"Rather than pay her an empty, insincere visit, we'd be better off helping her family. I don't believe the Vatican will let this opportunity pass them by."
The woman in the red formal gown smiled faintly with confidence as she spoke.
"Your Highness, you mean..."
"Giving aid in a time of need is always better than adding flowers to brocade. Did that decorative-vase sister of mine come as well?"
"...Yes, Your Highness. Third Princess Villian has also arrived in Academy City."
"Hmph! Even a puppet doll as devoid of initiative as her has finally left her ivory tower. Let me guess, who gave her the idea? Those aides whose protective instincts were stirred by her soft exterior, or Mother's favoritism...? Ha. A useless woman who knows only how to win sympathy with tears."
Her words made it perfectly clear that the red-clad princess occupying the superior position held undisguised contempt for her younger sister.
"Visiting Katy and using that connection would certainly establish contact with Selene immediately, but judging by the way Selene conducts herself, I doubt she has much fondness for decorative vases. She and I are the same kind of person. That's my intuition as Carissa."
Carissa, a member of the British royal family, was Queen Elizard's second daughter and the elder sister of Third Princess Villian. Renowned for her military talent, she was proud and fiercely independent, with powerful support from Britain's Knight Faction.
As for knowing Katy, the saying that Europe's aristocracy was one big family was not merely empty talk.
Even though their blood relationship was now so distant as to be almost meaningless, and the Habsburgs' familial ties with the British royal house had never been as close as those of the Bourbons, Hohenzollerns, or even the now-extinct Romanovs, basic social contact and familiarity were inevitable.
As for why Carissa wanted to become acquainted with Selene, it was simply to find a like-minded friend. There was no deeper meaning to it. She needed assistance, whether in the form of military products developed by the Schicksal Group under Selene or Selene's personal support.
Just a small matter like carrying out a military coup.
Of course, Carissa only had the beginnings of such an idea at present, and she was not stupid enough to announce it everywhere. On the surface, she had simply come to Academy City hoping to secure large-scale military support from Selene. The Schicksal Group, expanding aggressively in every direction with its Academy City research institute at the center, had already begun displaying some characteristics of a high-tech military-industrial complex.
That also aligned perfectly with Carissa's exceptional military aptitude and close relationship with the armed forces, so there was little need to conceal anything.
"I've disliked those old fossils in the Vatican for a long time. Protecting Selene's younger brother lets me earn her a favor while disrupting the Roman Catholic Church's operation. Two birds with one stone. And with visible sincerity on my side, even if my weak little sister got there first, no matter how you look at it, whether now or in the future, I'm still the one with greater value as a partner."
"Are our people in position?"
Rising to her feet, Carissa swept her gaze around the room. Everyone surrounding her was a member of Britain's Knight Faction who had accompanied her to Academy City.
"They're in position... but we haven't seen anyone from the Vatican make a move yet. However, while scouting, one of our men discovered traces of a fairly famous freelance magician, the courier known as Route Disturb."
"The courier?"
...
School District 7.
"What an interesting place, Academy City."
A tall blonde woman with proud curves stopped walking and raised a hand to peer toward the riot-control armored units standing by at an intersection not far away. An alluring curve appeared at the corner of her lips.
Walking through the crowded street, the woman was bizarrely dressed in a loose gray work uniform. Only the second button of her shirt was fastened, the zipper of her pants was left open, and even her belt had not been properly buckled. Her full breasts and navel were exposed, while her trousers were so loose they seemed ready to fall off at any moment.
Ordinarily, such a voluptuous and alluring woman walking through the streets in that condition would have caused an uproar. Yet the surrounding crowd behaved as though they had seen nothing at all, each person acting like a perfect gentleman and keeping their eyes straight ahead.
In truth, that was not what was happening. If a magician passed near her, they would immediately sense the effects of a People-Clearing Field.
Obviously, this beautiful woman with brilliant, fluffy golden curls and blue eyes was a magician, and a highly talented one at that!
This could be troublesome... If I get bogged down by that many combat robots...
The woman lowered her gaze to the rectangular, board-like object she carried. A thought stirred in her mind. I should finish this delivery as quickly as possible. Her sixth sense told her that if she remained in Academy City much longer, disaster would find her sooner or later.
Continuing toward the designated exchange point, the woman pulled a blank slip of paper from her pocket and held it between her teeth. Bzzz... With a faint gathering of magical power and the appearance of written symbols, the Storthand · Water Symbol, a magical communication spell, was completed.
