When Did You Become Eleven?
"Oops. Did I press that by accident?"
"Alright. We've arrived at Training Ground No. 3. It took us a little longer than expected, but we should count ourselves lucky we made it in without a single casualty."
"We never did find that sniper, though."
At Phillips's pointed jab, Marcus's face twisted into a scowl as he muttered under his breath.
"That's only because… the sniper was simply too skilled. He was far beyond what our team could handle. That doesn't mean my judgment was wrong."
"Yes, yes. Of course it doesn't."
"…Phillips. Are you getting a little too comfortable talking back?"
"When the team leader himself wastes a full thirty minutes on a wild goose chase, I figured a little dig was fair game."
"You little—!"
Just as the atmosphere turned ugly, Elina, who had been standing quietly with her eyes closed, slowly spoke up.
"…Both of you, calm down. There's a large-scale battle underway up ahead."
"…I'll deal with you later. All units, move to the battlefield under stealth. We strike once the enemy has worn each other down."
Marcus gestured, and the others fell in behind him, creeping toward the direction Elina had indicated.
After roughly four minutes of careful movement, Blue Team finally reached the battlefield.
A handful of combatants were locked in a fierce exchange of attacks, facing each other down.
A three-on-two. One side had to be Red Team; the other, some squad that had come to assault this position.
From Blue Team's perspective, it hardly mattered which was which—both were enemies that needed to go down. And right now, with both sides already bleeding stamina into each other, the timing couldn't have been better.
"All units. Clean up the stragglers!"
Under Marcus's command, Blue Team launched their ambush.
Focused entirely on each other, neither side lasted long against a fresh, full-strength Blue Team. They went down like autumn leaves.
Just as Marcus moved to eliminate the last remaining girl, the orange-haired student clenched her teeth and muttered through them.
"Kh… Shion… You're not getting away with this!"
Marcus's magic finished her off.
It should have been a moment of triumph after a flawlessly executed ambush—yet Marcus's face held nothing but a lingering unease.
…Shion. Isn't that the guy the sniper took out?
Why had that girl been muttering his name as she went down? He should have been eliminated ages ago.
Marcus turned it over in his mind, but the question refused to resolve. Only that nagging discomfort continued to spread quietly through his thoughts, leaving him no closer to an answer.
"Alright. With that, the Red Team occupying this ground has been wiped out. Our mission now is to hold Training Ground No. 3 for the remainder of the—"
"Uh, not that I'm interrupting out of personal spite or anything, but… could you take a look over there?"
Marcus snarled at Phillips, who was picking at him yet again, his expression darkening further.
"…Phillips. We wouldn't miss a beat defending this territory even without you. Want me to eliminate you myself?"
"I get that you don't like me, but look at that first."
"At what. Wh…?"
Following Phillips's gesture with an irritated snap of his head, Marcus slowly froze.
"…Why is the flag still red?"
The flags hanging inside the building were red.
Which meant this territory still did not belong to Blue Team.
"The ones fighting just now… were Yellow Team and Green Team? Then where the hell is Red Team?"
"It's completely bizarre. Attack teams wiping each other out before they even run into the defenders… that's practically unheard of."
"Elina. Cast reconnaissance magic again. Take as long as you need—cast it as wide as possible."
"Got it."
Elina nodded, closed her eyes, and spent a careful stretch of time channeling a large-scale reconnaissance spell.
"…Ah! I've got exactly one person. By my reading… about fifty meters to the east."
"That'll be the last of Red Team. All units, move to eliminate the final holdout."
Blue Team advanced in the direction Elina indicated, intent on taking down Red Team's sole survivor.
"This is… a site for training magic devices."
They had arrived at a grounds packed with various training apparatuses—magic launchers, swordsman puppets, mana-density regulators, and more. The finest products of magical engineering stood arranged as if waiting to take aim at them.
"This should be the place Elina mentioned. Is that right, Elina?"
"Yes. That's correct. He's hiding behind that magic launcher over there."
