A Close Call
Amonalisa!!!!
Armonia had such an artistic figure that an artistic name just slipped out of me before I could stop it.
But that was hardly the important thing right now.
Warp!! Warp-warp-warp!!
The cabinet handle rattled as it turned, and light spilling through the crack lit up Luna's pale face.
Getting caught by Louis wasn't a major problem in itself. That had been part of my goal from the start. But the timing was terrible. If Louis saw this, lost his mind, and started spreading weird rumors around the school, both Luna's reputation and mine could hit rock bottom. Getting caught leaving an inn would have been one thing — getting caught sneaking around inside the school was something else entirely.
Damn it! At the very least, let's not get caught!
I aimed past the slowly opening cabinet door at Louis standing on the other side and rapidly sketched a magic circle into the empty air of the clubroom. Fully intending to knock him out cold, I combined high-output Rune Mana and cast the spell.
Crackle-ZZZT!
The output was in a completely different league from the time I'd planted a black bean on someone's forehead. If the magic I'd used back then was a kitchen-stove spark, what I was firing now was a full two-hundred-twenty-volt jolt.
Hit him once, and if it feels weak, go harder…!
That was the plan — right up until the next second.
Crackle…
Huh!?
"…"
The crackle of electricity that should have slammed into Louis simply vanished, and I felt the flow of my mana cut off midstream.
What the hell?
You've got to be kidding me!!
Last time I'd fired lightning-attribute magic at his forehead, I hadn't felt any resistance at all. Apparently he'd jacked up his magic resistance quite a bit after that little incident.
Just to be sure, I formed another magic circle from a different angle and fired again.
Crackle-ZZZT!
What the—!?
I clearly heard Louis's startled cry, but I couldn't sense him taking any real damage whatsoever. One fact was now certain: I could not punch through that bastard Louis's magic resistance.
This isn't working!
The most important thing right now was keeping that punk from opening the cabinet door. I immediately started drawing magic circles all over the clubroom and firing them off in a barrage.
Crackle! ZZT!!
What the hell is this!? Son of a—!
Louis's bitter voice came through from the other side of the cabinet door, and mercifully, the act of opening it seemed to have stopped. When the whole room was getting hosed down with electricity, who cared about a cabinet door?
My plan was to panic Louis into leaving the room entirely. But then…
Crackle… crackle-zz…
…Huh? What?
Oh, for fuck's sake!
The curse slipped out before I could stop it. Louis was dismantling every magic circle I frantically cast the instant it formed, wiping them out from the other side of the door. I couldn't see him, but I could hear the sound of his body moving as he rapidly drew magic circles of his own.
But Disassembly Magic wasn't even the bigger problem. Mana was. Every circle I made got dismantled on the spot, which meant I was just flinging my mana into empty air for nothing. Louis, by comparison, kept grumbling in an irritated voice but didn't sound the least bit tired.
What the hell is going on!?
It was a do-or-die crisis. Getting caught would have been bad enough on its own — but if I somehow got fingered as the culprit behind this mess, the previous Assistant Professor barbecue incident could get tied back to me as well.
Pat, pat.
Louis brushed off his clothes and muttered to himself.
…What on earth just happened.
I couldn't see the situation outside clearly, but the clubroom had to be something of a disaster zone by now. Even if he'd started using Disassembly Magic midway through, the early volleys had gone uncontested — so the place would have been thoroughly wrecked.
But none of that chaos registered in my head. I held Luna tightly against me, and even while being held, she wore an expression that said she was still turning the gears in her mind.
Click.
That was the moment light from the window side forced its way through the crack in the cabinet door.
"Louis?"
Louis pulled his hand off the cabinet handle and looked, startled, at the person who had called his name.
"P-Professor Sonya."
"What are you doing here… and what on earth is this situation?"
Sonya let her blue hair sway as she narrowed her eyes and began surveying the surroundings. The clubroom interior reeked of scorched air, and black burn marks were scattered not only across the desks but along the walls as well. Being the Lightning Magic Research Club, the room had always had its share of blackened scorch marks — but the burns right now were still smoking, the fumes writhing up like freshly caught silver cutlassfish thrashing on a deck.
Sonya fixed Louis with a look that demanded an explanation, and Louis launched into a full account of everything that had just happened.
"W-wait a second! I didn't do this! It's just…"
Sonya listened to Louis as calmly as she could, and once he'd finished, she furrowed her brow and asked,
"…And you expect me to believe that?"
"I-it's the truth! I didn't do it!"
"…"
A club member who'd already been expelled under unsavory circumstances had entered the clubroom without authorization — and the interior was a wreck. Anyone looking at the scene would conclude there was only one culprit. Still, Sonya had no desire to stir up unnecessary trouble. She closed her eyes, sighed, and said,
"I've heard what you have to say, Louis. But if a non-member is found alone in the clubroom, you can hardly complain if people draw other conclusions, can you?"
"Kh… Yes."
"I'll look into it myself and notify you later. You may go."
"…Yes."
Louis started toward the clubroom door, and Sonya stepped inside in turn, beginning to look around. To her eyes, there didn't appear to be any fire hazard or risk of the furniture collapsing, but she still couldn't just leave the mess as it was — so she came in and surveyed the room.
While Sonya was looking around, Louis cleared his throat.
"Ahem…"
"…? Is something the matter?"
Standing one step short of the clubroom doorway, Louis asked her,
"Well… thinking about it again. Earlier I sensed a flow of mana from inside the cabinet. Would it be all right if I checked?"
"Ha… Are you suggesting the cabinet itself was casting magic?"
"N-no, not that… I just thought it would be better to check the inside, just in case."
