The Bomb Terror
Sophia was trying to act like she didn’t care, but she didn’t succeed at all.
Winter had simply been doing something with Elenora.
She herself was far from ignorant about the displays of affection between men and women.
Couples flaunting romance on campus were a common sight.
Elenora had clearly been hugging Winter tightly.
The moment she saw it, Sophia’s heart pounded.
A strange wave of anger surged through her as well.
“So… Winter needs this every now and then.”
Elenora’s face flushed as she spoke like a girl in love.
‘Have they already been dating for a while?’
Winter stared silently at the crystal ball.
Sophia accepted it as confirmation.
And at that exact moment, a new emotion began to grow inside her.
Jealousy.
There was no rational reason behind it.
Lately, her gaze had been drifting toward Winter as well.
‘But Eid is still there…’
Since she couldn’t accept that truth, Sophia wrapped the feeling in something else.
As if the two of them were simply enjoying themselves while neglecting important matters.
Sophia spoke coldly.
“While I was wandering around like an idiot, you two were just messing around?”
The air in the Watcher’s Room suddenly froze.
“We were doing our own work.”
Winter answered calmly.
“Oh come on! Calm down!”
At that moment, Professor Prin stepped in.
“Winter, we met during the first-day self-introduction, right?”
The herbology professor with deer horns on her head smiled with a troubled expression.
“And… even though improper intermingling between sexes is prohibited in private rooms…!”
She cleared her throat awkwardly.
“Elenora can use calming magic, you see. She was obviously helping Winter.”
Only then did Sophia snap back to her senses.
‘What on earth did I just say…?’
In front of her, Elenora looked utterly flustered, as if she had committed a crime.
“I-I’ll just go get some fresh air.”
With those words, Sophia fled the Watcher’s Room like she was escaping.
***
“Did you manage to escape the awkward situation?”
Professor Prin asked with a smile.
“Yes!”
Elenora nodded vigorously.
Had an awkward situation really happened?
I cut straight to the point.
“Professor, how powerful would a bomb made from the herbs that have disappeared be?”
Professor Prin summoned a model of the classroom into the air.
“Simulation results show that one classroom would be out of the blast radius.”
A red cylindrical explosion zone appeared inside the classroom.
“The herbs are still disappearing?”
Elenora asked.
“No. They’ve stopped disappearing for now.”
In that case, the culprit had probably already completed the bomb.
A blast powerful enough to erase one entire classroom would satisfy the Black Society’s goals.
To stop it, Sophia’s help was essential.
I checked through the crystal ball to locate her.
But she wasn’t visible anywhere.
There was only one place left.
“Elenora, keep monitoring the crystal ball.”
Just as I stood up, she grabbed my sleeve.
“You’re going to see Sophia…?”
I nodded.
Then she slipped a lemon candy into my hand.
“Deliver this.”
“Lemon candy?”
“Yes.”
Elenora smiled bitterly.
“She loves it.”
“I see.”
I left the Watcher’s Room as is.
Elenora’s face when she waved goodbye was full of regret.
***
Sophia was in the small clearing at the edge of the path leading to the Academy Forest.
An old, twisted tree had naturally become a bench.
A place unreachable by the Watcher’s Room surveillance.
She sat atop the tree trunk, gazing up at the sky.
“What are you doing there?”
“What? How did you…”
This spot was originally where Eid and Sophia had met to talk without being seen.
“There are blind spots even in the academy’s monitoring network.”
I said it calmly.
“Since you know the entire surveillance system, I figured you’d know this place too.”
And I tossed her the lemon candy.
“...!”
Sophia caught the candy and stared blankly for a moment.
A hint of longing lingered in her expression.
“Elenora gave it to you?”
“Yes.”
I was familiar with it.
Those times when we sat together eating snacks and chatting.
Now an irrecoverable past.
“Listen, Winter.”
Sophia spoke softly.
“I want to apologize for today.”
“Apologize for what?”
“For…”
She avoided my gaze.
“Saying we were just messing around.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
I answered without caring.
“Since the misunderstanding is cleared and you’re willing to cooperate in the future, that’s enough.”
Sophia smiled bitterly.
“Yeah… I guess that’s what you’d say.”
A silence settled between us.
Then she asked.
“What do you think about Eid’s death?”
I took a moment to think.
Eid’s death.
It would soon become my own death as well.
All the human connections, achievements, and life I had accumulated until now.
