Chapter 24: The Actor

My left arm throbs with pain.

From my upper arm to my elbow, it’s burning hot.

It feels like the pain you get when you scrape yourself after falling while running at full speed.

“I-Itsuki! Y-You’re injured!”

Even though Nina-chan shouts that, I can’t help but think, “Well, that’s expected.”

I got injured by the magic the actor from the acting troupe shot at me earlier.

The actor from the troupe spins around on the desk like a ballerina and opens his mouth while laughing.

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve got it, you’ve got sharp eyes. It’s the ‘True Eye.’ It’s unfair that sneak attacks don’t work on you!”

As the actor from the troupe shouts this, the bell signaling the end of lunch break rings.

In that moment, I extend two “Thread Silvates.”

One towards my left arm and the other towards the actor from the troupe.

“――’Flame Silkworm Homuramayu'”

I entangle the actor from the troupe in the “Thread Silvate” and it ignites. At that moment, the fire alarm in the reception room goes off, emitting a shrill alarm sound.

“It’s hot! Hot! Ahaha!”

The actor from the troupe writhes in the flames on the desk, unable to use magic. During this time, I heal my left arm. I visualize the structure of the human body in my mind and induce a change in its properties.

“Nina-chan, run! Go get an adult exorcist!”

And just as I try to let Nina-chan escape, the flames surrounding the actor from the troupe disappear.

“Hmm? No, no. It might be better to stop that. Even if you get out of here, it’s useless. I already have many friends inside the school!”

The friends the actor from the troupe is talking about. It’s not clear if he’s referring to the monsters or something else.

I’m not stupid, but that doesn’t mean I can ignore the actor from the troupe in front of me and deal with the exorcism. If I don’t strike at the root, the monster outbreak won’t stop.

In the next moment, I flick away the fire I conjured with magic, and the actor from the troupe jumps up.

“Ahaha!”

The actor from the troupe claps his hands while laughing.

When he claps his hands, the reception room’s desk and sofa stand up.

“This way, I can make friends easily! Can I make 100 friends?”

Thin, white arms extend from the sofa. Yellowed crooked teeth extend from the desk, and when they stretch out further, a giant tongue licks the floor as they rush toward me and Nina-chan.

“Oh, you’re quite popular, Itsuki-kun.”

But before they reach us, I’m faster.

Unlike the magic of “Thread silvate,” the magic I use to summon fairies produces pure white fairies.

“Take them away!”

And to fulfill my “request,” the fairies disappear from sight and eliminate the monsters, the sofa, and the desk that the actor from the troupe created, sending them somewhere in the world.

At that moment, a black mist, born from the death of the monsters, fills the room.

In this extremely poor visibility, a scream reaches my ears.

…This is bad.

There’s only one exorcist in this school, and that’s me. There’s apparently a part-time teacher too, but I’ve never met the person.

So, I have to do something about this situation.

“That’s terrible. I had just made friends… I’m so sad, so sad that my tears won’t stop… My heart is signaling sadness…”

To drown out the actor from the troupe’s voice, I clap my hands again.

During that time, I create dozens of cores and coat the area with magic.

With my fairy magic, I summon pixies as many as the number of cores. I release them into the school.

“Find and exorcise the monsters inside the school.”

The pixies scatter throughout the school as per my “request.”

I can’t summon as many fairies at once as Irena-san, but I can still summon enough fairies to keep an eye on the entire school. It’s the result of a year of practicing fairy magic together with Nina-chan.

While watching the fairies leave the reception room, I examine the skin of the president of the health food company, which is lying on the ground.

“…Were you acting as this president the entire time?”

“Hmm? No, no. I only found out about this president just yesterday, you know? At the amusement park. I promised to kill Itsuki-kun, you see. I was wondering how to get closer to you because I couldn’t locate your house with the barrier.”

The actor from the troupe lands on the ground while saying this.

“I actually wanted to go to your house. To kill Itsuki-kun’s family. I wanted everyone to play happily in Wonderland. But I couldn’t find the house with the barrier, so I thought I could get close with this guy!”

I clench my teeth and cast the next spell. The spell needed to exorcise the actor from the troupe.

“So I killed him and took his skin!”

“Tree Binding [Jyubaku]!”

This is my restraining magic.

The tree trunk created by “Attribute Change: Wood” absorbs the magic power of the restrained target and grows. As a result, it becomes an absolute restraint magic that they can’t escape from.

“Whoa! It’s entangling me! It’s entangling me!”

My magic, created right in the middle of the reception room, captures the actor from the troupe and gains momentum. It breaks through the window glass, sending the actor from the troupe’s body outside the room.

“I don’t have magic to exorcise in confined spaces.”

My heart is restless.

I hardly knew that president.

So, if he’s said to have been killed or is dead, it’s not a relationship that would bring tears.

But I knew his face.

That’s why my heart is restless.

“I have to expel him from here no matter what.”

“My magic power is being taken! It’s a magic power thief!”

“If he came to kill me…”

I crafted ‘Thread Silvate.’

A total of five.

But only for the purpose of exorcising the monster in front of me.

“Why don’t you just target me from the beginning…!”

“Eh? Yeah. That’s why I’ve only been targeting you from the start…”

“….?”

“I came secretly from where I was hiding to the school, you know? I also released my friends into the school. It’s all just to target you, you know?”

“Then, why the skin…”

“Well, it’s because I needed it to kill Itsuki-kun, you see! Smile, smile! Nipah!”

I no longer said anything.

I couldn’t say anything.

“Prioritize your goals! The motto is to do what needs to be done, straight ahead! Ahaha!”

So, I didn’t address the actor from the troupe anymore.

Instead, I released five ‘Thread Silvates.’

That’s all it takes to end everything.

“Hey, wait! Are you really going to exorcise me here? Is it okay? Is it okay?? If you exorcise me like this, it won’t be for free, you know.”

At that moment, it seemed like the actor from the troupe finally realized that he was inescapably trapped in the Tree bind and started to struggle. However, there was no way he could escape from being bound like this.

The ‘Thread Silvate’ entangled his toy-like body, which was struggling in vain.

“‘Oborozuki[Hazy Moon].'”

The next moment, my magic activated.

No matter what kind of monster it is, it’s an absolute magic that doesn’t let them escape.

This magic captured and consumed the actor from the troupe.

The body of the actor from the troupe was torn into tiny pieces and turned into smoke, merging into the small sphere of ‘Compound Attribute: Night’ that I had created.

“Wow, this is amazing! Amazing! I’m going to die! I’m really going to die!”

The actor from the troupe’s screams echoed on the school grounds.

But even that voice became distant and faint.

“In this situation, the final magic! Summoning the Master Director…! T-T-This… I can’t use magic! Ahaha!”

As his laughter was cut off midway, the actor from the troupe’s figure disappeared.

In its place, a black mist remained on the school grounds.

However, that too dissipated on the wind.

Without leaving anything behind, the actor from the troupe had died.

He had died.

“…Itsuki. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

Nina-chan pokes her head out, stepping on the broken glass with her shoes.

“…You’re okay.”

I replied, and I intended to return to the school building.

The fairies were still in the school building, exorcising the monsters.

I needed to catch up and exorcise the monsters quickly.

And there was also Hosoi-san’s body. I had also damaged the reception room.

I needed to call in people for cleanup.

So, there were plenty of things to do.

There was no time to dwell on the restlessness in my heart.

“You’re okay, Nina-chan.”

I said it to myself once again before returning to the reception room.

My mind was filled with things I had to do.

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