EIS V5 C5 -- An Unexpected School Terrorist Attack Again!

Translated from the CN here: https://www.wenku8.net/novel/2/2542/139400.htm 
Checked against the JP here: https://files.catbox.moe/s1owqo.epub 

JP > CN > EN by Headpats For Delta

V5 C0: https://files.catbox.moe/vj6luo.txt 
V5 C1: https://files.catbox.moe/0didm4.txt 
V5 C2: https://files.catbox.moe/g0y0yc.txt
V5 C3: https://files.catbox.moe/x3yzfz.txt
V5 C4: https://files.catbox.moe/ck2ym6.txt 

Alexia looked up at the Midgar Academy campus, which had been dyed red by the setting sun.

Now that class was dismissed, the students filed past her.

“I can’t trust the knights and onee-sama’s also…”

She muttered to herself as she thought about the conversation she had had with Iris several days ago.

Her sister had changed, and she wouldn’t listen to a word Alexia said.

“I need to think of a way…”

The Cult was planning to resurrect the Right Arm of Diablos somewhere on this campus.

Since she couldn’t trust anyone, she would have to rely on herself. Everyone would believe her once she managed to stop the revival of the Right Arm and obtained irrefutable proof.

“Oi, you’re being a nuisance.”

“Ack.”

A massive force shoved Alexia from behind and she hurried turned back to see who it was.

A beautiful black-haired girl stood there, folding her arms as the setting sun shone behind her.

“Claire…”

“You’re blocking my attack by standing there.”

“Your, your assault?”

It was totally incomprehensible.

Claire looked at Alexia, her eyes filled with a mysterious confidence.

“What happened? You’re looking pretty depressed, Alexia.”

“I’m… I’m thinking about the future.”

“Oh my, what a coincidence. So am I.”

“You too, Claire?”

“Yup. Even if the truth really is buried in the darkness, things won’t end just like that. Someone needs to take care of things in the darkness.”

“...?”

“And I haven’t told you this, Alexia, but… I’m actually a chosen one.”

Claire raised that hand of hers which was inscribed with a magic circle.

“Saving the world and protecting Cid is my calling. Thus, I was given this power.”

“Hah…?”

“Since our aims coincide, then obviously we’re going to work together. Let’s go.”

“Ah, w-wait!”

Before Alexia could even figure out what was going on, Claire had already grabbed her arm.

Strangely enough, it did not make her unhappy.

“Where on earth are you going!?”

“To the chapel.”

“Do you even know where it is!?”

“I do -- by following the ache in my right hand.”

Claire stopped. Her face was stern and serious.

“Although Aurora isn’t saying anything, I still understand. This pain in my hand will guide me to the truth about what she’s hiding--”

Saying so, Claire undid the bandage on her right hand

The magic circle inscribed there glowed faintly.

“It all seems pretty suspicious…”

“The light’s been growing brighter -- the time is almost at hand.”

RIght after that, the magic circle flared especially brightly.

“--Here it comes!”

In the next moment, the world shattered into bits, like glass.

“Eh? Seriously!?”

Alexia remembered this scenery. It was just like when the Head Librarian had captured them.

Right after that, the campus was wreathed in white mist.

“What, what on earth is this!?”
 
“Why is there mist in the academy…”

The students heading home had been caught up in it as well and the mist filled the entire school.

===========================================

Standing on the roofs, I looked down upon Midgar Academy, which had been dyed red by the evening.

"I don't mind. It is necessary for this world– I will take all the hatred of this world onto myself. That is my purpose--"

After editing Zeta’s words from last night and muttering them to myself, I felt a strange restlessness in my heart.

“...This is a pretty good way to progress things.”

Shadow, the man who sold the world. 

In order to protect the world, he took all its sins onto himself -- yeah, that was pretty badass.

“Well done, Zeta. I can’t believe she managed to develop the premise so well…”

As the saying went, imitation was the highest form of flattery.

No, wait. Come to think of it, I think I had said something like this before.

“We are not those who walk the path of righteousness or that of evil. We simply travel our own way--”

I struck a stylish pose while standing on the peak of the roof.

And then, my uniform fluttered in the world.

“Bring all the evils of the world with you, if you can. We will shoulder it all--”

It really WAS badass. 

I definitely said those lines before, and they felt quite appropriate for being spoken on a roof at sunset.

“That would mean that I was first, chronologically. Which means there’s no problem copying it. Rather, SHE was the one who was copying me.”

Which is why I had to give it a try if I had the opportunity.

No, this was an excellent opportunity too.

I had been slacking off on practicing my lines recently, so returning to my roots after a while by trying them out sounded like a good idea.”

“--That was an afterimage.”

“Shadows -- consume them.”

“The wind is trembling -- it is the keening of the soul.”

As I recited each line, I struck a pose in turn. 

It recalled nostalgic memories in my mind, of how I had practiced on the roof in secret in the previous world.

“A schoolyard painted red by the setting sun… Alone on the roof… Looking down on the students leaving school as I smile meaningfully… A sense that something’s about to happen…”

The scene was set pretty well.

I raised my right hand and spoke in low, thrilling tones.

“--Here it comes.”

In the next moment, the entire world shattered.

And then, white mist filled the air.

“...Wha?”

The white mist spread out, as though to separate the campus from the outside world.

The mist grew heavier by the moment, and soon even the afterglow of the sunset was gone. 

“...”

I blinked, and then looked around again.

“...Eh?”

Although I said that I had the feeling that something was about to happen, I didn’t expect something to actually happen.

Cries of confusion came from the school yard.

“What, what’s going on!?”

“We, we need to tell the teachers!”

“The teachers are all outside holding a staff conference, there’s nobody here!”

The students remaining in school gathered together.

“Hmm… The mysterious white mist, a sealed-off campus… and then me, smiling from the roof… That’s pretty good.”

Although I wasn’t too sure what was going on, this was definitely the hallmark of something big happening.”

“This mist… It’ll probably engulf the entire world in silence soon.”

