Chapter 237
The sword of light wouldn't work in this situation. No matter where I shot the sword wave, the destructive power would only increase the damage.
My mouth felt parched as if burning. At this rate, it might crash head-on into the temple standing squarely a block ahead and potentially destroy several more buildings.
As the sailship's altitude lowers, it mercilessly ground the roofs of buildings lined along the street. This had slowed its speed somewhat, but still not enough.
Debris from the sheared roofs fell towards a young girl blankly staring at the sky.
Just as I was about to throw myself, Lilith suddenly dashed out, brushing past me. She embraced the child standing dazed under the roof and slammed the ground hard. A semicircular barrier unfolded, blocking the debris.
The situation was unfolding so rapidly that I was disoriented.
Someone on the sailship shouted. A sailor, precariously perched on the ship's railing, waves both arms, signaling to people on the ground.
"We can't control it!"
This meant it wasn't a planned terrorist attack by an insider.
The rushing hull bounced off a roof, lurching once. Then the sailor was thrown off, floating up before falling onto a building's roof.
"Aaaaargh!"
It was a hair-raising moment that happened in an instant.
I instinctively swung Priscilla, imbuing it with mana. As if accurately reading my intention, Priscilla briefly released cold energy along the sword's trajectory.
The sailor's lower body, sliding off the roof, was directly hit by the cold energy and froze in place.
It worked. Callios' teaching that the magic sword and heart must be in sync now truly resonated with me.
I continue running after the sailship. Every time the ship passed over the citizens' heads, casting shadows, they screamed ear-piercingly.
Some people threw potions along the sailship's flight path. The bottles broke, and the vines inside swelled up in the blink of an eye. They seemed to have thrown them intending to stop the sailship.
Crack. Crackle.
The vines grabbed the hull but were all torn away. It was far from enough to stop that overwhelming weight and inertia.
I focused my mind again and swung Priscilla with the sensation of releasing a sword wave. Cold energy surged, directly hitting the underside of the sky sailship. Ice chunks tried to break the ship’s momentum, but they immediately shattered.
Growing anxious, I quietly mutter, "Priscilla, more, just a little more."
As if reading my mind, Priscilla absorbed mana.
I gritted my teeth and endured as my consciousness became distant.
"Just a little more. Just a little more."
With a do-or-die mindset, I forcefully pushed in more mana than Priscilla was absorbing. Priscilla bursts frost as if choking. Due to the sudden mana consumption, I nearly collapsed while running from dizziness.
I regained my balance and focused on the sky sailship. The arm holding Priscilla started shaking violently as if in an earthquake.
The sky sailship charged towards the spire rising in the center of the temple.
The moment just before impact.
"Damn it, please work."
I swung Priscilla with all my might. A blue cold storm emanating from the magic sword rushed towards the spire at a ferocious speed. Having swung with too much force, I lost balance and fell.
Kwang!
The sky sailship collided head-on with the spire and collapsed. The bell attached to the spire was flung far away, drawing a parabola with a thunderous sound.
And simultaneously, the wave of cold energy directly hit the sailship that had penetrated the spire. Everything it touched was covered in frost.
The hull, which was sliding after collapsing the spire, instantly froze, fixed as if covered in wax. Finally, the hull stopped its rampage.
"Haah, haah, hah."
My heart pounded heavily, showing no signs of calming down.
The sailship froze at the moment of impact, along with the debris, as if time had stopped.
My arm ached and I felt drained. I knelt on one knee and couldn't move for a while.
Looking at the citizens, I saw minor injuries but no one was severely wounded.
Guardians blew alerted horns and rushed in, hurriedly evacuating citizens who were nearby.
"There's debris left. Don't stand near the walls! Come out to the open area!"
"Reinforce the lower supports of the sailship! Quickly throw vine potions!"
The Guardians moved like the busiest people in the world. My role seemed to be over.
I checked on the location of our members.
Lilith was hugging a nameless girl about five or six years old, Haley was leading the members out of a building. Zenia, like me, was creating a barrier on the roof with ice magic. True to being capable academy students, they didn't cower even in emergencies.
Citizens, realizing the thunderous noise had stopped, slowly started to rise. They looked up with frightened faces.
Then they gaped in astonishment at the sailship precariously docked on the spire.
"What happened to that?"
"Did it freeze?"
"Is it a mage? Magic?"
They started chattering with wide eyes.
Soon, attention started to focus on me resting in the middle of the road. Some gazes conveyed awe, others curiosity. Those unfamiliar gazes made me uncomfortable.
Priscilla trembled repeatedly. Worried that attention might focus on the magic sword, I gripped the handle tightly.
Priscilla's emotions were transmitted. Hostility, and an inexplicable anxiety towards strangers. Had it become sensitive due to the gazes of unfamiliar people?
Some of the Guardians watching the situation rushed towards me.
They conveyed light thanks and said, "Thanks to your efforts, we avoided a great disaster. According to Raul's Law, those who greatly contribute to Claridium's public safety or disaster response can request rewards from the authorities. If you come to the Rosewood Assembly Hall in the Central Administrative District, we will assess your contribution and provide appropriate compensation."
Money. A clean reward befitting a famous metropolis.
"Please understand that we can't provide detailed guidance due to the lack of manpower for follow-up."
"That's fine."
"And, given this special disaster situation, there will surely be additional rewards once a report goes up to the superiors. Well then."
The Guardians bowed to me and hurriedly left to deal with the situation. I wanted to investigate the cause of the accident immediately, but it seemed I'd have to wait until the confusion settled. Since a graduated senior was a Guardian, I should be able to hear about the accident details later.