"Hello, Oriana Thomson speaking."
Like someone making a phone call, the blonde woman held the blank slip now covered in magical symbols beside her ear and said, "The goods have arrived."
Her identity was none other than the famous "courier" of the magic side, Oriana Thomson.
After a long pause, a low, magnetic, and devout female voice reached Oriana's ears. "Please be careful not to say your real name. People around you can hear your voice." Merely from hearing the voice, Oriana could already roughly imagine what her employer looked like.
"More importantly, I'd like to ask whether the security here isn't a little excessive. I've already encountered several heavily armed suppression units standing by along the way."
Elsewhere, inside a cramped room.
In the dim candlelight, before a low table upon which a silver cross was enshrined, a nun wearing a worn, old white habit emblazoned with a red cross opened her emerald-green eyes from her kneeling prayer.
The nun's features were not stunningly beautiful, but they were neat and pleasant. She appeared to be somewhere between twenty-five and thirty years old.
"Do you have a way to deal with them?" Oriana's voice came through the magical spell.
"Naturally." The nun spoke calmly. "The 'goods' are only the appetizer. The true gospel is yet to come."
"Understood. I'll deliver the 'goods' very soon."
Click!
As the magical communication spell disconnected, the nun turned around with an unchanged expression. Standing within the shadows was a tall, thin man dressed entirely in green.
"Even God's Right Seat is participating in this operation. Has the Vatican formally decided to go to war with Academy City?"
"Well, who knows? Perhaps it's merely a probe, perhaps it's the beginning of total war. Either one can become the other at any moment."
The thin man wore a loose green formal outfit and was dressed in green from head to toe. Not only was the style of his clothing extraordinarily strange, even his laughter sounded peculiar and cold.
God's Right Seat was the largest Dark Side organization within the Vatican's Roman Catholic Church, a power of the magic side, and was known as the Roman Catholic Church's ultimate weapon.
This man was Terra of the Left, a member of God's Right Seat. Yet there was not the slightest trace of the holiness one would expect from a clergyman about him. Rather than a lamb of God, he resembled a hellish demon sent by Satan.
"Those Anglo-Saxon barbarians from the British Isles have arrived too, have they? Then I can hardly wait any longer. Begin the plan! Hahahaha... For these heretics to be granted the chance to submit themselves to our Lord is their honor!"
Spreading his arms wide, Terra of the Left stared at the images displayed upon the parchment and burst into fanatical laughter.
His distorted face twisted like one of the ghouls described in forbidden tomes, while his shrill, owl-like laughter was deeply unsettling.
"Lord Terra of the Left, the other members of God's Right Seat..."
Seeing Terra of the Left's impatient demeanor, as though he intended to act ahead of schedule, the nun immediately tried to dissuade him.
"Shut up. Are you trying to teach me how to do my job?"
...
Near the athletic venue of a certain high school.
"What a pain... Index ran off somewhere again, and she isn't answering her phone. All I did was go to Tokiwadai's main venue without her to discuss how we should thank them. Did she really have to get this angry?"
After parting ways with Misaka Mikoto, a certain black-haired boy with spiky hair sighed and trudged listlessly toward the competition preparation area for his own high school.
No matter how important a certain high school might be in the eyes of Academy City's upper echelons or certain interested parties, the fact remained that it was merely an ordinary school with average teaching resources. To most people, it was the kind of institution that sat squarely around the middle of the pack.
Naturally, it had not been given any opportunity to appear at the main venue.
"The phone with Selene's number stored in it was accidentally dropped into the bathtub by Index. Then when I took it out to be repaired, I accidentally dropped it again on the way and completely smashed it... Ahhh, why am I so unlucky?!"
Originally, contacting Selene to thank her and arrange a meal together should have required nothing more than a single phone call. But because of one accident after another in daily life, and because all information concerning Selene had been sealed by the Bank under the highest level of authority, Kamijou Touma naturally had no way to look it up.
As a result, he had been forced to deliver the message in person. He was completely numb to it by now.
Forget it. I'm used to this.
I should get back quickly. The pole-toppling match should be starting soon.
Truthfully, when he heard over the broadcast that Selene was participating in the Daihasei Festival, he had been completely stunned. With Selene's strength as the strongest Level 5, wasn't participating in these events basically bullying ordinary people like them?
As for that supposed rule about not using any supernatural abilities or their derivative powers? Hah!
