Chapter 250
Chapter 250
In truth, it was hardly enough to be called a plan. It was simple.
“Blocks are weapons of war. They’re the only shields capable of stopping even magic that destroys protective spells.”
The plan was to summon two Blocks simultaneously and use them to maintain the protective spell.
I relayed that to Marie.
Marie merely listened to me in silence.
“You understand, right?”
“…….”
At my question, Marie alternated her gaze between the key in her hand and my face.
Eventually, after some thought, Marie opened her mouth.
Her voice still sounded wary of me.
“……Using this key requires a considerable amount of magical energy.”
Only then did Marie seem to pinpoint the decisive reason I had approached her.
“Senior Villead, you managed to steal the key, but you can’t actually use it, so that’s why you came to me. The fact that you’re asking this of me, a first-year, rather than another second-year senior means…….”
She thought I had discovered the power she had kept so carefully hidden.
Her sharply guarded reaction was only natural.
“How much have you seen about me?”
Depending on my answer, her attitude could change completely.
But even this was within my calculations.
“Who knows.”
I shrugged as though I had no idea what she meant.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something, but I’m not giving it to you to use.”
“Then……?”
“I’ve already met Kaiel.”
Kaiel.
One of Shen’s five younger siblings.
“Is that really true?”
“If you really can’t believe me, ask him yourself later.”
Kaiel was a blond young nobleman who couldn’t speak.
He had even visited the restaurant I opened during the previous entrance examination.
He was the guy who had achieved an overwhelming score in the test to purify magical contamination and taken first place among the first-years.
Of Shen’s younger siblings, Kaiel was probably the only one who didn’t hide his power.
Just as Kayrin, the strongest talent among the second-years, possessed a key, Kaiel would come to possess the first-years’ key.
“Kaiel ranked first among the first-years. So he should have the first-years’ key as well.”
“…….”
Marie closed her mouth.
Her silence was an affirmation. Things had unfolded according to the original story.
“I simply thought someone with the magical energy of the top-ranked student could operate two Blocks. That’s why I was going to ask you to deliver this to him for me.”
“……So that was it.”
Was she relieved that the power she had been hiding hadn’t been exposed?
The wariness in her eyes visibly faded, but true to her meticulous personality, she proposed an alternative.
“What about asking the professors for help…….”
I shook my head.
“That’s impossible.”
It wasn’t a strategy I had never tried in the game. Progressing with that strategy was difficult.
There wasn’t enough evidence to convince the professors in the first place.
“Let’s say I ask the professors for help. Do you really think they’ll believe me?”
I let out a hollow laugh.
“My abilities are lacking, my reputation is already the worst, and I’m the one who stole this key and ruined the match. There isn’t a professor who’d believe me.”
“……Though this entire situation happened because of you, Senior.”
“I won’t deny that.”
I shrugged and continued.
“We’ll use the Blocks to stop the unidentified magic and protect the cadets. That’s all you need to think about.”
“But Senior. How are you going to gather the cadets?”
Right.
To use the Blocks as shields, every cadet had to gather behind the Blocks, inside the safe zone.
“Gathering the first-years won’t be easy either…… but there’s no way to control even the second-year Scholars.”
“Good point. But if that’s what you’re worried about, don’t.”
The corners of my lips rose.
“The moment your unique skill is released, attack me.”
“……?”
“I’ll take the attack head-on and retire.”
Marie still looked puzzled, so I elaborated.
“Because I stole the key, even my allies are after me. The second-years will be waiting in formation in front of the castle gate for me to revive. They’ll want the key back.”
It had been the same in the game.
The Block Key, which controlled an invincible siege weapon, was always the number-one priority.
They would mercilessly attack even if the one who had taken it was an ally.
Moreover, given Professor Jennings’s personality, he would have every second-year Scholar waiting around me to eliminate any possible variable.
So, with this method, I could gather the second-years.
Marie looked as though she couldn’t believe it.
“……There must be another way. If you do that, Senior, you’ll become the first second-year Scholar ever to lose to a first-year.”
To nobles, reputation was more precious than life.
A senior student losing one-on-one to a first-year?
That would be the moment the rumors of my incompetence became an indisputable fact.
People’s opinion of me would plummet so far that the contempt and scorn I received now would seem laughable by comparison.
But.
What did that honestly have to do with me?
If I were the sort of person who cared about other people’s opinions, I wouldn’t have lived in a stable in the first place.
“That sounds fucking awful.”
I gave Marie’s words a casual response.
“But those worthless vermin can laugh all they want. After graduation, they’ll be beneath my feet anyway.”
“……”
Marie let out a short sigh at my shameless attitude.
“And gathering the first-years is easier than you think. You might not have noticed, but there was a third party watching us.”
“……A third party?”
So she really didn’t know?
In a way, it was only natural that Marie hadn’t noticed the concealed cadet hiding nearby.
The ability to detect concealment was quite an advanced skill, after all.
“When I talk to your sister, I’ll deliberately let slip that I know the future through someone else. That alone will make the person hiding nearby a huge help in gathering the first-year cadets.”
“That makes no sense……. There’s no way they’d believe something like that.”
“They will.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Didn’t I tell you my ability was ‘Observation’?”
“…….”
There was no need to even say that I had seen that person’s past and future through my ability.
Marie seemed to understand it herself and raised no further objections.
I took a step toward her and spoke.
“Hey, Marie. This is a deal.”
I looked directly into her eyes without avoiding her gaze.
