HTACS 57

Chapter 57

Back when I was Lee Young-jin in reality.

That is, back when I was learning computers at the orphanage.

I mentioned it briefly before, but the computer specs were terrible, and it always ran mostly classic games.

That’s why even during my goshiwon days, the first thing I did was build an expensive computer and pour my life into D/Z SAGA.

Anyway.

Among the games I could play there was one featuring a blue hedgehog.

That classic masterpiece, known since ancient times as an incredibly god-tier game—commonly called Sonic 3—has a red-headed mole-like character named Knuckles.

This Knuckles the Echidna, who later becomes an ally, appears as an annoying villain in Sonic 3.

He steals the seven Chaos Emeralds—basically super special moves—gets in the way at every turn, drops the protagonist Sonic off cliffs, and causes all sorts of chaos. Then he holds his belly and laughs as he runs away. As a kid, I can’t tell you how much I wanted to beat the crap out of him.

So whenever I see a “trickster boss that always escapes,” I’m overcome with the urge to beat it up first. They’re just so damn annoying.

So.

So I decided to hit her. No big reason.

Just. Because I was curious.

Sorry about that. Try to understand.

“GRRRRRR!”

“KYAAAAAAAAAA?!”

Anyway, at my command, Patrasche charged in to bite her.

A shrill scream rang out, and she stepped back two paces. With a *KABOOM!*, a defensive spell struck Patrasche, and with a *yelp!*, Patrasche was sent flying.

“He’s not usually the type to get sent flying like that… It’s because my mana is lacking.”

Still, this is enough.

Patrasche did his job.

Because in this one moment’s gap, the most talented, cool-headed, heaven-given genius here perceived the situation, corrected the trajectory, reformulated the strategy, and finished preparing to strike the bastard down.

I had clearly told Eve: “Strike with your strongest spell in one shot.”

And Eve followed my instructions faithfully.

*Wheee*. *Whoooosh*.

Mana converts to light. All will in the vicinity is dyed in holy mana and bows its head.

Mana fills the air, but the ability to handle it requires the user’s strong mana and high willpower stat.

So how strong is Eve right now?

Holding popcorn secretly hidden in the cart, I watched that single strike.

Mana stat.

18 surpasses human limits,

19 is more than worthy of being called a heaven-given genius,

20 is called a monster,

and a 21 archmage is recorded in history books.

Eve von Lohengrin.

A mage with 22 mana—the greatest talent since the First Emperor.

In her right hand, she condensed mana with incredible ease, converted it to light, transmuted it into a spear, and prepared to fire.

**【Holy Light Spear: Single Shot: Maximize: Sure Hit: Stun】**

A holy light spear with divinity imbued upon the light spear.

A single shot focusing mana. With Maximize applied, Clean Hit, and Mez: Stun.

“Die!”

Oh. Nice dialogue.

Immediately after, Eve’s holy light spear flew toward “that girl” and struck her precisely.

“KYAAAAAAAAA?!”

She manages to block it with defensive magic somehow.

What was her mana stat again? Anyway, it’s lower than Eve’s. The robe itself is a 6-tier magical tool, but it wasn’t enough to fully block Eve’s full power.

“Hmm. No penetration or critical penetration.”

If it were Ayla, she’d casually apply penetration and shoot people with it.

The light spear didn’t pierce her but instead struck her outright. With a *BANG!*, her body flew, pierced through the lodge, bounced backward, and with a massive *KABOOOOOM!*, crashed into the mountain behind. *CRACK*—several trees collapsed, and resin and dust rose together from the shattered logs.

The following sounds struck my ears repeatedly, like a broken music box. Something crashes into a tree, gets hit again, flies off again. The ensemble playing a cannon variation created sounds of striking, collapsing, crashing back in, piercing through, and striking again to collapse.

The light spear, having used people and scenery as percussion instruments for its boisterous performance, finally calmed down.

How many trees were shattered like that? Her screams were no longer audible.

