The Academy’s Hard-Headed Swordmaster

After the song ended, I, who had been protecting my hearing with Aura, felt something strange.

“Hey, hey! Stop covering your ears and get up.”

“Why!? If you hear that even once, everyone, Master or not, gets controlled! My character died instantly because I didn’t know about it!”

“The song’s over. Get up.”

Sera, who heard my words, tilted her head as if she couldn’t believe it and slowly stood up.

After putting away my aura, I shrugged my shoulders as if to tell her to listen, and Sera, who had been covering her ears, realized that there really wasn’t any song playing.

“……What? Why isn’t she singing?”

“It doesn’t seem like someone… defeated Aria.”

Inside the Academy, looking at the audience still moving around like zombies and fighting people, it didn’t seem like someone had defeated Aria and resolved the situation.

Sera, lost in thought with her chin in her hand, soon began to organize the situation.

“—Kyle, you. Did you hear the song she was singing?”

“I heard it. Right up close, too.”

“You were in the concert hall? But you’re fine….”

Humming thoughtfully, she snorted as if she had figured out the problem and stood up.

With a sinister chuckle, she clapped her hands.

“I got it.”

“What?”

“She’s underdeveloped.”

“Underdeveloped?”

“Yes, underdeveloped!”

In the original story, Aria goes berserk in her third year. And right now, Aria is a first-year. For teenagers, a two-year gap is unimaginably huge.

Two years later, Aria will be super-powered capable of controlling even Masters, but the current Aria is not. She’s barely able to control Experts.

Of course, this alone is a terrifying ability, but if Experts and above can resist it—it means she has quite a few weaknesses.

“Since she hasn’t had those two years of growth, the current Aria is weaker than expected!”

That means she can be defeated. Shouting this, Sera looked at me and yelled.

“Go, Kyle! Go and take down Aria!”

“Don’t you have any strategy or something?”

“Where would I get something like that? Just go and wreck everyone like you did in the game!”

“I don’t think it’ll be that easy.”

“What!? You’re a Master! There are only two Masters in this school, and right now, Aria can’t even control a Master! Just go and punch her lights out!”

“Well, I’m saying, is that really going to be that easy?”

I smiled bitterly and looked at the concert hall where Aria was. And I remembered Yuri, who had blocked my way there.

Not only Yuri, but by now, numerous students and VIPs would have gathered around Aria. To protect her, of course.

Breaking through that crowd would be both easy and difficult for an Aura Master.

To borrow the words of Sir Gawain, another Aura Master:

—The world is as fragile as tofu, so you can’t use your power carelessly.

* * *

Finding out where Aria was didn’t take long.

Since her voice was coming from the magic speakers, she must be in the broadcasting room right now.

Impressed by the extremely logical deduction, Kyle headed to the broadcasting room as Sera had instructed.

On his way to the broadcasting room, people controlled by Aria’s song rushed towards Kyle.

“Dieeee─!”

“Surprise.”

He lightly struck down an audience member charging at him in a fit of rage.

Hit in the jaw, the audience member lost control of his body and collapsed.

Some students even drew their swords or started casting spells.

Effortlessly neutralizing all of these attacks, Kyle stopped when he saw three students blocking his path.

“—Die, die, die…”

“You… can’t go any further…”

“Kyle…”

Hundred, Ruby, and Yuri were blocking his way. Two Expert-level knights and one Expert-level magician.

Forces far too insufficient to face a Master.

Had this been a battlefield, they would have been cut down the moment they faced him, but this wasn’t a battlefield.

Kyle had to subdue them without killing them, and if possible, without even a scratch.

“Dieeeeeeee─!”

After striking Hundred’s jaw as he charged screaming, Kyle glared at the remaining two, intending to subdue them without causing any harm.

Perhaps taking Hundred’s defeat as a signal, the two immediately launched their attacks.

Ruby drew her sword and charged, while Yuri, seemingly unconcerned with whether the two were fighting or not, began chanting a series of large-scale spells.

“You can’t go… beyond this…”

“I heard that before.”

Kyle picked up the sword Hundred had dropped and unleashed his Aura Blade.

The superhuman blade, which severed everything it touched, sliced Ruby’s sword in two, sending it clattering to the floor.

Having disarmed Ruby, Kyle struck her in the solar plexus, knocking her unconscious.

He quickly snatched the hilt of the sword from her hand and flung it away.

The hilt and the ice spear collided in mid-air with a loud crack, exploding.

