Instead, I’ll Give You Cute Executives

For Shati, magic was life.

Even when her pride was piercing through the sky, even when she opened her eyes that had been covered by pride after seeing Meiyel, this one fact never changed.

She had been exposed to magic since birth, became interested in magic, had talent for magic, and had the perseverance to put effort into magic.

Therefore, magic was life for Shati, and for this life, there was a place she absolutely wanted to visit.

A place anyone who had even slightly dipped their toes into magic would want to go.

A place that has continued to live and breathe together with primordial magic until now.

And a place where a book said to contain all of that history without missing anything is kept.

The underwater kingdom.

Visiting that place where mages’ dreams exist was Shati’s wish, and she thought it would be a place to hone her path as a mage.

However, since she had enrolled in the academy first, graduation came first, so Shati had half given up on her dream of the underwater kingdom and kept it only in her heart.

It was natural to prioritize studies as a student, and there was already a mountain of things to learn just from Meiyel, the professor teaching her.

However, this dream that Shati had half folded away and was just keeping came to her through an unexpected opportunity.

That opportunity was none other than the field trip from the academy.

When she heard that the underwater kingdom had been chosen as the destination for this field trip, she was so excited she couldn’t even describe it.

She was so excited that she even acted cute to her father, which she usually didn’t do, and gave a gift as an apology to her sister whom she didn’t get along with.

Of course, after the excitement had somewhat cooled down, it remained as a dark history that wouldn’t be enough even if she tore her blanket, but anyway, Shati headed to the underwater kingdom with the calmed excitement in her heart, and there, Shati’s calmed excitement flared up twice.

The first was when she got fitted for a new staff at the weapon shop Kraken that was so expensive she couldn’t even dare to consider it.

And the second was.

“Welcome. To the Magic History Museum.”

“W-Wooooow…!!!”

Right now. At this moment when we arrived at the Magic History Museum.

---

The Magic History Museum was located about 800m to the west of where the weapon shop Kraken was.

If it had been a normal outside, I would have used teleportation magic to go straight there, but this was the underwater kingdom where there was much to see and learn just by walking around.

Judging that it would be more helpful to walk around directly, I led the students walking through the streets towards the Magic History Museum.

However, there were problems such as the students and Morgan being enchanted by a street vendor and having to be forcibly dragged away, or Isolde getting heated up due to continuous misses after entering a dart game place on the street out of interest and blowing away the dart board, but we were able to arrive at the Magic History Museum in about 30 minutes.

“It’s finally visible.”

“That seems to be the ticket office…”

The museum we arrived at after 30 minutes that were quite eventful despite being just 30 minutes.

I walked towards the ticket office Mu pointed at, leading the students who were admiring its appearance visible even from afar.

“Welcome, how may I help you?”

As we approached the ticket office, a fish-person woman inside, dressed in neat attire, bowed her head and asked me.

To the woman’s question, asked with a fake smile hardened by service work, I showed the appearance of Mu, Morgan, Isolde, and the students who had followed behind me and said:

“I’d like tickets for ten students and six adults please.”

“Yes, understood. Student fare is 1 silver, adult fare is 1 silver 3 bronze, for a total of 1 gold 7 silver 8 bronze.”

In Korean won, that’s about 10,000 won for student fare and 13,000 won for adult fare. It wasn’t much different from the price in the game.

Earlier I used a temple check because I spent such large sums of hundreds of millions, but I could easily afford this small change with my own money.

Clink──

“Here you go.”

I took out exactly 1 gold 7 silver 8 bronze from my money pouch and placed it in the ticket office woman’s hand, and then the woman took the money from me and handed me wristbands that seemed to be made of paper, matching the quantity of 16 people.

“You can enter and look around wearing these. Reinforcement magic, waterproofing magic, and resistance magic have been cast so they don’t tear, so please be careful not to forget them while walking around inside, and when you leave, please remove the wristbands and throw them in the trash.”

“Understood.”

“Then I hope you have a good memory.”

I answered calmly, but inwardly I was quite surprised as I looked down at the wristbands clutched in my hand.

