Chapter 254
Chapter 254:
“Everyone, thank you for loving my songs!”
When Miss McGrim lightly jumped on the nature-friendly stage and shouted, the hundreds of spectators gathered before her cried out.
“We’re the ones who should be thanking you, Miss McGrim!”
“Encore! Encore!”
Most of the cadets were enthusiastically immersed in Miss McGrim’s performance, but others who found the situation suspicious were talking not far from the stage.
“But why is she performing here of all places?”
“No idea…… This is way too sudden……….”
They had already tried asking the professor what was going on, but for some unknown reason, magical communication had been completely cut off as well.
They didn’t know exactly when it had happened. It had definitely been working just a few minutes ago.
“We can’t contact the professor anyway, so maybe this means we’re supposed to take a break?
“The second-year seniors aren’t attacking either, so maybe.”
“Come on, don’t overthink it. If it’s good, it’s good. Let’s just enjoy it for now!”
In the end, they cast aside their unease and naturally joined the performance as well.
Meanwhile…….
The blond young nobleman Kaiel and Marie were moving toward the coordinates Villead had given them.
The coordinates pointed to the very center of the Virtual War battlefield.
Kaiel wrote something on a notepad and showed it to Marie.
「It could get dangerous, so you’d better stay back from here.」
“……You be careful too, Kaiel.”
At Marie’s worried warning, Kaiel responded with a brief smile.
At first, he hadn’t been able to hide his bewilderment when Marie suddenly handed him the key. However, the moment she said it was Senior Villead’s ingenious plan, he accepted the proposal without hesitation.
Someone special who possessed no magical energy, yet was clearly hiding something.
He had judged that such a person was worth trusting.
Kaiel lifted his head and looked at the sky.
Just before the clock’s second hand reached the appointed time, Kaiel pulled two keys from inside his clothes.
One was the first-years’ key.
The other was the second-years’ key.
Using these keys would summon invincible siege weapons capable of overturning the entire battlefield into one place.
And not just one, but two.
Kaiel gently closed his eyes and poured his golden mana generously into both keys.
……At that moment.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-!
With a deafening roar that seemed capable of tearing apart the eardrums, space distorted and a massive dimensional curtain ripped open.
Two colossal giants forced their way through the opening and revealed their overwhelming majesty.
Blocks, steel weapons capable of casually smashing through castle walls.
They had been modeled after the human form, yet their size was enormous enough to seem capable of piercing the heavens.
Their grand forms radiated such overwhelming pressure that merely looking up at them made it difficult to breathe.
But…….
Because the hundreds of cadets in the distance were completely captivated by McGrim’s stage, not a single person noticed the gigantic weapons descending into the middle of the battlefield.
And immediately after the two Blocks fully planted their feet on the ground.
The clock’s second hand aligned with the appointed time…….
Bzzzzzt-! Rumble-rumble-!
Thunder suddenly crashed through the sky that had been clear only moments ago, and black lightning descended from above.
Booooom-!
The instant the lightning charged into the body of the steel giant, an unbelievable sight unfolded.
There was no explosion powerful enough to shake heaven and earth, nor any heat intense enough to melt the ground.
“……?”
It had only lasted for a brief moment, but it had certainly looked like incredibly powerful magic.
Yet as the lightning approached the Block’s body, it simply vanished without leaving behind even the smallest explosion.
As though nothing had ever been there.
It felt almost anticlimactic.
Kaiel merely watched it in silence.
Tap, tap…….
The Imperial Princess wandered endlessly through the dark waterway, relying solely on a small lantern floating in the air.
She had long since lost all sense of how much time had passed or how far she had walked.
……At some point, magical communication had been cut off. She had already been unable to contact anyone for several hours.
As the severed connection with the outside world continued to heighten her anxiety, the Imperial Princess, who had been walking along the shallow current of the waterway, suddenly stopped.
On the damp, moss-covered wall, a clearly carved scratch came into view.
「VI」
A mark the Imperial Princess had left just in case.
“……I came back again.”
This made the sixth time already.
There was no end to this waterway.
No, like an Ouroboros with its tail joined to its head, she was clearly circling through the same path over and over.