“…Hoo. Now snap out of it! She took my strike, so we need to chase her!”

“Y-yes!”

At Eve’s command, the other student council members quickly gave chase, and Eve let out a *hoo* before looking this way.

“You told me to strike with everything I had in one shot, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You saw it, right? That’s my full power within my current casting time.”

Casting time of 8 seconds—about 5 bars.

“I see.”

I nodded, and Eve placed both hands on her hips, let out a *hmph* with her nose, and smiled confidently. Not bad. A bit slower than Ayla, but her power is definitely ahead of Ayla’s.

But I’m curious about something.

“I have one question.”

“What is it?”

“Holy Light Spear. Single Shot. Maximize. Sure Hit. Those were clearly intentional—the best combination for a one-shot takedown. But.”

“……But?”

“Why didn’t you apply Critical Penetration at the end? Why Stun?”

“Are you a demon? If I apply that, it wouldn’t strike—it would pierce through and kill her!”

“Would she have died?”

“…Probably not? I made sure it wouldn’t kill. Probably…”

Eve said that, turning pale as she looked at me.

As expected.

Her growth itself isn’t bad, but she’s too soft-hearted—she lacks killer instinct.

I wonder if she’ll be able to get through that hellish Act 5 like this.

In the original, she shattered Wolfram zombie’s skull with a holy light spear there.

“I see. Understood. But… no. Let’s talk after seeing the scene.”

“Can’t we take our time? I used too much mana…”

“Mhm. The student council officers alone might struggle to respond, or she might have escaped—so you need to join them quickly.”

“Escape? After taking that hit? That’s impossible. I even applied Stun!”

“……I’m not so sure.”

I doubt she’d get caught that easily.

—

After that, everyone joined forces and ran toward the end of the debris.

Clearing away the shattered tree wreckage, approaching where the holy light spear had struck—the student council officers who arrived first were already searching the area.

“…What happened?”

Eve approached Silphia and asked, and she knelt on one knee and bowed her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry… She escaped.”

“……Eh? R-really?”

“She vanished without leaving a trace. It seems she used spatial transfer magic.”

“What about the possibility that your attack was so powerful she couldn’t withstand it and was shattered into pieces?”

“What do you… No. Hmm. I see.”

Silphia reflexively bristled at my question, then fell into thought, and Eve turned pale as she looked at me. After a brief moment of thought, Silphia shook her head and voiced her reasoning.

“No, that’s not possible. If she was shattered into pieces, even during the flight there would have been a *bang*!”

“Hic.”

As Eve let out a small startled gasp, Silphia bowed her head apologetically.

“I’m sorry, Eve-sama. Anyway, if she were being shattered, she would have spilled something from her body. However—there wasn’t a single trace of ‘blood.'”

“A reasonable deduction. So she escaped?”

Even at 45kg body weight, 70% is water. And most of that water is blood. Normally, at least 30kg of blood should have flown out. That’s terrifying. Good thing I didn’t see it.

“She must have had a full-defense artifact. Or an artifact with multiple defensive spells—status immunity, shock absorption, spatial transfer—applied.”

I nodded at Silphia’s words.

So not applying Penetration led to this result.

In a game, defense penetration or defense ignore would be best, but since this is reality and a place where people live, it seems enhancement spells have restrictions.

And Silphia’s reasoning was logical too.

She may be a bit stupid, but her deduction is good. Even though her personality is stubborn and a bit problematic, as Eve’s guardian knight, she might be fine.

“……She got away.”

Eve hung her head low.

The one most shocked by this situation was Eve. She must have thought her strike didn’t work.

“…If I had applied Critical Penetration instead of Stun, she wouldn’t have escaped, right? My careless calculation made everyone waste their time.”

“Eve-sama.”

Eve smiled bitterly, and I laughed at her.

“If you did that, she might have actually died. Are you a demon?”

“You’re the one who pointed it out, Wolfram! You said to apply Penetration!”

“I did. But what you said was so funny.”