To think that three types of imbued magic would be cast on each of these paper wristbands. Moreover, hearing that we should throw them in the trash when we leave, I thought that this was indeed the magic city of the underwater kingdom.

This was truly a luxury of magic.

I honestly admired the paper wristbands and returned to the students waiting behind, handing out the paper wristbands one by one to everyone.

“These are entrance tickets, so be careful not to forget them while inside. Everyone put one on. Meiyel, distribute them.”

“Mm…”

When I handed the wristbands to Meiyel, Meiyel’s magic power floats them to fly in front of everyone.

Everyone grabbed the wristband that flew in front of them and put it on their wrist, and I also put the wristband on my wrist.

I thought it would be quite rough since it was a paper wristband, but surprisingly, the wristband stuck softly to my arm.

As I was slightly enjoying the feel of such a wristband, I saw Morgan, who had quietly put on her wristband, carefully approaching my side.

Morgan walking towards me as if she naturally had something ordinary to say.

However, since there was no reason for Morgan to approach me for something trivial, this could only be seen as her having something important to say.

And this guess of mine was exactly right.

“New ones have attached themselves. Unlike the sentries we talked about earlier, these ones seem quite strong this time, what should we do?”

“New ones?”

Morgan reports that new demons have attached themselves in place of the dead sentries.

When I asked back to Morgan, who said that with a serious expression, Morgan nodded and glanced behind her.

“They hide their presence well, but four of them are hiding within 100m of here. Judging by their presence concealment beyond that of the sentries, it seems a great general level one has come?”

“A great general, you say…”

At Morgan’s words mentioning a great general, I closed my mouth and chewed on the words “great general”.

As I said before, a demon great general is a powerful being of level 80 or higher. They were beings strong enough to be comparable to Haran, the knight commander and Arin’s father, one by one.

Of course, they wouldn’t be a match for demon executives like Morgan or Isolde, but they would be opponents difficult for the students to handle.

“It seems to be one great general and three elite soldiers, what do you think, should I go kill them?”

As I was pondering, Morgan flickered her eyes wickedly and twitched her hands, saying she could go kill them right away.

And watching Morgan, who even then didn’t directly reach for her sword lest she be detected by the monitoring great general, I gently shook my head.

“No, we’ll just enter the museum now. Anyway, seeing that they’re not pouncing on us right away, it seems they’re waiting for something, and if so, it might be good to lure them until what they’re waiting for comes.”

“Hmm? Wouldn’t it make Idea flustered if we kill them right now and dispose of the bodies?”

“It would be rather unfortunate if we moved rashly and that’s what they’re hoping for. In the first place, as long as they move first, we can definitely win, so we have no choice but to enter the trap they’re setting even if we take some risk.”

Although I don’t know what kind of trap those demon great generals and elite soldiers monitoring us are setting, I thought that with our current forces, we could probably deal with it easily.

Moreover, if Idea has any sense, she can’t come to this place where all my avatars, who can’t win even in a one-on-one match, are gathered.

Then, even if we take an unexpected risk, it would be more advantageous for us to draw them in a little further.

Even if they use all sorts of methods, we have the ability to overcome them sufficiently, so it’s fine for us to move after seeing all of their moves.

Rather, as we move after seeing all of the opponent’s moves, victory was certain.

“Moreover, the people we need to protect now are not just these students here, but those in the entire underwater kingdom. So we should block the enemy’s moves as much as possible within the line of us taking damage.”

“So… you’re saying you’d rather take the blame yourself than move unnecessarily and risk causing damage to the entire underwater kingdom?”

“Yes, that’s exactly right.”

Rather than becoming troublesome by affecting other academy personnel or completely unrelated civilians spread throughout the underwater kingdom, it was better for us, who were clearly locked onto by Idea’s side, to take everything.

In other words, as Morgan said, we would take the lead in being targeted. Then the damage that unrelated people would take would be zero.

That is to say, with a very high probability, we can end this quest flawlessly as well.

And the reason I could make such a judgment was, of course, due to confidence in my own abilities.