Would she ever be able to reach the end?
How long would she have to continue walking this path endlessly?
「VII」
The Imperial Princess carved another mark using a small stone.
……That was when it happened.
Step, step…….
Footsteps broke the silence.
Someone was approaching from beyond the darkness.
Arlhart instinctively grasped at the air.
Along with flames, a long staff and a grimoire emitting a soft glow appeared in her hands.
“Yo, Your Highness.”
A quiet chuckle echoed from the darkness.
Along with the sound of rippling water, a boy slowly emerged.
The lantern light illuminated his face.
He wore a vicious grin that seemed to split his face.
“Must’ve been exhausting wandering around this rat hole. We finally meet.”
“…….”
It was a face she had never seen before, but the name ‘Dion’ was written on his name tag.
Judging from his name tag and uniform, he was clearly a first-year junior.
But the moment Arlhart saw the eyes beyond the boy’s youthful features, she swallowed her breath.
Those empty, murky eyes.
Eyes like those of a bloodthirsty beast, rarely encountered even within the Imperial Family.
Right, those were the eyes of someone who had absolutely no hesitation about killing people…….
……The eyes of a murderer.
Dion chuckled darkly.
Then he picked up a small stone from the ground…….
Fwish-!
And hurled it at the Imperial Princess in the blink of an eye.
It looked like nothing more than a casual toss, yet its speed and destructive force were like a bullet.
Thud-!
Something fell near Arlhart’s feet.
When she looked down, half of the head of her staff lay there, split apart.
And that wasn’t all.
Her cheek felt hot.
The Imperial Princess slowly placed a hand against her cheek.
……When she pulled it away, a small amount of red liquid stained her palm.
Blood.
She had been wounded.
That meant Ruber’s protective spell, which prevented any injury whatsoever, wasn’t functioning in this strange space.
There could only be one of two reasons.
Either the Academy’s protective spell had been completely destroyed.
Or this bizarre space was inside a ‘barrier’ that cut it off from the reach of the protective spell.
Considering the abnormal flow of time that had caused her to wander here for several hours, the latter was obvious.
“Your Highness, why are you so tense? Even your fingertips are trembling.”
“…….”
That student called Dion was undoubtedly an assassin who had infiltrated the Academy.
……Perhaps even an accomplice of the ‘witch,’ whose objective was to kill her.
Dion approached the Imperial Princess while walking along the stone floor of the waterway.
“They all go on about how the Empire achieved a great peace. Releasing doves in every plaza and sounding fanfares.”
“……What are you trying to say?”
“But does Your Highness know?”
Dion’s voice sank lower.
The mocking amusement had completely vanished.
“How many countries and peoples that Empire singing of peace has strangled where no one could see.”
For this moment, there was no smile on Dion’s face.
Arlhart felt her breath catch at those words.
“After declaring, ‘There is no war. It’s over,’ how many massacres do you think they carried out without the Empire’s citizens ever knowing?”
Dion let out a deep sigh and glared at the Imperial Princess.
“Let me tell you a story. About a certain country trampled by the Empire more than 10 years ago.”
Arlhart could clearly feel the emotion in the Cleaner’s eyes turning into anger.
“There was a little trainee soldier, around 10 years old, in one of that country’s military units. That child had a precious older sister, an older brother, and comrades who were like family.”
Was this really the same person who had been chuckling only moments ago?
Ever since he began recalling the past, his teeth had started chattering nervously and his voice was trembling.
“But one day, an enemy arrived. There was only one of them. He wasn’t even some impressive-looking knight. Just a boy wearing a black mask who looked about the same age as that 10-year-old child.”
His pupils trembled unnaturally.
“Because of that one person…… every single one of them died, reduced to pieces of meat.”
Before anyone realized it, tears were streaming down Dion’s face.
Arlhart bit her lip tightly.
“That was clearly a war and a massacre. But the Empire never declared it a war anywhere. They merely dressed it up as a simple purge. A purge of dissidents for the sake of peace!”
As though something inside him had finally burst, Dion’s voice thundered like the roar of a beast.
