My Teaching Assistant Is Trying to Kill Me
From its very first page, the diary sent a chill down Simon's spine. He swallowed hard and turned to the next page.
<My teaching assistant is trying to kill me.>
<The symptoms are getting worse by the day. I am the Toxicology professor — who would ever believe I am being poisoned, that the drug is eroding my mind? To my shame, it is the truth. I was careless. There are still so many poisons in this world that I do not know.>
<Her demands grow bolder by the day. Today she demanded my professor's credentials. Even drugged, I am proud of myself for refusing her. I came straight to the laboratory, hid my professor's ID inside a slime, and drank a memory-erasing draught to delete the memory of it. She will never get her hands on those credentials.>
<Now I cannot defy her. She ordered me to refuse the retirement papers my colleagues urged on me, and to hand my classes over to her. I have been stripped even of the chance to teach the students I love.>
<She no longer seems to bother hiding her identity in front of me. She was a Priest of Efnel. And she ordered me to stay here in the laboratory, not at my own home — no doubt fearing that if I regained my senses, I might confess everything to someone. But even yet, she does not know that I regain lucidity for ten minutes at a time, or that I am keeping this diary. If she ever finds out, I am dead.>
<She has commanded me to write my will. Every last detail was dictated by her. This will be my final entry. Whoever you are — come to this laboratory alone, while she is away. The slime's passphrase is set to detect the saliva of whoever answers, so that it opens for no one but Francesca.>
<By the time you are reading this diary, I will already be dead. I beg of you: stop Francesca. She is plotting something terrible.>
The diary trembled violently in Simon's hands.
At last, every question had been answered.
Everything was unfolding precisely according to a script Francesca had written — and in truth, she had already carried this plan to success once before.
But this time is different. No matter what it takes, I will stop her.
With a face set like stone, Simon sprinted out of the laboratory.
Pier! Are you on your way?
[Damn it all, almost there! There's a fog barrier stretched around Kizen — it's slowing me down!]
Simon decided to meet up with Pier first, then go to Kajan. And before that— "……." Clutching the diary, Simon quickly reversed his steps. * * * First floor of the Magic Bullet Shooting Training Hall. Tu-kwang!Tu-kang! Camibarez was firing Blood Bullets from her fingertips one after another, the incoming plant-type monsters shrieking as they burst apart. But she was bleeding out fast, and her condition was far from good. ...Haa, there's no end to them. After separating from the others and entering the shooting hall, she had put on the glasses Kajan had given her and combed the area thoroughly. Then, in one empty lecture hall, she had discovered something deeply strange and suspicious — a pitch-black box-like object. Its surface was wound tight with bandages and cord laced with dark magic, along with heavy locks. That had to be, without a doubt, the 'Desolator' Kajan had described. Whether or not perception-blocking magic had truly been laid over it, the moment she took the glasses off, it was nearly impossible to tell the box was even there. But the instant she tried to approach it, magic circles spread across the floor around her, vines surged up to blanket the ground and ceiling, and flower-shaped plant monsters walking on two legs came spilling out to attack her. "Ghh!" She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve. Poison was even seeping out from the plants overhead. The flower-shaped monsters were shaking their petals and firing what looked like toxic seeds. Shushushushuk! As another volley of seeds came flying, she threw herself sideways. Behind her, the seeds struck the wall and detonated, collapsing the whole panel. Chwara-rak! "Aaah!" A vine suddenly dropped from the ceiling, coiled around her leg, and hoisted her into the air. Her body rose, and a plant monster fired off a shot. 'Ghk!' The moment she tore blood from her own body to throw up a shield, the vine around her leg was suddenly severed, and she dropped to the floor. It was one of Overlord's blades. 'Simon's summon!' A heartbeat later, Simon cut in front of her and slammed his left foot hard into the ground. 'Open Gate!'Chwara-rurururak!Chwara-rurururururak!Chwara-rak! Five metal blades poured down in a straight line, raising a wall before them. He could hear the toxic projectiles exploding against it. "You okay, Kami?" "Ah!" She was staring upward. "Coming from above!" A toxic shot, arcing in a curve rather than flying straight, was sailing clean over Overlord's blades. Simon immediately pulled her into his arms and hurled them both clear. The round fell — and the floor where it landed melted clean through. The two of them stood dazed for a moment, then bolted out of the lecture hall. "Si-Simon! But how did you—!" "Kami, I'll handle the bomb. I have a new job for you." Simon pulled Lang's diary from inside his coat and pressed it into her hands. "Leave Kizen right now and go to the Mausoleum where the professors are. This diary is the decisive piece of evidence. Get Lady Nephthys and the other professors and bring them back." "B-But...! I can't just run away and leave everyone behind!" "You're not running away." Simon gripped her shoulders and spoke as if casting a spell on her. "You're going to save us." She had to go to the Mausoleum. Persuading a TA or someone else to carry the message would have been an option, but there was no time to hunt down assistants he didn't even