Instead, I’ll Give You Cute Executives(3)

In the museum bathroom.

The five who had asked permission from Professor Aria and entered the bathroom were all washing their hands at the sink.

Outside the bathroom, at the entrance, Isolde and Morgan were waiting for them with their eyes wide open.

Seeing that appearance, Arin, who had finished washing her hands first and was observing the two standing on both sides of the door, opened her mouth.

“They look extremely fierce… Is there really something going on?”

Come to think of it, Aria, Meiyel, and those two had all been acting quite strange since earlier.

At least on the surface, they seemed to be focusing on letting them view the museum, but more than that, they were paying attention to each and every one of their movements.

Of course, that was natural as the role of a professor in charge of supervising students, but even so, the extent was a bit excessive.

Arin wondered if it was really true that they were paying attention to something else as she had thought earlier, but unexpectedly, it seemed she wasn’t the only one who had such thoughts.

“Indeed, everyone seemed sharp, as if they were paying attention to something else.”

“If even Professor Aria is like that, doesn’t that say it all?”

Riana and Kana also seemed to feel similarly, muttering like that. At those words, Arin, who had been looking outside the bathroom, turned her head towards the two who were wiping the moisture off their hands with a towel.

“So you thought so too?!”

“What, really? I didn’t notice.”

“I didn’t notice either.”

“No, that’s because you two were just looking at the museum…”

Arin shouted in question at Kana and Riana’s reactions that showed she wasn’t the only one who thought so, but the ones who opened their mouths after Arin’s words were Shati and Pina.

The two tilted their heads as if they hadn’t noticed the conversation between Arin, Kana, and Riana at all.

But it was impossible for the two mages to know, as their interest had been directed solely towards viewing the museum until just now.

How could they know when they had been so focused on sightseeing that they didn’t even give a glance to the professors?

Therefore, when Arin spoke to the two with an awkward smile, Shati and Pina each scratched their heads awkwardly, and Riana, who had been resting her chin as if pondering for a moment, soon raised her head.

“No matter how I think about it, it seems something is definitely going on. Shall we all ask Professor Aria together when we go back? If it’s just one person, I don’t know, but if five people ask, she might tell us.”

“Oh, that certainly makes sense.”

Arin clapped her hands at Riana’s words.

Indeed, unlike her cold appearance, Aria had always been weak to children’s collective requests.

Since there was a possibility she would tell if five people asked together, it was worth trying for Arin, who was very curious about what exactly they were paying attention to.

And this was the same for Kana, and although Shati and Pina didn’t seem particularly curious, they had no choice but to express their intention to participate semi-forcibly since three of them were participating.

“Shall we go then?”

“Yes, let’s go.”

“Should we ask Instructor Isolde or Instructor Morgan too, just in case?”

They had finished their business in the bathroom and washed their hands clean.

There was no need to stay in the bathroom any longer, so the five, including Arin, all lined up in a single file and exited the bathroom entrance, and at the same time, Kana, who was standing in the middle, suggested another opinion.

Certainly, those two instructors were also weak to requests for something, so Arin and Riana expressed agreement that there was a possibility, but it had to be sunk by Pina, who exited the entrance first.

Thud── Thud──

“Huh? Um… Instructor Isolde and Instructor Morgan are both not here…?”

The words Pina, who came out of the bathroom entrance first, uttered.

Pina looked around both sides of the bathroom entrance where Isolde and Morgan had been standing and said so, and at Pina’s words, the four who were coming out after her jumped out of the entrance in surprise.

“What?”

“There’s no way those two wouldn’t be here, right? Weren’t they definitely here just now? Did they perhaps go back to where the professors are?”

“No, they were looking at us with eyes that said they wouldn’t let us slip away in the first place, so even if it was for a moment, there’s no way they would have gone back.”

“Riana’s right. And they were definitely here until just before we came out, right? If they had gone back, there would have been footsteps, but there were no footsteps.”

The four who had rushed out unable to believe Pina’s words realized that there really was no one standing at the bathroom entrance, and they widened their eyes and each uttered a word.

Kana thought of the possibility that the two might have briefly returned to where Aria was, but Riana and Arin denied it.

Especially in Arin’s case, she had seen them standing perfectly fine just a minute ago, so she had to deny it with even more certainty.

However, just because they denied Kana’s opinion didn’t mean the correct answer would pop up.

Rather, if they hadn’t known anything, it would have been fine, but since Kana’s words, which had the highest possibility, were denied, the five could only float question marks over their faces at the deepening mystery.

