The Ghost Ship's Captain and the Sleeping Giant
Inside the ghost ship drifting high above the clouds.
Elisa, ranked 7th overall, was riding aboard it — and her nerves were stretched to their very limit. Holding a communication crystal purchased with points in one hand, she was in the middle of a conversation with someone.
"No, how am I supposed to know where that bastard even is?!"
While Elisa snapped and shrieked, a calm voice flowed out of the crystal.
—That's something you'll have to rack that brain of yours to figure out. Understand? If you fail to catch Simon this time, you'll fall out of favor with the New Student Council, and then your father's business...
"I know! I said I know!"
Elisa screeched, then shut off the communication crystal. She let out a long, heavy sigh.
"...How did I end up like this?"
She had recklessly pounced at the chance to capture Simon, only to get dragged into a chaotic free-for-all and lose two ghost ships in the process. Asseraz and Merdiana, who had promised to help, never showed up no matter what happened. The ship she was riding now was the last one she'd brought into this exam.
Krrrrrk-!
While she was busy lamenting, the rudder on the deck suddenly began moving on its own.
"Here we go again."
Apparently more volcanic debris was falling from the sky. With a look of utter exasperation, Elisa stretched her arm out toward a nearby pillar to grab hold.
Sweeeak-!
Just then, the ghost ship slammed on its brakes. Having failed to reach the pillar in time, she was flung forward and landed hard on her rear on the opposite side of the deck.
"Ah, can't you drive properly?!"
She rubbed her sore backside, on the verge of tears. In the completely empty helm, a faint ghost appeared, gripped the rudder, snickered, and vanished.
"I hate everything!"
She clutched her aching head.
"Simon Polentia! Asseraz Mikel! And this cursed exam!"
Suddenly overcome with a surge of frustration, she shot to her feet.
"I mean, honestly! Wasn't it my father who botched the diplomacy, not me? The man becomes Prime Minister and then goes and starts a business at his own daughter's school for no reason, creating a political weakness for her! That's why I'm being pushed around and attacked like this! Making enemies left and right is amateur politics — Father said so himself...!"
"Unfortunately for you."
At the sudden voice of a third party, Elisa flinched, her shoulders jumping in fright. She whirled around to find the 'skulls' of skeletons wreathed in emerald-dark energy, their mouths parting slightly as if to speak.
<Simon Original — Skulldrone>
WHOOOOOSH!
With a mechanical click, the skulls' jaws opened and spewed black flames. In an instant, the deck was ablaze.
"Oh, now WHAT is this?!"
Elisa hastily spread a magic circle across her fingertips and took control of the ghost ship.
<Ghost Operator — Repair>
The ship's fire-suppression and support systems kicked in. Buckets hanging all over the vessel sprang to life on their own, splashing water everywhere, and the burnt deck was swiftly replaced.
"Son of a—!"
The moment the ship was restored, she spun around, snatched the wooden rifle at her waist, and pulled the trigger like lightning.
Bang-! Bang-!
Her marksmanship was impressive. The moment the skulldrones collided with her spirit rounds, the black magic was canceled out and they tumbled across the floor.
She blew on the smoking muzzle — hoo — transparent vapor curling out of the barrel, then scanned her surroundings with an irritated scowl.
"Whoever's got the nerve to board my ship—!"
<Bone Prison>
Crrrrsssssh!
Elisa's body was yanked violently backward, dragged away into captivity.
"?!"
With no time to react, she slammed hard into the wall of the ship's cabin. Immediately, her arms were forced up above her head and sealed tight in a cage of bone with no gaps, her legs pinned flat against the wall.
"Huh?"
She thrashed her limbs desperately, but nothing budged.
'Wh-what is this?! Why isn't the ship's defense system working—!'
"Hello."
Step. Step.
Her head turned.
The target she was supposed to capture this exam was walking calmly toward her, right before her eyes.
"We meet again, Elisa."
"S-Simon Polentia!"
She shouted, her face burning scarlet.
"Y-you, you, you! How did you get up this high?!"
"I flew here using the Imperial Guard."
Simon opened a subspace and recalled the skeleton mages that had been in their skulldrone state. The skeletons holding Elisa captive, of course, stayed exactly where they were.
