The Academy’s Weakest Became A Demon-Limited Hunter

It was when Isaac had yet to regain consciousness.

“Are you really okay with this?”

“…”

In the corner of the Butterfly Garden, where Isaac often trained.

On the wide grassy field, Luce Eltania and Dorothy Heartnova stood facing each other from a distance.

Luce nodded solemnly at Dorothy’s question.

“Our friend is in quite an unusual situation. If you’re at the point of asking even me for help, can I assume you’re feeling really cornered?”

Dorothy covered her mouth, her sly and devious laugh escaping in a slow, drawn-out chuckle.

That sight irritated Luce, but she merely furrowed her brows.

“Alright, I won’t tease you anymore. Then… I won’t go easy on you.”

“Okay.”

The two students deployed magic circles aimed at each other.

During the Heavenly Being Incident, Luce Eltania, after being defeated by Vuel and regaining her senses, was overcome with a sense of helplessness.

She wanted to grow stronger. That was why she asked Dorothy for a spar.

No matter how much Luce disliked Dorothy, currently, Dorothy was stronger than Luce herself.

As the sun set and the sky was painted with ink, days and nights passed, and Luce continued sparring with Dorothy without rest.

It wasn’t just Dorothy.

Luce also bowed her head and asked Alice Carroll to train with her. Alice gladly accepted and kindly sparred with her.

Even though Luce was called a genius, she was no match for Dorothy or Alice. However, Luce had no intention of backing down.

She could no longer bear losing someone dear to her because of her powerlessness.

She wanted to become stronger, to be someone who could walk in stride with Isaac.

“Isaac, why aren’t you answering?”

Returning to the present.

On the bed, Luce whispered impatiently to the man she loved more than anyone else.

She had already confessed her feelings once. Luce decided there was no need to awkwardly hide her emotions anymore.

“Don’t you like it…?”

Luce deliberately added a breathy tone to her voice as she placed her hand on Isaac’s bound hand.

She gently stroked Isaac’s hand as if handling something precious, sliding her slender fingers between his.

When she softly interlocked their fingers, Isaac flinched and shuddered.

“Hey, Luce…”

“Isaac, it might be sudden, but I see you as a man.”

Luce was well aware of her own beauty.

And she had reached a certain conclusion.

Isaac saw Luce as a woman.

And so, despite it being her first time and unfamiliar to her, she had chosen seduction as her method.

“Do I not look like a woman to you…?” she asked deliberately, almost pleading for him to see her as a woman.

Isaac’s lips twitched. His eyes trembled, his body temperature rose, and the small movements of his head became stiff with tension.

Luce noticed all these changes. It was evidence that even he was nothing more than a man who couldn’t resist his lust.

She pressed forward.

Luce deliberately pressed her bare chest against Isaac’s chest and gazed at him as if she were about to kiss him. Their warm breaths mingled, heating each other’s lips.

With her free hand, she brushed Isaac’s bangs back, exposing his forehead, to focus all of his attention solely on her.

The two of them forgot even the crackling sound of the campfire and gazed deeply into each other’s eyes.

“You can do whatever you want with me,” Luce moved her lips slightly as she spoke.

It was a sweet and seductive whisper.

“Do as you wish,” Luce added with an intimate and resolute tone.

Click.

Suddenly, Luce undid the restraints, and the magic that had formed them dissipated.

The restraints had been set up only to focus all of Isaac’s attention on her. Now, they had served their purpose.

All that remained was to wait for Isaac’s reaction.

Their eyes were filled with tender yet suggestive gazes. Luce’s peculiar breaths softly flowed between her lips, subtly tickling Isaac’s lips.

Like prey offering its neck, Luce had surrendered her body, leaving Isaac free to decide what to do.

At last, Isaac closed his eyes and opened his mouth.

“Luce, you already figured out that I like you, too, right?”

She had noticed.

“What kind of answer do you want?”

“Never mind. I guess there’s no need to ask. So that’s why you’re doing this.”

Isaac opened his eyes again and turned his head to the side, deliberately avoiding Luce’s gaze.

“I’m sorry, but for starters, I’m trash.”

“Trash.”

“I haven’t even told you why yet.”

Isaac glared sharply.

“It’s because you like multiple women, isn’t it?”

“Seems like you know… Anyway, it’s true I like you, but you’re not the only one I like.”

“I know, you horn dog,” Luce replied looking a little sad.

“Do you know why someone like me doesn’t date? I don’t want to complicate things with relationships until after I defeat the Evil God. I need to stay focused.”

It was a mental product of his grueling goshi life, but Luce had no way of knowing about Isaac’s previous life.

“So, you’re going to hold back?”

“Yeah. At least for now, I can’t lay a hand on you.”

“…”

Luce closed her eyes and pondered, then opened them again with a realization as she looked at Isaac.

“Are you… impotent?”

“No, dumbass,” Isaac answered firmly.

“Dumbass? Why say something so harsh?”

“Fool.”

“That’s better.”

Once again, an awkward silence fell between them.

It was Luce’s turn again.

Luce turned her head and stared quietly at the campfire for a while.

“So, you’re still not thinking about doing anything naughty with me…”

Suddenly, a sense of doubt washed over Luce.

“Something about our relationship… feels a little twisted.”

“…”

“Then can I ask you just one thing?”

“Yeah.”

Luce looked down at Isaac with lifeless eyes, as if the fire had stolen all her energy.

“Is Alice an exception?”

“What?”

“You secretly lived together and shared a bed, didn’t you? Why did you do that with her?”

Luce interrogated him with a sharp and intimidating tone.

Isaac momentarily doubted his ears before a drop of cold sweat slid down his face.

