Wrapping Up the Incident
A few days after the incident.
"Look over there...! That person...!"
"It's Rosaria Evergarden...!"
"They say she fought off the attackers in the middle of all that chaos and protected the kids...!"
"That's incredible!"
"Heh-heh...! Heh-heh-heh...!"
As she walked down the corridor, Rosaria's shoulders bounced with pride at the students whispering about her, and she strode along with even more vigor.
In one fell swoop, I've become a total celebrity?
After the incident, the Academy found itself in a thoroughly awkward position. Having gathered nobles from across the Empire, the Academy's security had clearly failed—a blunder that left a gaping hole for all to see. Rather than try to hide or bury the affair, the Academy chose to shine an even brighter spotlight on it. They elevated the two people who had brought the crisis to an end—Honorary Professor Felix and Lady Rosaria—as the heroes of the day. Talk of the security lapse would still surface, of course, but public attention would inevitably fixate on the pair who had stopped the disaster. The plan worked perfectly.
And so Rosaria had become the hottest topic inside the Academy.
Mom and Dad got the news and insisted on rushing straight here—stopping them was a nightmare—but damn, this feels good.
When she had first arrived at the Academy, the stares that followed her had been sharp and cold. Now the gazes that landed on her were warm with admiration and curiosity, and she liked them a great deal better.
"Big Sis!!"
"Oh, Letten?"
"I heard the news! I knew you would pull it off!"
"Ah, well... heh-heh, it was nothing special...! Heh...!"
Letten came running toward her, eyes sparkling as he heaped on the praise. Rosaria's shoulders shook as she struggled to hold back the grin that kept trying to escape. Some people claimed too much attention was exhausting, but Rosaria simply felt good. Having fans cling to her every step might get annoying, yet receiving those distant looks of pure admiration was a thoroughly pleasant experience.
"Anyway, see you in class later!"
"Yes! Big Sis! You're the absolute best!"
"You little... heh-heh...!"
By the time she sent Letten off, Rosaria's shoulders had climbed so high they looked ready to punch through the ceiling.
Knock-knock—
At last she reached her destination and rapped on the door.
"I'm coming in."
She didn't wait for an answer; she shoved the door open and strode inside.
"Oh, you're here."
"Hyung, you made it."
"Yep. This body has arrived."
Felix and Tene were waiting for her. After the incident, Felix had summoned them both, saying he wanted to talk everything over.
"You look like you're in a great mood. Something happen?"
"Heh-heh, well, these days the whole Academy starts buzzing the second I show up~"
"I'm not some celebrity. It's just annoying. People keep latching onto me even though it has nothing to do with magic class."
"Ugh, so cold. Just enjoy it a little, will you?"
Where Rosaria was basking in the attention, Felix merely shrugged, looking thoroughly put out.
"Anyway, what actually happened back then? I passed out, so I have no idea how things ended."
That was the first thing she had wanted to ask. She had fought the assailant and then lost consciousness; everything after that was a blank.
"Ah, that? Sit down. I'll explain."
Felix took a sip of tea to wet his throat for her benefit.
"Right... where should I even start..."
"So... what exactly am I supposed to do with this?"
Tene, who had been in the middle of her maid duties when she was suddenly summoned, asked Felix the moment she arrived.
"Right now the magic circle connecting the Academy to the artificial dungeon has been sabotaged by some kind of formula and won't work. We need to reset it so the spaces can link up again."
"A for... what? Link the spaces?"
"...In simple terms, the computer's got a virus. We're formatting it."
Tracing and dispelling the secretly installed magic circle in the short time they had left was impossible. Felix had decided it would be faster to smash the entire system and somehow restore only the spatial transfer—at least then they could evacuate the students quickly.
"Ahhh... but why me?"
Even after hearing the explanation, Tene still didn't understand why she had been called.
"Even if we 'format' it, it's not something you can just do casually. Completely resetting the magic circle takes an enormous amount of power, and I don't have enough."
"That's where you come in—you smash the magic circle to pieces!"
Strictly speaking, it wasn't so much a format as forcing an already glitching computer into overclock until the whole system crashed from overload.
"Oh...! But how do I do that? I don't even know how to use magic."
Tene still hesitated, looking uncertainly at Felix. She was a dragon—the strongest living being in this world—yet she couldn't cast magic. Polymorph was a special case, but she had no idea how to handle mana itself, so she had no clue how she was supposed to destroy a magic circle.
"Ah, nothing fancy. Just hit it with raw force."
"...What?"
"The circle itself has a spell that absorbs external impact. Focus everything on that part and hit it with a shock it can't handle—that'll shatter the whole thing."
"Uh... so I just punch it with my fist?"
"You know those punch machines you sometimes see on the street? Same idea."
"Are you sure this is really going to work...? If something goes wrong, won't it be a huge disaster?!"
A lingering unease still clung to Tene. She had come when called, but beyond the door she could hear important-looking people rushing around in chaos, and the solution they were offering her was "just punch it." She couldn't help wondering whether this was actually a good idea.
