-Where are you looking, you p*rvert!
A scene straight out of a romantic comedy light novel unfolded.
“There wasn’t any weird situation, right?”
“All the clothes were destroyed, but as you can see, Yuribel has regained consciousness.”
“So, it’s a continuation of what happened to Student Council President Keyarnim? Hmm, well, it’s good that no student got hurt. For a moment, I thought an angel had possessed someone’s clothes and was going berserk.”
“That hasn’t happened, Dean Ederson.”
Dean Ederson, who had kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling or anywhere but at Yuribel, who was now completely undressed, retreated quietly among the staff who had rushed to cover her.
“The Student Council will take care of the situation involving the two students. Of course, both of them will be sent to the same ‘camp’ as Angelica.”
Student Council President Keyarnim stayed on site briefly, assisting in hiding the involvement of the angels in the incident.
Throughout the process, he too avoided looking directly at the scattered fabric on the floor, focusing on the conversation instead. The staff who entered the infirmary didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
“Are you alright, Student Phoenix?”
“You took quite a hit.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. Just some sleep and I’ll be better.”
Even Dean Ederson and President Keyarnim, who were both the most suspicious, seemed more concerned about me than eager to investigate further.
“This is the infirmary, right? Instructor Kadisha, please take good care of Student Phoenix. He’s the young man who managed to awaken the mind of the one possessed by an angel.”
“I’ll look after him well. Should I keep him in the infirmary?”
“That might be a good idea. Alright, everyone, let’s leave now.”
Dean Ederson wrapped up the situation and left the infirmary.
“Special class students should return to their rooms as well. Though a new day has already begun, get some rest before the first period.”
Since there was no reason to stay in the infirmary, the staff from the Old School Building also left one by one, following Instructor Esta’s instructions.
“…Are you sure you’re okay?”
Before leaving, Evangeline asked with a guilty expression, to which I just shrugged, pointing to the area she hit.
“Of course.”
“Let me know if it starts to hurt.”
Even though it was all an act, we had to fool the Mercenary King, the Crown Prince, and the other faculty members present.
In dramas or films, there are scenes where actors have to slap or punch their co-stars convincingly, and Evangeline pulled off a perfect performance so that no one suspected a thing.
She actually hit me, making the act seem real, which helped us hide our precious(?) test subject.
“Student Phoenix, why don’t you lie down here for a moment?”
“Sure.”
Instructor Kadisha, pretending to care for me, laid me down on the bed, and after sticking several bandages on my body, everyone left the infirmary.
“…”
“…”
Once alone, Instructor Kadisha silently signaled to me, and I mimicked grabbing the edge of a handkerchief with a gesture.
Ssh, Ssh.
She then put on the gloves I had previously worn.
As soon as she activated her magic, the gloves shimmered with RGB colors, typical of non-attribute magic’s vibrant spectrum.
Ssh, Ssh.
Like an appraiser handling a priceless artifact, or a researcher being extra cautious not to damage an experiment, Instructor Kadisha reached into the drawer.
Buzz, Buzz.
Inside the drawer, underwear sparkled with an RGB light mana barrier, quivering as if alive.
“Miss Yunia’s skill in maintaining barriers is really top-notch. Even after she left, the barrier is still perfectly intact.”
Kadisha gripped the underwear at the edge, and shook it slightly.
Unlike ordinary fabric, it stood stiffly like a triangle, almost like a boomerang made of wood or steel.
‘It feels like one of those acrylic stands.’
You know how, with products related to anime games or other such things, you sometimes get keyrings or LD illustrations, or other items, sandwiched between layers of acrylic?
The underwear in front of me was just like that.
The acrylic was the barrier, and inside was the angel-sealed underwear.
It wasn’t three-dimensional.
It was flat, like how a pair of emergency underwear from a convenience store would look when you unfold it after being folded.
If someone wanted to wear it, they’d need to pry it apart, but Yunia’s barrier was pressing it from both the top and bottom, leaving no room.
“Can you sense any magic waves?”
“Hmm…”
“Instructor Kadisha?”
“Miss Yunia didn’t mention it, but do you want to try checking this out?”
Instructor Kadisha, with a serious expression, handed me the angel-sealed underwear.
“I’ll just look at it.”
“Don’t you need to touch it to know for sure?”
“I’d rather not touch the underwear of a woman I’m not interested in.”
The underwear, probably due to being sealed by an angel, was completely clean—no strange marks or traces, like it was brand new right out of the package.
That’s likely a minimal effect of the angel’s possession.
“So, you’d touch it if it belonged to someone you’re interested in?”
“If it’s for laundry or folding clothes, sure.”
