Chapter 194
Chapter 194
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 194
Chapter Title: The Eccentric and the Genius
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Amid the commotion echoing from the Divinity Hall, the children began to murmur.
"Everyone, stay put and don't act rashly."
Professor Ganon Sarsha from the Martial Arts Department's second-year class calmed the children to prevent any hasty actions.
'Of all times, while the headmaster is away.'
Ganon clicked his tongue inwardly but signaled to the assistant professors to figure out what was happening.
It was a gesture telling them to assess the situation quickly and report back.
The assistant professors dashed off at his signal.
In the meantime, Haring was glancing around furtively.
She looked just like a cat scouting for an escape route.
"Lady Haring, you're not thinking of going to check it out, are you?"
Karandis, who had noticed Haring's intentions, spoke up.
If anyone rushed out now and something went wrong, Haring herself would bear the responsibility.
"This incident might be what Krash mentioned."
"Krash did?"
Karandis showed her doubt.
She was curious about what Krash had hinted at.
"He told me there might be trouble at Raheln Academy, so to be ready to respond at any time."
"He didn't say anything like that to me. Honestly, that's too much."
Karandis grumbled but still listened closely to Haring.
"So that explosion we just heard could be related. Is that what you mean?"
"It's possible."
There were assistant professors and professors within the academy.
Karandis figured they would handle it first, but as Haring said, preparing just in case wasn't a bad idea.
After all, not long ago, Assistant Professor Jenicalen had personally caused an incident herself.
Still, rash moves would only cause more chaos.
"Let's wait a bit longer anyway. The assistants are already on it. We'll get word sooner than if we moved ourselves, and it won't be too late to act then."
Karandis calmly reined in Haring's impulses.
"You don't want to end up looking like that over there, do you?"
With that, Karandis pointed toward Ballak in the distance.
"Whoa, an explosion! Let's go check it out!"
Seeing Ballak bouncing excitedly in place, Haring nodded and held back.
She definitely didn't want to look as childish as him.
At the same time, Karandis's gaze fell on Glen beside Ballak.
Glen Diana, Mary Diana's cousin.
His face was much darker than before.
Lately, he had become far less proactive than he used to be.
'I heard he got some kind of offer from Lady Sigrin Epania recently.'
Was that the reason?
Karandis, who had a good read on such shifts, found herself worrying about him in various ways.
The temple building embroidered in white and gold.
Raheln Academy's Divinity Hall.
It was frequented by countless students studying theology, including even the Saintess of the Holy Kingdom of Freman herself, making it a place of immense prestige filled with theology students.
On top of that, even non-theology students regularly visited, so the hall was always packed.
The explosion from such a place was, naturally, completely unexpected.
"Ugh... ugh... what the hell..."
In the midst of that explosion.
A male student, a fellow theology major and aspiring priest, swallowed a groan.
Reeeen—
As the tinnitus rang in his ears, he groaned again and lifted his head.
What entered his eyes at that moment was a bizarre sight.
A woman entwined with pitch-black octopus tentacles sprouting from her back was leaping into the air like a spider.
Her head hung low, long hair dangling.
Her blue hair sparkling in the light streaming into the temple matched his memory.
"Uh... uh... Lady Mirei Beakis?"
Mirei Beakis.
The youngest cardinal in history.
She, who was always the idol of everyone at the Divinity Hall, was in an utterly ridiculous state.
The moment the male student blankly called out to her, her head slowly tilted to the side.
And in that instant, he realized.
Seeing her pitch-black, empty pupils, she was no longer in her right mind.
The moment he hurriedly tried to stand and flee.
Boom!
A pitch-black octopus tentacle flew in to block his path.
He gulped as he gauged the strength of the tentacle that had shattered the temple's outer wall.
And as more tentacles began to rise, the moment he sensed death.
Crackle—
A spark sound echoed from somewhere, and a blazing bolt of lightning tore the tentacle apart.
Mirei noticed the surprise attack and tried to counter immediately, but the lightning was faster.
The barrage of lightning bolts pulverized her tentacles in an instant.
Moreover, her tentacles, which normally had self-regeneration, couldn't heal due to the lingering electricity.
A woman walked forward toward such a Mirei, brushing back her ash-gray bangs.
Taria Vales, the top first-year student in the Magic Department and servant of Crimson Garden.
She pushed up her glasses and scanned the surroundings with her eyes.
"What a mess."
As she said, the inside of the Divinity Hall was in total chaos.
All the furniture was smashed, and the inner walls had collapsed, unable to maintain their shape.
The only fortunate thing was that there were no casualties at all.
Taria's eyes caught a bald man wiping blood from his forehead nearby.
Assistant Professor Denver Ijurise, in charge of the theology department.
The moment Mirei went berserk, he was the first exposed to her attack but didn't hesitate to cast a divine barrier over the students.
That allowed him to protect them without a single casualty.
It was an impressive sense of duty.
Today happened to be the day of the annual festival preparations from the Holy Kingdom of Freman, with a gathering.
Not only the Divinity Hall professors but even Saintess Astraia from the Freman Kingdom had headed there, leaving Denver as the sole guardian of the hall.
