Date Air-Raid Warning

The instant the messages came in, the first place I went was the parlor where the Ivory Tower Master was waiting. There I took the refined Ash Powder from her and checked what was inside.

The spores carried a faint reddish cast — the mark of a successful fusion with the Ivory Tower Master's Blood Manipulation, something entirely new. To produce a result like this in so little time… she really was the woman who had survived a world already ended.

"If you use it, you'll gain power comparable to mine. And thanks to the Blood Manipulation bound into it, you should be able to suppress its self-destructive properties. Satisfied?"

"…That's beyond anything I imagined."

I set the Ash Powder she'd given me aside and asked,

"When you ran the experiments, was there anything strange? Results that didn't match your expectations, or ways it differed from ordinary Ash Powder?"

"Hm? Differed how?"

There had to have been something odd about refining it. If what Gashir had told me last time was true, the Ash Powder they'd meant to inject into Iris had almost certainly been tampered with.

The Tower Master seemed to have an idea of her own.

"It was unnervingly compatible with your blood. The two of them locked together as if they'd always been a pair, and the work advanced at an absurd pace. That was what set this batch apart from other Ash Powder."

"So the other samples didn't behave that way?"

"I ran the same tests on Ash Powder I already had on hand. Only this batch was special. Personally, I suspect those Ash Wave people did something to it, but…"

She shrugged and went on.

"It isn't only your blood in there. Mine is in it too. The thing you're worried about won't happen. I guarantee it."

"Understood."

I nodded and was on my way out when she called me back.

"What are you planning to do with that, anyway? Where are you taking it?"

"…You'll know when the time comes."

"And when is that?"

When, indeed.

Her pressing dragged my thoughts out into a long, quiet line. As soon as within a week, if I had to guess. Picturing the fallout waiting for me down the road, I only smiled.

"Just look forward to it. You don't need to worry too much."

"…Really?"

I left the parlor with her suspicion still boring into my back. Disguised as Kassel, I went next to the Magic Department, where Ruina was waiting.

"Ta-da! Look at this! I put together an exhibition piece just like you asked. I imbued famous passages from literary anthologies with mana and mixed in the activation phrases we've been developing."

"Ohh…"

"Well? Are you at least a little pleased with how it turned out?"

"Considerably. Considerably so."

Honestly, I had never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expected a work of this caliber to come out of it.

A piece that truly lived up to the name Becoming a Mage Even Humanities Majors Don't Have to Apologize For. The day might actually come when anyone, anywhere, could use magic.

If I handed this to Iris, all hell would break loose.

The girl was already a prodigy stacked with talents. If she started throwing magic around at will on top of that…

She wouldn't be the Ash Saintess then. She'd be a Hero.

A Hero the original story had never even written.

I was still basking in that odd little flicker of anticipation when she spoke.

"Um. So. Kassel."

"What is it?"

"There's something I'd like to ask you. Haha…"

Ruina hesitated, watching my face, her voice unsteady. Even her ears had gone a little pink, which was not a reassuring sign. Instinct had already started ringing alarm bells when my little sister dropped the bomb.

"During the exhibition… would you tour our department's showcase with me? There's so much I want to show you…"

Nope. Incoming.

A date invitation from my little sister.

And the opening move in her campaign to turn me into a graduate student.

I rolled my eyes, hunting for a way to refuse, and found Ruina's pupils trembling.

"I-if it's inconvenient…?"

She was deploying the puppy-dog eyes now, too.

I was already working as a lecturer; from Ruina's side, her nerves had to be frayed in more ways than one. Even if she claimed she wasn't paying attention to me, of course she was. If she was asking me out in the middle of all that, she was exhausted and looking for a change of air.

Which made the request, coming from my little sister, a finishing move I had no right to dodge.

"…I can clear a day without any trouble, Professor."

"O-oh, you can! Hahaha!"

I had no choice but to take it.

And that wasn't even the end of it.

"That's my boyfriend! I'm looking forward to our exhibition date!"

"Why won't you do that with me…"

"Ah, Kassel…! I'll see you at the exhibition!"

