Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 4: What is the real cause of death?

when--

The sound, like a metal wall being hit by a blunt object, echoed in Ritas's mansion.

The sound was very wrong, and the scene of blood splattering did not appear.

However, Mercy, whose mind went completely blank due to this sudden incident, was completely unaware of these abnormalities.

Her vision gradually narrowed and became dark, until only a small circle remained. In that circle, Ritas was lying on the ground motionless, half of his body still in the shadows, seemingly dead.

Merci's head suddenly began to ache severely, and her ears began to ring with a chaotic mumbling that she could not understand at all, as if it was spoken by countless people.

When faced with a completely incomprehensible situation like this, it is easy for people to make up their own stories.

On Merci's side, she connected Ritas's previous words "It's you" with the mumbling sound.

For a moment, Merci felt that she was surrounded by countless Ritas, all accusing her of the same words.
At this moment, Merci's mental pressure exceeded the limit.

As she let out a high-pitched siren-like roar, a complex palm-sized emblem was branded on her chest.

The next moment, everything around was submerged in the blue ocean.

What's going on?
Ritas woke up from a brief coma, held his head and straightened up, looking at the scene in front of him in a daze.

Including his house and courtyard, the surrounding area of more than ten meters had completely turned into a sea of fire. The flames were still normal on the outside, but the closer they were to the center of the fire, the more blue they became, looking particularly weird.

As blood dripped from his forehead and landed on the back of his hand that was supporting the ground, Ritas, who was scalded, woke up from his dazed state.

His mind was racing through everything that had happened up to this point.

Ever since he knew he might die, Ritas began to prepare.

Although Ritas did not completely believe in the "prophecy" of the disk, he did not intend to verify it with his own life.

After all, the weekend would begin in two days, and after the holiday, both the dean and his assistant tutor would return to the academy, and his safety would be fully guaranteed.

Compared with the risk to his life, the price he had to pay was only two days of absence from work. And even the absence record could be converted into a leave of absence later.

After deciding on the strategy of "staying at home", Ritas ate shelled food that was already available at home for the past two days in order to be on the safe side, and used magic to dispel his sleepiness.

Unless he suddenly died of an inexplicable illness, he couldn't think of any other reason why he would die.

And so, Ritas faced his fateful day.

So, my strategy should have worked, right?
Unlike Merci, Ritas saw clearly what was attacking him.

It was a strange black humanoid monster. It suddenly emerged from the shadows, twisting its paper-thin body, and stabbed Ritas' chest with a pair of daggers very quickly.

Because the appearance of the monster assassin was so strange, Ritas once thought that he might be hallucinating.

After falling to the ground, Ritas saw a black humanoid monster that jumped high and was about to give him a fatal blow, but was hit by a blue air wave and blown away.

After looking around, he found that the scene he captured was not wrong.

Because, not far away, there were two daggers scattered on the ground. And next to the daggers, there was a black monster that had been burned to pieces by the blue flames.

The monster's broken body was tightly pressed against the ground, and it was obviously dead.

In other words, these blue flames and the monsters that attacked him were most likely not in the same camp. So, the previous situation was probably that the monster assassin hiding in Mercy's shadow attacked him, and then the suddenly spreading blue flames killed the monster and hit him at the same time, causing him to faint for a short time.

While sorting out the information, Ritas, who had been roasted by the fire, felt the scorching heat as if his body was about to be cooked.

When he subconsciously tried to use his wind magic to disperse the surrounding flames, he found that he could not even drive the elemental particles around him.

"call"

Don't panic, this is expected.

After all, even if he was defenseless, it was not easy to kill a great wizard, unless that great wizard could not use magic.

Therefore, Ritas also made a plan for the situation where the magic was sealed. This plan was the magic circle.

The magic array that has been arranged in advance can save the steps of gathering elemental particles and chanting, and can release magic smoothly in most extreme situations. However, the magic array also has some defects. For example, the production cost is extremely high, it cannot be preserved for a long time, and the power of the magic it carries will be greatly weakened.

And these defects are "minor problems" for Ritas.

He has the financial resources and roughly knows the time he can use. As for the problem of power, he can make up for it by using it.

For example, right now, Ritas' body is surrounded by multiple protective barriers.

In previous encounters, a total of eleven layers of these protective barriers were broken.

Ritas felt very thrilling, because if he broke through the thirty-sixth level, his body would be injured.

At this point, Ritas thought it was more important to escape first.

He didn't know the original cause of his death, was it the assassin's attack or the raging blue flames in the mansion. But staying away from anything threatening was not a wrong choice.

He had a lot to reflect on after this encounter. Even though he had made countless plans, the lack of practical experience brought by a smooth life was also obvious.

Apart from other things, he had never anticipated that even if the barrier perfectly blocked the attack, the impact of the aftermath could still be fatal.

He was surrounded by a protective barrier, which was no different from being in a coffin. When he encountered a huge impact from the outside, he would be hit by the translucent wall that formed the protective barrier.

While he was thinking, the protective barrier protecting Ritas was broken again by the sudden spread of fire.

Counting the remaining thirty-five layers of protective barriers, Ritas felt that his life was like a candle in the wind, so he ran directly to the stairs leading to the second floor.

The bluer the place, the more dangerous it looks. Therefore, the entire first floor is not a place to stay for long.

After running to the second floor of the mansion, Ritas breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the corridor, which was also burning but with a reddish color. Ordinary flames could not burn even his artificial dragon skin robe, let alone the protective barrier.

