Chapter 1: Lena Youngstern (3)
"Why the hell did the difficulty spike so hard right from chapter one, for real!"
Kano Ameri swallowed a curse and kicked at the collapsed ceiling debris. The original work, Golden Chains, definitely didn't make Lena Youngstern's Mana Explosion in chapter one this threatening. Sure, part of the dormitory would flood, but with the Saintess leading the charge and the main cast properly organizing the students, it was supposed to be a manageable difficulty. Of course, that was the event where the male lead, the Crown Prince, would make a cool entrance, clean everything up, and raise a flag with the Saintess.
But this? This was insane—like an entire river had been dumped straight into the dormitory. It wasn't a stage for the protagonists to shine on anymore. It had turned into a genuine survival disaster flick!
She'd been hiding in the ceiling, watching with a growing sense of dread, never expecting things to spiral this badly.
"K-Kano cadet! There might still be more people down there!"
The Saintess, Arina, whose silver hair was plastered wet against her cheeks, shouted urgently. Kano looked down the flooded stairs. She'd just hauled Hailey and Arina up through the ceiling, but on the first-floor hallway of the girls' dormitory east wing, students who hadn't evacuated yet were still screaming, on the verge of being swept away by the current.
'…But.'
The water didn't seem to be rising any further. It was holding at a precarious level, almost as if it refused to make the situation any worse. Well, that made sense. In the original story too, Lena Youngstern's subconscious had worked to ensure as few students died as possible.
"Damn it! I don't know anymore! Saintess, just start pushing the kids up first!"
After they'd gotten everyone else up to the upper floors—
Rumble—!
Suddenly, from the far end of the hallway, a massive wave incomparable to anything before came crashing toward them.
'Oh shit!'
That looked like something she'd need to block with aura. Wouldn't that completely shatter her "hiding her strength" concept? But safety came first, no matter what.
'I have to stop it!'
The exact moment Kano began drawing up her mana to unleash her aura—
"Freeze!"
A clear, ringing shout echoed through the air. At the same time, a spine-chilling cracking sound filled the hallway.
Crack. Craaack—!
The house-sized wave that had been bearing down on them froze solid in an instant, forming a massive wall of ice.
"Kyaaaaa—!"
The students who had screamed and shut their eyes slowly opened them again. The tidal wave that had been about to swallow them now stood frozen like a transparent, gigantic ice sculpture.
And atop that ice wall, a figure with flowing brilliant golden hair landed lightly. It was none other than the Empire's Princess, Eiphrid.
"Ahahaha—ha!"
The princess looked down at her own two hands, then burst into a manic laugh.
"Did you see that?! Brother, are you watching?! I, Eiphrid, will surpass you!"
Eiphrid's eyes gleamed with joy and madness. Kano could only click her tongue at the sight.
'…Why is she like this again?'
Her magic otaku trait seemed to have gotten even stronger somehow. At the same time, her skills had improved dramatically. Something was definitely off. The story was getting harder, and the characters were getting stronger too!
While Kano was ruffling her own hair in frustration—
'As expected, training together with that Ian Ash was the correct choice!'
Eiphrid cheered inwardly for Ian and elegantly brushed off her skirt.
After safely rescuing everyone from the first floor, Arina let out a sigh of relief and bowed her head.
"Th-thank you all for helping. That was almost a disaster."
Everyone—including the students who had been on the first floor of the girls' dormitory east wing and those who had stayed over the weekend—had evacuated through the third-floor passage to the central hall in the girls' dormitory plaza.
"As a member of the imperial family, this much is only natural. However, Saintess, it's still too early to celebrate."
Eiphrid haughtily lifted her chin. Arina's expression hardened as well.
"Yes… We've saved the east wing, but the west wing is at a lower elevation, so it must already be completely flooded…"
"Oh my, who said the west wing was flooded?"
At that moment, a soft, seductive voice came from the opposite passage connecting the central hall to the east wing. The one who appeared, her wine-colored eyes gleaming seductively, was Judith, the eldest daughter of the La Roche ducal family. Behind her, the female students who had been staying in the west wing stood in a line, all of them terrified.
Even in the middle of this disaster, Judith's black hair remained perfectly styled, not a single drop of water on it.
"All west wing students have been successfully rescued."
Judith smiled leisurely as she opened her fan.
The princess, the saintess, the villainess, and the transmigrator. When all the key figures from the original story gathered in one place, Kano instinctively realized the story was finally starting to flow as it should.
'And right about now…'
Flash—! Boooom!
At that moment, a massive mana explosion erupted from the boys' dormitory beyond the windows, accompanied by a blinding flash as if the sun itself had risen. It had to be Crown Prince Leonhardt unleashing his aura against the rampaging waters.
"Looks like things are chaotic over there too."
Arina swallowed hard as she stared out the window.
"For now, I think holding our position here is best. With a mana explosion this irregular, shouldn't support arrive soon?"
Once the professors outside figured out what was happening, they would definitely send help. The one who opposed Arina's cautious approach was Judith.
"Hold our position?"
Judith cut Arina off with a scoff.
"You really are quite naive, Saintess. Oh, pardon me. But this situation might not be a natural disaster. It could be an accident at best, or even an act of terrorism at worst."
