Chapter 87:The conclusion of the incident.

A few days after the incident.  

“Look over there…! That person…!”  

“It’s Rosaria Evergarden…!”  

“She fought off the attacker while being completely overwhelmed, and protected the kids…!”  

“That’s amazing!”  

“Hehe…! Hehehe!”  

As Rosaria passed through the hallway, she couldn’t help but walk even more energetically, her shoulders shaking at the whispers of the students directed toward her.  

‘In an instant, I became super popular?’  

After the incident.  

The academy, which had to face this shocking event, was in a very difficult position.  

It was a clear blunder that showed a huge hole in the academy’s security, which was supposed to protect the nobles gathered from all over the empire.  

So, instead of hiding or covering up the incident, the academy decided to draw more attention to it.  

They elevated the two heroes of the incident: Honorary Professor Felix and Lady Rosaria.  

Though some talk about security was inevitable, people’s attention would undoubtedly focus more on the two who had prevented the situation. The academy’s plan worked perfectly.  

And so, Rosaria became the hot topic within the academy.  

‘Of course, it’s hard to stop Mom and Dad from rushing over after they heard the news, but this feels kind of great, doesn’t it?’  

When she first arrived at the academy, the looks directed at her were sharp and intense, but now, the gazes she received were filled with admiration and interest—much warmer and kinder.  

“Sister!!”  

“Oh, is that you, Letton?”  

“I heard the news! I knew you’d do it, Sister!”  

“Well… Hehe, it was nothing really…! Hehe…”  

While Letton ran up to her, eyes sparkling as he praised her, Rosaria found it hard to suppress her laughter as her shoulders shook.  

Some might say too much attention is tiring, but Rosaria just felt good.  

It might be annoying to have fans constantly following her, but receiving these longing gazes from a distance felt really nice.  

“Anyway, see you in class later!”  

“Yes! Sister! You’re the best!”  

“Little… Hehe…”  

After sending Letton off, Rosaria’s shoulders were now proudly rising, almost as if they could break through the ceiling.  

Knock, knock—  

Finally, Rosaria reached her destination and knocked on the door.  

“Coming in?”  

Before the reply could even finish, Rosaria threw open the door and entered the room.  

“Oh, you’re here?”  

“Brother, you came?”  

“Yeah, I’m here.”  

Inside the room, Felix and Tene greeted her.  

After the incident, Felix had called them together to discuss what had happened.  

“You look in a good mood. What’s up?”  

“Hehe, well, these days, whenever I show up at the academy, it gets pretty noisy.”  

“You’re not some celebrity, and it’s been annoying. It’s not even related to magic classes, but they keep sticking around.”  

“Ugh, so cold. Just enjoy it a bit.”

Unlike Rosaria, who was enjoying the attention, Felix just found it annoying and shrugged his shoulders.  

“Anyway, what exactly happened back then? I was unconscious, so I don’t really know what went down.”  

Rosaria asked the question she was most curious about.  

Since she had lost consciousness right after fighting off the attacker, she had no idea what happened afterward.  

“Oh, that? Sit down. I’ll explain.”  

Felix took a sip of tea, casually moistening his throat before answering.  

“Now… where should I begin…”

“So, what exactly am I supposed to do?”  

Tene asked Felix, having rushed over after being suddenly summoned in the middle of her work.  

“Right now, the magical connection between the academy and the artificial dungeon isn’t working because of some kind of ritual. So, we need to reset it and reconnect the space.”  

“A ritual? Connecting space?”  

“…To put it simply, the system’s got a virus. We need to format it.”  

There wasn’t enough time to trace back the recently installed magic circle and dispel it.  

Instead, Felix figured that it would be faster to completely break the system and restore the teleportation magic so they could at least rescue the students quickly.  

“Ah… I see. But why me?”  

Even after listening to Felix’s explanation, Tene didn’t understand why she had been called.  

“Even if we ‘format’ it, it’s not that simple. Resetting the magic circle completely requires an enormous amount of power, and I don’t have enough.”  

“That’s where you come in, to smash the magic circle into pieces!”  

Rather than a true system reset, the plan was more like forcing a computer into an overclocked state until it crashed from overload.  

“Oh…! But how do I do that? I don’t even know how to use magic.”  

Despite Felix’s confidence, Tene hesitated and asked again.  

She was a dragon, one of the most powerful beings in this world, but she didn’t know how to use magic.  

Polymorph magic was a special case, but she didn’t even know how to manipulate mana itself. She had no idea how she was supposed to destroy the magic circle.  

“Ah, it’s nothing complicated. Just hit it really hard.”  

“…What?”  

“This magic circle has a built-in barrier that absorbs external impacts, right? So, if you hit it hard enough to exceed its absorption limit, it’ll shatter entirely.”  

“Uh… So, I just punch it?”  

“You know those punching machines on the street? Just like that.”  

“Wait, are you sure this is okay…? If this goes wrong, won’t it be a disaster?!”  

Tene still felt uneasy.  

She had rushed over when summoned, but just beyond this room, she could see important-looking people running around in chaos.  

And yet, the grand solution to this problem was… punching it? She couldn’t help but doubt if this was really the right approach.  

“Hmm…”  

“Just hit it! Hard!”  