As a fog created by the ice obscured his vision, Kyle slowly walked towards Yuri.

“This might hurt a bit… bear with me.”

“—Gah, Ugh!?”

Instantly moving behind Yuri, Kyle choked her carotid artery, rendering her unconscious. It takes only seven seconds for someone with a blocked carotid artery to lose consciousness.

Carefully laying the unconscious Yuri on the floor, Kyle looked at the broadcasting room building.

If he went back to the entrance, it seemed like a lot more of these students would be waiting.

‘Why bother?’

He may not be the smartest, but he wasn’t an idiot.

As the saying goes, if there’s no path, make one.

Kyle immediately kicked off the ground and flew towards the window.

* * *

Aria, who was singing in the broadcasting room, soon realized that the microphone was broken.

No matter how much she sang, no one was falling under her control.

Realizing that the principal was somehow interfering with her, Aria glared at him irritably.

“I told you the hostages would die if you interfered.”

“……I haven’t done anything.”

“You must think I’m a fool. Shall I kill someone then?”

When Aria said that, the principal clenched his lips.

He thought he wouldn’t be caught, but it seemed she had discovered that he was hindering her ability through a separate method.

As the principal, he couldn’t tell her to kill someone. He couldn’t gamble with the lives of the students and VIPs.

At that moment, the principal knew exactly what he had to do.

“I apologize…”

“Ahaha, Principal. It’s really funny how you’re apologizing so formally.”

Aria, who had been chuckling, paused for a moment and realized that the signals from the people she was controlling were being cut off one by one.

Slightly frowning, Aria looked at the principal and said, as if it were a good thing.

“Alright. I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself. Stop him.”

“……Stop who?”

Before he could even ask who she wanted him to stop, Gawain burst through the door behind the principal with a crash.

One of the two officially registered Masters at the Academy. Sir Gawain had rushed over as soon as he realized Aria was singing here.

“Principal, you’re here as well.”

“Sir Gawain…”

“If you were already here, you should have just knocked her out… why were you hesitating?”

Gawain said so and immediately rushed towards Aria.

The principal, realizing what he was about to do, quickly cast a spell to block Gawain’s path.

Gawain, seeing the magic blocking him, smiled bitterly and looked at the principal.

“—Were you in league with her, Principal?”

“Sir Gawain, that’s not it. There are circumstances…”

“Circumstances? What circumstances? Are you unaware of the situation outside?”

Shing— A sword was drawn.

The principal looked at Aria, urging her to explain quickly, but she just shrugged as if there was no need to say anything.

Finally, with his hands raised, the principal tried to explain as quickly as possible why he had protected Aria.

“If you touch her now, the others outside will die!”

“……What? What do you—.”

“That’s the kind of force user she is, Sir Gawain. Right now, there are hundreds of students outside, commoners from the Academy’s territory who came to see the performance, and VIPs from other territories. If they all die, do you think we’ll be safe?”

“Do you think such a preposterous ability exists? If we just knock her out, Force user or not….”

“Why don’t you try it?”

Both their heads snapped towards the voice. Aria, who had been listening to their conversation, smiled brightly and looked at Gawain.

“If you doubt that I have such an ability, shouldn’t you just try to defeat me?”

“—You.”

“Why? The Professor might be right, you know? Maybe I’m bluffing.”

As an Aura Master, Gawain possessed senses far surpassing those of ordinary humans, and he also had the ability to discern the truthfulness of someone’s words.

A person lying would inevitably emit specific biological signals, and an Aura Master’s body would not miss those signals.

And to Gawain, it didn’t seem like Aria was lying.

If this was an act, it meant she could perfectly disguise even her own biological signals.

Even a member of the royal special forces, who underwent special training, couldn’t do that, and Gawain thought it was absurd for a mere student to be capable of such a feat.

“……Damn it.”

Cursing, Gawain tried to sheathe his sword.

However, before he could, his Aura Master senses detected something flying in from outside the window.

Crash—! The window shattered, and Kyle jumped in.

After looking around, Kyle immediately threw a punch towards Aria.

“No—!”

The two horrified Masters immediately stopped Kyle.

As an Aura Blade and a 5-star spell flew towards him, Kyle quickly pulled back to dodge the attacks and looked at the two with a bewildered expression.

‘…She can’t control Masters, right?’

To Kyle, it looked like the two were already under Aria’s control.

After a brief silence, Kyle immediately charged at them.