Episode 139. Explosion Plan (1)
“Hey, principal, you’re here. I’ve been looking for you for a while.”
“Are you here?”
Benitez, who approached Principal Keegan, still had a puzzled look on his face.
“Now that I’ve met the principal, it’s starting to feel a little more real. Do you know how dumbfounded I was when I ran out at dawn?”
“This is just how they are.”
“That’s the original way. How convenient. By the way, where have you been?”
“The person in charge over there said he needed to meet and greet Chloe Witherspoon. I showed her around.”
“Oh, that makes sense.”
The conversation folded and the atmosphere shifted to focusing on the exam again.
“Benitez. That girl, is that Dahlia Dellin? You’re in charge of her?”
“Yes, principal.”
“That’s amazing.”
Dahlia’s tenacity and determination, despite having an arrow lodged in her leg, were exemplary, whether she was a cadet or a magic cadet.
“This time it’s Luden.”
“You’re the one who took the lead. How do you think you’ll pass?”
“I think we’ll pass without any problems.”
“Hmm, really?”
At that moment, another professor approached the two of them. It was Kaizen, who was stroking his gray hair.
“Kaizen, come in quickly.”
“Hello, principal.”
“Your class has the most left so far.”
At this point, the survivors of Class D accounted for one third of all the applicants. Even though it was still in the early stages, it was actually quite a satisfying thing for the class teacher. However, for some reason, Kaizen’s expression was dark.
“What’s wrong, Kaizen?”
Kaizen smiled bitterly. His body was trembling like someone with chills. His hands wandered aimlessly. He played with his hair.
‘Haa… What is this?’
Even he himself didn’t understand English. As he watched Rubin walking towards the middle of the examination room, his heartbeat quickened and he felt a strange sense of fear.
The memory of Rubin coming to see him a while ago and him struggling in fear and pain due to the injection of the ‘black leaf’ has long since evaporated.
However, due to the suggestion magic and the scars of the ‘black leaf’, a strange fear of Rubin had taken root in Kaizen’s subconscious.
“Okay, it’s okay. Just focus on your exam.”
“If you’re not feeling well, tell me. You’re the freshmen’s homeroom teachers, so you’re here, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay until the end.”
“Yes, that… I will do that.”
Kaizen tried to look away from Rubin. He looked around the testing room absentmindedly.
Ta-da-dak.
The sound of Rubin running reached my ears. What followed was the sound of an arrow flying.
“… … ?”
But at some point.
Right next to me, I could see Principal Keegan’s face distorting seriously. Even harsh words came out of his bandit-like face.
“What the heck! These things?”
Was something wrong? Kaizen instinctively looked at the testing room.
does not exist.
Rubin’s figure was not visible on the stepping stone.
“I was distracted for a moment. Where did Cadet Luden go? Did he drop out?”
It was Benitez who answered those words.
“Something feels strange. The spacing between the arrows has suddenly changed.”
“yes?”
“I think there was a malfunction.”
* * *
‘It’s definitely not a malfunction.’
Rubin could be sure that this was a deliberate change, and that the intention was precisely his own elimination. Everything was as Rubin had expected.
‘Pondrian manipulated the test tool.’
The incident occurred when Rubin reached the fourth step.
The fourth stepping stone was a particularly oddly shaped rock with many protruding parts, making it easy to misstep. Many of the cadets who had previously failed had fallen off here.
‘It was 8 seconds just now.’
I have already confirmed that exactly 8 seconds after stepping on the fourth stepping stone, an arrow will fly.
That’s the way it was originally.
‘Huh?’
For Rubin, things were different.
It was the exact moment I stepped on the rock and grabbed the protruding part with my hand. It was only a second. The arrow was fired without giving me a chance to dodge.
Rubin snickered. Pondrian’s trick was obvious. Rubin immediately put his plan into action.
Sssssut.
To most witnesses, it would have seemed as if Rubin had disappeared for a moment, his body flung itself away in a curved line away from the boulder.
The arrow that had just been fired struck the spot where Rubin had just been.
Papak!
The third stage of the test was a response to a ‘predictable attack situation’. Suddenly changing the spacing of the arrows was something that should not happen.
Of course, the definition of ‘predictable’ may vary from person to person, but the absolute standard has always been the same.
‘There must be certain rules.’
Just as the role of the black panther that the examiners had introduced in advance was to figure out the interval between arrows, the other participants remembered the interval between the arrows and moved accordingly.
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An arrow is fired after a certain amount of time has passed since you stepped on the stepping stone. If you could figure out the timing properly, the test itself wasn’t difficult. From then on, all you had to do was overcome your fear.
however.
‘You thought you could get me off if you changed the rules.’
Wrong. Rubin was going to take this test in a way that no one else would think of.
Tiring, thud.
A sense of darkness thickened by smoke. With his amplified hearing, Rubin could clearly discern even the smallest sounds.
It was a method of determining the timing of an arrow’s flight by listening to the sound of the arrow just before it was fired. If you knew the timing of the shot, you could easily dodge the rest just by physical movement.
‘I wonder how things will turn out from now on.’
Pavat, pavat.
Rubin, who easily dodged the arrows flying in irregularly one after another, leisurely looked up at the upper level. It was a place covered in dark shadows. It was where the test tubes were.
It was pitch black, but it didn’t matter. Rubin’s vision, piercing through the darkness, revealed the interior of the upper level. The examiners were murmuring, as if they thought Rubin would fall soon.
and.
