A Monster Appears
Academy Yuri Princess had always been, at its heart, a slice-of-life story with romance woven through it.
As the main plot progressed the tone grew more serious, but the theme never changed — even then, the sugary-sweet romance simulation between Eva and the heroines carried on steadily, in a way that never disrupted the story's momentum.
The biggest reason that was even possible was that Purity Academy had done its job admirably as a safe zone.
The moment of the world's reinterpretation — the instant of its ending.
Even in Part 3, when the final battle loomed and the world was thrown into chaos by rampaging monsters, this place alone had held its peace.
Headmaster Pallad and his blessing had taken root here; a monster incursion into this region was supposed to be impossible.
That's how it was supposed to be, anyway.
Why the hell did that thing pop out of nowhere?
A boar-type monster — Hojil.
The guardian of the Thornvine Forest Dungeon.
Hojil dragged one foot against the ground, revving itself like an engine, ready to charge at any moment.
And Marin stood before it, calmly staring the monster down with that blank, expressionless face.
And me?
"Pardon me a second."
I wedged myself between the two of them.
Thud! Crack!
By the time the thought formed, my body was already carrying it out.
I closed the distance in a flash, and a fist wrapped in mana slammed straight into the monster's face.
"Hnk—!"
With a pig-slaughter squeal worthy of its appearance, Hojil staggered backward.
I'd hit it with real force, but all the monster did was trickle a little blood from its nostrils.
Living up to the title of guardian, the named beast held its ground instead of going down for the count.
Mana alone isn't going to cut it?
I'd held back to minimize the damage, but that had barely registered at all.
Should I use Solar War Body, like when I shattered that mana curtain?
If I escalated the damage, this wouldn't end as some minor disturbance.
"Who?"
The deadpan voice came from behind me — and yet, paradoxically, it was a whisper sweet enough to tickle my ear.
"You saved me?"
"I... can see you?"
A barrage of questions followed, but I ignored Marin and kept my eyes forward.
"How should we handle that thing? I'd like to wrap this up without doing any damage to the city."
"Um."
"A monster in the middle of downtown — what kind of mess is this, all of a sudden?"
She kept chattering at my back, and I never once turned my gaze toward her.
Absolutely do not acknowledge her!
"Writer, can you hear me?"
"Can you explain what's going on here?"
A monster had invaded the Academy. Small dungeon or not, its region's apex predator had breached the barrier the Headmaster had erected.
The atmosphere felt wrong, too.
The beast was big enough to flatten a house in one sweep, yet it stood in the middle of the city while people strolled by without a care.
"Looks like nobody else can see it."
Just as the Writer said, people crossed the crosswalk where Hojil stood, and even when they passed straight through its body, they felt no impact — they simply walked on through.
For its part, the monster only flicked its gaze between me and Marin, sparing the other pedestrians not even a glance.
"This looks like Anomaly Isolation, doesn't it? Writer, am I right?"
A technique that copied the surrounding scenery to create an identical-looking, entirely separate space.
Time held no meaning here, so neither hunger nor age could touch you.
The only beings you could perceive — and interfere with — inside this severed world were those designated at the moment the spell was cast.
It had been created for the sake of a dream of eternal immortality, but it could also be used like this: luring in a target of your choosing and turning the place into an arena.
Though I'd never seen it in real life, it was a magic that got mentioned often enough in Academy Yuri Princess that I recognized it the instant I laid eyes on it.
Which was exactly what made my head hurt.
"Writer, isn't this balance completely broken? That boar can cast Anomaly Isolation?"
It made no sense.
Though the scene appeared frequently in the original, its users were a limited few.
A magic only that one bloodline — and a handful of the strongest — could wield.
Even in the web novel, the technique hadn't shown up until Part 2, midway through the story.
She's panicking over there too, huh.
This situation gave me a headache, but the Writer looked even more flustered than I was.
Her messages came through the chat window laced with confusion and embarrassment all tangled together.
I doubted I'd get an answer no matter how many times I called out to her.
No helping it, then. Let's just knock it down first and ask questions later.
Why was that boar even here?
And why, of all things, had it cast its barrier targeting me and Marin specifically?
The questions stacked up, but if I didn't deal with it here, Marin and I would be trapped in this spot, unable to move so much as a step.