As I muttered to myself with profound significance, I left the roof.

By the time I had descended the stairs and arrived in the campus corridors, it had grown dark from the mists.

It appeared more than half of the students had already left.

“What’s with this mist?”

At first, I thought the Head Librarian had used some kind of artifact, but now the Head Librarian was no longer around.

I tried probing the mist with mana, but all that told me was that it was a mysterious mist.

“...Meh, whatever.”

Ultimately, It was more important to enjoy myself in this mist rather than figuring out what it was.

Should I meet up with the other students first, or suddenly turn up as Shadow?

“What should I do~”

I dashed quickly down the corridor when I heard a scream from far away.

“Is there some kind of event taking place?”

I ran over toward the source of the sound.

===========================================

“If I’m not wrong, that voice should have come from around here…”

There were many doors and many cramped cubicles here. This was the self-study room.

Most of them were empty, probably because it was almost dismissal time. Only one door was locked, and the voice came from within.

“Hmm!”

I twisted the lock off the handle and nimbly entered the room.

“What, what the heck is this?”

There was a male student inside the room.

He was groaning and rubbing his nose. I recognized his face.

“If I’m not wrong, you’re from my class… ah… You’re Suzuki-kun, right?”

That’s right, he was a student whose presence was as faint as mine. I was quite in awe of how well he blended in and had used him as a reference many times in the past.

According to my list of background characters, he ought to be the scion of a branch house of the Hope Dukedom and thus a distant relative of Christina’s.

“You, you’re Kageno-kun, aren’t you? Please help me, I can’t take this collar off!”

“Collar…?”

Suzuki-kun had a very deviant-looking collar around his neck. This was not at all suited for a mob character.

“Wow, that’s pretty twisted. It doesn’t suit your style at all.”

“Someone put it on me! Now I can’t get it off and it’s been making a weird noise since just now…”

Come to think of it, I could hear a faint beeping noise.

There was a timer on the collar, and it had reached zero just as I found it.

Beeeeeep, went the long alert.

“Ah.”

“Ah…”

And then, Suzuki-kun’s head flew off his shoulders.

A cloud of blood filled the air. In order to keep myself from getting dirty, I shielded myself with my slime.

Suzuki-kun’s head rolled to the ground. My gaze met his hate-filled eyes.

“...I had the feeling it was going to explode.”

Guess I was a little too late.

Rest in peace.
(TL Note: Literally 合掌, or putting one’s hands together in prayer.)

“Now then… What IS this collar, anyway?”

I picked up Suzuki-kun’s collar.

The disgusting-looking collar had been charred black and the timer had stopped at zero.

“Hmmm…”

I infused mana into the collar to investigate it.

Then, I used my knowledge from the previous world to perform a highly-exacting hypothesis.

And the conclusion was--

“This is a collar-shaped bomb that explodes when the timer reaches zero!”

I pondered the matter further.

“Hm hm… Normal timers only count down as time passes, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Its display fluctuates with mana levels. I could feel my mana being absorbed when I touched the collar. In other words -- once you put this collar on, your mana will be constantly sucked away, and once your mana reaches zero, it explodes!”

In our class, Suzuki-kun had a hard time because of his low mana capacity. He was training his mana capacity in the self-study rooms and got caught up in this situation just as his mana levels were close to zero, and in the end he had gotten blown up.

“...There is only ever one truth.”

I smiled in satisfaction.

The question now was when and where this collar had been out on him.

“Usually, people would notice if a collar like this was put on them. If he didn’t, then they would truly be idiots…”

I suddenly had a bad feeling about this and quickly felt my neck.

There was a collar there.

When did it…

“...Someone must have put it on incredibly skilfully in a way that normal people wouldn’t have noticed.”

When you thought about it, it was probably when the mist appeared.

I shaped my slime into a mirror and examined my collar.

It was the same kind as Suzuki-kun’s.

The mana remaining meter showed 9999. It had bugged out due to an integer overflow. While there was a faint sensation of my mana being sucked away, it was far too insignificant compared to the overall quantity and my natural recovery rate far exceeded it.

“Hmm.”

Frankly speaking, I could have easily removed it, but I decided not to.

Now that a “Bomb Collar Event” had turned up, there was no way I wouldn’t take part in it.

In any case, I temporarily cut off the mana circuits in my body and adjusted the remaining quantity.

“Suzuki-kun’s mana levels were very low, so… Right, that should be it.”

I adjusted my mana levels so the display would read 600.

It would decrease every 10 seconds or so from the mana being sucked away.

I had about one hour and 40 minutes left to live.

As for why I wanted to adjust my remaining mana to match Suzuki-kun’s, that was because…

“...The Shadow Eminence disguises himself as an ordinary student who has already died and infiltrates the scene to investigate. Fufufu, that’s so cool.”

For some reason, Suzuki-kun, who originally had almost no presence, would begin muttering meaningfully to himself because of this incident.

And then, as his hidden power slowly revealed itself during the course of the incident, he would finally reveal his true form…!

Things were getting exciting.

“First we use the Slime Makeup techniques stolen from Nu… then the Slime Makeover techniques stolen from Epsilon… And that should do it.”

I looked in the mirror. Anyone who saw the image there would say it was Suzuki-kun.

Just in case, I also had his student handbook and some other personal items of his.

“Now then, let’s go!”

I ran out of the self-study room at a slightly slower pace than I used when going in.

===========================================

Alexia and Claire were talking in the hall.

“That’s got to be it. This collar absorbs mana. And once it reaches zero…”

The corpse of a student who had died from a neck injury lay in front of Alexia.”

“Trying to remove it is dangerous too.”

Claire had infused her mana into the collar many times to verify this. However, all she got was a foreboding resistance.

If she applied more pressure, it might just explode.

“In any case, don’t squander your mana. This goes double for people with low mana levels.”

Alexia called out to the students around her.

The hall was filled with a group of students who had been caught up in the white mist. Although many students had left the school, the number of students rushing into the hall were steadily increasing.

