I Became the Daughter of the Academy’s Villain

<764 – Like a Warrior (10)>

The Foundation’s flagship.

In the heart of enemy territory.

Everyone, having accidentally invaded the enemy’s ship, snapped out of their dazed expressions and began to survey their surroundings.

Dum dum!

They must not be caught.

The Warrior Party immediately concealed all traces of their presence and entered a state of extreme tension.

Just touching a single item incorrectly could set off alarms, with butlers pouring out from who knows where.

What if they wasted even a little time?

The most cursed human in the world.

The most dreadful human.

They might come face-to-face with the most dangerous human, whom even the Dragon Principal is wary of.

-If Oknodie’s soul has been extracted, it must be stored in some precious place.

-I’ll look for a place that easily retains souls, like a Soul Stone, large Magic Circle, or biological capsule.

-I’ll show you the archer’s insight.

-Xenia has a good nose, huh!

-No matter what it is, I’ll smash it to pieces with my Gashimeis!

-No, if you break the Soul Stone, Oknodie’s extracted soul would shatter too…

-As the party’s tank, I’ll take the hits, so don’t do anything foolish, Miss Nise!

…Of course, despite being a Warrior Party, they were also young and naive students, trying their best to be careful, but their chatter was disorderly and loud.

As they moved cautiously, they spotted various magical detection traps and dangerous magical traps that they shouldn’t touch.

-This one is the Rat-Dried Fish Trap, where a wall rushes in to turn you into rat-dried fish if something without a protective charm passes between the two sides!

-This is a curse trap, and you must select a different substance among those that look similar to the one Professor Mahabharata told us about last year, or you’ll be cursed!

-If we choose something that isn’t human among these, it’s a Laser Point Trap that avoids laser targeting. With an archer’s eyes, it shouldn’t be hard to dodge.

Just as they were deftly evading traps, Ishtar hurriedly pulled back the tank, Vanilla.

-What?! Isn’t this a question that requires touching the spell matching the damage received when Chul causes a collision while running at 150 km/h with magic barriers and shock resistance buffs?

-All three are traps. It pretends to give reasonable traps but has mixed ones that activate whatever you touch.

As expected of the Foundation’s flagship.

It requires excellent magical knowledge and common sense, dropping in a double trap without a care.

Having barely escaped one room, the Warrior Party discovered a new magical trap in the hallway and was overwhelmed by the thought of how long it would take to solve it.

-Ishtar. Here, even if your pride is hurt, we need support. We can borrow the knowledge of everyone’s ground-based allies.

-Right. Let’s request support. After all, it was your side that contacted us first. If we reactivate the communication magical tool, we can connect immediately. If it’s just about covering that, I can use Matheus’s power to obscure the mana wave.

-Nise’s opinion is about 40% correct! Let’s ask for support!

-You fools, don’t muddle things up by butting in! If you intervene, I have a bad feeling that there’s a 60% chance of failure!

Feeling her head spinning from the conversation flowing through their mind contact magic, Ishtar hastily tied up the seemingly endless dialogue.

-Okay, I’ll contact them, so calm down.

Honestly, it was a bit embarrassing.

Having sent an assertive message before severing communication—”We can’t help you; we’ll sneak into the heart of the Foundation while you distract the Director!”—it was humiliating to be in a situation where she was timidly turning on the radio just to ask for a code.

Still, the Warrior was prepared to face the embarrassment.

Having suffered the grueling life in Gift Academy, one could easily see those who take the momentary ugliness and seize the advantage versus those who, afraid of being seen as ugly, endure and end up worse off.

‘Yeah, I’m petty. I can go back on my word and humbly ask for help. If this is the fastest way to save Oknodie’s soul, there’s no reason not to follow!’

Summoning her nonexistent courage, Ishtar reactivated the communication magical tool.

“…?”

And then she discovered it.

All magical tools connected to the communication magical tool below were in a reception-unavailable state.

Doo doo…

Unreachable.

The reasons usually divided into a few categories.

One was like Ishtar had, where the magical tool was turned off so signals couldn’t be exchanged.

Second was if communication magic circles or relaying circles were damaged or if the magical stone installed in the tool was depleted, halting operation.

And… the third was if communication magical tools were physically destroyed so no communication could be exchanged anymore.

The first possibility.

Turning off the magical tool.

There was no chance of that.

This was an emergency situation with the Director appearing.

There’s no reason to voluntarily cut off efficient communication.

The magical tools aren’t just for the Warrior Party; anyone can use them.

The second possibility.

If the magic circles or magical stones aren’t functioning.

This chance was slim too.

Given the importance of communication, the protection of magical tools is strict, just as protection of the command section is strict.

No, those with the communication magical tools were with the command section.

The forces assigned to protect the magical tools this time are anything but ordinary; they wouldn’t be a shabby military that would cease operation due to maintenance issues.

