An Unexpected Situation

“‘Holy Wave’.”

Kieeeeek────!!!

Gaaaargh───!!

Uoooooh───!!!

The undead disappear instantly under the magic imbued with holy power.

There were no more undead rushing towards this place, and it seemed that the remaining undead could be sufficiently dealt with by the students who had started moving at her appearance and the professors who had been fighting well from before.

And seeing the situation tipping in their favor, Pina lowered her staff and let out a tired sigh.

“Haah, using so much holy magic after a long time is exhausting.”

Most of what they do in the academy’s magic classes is casting magic without incantations.

However, while it’s called magic casting, in reality, most of the classes were spent just imagining, so it had been almost a month since she had used holy magic to the point of depleting her mana like this.

That’s why Pina, collapsing as if leaning on her staff from the fatigue of her body that had squeezed out mana to its limit, included a feeling of relief in the sigh she let out.

“It was fortunate that the opponents were undead.”

The reason she was able to perform this well was solely because the opponents were not living creatures but undead, undead monsters.

Moreover, because they were not carefully crafted undead but merely corpses with undead techniques cast on them, Pina was able to deal with nearly 2,000 undead with just her own holy power.

Originally, if her father, the Pope, Helestinus Ban, had come here, all the undead on the island would have attained Nirvana just by him setting foot on the Sky Island.

But it’s pointless to indulge in ideal fantasies when the situation has already been resolved.

Instead, while growing her respect for her father, the Pope, like a snowball in her heart, Pina suddenly straightened her body as she saw Arin’s group walking towards her.

No, for some reason, it wasn’t just Arin’s group.

‘…Even the headmaster?’

A woman with light brown hair walking alongside Arin, Kana, Riana, and Shati.

Headmaster Mira, who had joined them at some point while dealing with the undead, was also walking towards Pina along with them.

Pina quietly raised her staff as she watched the five people approaching her.

“Just in case…”

Behind her was the direction towards the central tower, where the Traveler had said not to let anyone go.

Pina slightly tightened her grip on the staff, considering the possibility that these five might head towards the central tower, and as she watched them, the five approached right in front of Pina in the blink of an eye.

Arin and the others stopped about three steps away from Pina. Since it was her personality to take a strong stance from the beginning rather than silently observing the situation, Pina preemptively asked them.

“What business do you have?”

A question in a tone as if asking why they had bothered to come all the way here.

Even Pina herself thought it was a sharp tone that might slightly offend them, but it was the best tone she could use to drive them away if necessary.

As a candidate for Pope and as one who serves the Traveler, she must complete the orders she received no matter what.

So Pina glared at Mira, Arin, Kana, Riana, and Shati in turn as she asked, and the one who answered was Arin, who was standing at the front.

“It seems the professors are at the central tower. Everyone from the academy is here, but only the professors are missing, right?”

“…And?”

“Huh? No, Pina, you also take Professor Meiyel’s class, don’t you? We came to ask if you’d like to come along since you’re on the way to the central tower.”

Pina replied in a still cold tone to Arin’s question, which was accompanied by the clanking of the sword at her waist.

And Arin seemed slightly taken aback by Pina’s sharp response, but soon smiled purely and held out her hand.

Arin’s outstretched hand, inviting her to come along. Pina looked alternately at the hand extended to her and the central tower behind her, thinking.

‘The orders I received from the Traveler were to support the people on the Sky Island and control those heading towards the central tower.’

Those were the only orders given to Pina. And Pina considered the cases of rejecting and accepting Arin’s hand respectively.

If she took her hand, she would be dragged along to the central tower, and if she didn’t, they would try to pass by her towards the central tower.

In other words, either choice was one she shouldn’t make.

So Pina struck her staff down and muttered softly.

“Prayer Shield”

As she muttered, a golden curtain appeared behind Pina. After lightly tapping it with her hand to confirm its sturdiness, Pina turned her head back and answered.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go to the central tower. I received a request from the professor.”

‘Request’, not ‘order’.

Knowing that carelessly mentioning the word ‘order’ here would cause trouble for the Traveler, Pina cleverly changed ‘order’ to ‘request’.

Since the temple was backing the Traveler, the Traveler’s position within the academy was quite significant, knowingly or unknowingly.

These five people in front of her also knew that the Traveler wouldn’t make unnecessary remarks or requests, so she hoped they would withdraw without unnecessary friction, but it seems it wouldn’t be that easy. Mira, who had been quietly observing the conversation between Arin and Pina, stepped forward.

“Pina, when you say your professor, do you mean Meiyel? You’re saying you definitely received a request from her not to let anyone go to the central tower, right?”

“…Yes.”

To think she would accurately deduce the content of the order that I deliberately kept vague.

As expected of the headmaster of Lua Academy. Pina swallowed and nodded at Mira’s words, backed by her sharp deductive skills.

And as Pina nodded, Mira stroked her chin and let out a long thoughtful sound.

“Hmm…?”

“……”

Gulp…

Her eyes shine with years of experience while simultaneously trying to hide it, even containing a hint of mischief.

Pina shuddered slightly at Mira’s truly frightening gaze, but soon gripped her staff firmly.

Even if she was the headmaster, she absolutely could not let them pass through.

For that reason, Pina focused intently on what Mira would say or do next, and.

Snap!

“Alright. Arin, Kana, Riana, Shati!”

“Wh-What?!”

“H-Headmaster?!”

“Why are you suddenly hugging us?!”

“I-It’s suffocating…”

“…What’s the meaning of this action?”

Pina couldn’t help but ask at Mira’s sudden action of snapping her fingers and embracing Arin and the others like dolls all at once.

It was truly an incomprehensible action.

However, the next moment, seeing the familiar magic circle starting to form on Mira’s staff, Pina moved her body with an “Oh no,” but it was already too late.

“I’ve finished calculating all the coordinates for the central tower. Shall we move to the nearby forest?”

“Wait a mome–!”

Flash───

As Mira swung her staff, their bodies instantly turned into light and disappeared before her eyes.

And Pina’s hand, belatedly stretched out, swept through the empty space where they had vanished into light.

“This is troublesome…”

Only then did Pina realize that she had been thinking only about them passing by her from the beginning. Then, feeling that the shield she had deployed was truly futile, she dispelled it by swinging her staff.

The shield disappears, melting away like cotton candy.

To think that thoughtful sound just now wasn’t her pondering to deduce, but her calculating the coordinates to teleport to the central tower.

She was caught off guard. It was her complete mistake.

“To think I failed to complete the Traveler’s order… I should chase after them now.”

But she couldn’t just stand still forever, blaming herself for the recent mistake. If you make a mistake, it’s basic to move to correct it, even if it seems impossible.

There was an unexpected situation where Mira might have miscalculated the coordinates and dropped them in a completely different place, but the probability of that would converge to 0.

After all, Mira didn’t become the headmaster of Lua Academy through rock-paper-scissors or anything like that.

So rather than expecting such a foolish future like that unexpected situation, she needed to chase after Mira immediately, running with her own feet.

Since she couldn’t properly use teleportation magic herself, the only method left was to run with her own two legs.

“I must hurry and run…!”

So Pina, hugging her staff to her chest, stretched out her legs, and.

“Kyaooooooooo────!!!!!”

Boom, and. She stopped right there, seeing the dragon that had completely shattered the central tower and was now sitting on top of it.

──An unexpected situation had occurred.