What on earth is inside that thing?

“Oh my, President. You seem to be getting too excited all of a sudden?”

“Do I!! Look like!! I’m not getting excited right now!?”

The Student Council President shouted while stomping on the dirt ground.

Along with that, her blue long hair became disheveled by the torrent of mana that burst out, but she couldn’t afford to pay attention to fixing that.

The important thing is the window.

The fact that this troublemaker is using a window torn off from somewhere.

“I think you’re misunderstanding, so let me tell you, I’m not particularly trying to do anything with this window. I just swiped one from the warehouse because there were some kids who wanted to test the power of magic with it.”

“That’s the problem, the problem!!! Why did you take something from the warehouse in the first place? Why on earth!?”

Window, window…

Come to think of it, the reason the windows of this academy are guaranteed durability is because windows suffer the most damage from the rampages of troublemakers.

Desks and chairs can be set upright if they fall, but once a window breaks, that’s the end.

It’s troublesome to remake windows one by one, so it was derived from the intention of preventing such incidents by increasing durability even if it means doing so.

But for some reason, even with increased durability, the number of guys who break those windows keeps growing year by year.

Saying they want to experiment with the power of their homemade magic, or that the sports club wants to use them instead of sandbags…

Of course, windows are cheaper than other facilities, but the problem is that the mental state of the artisan who makes these windows shatters like glass.

‘He’s someone who takes pride in his work… Even when ordering windows, the vice president is sweating to console and persuade that person!’

Just thinking about the vice president who is currently down in the academic city doing sales makes her head hurt.

Unable to bear those emotions, Maya rolled her eyes and shouted at the blonde delinquent beyond the window.

“Do you know how many windows you troublemakers have broken since the new semester started!? Why are you troublemakers so desperate to break windows? Why on earth!?”

“Just as you want to climb a mountain when you see one, wanting to break a window when you see one… Isn’t that human instinct?”

“Don’t talk nonsense with such a serious face!!!”

-Clang!!

But the school supplies thrown were all bouncing off the window.

Feeling that durability firsthand, Sean became more aggressive and began to close the distance with the president while holding the glass window.

“Ooh, yes. It’s good to see such passion!! This might become a more fun fight!?”

“Damn it!!”

Maya felt a sense of crisis from Sean approaching with the window.

She’d like to split open that idiot’s head with the caliper on her back right away, but even that level of impact can’t break that window.

Unless she had a proper weapon, that window has a structure that makes it impossible to break with just school supplies.

-Crash!!

But immediately after, the sound of glass breaking is heard.

Along with that, the glass barrier blocking Sean disappeared, and the eyes under his sunglasses began to open wide.

“…Huh?”

“What…”

Maya was also surprised.

To think that a window that deflects even considerable attack magic would break. What on earth happened?

“President! Now’s your chance!”

A voice is heard in this incomprehensible situation.

When she immediately turned her gaze towards it, there was a blonde boy in a throwing posture.

Dale Emberton.

The boy who was sleeping in the student council room when last seen had thrown a stone at Sean who was causing trouble with the glass window.

‘Whatever it is, I’m saved!’

Maya immediately charged as soon as she grasped the situation.

Sean’s face instantly turned bewildered when faced with that sprint.

“Whoa!? Wait…”

“Be quiet!”

-Thwack!

A strike with the caliper to the head.

Even though he pulled mana to the extreme to block it, the axe-like impact began to mess with Sean’s mind.

“Ack!”

The moment the worst troublemaker in school was subdued by the president’s hand.

Maya turned her head away from him and urgently ran towards the boy who had faced her.

“President, are you alri… Whoa!?”

Maya hugged and lifted Dale as soon as she approached.

Dale’s face turned bright red at the sudden unexpected action.

“P-President. This is too close…”

“Why did you interfere?”

“…Pardon?”

“If that guy hadn’t been so overconfident, he might have shifted his target to Dale!”

It’s good that he stopped the mischief with the power to break the glass, but coincidentally, this child is neither part of the student council nor the disciplinary committee.

A child who didn’t need to get involved in such danger.

Nevertheless, creating a situation where he had to take action made the student council president feel a great sense of responsibility.

“…I’m sorry for yelling.”

But in the end, isn’t he a child who tried to help her?

Worry for the boy, and helplessness towards herself…

Maya, who calmed the surge of emotions stemming from all of that, carefully looked down at the boy who had left her embrace.

“N-No. It’s fine.”

The boy shrinks his body.

Is his face so red because of the setting sun?

Whatever it is, seeing him so severely intimidated doesn’t look good.

“By the way, why is Dale here?”

“Well, I was looking for you, President… You looked in danger…”

The boy said this while slightly gripping his sleeve, then withdrew his hand and clasped both hands to his chest.

Not a little anxiety could be felt in the gaze that looked up at her.

Was he surprised to find no one by his side when he woke up?

“…Let’s talk later.”

Although her heart ached at his appearance, the problem is that the situation isn’t good for comforting this child.

“Sean Goldroff. Stop pretending to be asleep and get up. Where is Ludger now?”

Maya shouted while gripping the collar of the guy collapsed on the ground.

Sean, who had even removed the hand gripping his head, spoke with difficulty.

“Ugh, this is too much. Not only excessive suppression but even grabbing my collar. My head feels like it’s about to split, so first to the infirmary…”

“Shut up and talk before I rip that mouth!”

Maya shouted fiercely while bringing a triangle ruler to his mouth.

