33. First Day of School
33. First Day of School
I knew the academy was huge, but I didn't know it was this huge.
Of course, it was smaller than the house in the Eustetia Duchy where I'd been staying, but still—this big.
"Hmm... I don't think it's here either."
Since I opened and checked every single door as soon as I saw it, it was big enough to make my irritation boil over.
That was the second hour.
We opened the last door on the first floor.
"...It's not here either."
We couldn't find the end of the illusion.
Damn it.
"Nngh... I guess it wasn't above, it was below..."
Gailan, who had adjusted her crooked glasses—one temple was bent, so they kept slipping askew—more than a hundred times, swallowed a sigh.
"Still, we only have two floors left to check, so let's just... j-just hang in there a little more... okay. Everyone—no, you guys...!"
"Hoo... Yeah. You hang in there too, Gailan."
Eurasia gave the answer no one else bothered to give.
"Yeah, thanks... By the way, Eurasia, you're seriously strong... I knew you entered as top student because of the speech, but even so, I didn't know you were this strong."
"Huh? Ahaha... I'm not that strong, I'm just... hehe."
"I heard you even passed the special entrance exam. How was it? Was the basilisk strong?"
At that question, Silina, apparently curious too, flicked a glance toward Eurasia.
Pina, naturally, had been staring only at Eurasia for a while now.
"Well... yeah. I think it was just moderately strong."
"Wow... Honestly, I went looking for the basilisk, heard its cry for a moment, and came straight back... But you actually went and subjugated it..."
"Aww, c'mon... I was with the knight order right up until recently, so... hehe. Don't praise me too much. I'm embarrassed!"
Eurasia squirmed as if embarrassed.
Eurasia, still doing that, lifted her hair soaked with Monster blood to cool her sweat-drenched nape.
She had kept up Mana Control for over three hours without a single break, so it was only natural she'd be drenched in sweat like that.
What's more, the Mana Control method Eurasia was using right then was exactly the same as the one I'd used in my Past Life. At her current level, it was bound to be difficult.
Still, I was proud of her.
I thought she'd pull some trick as soon as it got hard, but she kept pushing through steadily... As expected, Eurasia was my most precious, precious... disciple... no, not that.
Little sister? Yeah. She's the little sister I cherish most.
"Hoo... hoo..."
"Ah, aahh... that's nice and cool. Thank you, my lady."
As I fanned the nape of Eurasia, who was sitting in a chair cooling off, and blew cool air on it, I said offhandedly,
"Eurasia, you rest now. I'll handle the Monsters that come up from below."
"Y-yes? No! I'll do it. You can rest comfortably, my lady!"
"Listen to me. This isn't a battlefield, and if your Mana channels get twisted inside an Illusion Magic spell, that's also a pain in the ass."
"Nn... okay."
While we cooled off for a while, I looked around at Silina standing stiffly, Gailan sprawled out sitting, and Pina still clinging to my side.
First, Gailan. She didn't have as much talent as Stella, but she used magic you didn't often see.
Lightning Magic.
Gailan used a variety of magic centered on Lightning Magic.
It wasn't much help right then, but if Gailan completed her preparations and reached a high Circle, I thought it would be useful someday.
Next, Silina.
Because Eurasia handled nine out of ten, I didn't get a proper look at Silina moving, but her left hand seemed to be used for defense and her right for offense.
It was different from wielding a short spear and a long spear.
Her movements were too clumsy to even call swordsmanship.
To put it in just the right words, Silina's fighting looked closer to a barbarian's combat than a princess's.
Last, Pina.
I had no idea what this squirrel could do.
When I glared at her, the thing she did best was hug her tail and hide her eyes.
The Research Department has different classes from the Combat Department, so there'd be no overlap. That means Pina must have definitely applied to the Combat Department.
Pina said she couldn't use magic or weapons either, which only deepened my doubts.
"The entrance exam was also a Labyrinth, and this place isn't much different from a Labyrinth either..."
Gailan's low, crawling voice reached me.
Of course, it was fair to say it resembled a Labyrinth.
But it was different here.
Because this kind of Illusion Magic used a place from the target's memories as its backdrop, someone inside the illusion knew every path through it.
As you could see, both Gailan and Pina knew every path inside the Academy.
In a Labyrinth, no one knew the way from the start.
There were moving Labyrinths, and there were teleportation Labyrinths that teleported you if you stepped on the wrong ground.
Getting lost even once in a place like that was a real pain in the ass.
It was also the type of Labyrinth I hated most.
Anyway, Illusion Magic was different from a Labyrinth.
In the first place, Illusion Magic couldn't manifest a Labyrinth.
That's why Labyrinth, whose main body was weak, could rise to that position while being praised as having unrivaled Authority.
