I wanted to leave this plaza right now and crawl under my dormitory bed.
The cheering crowd, the dazzling magic lamps embroidering the night sky, and the smiles of the main characters, drenched in happiness and joy.
All of it looked to me like the timer of a time bomb about to go off.
But around my ankle, the shackles called “special assistance” that the Student Support Office had fastened on me were firmly locked in place.
The problem was that I couldn’t explain this ominous feeling to anyone, in any way.
My mouth went dry.
I couldn’t shout, “If it follows the original, monsters are going to come pouring in any second now!”
With the contaminated magic lamps, the forged seal, and the false accusation, there had at least been visible evidence.
But the attack on the last night of the festival existed only as a memory inside my head.
If I claimed there would be an attack when there wasn’t a single sign of one,
I’d be marked as a lunatic who tried to ruin the academy festival and get expelled on the spot.
Hiding my trembling hands, I approached Erka first.
“Erka, um… about that connector from earlier.
I did accidentally pull out the line, but could there still be residual mana affecting the other barrier nodes? The lighting ceremony succeeded, but I think it’d be safer to check until the very end.”
Erka pressed a hand to her forehead as if exhausted, but she didn’t ignore me.
After all, she had come to trust my strange instincts quite a bit.
After confirming that Erka was examining the control panel again, I headed straight for Nadia.
“Nadia, the flow of outside visitors leaving seems too concentrated toward the eastern corridor.
If even one person falls over there, couldn’t it turn into a major accident? I think it would be best to open the western auxiliary passage in advance as well.”
Nadia stared hard at my face, then gave a short nod.
Inside that calculator-like mind of hers, the worst-case scenario was surely already turning over.
Next, I looked for Mia.
Mia’s ears were drooping, worn out by all the smells.
“Mia, about the rear gate. Are you sure all those smells left by the person who framed me are really gone? Is there any chance a new smell is coming in from outside on the wind?”
Mia sniffed the air, then furrowed her brow ever so slightly.
Lastly, I asked Briana, who was sitting at the Student Support Office’s temporary desk, in a voice that practically crawled out of my throat.
“Briana, um… the lighting ceremony is over now, and there weren’t any major accidents, so couldn’t the on-site inspection special assistant clock out now? I think I’m feeling a little sick…”
Without taking her eyes off her terminal, Briana answered dryly.
“The on-site inspection special assistant must remain deployed until confirmation of the festival’s conclusion and the final materials removal report are complete. Don’t forget that tardiness and unauthorized absence are grounds for an expulsion review.”
Despair washed over me.
Why, of all times, did the administrative process have to be so thorough now?
The academy’s regulations weren’t a wall protecting me. They were shackles driving me toward death.
The festival grounds were still bright and peaceful.
Students burst into laughter as they made their rounds through the final booths, and honored guests walked toward their carriages with satisfied expressions.
At the Swordsmanship Department’s sparring grounds, Dylan was grumbling as he packed training wooden swords into a box, while at the treatment booth, Line and Amelia were tidying up the remaining herbal tea and seeing visitors off.
At the Reconnaissance Department’s maze booth, the last nighttime entrants were going inside.
That was when Mia, standing beside me, suddenly stopped.
Her tail stood stiffly upright, and her ears pricked up.
“Senior, this is strange. The smell… isn’t coming from outside.
It feels like something is making a path from the inside.
A really fishy, rotten smell is spreading from within the barrier.”
The dazzling magic lamps in the center of the plaza were embroidering the night sky, announcing the climax of the festival.
The people’s cheers came rolling in like waves, and the sweet scent of sugar confections and the greasy aroma of roasting meat filled the air.
But my gaze passed beyond that brilliant feast of light and turned toward the academy’s outer barrier, where pitch-black darkness had settled.
I held my breath and looked at the place Mia was pointing to.
There, where the light of the splendid magic lamps did not reach, the boundary where the academy’s wall met the forest was writhing grotesquely, like a living creature.
A line of cold sweat trickled down my spine.
My fingertips began to tremble faintly.
That sound I had just heard.
A bizarre dissonance forcing its way through the gaps between cheers and music.
Step. Step.
It was the sound of something sharp scraping down a metal fence.
A vibration clearly alien to the noise of the festival traveled through the ground and reached the soles of my feet.
The low growl of a beast, and the creak of chains being pulled taut.
It was not a sound that excited students could ever make.
My stomach clenched hard.
My throat was so dry I couldn’t even swallow.
Memories of the original flashed through my mind.
If things had gone as they originally did, this attack should have begun right in the middle of the central plaza, with the screams of people who had no preparations whatsoever.
But now it was different.
That ominous wavering I could sense at the boundary where the wall and forest met was telling me that destruction had not yet invaded the plaza.
What would happen if I screamed here and shouted that we were under attack?
The festival would turn into chaos in an instant.
Thousands of terrified people would surge into the narrow passages, and before the monsters even rushed in, people would be trampled to death by one another in droves.
I scream.
The crowd panics.
