31. Please do not try this at academy
31. Please do not try this at academy
By now, her fame had spread across the world to the point where not knowing Magical Mari practically made you a cultist.
Fans who'd already fallen for it had gone completely off the deep end, rewatching the broadcast over and over.
Before long, they were heading to the training grounds with friends to research joint finishing moves.
And then they put it into practice in class.
- Splendid Stardust Stinger!!!
It failed.
No, seriously, don't try that crap during class.
Unfortunately, the professor didn't stop them.
He actually gave them advice, performed the Splendid Stardust Stinger —modified version— with his own teaching assistant, and then declared that this would be today's assignment.
'Goddammit.'
At my age, did I really have to practice something this embarrassing?
Right then, my eyes met Ceres's, who was taking the same combat class.
Could she have ever imagined she'd have to see this sorry spectacle during a lesson?
Unlike the other students, she and I both made our displeasure blatantly obvious as we hid among the crowd.
But it wasn't much use.
With the caster of that technique and its original creator both present in this class, thinking the professor would leave us alone was hopelessly naive.
"Celestia, Allen. Could you come forward and give a demonstration?"
The moment the professor called our names, both her expression and mine crumpled and recovered in less than a split second.
I was still a professional actor, so I kept my expression under control.
As for Ceres, she radiated an aura of pure reluctance right up until she stepped onto the platform, but the instant her foot touched it and she entered the professor's range, she flipped into a fresh and cheerful Magical Mari mode as if nothing had happened.
Under the peculiar, expectant gaze of the professor and the students, we asked for a moment to adjust our magical power and launched an emergency conference in the corner.
Ceres asked me,
"Hey. Can you play the part of Isis?"
"You think I can't?"
"You don't have a rapier."
"I've got fingers tougher than a rapier."
Of course, that was half a joke. The key component of a joint finishing move wasn't the weapon but the magic power, so that in itself wasn't the problem.
The problem was the sheer embarrassment of having to shout the lines and reenact the scene in front of everyone.
I massaged the bridge of my nose, marveling at the reality that a man my size had to perform a magical girl's finishing move.
Ceres, who had been watching quietly, suddenly started jabbing the air with her fist and shot me a nasty smirk.
-Scared?
That single word was enough.
Any fear of embarrassment was instantly replaced by a competitive spirit and fury directed at Ceres.
I immediately headed toward the target with her.
There stood a golem summoned by the teaching assistant.
First, Ceres gathered magic power into her fist, just as she had in the film.
Then she glanced at me and sneered.
"Think you can keep up with my tempo?"
"..."
Without a word, I gathered magic power into my fist.
She looked surprised—she probably hadn't thought I'd be able to replicate Isis's magic discharge.
Idiot.
Had she forgotten who taught her the concept of a joint finishing move?
This time, as if conceding defeat, she readily tuned her magic power to mine.
No, she never conceded.
That proud elf was deliberately disrupting the magical coordination.
At this rate, the magic power would run wild, and the finishing move would explode midway through, just as it had for the previous group.
Then Mari would have a field day teasing me, claiming it failed because of my incompetence.
But she made a miscalculation.
Not every joint finishing move relied on coordinating magic power.
Just as she wanted, I abandoned the coordination.
I forced my mana into the technique and overwhelmed hers.
"Huh... uh?"
Flustered, she tried to pull her power back, but I physically locked her arms in a submission hold.
"Hey! Hey, wait! What are you doing?!"
Then I grabbed her by the shoulders, hurled her at the target with a Giant Swing for the first time in a while, and shouted.
"Ceres! Bomb Number One!"
KWA-BOOM!
Ceres's magic power ran wild and blew the target away without a trace.
That's what you get for challenging me.
And then I got chewed out by the professor.
*
After Isis and Ceres defeated Ignos, Magical Mari's popularity soared through the roof.
Amid all that thunderous fame, Bon Voyage Studio...
"What do we do now?"
"What do you mean? We have to prep for finals."
Then I came face-to-face with one of the Four Heavenly Kings: final exams.
For reference, final exams were the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings. Above them were grade exams, graduation exams, and licensing exams, and finally, the master's and doctoral process—the so-called demon king.
Even so, the offensive of the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings was terrifying.
The Hero Department had a whopping nine subjects.
At this academy, which didn't even have midterms, the demon of final exams was far too powerful.
"Ah, geez..."
