novelraw Chapter 103 : Chapter 103
Chapter 103 : Chapter 103
Chapter 103: Roberta Sinclair’s Mischief (2)
‘Spirits are so convenient.’
Monika thought, resting her chin on her hand.
Lizer was brandishing his magic wand. Slowly and meticulously, as if stroking the air that made up the greenhouse.
The spirits moved according to Lizer’s command. At a glance, it was nothing more than particles of light swaying, but they were adding nutrients as they brushed against the soil and absorbing impurities mixed in the moisture. Silently, yet as if playing the music of nature.
- Amazing, Mr. Lizer! So cool!
- Sasha, are you impressed right now? I’m about to die of disbelief. If that’s possible with spirits, then in the first place…….
- It means you could have made them clean. I’m not sweeping the Department of Elemental Studies building from today.
- Well said, Melisha. I’m firmly declining too. Let’s tell Sasha to do it herself.
The peer cleaners murmured, glancing at Lizer.
Trisha, Melisha, and Sasha were sitting beside Monika. Around a small round table.
It was early morning. The peer cleaners were resting before their work began, and Monika had to inspect the greenhouse and then attend the morning assembly. With Lizer.
“With this, today’s work is also done!”
Lizer boasted, looking back at Monika.
“Gardening is nothing with spirits!”
Yaaawn, she went.
Monika responded with a yawn. Her eyes, wide awake all night, had only grown weary as dawn approached. Did she sleep for about two hours? Monika calculated, rubbing her hair. Lately, she had only been able to get catnaps. Ever since Fleur had passed away, she had been.
- Are you okay, Monika? You look really tired.
Sasha asked.
Monika replied that she was fine.
- You must be feeling complicated. Who would have thought the Saint-Pierre family would end up like that. It’s not like you seemed particularly close, but anyway, Lady Fleur was in the same class as Monika…….
- That's enough, Trisha. Let's just grumble about Mr. Lizer's spirit-playing. There's nothing to gain from us talking about Lady Fleur.
Trisha and Melisha whispered.
Though she hadn't been asked another question, Monika replied that she was fine.
“Really. I’m fine.”
Grrr, it went.
Thunderstorm rubbed its body against Monika's instep,
“It’s time for assembly. I’ll go ahead.”
Monika got up.
She patted Thunderstorm and then took a step.
In her hand, she held fresh flowers. They were strawflowers she had bought in the capital last night. The flower heads, tied in a bunch, were a fresh yellow. She would place the fresh flowers on Fleur's desk at the start of the assembly, and dispose of them at the end. Monika was sticking to her routine meticulously.
“I hear something forced.”
Meanwhile, Lizer said.
Approaching Monika with quick steps.
“From you, Monika.”
“I suppose so. You have very good ears, senior.”
“My nose is good too. Your scent today is quite irritating.”
“You guessed right.”
Monika grabbed the greenhouse doorknob.
She frowned, looking back at Lizer.
“I don't know if all mages are like you, senior, or if you're just particularly insidious. If you keep talking as if you know everything about a person's inner thoughts, I'll cut off your head……”
“Wait a minute, Monika.”
“Cut off your head and feed it to Thunderstorm……”
“Look there.”
What now, she said.
Monika muttered in a sulky voice and turned her head. She followed Lizer's pointing finger with her gaze. The greenhouse door. Words began to be written on the glass entrance. Monika pursed her lips and read.
Congratulations, Monika unni.
This place will surely be safe.
Because it was Fleur unni’s place.
How about staying here like this for a few hours?
It will be very dangerous outside.
I’ve prepared cat urine, foul-smelling fruits, and annoying mechanical devices. By now, everyone must have started screaming.
- Roberta Sinclair
What in the world is she talking about.
Monika wondered, tilting her head.
Is Roberta playing a prank again? Still, it was a common occurrence. Monika didn't think much of it and pulled the doorknob,
“There you are, Monika.”
She saw Demian.
“I was looking for you, O Goddess of Amber.”
She saw Ernst too.
“Roberta is staging a protest on the roof of the main building right now. Demanding to be allowed to participate in the practical evaluation. Professor Argento is trying to persuade her, but it doesn't seem to be working well. I think we should go too.”
“That damn trap brat……. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to have touched your precious body. The campus is in complete chaos. She must have activated all the traps she had installed at once. However, I, Ernst von Tresckow, will protect you.”
“No, that aside, first of all……”
Monika narrowed her eyes.
She stared at the CIAR main building, towering high in the distance.
Fleur's greenhouse was in a corner of the floating island. She could faintly hear the students' shouts, but it was difficult to grasp the exact situation. In the end, Monika decided to guess the circumstances through Demian and Ernst's predicament.
“……You two, you smell terrible.”
Monika said, covering her nose,
“Right. The smell, the sound, the appearance are all the worst.”
Lizer added with a sigh.
“I……”
“I……”
Demian and Ernst glanced at each other.
Then they both touched their foreheads at the same time. Speaking in a groaning voice,
“Cat urine was poured on my head.”
“I slipped on some foul-smelling fruit and fell……”
* * *
- Roberta Sinclair! Get down here this instant! How dare you release a swarm of toads in my laboratory?
- That’s mild, Professor! If you saw the state of the student council office right now…….
- Please come down, Miss Sinclair! The rooftop is dangerous!
- Please come down, Miss Sinclair! The rooftop is dangerous!
- Please come down, Miss Sinclair! The rooftop is dangerous!
- The Vice President brought three of her clones…….
- Roberta! What is the meaning of this! There’s a limit to tarnishing the nameplate of the Sinclair family!
- Excuse me, are you Roberta’s father? I’m sorry, but a claim for damages…….
What a mess.
Abel thought with a sigh.
