Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: To Look Back, You Have to Stop☆ (5)
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Vel and Sigrun tried to escape, but they were ultimately surrounded by hundreds of Scarlet Academy students and captured by Eir, who had been in pursuit. The two were then tied back-to-back to a pole, hung up like a pair of rotisserie chickens.
The kid and the elf screamed, looking like they were moments away from being roasted.
“Aaaah—!!”
“Let the investigators of Gjallarhorn go—!!”
Eir spoke before Sigrun, the second-year investigation leader of Gjallarhorn and a dark-skinned elf.
“Hmph. This whole mess happened because you wenches from the United Student Council and Aesir Girls' High School throw your weight around everywhere except the Golden District.”
“How is that the United Student Council’s fault—!”
“Even if I told you about the world’s distortion, would you lot even listen? You’re too busy fattening up the World Tree like a pig in your backyard, obsessed with preserving it for its Ether. Everything needs to burn.”
“Ah! That’s blasphemy! Burning the sacred World Tree—!! Take back those words, and I will forgive you—!!”
“…What’s the big deal about burning some tree?”
“Grrr!!! I will not forgive you—!!!”
“Tsk… Anyway, do you have any information on this corrosion incident? Your lackeys are all such justice-obsessed fools they wouldn’t talk, so I had to lock them up.”
“We have no information for blasphemers!”
“Ha… Mimir Industrial High School is one thing, but you guys are just the same. I really can’t stand how you all act on your own whims while pretending to be righteous…”
Sigrun, her elf ears twitching in fury.
Eir, watching her with displeasure.
Vel, her eyes darting around, trying to read the room.
The scene was reminiscent of an execution.
We were watching from a short distance away.
“…”
“…”
Alvitt, still clutching my hand tightly, spoke in a hollow voice.
“Thankfully, they’re leaving us alone.”
“Yup♪ The students of Scarlet Academy are just energetic, hot-blooded girls—☆ They’re not delinquents or a criminal organization—☆”
Alvitt must have been tense since we started running; I found it a little cute how her palms were sweating. The warmth I felt through the hard calluses on her slender fingers was very comforting.
‘Well, to the kids living in the central district, students from the slum schools probably look no different from delinquents.’
The students from the slums just have a slightly different way of life from those at other schools. They live by their own rules and order.
Lotha questioned my defense of Scarlet Academy in a doubtful voice.
“You call a group that wants to burn down the World Tree and the United Student Council ‘energetic students’?”
“Ahaha—♪”
Despite their terrifying madness.
I knew that the students of Scarlet Academy didn’t truly desire the destruction of the academy city, so I gave a casual reply.
“When you think about it, a burning World Tree would look like a giant maple tree, which sounds so romantic—☆ It might be wonderful to have a tea party there together—☆”
“…”
“Are you serious?”
“Comrade Senior, your sensibilities are sometimes so pure they’re scary.”
At my words, a few Scarlet Academy students turned around and grinned.
The black leather masks they wore gave off a sinister vibe, but their smiles were pure, the madness having subsided after they’d set fires to wipe out the chaos fiends throughout the northern district.
In fact, if you set aside your prejudices.
They too were girls chasing their own dreams.
A few of the smiling Scarlet Academy students tapped me on the shoulder and spoke.
“Heh, Pinky knows what’s up.”
“Heeheehee…! Wanna transfer to our school? Even if you can’t use Ether abilities, as long as you can throw a firebomb…!”
“Wow—☆ Wouldn’t the flames be even cuter if they burst from a pretty flower vase—♡ Putting the energy of destruction in a vessel that holds life☆ How romantic—♪”
“Hah…! To already understand the aesthetics of flames…! You chose the wrong school, didn’t you? Come to ours, now! Kehehe…!!”
“N-No…!”
As I casually played along with their words, Alvitt, for some reason, hid me behind her back and stepped forward, spreading her arms wide in a threatening posture, much like a red panda trying to look intimidating.
“…You can’t.”
“…”
The other two juniors flanked her.
I was completely sheltered between my three juniors.
Seeing them being so overprotective, I couldn’t help but give a wry smile.
‘Even though this is the concept I decided on, it still makes me feel a little guilty.’
The Faded Spiral…
In truth, if you examined the evidence piece by piece, the rumor was absurd.
