Chapter 54: Crash Course

I hadn't witnessed anything last night. Nothing at all, got it?

Between random dudette being hijacked by some octopus and Eterna going haywire, a lot had happened yesterday. Thankfully, everything had turned out all right in the end! Yep, everything was just fine and dandy!

What about yesterday night, you ask? I just said I didn't know a thing about that! After Verner had left— No, I mean, uh... After I'd returned to the rooftop at night—alone—I'd fixed the damage and went back to my room. End of story. I hadn't run into anyone, because no one was there. Got it?! Yes, I said it twice. You gotta drive the important points home!

Moving on to this morning. A few hours had passed since I'd officially decided ostrichism was a perfectly valid way of life. I'd be the perfect (fake) saint today too!

The usual gang—Verner, Eterna, Marie, Aina, random dude, Fiora, and Four-Eyed Pervert—as well as that buff dude, uh...Crunchy...something... Oh, right! Crunchy Doggybag. Yeah! He was the only one outside of Verner's group who'd made it to the top eight during the previous tournament. Anyway, the eight of them had gathered in my room, and they were currently waiting for me to explain why I'd summoned them.

Eterna, are you sure you don't wanna leave? I'll allow it!

It wasn't that I didn't want her here. In fact, her help would be precious. Who better to tire out the witch than an awakened saint? However, as far as Eterna was concerned, I was the reason her crush hadn't answered her feelings.

Wait, what was I saying? No one had confessed yesterday! I couldn't know that for sure. I was just assuming. Yep, that's right, this is all just a theory.

Leaving all that romantic business aside, I also doubted Eterna wanted to risk her life for my sake. Only a saint would— Oh, right, she was the saint.

"Lady Ellize?" Layla called, urging me to start speaking.

"Yes. Excuse me for the delay."

Hey, I was on the verge of starting my explanation! No need to rush me!

Still, I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page one last time. I didn't want anyone crying that I hadn't warned them afterward.

"First of all, I'd like to warn you again. As I said last time, there will be no turning back once you hear my request. Are you sure you wish to hear it?"

Even though I'd tried to scare them, no one left. They'd all made up their minds before coming here. As expected of the protagonist and his party. They're filled with determination—unlike me.To be perfectly honest, I didn't have a scrap of that in my body. Thankfully, I'd been blessed with such overpowered abilities that I didn't need determination.

Someone great once said that only those who knew fear could know courage. Triumphing over your greatest fears was what made you brave. I was different—I had no fears. I knew just how powerful I was compared to my enemies. All I had to do was show up, and I'd breeze through any fight.

There was nothing glorious or virtuous about the way I fought, but I was fine with that. I wasn't the kind of person who deserved to embrace such noble ideals anyway. I was a piece of shit through and through—the complete opposite of Verner and his friends.

"I acknowledge your determination," I said. "Since you've all made up your minds, I'll get straight to the point. The witch, Alexia, is lurking in the basement of this academy."

A mix of surprise and anxiety swept through my audience. Layla and Four-Eyed Pervert were the only ones who didn't lose their composure. They'd both known for quite some time, so the revelation hadn't come as a shock to them.

By the way, Crunchy Doggybag was the most shaken by the news. "Huh?! L-Lady Alexia is the witch?!"

That's the part that surprises you? Everyone's known that for ages... No, wait, this guy didn't.

"The only reason the witch has yet to flee is because she believes I'm not aware of her whereabouts. Conversely, if she ever comes to suspect that I do know where she is...she'll immediately use a special spell called 'teleport' to escape far, far away. I'm sure she'll make dozens, if not hundreds, of people suffer in the place she chooses to settle next. This is why I can neither go after her myself, nor send my knights down to the basement."

No one said a word. I wouldn't be against a little feedback, guys. I feel like I'm bombing my speech.

"The witch cannot be allowed to escape," I continued. "But if I wish to end things while she's here, at the academy, I will need the help of strong individuals who aren't knights in an official capacity. As you've probably guessed by now, I need your help."

"E-Excuse me, Lady Ellize, but how could we stop the witch from using this 'teleport' ability?" Aina asked.

I started explaining my plan to create a magic vacuum. I'd create a barrier to separate the mana inside the academy—basement included—from the mana outside of it. Then, I'd suck up all of the mana contained within the barrier to prevent the witch from recovering her MP. If I stopped there, the witch would still be able to escape by using her reserves of MP to teleport, which was why it was paramount that she fought someone right before I launched my plan. That way, she wouldn't have enough mana left to teleport.

