A Short Time
With the practical exams behind them, Origin Academy's midterms came to a smooth close.
The instructors were buried in tallying written and practical scores and preparing for the sports festival that would begin in two weeks, but for the cadets, it was open season for freedom.
Of course, I wasn't a cadet—so no freedom for me.
I didn't have to prepare for the sports festival, but anything related to midterm grades fell under my jurisdiction. And even after the grade work was finished, I still couldn't rest; I had to stay ready for Johar's next move. I was truly at the end of my rope.
Maybe I should just go completely insane and slit that lunatic Johar Cardmon's throat.
As the boss of Johar, Johar Cardmon was hard even to meet—and even if you did meet him, he was a powerful enemy you couldn't easily put down. But without him, more than half the incidents of the main story would simply vanish, leaving only the Abyss rampaging through the Destroyed Kingdom as a real worry.
And if I truly went all out, it wasn't as though I couldn't kill him. So I was seriously considering it.
I don't know how he'll come at me. At this point, should I throw the first punch?
Historically, striking first was a time-honored tradition of human warfare—and a tactic with an excellent win rate. If you could just manage the fallout from failure, success was a jackpot, and even failure still left you with something to show for it.
My odds are definitely better.
The greatest obstacle in conquering Johar Cardmon was his ability. In the original work, allies had died uncovering it and the player character had suffered more than a little—but I had no such worries. Because I already knew.
Before I fell into this world, the original main story had already finished Johar Cardmon's arc and was heading toward the final chapter in the Destroyed Kingdom. Naturally, I knew what his ability was and how to counter it—all of it was already locked away in my head.
The problem is that resolving the Abyss in the Destroyed Kingdom requires the help of people you only meet because Johar Cardmon is out there causing chaos.
Put bluntly, if I were willing to throw my own life away, I could resolve every core incident in this world. Kill Johar Cardmon and all the related disasters would vanish; for the Destroyed Kingdom, I could simply dive straight into the Abyss dimensional gate at its deepest point.
The Abyss was ultimately just another world trying to invade this one, and the monsters pouring out of it were still living creatures. If I jumped into that dimensional gate alone and transmuted celestial bodies—the sun, a neutron star—into weapons to hurl, I could end the Abyss one way or another with that kind of suicide charge.
The problem is I'd die with it.
Radiation exposure and energy bombardment aside, if the dimensional gate closed, there would be no way back. Even if I refined and refined the Transmutation Barrier until it was suited to a charge operation, alchemy couldn't achieve dimensional travel.
What I was working toward was recruiting allies to prevent exactly that. If I could secure the help of the Academy's talented cadets and instructors—and the strong people I could meet across the continent—I wouldn't have to throw myself into the Abyss with my life on the line.
"So, Miss Jerie, you said you had something to show me?"
"That's right. The technique I've been practicing so hard lately finally paid off."
Lately I'd been busy handling all kinds of duties as an Academy instructor, but Jerie had been busy practicing something of her own. Curiosity had gotten the better of me once, and I'd asked what she was working on so diligently—only to be told to save it for later, a line that had only stoked my curiosity further. I remembered that clearly.
And now, Jerie was about to show me that later pleasure.
"Here. Watch my hands carefully. I'll show you something as amazing as you're hoping for."
Jerie cupped her hands as if catching falling raindrops or scooping water from a stream. Over those cupped hands, a small, faint, yet soft light began to rise and seep outward. It felt similar to mana—but unlike mana, it moved and wriggled of its own accord.
The reason was simple. Unlike mana, a mere mass of energy, this was an ether lifeform made of ether.
"A spirit...?!"
I was so shocked my mouth just flapped open. As if that reaction was exactly what she'd hoped for, Jerie looked up at me, brimming with excitement and confidence.
"Heh heh, what do you think? It's spirit arts—the thing you said you were disappointed about. Figured there was nothing I couldn't do, so I picked it up recently."
"Who taught you?"
Spirit arts were extremely difficult to master alone. Even if you handled the training yourself, the entry point was far too complex and demanding. That was why I asked who'd taught her—but Jerie narrowed her eyes into a pout and snapped back curtly.
"I learned it myself. As if anyone I know would teach me a technique like this?"
"Huh."
I was so dumbfounded I let out a hollow laugh. I already knew her talent was exceptional, but I never expected her to self-teach spirit arts in such a short time. After all, Jerie had never shown any use of spirit arts in the original.
Or is this a talent that never blossomed in the original, flowering only now?