“What’s so funny? I’m being serious here.”

How could it not be funny?

“You said you were sorry for not catching her, so you should have shot to kill? Is that your way? Are you ready to kill someone?”

“……Ugh.”

Hoo. Eve sighed.

After a moment of deliberation, she opened her eyes wide and clear.

Unwavering—good eyes.

“You’re right. I’m not ready to kill anyone. I just said that out of frustration.”

“Clean admission.”

“Yes. I was talking nonsense for a moment. Honestly, I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t want to get blood on my hands yet. I love Zefflin. I don’t want anyone to die during my term. So I only tried to subdue her, and as a result, my ability fell short and I failed. …Is that enough?”

“Yeah. That’s enough.”

“Next time, I’ll create a holy light spear specialized for subdual and fire that.”

For the first time in a long while, I could smile happily at this girl during this expedition.

Yes. This is Eve von Lohengrin.

Prone to mistakes, irritable, mentally fragile, goes crazy for sweets, stubborn and doesn’t change her preconceptions.

But—the moment she realizes she’s made a mistake, she immediately reflects on the spot and can instantly come up with an answer for how to change.

That’s why she’s the main heroine of this game, even if she wasn’t first in popularity polls—her status was high, and those called “Eve-stans” always considered themselves her loyal retainers.

Kelterus, by Eve’s side, points out her mistakes, grows together with her, and supports her as she races for the throne—becoming a great light warrior.

Even in this episode, Eve comes to her senses thanks to Kelterus and receives a student council invitation.

Yeah. This expedition—2-1—was the trigger, I think.

“Wolfram… Wolfram von Lohengrin.”

“What.”

“To be honest, you’re incredibly annoying, unpleasant, and it’s irritating that your name is written right above mine on the family registry.”

“Are you picking a fight?”

“Just hear me out. But in this expedition, your perspective was more composed, more cool-headed, more accurate, and also more precise than anyone here.”

“So.”

“I’ll be blunt. Are you interested in joining this year’s student council under my command?”

“Eve-sama?!”

“This is my offer. I’ll be your shield. And you point out when I’m wrong.”

“……”

Silphia fell silent, and everyone’s eyes widened.

But there was no strong opposition.

“Well, if it’s the current Wolfram, I guess…”

“Honestly, I have a lot of doubts, but.”

“Can we trust him?”

“…This expedition succeeded thanks to Wolfram, after all.”

“………Hmm.”

Everyone present showed no strong opposition to Wolfram von Lohengrin joining the student council.

This wasn’t Eve promoting me. It was a rightful right I earned by encouraging them myself, leading them, and supporting them.

Living in the student council under Eve von Lohengrin would be quite enjoyable.

There’s Silphia, who’s fun to mess with, and watching Eve grow would be rewarding.

I’d have to give up the convenience store, but I could also re-enter mainstream society.

Hmm. The student council, huh.

No need to think about it for long.

Eve smiled and waited for my answer, and I looked at her and smiled as I replied.

“Haha. That’s a pretty high-level bullshit, little sister. Why would I need to put myself under you?”

“…I knew you’d say that.”

We smiled and raised our middle fingers at each other.

Hmph.

But that’s not all.

A good word to say to my little sister… something befitting a big brother.

Hmm.

“Ah. And one more thing.”

“What is it?”

“If you walk the wrong path, it’s only natural for the one above you on the family registry to come and pick a fight. Even if later you walk the wrong path, I’ll come find you without you having to say a word.”

“…Wolfram.”

I placed my hand on Eve’s shoulder and smiled brightly.

“In other words. I’ll be sucking honey at the convenience store, so you lead the hundred thousand of Zefflin. Why would I be so desperate as to join the student council now? Are you crazy?”

“……I’m going to send a tax audit to your convenience store someday, so wash your neck and wait. If you skim even 1 lin, I’ll expel you!”

Oh my.

Such a scary threat to your kind older brother who just gave you such good advice?