Their role would be to be that "someone." When those words left my mouth, they all tensed up.

"We'll need to...fight the witch," Verner said, his voice shaky.

Marie's face was grim as she whispered, "A most heavy responsibility..."

The rest all had similar reactions, except for Crunchy Doggybag. He didn't seem worried in the slightest.

"Interesting," he said dramatically. "I've become way too strong after entering this school, so I forced myself to only use fifty percent of my abilities back when I competed in the tournament. It looks like I'll finally face an adversary worth unleashing my full power on—how exciting. I sure hope the witch is worth her salt."

Oh boy. This guy is so gonna die.

He'd raised so many death flags in just a few sentences that I was half-convinced he was doing it on purpose.

I guess this is better than having him run off 'cause he's too scared to face the witch.

In passing, Crunchy Doggybag was trying to show off by saying he'd only used half of his strength during the tournament, but he'd been defeated in a split second during his last match. He hadn't chosen not to unleash his powers, he simply hadn't been given the time to do so. He was the furthest thing from cool and mysterious, really.

"As you must have understood by now, no official knight will take part in this operation—and this includes Layla. In addition, while we've managed to get rid of the 'shadow' that always protects Alexia, there will still be monsters in the basement. I expect them to be quite powerful since their duty is to guard the witch."

There wasn't anything too crazy down there. They'd only face monsters that were slightly weaker than dragons.

Of course, while they were a total breeze for me—I could destroy a hundred dragons with a flick of my fingers—it normally took several knights to defeat one of them. I estimated that only Layla, Fox, and Dias could take a dragon one-on-one. Eterna had awakened as the saint, and Verner had gained control over his dark magic. The two of them were most likely stronger than Layla, but it'd still be a tough fight.

They'd have a much easier time if they could find a way to get rid of all of the witch's underlings before they fought her, but I had no idea whether that was even doable. What if they supported Eterna from the rear while she took care of the monsters? Who'd face the witch during that time, though? Verner was the only viable option, but he'd need help. Would he manage if one or two of them covered him?

Regardless of the strategy they chose, it wouldn't be easy. The weapons I'd given them would surely help, but they were in for a tough time.

"I know I am asking a lot from you, but I hope you'll help break the cycle of suffering that plagues our world. Everything can end with our generation," I said.

I'd put it in a roundabout way, but I was basically asking them to give up their lives for a greater cause.

I'm evil, I know.

I'd been deluding myself into thinking I'd end up in NEET paradise after the whole ordeal ended, but perhaps I'd been mistaken all along—for all I knew, I might've been headed straight for hell.

Hmm... I probably won't go to hell if none of them die...right?

"I have a question," Verner said. "Has a solution been found...to prevent the saint from turning into the next witch after slaying her?"

Verner had found a way to politely say: "If you turn into a witch, the cycle won't be broken now, will it?"

Crunchy Doggybag, who was hearing about this for the first time, was taken aback. "Huh?! Saints always turn into witches?!"

While I understood Verner's worries, I didn't even need to find a solution. I was a fake, so I couldn't turn into a witch, period.

Given my absolute certainty that it wouldn't be an issue, I could smile and confidently answer, "Yes—I won't turn into a witch even if I kill Alexia. I'll end this curse with my generation, I promise."

"I understand... I believe you, Lady Ellize."

You can rest assured, Verner. I won't become a witch, if only because I can't. I'll just depart for the afterworld and enjoy NEET paradise forever!

"We've been able to confirm the number and type of the monsters remaining in the basement thanks to the powers of the Prophet," I continued. "I would like you to undergo special training in order to prepare yourselves to face these monsters."

In the game, Alexia had five guards: a dragon, a baphomet, a griffin, a chimera, and a basilisk. However, according to the turtle, Alexia had a completely different guards this time around. Apparently, the monsters I'd killed during the Farah incident had been the witch's original guards. Anyway, they'd been replaced by four more monsters: a wyvern, a minotaur, a hippogriff, and an orthrus.

Putting aside their respective myths, these monsters were all weaker than dragons... Well, according to the logic of Kuon no Sanka, that is. Dragons were as strong as archmonsters, but these new guys weren't quite on that level. They were strong, sure, but much easier to defeat than dragons. Still, they were difficult opponents for most knights, let alone students. That was why I intended to train Verner and the others before sending them off to the basement.