The third possibility.

That the magic circles and magical stones were physically damaged.

Thus, Ishtar concluded that this possibility was overwhelmingly realistic.

It simultaneously pointed to a very frightening fact.

‘Everyone… fell victim to the attack and appearance of the Foundation’s flagship? In this brief moment…?!’

The non-fair flight floating in the air due to magic stones emitted an immense mana wave, making it impossible to gauge the external situation without looking down physically.

Thanks to magical barriers and dimensional barriers providing multi-layered defense, hearing external sounds is difficult as well.

The possibilities were sufficient.

Turning away under the pretense of trusting her comrades—the moment she left.

If they hadn’t chosen such a course, they might have been able to save everyone down there from the Foundation’s attack, with the ground turned to ashes.

Haven’t there already been countless tales?

Tales about the Foundation’s new weapon, the ‘Nuclear Weapon.’

Guilt crept up her arm.

The hand gripping the sword trembled wildly.

She could have stopped it.

If it had been her.

If Warrior Ishtar was there.

She might have genuinely been able to stop it.

Her skill, ‘Holy Mirror.’

If she connected multiple techniques to create a massive Holy Mirror that activated by passing between doors, she could potentially reverse the power of the flagship back onto itself, allowing it to taste the might of the nuclear weapon.

To pay for that, she would have exhausted her strength and wouldn’t be able to infiltrate the heart of the Foundation, where Oknodie’s shredded soul is kept.

But now she couldn’t help but ask herself.

How many died to regain one soul?

Was this truly the best choice?

Do you really think this choice was right?

Thud thud.

She couldn’t even swing the sword in her right arm and gripped it tightly with her left hand.

If there was a sacrifice, she must endure even more.

If the sacrifices were made meaningless, that would be the worst outcome.

‘You would understand me, right? Wouldn’t you, Oknodie?’

I didn’t do anything wrong.

I tried my hardest.

At night, in front of the heart of the dormitory dungeon, hold me again and tell me that.

Acknowledge me.

Forgive me.

If you don’t… I won’t have the strength to endure anymore.

Grasping her crumbling mental state, Ishtar painstakingly continued to reverse the traps.

*

*

*

Foundation Raid Command Center.

The key figures in this army exploded with bursts of realization from Warrior Ishtar’s message.

“You’re saying you can’t help us and will sneak into the heart of the Foundation while we’re holding off the Director!”

“Did they really just say that?”

“Who does this warrior think they are?”

“You trashy bastard. Just die already!”

Among the command section hurling curses, only Northern Grand Duchess Irene realized something and panicked.

“Wait a minute.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Look at the last direction from the communication magical tool; it was cut off.”

“Huh? This direction is…?!”

“Right. The Foundation’s flagship right above us. The non-fair flight that the Director is on.”

The command section that had been cursing Ishtar and the Warrior Party froze like a deer caught in headlights with the truth Irene and Sandkooker realized.

“So, what’s happening?”

“Is Ishtar betraying us?”

“Not at all. Rather, she infiltrated towards the enemy without telling us that.”

The command section was enveloped in guilt.

“We were cursing Ishtar without knowing such a thing…”

“B-but, she had been behaving badly in the first place!”

“Right. Why out of nowhere did she suddenly act differently? It’s disturbing. Could there be something else intended?”

“There must be something!”

“That’s right!”

As Dorothy, who was reassured that they couldn’t possibly be the bad guys, was about to be nailed down by Irene.

“Her plan is that no additional forces reach the abyss besides themselves.”

“Whaaat…?”

“Their intent was to declare their intention to attack our flagship without receiving any support, regardless of their lives or deaths.”

“Such determination?!”

“Communication magical tools become unreachable through turning off, magical stone depletion, or destruction of the magical tool. Since it’s hard to believe the Warrior Party was so simply destroyed or depleted, they turned it off voluntarily, showing their intent to not return alive.”

At Irene’s solemn expression, everyone in the command section who was cursing Ishtar and the Warrior Party quickly changed their tones like forest friends directing their anger at Dorothy.

“You trash!”

“Apologize to Ishtar, who is ready to die!”

“Forever pay homage to the Warrior Party’s grave!”

Dorothy began to tear up.

“I-I was wrong… that wasn’t my true intention… sniff!”

“So, what do we do now?”

Seeing Dorothy cornered, childhood friend Rockbell attempted to change the subject.

Sandkooker, having a girlfriend, tried to pretend not to notice Rockbell’s obvious attempt and provided an answer.

“We need to attack the non-fair flight. There’s no compromise with terrorists. We must conduct a strong assault that makes them think the Warrior Party couldn’t have infiltrated the flagship. Then, they will take bigger damage in desperation and self-destruct.”

With Sandkooker’s words, everyone steeled themselves.

Let’s exhaust all our magical tools and potions and do our utmost to attack the flagship!

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