#9. The Greatest Scholar
Rain Ortiz appeared in an otherwise peaceful routine.
After that, it was a series of astonishing events. New concepts, new technologies, new machines. Days so surreal, it felt like a dream.
Rachel Arte thought.
‘Nothing more amazing can happen.’
The assumption was reasonable enough. So many impossibilities had become realities, and she’d even witnessed it all firsthand. What could be more astonishing than that?
“Damn it…!”
There was.
And it wasn’t good.
A Maine incursion. I know that there is nothing but security force at most security.
But they just straight walked right in.
The Maine reportedly walked right up to the front gate and killed the guards barring the way. Regardless of combat prowess, the fact that they killed people without hesitation was dangerous to the students.
“Professor Meriel.”
“Don’t talk to me when I’m struggling to run!!”
“I’ll head on ahead.”
“Huh?”
Rachel calculated a spell.
A spatial leap spell. Rachel vanished in an instant.
“…Hmph, when did she learn that?”
Meriel hadn’t mastered that spell yet, so she had to keep running.
“…”
Still, one never knew.
Meryel calculated a spell.
“…”
Just run.
.
.
.
At the main gate, a multitude of fiends rampaged.
They killed guards, injured professors who had arrived earlier, and some even targeted the students.
But those fiends were soon slammed into the ground. Someone had made it so.
“Ah, Professor Rachel has arrived, I see!”
It was Rachel.
The fiend greeted her as if he had been waiting.
“Name?”
“Herild.”
“Purpose for being here?”
“You.”
The brief exchange ended, and Herild charged.
An enormous physique. And a headlong rush. No weapon.
A brawler, then.
Rachel used a spatial leap spell once more. Her position, behind Herild.
The spell she then calculated was a shock spell.
“Ugh…!”
The moment her hand touched him, a powerful vibration turned Herild’s insides upside down.
Herild staggered for a moment, but soon regained his balance and rotated his body, attempting to strike Rachel’s head.
*Thung.*
But he was blocked by a barrier she had deployed in advance.
Rachel unleashed a barrage of shock spells. She was attacking with lethal intent, and she truly intended to kill.
“You’re targeting me?”
While attacking Herild, Rachel also held back the fiends behind him. It was ice magic.
“Worthless things?”
Herild quickly lost consciousness. With all his internal organs ruptured, he wouldn’t last long.
For such a gruesome countermeasure, she wasn’t particularly angry.
Just a little surprised, and absurdly taken aback.
*Thwack.*
It was then that a sword entered her chest.
“…Ack.”
As the sword that pierced her heart was pulled out, blood spurted like a fountain.
“Goodbye, Rachel.”
Rienne Flint.
“Rienne, Lien…”
“What are you doing? That little scratch won’t kill me.”
Rachel’s wound was healing, bit by bit.
No, it wasn’t quite healing. It felt like time was running backwards.
“I knew it was you.”
“Oh my, did you foresee that?”
“There’s only one mage reckless enough to operate in the Empire like this.”
Rachel’s wound vanished completely. Though, it wasn’t actually time manipulation magic. Rachel hadn’t reached that stage yet.
Magic that touched causality was only usable by a ‘Sage.’
“I heard you became a professor of magical engineering, which worried me a bit, but your magic skills are as sharp as ever, huh?”
Image Retention magic. Rachel had locked her body in a specific moment.
Therefore, even if she aged, she wouldn’t appear to, and even if stabbed, she’d revert to the fixed image.
It was magic she developed herself.
“Enough chatter. Just do what you’re here to do.”
Fire is out of the question. It could spread to the academy. Of course, I could put it out, but even the thought of having to deal with it is stressful.
“This will have to do, then.”
Wind gathered in Rachel’s hand.
“How distasteful. Using the same magic as before.”
“Was I?”
She gestured lightly. Her gaze remained fixed on Lien. The surrounding wind grew stronger and stronger, before finally crashing into Lien.
“Hahaha…!”
The wind was like countless tiny blades. It would carve, scrape, and pierce Lien’s flesh, causing immense damage.
“…?”
That’s what should have happened.
“Surprised, are you?”
After the magic subsided, Lien stared at Rachel, completely unscathed.
Confusion bloomed. With his level of skill, there was no way he could have withstood that magic.
“Rachel, this is a ‘countermeasure’ I prepared just for you. I hope you like it.”
Rachel’s expression hardened.
Her hardened expression meant one of two things.
She was either flustered, or deep in thought.
Lien assumed it was the former.
“I think I understand.”
The problem was, it was the ‘latter.’
