I Became the Daughter of the Academy’s Villain

< 885 – The Unqualified One (8) >

Jigoku, who usually causes trouble rather than stops it, asked with a sour face.

“Is this really it?”

“Of course! Water has always been humanity’s wisdom, a great weapon of mass destruction! There’s no better way to wipe them out in one go!”

Jigoku was also dissatisfied with the academy situation that had turned into chaos.

The Jigoku Pirate Group is a kind of charity campaign run by Jigoku. It takes in the poor, unfortunate lower-class students with low grades and no skills, claiming that kids like you are perfect for being pirates, nourishing and encouraging their piracy!

Due to its nature, the Jigoku Pirate Group is vulnerable to weekly events.

If someone is bullying others, you can just call Jigoku for revenge, but avoiding a weekly event is tricky, and once it’s time for revenge, it’s hard to target a human. Natural disasters don’t care who they affect.

If you get unlucky within their range, you’re just swept away. The weaker you are, the worse the damage.

“I’m already mad because some of our kids got attacked and killed by the ingredients that were murdered in the cafeteria while heading there after class, but if we raise the sea level for our own boat, won’t it cause even more deaths?”

Such a practical concern coming from a pirate like Jigoku!

But Oknodie had a point.

“Anyway, the professors will resurrect them, right?”

“That’s true, but it sucks to feel bad after dying even once.”

“But this is a bit different, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“The heavy rain event has already happened, right?”

“It has.”

“Do people with such low coping skills get through a death world event safely after experiencing it once?”

“Uh… honestly, probably not?”

“So let’s do this. We save just the innocent first-years, and the rest can figure it out! Honestly, if someone above second year dies from this level of trouble, they’re hopeless!”

Jigoku was about to say he couldn’t bear to see the gloomy faces of the pirate crew but then recalled how he had scolded them in the past for their inhumane attitudes.

He reluctantly agreed, realizing that kids tend to have strong stubbornness and would likely forget this after a few weeks if repeated; thus, a hands-on educational approach was necessary.

“What about the homunculi, then? They’re younger than first-years and lack experience, not to mention there are far more of them. How do we save them all?”

“Ah.”

“See? This is why we scrap the plan to wipe out the undead and instead go with precision cannon fire support…”

Jigoku suggested a plan to fire cannons at the Skeleton Fortress, tapping into Trigger Happy’s original purpose, but disappointingly, that suggestion was rejected.

“Ha ha, sadly the homunculus dorm is a new building, so there are no dead monsters nearby for the death zone to activate, and the principal’s protective magic is keeping the building secure. Young ones are following the protective policy of being immune to weekly events.”

“Who is that old man who finds these things out?”

“Just think of it as an old man’s meddling, preferring water play to cannon fire. Ha ha.”

With support from the Okashii-ne, Oknodie’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Seeing that kind of anticipation made Jigoku feel like it was useless to stop her.

Even if she rejected it, she’d just go borrow Professor Drake’s ship to cause chaos.

“Prepare to set sail.”

“Yay!”

This all happened an hour before the disastrous events began to unfold.

*

Disasters have precursors.

Small earthquakes before a big quake.

Unusual animal behavior.

Changes in air pressure and electromagnetic fields.

The Omoshiroi Principal’s face filled with expectation.

Professors suddenly started packing.

The fourth-year students wore tense expressions.

There had been signs before the tsunami struck the academy.

“Where did all the water at the coastline go?”

“Hey, what’s that black thing on the horizon?”

“Where did all those flying school lunch thieves go?”

The instructors who had come to the coastline to prepare for Professor El Draco’s “Naval Combat” lecture on the weekend felt unease, as death zone monsters that should have filled the coast were nowhere to be seen, and the docks were bone dry with even the animals vanished.

sssss…

kuuuugaagaa…

The eerie sound of the wind and the distant roar of the principal felt ominous.

Sudden strong waves and drastic changes in tide height.

“Hey, what are those things up on the cliff?”

“Those are monsters.”

The undead were clearly fighting each other to climb higher, and the flying school lunch thieves, who should be swooping down to demand food, were shivering on the roofs of the academy buildings.

The strange phenomena didn’t occur only at the coastline.

“…The fire magic’s power just suddenly dropped.”

“…My ice magic’s power, on the other hand, increased.”

Rojini and Irene, busy clearing the paths for their second-year classmates from monsters accumulated overnight by their area-of-effect magic, felt something was off too.

The asymmetrical changes in the distribution of elemental mana puzzles had significant effects on magic power, indicating the premonition of a severe natural disaster or magical catastrophe.

“It’s coming, a disaster is coming!! The crisis detection system is screaming! Something really big is coming!!!”

