Newness always excites people.
But for some, it can bring a fear of the unknown.
Especially for those who haven’t experienced much of that newness.
For the girl named Titania, the Trivia Academy, where she was about to enroll this year, was exactly that kind of unknown.
“Why do I have to come all the way to this foreign land…!”
Facing the massive iron gate, which was probably four times her height, Titania stomped her feet in frustration, kicking the ground angrily.
As she did, her signature pink pigtails fluttered in the wind, scattering like the cherry blossoms around her.
She was the third daughter of the Krantz royal family, rulers of the Hildek Kingdom, and commonly known as the mischievous princess.
Titania Krantz.
Just a few months ago, she had been indulging in her favorite desserts at the royal palace, living in luxury without a care in the world.
For her, being sent off to a far-off foreign academy felt like a near exile.
Even though the royal family had a policy of sending their children to distant lands for training, Titania had secretly believed she would be the exception.
More specifically, she had thought her father, King Theodric, wouldn’t send her away.
After all, Theodric was different from previous kings—he was rather gentle and doted on his daughters.
In fact, her older brothers had left Hildek voluntarily, not due to any royal pressure, but because they wanted to broaden their knowledge.
So, Titania believed that if she even slightly objected, her father wouldn’t send her away to a foreign land.
At worst, she had thought he might send her to the Eldrid Academy in Hildek, but nowhere farther than that.
‘If only Mom hadn’t gotten involved!’
But then a variable occurred.
Her mother, Frida, couldn’t stand seeing her daughter wasting away, so she finally managed to convince her husband, Theodric, through endless persuasion to send Titania to this distant land.
However, Titania had tried to outwit her mother.
She planned to fail the entrance exam, hoping that if she did, her mother wouldn’t be able to say anything.
The problem was that her mother had predicted this and had warned, “If you fail the exam, forget about returning to the palace.”
So, Titania had to study, something she had never really done before, for several months, all just to pass the exam and enter an academy she didn’t even want to go to.
Thankfully, she passed the entrance exam, but her spirit was completely broken.
***
“Don’t worry, sis. I’m here with you. We’ll get through this together.”
“Lize…!”
But even in her frustration, there was a ray of hope.
Her twin sister, Lize Krantz, had heard that Titania was leaving for a foreign country and couldn’t bear to let her go alone, so she followed her.
‘What a kind heart!’
‘What a wonderful sister!’
Titania hugged Lize, resting her face on Lize’s fuller chest like a cushion, feeling a sense of comfort.
Despite being twins, their different shades of pink and sky-blue hair intertwined, resembling the sky and the cherry blossoms that covered it.
“Ugh, I’m sorry, Lize…! You love cooking, so I know you wanted to go to the Eldrid Academy, but you’re here with me instead…”
Although she was called the mischievous princess by the public, Titania was especially soft-hearted when it came to her sister.
So, she felt both grateful and guilty for having Lize accompany her all the way to this far-off land, and her tears couldn’t help but fall.
On the other hand, Lize felt a bit guilty for following her sister.
Although she had come to help her, the real reason was something else entirely.
“No, it’s fine! Now I get to learn cooking from another country, so it’s actually a good thing. Honestly, I wanted to come to Trivia Academy, too.”
“Really? Well, I’m glad to hear that…”
Titania, feeling a little better, hugged Lize again, thanking her despite her still-guilty expression.
Lize gently patted her sister, reminding her that time was running out.
“So, let’s hurry to the auditorium. Dad should be arriving soon.”
“Yeah. But why is Dad late?”
Curious as to why her father, who was so fond of his daughters, was late for their entrance ceremony, Titania grumbled a little.
Lize, knowing what little she could about the situation, shrugged her shoulders and explained.
“I’m not sure, but I heard he was taking extra time because he had to bring something.”
“Something?”
‘The entrance ceremony was for them, so what could he need to bring?’
Titania tilted her head in confusion, but Lize, equally unsure, shrugged and led her sister toward the auditorium.