Louis turned and was about to step back into the room to inspect the cabinet himself when Sonya raised a hand, gesturing for him to stay put, and took position in front of the cabinet.
"I'll check it. Stay where you are."
"…"
Louis wore a dissatisfied expression but obeyed, standing still and waiting.
Creeeak…
Sonya slowly opened the cabinet and began examining the interior. The door swung halfway open, and from Louis's angle the door itself blocked his view of whatever was inside. Sonya stared hard into the cabinet, then reached a hand inside.
Louis immediately asked,
"What's in there?"
"…"
Sonya withdrew the hand she'd extended into the cabinet and fluttered whatever she was holding so Louis could see it.
"Thank you, Louis."
"…?"
She smiled, waving the scrap of fabric in her hand.
"I'd thought I'd lost this scarf for good. Thank you for finding it."
"…That's a relief."
"I'll stay and finish checking things. You may go."
"Yes… then…"
Louis had no choice but to leave the clubroom with his own suspicions only further cemented.
"I never imagined the two of you would be doing something this dangerous."
"We're sorry…"
The moment the situation was over, Luna and I got thoroughly scolded. Still, getting chewed out like this was a hundred times better than the alternative. If Sonya hadn't shown up, Louis's rampage would have turned this clubroom into a genuine disaster zone.
Luna didn't have Subjugation applied to her yet. Of course I wanted to put Subjugation on her — the desire was more than full enough. The reason I still hadn't was that Shutra was a world specialized in magic circles, and if I botched the application and she somehow noticed, it would be mortifying. So I'd held off.
Let's take Subjugation one careful step at a time. And Louis — as far as I'm concerned, it's still too early.
A situation like the one just now was far from ideal. When the time came to get caught, it needed to be after a meticulously laid plan — a setup that completely shattered Louis. I wanted to plant the puzzle pieces of suspicion in his mind one by one, let him work to assemble them himself, and then watch the Louis who'd completed that puzzle fall apart with his own hands.
He's still too soft, if you ask me.
Armonia's tone made it clear she wasn't fully convinced, but she stopped pressing me. The one actually pressing us was Sonya.
"Then the magic used in the clubroom…"
"I-I used it!"
Luna raised her hand in my place and started lying, claiming she'd been the one responsible. She explained that Louis had suddenly tried to open the cabinet door, so she'd used magic to keep from being discovered. I was still fretting over how to handle Luna trying to take the fall for me when Sonya let out a dry laugh and spoke.
"Unlike Louis, the two of you are actual club members. I'll let the mistake slide."
"Whew…"
"However — clubroom use is banned starting today."
"Ugh…"
Sonya crossed her arms and began lecturing us in earnest.
"When I entrusted the two of you with the clubroom key, I had a rough idea of what you'd get up to. I have no intention of scolding you for that. But you should have been more careful."
"We're sorry…"
Our successive apologies seemed to soften her mood. Sonya's expression eased, and she began talking about the importance of the exams.
"Both of you came to Shutra with big dreams, didn't you? Taking a short break and looking elsewhere is fine — but you can't let yourselves get completely absorbed in romance."
"Um… Professor Sonya, did you not date at all during your school years?"
"When I was studying at Shutra, I never thought about romance even once."
"How should I put this… I'd have thought someone like you would have been enormously popular. That's surprising."
With a face like Sonya's, the men around her would never have left her alone. Especially during her school years.
But Sonya gave a dismissive little snort of a laugh.
"After I enrolled at Shutra, I took no interest in men whatsoever. It was truly nothing but studying."
Even when her current husband, Karl Friedrich, had been courting her, she said she hadn't been particularly interested at first. It wasn't about age — she simply had no interest in men. But after his persistent advances, she'd eventually accepted his feelings… and that was how she'd ended up buried under sexual frustration. Up until then, she told us, she had poured everything she had into learning magic.
"And that isn't unique to me. It's a common trait among every professor currently serving here."
"Ah… then Professor Sonya, you must have ranked first a lot, right?"
Luna waited for Sonya's answer with a look of genuine surprise. Sonya gave a small smile.
"Everyone who holds a professorship here… graduated at the top of their class. The school has no reason to appoint anyone who didn't."
"Wow…"
So a woman who'd graduated at the top of her class without so much as glancing at a man during her school years had crumbled right in front of me under sexual frustration. Human instinct really was a terrifying thing… for someone of Sonya's upright character to lose to desire like that.
"And last time… that Assistant Professor who tried to do something unsavory to Luna was the same sort of person."
"…He didn't look like it at all."
"Exactly. But you never really know with the world. No matter how much talent you have, one wrong turn and you can spend the rest of your life wandering in the dark."
Luna and I quietly took Sonya's advice to heart.
"I'm giving you this lecture because I don't want the two of you walking that kind of path. Understood?"
"Yes…"
"Good."
Sonya stood up briskly from her chair and issued a firm order in our direction.
"Then clean the clubroom thoroughly, and return the key tomorrow."
"Uh… tomorrow?"
From the way she'd been talking earlier, I'd assumed we'd have to hand it over today — but Sonya had left us more leeway than expected. She opened the clubroom door, glanced back at us before leaving, and said,
"Make sure… you lock up properly before you hand over the key. Understood?"
"…Yes."
Luna and I answered in a daze, and Sonya smiled, closed the door, and left with footsteps that gradually faded into the distance.
Listening to those footsteps, I approached the door and carefully locked it.
Sonya! You're an angel!
And at the same time, I looked at Luna. The moment our eyes met—
"Haahp! Chuu… slurp!"
—she threw herself at me and started raining kisses down.