Leaving Denver aside, she shifted her gaze to Mirei.
With all her tentacles torn by lightning, she had collapsed to the floor, seemingly devoid of her own will.
Looking at her, Taria narrowed her eyes sharply.
'Rona Imblize.'
This woman had finally caused an accident.
Taria's eyes turned to a corner of the Divinity Hall.
There, someone with teal hair draped down lay unconscious, head bumped.
Her body was covered in all sorts of magical devices.
Magical device craftsman Rona Imblize.
As she had claimed, she had known from the start who the servant of the World Erosion was.
Because she could identify them based on the magical devices she made.
And the servant of the World Erosion she had always suspected.
The Black Witch's servant was none other than the youngest cardinal, Mirei Beakis.
And the one who drove Mirei berserk was none other than Rona.
"It's complete!"
Taria had heard Rona's vigorous shout through the surveillance spell on Rona.
When she checked the screen soon after, she felt a chill.
She sensed pitch-black energy surging from within Rona's body.
And Taria realized this was the power of World Erosion.
Crimson Garden reacted with disbelief upon seeing it.
Because the magical device Rona created was none other than one that forced World Erosion into overdrive.
"Today is finally the moment I unveil my creations to the world!"
At the same time, with that shout, Rona grabbed all her devices and bolted outside.
Witnessing that, Taria immediately stood up.
Because of a bad premonition.
"Sister, with that thing Rona's carrying, she wouldn't try to..."
[She's planning to use it on a servant of the World Erosion.]
Crimson Garden agreed with Taria and responded right away.
Taria flung open the window and leaped out from the classroom of her student group, the Sky Cleavers.
As she landed from the third floor, a crow from Crimson Garden above took flight.
Taria kicked off the ground and started sprinting.
The wind magic now enveloping her body made her steps even lighter.
"The incident with Rona's magical device not long ago—that's why she's doing this now, right?"
As she ran, Taria asked Crimson Garden about Rona's sudden outburst.
Crimson Garden agreed.
[Yes. Her devices' reputation tanked because of it.]
The incident where a student using a device that burned their body to maximize power went berserk, injuring multiple students and even an assistant professor.
Because of that, no one sought her devices anymore.
But Crimson Garden, who knew the full story, clicked her tongue.
Because from Rona's perspective, it was quite an unfair situation.
Rona had long taken commissions from various people to craft devices.
Not only because magical device crafting was rare,
but because her devices performed exceptionally well, everyone wanted one.
However, beyond those custom orders, Rona had created several personal works.
These were often dangerously powerful and mostly stored in her personal workshop.
One day, after crafting as usual and stepping out,
a student visited her workshop.
He was someone who had commissioned her recently and planned to use her device in the upcoming mock battle training.
But the crafting took longer than expected, and the training was approaching.
In the end, he arbitrarily took one that looked decent from her workshop.
The result was the device's rampage injuring several students and an assistant professor.
The problem was that the student who used it shifted all blame onto Rona's device.
On top of that, he was from a prominent family.
Rona was already rumored to be an eccentric.
That trait fueled the rumors.
That Rona had recklessly tested her own device out of eagerness.
Such nonsense spread among the students.
Though the academy later confirmed the facts and cleared Rona of wrongdoing,
her ruined reputation didn't recover easily.
"Rona's devices? No way I'd use something that dangerous."
"Still, she did make those hazardous things. No guarantee it wasn't something else."
"I heard the injured ones are still suffering aftereffects. That's on the device."
Rona herself had apologized but hadn't actively defended herself.
She didn't care much about the personal attacks.
Similar incidents weren't entirely unprecedented, after all.
However, there was one thing Rona couldn't tolerate.
That was her devices being undervalued.
She absolutely could not accept that.
Just then, the noble student kidnapping incident caused by Magic Department Assistant Professor Jenicalen caught her eye.
Servants of the World Erosion.
They were objects of fear and enemies to people.
Moreover, their existence was the most shocking topic people could gossip about.
Finding out someone close was a servant was a massive shock.
So, what if she used her devices to defeat a servant of the World Erosion?
Wouldn't her devices' reputation flip in an instant?
Thinking that, Rona immediately crafted a device to detect servants of the World Erosion.
And upon completing it, she declared at the women's gathering.
That there was currently a servant of the World Erosion at Raheln Academy.
Not only alerting students to its presence,
but also provoking the servant to target her.
But the servant didn't come for her.
So, inevitably, Rona had to make the next move.
'I need to create a new device.'
And what she birthed was none other than
a device that forced World Erosion to rampage.
Since the servant wouldn't move on its own, use the device to trigger a rampage, expose the servant, and defeat it with another device.
That was her plan.
Understanding Rona's scheme, Taria gritted her teeth.
There was a limit to underestimating servants of the World Erosion.
No matter how good her devices were, she could lose her life if things went wrong.
'How does she even come up with something like this?'
Eccentric.
'And why does she actually succeed at making it?'
Genius.
Taria truly felt why they were just a paper's thickness apart.