306 – Academy Team Battle -3

The time was right after the start of the team battle.

“Let’s seize ‘Glory Mansion’ first!”

“Woah, you’re sharp!”

“Yeah, even if we’re in the lower ranks of the Academy! If we take a building first and set up defenses, we can even fight those guys in the mid-to-upper ranks!”

“Alright, let’s go ahead and set up barricades, cover the windows, and modify the interior to make it suitable for fighting!”

The nameless 10-person party had a good idea, and they ran towards ‘Glory Mansion’ faster than anyone else. And they were the first.

“The inside is cleaner than I thought…”

‘Glory Mansion’, built by Professor Alejandro, was incredibly durable, making it impossible to break down or move the walls. It was also difficult to move the pre-placed furniture.

“Then we’ll use outside materials…!!”

So, they cut down nearby trees to create makeshift obstacles, using the indestructible furniture as part of the obstacles to increase their stability. They decorated the mansion with all their heart and soul.

However, a little while later.

An unwelcome guest arrived at the finished house.

“Boss! Someone’s… the Gordius party is coming! They’re carrying a ton of stuff!”

“Did they have the same idea as us…!”

And, clearly, they were the superior version. The Gordius party was like they were trying to move a whole household in one go, starting with food supplies, and someone was even carrying a chandelier. What’s with the chandelier?

The student who’d taken the mansion first shouted:

“Hey Gordius! Even for you, getting through here is going to be tough! We’re guarding this narrow entrance like an iron wall!”

Looking up at the ones warning from the second floor of the mansion, Gordius, with a bursting backpack on his back, said with a smile:

“I don’t want to waste unnecessary time. Just give up willingly.”

“Hah, you think we’ll fall for some cheap bluff?! We’ll fight to the death—”

“Arise.”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯??”

Rustle rustle. Students poured out of the bushes. They too, were carrying large bags. Twenty, thirty, forty of them…!

A large alliance of 49 people in total!

It was a terrifying force, where they could take out someone just by throwing rocks.

“That’s a foul!”

“I don’t think there was any notice forbidding alliances.”

“Y-you cheating b*stard! Fight fair!”

“Financial power and rhetoric are part of strength. Therefore, giving into sympathy is the thing that isn’t fair. All-out assault.”

“Waaah──!!”

Even if they’d secured the spot first, there was nothing they could do when outnumbered five to one. The students were swarmed and eliminated, and Gordius and the 49 thieves successfully occupied the 『Mansion of Glory』.

“Let me out! I won’t resist! Give me partial credit, at least!”

“No. Execute them.”

“KRaaaK!”

They left not a single survivor.

The Gordius party heaved a sigh as they dropped their heavy backpacks onto the floor of the second-floor hall of the mansion. How much they’d suffered to move all this.

The student who’d been carrying the chandelier looked near death. He sprawled out on the floor, asking Gordius,

“…What are you thinking? Gordius. I get the food and construction materials, but I haven’t a clue what the hell the chandelier is for. If it’s some stupid, ‘it needs this to look pretty’ reason, we’re both dead.”

“Want to know? If you hear it, you can’t leave from here.”

“… … … … ?”

Gordius grinned wickedly.

“Think about it. What’s the win condition of this game…?”

“To wear the crown and hold out for an hour inside this building.”

“Right. But in that process, do we have to fight? Monsters live in the academy. No matter how many of us there are, an overwhelming individual beats a group. A head-on fight… is defeat. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to.”

“Then how will you win…?”

Gordius quietly pointed his finger upwards. Following his direction, they tilted their heads to see the dome-shaped roof, finished in a rounded curve. What about it?

“This building is two stories, and each floor is an open hall. So, we… will wait on the third floor.”

“What.”

“Using the construction materials we brought, we will make a ceiling/floor, and hide on a third floor that doesn’t originally exist. No one will even guess. No one will know we’re here.”

“Then this damn chandelier is…?!”

The students shuddered as they understood his true intention. To perfectly disguise themselves as the ceiling!

So that’s why you bought so much food! He’s planning to bunker down in the ‘secret floor’ for three days with 49 people, including himself!

“Then, sending Envers out on his own was…?”

“My plan has two options. First, if Envers succeeds in getting the 『Crown』 and reaches the mansion safely. Then we hide in the ceiling for an hour.”

“If he fails…?”

“When the top contenders are beating each other to a pulp, we break through the floor and ambush them.”

Perfect, it’s a perfect plan! We can win with this…

Who would ever expect there to be a ‘hidden third floor’? They even put up a chandelier. If the ceiling suddenly collapses and 49 people rush down, even the strongest student will be thrown off balance.

