Chapter 79 - Common Sense for Academy Festivals (9)

BANG!!

"Gunfire!?"

Isabelle sprang to her feet in alarm. That was the direction mister had gone in...? The moment the thought occurred to her, she buried her face in her hands and groaned.

What was he doing now...?

Sadly, it was a reasonable question.

"Ah, so it's started."

Unlike the bewildered Isabelle, Esidisi, and Elpihera, the three Possessors at the booth began tidying up with knowing little smiles.

They had no customers anyway, and no ingredients anyone would want to steal. They had nothing to lose by simply abandoning the booth.

Even as screams rang out around them and panicked crowds rushed past, they remained perfectly calm.

"W-what, what's happening!? Any humans care to explain? Are human festivals always like this? Oh, a gun salute. That's what this is, right?"

"No, I haven't heard of anything like that on the schedule."

Isabelle spoke as her eyes followed suspicious masked figures running among the terrified crowd.

"And if it really were part of the festival, I don't think people would be running away."

"My, my. You don't know? This is the trouble with people from 'another world'..."

Eugene approached, shaking his head. He had already changed into clothes that were easy to move in and tucked a mace under his arm.

"Ah, this is what's known as a 'raid.' Quite common at academies... universities, that is."

"Your personality seems a little different... No, wait, what university gets raided all the time...?"

Isabelle stopped midsentence.

What? Why did it feel as though that happened all the time...?

Come to think of it, there had been an attack on the train to the entrance ceremony, an attack during their field exercise, an earthquake out of nowhere, and now this festival.

Wasn't that a bit much for just three months since enrollment...?

A little too frequent to write off as isolated incidents...?

"Uh... huh?"

"You finally understand? This is 'common sense'..."

Eugene chuckled and turned to Oswald, who was smiling beside him.

"Now, Oswald. Give me the 'words of victory.'"

"If I must."

With a little smirk, Oswald stepped forward and raised his hands. Somehow, he was already holding an old-fashioned helmet: a tin-can-shaped relic of bygone days, the sort an ascetic knight-errant might wear.

An odd red cross was painted on it.

Oswald placed the helmet on Eugene's head and lowered the visor. It covered Eugene's face with a heavy metallic clank.

Above it, purple mana swirled into a coil.

Weaving mana at his fingertips to complete the spell, Oswald focused it around Eugene's head and whispered,

"God wills it."

WHINE.

The completed spell seeped beneath Eugene's helmet. [Bestow Bravery]. An ordinary arousal-type Mind Sorcery spell.

But the result was anything but ordinary.

"Kill the infidels."

Golden light blazed from his eyes beneath the visor.

"In the Lord's name!! God is great, and there is but one God!!"

"That's Isl—"

"Shh. Don't break his concentration. Let him enjoy himself."

"Ah... right."

Yuri and Oswald smiled fondly as Eugene sprang into action.

After a quick check of his gear, Oswald turned toward the other students, who stood frozen in bewilderment.

"Well, anyway, that's the situation. Let's see..."

He knew they were the children of the Hero's Party. And according to Ivan, they were the 'protagonists' of this 'scenario.'

In the academy genre, an attack on a festival was practically an XP event for the protagonists to level up. That was common sense.

Oswald searched for a way to explain this in terms the people of this world would understand. Hmm. In other words...

"Civilians are under attack, and plenty of the students aren't in combat-related departments. Most have no actual combat experience at all. Keep your wits about you. We're the most rational people here right now."

"Uh... right..."

"Oh, Miss Esidisi, you're a music student, aren't you? Can't be helped. Stay back..."

What could a bard do, after all? Sing in the back.

At his words, Esidisi hesitated, then squeezed her eyes shut and asked,

"W-what about Uncle? Uncle Ivan?"

"Well, judging by the direction of the gunshot and what he's usually like... it's obvious. He'll have plunged straight into the most dangerous spot."

"Then I'm coming too."

"Do you have a weapon?"

"Yes."

With a chilling expression, Esidisi undid a buckle. The instrument case slipped off her back and into her hand.

"Hey, you're not using your violin again...!"

"I don't do that anymore. Fiddle isn't a weapon."

What emerged when she unzipped the case was a metal conductor's baton.

About as long as a telescopic police baton, it was far too long and thick for conducting.

It was a steel rod, visibly heavy even at a glance.

"I've decided to apply for a double major in orchestral conducting next semester. Batons are cheap, and the material doesn't matter..."

There was the requirement that one be able to hold it lightly between two fingers and wave it, but no particular restriction on what a baton could be made of.

And Esidisi already possessed the grip and arm strength to wave a steel rod between two fingers.

As befitted the strongest music student in history, daughter of the Berserker Einar, and the strongest female university student in Droan.

"My long years of humiliation are finally over! From this day forth, I am a conductor!!"

O God, sing of sorrow!!

With a shrill cry, Esidisi set off for the battlefield. Isabelle stared after her blankly, then shook her head.

Conducting probably wasn't something you did against someone's skull. Well, so long as she was happy.

