Awe in the Museum, Panic in the Library
“Wow……”
“There!”
“Haah……”
No matter where you go, every sight makes you gasp.
Shati’s emotions ran over like a pot left on a fire in real time, overflowing with every step inside the museum.
“This is a magic circle brought from a ship that was built five hundred years ago outside the Undersea Kingdom. It’s good at curse magic and versatile in so many ways……”
Even right now, Shati couldn’t close her gaping mouth as she listened to the guide’s explanation coming from the back.
Magic unlike anything she had ever encountered poured endlessly into her head, and her knowledge and magical skill were growing steadily.
Of course, she wasn’t only looking at the exhibits.
No matter how enjoyable learning the new things was, she had to stay on track, or she really would be kicked out. So she had to watch her own legs trying to move freely on their own.
‘Pina……’
“Ugh, no way. If I move freely again, they’ll definitely kick me out……”
‘Same as me.’
From the look ahead, Pina was also struggling to keep her legs from obeying her desire to learn.
Shati felt a sense of kinship with her while turning her head to the other side, and.
“W-what?! When did you get here?!”
“Just now, actually. Don’t worry. I was just interested in the exhibits and came close to look.”
Isolde appeared suddenly beside her, and Shati shouted in surprise.
She had approached without making any sound at all and hadn’t been noticed.
Isolde answered her shocked question with her usual blank face and cold tone.
She had forgotten for a moment, but Isolde was a mage.
Among the entire group, which included Meiel and Pina and Shati herself, Isolde was one of the few mages. Shati understood and nodded.
“Yeah, this museum really is interesting.”
“Mhm.”
Of course, a mage wouldn’t be uninterested in the exhibits here.
And if you were interested, naturally you wanted to look closer.
Unlike those who wield swords like Arin, mages who watch the museum with interest are probably disqualified.
In fact, even the blank face of Isolde had a faint smile. A smile that no one else probably noticed.
Shati, who had observed Meiel’s usually blank face every day, could see that smile.
Shati smiled briefly at Isolde agreeing that the museum was fun, then turned back forward again.
“The explanation will end here. Enjoy your tour.”
“Then let’s go see the next thing. Next is……”
The guide’s words about the next item had just finished, so he headed toward the bathroom.
Aria waved her hand, leading the front line of students, while turning her back on the guide.
Shati walked after the front line with a disappointed expression, chasing the guide’s back.
“Ah, I missed the last part……”
“I recorded it. I’ll play it for you later.”
“Really?! Thank you!”
Shati had looked disappointed for missing the guide’s explanation in the middle, but as soon as Isolde said she would play the recording later, her face lit up with a bright smile.
Even though she hadn’t felt it properly before, was it because she had felt kinship in the museum, or because her heart was burning so hot it created a pillar of flame?
Either way, Shati expressed gratitude again and again to Isolde, who showed her a different side and consideration. Isolde let out a short grunt and waved her hand.
“The thank-you part is over. I was here anyway because of something else, not just curiosity……”
“Something else……?”
“I won’t tell you about that.”
When Shati asked what it was, Isolde cut her off cleanly.
From the look of it, she didn’t seem like she would tell, so Shati stroked her pink half of her hair, which was half ash and half pink, and nodded.
If she wasn’t going to tell, there was nothing to do.
What mattered to Shati right now was only the gratitude toward Isolde, who had promised to tell her what she missed earlier, and the curiosity about the unknown thing they would see next.
“Good, next is this magic-engineering reduction device right here……”
“P-professor!”
Because of that, Shati tried to focus on the explanation Aria was giving about the magic-engineering reduction device, but someone raised their hand in front of her.
It was Kana from the front line.
Kana looked uneasy and said to Aria while holding her leg with one hand.
“Professor…… can I use the bathroom for a moment……”
“Hm? Ah, the bathroom?”
She did look uneasy, but the bathroom must have been really urgent. Thankfully, it was right next door.
And when Kana said she wanted to go to the bathroom, Shati felt a signal coming soon.
The museum was enormous, so if they didn’t go to the nearest bathroom now, she might not be able to concentrate properly later.
Thinking that far, Shati raised her hand without hesitation and followed Kana.
“Professor Aria, can I go to the bathroom too?”
“You too?”
When Shati raised her hand, Aria’s expression hardened just a little. She was probably worried about sudden departures during the schedule.
But human nature is that when someone wants to go to the bathroom, others will follow.
“Ah, then I’ll go too……”
“Riana is going? Then I’ll go too.”
