10. The Only Good Festival Is a Dead Festival
10. The Only Good Festival Is a Dead Festival
The hair-loss inducer procured for the plan was a liquid—not particularly potent, but quick to vaporize.
It needed to serve as an excuse to cancel the festival without causing so much damage that the fallout became unmanageable. So I'd chosen a relatively mild agent, which also meant cleanup would be simpler.
Had it dispersed widely into the open air, the wind would've carried it all away within a couple of days.
But concentrated inside a building like this, the fact that it was "mild" no longer mattered at all.
"Ngh, I can barely see..."
"Student Chloe. I'm sure you know this, but a few precautions. First, fire magic is strictly prohibited."
"Because of the explosion risk?"
"That too, but as you're aware, a magic barrier doesn't seal off the air entirely."
Right now we were managing by magically blocking doors and windows.
But if someone used fire magic in here and vaporized still-liquid inducer or the particles floating in the air? And if any of it leaked outside the building as a result?
A quick resolution would be out the window.
"Stick to impact and cutting magic as much as possible. And because of the danger of a secondary collapse, do not damage the laboratory walls recklessly."
"Ah..."
"Lastly, before you cast any spell, inform me first. A mage student like yourself can anticipate the signs and take cover, but I'm only 1st Rank."
"I'll, I'll keep that in mind."
What's this?
Weren't you a 5th Rank mage? How do you not know this?
I gave Chloe a slightly questioning look, and she smiled awkwardly.
"To be honest, this is my first time experiencing something like this... Having you here, Finance Director, is reassuring."
"...Ah."
Right. Normal students don't go poking around collapsed buildings to assess property damage or work up cost estimates, do they?
I'd gotten so used to entering wrecked buildings that it felt routine.
She was the original-game companion, the Archmage's disciple, sure—but she was still just a student.
"Finance Director, do you have a lot of experience with this?"
"I do, as it happens. Usually I go in with the Exam Officer or the Guard Corps, so this is my first time entering with a student."
"It's your... first time?"
"Yes... Student Chloe?"
"Yes!?"
"Why are you twisting around like that?"
"It's not on purpose...!! Ah, no. I'm sorry. I'll stop..."
"This building just had an explosion and a leak. Stay sharp."
With Chloe, a 5th Rank mage, alongside me, the Chairwoman outside, and layered defensive magic cast by the dean and professors, we weren't in any real danger.
Still, if another collapse happened here, the repair bill would climb. After impressing that on Chloe, I stepped into the laboratory corridor, hazy with the hair-loss inducer.
"Cough, cough. It's hard to breathe."
"The volume does seem substantial."
Visibility was near zero. The drug must have been green; the vapor was a solid wall of emerald mist.
No real problem, though.
Swish.
"Fi-Finance Director!? What are you...?"
"Student Chloe, adopt a prone position as well. We'll advance like this."
Ah, yes—the "prone position." A posture for avoiding toxic gases at a fire scene. The hair-loss inducer vapor wasn't lethal, but it was absolutely lethal to hair, and it made breathing difficult besides.
Purification magic existed, but purifying the vapor right in front of your face just meant it'd be replaced instantly. Purification was practically the poster child for inefficient magic to begin with.
Still, the protective magic wrapped around my whole body meant I probably wouldn't scrape my elbows raw.
"Didn't you learn this in academy theory class? Go on."
"Yes..."
More to the point, this wasn't some secret knowledge of mine. Obviously, people in this world also understand you get low when there's a fire.
But the situation was unusual... and the posture was frankly undignified. That Chloe was a sensitive young woman in a skirt didn't help.
Shuffle. Shuffle.
Crawling left no room for conversation; I just focused on moving my arms and legs.
I glanced back occasionally to check if she was following, but Chloe only wore an expression that said "Is this really the right way?" each time.
In any case, after navigating several branching paths and doors, we arrived.
"The underground lab entrance is over there... though it's already severe."
"Good grief."
The entrance I'd seen in the blueprints was visible, but through the wide-open basement door, green vapor billowed up in thick plumes.
Every time I'd opened a door on the way here, vapor had burst out like an explosion—so it was all coming from down there.
With vapor that dense, crawling or walking made no difference. I gestured to Chloe, who looked at a loss for words.
"Student Chloe, we're going straight in."
"Finance Director? L-Look at that vapor! That's all hair-loss inducer! We can't even see in front of us...!!"
"We came here to go inside. The whole above-ground lab is saturated—didn't you expect this?"
"I did, but... even so..."
Admittedly, the visuals made stepping inside feel daunting. We'd cast purification and defensive magic, sure, but we were fundamentally about to wade into a cloud of hair-loss inducer.
So I didn't snap at Chloe for hesitating.
She was just a student. Not a professor or staff member—coming this far voluntarily was already impressive.
Wasn't this sort of thing the job of salaried employees?
"Student Chloe, you can wait here."
"Pardon...?"
"I'll enter the underground lab first and assess the situation. If I determine I need your assistance after that, I'll call for you then. How does that sound?"
"..."