Fortunately, this incident didn't lead to a major catastrophe. Unless a large magic engineering bomb was installed in the sailship or it charged towards the city council, the center of the city. I still couldn't find any connection to the destruction. My intuition might have been an overreaction.
"You damn Damian!" Zenia and Haley approach me, shouting.
They were so emotional that they called me by name instead of “first-year”.
Zenia said with a flushed face, "I thought I was going to die of a heart attack when you ran out. How... you're not scared at all!"
"My body just moved on its own."
"Okay, you did well and looked cool, so just take a little beating!"
Zenia exercised some affectionate violence on me with her palm a few times.
Haley, noticing the crowd's attention focused on us, whispered to me, "I'll spread a rumor with Senior Rosalyn that it was the power of an enchanted sword and artifact. Hide the fact that it's a magic sword as much as possible. People who should know will know anyway, but still. Don't act like you're hiding, it looks more suspicious. Smile and greet people."
Haley must have noticed my sword was a magic sword, but she calmly dealt with it without any particular agitation.
"...Okay."
I lightly nodded to the onlookers.
Haley waved to the spectators and nudged me with her hip, giving me a hint.
I waved my hand just as she did. The onlookers murmured while looking at us. Some people applaud to encourage us.
"The first-year particularly attracts women's attention."
"..."
Soon after, Lilith joined us too. She came holding hands with the five or six-year-old girl she had saved.
Zenia said one thing looking at her.
"...What? Is that a hidden sister?"
"I, I asked where her parents were, but, um..."
Lilith trailed off. It was a face with many stories.
Zenia frowned for a moment, then smiled brightly at the child again.
"Little one, where are your parents?"
"...I don't have any."
"Where's your home?"
The little girl shook her head.
"Is there anyone worried about you?"
"...No."
Zenia rolled her eyes, looking perplexed.
"Then do you want to play with us sisters?"
The child nodded with an innocent expression.
Zenia picked up the child and said, "Let's keep her with us and then hand her over to the Guardians. Let's go, the festival is over."
"But, are there any injured people?"
As soon as I spoke, Guardians rushed past us carrying someone on a stretcher. On the stretcher was a man in a sky sailship crew uniform.
Seeing that sight, we had to calm our somewhat excited mood.
Haley turned her head. Zenia also covered the eyes of the child she was holding.
Whether due to the accident, the face of the man being carried away was crushed beyond recognition.
***
Rosalyn's pace quickened as she guided us. We climbed a gentle slope towards the city center. As we went, the city density increased and the streets narrowed. Banners unique to each building. Magic stones illuminated the narrow streets. Everywhere we went, the sun didn't reach, making us feel like dwarves passing between giants' legs.
We came with high expectations, but experiencing an unpleasant situation from the first day, everyone couldn't hide their complicated expressions.
Rosalyn said, "I'm sorry, kids. I got special permission to be in charge of you, but something came up, so I think I'll just guide you to the lodgings and have to go. I wanted to spend the night together unwinding, but I'm sorry."
Guards stopped us at a place where the city was divided by iron fences twice the height of a person. When Rosalyn showed a mark, they let us pass.
Beyond that section, the buildings got taller and the exteriors more luxurious. And the central city council building came into closer view.
"This central administrative district is relatively safe. Around here, even a woman alone can walk around drunk safely."
Haley said, "Senior, can we afford this with the Art Club budget?"
"It's the professor's mansion, and we got special permission from the city council."
"...Do you need the city council's permission to secure lodgings? And it's the professor's mansion?"
"To be precise, it's Professor Silveryn's mansion. The city provided it as a reward for a request three years ago, but she only stayed for exactly two days and six hours and never used it again. It's become a house that's too neglected as an empty house, so the city has found it troublesome to deal with. You can roughly guess the detailed circumstances of how we got permission, right?"
Zenia and Haley glance at me.
I don't know anything, why are they looking at me?
Rosalyn stopped in front of a large mansion made of limestone.
"Here it is."
The mansion had a small garden and a fence. Some members craned their necks to peek into the mansion windows, but they couldn't find anything because the interior was shrouded in darkness.
Rosalyn opened the fence gate latch and entered. Then she gestured for us to follow. She rummaged in her pocket and unlocked the main door with a large key. Zenia nudged me with her waist and looked up at me with an expectant expression. Soon after, Rosalyn throws open the double doors of the mansion.
The interior was pitch black without a single point of light.
"Ah, I'll do it."
Zenia magically floated a lantern in the air and slowly pushed it forward. The interior gradually brightened. The first thing we encountered was our own reflections.
A mirror. A huge mirror stood in the spacious entrance hall devoid of furniture. A faded brass chandelier hung lonely from the ceiling, with only darkness behind it. Our figures standing in the entrance were perfectly reflected in the mirror. A strange sense of discomfort washed over us, as if something was watching us.
Zenia and Haley each threw out a comment.
"What's with this atmosphere? It feels like ghosts might come out."
"Well, it's been an empty house for years."
Rosalyn looked at the mirror in front of her and suddenly spouted profanity.
"What kind of worm-like bastard! I'll kill them!"
Zenia and Haley asked, startled, "Senior, what's wrong? You're scaring us."
Rosalyn didn't stop there and continued to pour out words at an indignant level.
"This goddamn thing I'll grind to death!"
"Senior, are you okay?"
"No, that mirror! It wasn't here when I checked, which son of a bitch!"
She couldn't control her anger and threw the key on the floor, then paced iat the entrance.
"What's wrong with the mirror, Senior?"
Rosalyn said, panting, "Placing a mirror to reflect the entrance is absolutely, absolutely forbidden in Claridium, no matter what!"
"...What?"
"This is one of the worst curse rituals aimed at the homeowner and visitors! Who would do such a thing!"