Knowing this fact, Morgan showed a smile as if dumbfounded and shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s really an annoying idea unique to the strong. If I were the opponent, my will would be completely crushed.”

“That would be even better then. Anyway, we’re going to enter the museum now, so make sure to protect the students together with Isolde.”

“Sure~ Got it.”

Morgan returns to Isolde’s side, dragging out the end of her words at my order.

And after seeing Morgan’s appearance moving her lips as if explaining the same thing to Isolde, I looked around at the students who had all put on their wristbands.

Shati and Pina, who use magic, were still sparkling their eyes brightly, and the warrior-type children generally had indifferent expressions.

Of course, it’s natural for them to have no interest in magic, as they’ll likely have no connection with magic for their entire lives.

I took in the appearance of all such students with my eyes once, then took one step forward to start walking towards the entrance of the museum.

“Then let’s go inside now. Everyone follow me.”

“””Yes!!!”””

Leading the students behind me who gave a short but thick answer, I slowly entered the entrance of the museum that looked like the maw of a demon.

Bring on any trap. I’ll chew through it head-on fair and square.

And it didn’t even take an hour for this thought to be shattered.

---

As we slowly passed through the dark tunnel and entered, a calm employee’s voice greeted everyone along with bright lighting.

“Welcome. To the Magic History Museum.”

Perhaps because it was a museum where people view the interior quietly, the employee’s voice reached our ears as if piercing them despite being a small voice.

And as this employee’s voice faded, small exclamations burst out from the surrounding children, and among such children, Arin looked around with an indifferent face.

“It’s big…”

As befitting the renowned Magic History Museum of the underwater kingdom, the interior was huge enough to be comparable to Kraken we went to earlier.

But that was it.

With the heat in her heart not even half of half of the tremendous excitement and expectation she felt at Kraken, that was the only impression Arin felt.

“This is natural, but…”

In the first place, how could Arin, a swordswoman, have any interest in magic?

The only times Arin used magic power were for body strengthening and sword energy activation, and she was far removed from things like magic that basically required an innate physical disposition to use.

If it had been something like practical sparring or watching battles, she might have been interested as she might have to face mages, but this was a museum.

A museum millions of light years away from things like fighting where blood and sweat fly.

Therefore, Arin’s interest was in a state of converging to almost zero, and when she suddenly looked to the side, Kana and Riana standing on her left side also had eyes with the same reaction as Arin.

And the eyes of the three meet once.

Among the three who thus realized they had similar reactions, the first to open her mouth was Riana.

“We haven’t even gone inside yet, but it doesn’t seem like it will be particularly interesting…”

“I agree.”

“Me too…”

Archer, cook, swordswoman. Although their weapons and fighting methods were completely different, it seems their impressions of this museum were similar just because of the common point of having no connection with magic.

However, as if already seeing through the hearts of these three, Aria, who was walking in front, turned to look behind where they were and said:

“Just in case, I’ll say this, but don’t think it will be boring just because it’s a Magic History Museum. There aren’t only things related to magic. I won’t give examples in advance because it might eliminate expectations, but anyway, don’t have such dead eyes.”

“Ugh…”

“It seems everything was visible…”

“This is a bit embarrassing.”

Arin, Riana, and Kana awkwardly scratched their heads at Aria’s words, who said that while looking them over once.

And Aria, who turned her head back to its original position, whispered something to Meiyel beside her while looking at Shati and Pina, who had already rushed far ahead, carried away by excitement.

At that whisper, Meiyel nodded her head once and swung her staff once. Then Shati and Pina, who were far away, suddenly disappeared and fell beside Arin, Kana, and Riana.

It seems she brought the two back with teleportation magic that they had experienced a few times before.

As soon as Shati and Pina fell to the floor, Aria pressed her temples as if her head hurt and said to the two:

“Shati, Pina. Don’t act on your own just because you’re too excited. If you act on your own one more time, I’ll have you expelled from this museum.”

“What?! Th-That’s…!”

“Isn’t expulsion from the museum too much?!”

“So just don’t act on your own.”

