The Sea… Was Split(4)

With a single slash, the sea is split and the layers of the ocean are divided.

At the sight that looked as if a sky had been created in the deep sea, the citizens of the underwater kingdom, the magicians who had gathered at the librarian’s call, and all the academy students couldn’t help but be amazed.

Who wouldn’t be amazed at directly witnessing such a sight that one might not see properly even once in a lifetime?

So the voices of admiration bursting out here and there didn’t stop, and among those exclaiming in admiration were Arin, Kana, Riana, Shati, and Pina, who had been taking care of Professor Meiyel in the library.

“Professor, is your arm alright?”

“Yes… Thanks to Pina treating it with holy magic… New flesh is attaching, so it should heal in about three hours…”

“But somehow the flesh looks just like clay.”

“Th-that’s… because the magical powers that make up humans are the four basic elements… my body has a stronger earth element, you could say…”

“Is that so? Well, if you say so, Professor. I’m a layman when it comes to magic.”

Meiyel was regenerating her arms and legs that had been blown off by Idea with magic, and Arin was nursing her by her side.

At Arin’s words that suddenly came out, Meiyel answered while breaking out in a cold sweat, but fortunately, before the conversation could go on longer, the exclamations of the four looking at the scene unfolding outside the library door turned Arin’s attention.

“The sea has split in half…”

“It’s an unbelievable… sight…”

“It looks just like the Milky Way spreading out…”

“To split the sea horizontally…”

No one could speak at length, cutting off their words in the middle and blankly looking up at the sky.

They had been unable to contain their admiration at the sight of cutting through Sky Island before, but this time it was even more extreme.

For a person, with human power, to split the sea.

And if it was split horizontally rather than vertically, no one could possibly give a lengthy explanation.

How could an ordinary person evaluate the sight of a human defying nature right before their eyes?

If they had only heard about it in stories, they would have wanted to say it was nonsense, but now that they were standing right there in the underwater kingdom at that moment, they couldn’t even deny it.

Witnessing a hero’s story that could only be written in epics directly before their eyes, it felt like a mix of emotions they couldn’t explain – awe and some kind of elevated feeling – were rising up.

Goosebumps covered their whole bodies, and at the same time, they felt reverence that someone who could do such a thing was human like themselves.

Although everyone calls such a person who has such destructive power a monster, the movements of such a monster tend to inspire both fear and respect.

So exclamations of admiration burst forth from the four’s mouths again.

And those exclamations would have continued for tens of seconds more if it weren’t for what Arin said, seemingly drawn by the four’s voices of admiration.

“…Hey, isn’t seawater coming in through the barrier right now?”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Pardon?”

“What did you just say?”

The air instantly froze at Arin’s words as she stood beside the four.

It was because their dazed minds had returned at Arin’s realistic words, the opposite of the awe-inspiring sight from a moment ago.

But soon, as they came to their senses and voiced questions at Arin’s words, raising their heads, the four could clearly see.

Kururururu─────

Fine cracks etched on the barrier surrounding the underwater kingdom along the split sea.

And undoubtedly, as Arin had said, seawater was flowing in and falling through those cracks, though in small amounts.

The seawater was trickling down little by little like a stream, but what was important right now was that outside seawater was leaking into the barrier of the underwater kingdom, a kingdom in the deep sea where ordinary living beings could never enter.

The underwater kingdom was an undersea kingdom built in the deep sea where ordinary creatures could never enter.

As such, the underwater kingdom had completely isolated their living space from the outside sea with a barrier, so there was no way seawater could enter the underwater kingdom.

Yet the fact that seawater was entering probably meant that the slash that cut the sea had created a gap in the barrier.

And as soon as they realized this fact, Pina, who had used communication magic on her classmates in magic class spread throughout the underwater kingdom at Aria’s order earlier, shuddered at the ominous feeling that suddenly began to rise.

“I think, but I hope not… Could the reason Professor Aria told us to prepare to use gravity magic earlier be because of this…?”

“D-Don’t say such worrying things, Pina. But come to think of it, the professor did ask the librarian to gather magicians from all over the underwater kingdom earlier, surely that couldn’t be…”

As the ominous feeling began to rise, for some reason Aria’s words from earlier started to fit together perfectly.

