Ways to Enjoy Vacation (5)
The carriage came to a halt. Since those trailing behind us could no longer pursue, there was no need for it to keep racing like mad anymore.
"Oh dear, sorry about that. Was it too much meddling on my part?"
"Not at all. It was perfectly timed."
The woman clad head to toe in mourning black, Ludbekia Marchioness, greeted us. Standing right by the open carriage window, she winked at us and aimed her staff toward the rear—our pursuers.
"Welcome to the Ludbekia Marquisate. From here on, it's all my land, so you can relax."
Fwosh.
As the Marchioness infused mana into her staff, a black magic bullet surged toward the back.
Kaboom!!!
A massive explosion rocked not just the ground, but the carriage and even the air itself. Those inside tensed up, one by one stepping out to see what was happening.
"No way..."
"Did she kill them?"
The mana blast had been so intense. I knew it was just a magic missile, but one fired by an S-rank mage was like a cannon shell or bomb. Each one packed physical lethality while embedding an explosion spell. Anyone caught in that blast would naturally—
"Heavens, no."
They wouldn't die. They wouldn't.
"It just triggered a mana shockwave to shatter the mana cores of anyone with magic power."
Disarmed. The Marchioness had essentially unleashed a magical EMP. When mana particles lose their cohesion due to her explosion, they scatter and break apart, preventing reformation.
Black smoke billowed from the blast, but no one was charred to a crisp.
"Cough...!"
"[Widow Witch]..!"
One by one, figures emerged from the smoke. Their golden armor was smeared with black soot like it'd been through hell, but the knights dispatched directly by the emperor had only lost the auras coating their swords—their bodies were fine.
"Why is Ludbekia trying to monopolize the special class from the old academy building? Answer me, Marchioness!"
"Oh? And why should I answer you just because you're a duke?"
The eldest-looking knight in golden armor bellowed as he stepped forward, but the Marchioness ignored him, pulling me out of the carriage and hooking her arm through mine.
"He's my son."
"Nonsense! Everything you've said is just lies to hoard them for yourself—"
"What did you just say?"
A black star twinkled in the sky. Unlike the previous magic bullet, this starlight piercing the clear blue was honed to a razor edge.
"Do you really think I'm coddling them like this for some political or magical gain from monopolizing them?"
"Is that not the case?!"
"No. I swear it on my mana. And on the late Hapsderk."
"Urgh...!"
The Marchioness placed a hand on her chest and declared it boldly. A mage swearing on their mana, a widow invoking her dead husband—no one would push further without declaring all-out war.
"...We won't give up! Special class of the old school building! If you ever wish it, come to the imperial palace! The Empire will welcome you anytime!"
The golden knights roared their declaration before wheeling their mounts around. Charging any further would mean openly invading Ludbekia territory, forcing a direct confrontation with the Marchioness.
"Marchioness, wasn't that dangerous?"
Even an S-rank mage would find the Empire's top fighting force a tough matchup. If it were just her alone.
"If it were just me, maybe. But we've got Esta, right? Hehe."
"Academy staff are neutral, though."
"Oh, but Esta would help, wouldn't she?"
Esta the instructor would indeed step in. To protect academy undergrads, she'd defend her position. But that assumed rational opponents. Those jealousy-crazed monsters back there?
"Graaaah!!"
They rose one by one, howling monstrously.
"Hmm. Was the mana explosion too weak? Or did they lack enough mana to shatter their auras?"
"Shut your mouth, witch!"
Slendia, an executive of the Binyu Group, screamed at the Marchioness, her hair a wild mess.
"We will never give up! Not until we reclaim our rights from the likes of you, living easy off those massive tits!!"
Slendia raised her fist high.
"For a world where all are equal!!!"
With that, she fled. Even the golden knights had bolted first, unwilling to tangle with those lunatics—the world's disgust for them was self-evident.
"They won't come terrorizing the resort, right?"
"The Empire's nobles and officials wouldn't, but those guys have no bottom line."
Yurha answered Unia's question in her stead.
"Some of them are already on the Silverstar Group's blacklist. All the executives, and quite a few rank-and-file can't even use our services anymore."
"And they still pull off terror acts...?"
"Rage at what they can't have."
Yurha shook her head sadly, hand on her chest.
"A world where all are equal. Not even 'flat'—they said equal."
"They want equality, senpai."
"Equality?"
"By taking from those who have and filling themselves up until everyone's a B-cup, right?"
That was the Binyu Group's public justification. And unlike their deranged rhetoric, like any evil organization, their executives and leader secretly craved the same while preaching it.
Jealousy toward those who had it.
'People who'd do anything if it meant getting busty themselves.'
They sought to strip others of assets they lacked, but ultimately dreamed of becoming havers themselves. In that sense, it wasn't odd for them to target the old school building's special class.
"Ha, seriously. Do those perverts think wearing mana pants on their chests turns them into mana pouches or something?"
Yurha said it casually, like leaking info, glancing at the Marchioness. The Marchioness's eyes widened briefly as she looked at me, then she patted my back with a soft laugh.
"Then we must protect you all the more. So they can't demand our son hand over any 'miracle tit growth' or whatever."
"Thanks for your help, Marchioness."
"Marchioness?"
Squeeze.
"...Mother."
"Hm, not quite satisfying, but it has a nice ring."
Vacation. A time when undergrads leave the dorms for their family homes. And so, I entered—no, returned to—the Ludbekia Marquisate.
Nearby.
"Grr, damn it...!"
Slendia, hair disheveled, thumped her solar plexus in frustration.
"A failure...!"
Failure. An utter, overwhelming rout.
"Lady Slendia. We were doomed to fail from the start..."
"Nonsense!"
Slendia snapped at the Binyu Group member.
"You think those women would actually kill? They can't even murder! We should've exploited that for our gain!"
"Uh, well..."
"Think of the payoff if we killed even one! Imagine transplanting her core—we'd split it and boom, what size would that make us?!"
Transplant.
The Binyu members glanced downward. No perky swells, just flat feet—and they bit their lower lips, turning away with a grunt.
"Lady Slendia. Still, aren't they dangerous? Charging in just because they're the Binyu Group is risky—they've got two S-ranks."
The glasses-wearing woman—smallest-chested but at least able to wear a bra—tentatively offered her opinion, but—
"What do you know?!"
She bowed her head at Slendia's furious shout.
"To make even a slight bud with a 'ritual,' you need mana pouches that size! Anything smaller than a fist is just dust no matter how you gather it!"
"Dust adds up if you..."
"Dust is dust! A handful at best! And even then, it'd sag like a deflated water balloon, not perky and taut! You want granny tits on your 20-something faces?!"
The Binyu Group squeezed their eyes shut at Slendia's tirade.
"No, ma'am."
If it was gonna happen, better fist-sized at least—not bigger than the head, but fuller than a handspan, something proudly perky.
"That's why we...!"
"Oh my, Slendia. You look exhausted. Need a hand?"
"!!"
A clear voice from behind Slendia. She whipped around to see a woman in an orange dress smiling brightly at her.
"How about it? Need my help?"
"You...!"
"Yeah, two S-ranks, right?"
Grin.
"If I hold them off, you lot can grab those 'true tits' you've been dreaming of?"
The orange-dressed woman was as flat as Slendia, but the mana aura radiating from her was ominous.
"I'm S-rank too—perfect timing. I'll show them."
She spun around with a twirl, and Slendia bit her lip at the massive bulge lifting the dress's hem.
"That tits are, in the end, just fakes."