Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 367 Reluctant

"mom!"

Upon seeing Sofia captured, Wayne's instinctive reaction was to rush forward and fight Little Ritas to the death.

But Sofia sternly stopped her.

"Don't worry about me, Wayne, go find him, go find the one who can truly save you."

Seeing that Sofia could still clearly call out, Little Ritas seemed to tighten his grip even more. But the sound, as if it weren't coming from Sofia's throat, continued to echo.

"So, don't underestimate your mother. Don't obey me just because of my position. Listen to me only because you trust me!"

Viyn got up, her body trembling slightly, a hint of confusion showing on her face.

Obey your mother's instructions, follow your mother's wishes; your mother's will is everything.
This is essentially a "rule" that exists deep within her soul, enough to replace instinct.

But now, Sofia is going to add a "definition" to her behavior, which she has always taken for granted.

On the other side, Little Ritas still had a gloomy face, and then pointed his other hand, which was not holding Sofia, towards Wayne.

Don't make me bother anymore.
Little Ritas seemed to be conveying this message silently, but his actions were immediately met with reprimand.

"Stop bluffing, kid! You can't really kill Wayne!"

Actually, if you think about it carefully, it's a very simple principle.

If Little Ritas is willing to be controlled by the "Wanderers," then he must fulfill the mission given to him by the Wanderers and capture Wayne. But if Little Ritas is unwilling to be merely a puppet, then he will need Wayne's power to break free of his restraints.

However, anyone else would easily be misled by the atmosphere created by Little Ritas. Concerned for Wayne's safety, they would become hesitant and even surrender.

But Little Ritas clearly couldn't fool Sofia.

Sophia, who knew Ritas well, knew that in battle, not a single punctuation mark of the opponent's words could be trusted.

"you sure?"

Light from offensive magic gathered in Little Ritas's hands.

Indeed, as Sofia analyzed, Little Ritas could not kill Wayne no matter what.

However, Little Ritas had no qualms about crippling her and rendering her immobile.

As for what might happen next, whether Wayne would refuse to relinquish the "access" to the fairy tale world out of hatred, Little Ritas didn't care at all. Once she fell into his hands, he had countless methods.

"Absolutely not!"

Just as Little Ritas was casting his spell, a strong upward gust of wind lifted his arm, sending the magic he had gathered flying directly into the distant sky.

The disruption of the arm's movement was merely a visual effect. A mage like Little Ritas doesn't need to consciously control his limbs to direct magic towards his target. Therefore, the seemingly simple strong wind actually disrupted Little Ritas's spellcasting.

"you"

Little Ritas frowned deeply and turned his gaze to Sofia, who seemed to have been rendered powerless by him.

"It seems that even if that foolish woman had a way to enhance your power, she didn't grant you 'experience' as well. You lack practical combat experience even more than your other self. Any mage with even a little experience in combat knows that you should never touch your opponent with your own body, even if your body is made of magic crystal!"

Suddenly, Little Ritas noticed that his magic crystal hand, which he had touched Sophia's, had turned into an incomparably bright emerald green.

Amidst the vibrant, lush greenery, the faint sound of wind whistling could be heard.

"!"

Realizing something was wrong, Little Ritas stomped his foot hard, and a dark magic circle emanating an ominous aura instantly appeared beneath his feet.

Composed of complex patterns and incredibly twisted lines, the black magic circle resembled the mouth of a living creature, spewing out black sludge in all directions.

A realm where magic is forbidden.

Little Ritas then brought out another item, a taboo in the field of magic held by a certain professor.

"Useless. I forgot once, how could I forget a second time?"

Sofia said this as if she had already anticipated that Little Ritas would resort to such methods.

"Even if the magical phenomenon itself disappears, the natural disasters it has already caused will not disappear along with it."

"This time, I'll show you what I'm made of!"

"'Wind Spirit Domain'—!"

Although it's unclear why Sophia is so insistent on reciting the name of the magic spell.

But this time, instead of a scene of her fleeing, her words were accompanied by a sight of countless emerald-green, leaf-shaped magical creations erupting forth. The moment the magic ceased, they all transformed into a powerful gale, beginning a fierce interweaving and collision.