*shwish*

Materials float in the air, automatically tangling and assembling themselves. Gordius has built giant robots inside sessions before, so creating a whole floor is child’s play for him.

Though, he does have a bit of an interior design aesthetic issue.

“It really fits well. It looks like it belongs in the mansion.”

“It’s just like a noble’s mansion, it’s perfect!”

None of them could tell the difference.

They set up tents on the newly created third floor and started munching on all sorts of emergency rations, embarking on their endless bunker-down. They’d brought everything they needed. They could survive without going outside.

Gordius chewed on a biscuit, confident of a 70% chance of victory. That was until they learned about the gimmick called 『The Mad Magician’s Great Labyrinth』.

–

Immediately after the abduction incident caused by the great labyrinth.

“Why are you putting your ear to a metal pipe?”

“It’s a physical eavesdropping spell. Quiet.”

The ‘third floor’ of the mansion that Gordius had made had a critical flaw: there was no way to see outside. No windows, no holes. It was designed that way to avoid giving away their position.

But that didn’t mean abandoning reconnaissance entirely. So, what I’d arranged was the installation of metal pipes that snaked through the lower floors.

Thanks to cooperation with the Order of Water Engineers, providing the technology of “eavesdropping without magic using metal pipes,” Gordius managed to extract significant information from the chaotic screams below.

One, the Great Labyrinth seemed to be alive, moving and visiting the mansion periodically.

Two, the “Mansion of Glory” had a screen they hadn’t yet found, which displayed the number of people who could be protected.

Three, the number of protectable individuals decreased under specific conditions.

Four, the fact that Gordius’s party was hiding within the mansion had been exposed.

“…Was it a misstep having so many from the alliance? No, it was an unforeseen variable. Dwelling on regret is inefficient.”

But…if only the team had been just ten members smaller, they wouldn’t have been discovered during that first labyrinth raid. That part was truly regrettable. The element of surprise had been cut in half by that.

Even if they didn’t know where Gordius’s party would emerge from, wouldn’t they prepare for an ambush?

This wasn’t enough. They needed to come up with another plan.

Attack immediately, before they were further discovered? No. Unless Lady Baekryeon came upstairs to the second floor with a small group like before, starting a fight now would be akin to a head-on collision.

With 49 people, they could surely defeat Lady Baekryeon in a direct confrontation. But that would mean casualties, and weakened like that, they couldn’t defeat Snow White.

*Tap*. *Tap*. Gordius drummed his pants leg, lost in thought.

A method to preserve their strength while eliminating a powerful rival. A method to effectively utilize their numerical advantage. Did one exist?

“Yes.”

It did.

The key to victory was the Great Labyrinth itself.

If they could bring the Great Labyrinth into the mansion once more, like what happened before. And if they could get the labyrinth to seize all their rivals… victory would be as good as theirs.

“That sounds plausible, but…there’s a problem, right? It’s not just how to summon it, but also, we don’t know about the ‘protectable number,’ do we?”

“We don’t. But we can deduce it.”

“Numbers?”

“Intentions.”

From the start, they should’ve just let the students fight each other. Why did that crazy professor organize this event, ‘the Great Labyrinth’s Raid’?

“If left alone, nobody would go into their own dungeon, so he’s trying to force-feed it to us, isn’t he?”

“Maybe. But that’s not the point. The key thing is that in this situation, the Great Labyrinth is acting as a kind of timer. If we dawdle, the Labyrinth comes. So fight. It’s encouraging teams to fight each other.”

“Then…”

“The number of people we can protect will only decrease, never increase. So, our top priority right now is to find a way to reduce the number of ‘protectable people.'”

Figure out the formula, and deliberately reduce the number of people. Reduce it and reduce it again. If possible, drop it until it matches exactly the number of people on the third floor.

Then, if we hold out, everyone except the Gordius team will be wiped out on the next visit of the ‘Great Labyrinth’.

“But, there’s no guarantee the Great Labyrinth will only take the lower floors and not us, right?”

“No. The order in which the Labyrinth takes people from the mansion was based on proximity to the entrance. Based on the sounds, that’s what I deduce. So… those of us on the highest floor are the safest.”

Gordius looked at his team members with sharp eyes.

“Ten of you, we’ll form a separate unit. The separate unit will leave the third floor and operate independently. The purpose is twofold. One, to conceal and confuse the fact that the main force is on the third floor, and two, to reduce the number of ‘protectable people.'”

“Hey, Gordius. You’re making scapegoats again to do the work, and you’re going to chill out here…”

“No, I’ll participate in the separate unit too. I’ll find a way to feed you scores, so trust me and follow me.”

