Terror

Terror

After Rumi’s bombshell statement.

I found it difficult to handle the stares coming from all directions, so I dragged Rumi into a nearby lounge.

‘Maybe it’s because the lecture is about to start.’

Thankfully, there weren’t many people around, which was fortunate. I spoke to Rumi.

“I was hoping to… let it slide, but what on earth was that about?”

I asked, meaning why she would say such a thing.

Rumi, seemingly realizing what she had done wrong, mumbled and spoke to me hesitantly.

“W-well, Luna said that what people prioritize most is the preservation of their species, and Deren would probably think similarly… so it would be good to fulfill that.”

It must feel like putting a trembling hamster on your palm.

As I watched Rumi shaking nervously, not knowing what to do, I sighed.

Luna, who was in my arms, proudly said to me.

[How was that? Luna did well, right!?]

I wonder if this one even knows what she’s done.

I alternated between glaring at Luna and Rumi, the culprits who had completely destroyed my social reputation.

I decided to punish both of them.

“Luna, you’re banned from snacks for a week, and Rumi, you… come to my research lab after the Academy ends.”

I said this, deciding to postpone Rumi’s punishment for now as I couldn’t think of anything specific.

Luna flailed her arms in the air, throwing punches like a cat.

I overwhelmingly suppressed this action, blatantly ignoring Luna’s behavior.

‘Anyway, let’s put this matter to rest for now.’

The remaining task is to change the atmosphere in the classroom… or maybe there’s no need to change it.

Deren’s image was already close to the worst, so one more incident like this probably wouldn’t have much impact.

I returned to the classroom, thinking it was fortunate that Deren usually acts like a ruffian.

*

‘I definitely feel more eyes on me than usual.’

Even more than when Delia had previously provoked by declaring she would become a dog.

As I was inwardly sighing, feeling more attention than before,

Delia, who was next to me, whispered with a somewhat dissatisfied expression.

“It’s not fair. If you’re going to do it, include me too.”

What does she want to be included in?

Knowing it was probably something useless, I lightly flicked her forehead to tell her to be quiet.

Delia grabbed her forehead and started grumbling.

“I set up the whole stage… and some weird girl takes it all.”

“……”

“This is really annoying.”

Delia continued to grumble while fidgeting with her quill pen, seemingly really displeased.

Then, as if she decided this wouldn’t do, she grabbed my sleeve and whispered.

“And then it’s my turn next? Did you clearly say that? Next is me?”

“Be quiet.”

“If you don’t do it, are you going to protest in front of my house or something?”

It seemed like everything was quite peaceful until just a moment ago… I wonder why it suddenly turned out like this.

I sighed, thinking that I couldn’t understand.

For now, I nodded vaguely to calm Delia down.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t think, just use your body… You know what I mean?”

“……”

Now it seemed better to really ignore her, so I covered my ears and picked up the magic book.

* * *

After that, there weren’t any major problems.

Neither Delia nor Rumi said anything more, probably sensing that I would genuinely get angry if they caused any more commotion.

I was thinking it was fortunate that those two had at least a minimal sense of awareness, while twirling my quill pen.

“Hey, junior. I’ve heard some pretty good news, want to hear it?”

I noticed Espin coming directly to the classroom to call me.

“News? What is it?”

“It’s difficult to talk about it here… Come to our usual meeting place.”

Judging by how difficult it is to talk about, it seems to be related to the Heaven God Cult.

‘Given that he’s not talking about it at the mansion and coming here instead.’

It seems he’s come across some related news earlier.

I nodded, wondering what kind of information he had brought.

“I’ll do that.”

I slowly stood up and followed Espin.

*

As I entered the secret space Espin had created, I slowly opened my mouth.

“So what’s going on?”

In response to that question, Espin leaned against a nearby wall, crossed his arms.

With a somewhat subdued look, he spoke to me.

“Perhaps because the bishop of the Heaven God Cult has gone missing, the Heaven God Cult has started to move more fiercely than before.”

“What do you mean by fiercely?”

“If before it felt like they were moving under the surface… now it feels like they’ve changed to moving without caring about that at all.”