In a sudden calamity, Dobi from the doomsday church, who had been steadily gaining power in the dormitory, was now in a panic.

“Ah, seriously, this is driving me crazy. Since morning, that Dobi has been making people anxious, and why are Rojini and Irene acting like that?”

“More importantly, weren’t those instructors just the ones who rushed to the coast?”

“Why are they running so urgently?”

People of Gift Island sensed ominous signs in their own ways.

The first one to realize the truth was the professors of El Draco, who understood that the black things shimmering on the horizon were a tsunami the size of a house.

They concluded that boarding a ship and fleeing further out to sea was faster than waiting for the influence of the tsunami.

“That’s it!”

“Wow, the professors have come to help!”

The instructors propelled themselves forward, blowing away all that obstructed their path without distinguishing between monsters and students.

Seeing them made Rojini and Irene, who had sensed the impending dread from the magical phenomena, activate Anbeop.

Their mana detection expanded, allowing them to read the currents of nature.

And they witnessed it.

The terrifying elemental mana puzzle of water gathering at the coastline, rushing toward the land with overwhelming force.

“Get to the nearest building NOW!!”

“If you’re late, you’ll die in one blow!!”

At the call of competent persons, those manning the student council attack line grumbled.

“If we pushed a bit more we could break through the skeleton frontlines and take down the lich, so why retreat now?”

“Probably because they’re exhausted. They’ve been using mana like crazy, so they’re taking a break.”

“Pfft, how silly. We’re not the ones who will linger behind you peons forever. Even if we lack skill, we have numbers. We’ll force a way through to the boss room of the Skeleton Fortress with sheer numbers!”

“Come back, you fools!”

“…It’s too late. Just secure the command post.”

Irene rushed back to the emergency command center where Jezel and the student council executives were gathered.

“Sandkooker! We have to get out of here right now. Something big is coming!”

“No way, if I leave now, all the kids will die!”

“You fool, you’ll die with them!”

“Go on without me. I’ll protect the kids here!”

“After seeing all this…?”

The tsunami was approaching.

A wave higher than the academy building.

Even the undead, who should know nothing of fear, stood frozen, staring dazedly at the overwhelming disaster before them, unsure how to face it.

The fighting ceased.

The battle between the living and the dead was nothing in the face of nature’s rage.

“R-run!”

“To the building!”

“It’s too late! All shields up!!”

“Get inside my fortress!!”

“Sandkooker, I still can’t get in!! Open the door!!!”

“If you can’t use flight magic, shield yourself and hold on to something!!”

In this urgent circumstance, students rushed toward hiding spots or scrambled as spells were hastily cast.

Sandkooker felt his fortress crumbling rapidly under the force of the disaster.

With a churning of emotions, the blood began to rise in his throat, but his fellow comrades formulating shock absorption spells saved him from utter disaster.

When Sandkooker went down, they knew they’d all be in trouble, placing their hands on the shock absorption magic circle.

Even so, it wasn’t enough.

Students were collapsing at a terrifying rate.

It was the limit.

Just as Sandkooker’s earth wall fortifications, which had turned into an underwater fortress, were about to break and flood, an intense heat wave releasing pressure evaporated the water around them.

Thanks to Rojini’s support, Sandkooker barely managed to survive.

With consciousness still lingering, he swam to the surface with those who were still awake and the unconscious ones on his back.

“Is this for real…”

The entire academy had turned into a sea.

Just looking at the water level reaching up to the fourth floor said it all.

What a powerful tsunami this was.

The Skeleton Fortress had long been shattered and flooded.

The Lich, severely damaged from the destruction of its summoned minions, sensed Sandkooker and pointed its skeletal staff at him.

“Guh. No more mana left…”

“Thanks, I lived a long time because of you.”

“Say hi to Rojini for me.”

Pushing Sandkooker aside, his friends took the hit in his place as they went down in the chaos, and nobody knew where Rojini had vanished.

But they understood it was too late to run away now.

It was all or nothing.

If they couldn’t escape death, they could at least choose where they would perish.

With the last bits of mana he could muster, Sandkooker formed a spear of earth beneath the surface aimed at the Lich.

Just before that spear was fired, a huge ship burst through the structure, crashing into the Lich.

Crumble!!

The Lich fell apart as its bone joints shattered.

Watching that absurd end, Oknodie’s cheerful voice resounded from the ship.

“Tada! Are we safe?”

“What a disaster, you idiot… what are you going to do about the repair cost?”

“I don’t know! It was all the Lich’s fault! Sandkooker will testify to that, right?”

Sandkooker barely managed to hide his utter dismay and nodded.

---