Chapter 146
Chapter 146
[My assistant teacher is trying to kill me.]
From the first page of the diary, Simon felt goosebumps work their way up his arms. Simon gulped before turning to the next page.
[I can only be sane for about 10 minutes a day. I write this diary to leave the truth to everyone. My symptoms are getting worse. Who would believe that a professor of Poisonous Alchemy is being poisoned and his mind is being destroyed by drugs? It is embarrassing, but true. I was careless. There are still too many poisons in the world that I do not know.]
[Her demands are getting bolder. Today, she asked me for my professor ID. I'm proud of myself for refusing her request even though I was high on drugs. I immediately went to the lab, hid my professor ID in the slime, and drank a potion of memory loss to erase only that memory. She shant get her hands on a professor ID any more.]
[I can resist her no more. She ordered me to decline my friends' pleas for me to retire, and she ordered me to leave the classes to her. I am now deprived of even the teaching of my beloved students.]
[From me, she is no longer even trying to hide her identity: A priest of Efnel! She has, however, ordered me to stay in the lab instead of my house. She must be worried that, should I come to my senses, I would confess to someone the truth. Still, she does not know that I come back to my senses 10 minutes every day, nor that I am writing a diary. If even this book were discovered, I would be killed.]
[She ordered me to write a will. She instructed everything down to the letter. This will be my last entry. Anyone will do, so I hope someone will visit this lab by themselves. The slime's passphrase detects the saliva that leaves ones mouth when its target responds, and it opens unless it's Francescas. By the time you're reading this, I must be dead. I beg of you, please stop Francesca. She is plotting something terrible.]
The next page Simon turned to was blank. And the one after that, and after that, and after that.
His hand holding the diary trembled. Finally, all doubts were cleared.
The entire place moved according to Francesca's carefully planned script. In fact, she had already succeeded once.
'But this time will be different. I'll stop her at any cost.'
Simon ran out of the lab, determined.
'Pier! Are you coming?'
[Dammit! We're almost here, it's just taking us some time because a fog barrier has spread around Kizen!]
Simon decided to head back to Kajann after joining up with Pier.
But before that
""
He ran back inside for a moment to grab the diary before leaving once more.
* * *
The first floor of the Magical Bullet Shooting range.
Kaboooom!
Baaaaang!
Camibarez was shooting blood bullets from her extended fingertips. The approaching plant monsters were screaming and exploding.
However, she was starting to feel woozy after spending her blood to fuel her spells.
'There's no end to them!'
Soon after separating from the group, Cami went to the Magical Bullet Shooting Range before putting on the glasses Kajann gave her and searching around.
In one of the empty lecture rooms, she discovered something very strange and suspicious, a pitch-black box.
The box was wrapped in bandages, ropes, and locks enchanted with dark magic. It seemed certain to be the desolator that Kajann mentioned.
It also seemed to be enchanted with some anti-detection spell. It was hard to tell if the box was there when removing the glasses.
However, as she approached the Desolator, a magic circle spread out from it. Vines covered the floor and ceiling, and flower-like monsters that walked on two feet poured out, attacking Camiberaz.
"Urk!"
She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve. The vines on the ceiling even spewed poison.
The flower monsters shot something like poisonous seeds as they shook their petals.
Shshshshk!
Seeds were shot at her again, and she threw herself to the side. One hit the back of the lecture room and exploded, collapsing the entire wall.
Fwip!
"Kyaaagh!"
Suddenly, a vine came down from the ceiling and wrapped around her leg, hoisting her up.
Then, one of the flower monsters fired a seed directly at her.
'Kugh!'
As she was about to hurriedly drain her blood to create a barrier, the vines wrapped around her legs were suddenly sliced through and she fell to the floor.
A large, bladed tentacle had appeared.
'Simon's summon!'
Soon, Simon moved in front of her and stomped his left foot on the ground.
'Open!'
Fwip!
Fwwwiiiip!
Fwip!
Five metal blades shot straight down, creating a wall. Explosions of seeds hitting the blades rang out.
"Are you okay, Cami?"
"Ah!"
She was looking up.
"Above!"
Some seeds flew in a curve and were flying over the blades. Simon immediately grabbed her and threw them both to the side.
The bullets fell and melted the entire floor, causing it to collapse.
After taking a moment to process what happened, the two sprinted out of the classroom.
"S-Simon! How did you get here?"
"Cami, I'll take care of the bomb. I have a new favor to ask you."
Simon took Lang's diary from his inner pocket and placed it in her hand.
"Leave Kizen right now and go to the mausoleum where the professors are. This diary will be the decisive evidence. Please call Nefthis and the other professors."
"B-But! I can't just run away and leave you guys behind!"
"It's not running away."