The escape routes get blocked.
I get caught in the middle and crushed to death.
There was only one conclusion.
Without causing a commotion, we had to stop these monsters at the outskirts before they came pouring into the plaza.
I forced strength into my trembling legs and approached Mia, who was closest to me.
She was wrinkling her nose and sniffing the air.
“The smell… Senior, the smell is getting stronger. It’s really fishy and rotten.
It’s not beyond the wall. It’s leaking up from beneath the wall.”
Mia’s face turned pale.
I lightly tapped her shoulder to calm her down, then headed toward Rowen, who was organizing the last entrants near the maze booth.
“Rowen, about the maze exit. What do you think about rerouting the visitors’ exit path toward the passage by the outer wall for now? It looks like one of the guide lamps over there has gone out, so if people crowd in, it could be dangerous.
Could you adjust the route inside the maze a little to match that?”
Rowen unfolded a map, thought for a moment, then nodded.
“That makes sense. If a guide lamp has gone out, there’s a high risk of a safety accident. I’ll change the internal structure of the maze right away and guide the exit toward the western outer road.”
Rowen began moving busily.
I headed for Briana.
“Briana, several guide lamps by the outer wall have gone out. It might be an aftereffect of the lighting ceremony accident from earlier, so could you ask the security personnel to keep more detailed outer patrol records than usual?
I want to include it in the on-site inspection report.”
Briana stared at me expressionlessly.
“An issue with the guide lamps? That means management was negligent. I’ll immediately leave a call record with the outer security post and order a precise patrol.”
Briana’s dry voice had never sounded so reassuring.
Lastly, I approached Erka, who was checking the mana readings in front of the control panel.
From my gait alone, she seemed to have already realized something was wrong.
“Erka, I’m sorry to keep asking, but doesn’t it look like the phase values near the outer barrier nodes are fluctuating a little? It feels to me like that area has loosened up somewhat. Could you check it one more time?”
Erka silently operated the terminal screen.
“A weak point in the barrier… Yulian, that ominous instinct of yours always points to statistically significant readings. I’ll adjust the phases of outer barrier nodes four and seven right away.”
Everything I could do to lay the groundwork was now finished.
I approached the protagonist shining in the middle of the plaza, Kyle Lucen.
He was surrounded by people, smiling brightly.
“Kyle, just a second.”
When I quietly tugged on his sleeve, Kyle looked down at me in puzzlement.
“Yulian? What’s wrong? Your complexion looks terrible.”
“Kyle, about the rear gate. I think Dylan called earlier, asking for help with some equipment over there.
I was going to go too, but my legs have gone weak… Could you go ahead and check on the situation? Without making a fuss, just quietly.”
Kyle listened to me and thought for a moment, then flashed his characteristic refreshing smile.
“Got it. If Dylan called, I should go. Yulian, you stay here and rest a little.”
Avoiding people’s gazes, Kyle naturally made his way toward the rear gate.
At that path, I also left a brief whisper with Serena when I ran into her.
“Serena, it looks like some students have gathered on the forest path behind the sparring grounds, and Dylan doesn’t seem able to control them alone. Could you take a few Swordsmanship Department students and go keep order?”
Serena didn’t ask at length.
She immediately called Dylan over and gave him instructions in a low voice, and the two of them led elite members toward the outer wall as if establishing a defensive line.
Mia sniffed the air, then pointed at a certain spot and froze, while Erka confirmed that the vibration of the barrier nodes had reached the critical threshold.
Nadia had already fully evacuated the honored guests toward the safe eastern corridor, and Rowen had fixed all the maze exits to the opposite side of the outer wall.
Briana was preparing to issue an alarm while officially recording that the outer security post had stopped responding.
It was right after all preparations had been completed.
The outer passage by the rear gate, where Kyle had arrived first.
From within that deep darkness, the first monster, cloaked in pitch-black shadow, revealed itself.
It was slightly larger than an adult man.
Its sharp claws scraped the ground and sent sparks flying, and the stench of rotting meat filled the air.
“…!”
Just as one student passing nearby was about to scream, Kyle rushed in like a whirlwind and blocked the monster’s path.
“Everyone, get back!”
Kyle’s golden mana split the darkness and blazed.
Behind him, Serena and the Swordsmanship Department members joined in perfect order, forming a solid defensive line.
The attack from the original had not disappeared.
But this time was different.
There was no tragedy erupting in the heart of the festival without anyone knowing, leaving countless casualties in its wake.
The safety line I had staggered step by step into place, the maze route I had stubbornly forced them to revise, and the ominous premonitions I had talked about without rest.
Those small and pathetic measures had come together to hold the first step of the attack at the academy’s outermost edge.
I sank to the ground and breathed roughly.
My stomach twisted and acid rose in my throat, but at the very least, it didn’t seem like I would be trampled to death tonight.
The festival music from the central plaza could still be heard, but now that sound was slowly being buried beneath the metallic clangs and the roars of monsters coming from the outskirts.
The battle had only just begun.