Ch.163163. Surprise Attack Thwarted

I couldn’t waste any more time like this.

This wasn’t exactly a room of time and space, so the time spent here would be flowing identically outside as well.

So I quickly stuffed all the remaining items into my inventory.

Actually, most of the items piled up here were closer to toys for veteran players with little practical use, but letting them rot in my inventory would be more meaningful than abandoning them here.

At the same time, I found the item I was looking for.

[Dawn]

[A quiet time before greeting the morning.]

[Designates a certain area as the time of dawn.]

An item in the form of an old pocket watch called Dawn.

If I take this with me, that guy who suddenly joined hands with Arpatustu will shower me with praise because he’ll be so happy.

The description is a bit vague, but it didn’t really matter. I knew the exact effect anyway.

Leaving the empty Imperial secret storage behind, I headed outside.

As I exited the space, the debuff was lifted, my fatigue disappeared, and my body felt light as usual.

“Whew! It was really stuffy in there. Let’s never go back.”

“Sure.”

Anyway, we’d cleaned out all the items, so there was no need to return.

“No, wait a moment.”

As if suddenly remembering something, Celia muttered to herself before pulling me close with her mana.

Then, as I stood awkwardly tilted, she whispered in my ear.

“Still, it seems like a good place for us to hide and do something secretly. If Ludion invites me, I won’t refuse.”

…What are you saying, Celia…

“Or not, if you don’t want to.”

It seemed like this space needed to be completely sealed off.

Afterward, I met Celia’s father, the Emperor.

It wasn’t just to greet him again. Actually, there was something more important right now.

It would be a big problem to ignore demons infiltrating the underground prison.

I would have preferred to report this to those in charge of the underground prison first, but given the situation, there was no time for such protocol.

This wasn’t just anything—it was demons. And demons that had become much stronger than before. Rather than worrying about proper procedures, it made sense to report to the highest authority I could reach.

Except for the fact that it was the Emperor, there was really no problem at all.

The Emperor seemed to take the news seriously and decided to handle it, so security would likely become much stricter for a while.

Actually, I don’t think Arpatustu would try anything against the Imperial Palace… but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

Perhaps because it was such an important matter, the response was swift.

Watching him immediately organize things and summon all sorts of people to give instructions made me realize he was truly an Emperor, not just a doting father.

I wanted to discuss my relationship with Celia again, but it seemed impossible in this atmosphere.

I would eventually return to the Imperial Palace after resolving this matter, so I could speak with him then.

For now, let’s go back and prepare.

///

The academy’s vacation is relaxed.

Everyone had left the academy, and even the few who remained had no fixed schedule, so they were focused on carrying out their own plans.

With so few people’s plans overlapping, there was hardly any trouble.

But while everyone was going their own way, there were definitely people around.

Even if they were few, it wasn’t a negligible number. At least…

It was enough for a disaster to occur.

“…What’s that?”

When something started falling from the sky,

they didn’t show any caution.

More precisely, they didn’t feel the need to be cautious. What they saw were small embers gently floating down from the sky.

The embers, which looked like they would extinguish on their own if left alone, only raised questions about why they were falling from the sky, but didn’t appear dangerous at all.

So, finally, they reach the ground.

Some of them were about to touch a student who was watching them…

Whoosh!

“Don’t let them touch you.”

Just before contact, someone pulled the student away.

It wasn’t someone close to the student, but someone they knew well.

“Student Council President?!”

“There will be an announcement about the current situation later, so check it then. For now, go inside somewhere and hide.”

Alkine continued to rush to places where embers appeared, saving students who were about to burn.

The academy was large, but… if she somewhat skipped the process of “moving,” she wouldn’t be too late.

Behind Alkine as she rushed around, Lilith’s figure could be seen.

“Isn’t that spatial movement magic at this point?”

While marveling at Alkine’s movement-skipping feats, Lilith was busy emitting divine power.

In fact, Alkine had the luxury of running around rescuing people thanks to her.

The divine power that spread over a wide area touched Arpatustu’s embers and completely eliminated them.

Alkine only needed to chase after the remaining embers, specifically those heading toward students.

How many lives had the two of them saved already? They didn’t particularly care. They were just following Ludion’s instructions.

Meanwhile, Ludion was floating in the air with Celia’s help, facing Arpatustu.

-Damn it. How did you know I was coming?

He asked such a question, apparently not expecting everything to be blocked from the start.

Just like a demon. Though he spoke like a human, his voice was incredibly bizarre.

Even a broken recorder with torn sound quality wouldn’t be this bad.

Thinking this, I examined Arpatustu’s appearance again.

His form was close to humanoid, but strangely elongated with odd proportions.

The pitch-black coloration gave off the vibe of a gentleman in a black suit, but he was obviously far from a gentleman. He was a demon, after all.

‘Still, we managed to suppress him early.’

Arpatustu is a weak demon. Even in the game, he appears early on, so his specs were quite poor compared to those who appear later.

However, being “weak” was only relative to other demons in terms of power.

Against ordinary people, he too was an unmanageable monster.

In fact, his abilities were well-suited for slaughter, so in normal situations, he might be even more terrifying than other demons.

And… despite being a weak demon, his appearance was intense.

‘That was really troublesome.’

Those embers that Lilith and Alkine are working hard to block—if they touch you, you burst into flames.

How shocking it was when such embers suddenly fell and burned students.

What’s more, after the students burned, monsters swarmed into the academy.

Complete chaos.

In such a situation, the protagonist is busy running away. That was natural. The protagonist at this point is still weak.

If you somehow manage to survive for a certain period, you end up fighting a monster you can’t defeat, but in that moment of crisis, Celia appears and saves the protagonist.

…Come to think of it, originally, this should be the first time the protagonist meets Celia. It’s kind of funny that I’ve already completed her route before our first canonical meeting.

Anyway.

That’s why whether or not we deal with Arpatustu isn’t actually important.

In the game, Arpatustu is eventually handled by the faculty members. Simply capturing him isn’t something I need to step in for.

What’s important here is that acting after things happen, like in the game, would be too late.

Again, this event starts with embers falling and burning students. If casualties occur at the academy, what kind of reputation would that create?

‘Perfect for ruining our reputation.’

Whether the game creators intended this event for that purpose or not, the atmosphere completely changed after this incident. To maintain the relatively enjoyable and light academy life we have now, it was necessary to stop Arpatustu before he could do anything.

And… the Headmaster took care of that part.

“I’ve laid magic that detects demonic energy throughout the academy. I’ve also strengthened the special barriers…”

“…Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay. I haven’t slept for days, and it cost a fortune.”

The Headmaster, who looked almost like a corpse, was truly in a pitiful state.

Moreover, he sighed deeply, saying he had to deal with other work that had piled up while handling this… it was really unfortunate.

Thanks to him, though, Celia didn’t need to spend day and night monitoring the academy.

She just needed to receive some authority over the detection magic the Headmaster had installed.

And so, Arpatustu’s surprise attack was completely thwarted.

Fanatic and his group, who would have helped him, were quietly staying in the underground prison, so there were no variables.

-Damn it. I have no choice. I’ll have to try again next time.

Having realized all this, he tried to escape… but failed.

-…The fire won’t ignite.

Because Celia had done something to prevent flames from appearing around.

I don’t remember the lengthy explanation about the nature and principles of fire and fire magic, their components, and how to dismantle them, but I do remember the last line.

-“Even my mother would struggle to light a fire here.”

If her mother would struggle, it could generally be defined as ‘impossible.’

Perhaps realizing something had gone terribly wrong?

-In that case, I have no choice.

Arpatustu’s human form began to change.