Kill the designated targets, or have the caster release the spell.
Those were the only two escape methods the novel had described.
And Hojil didn't look likely to let the two of us go, so a head-on fight was the only answer.
If we're inside the spell, that changes everything.
No bystanders to endanger meant I could go all out.
Whoom!
I sent the mana coiled around my heart coursing through my entire body.
Muscles swelled, and a surge of vitality flooded every inch of me.
Like the sun reigning in that sky above, my very existence began to swallow even the shaded shadows beneath it.
Huff!
Hojil snorted violently, glaring at me.
Power gathered in its hind legs as it planted its feet and assumed a stance to charge.
A powder keg on a short fuse — one spark from going off.
It was Hojil who moved first.
"Skreee!"
Bellowing a fat, thunderous squeal that wrecked the whole mood, it came barreling at me.
Kicking up dust as it charged with all its might, I stood my ground right where I was.
"Bring it."
CRUNCH!
The devastating headbutt struck me full force.
The crushing blow, heavy as its enormous bulk, shoved me backward with my heels dragging furrows in the ground.
This much, though—
I held.
I held it.
Just before that forehead could crash into me with everything it had, I'd caught the long tusks that jutted out and braced them with both hands, locking them in place.
"Grrk! Hnnk!"
Hojil twisted its head, straining with everything it had to break my grip — and the harder it struggled, the harder I clamped down on those tusks.
I wasn't letting it escape.
This ended here.
My hands are occupied pinning the thing down, so they're off the table.
But the ways to hurt it? Practically endless.
A mana-reinforced knee kick straight to its face, hoisting the whole beast overhead and slamming it back down, releasing my mana and roasting it alive — options abounded.
Instead, though, I decided to try something new.
To enter Class A, you need to meet the minimum requirements. You know what they are, don't you?
Good practice, this.
Anyone aiming for the combat track had to be able to draw a weapon's form out of pure mana.
Recalling Silvia's words, I closed my eyes and focused my mind.
Hummmm!
Above my head — into the open air — I poured my concentration.
What I pictured was the heaviest weapon there was.
Once the image crystallized in my mind, golden mana wreathed in brilliance coalesced and took shape.
Vrrrmmm!
"This should do, right?"
"Hnnk!"
A spiked mace materialized above my head — a massive iron ball boasting more mass than Hojil itself, casting its shadow down in a display of sheer menace.
"Hnnk! Eeek!"
Even Hojil sensed the danger and began thrashing more violently than before.
Rewarding its spirited reaction, I let go of my focus.
The finished weapon dropped like an apple in free fall.
KA-BOOOM!
With a thunderous roar, the boar's entire body was crushed flat beneath the mass of light.
Like garbage mangled inside a hydraulic press, its spine bent into the shape of a bow.
I crammed in as much mana as I could, and the craftsmanship is still a total mess.
I'd felt it when forging that dagger too — Solis really had zero talent for this particular line of work.
Then again, his abilities were simply extraordinary across the board. This was only his second attempt, and he'd flattened a dungeon guardian with it — hardly lagging behind the other Class A students.
Yeah, this is more my style anyway.
Hojil struggled to move, bones knocked out of alignment, pain wracking its body.
I clenched my fist and kicked off the ground, leaping skyward.
A bare fist carrying mana — and gravity's acceleration on top of it — I slammed it straight down onto the iron ball.
KRAK!
Cracks spiderwebbed across the iron mass, and the full force of the impact traveled through it into Hojil below.
In an instant, the beast's body burst like a balloon, and dark, thick blood soaked the ground.
The barrier's fading.
The moment Hojil fell, the mana that had shrouded the area vanished.
Its corpse dissolved without a trace — Anomaly Isolation had definitely been lifted.
And with that, one more potential threat to the Academy was erased.
That could've been ugly.
"Excuse me."
Time to run.
Marin, who had appeared in front of me from who knows when, called out to me.
I deliberately ignored it.
This first conversation with Marin — this fated encounter — belonged to the protagonist, so I was playing dumb on purpose.
Rustle.
Right in front of me, she picked up the hem of her uniform skirt and lifted it.
Through the gap she raised, crisp white underwear came into clear view — and my eyes locked onto that single point, completely against my will.
"You can see it, can't you?"
"..."
Ah, damn it. Busted.