Chapter 205: Dark Magic

Viktor could no longer see anything around him clearly. Blindly suspecting, hurting, and attacking the people around him was not protecting him. It was merely a foolish attempt to satisfy his own desire to prove himself and gain Qiu Nuoya’s approval. Nothing more than self-satisfaction.

Viktor needed to realize that his world did not consist of just the two of them. And it was not a world he wanted, either.

"I think it’s very unfortunate that there were people you couldn’t protect in the past, and people you ended up losing. I also understand, or at least I think I do, that those regrets are what drive you to act so extremely now. But I’m not going to become a substitute for anyone else, either. I’m a person from another world, and I have plenty of divine protections. I’m not going to die that easily."

"That is what you call overconfidence. Qiu Tailang was also a person from another world, and he..."

The moment Viktor mentioned that name, Qiu Nuoya felt a resigned realization well up inside him.

Ah, just as I thought.

No matter how far things went, to Viktor, he was nothing more than a substitute for Qiu Tailang.

"I’m not Qiu Tailang!"

"I know that! But..."

"Hey! Viktor, Nuoya! Xiao Tao looks terrified! What happened here!?"

Igor burst into the room without even knocking. Viktor disappeared from Qiu Nuoya’s immediate view, and when Qiu Nuoya rushed out of the room, he found Xiao Tao standing in the hallway, trembling in fear with nothing but a sheet wrapped around him. It was only natural for Igor to assume something had happened.

Qiu Nuoya forcibly shook off Viktor’s arm and called out, "It’s nothing!"

"It was just Viktor losing control again like usual. Sorry for making you worry. Everything’s fine."

"Nuoya! This was clearly an attack...!"

"Viktor, nothing happened to me. I’m not injured, and Xiao Tao is innocent. He has done nothing wrong and there’s no reason to blame him! If I really was attacked by something, then there must be some other cause besides Xiao Tao. If that’s the case, arguing like this right now is a far greater waste of time!"

Qiu Nuoya fired off the words one after another, leaving Viktor momentarily speechless.

Qiu Nuoya asked Igor if Xiao Tao was all right.

"Warren is looking after him, so he’s fine."

Qiu Nuoya breathed a sigh of relief.

"First, I think we should all calm down and figure out what happened. We can talk about everything after that."

At Qiu Nuoya’s words, Viktor finally gave a reluctant nod. "All right."

Qiu Nuoya, Viktor, and Igor left the twin room and headed toward the triple room where Xiao Tao was being looked after.

Viktor’s sudden intrusion had happened while Xiao Tao was bathing. Xiao Tao had been completely naked, so he had wrapped himself in a bedsheet and was now curled up in the corner of the room.

Warren kept talking to him in an attempt to calm him down, and Qiu Nuoya felt terrible for having frightened him so badly.

"Xiao Tao."

The moment Qiu Nuoya spoke to him, Xiao Tao flinched and hurriedly hid behind Warren’s back, his face filled with fear.

Xiao Tao had already told them that he had been bullied in his original world. He was probably especially sensitive to hostility from other people. Seeing him react as though he were standing in front of his bullies made Qiu Nuoya’s heart ache.

"I’m sorry, Xiao Tao. You must have been scared. It’s all right now, so please listen to me."

"..."

"The protective mark I showed you earlier was something Viktor engraved on me. If anything happens to me, it immediately sends a warning to Viktor. It seems that when you touched my protective mark earlier, it accidentally sent him a warning. I’m really sorry. Viktor was only trying to protect me. He never intended to hurt you."

That was a lie.

It was obvious that Viktor had probably intended to eliminate Xiao Tao without even giving him a chance to explain. However, telling Xiao Tao that would only frighten him even more.

Explaining Viktor’s excessive reactions whenever Qiu Nuoya was involved would take time. It was probably something Qiu Nuoya should explain eventually, but this was not the right time.

"Viktor said he sensed interference from dark magic in my protective mark. It’s true that I also felt something like static electricity the moment you touched it, but you felt it too, didn’t you? When Long brought you here, he also said he sensed the presence of dark magic. At the time, I assumed it was coming from the cursed knife you were carrying, but perhaps I was wrong about that."

"Nuoya, what does that mean...?"

"Xiao Tao’s Dark Magic skill level is six."

That was information Qiu Nuoya had only learned a short while ago. Xiao Tao had only recently arrived in this world and could barely use magic properly yet, but every one of his skill levels was already remarkably high, at around the level of an expert.

Among them, his Dark Magic skill stood out the most. Qiu Nuoya had been told that Dark Magic specialized in offensive attacks, so he could somewhat understand why its level was so high.

What Xiao Tao needed as a Hero was "power." Because of that, Qiu Nuoya thought it made sense for his Dark Magic, which specialized in offense, to have been assigned such a high skill level.

Shangguan Wan’er, who had been summoned alongside him, was apparently born with the aptitude to become a Saintess. That meant her Holy Magic skill was probably exceptionally high as well.

If the two of them worked together, Qiu Nuoya suspected they possessed enough power to defeat even the Demon King.

"Dark Magic skill level six!? That’s impossible! There’s no way such a timid boy could maintain his sanity with Dark Magic at such a high level!"

"According to Viktor’s basic knowledge, that would normally be true. Dark Magic gradually causes the user to be consumed by the dark emotions of hatred and resentment the more they use it, eventually driving them insane, right? But that only happens if they actually use the magic."