"Uh, Maximus von Granité I? There should be a book called [A Study on the Mythological Representations of Phantom Beasts] on bookshelf number two... Could you fetch it for me?"
Clatter, clatter.
"It is not there? Then perhaps it is on bookshelf number three?"
Clatter!
"Ah, there it is. Thank you."
Soft slimes scurried busily all over the floor, while a two-head-tall skeleton standing nearby nimbly climbed up the bookshelf, retrieved a large book, and quietly handed it to Eileen.
When she took the book and thanked it, the skeleton waggled its short bony arms up and down, as if delighted to have received praise.
Meanwhile, a slime quietly scurried toward a scrap of paper that had fallen to the floor.
As it tried to swallow the paper whole, another skeleton nearby rushed over in alarm.
Clatter! Clatter!
As if telling it that it could not eat that, the skeleton roughly grabbed the slime’s soft body with one hand while clutching and pulling at the paper it was trying to swallow.
It was an eerie scene—if not for the blindingly bright ceiling, it would have suited some dark mage’s laboratory better than an academy.
Yet Eileen acted as if it were nothing, using the two-head-tall skeleton like her own limbs as she observed Niklas before her and wrote on the paper in her hand.
I watched Eileen in fascination as she moved her pen like a machine, even while focusing all her attention on Niklas.
Then I discreetly peeked at the sheet she was rapidly filling.
Though she had only just begun, more than eighty percent of the paper was already densely filled with writing, alongside a precise sketch of Niklas.
"Any progress?"
"I only just started. How could there possibly be progress already? Besides, I am only at the stage of quietly observing Niklas right now."
Her tone was curt, as if tossing the words out carelessly, but Eileen kept looking at Niklas and answered without stopping her busy fingers.
"...Still, it is strange. How should I put this? Research feels unusually easy. Unlike last time, I keep getting the feeling that I will discover something special this time."
Ah, so this was how the effect manifested.
Listening to her wonder aloud, I quietly looked toward the upper corner of my vision, near the status window.
[Ancient Documents Club (Lv. 1)]
President: Eileen de Astoria
Vice President: Ian de Logres
Faculty Adviser: Luke Eaenril
Members: Angelica de Olivier, Dolnesia de Logres, Isabella von Eterna
[Current Buff Applied: There Are Materials Ahead.]
The currently applied buff was [There Are Materials Ahead], a buff that granted better items during research.
As if to prove that the buff was properly in effect, Eileen’s research was proceeding without a hitch.
I was curious what would come of it.
Since it concerned Niklas, would it just turn out to be a pet experience book?
...But then.
When I looked around, the atmosphere was a little...
Right now, the only person in this room seriously racking their brain and immersing themselves in research was Eileen, the club president.
Far from conducting research, the rest of the members were all engrossed in doing other things, as if they had agreed on it beforehand.
First, Dolnesia...
"Hmm, does this gauntlet’s color combination look a little off? Sancho? What do you think?"
"My lord?"
"Aha, I thought so. My eye was right after all."
Apparently, she had already cleared out the hidden pieces I had told her about before. She was holding up a gauntlet I remembered from the game, matching it against the armor laid out on the floor.
And the armor on the floor was Arghalia’s armor, which I had given her.
In other words, Dolnesia was currently putting together an outfit for the Tin Knight spirit with Sancho.
Meanwhile, Angelica’s red eyes glittered as she repeatedly performed downward slashes at empty air in a corner.
And lastly, Isabella...
"..."
She sat limply in a chair, staring blankly at the ceiling as though her soul had left her body.
A hopeless club where one damned club president worked herself to death while the rest of the members openly committed collective dereliction of duty.
Of course, I was not doing any research either.
"But is she still going to be like that?"
"Leave her be. I suppose she has not gotten over the shock yet."
The reason Isabella sat there with her soul gone...
"Was it really that shocking?"
"Of course it was. That was my masterpiece."
All her magic had become ordinary.
More precisely, I should say that all her magic had been split apart by [Breath Splitting].
What happened was this: her magic had been chosen to prove [Breath Splitting].
And before Luke, I succeeded in proving it by splitting her magic apart.
If it had ended there, she probably would not have looked quite so soulless.
But apparently, Isabella had been stung by the fact that her magic had been split so easily, and she asked to do it one more time.
She twisted together all sorts of mana and fired off that lightning spell she had used against Arghalia.
And in the end, I very carefully split even that in half.
That was not all.
When I asked whether I could teach [Breath Splitting] to Kafka as well, Professor Luke unexpectedly nodded and readily gave his permission. I taught Kafka [Breath Splitting] immediately afterward...
And Kafka, of all people, mercilessly split Isabella’s magic in half too.
Yes.
And that was how she ended up in this state.
Well, Isabella was supposed to take great pride in her magic, so perhaps this was only a natural outcome.
Still, I had needed to use one-third of my mana to split her magic, but I decided there was no need to mention that.
What I learned from using [Breath Splitting] was that it differed somewhat from Carnwennan, which had the same Dispel ability.
Carnwennan’s ability felt like this: regardless of who cast it, if a spell was judged to be sixth circle or below, merely touching it with the blade would dispel it without fail.
[Breath Splitting] had no such restriction.
Regardless of the opponent’s circle, the more complex the spell formula they cast, and the stronger its caster, the more mana I had to consume to cut it apart.
That was why the spell she had casually tossed out at first had not cost much mana to cut, while the spell she called her crowning masterpiece had consumed a third of my mana when I split it.
