novelEscape ~Love Simulation~ (2)
| ← Ch.051 | Ch.053 → |
The Sword Division fell into panic.
The sound of explosions caused by magic and the sounds of the wooden school building crumbling down were continuing intermittently, screams were resounding widely.
The catastrophe was coming from the Magic Division. The ten Quad-core Magica that were finally coming into the empty ground where there was no presence of people because classes were in progress, when the school building that ought to be their target entered their line of sight, they immediately began to chant their magic. When the building was destroyed and the students inside were brought into the open, the target of the offensive magic was altered to the students. The classes were interrupted and the students became panicked.
The students who were planted with complexes toward the Magica Stigma couldn't even think about resisting, they were only running about trying to escape in earnest.
School building number one that contained the staff room was located in the farthest place from the Magic Division. Perhaps school building number one was constructed in the corner of the grounds because they had anticipated the fight that would break out someday with the Magic Division. Because of that, they escaped direct harm.
"Illegal magician's attack! Their numbers are ten!!"
The teachers were becoming discomposed from the report that came flying through the roughly opened door.
"What did you say...is it Loki!?"
"No, there is no appearance of Loki...Their appearance is different from the illegal magicians that had appeared in all the incidents until now!! A more ominous...!!"
"But, why are the illegal magicians invading from the Magic Division!!?"
Even while in the middle of that report, the thunderous roar was still audible from far away.
"We had contacted the Magic Division's staff room, but...the Magic Division students had already begun to take refuge. The Sword Division is to wait for reinforcements from the Knight Order and..."
The staff room fell into silence in an instant after hearing the words of the teacher that was holding a cellphone in one hand.
It was a silence where boiling rage and impatience were mixing as one.
"Those guys, even though they usually are so big headed, but now they're going to just abandon the Sword Division!? The Magica Stigma of the Magic Division should have the power to fight, shouldn't they!?"
One teacher was raising an angry voice.
For a teacher who was entrusted with parents' children to help and protect, that way of thinking was mistaken, but thinking of the combat ability of the Magic Division's students, it was only natural.
"Waiting for the Knight Order...what time do they think the reinforcements are going to come!"
The teachers understood better than anyone that the Knight Order couldn't come anytime soon.
The Knight Order was pressured to the extreme by Loki's frequent raid incident. Moreover within that lack of personnel, the Knight Order was thinning the deployment in the Knight Academy's surroundings. They had decided that when something happens in the Knight Academy, then the students themselves need to be the ones to do something about it.
In reality, the students were already performing as the substitute of the Knight Order when undertaking quests. They had the strength to fight after all.
The situation was an extreme mess where they had little information. All the teachers of the Magic Division, why, to order [a joke operation of taking refuge] to the students who had power to fight...!?
"Is there no student in the Sword Division that is attempting to oppose them!? It's only ten people right!?"
A teacher of the Sword Division, Tsukahara Hisatada was shouting.
Tsukahara was the teacher who was backing Kohaku's anti Magic Division faction. He was also secretly giving the students Sacred Treasures that he obtained from the Knight Order's illegal channels. Because of his thoughts and beliefs, he couldn't accept falling into despair just because they had been abandoned by the students of the Magic Division.
The students of the Sword Division must break through this situation through their own efforts.
"Tsukahara-sensei, we're going! We will use the Sacred Treasures!!"
Running against the stampede of escaping students, one group was barging into the staff room. Those students were ignoring all the other teachers that had fallen into a panic and only looking for instructions from Tsukahara.
The one that stood at the head of the group was Kohaku, the now current Sword Division student council president.
"The opponents are unknown but...can you do it?"
"This one has the intention to win against the Magic Division. We will show you if it is only this much."
Toward Kohaku's reply, Tsukahara nodded sharply like he was saying 'That's exactly what I thought'.
"...Alright, go stop those guys. But do it while prioritizing the rescue of students that have fallen into magic intoxication."
There were a considerable number of students that were already swallowed by the magic. The students who possessed defensive magic power wouldn't get done in with just one shot of magic.
But if those who were already in the condition of losing their magic power were to get swallowed by magic again, naturally it would affect their life.
"Of course!"
Kohaku and the others answered valiantly and exited the staff room.
Tsukahara saw them off while tightly grasping his own beloved ornamental sword.
The adults whose magic power was already declining, had no power to fight.
—————
The Magic Division's staff room had also fallen into chaos, but due to the dignified direction of Headmaster Otonashi who finally appeared, the chaos had calmed down somewhat.
"Fortunately, the damage hasn't reached the Magic Division. Gather the students in one place to take refuge. Refuse reinforcement requests to the Sword Division, make them wait until the Knight Order comes."
He gave such an instruction.
An internal school broadcast following the instruction was resounding throughout the Magic Division's grounds.
There was also the matter about the enemy's identity that was still unknown, so no one was questioning the decision that instructed them to [abandon the Sword Division]. Headmaster Otonashi suppressed the report concerning the enemy's true identity and only told them that it was a group of unidentifiable illegal magicians.
"Headmaster! Why are you deciding such an irresponsible decision...we should organize students that can fight and head to rescue the Sword Division students!!"
Knowing the situation well, the Magic Division's student council finally came to the staff room.
The student council vice president Hoshikaze Hikaru, who had a tactless and frank personality, opposed the decision without even hiding her impatience and dissatisfaction.
Headmaster Otonashi brushed off that objection as something troublesome.
"Don't get carried away, all of you are just students. We cannot increase the damage by playing around and sending you to a real battle with an unknown opponent. We have the responsibility of being trusted with all of you by your parents after all."
That was the reasoning of the adults. Hikaru gritted her teeth hearing Headmaster Otonashi's shallow sounding words and showed her irritation.
At her side, Kaguya nodded wordlessly.