Although they said “surely not”, Shati and Pina were already half convinced.

And when the two had finished thinking that far, the commotion heard from outside pushed their thoughts that were standing on the border between certainty and anxiety towards certainty.

-Se-Seawater is coming in!!! Half of all magicians focus on repairing the barrier!!! The other half block the incoming seawater!!!

-Gra-Gravity magic! Block it with gravity magic!

-We are magicians from Lua Academy! We and our students will help too!

It seemed those outside had finally emerged from their admiration and saw reality, as they shouted looking at the barrier where seawater was leaking in.

Along with that, even before the commotion ended, the cracks in the barrier began to split wider with an ominous sound.

At the sight of the barrier cracking with a jjeojeojuk sound, Shati and Pina, who had been hesitating in place, flew outside the library without anyone needing to go first.

“We’ll go outside and help with the barrier work for a bit!!”

“Please take care of Professor Meiyel!”

“O-Okay, come back safely…”

“I-I’ll pray for your safe return!”

“We’re counting on you!!”

Arin, Riana, and Kana awkwardly waved back and wished good luck to the two who shouted as they hurriedly flew away.

After exchanging greetings like that, the two’s forms completely disappeared in no time.

At the same time, looking up at the sky, the seawater that had been coming in had already been significantly reduced by the quick response of the magicians who had flown up, and seeing the cracked barrier slowly being repaired, the three let out sighs of relief without anyone needing to go first.

“It doesn’t seem like it will be that big of a problem…”

“Yeah, thank goodness…”

“Professor Aria really does things on a grand scale…”

Although it seemed planned, seeing how she had the librarian gather magicians in advance, it was still an action by Aria that made observers clutch their hearts.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like it would take very long for the cracked barrier to return, so the three were relieved and sat down beside Meiyel, who was regenerating her body.

“Now we just have to wait until Professor Aria returns, right?”

“Yes, we can’t see where she went after going up earlier, but she should be back soon.”

“It really was an eventful field trip…”

Strictly speaking, the field trip wasn’t over yet, and there were still several hours left until the original end time, but their mental fatigue had already reached its limit.

Fortunately or unfortunately, thanks to this incident happening, they would probably be able to return to the academy not long after Aria returned, so all that was left was to wait for Aria to come to this library.

If possible, they wanted to return to the academy quickly and then go home.

Thinking that, as the three were quietly resting and catching their breath, Meiyel, who had been leaning against the library door fully focused on recovery, suddenly raised her head.

“Hey… can anyone take me to where that demon is…? I need to capture that demon first…”

Meiyel spoke while pointing with her staff at Idea who had collapsed in front of the library.

The one who stood up at Meiyel’s words that they needed to capture Idea was Arin, who had already drawn her sword and taken a guarding stance.

“Then I’ll support you. Get on my back.”

“Okay… I’ll put sealing shackles on her so she can’t use sorcery, so don’t worry and just take me there…”

Arin’s height was 165cm, Meiyel’s height was about 154cm, so there was a slightly uncomfortable height difference for supporting, but when Arin offered her back, Meiyel didn’t refuse and slumped onto Arin’s back.

And as Arin stood up with Meiyel on her back, Meiyel waved her staff once and said that.

As soon as Meiyel’s words ended, handcuffs and shackles flew from the staff and bound Idea’s arms and legs as she lay on the ground.

Seeing that, Arin approached Idea without hesitation while carrying Meiyel on her back.

“Ah~ These annoying sealing shackles again? Can’t you release them since I can’t move properly even without these?”

“That’s impossible…”

As they got close, Idea whined, her arms and legs bound by the sealing shackles Meiyel had thrown.

Meiyel naturally flatly refused Idea’s ridiculous request to remove the sealing shackles, and at Meiyel’s answer, Idea looked at her and raised the corners of her mouth in a smirk.

Then Idea opened her mouth as if to say something.

“By the way, these human children, you homoncu…”

“‘Gag.'”

“Mmph…?”

“Don’t say unnecessary things…”

However, before Idea could finish speaking, a gag created by Meiyel blocked her mouth.

What on earth was she trying to say? Although she was an enemy, Arin was curious about Idea’s cut-off words that strongly provoked curiosity, but soon she had to abandon that curiosity upon seeing Meiyel’s face on her back.

