RATH 52
TL: Eevee
7. Is your backside safe? (4)
#6 Their story: a certain student council president’s story
“Are they not even letting us go home normally…”
“Well, we expected this.”
“But since the number of teachers are half what they normally are, at least we’ll be able to go home.”
“We’re probably the weird ones for feeling confident with that, right?”
We all sighed as we stood up.
Well, Lady Aris will clean up the third floor and below well on her own.
Regardless of the fact that Yugrasia was constructed knowing that summoned beasts would pa.s.s through its corridors, there is only limited s.p.a.ce in the hallways.
Because of that, even if the number of teachers has been reduced, the number of teachers that we’ll actually fight are probably similar to before.
Although one advantage is that there won’t be another teacher immediately coming in as soon as we defeat one.
Moreover, the fact that the G.o.d-cla.s.s elementalist Professor Harian also returned to the elven forest is also a significant boost for us.
If the G.o.d-cla.s.s summoners and the student council all charge while relatively fresh, not even Professor Muam could hope to stop us all.
“Right, as we planned!”
“To go home!”
And while we all fought and cleared the seventh floor, and were fighting on the sixth.
At a time approximated to be around 1PM, the apocalypse came.
-For the students who have not yet left school, we will now be entering the special holiday plan for fast exit.
“What bulls.h.i.t is that?”
Everyone on the sixth floor agreed heartily with Risen’s words.
We went to school even though we didn’t want to.
We went to school even though it was the holidays! Does he actually not know how much we want to go home?
We’re doing our best to leave school, and the one that’s stopping us is the school?
But a special plan for students who haven’t left school yet!
Step. Step.
But at the footsteps of someone coming down from the seventh floor, where we had just come down from ourselves, our rage instantly evaporated.
“Ahh… ahhhh..”
Step. Step.
It began with the despairing gasps of the student that was standing at the rearmost end.
And the moment that the students that heard it turned back, that thing smiled brightly and said.
“We’ve got sum bad kids who haven’t gone home yet?”
Bang!
She tilted her head slightly, with an appearance that a stranger might find cute.
But for us it was a smile of fear and despair, and with that the silver devil kicked off the stairs and charged in.
“Ru, run away!”
“Kyaahhgh!”
“Uheehiit! Finally, finawy Aru time! I’ve been waiting for dis!”
“Guaahhgh!”
In this situation where chaos, fear, screams and tus.h.i.tushis ran rampant.
“Run!”
Risen, the first person who realised the situation, summoned Loki’s shoes and started running away at lightspeed.
“Run!”
“Oho, you think we’ll… kuk?!”
Even though we’d been struggling against them mere seconds ago, but perhaps it was because the harbinger of death was approaching?
One student surpa.s.sed perceptible speeds to knock the teacher out and started running.
“Help meee!”
“Leave him, leave him! All units only focus on pushing forward!”
“Use all the strength you have except what you need to run!”
“Kuwaahh! Sa, save me, Pres!”
“Sorry, buy us time on the stairs!”
“Abandon the ones that fell to the trap stairs and keep going!”
Was it because of the chaos, there were a large number of casualties that were caught on the staircase’s traps that few people normally fell to.
No, to the point that I thought it would be a relief if the silver devil took longer to get down while she was dealing with them.
But unlike before, the silver devil’s goal was not to enjoy herself in hitting us.
“Uwheeheehiit! My goal is to beat all ya kids!”
Just one hit. Sometimes the more resilient ones would take two.
The speed of the silver devil that was coming down while only hitting enough to knock people out was straight up insane!
Because the students fell unconscious after so much as getting grazed by her, since we still had to fight the teachers on our way down, one student, then another were sacrificed to the silver devil.
But, but!
“It’s the second floor!”
And as expected, or should we say thankfully.
Because the third floor was already clear, we could run without suffering any more casualties.
And as we ran down to the second floor, we saw Lady Aris fighting Professor Aruhan in front of us.
“Kwuuuuuhhhht!”
“Dammit, she caught up again!”
But the silver devil caught our backs at the same time!
“RUUUUUUUUUNNNNN!”
Explanations?
Ain’t n.o.body got time for that.
We don’t even have room to breathe properly, explanations my a.s.s!