“…Did you eat something bad?”

Gordius turned his back without a word. He was different from before. He had become a man who knew how to bear a burden on his shoulders.

Besides, compared to saving the world, the Academy’s exam was a very light responsibility, wasn’t it?

His confident appearance, leading the team with certainty, reassured the students. If the leader is firm and unwavering, the team members will naturally trust and follow him.

“I’ll go.”

“Me too, I’ll go too.”

“Hey, that guy… something feels different about him.”

One by one, volunteers stepped forward from the group. In the blink of an eye, a 10-man strike team was formed, and Gordius, listening intently, gauged the timing to descend.

Finally, when the noise on the second floor had completely died down, he gave one last word of caution before the breach.

“Communication is vulnerable to being intercepted, and if they track us and expose our location on the third floor, everything will fall apart, so no contact. If you think we’ve been spotted, don’t hesitate to engage. And don’t get reckless just because I’m not there.”

“…Return safe, Leader.”

“I’ll return with good news.”

Thunk.

Part of the third floor floorboard was opened, and ropes were lowered. Led by Gordius, the ten-man strike team carefully descended the ropes.

Thud.

“……”

There was no one on the second floor. Just as they had scouted with metal pipes beforehand, they seemed to be gathered on the first floor, holding a meeting. Gordius gave a hand signal. They moved stealthily, without making a sound.

While the team members were opening the windows and creating an escape route to the outside, Gordius spotted a screen on the second floor.

[Protectable Personnel: 57]

“…That’s it, then. The number of personnel has decreased since earlier.”

“Leader, we’ve lowered the ropes at the window on the first floor that has the curtains drawn. We don’t see anyone patrolling outside either.”

“Good, let’s go down.”

Swish. Sssshhh.

One by one they descended. Those who had gone down first helped those following, keeping the noise to a minimum. The sounds of the White Lotus Lady’s team were audible from behind the curtains….

“….What are you thinking of doing now?”

“First, we disrupt. We’ve been… hiding underground this whole time. And now, we deliberately make noise, let them find us. Got it?”

“Then we’ll need some dirt on us, all grubby. I understand perfectly.”

*Scratch, scratch.* The ten-person commando unit rolled quietly across the ground. Among them was a student who’d worked in a coal mine before academy entrance, so they were able to get perfectly filthy with a professional consultation.

Then.

“『Ground Anguish』.”

They spread vibrations as if burrowing up from beneath the earth. Human silhouettes were spotted, bustling behind the curtains. They took the bait.

*Whoosh-!*

The curtain was ripped back roughly, a roar erupting.

“Who’s there!”

“We flee.”

“Princess! It’s those Gordius b*stards! They’re coming up from underground!”

Immediately, Gordius bolted in the direction where the 『Great Labyrinth』 had vanished. It was a path it had already swept, so he figured no students would be there.

“Princess, order pursuit!”

“No. We don’t know when the 『Great Labyrinth』 will reappear outside… and they’re few in number. It could be a diversion to raid the house while it’s empty. We’ll protect the mansion.”

He knew it. He believed they wouldn’t give chase.

The thrill of the plan and expectations fitting together made Gordius’s lips curl up.

“At the same time, we search the area and find Envers’s location. It’d be good to check on what’s happening with the 『Crown』 too…”

“Hey, up ahead!”

“Up ahead, why… damn it!”

But immediately after, an unexpected situation he hadn’t accounted for occurred.

“Heave-ho, that makes the sixth cabinet… Hey, is that Gordius?”

“Looks like it. ‘The Tortoise Can’t Beat the Rabbit.'”

“…Starting with a fable, huh?”

“A lion gives its all even when hunting a rabbit.”

They’d run right into the Selvier-Snow White pair, who were heading towards the mansion.

–

The cabinet that Selvier and Snow White used to escape the Labyrinth just plummeted into the ground and never reappeared.

“One-use only, huh?”

“Doesn’t look like they want to turn the team battle into hide-and-seek. Then… “

“Alright, let’s break all the cabinets we come across, leaving only the ones we’ll use.”

“Kick the ladder out, I like it.”

The plan was set. They intended to use up all the cabinets, wiping out all the visible safe havens. To make as many students as possible drop out of the next labyrinth raid.

Then… when they were almost at the Glorious Mansion, Selvier-Snow White ran into the special unit led by Gordius.

Alright, let’s smash ‘em.

They understood without a word. Selvier, raising the heat, and Snow White, the cold – about to unleash a mage-exclusive mass destruction.

“—There’s a secret to the Glorious Mansion! Let’s negotiate with this!”

Gordius threw both arms up and activated the negotiation table.