They all had those disgusting collars on their necks.

Alexia’s collar read 1303, while Claire’s read 1917.

“Hmm… I looked around, but there doesn’t seem to be a single reliable teacher around here.”

The person who said this was the petite, short-skirted Nina.

“That’s right. Looks like we’ll have to depend on ourselves now.”

“Nina, where is Cid?”

“Otouto-kun isn’t here. I guess he headed back to his dorm first.”

“Thank goodness.”

Claire breathed a sigh of relief.

“Come to think of it, why did this happen? There’s this mysterious white mist, these perverted-looking collars, and we can’t contact the outside. It’s pretty bad no matter how you look at it.”

“..It’s because of Shadow Garden.”

The person who murmured thus was a male student with dark green hair.

“There’s a rumor going around that the students going missing and the mysterious deaths of the Head Librarian were related to Shadow Garden. My dad works as a knight and I learned a lot from him.”

“...Your name is Isaac-kun, right? I hear you’re a magic swordsman with a promising future. But do you have proof that Shadow Garden are the culprits?”

“Proof? You’re saying something very strange, Alexia-sama. They’ve got a past record of taking over the school, don’t they?”

“...And what is their motive for this?”

“They’re a wicked and depraved criminal organization. They don’t need a motive. They just kill people to satisfy their desires like it’s a game.”

The surrounding students who heard this were shaken.

“Is, is it Shadow Garden again…”

“I nearly got killed during that incident… Aieee…”

“What the hell… Why did we get caught up in this…”

“Calm down, everyone! And you, Isaac-kun, stop stirring up everyone’s unease.”

“Pardon me.”

Isaac shrugged, but it didn’t do anything to ease the students’ unease.

“Assigning blame with minimal evidence is very dangerous. What we should do now is figure our how to remove these collars and escape, isn’t it?”

“But I think escaping should be very difficult.”

The person who said this was Nina.

“I was going to investigate how far this mist extended, but it seems we can’t leave the school grounds. There appears to be an invisible wall there.”

“Then how about removing the collars…?”

“I think that would be very difficult too. It looks like a very complex artifact. There’s no telling what will happen if you mess around with it carelessly.

“That’s true…”

A gloomy silence spread throughout the hall.

“Nooo… I, I don’t want to die!”

A male student who was trembling beside the wall suddenly got to his feet and started running.

“Me neither!! Who would… who would want to die in a place like this!?”

Many others followed behind him and ran out of the hall entrance.

“W-wait!”

Alexia frantically tried to stop them.

However, just as they were about to leave the hall, a spray of blood filled the air.

“What--!”

Translucent swords scythed through the students.

The people holding those swords were lifeless-looking warriors.

“They’re… they’re ghosts.”

“What the hell is that!? Did you call them ghosts!?”

“I don’t quite get it, but that’s what Aurora called them!”

Claire and Alexia drew their swords and rushed over.

Isaac and Nina followed behind them.

“Haaap!”

“Tyeah!”

Several ghosts vanished under the flashing arcs of Alexia and Claire’s swords.

However, many ghosts were still wandering around outside the hall.

“These numbers… When did they…”

“There’s too many of them. This is annoying.”

“You two, keep an eye on your remaining mana levels.”

Nina warned them from behind.

The two of them suddenly checked their collars.

“Pull hard!”

“Close the hall doors!”

Just as Alexia and Claire beat back the ghosts, Nina and Isaac began closing the doors.

“You two, hurry up!

A moment before the doors closed shut, the two of them slid inside the hall.

The two of them panted and checked their collars. Alexia’s read 1238 and Claire’s read 1825.

“This is bad… At this rate it’ll go down quicker than expected.”

“You’re right. Nina, how much do you have left?”

“Uh… Me? I guess.”

For some reason, Nina was hiding her display.

“I can’t see it that way.”

“Ah. Er, I guess.”

Nina slowly revealed her display. It was a pretty average number.

“784, hm? That’s less than I thought.”

“At this rate, I’ll have around two hours to live, huh? How about Isaac-kun…”

“I’m 1367.”

“Well, that’s an honor student for you. Let’s check how much everyone has left.”

Alexia and the others quickly checked the amount of mana everyone had remaining.

“So the student with the lowest amount of mana remaining has 300, hm…”

Alexia quietly said this after finishing the check.

“It seems they depleted their mana while training on their own after school. If we can’t think of something within an hour…”

Alexia was looking at a female student. She was pale and shaking violently.

“There are a lot of students who are almost out of mana. There’s no telling how much longer this place can hold.”

The ghosts pounded on the door to the hall. The students piled up chairs and tables as obstacles.

“What should we do, Alexia-hime?”

Isaac asked Alexia.

“What should we do? Even if you ask me…”

Being caught in the mist was completely unexpected, and naturally she didn’t know how to remove the collar either.

Alexia’s gaze began to wander, as though she was looking for an answer.

--And just then.

“At this rate we’ll just be waiting here to die…”

That voice was not particularly loud.

Yet it had a sense of surprising power to it as it echoed through the hall.

“...I have an idea.”

A male student was leaning against the wall of the hall. He lazily ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and slowly walked up to Alexia and the others.

“You’re…?”

“I’m Suzuki.”

He looked straight at Alexia. Although he had a somewhat bad look in his eyes, he was an ordinary student you could find anywhere.

“...He’s a classmate.”

Isaac added.

“Suzuki-kun, is it? You said you had an idea, right? Mind telling us about it?” 

“That’s right…”

Suzuki slowly looked around at the students before speaking.

“First off, our fighting power is highly limited. Most of the students here have very little mana remaining. They’d probably use it up very quickly in combat. If a battle breaks out, we will quite literally be burning our lives to fight. It’s also going to place a major psychological burden on the students, so I don’t think they will fight in earnest.”

“...That’s true.”

That analysis was quite spot on.

To think he could evaluate the situation so calmly under such pressing circumstances.