“Heeheehiit, you kids still haven’t left school yet, bad children!”
And as if she read my intentions, or heard the devil behind our backs.
Lady Aris’s face blanched as she weaved her way through Professor’s Aruhan’s strikes with movements that could be described as miraculous.
“What.… what kind of holiday is thisss!!!”
Yelling something we all heartily agreed with!
“What the heck is…”
Professor Aruhan, who was here instead of Professor Maroon who was on holiday, sighed as he raised his sword and shouted.
“Do you think you can get past… eh?”
In a single moment, Risen slipped past Professor Aruhan leaving nothing but an afterimage.
That footwork was due to the descension of Loki.
Risen flawlessly controlled Loki’s shoes, seemingly teleporting as he showed his control skills that seemed to surpa.s.s human limits.
“Urgh… but, but the rest of you!”
A shocked Professor Aruhan shouted as he turned back to us.
“DIIIIEEEEEE!”
“Ha, hang on? You little?!”
Yeah that, who gives a s.h.i.t.
All sorts of summons came out and rushed Professor Aruhan in a giant dogpile.
Strategy? Tactics? We don’t need any of that.
Even if we ran the risk of hitting our allies, all we did was charge and charge again.
But it can’t be helped. Because if we fall behind we die!
“Kwuagh!”
“d.a.m.n it, faster! More power!”
At that moment, one of the first years that joined us on the second floor summoned a silver hammer.
He was one of the first years’ G.o.d-cla.s.s summoners.
The contractor of Thor, the G.o.d of thunder!
As a G.o.d who for whatever reason held a grudge against Risen’s contract Loki, according to Risen his firepower was among the strongest of an entire mythology!
And for the record, the silver devil who beat down said highest-cla.s.s G.o.d with nothing but violence, and forcibly made him contract that first year was right on our a.s.ses!
Perhaps it was due to the fear, but the first year who could only let off weak thunderbolts with his G.o.d’s power summoned his G.o.d’s weapon and struck Professor Aruhan’s side.
“Kwuuuuk!”
And it was successful!
Perhaps because the hammer had a powerful electric charge, but Professor Aruhan’s body quivered before he collapsed.
“Nice work, Hirto!”
“We knew you could do it, Hirto!”
The first years near Thor’s contractor started to praise him.
These, these fools!
“Praise him later and run!”
There’s no time to talk. The silver devil was already getting closer by the second.
The first years finally realised as I brushed past them while screaming, before they began to flee as well.
But.
“Da, d.a.m.n it!”
“s.h.i.t, there was Professor Muam!”
First floor.
The door that would allow us to escape was right in front of us, yet the person blocking our way was the Spirit King of Water and his summoner Professor Muam.
“Mooooveee!”
A speartip imbued with magic power so dark red it could be mistaken for spear aura slammed into the water barrier, but it held firm.
“d.a.m.n it!”
And in the corner of the wall, we could see Risen suspended inside the wall with only his head sticking out.
“Break through, no matter what, break through!”
I summoned three high-ranking fire spirits.
Although fire spirits are weak against water, as long as the firepower is strong enough the water could be evaporated outright.
But the enemy was a spirit king.
Someone I could never beat by myself.
But, this time is different!
“Burn!”
“Charge, charge!”
“The devil is right behind us!”
Because I am with the students who have lost their reason at the ever-nearer tus.h.i.tushi sounds!
All sorts of fire spirits charged at the water.
A charge of fire spirits, fire giants, fire birds and other a.s.sorted spirits and beasts.
As if they felt their summoner’s resolve, despite facing off against the highest ranked water creature, a spirit king, they charged in fearlessly!
“It’s vanishing! The water is vanishing!”
“Just a bit more!”
“Once a hole’s made then break through with other summons!”
And so the wall of water that was slowly, slowly disappearing was.
“Just what have you been learning in my cla.s.ses.”
Repaired instantly at a snap of Professor Muam’s fingers.
“Water is not only that of the rivers and oceans. The clouds in the sky, the fog in the morning. Even in the air you are breathing. Even inside your bodies. Water is everywhere. Meaning that water exists everywhere within this world.
As we stared at the restored water with stupefied faces, Professor Muam smiled bitterly as he looked at us.