At this moment, a noisy female voice that was already familiar to Ritas resounded through the half-burned door on the second floor. "Huh? What on earth is this line? Why did Merci's 'Star Mark' start to go berserk at this point in time?"

“What’s going on? What should we do? Merce is going to die if this continues!”

boom.

Ritas kicked the door open and ran into his room.

Looking at his antique collection in the room, which was already burning, he couldn't help but feel heartbroken. But in the end, reason made him suppress the idea of saving "them" as much as possible.

On the table, the mysterious disc had indeed entered the startup state without permission. And the voice inside the disc, which seemed to be talking to itself, was also constantly making noises.

“Eh? ‘Iron Maiden’? Is the house of ‘Iron Maiden’ burning here? This is so funny. Did ‘Iron Maiden’ get burned to death in this Easter egg plot?”

Ritas, who didn't like being called a nickname, twitched his eyebrows, then picked up the white disc with both hands and jumped out of the window of his study.

The fire in the courtyard outside the mansion was also raging. In the distance, other residents of the third dormitory area could be seen gathering over.

Ritas was actually very wary of the white disc and the female voice in it.

Not only because of its unknown and mysterious origin, but also because it knows the future. It is also because the "god" who possesses this power is frivolous and treats everything, including him, as a "game" and "toy".

This is also the reason why Ritas never tried to communicate from this side when the disc was activated several times before.

But now, it's an emergency.

"My name is Ritas Berengrom Elson."

".Um?"

"Excuse me, what did you mean by 'If this continues, Mercie will die'?"

".Eh? Who is the Iron Maiden talking to? Or rather, why did this guy escape by jumping out of the window? Is he still alive or dead?"

"I'm trying to have a conversation with you, Goddess. I want to know what's going on with 'Mercy will die if this continues'."

"Goddess, he is having sex with you!"

The sound from the disk seemed to suddenly realize something, and then it fell silent for a moment as if it was strangled.

"Oh - I see. It's AI, an AI system that was added after the update, right? I was really surprised. Well, the device itself has functions such as voice recognition and microphone, so it's not surprising that something will be developed appropriately."

The sound from the disc was like a long sigh of relief.

"So! What exactly is the situation of 'Mercy will die', Goddess!"

This feeling that they seemed to be able to communicate, but the conversation was never making any progress, coupled with the current urgent situation, made Ritas a little crazy.

"Oh my, don't be angry, don't be angry, it's like you've really become a spirit."

"Place"

"Ahem, alright, alright, isn't it just the Merci Star Mark rampage event that is triggered regularly? Oh, it seems normal that you can't understand it now. After all, according to the time, such events and the activation of the Star Mark System only happen at the end of the second semester."

While the "Goddess" was explaining, Ritas had already circled to the front of the mansion.

Then, he looked at the blue flames at the entrance of the mansion that continued to spread around, his face solemn.

Although he had thought about this possibility,
"Sure enough, she is Merci."

The reason why Ritas didn't recognize her before, or couldn't be sure even if he recognized her, was because Merci's current image was completely different from her previous one.

Merci's current form can only be barely seen as a human.

Her entire body was wrapped in blue flames, like an outer garment. Many blue net patterns appeared on her body, like an inner lining. Her hands and feet, which had turned azure blue, seemed to be wearing special gloves and shoes.

As for the head, Merce's long hair and eyebrows that were floating in the air were all in the shape of flames. In addition, there was an ice-blue mask-like thing connected to a small crown on the top of her head.

Merci's eyes, which appeared from the eye sockets of the ice-blue mask, were completely occupied by the whites of her eyes. Obviously, she did not have her own will now.

“It’s not too much to say that Merci’s current form is four-flawed and has a flash. But as a teacher, ‘Iron Maiden’, it’s a bit too much that you can’t even recognize your students!”

"Ritas Berengrom Elson!"

After repeating his name once more, Ritas calmed down and continued to ask,

"In other words, if Merci continues to release her power like this, her life will be in danger?"

"Well, even if you ask me so specifically, I can't answer you. Who knows the principles? Isn't it common sense that if you don't stop a rampage, it will be bad?"

"Tsk, it feels really amazing to talk to the game characters! Is this new route all about voice control? Interesting. I wonder if I can play this voice-controlled Easter egg route again if I start over."

“In that case, I’ll order you in the name of the goddess! ‘Iron Maiden’, quickly suppress Merci’s star pattern. Merci is one of the heroines. If she’s gone, it’ll be a game over! Besides, I can’t bear to see my wife suffer in front of me!”

The voice of the disc that had begun to call itself a goddess gave such an order.

As always, Ritas could only roughly understand the goddess' words, and his brows were furrowed.

"How to suppress it?"

"Oh yeah, how to suppress it? You really stumped me. Normally, as long as the affection options are not too outrageous, the 'bonding event' can be triggered in the second semester, and the memories of the bonding event can become the key to awaken the heroine. Uh, so do you have a beautiful memory of the two of you that can directly touch Merci's soul and make her wake up?"

"No, I have only met with student Merci three times in total. The total time we talked was only a few minutes!"

Ritas frowned, ignoring the goddess' sarcastic remarks such as "That's just because you're not working hard enough", and focused on a word the goddess had mentioned before.

"Since the goddess mentioned the word 'key' before, does that mean that Merci now has something similar to a 'lock'?"

(End of this chapter)