“There are several people here with an ample supply of mana. In other words, they’re the only ones we can consider fighters. Therefore, I suggest splitting the students up into two groups.

He looked at the students making obstacles.

“The first group will be the defense team. Students with less mana should stay in the hall, conserving their mana while defending themselves. As for the other team--”

Suzuki looked at Alexia and the others.

“They’ll be the suicide squad--”

“--Wait a minute, what are you doing?”

Just then, a female student’s voice interrupted Suzuki.

Alexia and the others, who had been holding their breath in anticipation, felt the tension within them vanish in an instant.

“You’re just a scion of a branch house, so don’t go saying such crazy things to Alexia-hime. Just stay there and build roadblocks with the others. There’ll be hell to pay if you do unnecessary things and damage the reputation of the main family in the eyes of others.”

A girl with light pink hair was standing beside him.

“Ah, if I’m not wrong, you’re…”

“I’m Christina Hope. I’m a distant relative of Suzuki’s.”

“...She’s also a classmate of mine. A very capable one too.”

Isaac supplemented her remark.

“It seems Suzuki’s caused you some trouble… He normally has better manners.”

Christina grabs Suzuki’s uniform to pull him away.

However, Alexia stops her.

“Hang on. He has a point.”

Christina reluctantly let go of Suzuki.

“Good grief. You’re the same as ever, Christina-neesan.”

“That’s quite an attitude to have when speaking to someone from the main house.”

“This is an emergency, so please allow me to be a little less straitlaced.”

“What do you have in mind?”

Suzuki sighed quietly as Christina glared at him.

“Back on point. The elites who have enough mana left should be a suicide squad. They’ll break through the ghosts and cut off the source of this phenomenon -- that’s our job.”

“And what is this source?”

“These collars are sucking away our mana. Have you thought about where that mana is going?”

“That’s--”

Alexia focused her senses on her mana.

She then sensed a thin stream of mana flowing out of the collar.

“If we follow that mana… I guess you realized it.”

“Suzuki, you…”

Christina looked a little taken aback.

“This is elementary reasoning. Anyone would understand if they just thought about it.”

HE said all this nonchalantly.

“...Indeed. Well done. But can we really trace this mana back to its source?”

Isaac was the one who spoke.

“Faint traces of mana can be easily disturbed. I’m against Suzuki-kun’s plan. He isn’t a good student by any means. No, in fact, he’s a terrible student.”

He looked at Suzuki with doubtful eyes.

“That’s true.”

Christina nodded as well.

“I’ll be honest. Suzuki-kun isn’t worth your trust.”

Isaac glared sternly at Suzuki.

Everyone else looked at Suzuki as well.

“Trust, you say… Heh.”

Suzuki chuckled.

“...What’s so funny?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just that… I didn’t expect the least trustworthy person here to say that about me.”

“What do you mean by that…”

Just then, Claire spoke up.

“I approve of Suzuki-kun’s plan.”

Claire…?”

“My right hand hurts… It’s pointing the way to where the mana is going. Therefore, I can sense where it’s going. I don’t think I’ll get it wrong… so let me follow the mana.”

Claire had a forceful look in her eyes as she turned to face them.

“Claire… I see. Let’s follow Suzuki-kun’s plan, then.”

Claire added.”

“Please hold on! I can’t trust him.”

“We don’t have time for this. We can’t sit around to hold a war council.”

“But…”

“Isaac-kun, even if you don’t approve, we’ll still go by ourselves.”

“I approve of Suzuki-kun’s plan too.”

Nina raised her hand as well, and Isaac had to give way.

“Kuh… Alright, I get it, I’ll go with it as well.”

“Then let’s decide who’ll be in the suicide squad. First there’ll be me, Claire and Isaac. Nobody objects to these members, right?”

Claire and Isaac nodded in response to Alexia’s question.

“In addition, we hope you can help us out too, Christina-san.”

Christina’s remaining mana read 1179.

“Since it is your request, Alexia-hime, I will help.”

“Thank you very much. In any case, the four of us will--”

“I’ll go too.”

Nina raised her hand.

“But your remaining mana…”

A worried look crossed Alexia’s face.

Nina’s remaining mana read 784. That was not a generous amount by any means.

“Nina should be fine. Her mana is average, but she’s quite reliable.”

“...I understand. I’ll be counting on you then, Nina-sempai.”

“I’ll do my best not to be a stumbling block for you.”

“More importantly, I seem to recall yours was 784 as well just now?”

“Huh? What?”

At that moment, Nina’s expression froze.

“Your remaining mana. Why do I have the feeling that it hasn’t decreased since just now?”

“Really? It was 794 just now, so it went down by 10 points.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. You’re too forgetful, Alexia.”

As she said that, Nina lightly touched the counter on her neck.

Right after that, the number went down by 1 point.

“Ah, it’s 783 now.”

“See? It’s going down properly.”

“What the heck, I thought there was a way to keep your mana from diminishing.”

“Surely there’s no such way, right?”

Nina sighed in exasperation.

“Right, then the suicide squad will be composed of us five--”

“--Let me go too.”

Suzuki was the one who spoke up.

“Surely not, right? You only have 541 mana left.”

“I’m against it too. He’ll only become a burden.”

Both Christina and Isaac were opposed to it.

“If I become a burden to you, then abandon me. I don’t plan on asking for your help.”

Suzuki replied frankly.

“I approve too. If he really does end up slowing us down, we can ditch him and use him as bait.”

Nina interrupted Alexia as she was about to speak.

“I say, isn’t this a bit irresponsible?”

Claire seemed a little bothered by it as well.

“He himself said it would be fine. And besides, his analytical ability could be useful.”

“--I guess we should take him along after all.”

Surprisingly enough, it was Christina who said that.

“If you do become a burden, I’ll take responsibility as part of the main branch. That should do, right?”

Christina glared at Suzuki.

“…That’s fine.”

He nodded quietly.

===========================================

The group, with Alexia at their center, explained the plan to everyone.

