The Plan Was Solid
The plan was solid, so that was good!
The third imperial princess, Arlea — that absolute menace — was infamous throughout the empire.
Not in a good way. In the worst way possible.
"Damn it. He's actually standing next to that hellion."
"Eyes down. I said eyes down. You want your head on a chopping block again?"
Rumors had long painted Arlea as a one-woman army with a temper so volatile it bordered on full-blown rage disorder — the kind of person who did whatever she pleased and left scorched earth behind her.
Which meant every eye in the hall was locked on the two of us.
Arlea, for her part, just sat there with her ears politely pricked, as obedient as a well-trained hound.
Thanks to that, the entrance ceremony was proceeding without a hitch.
"—And so you stand here today as free citizens of the greatest empire on earth! Welcome to Imperialis Academy!"
"Welcome, my ass."
"Mikhail. Are you struggling?"
I was glaring daggers at the chancellor mid-speech when Arlea nudged me in the side.
"No, Your Highness. I'm fine. I've just been so busy managing Your Highness's schedule that I haven't slept a wink."
"Mikhail. I told you not to work so hard. Especially not every single night."
"I am not doing anything strange. Whatever Your Highness is imagining."
"Saying something like that in front of a virgin… So you do know what I mean. Still, you'd better be careful."
Chancellor Erguis was exceptionally good at handling people, Arlea added, almost as a warning.
I know, Arlea.
Who wouldn't know that?
If anything, I was planning to use it today. If my memory was right, she should be making her entrance right about now.
"All right, everyone — attention!"
Clap—
Speak of the devil. Erguis clapped her hands.
Arrayed behind her stood the academy's core faculty — roughly thirty professors in all.
"Now then, everyone. The time has come for you to choose your college. Shall we begin with the College of Magitech? Professor Lu?"
Erguis gestured toward the faculty, but all that answered her was a low murmur of confusion.
An awkward silence settled over the stage.
Eventually, a professor in martial arts robes approached Erguis.
"Chancellor… Professor Lu has vanished."
"Surely not. At a moment this important?!"
"Yes. Professor Lu is… rather eccentric, as you know. He appears to be in his laboratory. We've sent Carlos and an assistant; he should be back shortly."
"That bookworm. I sometimes wonder if the man even knows how to speak."
Erguis shook her head.
She couldn't delay the entire schedule over one missing professor.
Left with no choice, she pressed on.
"…Ah. There appears to have been a slight scheduling mix-up. Allow me to introduce it in his place. The Imperialis College of Magitech!"
Erguis declared it with full confidence.
"Creak-creak—"
A jointed wooden puppet walked onto the stage.
The College of Magitech.
Simply enrolling was enough to have the Thieves' Guild, the Porters' Association, and every Magic Tower in the empire fighting over you. It was the flagship college for anyone aiming at a golden career path — on par with the medical school craze back in Korea.
Those yanderes had used talents just like these to track me down so thoroughly. Ugh. Just thinking about it made my mouth ache.
Bad blood. Pure bad blood!
"……Ah. How terrifying."
Arlea muttered it like she was reading from a textbook.
Sigh. Arlea.
Would it kill you to work on your acting?
Well. She's always been this kind of woman.
I let out a breath.
The puppet on stage was a prototype.
In the original timeline, that prototype had gone berserk during the entrance ceremony and caused massive casualties.
It was something that could have been prevented in advance — but the butterfly effect made me wary, and more importantly, this accident was essential to my escape plan.
My goal was to lose to that wooden puppet.
If I could prove myself utterly incompetent, Erguis would start maneuvering behind the scenes to cut me loose on her own.
Besides — a so-called bodyguard knight who can't even protect a princess?
That was a male lead not even worth a yandere's time.
"Mikhail."
Right on cue, Arlea tugged at my sleeve.
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Could you help me for a moment? It won't take long."
Perfect. Time to put the plan into motion.
"So you're saying that puppet is going to cause a problem?"
"Yes, exactly. It's extremely dangerous. That prototype is packed with extreme concentrations of mana — mana Erguis herself condensed. Who could possibly withstand that?"
I nodded at Arlea's words.
Among everyone present, almost no one would dare step forward under that kind of pressure.
"It will be dangerous. Extremely."
"Yes. This isn't baseless worry, Mikhail. Think about who infused that magic. Chancellor Erguis has been through magical wars."
"Then I'll go subdue it."
"……Hmm. Go ahead. But if things start going sideways, I'll step in."
