A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

In a hospital room on the fifth floor of Lilith Central Hospital, the life and death struggle that had been raging there had finally drawn to a climax.

“―It ends here.”

The room in which Karen was hospitalized had deteriorated to the state of being almost unrecognizable. From the floor, walls, and ceiling, innumerable stone pillars formed by “Rock Icicles” were growing everywhere, reminiscent of a stalactite cave. Over half of the edged rock pillars, though, had been either smashed or fractured and like a comb with missing pieces of teeth, a path had been carved out from the entrance of the room to Karen, the practitioner.

“…”

Along with a strange noise, a profusion of blood burst from Matthias’ mouth. His complexion had turned so ashen that it gave off the signs that he might collapse at any moment. Aside from that, even his right arm was missing, while his right shoulder was distorted and misshapen, with myriad other wounds on his body.

Matthias’ left hand nonetheless remained in a firm grip on Xenia’s neck, ready to snap it off anytime.

“I thought that even Xenia would be able to defeat you if your body suffer such extensive wounds, but I suppose the magic crystal stone that Kanaki provided you still poses a problem. For someone who claims he will not cooperate, Kanaki sure is a big softie.”

“…Did you kill Eto?”

Even that one question took several seconds for Matthias to ask.

“Huh? Isn’t that obvious?”

Yet, to the words that were blithely responded, Matthias’ body became motionless this time as if struck by lightning.

“To add to that, in the presence of Eto’s corpse, Kanaki is currently locked in a battle with my main body☆ Since I know firsthand that Kanaki is as tenacious as a zombie, I am in the process of gradually sapping his energy by using my dependents. As an insurance policy, the other favorite of Kanaki has been thrown on the battlefield, leaving him with no escape. Well, aren’t I a shrewd womanー”

As for Xenia, who spouted off ramblings that were not even necessary for the conversation, Matthias was conscious of the fact that this was a means of stalling for time.

Regardless of what sort of surprise attack he may receive from now on, the confidence to put Xenia out of action before that occurred was solid. Even Xenia was thoroughly on the ball. What Xenia sought was beyond that. After being killed, she wanted the Garrison Corps or Kaguya to hinder Matthias from proceeding to her main body. Either way, Matthias will die sooner or later if the situation persisted as it was, yet nothing could be more tiresome than a human being on the brink of death. Xenia was scheming to shove that tiresome opponent onto the others.

Matthias himself was not so insensible as not to grasp this. His own death was of no significance, but he was indebted to Kanaki for all the support he had given him. Avenging his daughter’s death while bidding him farewell was not a horrible concept, even if it was a clichéd one.

Right then, footsteps approached the entrance of the hospital room.

“Ah, it’s Fina. She has caught up with us just in time somehow.”

Turning over to look, the sight of a girl confounded by the scene―he believed her name was Fina Trinity, the Princess’ follower―had her eyes glued to the bed by the window, rather than on them.

“Oh, so this is kicking off at last,” Xenia remarked with glee before her neck was crushed and tossed aside, whereupon Matthias kept his attention on Fina’s actions.

“Lady… Karen!?”

Despite his vigilance, no attack was imminent, and Fina hurriedly made her way to Karen, whose spark of life was remaining faintly. Undaunted by the uncountable stone pillars that had amassed, she ran on, her clothing ripped and cuts still fresh.

Before long, he will likely behold her wailing, but unfortunately, that part of the story held no appeal to Matthias.

Should anyone listen intently, the sound of several footsteps approaching from the staircase would reach their ears. With his body wreathed in wounds and out of magic crystals, he could not take on so many people as he had done earlier. Right when Matthias was ready to leap out of the window to flee, Fina began to administer a futile treatment to Karen.

“Damn… heal, heal…!”

A desperate Fina was casting “Lesser Heal,” but Karen’s wounds were beyond healing unless superlative-class magic was employed. That girl likewise probably had an insight into this, but―

“…!”

It was then that Matthias rose an eyebrow after spotting something glinting in the moonlight among the stone pillars.

Among the scraps of Fina’s uniform that had been torn earlier, Kanaki’s magic crystal stone had fallen there.

He went closer and picked it up, and there was no doubt about it after all. It was a wonder to him why, but the Garrison Corps was looming just around the corner. Seizing this fortuitous opportunity, he decided to leave at once after picking it up.

“…Hey!”

“!”

Matthias had no clue what his emotions were at that moment.

But at that time, instead of bringing back with him the magic crystal stone he had retrieved, Matthias handed it to Fina.

“Give this to her to swallow.”

“…You must be trying to have Lady Karen killed.”

“That was until earlier. But it is no longer the case. So what do we do now? At this rate, within a few minutes, the princess will meet her demise.”

Even as she held her sword to Matthias’ throat, Fina’s eyes darted back and forth between Matthias and the magic crystal stone.

Time was not only tight for the princess. The same was applicable to Matthias. It was not that he wanted to save her at all costs, and if her hesitation was still in the air, Matthias was going to abandon her undeterred.

“…I am.”

After all that hesitancy, Fina―