Blown away by the sudden, strong wind, Wayne was thrown more than ten meters away in an instant.

Her physical strength was clearly extraordinary; she only dazed for a moment before gazing at the "Wind Spirit Domain" in the distance.

Already shrouded in the surrounding dust, and with thunder constantly flashing and roaring within, it was impossible to see the condition of Little Ritas and Sophia.

Subconsciously reaching her hand towards the area, Wayne then weakly withdrew it.

Because I believe
Viyn pursed her lips tightly, stood up, and then quickly ran towards the interior of the fortress city.

Where is the one who can truly save her?
Although Wayne had no idea what the answer to this question was, her body seemed to be guiding her in the right direction on its own.

After entering the fortress city's territory, Wayne could see the familiar watchtower in the distance, which had been painted crimson that day.
No, it wasn't painted on. Rather, it was countless crimson, human-shaped figures that relentlessly attacked the tower from all sides, but failed. The resulting piles of "corpses," some stacked on top of others and others knocked down, created the bizarre sight of the entire tower stained crimson.

Wayne felt that her goal lay within that tower.

Wayne continued running briskly toward her goal.

Even though it was visible to the naked eye, the distance from the city gate to the tower seemed incredibly far.

Viyn, whose senses were abnormally dulled to begin with, was also overly worried about Sophia's condition. As a result, it wasn't until she had been running in the red rain for quite some time that she began to feel discomfort in her body.

She instinctively wiped her burning, sticky cheek with her hand. When she looked at her hand again, she was shocked to find that it was completely stained bright red.

And these bright red stains weren't just from the strange rainwater; they also contained parts of herself.

Before Wayne could even feel the shock, she suddenly felt an immense weight on her shoulders. A damp, foul odor assaulted her neck. Reacting even faster, Wayne ripped the object off her shoulder and threw it to the ground.

Roar--

On the ground, the monster, which had just been formed from the blood-red rain, let out an angry roar.

Looking around hastily, Viyn realized she was somewhere a certain distance from the tower. The crimson rain falling from the sky, once it gathered into a small pool the size of a palm, would further solidify into human shapes, gathering towards the tower like red zombies.

As she watched the grotesque, roughly humanoid monsters rise from the ground, Wayne felt a chill and sensed an ominous presence. And indeed, her premonition came true.

At one moment, their eyes seemed to be fixed only on the blood-red humanoid figure on the distant tower. Suddenly, they all turned their heads and focused their "gaze" on Wayne.

"."

After swallowing hard, Wayne immediately turned and ran towards a sparse area in the monsters' ranks.

Her actions instantly stirred up a hornet's nest, and all the surrounding blood-red humanoid figures converged like a dark cloud, frantically chasing after her.

Wayne's decision at the crucial moment was quite wise.

She realized that only the crimson rain within a certain range of the tower would turn into monsters. So she temporarily abandoned her attempt to approach the tower and instead fled in the opposite direction.

However, even without new reinforcements joining, the hundreds or even thousands of blood-red humanoids that had already gathered in the previous moment continued to relentlessly pursue them.

It looks somewhat like a zombie, a blood-red humanoid, but it is exceptionally agile.

Their postures were very strange, but they seemed completely unconcerned about the damage to their bodies, frantically and desperately dragging their increasingly mutilated bodies, giving Wayne no chance to catch her breath.

Soon, Wayne, who was being relentlessly pursued and intercepted, slowed down her escape and her steps became more unsteady.

Already unprotected, she was injured in the blood-red rain and had her strength drained. Suddenly, she lost all feeling in her legs and collapsed to the ground.

The distance that had never been created between them and the army of blood-red humanoids was instantly filled.

In the short time it took for Wayne to turn over, the blood-red humanoid figures in front pounced on her, casting a dark shadow over her.

Nourishes—

In that critical moment, Wayne, who had already closed her eyes in despair, suddenly heard a strange sound.

The commotion caused by the writhing and roaring of the blood-red humanoid figure seemed to abruptly cease. The surroundings became utterly silent.

Slowly opened his eyes.

Seeing the scene before her, Wayne couldn't help but show a look of surprise.