Although some of the students protested “so you’re abandoning us!?” there was no time to persuade them.

The six of them left through the back door of the hall so as not to be discovered. Alexia and Claire quickly disposed of the ghosts before they could become an obstacle and then they hurried on their way.

During this time, Christina observed Suzuki when she was sure she would not be noticed.

Even in the white mist, faced with ghosts that could attack from any direction, he could hold his own against them calmly.

“...That’s strange.”

Christina muttered to herself, quietly so nobody else could hear.

She was a distant relative of Suzuki as well as his classmate. There was nothing more or less to it and they had not had much in the way of dealings.

Even so, she knew what kind of person Suzuki was.

He was not the kind of person who could act so naturally and forthrightly in front of Princess Alexia or face live battle calmly.

It was as though he was another person… The change in him was enough to warrant that description.

However, Suzuki’s face and voice was his own. There was no doubt about that.

“...Could he have been hiding his true strength?”

Perhaps it was because he didn’t want to get drawn into disputes between the main and the branch family. While such a motive wasn’t very likely, it wasn’t impossible either.

“...Maybe it’s because of a relic or a drug.”

Those were the only other explanations that came to mind, but they didn’t seem correct either.

Still, there was no doubt that he had changed.

If Suzuki turned out to be a danger to the main family, Christina would deal with him without any hesitation.

That was what Christina was thinking, when suddenly--

“Careful.”

Someone pulled lightly on Christina’s shoulder.

In the very next moment, a ghostly sword cut through the air in front of Christina’s eyes.

“Why you!”

She responded in the end and cut the ghost in half at the waist.

The ghost disintegrated and vanished.

“Well done, Christina-neesan.”

“...Thank you.”

She addressed that to Suzuki. If not for him, she might have been hit just now.

“I simply did what a member of the branch family should.”

After delivering that calm reply, he continued running forward. She could not read anything from his receding back.

===========================================

“Looks like it’s this way.”


Claire followed the faint traces of mana through the campus. From time to time she would press the bandages on her right hand, as though she was bothered about something. 

“What’s with her right hand?”

“She has a special constitution. She can sense it because she’s very sensitive to mana.”

Alexia gave an appropriate answer to Isaac’s query. She couldn’t possibly tell anyone that she was possessed by some spirit called Aurora.

“Is that the secret of your victory at the Bushin Festival?”

“You could say that.”

“The mist’s getting heavier. Now we can’t tell where they’ll be coming from.”

“Indeed.”

“Still, there is no need to worry. I will ensure the safety of your person, Alexia-hime--”

Just then Alexia suddenly drew her sword. 

She then severed the ghostly arm reaching out from below her feet. After glancing at the vanishing ghost, Alexia put her sword away.

“--You were saying?”

“No… it’s nothing.”

The six of them proceeded silently onward for a while.

“Did you hear that?”

Nina was the one who stopped and said so.

“I do… What is that, a scream?!”

As Alexia and the others turned to listen, they heard a scream.

“Might be a student who didn’t escape in time. What should we do?”

Claire, who was at the head of the group, came back.

“We don’t have time to spare, though.”

Like  Isaac said, their journey from the hall had expended close to 20% of their mana.

“...Let’s go help them.”

After hesitating for a moment, Alexia made a decision.

Everyone ran through the campus. Countless ghosts were shambling around ahead of them.

“The ghosts… They’ve surrounded the classroom.”

“There seem to be students in there!”

Claire shouted.

“No, they’re outside too.”

Nina found countless corpses that had been hacked apart.

And then, they found a female student who was about to be run through.

“Aiieee… Help, help meeee!!”

--It was too late.

That was what everyone thought.

However, a blood-red tentacle reached out, ripping apart the ghosts surrounding the student and rescuing her.

“Now--!”

As Claire shouted, the six of them plunged into the ghostly horde.

Claire used her red tentacle to open up a breach in the ghostly ranks, while Alexia cut them down one after another with efficient strikes that did not waste any movement, while Isaac used his mana-infused blade to blow his opposition away.

The three of them were the main force.

Nina, Christina and Suzuki simply fought carefully from behind them.

Nina took care of the ghosts that got past Isaac while Christina fought as she kept an eye on Suzuki.

As for Suzuki… He just stood there.

He didn’t even draw his sword.

He leaned against the wall and watched the fight. His very existence was extremely abnormal.

Through the efforts of the other five, the ghosts were wiped out.

Christina was the first to speak after the battle ended.

“You’re just going to get in our way if you don’t intend to fight.”

“Well, I’ve got very little mana left, so I simply avoided unnecessary combat. After all, you were doing fine without me… Or are you saying you need to press me into service too?”

“There’s no need for that. Just cower in the back like always.”

“That certainly puts me at ease.”

The two of them coolly bantered in this way.

It felt as though they were more distant than classmates or relatives ought to be.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Claire observed the girl she had rescued.

“My, my arm…”

The girl’s face was a little twisted.

“It’s broken, hm. If you’re not quiet…”

Claire checked the girl’s remaining mana. She was down to 100.

“This place is very dangerous. Let’s get you inside the classroom first.”

Alexia prepared to open the classroom door.

“P-please wait! Please help me, if I go back into the classroom, I’ll…”

The girl screamed at the top of her voice.

Just then, the classroom door behind her opened. 

“If it isn’t Princess Alexia? Please, come in.”

“You’re… the Vice-President.”

She was a bewitchingly beautiful female student -- the student council vice-president Eliza.

===========================================

“Alright, you’re fine now.”

Eliza had a smile on her face as she treated the wounded girl.

“Th-thank you very much… Eliza-sama…”

The girl’s voice trembled. It was definitely not from pain. Beside Eliza, the big student who served as her attendant stood beside her with arms folded.

“So there were so many more left behind.”

Alexia looked around the classroom.

Apart from Alexia and Eliza’s group, there were eight more students, as well as four corpses.

“When the white mist suddenly rolled in I was wondering what was going on. Then we ended up being attacked by strange monsters out of nowhere… Despite how I look, I’m still the vice-president, so I fought alongside everyone.”

