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Chapter 37




Chapter 37. Nothing Happened
In the external control room of the Trial Tower.
“Shit!”
A coarse curse was followed by the metallic sound of a kick.
Professor Pelina, who had been inspecting the control device, kicked the machine in frustration.
“P-Pelina Professor, p-please calm down.”
An assistant professor hurriedly tried to calm her down.
However, Professor Pelina's anger showed no signs of subsiding.
“Calm down? Do you even know how many students are in there? Forty-seven, forty-seven!”
“I know, I know. But even so, kicking the control device...”
“Control device? It’s just a piece of scrap metal now! As long as that damn magic doesn’t disappear, this junk can’t do anything!”
An unknown magic had blocked all interference.
At this moment, the control device and everything else were useless.
To make the control device function properly, the unknown magic had to be dismantled first.
It had been two hours.
The time the students were isolated was also the time the basic class professors had exerted all their efforts.
“I’ll calm down, so get out of here. Your presence is annoying.”
“Yes, y-yes...!”
As the assistant professor hurriedly left, Professor Pelina's eyes turned colder than ever.
‘I have to believe, I have to believe.’
Whether there was hope or not didn’t matter.
She just had to believe.
That the students were alive, that they were surviving inside and waiting for them.
If they gave up, the students inside would really die.
Even if the whole world abandoned hope, they must not.
Especially, Professor Pelina herself.
‘No one will die in the Trial Tower.’
The Trial Tower was a structure she had designed with her professor during her advanced class days.
Although she had left the academy after graduating from the advanced class and did not participate in its construction, her breath from her school days was embedded in every part of the Trial Tower.
Students dying in such a place?
Even if it was an unavoidable accident, she could not accept it.
Swoosh...
Professor Pelina injected mana into the control device again.
But then.
Whirr—!
“...!”
A resonating sound echoed through the space.
A signal came into the control device.
The exclamations of surprise from the surrounding people followed immediately.
“It’s been penetrated!”
“The magic is gone!”
“The teleportation magic circle is restarting!”
“We’ve received a call from the emergency exit! The Trial Tower is open!”
The magic that had bound the Trial Tower disappeared.
The cause was unknown.
Whether the intruders had achieved their goal and removed the magic, or if there was another reason.
But the reason was of no importance to the people present.
“Survivors! Search for survivors!”
“We’re entering.”
“Don’t hold back! Even if you die, the students must live, got it?!”
There might still be survivors.
Only that slim possibility.
That was all that mattered to them.
With the professors leading and the assistant professors following,
Professor Pelina remained in the control room to begin the work of regaining control.
* * *
The rescue team, consisting of professors and assistant professors, swept through the Trial Tower.
The top priority was to search for survivors.
Although they didn’t know when or where the intruders might attack, they did not hold back.
Professor Pelina, who remained outside, used a magic eye to inspect the inside and relayed the locations of the survivors to the professors.
‘...Thank goodness.’
Professor Pelina sighed in relief as she saw the students inside the Trial Tower. Through the magic eye, quite a few students were still alive.
However, she did not use the intercom.
In the unknown state of the intruders, using the intercom would reveal the children’s locations to them.
The first survivors found were Damian’s group.
“They’re alive! They’re alive!”
“Hooray!”
The children, led by Damian, who had been fighting the golems.
Around them, nearly twenty golems lay scattered, and they cheered upon seeing the rescue team.
Professor Pelina, watching from the external control room, felt the same way.
‘You did well.’
Nearly twenty golems.
It seemed the intruders had released all their spare golems into the Trial Tower.
Despite this, the students had excellently protected themselves and survived.
She was relieved that her school days’ memories had not harmed the students and that they had survived.
Of course, the survival of the students was the greatest joy.
“Professor Zeira, at the fork, left, right, right, left. There are three survivors there. Professor Drouk, that wall wasn’t there originally. It seems a student of the earth element made it to hide. Try breaking it, but be careful not to hurt the students.”
Survivors were being discovered one after another.
She took in dozens of screens at once and gave simultaneous orders to the professors.
But why?
‘...What is it?’
Having many survivors was certainly a good thing.
However, a sense of dĂ©jĂ  vu lingered in Professor Pelina’s mind.
She scrutinized the screens, inspecting the Trial Tower again.
Of course, she did not forget to give orders to the professors in the meantime.
After a while,
Professor Pelina realized the nature of the strange feeling she had.
‘No... deaths?’
It had been two hours.
The time the intruders had controlled the Trial Tower.
They had blocked access with magic that even the academy professors couldn’t break.
‘Just the Trial Tower golems targeting the students?’
The Trial Tower golems all had exposed cores. Individual control was impossible, so they had to target the students using the bracelets.
A frustrating method for the intruders.
‘Could they have thought this was enough?’
It was possible.
Ultimately, all the students survived, but this was almost a miracle.
No, it was a miracle.
Perhaps, the young master of the Blando family...
‘Yes, Damian. If it weren’t for Damian, it would have been impossible. It must have been.’
The group led by Damian, moving according to the rescue team’s instructions.
Pelina quietly observed them.
