Now, it was up to Barter to decide how things would proceed.
If he snapped and came at me, I would have no choice but to leave him half dead.
There were two reasons it might come to that.
Either he lost his temper because he valued his pride over his duty...
Or he was an even bigger fool than I thought and failed to grasp the intent behind my strike.
Neither outcome would be fun for me.
For all his poor judgment, Barter was still undeniably skilled. If he came at me like his life was on the line, I’d have to get pretty damn serious.
Of course, neither of us would benefit from a fight like that.
It was a recipe for a small-scale catastrophe...
Barter closed his eyes, and I saw the corners of his tightly shut eyelids tremble subtly before he opened his mouth. “...I lost.”The onlookers, previously frozen in place, turned to Barter in shock.
“C-Captain?”
“What on earth do you mean...”
Barter walked past me with his lips tightly pursed. Not knowing what to do, the Special Forces glanced around and then followed after him.
Wow...
That had gone much better than I’d imagined.
I hadn't expected him to go on a rampage, but I had expected him to challenge me to another duel of some sort instead of accepting defeat.
I looked around the now-quiet rooftop and said, “Those whose names I called earlier, get ready. We leave in ten minutes.”
* * *
After the young heroes scurried off to who-knew-where, just myself and the headmaster were left on the rooftop.
I was the first to speak. “There's no guarantee that the princess will keep her word.”
The headmaster only hummed in response.
“She said the attack would begin in twelve hours,” I said, “but it’s not like she signed a contract or anything. I’m sure she can break that anytime she wants, and judging by how she talked, she seemed pretty unstable.”
“I understand what you mean. Once you leave, we will focus on defense,” Alderson said. “Truthfully, Barter is better suited for defense.”
“That much is clear. But can you hold out against your own 250 armored cavalry? That actually worries me more than the demons.”
Alderson's expression hardened. “To be honest, if the Platinum Knight Order launches a full-scale attack, lasting even ten minutes will be difficult.”
“...”
“I'll try to hold out as long as I can and use mana manipulation to stop their movements, but... I’d say the odds are about half to none.”
I nodded. “I see. Then let’s set aside the cavalry for now.”
“Do you have something in mind?”
“I do have a trump card, but it’s for an emergency, so I’d rather not reveal it just yet. Just know that I have some preparations of my own, but in the worst-case scenario, all your armored cavalry might end up destroyed.”
Alderson chuckled and shook his head. “That's not possible unless a demon lord descends with their full power.”
“Well...” I shrugged. “We'll just stick to the plan for now since our best bet is to defeat the princess within the next twelve hours. Speaking of which, I thought the demon lord would only appear if we defeated the princess...” I turned my attention to the red moon in the sky and continued, “But according to you, the demon lord has already appeared, hasn’t it? So what should our next move be?”
No matter how experienced I was, I had never fought a moon before.
How exactly would a moon in the sky attack anyway? If it even just crashed into the ground, that alone would spell utter disaster.
“Even I do not know that. But if we take down the princess, we should return to the real world. It's only natural, she is clearly the mastermind behind this Veiled Side. Once that happens, I can immediately send a call to the other three archmages in The Empire. With their magic, they should be able to reach Kartell Academy in under a minute.”
“Ah.”
Surely three fully capable archmages would be more than enough to handle a poorly summoned demon lord.
“I wish you the best of luck. It’s a lot to ask, but... our fate rests in your hands.”
“Will you be staying on the roof, Headmaster?”
“For now, yes.”
It was certainly a good location for a lookout, with a clear view in all directions.
“I will send one of the cadets to assist you.”
“Do you have someone in mind?”
“Yes.”
“Then please.”
After a quick exchange of farewells with Alderson, I headed downstairs and soon found the face I was looking for among the cadets sprawled across the hallway.
“Upperclassman Arin?”
Arin had been in the middle of nodding off, but at my words her head snapped up. “Uh, huh? I mean, yes?”
“Why so formal again?”
Arin awkwardly fumbled around. “Oh, um. R-right, you said I could be casual...”
“More importantly, you’re in the magic department, right? I’m hoping you’ll assist the headmaster.”
“Uhh... wouldn’t someone like me just get in the way...?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to do any complex calculations or reinforce magic spells. Just help him when he has trouble moving around. Oh, and one more thing...”
