I got into school for nothing - Chapter 175
I got into school for nothing (175)
Lesson 34. Free Subjugation - 10
“Hoo, hahahahaha!”
The instant the Constellation confirmed Rucell's appearance with its own eyes, it burst into loud laughter.
“My foolish yet beloved bride, you couldn't wait for me and came to find me yourself!”
“Master!”
Rucell, already under the Constellation's influence, was rushing towards Ban Yuwon, her face contorted in a deep frown.
She had sprouted pink beast ears, somewhere between a fox and a wolf, and a luscious tail.
Even as Ban Yuwon watched her lovely form approach, with her eyes fixed solely on him, he couldn't help but frown.
“You shouldn't have come, Rucell.”
“No, I had to.”
Rucell's reply was resolute.
With the physical distance to the Constellation shortened, the poisonous mist it radiated was increasingly affecting her Heart Furnace, yet she stood firm, unyielding.
Ban Yuwon's eyes widened.
The moment she entered the domain, Ban Yuwon could see a strange stream of mana extending from the Constellation's avatar, connecting to her.
This connection hadn't just appeared; it was a line that likely existed even before her birth.
It proved why she absolutely had to be here at this very moment.
“To sever this accursed connection, finding the starting point is the quickest way, isn't it?”
“Sever it? You don't know my power, bride. From the moment my power was implanted within you, you and I became one. Even if you found another master, that wouldn't change. Look, can you not feel the seething furnace of emotions within you! It is now meeting its rightful owner and reclaiming its true power!”
Ban Yuwon gained a small realization.
Now that he thought about it, implanting the Heart Furnace into a child who hadn't even been born yet was an act as close to a curse as could be.
Ban Yuwon deeply understood the nature of the Constellation before him, and at the same time, acknowledged that Rucell had a perfectly accurate grasp of her current situation.
There are two ways to lift a curse.
The first is to overwrite it with a curse, spell, or item superior to the one already at play.
Examples include Ban Yuwon feeding a fragment of his soul to Mira, who was dying from a curse's rebound; interfering with a solitary curse ritual to make a hand drill its core; and becoming Rucell's master to redefine the priority of her tormented Heart Furnace.
And the second is to—kill the caster of the curse, or make them undo the curse themselves.
Of course, they couldn't kill a Constellation, and there was no way it would release Rucell willingly.
However, with the curse's caster and the cursed individual gathered in one place now, Ban Yuwon might be able to analyze and interfere with the curse's mechanics.
‘Rucell must have surmised that the curse of the Heart Furnace she harbored wouldn't be resolved unless she directly confronted the Constellation and brought it to an end.’
If the Heart Furnace had been completely resolved the moment Ban Yuwon became Rucell's master, the concept itself would have disappeared or changed.
But the Heart Furnace remained as it was; although it had been utilized effectively, its fundamental nature was still the Constellation's power.
Rucell, as the one wielding the Heart Furnace, couldn't possibly be unaware of the Authority's peculiar nature and its lingering dangers.
In a sense, this very moment, with the Constellation descended, was Rucell's greatest opportunity to escape its grasp.
“I reject you!”
Rucell, who had by now drawn close to Ban Yuwon, summoned lightning with her equipped artifact, neutralizing the poisonous mist that approached her, and glared at the Constellation, Ruler of the Forest.
“A vulgar transcendent who imposes his desires on his contractor, covets his contractor's daughter... All of it is abhorrent: how you held our tribe in your grasp, how you tried to control my emotions and my life.”
And then she declared:
“I sought nothing from you, so even if you forcefully bestowed power upon me, I owe you nothing in return. For the master of the descendant of the Nine-tailed Fox and the Devouring Wolf is already decided.”
She had declared the nullification of the fraudulent contract to the transcendent who arbitrarily cursed her and sought to establish a false agreement.
“The only master I will follow and serve is Ban Yuwon here, and no other.”
“Interesting. Very good, in fact. Yes, you have the right to be so insolent. But I can't let you continue under this delusion forever.”
“Tsk!”
The very instant power entered the Constellation's voice, Ban Yuwon embraced Rucell, leaped, and kicked off the air.
