Before long, Severin had created an ice pedestal from magic. The crystal ball fit perfectly in the hollowed-out basin.
“That’s wonderful,” I said. “Now once we light it from the bottom…”
The crystal ball projected its image onto the ceiling when lit from the bottom. It depicted a magic video of Celette and a few of her sycophants.
“Look closely,” Severin said. “This red aura is emitted whenever Lady Celette casts bewitchment.”
Indeed, a red aura spread out to envelop whoever she targeted with bewitchment. In this particular scene, the aura only dissipated around Severin.
“It didn’t affect you at all,” I said. “Just like we discussed.”
Severin stared down at his ring. “Yes, this amulet is truly amazing.”
The video continued during our conversation. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing coldly when I saw what came next. In the second scene, the red aura attempted to envelop Embert in a certain corridor. However, it soon dissipated, just as it had with Severin. Many of the following scenes were centered around Embert as well. Our assumptions had proved correct. Celette had been primarily targeting Embert.
Still, watching the whole class stare up at the ceiling is a pretty amusing sight. It reminds me of a stargazing party. Or a planetarium, maybe?
As this useless thought crossed my mind, the video suddenly vanished.
“Oh no!” I cried.
Celette had grabbed the crystal ball while everyone was looking up. She then tossed it towards one of the windows with all her might. As the glass shattered, the ball fell outside.
“Custode!” I shouted.
“Understood,” the dragon replied telepathically.
A moment later, darkness obscured the sunlight pouring through the broken window. Girls screamed in terror at the unknown entity. I approached the window alone as everyone else scrambled away from it.
“Nice catch,” I said.
“Of course,” Custode responded.
The dark mass was too large to fit through the window. Nevertheless, nimble hands passed the small crystal ball to me.
“See what I mean!” Celette cried out in a delighted voice. “Lady Alexandra obviously has powers of darkness! How else could she summon that shadowy creature?! She’s not using holy magic!”
Fear rippled throughout the classroom. Embert sighed loudly in response, which disrupted the tension. “Your actions are truly reprehensible, Lady Celette,” he said while feigning horror.
I shuddered in mock terror as well. “That’s right. You’re being incredibly rude.”
When I snapped my fingers, the nighttime landscape vanished from the windows. Thus, midday returned to the classroom. Each time Custode moved, he shimmered iridescently beneath the sunlight. Poetically, he looked like an aurora. Prosaically, he looked like oil on asphalt after rainfall. I would never say the latter out loud though.
“Is that a dragon?!” someone cried.
The entire class began to stir. However, silence fell over the room when Embert lifted his hand.
“That is indeed a dragon,” he said. “Dragons are revered as sacred beasts in our country. Strictly speaking, however, they’re divine beasts rather than sacred beasts.”
Several girls began speaking among themselves, entranced by Custode’s glittering scales.
“How beautiful.”
“Gorgeous even. Who would call such a lovely dragon a servant of darkness? Lady Celette is awful.”
“I fully agree.”
“She’s reprehensible, just like Prince Embert said.”
Apparently, we’d won the majority of girls over to our side.
While basking in the attention, Custode began addressing the entire classroom telepathically. “I am the dragon that resides in the northernmost volcano. A divine presence drew me to this school. When I followed that presence, I found a girl with the Goddess’s divine protection falling from the roof. Instinctively, I saved her and vowed to protect her henceforth.”
Not a single person could tear their eyes away from the beautiful dragon.
“Ladies Celette and Alexandra were just talking about that, weren’t they?” someone asked.
Others began speaking fervently as well.
“Did Lady Celette try to kill Lady Vistriano because she’s the real holy woman?”
“Lady Celette must have seen her as a hindrance.”
At once, all eyes turned on Celette.
“This is ludicrous,” she said while shaking her head. “I never tried to kill any—”
“There’s no point lying now,” I interrupted Celette while barring her path. “The time for you to come clean has long passed. We have all the evidence. You can’t weasel out of this one.”
“Th-This can’t be. I’m the heroine of this story.” Here, Celette’s eyes darkened, and she began mumbling to herself. “Yes, I’m the heroine. I’m the main character of this world. I cleared every route in the proper order. I’ve been looking forward to Embert’s story this whole time, and when I finally reach it, this happens? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Celette’s mana swelled around her.