“I’ll take the secret that you’re ‘Alice’ to my grave. In return, you won’t tell anyone about my ‘Observation.’ The same goes for Shen.”
A brief silence hung between us.
Marie pressed her lips tightly together before eventually nodding.
“……All right.”
The instant an affirmative answer left her mouth, I smirked and gave my instructions.
“Now, release your ability. I’ll act like I’m putting up a decent fight, so just play along properly.”
That was when it happened.
Crack-!
Crack, crack-!
Cracks began spreading across this place that resembled the vastness of outer space…….
Crash-!
As though a pane of glass had shattered, the world broke apart, and we returned to our original location in an instant.
Marie’s unique skill, ‘Private Audience,’ had ended.
From now on, it was time to act.
She raised her rough, blunt sword.
“Damn it!”
I scowled fiercely and ground my teeth.
I drew Illaune’s Heart and aimed it at Marie.
‘Tuesday Fire!’
I deliberately cloaked my entire body in feeble flames that looked ready to go out at any moment.
“I won’t lose to some first-year!”
Just as I clumsily swung Illaune’s Heart, my vision went black.
“……Marie!”
Hearing Villead’s dying cry, Lou came running.
“Why’d you just send that guy away!”
It had been absurdly simple.
Marie had retired Villead with a single swing of her sword.
“I wanted to finish him off myself if we had the chance! Ugh, what a shame!”
“…….”
Marie looked at Lou and naturally opened her mouth.
As though deliberately intending for someone else to hear, her voice was slightly louder than usual.
“Lou, that senior just told me something strange.”
“What?”
“He said there’ll be casualties during the match.”
Lou tilted her head.
“Whaat~? Where did that come from all of a sudden?”
“I thought he was talking nonsense at first too. But considering how specific he was, somehow, I don’t think it was a lie.”
Marie narrowed her eyes gravely and continued.
“That senior said he heard it from someone trustworthy. It could be a lie…… but it’s still bothering me a little.”
“Hmm…… Marie, now I’m curious. Can you tell me exactly what he said?”
Marie briefly explained it to Lou.
Before long, the protective spell would be destroyed, and the resulting aftermath would severely injure or kill cadets.
It was nonsense that no one else would ever believe.
……But Lou knew.
She knew that her younger sister was absolutely not the type to spout nonsense.
Nor was she the type to be deceived by someone.
It had been a long time since she had seen Marie this serious.
“If someone’s going to die, then there’d be no point in us coming to the Academy. ……If it’s bothering you that much, should we at least take precautions? What do we need to do, Marie?”
“Lou, first we need to gather the cadets somewhere safe.”
The two talked briefly before swiftly running off somewhere.
……And there was one other person, a cadet still concealed nearby.
“…….”
That person held their breath and eavesdropped on their entire conversation from beginning to end.
Ever since the Virtual War match began, Hesty and McGrim had always stayed together.
Since the two lacked combat ability, they had taken on reconnaissance rather than standing on the front lines.
Their role was to report the movements of the second-year Scholars.
[Hesty, McGrim! Good work!]
“Hehe…… I’m glad we could help.”
Hesty, the freckled girl, was happy that she could help the other cadets.
Of course, McGrim felt much the same as Hesty.
……But something had been bothering her for a while.
[Catch Villead! No matter what!]
Through the magical communication shared among all the cadets, talk about Senior Villead had continued to pour in.
Apparently, Senior Villead and Senior Kun King had devised some sort of plan and worked together to eliminate more than 150 cadets.
From what she had heard, Senior Kun King was the one who directly fought the first-years, while Senior Villead had served as bait.
But.
[Villead stole the key from Senior Kayrin and ran away!]
……This time, it didn’t seem to be a trap.
[Everyone, contact us immediately if you find Villead!]
[If we catch that guy, we can use two Blocks! Then we’ll have the advantage in this match!]
It was information obtained by eavesdropping on conversations between Professor Jennings and the opposing second-years.
“Senior Villead……?”
He was deliberately interfering with the match.
There had to be a reason.
While wondering about it, she happened to spot someone running through the forest.
Eyes like the noonday sun, dark blue hair, and a tall figure.
‘That’s Senior Villead, isn’t it?’
The instant McGrim spotted Villead, wings sprouted from her back, and she activated her concealment ability.
“Hesty, I’ll follow Senior Villead.”
“Ah, okay!”
The situation had been so urgent that McGrim immediately flew after him.
McGrim was curious.
At least the Villead she knew wasn’t someone who recklessly harmed others or behaved rashly.
Furthermore, even the Manager, who was a good judge of character, tended to regard Senior Villead extremely favorably.
……Right.
She wanted to know why Senior Villead had acted that way.
With only that thought in mind, she followed Villead.
……And that was how she arrived here.
It was a street that looked like part of a small village.
Slash-!
“Aaargh!”
Villead had been defeated here by Marie in a single blow, but.
She had overheard Marie and Lou’s conversation.
She learned that casualties would occur before long when the protective spell was destroyed.
That two Blocks had to be deployed to prevent that disaster.
And that Villead had learned about it beforehand through someone else.
‘……We need to gather the cadets somewhere safe……?’
People’s lives were at stake.
‘Senior Villead learning about the future through someone else…… It sounds a little strange, but.’
If their conversation was genuine…….
If all of Villead’s bizarre actions had been for the sake of protecting the cadets…….
Somehow, it all made sense.
‘I have to help Senior Villead.’
McGrim firmly resolved to do exactly that.