As the Constellation took another step forward, the mist seemed to shrink and compress, stretching into tendrils, only to then sweep through the air as hundreds, then thousands, of whips.
Yet, Ban Yuwon's movements, dodging between the whips flying at hundreds of kilometers per second with three-dimensional maneuvers perfectly timed to the 0.01-second windows he read with his Giwon Sword, were utterly artistic and flawless.
“Are you alright, Rucell?”
“Of course. More importantly, did my declaration just now have any effect?”
Ban Yuwon simply nodded silently.
The line connecting Rucell and the Constellation, visible only to his eyes which could read all concepts.
He had confirmed that the line fractured the moment Rucell directly declared nullification against the Constellation.
It would have been impossible for the Rucell of before.
It became possible only after she awakened her Nine-tailed Fox blood with Lucia's help, allowing her to understand the magic of words and imbue them with the power of spells.
“Though it's just an avatar, to read my movements and intentions and continually evade them... You truly are quite unique. But as I said before, no one can leave my domain—and now that my bride has come here herself, all is finished.”
However, the Constellation's voice, as if completely disregarding Rucell's rejection, remained unbearably arrogant.
Indeed, the Authority emanating from it grew ever stronger, pouring a violent amount of mana into Rucell despite the unstable connection.
It was attempting to forcibly reattach what she sought to sever.
“Come to me, bride. Open your eyes, and acknowledge your true master!”
“Master... I'm ready.”
Rucell, gritting her teeth, spoke, proudly resisting the Constellation that sought to dominate her with its monstrous mana, curses, and sheer will and status.
“So, I'll leave the rest to you, Master...”
“I do have something in mind.”
Ban Yuwon observed it with his golden eyes, watching the myriad distortions of mana originating from it and the way they spread.
He would analyze and grasp how its Authority functioned, then make it his own.
“But I don't know if it will truly work. In the end, it's just wordplay. Though, that is the core of my Authority.”
“Then it will work.”
He grasped which concept to manifest and where.
He steeled himself to interfere with Rucell's internal concepts.
His past attempt to arbitrarily control her emotions, which resulted in her berserking, now served as a valuable lesson.
“Hoo... Alright. Let's do this.”
Ban Yuwon extended his hand, manifesting his Authority.
He hijacked the connection between Rucell and the Constellation, then severed it.
Snip, went the sound.
A distinct scissor sound seemed to echo in both Ban Yuwon's and Rucell's ears.
The instant the curse was interfered with and broken, an impossibly profound curse assailed Ban Yuwon, but Cellon, who had been reserving mana specifically for this moment, deployed a barrier.
“How dare you try to snort at a magic-specialized Constellation with a mere curse.”
“Thanks.”
“Just finish it quickly.”
Unfortunately, the connection Ban Yuwon had just severed was merely temporary.
The Constellation's Authority still remained intact within Rucell's body, and unless something was done about it, the connection would inevitably revive sooner or later.
That's why Ban Yuwon intended to directly manipulate Rucell's internal concepts starting now.
Ever since he had connected with Rucell, he had instinctively felt that it would be possible.
“Foolish one! The Authority implanted in my bride is not something a mere human can dare to touch. Only a transcendent, I, the master of the curse and power, can properly control such an endless crystallization of power!”
“Why do these Constellation bastards love curses so much?”
“It's because the stronger you get, the more situations there are that you can't overcome with simple brute force.”
Agreeing with Cellon's perfectly accurate observation, Ban Yuwon began his serious work.
He placed his hand on Rucell's smooth abdomen and directly manifested his Authority.
He could see the Heart Furnace residing within her body, having lost its connection to its master, attempting to run wild.
Just as the Constellation said, if left unchecked, it might indeed run wild, stripping Rucell of her reason and perhaps inflicting deep physical damage.
However, Rucell, who had grown remarkably since her enrollment in the Academy, endured the impulses, eyes wide open, even as sweat poured down her.
“Ugh, Mas...ter...”
“I'm concentrating, so no lewd noises.”
...Or perhaps she was merely reacting to Ban Yuwon's touch.
