Side Character Who Became the Pseudo-Protagonist

Chapter 33: The Way In

In a matter of minutes, I managed to weave through the chaos and reach the Administration Building.

Luckily, no one managed to follow me. Not that catching up would’ve been easy, because well...it was already the fastest path available.

I already knew the layout of Asgard Academy like the back of my hand. In fact, I could probably recite where each individual building was in my sleep.

The Administration Building was tucked away in the back-left side of the campus, in-between the general fields and the mess hall.

Because of the distance, anyone who came this way was certain to have been going there. You couldn’t really say, "Oh, haha...I just arrived here from nearby."

So...

Why the hell was Ruby here?

She stood at the entrance gate, hand outstretched as pinkish-red Logos swirled around her. Clearly, she had just finished casting some kind of Spell.

When I approached, her eyes widened on recognition as I ran towards her location.

"Nolan!"

"Ruby? What the hell are you doing here? Are you alright?"

Just as I asked the question, my eyes moved over to the unconscious mercenary on the ground to her left, eyes rolled back into the back of his head.

And just behind the main reception desk, a group of people, who were presumably just civilians that worked at the Academy, were tied-up and had tape over their mouths.

"Uhm..." Ruby fidgeted for a while before answering. "I was just in the building to ask for some paperwork. But suddenly the entire campus went into lockdown mode."

"We tried to hide but they eventually broke into the lobby, a lot of us here became forced hostages."

"Wait...if the building was under lockdown, wouldn’t they have been completely unable to enter deeper? Even if they did somehow get into the main lobby?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"I..." Ruby stuttered before finally confessing. "I let them in..."

"What? Why?"

"They threatened to kill the civilians if they weren’t let in. And it was just me here, so..."

"I get it," I interrupted her, sighing to myself. "Was a girl with blonde hair part of the attackers?"

"She was wearing our Academy uniform too. Why is she doing all of this?" Ruby asked softly, like a part of her didn’t want to believe it.

"That’s what I’m trying to find out."

The both of us quickly untied the remaining workers. I pointed out toward fields before speaking.

"Everyone, please stick to the edge of the field and make your way out through the Northern Gate. It’s still dangerous outside, so please stay safe."

I was about to tell Ruby to go with them, just in case. But it was like she had read my mind, speaking before I had the chance to.

"I’m coming with you."

"You know that it’s dangerous, right? You could be killed."

"And what about yourself?" She shot back. "Your life is more important than mine, yet you’re rushing ahead anyways..."

The question caught me off-guard, but before I could respond, she added.

"Hey...it’s just like that incident in the testing center. You and me, stuck in the middle of some grand scheme..."

"Yeah," I smirked. "That’s what happens when you follow me around."

"It’s more fun that way, isn’t it?" she grinned from ear to ear.

I wanted to argue, knowing that she was also an important character to the narrative. If something goes wrong...

Well, I say that, but my eyes drifted to the unconscious mercenary once more.

’It wasn’t like she couldn’t handle herself..."

And besides, after everything that had just happened, rejecting capable backup would be pretty damn hypocritical.

Without much of a reason left to refuse her, I eventually gave in and let her follow me.

Making our way through the building, I realized a lot of it was completely clean, with no other traces of tampering or unnecessary destruction.

’So they really are gunning for Mimir...’

But as we climbed the stairs and reached the upper gallery overlooking the Administration Building’s main hall, I immediately stopped.

Armed men were everywhere, guarding the massive area filled with countless shelves, drawers, and racks of what looked to be paperwork.

Of course, this was all surface-level things like student information and whatnot, but a lot of the drawers had been emptied out, their contents lying on the floor.

Why?

Because in one of these drawers, contained a physical master key that was able to access the Mimir Database in case power went offline.

Though it begged the question of how someone like Tina Valentine would be able to know that, it wasn’t necessary to find out now.

"Damn it...what should we do?" Ruby whispered next to me. "They probably already found the way in..."

[Material Sight]

The world flattened until all detail but the physical layout of reality was removed.

My eyes sharpened, seeing the entire area as pure information, kind of like having a live map transmitted directly into my optics.

There was a group of two armed mercenaries on the first floor to the right, one stationed on the stairs leading down, and a few more patrolling the upper gallery on the other side of where we were.

Yet, what caught my attention was that there were other people here as well. But instead of being armed with guns...they had Spell Drivers.

But as I focused on them more, their shape started to become clearer, and it was obvious what I was looking at.

They were Astaron cadets.

’What the hell...? Why are the Astaron cadets working together with White Noise? Did Tina have a following in the school after all? Why are they—?’

Though I couldn’t waste any more time on asking why, every second spent here was another that Tina could get closer to the Database.

Using my knowledge of playing stealth-based games with takedown mechanics, the obvious answer was—

"We need to take out the people on our level first, they’re far enough away to not alert the others."

Turning towards Ruby, I pulled out one of the magazines included with Huginn and asked. "Know any Spells for stealth takedowns?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I have the perfect one."

Pressing a few buttons on her Bracelet-type Spell Driver, pinkish-red Logos swirled around her once more. She placed her palm over the magazine, causing the information to flow into it.

And once everything was finished, the small screen on said magazine glowed, displaying what she had loaded into it.

[Spell Sequence Loaded: Tier 2 Neuromuscular Disruption Type—]

[Concuss]

"Perfect."

I loaded the magazine into Huginn, causing the sapphire-like crystal on the front end of the gun to start glowing.

Peeking into the railway leading across the room where one of the guards was patrolling, I gripped the gun tightly and took a deep breath.

"Now or never, I guess."