Frey threw up a Barrier of Light in an attempt to defend them, but there was no way she could withstand the bombardment exploding in from every direction all by herself.
It wasn't something a human being could block in the first place.
In the end, the Barrier of Light collapsed, exposing Leon's party to the barrage, and all four of them were swallowed by the explosions.
If Lola hadn't reduced the power midway through, there probably wouldn't have been so much as a bloodstain left behind.
Now, all four of them were tightly bound with rope and completely restrained.
“I usually try not to throw my noble authority around.”
Standing before them, Lola looked down with an icy gaze. It had been a long time since Ex had seen the eyes of a true noble on her face.
“You crossed a line so far beyond acceptable that being outside the Academy won't save you. The moment we return to the Empire, I'm filing a formal accusation against all of you. My family will mobilize every resource at its disposal to investigate every single thing you've done. Do you understand what that means?”
Lola's declaration was cold, imperious, and utterly devoid of mercy.
“We forgive many things, but our family has never once forgiven an attack against our blood. Especially not my father, Count Lemercier. He does not let matters like this go. At the very least, you could be stripped of your status and condemned to lifelong slavery. At worst…”
Lola's gaze sharpened, stabbing straight into Leon.
“Execution, I suppose. Let's see how much that wonderful status of yours as someone chosen by the Goddess can protect you in the Empire. House Lemercier is always prepared for war.”
Even Ex tensed at the sheer ruthlessness in her voice and swallowed dryly.
‘What the hell kind of family is House Lemercier?’
He and Lola had always just been good friends.
Sure, she constantly whined that he should treat her like a noble, but she'd never once actually used her authority as one.
But there had been that call with the Count before.
And now there was the commanding way Lola was speaking.
No matter how high-ranking a noble might be, very few would dare come down this hard on the Hero, the chosen one whose very existence served as proof of the Goddess.
‘Come to think of it, it was the same at the Academy…’
There was another student from a high-ranking count's family in Class F besides Lola, and even though he was stuck in the hopeless Class F, everyone still blindly flocked around him.
That was how nobles tended to behave. If there was a social connection to be gained, they would flatter and follow almost anyone.
And yet not a single student had ever approached Lola.
Almost as if they were afraid of her.
“Ms. Circe. Do you know what kind of family House Lemercier is?”
“…You don't? You've been hanging around with her this whole time without knowing? Are you insane?”
Circe gave Ex an incredulous side-eye.
“House Lemercier is one of the Empire's great magical families, ruled by a Margrave…! They're the family known by the epithet ‘Demonkin Exterminator’…!”
One word in particular refused to leave Ex's head.
‘A Margrave? Then he's not just a Count…!’
A Margrave was a Count who ruled a frontier region along the border with a hostile nation.
A commander and Count granted overwhelming military authority and considerable independence, the kind of noble commonly referred to as a ‘Marquis’.
And in this world, there was only one hostile nation.
The Demon Realm.
‘Why was someone like her never in the original… Oh. It's because of Master!’
On the very first day, Lola had talked back to Roxwell and immediately gotten on his bad side.
Under normal circumstances, she probably would've dropped out after being subjected to unfair treatment, or Roxwell would've found some excuse to expel her.
But Ex had drawn every bit of attention onto himself.
Lola's expulsion had simply ceased to happen.
And now, a blood relative of a house wielding authority comparable to an entire nation was exercising that authority with an indisputable justification.
“If it were entirely up to me, I'd have you summarily executed on the spot, but…”
“S-Summarily executed…!”
Only now did Leon and the other three seem to truly comprehend that Lola was a ‘noble’.
The only reason Leon had gotten away with all his disasters until now was because someone else had always cleaned up the mess for him.
That someone wasn't here anymore.
Frey was the first to regain her senses.
“Please forgive us! Our lives carry too much weight to be taken so lightly! Please reconsider…”
“Are you saying killing you would start a war with the Deus Theocracy? Unfortunately for you…”
Lola's eyes glowed blue, and explosive spells appeared in the air around her like a field of stars.
“We're already at war. We always have been. On behalf of all humanity.”
Frey saw the resolve burning in Lola's eyes and closed her own.
They had made a choice that would not be easy to undo.
“Of course…”
Then Lola let out a faint sigh and dismissed her magic.
“I should leave your share to you. I'll stop here.”
She glanced over her shoulder toward Ex and Circe.
“Commoner, I'll respect your decision. And as for you…”
“Circe Odyssey…”
“Right, Ms. Circe. I'll respect your decision too.”
Lola walked lightly over and stopped beside Ex.
“What do you want to do?”
Lola handed the decision over to Ex.
If Ex said he wanted them dead, she might actually kill them.
After all, this was the final destination of the Ancient Ruins, a place no one else could reach.
If Lola used her explosion magic to erase them without leaving so much as a single cell behind, no one would ever know.
“…Killing them would be a little much. We made a promise too.”