Simon grabbed her by the shoulder and spoke with the force of chanting a spell.
"You're going to rescue us."
* * *
* * *
She had to go to the mausoleum.
It'd also be possible to persuade an assistant teacher to send for their professor, but there was no time to find an assistant teacher, explain everything to them, and prove that the diary wasn't fake.
But she believed in Simon, and if she headed north from Kizen right now, she could find a path to the mausoleum.
Also, Simon couldn't deny that his personal interest swayed his decision.
In the future, she would be killed by Francesca. Simon couldn't protect her.
He could still clearly remember Francesca staring at Camibarez in her class.
Her death left a deep scar in Simon. He felt like he wouldn't be able to concentrate properly as long as she was still in Kizen.
"Cami, please."
But going out to seek help was a choice she had to make.
If she refused, he had no choice but to find someone else to head outside.
She opened her mouth as if to resist, but then started running.
She knew that this wasn't the time to argue.
"Please, please stay safe! If something happens to you, I'll never forgive you, Simon!"
"Yeah, don't worry."
Camibarez clutched the diary in her arms and ran to the mausoleum. Simon slowly stood back up.
'A monster with poison, huh?'
It was difficult to deal with because Pier wasn't around. But fortunately, the plants didn't come out of the lecture room, perhaps because protecting the desolator was their top priority.
Simon sneaked out into the hallway.
He saw some students walking down the hallway, chatting like it was any other day.
Simon immediately ran to two students in front of him.
"Guys!"
When Simon suddenly appeared, the two yelped in surprise. Simon got straight to the point without even apologizing.
"Do either of you have zombies in your subspaces? Whether it's used for Summoning or not."
The two looked at each other, confused.
"I do? I'm a Summoning aspirant."
The student on the right took out a zombie wrapped in bandages.
It was a green goblin's corpse. It didn't smell and was very clean. It must have been embalmed.
"I'll buy it for a gold. Deal?"
"You serious? Deal!"
Simon tossed over a gold coin and took the goblin corpse.
"And you two better run quickly. A priest has appeared in Kizen."
Simon told them just in case, but they both just blankly stared at him like he was crazy.
'Yeah, this kind of reaction is natural.'
Even if he told them to run away, they never would.
To the students, Kizen was an impenetrable fortress. Indeed, it was one of the safest places in the world. No one could even imagine a priest appearing in such a place.
Simon resigned himself to being unable to save them should he and his friends fail, and ran back to the lecture room where the desolator was.
"Phew."
Simon arrived in front of the lecture room, laid the zombie on the floor, and put the gray ring on his left hand in front of his mouth.
"Prince! Can you hear me? It's an emergency. Please descend into this zombie, now!"
Then, Simon put the ring on the zombie's body.
Crrraaaaaaaaack!
Black lightning descended from the ceiling and landed on the zombie's body.
It turned black and crackled. Soon, its form changed completely into Princes.
[I was wondering when you're gonna summon me.]
"You heard the situation, right?"
[Yeah.]
Prince shook around his head, grabbing his dangling neck.
[Ah, I don't like this body. Damn embalming fluids.]
"There's no time to whine. Come with me."
Simon and Prince entered the lecture room where the desolator was.
"Can you handle it?"
[What do you take me for?]
Prince strolled forward.
[Oh, this reminds me of older days. It's been such a long time since I came to Kizen.]
[Kiiiiizezeze]
The flowers continued to blow poisonous seeds. Prince took them all and kept walking.
Kaboom!
Ka-ba-ba-booom!
No matter how many seeds shot into him, he didnt even flinch. He even waltzed through places thick with poisonous gas.
'Way to go!'
Simon pumped his fists. Most of the curses or poisons wouldnt work on a zombie.
He was tricky as an enemy, but as an ally, he was very reassuring.
The vines came down and wrapped themselves around Prince, but he tore through them just with the force of him walking.
In a last ditch effort, the flowers clung to Prince with their thorns. His steps didnt slow an inch. Prince smirked as he tore them off without a single scratch.
[So this is the main body, huh?]
Prince, bluntly breaking through with his body, found a large plant monster in front of the desolator. The petals on its head opened like a venus flytrap and engulfed Prince's upper body.
Simon jumped in surprise.
"Prin!"
Thud!
A fist smashed through the petals. Prince then grabbed the monster's head and hurled it to the ground.
Baaaaaaaaang!
The floor shook. Prince then trampled on the monster, ignoring the poison spraying from all sides.
[You're so persistent.]
Soon, he raised his clenched fist and gave it one last swing. All that remained of the main body after that strike was a mess of broken bits of plant-matter and sap.
The rest of the flowers and vines also drooped, green juices dripping from their mouths.
Prince nonchalantly dusted off his hands and lifted the desolator.
[Where next, Commander?]