Thinking about it again, it was a shame not one of those professors was bald. During the budget meeting I'd noticed a fair number of bald faculty in the magic department, but only the handful near the lab when it blew had gathered here—couldn't be helped.
The ones who deserved my irritation were the professors skulking safely outside. I'd use this incident as leverage to push through another round of pay cuts for the magic department.
I don't exactly possess some lofty sense of mission or responsibility as a staff member, but I do hold basic professional ethics.
No matter how strong she was, Chloe was ultimately a student, and I was the Finance Director.
Managing the academy, operating it, protecting it, resolving its problems—that was our job, not the students'.
I wasn't special. Any staff member ought to share the same common sense.
Of course, if I said it outright, Chloe's personality meant she'd protest and insist on following.
"Isn't it inefficient for both of us to go in? I'll enter first, take a look, and resolve it if I can. If a mage is needed, I can call for you then."
"...Finance Director."
"Then, please wait here."
I'd framed it with a reasonable rationale. Something could happen to me without Chloe there, but with the Chairwoman outside, that was impossible.
I double-checked the communication artifact I'd tucked into my coat and descended into the underground lab without hesitation.
Whoosh.
Green vapor swallowed my vision. Maybe because I knew what it was, I felt more anxious about my hair than about the difficulty breathing.
Though compensation fees and penalties scared me a lot more than hair loss.
...Just in case, I checked my hair periodically. Nothing had fallen out. Magic was divine and invincible, seriously.
Feeling my way down stairs where I couldn't see an inch ahead, I navigated by recalling the floor plan of the underground lab in my head.
The culprit was immediately visible.
'There it is.'
A complex magical device had clearly exploded, reduced to mangled wreckage.
I'd personally approved Kirke's research funding, so I remembered. This was probably the ingredient analyzer or whatever it was called.
She'd put the hair-loss inducer in to analyze its composition, and something had gone wrong. Shattered debris littered the underground lab.
Which made it all the more puzzling.
'Why did it blow up?'
Testing the hair-loss inducer's composition? That was part of the original hair-loss remedy research. For this plan, we'd simply ordered an extra-large quantity of a substance already in use for the study.
Kirke hadn't yet recovered from her Rank demotion, but she was still a genius and a seasoned mage. It was hard to imagine her making a careless error while operating this equipment.
'Did her mind wander during the experiment or something?'
Even if she was a woman who'd fleeced the academy through the Custom, she was fundamentally a researcher and professor. She'd have known not to let stray thoughts intrude while operating a device like this—so why?
Nobody had forcibly shoved distractions into her head. Why, then?
Mulling it over here wouldn't yield an answer. I approached the figure collapsed near the blown-up analyzer.
Professor Kirke, of course.
'Unconscious?'
Smack!
'Unconscious.'
I gave her cheek a firm slap, seasoned with a little personal feeling. She didn't stir. The accident couldn't have happened more than five minutes ago, so she was likely out from the blast's impact.
Given Kirke's personality, if she'd triggered it on purpose she probably wouldn't have arranged to knock herself out. A genuine mistake, then?
When I propped Kirke up, a whole handful of her hair came away... Yeah, probably a mistake. Hm.
More importantly, the ingredient analyzer was the problem.
'Judging by its size, it looks like that massive batch of hair-loss inducer is all inside.'
The heat of the explosion and whatever magical reactions I didn't understand were causing the inducer inside to vaporize continuously.
Obviously, as a 1st Rank, I couldn't handle this alone.
'I'll have to call Chloe down.'
Didn't I just say earlier this was staff work? I'd already done my part.
I'd gone down first, proven that defensive magic made the vapor survivable, rescued Kirke, and identified the cause.
All that remained was resolving that cause—which, staff or not, was impossible for a 1st Rank like me.
I'd reached that conclusion and was about to call Chloe without hesitation when—
"...Adam."
"Student Chloe, don't tell me you followed me right in?"
"...Yes."
Chloe emerged through the green haze, timing impeccable. For some reason, she seemed to be glaring sharply at Kirke, whom I was supporting.
Her demeanor and tone felt slightly different from earlier, but... hadn't she just called me "Adam" instead of "Finance Director"?
But resolving this took priority over quizzing her on that, so I immediately pointed at the analyzer.
"That. Please."
"...Leave it to me."
[Jade Shackles]
Oh, Jade Shackles. Even I know that spell.
When I had to pick between Beatrice and Chloe as a companion, I'd agonized and asked the strategy community, and everyone said to pick Chloe. So I chose Beatrice.
I'd naturally assumed it was a prank on newbies. Looking back, a lot of the advice to recruit Chloe stemmed from that [Jade Shackles] spell.
So it was supposed to be chains erupting from the ground to bind a target.
But why would she—we needed to seal the whole analyzer, not just bind it—
Clank.
"Huh?"
Clankclankclankclank!!
What the—.
Wasn't this spell supposed to produce five or six chains? Why were dozens of chains weaving into a net and engulfing the analyzer so completely it vanished from sight?
