Ch.40The Library Takeover Incident (5)

Ruide rubbed his sleepy eyes.

‘This thing broke.’

The magic he cast when suddenly attacked was quite powerful, but… he never imagined it would break.

Still, even if he could go back, the same thing would probably happen again.

The knight statue’s hardness was greater than the floor’s, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Ruide Christopher!”

Clifford shouted angrily.

Ruide subtly averted his gaze. He didn’t want to reveal anything about the secret passage. That would likely lead to troublesome situations.

“…I woke up and found myself here.”

“What?”

Clifford stared at Ruide with an incredulous expression.

…But somehow, it made sense. He sighed.

“…If you possess great power, make an effort to control it. You lazy bum.”

He put his hands behind his back.

“I’ll announce the disciplinary measures for this incident separately.”

Ruide looked at Clifford with an expression of utter disgust.

“Aren’t you going to be disciplined too, Chancellor?”

“?”

“You were watching the fight just like me.”

Clifford’s face turned bright red. He was about to shout at the insolence when—

“…!”

A revolting smell hit their nostrils.

The chancellor and faculty froze in place.

It was a presence that no ordinary magician could sense.

They looked at each other.

“This is…”

“…Impossible.”

Clifford’s face became more serious than ever.

“It’s the residual energy of black magic.”

Clifford was looking at the ceiling while using his clairvoyance.

“How dare they invade the Academy without knowing their place.”

Black mages.

The enemies of the world who pursue only destruction and commit atrocities that make them unworthy of being called human.

If they had truly infiltrated the Academy, this wasn’t a matter to be taken lightly.

It meant the Academy’s barrier had been breached.

Clifford hurriedly moved. The library incident had completely vanished from his mind.

After Clifford went upstairs, Hersy approached Ruide.

“Where on earth did you go?”

“Just watching.”

“…I figured as much.”

Ruide extended his small hand.

Hersy took it and helped Ruide to his feet.

Ruide scratched his head, uncomfortable with all the stares directed at him.

‘This is awkward.’

It felt exactly like crashing a private screening.

“Hersy, let’s go.”

Uncomfortable with everyone’s stares, Ruide wanted to make a quick exit.

Hersy promptly nodded.

“But do you think black mages really appeared?”

Hersy looked up at the ceiling with concern.

“I don’t think so.”

Ruide shook his head.

He hadn’t realized it earlier due to the confusion, but now he had a pretty good idea who was behind that “black dog.”

Ruide looked at Nia, who was snickering in the corner.

“It’s probably someone’s prank.”

There was a related episode.

Before Rak’s Orb was summoned, Nia Ryan created a black mage’s minion as a chimera under the guise of a prank.

Despite appearances, she was a clever troublemaker who managed to avoid suspicion herself while framing someone else.

Specifically, Catherine.

Catherine was in a position where she was easily misunderstood, and with her personality, she wasn’t well-liked.

‘The episode got twisted.’

Ruide shook his head.

Anyway, he had no intention of getting involved after this incident.

He just needed to ensure the main plot points aligned. Justin had talent. That was enough.

If he just provided appropriate trials, Justin would grow steadily and eventually defeat the mastermind.

If the mastermind proved too much to handle, Ruide could step in.

Ruide simply needed someone to deal with the villains from the original work, which spanned about 1,000 episodes.

All that remained was peace.

Ruide sincerely believed that.

SPLASH!

“Kyaah-! What is that?!”

Something like ink spread through the air.

The ink-like substance stretched and contracted repeatedly, like slime.

The ominous object that formed in front of Catherine, who had been trying to wake Justin, gradually took shape.

Ruide infused magic into his eyes. He searched for where the thin thread led to—the caster.

It was Nia Ryan.

Given the magical energy of the “Flower of Adrane” emanating from that strange object, it was clear.

Even Ruide couldn’t help but be surprised by this.

‘Then… what was the chimera I caught earlier?’

“Grrrr.”

The black werewolf growled menacingly as it glared at the people.

The commoners who remained inside fled in panic.

“G-get out of the way!”

“Run!”

“It’s an enemy we can’t handle!”

While other students fled, the Expert Class didn’t run.

They all raised their wands with tense expressions.

Ruide could say that for once, the commoners were being smart.

Because that creature…

Was far too powerful for them to handle.

It was so powerful that Ruide wondered how Nia Ryan had created such a chimera.

“J-Justin! It’s dangerous to move now!”

Justin was struggling to stand up.

He stared at the black wolf with a determined face.