It was Jerie, after all. Favored by all life and vitality as she was, she might have easily won the favor of spirits who loved abundance and growth. If she'd had Gaia Nova's help, this absurd learning speed made sense too.
"And I have one favor to ask."
"A favor?"
Having casually dismissed the spirit she'd summoned, Jerie spoke with a slight hesitation.
"I want to wipe out the Green Forest Dawn Society in advance. They're a shady bunch—no telling when they'll pull something."
Wipe out the Green Forest Dawn Society in advance. The reason Jerie was asking me directly was simple enough. She could handle it alone—but she wanted help in case a situation arose she couldn't prepare for. If the meticulous elf elders anticipated Jerie herself going on a rampage to kill them, they'd likely have several contingencies ready.
"Shall we?"
It wasn't a bad proposal for me either. Separate from taking on Johar Cardmon himself, cutting off one of his limbs was an attractive offer. Having finished thinking it through, I immediately set the schedule.
"Tonight. We hit them right away. With something like this, you have to settle it fast before the enemy can respond well."
"Let's do it. I've been in pretty good form lately too."
The sun was still a long way from setting, but Jerie and I began quietly plotting our scheme. Listening to her describe the Green Forest Dawn Society's base and each elder's characteristics, we considered how to eliminate them all without major chaos.
Naturally, the conclusion ended up being "turn them into Philosopher's Stones"—but it couldn't be helped. It was an excellent recycling method that satisfied every condition—secrecy, certainty—while boosting our own combat strength.
"So what do you want to do until the sun sets?"
"A happy dilemma. I still have work left."
Of course, clearing the mountain of documents spread before me came first. Damn grade reports. I'd thought I'd said goodbye to them forever when I graduated—but even as an educator, they were still tormenting me.
A few hours later.
The sun had darkened, and it was time for moonlight and starlight to glitter across the night sky.
"You're all ready, right?"
"Of course. What about you—didn't forget anything?"
"Well, even if I did, I can just make it when we get there, can't I?"
"Alchemy really is convenient."
Finally, with work more or less settled, Jerie—who had been waiting for this moment with bated breath—and I stepped out through the front door. We walked the dark night streets of Arca, neither looking hurried nor taking our time, moving at a moderately brisk pace toward the industrial district.
The closer we got to the industrial district, the thinner the crowds became. Approaching a high-crime area, the drop in foot traffic was natural—but something harder to understand was happening.
"...Miss Jerie."
"I know."
Someone was following us. A mysterious figure with mana I'd never felt before had been tailing us for a little while.
When the area had been packed with people, I'd let it slide. Reading where hundreds or thousands of people were each headed was inefficient, and sometimes paths just overlapped by chance. But in a situation with this few people, walking exactly in our footsteps—no matter how I looked at it, there was no explanation other than surveillance.
"Should we bind them?"
"Let's try talking first. The amount of mana I sense isn't particularly outstanding."
I immediately turned around. We could have gone into an alley with even fewer people, but cornering them abruptly in a place like this made it easier to sound out their intentions. They would never have expected us to suddenly ask—with a few civilians still around—whether they were tailing us with no preamble whatsoever.
But—
"There's... no one?"
"..."
Jerie, who'd turned almost at the same time as me, looked around in confusion. I, who'd turned a fraction faster, was also scanning the surroundings—but the figure who'd been tailing us had vanished without a trace.
You've got to be kidding me.
But after turning my head this way and that, my expression hardened. The wide-area mana detection I'd been keeping active with range prioritized over precision was explaining the unnatural event that had just occurred.
Their position changed with no precursor. Even a spatial movement ability like Jumper's couldn't do this.
Spatial movement, in whatever form, produced an obvious and complex unique mana reaction the instant before activation. Naturally that reaction was fully caught by mana detection, so if it were a spatial movement ability, Jerie and I would have noticed immediately.
But we hadn't, which meant—
Johar Cardmon. It's him.
It meant he had an ability that went beyond fooling mana detection—one that could manipulate the reaction itself somehow.
I don't know how many seconds, but he just leaped through time.
The ability to look a short span into the future and leap to a desired moment among those futures. I'd found the position he'd jumped to with mana detection, but he was pulling farther away as if avoiding Jerie and me. Tracking was impossible now. The other side was combining mana detection with future foresight.
He's started moving more aggressively than expected.
I knew it intuitively. There was no more time to delay. I had to finish the Green Forest Dawn Society quickly—and settle the Hohenheim family too.
With that urgency, I pressed Jerie on. Now that Johar Cardmon had withdrawn, it was time to cleanly sever one of his limbs.
From here on, it was a race against time.