Of course, he had absolutely no intention of doing that in front of Circe.
“But they can't walk away without paying for what they did.”
He had even less intention of simply letting this slide.
Apparently misunderstanding exactly what Ex meant, Leon dragged himself forward on his knees and pleaded.
“If someone has to die, kill me! My companions were only following my decision. So please…!”
“Don't start pretending you're a good guy now…!”
KRAK-!!
“Ghaaak!!”
Ex kicked Leon square in the face with all his strength.
The shoes he was wearing had iron fittings, so the blow was anything but gentle.
“Aaah! Leon!!”
“You cowardly bastard!”
The other three glared at Ex, each grinding their teeth in fury.
Ex couldn't have cared less.
“Cowardly? You're the ones who ganged up on one girl and beat her half to death. You didn't even treat her wounds. All you've done is make excuses…!”
“Ghuuk…!”
Leon had collapsed and was gasping for breath, so Ex drove another kick into his solar plexus.
“And what pisses me off the most is that you didn't give her a single meal or even a drink of water. You didn't treat her like a human being…!”
“Ghk, uuegh…”
When Ex kicked him in the stomach, half-digested food spilled from Leon's mouth.
They, at least, had been eating their meals on time.
“And one last thing… Screw it. I just don't like your face…!”
CRUNCH-!
“GUAAAAAAAGH-!!”
On impulse, Ex kicked Leon straight between the legs.
He heard something crack, but made a determined effort to ignore it.
Leon was the root cause of countless disasters later anyway.
If Ex were being perfectly sincere, he wanted to finish the job and make him just like Lola, but with Circe and another reincarnator watching, he decided to restrain himself.
Even someone like this still had a role to play in preventing the world's destruction.
Ex could only hope Leon would take this incident as a lesson.
“What about you, Ms. Circe?”
“You already worked Leon over, so I guess I'll take care of the others.”
For quite some time after that, Circe's torture lightning blazed through the chamber.
Ex had experienced that lightning's agony firsthand, so his body instinctively shrank back just from watching.
BZZZZZZZZT-! BZZZTZT-
After personally engraving a lesson into the minds of the remaining three, Circe dusted off her hands and turned away.
“Sorry, but there's no way I'm ever traveling with those people again.”
She was talking about the distortion in her foresight.
With Circe leaving the party, a great many things would change.
Ex had already prepared himself for that.
“Looks like I'll have a lot to think about once we get back to the Academy.”
“Why are you acting like you're going to sit there and figure it all out by yourself? I said I'd help you. I don't know everything, but I'm pretty sure I'm better at this than you are.”
And with that, the incident finally came to an end.
They tossed the unconscious members of Leon's party into a corner, then Ex, Lola, and Circe headed toward the place where the ruins' rewards awaited them.
Perhaps because Circe had joined them, Lola was unusually quiet.
“My lady, are you all right? Are you suffering any aftereffects from your injuries…?”
“Hm? Ah, no! I'm fine. Totally fine. It's just…”
Lola cautiously glanced at Circe.
The memory of Circe viciously bombarding her with magic came rushing back.
Circe herself had no memory of what happened at the time, so she held no particular feelings about it, but she understood Lola's reaction perfectly well.
“Lady Lemercier, I know this apology is terribly late, but I sincerely apologize for what happened before. I wasn't in my right mind at the time, and I ended up behaving inexcusably toward you.”
Circe bowed her head to Lola in apology.
It was a mature response, fitting for the person who had always served as the voice of reason in Leon's party.
“I-It's fine! You don't have to be so formal with me! You helped Ex and me this time, so if anything, I should be thanking you. If you ever need my help with something, just ask!”
Lola wasn't the type to hold grudges either, so she forgave her easily, and that gave the two of them an opening to start talking.
Circe was particularly interested in House Lemercier, a prestigious magical family, and Lola herself fascinated her as well. Anyone could tell at a glance that the girl possessed an absurdly vast amount of mana.
‘So much for calling her a brat…’
Circe really was the type to draw a strict line between personal feelings and serious matters.
By the time the two had spent a while talking and gradually warming up to each other, they had already arrived at the reward chamber.
It was a room sealed behind a stone door.
The sight of it made Circe murmur with a strange sense of nostalgia.
“Never thought I'd end up here again.”
In her previous life, Circe had obtained the ‘Eye of Akasha’ here.
When she'd arrived for the second time, she had obtained a powerful weapon instead. It wasn't as valuable as the Eye of Akasha, but it had still been formidable.
The same had been true for the other parties.
‘I should grab it for now and give it to her later when the timing's right.’
Ex was just about to place a hand against the door when Circe spoke.
“Ex, can you read the Ancient Language written up there?”
Circe pointed above the stone door.
There was a short line of pictographs carved into the stone.
The moment Ex looked at the Ancient Language, the meaning somehow became clear to him.
“It says… 「Storage Room 005」?”
“Storage room? 005?”
