah, we were talking about… something.”

“Yeah… something…” Anna awkwardly cleared her throat and grinned wryly. “So, uh… what do you think Noel will cook for lunch tonight?”

“I don’t know.” Winston shrugged his shoulders and leaned back on his couch. “Maybe he’ll cook some lamb stew? I really like the ones on the southern regions of the empire with its spicier varieties.”

“Spicy lamb stew? Now that you said it, I haven’t had authentic spicy lamb stew for quite a while ever since I moved here to the capital. Back when I was still living in my family’s estate, I would have some delicious lamb stew like twice a week!” Anna reminisced with a nostalgic smile as the image of her family flashed in her mind. “Especially when the lambs are fresh and tender!”

“Right? Spicy lamb stew really is a great dish. Back when I was still living in my village, my father’s friend who owned a farm and sheep would send us a batch of fresh sheep every month. The way mama cooked those were just great!”

“Oh yeah, the same father’s friend who is my fucking father! You bastard, it should have been you who’s currently here, not me!” Sloth shouted with a glare, but Winston didn’t even bother to bathe an eye and instead kept his eyes locked on Annabeth Auburn.

“Sigh, sometimes things just aren’t the same.” Anna smiled and then had a curious thought pop into her mind. “Hey, I don’t think you’ve ever said which village you came from. Is it somewhere down the south?”

“Oh yeah, I used to live down in the southern boonies. No monsters and the only threat you could think of was those pesky rodents and snakes.” Winston laughed and then shook his head with a nostalgic grin. “As for the village I came from? It’s just a little village called Mirakal Village.”

“Oh, Mirakal Village…” Anna chuckled with a mindless laugh, when all of a sudden, it was as if the entire world around her shattered into fragments. M-Mirakal Village?!!??!?!?!

“You mean that Mirakal Village?” Anna asked apprehensively.

“What other village is there named Mirakal Village?” Winston jibed. “But yes, it’s that Mirakal Village, the one the all-famous Holly Lavestine came from.”

“Sigh, it’s so sad how different our status in school is when you consider we came from the same place. I guess the destiny and fate of others is just predetermined to be much brighter compared to their peers.” As he spoke, his eyes glazed over Sloth with a mischievous glint.

You bastard! Sloth clicked his tongue and gnashed his teeth.

“Yeah, yeah…” Anna mindlessly nodded her head as her mind began to churn at an increasingly fast speed. Of course, you’re a fucking unknown, you’ve never existed in the game in the first place!

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?! HE’S FROM MIRAKAL VILLAGE?! THAT DRAGON-WORSHIPPING VILLAGE THAT IS RUMORED TO PRODUCE ONE GENIUS AFTER ANOTHER?! THE FUCKING BIRTHPLACE OF NOEL GODDAMN CROWLEY AND HOLLY LAVESTINE?!

So that’s why he’s a fricking genius that even received that prideful Archmage’s praise! He’s from the same goddamn village this whole time! Anna resisted the urge to clutch her head and tug her hair since Winston was there to witness her sudden burst of lunacy.

So, as she maintained as calm of an external composure as possible, she took deep breaths in and out in a bid to calm herself down mentally while beads of sweat formed on her back.

“I know, you don’t have to act like you know what Mirakal Village is. It’s a pretty countryside place, but I think it’s a nice place to live in. Lots of greenery and open space, and the wind is just amazing. I don’t even need to use those expensive air cooling arrays and could just stay outside if it was hot,” said Winston.

“No, no, I’m actually really interested in Mirakal Village,” Anna hurriedly said. I need to know more about this guy. Maybe if I learn more about his past and how he was admitted to school, I’ll be able to solve more of the mystery regarding these random bozos changing their fucking roles.

…

“You know, I’m still shocked at how stupidly good you are getting at basically everything,” Elaine mumbled as she glanced around the strangely big room with plain gray walls and a couple of floating white orbs stuck to the ceiling acting as light sources.

Rob, who was standing near the middle of the room, chuckled and swished around a vial of light yellow liquid in his hand and tossed it into a strange device on the ground akin to a humidifier. “Well, that’s what happens when you optimize your training with methods that are backed up by research along with mystical drugs that grant increased brain power.”