Lien’s body slammed into the ground. A considerable amount of gravity magic. Unable to move, a panicked voice escaped Lien’s mouth, along with blood.
“Huh…”
He was definitely wearing a magic nullification bracelet.
Why?
“Did you really think such a crude spell could block my magic?”
A reversal, then?
She’d undone the enchantment on the bracelet.
…Rachel was this capable?
Her growth was something he’d anticipated, to a degree. But this… this exceeded expectations.
A laugh trickled from Rien’s lips.
“Aha, hahaha!”
It brought into sharp focus who stood before him. Widely hailed as the greatest scholar, no less.
“Ha…”
Today is a failure. He’d have to aim for next time.
But in the meantime…
“Children, about that student.”
Rien contacted the Minds.
“Just kill him.”
A moment of silence hung in the air.
No reply came.
“…?”
A tremendous boom then reached her ears.
Something was wrong.
*
“Safety mode disengaged.”
A mana sword without its safety mode was dangerous. Even its developer had been shocked during the first demonstration, which should say enough.
Using something like that on a person? Madness. Hence the safety mode.
Though, things were a little different in the case of Minds.
“Twenty million.”
“…?”
“That’s the number of Allied soldiers the Demon Lord’s army killed. And that’s just what’s confirmed.”
To stand against the Demon Lord, all the nations had joined forces.
Even so, all they could do was buy time for the Hero selection. Countless soldiers were sacrificed.
I may be a reincarnated soul, but I’m also a citizen of the ‘Merrybear Empire.’
And I’d seen it.
Someone’s family, someone’s friend, someone’s lover.
The tears they shed.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just, you know, that’s how it is.”
He pressed hard on the mana sword’s button. With the safety mode disengaged, the mana sword could change forms. There were three modes in total, but he chose ‘baton.’ A ‘magitech baton,’ that is.
No matter how irredeemable these b*stards might be, they were still people. The choice of a blunt weapon was for that reason. He didn’t want to experience taking a life.
Of course, if he miscalculated, it would explode their heads in an instant, but he was confident in his control.
“Hmph, in the end you’re just a slave.”
One of the Minds spat.
So they were planning to exploit him after all.
And he was trying to stay out of trouble!
“It’s all the Professor’s fault.”
Blaming others, the nature of man. Passing the buck to Professor Rachel, I gripped the bat.
*Click.* *Thwrrrrrr.*
The bat’s surface shifted, subtly. Where before it felt like a normal steel bat, now the surface seemed almost detached, floating just above. I could see the mana stones and mana currents inside.
I swung it.
*Whoosh.*
Nothing would happen.
Just stillness.
For exactly one second.
“Ah.”
And then I felt it.
I’d failed to modulate the power.
This is harder than it looks.
As if an invisible explosion had detonated, an immense shockwave blasted the mind-controlled automatons. Visible even to the naked eye, the shockwave pulverized everything in its path.
*Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!*
Every pane of glass in the hallway shattered. Doors buckled. Significant cracks spiderwebbed across the walls and ceiling.
A bit more carelessness and the entire floor would’ve been vaporized.
The mind-controlled automatons, unable even to scream, flew through the air and slammed into the opposite wall.
“Oh.”
But I hadn’t managed to knock them out in one blow.
Something was off. Even with the power modulated, that should’ve at least caused unconsciousness, shouldn’t it?
These automatons seemed not only conscious, but practically fine.
Hmm? Wait a minute…
…Interesting.
“Sturdy dummy robots located.”
I morphed the weapon again. The bat began to change with a mechanical whine. Longer than before, and sharper.
This time, it would be a ‘spear.’
“Let’s go full throttle, shall we?”
The mind-controlled automatons charged again.
Not quite as fast as Lien Flint, but still considerable speed. One came at me head-on, the other instantly flanking behind.
Figured I couldn’t attack both sides, did they?
[ 30 meters. No other life forms detected. ]
I gripped the spear tightly, and spun in a complete circle. No need for elaborate spear techniques. This would do.
The blade pulsed with a blue aura, unleashing a wave of sword energy like during the duel, bisecting the automatons’ torsos as they charged. For a normal person, it would’ve cleaved them in two…
“Krrraaack!!”
“Krrraaack!!”
But they’re sturdy.
Cut just enough to leave them alive.
“Haa.”
Experiment complete.
I should head back now.
“…”
But, um…
I’m not going to be held responsible for this, am I?
I surveyed the utterly devastated scene, and decided to just stop thinking about it.
Let’s just say the Mind did it.