“Wow, you’re pretty domestic.”
“I’m not planning to live off someone else, though.”
Still, this wasn’t from a heroine, and even if it were, I’m not particularly keen on doing anything inappropriate.
“And in certain cases, you have to be the one taking it off.”
“Oh, really…”
“I still have no intention of touching it. I can see everything clearly without doing so.”
I pointed to the barrier Yunia had set up.
“This rainbow light coming from here, it probably isn’t just non-attribute mana.”
“…You noticed, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
Although it shimmered with RGB colors, there was another subtle light softly emanating within it.
“Miss Yunia created this barrier around the underwear to ‘self-sustain’, using magic that would keep the barrier intact. That’s likely what’s happening.”
“And why do you think that?”
“Because the angel inside is constantly trembling, trying to release its divine power, yet the barrier remains perfectly intact without any damage.”
“…I see.”
Instructor Kadisha extended the angel-sealed underwear to the side.
“When Miss Yunia cast this barrier, she made sure that whenever her mana touched the divine power being released from the angel, it was neutralized into ‘non-attribute’ mana.”
“…”
“She balanced the seven basic mana attributes along with the angel’s divine power and neutralized it, turning it into non-attribute mana.”
“Yes.”
“Student Phoenix, you have a strong understanding of mana attributes, more than many others in the Old School Building. So, as a fellow ‘researcher of mana’, let me ask you something.”
She meant it in the sense of being a fellow scholar.
“What do you think this means?”
“There are several interpretations, but I’d say it’s one of three possibilities.”
It could be all three at once.
“First, the fact that the angel’s power can blend with the seven attributes of mana and become non-attribute suggests that humans could potentially use angelic power to manifest certain phenomena.”
Underwear in which an angel is sealed.
In other words, could be described as an artifact that holds the power of ‘angelic abilities’.
“To put it bluntly, even in its current state, this underwear could function as a powerful blunt weapon, couldn’t it?”
“Exactly.”
nstructor Kadisha lightly tossed the underwear toward the wall.
“If we study this, humanity might be able to harness the power of angels.”
Thud.
The underwear stuck itself into the wall.
“And the second possibility?”
“Miss Yunia has incredible talent in mana control, enough to handle even the mysterious power of an angel.”
“That’s right. …Honestly, I don’t think I could do it.”
Instructor Kadisha raised her hands in a gesture of surrender and retrieved the angel-sealed item from the wall.
“So, what’s the last one?”
“The last one is…”
I sat up for a moment and approached the door to the infirmary.
The door was already closed and locked.
But the lock wasn’t what I was aiming for.
Click.
I turned off the switch.
As the mechanism engaged, the [Light] spell cast on the mana stone fluorescent lights on the ceiling was deactivated.
Like turning off a fluorescent bulb, darkness crept into the infirmary, leaving only the faint glimmer of the magical devices and some mana stones, while the soft moonlight seeped through the curtains.
“Instructor Kadisha, do you believe in the existence of generating infinite power?”
“Are you talking about the [Philosopher’s Stone]?”
The Philosopher’s Stone—an artifact, a treasure in this world, that grants its bearer infinite mana.
“Is infinite mana truly possible?”
“…As someone living in this world, I have to say ‘yes’, but as a magic engineer or an alchemist, the answer would have to be ‘no’.”
Instructor Kadisha crossed her legs and answered while seated in a chair.
“Infinite power? There’s no way something like that could exist.”
“Even if there exists a Philosopher’s Stone?”
“The Philosopher’s Stone must draw mana from somewhere, giving the illusion of infinity.”
It’s akin to the law of conservation of energy—this world works the same way.
“If infinite power exists, it’s simply that humanity hasn’t yet discovered the source from which it flows.”
“That makes sense. Then…”
I pointed to the sealed angel that Instructor Kadisha was holding.
“If the angel inside is continually releasing divine power despite being sealed, wouldn’t that imply it’s drawing on ‘angelic power’ from somewhere?”
“…That can’t be.”
Instructor Kadisha’s expression hardened at my hypothesis and question.
“Are you saying the angel can continue to obtain its divine power even though it’s sealed within a barrier?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible. This barrier, made from the seven mana attributes, is airtight. Miss Yunia’s barrier is not superficial.”
“But what if there’s an ‘unrecognized factor’ that even Miss Yunia didn’t account for? What if it’s not the seven mana attributes being absorbed, but some other attribute seeping through the gaps of the barrier and continuously feeding into the underwear?”
“Where could something like that come from—”
“Right here.”
I pointed toward the moonlight filtering through the curtains.
“Perhaps something like that?”
The full moon hung in the sky.