***
“Students, please line up! Family members, we apologize, but if there are no seats available, please stand to watch the ceremony.”
The calm atmosphere that had reigned just moments ago suddenly became busy, with voices from all directions growing louder.
A man standing in the center, likely a member of the academy staff, wore an armband and continually gave instructions to the crowd.
Yet, even amid the noise, there was an overwhelming presence that caught the twins’ attention.
“Tia! Lize! You both look great in your uniforms! Who could be my daughters if not you two…! I did well telling the head of the royal development department to make a camera as quickly as possible!”
Standing proudly in the center of the seats reserved for parents, a man, holding something that looked like a rectangular magical device, enthusiastically waved it toward the twins.
The object in his hand was clearly a camera, something recently developed by the royal department, though the twins knew it all too well.
“Dad…?”
“Father…?”
The two sisters looked in disbelief at their father, who was unabashedly showing off in front of them.
They quickly turned their heads, feeling embarrassed as if they were witnessing a disgraceful act.
There was no way that man standing there was their father, the king of Hildek.
He must have been a spy working for the royal opposition, trying to embarrass them.
“Then, let us begin the 177th Trivia Academy Entrance Ceremony.”
Clap clap clap!
As the host took the stage and called for applause, the twins clapped half-heartedly, trying to forget the embarrassing scene they had just witnessed.
Boom!
Suddenly, a deafening sound echoed from outside the auditorium, as if the sky itself were about to fall.
***
“Quite a lot of them.”
Muttering to myself while observing the barrier surrounding the academy, I counted the approaching figures.
There were easily over two hundred.
I had expected some kind of disruption at the entrance ceremony, but I hadn’t anticipated this many.
They must have known about the barrier, yet they continued to approach as if daring to be caught, moving even bolder.
I had set up interception magic, but it might not be enough.
Still, since large-scale combat magic couldn’t be used due to the barrier, if I just stop them here, the students won’t have to deal with them.
“Captain, immediately divide the soldiers and send them to the north and west areas.”
I immediately instructed the captain of the guard to divide the remaining troops and send them to the north and west.
The captain’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yes? But if we do that, the auditorium where the students are will be left empty, won’t it?”
Since the auditorium was on the east side of the academy, it was understandable that leaving the most vulnerable spot unguarded didn’t make much sense.
However, I wasn’t acting without any thought.
“I’ll handle that side myself.”
I was going to focus the largest part of our forces there.
It might sound reckless, but in a life-or-death situation, there’s no way I’d foolishly try to act all high and mighty and go alone without assessing the situation properly.
After all, the auditorium already had enough people, so sending more troops there would only cause confusion.
It would be even more troublesome if the guards were also protecting it while fighting.
“Are you sure, Principal? You’ll go alone…?”
“I didn’t get my eighth-tier title just for show, so don’t worry about it. But just in case, send about five people to the auditorium. We’ll need someone to control the crowd if anything goes wrong.”
“Yes, I’ll immediately send them there!”
“Thank you. Then, I’ll leave it to you.”
***
With my orders given, I turned away without hesitation and headed toward the auditorium.
Even for me, it would be impossible to concentrate enough to sense the entire battlefield, so I spread my magical power thinly around me to widen my perception.
About 70 people, roughly.
As expected, most of the troops were focused on the auditorium.
Among them, there were about twenty at the front.
They were likely trying to draw attention while the rest of their forces attacked the auditorium simultaneously.
It seemed like a fairly well-thought-out strategy for terrorists.
Soon, I saw the approaching crowd in the distance.
One of the men at the front, running ahead, looked at me with wide eyes in shock.
“Who… what the hell?!”
One down.
There was no need for a formal process to deal with such a small fry.
The process and the result were simple: if we made eye contact, they died.
That was it.
As the invisible blade of magic I formed beheaded the leader at the front, the rest of them were stunned and quickly got into combat positions.
“Oh, they have guns.”
‘If my memory was correct, modern firearms using gunpowder weren’t common in this world, so these were probably muskets infused with magic.’
