Chapter 258: Talented Analysis
———Karra———
<1: 28 pm>
“Okay that just looks like something out of a cartoon.” Kenni cheerfully said after another guy tried to shoot the man nailed to the pole and it retaliated by bouncing the bullet right back. One thing it doesn’t share with cartoons is that the bullet doesn’t give him just an ouchie. The bullet pierced through his body cleanly as if the bullet was reflected with much more force than what it had initially.
“That poor bastard’s predicament aside. Any bets on who the perpetrator is?” Gregori asked. I do have a good feeling of who it is, but I want to hear the other’s opinion.
“Not Wiina, for one. She’s too much of a softy to put on such a gory display.” Kenni mockingly answered. That’s a fair assessment. She can be very brutal at times, but she generally leaves people fully intact after she’s done playing around. Maybe she would have nailed him to the pole, but not with most of his skin missing.
“I don’t think we have met anyone with such a penchant for torture, right? Kenni aside.” Orrel asked while casually shooting a stray.
“Do you know how many lunatics I saw killing people in the middle of the night? It’s more than you think. Probably one of them since they’re roaming around freely still.” Kenni casually said in response. She most likely meant either Rico or Coach Wana. Those two aren’t averse to violence and killing at all, though I have an inkling that one of them is way more likely to be the culprit. “I think they’ll make themselves known eventually. That large scale attack is so obviously premeditated, they are sending a message with this one.”
“Still, a Reality Phantasm? That gotta narrow down the list a lot.” Gregori pointed out. “That technique isn’t something you can casually develop even by instinct. It’s even seen as a heretical technique if the writings are anything to go by. I don’t think even most Ahdeid have one of their own.”
“Why heretical though? That’s a weird thing to be afraid of, regardless of how impressive it sounds.” Useph asked, finding that detail a little odd.
“To put it simply, while humans have a hard time developing a Reality Phantasm, demons have a much easier time developing and utilizing it.” Orrel explained. We haven’t really talked about them in a long while… “In ancient times they were considered to be directly linked despite the fact that both sides can use it.”
“That seems kinda dumb.” Jeff remarked. It does sound very absurd, though maybe they just don’t have all the knowledge available back then.
“The fact that a human can be turned into a demon probably reinforced that misconception. I’d imagine that back in the day their intrusion was much more of a problem and paranoia was at an all time high. Now that we know that demons do truly exist, the fact that writings on them persist to this day shows just how big of a threat they were.” Orrel gave us his speculation on the matter. Now why hasn't that been a problem so far anyway? I know some demons existed before the Eclipse and even roam around here very rarely, but all of them were passive to my knowledge. Obviously that is completely irregular and no doubt has something to do with the people in our vicinity.
“...In that case, nowadays it’s probably a technique most Ahdeid would’ve known than not, right? They must’ve already figured out that the reason for heresy is ludicrous, otherwise it wouldn’t have been put in the writings we find in the library.” Jeff pointed out.
“It’s not just about old-fashioned taboo, it’s also about the difficulty of even getting there. From my understanding it’s not a matter of skill and power alone, but also resolve and a very clear principle you possess. Weirdly enough, for people who lived a long time the technique became harder and harder to develop. A lot of things you held dear are enshrouded in fog that’s hard to externalize due to the passage of time.” Orrel further explained. That is… quite sad to think about. “Though from my understanding as I read into it, those who have lived for a long time with the technique tend to have a very potent Reality Phantasm. The potency of the effect increased and maybe for a couple centuries each a new effect popped up, but it’s not something you can really control.”
“...So what is the conclusion with this one then?” I asked, seeing as he went on a bit of a tirade explaining the concept of it in detail.
“As we have already summarized that the effect seems to be related to analysis and debilitation, and seems to only target humans, and isn’t lethal… It does align with the man nailed to the pole still being alive despite being in pain, though that is admittedly a weak connection.” Orrel said as he tried to compile everything into a few sentences. “Probably someone with a lot of malice but doesn’t always act it out? When they did it the message was clear and terrifying. A lot of boiling rage. No one really comes to mind for me.”
‘She will snap the moment someone tries something funny. Merciless and contemptuous of humans. I heard she used to be a lot worse about it, but it’s best to not push your luck.’ That’s something that popped into my mind. It most likely is her.
“Do we even wanna say it out loud? I’m sure all of us have a candidate in mind, but talking about it seems like stepping on a landmine. It doesn’t take a genius to know the perp is basically a walking death sentence.” Kenni said to mock everyone here for keeping their mouth shut and not give any guess.
“Why don’t you give out a guess? You seem quite confident.” I said, knowing that she probably has a good idea herself even without a reliable source. Her trouble-seeking nature means that she probably got into quite a lot of trouble and ran into her more than she should have.