Beatrice and Yuri had dates on the books as well. Even if I manufactured an excuse to slip past Michelle in the middle, I was now definitively scheduled to go on dates with three different women.

The Academy raid has to fall on the last day. It has to…!

Red alert.

I ran straight to Rina to talk the situation through.

And the answer I got was,

"…Can I get in on that too?"

"Absolutely not."

Catastrophic. Damn it all.

A three-hit date combo, no less.

From here on I would have to work through a date with club president Yuri, then one with the student vice president, then one with my little sister, all at the exhibition. Given that the club exhibition ran for four days, the whole thing would live or die on schedule-wrangling of a frankly supernatural order.

Once she'd heard the entire mess, Rina summed it up with a look of unholy interest.

"So you've got date appointments with three women. And one of them is your little sister."

"That's right."

"And you're going to use Gashir — an executive of the Ash Wave — to push the Academy raid back. Because you don't want it interrupting your dates?"

Rina had a gift for putting a knife through the exact center of a thing. She'd already been briefed on Gashir's situation by the headmaster, so the conversation moved without friction.

She nodded once and compressed the entire disaster into a single line.

"A catastrophe of your own making, Kassel. Even so — how do you end up charming your own little sister?"

"It isn't as if I wanted this…"

All I'd meant to do was help when my sister ran into trouble, and keep it inside my own reach.

I had not expected the thing to roll, and roll, and become a snowball.

"Even so, incest is off the table. I'll allow everything else, but not that."

"I have no such intentions."

"You don't. Can you say the same for her? She might do anything to turn a certain undergraduate named Kassel — not Eugene — into a graduate student."

Excuse me. What exactly did this woman take my little sister for.

She's picked up some odd edges since I last saw her, but she still falls within the range of a normal person.

The insinuation sat wrong with me, as if she were smearing Ruina on purpose. Rina narrowed her eyes and called it.

"Look at your face. You're broadcasting my little sister would never from the forehead down. That's why she goes crazy."

"Watch your mouth."

"Anyway, there's only one fix. Do what you said — adjust the Academy raid."

She caught the reins of a conversation that had been about to wander off and brought it back to the point. Checking the date schedule, she narrowed her eyes.

"Day one, the vice president. Day two, Yuri. Day three, Ruina…. Why that order?"

"The vice president isn't the type to sit quietly. I intend to come clean with the club members about the fake relationship on day one and get their help."

"Reasonable. But it's not enough."

"What's missing?"

"I'm not in it, little brother."

Rina talked complete nonsense with a straight face and scrawled her own name onto the desk calendar. Just like that, her name sat in a neat row among the rest of the date schedule.

"Mm. Good. A little brother's dates aren't complete without his big sister. Now it's perfect."

"Why are you like this."

"You want the raid on the last day of the exhibition, don't you? Then you'd do well to cooperate without a fuss."

"That's…"

The blackmail was so brazen I lost my words. She wasn't wrong: if I wanted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Academy raid to go off without a hitch, I needed Rina's cooperation.

She was the one who'd been asked to keep watch over Gashir. I would have preferred to take that job myself, but if I wanted the heroine's awakening to land the way I'd planned, I didn't have a choice. Here, I simply had to lose.

"Understood. In exchange, make sure the raid happens on the last day. If they hit when everyone's guard is down, even they should find it reasonable."

I'd been told this Academy raid would be staffed with people who followed Gashir. Which meant the only thing I, holding Gashir's leash, really had to manage was this:

He wasn't some champion of evil. He was an informant in a collaborator's seat, taking only what he needed. The work was to handle him well.

"Did you put a Soul Brand on Gashir?"

"I asked the Minister of Relief in secret."

"The Empress didn't catch a strange scent?"

"Of course not."

Every preparation was in place. All that remained was to hope the pieces fell the right way.

"Ready, Eugene?"

"Of course, Rina."

We traded a look of trust and nodded. The thing to watch for now was a sudden ambush from some quarter we hadn't counted on.

"If any more date invitations come in, dodge them. Especially the student council president. Got it?"

"I've already turned her down several times."

I fully intended to take proper care of her later. For now, I was leaving her alone.

And so, the final tally.