I picked up the sword leaning beside me and strode toward the stage.
If my memories were accurate, the timing was perfect.
Time to raise some hell!
That puppet scaled its power to match whoever it faced. It had originally been built for training, after all — and Professor Erguis had pumped more mana into it than it was ever designed to hold.
Right now, its strength was calibrated to Erguis herself.
"Who the hell is that guy?!"
"That white hair… no matter how you look at it, he's from that family."
The murmuring swelled as I approached the stage. I climbed up without so much as a change in expression.
Erguis's face tightened.
"Who are you? I'm sorry, but we are not taking questions."
I launched straight into the line I'd prepared.
"That puppet is about to go berserk, Chancellor! I'll handle it myself!"
I drew my blade.
The entire hall fell silent.
Creak-creak. The mana-charged puppet began to twist and contort.
Full overload.
Professors seized their weapons and charged in.
"S-stop it!"
BOOM!
KRA-KA-KA-KABOOM———!!!
"Ugh, aaargh!"
Damn it! Curses erupted from every direction.
"F-fall back! Prioritize evacuating the students!"
"Chancellor — survivors—"
"Only those still in one piece cover my rear. Understood?!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The entrance ceremony had collapsed into chaos. Professors lay scattered across the stage. The only people still combat-capable were Erguis, a handful of assistants, me, and Arlea.
Well — the rest were brand-new first-years, after all.
The grand hall had been reinforced with magical defenses strong enough to shrug off most spells, so outside support was out of the question.
And the first-year chicks, faced with a situation like this, only made things worse by stampeding for the exits.
All right. Everything's in place for a perfectly legal catastrophe!
I cheered silently to myself.
Yes. Let me prove it to you all in person.
That the so-called elite imperial bodyguard knight is, in fact, complete trash!
Order always blooms from chaos, after all.
Creak-creak—!
The berserk puppet was blood-crazed. Having already dropped multiple professors and students alike, its gaze locked onto Arlea.
Arlea stood with her arms folded elegantly beneath her chest, eyes saying, Come and try me.
"Don't you dare touch Her Highness!"
I charged the puppet first. Damn, even I had to admit — that was a cool entrance.
BOOM!
KRA-KA-BOOM!
Mana lightning cracked and scattered across the stage in every direction.
I met the charging puppet head-on.
After everything I'd survived in this world, I wasn't about to die here!
"Now!"
CLANG————!
Blocking the attack scored a perfect hundred points. My body, however, did not.
Aaagh. That hurts like hell.
This was the body of an untrained scrub.
My bones rang. My guts felt ready to spill out.
I knew combat always felt like this — but the pain, after so long without it, left my head floating.
Looking back, Mikhail's body had been pure garbage. I'd only managed to match the required level by grinding myself to the absolute limit.
CLANG———!
CLASH!
"Ghk—"
I blocked the follow-up strikes, and something inside must have torn — dark arterial blood surged back up my throat.
Hah. This wasn't easy either.
No sign of retreat. And the more I deflected, the more the impact force multiplied.
Cha-cha-cha-chak—
The puppet shuddered as if intoxicated by my strength.
"Hah… hah. You like this too? So do I. Just a little more — just a little more fighting—"
I let my body go slack.
To stay alive, I could use some real power. But I had to take just enough damage that I wouldn't actually die.
This kind of performance was half-essential if I wanted my qualifications stripped.
I'd learned it the hard way, dodging Arlea all those years!
KRA-KA-BOOM!
Then an extraordinary force crashed over my entire body.
"Enough."
Arlea unleashed a storm of ominous red lightning without mercy.
A piercing, predatory aura flooded my veins in an instant.
Those eyes that seemed to bore straight through the heart of things — my consciousness began to drift away.
Click. Click. Click—
Like a cunning serpent emerging from the forest, Arlea came to stand before me.
"Have you truly lost everything?"
'Arlea Kiessen' withdraws her suspicion.
She looked ready to berate me further, but I was too badly wounded — soaked in blood — to manage more than holding my posture as our eyes met.
Arlea released her power and addressed Erguis.
"Take that knight away."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Erguis answered at once and, with the assistants, carried me off on cue. Watching me go, Arlea's expression turned almost pitying.
"……Well done, Mikhail. Get some rest."
The moment her words ended, she swept her mana into motion.
"Red Magic — Form 4."
⟨ Collapse ⟩
BOOM—————!
In an instant, the grand hall was split clean in half.