Chapter 404
Chapter 404
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 404
Chapter Title: The Final Decision
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Shirone's team gathered in the park for the first time in a while to discuss their plans for the break.
If the second half of their final year was going to be more intense than the first, it was best to start strategizing now.
“Last year, I trained alone, but it turns out some students formed teams. So I was thinking, why don't we form a group and do a training camp?”
This was an insight only Amy, who had already been through the final year, could offer, so her friends considered it positively.
Iruki raised a finger as if something was bothering him.
“Of course, students with teams have an advantage in events like king-of-the-hill or one-on-one combat. But you know, only ten people pass. Even if we form a team, we'll have to compete against each other to make the final ten. The bottom line is, how much information should we share?”
It was only natural to want to keep one's trump card hidden until the graduation exam.
A two-person team might be different, but a situation where all five of them passed would be nothing short of a miracle. It was an issue that needed to be addressed.
Amy hadn't brought it up without considering this.
“I thought so too, until last year. But we don't have to use the entire break. We can gather and focus on basic training first, then work on our ultimate skills individually.”
Amy argued that building teamwork might increase their chances of passing more than researching ultimate skills.
The reason was that Fermi was in control of the graduating class, and he had it out for all of them.
Since there was no telling what might happen on the day of the exam, sticking together was the only way to reduce the variables.
“I think Amy's right.”
Nade was all for it.
Honestly, he couldn't care less about the graduation exam, but training with his friends was ten thousand times better than enduring a few months at his dreadful home.
“How about this? We do a short-term training camp for about a month, but we adopt the graduating class's system. We set daily goals and score each other.”
Iruki nodded, convinced.
“So, maintain the graduating class's routine. That's a good method. We can maximize our progress in a short time and still have the remaining period to train our ultimate skills individually.”
While various opinions were being shared, Shirone remained silent. He was just taking in the faces of his friends, one by one.
Nothing had been decided yet, but he had a strange feeling.
If he had to recall something in the final moments of his life, he thought it might be the faces of his friends gathered here right now.
“Huh? Maya, are you sick?”
Shirone asked in surprise, finally turning to Maya.
Maya's complexion was poor. Her face was ashen as if she were terrified, and her chest was rising and falling raggedly, as if she was having trouble breathing.
Nade, noticing Maya's condition late, asked with concern.
“Are you okay, Maya? Should I take you to the infirmary?”
Maya quickly shook her head.
Then, as if snapping out of amnesia, she jerked her head up, looked at Shirone, and spoke.
“Shirone.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
Silence fell over the park bench.
Nade's mouth was agape, and Iruki was blinking rapidly. Only Amy waited for Shirone's reaction with a calm expression.
Staring intently at Maya, Shirone swallowed hard.
This wasn't a joke this time. Her feelings, which had been falling like droplets day by day, had now formed a lake in his heart.
“Uh, hey… should we give them some space?”
Maya shook her head again and said.
“I don't think I could work up the courage a second time, so I wanted to say it with everyone here. I'm sorry, Shirone. But I've fallen in love with you. Please accept my feelings.”
Maya took a letter out of her pocket. It smelled of flowers.
“Will you read it?”
After handing the letter to Shirone, she avoided everyone's gaze and stood up from the bench.
“I'll hear your answer then.”
After Maya left with those cryptic words, Nade glanced at Amy. Even in a situation like this, her poker face remained perfectly composed.
Amy walked behind the bench and peeked over Shirone's shoulder.
“Lucky you. Getting a confession from a girl. What does it say?”
Reading a letter containing Maya's heartfelt feelings together would be rude.
But considering the delicate relationship between Shirone and Amy, it wasn't a matter that could be so definitively judged.
As Shirone hesitated, Amy smiled and lightly patted his shoulder.
“Just kidding. Why so serious? You already knew Maya liked you.”
“No, it's just so sudden…”
“Hurry up and read it alone in your room. Read it twice, three times. Then do what you want. Maya's a good person. I'm going to head out. See you tomorrow. Bye.”
Amy rattled off the words without a pause and left.
Only her face was calm; her voice was tinged with anger, and her actions were incredibly awkward.
“Hey, hey, what are you going to do? Is there someone you've already decided on?”
Shirone clutched the letter and gazed into the distance.
Amy and Maya. They were both such good people that he couldn't even bear the thought of hurting either of them.
‘I guess it's time to make a decision.’
Maybe Maya's confession was a good thing.
Before debating grand issues like Heaven or humanity, wasn't this something he had to sort out first?
“Nade, Iruki. I have a favor to ask.”
* * *
The next afternoon.
Shirone entered the headmaster's office.
Alpheas silently pointed to a bookshelf, then opened a secret door.
When he descended the stairs into the room, he found the people he expected and some he didn't.
The former were Gaold and Plu; the latter were Etella and Shina.
“Teacher?”
“You're here, Shirone.”
Shina did not look well.
Having heard everything about the existence and dangers of Heaven, the masterminds behind this incident, and the people involved, it was impossible for her to remain emotionless.
Shirone realized why Gaold had come to see Alpheas.
With his limbs cut off, so to speak, there weren't many people Gaold could ask for help. The teachers of Alpheas Magic Academy would be more than enough combat power.
