If You Want to Put 'Reporter' on Your Business Card...
If You Want to Put 'Reporter' on Your Business Card...
"...A scandal, involving me?"
I just stood there, dumbfounded. For a moment I thought it might be a joke, but Sepia's face was dead serious right now.
Frantically, Sepia pulled a newspaper from inside her jacket. I unfurled it in midair.
[ Victim protections collapse in the face of 'power-based sexual assault.' Plan was on close terms with the Magic Department's Editing Department from the start. ]
"Ha."
Once I actually examined the article, a laugh slipped out. If I had to name the feeling, it was cute. But not quite amusing enough to smile—so perhaps "ridiculous" would do.
The story, cooked up over the three days I'd been holed up in the dormitory, was that I had used my connections to the Märchen Daily Editing Department and my authority to thoroughly exploit the body of another female representative.
It didn't guess. It didn't speculate. It flatly, openly declared "power-based sexual assault" as confirmed fact.
[ Considering the complete absence of any record of purchasing contraceptives, it is not difficult to picture the circumstances... ]
"Amusing."
First I checked the reporter's name.
The Knight Department's Editing staff, Bess.
I asked Sepia.
"Bess. Is she a well-known reporter?"
"I looked into her—she's the absolute most junior reporter. But..."
Sepia crushed the paper in her hands with a sharp crinkle.
"There's too much malice in it to dismiss as simple youthful ignorance. I'm trying to do damage control, but it's spreading suspiciously fast, and that's strange too."
"Hm."
"That's my read. To begin with... the fact that Student Plan was interacting with me isn't the kind of information a junior-most cub reporter could get her hands on."
"So she's just the front."
There was someone behind her, and it wasn't hard to guess the source. One person came to mind naturally.
A mad dog, a grim reaper... a reporter known by such nicknames. The one who had fixed me with a piercingly sharp gaze during solo coverage.
Deputy Head of the Knight Department's Editing Bureau, Eliza.
Sepia let out a deep sigh and spoke.
"I know this is absurd nonsense, but... still, watch what you say and do for the time being. I need to go see the other representatives right away."
She moved to leave at once, then suddenly looked back at me.
"By the way, Student Plan... are you even interested in women?"
"If she's an excellent mage, I might consider it."
"Good grief. The next dating scandal's going to be between you and the Chancellor at this rate."
Sepia let out a soft laugh. Her voice turned just a little lighter.
"How do you want to handle your statement of position? Naturally I'll do whatever Student Plan wants."
"Just leave it."
I cut Sepia off sharply. Her face filled with question marks.
"Right, so we'll just leave it—no, no. You're saying we should leave this alone?"
"Yes."
I left Sepia standing there, stunned.
Once I was out of the building, I headed straight for the Hotel of the Magic Tower.
Time was tight. I needed to train the representatives as quickly as possible, and there was a schedule at the Yudit mansion that had to be handled.
But that was when.
"You seem busy."
A bewitching voice tickled my ear.
From her hair to her attire, all black. It was the Deputy Head of the Märchendaily Knight Department Editing Bureau, Eliza.
"Well, I suppose. You would be busy."
As if she knew nothing, Eliza approached me with a conspicuously unhurried air.
"I'm Eliza from Märchen Daily. Student Plan, there are an awful lot of things I'm curious about~."
"Direct your questions through the Magic Department."
"Is this another Van thing, Student Plan? I'm fairly sure I'm the older one here."
Eliza shrugged and went on.
"And 'through the Magic Department'... what is that supposed to mean? So you can go through the Magic Department and refuse me formally?"
"Obviously."
Seeming to find my answer ridiculous, Eliza swept back her black hair and gave a derisive snort.
She smoothly moved to the point.
"There's been no news of a representative change since the preliminaries. Are you really going ahead like this? I'm still curious why a first-year was selected as representative in the first place."
"It's the same reason you haven't fired your most junior reporter."
Eliza's head tilted slightly.
"What's this about a junior reporter all of a sudden?"
"Why haven't you fired a junior reporter who writes nothing but absurd, boring third-rate fiction barely distinguishable from garbage...? It's obvious."
My crimson eyes met her black ones.
"Because she follows orders well. It's similar for me."
"...."
Silence hung for a moment, and then she smiled.
"How entertaining. Very well, then. I'll go through the Magic Department and get formally refused."
Eliza held out her business card to me.
[ Deputy Head of the Märchen Daily Knight Department, Eliza ]
When I simply stared without a word, she gave the card a tiny shake, urging me on.