‘I’d die if I got needlessly curious.’

Meiyel had a fierce expression like a mother animal who had lost her cub, with her brows deeply furrowed.

Feeling like she might get burned if she asked needlessly, Arin abandoned her curiosity and asked Meiyel a different question.

“Professor, shall we take her like this then?”

“Hmm… I’d like to leave her like this if possible…”

Because it would be annoying if she died again and broke the sealing shackles to revive.

Meiyel muttered that in a voice too quiet for Arin to hear as she looked at Idea.

Meiyel pondered while looking at Idea with disapproving eyes. But Meiyel’s pondering didn’t last long.

“For now… she can’t use sorcery so she won’t be able to escape, so let’s leave her here… Until big sister Aria comes…”

“Then shall we go back to the library?”

“Yes…”

Meiyel nodded lightly.

Anyway, Arin had come to move Meiyel, who couldn’t easily move on her own, so she turned her feet back towards the library without hesitation at Meiyel’s words to return.

Though she didn’t say it, Arin was actually quite mentally exhausted too.

Meeting demons she was no match for at the museum, being forcibly transferred to the library, seeing Aria’s past, and now seeing the sea split in half – it would have been strange if she wasn’t mentally exhausted.

So Arin turned her body away from Idea while carrying Meiyel on her back, and it took less than 1 second to realize that was a misjudgment.

“What a miserable state you’re in, Idea. Well… I’m not one to talk, but.”

“”?!””

A strange man’s voice heard from behind just as they were about to head to the library.

At that, Arin felt a chill run up her back and immediately turned her body back around, and then instinctively stepped back at the sight of the white-haired man that appeared.

“Sigh… The demonic beasts were annihilated by that strike just now. But the Demon King’s order was only to bring you back, so let’s return.”

A white-haired man carrying a greatsword with the handle part cut off on his back. Arin had seen him too, the demon who had been floating in the sky leading the demonic beasts earlier.

Perhaps he had narrowly avoided Aria’s slash that had split the sea, as the man’s body had a huge gash from his right cheek down to his leg, gushing blood.

The man looked like he would die if lightly hit even once. However, Arin could tell.

“Uu, ugh…”

That this man was even stronger than the demons she had seen at the museum earlier. At the same time, that she would die without even realizing it the moment she rushed at him.

So Arin could only watch as the man slung Idea, who had collapsed on the ground, over his shoulder.

The man who took care of only Idea as if he had no interest in Arin at all. Ridiculously, the first emotion Arin felt at the sight of him was relief.

Because until now, Arin only had strength that wasn’t even worth an insect in front of him. Rather, Arin felt relief that he ignored her and acted.

But that was only from Arin’s perspective.

“Stop right there…!”

“It’s useless.”

Meiyel, who had been riding on Arin’s back, flew off Arin’s back while holding her staff, which was too heavy to hold with one hand, as if hugging it.

Unlike Arin, Meiyel shouted without showing even fear on her face.

At that sight, Arin turned to look at her, but the man snorted at the sight of Meiyel flying unsteadily and answered.

Finally, a small gate appeared behind the man.

“There’s no more business here. I have no intention of fighting, so I’ll withdraw for today.”

“Ah… ‘Pillar of Fire…!'”

At the sight of the man entering the gate, Meiyel barely managed to cast a spell with the magical power she had almost completely used up regenerating her body, but Meiyel’s magic, which was hopelessly slow, had no chance of reaching the man.

Only after the gate disappeared with a light vibrating sound did a fierce pillar of fire rise from the ground.

“Damn it… I let her slip away right in front of me…”

Meiyel cursed at not being able to stop Idea from being taken away right before her eyes, and all Arin could do was share her magical power with Meiyel to prevent her from falling into magical power deficiency.

And while helping Meiyel, who had collapsed on the ground, to her feet, Arin recalled the moment that had passed in an instant just now.

The situation she had let pass again without being able to do anything.

Herself who couldn’t do anything in front of true strong ones despite priding herself on having become stronger.

“Damn it…”

So Arin could only quietly bite her lip.

Recalling her frustrated feelings at the field trip that ended on an unpleasant note.