Despite being in critical condition, he showed remarkable willpower.

Ruide looked back and forth between the drowsy werewolf and Justin.

“Hmm.”

Ruide calculated Justin’s chances.

Less than single digits.

Yet he hesitated because it wasn’t 0%.

There was the “protagonist buff” that even Ruide couldn’t calculate.

However, logically speaking, Justin had no chance of defeating the werewolf no matter what he did.

Ruide had to choose.

Emotion or logic?

The answer came easily.

Ruide was the type to save money for a lottery ticket rather than buying one.

“Fox.”

[Yes!]

Miho bristled her fur.

Ruide looked straight ahead and said:

“Show me the power of the Great Spirit.”

[Hehee. Just leave it to me.]

Miho opened her mouth wide as if she had been waiting for this moment.

A pure white sphere formed in her mouth.

Whoosh—

Ruide felt massive amounts of mana draining from him as he touched his stomach.

Blinking his eyes, he quickly extended his hand.

“Wait, that’s too stro—”

PIIIIING—

With a ringing in his ears, Ruide cast a powerful barrier around everyone present.

BOOOOOM!

A tremendous explosion occurred.

For a brief moment, he witnessed a mushroom cloud.

Above it, a pure white light shot high toward the ceiling.

“……”

Ruide surveyed the surroundings with a vacant expression.

But there was no library to survey.

…Half of the Every Library had vanished.

[Did I do well? Did I do well?]

The fox’s tail wagged with her cute voice.

**

“This is…”

A brilliant white light shot up right behind Clifford.

Nothing remained where the light had passed.

Standing precariously in the half-destroyed library, neither the chancellor nor the professors could speak.

They were just staring at something.

Every Library, second floor. The very end.

A space made of transparent walls.

It was because of what they saw beyond it.

“…A black mage’s minion. No, perhaps ‘minion’ isn’t the right term.”

Clifford walked step by step.

He wanted to see more clearly.

He reached out his hand.

The translucent wall emitted a strong repulsive force.

It was rejecting Clifford’s entry.

But that didn’t matter.

Through the transparent wall, the space beyond was clearly visible.

Twelve knights.

Pure magical spears, still burning, were pierced through the center of their hearts.

The knights, impaled by spears and hanging on the wall at regular intervals, looked like divine judgment.

Like a work of art.

Powerful traces of black magic emanated from the knights.

He reached out toward the spears again.

Though right in front of him, he couldn’t touch them.

Clifford’s clairvoyance glimpsed the composition of the magic spears.

Each of those twelve spears “existed.”

They weren’t temporarily held together by magic.

They were undoubtedly real Holy Relics.

Even after ten or a hundred years, those spears would remain intact.

The issue was that what he sensed from them was magical energy.

Without any medium, magic was naturally being generated to maintain the form of the spears.

“…Ruide Christopher.”

It was impossible to materialize an object with magic.

Creation. That was the role of creation.

Something beyond human capability—a power granted only to gods.

Hiss—

Could any living being survive being struck by those spears?

Yet the residual black magic emanating from the knights was palpable.

Clifford speculated. If those spears were removed from their hearts, the knights would likely come back to life.

In other words, even with magic skills high enough to wield the realm of creation, they couldn’t be killed—sealing them was the best that could be done.

What if they had fallen upon the Academy?

‘We couldn’t handle it.’

Clifford closed his eyes at the chilling thought.

Looking at Ruide standing nonchalantly on the floor below, he muttered:

“…What kind of battle did you fight alone?”

Gulp.

The sound of professors swallowing was clearly audible.

Though they couldn’t read the situation as clearly as Clifford, they knew one thing:

Ruide Christopher had implemented magic that approached artistry.

**

At Dellin’s Lake.

Having gone through quite an ordeal, he was having a picnic to comfort himself.

Today’s menu was sandwiches.

Though they were just bread with mushrooms and sprouts, he had managed to create mayonnaise, making them somewhat edible.

Ruide poured orange juice into a cup. Hersy showed curiosity.

“Ruide, what’s that high-quality cup? I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”

The white cup Ruide was holding looked extremely expensive at a glance.

No, “expensive” wasn’t enough. Rather than an ordinary cup… it looked almost like a holy grail.

The identity of this cup was the “Chalice of Mana” that Ruide had pieced back together.

It seemed a waste to throw away, so he decided to use it.

“It’s an antique.”

“…An antique?”

Hersy opened her eyes wide.

Ruide answered confidently.

“Yes. I found it lying around.”