Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Breaking Point
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Iruki, who had been slumped over the table, spoke.
“Have some kind of epiphany? Just yesterday you were saying you’d hunt him down and beat him to a pulp.”
Amy didn't even have the energy to get angry. Iruki was probably the same. The stress from the past week had left her not wanting to lift a single finger.
Amy said, propping her chin on the bed.
“Once things got to this point, I started to understand. At least now, there are people fighting for Shirone.”
Nade, who was watching the protest from the window, chimed in.
“Even so, our side is almost all lower or upper-classmen. On the other hand, the protesters are mostly from the graduating class. If they actually attack, we won’t be able to stop them.”
Seriel said, “It should be fine for now. We have the teachers. The Headmaster, Professor Shina, and Professor Etella are on our side.”
“That’s because you don’t know, senior. Those guys… they’ve been acting suspicious since yesterday.”
“Hm? In what way?”
Seriel turned to ask Nade, but it was Iruki who answered.
“A few of them seem to be missing. It’s especially strange that Amira and Fermi are gone. At least one of them should have stayed behind to incite the crowd.”
Amy flared up and shouted.
“Hey! Why are you so polite to Seriel but keep dropping the formalities with me?”
Iruki looked away, annoyed. There wasn't any particular reason, anyway. He simply thought that if she was Shirone’s girlfriend, she was a friend to him as well.
The door to the infirmary opened, and Alpheas entered, flanked by Shina and Etella. The teachers' faces were aging by the day under the student council's relentless pressure.
“You’ve all been through a lot. How is young Shirone?”
“As you can see… he’s the same.”
“I see. It can’t be helped.”
By now, even Alpheas was starting to have his doubts. A week had already passed. If some absolute being appeared and declared that Shirone would live, he could wait a year, even ten. But the problem was that no one could prove Shirone would ever come back. It was a battle against time.
“I will cast a spell on Shirone.”
Amy and Seriel made way for him. Alpheas placed a hand on Shirone’s chest and cast Slow magic. It was a method of preservation that did no harm to the body.
After finishing the spell, Alpheas stepped back. Shirone would now last another day.
But for how much longer? The teachers were watching silently for now, but as time went on, voices of discontent were bound to rise.
Shina stared intently at Shirone, then stroked his hair. The more she thought about it, the more unfair and infuriating it was. For a promising mage to end up like this before he could even blossom.
‘This is why I said we had to stop him.’
Shirone had successfully overcome the Overflow. But the price was frequent contact with the Immortal Function. At the time, Etella had said she would take full responsibility. Shina had no intention of criticizing her now. If something happened to Shirone, Etella would spend the rest of her life honoring his memory.
“Professor! We have a problem!”
Seriel shouted. Amy and Nade were also looking out the window, unable to hide their anger. Shina walked to the window. Amira and Fermi, who had been absent until yesterday, were now holding out a document toward the infirmary.
“On behalf of the students of Alpheas Magic Academy, we hereby submit a formal complaint against all teachers! Please allow us to take Headmaster Alpheas into custody!”
Shina’s head throbbed. What she had feared had finally happened. The student council had taken a drastic measure. They intended to force not only Alpheas’s punishment but that of the other teachers as well.
Once the complaint was filed, the situation would spiral out of control. If the students’ families got involved, the academy would collapse with no chance of recovery.
When Shina opened the window, the protesting crowd instantly fell silent.
“What is all this commotion? Is it the student council’s job to incite students and destabilize the academy?”
Amira walked toward the window.
“This is not incitement. We didn’t want to go this far, either. That’s why we haven’t submitted the complaint yet. But there are too many questions. It has already been seven days since Shirone’s death. Yet not a single teacher is willing to make an official announcement.”
“Shirone is not dead. He has only fallen into a catatonic state.”
“A catatonic state without a heartbeat is impossible. And we cannot accept the reason why his body isn’t decomposing. Isn’t it something that’s entirely possible with Headmaster Alpheas’s magic?”
It seemed the student council had come to that conclusion. It was an accurate guess.
But there are things in the world that shouldn’t be judged by results alone. The student council didn't understand why they had to preserve Shirone’s body in the first place.
The root of the problem was the Immortal Function. Since even students of the magic academy knew nothing about the state of Nirvana, they could only react emotionally.
“You’re right. Shirone is currently being preserved with Slow magic to prevent decomposition.”
Shina readily admitted it. A stir went through not only the student council but also the opposing students blocking the entrance.
“Are you admitting to the charge?”
“You’re being hasty, Amira. The word ‘charge’ would only apply if the teachers were using Shirone as a shield to escape responsibility.”
“You’re right, Professor. But we have not been given any circumstantial evidence to make that judgment. The student council cannot understand the faculty’s response.”
“The faculty has not acknowledged Shirone’s death. Nor do we have any intention of evading responsibility. That is why we are asking for your understanding.”
“Professor, Shirone’s death is a sad event for us as well. But the student council does not wish to see our precious school fall apart like this.”
“I understand that you cannot trust the teachers right now. But we, too, have thought this through carefully and made the best decision we could. Whether you believe that or not is up to you.”