She squirmed, her face flushed red.
"Untie me. Right now!"
"Promise to cooperate with me, and I will."
"Ha?"
A vein bulged on Elisa's forehead.
"Cooperate! Cooperate! Is everyone's idea of a joke! Do I really look that easy to you? I am Elisa Celine! People who wouldn't even meet my eyes out there act all high and mighty the second they're inside school walls...! If I get expelled from Kizen like this, do you really think the Celine family will just sit back and take it?!"
"Sorry, but I'm short on time — I can't listen to this for long."
Resorting to waving her family's power around meant she was exactly that desperate. Simon glanced at the output device strapped to his arm. Names he now recognized were appearing on it.
[Jamie Victoria has been eliminated.]
[Fitzgerald Ingels has been eliminated.]
...
...
...
[Toto Amori has been eliminated.]
This exam was now hurtling toward a point of no return. Simon's eyes grew even more serious.
"I have to capture the Volcano Castle Lord. No matter what."
"Wh-what does that have to do with me...?"
"You're the Spirit Magic department representative and the head of the Noble club. Your people are going to get expelled in droves at this rate too — and you don't feel any responsibility for that?"
She bit down hard on her lower lip with her tongue. Silence settled over the deck. Simon, who had been quietly pacing nearby, spoke again.
"Merdiana's side offered you a deal to capture me, didn't they?"
Elisa averted her gaze.
"...I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Merdiana is connected to the New Student Council, and she's been pressuring you using your father's business as leverage. Am I wrong?"
She feigned indifference and looked away, but her face had gone deathly pale.
"But think about it this way. As a student currently enrolled at Kizen, would it be incompetence if you fail to protect your father's business? Or—"
Simon continued.
"—if you waste your time trying to protect his business, and as a result you fail to protect half the students in the very department you represent? Which is the greater incompetence?"
"..."
Tap.
Simon stopped walking and turned to face her directly.
"Emotionally speaking, I'd love to cut you out of this exam entirely. You attacked me first, and you're my enemy."
Elisa's heart lurched at those words. Truthfully, it wouldn't have been strange at all if he'd passed summary judgment on her right then and there.
"But setting those personal feelings aside, I believe this is the moment we need to join forces for a far bigger purpose."
Clack.
Simon spread open his palm to reveal a capsule syringe filled with blue blood. Elisa's eyes went wide.
"Wait, that's...!"
"Elysia entrusted these to me right before she was eliminated. I trust you understand what they mean."
After tucking the syringe carefully back into his pocket, Simon crouched down in front of her and folded his hands together.
"Now choose."
'...Ngh.'
After a moment of deliberation, she spoke with trembling lips.
"Th-then I have one condition of my own."
"?"
"If you become Student Council President again, then at that time..."
She swallowed hard before continuing.
"My father's business..."
"You're really doing politics in the middle of this?"
At Simon's frosty expression, Elisa flinched.
She'd always thought of him as the gentle type — who knew he could make a face like that?
Just then, Simon let out a small sigh.
"I can't do lobbying. But it's true that during my term as Student Council President, we gave your father's business a favorable evaluation. If you can provide the same service as back then, I'll consider it favorably."
'Ah!'
This way, even if the deal was severed for now under Ballack's student council, she'd have an excuse to tell her father that everything would change once Simon reclaimed the presidency.
Elisa judged that as long as she could claim she'd placed a little more value on future politics rather than the present, she wouldn't be branded 'incompetent'.
"F-fine. Deal! I'll cooperate, so untie me already!"
Elisa wriggled her limbs. Simon waggled his fingers, and the skeletal bones binding her came streaming off her body, flying into his subspace.
She slumped to the floor in a heap.
"Looking forward to working with you."
Simon finally showed a faint smile and extended his hand.
She puffed her lips into a pout with a tch, grabbed his hand, and pulled herself up.
"Keep your promise."
"Obviously."
Beeeep—
Just then, a notification chime rang out. Elisa startled and snatched up the communication crystal lying on the floor.
"C-can I take it?"
She glanced at Simon for permission, and he nodded. She activated the crystal.
"It's me. What?"
—We were thinking of moving out ahead of you. Come with us.