“You kids are the first ones to ever attack a Spirit King of Water with fire. Well, it was a refreshing challenge.”
With those words, Professor Muam waved his small hand with a regretful expression.
“In a fight, you will be defeated the moment you lose your reason. Engrave that into your hearts.”
And the moment those words registered in my ears, the tus.h.i.tushi noises had arrived right next to me.
‘……what’
“….resi…”
“Pres… wa…”
“Ge….:
‘Shut up…’
I started to hear sounds from somewhere.
It’s noisy. I want to sleep. I want to forget everything and just fall to sleep.
“uhhh… th…”
“my… eh…”
“The silver devil is coming.”
But at Risen’s words I automatically bolted upright.
“N, no!”
Risen smirked as he looked at me immediately summon a high-ranked elemental and look around my surroundings, and said.
“See, he woke up, right?”
And when I looked around, I could see the other students.
“How?”
And the majority of them were lying on the ground.
A few of the students that had already woken up were moving around waking the others.
And the place we were at was none other than…
“Why were we sleeping in the auditorium?”
Indeed.
In that very auditorium where we swore to become victorious in the imperial festival not long ago.
The majority of the students were out cold lying on the ground!
“Because we were hit of course.”
“Kuugh…”
At Risen’s words, I slowly began to recall things like an amnesiac whose memories were returning.
-Kuwuuughhh!
-No, save me!
-Heeheehiit, since you’re the last kids, unni’ll play with ya more!
-Stop, stop!
-Kuk! Please, no more…
“Urgghh…”
And what I remembered were things I’d much rather forget.
The moments where nothing but pain existed began to stir around in my brain once again.
“Oh, and Pres. This is pretty important.”
And looking at me, Risen had an extremely rare self-mocking smile on his face as he told me the catastrophic truth.
“Right now, it’s 6PM.”
“What?”
“It’s six in the afternoon.”
What the h.e.l.l was this? 6PM? That can’t be?
“I understand how much you want to deny reality.”
“This, this can’t be!”
What had I done?
All I did was get hit by the silver devil and wake up, so what kind of bulls.h.i.t are you saying when you’re telling me that five whole hours have pa.s.sed!
“Lies!”
Even as I staggered I forced strength into my legs as I opened the auditorium’s doors.
What I saw, was the slowly but surely setting sun.
Perhaps because it was summer, the sun was still in the sky but it was definitely setting lower and lower.
“You mean.. You mean it seriously 6 o’clock?”
Maybe if it was just one person.
If it was one cla.s.sroom I could stand it.
If it was an entire year level I could think as long as it’s not me!
But, but!
“He made the entire school stay at school til 6PM!”
Even on a normal day, the majority of the other academies would have already closed already!
And worse, this was the first day of the holidays!
Fwump.
“This, this can’t be.”
My two knees dropped to the floor in despair.
As my arms barely held by body off the ground, hunched over as if it couldn’t take it anymore, I began to cry out the resentment inside my heart.
“d.a.m.n it…. Daaaaaaaaaaamnnnnnn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt!”
It’s the holidays! The freaking holidays!
And it’s six in the afternoon!
And this will be part of our daily lives from now on!
Why, just why did this pain have to come in our final year!
But then someone began to pat my shoulder.
“M, milady?”
If it wasn’t Risen, I thought another member of the student council would be the one to be patting my shoulder.
But against my expectations, the one who was patting my shoulder was Lady Aris.
And with a benevolent smile, Lady Aris said to me.
“Sunbae(1), you graduate this year.”
“Ah…”
At that moment, I realised just what mistake I had made.
That expression, was not a benevolent smile. It was the smile of one who had forsaken everything, a saintess who had achieved enlightenment!
“But, this is my first year.”
As I saw that smile, I felt my knees rise by themselves.
It’s true. I am a fourth year.
But, at this academy there are still third years that still have a year left, and second years that have two.
And.
“I still have three more years to goooooooooooo!”
The fact that the ones that should be despairing isn’t me, but the first years that have three more years left in this academy!
“What have I done wrong!”
For Lady Aris, who was howling sorrowfully in a manner unbefitting for a daughter of a marquis.
I could do naught but watch over her.