The exits to the classroom were blocked with obstacles.

The obstacles were stained red with fresh bloodstains. There were similar bloodstains on the walls.

Alexia glanced at Elisa’s remaining mana. Her collar read 1971.

“You’ve got quite a lot of mana left, Vice-President.”

“I’m from an outstanding bloodline, after all. My parents are my pride.”

Elisa said smugly.

“I see… Then what will you do next? There are many students at the hall, so I think moving there might be safer.”

“Much as I’d like to do so, I’m very uneasy about moving. After all, everyone’s mana is almost gone.”

All the other people in the classroom apart from Eliza and her minion had less than 300 mana remaining.

“Then go with us part of the way.”

“That would be very reassuring.”

Once their preparations were complete, Alexia and the others left the classroom. The girl was still trembling until the very end.

===========================================

As the group moved along, Alexia, Claire and Isaac led the way.

This was to reduce the consumption of mana among the students who had less of it.

However, Alexia didn’t have much remaining mana either.

“I’m down to 1000…”

Alexia muttered to herself.

As her remaining mana dwindled, her impending death became that much more real to her.

“I have 1100.”

“I still have 1300. If you can’t handle it, leave it to me.”

Isaac and Claire responded to her.

Although they were slightly better off than Alexia, the situation was still wearing down on them.

Still, the one who was worse off than anyone else was the female student they had just helped.

“Ah, ah, nooo…”

She looked at her dwindling numbers as she trembled.

Her remaining mana was down to 59 now.

That meant she had around 10 minutes left, but that couldn’t be helped.

“Uuu… uuu…”

Nobody knew what to say in response to her sobbing.

Just then, they sensed multiple mana reactions from around them.

“Be careful.”

After looking around, they found that the place was shrouded in white mist and nothing was visible.

No, it would seem the white mist was gathering mana and forming them into ghosts. One could say that the mist was spawning the ghosts.

“Take this!”

Alexia began slashing before the enemy could act.

But there were far too many ghosts being generated.

Christina, Nina and the students in the back joined the fight too. The cramped confines of the campus became the site of a chaotic melee between man and ghost.

“Dammit, they’re behind us too!”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Aiiieee, stay away!”

However, there were people among them who were not skilled at fighting.

“Aren’t you going to fight, Eliza-sempai?”

Suzuki asked her.

“That’s Eliza-sama to you. It’s not yet my time to fight. Shouldn’t YOU be fighting?”

Eliza evaded the ghosts’ swords with an icy smile as she replied.

“I have much less mana than you, Eliza-sama, so I thought you should be fighting before me, Eliza-sama.”

“Oi, shut your trap, first-year.”

The big male student who was her follower glared at Suzuki, He too was only using the bare minimum of mana needed to protect Eliza.

Suzuki smiled as Eliza and her follower glared at him.

“Oh what a shame. She only just got healed, but now she’s about to die.”

Suzuki said this as he looked at the female student, whose remaining mana had dropped below 10 points.

She was frantically fighting the ghosts with her injured arm.

“It can’t be helped. There’s nothing I can do.”

Her current mana level was still decreasing.

6, 5, 4…

“Well, that’s not the end of things. I did a little checking and found that this collar has a pretty interesting feature.”

Saying so, Suzuki approached the fighting girl.

As a ghost’s sword chopped down on the girl, he smacked it away with a mana-infused palm.

There was a crack as the sword was pulverized by the blow.

“Huh?”

The girl looked at Suzuki with a surprised look on her face.

Once again, there  was another cracking sound.

By the time she realized what was going on, the ghost’s jaw had been crushed to powder. Suzuki slowly lowered the palm he had raised.

“You, what did you just do?”

Eliza asked sternly.

“It was simple martial arts. Nothing to make a fuss about.”

Suzuki smiled thinly, and then he touched the girl’s collar.

3,2,1… the numbers were still decreasing.

It was plain to see that she was beyond help.

“Ah, ah… no, I don’t want to die… save me, please…”

She begged him.

“It’s alright.”

Saying so, Suzuki infused his mana into the collar.

In the next moment, the remaining mana rose. 50, 100, 150…

“Th-thank you…”

In the end, the remaining mana level was at 250.

She finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Suzuki… What have you done?”

The person who said this was Christina, who had finished fighting.

Most of the ghosts had been slain. Claire was finishing off the last one.

Seeing as the battle was over, Suzuki spoke.

“I checked the collars of the stranded students when I was in the classroom. I tried infusing mana into them, and it built up inside the collar. Therefore, I thought that this might work.”

Everyone was listening intently to Suzuki’s words.

“These collars can absorb and transport mana. Said mana comes from the pool inside the collars -- in other words, as long as we transfer mana into the students with less of it, we can delay the explosion.”

“I’m impressed that you noticed that…”

Alexia replied with some respect in her voice.

“That might cut down on the number of deaths.”

Claire said.

“Now, the person with the most remaining mana… should be Eliza-sama, right? Surely you’ll help the others out, no?”

Suzuki smiled as he said this.

Eliza smiled as well.

“We’ll discuss it once we reach the hall.”

“How wonderful. Speaking of which… When I was checking the bodies of the students in the classroom, I found something that bothered me.”

“Something that bothered you…?”

“The corpses’ limbs showed signs of being bound.”

“...Are you sure you weren’t imagining things?”

Eliza’s eyes flickered briefly.

“There was another strange thing, which was that all their collars exploded.”

“So what? It’s only natural that their collars would explode once they ran out of mana.”

“That’s true. But it’s really quite strange when you picture it in your mind. Not only were they tied up, they died because their collars exploded. What on earth was going on?”

“...What are you trying to say?”

“Perhaps someone was trying to do something like I did to a live subject, namely infusing mana into and using mana on them. This was to investigate the activation conditions of the collars, and to see if they could be removed… And then, she was the decisive piece of evidence.”

Suzuki pointed at the female student from before.

