Chapter 66

Chapter 16: Terror (3)

As expected, the clinic was in a small building a little distance from the main building where the opening ceremony was held.

It was more than 200 steps away, or about 100 meters by the standards of my previous life.

The clinic looked like a miniature version of the shrine I had seen in the noble's territory.

It was natural, as the clinic was also a shrine.

This academy was established to strengthen the royal family's power.

Naturally, the shrine, which was in opposition to the royal family, tried to be as excluded as possible from the academy, while the shrine side tried to infiltrate the academy by any means.

As a result, a shrine was built under the name of a clinic.

A small building between the buildings. The two people supported me and took me there.

The small shrine, called a clinic, became chaotic with the sudden appearance of a patient.

I was immediately moved to a private room with a bed, and then a middle-aged priest with a distinguished appearance entered the room.

A quick glance told me he was not an ordinary priest.

Under different circumstances, we might have introduced ourselves and sized each other up, but now he was just a priest treating a patient.

The priest approached and placed his hand on my stomach.

He began to pray.

There were several amusing aspects of this fantasy world from my perspective, remembering my previous life.

One of them was the priest's indiscriminate use of healing abilities.

In my previous life, they would have tried to find the cause of the illness through a medical examination or diagnosis—though it would have been difficult to say if the diagnosis was accurate—but here, they used their abilities first for anything other than serious or incurable diseases.

That's why my fake illness worked.

Hummm.

The priest's hand on my stomach began to glow.

A warm sensation started to flow through my stomach.

The priest's head tilted slightly. Hmm, was he just using his healing ability blindly?

If so, I needed to move before he sensed something was wrong. Besides, it was about time for the opening ceremony to end.

"Excuse me, I need to use the restroom!"

I left the room in a hurry, leaving the bewildered people inside.

I ran to the restroom I had noted on the way in and locked the door.

I then drew mana and checked the surroundings.

No one had followed me down the corridor, and fortunately, no one was outside the restroom either.

The restroom layout was no different from other shrines. Strangely, it was a clean interior similar to the restrooms in my previous life.

But now was not the time to explore the restroom.

I opened the window and slipped out. The window wasn't very large, but fortunately, my body was still small enough to fit through.

Well, what should I do now?

Should I go to the opening ceremony venue?

It was almost time for the opening ceremony to end.

It was also time for the bomb to go off in this building.

I successfully removed the guy from the opening ceremony venue as planned.

I didn't have time to confirm, but it seemed that the explosion was likely his inherited ability.

From what I observed, he didn't seem to have chosen to explode on purpose.

Still, it wasn't certain.

In any case, since I had removed him from the opening ceremony venue, it would be safe even if he exploded.

"So, is the problem with this clinic now?"

If he exploded again and I managed to escape, it was clear that everyone in this clinic would die.

"Well, I haven't always achieved the best outcome every time I died, so I don't really have much to worry about."

When I was a baby, the maids disappeared under the name of being missing, and I had killed or caused the deaths of several people. Of course, most were enemies, but it was rare for everything to end happily.

"My survival was the priority."

Moreover, I had become quite cold over time.

However.

"If I get caught up in this terror in the capital, it will be difficult to prepare for the future."

There was also a nagging feeling that my choices might lead to the deaths of innocent people.

"Damn, I really don't want to die..."

I sighed, leaning against the building and looking at the building where the opening ceremony was being held.

It would be best if nothing happened and everything passed smoothly, but if I died, I hoped to discover more clues.

"Maybe I should just be kidnapped next time."

I had such absurd thoughts while looking at the building where the opening ceremony was being held.

Murmurs, murmurs.

A commotion arose from the opening ceremony venue, and people started to come out.

"Could it just be over?"

It was definitely the moment the bomb was supposed to explode, right?

It was an ambiguous result, but I was grateful that it was over this way.

Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief.

The moment I was about to walk towards the opening ceremony venue.

Flash.

A bright light shot out from the door where people were coming out.

And.

BOOM!

The building of the opening ceremony venue exploded.

The ceiling shattered and shot up into the sky, and the walls were blown out.

Rumble.

"Ah!"

"Ugh!"

Flames shot up into the sky, and the screams of people were deafening.

"Damn."

Debris flew in all directions.

I swung my fist, filled with mana.

Bang. Bang.

The debris flying towards me shattered upon impact with my fist.

I broke through the debris and ran towards the destroyed building.

'Did I misunderstand? No, it was definitely Piar who exploded last time!'

My mind was a mess due to the unexpected situation, but I didn't stop moving.

There were still people alive.