And everything I had to throw away to become someone completely different.
I still had my life, but it felt like every branch connecting me to the world had been cut away.
“I feel bad about it.”
Sophia looked at me.
“Because many people would have grieved his death.”
“Yeah…”
She murmured softly.
“You really think that way.”
I nodded.
“That’s why I’m taking revenge.”
“Revenge?”
“Yes.”
I smiled coldly.
“I have a plan.”
Sophia’s eyes trembled.
“A plan?”
“You.”
I stared at her and said.
“You have to go wild with me.”
***
“An explosion was heard in the Academy Forest.”
Professor Dane read the headline of a newspaper article and looked at us over his glasses.
“He really shook up the academy enthusiastically.”
He was the professor in charge of student affairs.
Famous for his cold personality, he was especially strict with troublemaking students.
“It was just research activity.”
Sophia answered calmly.
“Research activity?”
Dane raised an eyebrow.
“An explosion that nearly blew up the entire forest?”
“If there are other ways to cause explosions besides explosive magic, wouldn’t it have high practical value?”
Sophia didn’t back down.
“We only did practical research using herbology and alchemy—drilling mines or carving tunnels.”
“So that’s how you increased its power?”
Dane’s gaze grew icy.
“Because of the explosion you caused, a wildfire almost broke out in the forest.”
He pointed outside the window.
Several classroom windows facing the forest were shattered.
“Journalists are trying to link this incident to a recent terrorist attack.”
He sighed.
“Thanks to that, we’re in an awkward situation too.”
A brief silence fell.
“How do you plan to take responsibility?”
Sophia fell silent.
Instead, I stepped forward.
“We don’t need to take responsibility.”
“What?”
“Because we have proven our results.”
Dane narrowed his eyes.
“I heard you only added nitroglycerin to the existing herbs.”
That was wrong.
What I made wasn’t nitroglycerin.
It was something close to dynamite.
Using memories from my previous life, I proposed research to the principal using nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth.
The result was an explosive that could be handled relatively safely.
After that, combining it with Prin’s herbology made it even more powerful.
“This is a power-augmenting explosive.”
I placed one cylindrical explosive on the desk.
Dane’s face hardened.
“You brought an explosive into the student affairs office?”
“I wasn’t coming here to commit terrorism.”
I said it casually.
“I brought it just to show you how safe it is.”
I snapped the explosive in half.
Nothing happened.
Dane’s pupils trembled.
Then I used a basic fire-starting spell.
A small flame touched the explosive.
Still, no explosion occurred.
“If you adjust the mana circuit, it can be set not to explode even with flames.”
Dane stared blankly between the explosive and me.
“Why did you proceed with this experiment without getting academy approval?”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t give it.”
A silence fell once more.
Dane finally sighed.
“But problems are problems.”
He tapped the desk with his finger.
“Sophia.”
“Yes.”
“Ten demerits.”
Sophia obediently nodded.
And Dane’s gaze turned to me.
“Winter.”
“Yes.”
“Twenty demerits. Three days of suspension.”
“Why?”
“Because you brought an explosive into the student affairs office.”
His expression was serious.
I held back a laugh and nodded.
“Understood.”
“You accept it so readily.”
“But there are conditions.”
Dane’s eyebrows twitched.
“Conditions?”
“Handle this incident as official academy research.”
“Why me?”
“I’ll transfer the patent rights for the power-augmenting explosive to the academy.”
Dane’s expression stiffened instantly.
“And…”
I continued.
“Reduce your interference in our activities.”
Dane thought for a long time.
Finally he spoke.
“Discussions with the higher-ups will be necessary.”
He slowly nodded.
“We’ll make sure you have enough freedom to conduct research.”
“That’s more than enough.”
***
The Academy Forest Explosion Incident.
A student was watching this event obsessively.
A student who had recently joined the Black Society.
He harbored deep resentment toward the discrimination against noble students and professors.
One day.
God’s revelation arrived.
To destroy the academy.
From that moment, he began to change.
His timid and weak appearance vanished.
All that remained was dark obsession.
He secretly continued stealing herbs to research.
But his talent was insufficient.
So he had to research even more desperately.
Meanwhile, an explosion shook the entire forest.
And he learned that the one who created that blast was Winter and Sophia.
His pupils were stained with madness.
‘If I have just that bomb…’
‘I can kill every last academy brat.’