[578] The Probability of R (1)
Alpheas School of Magic — maintenance workshop.
This place, where simple magical teaching aids were repaired, was off-limits at night even to students and staff.
There was a risk of theft, loss, and fire.
And right now, losses were beginning because of Sabina's Air Cut.
With a pop and a shower of sparks, the barbed fence split and Prings shook his head.
"No. No."
Prings was strong.
Even the label "third in the graduating class" was nothing more than a summary of countless magical stats.
On the battlefield, a combat mage was a brutally dangerous presence, and with an attribute of freezing—an ability that could sensorially bypass most Spirit Zones—even Sabina, a combat mage herself, couldn't help but feel powerless.
"Ugh!"
Prings grabbed Sabina's throat and slammed her into the iron bars.
"What the—!"
"Drop the Spirit Zone."
His voice was cold enough to pierce the heart.
"If you don't, I'll take your head."
Sabina felt her esophagus freeze as if impaled; she released the Spirit Zone.
"Even so, I'll never give up the Master Card—"
"Shut up. I ask the questions."
The moment Sabina looked into Prings' eyes, her heart plummeted.
Cold.
Every time the chill from his hand brushed her face, it felt as if her organs were being frozen solid.
"You won't last long. Ten minutes at most. Keep breathing like this and your insides will turn to ice."
Sabina didn't understand why Prings would inflict pain when the victory conditions of the Scramble Royal could be ignored.
"What do you want?"
Prings shoved his face close and took a loud, deliberate breath so she could hear.
"Haaaaa!"
Seeing his trembling eyelids stirred a sick impulse to kill in her, but she couldn't bring herself to act on it.
"You smell disgusting, Sabina. Like you fell into a cesspool."
As Sabina gagged, the cold intensified and she felt as if her blood vessels were being torn.
"Ugh!"
"What are you thinking? Waiting for Nade? You think he'll come because of that rescue signal you sent earlier?"
Sabina clamped her mouth shut.
"Answer me. Or I'll kill you."
Prings would do it without hesitation.
Unmasked, his expression showed no law, no morality, no decorum fit for a student of the School.
"All right..."
"Good. A good girl. From now on I'll ask you questions. Lie and I kill you. Stall and you freeze to death. First question."
Sabina's lips trembled.
"We'll start easy. What did you eat this morning?"
"Bread."
"Be specific! What kind of bread? What did it taste like? Did you have it with milk? Or juice?"
The cold intensified; Sabina frowned and shouted.
"I had a cream bun with milk! It was so good I thought I'd die! Why are you—"
"Oh? A cream bun with milk…?"
Prings' eyes rolled back ecstatically.
"—you ate that. Very deliciously…sweet, right? It must have melted in your mouth, hm?"
'I want to kill him!'
Prings' pupils snapped back into place.
"Good. Second question. When was your first kiss? With whom? What were you thinking—how did it feel? Where was it? What position were you in?"
Sabina clenched her teeth.
"You think I'd tell someone like you?"
"Oh ho, trying to hold out? Was it that secretive a kiss? A precious memory?"
Even colder air seeped into her nostrils.
"Fine choice. How does it feel to weigh a treasured memory against your life? Scared? Do you wish this were all a lie?"
Save me! Save me, Nade!
Blocking out Prings' words, Sabina cried inwardly.
I'm not afraid. He'll come.
The reason she could endure Prings' abnormal cruelty was because Nade existed.
It's nothing. Back then it was far worse than this.
Sabina's pupils began to unfocus.
"It's taking effect gradually. Why not give up? Are you really going to die over this?"
Frost began to form on the maintenance workshop's iron fence.
* * *
"Hurry! Hurry!"
Nade threw all his strength into teleportation.
As far as he knew, none of his teammates would call for help over something trivial.
This seemed to be Sabina's territory.
As he accelerated his teleports, horned monsters lunged at him from all sides.
Jincheon Sorcery — Red Goblins.
He reflexively laid down a plasma field and struck with a lightning attack; blue electricity braided across the goblins' bodies and they exploded.
"It's Anchal! Need to declare a Kang—"
Nade's current hand was ○●○● (Democracy); Anchal's was ○●ⓡ●.
"She chose the last tile as black. Then the random tile is very likely white."
If the patterns matched, declaring a Kang (a meld) would be advantageous.
"Anchal, Kang."
Anchal answered.
"Kang."
It was the same Democracy pattern, which made her sudden strike puzzling.
My hand is already revealed—knowing it's the same, why ambush me?
This wasn't a Scramble location.
"Here to stop the rescue? Yesterday you proposed a secret consultation. Bat-like personality."
Anchal bowed politely.
"Thank you."
What, really? This woman—
Anchal continued.
"But I fight my own battles. Scramble Royal means nothing to me."
"Then get out of my way. I'm busy."
"Nade, who are you?"
Nade kept his mouth shut.
"I was trained from birth to analyze humans. Cold, mechanical analysis."
"So? Curious how to end up last in the graduating class?"
"Who's stronger and who's weaker is obvious. Most are weak, of course. But you—"
Before asserting, Anchal narrowed her single eye and studied Nade.