That's why Labyrinth never took a Black Wizard under its command.
That was how much pride Labyrinth took in that Authority.
"Let's get going soon."
I set aside my idle thoughts and got up from my seat.
Then Eurasia, gripping the completely warped desk leg. Gailan, standing and brushing off her butt. Silina, holding scrap metal in both hands.
Finally, Pina, tugging at my hem, started moving.
"You have something to say?"
[May I ask you a question, Eliarnes?]
...Needlessly polite.
"Yeah."
[How did you realize this place was Illusion Magic, Eliarnes?]
"I saw it in a book."
At the now-familiar excuse, Eurasia quietly nodded, but the others didn't.
Silina's expression, especially, was priceless.
Silina, who had been consistently expressionless until now, looked at me with an expression that said, "What the hell are you talking about?"
"A book?"
"There are quite a few unusual books at my house."
"...Even the Imperial Palace doesn't have books like that."
"Eustetia does."
Silina's brow furrowed.
"I'd like to read them sometime."
With those words, Silina shut her mouth.
"W-wahaha... The Eustetia Duchy must have a lot of books...?"
"Because it's Eustetia."
It wasn't something I said to promote my family.
I had just said it because it was an excuse that worked in any situation.
Because Eustetia was descended from a Hero.
Because the Eustetia Duchy bordered the Empire.
Because Eustetia commanded a knight order comparable to the Imperial Knight Order.
It could be interpreted in plenty of other ways too, but either way, it was a sufficient excuse to explain away my Past Life knowledge.
"I see..."
With those words, even Gailan fell silent.
For Pina, though, the doubts only seemed to deepen.
That was how we went down the stairs at the right end and returned to our starting point.
And now.
"...Incredible."
Silina, who had stopped me from going first and said she'd do it herself, was slicing through Monsters.
With the scrap metal in both hands, she pounded and minced the Monsters' bodies, scattering their innards everywhere.
She blocked attacks coming from behind with her left hand, bit down on a Monster's tail swung at her from the side with her teeth, and swung her right hand to burst skin and shatter bone.
She was drenched in the Monsters' sticky blood, wearing a very faint smile as if she felt refreshed.
Seeing that, I understood.
Axes.
The princess's weapons were hand axes.
Two hand axes, at that.
Good God.
"That's literally no different from a barbarian."
She wasn't even using the axes properly.
With no technique or anything, she just chopped down whatever she saw with those scrap... axes. It was exactly what barbarians who'd spent their whole lives in the wild would do.
In fact, the northern barbarians fight exactly like that.
"Eep! My lady...! You mustn't say such things!"
"Hiii... How could you say that about Her Highness the Princess...."
She was small and looked like a flower raised in a greenhouse... not that I was one to talk, but seeing Silina, of all people, fight like that was a little... grotesque.
Who the hell had taught her? Had anyone even taught her at all?
She'd learned, and that was how she fought?
As the princess's Monster slaughter went on, my brows furrowed more and more.
She definitely had talent.
How should I put it?
Maybe her instincts were sharp.
At a glance, she seemed to have excellent eyes.
She watched the Monsters' attacks and reacted.
She wasn't moving on intuition; she was literally seeing and reacting.
So thought was absent from her movements.
And where thought was absent, instinct filled the gap.
Like a beast.
"Hmm..."
Silina's butchering ended.
The way she roughly wiped the Monster blood off her face with a handkerchief and tossed it was almost elegant.
"W-wow! Princess... no, Silina is super strong too, huh?"
Gailan said with a brighter expression.
[That was wonderful!!]
Even Pina, who had been quiet until then, held out a note with two adorable exclamation marks.
Eurasia, as if she had sensed something in Silina's movements, was lost in thought with a somewhat serious expression.
"Right... Uh... should I say unexpected... You were really tough."
Still, she managed to offer praise.
Receiving those looks, Silina tied up her sticky hair with a strangely brighter expression than before.
"Let's go down now."
She'd just been rampaging like a feral bitch, and now she was primly avoiding my gaze. It was bizarre.
So, while I was watching that.
My fingertips itched. My throat stung.
My arms twitched and my legs went stiff.
"What? You have something to say?"
Silina looked at me and tilted her head.
"If you have something to say, hurry up and say it."
I did have something to say.
If I was going to say it, it had to be outside. I had to hold it in here.
Because I couldn't run my mouth carelessly in a place where a Black Wizard might be watching.
Besides, the other person was a princess.
The Second Princess, who might be the biggest hardhead of them all.
Right to that princess's face.
That's not how you swing an axe.
It wasn't as if I could say that to her face.
She already seems proud, and if I said something like that for no reason, it would definitely get annoying.
So I shrugged and said,
"That's not how you swing an axe."
She's good with an axe, though.
"Ah, shit."