Still, unlike Carnwennan, which could only be used against magic, this skill could cancel every skill that used mana.
And once it reached max level, I would be able to split Dragon Speech and dragon breath as Professor Luke had. At this point, it was difficult to say which was better.
Carnwennan was still sealed, too.
Still, I should use [Breath Splitting] for a while.
Then someone carefully poked the blankly staring Isabella with a finger.
It was Angelica, who had been continuously practicing downward slashes.
"What is it?"
Isabella quietly looked at Angelica, who had poked her, in a brusque tone.
Even if she had been spacing out, Isabella had clearly been giving off an aura that said touching her would be a terrible idea.
But Angelica, who was so thoroughly on her own wavelength, could not care less.
"Could you fire that spell at me?"
"...Haaah?"
A breath steeped in profound irritation escaped Isabella’s lips.
At Angelica’s request, which did not merely dig into the wound of her recent defeat but dumped salt into it, Isabella’s unfocused eyes slowly narrowed.
Isabella assumed the posture of a cat with every hair standing on end, as though she might explode at any moment.
Her expression was terrifying enough to seem as though veins were bulging across her pale forehead.
But unfortunately, Isabella’s murderous reaction...
"Why? Can’t you?"
...meant nothing to Angelica.
What was even more absurd was that there probably was not a shred of malice or mockery in that question.
And Isabella, who was exceptionally good at reading people, must have seen right through that.
Which probably made her even angrier.
Of course, no matter how furious Isabella got, I was not worried about Angelica. If anything, I was worried about Isabella.
But why did that woman keep asking people to fire magic at her?
Surely...
...No. No way.
Surely that was not it.
In the meantime, Isabella forcibly pulled up the corner of her trembling mouth and glared fiercely at Angelica.
"Very well. Go stand over there at once. I will thoroughly blast you with that spell, just as you wish."
Fortunately, she had not completely lost her reason, since she pointed to an empty area.
"Will that be all right? Shouldn’t we stop them?"
Eileen looked at Angelica with concern, as though something truly terrible might happen.
Even so, the fingers holding her pen did not stop writing across the page.
"It’s fine, it’s fine."
In an indifferent voice that suggested she was not worried about the violent scene before her at all, Dolnesia pulled out the next pair of boots for the outfit from Sancho’s shadow.
I agreed with Dolnesia.
To injure that absurd woman properly, a powerhouse at the level of an academy professor would need to bombard her with full-force magic before there was even a chance.
Of course, Isabella’s magic was impressive in its own right, and she had advanced another step through her fierce battle with Arghalia last time, but it was still too early in the story. It would be impossible.
Mana gathered in one place, and a magic circle formed at Isabella’s fingertips.
As magical power transformed into mana, it traced circles and inscribed runes between them.
[You have witnessed Isabella von Eterna’s Narrative, [Stitching the Blue Flesh of the Stage].]
[Acquiring the Narrative [Stitching the Blue Flesh of the Stage]...]
[Requirement for use: No circle exists.]
[You have failed to acquire [Stitching the Blue Flesh of the Stage].]
Lightning shot from her fingertips.
It was the same kind of spell she had used against Arghalia and me.
Of course, she had not enhanced it with an incantation, nor had she filled it with killing intent.
Even so, it was magic capable of crisping an ordinary person alive.
Of course, the person before her was far from ordinary.
That was why, even if Isabella had thrown it out in a fit of anger, she could still blast her with magic without any burden weighing on her mind.
Isabella knew very well how strong Angelica was.
In any case, with a rolling crash, savage lightning surged straight toward Angelica. Angelica watched the thunderbolt rush right up to her, then let out a quiet, soft sigh.
Suddenly, she raised the sword in her hand high into the air.
Fuck.
The moment I saw that action, I could not help but curse inwardly.
Because I could see all too clearly what absurd thing she would do next, and what ridiculous result it would bring.
"There it is."
Muttering those words under her breath, Angelica faced the oncoming lightning head-on and drew her sword in a long vertical stroke through the air.
Skwhaaaang!
And as if it were a lie, Isabella’s savage lightning split cleanly in two from its central axis.
The skeletons and slimes were unable to withstand the waves of mana and rolled across the ground.
Dolnesia continued coordinating the spirit regardless.
That was right.
She had succeeded at [Breath Splitting].
And she had done it merely from casually watching it.
Eileen and I both gaped wide enough for our jaws to drop at the unreal sight unfolding before us.
Though Eileen still did not stop writing.
But the person more shocked than either of us was...
"...Huh?"
Isabella herself, the one who had fired the lightning at Angelica.
Faced with that hollow result, Isabella stared blankly at Angelica with an empty, incredulous look in her eyes.
Fuck.
I had Insight Eye, and Kafka had the system’s assistance, so it made sense that we could learn it easily.
But she could use [Breath Splitting] after just eyeballing it a few times?
No, you had to see the flow to cut it, didn’t you?
As far as I knew, Angelica did not have a trait like that among her exclusive traits.
"So this is how you do it?"
Plop.
Isabella collapsed to the floor with an utterly dumbfounded expression.
Unconcerned, Angelica gave the stunned Isabella a small nod and walked toward me with light steps.
I did not even know what that woman was anymore.
Was she really not the final boss for nothing?
"Ian, what do you think?"
Though expressionless, Angelica proudly puffed out her chest as she spoke.
No, I mean, how the hell did you even do that?
"...Just how did you do that?"
"This?"
Angelica merely tilted her head slightly, as if it were nothing special, and continued without the slightest concern.
"Instinct."
Fuck.
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