"T-Terrorism…"
At someone's murmur, Judith nodded and continued.
"We need to identify the cause of this incident immediately and resolve it. We must take action."
Arina wanted to defend, Judith wanted to attack. The two opinions were clashing fiercely when—
"Huh? What's that thing floating in the water over there…"
Hailey pointed at a puddle. It was a blue butterfly-shaped brooch. The students began murmuring as they watched it spin round and round on the ripples.
"Isn't that Lady Lena Youngstern's brooch?"
"It is! She was asking everyone not long ago which brooch was the most effective!"
At that moment, Eiphrid's eyes sharpened.
"A vast water-attribute mana powerful enough to swallow the entire academy… and this brooch. Could this be Lady Lena Youngstern's mana explosion? I've heard that mages occasionally resonate with surrounding mana and go into a rampage."
Eiphrid's sharp observation was convincing. A few students nodded in agreement.
"She's been acting really weird lately! She has terrible dark circles and keeps muttering to herself…"
Kano Ameri, who had been quietly observing the exchange, also nodded slowly.
'…It's finally flowing properly.'
The confrontation between the Saintess and Duchess Judith. And the start of the Lena capture operation. The scale was a bit different, but the core flow of the original story hadn't deviated.
Just as Kano was about to breathe a sigh of relief—
A student carefully spoke up.
"Now that I think about it… hasn't Lena Youngstern been hanging out with Ian Ash a lot lately?"
The moment that name was mentioned, Kano's shoulders twitched. That guy had zero presence in the original story?
"That's right! That art department beggar Ian Ash! She's been hanging around with that irredeemable trash and now she's gone berserk?"
"Ian Ash must have cast some dark magic on her from behind!"
As the situation spiraled uncontrollably into a witch hunt against Ian, Arina hurriedly spread her arms to block the way.
"N-no! Sir Ian isn't that kind of person!"
Desperation filled Arina's violet eyes.
"Sir Ian… Sir Ian has been holed up in the annex library this whole time, only reading obscure magic books! I saw it clearly myself!"
"The annex library, you say?"
"Yes!"
"That place with all those dangerous grimoires?"
"……."
Silence fell. The same algorithm ran through everyone's minds.
[Disaster Occurred] + [Obscure Magic Books Consumed] + [Problem Child Art Beggar]
"That bastard's definitely the culprit!"
The moment Arina's tearful defense drove a perfect knife into Ian's back. Arina panicked, going "W-wait, that's not what I meant?" but she couldn't stop the furious momentum of the students. At this rate, they were all going to storm the library.
Of course, it wasn't just the Saintess who was flustered.
'What the—why is this happening?'
They were supposed to be going after Lena, so why was Ian suddenly popping up!
"J-just a moment!"
Kano quickly raised her hand.
"Even if Ian Ash is somehow behind this incident, I believe we should focus on the rampaging Lena cadet right now."
"I agree with the young lady's opinion. We should track down and subdue Lena Youngstern. I'll take care of Ian myself."
Lena nodded at Duchess Judith's statement, then frantically waved her hands at the sudden curveball.
Why was everyone so obsessed with Ian all of a sudden!
"I'll go catch him myself! Everyone, please focus on Lady Lena!"
'Ian Ash! Why has that guy's presence grown so much?!'
Shaaaa—!
In the middle of the insane downpour, I stood atop a statue near the annex library, observing the situation. Both the girls' and boys' dormitories were in an uproar, which meant the respective main characters were doing their jobs properly.
As expected. An extra like me shouldn't get involved in something like this. In this scenario, after quite a bit of chaos, Lena safely concludes her rampage. Rather than intervening recklessly, the best move was to stay far away and just monitor things like this.
With a comfortable mindset, I jumped down to the ground—and immediately noticed something strange about the sensation of the water.
"…Huh?"
The feel of the water was a bit off?
'Is it mana?'
Since it came from Lena's rampage, it wouldn't be strange for it to carry mana. Suddenly, a passage from one of the Twilight School books I'd read in the library came to mind.
The training of a mage with negative properties can only occur under very specific conditions.
It is done by surrounding oneself with positive mana and feeling it in reverse.
'No way.'
Half in doubt, I closed my eyes and drew up just a tiny bit of that alien mana sleeping deep within my dantian. The bean-sized orb I'd pulled out during last time's training with the Crown Prince.
Tap.
This time, without any of that extremely holy energy, only a black bean-sized orb rose from my fingertips.
Hssss—!
The instant it touched the water droplet—
"…Huk."
Goosebumps erupted all over my body. I could feel the mana that had been quietly accumulated inside me trembling in resonance with the droplet. The bean-sized mana I'd drawn out evaporated and disappeared. In its place, I felt an alien mana energy within my body.
A bean-sized water mana.
"It resonated with external mana and changed its property?"
…Wait, was there a setting like this?
I didn't know what was going on, but the corners of my mouth were turning up. Just by standing here getting rained on, I could obtain water-attribute mana. It was literally a free printing press ink event!
I immediately threw away my umbrella and began drawing up the mana inside my body.
I'd convert it all until I collapsed!