Amira mulled over Shina’s words. She couldn't rule out the possibility that the teachers knew something she had missed. After all, people believe what they think is right.
But no matter how she thought about it, it didn't make sense. Shirone was already dead. No, honestly, whether he was dead or alive, the fact that all the teachers were protecting him was irksome in itself.
‘Is this the right path? Am I being rational? What if Shirone actually comes back to life? But there’s no way that could ever happen…’
If it weren’t for her position as student council president, Amira wouldn’t have wanted to go as far as filing a complaint. But if she backed down, the students would be the ones to suffer the consequences.
Fermi, who had been watching, disliked the sight of Amira’s conflict. Fearing the situation might fall apart, he decided to step in himself.
“It seems we cannot find a compromise. In that case, we have no choice but to resort to our final option.”
Shina looked at Fermi with a displeased expression. In her four years of teaching, she had never seen a student like him. He was a person of outstanding talent, yet he was even more skilled at concealing it.
He believed in falsehood and enjoyed controlling situations with its power. While this might be a necessary skill for a mage, it was not a quality a student should possess.
“Hmph, do whatever you want, file the complaint or not. In the end, you’ll be the ones to regret it.”
“Fine, let’s do that! First, we will retrieve Shirone’s body and proceed with the complaint! Let’s go! We will rescue Shirone with our own strength!”
Fermi led the graduating class students forward toward the infirmary. Caught up in mob mentality, there was no one who could stop them.
“Let’s hold a funeral for Shirone and file a complaint against the teachers! The masters of this school are the students, not the teachers!”
“Wait! Please don’t do this!”
Students on Shirone’s side, led by Maria, tried to block them. But they had little effect, and a path was quickly cleared. Fermi’s group was mostly composed of graduating seniors, who were practically gods to them. If it came to a physical confrontation, their numerical superiority meant nothing.
“Don’t you think you’re going too far? A fellow student’s life is on the line!”
Mark stood his ground with his characteristic grit. But to the god-like graduating class, a junior from Class Seven wasn't even worth talking to.
At that moment, a window on the third floor shattered. As shards of glass rained down, the students scrambled back. Nade leaped from the building. The wind from his Fly magic kicked up dust from the ground, making the protesters grimace.
As Nade slowly raised his head, murderous intent blazed in his eyes.
“All of you, get lost before I kill you. No one lays a finger on Shirone.”
With the situation having come to this, Amira also set aside her thoughts and took action. The die was cast, and if they lost momentum now, they would lose public opinion as well.
“What is this? Do you think throwing a tantrum will solve anything? And telling a senior you’ll kill them? Where did you learn such manners?”
Nade couldn't hear a word. His only thought was to protect Shirone.
“You want to take Shirone? Then come on, all of you. But I can’t guarantee your lives.”
A bluish bolt of energy materialized above Nade’s head and unleashed powerful lightning strikes around him. It was the electric magic, Lightning. But what was more terrifying was the plasma emanating from Nade himself.
Amira showed a hint of panic and backed away.
‘How can an upper-classman use plasma…?’
To cast plasma magic, one either had to construct an ultra-high-temperature battery or manifest a virtual super-temperature through absolute power.
But since the former method had not yet been developed, all plasma mages belonged to the latter group, a realm difficult to reach as it couldn’t be learned through theory alone.
Iruki looked down at Nade with a displeased expression.
‘You idiot. After holding back for so long.’
Iruki was the only one in the school who knew Nade’s past. Just five years ago, Nade had been a completely different person. But he had donned a mask, vowing never to reveal his true face again. And now, he had thrown that mask away. All to protect Shirone.
‘This makes me feel a little guilty.’
Iruki smiled bitterly and turned away. He slipped out of the infirmary unnoticed, as if he had never been there at all.
The protesters were quite flustered. They had a student in the graduating class known as the Electric Monster, so they knew just how dangerous plasma was.
Nade glared at Amira and said, “Last warning. Get lost.”
“Why are you going this far? What meaning is there in protecting a friend who’s already dead?”
“Shirone is not dead.”
Nade’s wide eyes streamed with tears.
“What the hell do you know? What do you know about Shirone to be spouting such nonsense!”
Seeing Nade’s tears, Amira pitied him. But she had no intention of backing down.
“If you want a physical confrontation, I can’t just stand by. I will subdue you myself before any students get hurt.”
Amira took a step back and brought her fists together at her core. Grayish-white clouds billowed up and swirled around her. It was Cloud magic, a type of climate-based magic. It was a perfect counter to electricity. No, at Amira’s level, she could probably charge her clouds with Nade’s electricity and send it right back at him.
“Honestly… why start something you can’t finish?”
Iruki walked out of the main entrance. Nade scowled. What was he here to cause trouble for now? But Iruki stopped not in front of Amira, but next to Nade.
“What? Don’t interfere. This is my fight.”
“But from now on, it’s my fight, too.”
“Weren’t you on their side?”
Nade’s tone was gruff. There was no lingering resentment between friends, but there was no reason for Iruki, who believed Shirone was dead, to join this battle.