Doom

By the next day, Ex barely managed to wake Lola, who had slept right up until their meeting time, and drag her to the rendezvous point. The female dormitory warden nearly caught him, but he narrowly escaped disaster by using the Disguise Mask to pass himself off as a woman. “I almost had my entire…

Lola basked in Ex’s puzzled stare, puffed out her chest, and declared with absolute confidence. “All of them!” Unfortunately, that wasn’t helpful in the slightest. “I see. Thank you for that valuable insight. I’ll go back to frowning and agonizing over this.” “Let me finish! There’s a perfectly logical reason!” As Ex stared at her…

Lola stared at Ex in confusion before asking. “…What is this?” “Think of it as a miniature prison designed to trap a human soul. It’s an artifact made by demons.” It took Lola a long moment to understand what Ex had said. Then her expression turned serious, and she began pressing him for answers. “That…

A massive woman nearly two meters tall appeared, her entire body covered in grotesquely bulging muscles. The real problem was what came out of her mouth. “Tersha! Are you here to attend the masquerade too? I thought you weren’t interested in things like this.” There was no need to investigate further. That musclebound woman knew…

“I'm joking. There's no reason to go around stabbing people for no reason.” Ex quickly retrieved the needle and tucked it inside his clothes. Even a cursory inspection would expose it, so he had to put it away immediately. Only after the needle disappeared from sight did some of the tension drain from Maria's rigid…

To Ex, plot progression was a kind of causal mechanism. If there was an A, it led to B. If there was a B, it led to C. Every novel unfolded through chains of cause and effect like that. But what happened when A vanished from the very beginning? ‘Obviously, B won’t happen, much less…

The Monday after the disciplinary hearing, Ex sat in the classroom before morning homeroom, sorting through everything that had happened. 『Base Stats Stamina: 0.1 Intelligence: 1.5 Agility: 0.1 Magic Power: 0.1 Luck: 0.1 Charm: 0.1』 ‘Only my brain is still alive. At least it’s alive and kicking.’ A sigh escaped him. Then again, he supposed…

Ex and Roxwell sat side by side on a park bench. Both of them looked utterly drained. In the distance, professors emerged through the main building’s front doors. They looked positively delighted. “Chairman, Headmaster. That was a proper ruling.” “We simply cannot praise your wise judgment enough!” The flattery was painfully obvious. Ex and Roxwell…

Roxwell strode past Ex and stepped forward. Everyone who had been staring blankly at his sudden appearance naturally turned their attention to him. The Chairman was the first to react. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now?!” “I do. But ordering me to stand by instead of attending the disciplinary committee hearing…

Roxwell received an unexpected item from an even more unexpected person. It was Circe, the girl who had supposedly dueled Ex. She had shown up carrying two notebooks, of all things. Then she handed one of them to him. “I delivered it, just like I was asked.” As though there were nothing more to say,…