"Take it, at least. You'll be seeing me often from now on."
I took only her card.
"I'll give you just one word."
"Make it several words if you can. I am a reporter, after all."
I deleted part of the text printed on her card and handed it right back.
[ Eliza ]
"...?"
At the same moment, her eyes lost focus.
I had embedded a precise illusion into the card. Right now, visions of what the Magic Department had been working on within an illusion world were flashing before Eliza's eyes.
Then I switched the scene.
The most primal method of punishing a liar: burning at the stake. In the illusion, she was bound helplessly, burning forever.
A moment later, I ended the illusion and spoke a single line.
"If you want to add the word 'reporter' to your business card... you should at least not pretend to see a false story."
"...."
Eliza stared blankly at me for a long time, then drained the coffee she was holding in one go.
I walked past her as she stood motionless.
What she had ordered and what she was thinking now—that was no longer my concern.
But what would happen if a correction was not issued—that was now something both she and I knew with absolute certainty.
◈
An abandoned house on the outskirts of the Academy.
"Ugh..."
A second-year from the Knight Department, eldest of the Four Siblings, Ela lay collapsed on the floor, groaning.
Death.
Now, only death awaited Ela. How things had escalated to this point, Ela could not tell.
Even when she tried to grip her sword, no strength came to her hand.
"Nngh."
Ela's body was not normal to begin with.
The tendons in her heels were severed, and her once-excellent Qi Sense had already lost all function.
In Ela's vision she caught sight of her three siblings. Bodies dismembered, barely recognizable as remains.
They were so mangled that even calling them corpses felt like an overstatement.
After the Subjugation Festival preliminaries, the Four Siblings' lives had been upended completely—to the point where life and death hung in the balance.
"Hey, can you hear me?"
A level voice. Ela's eyes rolled toward the source of the sound.
A knight already scheduled to join the number-one guild, the Mystic Gorge.
It was the squad leader of the student knight order 'Celestial Axis,' Janet.
As if she had merely cleaned up some trash, she stood utterly serene even at the center of this horrific scene.
"Running is useless. You know that."
With her thin sword, she pierced Ela's shoulders and thighs one after another.
At the same time, Ela lost all sensation in her limbs.
"And don't feel wronged. As a disgrace to knighthood, you don't have the right."
Janet laid a single sheet of paper beside Ela's head.
[ Honor Execution ]
Honor Execution.
This extreme order, which ensures the target's last breath is absolutely extinguished, is handed down only against criminals who have broken principle and brought disgrace upon a knight's honor.
And the second-place group from the Subjugation Festival preliminaries, 'Celestial Axis,' had just finished carrying out that mission against the Four Siblings. It is not an order given lightly, but the Four Siblings, having lost all reason, had gone so far as to commit an impulsive murder.
"Janet, is it finished over there?"
"Yeah. All done."
Another male knight from Celestial Axis looked down at Ela with utter contempt.
"Not a shred of knightly decorum, and on top of that, a suicide technique, and now crimes... at least you shouldn't have committed murder. Have you no shame?"
The male knight's gaze flicked back to Janet.
"Janet, is this really, absolutely finished?"
"Yes. I used my Inherent Ability."
"You have to be certain."
Janet nodded quietly.
"Even if I say I'm certain... if you don't believe me, want me to poke you once?"
Lifting her thin sword, Janet flashed a playful smile.
Janet's Inherent Ability: 'Vital Point.' Just as the name implied, she pierced only an opponent's weak points.
"No, forget it. Don't say horrible stuff like that. Ah, but."
"That. What happens if a mage gets poked by it?"
"Never poked a mage before... Hmm."
Whooong!
Janet thrust once into the empty air. The force was beyond imagining. The vacant space seemed as if it had been physically pierced through.
Sheathing her sword, Janet continued.
"Probably, they'd never be able to use magic again."
The trivial chatter the Celestial Axis knights exchanged as they left did not reach Ela's ears.
Lying there with all four limbs paralyzed, waiting for death, was the only thing Ela could do now.
"Ahh."
Now, she would die like this.
Her own state was so pathetic, so insect-like, so worthless, that it left her hollow.
Her own weakness, her rage toward others, emotions she couldn't name as denial or inferiority slowly seeped into her heart.
One hour.
Two hours.
Six hours.
There was nothing Ela could do. Insects crawled over her body, and death closed its stride upon her step by step.