Shati and Pina react, suddenly getting up at the word expulsion. To those words, Aria answered coldly and turned around again.

But even while doing so, she rubs her forehead dry as Meiyel floats up slightly the next moment and says something to her ear.

Eventually, Arin quietly whispered together with Kana and Riana as she watched Aria call Yujia, Kama, Isolde, and Morgan from behind and head to a slightly distant place.

“Professor Aria is having quite a hard time.”

“Yeah. It’s a side we don’t usually see.”

“Indeed… It seems things are going awry for her in various ways.”

Unlike the omnipotent appearance that solved all problems without difficulty that they usually saw at the academy, it looked like screws were coming loose here and there.

Although it could happen when in charge of ten students on a field trip, somehow to Arin it looked like she was paying attention to something else besides themselves.

Something much more important and difficult than managing students.

As far as Arin knew, Aria would never show such an appearance for this level of matter, and she had consistently seen her solve even fairly difficult matters without any problem, so Arin couldn’t help but think so.

However, of course, she didn’t voice this thought. After all, this was just Arin’s personal opinion.

‘Besides, even if it were true, I don’t think she’d tell me if I asked…’

In the end, putting aside unnecessary thoughts, Arin was happily sharing the conversation that had started from Aria’s strange appearance and drifted into idle chat, now joined by Shati and Pina who had suddenly been included, when Aria who had gone far away for a moment returned.

“Everyone line up in two rows again. We’ll go around the interior of the museum according to the course now, so follow without scattering.”

The children’s answers resound at Aria’s words. Then the children who were standing messily began to line up in rows.

Kana went to the front with Riana, and Shati stood next to Arin. And other children lined up behind them.

After neatly forming 5 rows like that, Aria, who was standing at the very front, turned her back and walked forward.

“Alright, then let’s go. We’ll look around slowly from the first floor.”

At Aria’s words that they would look around slowly from the first floor, Arin also slightly rolled her eyes to look around.

Then, unlike earlier when she had no interest, quite a few eye-catching things were visible.

There weren’t many, but there seemed to be swords imbued with magic like those at Kraken, an experience zone where people seemed to be touching something that looked like a caterpillar, and even devices that allowed people who looked like swordsmen to use magic.

“Ooh…”

It seemed like it might really be a more interesting viewing than expected. Moreover, Shati, who had some knowledge about magic, was right beside her.

Although she had almost no interest until just now, Arin thought that with Shati’s help, she might be able to look around the museum more interestingly than expected.

“Magic, magic, magic is the best after all… Hehehe…”

“……”

Maybe not, though.

---

About 30 minutes after Aria’s group entered the museum, outside the Magic History Museum.

Twelve demons were gathered in a secluded place in a corner of the museum where people’s eyes didn’t reach.

Considering the number of demons who came to the underwater kingdom, it was a situation where everyone except the executive Idea had gathered.

And among the demons gathered in such a secluded place, only two were opening their mouths and conversing.

“Teardrop, Lady Idea has sent the signal. Let’s begin.”

“Don’t order me around, Haphras. I may accept orders from Lady Idea, but I’m not in a position to receive orders from you.”

“Is that so, if it sounded that way, I apologize for that part.”

A minor argument follows at Haphras’s words to begin.

But thanks to Haphras who easily apologized to the point of being tedious, the argument ended in an instant, and Teardrop lightly clicked her tongue and gathered and compressed demon energy in her hand.

Dark blue demon energy matching her blue hair color is compressed together with magic power.

The purpose was to activate Teardrop’s own magic in order to finish what Idea had ordered.

Kwaang…!

“She’s started.”

“Good, then I’ll spread it.”

At the explosion sound heard from far away, from the direction of the Library of Records, Teardrop released the demon energy mixed magic power she had gathered in her hand.

Then slowly, slowly, an ominous curtain of purple light began to split and devour the museum.

『Isolation Barrier』

Immediately after Teardrop’s barrier spread, the gathered demons simultaneously jumped into the interior of the museum as if they had never been there from the beginning.

Only to fulfill the order.