“You must have been suffering all by yourself. The teachers will protect you now, so don't worry too much.”
As a bishop of the Karsis Order, Etella would undoubtedly act in the face of humanity's potential demise, but Shina's decision this time was solely for Shirone.
In a global-scale incident, there was no room for Shirone's life, feelings, or dignity. With only a teacher's heart set on protecting her student's well-being, Shina had willingly chosen to go to Heaven.
“Teacher…”
Had he been unknowingly filled with sorrow?
The days of nightmares, filled with the fear of his life being destroyed by this sudden event and the worry of being caught by the National Intelligence Service and executed, flashed before his eyes.
“You're here? I called you to share all information as per our contract. Today, we're opening Istas and seeing Miro. She'll be in a deep trance, so conversation will be impossible, but it's something we must check before going to Heaven.”
Gaold's voice was flushed with excitement.
It would be his reunion with Miro after a whole twenty years. He also knew it could be the last time he ever saw her.
“But is it okay to go just like this? There might still be agents left.”
The National Intelligence Service had set up barricades around Istas and searched the warehouses to find the 'upper level' where Miro's space-time was said to be.
Although they had come up empty and left, the possibility that they were still lying in wait couldn't be ruled out.
“Heh heh, it's fine. We've come this far, what does it matter?”
Gaold confidently strode out of the room.
As the mage known to be the strongest in Tormia acted like there was no problem at all, the others followed without a word of complaint.
Beyond the Istas barricades, ninety-eight warehouses were scattered like dismantled blocks. It had stopped operating while in its highest level of separation mode.
“This place hasn't changed a bit.”
Gaold opened the cover of the Istas control panel.
Just as his hands hovered uncertainly, unsure what to touch first, ten agents from the National Intelligence Service emerged from behind the building.
“Gaold, you are under arrest for treason under the Kingdom Security Act.”
Shirone hurriedly got into a combat stance.
As his fears became reality, he realized how foolish it had been to follow Gaold.
He had overlooked the fact that even if Gaold was a Grade 1 Archmage, he was fundamentally insane.
How could he have entrusted such a simple judgment to Gaold? It was as if he had been possessed.
Gaold didn't even glance at the agents; he was still examining the control panel.
“Hmm, how did this thing work again? Hey, was it the red button?”
A cold voice came from behind the agents.
“It's the blue button, you idiot.”
The agents parted to the left and right as a man walked forward.
The moment Shirone laid eyes on him, he felt a chill run down his entire body.
His hair was slicked back, he had no eyebrows, and his thin, slender lips were almost indistinguishable from his skin.
The strangest thing was his amber eyes. His irises were rotating tick-tock, like the gears of a clock.
“Ah, right, it was the blue one, wasn't it? I keep forgetting things as I get older.”
The man ignored Gaold and walked toward Alpheas. Then, in what looked to Shirone like a perfect constant velocity motion, he bowed.
“Have you been well, Headmaster?”
“Yes. It's been a while, Sein.”
“S-Sein?”
Shirone finally looked away from the agents.
One of the founding members of the Paranormal Research Society that Gaold had mentioned before. He was also the one who had created the master equation for Istas.
Etella gently placed a hand on Shirone's shoulder and gestured toward the agents.
“Shirone, use your synesthesia to observe them.”
Following Etella's instruction, he could feel Sein's Spirit Zone split into tendrils, connecting to each of the National Intelligence Service agents without exception.
“Mind control?”
“That's right. And it's top-level mind control.”
If they were from the National Intelligence Service, the agents' combat abilities would be above average. Furthermore, given the nature of their job, one had to assume they were trained to resist mental attacks.
A person who had successfully mind-controlled such individuals with a 100 percent success rate.
He remembered hearing from Arin that to achieve that, one needed concentration twenty times greater than the target's mental strength.
Istas hummed to life.
Gaold, taking his hand off the blue button but still looking at the panel, introduced Sein to Shirone. This, too, was part of their contract.
“Sein is a Savant and a mental-type mage. He currently operates in the Black Line under the alias 'Snake.' Despite appearances, he's a Red Line designated Triple-A criminal. You should get his autograph.”
“The Black Line?”
Shirone glanced nervously at Sein.
The Black Line was a group of those who rejected the taboos of magic and wielded it based solely on their personal convictions.
It was on a different level from simply killing and tormenting people.
One could tell just by the fact that even the infamous villain Arcane was located at the very edge of the Red Line spectrum.
Someone on the level of Arius of the Seven Archmagi, who illegally invaded human minds to plunder intellectual property, was what it took to be classified as a dangerous element capable of collapsing the social system.
“Usually, if you were to pick the strongest mental-type mages in the Black Line, you'd name two people. One is Guitaroman of the Seven Archmagi, and the other is Snake. He'll be the Order for our team. Of course, I'm the commander.”
Sein scoffed.
“Still spouting nonsense. Did playing house at the Association turn you into a real idiot? The only reason a guy like you can even pretend to be a commander is because my orders are precise.”
‘He has a personality similar to Iruki's…’
Shirone saw Iruki's arrogance in Sein.
He figured that living with a computational ability that transcended human limits would naturally lead to one's self-confidence reaching its absolute peak.