“She thanked me when I infused mana into her. But that’s quite strange. Normally, you’d be surprised, because you wouldn’t know that mana could be transferred in that way… But it seems you DO know about it, don’t you?”

The girl’s face turned pale and she trembled.

“I. I…”

“You knew, right?”

“...I’m sorry, Eliza-sama was a great noble, so I couldn’t defy her… the students who defied her were tied up and had their collars pulled off, or their mana was depleted to zero… That’s how we realized mana could be transferred.”

“I was quite surprised that only Eliza-sama had such an unusual amount of mana left. All the other students had less than 300 mana. It’s almost as though it had been deliberately manipulated.”

“...Everyone transferred their mana to Eliza-sama. But I had very little mana and couldn’t transfer it to her, so I was chased out into the corridor…”

The girl then burst into tears.

“If that is true, then this is quite a severe situation.”

Alexia glared at Eliza.

“So… What are you going to do, then?”

Eliza sighed as she replied.

“That sounds like an admission of guilt to me.”

“Guilt? I was merely helping the students as the Vice-President. At the time, I didn’t know the collars would explode when taken off or when their mana reached zero.:

“You’re certainly thick-skinned… So, how do you explain taking the students’ mana, then?”

“I didn’t take it, I was safekeeping it. I was planning to redistribute it fairly to them afterwards.”

“Do you think anyone would accept an excuse like that?”

“Surely they would under normal circumstances… Still, since you’re Alexia-sama, that might not work out too well. Right, let’s make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“I have 1900 mana left. If you let me off, I can share some of it with you, you know?”

Alexia clicked her tongue.

The students had all lost a fair bit of mana during the fighting just now. Accepting her mana would be helpful.

But if they made the trade, it would be letting her off the hook.

Even for someone like Alexia, breaking a deal between great nobles was a big deal.

“...Will you really give it to us?”

“Ah, of course. Depending on the conditions, it could be a lot of mana too.”

Eliza smiled smugly.

She knew Alexia could not refuse.

Alexia looked at the students. They looked frail and fatigued. Their lives were being burned away, moment by moment.

She had no choice but to accept the deal in order to help them.

“Alright, then I accept…”

Just as Alexia said that--

“It seems you don’t understand the circumstances, do you?”

Suzuki spoke like he was drowning out Alexia’s words.

At that moment, he was standing behind Eliza.

“When -- when did you!”

“--Freeze.”

Suzuki’s quiet voice stopped Eliza and her minion just as they were about to turn around.

His hand was on Eliza’s neck… No, it was touching her collar.

“If I break this collar right now, I’m sure you know what will happen, Eliza-sama.”

“...What’s the meaning of this? Do you know what the consequences will be if you do this to me?”

A savage look crossed Eliza’s face.

“Suzuki, stop. Even the Hopes have no intention of opposing her right now.”

Christina added.

“Good grief. It seems none of you realize what’s going on, do you?”

Suzuki sighed loudly enough that everyone could hear.

“What do you mean…”

“Eliza-sama, all the things that always protected you are useless here. Be it your status as a great noble or your factional authority or your great piles of wealth, they are ALL useless in this mist.”

“I am Eliza. I can speak for the Kingdom of Midgar--”

“So what? Can that protect you right now, in this very moment? What kind of testimony will everyone give if I were to kill Eliza-sama in this white mist? Would the people whose mana you stole testify for you?”

Eliza looked around at the students.

None of them met her gaze.

“Do you understand your situation now?”

Suzuki whispered into her ear.

And then, he exerted a bit of force on her collar.

“...I understand. I’m sorry.”

Eliza said quietly.

“I don’t need your apology, but please distribute your mana to the students.”

“...Of course.”

As Eliza said this, there was a look of hatred in her eyes, as though she was trying to kill someone by staring them to death.

“Will this do, Princess Alexia? These are desperate times, so Eliza-sama’s punishment will have to be delayed until everything is over and she can stand trial. Of course, you may punish me as well if needed when the time comes.”

“Is this alright? The punishment for threatening a great noble is most severe, Suzuki-kun.”

“I’m prepared for that.”

“Are you now… What about the Hope family?”

Alexia addressed this question to Christina.

“If you will provide us with your testimony in court, then we will have just cause, Alexia-sama. I doubt things will go too badly.”

Christina coolly replied.

“Thank you very much.”

Suzuki bowed his head.

“It’s nothing… I just, I just had my own opinion on the matter.”

Christina suddenly turned away after saying so.

Following that, the mana transfer went smoothly.

Eliza had 400 mana left. The other 1500 was distributed among the students.

“I trust you understand that stealing their mana again is strictly forbidden?”

“Hurry back to the hall. It would be bad if you were attacked by the ghosts.”

After the mana transfer was completed, the group split into two.

Eliza and the students headed to the hall, while Alexia and company continued in search of the mana.

“I won’t forget this…”

Before she left, Eliza glared at Suzuki and muttered those words.

However, he merely glanced at Eliza like he would at a pebble by the roadside.

“All is but an illusion… Merely a trick of the mists…”

And then he turned away while muttering meaningfully to himself.

===========================================

Alexia followed the trail of the collars’ mana away from the campus.

The ghostly attacks had calmed down since then and there were only a few scattered fights here and there.

“Who IS he, anyway…?”

Alexia moved up to Christina’s side and whispered into her ear.

“He’s a distant relative of the Hope family. He shouldn’t have had any abilities worth mentioning, but…”

Christina glanced back at Suzuki, who was at the end of the group.

“He’s no ordinary person. The courage to stand off against a great noble isn’t something that’s easily acquired.”

“He also used martial arts in combat that I’ve never seen before. He might have been hiding his strength.”

“But why…”

“I don’t know. But after this, I’ll be handing him over to the main family so they can watch over him.”

“That would be for the best…”

Letting someone like him go free would be a terrible waste, as well as being very dangerous.

“You’d best be careful of him. He’s too familiar with all of this. It’s as though he’s become a completely different person.”