Unable to understand what that feeling meant, I looked at him, signaling for a more detailed explanation.

Espin used magic to display a map of the Academy and nearby downtown area as he spoke.

“Until now, they’ve been hiding their snake emblem, which is a symbol that represents them, and hiding gathering places, right? But this time, they’ve started buying buildings outright and establishing cult buildings.”

“… The Heaven God Cult?”

Espin nodded, walked around the area, and then spoke to me with a somewhat hardened expression.

“Up to this point, it’s not a problem. The problem is that as these guys are coming out into the open, they’re simultaneously trying to get their religion officially recognized as a legitimate religion.”

An official religion.

Until now, since it was a religion operating in the shadows, no matter how much I messed with them, it wasn’t a big problem.

But if they were to be recognized as an official religion, the chances of things becoming quite troublesome were high.

“So we need to use every means at our disposal to prevent them from being approved as an official religion.”

“The problem, however, is that the Heaven God Cult’s influence is acting too strongly in the central government.”

“… That’s right. As you might expect, it’s doubtful whether our intervention would be effective, given that most of the central government officials have already been swayed by the Heaven God Cult… It’s questionable whether taking action now would be able to prevent this.”

At those words, I fell into deep thought for a moment.

I couldn’t quite grasp what method we could use to prevent this.

As I was silently pondering, I recalled something I had momentarily forgotten due to a week of research.

“Terrorism… Right. As you mentioned before, terrorism might solve this.”

At those words, Espin’s eyes widened as he looked at me.

Then, clapping his hands lightly, he exclaimed to me.

“Ah… That’s right. Why did I forget about this? I had even prepared everything.”

With those final words, Espin pulled out a magic book from his chest as if he had been waiting for this moment, and smiled at me.

Although he acted as if he had forgotten, it seems he actually remembered.

Watching Espin’s reaction, which was even more enthusiastic than mine, I chuckled and briefly said.

“Then all that’s left is to decide where to carry out the terrorism… No, this is a meaningless concern. We’ll have to destroy everything anyway.”

Watching Espin nod his head, I turned my gaze away.

If we went around destroying all the buildings like this… there would be two main outcomes.

‘First, it would cause massive damage to the cult.’

Second, it would make it even more difficult for them to be recognized as an official religion.

I thought this alone was a quite satisfactory outcome, so I told Espin that we should proceed with it as soon as possible.

“Then, we’ll start the terrorism right after the Academy ends, so prepare the relevant information.”

“I’ve already done that. Here, take this.”

Espin tossed me a magic book and continued speaking.

“All the location information is included there, so you can refer to it.”

“I’ll do that.”

“However, buildings that are being constructed in real-time… that is, buildings being quickly built with magic might not be written there, so it might be better for you to check separately as well.”

As I was nodding and about to open the magic book.

Before that, Luna poked her head out from inside my clothes and came out, then started to say something while looking at me cautiously.

[Master, I memorized all of this! But if Luna eats a snack… maybe she could memorize even better?]

I wonder what it means to memorize even better when she’s already memorized everything.

I had no choice but to set one condition in response to her words.

“If we successfully complete this terror attack, I’ll give you one snack.”

With just that one sentence, Luna quickly regained her energy and nodded her head while looking at me with sparkling eyes.

[Okay!]

So, the only thing left now is to carry out the terror attack.

I was thinking about the previously planned terror attack using the bishop…

To be more specific, I wondered what it would feel like to crush the Heaven God Cult with a bishop of the Heaven God Cult, and I wiggled my finger.

I was already smiling, thinking it would be fun.

Espin crossed his arms and looked at me, then asked a question with a face full of amusement.

“This is a different topic, but do you know your nicknames are increasing?”

“… Nicknames?”

“Yeah, I heard it earlier. Other people are calling you a pregnant horse who enjoys puppy play.”

Pregnant horse? Wondering what that meant, I looked at him.

“Oh, pregnant killer? I heard it’s a combination of killer and pregnant.”

Espin said this and started laughing for a while.

Hearing such words, I sighed, thinking that when the terror ends, we should either conduct extensive sex education or mental education.