Chapter 185: [Boss Fight] Steam Rain (3)
The thing I hated most in the world?
No two ways about it, it was having my research interrupted.
I didn’t know about the others, but I just couldn’t forgive someone instigating something while I was studying.
“Kugh!”
Bam!
I was only able to release my stress after bashing in the heads of the Imperial guards one after another.
Hm, it didn’t feel as good as when I hit Vermel.
I checked the eyes of the unconscious guards, which were blurry without focus as if they’d been beaten with a staff.
“There’s no focus. Were they brainwashed or something?”
“Th-that.... is probably because they’ve fainted.”
“.......”
Yeah?
“So what will you do about them?”
Alion asked.
“Hide them for now.”
I grabbed the feet of the two guards who came looking for the First Prince and pulled them. Since it’d be inconvenient to take out materials if they were put in the supply room, I decided to lock them up in the small room where I’d talked secretly with Vermel.
“...You are much stronger than you appear.”
Alion remarked with pure amazement, then asked.
“You said you will be in the invention contest during the Grand Communal Festival, correct? How far along are you with your invention?”
“It’s almost done.”
“Sufficient to be used against Beasts?”
“Probably?”
But there was one problem.
“But the technology isn’t that great. You can only deal a critical blow when it’s activated at a very close distance.”
The concern was that the pulse could diminish as it traveled through the air. It wouldn’t be able to be fully effective unless it was fired at zero distance.
There was nothing to do about it as it was something hastily put together after figuring out the principles. If it hadn’t been for Vermel’s request to have it made soon, I would’ve been able to think more on it and make something better.
“If you are entering in the invention contest, then I suppose you’ll be in the mini-thesis contest as well.”
This time, it was Klion who asked. I nodded in reply.
“Did you decide on your advisor?”
“I did.”
Unlike regular papers that could just be submitted, mini-theses needed to have your academic advisor as the corresponding author.
This part was annoying. I was already an independent researcher who’d presented Flare, so why did I need an advisor?
I didn’t get it but what could I do but follow. Still, I was able to get someone fairly decent as my advisor.
Klion asked.
“Is it our homeroom?”
“Someone else already took Miss Heerlein.”
“Then who is it?”
“Professor Cai-Lussac.”
He was said to be a good person so my thesis shouldn’t be stolen.
I asked him to ‘just put his name on the paper and I’ll do the rest’. This way, it was good in that I was guaranteed autonomy for research and Cai-Lussac wouldn’t have to put in much work, either.
“Did you finish writing the mini-thesis or whatever it is?”
“Except the discussion.”
I had finished most of it before the art fest. It was explaining the invention in a patent format so it hadn’t been that difficult to do.
In the first place, I already had experience doing something like that in high school, so it was nothing compared to the struggle I went through researching Flare.
“Anyway, do you have time to be asking these things?”
My gaze looked out the window. Countless guards were running around busily in search of the First Prince.
“We will have to get away somehow.”
“How?”
“With it being the festival period, it’ll be quite crowded. If we wear robes and blend in with the people, it should be plenty possible.”
It wasn’t a bad plan.
The Grand Communal Festival was a month-long festival of Tilette Academy. It was open for outsiders to enjoy, not just students.
Especially since it was currently right after the midterms, it was full of people going around eating skewers that they sold at the street vendors.
“Let’s go out dressed as much like a commoner as possible.”
I poked holes in the robes that the two Princes wore here. The already rag-like robes turned into something that a homeless person would wear.
That way as their faces didn’t show, they shouldn’t get caught as long.
While the two got ready, I gathered the remaining ingredients from the supply room and made Flare. I hadn’t etched in a while, but my hand had muscle memory.
“Here, for back-up. Use it if things get really bad.”
“Thank you.”
Alion bowed his head. It meant a lot that a member of the Imperial family was showing this much courtesy to a mere Golden-Eyed who used to be a slave.
Or I gained that much of a reputation.
Or the Imperials were in that much of a desperate situation.
“Try to keep it hidden as best you can because manufacturing or possession of Flare are all illegal right now.”
“Who created such a law?”
“Who else would it be, brother? It’s Duke Blanton.”
“......It seems he took over much in my absence.”
Alion grumbled about how the nation was falling apart and then went outside with Klion, asking that I take good care of the guards trapped inside the room until the situation was over.
Damn it, leaving me this baggage.
But I had no choice. The Imperial family had to be safe and well in order for me to keep studying magic here.
I had my own reason for making a quick Flare and giving it to them. It was insurance, to put it simply.
With a cigarette in mouth, I leaned against the window. The sky looked like cement about to harden. Something didn’t feel right.
I quickly finished making the pulse generator. There was no other reason for rushing the work, just that I thought I should get as much work done as possible while I still had time.
After completing it, I shook Freyr awake.
“Hey, kid. Wake up.”
“Unghh.... Why.......”
Unease seeped into my eyes glancing out the window.
“There’s something strange going on outside. Let’s go out for a sec.”
Just then.
“The First Prince murdered the Emperor and fled─!!”
Something like this was heard from outside the window.
Freyr started like a rabbit that encountered a tiger and leapt up from her chair. She blinked wide, then walked hurriedly over to where the sound was coming from.
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Looking out the window, Freyr’s expression turned serious.
“What the, aren’t they all mages from the palace?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s going on?”
As if in response to Freyr’s question, someone outside announced the passing of the Emperor. Freyr let out a shocked cry like a kid who’d just found out that her dad was Santa Claus.
“Th-this has to be a dream!”
Clap! Freyr slapped herself.
“It’s not a dream.”
“The Emperor died? It’s completely out of nowhere!”
“It could be a rumor.”