“Where did they really go?”

“Yeah, really where…”

They ponder where on earth Isolde and Morgan have gone.

However, in the meantime, only one person felt something strange and interrupted everyone’s words.

“Everyone.”

A tone that was not greatly different from usual, but even more stiffly hardened than usual.

The one who opened her mouth with such a tone was none other than Pina.

Pina, who rang the divine bell of her staff that Aria had gifted her earlier at Kraken with a cling, focused everyone’s attention with a face as stiff as her tone.

“Pina?”

“What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly so serious?”

“Did you feel unwell somewhere?”

“If your stomach hurts, I have some medicine…”

“No, that’s not it.”

Pina shook her head at the four who looked at her and spoke with worried words.

And at the same time, looking at them who had not realized the strange reality, enchanted by magic, Pina activated the holy magic of 『Holy Care』 and said:

“The current scenery of the museum… isn’t it too quiet?”

Whether the Holy Care that dispels magic hypnosis or brainwashing worked well, the four who had not been able to grasp the proper problem until just now started looking around in surprise at Pina’s words.

Then, as if they had found the hidden side of the museum like Pina, the four showed bewildered expressions.

“There’s not a single person in the museum…?”

“There were definitely a lot of people until just now…?!”

“What on earth is this…”

Until just before entering the bathroom, the interior of the museum had been so crowded that they might have been buried among people if they weren’t careful, but now no one existed inside the museum except for the five standing here.

And at the fact that no one except Pina had recognized this tremendous change even slightly, only Shati, being a mage, guessed something and asked Pina:

“Ah, wait. Pina, could this possibly be…?”

“Yes, I think it’s probably that ‘possibly’ you’re thinking of.”

Pina nodded, saying that Shati’s guess about something was probably correct.

Pina had also come to the same conclusion as Shati the moment she resisted the ominous aura digging into her mind as a cleric.

“Wait a minute, what exactly is that? Don’t just keep it between you two, tell us too.”

“That’s right. What exactly is this ‘possibly’?”

“We’re curious too…”

And when only the two mages nodded and exchanged incomprehensible conversation, Arin, Riana, and Kana, who still hadn’t grasped the proper situation, asked the two, and Pina was the first to answer:

“I’m not certain, but I think it’s probably a barrier… Professor Meiyel taught us that there are broadly five types of magic: attack, defense, domain, creation, and destruction. And the only means that affects your minds like this and transports you to a place that seems like a completely different space is the domain part.”

“Among such domain magics, it would be correct to think that barrier magic has made us like this now.”

After Pina explained the important part, Shati followed up by stating the core content.

Even though the three had no connection to magic, they could understand roughly after such an explanation, so the three half-nodded.

And among them, Arin, who organized her complicated thoughts the fastest, pressed her head and asked Pina once again:

“So you’re saying we’re trapped in an unknown barrier right now?”

“Yes, simply put, that’s it.”

“Then can we know who cast that barrier…”

“[Oh my, correct answer. Congratulations.]”

Arin was about to ask about the caster of that barrier magic, knowing they were trapped in a barrier. However, before Arin’s question could even finish, an unpleasant voice resounded from the surroundings.

A woman’s voice resonating and buzzing as if using the speakers inside the museum.

And the next moment, the surrounding scenery that had looked like an ordinary museum began to be dyed in deep purple.

“The surroundings…”

“Ugh, I feel dizzy…”

“Could this be that barrier?”

Slowly, as if dropping paint on water, the purple color begins to eat away at the surrounding scenery.

The walls, paintings, windows, exhibits, everything visible is being dyed purple.

A purple curtain that spreads with a thud and encroaches on the view as if separating from the world.

Eventually, when that curtain completely formed a rectangular parallelepiped and created an enclosed space, a woman who seemed to be the owner of the voice from earlier rose up from the purple floor along with eleven men and women.

“But unfortunately, two wrong answers are mixed in with the correct answer.”

The woman who rose from the floor and continued her interrupted words while showing two fingers.

And seeing the woman with nothing covering her face and the eleven men and women who, like her, had not covered their faces, Arin, Kana, and Pina unconsciously shouted inside:

Demons, they thought.

The pale skin and ears unique to demons remaining in their memories are too similar. No matter who might say otherwise, the three who had seen demons in person couldn’t help but recognize it.