"Hey! You're the last of Red Team, aren't you? Your teammates are all eliminated. You've got no chance—surrender!"
Marcus shouted toward the magic launcher where the final Red Team member was hiding. A moment later, a young man stepped out from behind it at an unhurried pace.
"Haha. Well, this is awkward."
The one who emerged from behind the magic launcher was Shion.
"Huh? Isn't that the guy who got sniped and eliminated earlier…?"
"What the hell is going on?"
The appearance of a Shion who should have been long since eliminated threw the entire Blue Team into confusion.
"A pleasure. Has it been exactly forty-one minutes since we last met? I'm delighted to see you all again. I trust you're still holding on to those potions I gave you?"
"…You were never Blue Team to begin with."
"Ahaha. Caught me. Have you ever considered a career as a detective?"
"Enough of the cheap stalling. Choose—surrender and go out painlessly, or get eliminated the hard way."
Marcus leveled his magic at Shion. Scratching the back of his head, Shion replied,
"My motto is to give it a moderately good effort, so surrendering doesn't really work for me."
"In that case…"
"But tell me something, Blue Team. Even if I am alone, aren't you being a little too careless? Flaunt that kind of open contempt and you're going to pay for it later."
Marcus snorted.
"Careless? There are ten of us, and I'm a three-star mage. Unless you're four-star yourself, taking us down is impossible."
Shion wagged a finger, his tone leisurely.
"Hmm, hmm. That kind of arrogance doesn't suit you. You didn't actually think I've just been sitting around plucking a guitar while waiting for you, did you?"
"What?"
"The ground you're standing on is packed with training magic devices of every kind. And I've set every single one of them to maximum difficulty."
Shion raised one finger and smiled brightly.
"Pop quiz! If these devices activate… which side do you think gets the last laugh?"
A chill shot down Marcus's spine.
Damn it. So that's it. He lured us here for exactly this—!
"That argument falls apart from the start. The switch that activates the devices is right over here. Unless he gets close enough to reach it, there's no way he can turn them on."
Phillips's cool observation of their surroundings snapped Marcus back to composure.
Just as Phillips said, the activation switch for the magic devices sat right in front of Blue Team.
"Idiot. Like Phillips said—unless you come over here yourself, Shion, those devices stay off. Looks like you thought of one thing and forgot the second."
Marcus fixed Shion with a smug smile.
Surely the boy's face would crumple now that his entire plan had been smashed to pieces…
"Hmm? Do I really need to be the one who presses it?"
Contrary to every expectation, Shion's expression remained perfectly at ease.
No—beyond at ease. He looked as if he were laughing at them.
"Absurd. There's no one here but you and us. If not you, then who exactly is supposed to press that switch?"
"That's a fair question. Though you never know—maybe someone among you is harboring ill intentions and decides to flip it. The world is a mysterious place, after all."
"You really have the nerve to spout nonsense with a straight face. Enough games. All units! Eliminate the last of Red Te—!"
The instant Marcus began to give the attack order, Shion wore a meaningful smile.
"But first—look around you, everyone."
His previously half-lidded eyes snapped open, sharp with mockery.
"Since when… have there been eleven of you?"
"What…?"
Cowled for a moment by the sheer chill in Shion's gaze—as if his body might be carved apart on the spot—Marcus scowled and turned to look behind him.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten… and Marcus himself. Eleven?
"Huh…?"
Blue Team was definitely ten people. So why was there one extra?
Something was deeply, fundamentally wrong—and in that moment, an impossible sight unfolded before Marcus's eyes.
Mixed in among Blue Team, grinning from ear to ear, was another Shion.
Shion was standing way over there. So why was a second Shion standing here, blended in among them as if he belonged?
Two Shions? Was this a hallucination?
"Oh? What a curiously designed switch."
While Marcus's thoughts locked up in total confusion, the other Shion—who had been standing casually among Blue Team—trotted cheerfully forward.
"A switch like this simply has to be pressed!"
Click.
He pressed the switch of ruin.