“Magic is affected not just by spiritual talent but also mental talent, so increase your mind, and your talent in magic also increases,” Rob added.

“Is it really that simple?” Holly asked curiously as she eyed Rob with a glimmer in her blue eyes.

“You two are just overcomplicating magic and mystifying what talent really is,” Rob chided as he watched a bright yellow smoke spread out throughout the entire room.

After a short while, the trio felt their mind turn sharp and fast, as their minds went from sluggish to wide and awake.

“Oh…!” Elaine exclaimed as she took another big huff of smoke. “So this is what you were talking about! Damn bro, you’re always keeping the good stuff to yourself!”

“W-What’s this! I feel so… alive!” Holly exclaimed with a flushed face as she subconsciously approached the humidifier to take in deeper breaths of that mind-bending drugged smoke.

“Stupid. I already told you that alchemy isn’t something to be used on humans willy-nilly. I still have to do some rigorous testing before I even manage to use it in the first place!” Rob explained with a berating tone. “Anyways, you two shut up. We’re going to begin our lesson right now!”

“Yes, sir!” Elaine saluted with a joking grin.

“Y-Yes!” Holly straightened her back and focused her eyes on Rob.

…

“So, what is Holy? What is this strange, mystical concept that correlates directly to the being known as God?” Rob asked rhetorically and didn’t wait for the two to answer his question. “In essence, being Holy is to be closer to the image of God.”

“God created man in his image, right? And God represents the omnipotent and omniscient creator. To be strong is to be closer to the image of God, to be divine is to be closer to the image of God,” Rob explained casually.

“So, Holy Magic is just an extension of that rule and isn’t actually Holy in the actual sense of the word. Healing is just an extension of being closer to God since God is never correlated to the concept of damaged, buffs like haste are also just being closer to God since God is all-powerful, so in a way, Holy Magic can theoretically do anything as long as it’s following the concept of God-hood.”

“What are you even saying right now? So me controlling time is also technically Holy Magic? And you wielding magic in general is also being closer to the likeness of God because becoming more powerful is to be one step closer to omnipotence?” Elaine asked sarcastically.

“Yep!” Rob nodded his head with a grin. “Technically speaking, everything is just under the domain of the most powerful magic of all, Holy Magic. For example, Pope Soter, who led the Holy Church for over a century back around in the 500s was known to wield powerful magic capable of combining the spiritual might of an entire kingdom and basically grant himself demigod-levels of strength?”

“Others thought that was some sort of special magic, but in books, he had said that his magic was simply the blessing of God. But if you are to look around, have you seen any other Holy Magic users do something like that? They’ll all just heal people, buff people, detoxify people; they never fucking gather the power of a million men through the holy tether of God!”

“So, in essence, God is stupidly overpowered, and any type of power that belongs to his… well, path, is going to be incredibly strong under the right hands, and since everything is his domain, then everything is capable of becoming incredibly strong,” Rob groaned. “Ugh, just thinking about it makes me all the more greedy of having that sort of power.”

Holly, who was the main benefactor of that lesson, couldn’t help but clutch her head with a bewildered look. “I… I don’t understand what you just said!”

“Me too! Like, how in the hell would Holy Magic be even capable of that sort of thing?!” Elaine exclaimed.

“Duh, of course, you two wouldn’t understand a thing. You guys are too stupid to even comprehend what I had just said,” Rob snorted. That’s basically that guy’s Supreme Truth, which is really scary.

Stealing on its own has no way of actually being capable of reaching the heights I had pushed it to. Only with the existences of both God and Buddha, Supremacy and Transcendence, could something so mundane become something extraordinary.

The Supreme Existence of Swimming, the Supreme Existence of Licking, the Supreme Existence of Sniffing, they’re all existences that couldn’t have become supreme without God.

So, in a way, God is the closest to reaching true omnipotence…Rob laughed. And to think that one day, I’ll have to face that bastard again when I try to reascend my way to the supreme throne with my new truth.

With a twinkle in his ordinary brown eyes, Rob clapped his hands and a strange illusory screen appeared right beside him floating in the air.

“Let’s ignore what I just said before right now since you two are too dumb. Instead, we’ll focus more on time and some pretty cool theories.”

“Ugh!” Elaine groaned and deflated like a balloon.