Just because I fought and defeated powerful opponents who were armed while I was bare-handed, and then retired, they treated me like some demonic master who used forbidden arts and suffered from internal energy deviation…
But when you combined the strangeness of my actions and fighting style with the girls' propensity for creating rumors, it all started to seem plausible.
The peculiarity of ‘Clara’s’ skills.
Her sudden disappearance from the scene and transfer to a remote school.
In a world with few means to verify information, fragments of truth witnessed by many people came together to form a single, distorted story.
Worse, in a world that treasures Ether mastery like a priceless gem, that story was more sensational and terrifying than any other. If someone with intent gave it just a slight push, the rumor would become truth.
‘And if the person herself acknowledges it…’
Well… I had to assume it was irreversible now.
The moment I admitted to it, The Faded Spiral became real.
And here I was, being protected by my juniors.
The Scarlet Academy students who saw this chuckled softly.
“Kekeke…”
“Heehee.”
“Ooh, so scary.”
The look in the Scarlet Academy students’ eyes was one of fond amusement, as if they were watching something cute.
To them, fighting for what you want was the ideal image of a student. Juniors full of chivalrous spirit, stepping up to protect their senior, seemed to be a sight worthy of their approval.
In contrast to the peaceful scene at the back of this execution, the subjects themselves, Vel and Sigrun, were struggling while nervously watching Eir.
“Eeeeek!!”
“Let us go—!!”
“…”
In truth, as Level 3 Ether users, Vel and Sigrun could have easily broken the ropes. But with The Crimson Trajectory watching them from right in front, they didn’t dare.
Vel, tied horizontally, cried out in a desperate voice.
“Aaaah—!! Untie me! Can’t you see this red tracksuit? I’m a student at Central Prism Academy—!!”
As she flailed her short legs and argued with a ridiculous lie, Sigrun, hanging below her, answered with her ears perked.
“Ah! Secretary Vel! Isn’t your home school Aesir Girls' High School?! Has your reason been paralyzed by fear—?!”
“You crazy bitch! I’m lying because I want to live—!!”
“Secretary Vel! Even so, to curry favor with a group trying to destroy the academy city by lying about your school—!!”
“Just shut your mouth—!! That’s why your investigation unit is the only one in Gjallarhorn that got kicked out of the central district and demoted to being garrison totems—!”
“Demoted?! We were dispatched to the Mimir Industrial High School garrison!!”
“Then you should be following my orders as the field commander there!!”
“Secretary Vel was absent from the field! It was an improvisation to respond to the crisis facing the academy city!!”
“Improvisation, my ass! Our original mission was to keep the Eastern Federation in check!!”
The pathetic sight of the two bickering.
Eir, who had been watching them in silence, finally waved her hand and gave an order to the Level 2 Ether users waiting nearby.
“Haaah, this is getting nowhere. Girls, light the fire.”
“Yes, Captain! Hyaah—!!”
“Haaap—!!”
*Fwoosh—*
As students who had reached the state of [Vibration] manifested their Ether, red Ether flames like a campfire blazed to life.
The madness shared by the students of Scarlet Academy.
Ether created from the desire for destruction and arson.
It took the form of the flames flickering in the streets.
Startled by the intense heat, Vel and Sigrun struggled even more fiercely and shouted.
“Hot, hot, hot, hot—!! Wait! Just wait a second and listen to me…!”
“Aaargh!! Even if you torture me!! Justice will never die—!!”
“Please shut the hell up, Sigrun!! When you get back to the garrison, you’re going straight to the brig!!”
“Oh…? Are you so sure we’ll let you go? Such an arrogant thought, just like a United Student Council executive.”
“Heek?!”
At that, Vel put on the most pathetic smile she could muster and spoke.
“Ah, ah…! Th-that’s not what I meant! Senior Eir, hehehe… please listen to your cute junior…!”
“Secretary Vel—!! Calling an arsonist like her ‘Senior’…! Hot, hot!! Secretary Vel! What are you doing?! If you hold your body up in the air like that, I’ll be the one who gets burned—!”
“Your skin is dark anyway, so it doesn’t matter! I have a duty to maintain my fair and lovely complexion!!”