And if he really died, then it was a bad sign for the country.
“Let’s go outside first.”
“Th-that’s a good idea!”
To know what was happening, we first had to find the transmigrator. That was the most accurate and quickest way to figure out the situation.
We were delayed because there was more traffic than usual; it was because of the festival.
And meanwhile, rumors that ‘the First Prince was released and poisoned the Emperor’ were going around so people stopped what they were doing and were just staring at the palace knights.
“What are they saying?”
Shouts like that were coming from here and there. Some children who were on an outing with their parents burst out crying at the chaotic atmosphere.
I could tell instinctively–this was an ominous sign.
I had to find Vermel fast, but it wasn’t easy.
It would’ve been one thing if Vermel was the only elf who’d come as an exchange student, but there were so many long-ears in the central square that I couldn’t distinguish them.
However, I couldn’t easily call the guy when he was currently working under the name ‘Romel’. Rosemary or Blanton could notice if I said ‘Romel’, and there was no point in shouting ‘Vermel’, either.
“Come out, Kim Sunghyun!!”
When I yelled that a few times, a tall elf with emerald-colored eyes broke through the crowd. Erika, Merilda, and Jarod were also with him.
Vermel and I acted as if we’d met for the first time.
“I think we’ll have to evacuate people to places with roofs.”
“Why?”
“Because it might rain soon.”
‘Evacuate’, was it. You wouldn’t use that expression when it was just raining.
“Is it going to be acid rain or something?”
“Pretty much.”
Just then, Merilda and Erika interrupted the conversation.
“A strange energy is in the air.”
“We aren’t the only ones. We asked the other elves and they said that they could sense the signs of a high-ranking Beast.”
I flinched inside but feigned calm.
This wasn’t me, anyway.
“I’ll call the teachers.”
Vermel said and ran off somewhere. He had been panting since we met so it seemed he had been continuously running around.
─ It wouldn’t be this hard if I had an Elemental, too.
I suddenly remembered him ranting in the infirmary.
Maybe he was running around like his ass was on fire because he didn’t have an Elemental.
No, he definitely was, because he knew about this world better than I did.
─ I think we’ll have to evacuate people to places with roofs.
Right, I should first get to the task that Vermel left to me.
“Ah?”
I picked up Freyr and sat her on my shoulders. Freyr went ‘uh, uh’ and wobbled, but soon regained her balance.
I spoke.
“Look for Miss Heerlein.”
Rosemary looked over her plan somewhere far from the Academy. A smirk full of madness was painting her lips.
Perfect, utterly perfect!
Giggling, Rosemary looked down. There was the Emperor, Yelchin Philut, with his mouth duct-taped shut.
“Mm, mmhm...!”
“An Emperor who’s tied up in ropes, what sight to behold!”
A violin string was sitting above his head. The string was the staff used by Rosemary. He wasn’t dead yet, but he might as well be.
Good, everything’s been checked.
Rosemary came up with a few tricks strategies in order not to be hated by Aether.
She already knew through the spy that she planted that sis had made a contract to research how to miniaturize Flare and give it over to Robespierre.
Sis takes contracts seriously.
It was definitely a contract established in exchange for research funds. Sis would’ve definitely given the miniaturized Flare to Robespierre. She could figure that much even without being able to turn on Scope.
Robespierre was a human who’d been wanting to kill her for ten years. He’d been sitting on his hands because there hadn’t been a good way to do it, but now that there was an assassination weapon, he was surely going to come to the palace.
Of course, there was a chance of him first attacking Blanton, who was inciting things at the Academy, but she’d already prepared a way to aggro him in this direction.
“Mm, mm, mm!”
The Emperor who was right here.
She’d spread false rumors that the First Prince killed the Emperor. Robespierre was definitely going to come to verify it.
Rosemary had seen countless humans in her time, and she was sure that he would come. Her senses were adding to her certainty.
Come.
Rosemary twisted her lips into a smile.
In the next moment–
Craaash!
“You treacherous Beast wench, take the mace of the Goddess!”
The corners of her mouth lifted like they might tear.
“Oh, to think that dozens of you would come together.”
Rosemary’s once-blue eyes bled into gold. With the Lodestone having come to Tilette, there was no more reason to hide that she was a Beast.
“G-Golden-Eyed....”
“You bitch, so you were a Golden-Eyed!”
While everyone was panicking as they looked at eyes glowing topaz-yellow.
Rosemary snatched up her violin string and got into an interceptive posture after moving the Emperor aside.
“Anyway, Rosemary Blanton, this is where it ends for you.”
“You will pay for the sin of manipulating the Empire for ten years with your head!”
Together with dozens of mages who had pledged to support his cause, Robepsierre surrounded Rosemary in a circle.
Snap, snap, snap!
Small cylindrical scrolls the size of a laser pointer were aimed at all parts of her body. Solid whitish lines began binding her limbs.
However.
Rosemary laughed, not even worried.
“Kyahahaha! You stupid bastards, stepped right into it! Unfortunately, it’s already too late to aim that.... I knew this would happen so I covered myself in reactive armor at the Demon Castle! You can’t stop me, the commander of the guerrilla unit, with mere Flare......!”
It was then.
“Fire─!!”
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Light pierced through the air. Babaaam! A fierce flash of light split the palace spire in two.
Dozens of streaks of lightning were shot forth, a series of flashes.
In the next moment, a formless, colorless bunch of light flipped her vision over like pancakes.
“...Ah, ah?”
There were holes all over her limbs.
Her reaction was a little slow.
Before she could even scream, blood started to wet her throat.
Realizing that something was very wrong, Rosemary struggled to think.
Th-this is.......
This was bad.
It wasn’t Flare that had struck her.