‘Though I didn’t know where they were getting their supplies, they were using some pretty rare weapons. If I collected these, I could make quite a bit of money by selling them.’
“Fire!”
Bang—! Bang—!
The highest-ranking person in the group raised his hand, signaling the others, and simultaneously, the sound of gunfire rang out as several magical bullets rained down toward me.
I didn’t slow down my pace, and instead, I dove straight into the barrage of bullets.
The colorful projectiles shattered and turned into colorless magical energy before they even touched me, scattering into the air.
“What the…?!”
“He blocked all of them…?!”
It was so cliché and predictable that I couldn’t help but chuckle at their reactions.
***
“Ice Flower.”
Without chanting, I flicked my finger lightly, and the ground beneath me began to freeze, gradually spreading in all directions.
Seeing this, the men around me weren’t fools, and one of them, sensing danger, quickly gave a loud command.
“Don’t touch the ground! Jump to avoid it!”
Their response to the unknown magic was surprisingly quick.
Anyone would have done the same after seeing what just happened.
However, that was the trap.
Crack. Crack. Creak!
“Grrrr…!”
“Ugh!”
“Ughhh!”
The sound of ice shattering echoed as sharp ice spears shot up from the ground, piercing the bodies of all but one of the men who had tried to jump to avoid the freezing floor.
This was a magic I designed to use with a two-layered trap.
Only those who were highly skilled and could float or twist their bodies in mid-air, like experienced fighters, would be able to dodge it.
‘If they couldn’t dodge the first attack, they’d be frozen. Even if they jumped to avoid it, they’d still get skewered by ice spears.’
It worked wonders, especially against large groups of enemies encountering this magic for the first time.
I expanded my senses to make sure no one was pretending to be dead, but fortunately, all the enemies had stopped emitting magical energy, meaning they were all dead.
Crash—!
“Are you the leader?”
Once I confirmed this, I calmly walked up to the remaining enemy, grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him off the ground.
Damn, this guy’s heavy.
I should’ve gone on a diet if I expected this.
“Ha, ha… You’re the new principal, huh?”
“So what about it?”
I coldly replied to the muttering man, who had a smirk on his face as if he had lost his mind.
His smile grew even wider.
“That means you’re dead, you bastard…! Cough! Did you think the eastern unit was all we had…?!”
“That’s not it. It’s obvious you guys are a decoy. The real forces are probably planning to attack the entrance ceremony.”
“Ha! You know your military…! It won’t matter if you know… Cough!…”
***
‘The enemy was rambling on, and from what I gathered, they believed that after tying me up, the main force would attack the auditorium.’
‘It seemed like they had a rather narrow view of the situation.’
‘Or maybe their oxygen levels were so low they couldn’t see clearly? Either way, I decided to show them the reality.’
Bang!
“Ugh…!”
When I dropped him to the ground, the frozen ice couldn’t hold his weight and cracked loudly.
‘This ice was actually pretty strong, so how heavy could this pig of a man be?’
“You bastard! What the hell is this…?”
“Ta-da.”
It seemed like letting him go for a moment made him anxious, as he asked, surprised.
Then his eyes widened, and he looked around, stunned.
I could tell he finally noticed what I wanted to show him.
All around him, the terrorists who had been with him were now pinned to the ice spears, their bodies pierced through.
Some of them hadn’t even tried to dodge and had already turned into frozen statues, long dead.
I showed it to him playfully, like a child proudly showing a poorly drawn picture to their parents.
“Are these your friends?” I asked.
“A… Ahh…!”
Realizing his comrades had all died without him knowing, the terrorist slumped in shock, unable to scream, overcome with despair.
Well, if something like that happens right next to you, I guess it’s hard to see what’s far off.
Still, seeing him act all cocky while being completely unaware of the situation was quite amusing.
“Last question: are you the leader?”
“…Kill me, you monster!”
Fwoosh!
I asked one last time, but seeing no resistance, I sent him to the same fate as his comrades.
Then, I turned and lit a cigarette.
Ssshhh.
“Haah…”
I wondered if things were going well elsewhere.