“Ah! Aaaah! Secretary Vel—!! That was racist! You just made a racist remark! In an academy city where students of all races live together in equality, racist remarks like lanky, pointy-ears, darkie, furball, carpet, beak-face, gloomy, nouveau riche, red, mosquito, whitey, robo-lover, tree-hugger, and weapon-freak are forbidden! And for you, an executive of the United Student Council, to—!!”
“You crazy bitch, I didn’t say all that!!”
But it was as if a switch had been flipped, and Sigrun continued to shriek.
“To say such a thing to me, who, after a personal investigation, discovered the important fact that all the corrosion dungeon gates found in the northeastern part of the academy city are spewing out chaos fiends toward a specific area—!!”
“You crazy bitch! Why are you only telling me that now?!”
*Fwaash—!!*
“Gyah?!”
“Aaaah—?!”
With an indifferent swing of her sword, Eir cut both of them free, and they tumbled to the ground. Of course, directly below them were the flames lit by the Scarlet Academy students.
The two of them rolled right over the fire.
“Hot, hot, hot—!!”
“Aaaah—!!”
Vel and Sigrun scrambled to their feet, making a huge fuss.
“Heeing… So hot…”
Of course, as befitting high-level Ether users, neither of them was injured.
Eir stared at the two of them and spoke in an icy voice.
“Pointy-ears. Explain what you just said.”
“Eep—?!”
*Clang—*
Eir pressed a sword that looked like an animal’s spine to the nape of Sigrun’s neck. Magenta-colored Ether slowly rose from the blade, instantly raising the surrounding temperature.
“What was that about the corrosion gates?”
“Th-that is.”
“Hey, Pointy-ears. If you tell me everything right here, right now, I’ll release your lackeys being held at Scarlet Academy.”
“…!”
“I don’t like that you’re United Student Council runts, but solving the problem in the north comes first. We can settle our score with the detestable central district after that.”
Eir grabbed Sigrun by the collar and said.
“Cooperation or hostility? Choose, now.”
Eir’s groundbreaking offer.
At her words, Vel shrieked, urging her on.
“That’s right! Spit it out, you crazy bitch! We have to solve this crisis first!!”
“B-but.”
“Pointy-ears, you’re the only one who loses if you don’t talk.”
“Ugh…!”
A standoff.
And conflict.
But even at this moment, the dungeon gate corrosion incident was surely worsening.
If things went the way the [Priest of Corrosion] did it in the game, trying to tackle this in such a disorganized state would obviously end in a panicked failure. It would be a waste to make such a disgraceful showing with this star-studded cast.
‘I was hoping they’d just cooperate on their own… but if no one gives them a push, they’re just going to waste time.’
It was to intervene at times like this that I took on the role of The Faded Spiral.
“Heeey—♪ Excuse me for a moment—☆”
I pushed through the crowd and stepped between the three wary girls. I could feel the surprise from the Scarlet Academy students who had been looking at me favorably just moments before.
*Murmur, murmur.*
“…Huh?”
“…?”
“Hm.”
In front of me, the three idiots stared with their own mix of emotions, and I could feel my three juniors jolt in surprise behind me.
Ignoring their gazes, I spoke.
“Since things have come to this, can’t we all just get along—☆”
“…”
“…”
“…”
I said, feigning nonchalance.
“There must be lots of people in trouble out there right now—♪ Yup! I’m sure there are people who bake delicious cookies and people who make dolls—☆ And cute students, too—♪”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“I know you all have your own circumstances and goals, but… I think we need to help those people quickly—♪”
An icy silence.
Through it, I spoke.
“I’m too weak to be of any help anymore… but you all can do it—☆”
“[Spiral]…”
Eir looked at me with sorrowful eyes.
“Help them, so you can help the people of the academy city who are in trouble… I’m sure it’ll be fun—♪”
“…”
As everyone was lost in their own thoughts, silent.
“…”
Sigrun’s ears trembled as she opened her mouth.
“…I understand. Helping those in need. That is the very definition of justice.”
All eyes focused on Sigrun.
“I first discovered the strange phenomenon a few days ago.”
Hearing this, I smiled. And in my mind, I pictured a familiar UI quest window popping up.
[Ratatoskr Conquest: Priest of Corrosion]
[Quest Start]