"...Certainly you of the Magic Division's student council have real battle experience, so it's a different story. But even so, independent action is not permitted. We had already requested for reinforcements from the Knight Order. When they arrive, form the Heaven and Earth formation along with them and then you can take action."
"Can you say when the Knight Order will come!?"
Hikaru who was usually cooperating with the Knight Order to participate in quests knew very well how lacking in manpower the Knight Order was right now and that their mobilization would be slow.
She had also grasped that the personnel deployment in the surrounding areas of the Knight Academy was thin.
"The Knight Order cannot move out immediately. But it seems they sent several elites from the Einherjar squad that are on standby. You of the student council will cooperate with the Einherjar and fight."
―Einherjar!? But they are the hunters that came to kill Lotte!
...Gritting her teeth at her inability to do anything, on top of all that they were going to rely on those kind of people!
"...Out of the question."
Hikaru's awareness became distant in her fury, yet somehow she was able to squeeze out her voice.
"Give me a break! Do all of you want to avoid your responsibilities that much!! I'm going to fight with my own strength!!"
Having the nickname of prince with her handsome face dyed in violent emotion, Hikaru turned her back and darted off from that place.
The teachers in the staff room attempted to chase her but Headmaster Otonashi restrained them.
"Leave her alone. That is the contractor magician of Baal. It's impossible to chase after that student....Kaguya, do you understand that there is no failure of logic in what I say?"
Headmaster Otonashi turned around and fixed his sights at Kaguya. Echoes of hypnotism were loaded in those words.
"...Yes."
Kaguya replied flatly with a pale countenance.
The girl even now still felt an intense emotion inside her heart, but that emotion was confined unconsciously.
From the bottom of her deep psyche, something like tentacles were creeping up. Her emotions were restrained tightly, and what ruled her heart now was the clever logic that her father planted inside.
"You must not be moved by fleeting emotions. You understand your own responsibility, yes?"
"......I do."
Since her childhood, there were two hypnotic suggestions that were planted inside Otonashi Kaguya.
The first was to aim to be the strongest magician. The other one was that when she heard the keywords of "responsibility" and "logic", she would throw away her own emotions.
For the sake of carrying out the role she was given by Headmaster Otonashi, she would abandon her own ego if it was necessary. Her power to refuse was sealed using those suggestions.
Headmaster Otonashi manipulated her like a doll, as if the innocence she showed to Kazuki and the others was a lie.
Nyarlatoteph thought sweetly of the Tsukikurou's education. Because of Tsukikurou's constant care, he could now make this girl's excellent body his own.
But that was for later. Right now the position of Otonashi Tsukikurou was something he needed.
Otonashi Kaguya stood stock still like a puppet. Satisfied with that state of her, Nyarlathotep thought of Kazuki and others in the underground and laughed.
He guessed that right about now was the suitable time that they should be dying a dog's death down there.
"...Mist?"
Hikaru who rushed out from the staff room and entered the grounds of the Sword Division tilted her head at the out of season mist.
She soon found out its source.
Liz Liza-sensei was leaning over near the pond of the garden.
By vibrating the Prima Material of the water using Psychokinesis to make the mist for the smoke screen, she manipulated and dispersed it throughout the school grounds.
It was an extremely advanced common magic, but the degree of the magic power it exhausted compared to the Summoning Magic borrowing the power of Divas was remarkably intense. The color of Liz Liza-sensei's face was becoming pale from the mental exhaustion.
But there was no doubt that many students were saved by her great efforts.
Hikaru thought it was strange that Liz Liza-sensei was not in the staff room, but she was already giving up on the them and came to the Sword Division in order to do everything she could within her power to help them.
"...Hoshikaze huh?"
When the figure of Hikaru caught Liz Liza-sensei's attention, she spoke.
"Hoshikaze, listen, first you need to prioritize buying time and rescuing the students. With your speed you should be able to make some distractions and performing rescue as much as possible. And then...wait until Hayashizaki Kazuki comes."
"Hayashizaki-kun? Not the Knight Order?"
Hikaru was surprised hearing the name of a student whose whereabouts were supposedly unknown.
"...That guy will definitely return. When that happens, form a Heaven and Earth Formation under his instructions and make an opposition. And then...it's just my intuition but, the fight will not be over from there. There is a mastermind behind this."
——————
Board Chairman Amasaki spurred his old bones and dashed with all his strength.
He went through the waves of students that were escaping, while pushing through the pitch black rubble burned down by fire magic, he was running around looking for just one figure of a student inside the mist.
"Mio...where is my [Mio-tan]!?"
Board Chairman Amasaki knew that his daughter was sheltered together with Hayashizaki Kazuki somewhere in the Sword Division. But that Sword Division was now under attack by mysterious illegal magicians.
Despite there being nothing that could be done by an old man like him, he was still running around inside the confusion. His wrinkle covered face was drenched with sweat and his breathing was becoming wildly disordered in no time. Even so, he refused to stop his feet.
―And then he saw the battlefield.
What entered his sight were the ten illegal magicians that were rapid-firing Summoning Magic with tremendous force.
No, their atmosphere were different from illegal magicians. Their control was just too great. They were also too emotionless. What in the world is this?
No, what he should be surprised at was not that. The eyes of Board Chairman Amasaki were opened wide in a flash.
As the Board Chairman of the Knight Academy, he who once was an expert in the field of magic doubted his own eyes.
...The magic that those guys are using, isn'that the summoning magic of Solomon's 72 Pillars!?
"What in the world is going on, this is...!?"
While whispering like he was dying in a fit of anger, Board Chairman Amasaki hid his body in the shadow of the school building's wreckage.
―Then this old man was going to witness one fight that would change the era.
| ← Ch. 051 | Ch. 053 → |