I handed Arin the most important piece of information, as well as an item.
Arin cocked her head. “What's this?”
“A trump card.”
“...?”
“When everything seems lost, just throw it into the sky.”
Arin nodded. “Um... okay.”
Great.
I’d made every preparation I could...
Now, it was time for the attack team to move out.
* * * * *
* * * * *
Charon, Evan, Sellen, and Mir...
Obviously, I had not picked the members based purely on skill. If I had, I would have included Barter and Hector.
Among the Special Forces as well, there were people with better combat skills, better operational skills, and more experience than these guys.
Nevertheless, the reason why I considered this team optimal was simple: The most important thing in missions was not individual performance but teamwork.
Of course, you couldn’t exactly say the four of them got along... but that was only when this cogwheel named Luan Bednicker wasn’t in the mix.
I was confident.
I was confident I could control these four and draw the most out of them.
“They're really not attacking,” Charon muttered.
It had been thirty minutes since we’d left Building 12.
He was at the front, scanning the area with sharp eyes.
“There’s not a single doll in sight?”
“They're some distance away,” Charon corrected, “but they don't seem to be interested in us.”
Charon in practical combat mode was like an unleashed wild animal. Honestly, he was far more dependable now than when he was fawning over me and calling me “Big Brother.”
“...How oddly off-putting,” Evan muttered.
“What is?”
“It feels like we’re heading straight into an obvious trap. It just doesn’t feel right.”
“It’s all perspective. If they are digging a trap and waiting, at least for now, they won’t be plotting anything else. They’re just waiting for us to fall in.”
“And that's not bad news?”
“Nope.”
Even I didn’t know what I was saying.
Still, just because the puppets were quiet didn’t mean they wouldn’t rush us out of nowhere.
Getting too close might trigger something unpredictable, so whenever a puppet blocked our way, we took a slight detour.
And every time, there was always one who made a mistake.
Snap.
“...!”
That someone was Mir.
She’d loudly stepped on a dry branch.
Of course, the sound echoed loudly through the silence all around us.
Charon sent her a cold glare, and Mir flinched.
“S-SORRY...!”
Grrrr...?
At her nearly shouted apology, a relatively close puppet tilted its head.
We instantly tensed, preparing for battle, but...
“...”
The puppet simply stared at us with pale eyes, then wobbled away.
Once the puppet was a good distance away, we looked over and found Mir seemingly on the verge of tears.
“I-I’m sorry...”
“I do not understand why you’d do something apology-worthy in the first place,” Charon said bluntly.
Mir flinched and hung her head even lower, her face flushed with shame.
She must have looked pitiful because Evan stepped forward and said, “Don't be so hard on her. Mir is a giant. If you tell any other giant to sneak quietly, they would have done a shit job at it. At least Mir is pretty flexible for a giant.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“What?”
“Let me tell you, Evan Helvin: I’m not happy with this selection. Hector Bednicker would’ve been a better choice than you.”
“...”
Charon shot a cold, piercing gaze at Evan. Evan, too, dropped his smile and glared back.
“Did you guys fall in love or something?” I asked, my voice laced with irritation interrupting their staring match. “Or do you think we’re here for a fucking snowball fight? We’re in the middle of enemy territory, so quit the staring contest.” I then briefly looked at Charon and said, “And you, you were unnecessarily harsh just now. I get that Mir can be frustrating, but it’s not like we got attacked by the puppet.”
Of course, there was nothing dumber than only starting to be cautious after things went wrong, but...
We hadn't even entered Building 13 yet. I couldn’t stand to see discord already brewing.
Charon nodded reluctantly. “...Understood.”
I heard Sellen, who was standing next to me, let out a small sigh.
Anyway, the rest of the trek was uneventful aside from more of Mir's occasional carelessness...
About an hour after leaving Building 12, we finally reached Building 13.
Before opening the door, I looked at Charon, Mir, and Evan, the three who had already been inside.
“What was the layout like inside?”
“There was a hallway,” Charon answered on behalf of the group. “The only light inside came from the candles on the walls, and the hallway was wide and long, almost uncomfortably so. The interior was much larger than it seemed from the outside.” Charon thought for a moment and added, “Other than that... there were no doors.”