“Ouch, that’s hot!” my friends cried out in unison, their expressions twisting in anguish.
“Are you all okay?!” I shouted while racing towards them.
At that moment, something flew towards me. “Whoa!” I exclaimed, bending backwards to avoid the projectile. It turned out to be a fountain pen. When I looked around to see where it had come from, I found nearly everyone without an amulet glaring at me. Apparently, Celette had cast a very powerful bewitchment spell. Many of my classmates, regardless of gender, stood up and began lumbering towards me like zombies. Meanwhile, some of the girls had passed out, unable to withstand the powerful spell.
“This is bad,” I said. “I have to fight all these people at once?”
My three male friends had crouched down and were covering their ears. Their amulets must have felt like they were on fire. Though Embert and Janus seemed less fazed by the heat, I couldn’t count on them for backup. They were helping the fallen girls back to their feet, after all.
One corner of my mouth quirked into a grin. “Heh, looks like I’ll have to handle this on my own.”
My classmates continued staggering towards me.
“It’s been a while since my last real fight,” I said. “What should I do?”
When I finished coming up with a rough strategy, the fight began. One by one, I took down the girls who were lumbering towards me. On top of being weak, they also seemed unable to think. I could subdue each of them with a single karate chop, as they merely staggered towards me without any plan of attack.
However, there were a number of opponents that I couldn’t take down with a single strike. Four boys were carrying wooden swords, which they’d acquired from Goddess knows where.
“Where the heck did you get those?” I asked, my crooked grin widening even further. “Oh well. Looks like it’s time for me to flex on these boys.”
First, I subdued a boy who was swinging his wooden sword without any form. Then, the three other boys surrounded me. Apparently, they were able to think more clearly than the others. In any case, they all swung their swords at me in unison.
“Whoa, watch it!” I cried.
After dodging blows on all sides, I kicked the sword of the boy in front of me, sending it flying. Without missing a beat, I aimed another kick at the boy, whose eyes were locked on his sword tumbling through the air. My foot connected with his jaw, bringing him down. Meanwhile, another boy had circled around to my blind spot and lashed out with his sword. I sidestepped the attack, grabbed his shoulders, and kneed him in the stomach.
“You’ve got this, Ally!” Embert called to me in a carefree voice.
When I glanced in his direction, I found him waving at me. Evidently, he had no intention of joining the fray.
“Well, at least no one will get in my way,” I muttered to myself.
A wave of hostility crashed into me from behind. Without turning around, I used the shoulders of the boy I’d just knocked down to do a handstand. After hearing the whoosh of a wooden sword behind me, I began dropping back down to my feet. Partway through this motion, I brought my foot down on the boy’s arm that had swung the sword. Unable to withstand the pain, the boy dropped his sword and continued stumbling past me. His back was now completely defenseless. I seized this opportunity to hammer the back of his neck with my folded hands. He collapsed instantly.
The final boy stood rooted to the ground with sword in hand. “Aaaaah!” he shouted in a garbled voice, swinging his sword at me wildly.
“Yeah, you have no chance of hitting me,” I said.
I dodged the sword easily, slipped into his guard, and crouched down. Then, I sprung back up and drove my palm into his jaw.
“Oh?” I asked. “Is it over already?”
Celette and I were the only ones left standing. At some point, my male friends had regained consciousness and were looking at me with exasperation.
“So, she was a demon queen all along,” Lauris said.
“To be sure,” Rosario agreed. “That didn’t even take five minutes.”
“I wanted to fight too,” Oreste pouted.
“That’s our Ally for you,” Cita chimed in.
The twins were both grinning. Julietta smiled alongside them, her brown eyes sparkling.
“My goodness, Ally, that was amazing!” Embert cheered. “My fair warrior maiden!”
He and Janus applauded for me with incredible vigor. Even Mary followed suit. Nevertheless, I ignored the three of them and approached Celette instead. She was rooted to the ground, trembling like a leaf all by her lonesome.
“You’re a truly fearsome woman,” I said. “Just how powerful was that bewitchment you cast? It was terrifying how much everyone resembled zombies.”
“I’m the heroine,” Celette replied. “It’s only natural for everyone to sacrifice themselves for me.”
She glowered at me despite continuing to tremble. Though her words infuriated me, I had to admire her willpower.