“That child’s precious family became sacrifices to that damned ‘peace’ you people keep preaching about! Do you have any idea what humiliation and persecution they endured on the frontier before dying like animals!”
“…….”
Arlhart closed her eyes and steadied her breathing.
Then she met Dion’s gaze again with unwavering eyes.
“……I can’t possibly know everything about the tragedy you experienced.”
There was not the slightest falsehood in her voice.
“But I do know that such horrific things happened. The people of other countries who were brutally trampled by the Empire are also precious lives that never deserved to be unjustly sacrificed. There must never be any more cruel massacres.”
At that resolute answer, Dion let out a hollow laugh.
“……Ha. What a joke.”
He tilted his head crookedly.
“Your Highness, are you saying you think the Empire’s history of massacres was wrong?”
“I swear that I oppose all massacres and persecution.”
The Imperial Princess’s eyes did not waver even an inch as she looked at Dion.
That alone was enough to show that she meant every word.
After confirming that, Dion began muttering as though conflicted.
“That’s different from what that man said……. One of you is lying.”
He lowered his head and muttered to himself several times like a madman before eventually seeming to reach a conclusion and raising his gaze toward the Imperial Princess.
“If Your Highness ascends the throne. If you promise to destroy this rotten Empire and save us…… I’ll let you live.”
But Arlhart shook her head.
“No, I will not ascend the throne.”
At that moment, every expression disappeared from Dion’s face.
His eyes turned as cold as ice and stared at the Imperial Princess as though they would pierce straight through her.
“You won’t ascend the throne? Then how exactly do you intend to save those who suffer and are persecuted? With that paltry sympathy of yours?”
“……That is something I cannot tell you right now. The time has not yet come.”
Right.
It was not yet time.
Of course, the Imperial Princess wasn’t without power.
But compared to the Emperor and Crown Prince, not to mention the heads of the great Four Families, the Imperial Princess’s power was lacking.
She possessed the strong symbolism and political legitimacy of royalty, but her actual authority was weaker than theirs.
As someone who wasn’t even an official heir to the throne, the Imperial Princess lacked anywhere near enough power to change the foundations of the Empire.
But there was a way.
She had already made a promise with First Imperial Prince Termi, an heir to the throne.
That when he ascended the throne, he would bring the Empire’s massacres to an end without fail.
That by severely punishing merciless invasions and war crimes against other countries, even if it took a long time, he would break the cycle of tragedy and persecution the Empire had created.
That he would cleanse the filthy underside of the Empire without fail.
That was why the Imperial Princess had chosen to believe the Imperial Prince’s words, withdraw from the succession struggle, and support him instead.
“…….”
A deep silence lingered.
Dion clicked his tongue briefly and readjusted his grip on his dagger.
“So in the end, you’re just going to stand by and watch.”
Knowing nothing of the Imperial Princess’s true thoughts, he shook his head in disappointment.
Blue light rising from the dagger shimmered like a heat haze.
“Just as I thought, it’s all hypocrisy. I shouldn’t have expected anything. The blood of that cursed Empire is no different from the rest.”
“…….”
Arlhart clenched her fist tightly.
“Your Highness is trash. Not knowing would be one thing, but knowing about the tragedy and still refusing to act makes you even worse trash.”
Dion lowered his knees and finished preparing to leap.
A blue gleam flashed in his eyes.
“As planned, I’ll clean up the trash.”
Baaang-!
Water sprayed violently outward as Dion shot forward like an arrow.
“Don’t resent me, Your Highness. I’m not the one who did anything wrong.”
The chilling sound of air being sliced apart struck her ears.
“What’s wrong is this world. The Empire. And you.”
The dagger filled with deep blue magical energy.
“Die.”
Before she knew it, Dion was already before the Imperial Princess with his dagger raised, and the Imperial Princess squeezed her eyes shut.
……At that very instant.
Claaaaang-!
A violent metallic impact loud enough to tear the eardrums rang out.
Sparks scattered in every direction as blades collided, the sound echoing throughout the waterway.
The Imperial Princess, who had squeezed her eyes shut, slowly opened them.
“……You are.”
Before the Imperial Princess, the hem of a pitch-black coat fluttered through the air.