「O, oi! I’ll properly walk behind you so don’t pull me!」
Just as she said when she said there’s no use in arguing, Mana just pulled my arm without answering me. I’ll keep it a secret that thanks to the way that she was pulling me was in the form of putting my arm at her side, I was happy that my hand faintly touched her side boob.
◇
「Yuu?」
Alicia noticed us and turned around.
「Ah~,……Yo.」
Unable to come up with a clever line, when I just replied to her for the time being, criticizing eyes from Mana and Eri, who were next to me, were turned towards me.
「Fufufu, ……I get it. Ei.」
*Pachin*.
Alicia made a sound ring with her slender finger. At that instant, the sounds that could be called the surrounding noise had disappeared.
「You met these two right before you began your journey……And then was brought here, is it something like that?」
「Y, you hit it right on the mark.」
Within the world where sound had vanished, only Alicia’s voice and my voice could be heard.
Maybe because they noticed that Silent magic was placed, Mana and Eri, who were beside me, silently nodded and put a bit of distance between us.
「I wonder, are they being considerate?」
「Though it’s too weird of a consideration.」
Well, it can’t be helped. It’s also because of what Alicia declared, but for Mana and the others, I am 『the Princess’s sweetheart』.
They’re probably expecting something like a template story, but, honestly, that’s a lot of responsibility for me to bear.
「So, how is it? The reconstruction work.」
「Since the modifications on the magic formation and the protective barrier were finished on that day, right now we are investigating the cardinal points of the barrier.」
「Investigating? ……Ahh, so you’re looking into the reason why the barrier broke.」
When I came to my own conclusion, Alicia nodded, and immediately had a serious look.
「With the results of the investigation, we’ve come to learn various things. ……It seems that there’s no mistake that the one that destroyed the barrier was Umbra. There were some old fashioned runes carved around the cardinal points. Runes are the usual measures for alchemists.」
「Now I get it. If it’s runes, it’s possible to invoke the magic with arbitrary timing.」
I know because even the Magic Clad Sword magic that I use is something that combines several runes and engraves them.
……Hn?
「You said carved……Just who carved them in.」
When I muttered a question that suddenly came to mind, Alicia nodded.
「Right, that’s the problem. Umbra couldn’t enter the academy’s barrier. It’s impossible for Umbra to enter the academy unless the academy barrier was suspended.」
Umbra is an Undead that possesses his past from when he was human. A species called a Lich, rather, it’s a class, isn’t it. Liches are the strongest class of existence among the Undead, but Baba-chan’s spread out academy barrier was an impregnable barrier that prevents the trespassing of Mazoku and monsters and that doesn’t exclude the Undead type.
Umbra couldn’t trespass it. That being said, that guy’s runes were carved.
「With that guy’s specialty of manipulating humans……」
「That’s probably, wrong.」
While getting stuck on the word “probably”, Alicia was awfully clear using the word “wrong”.
「Do you, have some kind of reason for saying that?」
「Umbra had trespassed onto this academy at one point, carved runes around the cardinal points and destroyed the cardinal points, and used magic that did something similar to nullifying the effects of the cardinal points. There’s no mistake on all of this……」
「No……Like I said, because there was the academy barrier, there’s no way he could have gotten in, right?」
I replied while having a bit of irritation in my words that seemed to reconfirm what we already knew. But, Alicia’s serious expression didn’t collapse. On the contrary, it grew even sharper.
「Yes, that’s true. ……However, if the academy barrier wasn’t activated, Umbra could easily enter it.」
「……What was that?」
That was something that was rather natural to say, but it was right here that I started to finally realize what Alicia was trying to say.
「That’s right. About two months earlier from now. Only once was there a day where the academy barrier had stopped working. Due to something I had heard after that, I didn’t think too deeply about it at that time. No. I couldn’t think about it. It’s because, in a certain way, something even more astonishing that the academy barrier was dispatched towards the world.」
More than the academy barrier……And also, two months ago, that’s……!
「That’s right. ……The present day Heroes, were summoned into this world.」
Suddenly, truly suddenly, I remembered what the Luxeria princess had said.
『 Leezelion’s and my Luxeria’s summoning ceremonies are different.
Leezelion’s summoning ceremony is something that makes use of the converged Maryoku from the alignment of the stars with an ancient magic formation that was arranged in a Leezelion manner, creates a local collection of Maryoku, and opens a world door with that enormous Maryoku.
In regards to my Luxeria’s summoning ceremony, it circulates Maryoku drawn from the leyline that is poured into a circle, and creates a stable world door.』
And then, this academy barrier, continues to draw Maryoku from the leyline, and “is invoked”.
「Because we were summoned, the Maryoku disappeared……?」
「The leyline flows from Luxeria towards Lizwadia. ……Originally, the world door was opened by pouring in the enormous amount of Maryoku generated from the alignment of the stars, and so, in order to produce something equivalent to that, it would require an enormous amount of Maryoku suitable to that. In other words……」
So it would mean that the Maryoku of the leyline that should have streamed into Lizwadia was, “for only one day”, exhausted enough that the barrier couldn’t be maintained.
「……」
「And then, about two months after the runes were carved in, Umbra destroyed the barrier of this town. What was the reason for not destroying the barrier right then and there and waiting for two months, and if we were to go even further, why did he know the timing of the Hero summoning. This event is a case that makes you consider various things.」
Leaving the speechless me, Alicia brought it to a finish like that.
「Is there, someone guiding the Mazoku in Luxeria?」
It probably couldn’t be helped that I arrived at that thought. It’s because Umbra carved in runes at the cardinal points of this Lizwadia’s barrier with the timing of when Luxeria opened the world door.
「I don’t know. ……However, it might be difficult to conclude this as a coincidence.」
That reminds me, after I had left the castle, I heard that Pretty Bo……No, Kaito had fought with Agniera. Agniera knew that we were summoned to this world.
Did she come to attack……