Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: What Cannot Be Seen (6)
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Crash!
The vase shattered against the wall.
Amy, who had thrown the vase, braced her arms and legs against the opposite wall, panting.
“What the—what is this?”
The moment the bell rang, a real ghost appeared. Was this the resonance effect Nade had mentioned? At first, she thought she was hallucinating. But what stood before her was clearly a tangible entity.
“Grrrrroooan...”
The instant a sobbing sound erupted from the ghost's throat, Amy activated her Schema and ran for the door. She threw it open to find countless female students screaming and running down the hallway.
Amy couldn't hide her astonishment. Behind them, dozens of ghosts were charging forward, their jaws clattering.
“Amy! Help me! There are ghosts!”
Seriel cried out, tears and snot streaming down her face. Amy's face turned pale. She had never believed in ghosts. But it was human nature to hesitate before going to the bathroom at night after hearing a scary story.
“Ugh, ughhh!”
Swept up in the wave-like crowd, Amy began to run toward the outside of the building.
“Grrrrr...”
In the desolate training hall nestled at the foot of the mountain, a strange groan broke the silence.
Etella awoke from her meditation. As she sat up and turned, a hideous, transparent figure was walking toward her. The thought that it was a ghost crossed her mind, but for a seeker fighting the world's evils, it failed to stir any particular emotion.
Etella, her eyes half-open, examined the ghost that had come right up to her. The ghost, in turn, tilted its head and looked back at her. It was a moment that proved just how accurate Iruki's equations were.
“Grrrrr...”
“Grrrrr?”
With curious eyes, Etella raised a hand and tried to poke the soldier's nose. But as expected, her hand passed right through, emerging from the back of its head.
“Hah! Hah!”
Behind a curtain of frozen steam, Shina gasped for breath, her naked body pitifully covered.
On days she was on duty, she would wash up in the women's dormitory's public bath. But today, the moment the midnight bell chimed, she was startled enough to make her heart drop.
“What is this?”
The first thing that came to mind was the frequency of spirits. Could Nade's words be true? Impossible. But she couldn't deny what was right before her eyes.
“Grroooan...”
A demonic soldier passed through the curtain of ice. Thanks to this, Shina regained her composure. It wasn't that she had seen through the hologram. It was the pride of a mage who knew that no being could so easily neutralize her ice magic.
“How dare a thing like you...”
Shina walked forward confidently. As expected, the soldier passed through her without causing any harm.
She immediately grasped the situation.
Shina spotted two devices installed on the ceiling and wall. Thin beams of light were emanating from hemispherical devices, each the diameter of a gold coin.
Shina sighed and slowly left the bathroom.
The moment she stepped into the changing room, the water on her body froze with a crackling sound.
She lightly shook herself, and ice that glittered like diamonds scattered in all directions. In an instant, not a single drop of water remained on her body.
“These kids really...!”
Shina's eyes narrowed fiercely.
* * *
Alpheas Magic Academy was in an uproar.
Windows that had been dark lit up one after another, and students burst out of doors, screaming.
The same scene was playing out everywhere.
The holograms, created to anticipate people's actions, changed direction freely, while the terrified students ran blindly, unaware they had been tricked.
“Aaaah! Somebody help me!”
“It's a ghost! A ghost has appeared!”
The behavioral patterns of humans in extreme fear were surprisingly simple. It was because they moved on emotion alone, their reason paralyzed.
The lower-class students cried for their mothers, while the upper-class students, separated by gender, joined the largest flowing crowds.
From the higher ground, a crowd of graduating female students, with a few male students sprinkled in, was pouring down like a flood.
The ghosts seemed to be chasing people randomly, but from above, it was clear they were focused on gathering the crowd in one place. Finally, the entire student body of nearly 400 gathered in the central park to the north.
Trapped between people and buildings, the students finally realized the truth: with ghosts closing in from all four directions, there was nowhere to run.
“Aaaaaaah! They're coming! Do something!”
“Aaaaaaaah! Bring it on! I said bring it on, you bastards!”
Amidst the screams of terror, hundreds of soldiers raised their swords in unison and charged. The wailing children, the screaming girls, and the boys who had bravely stepped forward all squeezed their eyes shut without exception.
At that moment, the soldiers' bodies began to glow. Hundreds of forms flashed like lightning, then shot up into the sky as if being sucked into a single point.
“Wha-what?”
The students' gazes all turned toward the roof of the central building. Shirone was standing on the rooftop railing. Nade and Iruki came up shortly after, flanking him on either side.
“Thank you all for attending our presentation.”
The students stared at them with dazed expressions, still unable to grasp what was happening.
The teachers flew into the park, out of breath. The entire faculty, regardless of class level—lower, upper, or graduating—had been dispatched.
Shina pushed through the crowd, fuming.
“You three! Get down from there this instant! What is the meaning of this! You've thrown the entire academy into chaos!”
Nade winked and greeted her.
“Ah, Teacher Shina. A lovely evening, isn't it?”
“Lovely evening, my foot! Get down here now! You'd better come down before I go up there and kill you myself!”