"Hmm..."
"Just hit it clean! Hit it hard!"
"...Fine! I don't even know anymore!!!"
She fretted for a moment, but the more she thought the more her head hurt, so she simply chose the easiest option.
"Here I go...! Full-power series...!"
Tene clenched her fist and began to gather strength.
Then—
Rumble—rumble—
"Whoa. Just gathering power and it's already like this? Dragons really are something else."
The air around her fist grew taut and rippled. In that storm-before-the-calm tension, she slowly drew her power higher.
[Hey! Are you absolutely sure this is okay?!]
"Ah, yes~! No problem at all!!!"
Remillion must have felt the disturbance from outside; she shouted and tried to barge in. Felix barely managed to hold the door and called back in a reassuring voice.
"Full-power... punch!!!"
Tene's fist shot forward.
In that instant the entire room turned white.
BOOM—! BANG—!
Rumble—
"Whoaah?!"
[Kyaaaaah!!! What are you doing in there!!! Are you sure everything's fine?!]
"Y-yes!! It's really fine!!! So please don't worry!!"
The moment her fist extended, the space around it warped. A tremendous roar and shockwave shook the room. Chairs, tables—every piece of furniture went flying. The place looked as if a typhoon had torn through it. Even Felix, who had thrown up a barrier around himself, was briefly lifted into the air. Tene was living proof of just how terrifying a dragon could be.
"I-is it done now?"
The cause of the chaos slowly pulled her fist back and muttered.
"...Oh! Perfect! Just as I predicted!"
Felix scrambled over to check the magic circle and immediately whooped with joy. Exactly as expected, the overloaded circle had completely crashed and reset itself.
"...It actually worked."
Hearing Felix's cheer, Tene scratched her head awkwardly and mumbled.
"...So we reset it, rebuilt the warp gate, and got the students out right away."
"I still don't really understand any of that."
"So that's what happened."
Rosaria nodded as she listened to Felix's explanation.
"So then, what about you, Oppa?"
"That, huh?"
When Felix asked, Rosaria began recounting what she had gone through.
"...Korea. He said 'Korea,' right?"
"Do you think that person was a transmigrator too?"
"Probably not. When we fought, he reacted to the word 'Korea,' but he didn't seem to know anything about Korea itself."
"They're interrogating the assailant inside the Academy right now, but apparently they haven't gotten anything useful yet."
"That stubborn bastard—his limbs were shattered and he was still grinding his teeth at me."
"Hypnosis magic doesn't work on him either. Looks like they put some kind of countermeasure against confession on him."
The assailant Rosaria had taken down had been captured on the spot and was now locked in the Academy's basement, but extracting information was proving difficult. He would probably be transferred to the imperial capital soon.
"Hmm... then who exactly is this 'That Person' they keep talking about?"
As Rosaria's story continued, the three of them grew steadily more serious.
"Just looking at our family and Tene, it's clear a lot of people have transmigrated into this world. The condition seems to be whether they read the original novel... so why have so many people ended up here?"
"Beats me... isn't this just the usual web-novel plot?"
"Even for a web novel, this many transmigrators is almost unheard of."
"And about that 'That Person'... I think they're trying to gather the transmigrators."
"People like us?"
"I don't know exactly what they're planning, but they're definitely up to something."
"But how would they even find other transmigrators?"
"Transmigrators know the original story. Anyone who starts acting completely differently from the original is probably one of us, right?"
"That makes sense... so we're basically walking around yelling 'I'm a transmigrator!' at every other one?"
Rosaria recoiled at Felix's explanation. In the original novel, Rosaria and Felix had been nothing more than disposable extra villains. Now they were walking completely different paths; anyone who knew the original would notice immediately.
"Uh, um... what about me?"
"You, Tene... well, Tenebrix Nox only appears at the very end of the story, so you should be fine."
"Anyway, what do we do now? Do we... go back to bullying the kids like in the original?"
"...No. The plot's already completely broken. We're being treated as Academy heroes. It's way too late to start acting like villains."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
"...Honestly, I don't have a good answer. The Academy's still in an uproar over the attack, and the best move would be to get information out of that assailant... but that doesn't look promising either."
"Bottom line: we just keep living our lives for now. That seems like the right call."
"...Is that really okay?"
"We don't have a choice. From what Oppa said, their goal isn't to kill us—it's to gather us. There might be another contact attempt later. Preparing for that is probably the best we can do."
"Hmm... if you say so."
"Anyway... want to go grab some food?"
"Sure. I was getting hungry anyway."
"Uh...? I still have work left to finish, though?"
"What was today's lunch menu again? Do you know, Oppa?"
"Grilled fish and corn soup, I heard. The corn soup's especially sweet and delicious."
"Really? Sounds good."
"Hey, hey, excuse me?!"
With that, the three of them left the room without ever finding a clear answer—and without waiting for Tene to finish her work.