Leave a comment

I quickly returned to my room in the dormitory, and tried to inspect the bottle contents.

That said, I couldn’t really learn any details in this room. At most, I could tell that there was a little bit of the liquid left inside.

Den noticed that I returned and stayed beside me in case something happened.

“It looks like your average potion bottle from the outside. Is it the same one they use in the academy?”
“There does not seem to be any differences at a glance.”
“It’s made of porcelain so it would be hard to trace the material origin. And… there are a few drops left inside.”
“Are you going to inspect it?”
“I wouldn’t be able to find out much here. Then again, I can’t use the academy facilities, and neither do I have such technical knowledge.”
“Then was it for naught?”
“Not exactly.”

If I couldn’t learn anything, I could just ask someone who could.

For example, Letina… would be out of the question, since her knowledge was more or less on my level. Then what about some teachers? As I reached that point, I shook my head to dismiss the stupid idea. I didn’t know who could be involved in this, so it would be too risky to rely on a teacher.

“Letina is no good, teachers as well. I guess it comes to Maxwell, in the end.”
“So it would seem.”
“Fortunately, I have some magic power left now, so I’ll teleport to Raum for a bit.”
“Would you like me to escort you?”
“That would just make me stand out instead. Sorry, but stay behind this time too.”

I was already attracting a lot of attention due to my looks, so if Den followed me along, it would just aggravate it. If they started suspecting it was a date, it could summon people I didn’t want to deal with.

“I’ll be using my Stealth Gift, so you’d stand out if you follow me. So please stay.”
“I loathe my lack of ability. I understand.”
“Just think of it as humans having different suitabilities.”
“But I am an Ogre.”

Den responded with a light joke and saw me off.

The reason I wanted to leave the room was that this dormitory, being one of the academy facilities, was equipped with magic jamming equipment.

If it was someone on Maxwell’s level, they’d probably have a way to slip past it, but someone on my level was affected by that jamming and couldn’t use magic well. Hence, I had to leave the academy grounds once.

After telling Den to stay behind, I decided to leave the dorms again. Leaving over and over in a single night had a high chance of attracting people’s attention, but it couldn’t be helped.

There was a really small amount of the drug left in the bottle so it could evaporate even with the cork properly plugged. I had to get it appraised as fast as I could.

“I guess coming this far should be outside of the jamming effect.”

I slipped into a back alley a little away from the dormitory, confirming there was no one there. Since this area had a senior academy where nobles attended, there were no hoodlums to be found nearby. Hence, no one would question it even if a frail-looking girl like me entered one of those alleys.

“I should be able to use the spell without a worry here.”

I wasn’t as proficient in magic as Maxwell or Maria, so I could only cast large-scale spells when I was relaxed. Teleport was one of such spells, so I was a little uneasy about using it during a battle.

I constructed a glowing magic circle and activated the spell. The next moment, my vision crumbled like a mosaic and got reconstructed.

It was no longer the Methuselah domain, but the front of Maxwell’s mansion in the capital Raum.

“Okay, I’m h—owahh?!”

Confirming my safe teleportation, I was about to sigh in relief, but I suddenly felt a sharp bloodlust from behind, making me jump sideways to avoid it. Then, a sword passed narrowly beside me.

“W-What the?!”

This was Raum’s capital, not to mention, Maxwell’s mansion.

It should be the place farthest from any kind of strife. And yet, men in black were surrounding the mansion, and Mateus was taking them on alone like in those action dramas.

I suddenly showed up in the middle of it, so I guess it wouldn’t be strange to slash at someone like that without questions, looking at it from the assailant’s perspective.

“Setting that aside, what is going on here?!”
“Oh, ain’t it missy Nicole?”

Mateus heard and reacted to my exclamation in the middle of this chaos. Looking at how he put down one of the assailants even as he addressed me, his skills didn’t seem to have dulled. His attacks were still heavy enough to make me envious.

“Hey, explain this! What’s going on?!”
“That’s the first thing you’re asking after this reunion? You’re no fun, eh?”
“That’s beside the point now!”

I dodged one of the assailants and then swiped their feet, dropping them on the ground. Then I pulled my katana and sliced his neck. I couldn’t lop an adult man’s head with my strength, but having his artery cut, the man writhed and died.

“It seems that the old man’s pressure was too strong. Some self-proclaimed reformists (LOL) snapped back and came to attack, it seems?”
“Huh, I see. So where’s Maxwell?”
“He’s preparing to release a big move.”
“Say what?”

Maxwell’s big moves were real extermination spells. They were on the level of the spell that put down the Evil Dragon.

“Oh s̲h̲i̲t̲!”

I instantly turned my heel and attempted to flee. Unlike Maxwell who was there from the start, I was someone unaccounted for who randomly appeared.

It would be too much to expect Maxwell to designate me as a non-target.

As expected, the moment I evacuated, I saw a light flash from the mansion’s angle, as well as screams of the men.

“Good grief, he’s so outrageous…”

If my timing was off, I would have gotten rolled up in it too. I guess I was lucky, if you think about it like that. For the time being, I heaved a sigh for narrowly escaping death and headed back to the mansion.