But whether knowing or not knowing these feelings of the three, the woman who had shown two fingers in front of them folded one finger and said:

“The first wrong answer is that this barrier I spread is not just an ordinary barrier magic.”

Perhaps feeling displeased that the barrier she spread was compared to other ordinary barrier magics, the woman slightly furrowed her brows.

At that small movement, the five who had their hands on their weapons flinched their shoulders, but fortunately, the woman did not move any further.

As if she would move only after telling the second of the two wrong answers she mentioned, the woman folded her remaining finger and pulled up the corners of her mouth in a grin.

“The second wrong answer is that you are not trapped in my barrier, but isolated. They may look similar, but these two are quite different.”

Saying that and folding both fingers, the woman started bursting into laughter, holding her stomach as if something was so funny.

A appearance that anyone could see was showing off her composure and looking down on them. However, none of the five could have emotions of indignation at that action.

After all, the woman’s laughter was an action coming from that much confidence. And in reality, even if they drew their weapons here and launched a surprise attack, or even if they attacked together, an image of properly damaging the woman in front of them didn’t form in their minds.

The difference in skill between the woman in front of them and the five was that enormous.

Therefore, no one could even frown at the woman bursting into laughter. Except for only the man with light sky blue hair beside her.

“That’s enough, Teardrop. Even though we’ve separated Lady Isolde and Lady Morgan far away, we mustn’t let our guard down. Let’s quickly kill these human brats and escape.”

“Sigh, I told you not to order me around, Haphras.”

The woman who had been laughing until just now, Teardrop, as the man called her, wrinkled her expression at Haphras’s words.

And at that moment, the five who had only been taking a defensive stance under Teardrop’s pressure that was pressing down on the area felt a common thought simultaneously, without even having time to feel the strangeness in what Haphras had just said.

That they must escape from here right now.

The five had learned a lot and become stronger at the academy. They had accomplished things they thought were their limits and directly saw things they thought impossible succeed.

In other words, it means their narrow field of vision had widened in all directions. However, as much as they had become stronger, there was something they had heard until their ears developed calluses.

-Your life always comes first.

Always think of your own life as the top priority. If you encounter an enemy you think you can’t even match, focus all your efforts on escaping.

The five had heard this endlessly, and therefore thought they should escape from the demons in front of them at this moment.

Just thinking… that is.

‘My body… won’t move…’

It is said that when a crisis of survival comes, human reactions are largely divided into two.

Either move instinctively or freeze according to instinct.

But unfortunately, in front of those demons, the bodies of the five chose to freeze according to instinct.

The emotion of fear pulled their two feet heavily to the ground like shackles. So heavily that it felt like they might be sucked into the dizzying purple curtain.

Gradually, continuously, continuously, continuously, that weight becomes heavier.

They knew that the more their feet stuck, the heavier it became, but still, they couldn’t lift their feet. From the beginning, the moment when they could lift their feet had long since passed far beyond reach.

Therefore, Arin, Kana, Riana, Shati, and Pina could only watch Teardrop approaching, arranging her disheveled hair in front of them.

“Since there are two of the four people Lady Idea said absolutely not to touch on that side, we can’t touch them, so we must definitely kill you guys before leaving.”

Saying that it’s an order, Teardrop takes out a short stick-shaped staff.

And the purple-haired woman who appeared behind her also raised a large staff and followed Teardrop’s words:

“That’s right, our orders are to kill you if we see you, so it’s a bit heartbreaking, but we have no choice but to kill you.”

Saying that and pretending to wipe away tears, the purple-haired woman. Then, a woman with long white hair who approached Teardrop’s side along with the purple-haired woman also tapped her shoulder with her sword and yawned lazily.

“Yawn… I’m tired, so let’s kill them quickly and go. Ah, but we’ll have to evacuate those ones.”

The white-haired woman says so, pointing at the five with the hand that was tapping her sword.

Teardrop had been walking with a very natural gait along with the two who had just spoken, but when the white-haired woman’s words about “evacuation” ended, she suddenly stopped walking as if feeling something strange.

Then Teardrop alternately looked at both sides of herself where the two voices had just come from.

“Huh…?”

And then Teardrop rubbed her eyes as if she had seen something wrong.

But nothing had changed even after she rubbed her eyes.

Just two more women had lined up on both sides of Teardrop, who had been approaching Arin, Kana, Riana, Shati, and Pina very naturally.

To put it more simply, Isolde and Morgan were standing there.

And the moment she clearly reflected them on her retina, Teardrop muttered quietly:

“Wow…”