A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

(T/N: I have changed Alice Resonator name to Alice Raison de Trile, actually both are incorrect, I think. The English name given is rather unique that I can’t find any information about it. But the latter name seems more in aligned with the author’s version than Resonator, so I am changing it)

Arc 3: Anything for her

It really turned out to be a tricky affair.

It was the day after Matthias declared that he was going to assassinate Karen, in other words, the day of the assassination. Having been working on paperwork in the infirmary, I was obviously absent-minded.

At last, today, the battle over Karen Ortesia would commence. On this day, a massive contingent of garrison soldiers has been strutting around the city since this morning, monitoring every nook and cranny. Even the Security Force members have an official day off from school today. Aware of the unorthodox atmosphere in the city, the students were also very restless, and I had a very tough time organizing the HR session for the return trip home today.

However, such vigilance may be justified. A successful assassination would mark a major event in the history of the city, and the members of the casts of both sides were all prominent and well-known. Abandoning the day’s paperwork, I mulled over what my next course of action should be.

The first camp aiming for the assassination was “Hunter,” with a rating of A+. It was only an incident that took place yesterday, and now that the security has grown much more stringent than it was last night, the likelihood that he will initiate another attack was not high, but since it was a matter of business, it was difficult to imagine that he would go down without a fight. Even he must know that today represented a climax, and there was a strong probability of him striking at Karen again.

Matthias and Xenia, though, stood out as the assassination camp’s two most promising players. Xenia was a super skilled magician under the manipulation of Alice Raison de Trile, the original semi-first-class magician known as “Art of the Corpse Princess,” whose number of garrisoned soldiers killed by her alone in this city was unimaginable. Even though I have never had a direct encounter with her, she seemed to specialize in alchemy, as I had the impression at school, and was adept at taking on a multitude of opponents. Perhaps today, too, Xenia will be dealing with the small-time enemies while Matthias will take down the main body of the army.

Matthias was probably the most formidable man in the assassination camp and, at the same time, the most powerful person in the city today.

Matthias, the “Soundless Ogre”. Despite being a complete non-magician who cannot perform any magic, not even sorcery, he was an assassin with a rating of SS+, one of the top five most dangerous people in the country.

In terms of pure combat power, Matthias would likely be inferior to Xenia and even “Hunter”.

However, when it came to “combat with Matthias who is planning to assassinate” as opposed to “combat with Matthias who encountered by accident,” it was a different story. That individual, in any case, was a master of assassination. Whether the opponent was a magician or otherwise was irrelevant. None of them would be able to survive after Matthias, who had made assiduous preparations, aimed for their heads. But that was only the case for ordinary assassinations.

There were two factors about this case that set it apart from other assassination attempts. For one, the camp that was seeking to assassinate was not united in one. Each of them has accepted an order from a different client, and they have been checking each other’s actions.

The second was that the party being targeted was already conscious of the fact that they were being sought after. As long as they can protect the target for this one day, they knew that the assassination can be thwarted.

One of the advantages of assassination was that the target could be ambushed at any time before being made aware that her life was being targeted. This advantage, however, has already been forfeited due to the failure of “Hunter” to assassinate last night. In this case, it would be easier for the guards to protect her. After all, they were already convinced that the adversary would undoubtedly attack during the course of the day.

And the Garrison Corps, which was in charge of protection, and “Kaguya,” the Security Force, far outnumbered the assassins. Furthermore, Rain Aldar was among them. I sorted out all the information I knew about him once again.

Rain Aldar. Eighteen years old. He was a fourth-year student at Selbeth Academy, a second-class magician, and the commander of the Security Forces “Kaguya”. This by itself was an indication of his brilliant career, but the fact remained that he himself was capable of living up to, or even surpassing, his title.

As mentioned above, since he was a student of Selbeth Academy, I can obtain as much information on him if I wanted to find out more. Nevertheless, the most reliable and credible information would be my own battle data from the other day.

Truthfully, even in that brief battle, his strength was striking. His magical tool was a combination of a gun and a sword that could be deployed both at close range and at long range. The gun fired a “Magic Bullet” that was colorless and ultra-fast. He was even a superb hand-to-hand combatant, which was the cherry on top. This alone was sensational for a student, but perhaps there was more to his abilities that were yet to be exhibited.

While uncertainty reigned, I still believed that Matthias, let alone Xenia, would be unconquerable. There were other individuals to be wary of, and the Garrison Corps had its own strong contenders, but Matthias was a professional assassin. With careful supervision, I was positive that he would succeed in assassinating Karen Ortesia.

Even more concerning to me, though, was what was contained in this assassination.

Looking at the clock in the infirmary, the time was already four o’clock. In the event that my prediction turned out to be true, she would attend the upcoming practice session even though she had taken the day off from school. And while I can half-expected what action she will probably carry out, I have yet to prepare my answer to that question.

Anyway, I must be punctual. I can’t afford to undermine the trust of my students.

With a shake of my head, which had been weighed down by my incessant stream of contemplation, I rose heavily from the stool.