‘If there's a 005, that means there should be a 001 too, right?’
Ex had no idea what it meant.
The Ancient Ruins had only ever existed as a dungeon for the story.
Even Ex didn't know when they had been built, how they had been built, who had created them, or for what purpose.
He had never bothered asking.
It hadn't mattered.
‘But how does that work now that this world is real?’
This was a world where plausibility mattered.
Something like this couldn't have simply appeared out of nowhere without any reason behind it.
‘I should investigate it later.’
Ex opened the door and stepped inside.
At long last, they had found the reward chamber of the Ancient Ruins.
“Ex! Treasure! It's treasure!!”
Lola practically lost her mind at the dazzling golden light shining from every direction.
Gold, silver, jewels, and every kind of treasure imaginable filled the room like the hoard inside a dragon's lair.
“I don't know how much of this we can actually carry…”
Even Ex could barely believe his own eyes now that he was seeing it in person.
The problem was how much they could take with them.
Even though he'd brought a huge bag, it was nowhere near large enough to hold everything.
While the two of them were distracted by the riches, Circe looked around with barely any interest in the treasure itself.
The only things she cared about were powerful magic devices and artifacts.
“Ah, this should be good.”
Circe found a small ring set with a gemstone tucked away in one corner.
Ex knew exactly what it was.
“That's ‘Paison's Leap’.”
“You know this? Ah, of course you do. So what does it do?”
“It contains ‘Blink’, a short-range teleportation spell that activates instantly.”
“Blink…?”
This artifact would eventually become one of Circe's signature pieces of equipment.
Blink in particular caused Circe's previously lacking one-on-one combat ability to skyrocket.
“Ah, and there's something else… My lady, come over here for a moment!”
Since he was already at it, Ex decided to pick out a powerful artifact for Lola too.
“My lady, I think you should use this.”
He handed Lola a thin, delicately crafted silver bracelet.
“What's this?”
“It's an artifact called ‘Iris’. It lets you use a special barrier spell. As long as you have mana, the barrier can never be broken.”
“And how exactly do you know tha… Ugh. Never mind. My mouth's getting tired of asking.”
Lola slipped Iris onto her wrist and activated the barrier spell.
A radiant barrier shimmered into existence, gleaming with a spectrum of colors like a rainbow.
Circe immediately complained when she saw it.
“What about me?”
“You've got Blink. That's enough. Besides, that thing eats through mana like crazy, so you'd barely use it anyway.”
Even in the original story, Circe had only used Iris a handful of times.
There was no reason to waste mana on an inefficient barrier when she could simply dodge attacks with Blink instead.
They continued browsing through the rewards as though they were shopping, until eventually.
“Found it.”
Ex discovered an artifact shaped like an oversized goblet.
It was the Purification Relic he'd spent a full 50,000 points to create.
‘Was it always shaped like this? I thought the description made it sound smaller.’
The Purification Relic was an item that was supposed to be stored inside the Theocracy's treasure vault during the Theocracy Episode.
It was deeply tied to one of the Doomsday Scenarios involving the Theocracy, so Ex knew full well that he probably shouldn't be doing this.
‘I can use it before anyone notices, then put it back.’
The future could worry about itself.
He decided to deal with the present first.
For now, removing the Emperor's curse with this relic took priority.
After stuffing every expensive magic device and artifact he could fit into the enormous bag, Ex turned to Circe and Lola.
“Time to get the hell out of here. Someone else is coming.”
“Come to think of it, I haven't heard those impacts for a while.”
At that, Ex immediately focused his senses.
She was right.
The periodic booming impacts had stopped.
‘Did the golems drive them off? Or…’
The moment another possibility crossed his mind.
KAAAAAAAAABOOOOM-!!!!
A tremendous explosion tore through the wall.
Chunks of stone both large and small exploded in every direction.
The unexpected blast felt as though it would tear their eardrums apart,
and the sudden, massive shockwave hurled all three of them off their feet.
‘What the…’
Before Ex could even complete his next thought.
SHING-!!!!
A silver flash came crashing down before his eyes.
That flash sliced clean through the object Ex was holding.
‘The Purification Relic…!’
The cumbersome, oversized relic split in two with a perfectly clean cut.
If the strike had landed just a little closer, Ex would've been the one lying there in two pieces.
“…That took longer than I expected.”
A figure emerged through the smoke left behind by the explosion.
Dull, sunken pink eyes.
Long pink hair falling all the way to her waist.
Her hair had been carelessly tied back as though even doing that much had been too bothersome.
She was a girl who looked exhausted, pressed for time, and somehow vaguely ill.
And yet a ferocious aura burned around the weapon in her grasp.
Aura imbued with will.
Proof of a 6-Star martial artist.
“…Hello?”
The girl looked like she was anything but well as she spoke.
“…Mr. Ex, I've come to kill you.”
It was Elia, made of hatred and rage.
–TL Notes–
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