The rooftop of the Cia-Harphe Academy main building. Below Abel, who stood on the roofing material, was a crowd of people. It seemed they were all shouting, regardless of whether they were professors or students, but from a distance, it was nothing more than mere noise.
“This is unlike you, Roberta.”
Abel swept back his fluttering silver hair.
He looked straight ahead with narrowed eyes and saw Roberta perched on a square mechanical device. Roberta was staring into the distance with her mouth shut.
“Your pranks have always toed a fine line. Thanks to that, you haven't been punished. But today seems a little different.”
It was too loud, he thought.
As Abel was about to take a step while quietly observing,
“Don't come any closer.”
Roberta stood facing Abel.
Her orange hair, curved in a circle, swayed.
“This is a conversation, Professor. I am stating my intentions. Please let me participate in the practical evaluation. Please help me persuade my dad.”
Sreuk, it went.
Roberta's hand caressed the square mechanical device.
With a slight noise, the mechanical device transformed into a form with a cannon barrel. It must be a tool Roberta had put her all into creating. Abel tried to understand the principle behind the device. A facility created using engineering ingenuity and divine power. Did she lay the foundation with mechanical knowledge and then solidify the logically impossible structure through divine magic?
“This is not a conversation, Roberta.”
One step,
Abel took a step, and,
“It is a conversation.”
As Roberta spoke as if chanting an incantation,
──*Thud*, it went.
A circular sphere was fired.
“It’s not a conversation, but an insistence.”
Abel tilted his head towards the sphere.
Did she make a lump of muddy water and fire it? Abel thought, wiping his wet face. Strange. I don't see any space to store liquid.
“Your father was concerned about you. That's why he prevented you from participating in the practical evaluation──.”
“That’s right. I’m being stubborn.”
One step,
Abel took another step, and,
Thud, it went.
Another circular sphere was fired.
“I don’t know if my dad opposed it because he was worried about me or what. Because we don't know each other well. We barely even talk. So I don't know my dad's intentions, and he doesn't know me well enough to worry about me.”
Abel deliberately took the hit.
Did she mix lemon juice in the water lump this time? Abel thought with a frown. It's producing projectiles from inside the device. And on top of that, my eyes are stinging…….
“But saying things like this won't change anything. That's why I prepared it. All of this.”
Abel continued to advance.
Thud, thud, thud──!
Spheres were shot every time his footsteps landed.
Abel took every hit. Sewage that seemed to have been scooped from a swamp, the gastric juice of an insectivorous plant, and finally, a lump of dog excrement.
Ptoo, he went. Spitting out the filth that had entered his mouth, Abel recognized. The projectiles fired from the mechanical device were not of this world. It was just that similar components had been created through divine magic.
Did she apply the summoning spell of Oblivion Theory? Abel couldn't be sure. The only thing that was clear was……,
“Listen carefully, Professor!”
She could have given it lethal power.
To the projectiles, as much as she wanted.
Roberta was just controlling it.
“I’m being stubborn towards everyone right now, and!”
I'm having a conversation riddled with stubbornness!
You can call it childishness! I, Roberta Sinclair,
“Am really a child! But just because I’m a child, I don’t want to not know!”
I want to know reality.
Roberta said so.
“Everything looks peaceful on the surface, but in reality, people are constantly dying!”
Fleur unni died too.
And that’s not all. There are so many places in immediate danger, but,
You say I’m a child. You say I don’t need to know yet. Don’t cover my eyes while judging me as you please. I want to know!
I think I already know!
“That I……, don't know reality enough, I think I know that!”
“──Then I shall tell you.”
Abel pulled on the hilt of his beloved sword.
Deudeuk, it went. The blade was revealed, pushing its way out of the scabbard.
“There is no need to take the practical evaluation. The reality you don’t know is everywhere. Look right in front of you. I am holding a sword, and……”
Tadat!
Abel leaped.
Roberta's eyes moved busily. Abel's footprints began to be engraved on the ceiling material. She busily followed them with her eyes, but capturing the afterimages was the limit.
The mechanical device was no different. Thud, thud, it went. The cannon barrel began firing in all directions. Even so, the shattered projectiles just scattered in the air, and,
“You have only stood by my side with a toy.”
Tuk…….
The blade of his beloved sword rested on top of Roberta's head.
“This is reality, Roberta.”
I wielded a weapon,
And you only used a toy.
Abel whispered so.
“You cannot stand against my sword with a toy. You must know that well.”
“……Of course.”
Roberta looked up at Abel.
Her eyes were trembling. They seemed to glisten with moisture.
“I can make them too if I want. Proper weapons. I just didn't make them because I didn't want to. Because I think they're useless……”
It's better to make toys than to make weapons,
And it's better to play pranks than to fight each other.
Roberta said so.
“But reality will be different.”
“Yes, reality is different.”
Abel replied readily.
He withdrew his beloved sword and sheathed it.
“I believe your words. You could make them if you wanted to. A weapon more useful than my worn-out sword.”
Abel said, and Roberta did not respond.
She just lowered her head with her mouth shut. She could have reached out and manipulated the mechanical device, it wouldn't have been difficult to grant it lethal power, but in the end, she hesitated and couldn't prove it. That was why all of Roberta's actions were pranks, and all the objects Roberta created were toys.
It was all nothing more than childishness.
“This is the last time, Roberta.”
Abel also knew.
And so he opened his mouth. With a faint smile.
“I have always felt your potential with my body. This time too, I intend to fall for your potential.”
But this is the last time.
If you wish to know reality, prepare to melt into it.
Abel whispered so, and,
“……Professor Argento?”
“If you are ready, answer me.”
He took a step without hesitation, and,
“──From below.”
He leaped with his back to the empty air.
As if he had been defeated by Roberta.