Other people might not know, but did he not?
Whether it was on the space elevator Endymion, where Selene had broken past first cosmic velocity at 7.9 km/s with her physical body, walked through the vacuum of space, and torn Ladylee Tangleroad apart barehanded as easily as crushing a chick, or the time she had demolished his dormitory building with her bare hands and overwhelmed the Saint Kanzaki Kaori, Kamijou Touma had either witnessed it personally or been one of the direct victims—specifically, when Selene had kicked his dormitory building down.
With her bare hands, she could demolish Academy City!
That woman Selene was basically a fusion of a magic side Saint and a science side esper.
That was the judgment Kamijou Touma himself had reached after learning more about concepts related to the magic side from Stiyl Magnus and Kanzaki Kaori.
"But lifting the curfew..."
Although he was already a repeat offender who frequently ignored school regulations, that did not stop him from being delighted when he heard the administrative order. He hated punishments like writing self-reflections, remedial lessons, and extra assignments.
Still, for some reason, as he moved through the crowd and watched the screen showing Habatobi High School being completely shut out in its dodgeball match, Kamijou Touma could not help swallowing. It looked like Selene was in quite a mood... He suddenly had a very bad feeling.
Come on... No way. How could Tokiwadai, one of the five prestigious schools, ever get matched against an ordinary school like mine?
But the moment he remembered that Selene had mentioned several times how much she wanted to spar with him, Kamijou Touma shuddered. If one of those cannonball-like spikes hit him cleanly, he really would die!
Hurriedly throwing those thoughts aside, Kamijou Touma quickened his pace. He would first go check on the condition of those animals from his class. If he arrived late, he would get chewed out again...
And then...
"Wait! What happened to all of you?!"
When he reached the competition preparation area for his high school, Kamijou Touma stared dumbfounded at the students of his class sprawled all over the ground without the slightest motivation. "Hey, hey! Isn't the pole-toppling match about to start? What happened to your preparations?!"
"I've got no motivation at all."
The blue-haired boy with earrings lay beside Kamijou Touma's feet, rolled over like a beached fish, and spoke weakly in an exaggerated fake Kansai accent. "How are we supposed to beat the other schools? Ah... Just thinking about it feels like I've already used up the tiny bit of stamina I had left..."
"Isn't that completely backwards?!"
Kamijou Touma was speechless. So I'm actually the most motivated person in the entire class?!
"Hey! You guys heard the announcement, right?! Selene said during her speech that the Board of Directors is going to massively increase the rewards for Daihasei Festival events! There's money to be won, and a lot of it! Doesn't that make any of you want to get fired up...?"
"Ah, forget it, Kami-yan. With our school's situation, how are we supposed to compete with those prestigious academies? Fight them with our heads? No matter how much they raise the rewards, it feels like those prizes had nothing to do with us from the very beginning."
"Student competitions are probably just like that."
Beside them, the expressionless girl Himegami Aisa adjusted the silver cross necklace hanging before her chest and added her own comment. Her attitude toward the competition was every bit as lethargic as the others'.
"But speaking of Selene... Ah! Kami-yan! You've really made something of yourself!"
The sudden roar startled Kamijou Touma. The blue-haired boy sprang up from his lifeless sprawl, hooked an arm around his best friend's neck, narrowed his eyes with a sleazy expression, and lowered his voice.
"Hey, Kami-yan. You call her Selene pretty naturally, don't you? Are you two close? Looks like that urban legend wasn't just made up. They say the Number One has some completely unremarkable Level 0 spiky-haired male friend. That guy..."
"Don't tell me it's really you, Kami-yan? Could it be that even the Number One couldn't resist your absurd luck with girls? Damn you!!"
Poking Kamijou Touma in the face, the blue-haired boy's voice overflowed with envy, jealousy, and resentment.
"Uh..."
At times like this, Kamijou Touma knew there was no point trying to argue. All he could do was hope this idiot did not raise his voice too much. If the rest of the animals in the class joined in, he would suffer all over again.
That lesson had been carved into him in blood. His superhuman bad luck and equally abnormal luck with women had caused him no shortage of misery.
Amid the noisy commotion, Kamijou Touma was still feeling dizzy when, in the next instant, the pressure around his neck suddenly vanished. Then he heard the voice of his other best friend beside his ear. This time, however, the voice was unusually serious, without even the habitual "nya" at the end of the sentence.
"Kami-yan, come with me. Something's happened."