I could sense the living through the mana I had spread as much as possible.

As I approached the building through the smoke, I saw people groaning and lying on the ground.

"People coming out of the building?"

They were screaming with burns and covered in black ash, but their limbs were intact.

I passed them and headed into the destroyed building where the flames and debris were still pouring out.

And I bit my lip at the scene inside.

It was a miracle that the people I saw earlier had survived.

There were almost no living people in this building.

Only burned and mangled bodies were everywhere.

I could sense a few people groaning with severe burns, but none of them were familiar.

I didn't see the princess, and there was no trace of Manuel.

The severely injured people groaning were all in the corners of the building.

They might have been blown away by the explosion, but the remaining heat and explosion traces were in the center of the building.

The princess, Manuel, and other teachers who were sitting in the center.

They were all charred bodies.

Smoke, bodies, and death. Death. Death...

I looked around blankly.

Meanwhile, other people also entered the ruins where the heat remained.

"Good heavens. Is there anyone alive?"

The female teacher who had spoken to me on the way to the clinic entered the smoke, covered in ash, staggering.

Fortunately, she had managed to get out of the building at the end.

Other school staff who had survived also entered the ruins, covered in blood, to search for survivors.

"For heaven's sake, move quickly! There's someone alive here!"

Behind them, the priests and priestesses who had treated me ran inside.

The middle-aged priest ran around to save people, and the others did the same.

"What are you doing! Snap out of it and help here!"

The middle-aged priest, who was using his healing ability on a person covered in burns, shouted at me, who was standing there blankly.

However, I didn't follow his words.

I just stood there, staring at the horrific disaster.

The priest clicked his tongue and focused all his attention on saving people, and the others were busy helping him.

Piar and the butler also appeared at the scene.

Since the priests had come, it was unlikely that the two would have stayed behind.

The butler looked around with a dazed expression, and Piar approached the priests with a pale face.

"Help here!"

One of the priestesses shouted at them, and they, unlike me, moved to help her.

The moment the two arrived where the priests and priestesses were saving people.

"Huh?"

Piar stopped in surprise.

And he turned his head in a specific direction.

At that moment.

Flash!

Light shot up again.

Light spread from his body.

BOOM!

And a massive explosion, along with mana and heat, hit the surroundings, or rather, me.

An immense heat. The same explosion that had just occurred.

I neither blocked nor avoided the explosion. I just felt the explosion and closed my eyes.

In the last moment, I didn't see Piar. Instead, I looked in the direction he was looking.

I wasn't just standing there blankly at the terror scene.

I had been cursed out, but I had been gathering as much information as possible instead of helping people.

Piar wasn't the culprit. He was just a bomb victim.

And the bomb wasn't just his.

The switch to detonate the bomb was in someone else's hands.

I hadn't figured everything out yet, but I had learned a lot more than expected.

Good. This is the end. This loop ends here.

Darkness enveloped the world.

And a small light gradually approached.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I saw the back of the little princess again.

Just as she was entering the opening ceremony venue.

Pain hit my entire body.

Curses burst out involuntarily. The world spun.

In the end, I had to lean against the wall.

I thought I had become accustomed to death, but repeated deaths in a short time were mentally difficult to bear.

I had to end this according to the plan this time.

After regaining my composure, I immediately headed towards where Piar was.

The princess and Manuel looked at me curiously as I headed in a different direction, but I ignored their gazes.

I had to hurry. I needed to finish the confirmation before the opening ceremony started.

I approached Piar from behind and greeted him.

"Are you Piar? I'm Alex de Gracia."

Piar turned around with a puzzled look and greeted me in surprise.

"Alex de Gracia? Nice to meet you. But how do you know me...?"

Piar was surprised by the name Gracia again, and the noble boy next to him, who was to make the new student declaration, tilted his head at my name.

Oh, I had to finish this before that guy starts his countdown again.

"I heard your name from a friend... no, a relative who is also entering the academy."

"Ah, my cousin Miss Melissa? How do you know her?"

When I looked in the direction Piar was looking, a girl with freckles was looking at this place with a surprised face.

Do we look alike?

In any case, it seemed I had guessed right.

There were two bombs, not one. If the inherited ability was a bomb, it was reasonable to infer that a relative or family member might be another bomb.

Of course, the bomb might not be a unique inherited ability, and there were many holes in this reasoning, but the fact that my guess was right increased the likelihood that the reasoning would hold.

However, a new question arose.

Whether a commoner cousin could have an inherited ability, and whether that ability could be used for terrorism.

But these questions could be addressed later.

Now was the time to catch the culprit, the mastermind.