A Demonstration of Power
Teardrop could not believe what he was seeing. He blinked repeatedly, once, twice, three times, four times… as many times as it took to finally accept the truth. But repeating the action he had tried at first would not change reality.
“What’s with that frozen expression?”
“Still, we’re fellow demons, so don’t get too scared.”
“……”
Isolde and Morgan whispered beside him, voices too low for the students to hear.
They had separated themselves before spreading the Disjunction Barrier. Yet here they stood, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Teardrop wanted to believe it was a lie, but the touch of Morgan’s arm resting casually on his shoulder reminded him this moment was real.
‘Impossible.’
He had plenty more to say, but he could only mutter, “No way.”
What exactly was the Disjunction Barrier?
It was Teardrop’s most confident spell, a barrier he had never seen broken.
Using his demonic energy and magical power, he could seal off intruders completely and freely manipulate the space inside.
He had separated the ordinary people and academy students from the Demon General first, then personally isolated Isolde and Morgan by the restroom into entirely different spaces.
He had also known from Idea’s test run before coming to the Undersea Kingdom.
Even a Demon General required at least ten minutes to break his barrier.
That was why he had given them so much leeway and frightened the students before Haras scolded him.
If Haras had not interfered, Teardrop would still be smiling leisurely, maximizing the terror of these human students.
Observing their faces, bruised by fear, was a small thrill for him in his daily life under Idea.
But why were these two here after being locked away inside his barrier for ten full minutes?
He had asked himself that question countless times, yet no answer came.
Since he had no idea why in the first place, he had no reason to expect an answer. The one who had answered for him was Morgan, with her arm draped over his shoulder.
“Hehe, you look like you don’t understand why we’re here?”
“After all, your barrier is quite sturdy. I can understand your confusion.”
Morgan smirked as she spoke, and Isolde continued smoothly, confirming that the barrier was indeed difficult to break.
“T-then how did you…?”
Teardrop finally loosened his lips and asked, voice strained.
How had Idea, who had herself acknowledged the barrier, broken it?
Feeling despondent, Teardrop looked up at Morgan. She shrugged casually.
“Well, it’s only as hard as it is. Keep hitting it and it’ll eventually break.”
“Same here. I kept casting spells, and one by one they broke. It was hard, but only that hard.”
“What nonsense!”
The lighthearted tone of the two made Teardrop shout in disbelief.
“Idea-sama needed ten full minutes to break my barrier, and you two broke through in under a minute? That’s completely impossible!”
Even Idea required at least ten minutes. Teardrop had placed them the farthest away, so they should have broken through at least ten layers.
There was no way they could have pierced through to this location in just one extreme minute.
When Teardrop glared at them, furious and aggrieved by the lie, they both burst out laughing like a balloon popping.
“Puhuhu! You seriously think we’re comparing ourselves to Idea? That little witch?”
“Teardrop, you don’t know how weak the barrier is for a witch, do you? Witches might struggle to cast them, but they’re complete poison when it comes to breaking them.”
“W-what…?”
Teardrop stuttered, never having heard anything like this.
Teardrop was no magician. He was a swordsman with some talent in magic, a magi. He had spent his entire life studying alongside his fellow demons and had never fought countless enemies daily like Morgan.
He had never devoted time to study or reading like Isolde either. In short, he knew absolutely nothing about magic.
Isolde, realizing this, pointed to herself and began explaining kindly to Teardrop, whose knowledge was a complete blank.
“Unlike me, a proper mage, you’re a witch. And witches mainly use power through witchcraft.”
Witchcraft.
An otherworldly phenomenon created by manipulating magic power, but called witchcraft because of its different direction.
It was the path only a tiny handful of beings born with magical talent could walk, those whose affinity matched witchcraft.
Witches used spells like curses, paralysis, poison, burns, and instant barriers within a certain space to create their own domains.
To them, casting barriers was as natural as breathing, but breaking them was an extremely difficult task.
Especially for Isolde and Meiel, who preferred massive, powerful single spells or flashy attacks—luxuries witches could not afford.
At best, the direct-damage spells they could cast were small flames or pebbles.
Of course, Fran, the only witch studying under Meiel, could move power itself to create magic. But Idea had surely only used witchcraft to break Teardrop’s barrier.
“Because you’re a pure-blooded witch. You have pride, and you refused to use regular magic because it’s beneath you. So you wouldn’t have used spells to break a mere general like Teardrop.”
“Th-that’s… impossible…”
Teardrop staggered at Isolde’s words but could not deny them.
No, more precisely, he had seen with his own eyes Idea breaking the barrier. He could not deny it.
