<795 – How to Prevent the Darkening of Professors (6)>
As the female students entered Day 1 of their underground survival struggle in the Goblin World, they regretted not bringing the Earth Sorcerer Sandkooker from the Yellow Magic Tower.
Oknodie, however, was worried about a completely different individual.
“I’m actually worried about Avalon!”
“Avalon? That golden magical girl from back then?”
Since Sing was a party member of Oknodie who witnessed Avalon’s birth live, he had no thoughts whatsoever about Avalon being the next chief scholarship student raised by the Foundation, or that she was an assassin sent by the Foundation to trap the professors.
“That doesn’t seem like someone who deserves concern, though.”
Wasn’t she strong enough that it would be odd if she got a professor position right away?
“She got sent to an unexpected Prill after getting a job in Professor Weird’s lab, and then went missing! I definitely think she was caught up in some disaster after being sent out on a mission instead of the naughty Professor Weird!”
“That can’t be all that shabby if it’s a hero made by Titosso, right?”
“Still, think about it! An old fogey who doesn’t even know how the outside world works got dragged into some dimensional mess and became a lost child! It’s just too inhumane to leave her like that!”
Though neither of the two had any gauge of how strong the Goblin Warrior might be, they knew just how poor the teaching assistants exploited by the professors were.
“So we need to activate the spell that makes Avalon’s heart explode and resurrect Avalon 2!”
Hearing Oknodie’s fiery friendship towards Avalon, Sing nodded and raised his palm to slap his own cheek.
The sudden jolt made Sing realize he wasn’t under some fantasy magic and opened his mouth again.
“…Have I been too fatigued lately? I think I misheard something. Could you say that again?”
“The spell to make the heart explode…”
“Stop. It seems I heard correctly.”
Sing was shockingly taken aback.
“What was the point of the previous conversation? You show so much sympathy, and yet you want to blow her heart up? The conclusion is odd.”
“But think about Avalon being kidnapped in the Goblin World! She wouldn’t be able to regain her freedom and would be exploited under goblins or professors. Isn’t that just horrifying?”
“Much like the teaching assistants, right?”
“Exactly! Imagine how harsh the life of a TA without even basic protection from Gift Academy would be!”
Getting caught by goblins or rolling under professors were equally disastrous situations.
The thought that maybe death could serve as salvation also flickered in Sing’s mind.
“Bringing this up to me means there’s something you want me to do. What do you need from me?”
“You’re so quick on the uptake, Sing! I’ll give you this detonator, so just run to the entrance of the Goblin World, press the switch, and come right back!”
“The Dimensional Gate?”
“I’ll specially open it for you!”
“…Do I really have to go in there?”
“Sure, pressing it from outside will deal some damage, but it’ll be half as effective since it’s pressing across dimensions.”
There was no helping it.
If it meant Avalon’s certain rescue, he would have to take some risk.
Though Sing didn’t have any special connection with Avalon, they shared one common trait.
The common trait of being a man who became a woman.
The common trait of being an existence that defied the heavenly order infused Sing with a fierce ambition to face the perilous Goblin World.
“I’ll take that request.”
“Thank you!”
“Don’t misunderstand. I have zero intention of naturally mingling in a party only female students can attend. I just want to keep an eye on my pathetic classmates rolling around while pressing the button.”
“Should I lend you a pair of pajamas?”
“…I don’t need them.”
Turning down Oknodie’s casual pajama party temptation with difficulty, Sing confidently placed his hand on his hip as if he had triumphed over trials and tribulations.
Having conquered the seductive Oknodie, he retained the identity of a lonely swordsman with untainted masculinity.
He didn’t think at all about how feminine his palm resting on his hip might look, or how much his thighs might resemble a woman’s shape, which brought about a strange reflection in Oknodie’s mind, wondering if he used to look like that.
“Ugh!”
Oknodie, feeling unease, abruptly opened the Dimensional Gate.
“It’s polite to bring back a local souvenir after a trip. Is there any gift you desire?”
With Sing’s masculine bravado suggesting he could even snag souvenirs from the perilous Goblin World, Oknodie replied casually.
“New food for the Cooking Handbook!”
“That’s nothing much. I’ll bring back something reasonable.”
With confidence, Sing stepped into the Goblin World.
The moment he entered, he was engulfed by an overwhelming Mana Poison and various surveillance techniques filled his detection range.
Off in the distance, a light flashed and began bombarding the ground, at which point one professor, unable to hold back any longer, leaped out from Gehenna, only to be turned into ash by hundreds of human extermination bombs in a single glance.
