Anyway, I Saved Someone
Anyway, I Saved Someone
Paula, hiding deep in a dark alley, felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if she had seen this very alley before.
'Did they say this happens because the mind draws on past experiences and makes things feel familiar?'
She had felt this way before. After asking someone with mental abilities about it, she had simply let it go, though a lingering unease remained.
Today, she felt a little strange again.
'It's probably because I'm nervous. This is my first operation.'
Thinking this, she waited for the person to appear.
It was a stroke of luck that she had learned about Ivana.
She had Gael, the son of Marquis Pisen, to thank for that. After losing his duel, he had blabbed to everyone.
He had dragged his broken leg around, following Ivana and begging her.
He pleaded with her not to abandon him, babbling that if he fought other knights and improved his skills, he would become more than capable of facing Alex.
Intrigued by the noisy rumors she overheard in the dining hall, she had investigated and uncovered some interesting information.
She learned that the Marquis's son had grown much stronger since the entrance ceremony, and that several other students had also suddenly become more powerful.
At the center of it all was Ivana.
She suspected that Ivana's ability might be responsible. After looking into it further, she reached a conclusion.
Their growth was indeed due to Ivana's ability.
She also became convinced that Ivana's ability either accelerated other people's growth or brought their future abilities forward.
She reported this to her superior. Strangely, the information was immediately passed up to the Organization's highest ranks, which was how she ended up being deployed to this kidnapping scene.
The process had been different, but the outcome was the same.
If Alex had known about this, he would have thought that the will of the world, resisting change, had overcome the butterfly effect.
Still, not everything was the same.
"What should I do?"
Having worked much harder than before, Paula was brimming with motivation—enough to overcome her fear.
"Just watch from behind. I didn't bring you here to make you work. I brought you to get some experience."
At her senior colleague's words, Paula was able to let go of the last shred of fear she had left.
Perhaps because her tension had eased, her thoughts began to drift to other things even as the task at hand loomed before her.
She thought of Joachim, who had left the capital for a group project.
She worried a little that she had sent her message to Joachim too late, and wondered whether he would be able to escape in time if things went wrong.
The moment those worries crossed her mind, the shadows of two people appeared in the alley.
Although she had been told to stay back, she also had a job to do.
Paula asked her senior colleague for permission.
Even as Ivana and her escort entered the alley, I remained a spectator, leaning against the rooftop railing as I watched things unfold.
But I wasn't the sort of spectator who could sit back comfortably with popcorn in hand.
I wasn't an ordinary spectator. I was a Troublemaker, a troller waiting for the perfect moment to crash the stage.
The problem was, finding that perfect moment wasn't easy.
The biggest issue was that I hadn't witnessed this event firsthand.
I had heard from Paula that the kidnapping had turned into a terrorist attack, but I couldn't know how the story had been distorted—or whether she had even told me everything correctly.
Besides, although the event was happening at the same time by sheer luck, a lot had already changed.
I couldn't be sure things would play out the same way.
'As expected, anything tangled up with the royal family or politics is hard to unravel.'
If this were any other matter, I wouldn't need to wait for the perfect moment. I could have simply eliminated the root cause with my blade beforehand.
But I couldn't do that this time.
If I made a mistake, I could be charged with something worse than high treason.
For now, I had to carefully untangle this knotted ball of thread.
Fortunately, the event began just as Paula had described.
First, Paula, who had been hiding in the darkness, made her move.
When she showed herself, Ivana and her escort stopped in their tracks.
"Oh? Freshman Ivana?"
Listening closely, I heard Paula's surprised voice.
Even from far away, it was hard to believe she was acting.
She really was a great spy.
I tilted my head in confusion.
Supposedly, as soon as Ivana heard that greeting, she had realized it was a trap.
But how could anyone see through acting like that? With acting of that caliber, there was no way she should have been caught.
"Do you know me?"
Ivana asked cautiously.
Huh. Were they strangers this time?
Paula had said she approached Ivana only at the very end in her previous life, but it seemed she hadn't met Ivana in this timeline.
Things couldn't be exactly the same, of course.
Just because the event was happening at the same time didn't mean the situation would be identical.
I braced myself, sharpening my focus.
Since things had changed right from the start, there was no telling what would happen.
"Ah, I'm Paula, a second-year. I had some business at the inn up ahead and was just on my way back."
Paula pointed to her academy crest and approached Ivana.
Ivana narrowed her eyes, but didn't stop Paula from coming closer.
Paula had definitely said Ivana stopped her from approaching right from the start.
What had changed?
Had her acting improved? Or was it because they were meeting for the first time, so Ivana couldn't read her as well?
Though things were diverging more and more from how they had gone before, I kept watching.
It was still worth waiting.
Even if the details along the way changed, the event would happen all the same.
The distance between the two grew smaller.
Ten meters, five meters, three meters.
But at the last moment, Ivana raised a hand.
"I'm sorry. I'd prefer it if you didn't come any closer. I don't like strangers getting too close."
Paula, who I'd thought would force her way closer, stopped in her tracks.
"That's fine. I guess I got excited without realizing it because I saw a famous academy freshman in a place like this."
Instead, she stepped aside.
To anyone else, it would have looked like a slightly awkward but perfectly normal conversation between academy students who had met in an unfamiliar place. There was nothing strange about it.
Ivana still seemed suspicious of Paula.
But Paula handled the situation remarkably well—far better than she had described her actions in her previous life.
The escort didn't suspect a thing, and the two quickly passed by, keeping a little distance from Paula.
At that moment—
Mana burst violently from all directions.