Plan.
Even in this state, that single name was all that rose in her mind.
What in the world was the realm that he had shown Ela? She wanted to see it once more. She wanted to uncover its true nature. And she wanted to overcome it....
—Ela. What do you desire.
Suddenly, a bewitching voice sounded in her quieted ear. Ela seemed to see something.
Something that shone very brightly even within the darkness.
—I can make it come true.
The light and the voice grew more distinct, knocking at Ela's heart. She felt something welling up from deep within her chest.
The thing she desired. There was only one.
Plan.
She wanted to face that bastard again.
She wanted to face him one more time.
And if she faced him....
"...."
Her lips would not move.
But she wanted to cry out for life. For the first time in a long while, she wanted to live. Waiting here passively for death was infuriating.
—All you have to do is desire it.
Ela nodded quietly.
Before long, she felt something seep into her soul.
◈
The Hotel of the Magic Tower, a large guest room.
Maeve, who had arrived first, was sorting through the ledgers alone. Reports to submit to the Blood Demons and reports to submit to Plan were both piled high. Not a single moment's rest today either.
Thud!
But that was when.
Someone used Telekinesis to slam Maeve's ledger shut.
"...."
Rage flared, but she clamped her lips tight. Because only one person could pull something like this.
She turned her head toward the door.
And sure enough, Plan. It was none other than him.
"You've come, Master."
"Now isn't the time for things like that."
"Then what should I be..."
Maeve's habitual effort to talk back was cut short before it could finish.
Watching this round's preliminary matches had raised Plan's stature inside Maeve's head even higher.
Touch him wrongly and you will die. Without question.
"What should I be... doing. Please enlighten me."
"How about starting with tea."
"...Tea?"
Plan nodded.
"I need to concentrate a bit."
"Yes. That's not a difficult task."
Relieved it wasn't highly difficult. Of course, even if he'd given her a hard task, she would have had to follow anyway.
"Serve the tea at strict twelve-minute intervals. No extra sugar added, and vary the type each time."
"...."
It had clearly not been difficult, but now it was.
'Wait.'
Thinking about it again, didn't this mean she could attempt an assassination every twelve minutes?
...That was not a bad opportunity at all.
Maeve nodded willingly.
"Very well. Master."
"Ah, and."
"Hm?"
Plan narrowed his brow. Maeve, who had been devising assassination methods, swallowed dryly for no reason.
"The environment is terrible. Get cleaning."
"...?"
Maeve's head tilted.
Whatever else, she could not fathom how the environment was lacking. At least as far as Maeve could see, it was spotless without a speck of dust.
"It already looks spotless to me."
"Spotless... Very well. I'll take it that you're taking full responsibility for that statement just now."
"I'll clean. Shall I do the bathroom too?"
Plan nodded once, and Maeve set out to clean with a heart full of despair.
"Once the cleaning is done, shroud the entire room in an Illusion World. I'll need maximum efficiency."
"Yes..."
After handing Maeve her tasks, Plan used Telekinesis to suspend a total of thirty-two books in the air.
"Only three days left, is it."
Plan murmured low.
If he didn't waste a single minute or second, the time would be enough. The representatives of the Magic Department could certainly become talents befitting the Subjugation Festival.
'But for that to happen.'
Merely presenting things to study would never be enough. Materials that they could understand the instant they saw them and apply immediately were required.
So before he departed for the Yudit mansion, he had to produce these thirty-two self-study guides.
"...I'll do it."
The deliberation was brief.
He would simply do it.
If he had resolved to do it—if it was something that plainly had to be done—then he just had to do it.
And one more thing.
Harmonization.
The most critical element in the main tournament.
Raising purity and reducing manifestation speed was a matter of improving individual capacity.
So this time, he needed to make the three representatives achieve harmony and produce a higher level of performance.
"This ought to be replaceable with an assignment."
He would present the assignment alongside the materials—with content structured so that the three would have no choice but to harmonize to reach the goal.
Plan's crimson eyes began to ripple.
Learning magic was certainly an enjoyable thing, but teaching it had its own distinct savor.
The reason, of course, was that this too was a form of proving.
After a short, deep breath, Plan began to fill the blank spaces of five sheets of paper simultaneously.
As he wrote out the self-study guides without the slightest tremble, the man's eyes grew hazy. He looked to be staring at something vastly far away, beyond the world.
—Scratch, scratch.
Before long, the guest room was filled with nothing but the sound of letters being etched onto the page.