"Special training?"

"Yes," I confirmed. "I've reclaimed the land we lost to the monsters over the years, but this doesn't mean the world is entirely free of them. There are still places where monsters terrorize people."

Hey! You in the back! Stop saying I'm incompetent!

Fiori was a smaller planet than Earth, but it was still a planet nonetheless. It was huge! Even though I could fly at high speed, kill heaps of monsters in a matter of seconds, and rely on an army of soldiers and knights, it was virtually impossible for me to rid the entire planet of every single monster.

Hang on—when I put it like that, it actually does sound doable. All things considered, I might actually be pretty incompetent.Either way, I'd definitely been more efficient than Alexia, her predecessor, and the predecessor of her predecessor combined. They'd let the monsters take control of over eighty percent of the land, not to mention the twenty percent that had supposedly been under human control had still been riddled with monsters.

This world was very much like most old RPG games—you risked running into monsters the second you went past the city gates. Villages suffered regular attacks, and people died to monsters left and right. To be perfectly honest, it might've been more accurate to say that Fiori's citizens weren't safe anywhere.

Seriously, how dangerous is that?

I'd managed to reclaim ninety percent of Fiori's surface under human control. People didn't have to worry about running into monsters in human territory. If you asked me, that was plenty praiseworthy! The world had gone from a dreadful place where you could encounter a monster on your doorstep to a world where monsters were an endangered species. The before and after was pretty remarkable, wasn't it?

So I'm not incompetent! Really, I'm not! I'm a talented, efficient, competent individual! Probably...

"We will be departing for Fuguten, the furthest island from this continent. The people there still suffer at the hands of monsters. You will help them and train at the same time."

The official name of the country we were headed to was Ordinary Fuguten. It was a distant island country ruled by a king named Yoru.

I'd left Fuguten alone for the time being because it had once been the safest place in Fiori, comparatively speaking.

Over the long history of saints and witches, monsters had spread across every corner of this planet. However, not once had a witch made an island country her base of operation.

The logic behind it was fairly simple: the witch's main objective was to maximize the damage to humanity, so islands were impractical and of little value to her. She had to attack as many countries and claim as much land as possible. It made a lot more sense for the witch to settle down on one of the land-locked countries so that she could attack a bunch of different regions at once. Plus, she'd have to leave over half of her army behind when she left the island—even if she were to create thousands of monsters there, most of them wouldn't be able to reach the rest of the continent. What goal would that accomplish besides creating an island paradise for monsters?

Naturally, if getting monsters off an island was difficult, the reverse was also true—only the monsters that could fly or swim ended up on islands.

Anyway, all that just to say the people of Fuguten weren't affected by the witch in the same way as those in Giardino. Monsters were still an issue, sure, but they were manageable.

Anyway, that was why I'd left Fuguten alone up until now. It was far away, and it wasn't like they desperately needed the help of the saint either.

Oh, and there were also political reasons—namely, the king there didn't really like me. He'd never told me not to come to his island, but he'd specifically said I wasn't needed there. He probably hadn't wanted me stepping on his toes.

In an interesting turn of events, the safest place in the world had become the most dangerous one in a matter of years.

I'd enjoyed hunting down monsters so much that I hadn't considered the consequences. There were barely any left on this continent. In fact, since I'd taken care of all the monsters that had gathered in a last-ditch effort to take the Bilberrian capital, I wondered if there were any left at all. I'd looked around a bit, but I hadn't had any luck so far. And it wasn't just me—I hadn't heard a peep from any soldiers or knights reporting monster sightings ever since. It was terrible of me to think, but I was kind of glad I'd left Fuguten for later. Thanks to that, Verner and the others would have the perfect training grounds.

I really went and annihilated an entire species, huh? There isn't even a little jackalope running around! You know, those weak bunnies with horns that're becoming even more common than slimes in fantasy stories!

To be fair, slimes were still popular, but they'd recently been reappraised. They were often depicted as strong monsters nowadays. The jackalope had replaced them as the weak-ass, gimmicky monsters you encountered at the very beginning. They weren't cute enough to be mascots, though.

Whatever! None of that mattered! There were still monsters somewhere! There was no point in crying over spilled milk, right?! No!

Now was the time to depart for the island of Fuguten!

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