Ariel and Sera were promptly whisked away for treatment. After all, there were capable priests and clergy among the academy’s faculty.
They would likely receive proper care.
I approached the monster’s corpse to retrieve the fragment.
A massive body with considerable magical energy. It was clear that this was no foe you could take down easily.
Even with Albert in top shape, defeating this monster wouldn’t be a sure bet.
It was likely as strong as Sword Saint Freya.
‘Ariel surpassed the Sword Saint?’
No matter how strong the power of the stars was, could he really grow so much in an instant when he was weaker than the top knight?
Freya was the woman who once cut off my arm with nothing but a sword. Are we saying the current Ariel is stronger than her?
It was hard to believe that someone could grow from student level to among the strongest of humanity so quickly.
But it wasn’t so. As I got closer to the monster’s body, my doubts were resolved.
As I closed the distance, residual starlight on the monster’s body attacked me. Of course, it hurt.
Platinum starlight.
In other words, the Hero’s starlight exists to kill the Demon King.
To a being with even a portion of the Demon King’s power, starlight is a deadly poison.
Ariel isn’t stronger than Freya, but when facing a seed of the Demon King, the level of that power changes.
He will be my future nemesis.
“······I’ll wait for you at the end.”
After collecting the last fragment from the academy, I left that place.
*
A bit more time passed, and the barrier that had enveloped the academy completely disappeared.
As the barrier faded, reinforcements from the Knights Order entered the academy, but they were a bit late.
By the time they arrived, everything had already been settled.
Many people died and were injured in this incident. Among them were students and professors.
Considering it was an unprecedented crisis with multiple seeds appearing at once, many felt it was fortunate that it ended at this level.
Given the number of seeds and remnants of the Demon King’s army that might have existed, it was a miracle there wasn’t a total annihilation.
There were many injuries, but the number of deaths turned out to be fewer than expected.
What factor led to such an outcome was unknown.
Regardless, after this incident, the one receiving the most criticism was none other than Sertia.
More people began to shout about her incompetence in protecting the academy and the empire until now.
Although the number of casualties was small relative to the situation, the dead would not come back to life.
She was at the highest position, yet was also the easiest target for criticism.
Some raised their voices, saying her abilities were no longer what they used to be. Even though she had protected the empire for a long time, now was the time for her to step down from her position as headmistress.
Sertia accepted most of the criticisms directed at her in an official capacity.
And then.
She resigned from her position as headmistress of the academy.
In the chaotic three hours during which she couldn’t move due to her poor condition, many people died and were injured.
The enormity of that fact filled Sertia with an unimaginable sense of guilt.
It was because she felt her incompetence had failed to protect people.
Now her body was unable to restore the damaged barrier. It was merely rotting away ineffectively.
Sertia used the wealth she had collected for no purpose to compensate the bereaved families.
Money couldn’t heal the hearts of injured humans, but it was a minimal form of compensation.
If she didn’t do at least this much, she felt she might crumble.
Sertia’s eyes turned red. She could no longer be called a human.
Not a human or anything else, but a monster.
“Elion······.”
Standing at the edge of the cliff, she uttered the name of an old comrade.
It was to ask him what she should do in such times when he had always walked the right path.
But unlike the past, he no longer existed in this world.
Was it now her time to die too?
After all her comrades had perished, she was left alone; for her, life was pain and hell.
Thus, death held no fear for her.
“······But, forgetting is a little scary, I suppose.”
Perhaps when her comrades died, she should have died with them.
If that had been the case, the names of the three would have been recorded as legends for ages to come.
And due to this incident, Sertia had stained the name of the first Hero Party.
Known as the useless woman who did nothing while students were dying.
“Cough!”
Sertia spat out black blood as a wave of agony hit her.
The Demon King’s curse bound her body, causing such pain.
Now, there was really little time left. Even stretching it would be two weeks at best. The exact timeline was likely to be shorter than that.
As she wiped the blood off her chin, she gazed out at the view from the high place.
Perhaps dying from falling here wouldn’t be so bad.
Sertia unconsciously stepped over the cliff but stopped.
There was still something she needed to do before the time came.