“Then I’ll go too……”
“It’s a complete mass departure.”
When Shati raised her hand after Kana, Riana raised hers, and when Riana did, Arin did, and after that Pina raised hers.
When five people, nearly half of them, raised their hands, Aria’s expression froze completely.
……Was sending one bathroom that difficult?
At that moment, Shati thought about Aria’s face, but Aria herself probably thought that not sending even one bathroom was too much.
Aria pondered for a moment, then gestured to Isolde and Morgan.
“I’ll give you five minutes. Go and come back. Isolde, Morgan. You two go with them.”
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
Isolde and Morgan walked forward without hesitation after Aria’s words.
Their backs looked even more solemn with the order to follow, so Shati wondered if sending them to the bathroom was such a serious mission, but before she could answer that, she had to follow Isolde and Morgan.
“The bathroom……”
First, the bathroom was the more urgent need.
* * *
“……It should be fine, right, sister?”
“Of course. No problem.”
After sending Arin, Shati, Kana, Riana, and Pina to the bathroom with Isolde and Morgan as escorts, I quietly controlled the extra students and whispered to Mu.
The students probably sensed my overprotective behavior when I sent them to the bathroom earlier, but this overprotection was an action with a definite reason.
The reason was that a detection net I had laid caught demons.
Of course, they hadn’t entered the inside, but they had been detected outside the museum. Since I knew demons were targeting something outside the museum, I tried not to separate the students as much as possible.
If they fell away, they might have been dragged into the enemy’s scheme for nothing.
But even so, I couldn’t stop natural bodily functions, and the bathroom was close, so I sent them with Isolde and Morgan as escorts. Still, Mu looked uneasy.
“Don’t worry, Mu. Only the demon general and elite demons can do anything here. Even the ones who went to the bathroom will handle it easily with Isolde and Morgan.”
“If you say so, sister, I don’t need to worry……”
Yeah, whether Idea came or not, if we were here, there was no problem.
And if Isolde and Morgan were together, even a demon general would be easily suppressed.
So I calmed the worried Mu, and when I spoke directly, Mu nodded once and stopped her uneasy foot.
It was a homunculus response that believed even black was white because of my words. Lately it seemed a bit weaker, but probably a side effect of growth, so it wasn’t a big issue.
I leaned against the wall with a relaxed smile while Mu let out a big yawn from my words.
‘I wonder what will come out.’
At least I should know that I can sense when the other side moves.
I closed my eyes and slowly expanded my awareness while leaning against the wall.
“Hmmm……”
Unlike Meiel’s Mu, I couldn’t use detection magic, but I could sense presence to some degree with warrior’s awareness.
Of course, I couldn’t do it as well as Morgan, who could sense mana from the same demon, but I could at least detect the movements of those demons gathering outside the museum.
But of course, I couldn’t read every single finger movement like martial masters.
What I could sense was only where the presence was moving.
Still, it was a huge help in responding to the demons, so I focused on the sensed demon presence in the expanded awareness.
If I made a mistake, I would draw my sword immediately, so I concentrated.
“Whatever they do, they have it.”
The best they could do was demons at levels seventy to eighty. I muttered quietly and touched the sword hilt, and.
The explosive sound that followed told me this was my arrogance and complacency.
Kwaaaang…………!!!
“Explosion?!”
I shot up from leaning against the wall at the distant explosion sound.
The extra students I was controlling and other people in the museum also looked toward the explosion.
I confirmed that the explosion I heard was real.
And unlike the others who were looking in the normal direction of the sound, I approached the Mu who was using magic to see something else and asked.
“Meiel, where did the explosion come from?”
“Just in front of the entrance to the Record Library…… It’s now blocked by a very strong barrier.”
“Damn, it’s Idea.”
There was no one who could cause an explosion loud enough to be heard here from the Record Library and set a barrier strong enough for Mu to call it, no matter how you thought about it—only Idea.
I had expected it, but Idea had sent her subordinates here and attacked the library.
Thinking back, Idea had targeted the Record Library from the beginning, so it wasn’t a big deviation from the original story, but causing an explosion immediately from the library was an unexpected situation.
Originally Idea had quietly ambushed with her subordinates to take only the books from the library and failed.
Since I didn’t know the reason Idea failed or took the book, and there had been a change where she attacked first, I was quite uneasy that she might steal the library books too.
So I spat out curses and glared toward the Record Library while asking Mu something else.
“Meiel, any commands to Isolde and Morgan?”
