Side Character Who Became the Pseudo-Protagonist

Chapter 34: Don’t Be Too Late

Even in video games, the act of sneaking up to an enemy was already stress-inducing.

The thought of "Please don’t turn around. Please don’t turn around," plays over and over inside your head until you finally get that one prompt for your takedown.

But this was reality.

And the anxiety was a hundred—no, a million times worse.

Though unlike a videogame, where failure just leads to you pressing the retry button and doing it over again until you succeed...

There was no such fallback for me.

’Three.’

And so, with every single step that I took across this marble walkway leading to the other side of the room, I found myself praying to every god that I knew.

Even a few that I probably made up on the spot.

’Two.’

Luckily, being a named character had its perks. I felt like I had complete control over my body, not allowing any excess movement to lead to unnecessary noise.

And before long, my Spell Driver had found itself aimed at the back of the man’s head.

’One.’

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

[Concuss]

The mercenary’s body suddenly stiffened.

The moment his head started jerking uncontrollably, I surged up and wrapped a hand over his mouth to stop him from yelling.

His head snapped back and forth with so much force that I struggled to keep his body from slamming into the railing.

Then after a few seconds of violent movement, the man’s eyes rolled back, and he passed out. I laid him softly against the marble floor and peeked over the railing.

’Damn, her idea of a stealth takedown was more violent than I thought...’

Ruby and I had devised a plan.

She would try to lure the guard on the stair toward her and take him out while I would get the guy patrolling the upper railing.

The plan would only work if we synced the timing. From where they stood, both guards could see each other clear as day.

However, once I didn’t hear any yelling from the person below, along with him being missing from said stairs...

I could breathe safely knowing Ruby had successfully accomplished her task. But I was only allowed one breath, as the next part of the plan was already coming up.

Pinkish-red Logos filled the room, casting a thin blanket on the entire area. And well, obviously it was visible to the other guards below.

They pointed out, mouths moving and trying to communicate with each other, but no sound left their throats.

Why?

Because Ruby had cast [Noise Suppression] on the entire area, a spell which absorbs all noise within the vicinity.

And that was my cue to fuck things up.

Leaping from the railing, I fired a brief [Push] against the floor to kill some of my momentum before landing directly on one of the confused soldiers’ backs.

His body caught the rest of my fall.

We both tumbled onto the floor, but I managed to get up first.

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

[Concuss]

The man started shaking instantly. One of the other guards saw what was happening, immediately running over.

But by then, I was already gone.

In the midst of confusion, I managed to get behind one of the Astaron students, gun pointed on his back. But just before I pulled the trigger, the guy turned around with lightning-quick reflexes.

He tried sprinting at me, but my Processing was just fast enough to cast [Push], sending him flying into one of the shelves and blacking out.

’What the fuck?! Why was he so fast?’

But with my enhanced vision from [Material Sight], I instantly found the answer. A greenish source of Logos had been clumped up in his brain, particularly the parts that controlled his body movements and also his Logos Cortex.

’A brainwashing Spell?’

I thought to myself immediately, but the explanation just didn’t make sense.

Standard Neural Interference Spells existed, sure. But not one strong enough to influence the victim to such a degree, taking over their mind completely.

Yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized a crucial fact...

There was a way.

One that I actually relied on prior to everything going down: The Vanaris House’s Innate Talent of controlling electric signals within the brain’s synapses.

But that was impossible. Claire was outside.

And even if she was somehow related, I know that her talent was more of [Electro-Telepathy], reading thoughts from the brain, not puppeteering it.

So what the hell is going on?

Was...the Vanaris Patriarch part of this?

’Shit...whatever the case may be, they’re still victims. Overload should do the trick but my Control needs to be precise...’

[Spell Sequence Initializing: Innate Structural Disruption Type—]

But before the Spell fired, something suddenly slammed into me, causing the Spell to fire off into the ground as I flew into one of the shelves myself.

"Kghkk—!"

Blood spilled from my lips and pain radiated from my back as if someone had taken a hot iron and placed it straight on my spine.

Through the blur, I saw the Astaron cadet who attacked me, standing with a Wand-type Spell Driver raised. Around her, chunks of broken marble hovered in the air.

’So that was what hit me.’

But immediately after the girl had cast that Spell, a wave of wind slammed into her, knocking her against the wall and causing her to go unconscious.

A second later, Ruby emerged from the left side of the staircase. She held a thumbs-up, probably asking "Hey, you good?" because well, we couldn’t exactly speak.

I nodded, but winced the moment I tried to get up.

Regardless, most of the room had been cleaned up nicely. And I was starting to think that maybe Ruby was a lot more talented than she looked.

Lingering on the Astaron cadets for a while, I decided to look the other way for now, as there was a more urgent matter.

There wasn’t exactly time to go throug every single one of them and dispel the brainwashing Spell when I had a crisis to resolve.

I ran across the room toward an unassuming shelf on the right side of the main staircase.

Thankfully, it was located in the same place as it was in the game.

Unfortunately, that was where the good news ended.

The file that was supposed to act as the key to Mimir had already been pulled out and shoved back in haphazardly, like whoever used it had been in a hurry.

’Damn it...so she really did get in.’

Grabbing the file, I scanned through it until I saw the same sequence as in the game. And by using my student terminal with access to scan the number...

GRKKKKK—!

Gears nearby turned, revealing a small hole where Ruby and I managed to slip through before it closed.

We both entered the dark tunnel once more, but this time, I sprinted down the corridor like my life depended on it...

Because really, it kind of did.

And all the while, a single thought kept running through my mind over and over again, more like a prayer instead of anything else.

’Please don’t let me be too late.’