Friend
"Yeeaaah! Look who it is!"
"Ugh······."
I'd only stepped out for a quick errand when I ran into a face I wasn't particularly happy to see, even after all this time. Professor Relic. He still looked as shifty as ever.
"Oh my, I heard the story! We nearly lost the academy's treasure!"
"Please keep your voice down······."
Was this guy insane? He was about to broadcast it to the entire neighborhood. Still, I couldn't figure out why he was suddenly fawning over me like this. Back at the entrance exam, he'd been dying to get rid of me. He must have another favor to ask.
"What do you want?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You wouldn't have come looking for me unless you needed something."
"Ehh? No, no. I just happened to spot you while passing by and couldn't just walk past! Hahaha!"
"I don't have time. State your business quickly. If you don't want to be rejected before you even finish speaking."
"Come on, why so cold! Do I really look like the kind of scoundrel who'd only talk to my adorable student when I need something?"
"······."
Honestly, that was exactly how he looked. But was he really just greeting me with no ulterior motive? Relic, to a commoner? It felt like the world had turned upside down. The characters had diverged so far from the original novel that it was almost frightening.
"Oh dear, you said you were busy. Sorry for holding you up. Well then, keep up the good work! And if you become famous someday, it'd be even better if you mentioned Professor Relic's name every now and then!"
"Sure······."
With an awkward smile, Professor Relic walked away. Was the world really ending? I felt a chill run down my spine. Maybe Ainz's awakening had left the mindless-praise position vacant, and Relic was trying to fill it.
'Why isn't he at the meeting?'
Sergei, Ludwig, even Alexia had all disappeared for some urgent conference. Why hadn't this guy been called? Thinking it over, it made sense. If it were me, I'd leave Relic out of any important meeting too.
"Schluuus!"
"······."
I squeezed my eyes shut. Speak of the devil. Turning around, I saw Ainz running toward me, panting heavily.
"I heard you left the house! Where are you off to this time? What kind of trouble are you getting into now!"
"I'm just going to the post office to mail a letter······?"
"Don't lie! You're plotting something weird again without telling us, aren't you!"
"······."
I couldn't argue. I was plotting quite a few strange things.
"Schluss! Effective today, I withdraw my support for you!"
"······?"
What was he talking about all of a sudden?
"From this day forward, we are no longer in a supporter relationship. We are now brothers! Though we were born on different days, we shall die on the same day!"
His lines were a mess. I couldn't tell how many different sources he'd mashed together.
"Hold on. Calm down first. I have no idea what you're saying."
"You really don't get it! I heard everything, Schluss! Even after the first team escaped, you didn't hesitate for a second when you learned I was still inside—you ran straight in!"
"No, that was······"
"And I saw it! That white light you shot into the sky! Just to save me! Damn it, Schluss! The debt I owe you is so huge that even if I became your servant for life, I'd never repay it!"
"······."
Ainz was blubbering with tears and snot, overacting like crazy. For a moment, I wondered if he'd actually awakened or if something else was wrong with him.
"I didn't save you. You saved yourself."
"What?"
"If the first team had never made it out of the forest, I would have abandoned all of you. But your willingness to sacrifice yourself—standing alone to let your teammates escape—that's what called me. You can be proud. It wasn't me who saved the first team and yourself from that crisis. It was you, Ainz."
"Schluss······!"
Good grief. Ainz tried to hug me, so I dodged and lightly tossed him to the ground.
"Puhuhuhuh······."
"······?"
Worried his face might be smashed, I crouched down only to find Ainz with his head buried in the dirt, laughing. I thought he might be crazy. Then he flipped over and laughed at the sky like Sergei had possessed him. Watching that, I couldn't help but laugh too. I didn't know why. It was like those sports manga where the match ends and the teammates throw their arms around each other, laughing like idiots. Something like that.
"Hahaha······ It's been a while since I laughed this hard."
"First time I've seen you laugh."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You act like a machine. You don't laugh, your speech is stiff, and your expression is always blank. Some students are still scared of you."
"Who at the Imperial Academy would fear a commoner?"
"A commoner who killed a Crow and ground up a Ma-in."
"······."
"Anyway, Schluss, you need better image management. Not that I'm one to talk······."
He had good self-awareness. The guy with the terrible reputation was lecturing me about image. He couldn't even manage his own.
"There might come a day when I need your help, Ainz."
"Call me anytime. I owe you my life. If you die, I'll die with you."
"No, don't die with me······."
It felt less like an awakening and more like he'd gotten dumber. This was too much pressure.
"That was a joke. You have some kind of plan, don't you?"
"······."
Ainz grabbed my hand and pulled himself up, speaking with conviction. My mouth itched to tell him, but I couldn't. This world was destined for destruction, and I was trying to stop it······.
"If you don't want to say it, that's fine. None of your plans are ever normal anyway. If I heard it, I'd probably just call you crazy. It'll be some insane scheme, I'm sure."