"Good. Day four's Kassel is mine."

"…Is that actually how this is going to go."

"Any date that tries to sneak in using me as the excuse, you just refuse. That's a good thing, isn't it?"

Thinking about what the last day would actually require, having Rina at my side was convenient.

On paper, I was now going on a date with Rina on the final day.

I honestly had to wonder whether any of this was right.

Why had I done this to myself.

And so, the next day.

"You've more or less understood the briefing. Remember that your treatment depends on how this operation goes."

"So… you want me to meet the Academy informant and steer them into hitting on the last day, no matter what?"

"You've got it. This is the script I need you to know cold. I expect a convincing performance."

"And what the hell is this…"

"A stepping stone to awaken the protagonist. I hope you and I can put on the performance of a lifetime."

"…This is actually driving me insane."

Under my watch, Gashir would have to carry out the Academy raid exactly according to procedure.

My plan was not complicated.

Use Gashir to lock the Academy raid onto the last day. Keep Rina on standby at all times so he didn't try anything stupid.

The moment the Academy was hit, I would seal the club members inside the dungeon and let the story run.

The core of it was this: under my supervision, I would put the party through hardship and make them grow.

Which meant my own job was simple.

"Nothing in particular. If he keeps refusing, do this."

"Tell him if he doesn't want to die, he should listen. Rina will take it from there."

Keep every variable I'd secured spinning inside my own palm. At present Gashir was making contact with the informant on the Academy outskirts, and I'd attached Rina in case anything unexpected cropped up.

If they refused to cooperate, I'd already told Rina not to be shy about using force, so there was no problem. Or we could always do it this way.

"And if he still won't listen, tell him I'm standing behind you. He might fall in line after that."

Gashir sounded like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He'd understand once he tried it. The synergy that happened when Rina's violence met my reputation was not something we cultivated in quiet, unsavory little meetings for no reason.

I waited in silence and checked the date.

Two days until the exhibition.

A week from now, like it or not, we would hit a new turning point. And I would get to see just how much of a protagonist Iris truly was in this world.

Of course.

She isn't just anyone. She's the Ash Saintess.

My interference had turned Iris from the Ash Saintess into a romance-fantasy heroine. But if she really was a girl born to that fate, that vast capacity for mercy had nowhere else to go.

All I did was wait, calmly, for the news that was coming.

And then.

"Good. Understood."

The raid date I'd been waiting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for was set.

I put out calls in every direction as if I'd been holding my breath for this.

First, Milia, Minister of Education.

Next, Court Count Dalian.

"I haven't said a word yet."

That was our Court Count Dalian. Years and gravitas of a different order, and a gift for inference no one else could touch. I acknowledged the talent and delivered the matter.

"A terrorist attack on the last day of the Academy Exhibition. Get the details from Minister Milia, and do not tell Her Majesty. If she steps in, this becomes a problem."

"This attack was a necessary sacrifice."

The man who assisted the Empress's duties from closest at hand was the Court Count. Keeping his mouth shut, thoroughly, was the wise course.

Third, Thierre, Captain of the Imperial Guard.

"Then would you deploy the Imperial Guard only on the Academy's last day? Disguise it as a military parade to display the Empire's strength, and you should have no trouble deceiving anyone watching."

Already fully briefed, Thierre was nothing but cooperative.

Last of all, the Ivory Tower Master of the Cheat Key Trio.

"It isn't a joke. It's real. You promised, didn't you? That you'd listen to me."

"…Of course not."

I am planning to lock your country's prince and the heroine in a dungeon, though.

I'm sure you'll understand. I'll be in there too.

I'll pay you back double later. Truly.

That was every notice delivered. Everyone except the Empress.

It had the unfortunate look of freezing Her Majesty out, but it couldn't be helped. All of this was for her sake.

And so, two days later.

The club exhibition arrived.

"Damn it, Geom-bak! What in the hell is that magic?!"

"Ah. This is called Becoming a Mage Even Humanities Majors Don't Have to Apologize For…"

"Ghk! Geom-bak, a magic swordsman?! Do you not fear the wrath of the heavens?!"

Our club's exhibition piece was a smash hit.