The person saying this was Isaac, who had sidled over at some point.

“What do you mean?”

“He says he investigated the collars himself, but I don’t think he could have learned that much from our brief stop in the classroom. He was the one who noticed mana flowing out of the collars. Perhaps he knew about all this from the beginning. When you think about it that way, it all makes sense.”

As he said this, Isaac narrowed his eyes and a sharpness entered his gaze.

“Both his ability to calmly assess the situation and how he seemed to be a different person after the mist appeared… they’re all because he’s in on this.”

“...Do you have proof?”

“I don’t have anything decisive yet. But I’ll catch him for sure. Be careful, Alexia-hime.”

After saying this, he quickened his pace.

The truth is, Isaac had a point.

Suzuki had changed after the mist had appeared. It would make sense if he was from the Cult.

But in that case, then Suzuki would have been leading her and the others around by the nose.

“...What a shallow man.”

Christina suddenly piped up out of nowhere.

She was looking at Isaac, who was walking ahead of them.

“Shallow?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Christina merely shook her head in response to Alexia’s query.

“...The mana seems to reach all the way here.”

Claire came to a half in front of a small chapel near the school grounds.

“So there was a chapel in a place like this.”

“No, there isn’t.”

Nina answered Christina’s question.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said. There was no chapel here originally, not until the mists appeared.”

Saying so, she opened the door and entered.

There was a silence in here, as though it had been long forgotten by people. The pews were covered in dust.

Alexia remained on guard as she approached the pedestal in its depths.

“It’s under this place.”

Claire said so. THey could sense the air moving faintly below the pedestal.

“Yeeart!”

Claire kicked the pedestal without any hesitation, but it was followed by a dull thud.

“Owww! What is this thing?”

“A magical barrier… Looks like it’s an artifact. It seems you’ll need a key to activate it.”

Nina said that after touching the pedestal.

“What key? Where is it?”

“I don’t know either. It would be good if it was nearby.”

“Let’s look.”

Everyone began searching the surroundings, but nobody could find any clues.

“This is no good. There’s nothing here,”

Alexia said.

“Same here. Is there really a clue around here?”

Isaac seemed a little unhappy too.

“There’s no time. If we don’t hurry…”

Alexia had 500 mana remaining. Even though they had fought along the way, this rate of depletion was still worse than expected.

The mana of the students in the chapel was gradually decreasing too.

“I’m having some trouble understanding these artifacts. After all, it’s not my major.”

It was Nina who said that.

“There’s nothing here either.”

Christina and Suzuki did not seem to have turned up anything either.

And so, a melancholy mood settled over them.

All they could do was stare at the pedestal. They were at a dead end.

Just then, they heard a quiet knocking. Its source was Claire, who was punching the pedestal with her right hand.

“It’s no use, Claire.”

Alexia tried to stop her.

However, Claire punched it again. A louder thud than just now rang out.

“Please… lend me your strength. I still have things I need to do. I can’t let things end here…”

Then, Claire undid the bandages on her right hand. As they saw the ominous magic circle carved there, Isaac and Christina both held their breath.

“That’s…”

“Come on, Aurora, lend me your strength. I know you’ve been quiet all this time, but I know you’ve got a way to deal with this.”

Claire continued muttering to her right hand.

“What’s she doing?”

“Who’s she talking to?”

“Shh, be quiet.”

Alexia shut Christina and Isaac up.

“Come on… please, Aurora, answer me… Hear my voice!!”

And then, the magic circle on Claire’s hand lit up.

It dyed the surroundings red with its brilliance and inscribed countless ancient runs on the pedestal.

“This, what is this power--!!”

Isaac exclaimed in surprise.

“Open up! OPEN UP!”

The red light engulfed the entire pedestal, and then it shattered.

After that -- the pedestal was gone. Below it was a flight of steps leading down.

“Amazing…”

Christina muttered to herself in shock. The powerful mana that Claire had displayed could be said to be beyond the ken of normal men.

“You answered me, Aurora… Guh. My right hand hurts… So this is the price of that power…”

Claire winced in pain as she grabbed her right hand.

“Claire, are you okay?”

Alexia put a hand on Claire’s shoulder.

“I’m fine. Hurry, let’s move on, there’s no time.”

Claire got her breathing under control. She looked very determined.

“Let’s go -- for the sake of saving everyone.”

After that, they descended the stairs, with Claire leading the way.

It was a very long flight of stairs. 

Due to the darkness and the mist, there was practically no visibility in all directions. Everyone continued onward in silence. Only the sound of their footsteps echoed in the air.

Soon, when they arrived at the foot of the stairs, Alexia’s mana, which originally read 500, had diminished to 450.

“That’s a big door.”

A massive door came into view in the dark underground.

Alexia and company pushed it open and entered.

The chamber ahead was slightly more open. There were damaged cells on both sides, but they were all empty.

“Is this… a dungeon?”

Claire and the others advanced cautiously. After moving ahead for a bit, they heard something like a heavy object moving around.

“What IS all this…”

Claire muttered in surprise.

It was impossible to see what had happened behind them in the darkness. Alexia had the feeling that they had forgotten something important, and then she turned back.

“Under the chapel… A secret room after going down a long staircase… And then, the door shut behind them.”

Alexia recalled the Head Librarian’s words. That situation seemed very similar to their current one.

“--! Head back, it’s a trap!!”

Alexia frantically turned around and ran. However, the huge door closed with a crash.

At the same time, a gas spewed from the ceiling. The sweet scent soon filled their surroundings.

“Stop breathing!”

But it was too late.

Everyone lost consciousness one after another. In the end, only Alexia was left.

“How, in a place like this…”

As her consciousness faded away, Alexia saw a boy who had donned a gas mask beforehand.

“Good grief. I didn’t expect you to actually make it all the way in here, Princess Alexia.”

“Wait, so you…”

“Yes, I am the insider.”

Isaac chuckled under his mask. Alexia reached for her sword, and then she completely lost consciousness.