Ch.130[Chapter 130] Entering the Administration

After Sir Dominic and Hime’s turn ended, it was Yekaterina’s turn.

Yekaterina was bleeding profusely from her forehead due to Sir Dominic’s strike earlier, though this was actually due to a status effect of bleeding that had triggered at a low probability rather than from the sword strike itself.

As soon as her turn began, her health decreased slightly and one bleeding counter disappeared.

Yekaterina, who was already close to a critical state from the beginning, sighed.

“My luck is absolutely terrible,” she grumbled.

However, regardless of her bad luck, Yekaterina knew exactly what she needed to do.

Her sniper rifle moved toward Alice.

Bang-! A deafening noise erupted, and the bullet that instantly reached Alice-

“Hmm!”

Ended up damaging Sir Dominic instead.

“…Huh?”

Yekaterina made a dumbfounded expression.

Why was Sir Dominic taking damage instead of the female knight in chain mail?

She rolled her eyes, trying to understand the situation.

Fortunately, since her turn was over, she would have plenty of time to think.

After Yekaterina, it was the Magician’s turn.

The Magician performed some voodoo, or perhaps just a bizarre dance, and ended his turn.

An unknown mark appeared above his head.

“They landed a hit on us, so we should return the favor,” Plagius said arrogantly as he raised his plague censer.

Green glowing mist fell from the sky, enveloping Sir Dominic, Hime, and Alice.

One radiation mark appeared on Alice, and two on Sir Dominic.

“Now finally, that female knight’s turn-“

Plagius glared at Alice, trying to figure out her abilities.

His face wrinkled as he thought she must be a support type since she was positioned at the rear.

“-isn’t coming?”

The first round ended with Plagius, and the second round began.

Yekaterina had been observing the situation from earlier.

As soon as she gathered enough information, she secretly whispered to Coder Leonardo.

“Isn’t Sir Dominic’s side one person short?”

[Ah.]

Leonardo had been constantly talking to Sir Dominic to prevent him from concentrating, so he couldn’t relay information to his allies.

At least, that’s what Leonardo himself thought, but in reality, he had simply forgotten.

He was a decent person as a coder, but extremely clumsy as a human being.

“Just tell me everything you know. I’m starting to get angry.”

Yekaterina growled at Leonardo.

Fortunately, the first attacker in round 2 was Hime.

Her turn would come next, so she had some time.

[Um… there’s really nothing. That’s all I have.]

“What? You don’t have any evidence about them teaming up with Mountain Bridge Marsh or why three people are being counted as two?”

[…Huh?]

Yekaterina demanded information that needed to be extracted from Sir Dominic with her sharp insight, but the coder seemed completely clueless.

Yekaterina put her hand to her forehead.

It made her wonder if Sir Dominic had just accidentally gotten caught up in this situation.

“[Phase Shift]!”

The chain on the opposite end of Hime’s chain scythe, with a weight attached, flew toward them, but surprisingly, the chain passed through all three of them without any resistance.

Then the chain, returning from the spirit realm to the physical realm, pierced all three simultaneously, completely disrupting the party order.

Yekaterina’s team had been in the order of Plagius – Yekaterina – Magician, but now it became Yekaterina – Magician – Plagius.

“This isn’t good,” Plagius growled softly.

Hime’s turn ended with the change in party order.

Yekaterina carefully observed Sir Dominic, who was now right in front of her.

Due to the changed order, Yekaterina and Sir Dominic were close enough that they would touch noses if they fell forward.

Yekaterina stared intently at Sir Dominic’s remaining eye.

If Sir Dominic had used the power of Mountain Bridge Marsh, there would have been some side effect somewhere.

However… Yekaterina couldn’t find any side effects even after using all her time.

“What are you doing?” Plagius scolded Yekaterina for not taking any action.

“Oh.”

Yekaterina realized that while she was just following her own thoughts, her behavior could easily be misunderstood.

“It’s nothing. I’m a sniper, not a melee dealer. I thought I’d stall for time.”

“That makes sense. You might be… quite thoughtful.”

A somewhat positive evaluation came from Plagius’s mouth.

Evidence that Yekaterina’s excuse had worked well.

Yekaterina glanced at Sir Dominic.

