The Monster Rampage Event (3)
I tucked the black magic tome into my chest pocket, packed the collected evidence into a box, and stepped out onto the street.
On the way back, I skimmed through the first few pages of the black magic book. The content was more interesting than I’d expected.
“Subspace…? Isn’t this just a straight-up inventory?”
The Shadow Magic I’d picked up from the antique shop.
From the very first page, the book dove into a fascinating topic: subspace magic.
By now the spy had probably been taken care of, and I’d left Lapel and Hestia in charge of patrolling the monster breeding grounds, so I wasn’t particularly worried about that side of things.
Maybe I’ll read a little more…
I sat down on a nearby bench and quickly flipped through the opening section.
Shadow Magic wasn’t a typical black magic manual filled with combat techniques. While it did deal with darkness-attribute magic, its purpose seemed focused on convenience rather than fighting.
The era it was developed in was also unusual—five hundred years ago. In imperial history, that was right around the time the empire had only just been founded.
Oh, there’s a magic circle.
I decided to stop once I reached the circle. Unfortunately, part of it had been torn away, and the book’s age had left the array incomplete.
—□□ within the □□, □□□ the □□□.
Even with Kael’s talent, the readable thoughts were limited.
Still, after absorbing the mental imprint, I could roughly fill in the blanks.
If it weren’t for Kael, restoring this spell would’ve taken ages.
The correct phrase was: Hide precious belongings within the darkness.
It wasn’t exactly a difficult deduction.
And the moment I absorbed the thoughts written in the language of stars, an urge surged through me to try the magic right away.
Should I give it a shot?
I stretched out my hand, attempting to cast the subspace magic introduced in the book’s early pages.
But since I hadn’t fully analyzed the circle or its principles, the spell didn’t activate properly.
“Mmm…”
It felt like with a bit of practice, I could completely master subspace magic.
For now, all I could produce was a faint, murky smoke floating in the air. Still, I had the feeling that with a little more focus, the space would open.
But that wasn’t important right now.
Time to head back.
I stopped getting distracted and returned straight to the academy.
When I arrived back at the academy, I couldn’t help but feel a little thrown off.
What the hell? Did Professor Lapel fail?
The monster rampage event was unfolding exactly as scheduled.
Emergency bells were ringing across the entire academy, and students were scrambling in a chaotic evacuation.
And on top of that…
Avon and Maria…
The two of them were already together.
This was the opening and core of Avon’s route—the monster rampage event.
In the original story, Avon would naturally enter his route by rescuing Maria during this incident.
However…
“Hey! This should be enough to buy us some time!”
“Swordsmanship students, over here!”
Were the students supposed to jump in and fight like this in the original?
The event where a massive wave of monsters went berserk, escaped the breeding grounds all at once, and turned the academy into a battlefield.
In the original novel, the situation had been so dire that students were ordered to evacuate without exception while the professors handled the monster cleanup.
After all, this was a noble academy. Very few students were eager to throw themselves into dangerous combat.
Yet the scene before me felt completely different.
For one thing, it didn’t look like Avon was rescuing Maria. It was closer to the two of them working in sync to hold back the monsters.
The other students had formed orderly ranks and were calmly fighting back.
Something’s off… The numbers seem smaller than what was described in the original, too.
A monster wave, they’d called it.
It should have been an overwhelmingly dangerous situation with an insane number of monsters rampaging and being released all at once, but the actual count wasn’t nearly that bad.
I’ll figure out the situation later…
Of course, now wasn’t the time to just stand around watching.
I set the evidence box down on the ground for a moment and drew my sword.
“Alright, everyone out of the way.”
I pushed my way through the line of students.
Someone started to yell about breaking formation, but the moment they saw my face, they froze solid.
“It’s that lunatic Kael…”
“You know who I am? First time meeting and you’re already throwing insults…”
I shoved the idiot who’d gone stiff at the sight of me aside and leveled my sword at the monsters.
The number of monsters wasn’t the overwhelming horde described in the original, but it was still more than what students at their level should be handling.
But once I showed up, the story changed.
“All of you, get to the shelter. You’re in the way.”
Slash—!
One strike.
After that opening blow, fireballs erupted along the sword’s trajectory and shot forward.
They rose into the air and landed right in the middle of the monster pack. Then…
Kiiing—!
I cast a paralysis spell and began mowing them down.
To be honest, they were weaker than stone golems. Even if a few were on that level, they couldn’t possibly stand against me now that I was far stronger than I had been back then.