The crimson humanoid army that had been relentlessly pursuing them suddenly stopped and transformed into ice sculptures.

A bone-chilling cold permeated the road where Wayne had fallen.

The next moment, with a series of crisp sounds, the sharp, bright red pieces shattered into pieces all over the ground.

"There are other living people here. Running in this rain, you should at least use an umbrella or something. Doesn't the rain hurt when it hits you? No, this isn't the time to ask that. What's going on in this city? What's the situation in this whole area?"

Before Wayne could recover, the woman who rescued her fired off a barrage of questions.

Turning around and meeting the other person's gaze, Wayne paused slightly in surprise.

Although this woman wasn't as beautiful as her mother, Sofia, her aura and features subtly resembled Sofia's.

"Huh? You're Wayne?"

Before Wayne could even recognize who the other person was, the other person had clearly already recognized her.

"No!"

Some time ago, in the "safe zone" prepared by Ritas.

Faced with two companions who seemed to have completely lost their will to live and were about to hand everything over to Ritas, the Goddess of Bath spoke decisively.

"Just like that, you leave everything to Xiao Li. Don't you feel resentful at all?"

Hearing the goddess's question, Millie, who had been feeling down, simply looked up at her with a puzzled expression. Charlotte, on the other hand, frowned slightly.

"When it comes to matters of life and death, it's not a matter of whether you're willing to accept it or not, is it?"

"Uh, you're right."

The goddess of bathing, who seemed to be about to give a speech, was easily rebuffed.

Fortunately, she didn't get discouraged and quickly resurfaced.

"No, no, it's not about asking you to risk your lives. Rather, how should I put it? This resentment isn't directed at the feeling of powerlessness in the face of this bizarre world, or at an opponent you can't possibly defeat. Rather, it's resentment towards Xiao Li!"

"What's the difference?"

Millie asked in a low voice.

If there's any sense of resentment, Millie definitely feels it.

However, Millie, who has been going through a cycle of encountering setbacks, gaining strength, thinking she has something in her grasp, and then encountering setbacks again, has now really worn down her spirit.

"Of course there are differences. Let me put it this way. Although Xiao Li sometimes deliberately or unintentionally puts on a little show, he probably never thought he was any more remarkable than others. Everyone has two eyes and one nose, and only lives for twenty-four hours a day. In other words, there isn't much difference from birth. Even the fact that he can become a teacher at the magic academy is just because he happened to be born a few years earlier and happened to have worked in this field that suited him for a few more years."

"In other words, he thought he was an ordinary person, and in reality, he was just an ordinary person!"

The goddess of bathing asserted this.

Millie and Charlotte exchanged a glance, both looking at the Goddess of Bath with subtle expressions.

Ritas.
Ritas Elson is an ordinary person.

In other words, the goddess of the bath considered Ritas to be an ordinary person like her and them.
Even though the goddess of bathing is currently using Ritas's body, and upon closer inspection, she does seem to be a goddess, isn't this perception somewhat lacking in self-awareness?
"Xiao Li is just an ordinary person. He's not the villain who orchestrated this ordeal for us, not the BOSS who created this world, and certainly not the mastermind manipulating everything from a higher dimension. He's just like us, simply someone who was forcibly dragged into this predicament by an unreasonable reality, an ordinary person who couldn't be more ordinary."

At this point in the story, Millie and Charlotte's somewhat scattered thoughts began to focus again.

Indeed, Ritas, like them, was just someone who got caught up in it all.

If one had to pinpoint a role, it would be that Ritas possessed the identity of a "protagonist" in this world. Even that identity has now been relinquished to the goddess of bathing.

But at some point, they began to regard Ritas as a being of a higher level.

"Thinking about it carefully, Xiao Li didn't receive any preferential treatment compared to us. On the contrary, he may have suffered more losses and been targeted more. This forced him not only to give up his body but also to live in hiding."

"But that's how it is, Xiao Li, who's no different from us. Now he plans to solve all of this himself."

"And we, from beginning to end, simply accepted his protection and his arrangements, and then silently watched as he handled everything on his own."

"Don't you feel resentful about this situation?!"

The goddess of bathing asked her two companions another question.

(End of this chapter)