“Oh I will. It’s-
*Bonk*
“Ow! What the hell?” Suddenly a metal tray appeared out of nowhere and dropped right on her head before she could answer. It quickly dissipates not too long after we laid our eyes on it, making it clear that it wasn’t an actual tray but a projection of it. “Well ain’t that a bit of a slapstick, anyway, it’s-
*Bonk*
“Ofagh! Hey!” This time it’s a bucket that fell right on her head and quickly disintegrated the moment she removed it. I can’t feel any mana fluctuation from Kenni herself, so it definitely wasn’t self-inflicted slapstick. “You could’ve easily cursed me to not say it but you do that instead. And here I thought I was supposed to be the funny one.”
The others try to not laugh out loud in response. Knowing who it was, she got off pretty lightly, perhaps not even minding being exposed so much as messing around with someone she knew probably deserved it to some extent, considering her past and future transgression.
“Third time’s the charm, right?” I said to egg her on to try again.
“Nah I’m good. I’m not so desperate to expose this person to you all.” Kenni replied while she stared straight at me. “I know I’m not the only one who figured it out anyway. I know some of you have the same idea as me.”
No one is saying anything, obviously. They don’t want to get even a little bit of ire from her, especially considering what she just did today. It’s one of those somewhat irrational feelings you have. An acquaintance you know isn't afraid to do something extremely out there, and you know they won’t do the same to you and yet you can’t help but feel fear regardless.
“...So are we just not gonna talk about this anymore or what?” Jeff asked after a moment of silence.
“...I think we have talked for a while on this topic anyway. Best to not linger on it too much.” Gregori answered for the group. “So. Mission Room. Seni, weren’t you going to tell us about it?”
“H-Huh? I guess I was…” She replied, her tone and attitude completely different from what she was like just a few hours ago. All things considered she probably shouldn’t be left by her lonesome too often or something like that is gonna happen again.
I really want to say that pet of hers is a bad influence, but in reality she was the one in control and the main problem at hand, so no easy fix on that front.
It’s weird to think that she’s the third most dangerous person in the class when most of the time she acted like that, but we’ve seen plenty of bizarre things at this point, it’s not worth fussing over too much.
“It’s over here…” She said before sending the picture taken of the place into the group chat. Seems to be taken on the main road of the campus and zoomed out so we can see where it is relative to the other buildings. Guess that’s something to check out later, Wiina hasn't really told me about it.
“I wonder why they made that so suddenly.” Nicks muttered. “It’s teetering on us being child soldiers ain’t it?”
“I wouldn’t call us children, for one.” Gregori interjected. “It’s also clearly not something right in our face or seems like they planned on it being mandatory, so you can’t really say that. Perhaps an extra course is a better word for it.”
“...We don’t have those, huh.” Nicks pointed out. I don’t think this school has those even before the refurbishment? Regardless, it’s just a trivial observation.
Meanwhile Seni wrote down everything she understood about the Mission Room in the group chat and left it at that. She’s clearly not in the mood to talk right now.
“As if the ranked matches weren’t suspicious already.” Useph remarked after presumably reading up on the details and the fact that you could get rewards from it. It’s barely any different than turning students into hired guns. I guess technically there’s nothing written down saying that only us can participate, but that’s an entirely different matter.
“...What if they made this because a certain few people just love traveling and causing havoc?” Gregori suddenly proposed a theory that really only meant one thing. “This way they are incentivized to do a bit of good instead of constantly causing trouble.”
“What a novel concept, care to share who those people are?” Kenni said with a smirk knowing full well who he is talking about.
“I do wonder what the rewards will be like. Obviously combat-related items will be involved, but anything that is more… mundane might be up for grabs. Most likely no actual cash, and the supply is probably enough to sustain the entire school rushing in for missions.” Gregori simply ignored her and continued with his speculation. “Obviously this is another incentive for students to grow stronger aside from the ranked matches giving a sense of progression and flare of competition. Adding with the P.E. class basically being a magic class and it’s quite clear that they plan for something else in the future. Not the child soldier thing, I still think that’s an asinine idea.”
“So are you actually going to tell us what that is or not?” Useph asked, sounding a bit irritated by how long his explanation has been with no definitive guess.
“No.” Gregori smugly said. What’s the point of saying all that then? “They’re an unpredictable bunch, so any guess I give out is most likely going to be wrong.”
“Nothing stops the simple option from being true, you know?” Kenni pointed out.
“All the more reason to not give out a guess. Despite everything I said, the conclusion is still very muddied. Lest we forget, we don’t actually know who is actually in charge regardless of our own feelings and biases.” He calmly stated.
…Wiina probably knows though. Maybe I should ask her later. She already confirmed the no child soldiers thing.