It was Asseraz's voice.
"What was that about catching Simon Polentia earlier?"
Elisa said this while looking straight into Simon's eyes.
—We think we've found him. We're planning to attack at the right moment and fall back if it doesn't work.
"Oh really? Well, that's that, then. Just don't push yourselves too hard and get eliminated."
With a short beep, the call cut off. She heaved a long, deep sigh of relief.
"That voice just now..."
"No point hiding it at this stage. It was Asseraz."
She answered while putting the crystal away.
Honestly, from Elisa's perspective, pretending to help Simon and then stabbing him in the back to side with Merdiana or Asseraz would have been the safer bet.
But the truth was, her heart leaned more toward the one who at least pretended to woo her, rather than following those two insufferable leeches who did nothing but hold her weakness over her head and threaten her.
And above all—
'When in doubt, side with the one who has principle and justification.'
It was her father's teaching. She steeled herself and looked at Simon.
"So, what's the plan now?"
"Hmm."
Simon fell into thought. Elisa was undoubtedly a valuable asset in her own right — but securing her first had been about obtaining the most crucial key to conquering the Volcano Castle.
"Turn the bow east."
"Ehh? East? You're heading back to the starting zone? That place is a lava paradise right now."
Simon turned his head.
"There's someone whose cooperation I absolutely need."
In the direction Simon was gazing floated an ink-wash painting of a skull island in the sky.
Among the Dark Earth spells, an especially unusual black magic: Domain Inversion.
The floating island made from it bore a skull's mouth, gaping wide open as if painted by a brushstroke of ink.
"Are you serious? You're going to recruit Chatel Maer?"
Elisa nearly jumped out of her skin.
"How on earth? Are you actually friends with that giant?"
"Not friends. But we faced each other once before in a duel evaluation."
Her face turned ghost-white.
"Are you insane? You think that's enough? He's famous for turning his duel opponents into blood pudding!"
"That rumor's a bit exaggerated."
As they talked, the ghost ship arrived at Chatel's skull island. Simon stepped forward.
"Chatel! I've got something to discuss with you!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, but there was no response. Elisa, hiding behind him, spoke with a frightened look.
"M-maybe we should just go back. Poking a sleeping dragon never ends well..."
"Elisa."
Simon turned to look at her with a smile.
"Let's ram the door down with the ghost ship."
"WHAT?"
There was some back-and-forth, but in the end, the one holding the leverage in this relationship was Simon. Elisa had no choice but to agree, sighing heavily the whole time.
"Don't blame me for whatever happens! Hold on tight!"
The ghost ship became shrouded in Elisa's massive reserve of dark energy, then charged straight at the skull's open mouth.
KU-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAAANG!
The ship's bow smashed through the door at the mouth's edge and burst inside.
The tremendous impact shook the ghost ship violently, and the moment it broke through the door, it tipped over and flipped.
"KYAAAH!"
Elisa, clinging to the railing, was thrown from the ship and tumbled across the dirt floor. Simon, gripping the flagpole, landed lightly on his feet.
Inside Chatel's skull hermitage.
Dark Earth magic circles, large and small, were laid out everywhere, and all of their circuits converged on the enormous Buddhist statue visible at the center. It looked as though he was preparing some kind of immensely powerful spell. Simon approached the statue.
"Chatel, are you listening? I have something to say."
"W-wait a second! I told you not to touch anything!"
Elisa, following behind Simon, yelped and froze mid-step. A cracking sound rang out as fissures began spreading across the statue's face. Soon, the eyes of the statue crumbled away, revealing a pair of living, human eyes beneath.
[...Something to say?]
"That's right."
Simon smiled.
"I need your cooperation. I want to capture the Volcano Castle Lord and save our classmates from being expelled."
KUGUGUGUGUGUGU-!
Suddenly, the entire island beneath their feet began to tremble.
Rumble. Rumble.
Cracks raced rapidly across the whole of the statue. Elisa, who had been picking her way toward them, felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding and quickly darted behind the ghost ship.
KWAAAAAAAM-!
The statue shattered completely, and the giant inside revealed himself.
"Simon Polentia."
His eyes tilted downward.
"I've been waiting for you."