Wails and lamentations rose from every corner of the club room, now transformed into a study hall.
Then out of the blue, Nikolai, who was studying a workbook for the Faculty of Foresight, asked a question.
"Boss. By the way, is it okay for us to go on hiatus like this?"
"Why?"
"Those protesters..."
"Those protesters are studying too."
"Aha."
First and foremost, we were a student club before we were a studio.
What could they do when the students were faithfully devoting themselves to their studies?
Besides, we'd announced the hiatus a month in advance, and we'd made it crystal clear from the very beginning that this would be a seasonal series. If anyone wanted to raise a fuss now, I'd be giving them a scalp massage they'd remember for a good long while.
- What's this about a sudden hiatus?!
No sooner had I finished that thought than a shout rang out from in front of the club room.
"...I'll step outside for a moment, Leon."
"Won't go far."
"Take it easy, Boss."
"Don't worry. A human skull is originally in four pieces right after birth."
It wouldn't kill them to go back to four pieces.
Probably.
*
"Ttuyattaya uttaya~ I'm gonna be a Kairopfüttik master~"
The study group continued into the night.
8 p.m.
After seeing each of the club members off, I headed toward my digs (a bit too big and fancy to call a bachelor pad).
I was walking along the road, savoring the cool night air, when someone brushed past and bumped my shoulder.
More precisely, because of the height difference, their shoulder bumped into my arm.
"Huh?"
People tended to assume otherwise, but absentmindedly bumping shoulders with someone while walking was actually quite rare.
Unless the other person was utterly absorbed in music or something, or unless their real purpose was my pocket, they'd usually maintain a safe distance from a big guy like me or at least try to avoid contact.
But since this world didn't have earbuds, the person who passed me naturally fell into the latter category.
Sure enough, I felt a scrap of paper in my pocket.
"..."
It was a map.
It didn't have much drawn on it, but I could tell where that place was.
"Of all places..."
Exams were the day after tomorrow, but what could I do?
Those of us who lived off tax money had to do our jobs.
I ran the paper through repeated cycles of alchemic creation and decomposition, then tossed it into a sewer drain.
And then I turned my steps away from home and headed in the opposite direction.
Following the sketch drawn on the paper, I arrived at an alleyway where a group in suits was waiting.
The man with a large scar across his face at their center crushed out his cigarette and approached me.
He stood before me in silence.
The other men rose from their places and encircled me.
In that hair-trigger atmosphere, the man in front of me opened his mouth.
"We are those who bring the secret things into the light out of darkness."
"And we dare to bring the shadow of death out into the brightness."
The man relayed the order to me, then turned away and covered his ears.
The men surrounding me also turned their backs and covered their ears.
Carefully, I opened the imperial decree from His Majesty the Emperor that he had delivered.
- Protect this world's most precious treasure.
A short and concise sentence.
Below it, the official seal of the imperial household was stamped.
I tore the decree to shreds, ground it down to the level of dust, and then, wary of eavesdropping magic, I traced letters onto the back of the man in front of me.
- Support?
Swish.
Without turning around, the scar-faced man handed me a file.
I alchemized the file into the shape of a belt and strapped it around my waist.
To signal that we were done, I tapped him on the shoulder and slipped out of the alley.
Until the very moment I exited the alley, they did not turn back toward me.
On my way home again, I pieced the directives together in my head.
Protect the treasure.
If you were talking about treasure on Hetairo Island, there was only one thing it could be.
The students who carried the future on their shoulders.
And there was only one group who would target them.
Cultists.
The fact that I had to tussle with cultists two days before exams put me in a grim mood.
The one consolation was that I didn't need to care much about my grades.
'That wasn't a consolation at all.'
A student's fundamental duty was to study, so why did I have to tussle with those bastards at this young age?
To make matters worse, I was built like a mountain, so I couldn't exactly grumble in the middle of the road. I kept up a nonchalance I didn't feel for the whole walk home.
It wasn't until I arrived home that I alchemized the belt back into a file and looked at its contents.
Inside was information on the agent dispatched by the allied kingdom who would join us for the operation.
'Huh.'
A knight from the Leven Kingdom and an agent currently dispatched to the academy.
Solid credentials and skilled in espionage.
His combat style was exactly like John's, if you took away the pistol.
Coincidentally, the person in the file was someone I knew very well.
- Charles McTyler
the president of my fan club