"I truly don't know. Therefore, with a great cause ahead, I felt the need to confirm."
Recalling Sabina's words, Nade said, "I am me. I don't know what you want to know, but I'm not changing now."
"Is that so?"
Anchal waved her hand.
Jincheon Sorcery — Image Manifestation (Self-Portrait).
"Now, your true form—!"
Anchal's single eye widened as she fell silent.
What is that?
"Kruuuagh!"
Electricity rippled across Nade's body and burst outward.
"Waaaah!"
The scenery flashed as if night and day were alternating, and when the figure finally revealed itself, Anchal's body flared in a blinding light.
I can't read it.
Though Anchal could manifest an opponent's image, even a master of illusion couldn't analyze this.
"Impossible—?"
Bang!
Real lightning—no illusion—spread and razed the area where Nade had been standing.
Anchal, who had landed exactly on a branch two hundred meters away, watched Nade sprint into the forest while carrying the self-portrait.
"How could it get like that—"
What the Image Manifestation revealed was an incomprehensible mystery.
"He can't be sane, right?"
* * *
"Haahhh..."
Cold breath leaked from between Sabina's lips.
Her head grew foggy and sensation slipped away as if her whole body were freezing.
"The end is near. What does it feel like to die?"
I have to tell him.
Better than dying.
I can't tell him.
Better to die.
That razor-thin line of indecision was exactly where Prings found pleasure.
"Now, last chance. Choose. Answer or die."
"I—"
The moment Sabina's mouth opened, Prings' expression tightened.
Spirit Zone?
As he lunged, a flash cut across where he had been.
"Hah!"
Sabina exhaled sharply and sank to her knees, turning her face in pain.
"Nade?"
Contrary to expectation, Shirone was standing there. Before Sabina could feel disappointment, he limped toward her.
"Sorry. It was too much for me alone."
Shirone, who had faced Prings directly, knew his skill best.
"It's fine. Are you hurt?"
"Not in great shape. I don't know exactly, but you won't die."
Shirone scowled and glared at Prings.
"What are you doing right now?"
"I don't know what you mean. And you?"
"You may be emotionally charged, but this is a match governed by rules and agreement. I won't tolerate tormenting an opponent like this."
Prings mocked Shirone in a babyish voice.
"You won't tolerate tormenting an opponent."
Then, approaching the flushed Shirone, he said, "If you won't tolerate it, what will you do? Hit me? If so, run like mad."
Prings jabbed a finger at Shirone.
"I wondered earlier why I said 'run.' Are you perhaps afraid of me? No, no, that isn't it."
His finger wagged left and right.
"That's the real victory. You getting so pissed you lose your mind and drop dead from stress. Honestly, aren't you frustrated too? Let yourself be freed."
Prings threw his arms to the sky and shouted.
"Strength is true freedom! Cast off morals, laws, and school rules and gain infinite liberty!"
"So… are you infinite now?"
"Huh?"
"To me, you're an empty void that can't quench its thirst and will suffer endlessly."
"Oho, such cultured phrasing from you. How quaint for a commoner."
Prings seemed desperate to rile Shirone.
"No matter what you spew, I'll keep the line I set."
"Is that so?"
Prings vanished.
"Then go ahead and die of frustration."
Just as Prings, having teleported, was about to leap the wall, Shirone's flash collided with him head-on.
"What the—!"
Prings, having deactivated photonization, couldn't vault the wall and stumbled back as Shirone revealed the Incarnation of the Radiant Angel and charged.
Is that it? A time-manipulating ability.
He chose a head-on collision despite risking mortal injury because it could be undone.
Good. Fine by me.
Seolbinghwa.
As ice blades fluttered like petals, Shirone made a wide arc and fired Photon Cannons.
"Hehehe, angry now?"
Sensing the Spirit Zone, Prings twisted his torso like a dancer and dodged in a flash.
"You'll never hit me. Some defensive omnidirectional thing—hm?"
Prings squinted in disbelief.
The Spirit Zone is gone?
No. That wasn't it.
There are Spirit Zones everywhere. What on earth—?
A Photon Cannon sprang up right beside him and Prings' upper body snapped so far back it was nearly vertical.
A departure-type? Different from that. Why is the magic activating?
With the focus point lost through Elysion, Photon Cannons erupted from every direction and enveloped him like a net.
"My word…."
Sabina watched, gaping.
A mage's position was important because it was their point of concentration.
So she couldn't understand how magic was triggering with the focus point erased.
"Now I understand."
Prings, the combat mage, drew only the conclusion that mattered to victory.
There's still a radius. Only the boundary line disappeared. In that case—
Prings' grin split his face so deep crow's-feet creased and his eyes curved like gulls.
"Run farther, please."
Sibulsangpokmae!
Shirone, eyes blazing, shattered the mold of time and dozens of Photon Cannons surged over Prings' back as he flew.
"This—!"
Kwak! Kwak! Kwak!
Exposed to the hail of flashes, Prings was buried in dust and vanished.
"Ughhh!"
A groan came first, then wind swept the dust away.
Prings, chunks of ice clinging to the ends of his limbs, trembled as he covered his face and shook.