At the same time, robed figures sprang out of the darkness.
And at the same time, a barrage of abilities poured out.
Presumably, this was the original plan.
But Paula was still beside Ivana's group. Surely they weren't planning to attack her, too?
Or was Paula planning a suicide attack?
I stood up. Things were playing out differently from before.
Honestly, I didn't care how anything else changed.
There was only one thing I was going to change in this incident.
Keeping Ivana alive.
As long as she didn't die, I didn't care what happened to anything else.
Just as I was about to leap down, Paula moved first.
Paula used her ability for the first time. Or rather, it was the first time I'd ever seen her use it.
My guess had been right. Paula had a speed-related ability.
It wasn't teleportation, nor did it make her legs move faster.
She simply walked and ran as usual.
She was faster than an ordinary person, but to someone with enhanced physical abilities, her movements would have looked almost pathetic.
But the moment she took a single step, her body was abruptly pulled forward.
In just one step, she arrived beside Ivana, grabbed her arm, and took another step.
Whoosh.
This time, Ivana was pulled sharply in the direction Paula walked.
It wasn't that Ivana's speed increased, nor was she crossing through space.
It was as if Paula shortened a long path by folding it, then walked along it.
From Ivana's perspective, it might have looked as though space itself had folded.
'Is it like the Earth-Shrinking Art from martial arts novels?'
Abilities really came in all shapes and sizes.
In any case, the two girls moved dozens of meters in an instant.
At the same time, attacks rained down on the escort knight left behind.
"You bastards!"
He seemed flustered by Ivana's sudden disappearance, but the fight between the Empire's spies and the escort knight was no different from what I'd heard about in my previous life.
The flames that poured toward him parted, and weapons were deflected.
"Wait!"
After fending off the attacks, the escort knight tried to run toward the two girls moving away.
But the spies from the Empire rushed at him like moths to a flame as he tried to move.
Although their faces showed their bewilderment at how things had gone differently from plan, the spies didn't stop.
One by one, they fell to the escort knight.
The spy who threw fire was cut down by the sword, and the one who hurled weapons with telekinesis lost his life to a dagger thrown by the escort.
It became increasingly difficult for the spies alone to hold the escort knight back.
"Aaah!"
A scream came from the direction the girls had gone.
Ivana had drawn her sword at some point and attacked Paula.
I'd thought before that Ivana wasn't an ordinary ability user.
I'd thought she might be quite good with a sword, but I hadn't expected her to swing it so resolutely.
Paula screamed and collapsed to the ground.
Blood flowed from where she had fallen.
When Paula fell, two spies who had been following them in hiding revealed themselves and rushed toward Ivana.
Unlike Paula, the spies rushing toward her were overflowing with killing intent.
The leader of the spies, who was holding the escort knight back, placed a hand on his chest, his face set with resolve, and—
The moment the spies rushed toward Ivana—
I threw myself forward, too.
Ivana looked down impassively at the second-year female student writhing on the ground, bleeding.
Something had felt wrong from the start, and in the end, it had come to this.
Although they had spoken for the first time today, the senior lying on the ground was someone Ivana had seen at the academy before.
Though she was suspicious, it was hard to brand someone she had never even spoken to as an enemy.
Besides, the acting had been so convincing that Ivana had pushed aside the instinctive discomfort she felt.
Even so, in the end, things had still turned out like this.
As expected, there was no one she could trust except for one person.
When the student named Paula fell, the hidden figures began rushing toward Ivana.
But it was clear that her escort would arrive first.
He had already defeated everyone except for one person.
The last villain was holding him back, but he would surely defeat him at once and run over before anyone else could.
She had raised that escort knight precisely so he could do so.
With that thought, the moment she lowered her sword—
Boom!
A flash of light, and the alley exploded.
Whoosh!
Then a blast of wind rushed in, blowing Ivana and the fallen Paula away.
At the moment of the explosion, Ivana had no idea what was happening around her.
She only felt the world engulfed in light and her body blown away by some immense force.
Thud. Thud.
As she flew, she slammed into a wall and rolled across the ground.
The impact of rolling along the ground actually helped her regain her senses.
When she opened her eyes, the alley was gone.
The road had been erased, and the houses beside the alley had disappeared, too.
It was no longer an alley. It was more like a large empty lot with a giant crater.
A white cloud was rising above the empty lot.
A mushroom-shaped cloud.
Even in the moonlight, Ivana found the cloud's shape fascinating.
As she stared blankly at it, she heard shouts from the side.
Turning her head, she saw figures in blood-stained robes rushing toward her.
They were the villains who had been charging at her just moments ago.
Ivana still hadn't fully regained her senses.
Had they been hurt because they were closer to the explosion than she was? Even so, it was impressive that they could move like that.
Ivana simply stared at them, lost in such thoughts.
As she watched them and waited for death—
Ivana saw the air split.
It was clearly no different from before, but the world split in half around the two people rushing toward her.
And the two rushing figures were divided in half along with the split world.
Split into top and bottom, they collapsed to the ground just like that.
Behind the two who had fallen in half, a person stood.
It was the senior she had seen before.
The senior who had brutally smashed Gael.
That terrifying senior stood against the backdrop of the mushroom cloud.
They were clearly too far away for a sword to reach.
She didn't understand how he had defeated the two, but he had clearly saved her.
Ivana stared blankly at Alex.
The plan I'd had in mind went terribly awry, but in the end, I'd achieved my goal.
Keeping Ivana alive.
Ivana was the First Prince's weakness.
I had absolutely no intention of letting her disappear into death.