“…”
He had planned to leisurely collect local products, check on his poor classmates, press the button, and complete the mission much later, but everything changed in a heartbeat.
In a mad place like this, it was best to run away as quickly as possible.
Beep.
Sing pressed the switch on the other side of the Dimensional Gate.
*
Avalon, who had already escaped to the Middle Realm, collapsed in pain, clutching her chest as she felt her heart burst rather than die in the Goblin World.
“Ugh! My heart, it hurts so much!”
“This is… the spell for heart explosion?!”
The golden magical girl Avalon, who had escaped the Goblin World alongside the professors, was now accompanied by the Butler of the Foundation, who had not participated in the final confrontation, unlike the professors who were dragged into the Director’s ultimate battle.
“Why? The Director must have intended to gather information about the [Goblin World] through you and later dispose of the remaining professors who were the source of trouble. Why are you, of all people, being threatened by someone’s ambush spell?!”
The Butler’s mind was flooded with numerous pieces of information about the Director’s enemies.
Enemies that are hostile toward the Foundation exist in abundance.
Even though he had been under the Foundation’s influence, there were plenty of individuals who would take advantage of the Director’s death.
But it wasn’t a human.
It was an attack aimed precisely at Avalon.
Her existence had not been known for long.
There were no Foundation Scholarship Students or fixed spies who could know Avalon’s existence, no matter how thought about it.
Professors murdered by the hero?
That didn’t seem right.
Given the hero’s nature, they wouldn’t have left the professors any opportunity to chatter.
So there was only one thing to consider.
“The predators from a hundred dimensions beyond the Middle Realm!”
Now that the Director who protected humanity was dead, their assault had begun.
Given that, it made sense that Avalon, who just returned from a visit to another dimension, would fall prey to an ambush spell.
“The attacked dimension is the Goblin World. If we don’t eradicate the predators there, the [Isolation Organization] left behind by the Director for the future of humanity will perish.”
The Director did not mobilize the Butler for the final battle and explained his reasoning like this.
– You are my Plan B, Butler. No, Leader of the Organization. Even if I’m gone, someone must stop the invasion from the hundred dimensions for humanity. Avalon is a talent capable of doing so. Keep her under your wing.
A talent who could protect both Oknodie and humanity was now under threat.
“We must settle things with the Goblin World.”
The mission assigned to the Butler and the golden magical girl Avalon under Plan B was to further shroud the Foundation’s secret organization into the shadows and protect humanity from behind the scenes.
But since the predators from the other side of the dimension attacked Avalon, the golden magical girl who was as good as a pawn for the Butler, the war with the predators would also become his duty.
The Butler succeeded in generating an instant Dimensional Gate by cross-referencing the knowledge of dimensional science obtained by the Foundation with the information he had gathered by invading each dimension.
“Due to great fluctuations in coordinates, it will take a long time to reopen the door once you enter, but at the very least, I can kill the enemies threatening your life.”
“Butler… I’m so touched that you would go that far for me! When the day comes for the golden magical girl to rule the world, I’ll make you the third-in-command!”
“Why not the second-in-command?”
“The second-in-command position is reserved for Oknodie, who granted me a new chance at life!”
“…That brat hasn’t left anything untouched. Didn’t he kill the Director purely out of luck or coincidence?”
At first glance looking like a naive boy who loves to play and with a bad temper, it made sense to think that he had a meticulous mind and devilish wisdom, which surely was a trait inherited from the Director’s daughter.
But no matter how great Oknodie was, the one he was protecting was not Oknodie.
It was Avalon that the Director entrusted to the Butler, not Oknodie.
“Regardless, the true successor of the Foundation is not you, but this one here. The Director was a garbage man, but his intentions for humanity were genuine. For bringing harm to the child he sought to protect, I shall repay it with their life.”
Without caring for either Oknodie or Avalon, the Butler set out to eliminate the predators from the Goblin World that had attacked Avalon.
The Butler’s dimensional invasion to take revenge on the odd goblins that attacked Avalon caught the eyes of countless dimensional rulers and predators who were measuring the invasion of the Middle Realm after the Director’s death.
– A chance to eliminate the protector of the Middle Realm.
– That one took our powers in droves.
– Annoying humans, let’s kill them.
Sometimes someone’s goodwill can make things worse.
The Butler’s goodwill brought about a massive invasion of the predator species.
If the Butler hadn’t come, it would have been an easier situation for the professors and students, who were now fuming at the hindrance of survival plans.