No matter how she thought about it, something was wrong here.

…

Third round.

Hime had taken a turn off with stealth for safe recovery, Yekaterina was completely in a critical state at death’s door, and Plagius had been pushed to the rear and couldn’t do anything except stack plague effects.

While both sides were gasping in critical condition, there was still one person on each team who remained unscathed.

[I want to pluck out the eyes that saw that attack. It was a pathetic strike. By the way-]

Sir Dominic attacked the Magician.

However, the Magician avoided the strike with movements that human joints could never comprehend.

“I simply cannot understand. An opponent who neither attacks nor can be hit by attacks.”

Sir Dominic shook his head.

The ticking sound of a clock’s second hand could be heard from somewhere.

And every time the Magician danced, one stack accumulated.

With each stack, bell sounds rang out corresponding to the number of stacks.

The bell sound, which was barely audible at first, now rang so loudly in Sir Dominic’s ears that it was deafening, having reached 3 stacks.

The phrase “Start of Round 4” appeared before Sir Dominic’s eyes.

Sir Dominic instinctively tried to attempt an attack as before, but his beast-like senses rang alarm bells.

The Magician’s attack order that was gradually being pushed back.

The premonition of death that he somehow felt.

It could be dismissed as just a feeling, but as you all know, Sir Dominic was someone who had witnessed countless lives and deaths on the battlefield.

As the premonition of death ran down Sir Dominic’s spine, he took a defensive stance in front of Hime without thinking.

“Sir Dominic? Why are you taking a defensive stance-“

Hime was still in stealth, so she couldn’t be targeted.

Her confusion was justified, but Hime soon understood Sir Dominic’s actions.

“Ee-ha!”

The Magician, who had been performing bizarre voodoo until now, spread his jacket wide open.

He took out a handkerchief from his inner pocket, placed it on his hand, and yanked it away.

A detonator appeared in his hand.

The Magician, who had been opening and closing the safety cover of the red button while holding the detonator, now grabbed the background behind him with his hand.

As the background, which shouldn’t be able to be grabbed, was gripped and wrinkled, the Magician pulled it toward himself.

And then… an enormous amount of explosives, enough to look like a hill, was revealed.

“…Huh?”

Plagius threw away his arrogance and looked at the Night Magician with a puzzled expression.

He knew well about the Night Magician’s “performances,” but he hadn’t expected him to use a self-destruct technique in a situation where everyone was already in critical condition.

“Oh, good grief.”

Yekaterina also let out a soft sigh.

She had seen it a few times before, but it seemed like she had never seen it this close. Yekaterina had already lost the will to survive.

Sir Dominic and Hime didn’t know what technique the Magician had performed, but seeing the mountain of explosives, they figured it wasn’t an ordinary technique.

Indeed, this technique was one of the ultimate performances completed through the Magician’s bone-and-flesh-sacrificing efforts.

The Night (Bomb) Magician’s special technique [Countdown] combined with the trait [Trick Show] created this historic magic.

[The fireworks are about to begin! Everyone will fade away like fleeting sparks in the night sky… I didn’t expect it to go this far.]

Coder Leonardo, who also hadn’t expected things to go this far, dropped his concept and started to panic.

But the Night Magician, as if he couldn’t hear anything, simply pressed the detonator button with a broad smile on his face.

“Ah, damn it.”

Yekaterina sighed.

And soon, with a bright light and a tremendous roar, everything went dark and silent again.

…

“…sir!”

Sir Dominic lost consciousness for the first time in a while.

That was evidence of how powerful the explosion had been.

“…Master!”

When was the last time he had collapsed like this?

If he thought about recent times, it would be when he first got a job and died a few times fighting bugs.

No, he had also collapsed on the battlefield in Zone 3.

Sir Dominic began counting on his mental fingers how many times he had been so shamefully knocked down.

“Master!”

Alice’s cry.

Sir Dominic’s eyes snapped open at the sound.

An unfamiliar ceiling.

Sir Dominic immediately rolled up from his spot and began surveying his surroundings.

“Master! You’re awake?”

Sir Dominic turned his head toward the voice.

There was Alice, smiling brightly while eating vanilla ice cream.

Next to Leonardo, the vampire who was holding his head in embarrassment.