“…Ugh, whatever!!!”  

Tene hesitated for a moment, but the more she thought about it, the more her head hurt. In the end, she just chose the simplest solution.  

“Here goes… True Power Series…!”  

She clenched her fist and began gathering strength.  

Rumble— Rumble—  

“Oh wow. She’s just gathering power, and it’s already like this? That’s a dragon for you.”  

As Tene tightened her grip, the air around her began to ripple.  

The tension felt like the calm before a storm as she slowly built up power.  

[Hey! Is this really safe?!]  

“Ah, yeah~! No problem!!!”  

Hearing the disturbance from outside, Lumillion tried to barge in, but Felix quickly blocked the door and reassured him.  

“True… Punch!!!”  

And then, Tene’s fist shot forward.  

For a brief moment, the entire room turned white.  

BOOM—! CRASH—!  

Rumble—  

“Whoa?!?!”  

[KYAAAAH!!! What the hell are you doing in there?! Are you sure this is okay?!]  

“Y-Yep!! Everything’s totally fine!!! No worries!!!”  

The moment her punch landed, the space itself distorted, unleashing a massive shockwave that shook the entire room.  

Chairs, tables, and other furniture were sent flying, and in an instant, the room looked like a typhoon had swept through.  

Even Felix, who had put up a barrier in advance, was briefly sent airborne.  

It was clear, dragons were truly overwhelming beings.  

“Uh… Is it done?”  

Tene slowly pulled back her fist, mumbling.  

“…Oh! Yes! My guess was right!”  

Felix rushed over to check the state of the magic circle and let out a triumphant cheer.  

As expected, the overload had completely crashed the magic circle, resetting it entirely.  

“…So that actually worked, huh?”  

Hearing Felix’s excitement, Tene awkwardly scratched her head.  

“And that’s how we successfully reset the system, rebuilt the warp gate, and immediately rescued the students.”  

“I still don’t really get it.”  

“So that’s what happened, huh?”  

Rosaria nodded thoughtfully after hearing Felix’s explanation.

“…So, what happened to Oppa?”  

“That, huh?”  

As Felix’s question flew in, Rosaria began explaining what had happened to her.  

“…Korea, you said they mentioned Korea?”  

“Could that person also be a possessor?”  

“I don’t think so. I watched their reaction during the fight. They heard the word ‘Korea,’ but they didn’t seem to actually know anything about it.”  

“For now, that assailant is being interrogated inside the academy, but it looks like they haven’t gotten much out of him yet.”  

“That tough bastard… Even with his limbs crushed, he kept baring his teeth at me.”  

“And hypnosis magic doesn’t work on him either, so it seems like they’ve taken some kind of measures to prevent confessions.”  

The assailant Rosaria defeated had been captured immediately by the personnel who checked the scene and was now imprisoned in the underground cells of the academy. However, extracting any useful information from him was proving difficult. He would likely be transferred to the imperial capital soon.  

“Hmm… Then who exactly is this ‘person’ they mentioned?”  

As Rosaria continued her story, the expressions of the three grew more serious.  

“Just looking at our family and Tene, it’s clear that a significant number of people have possessed bodies in this world. The common factor seems to be whether they read the original novel… But why are so many characters being possessed like this?”  

“I don’t know… Isn’t this just a typical web novel trope?”  

“Even in web novels, it’s rare to see this many possessors in one story.”  

“Yeah, that too… And about this ‘person’ they mentioned… It seems like they’re trying to gather possessors.”  

“People like us?”  

“I don’t know exactly what they’re planning, but they’re definitely up to something.”  

“But how would they even find possessors?”  

“Possessors know the original story. That makes it easy, if someone acts differently from their original storyline, they must be a possessor, right?”  

“That makes sense… Then aren’t we basically shouting to other possessors, ‘Hey! I’m a possessor!’?”  

At Felix’s explanation, Rosaria was horrified.  

In the original story, Rosaria and Felix were nothing more than minor villainous extras. But now, they were taking completely different actions. Anyone familiar with the original story would undoubtedly notice the change.  

“Uh, um… What about me?”  

“Tene, well… Since Tenebrix Nox only appears near the very end of the story, you should be fine, right?”  

“Anyway, what do we do now? D-Do we have to start bullying kids like in the original story?”  

“…No, the plot has already collapsed. We’re already being treated like heroes of the academy. It’s too late to go back now.”  

“Then what should we do?”  

“…Honestly, I have no idea. The academy is in chaos after the attack, and getting information from that assailant is the top priority… but that’s not going too well either.”  

“So in the end… we just keep living like this? That seems like the best option.”  

“…Is that really okay?”  

“We don’t have a choice. If Oppa’s right, their goal isn’t to kill us but to gather us. That means there might be another contact soon. Preparing for that seems like the best plan for now.”  

“Hmm… I guess so.”  

“Well, whatever… How about we go get something to eat?”  

“Good idea. I was getting hungry anyway.”  

“Eh…? But I’m not done with my work yet!”  

“What was on the menu for lunch today? Oppa, do you know?”  

“Grilled fish and corn soup. The corn soup is especially sweet and delicious.”  

“Oh? That sounds good.”  

“Hey, hey! Wait a minute?!”  

And with that, the trio left the room, unable to come up with a clear answer.