"······."
Somehow, this guy had already maxed out his understanding of me. How did he know me so well?
"And I'm part of that plan?"
"······."
I nodded silently.
"That's enough. For now, that's enough······."
Ainz muttered while looking up at the sky. I clapped a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. How should I put it? Since coming to this world, it felt like the first time I'd met someone I could truly connect with after Marie. Everyone else was the opposite gender, and they all approached me with hidden motives. But this guy was different. Knowing the original story, I could see that Ainz lived purely by his own whims. And so, in this world, I had formed a bond with the most ridiculously talented, unlikeable, and foolish person······
"Brothers?"
"Who said we're brothers?"
"Kugh. Then classmates?"
"That feels too distant."
"······Friends?"
"Yeah. That works."
We had become friends.
***
Imperial Academy conference room. The emergency meeting had dragged on for nearly eight hours.
"Then, regarding the civil war in the south······"
"Director, please call it a rebellion."
"Ahem. The impact of the rebellion on the academy's operations is expected to be minimal. There are no Beastkin students, and no students with Beastkin family members. Therefore, in the worst-case scenario—that is, if the imperial family formally requests support from the academy—we will dispatch Professor Sergei von Pruist alone."
"Let's move on to the next agenda."
At Ludwig's signal, several sheets of paper were distributed to the director and professors. They contained an analysis of a certain spell cast in Wist Forest during the Combat Magic practical exam. After staying up two days and nights grinding the assistants, they'd barely managed to complete the analysis in time for the meeting.
"What is this? Could you explain, Head Professor?"
Alexia said, flipping the papers around as if reading them was too bothersome. Ludwig sighed and opened his mouth.
"First, we should hear Professor Sergei's testimony."
"Yes, yes. It was the second day of the practical. The Mana Energy overflow reached the village with Mana Energy fog. I'll skip the commotion that happened during that time. The important part is what occurred after Schluss Heinkel entered the depths of the forest."
Schluss Heinkel again. Sighs escaped the professors' lips. As Sergei sat down, Ludwig stood up in his place.
"After that, a spell emitting a white flash occurred in the forest. Spectrum analysis revealed that it contained a high concentration of Mana Energy."
"The monsters that saw it have a habit of losing their reason and rushing toward the light."
"Thank you for the additional explanation, Professor Sergei. Four minutes after the flash spell, another mana reaction was detected at the center of Wist Forest. The estimated mana deployed was 500,000."
"500,000?!"
The professors' eyes widened. Even Alexia showed an interested look. But even this was a rather conservative estimate. At maximum, it could have reached as high as 1.2 million.
"What kind of magic was it, exactly!"
"We couldn't determine the exact structure of the spell formula. However, it's undoubtedly a single-form electric-type spell in the form of a discharge."
"So how powerful was it that it reached 500,000······"
"It covered the entire Wist Forest."
"······!"
The conference room fell into silence. Everyone was too shocked to speak properly.
"N-no······ Professor Sergei. You were at the scene, weren't you? Is that true?"
"Yes. It is true. One student who escaped late nearly got turned into charcoal."
No matter how you looked at it, it was hard to believe. But with Professor Sergei, a former Imperial Marshal, and the proud Professor Ludwig both saying the same thing, they had no choice but to believe it.
"The power at the forest's edge was enough to burn the monster Black Dogs."
"They were perfectly roasted—crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside! Hahaha!"
"······."
"Hahaha······."
Even Sergei's joke couldn't lighten the chilling atmosphere in the room.
"At the center······ not even the monsters' shapes remained."
"What do you mean by that, Head Professor? Surely the bones would remain."
"Even the bones were burned white and crumbled to dust. There should be photos of the monster corpses according to distance from the casting point on page five."
"······."
The sound of pages flipping filled the room as silence descended once more. The professors, even Alexia, couldn't hide their serious expressions. It was real. In the photo marked as the magic's center, a pristine white snowfield stretched out. No one immediately realized that it was the ashes of burned monster corpses and trees.
"What do you think, Director?"
"I see it with my eyes?"
"No, Director······ I meant what you think of this situation."
"Ah! Aha! Ahahaha! I was joking!"
"Yes. I'll believe that. It was very amusing."
"Ahem! In my opinion!"
All eyes focused on Alexia as she spoke, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"No matter how much Schluss Heinkel isn't an ordinary student, this crosses the line! Everyone thinks so, right?"
"Yes. This is impossible no matter how you look at it."
"Even if catching Henderson was because he let his guard down or got lucky, this is······"
"Everyone thinks the same as me! I believe there was someone behind this incident!"
"Behind it? Who could······"
"Someone who could infiltrate Wist Forest, avoid detection by the Empire's scholars, and use such an absurd spell! There can't be many people like that, right?"
"Director, surely not······"
"Yes! I suspect there was a Ma-in in Wist Forest that day!"
The professors' mouths fell open.