“But this is our presentation. We'd like to finish it first.”
Presentation? What kind of presentation in the middle of the night? The students began to murmur at Nade's words.
“What? So it was all fake?”
“We were tricked! Dammit! I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest!”
While most students were still dazed, a few who quickly grasped the situation pointed fingers at Shirone's group and hurled accusations.
“You damn swindlers! How dare you, Class Five students, trick us? This isn't a presentation or anything of the sort!”
“Those guys should get a zero on their evaluation! You hear me, you punks? You're finished! Who pulls a scam like this, pretending ghosts are real?”
Faced with a barrage of criticism, Shirone's group maintained a relaxed smile. When the curses and accusations showed no sign of stopping, Nade raised a hand to quiet them.
“The Paranormal Research Society has, through this presentation, proven the existence of ghosts. And yet, it seems you all refuse to believe it.”
“Of course not! Did you really think you could get credit for tricking us with fake ghosts you made up? You're definitely going to fail.”
“That's right! This is just a nasty prank! Anyone could pull off a trick like this! If I really wanted to...”
The Class Four male student trailed off and blinked. Then, as if realizing something, the other students began to look at each other and murmur.
“But... how did they do it? Do you have any idea?”
“No, I can't even begin to guess. They looked so real. And they managed to trick all 400 of us.”
The students realized this incident was no simple prank.
Creating hundreds of holograms was astonishing enough, but how they had animated them remained a mystery.
“Those guys... what kind of trick did they pull?”
As a commotion broke out among the students, Shina frowned and closed her eyes. To be honest, she too had no idea what method they had used.
It was impossible for her to immediately deduce that it was a combination of Nade's exceptional mass production and engineering skills, the photon output drawn from the Infinite Realm, and the tens of thousands of lines of equations from the Savant Syndrome.
“Hahahaha. It seems we've been thoroughly outmaneuvered this time.”
The teachers all turned around.
Alpheas was looking up at Shirone's group, letting out a hearty laugh.
Shina shook her head and approached him.
“Headmaster, this is no laughing matter. I don't know how those children did it, but we have evidence that they illegally entered a restricted area. Some kind of hologram device...”
“Oh? Are you saying even you don't know, Teacher Shina?”
Alpheas thought that was understandable. If he himself hadn't specialized in light magic, he wouldn't have immediately realized that information transmission technology was involved in this strategy.
But was such a feat truly possible at a student's level?
In a way, it must have been a gamble for Shirone's group as well. Alpheas wanted to praise them for that.
Shina admitted it honestly.
“I'm ashamed to say I don't know yet. But just because we can't understand the mechanism doesn't mean those children have successfully persuaded the faculty.”
“Haha, I misspoke. That's not what I meant by being outmaneuvered.”
“Pardon? Then...?”
Alpheas said no more, looking up at the students.
“Let's just watch for now. The presentation doesn't seem to be over yet.”
The students were still arguing, trying to figure out the trick Shirone's group had used.
In an instant, the central park transformed into a large-scale debate forum.
But the more they discussed it, the deeper into a labyrinth they fell. The Class Four students, in particular, were displeased. Their pride was sorely wounded, having been completely fooled by a trick from their juniors, and now unable to even figure out the mechanism.
“Hmph! No need to think about it! They must have pulled some ridiculous stunt. The point is, this presentation is a sham! Showing us non-existent ghosts and claiming they've proven something? Don't make me laugh!”
The Class Four students united in agreement.
“That's right! We can't accept this method! This isn't paranormal science, it's just a show!”
As the voices of criticism grew louder, Nade stepped forward as a representative and asked them.
“Everyone, are you still unable to accept the existence of ghosts?”
“Of course! Ghosts? This is just a type of illusion magic! They aren't real ghosts!”
“Then let me ask you this. If you truly believe that, why are you all standing here right now?”
“What? Well, that's obviously...!”
The student's silence was followed by a spreading quiet.
Among the hundreds of students, not one could refute Nade's words. If they thought ghosts didn't exist, why had they run away like fools?
The answer was simple. Deep in their hearts lay a thought that couldn't deny the existence of spirits.
“The feelings you are experiencing right now are the very essence of paranormal science. Humans live their entire lives with questions and curiosity about the unknown. If we decide there's no need to know something simply because it hasn't been verified, then what reason is there for intellect to exist at all? This, I believe, is precisely why the Paranormal Research Society must have a place here at Alpheas Magic Academy, the cradle of intellect.”
The students were struck dumb.
No actual ghosts had appeared, but what did that matter?
What was important was that everyone here had, for a moment, thought that ghosts might exist. And if they thought that, then someone had to strive to uncover the truth.
Nade's words made the students consider the presentation seriously for the first time. It wasn't just a prank to cause a disturbance at the academy. The Paranormal Research Society had, in their own way, delivered a perfect presentation.
“This concludes the presentation by the Paranormal Research Society. We thank you all for attending at this late hour.”
Shirone's group bowed politely. The area was silent; no one spoke.