know the location of, explain everything one by one, and prove the diary wasn't a forgery. But Camibarez trusted Simon, and if you went straight north out of Kizen, the road to the Mausoleum lay waiting. And he couldn't deny the selfish reason either. In that future, she had been murdered by Francesca. Simon had failed to protect Camibarez. Even now he could clearly recall the way Francesca's eyes would slide over her during class. Her death had been a kind of trauma for him. As long as she remained at Kizen, he doubted he could focus on anything properly. "Kami. Please." Still, going for help was her choice to make. If she refused, his only option would be to find someone else to send. She opened her mouth as if to argue back on the spot — then bit her lip hard and started running. She knew as well as he did that there was no time left for debating. "Please! Please be safe! If anything happens to Simon, I'll resent him for the rest of my life!" "Yeah. Don't worry." Hugging the diary tightly to her chest, Camibarez sprinted toward the Mausoleum. Simon rose slowly to his feet. 'Monsters armed with poison, huh.' Without Pier, they would be tricky to deal with. Fortunately, the plants seemed to have guarding the Desolator as their highest order — they refused to step outside the lecture hall. Simon slipped quietly out into the corridor. A few students were strolling along, chatting idly. Looking at the scene alone, it might have been an ordinary day where nothing at all had happened. Simon ran straight for the girls nearest to him. "Hey, you two!" Startled by his sudden appearance, they let out short screams. Simon plunged into the matter without even pausing to apologize. "Sorry — does either of you have a zombie in your subspace? Summoning magic — used or not, I don't care." The two exchanged puzzled looks. "I'm a Summoning major, so I've got one." The girl on the right drew a bandage-wrapped zombie out of her subspace. A green goblin zombie corpse. No stench, perfectly clean — it had clearly been treated with preservatives. "One gold. Deal?" "Uh — really?" Simon flicked her a single gold coin and hoisted up the goblin corpse. "And you two — get out of here, fast. A Priest has shown up inside Kizen." He'd said it on the off chance, but the girls only put on expressions that said, great, another lunatic.'Right. Of course they'd react like that.' Telling them to flee wouldn't make it a situation worth fleeing from. To the students, Kizen was an image of absolute invincibility — and in truth, it really was one of the safest places in the world. They simply couldn't conceive of a terrorist, let alone a Priest, appearing here. Simon abandoned the explanation and ran back toward the lecture hall where the Desolator waited. "Whew." Arriving before the hall, Simon laid the zombie down on the floor, raised the grey ring on his left hand to his lips, and spoke. "Prince! Can you hear me? Emergency. Come over through this zombie — now!" Even as he said it, he pressed the ring against the zombie's body. Kurururung! Black lightning dropped from the ceiling and struck the zombie's frame. The corpse turned pitch black, creaking and groaning — then its shape transformed completely, and there stood Prince in his blue formal robes and crown. [And here I was wondering when you'd finally call.] "You caught most of the situation, right?" [Mm-hmm.] Prince rocked his stiff neck back and forth with his hand. [Ugh, this body's a poor fit. I hate descending into one that's been pickled in preservative.] "No time for complaints. Follow me." Simon and Prince entered the lecture hall where the Desolator sat. "Can you handle it?" [What do you take me for?] Prince began to walk forward at an unhurried pace. [Oh — that reminds me of the old days. It really has been ages since I was last in Kizen.] Keji-jiji! The plant monsters kept flinging toxic seeds. Prince simply took them on with his whole body, striding onward step by heavy step. Puwang!Pubwoooang! Even as the toxic shells rained into him like grapeshot, Prince walked on calmly with both hands in his pockets — strolling without the slightest hesitation straight into the thick clouds of poison gas. 'Yes!' Simon clenched his fist. Curses and toxins of ordinary caliber simply had no effect on the Zombie Prince's body. As an enemy he'd been every bit that troublesome — but as a summon, he made for a fortress. Vines dropped and coiled around Prince, and he tore through them just by walking forward. The plant monsters latched onto him bristling with thorns, yet they couldn't so much as slow the Zombie Prince's stride. Without a single scratch on him, Prince ripped apart the stems, grinning wolfishly. [So this is the main body, huh?] Prince, who had smashed straight through by brute force, spotted the massive plant monster standing before the Desolator. Its petals gaped wide like a Venus flytrap — and snapped shut around his upper body. Simon let out a cry of alarm. "Prin—!" Puk! An arm punched straight up through the monster's skull. Seizing its head as he wrenched himself free, Prince slammed the thing into the ground with all his strength. Kwaaang! The floor shuddered with the impact. Ignoring the poison spewed at him from every direction, Prince ground the creature underfoot, crushing it bit by bit. [Persistent little thing.] Then he raised a clenched fist high and brought it crashing down in a single blow. With a bang, the monster's true body burst apart from the inside. The plant monsters and vines alike sagged lifeless to the floor, green sap drooling from their mouths. Having mashed every last plant into pulp, Prince leisurely dusted off his palms, lifted the Desolator, and asked: [Where to next, Legion Commander?]