In reality, she was in a situation where her reason was about to fly away due to impatience.

It’s unknown what she might do if provoked any further.

Even for Sean, who had been tormenting the student council and disciplinary committee all along, it was the first time seeing her so enraged.

“…I don’t know either.”

The moment he realized further resistance was meaningless.

But the words that followed as if giving up were unsatisfactory to Maya as well.

“Talking nonsense again…”

“I told you from the start, didn’t I? I just jumped in because it looked fun. Originally, all I knew was what I heard from the next room when we were in the punishment building together.”

It’s not a lie.

From the start, none of the problems he had caused so far were directly initiated by him.

He only interfered if there was a trigger. He might have added fuel to the fire, but Sean Goldroff was a troublemaker who never even started lighting the fire himself.

And Maya knows this well too.

“That story seemed interesting, so I thought it would be nice if it happened once, and I jumped in… But it seems the president doesn’t think so.”

“…Tell me. What exactly is Ludger trying to do?”

If so, even if she doesn’t know the location, she should be able to hear the purpose.

As she spoke while putting more strength into the hand gripping his collar, Sean put his hand on his chin and fell into thought.

“Wanting to see fireworks filling the sky raining down on the academy… Was that what he said?”

‘Not just detonating, but bombing?’

Maya turned pale.

If these words are true, it won’t end with just one facility collapsing.

Gunpowder is a tool with the potential to devastate an area with just one manipulation if enough quantity is secured.

‘This is dangerous, if this isn’t stopped it will be unimaginably dangerous…’

-Boom boom boom!!!

At that moment, a series of explosions piercing the eardrums.

Immediately after her nerves were on edge, Dale, who was watching the situation beside her, pointed somewhere and shouted.

“President, over there!”

‘…Is it already too late?’

Maya turned to look at the indicated place with a blank face.

There, as Sean said, a mass of light filling the sky existed.

Countless debris generated by explosions caused by gunpowder.

All of it began to pour down towards the academy at this moment.

---

And, as time was gradually approaching night.

-Crackle.

Countless parts making up the clock tower.

As even the light shining through them gradually faded, I lit a new cigarette and kicked away the pile of scrap metal at the bottom to clear the way.

The human garbage collapsed here and there as well.

“Have you done enough now?”

What exists at the end where I headed is Reynold Clock, slumped against the wall and only gasping for breath.

He’s a guy who replaced more than half of his body with machinery, but now even that has been smashed to pieces by my hands.

He should be thankful that all his limbs are metal.

Even if I crush and break everything, there’s no blood flow, so he won’t die from excessive bleeding.

“…Kuh. Hahaha!”

Reynold Clock bursts into laughter with such vigor despite his miserable state.

Even with his body all crumbled, killing intent towards me was visible beyond his broken monocle.

“What an unfunny woman. With that much power… You’re still doing boring work of saving people, now as before.”

“You talk too much.”

-Slap!

I slapped his cheek and grabbed his collar, lifting him up to my head level.

Originally, everyone has different values.

Just as he won’t listen to anything I say, no matter what this guy babbles, my thoughts won’t change either.

So we just finish saying what we have to say to each other.

“I don’t know what you were trying to do here, but you chose a bad place. Even if it wasn’t me, whatever you guys were trying to do would have been cleaned up quickly.”

Yes, from the start, Maris’s academic city is on a scale comparable to a huge city-state in itself.

Moreover, as it worships multinationality and multiculturalism, the quality of incidents that occur is on a different level from the academy.

Nevertheless, the reason there’s no significant disturbance in this city is because the handling of such matters is close to perfect.

From the moment they recognized the existence of bombs, they would have searched and dismantled them without anyone noticing, so there was no reason for me to pay attention to them.

What angers me most is the fact that if I hadn’t stepped in, my disciple would have died at the hands of this damned guy.

“Clean up, you say? What naive…”

As I put more strength into the hand gripping his collar at that thought, laughter burst out again.

Just as I was about to slap him once more because I was sick of looking at him, Reynold began to grip the wrist holding his collar with his broken mechanical hand.

“Haven’t you noticed that my holding you here itself is to buy time!?”

“What?”

What nonsense is this bastard trying to…

-Click!

…No, it’s not nonsense.

I immediately let go of his collar and turned towards where the sound came from.

The noise occurred as a key inserted into a padlock turned.

“Ugh, hahaha!!! I finally got it! Finally, that thing is in my hands!!”

At the place where that noise was heard, a man was shouting while holding a key in front of a box bound with black chains.

Oh no, I had forgotten for a moment, distracted by the fight.

What’s happening here was an illegal transaction, and this guy just came to sell goods to a customer.

“But weren’t you going to sell that? You haven’t even received payment yet, but you’re handing over the key to the customer right away.”

“…If I’m going to be caught anyway, it’s better to struggle a bit.”

Struggle, he says.

Seeing him say such things even after the previous fierce battle, it seems that what’s inside must be quite an extraordinary weapon.

“What on earth is inside that thing?”

Is there some extremely powerful bomb inside?

If not that, then is it an artifact with mysterious powers?

“Deus Ex Machina.”

Flinch.

My body trembled the moment I heard the mentioned name.

Yes, it was certainly a familiar name.

It was something I had used in the game as well.

“An ancient weapon with self-awareness that existed hundreds of years ago… It’s the most powerful item I’ve excavated.”

“You madman.”

I wondered why he was grinning so much about what he brought.

He’s just gone mad thinking we’ll all die here.