How does she know?

For now, he put that question aside. It felt completely unfair to Isaac to be questioned over something like that. Sure, they had shared a bed, but all they had done was sleep.

Saying they had only slept was laughable, but either way, Isaac felt no shame in being part of the trash category.

He voiced the first question that came to mind, “How did you know about that…?”

“…”

Luce kept her mouth shut, clearly unwilling to explain how she knew.

During that time, I also slept with Dorothy, but she only mentioned Alice…

That meant…

…She sneaked into my room again, didn’t she?

Isaac frowned and let out a bitter smile.

Luce had been to Isaac’s room before. She had made a mistake on her first visit, but she likely took the time to carefully figure out what went wrong.

If she had secretly sneaked into Isaac’s room and sniffed around or collected clues like strands of hair, she could have deduced that Isaac and Alice had lived together and shared a bed.

Given it was Luce, she probably erased all traces of her intrusion perfectly before leaving the room.

After the 「Alice Subjugation」, Alice hid in Isaac’s room until she returned to the academy, so any traces of Dorothy were likely erased during that time.

That was why Luce had concluded that Isaac had only slept with Alice.

“Haa…”

Isaac let out a deep sigh.

“It’s not what you’re imagining. She wasn’t an exception, you know.”

“You must’ve done all sorts of things. There’s no way Alice left you alone.”

“Nothing really happened. Stop making weird assumptions.”

Luce read the subtle changes in Isaac’s expression and realized that he was telling the truth.

“…Really?”

She lowered her gaze.

Although she felt a bit relieved to hear they only slept, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that Alice hadn’t tried any tricks while living with Isaac.

“Something feels… a little off.”

In the end, Luce’s mood sank again, and the charged, suggestive tension dissolved before they knew it.

“What a letdown”

Luce gave up trying to seduce him and plopped down next to Isaac.

Their interlocked hands remained as they were.

“I was about to feel gloomy, but now I’m just annoyed.”

“That’s better, isn’t it?”

“Annoyance is one step lower on the danger scale.”

“That’s a relief. So, what can I do for you?”

“You still owe me something, don’t you? Use that to cheer me up.”

“What is it?”

“Half a year ago, you said you’d repay me when it was just the two of us.”

Isaac recalled a memory he had long forgotten.

Ah, right. After the「Alice Subjugation」.

After the Alice incident, Isaac had promised to repay Luce for all her efforts when they were alone.

Back then, he had received the first loop Dorothy’s notes from Saintess Bianca, which had completely occupied his mind, causing him to forget about his promise.

Luce looked up at the ceiling, pouting with a sulky expression.

“You forgot, huh? I hate you.”

“Sorry. What would you like me to do?”

“Hmm… How about we bump our mouths together?”

“It’s hard to express a kiss in a less romantic way than that.”

To Isaac, Luce seemed far removed from anything resembling romance.

Isaac stared at the ceiling, just like Luce.

In the silence that returned, he fell deep into thought.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a substitute for a kiss… but there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Hmm? Something you need to tell me?”

“I’ve been thinking about when to tell you.”

Luce turned her eyes toward Isaac.

“What is it?”

“I’ve actually met the Great Witch of Heaven’s Wrath.”

“…What?”

Luce’s eyes sharpened, and she sat up straight.

“Twice, to be exact.”

“What do you mean, all of a sudden?”

The Great Witch of Heaven’s Wrath, also known as the Candy House Witch.

To Luce, it was a name as untouchable as a dragon’s reverse scale.

Luce’s eyes froze cold, yet in contrast, the hand interlocked with Isaac’s trembled slightly.

“You’re joking, right…? No, if it’s something like that, I don’t think I can stay calm….”

“Would I joke about something like this?”

Isaac grumbled just loud enough for Luce to hear, then, with his gaze fixed on the ceiling, began speaking seriously, “I’ve been through my own share of things, and I ended up meeting her by chance. The first time was briefly during the fight with Galia, and the second time was in the Nether.”

“…And then?”

“She asked me to send her regards to you, Gretel.”

Hearing that name, Luce gasped involuntarily.

Isaac didn’t continue the story and instead waited for Luce’s reaction, not wanting to reveal the Candy House Witch’s ultimate fate.

Luce’s eyes trembled.

“What are you suddenly talking about…?”

Her deeply buried trauma pounded mercilessly at her heart.

Isaac noticed her expression and widened his eyes in concern.

“Luce?”

The gentle glow of the campfire flickered softly near the corners of Luce’s eyes.

It was tears.

“Is it true…?”

Her whisper wavered in the air, her voice trembling with a sob.

Isaac let go of their interlocked hands and embraced her.

He gently stroked her hair, desperately trying to dispel her sorrow.

“Yes, it’s true. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Do you even know how I’ve been living with these feelings…? How am I supposed to endure this after hearing that…?”

For a while, Luce sobbed silently in Isaac’s arms.

Eventually, Luce cried herself to sleep, and only then did Isaac, still holding her, drift off into his own dreams.

“…”

In the deep hours of dawn, Luce opened her eyes. Her throat felt sore, perhaps because she had been crying while trying hard to hold back her voice.

She couldn’t muster any strength in her body; she was completely drained.

She lifted her head and looked at Isaac, who was sound asleep, holding her in his arms.

“I really hate you…”

Luce muttered softly, her voice tinged with emptiness, before gently pressing her lips to Isaac’s.

A small, adorable smooch sound, followed by a brief moment of sticky intimacy.

The next day, under the bright sunlight, Isaac woke up.

Looking around, he realized Luce had already left the room.

Isaac gazed at the spot where she had slept, feeling a mix of emotions.

When he touched it, the warmth was already gone.