She rolled her shoulders with a crack and took up her sword. Bringing it along even during the festival had been worthwhile.

"With the Colleges of Music and Theology charging in like that, it'd be embarrassing for the Knight Department to sit back. Shall we, Miss Yuri?"

"Yes, Miss Isabelle. I'll trust you to watch my back!"

The two Knight Department students raced into the crowd, swords in hand.

Only Oswald and Elpihera remained at the booth. Oswald watched them go with a faint smile.

"Do they not know what party play is?"

One priest charging in alone.

Followed by a bard charging in with a melee weapon.

Only then did the two knights deploy.

What kind of shitshow was this? Hadn't their club spent quite a while... forming a party and learning to work together?

How could they just leave the backline mages stranded...?

With a sigh and a shrug, Oswald started after the others. Elpihera blocked his way.

"Where are you going?"

"Oh, I thought I'd lend a hand."

"You can't do that. I'd be left all alone."

"Pardon?"

"I really haven't got a speck of mana left now."

Elpihera shrugged and stepped back.

Oswald was taken aback. She was already famous in their department as a prodigy with monstrous mana reserves. She had been using enough magic to exhaust all of it? Without anyone noticing?

Why on earth? And what kind of magic...?

As he hesitated, Elpihera gave a small smile.

"Still, we elves have our obligations. We ought to go save those poor short-lived creatures. Mr. Eastvelfen, do you happen to know how to fire a pistol?"

"I know the basics."

"Good. What Mind Sorcery spells can you cast?"

"Uh... [Bestow Bravery], [Form of Terror], and [Olog's Blindfold], more or less?"

"What about [Aim Correction]?"

"Oh, yes, I can cast that too."

"Excellent. How many spells do you have left?"

"Enough for about ten casts."

Elpihera nodded with a radiant smile.

"Then follow me!"

"Pardon? Where do you intend to go when you've exhausted all your mana? Miss Grikencos, you're a VIP from Kallion. You should be resting somewhere safe!"

"Now, now. I'll miss my chance to score points."

This incident would never grow beyond a certain scale. It was happening in the heart of Prizhenkaya, so it would be suppressed in no time.

The sheer number of festivalgoers was causing some confusion now, but the disturbance was bound to settle down soon.

And Ivan was a high-ranking figure who received operational orders directly from the Princess. He would have easy access to reports on the suppression of the attack.

The way to score points in all this was simple. Take the initiative and stand out.

And, to add one more touch, resolve the situation using a 'pistol,' one of Ivan's primary weapons.

Then, naturally...

'Oh, Sir Petrovich. During the recent terrorist attack, I tried using a weapon called a pistol for the first time.'

'That was your first time using one? I can hardly believe it!!'

'Oh, it's nothing special. An elf is naturally proficient with any weapon. But you're skilled with this pistol weapon yourself, aren't you, Sir Petrovich?'

'How skilled could a mere human possibly be? But I have handled one for a few years!'

'Ah, my father told me that if someone had even a single day's head start in learning something, I should seek instruction even from a human. Could you teach me pistol marksmanship?'

'Eeeeeek!! It would be the honor of a lifetime! I intend to record this day in my diary and pass it down as a family heirloom. Might I trouble you for an autograph!!'

'Ohohohoho!! Certainly! By all means! Bring it here!!'

"Hehehe..."

"Miss Grikencos?"

"Ohoho... Let's go! Quickly! Let's save every last one of those poor humans!!"

Her face flushed with excitement, Elpihera scampered off.

"W-where are you going to get pistols!?"

"I saw loads of them earlier, live ammunition and all!"

While commanding operations on the ground, Dmitry had his weapons forcibly requisitioned by a pair of elven nobles from Kallion.

* * *

After the incident was over, Ivan let out a deep sigh before the kneeling Dmitry.

"So it's come to this."

After flipping through the report, he hesitated with a disgruntled look. He had resolved never to hold public office again.

Was there no other choice?

He pressed a seal coated in red ink firmly onto the report's final page, sighed again, and passed the report to the side.

Pavel took it and stamped his own seal beside Ivan's.

[Commander: Colonel Ivan Petrovich. Deputy: Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Sergeyevich Orlov.]

"Well... you'll finally receive your backdated military pensions too..."

"..."

"Your salaries will come from the eastern palace rather than the military... since this falls under the Royal Household. Hehe."

"..."

Dmitry averted his eyes from the two ghosts of the past staring silently at him and muttered at the floor.

"I look forward to serving under you, sirs."

"We'll start by drawing up a new training plan."

"Mm."

"Come to think of it, you could say the Royal Guard has continued uninterrupted. Wouldn't you agree?"

Since the Royal Guard's sole wartime survivor (Ivan) had transferred to the Extermination Unit, it was fair to call the latter the Guard's successor.

And the current Counterintelligence Command had been formed by gathering and selecting survivors of that Extermination Unit.

In a sense, wasn't this a reorganization of the Royal Guard?

Pavel nodded in satisfaction. A meaningful post, and a fine place to begin again.