‘There you are.’
In the middle of it all, Pondrian’s distorted face caught my eye. He looked like he had been hit hard, and was very hot.
After that, the irregular arrows targeting only Rubin continued. It was like that until the end of the turn.
Every time, Rubin moved based on the sound he heard just before firing. Naturally, the arrows would miss Rubin every time.
‘This is enough.’
Now, the conditions for an explosion are in place.
In the third stage, Pondrian arbitrarily manipulated the test magic tool as Rubin had wanted. From now on, cracks will start to appear in the magic tool.
‘According to the inspection report I saw before the regression, this is the norm.’
The conditions for an explosion are met in stage 3, and the actual mana explosion occurs in stage 9, the final stage. That was the gist of the report.
‘I just need to survive until stage 9.’
The rest was all easy.
Rubin, who had gathered his courage, advanced to the last stepping stone. The cadets who had passed first just blinked and looked at Rubin.
‘Without mana, it’s hard to notice these subtle differences.’
It was a difference of less than a second. If it weren’t for the subtle senses of the assassin and the dark side, it wouldn’t be easy to notice.
After crossing the last stepping stone, Rubin walked out calmly.
* * *
“miss.”
Chloe’s eyes slowly rose from the book. Celesne was waiting with a tray of food.
“It’s time for lunch.”
“Already? I didn’t notice because I was reading a book.”
“Today is a rare lunch, so I made something special. It’s your favorite crepe.”
Crepe de los Muertos was a noodle dish with a sweet oil and sour fruit flavor. Chloe’s expression brightened.
“But why is this lunch so rare?”
“You eat lunch at school on weekdays. I always felt concerned because the quality of food here at the school is not great.”
“Tch, you don’t even know. You’ve never tried it. It’s actually delicious!”
As if this was an expected response, Celesne smiled faintly.
“Miss, I’ve also eaten at the cafeteria here.”
“Huh? Have you been to the student center? When?”
“An hour ago.”
Although she was a wizard from Wonhwi, she was a Celestia who had permission to enter, so she could freely come and go from the Magic Tower area.
Chloe blinked, forgetting to eat.
“An hour ago? The school must be having a preliminary exam for the senior education committee right now.”
Celesne let out a deep sigh and then nodded intently at the food in front of her. At the urging to eat quickly, Chloe picked up her fork and slowly began to eat.
“The whole school was already a mess.”
Celesne told me that the current Jang Education Committee exams were being held in the basement of the Arpeggio building.
“At lunchtime, the students who failed the exam were eating on the upper floor of the student center. I also ate with them. It was far from the same taste as our Americana.”
“Celeste, that’s not the point.”
“I know what you want to say. Are you curious about what the students of Class C are wondering?”
“Yeah. What about Luden? What about Oscar? What about Dahlia? What happened?”
“Master Oscar Tunio was already out, eating his lunch in a very exciting manner. He ate almost five times in an hour.”
Chloe laughed heartily, perhaps remembering the scene where Oscar was munching on food. The news of elimination was a bit surprising, but it was a test with limited mana, so she thought it could be expected.
“I’m glad you’re eating well. If only he could use Mana, Oscar would have definitely won. What about the others?”
“I haven’t seen Miss Dahlia or Master Luden. And Master Eric either.”
The exam started around 4 in the morning, and it was already past noon.
Since the selection test has entered its second half, if you haven’t been eliminated by now, you should be considered a finalist.
Chloe, who had been smiling reflexively because she was so happy, soon found herself with an awkward expression.
“Oh, then that means I might have to break up with Luden or Dahlia… … ”
Even Chloe’s fork, which pressed down on the crepe, was enough to make you feel regretful.
Celestia’s voice became more serious.
“miss.”
“huh?”
“It’s good to build up various connections, but you must not forget that you have come here with a very important task. And it is a task that has been given to you by none other than the lord of the house.”
“… I know, I know. Celestia, that’s why you went to school, right? To find out about Per?”
At the name Per, Celesne looked around with a more serious expression.
“… … .”
Chloe’s room was routinely covered with high-dimensional soundproofing. Despite this, Celesne was always cautious.
Because it was such a serious matter.
“Yes, I’ve been searching from time to time, but… this time, there’s still no trace of Per Lorenzini.”
The process by which Chloe and Celesne came to Capotini was not a coincidence. They were exchange students, but in reality, that was just a made-up excuse.
They had a hidden secret, and it was a boy named Per Lorenzini.
‘Chains of Awakening. Enzo Lorenzini.’
Chloe didn’t know that at first either.
Two years ago, when I came to this city on a preliminary visit, I thought that my father was simply sending me as an exchange student to promote harmony in the wizarding community.
But on the day they were officially set to leave for Capotini, McEwan Witherspoon, the head of the Witherspoon family and one of the four great wizards on the continent, gave his youngest daughter an important task.
It was a task that only Capotini could do.
‘Chloe. Do you know why I’m sending you to Capotini?’
‘Isn’t it because of the harmony of the wizarding community?’
‘Yes, harmony. In the big picture, that’s also true.’
‘Is there another reason?’
‘There is a child there that you must protect. I have told the father to send his son there.’
‘Protection?’
‘He’s probably hiding his identity. You must find that child and protect him. You must never let the ‘Chain of Awakening’ between that child and his father be broken. It would bring chaos to the wizarding community.’
‘Chain of Awakening? What is that?’
‘Yeah, I guess I should explain that first.’