With the Constellation's attacks constantly raining down to obstruct him, he couldn't afford to be distracted by Rucell's voice and mess things up.
Ban Yuwon filtered out all external stimuli, leaving only what he needed, and focused entirely on his Authority.
‘Heart Furnace, found it. Now... I'll invert this.’
Heart Furnace means "furnace of the heart."
If you invert it, it becomes 'Core'—a word that exists in the dictionary.
The core of a nuclear reactor, specifically the part that generates energy through nuclear fission.
Of course, simply inverting 'Heart Furnace' wouldn't create a nuclear reactor inside Rucell's body.
[Converting the concept of Heart Furnace into Core. Extracting the Stigma completely and transforming the concept.]
[The Stigma's depth has reached 35.]
“Wha—!”
However, thanks to Ban Yuwon's Authority, which could completely alter the form of an Authority and define and construct concepts according to his will, it was possible to turn it into the "core of a furnace," or rather, a "source of energy production."
Initially, his goal had merely been to completely transform the Constellation's Authority into his own, erasing all traces of the Constellation—.
[Mutated Authority performs a miracle. The mutation's depth has reached 70!]
[Completely twisting the internal concepts of the slave Rucell, she evolves. Wildness and Core combine, and the Authority Wildness Furnace is born.]
[Wildness Furnace is an Authority that generates explosive power by using the concept of Wildness as fuel. The more Wildness is burned, the more the Authority holder's body, mana, and soul grow permanently, and significant temporary power can also be gained.]
An Authority that not only allows for continuous, permanent growth simply by consuming Wildness but also grants greater power when needed—.
An Authority that was a perfect upgrade to the Heart Furnace had been born.
“Wha... what? You've hijacked my Authority?”
Even the Ruler of the Forest, who had seemed to have reserves of composure when the connection was severed, now spoke with a trembling voice, as if having perceived the change that occurred in Rucell.
“Impossible. For a mere human to manipulate a Constellation's Authority... it's unthinkable.”
‘Some seniors experienced this first, didn't they,’ Ban Yuwon inwardly agreed with it.
In fact, he was the most surprised by the change that had occurred in Rucell, so he didn't even have the energy to speak.
“Master.”
Rucell, on the other hand, was instantly freed from the Constellation the moment the concept evolved, regaining her vitality in a flash.
No, she even seemed to overflow with more power than before—and naturally so, as she was now spectacularly burning all the accumulated Wildness within her Core.
Ban Yuwon could feel her core concept growing in real-time.
“Master!”
“Rucell, there's something we need to clarify first.”
Ban Yuwon stopped Rucell, who was about to embrace him in excitement, and asked.
This was extremely important to him.
“I am no longer your master.”
“Ah...?!”
Not only had the Heart Furnace completely changed, freeing her from the Constellation's interference or torment...
But in truth, the moment the Wildness Furnace's transformation was complete, Ban Yuwon had also severed the concept of subjugation within her body.
It was a natural choice, as subjugation was the concept he most wished to erase whenever he could interfere with internal concepts.
“Master, why...?”
“Because I want you to be free.”
Of course, he wasn't so foolish as to pretend he didn't know Rucell liked him.
Still, Ban Yuwon no longer wished to see Rucell swayed by the circumstances surrounding her.
From the moment she was born, Rucell had always been swayed by the will of others.
Now, the moment had come for her to shed the shackles of "master" or "Constellation" and make decisions solely by her own will.
From now on, that was possible.
“Yes, I am free.”
Perhaps she understood his feelings; Rucell smiled brightly, as if to reassure Ban Yuwon, who wore a wry smile.
Then, she leaned into Ban Yuwon's embrace and whispered.
“And this is my choice, Master.”
“...Ah.”
Watching the concept of subjugation, which he had just erased from Rucell's body, reappear, Ban Yuwon simply held his forehead.
What's more, its depth was 50 right from the start.
It meant that Rucell's feelings for Ban Yuwon were that deep.
“No, even without this, we could just date normally!”
“Master!”
“Aaaaaaaah!”
Rucell succeeded in shedding her shackles.
But Ban Yuwon, in the end, failed.
That was the whole story.
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