She hadn’t even apologized to that child yet.
Sertia turned back.
After the major incident, the atmosphere of the academy was incredibly bleak.
Several professors lost their lives, and some lost friends or siblings.
The same went for students who were unaffected by all of this. They were just lucky to have survived.
On that day, it could have been them who died. Those who survived were ultimately protected by someone else, and someone else sacrificed themselves for them to stay alive.
Although there weren’t many deaths, the number of injuries was high, leading to a situation where the academy’s infirmary was filled. The priests and clergy on campus had to use healing spells day and night.
That’s why it was dark.
Even though they attended the academy, there were noticeably many empty seats. Some classes were left vacant due to the absence of professors.
Iria was walking through the academy’s interior, which had become a wreck. This was the garden she often frequented for strolls.
Most of it had burned down.
Nevertheless, many workers were in the midst of rebuilding the ruins. Priests and saints were purifying the scattered magical energies, and professors were restoring the fallen buildings with magic.
Iria sat on a bench, watching the scene.
“This way! Everyone, over here, please!”
A silver-haired girl was directing the priests.
But Iria was not alone; there was another woman with hair the same color as hers.
Natural silver hair.
Seeing someone with the same hair color for the first time made Iria’s gaze naturally shift that way.
In general, human hair color follows the color of the mana they possess.
So, it’s rare to see black or silver hair. They can’t be dyed with black or white mana.
But what if a human had no mana at all?
Among humans, a small minority are born with divine power from the start instead of mana.
Those are the priests and saints.
I believe there are cases where silver-haired individuals emerge among those divine casters, as I heard somewhere.
‘Could she be the rumored saint?’
It was famous that the empire’s church had produced the current generation of saints.
How famous you ask? Even Iria, who wasn’t keen on rumors, had heard of it at least once. Newspapers had been plastered with it for days.
Anyway, the power of the saint was immense.
With just a wave of her hand, she purified all the magical energies that were clinging to the garden. Golden divine energy covered the magical energies and erased them.
She cleaned the garden and healed the injured. Witnessing all of this done by a single individual highlighted just how remarkable the saint’s power was.
“Ugh.”
Although it seemed Iria didn’t particularly like that.
A bit of divinity splashed onto her hair as she sat on the bench.
Her body instinctively reacted in refusal. Eventually, Iria had no choice but to flee the scene.
Damn divine casters!
She thought, wishing they would step in some dung while passing by.
As Iria dashed out of the garden, she bumped into someone without looking ahead.
It wasn’t a hard bump. It made a cute puff sound.
It was the sound of Iria falling backward.
“······.”
A man with blue hair reached out a hand toward her. He seemed to be trying to help her up.
But Iria did not take his hand.
The man extending his hand was Albert.
She didn’t really want to grab it. She had too many complicated feelings about him.
In the end, Iria stood up using her own strength and dusted the dirt off her clothes.
Albert was severely injured, but fortunately, it seemed his life was not at risk.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been confined to a hospital bed, but there weren’t enough beds, so he gave up his spot to others.
Being a professor, he was the type to think about other students’ conditions over his own.
Albert asked in a low voice.
“Have you calmed down a bit?”
“······.”
It’s a mystery how one can be so composed in front of the perpetrator.
Maybe it was because there were many eyes watching.
Whatever.
I didn’t want to get involved with him.
Iria tried to turn away and leave, but Albert lightly grabbed the sleeve of her clothes.
A chill ran down Iria’s spine as she looked over.
“Let go.”
“Do you have a moment?”
“Why?”
“I wanted to talk about what I couldn’t say that day.”
“Are you looking to get killed?”
“If, after hearing what I have to say, you still feel that way, you’re welcome to do so.”
“······.”
He was more bothersome than expected.
Still, it was true that she was curious.
She wanted to know why he wasn’t showing hostility even though he seemed to know everything, and what his reaction was that day.
The day when the rain poured down, soaking her hair heavily.
Should she listen to him?
She couldn’t spare much time, but he risked his life for this conversation.
He even said she could kill him if she still felt that way after hearing him out.
“Then let’s go somewhere private.”
Iria said.