At the time, Idea had been untouchable to him, so he had not questioned it. But who could have guessed someone else was watching and helping her break it?
At most, it would be Isolde or Morgan standing right beside him, or other Demon General leaders in the Demon Realm—perhaps only Pensia and Ar.
“Still, it was sturdy, so I’ll give you that much.”
“Y-you can’t be… serious…”
“……It seems you’re not listening anymore.”
Isolde, who had been cruelly trampling Teardrop’s pride, offered the compliment anyway. But Teardrop, who had already received the full psychological blow, was halfway out of his mind.
Isolde clicked her tongue softly and turned to Morgan, who was guarding the other demons—Haras and the elite soldiers.
“Morgan. Then you’ll kill all of them?”
“Of course. I promised from the beginning.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Before breaking the barrier and arriving here, Morgan had requested that promise.
Since Morgan was in considerable pain, all the demons present had agreed to let her kill them.
Unlike Morgan, Isolde accepted it. She stepped back as Morgan drew her sun-sword Solide.
“It’ll take some time…”
If Morgan swung her sword too freely, the barrier might break and innocent civilians could be hurt. Isolde would adjust her strength appropriately.
If civilians got injured or killed, Morgan would later die at Aria’s hands too.
Isolde judged that Morgan would need about five minutes to kill all the demons. She stepped back and approached the students, who were just beginning to watch the battle.
“You lot.”
“Ah, Instructor Isolde.”
“A-are you all right…?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
She flapped her wide-brimmed hat and waved at the worried students.
Isolde had not come to hear their trivial worries.
Her reason for coming was simple: to follow Aria’s prior order and move the students outside the museum.
She had already relocated Arin and her group. The other students in the remaining barrier needed to be sent out too. Isolde spoke openly to the students before her.
“You’ll go outside the museum. It’s going to be quite brutal, and Aria asked for this. I’ll teleport you there, so wait outside…”
“Ah, I know teleportation magic!”
“……You?”
Isolde had been about to tell them to wait quietly outside. But Shaty suddenly raised her hand.
“I can use teleportation magic too.”
Isolde looked incredulous, but Shaty quickly added proof.
“It’s true! Every day after class, I receive extra magic lessons from Professor Meiel, and I asked to learn teleportation together.”
“Really? Then I won’t doubt it.”
The moment Meiel’s name left Shaty’s mouth, Isolde withdrew the suspicion she had been spreading.
There was no way Shaty would lie in this situation, so she had learned it from Meiel. Isolde saw no need to be suspicious.
Even if she disliked admitting it, Meiel was a far superior mage.
Isolde nodded and turned toward the barrier where the other students were, saving time more efficiently.
“Then I assume you can calculate coordinates? I’ll go rescue the others.”
“Yes, leave it to me.”
“Then…”
If Shaty could really use teleportation, staying here would be a waste of time. Isolde ordered her to wait outside and moved her feet, only to turn back at Shaty’s grateful words.
“Shaty, wait here.”
“Please, Shaty.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you, Shaty.”
“As you wish, Miss Shaty.”
The first reason was that Shaty had learned teleportation in a spare moment during another magic class using attributes.
The second was that using attribute teleportation, Shaty could only move one person herself.
“Attach to me so I can use multi-teleportation…?”
Isolde stopped dead in her tracks at Shaty’s words.
This was one of the facts that even mages or beginner magicians did not know, but single-person teleportation and multi-teleportation were structurally different from the beginning.
Single teleportation calculated only the starting and destination coordinates. Multi-teleportation calculated each individual’s coordinates separately, creating unique destination coordinates for each to avoid overlap.
If only one destination was set, bodies would collide during travel, and calculated coordinates would randomly twist.
Shaty telling her to attach meant she planned to enlarge the single-teleportation circle and carry everyone.
Uung──
“Wait!”
Isolde looked back in time to see five figures gathered at the base of a newly enlarged single-teleportation circle.
But it was already too late to stop it.
She reached out desperately, but of course she could not touch them.
Isolde shouted and rushed forward, but in the blink of an eye, the five vanished beyond her hand. She sat down limply in the empty space, despairing.
“……I’m finished.”
She wondered what kind of last words she should leave for Aria.
* * *
At the center of the Undersea Kingdom.
Despite the explosion Idea had caused and the barriers she had woven, the Record Library still stood unchanged, its pure white form intact.
Inside its quiet, snow-white halls, a lively commotion erupted.
Clang!
Shouts from an immature voice echoed with the sound of something heavy falling.
The librarian, who had been silently staring into empty space, slowly raised her head.
“Guest, you have arrived.”
After a long time, new guests.