“Hmm.”
“Of course, we've only explored the first floor, so I don’t know what the upper floors are like.”
That was good enough for now.
“What about the monster that was chasing you?”
“Ah. That roly-poly toy-looking thing...”
Charon’s expression turned strange.
It was like he was choosing his next words carefully.
In the meantime, Evan answered, “It was probably a doll too, though I've never seen a doll that looked so strange... Its waist was thicker than a giant tree trunk, and it had this angry look on its face. It had no limbs, so it hopped all over the place, which was bizarre in more ways than one. It looked like a huge worm standing upright, thumping as it moved.”
“...”
The description alone didn’t give me a clear picture. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words.
With that, I grabbed the doorknob. “Let's go in.”
My team nodded in unison, and I carefully opened the front door.
Creeeeaaak.
The sound of the ungreased door was so predictable.
It was quiet inside.
It wasn’t just that there were barely any sounds, the whole atmosphere felt that way.
As Charon had said, the doorless corridors stretched straight ahead... and the candles on the walls only flickered faintly from the air currents.
Click.
The second obvious setup: the door that closed on its own.
The moment the door closed, it felt as though I’d been completely cut off from the outside world.
The kind of silence you could only feel when enclosed in a small room, so quiet that you started to hear the blood rushing in your ears.
I broke the silence when I took the first step
Tap.
“...”
“...”
I gestured to my team as I took the first step into the corridor, and we walked on without a word.
We didn't say a word, as if we’d planned it so... but to be honest, I was itching to talk.
Self-control.
If I pulled a surprise prank by suddenly turning around and screaming “Boo!” I was sure to get hit. I had a strong feeling all four would gang up on me and beat me up.
Anyway, back to business.
The straight corridor was odd. The atmosphere was completely different from Building 12, where the headmaster had been.
There were no doors, no windows.
Candles flickered on the walls, but until we actually stepped into their range, we couldn’t see beyond the darkness.
I even tried using serpent’s eye, but it was still the same.
Not only was it dark, but it felt as though everything had been painted black.
The only way to get rid of it was to walk through it.
Then, mysteriously, the pitch-black darkness receded by itself, leaving us with at least minimal visibility.
It will be troublesome if we get flanked from the front and back.
The corridor wasn’t narrow, but a large enough doll would be able to completely block our path.
Could I just punch the wall and break it?
In a worst-case scenario, I might need to do just that to secure an escape route.
It was at this moment...
BAAANG!
“...!”
Without any warning, the left wall collapsed.
“Uh...”
I was startled.
I wasn't surprised that the wall had suddenly broken, more so that what I’d just thought had instantly become reality.
Pwhoosh.
The dust from the wall flew into the air, and that plus the darkness made it really hard to make anything out.
“Cough...!”
Just then, through the dust, an elderly man emerged.
He looked injured and was bleeding profusely.
Coincidentally, it was a face I knew.
“Kayan?”
“Y-Young Master...?” Bleeding, Kayan urgently said, “It's dangerous here! You need to run away immediately...”
“What's going on?”
“There's a strange-looking doll. First, come this way!”
Kayan hurriedly tried to grab my hand.
But I swiftly snatched my arm away, making Kayan fumble, and then...
I yanked on his exposed, defenseless arm and drove my knee up into it.
With a crack, Kayan’s arm snapped at an unnatural angle.
“Young Master...?” Kayan said, confused.
However, in contrast to his dumbfounded expression, his other hand blurred toward me.
Stab!
Unexpectedly, it was Sellen who blocked the attack.
She had quickly drawn her sword and with that thin, slender rapier pierced Kayan’s left palm.
Srring.
Seeing both of Kayan’s arms immobilized, I drew the Sword of Seven Sins for the first time in a while and swiftly slit his throat in a single motion.
Slice.
“Ahhh...!?” Mir gasped at seeing Kayan’s head roll across the floor.
The rest of the guys looked at me with wide eyes and stiff faces.
“Wh-what the...! I thought you two knew each other?”
“First ironclad rule.”
“Huh?”
“Trust no one in this building except the five of us,” I said, swiping my sword in the air once. I was satisfied to see not a drop of blood staining it. “...Got it?”
____