Whirr— Fwoosh—
Crunch—! Slash—!
I swung my sword with one hand and blasted magic with the other.
If someone else watched me fight, they’d probably think they were seeing a sword dance—a single warrior’s elegant performance.
To me, this was art.
The kind of thrill you could never get from fighting people. The guilt-free pleasure of killing without remorse and feeling absolute power. A no-risk, high-return dopamine rush.
It was one of the few forms of entertainment I could enjoy in this dopamine-deficient world.
Ha, I just wanna go home and play some games.
The sudden memory of modern life from my previous world made my chest feel strangely heavy.
I tried to shake the thought away by swinging my sword even faster.
Slash—!
Whirr—!
Kyaaaak—!
Boar-type monsters, wolf-type monsters, spider-type monsters, snake-type monsters.
All kinds of creatures tried to resist the paralysis spell and lunge for my throat, but none of them could land a meaningful blow.
Right as I was thoroughly enjoying the slaughter…
“I have arrived, indeed.”
“K… Kael!”
Boom—!
Lapel Straucht had arrived right on time.
The moment she appeared, the situation was cleaned up in the blink of an eye.
The students who had been desperately holding the line watched in disbelief as the horde of monsters was reduced to chunks of meat littering the ground.
I flicked the blood off my cheek with a finger and sheathed my sword.
“What the hell. I was just starting to have fun and you had to butt in.”
“Are you serious, Kael? You actually find this fun?”
“Honestly, it was getting a little dangerous. I was starting to feel tired.”
It was true that I’d been enjoying myself, but after the earlier fight, I really was getting worn out.
Yeah. Even entertainment loses its charm if you overdo it. You get addicted.
Once the situation was under control, Hestia, who had been hiding in the back, slowly stepped forward.
“Y-You’re really amazing…”
“You think so?”
“If you’re that s-strong… then surely… lots of money… ehehe…”
“Enough of that. We don’t need to clean this up ourselves, right?”
I glanced around the area.
Monster corpses were scattered everywhere, but the students didn’t seem to have suffered any injuries.
As long as no one got hurt, that was good enough. The cleanup could be left to others.
“By the way, is your fiancée safe?”
“Oh, now that you mention it…”
Elia Aventus. According to the original story, she had been outside the academy during the monster rampage event and wasn’t affected.
The political science students were probably conducting field training outside the academy right about now.
Anyway, there was no need to worry about Elia.
“Elia should be fine. Before that, though, there’s something we need to do first.”
“Ah, yes. We must reveal the mastermind behind this incident. In fact, I have captured one of them.”
“I chased down and eliminated a spy myself.”
It was time to report the culprit behind all of this.
“It’s over…”
Maria Frendis looked around at the scene of the monster rampage, which had been resolved in an instant.
It really had been over in the blink of an eye. The moment Kael Lotus arrived, he pushed the students aside and charged straight into the middle of the monsters alone.
In that instant, Maria couldn’t help but feel terrified.
It’s dangerous…
But Kael had swept through the monsters all by himself.
Even while watching that, Maria couldn’t stop noticing something else.
Why did he look so sad…?
It bothered her.
She could instinctively tell that Kael Lotus was hiding a dark past. But the expression he’d shown today had been even more openly filled with sorrow.
It was like the face of a wanderer remembering a lost homeland.
Of course, the Lotus family was one of the most prosperous houses in the empire, so she told herself it couldn’t be true, and yet…
—“My lady, have you heard the rumors? They say that lunatic over there might not even be a real member of the Lotus family.”
—“Really?”
—“One of my relatives sits on the academy board. There was talk that he’s an adopted son of the Lotus family.”
Because of the countless rumors swirling around Kael Lotus, her feelings toward him had grown complicated.
Most of the rumors were probably nonsense, but…
Various stories followed him wherever he went, trying to explain why he acted like a lunatic and why he possessed such unnatural talent for both swordsmanship and magic.
The most popular ones ranged from claims that he was a secret agent working directly for the emperor—spread among the academy board—to whispers that he was an adopted heir taken in by the Lotus family.
And after seeing the way he had looked earlier, Maria was starting to think that maybe not all those circulating rumors were completely false.
He tries to carry everything on his own…
It had been the same during Professor Temiri’s incident. He had stepped forward alone twice. It must have been to protect the other students.
Even though he knew it would spread ugly rumors about him…
“Maria? What are you doing?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
At that moment, Avon approached her.
Maria shook her head, trying to push the thoughts away.