And she'd even "shackled" the vapor itself, which had no physical form. Didn't you need to be 7th Rank to interfere with concepts through magic?
"Student Chloe?"
"...Mm?"
"It's... never mind."
Well, a good result was a good result. Besides, I'd only read about magic in books—surely Chloe, an actual mage, knew what she was doing.
The idea that Chloe was 7th Rank was absurd. Her, secretly 7th Rank while pretending to be 5th? Knowing Chloe's personality, she'd have already turned the Imperial Magic Tower upside down without needing to come to Grandis Academy.
Probably a specially enhanced spell, or a scroll from her master the Archmage.
Whatever the process, the source was contained and Kirke was rescued.
All resolved... except.
"Now this vapor's the issue."
"Shall we... remove it with purification magic?"
"The reason the professors outside only put up a barrier is that clearing all of this with purification magic isn't possible. Isn't that right?"
Purification magic was notoriously inefficient. To purify vapor filling this entire large research building, you'd need someone like the Archmage—no joke. It wasn't a question of skill or Rank, but raw mana capacity.
And why bother purifying it?
"We've rescued Professor Kirke, identified and contained the source. Now it's time for the easy method."
"The easy method?"
"Here, we deploy the Chairwoman."
A soft click.
I immediately pulled out the communication artifact. Now I just call the Chairwoman and say "handle it," and it's over.
With her Rigid Energy, she could obliterate the vapor outright, not just blow it away.
Having confirmed that dispersing it carried no risk, now all I had to do was say the word—
"No."
"...Student Chloe?"
"You don't need to... contact her."
Chloe grabbed my wrist to stop me.
She stared down at the artifact with cold, subdued eyes, then drew a deep breath.
"Leave it... to me."
"Pardon?"
All the same, Chloe wasn't actually 7th Rank, and purifying an entire building's worth of hair-loss inducer was impossible.
If that was the plan, it'd be better to call the Church. Why in the world...
[Purification]
"...Huh?"
[Purification] [Purification] [Purification]
[Purification] [Purification] [Purification] [Purification] [Purification]
Fwoosh!!
Brilliant light erupted from Chloe at its center. A wave of light composed of not one, but dozens of [Purification] casts.
Purification magic was so notoriously inefficient that even I, a non-mage, knew all about it.
Along with the [Luminescence] spell, it was something mages were required to learn, but in practice found nearly useless.
And she was casting it on this scale?
'Even if she poured out every drop of mana she has, she couldn't purify a fraction of this.'
As if mocking that thought.
Mana I could sense even as a 1st Rank surged from Chloe's body.
After dozens of [Purification] casts, she still had enough left for dozens more.
A mana pool so vast it was impossible to believe belonged to a 5th Rank.
[Purification]
"Huff... huff..."
"Wow."
How many minutes passed? In barely five, the hair-loss inducer vapor that had choked the basement was completely purified and gone.
All that remained was a noticeably exhausted Chloe, myself, and Kirke, whose hair was still falling out.
On top of that, the [Jade Shackles] she'd first cast on the analyzer remained perfectly intact.
"Student Chloe, what in the world...?"
"..."
Are you really a 5th Rank? You're not secretly 7th Rank hiding your true power, are you?
More to the point, if you could do this, was there any need to come inside the lab at all?
'...Right. The analyzer had to be sealed.'
Otherwise, no matter how much she purified, it would've kept spewing vapor.
At any rate, Chloe was clearly far stronger than her depiction in Dark Kingdom.
'Well, I guess it's a bit late to be surprised.'
Given that that freak protagonist started at 6th Rank instead of dead last, it was a little late for shock.
If that guy was 6th Rank, Chloe could certainly be stronger than her original version.
Anyway, she'd pulled off something remarkable. I was about to approach her when—
"...Was I... helpful?"
"Pardon?"
"More helpful... than the Chairwoman... right?"
Why was the Chairwoman suddenly coming up here?
Well, whatever.
"Absolutely. Just what I'd expect from Student Chloe!"
"...Then."
"Student?"
"From now on... lean on me."
"...Student."
Good grief.
So, in other words, a high-Rank asset who might be 6th or even 7th Rank was volunteering her labor, freely?
If I asked whether she'd do it for free, she might retract the offer, so I kept my mouth shut.
'Be that as it may.'
Magic really was incredible.
I thought I'd gotten used to it, but every time I witnessed something like this, I could only sigh at my own lack of talent.
If I'd been even 3rd Rank—hell, even a measly 2nd—things would be so much better than now.
For someone who walked around calling himself an adult, having to rely on help from Chloe or Beatrice... I guess I felt a little pathetic.
The fact of being 1st Rank in Dark Kingdom, where personal combat power was so starkly defined, was painfully acute.
'Do I really need power?'
Should I actually go find the Dark Sword? The strategy community said it was top-tier in terms of performance.
First, I supported Chloe, who was on the verge of collapsing. The dozens of [Purification] casts had clearly taken a toll; she looked moments from passing out.
"Well done, Student Chloe."
"...Adam."
No, seriously.
Why do you keep calling me by my first name...?