They were all walking normally, but some students’ uniforms had clear bloodstains.
Yet, none of them showed any signs of inconvenience.
Clearly, Damian of the Blando family had healed the injured with the light of healing.
There was another reason.
‘Some students had removed their bracelets.’
It seemed someone perceptive had realized the golems’ tracking method and informed the other students.
‘Still, it’s strange.’
Professor Pelina’s brow furrowed slightly.
Really, no one died?
‘It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing, but...’
It was incomprehensible from a logical standpoint.
Then, why did they control the Trial Tower? Why block the professors’ entry? Was there another trap?
Professor Pelina, thinking this far, quickly picked up the communication crystal.
“Professors, hurry as much as possible. Something is wrong. You should get out of the Trial Tower as soon as possible.”
She judged that it was more important to inform the professors of the current strangeness than to understand the intentions.
But then, a voice came from the communication crystal.
[There’s no need for that.]
A cold, deep voice.
Although the speaker did not reveal their identity, Professor Pelina recognized the voice.
“Professor Phalun? What do you mean?”
Pelina narrowed her eyes and tried to find Professor Phalun in the dozens of divided screens.
Professor Phalun had entered as part of the intruder extermination team, not for survivor search.
It seemed he had discovered something.
[Ugh, ugh...!]
[Whew—!]
Unpleasant sounds came through the crystal.
“Professor Phalun? What are these sounds? Where are you? I can’t see you.”
Pelina’s face slightly contorted.
What did he mean by no need, and what were those vomiting sounds?
It seemed the members of the extermination team, not Professor Phalun, were vomiting.
With the situation unclear, the orders had stopped.
[Whew—]
[Choke, choke—]
The vomiting sounds continued in the background as Professor Phalun’s calm voice echoed.
[It’s the internal control room. You should see it for yourself.]
[Crack!]
A low cracking sound came from the other side.
Soon, the screen of the magic eye closest to the internal control room distorted.
“...?”
There was no magic eye in the internal control room, so the closest one was brought over...
Soon, the distorted screen stabilized.
But perhaps because the magic eye had moved from its designated position,
The screen was noisy.
“Professor Phalun. The image is not clear.”
[Just a moment.]
Even if not a magical engineer, a basic understanding of magic eye circuits was essential for a magician.
Professor Phalun could likely make a malfunctioning magic eye work for a short time.
Sure enough.
Crackle, crackle... Snap!
The noise soon disappeared.
The scene inside the control room became clear on the screen.
And when Professor Pelina fully took in the clear scene,
She understood.
“...”
Why the members of the extermination team with Professor Phalun had not stopped vomiting.
Before being invited as a professor at the academy,
Professor Pelina had wandered the continent and seen countless things that a person should not see.
But the scene in the control room was something even she found hard to accept.
“...Who...”
The gruesome scene next to the masked intruder.
From the situation, it was clear the intruders were responsible.
But who had reduced the intruders to this state?
Then, suddenly.
‘...Could it be?’
A face flashed through Professor Pelina’s mind.
A month ago.
A boy she had been keeping a close eye on due to a mana measurement error.
After a month of close observation, Professor Pelina found no special points in the boy.
The only notable thing was...
‘A vagrant from the gray zone. Yet, he entered with a Blando admission ticket.’
That was it.
He was indifferent and sometimes cheeky, but that was a common trait among boys his age.
The truth behind the mana measurement error had not yet been discovered, so she was still keeping a close eye on him.
Thinking this far, Professor Pelina shook her head.
‘No, it can’t be. Surely...’
It was just a coincidence that the boy came to mind at this moment.
But.
‘If... it was him?’
It needed to be confirmed.
Pelina decided this.
Swallow.
Among the dozens of divided screens, Professor Pelina’s eyes fixed on one corner.
A boy who had just been discovered by the rescue team and was heading towards the entrance.
His expression was the same as always.
An indifferent look, as if nothing had happened, following the rescue team with a bored gaze.
But.
‘...’
This only fueled Professor Pelina’s suspicion.
Just as she thought this,
“I seem to have arrived too late.”
A voice from behind.
Professor Pelina turned around in surprise.
“P-President?”
“Just call me President. It sounds more affectionate, doesn’t it? Anyway... I came as quickly as possible, but it seems the situation is over. No need for a report. I already heard from those I met on the way. It’s a fortunate thing.”
The President stroked his white beard and looked at the screen.
The chief, who had arrived after two hours.
But no one present could criticize the President.
The place where the President had been on official business was on the outskirts of the eastern continent.
Even with the use of a warp gate, two hours was an impressively fast speed.
Of course, those who wanted to hold the academy accountable wouldn’t care about such things.
Anyway, as Professor Pelina, bewildered, struggled to speak, the President leaned forward and looked at the screen, narrowing his eyes.
“Hmm, so, Professor Pelina.”
“Yes, yes?”
“So, in your opinion, the boy is the one who created that gruesome scene?”
“...I didn’t say that.”
At this, the President’s lips curled slightly.
“Sometimes, we know things without saying them. I’ll keep it in mind.”
The President said this and stared at the screen.
The eyes reflected none other than Aster.