“I gave them. Even if the contract prevented breaking it, they didn’t seem to feel any reluctance, so they probably never planned to betray from the start.”
“That’s good to hear.”
I had been worried that Isolde and Morgan might be looking for a chance to escape or betray, but thankfully they had seemed to want to follow us from the start.
It was quite unexpected, but in this situation it was only good, so I gave Mu another order.
“Then keep Yujia and Kama’s clones here as autonomous actions. Can you transfer to the Record Library?”
“It’s possible if you go outside the museum. Then 『Clones, you protect the students.』”
“Good, all of you pay attention. You stay with Yujia and Kama. We’ll go where the explosion happened.”
With Mu’s mana-mixed words, the Yujia and Kama controlled by Mu began to act on their own.
The highest priority command Mu had input was to protect the students. It was probably impossible for just their clones to touch the students.
Even if I changed them to autonomous action and their combat power dropped, they were strong enough to fight equally with demon executives.
“Yes, yes! Professor!”
“We’ll be back soon……”
“We wait here?”
So I pulled Mu’s arm while turning my back on the students who straightened up in response to my words.
“Then Mu, we’re going to the Record Library. We’ll stop Idea.”
“Yes.”
I hadn’t expected it to happen, and I hadn’t thought they would cause an unexpected situation, but the situation itself wasn’t bad.
Even if Idea was trying to steal books, it would take about ten minutes at most. That was still plenty of time after we arrived at the library.
So since we knew the king Idea was at the Record Library, the only thing left was to move there and suppress the king.
“Then we’ll move. 『Transfer』.”
So after I said we were going to the Record Library, Mu first executed the transfer magic to check the coordinates.
But I only realized that was a wrong judgment after less than ten seconds.
Paaat──!
The transfer magic activated by Mu blinked the vision for a moment, and the previous sight full of museum walls and exhibits was now filled with the buildings and sea of the Undersea Kingdoms.
“We’re out!”
“Yes, mother. Then I’ll transfer immediately to the Record Library.”
And right after leaving the museum, my shouted words made Mu calculate the coordinates to the Record Library standing far away in a tone that changed to polite because no one was there.
“Damn, it’s completely on fire.”
While Mu calculated the coordinates, I narrowed my eyes and looked at the situation of the Record Library standing at the end of a straight line.
Leaving the museum, the situation was clear.
The explosion earlier had been much more powerful than expected, so the area around the Record Library was an inferno, and mermen soldiers and mages of the Undersea Kingdom were trying to put out the fire, but the water they sprayed was all blocked by a semi-transparent barrier and couldn’t pass through.
We had to hurry in quickly and put out the flames with Meiel’s magic or something and get inside the library.
“Mu, hurry…… Mu?”
So I tried to urge the Mu calculating coordinates, but when I turned my head, the direction was not toward the library but the opposite side—the Mu looking at the museum we had just come out of. My voice lowered without me noticing.
And I followed Mu’s strange appearance and looked around the museum, and had to close my half-open mouth.
“Mother…… It seems the students are in danger too.”
When I closed my mouth, Mu who had been looking blankly around the museum let out a groan and said.
I agreed with Mu’s words.
No, not only me—anyone who saw this would have to agree with Mu.
“It’s rotten…… Could those demon bastards have prepared this?”
Uuuuuuu───
A disgusting vibration sound accompanied the purple curtain that was devouring the museum.
It was a curtain I had never seen before in reality, but since I had seen the technique many times in the Demon Realm game, I remembered it.
It first covered the museum and then swelled into an oval, a barrier of separation.
It was a skill that completely blocked inside and outside, internal and external. Probably the demons’ plan outside was this.
If I and Mu were inside, the barrier was strong enough to break with enough power, but since we were outside, the only way was to kill the caster of the barrier or for the caster to lift it themselves.
In other words, it meant we and the students left inside the museum were completely isolated.
If Isolde knew transfer magic, she could easily take the students out of the barrier, but the barrier’s caster probably didn’t think of that.
In fact, the fact that no one had come out so far was proof.
So I turned my gaze away from the separation barrier and shouted at Mu.
“We have no choice. Mu. Since there’s no way in anyway, I believe Isolde and Morgan will do something, so let’s do our work right now.”
“……Yes.”
When I spoke, Mu nodded in understanding.
Then Mu broke the previous transfer magic that had been cut off and rebuilt it through Idea’s barrier, and the next moment the bright light of the transfer magic swallowed us.
And in the library, and in the museum.
Each side raised its curtain of battle.