Chapter 90 -----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Locked in the Lab
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"…Why isn't he here yet? We've got less than ten minutes left."
Leo muttered while checking his watch.
The two who had gone to the café would arrive any moment now, but Lucas should've been back already.
"I'm going to check on him. Wait here."
At Leo's words, Narké stood up from his seat.
"No, I'll go."
"Huh? Where are you two off to?"
Just then, the Class 1-A students arrived and asked.
"Uh, looking for Lucas."
"What?! Lucas is missing? Without him…!"
"No~ He might show up soon…. But it's probably better if I go check myself. I'll be right back."
"You have to hurry! You know the coordinates over there, right? He ran off without knowing our café coordinates."
"Hey, you can't warp to the lab…. Wouldn't our team get disqualified?"
A Class 1-A student held his friend back.
Warping was prohibited in the labs reserved for competition participants.
It was a rule to prevent mishaps like botching a warp formula and crashing into someone else's lab table.
Narké nodded with a smile.
"Got it. I'll run over quick."
* * *
He wasn't just saying he'd run there.
Narké sprinted with all his might, summoning Pie onto his shoulder.
"Waaah!"
Pie clung to his shoulder, barely keeping balance.
'Something's definitely wrong, even if I'm not sure what.'
There was no need to risk disqualification by warping carelessly in a situation like this.
The same went for channeling mana into his legs to run faster. Accidents from speeding like that were even more common than warp mishaps, which was why it was banned.
'But… as long as I don't trip the mana detection net, it's fine. It's not a person warping.'
―"Pie."
"Y-Yes?!"
―"Warp to our team's lab. Lucas probably needs your help."
"Got it!"
Narké chuckled at the spirited reply and came to a stop in front of the lab building.
Less than eight minutes remained since he'd left, and the clock on the building showed five minutes to the start of the competition.
'Hmm, already so late….'
That was when his eyes met someone else's.
The person on the first-floor staircase spotted Narké's face, flinched in surprise, and backed away.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing."
"...."
Narké tilted his head at the response and headed toward their lab.
The person on the first floor hurriedly exited the building.
Narké glanced in the direction they'd fled.
'What an astonishing situation.'
Someone who wasn't a competition participant, nor a student from a participating school, nor even a teacher was involved.
And now he was certain. Lucas was trapped in their team's lab.
'To lock up the most talked-about student in this entire competition….'
It had been less than three days since Lucas had caused a huge stir at that bonus-point invitational where he'd been utterly unremarkable before.
He had his suspicions about who was behind it, but the sheer audacity of the idea was impressive.
Clunk—
'As expected.'
He tried the handle, but it wouldn't turn.
It was a common locking spell that prevented opening from either side.
The spell would release automatically after a set time, and standard dispel methods took nearly ten minutes.
Of course, that was for other mages. For him, three minutes—no, one minute would do.
'But if I break this… any evidence would be gone if they report it.'
It was just a hunch, but Lucas seemed to have his own ideas on the matter.
If it were just student pranks, he'd smash it open, but it wasn't, so forcing the door could derail the future.
Even if it caused a little commotion, it was better to leave it to Lucas's judgment.
Narké turned around.
He couldn't see it from here, but at the end of the first-floor hallway in the connected building was the management office.
'It'd be good to alert the staff here.'
"Narké!"
Pie warped back onto his shoulder.
―"Lucas?"
"He says just answer this quick. Yes or no?"
―"…Hmm…."
He hadn't seen the face clearly, but given the situation, there was only one question he'd ask.
―"Probably yes."
"Got it!"
Pie warped away again.
As Narké started running toward the management office, Pie warped back onto his shoulder.
"Mm~?"
"Narké, Lucas has a message."
* * *
[Two minutes until the round of sixteen begins. All students, please take your seats.]
"...."
"W-What, what, what do we do? He should be here by now."
The Class 1-A students trembled like aspen leaves.
Tables around them and the spectator seats were openly staring.
With only three out of five team members present, it was inevitable.
A Class 1-A student asked Leo, whose face was grim.
"What happened? Why isn't Lucas here?"
"…He went to grab the past papers. Left them in the lab."
"T-That shouldn't take this long? It's a two-minute run there."
"Exactly."
That's what I wanted to say.
Leo sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair.
One student cried out with a pale face.
"Narké said he'd run over, so why isn't he back?! It's been five minutes already."
"…We're in big trouble. It's basically a forfeit…."
Leo shook his head.
"Let's wait until the very end. If they don't make it, we'll have to manage somehow on our own. We can't give up yet."
"…Impossible without the recipe."
"It's not like we know nothing. We've all learned it."
Leo tried to reassure them.
But even he couldn't shake the anxiety.
'…We're the only regular school that made it to the round of sixteen.'
If they'd practiced their potion ten times, the vocational school students here had done it fifty.
Up to now, they'd kept pace because Narké and I set the framework, and Lucas immediately provided the recipe.
'Without Lucas… we won't keep up.'
He was consoling them verbally, but it was undeniably tough.
On top of that, their morale was crumbling visibly.
Unable to mask their expressions, the Class 1-A students bit their pale lips.
The other vocational school students watched us like it was the show of the century, which only amplified the unease.
'Something must've happened to Lucas.'
Otherwise, there was no reason he'd be gone for twenty minutes.
He wasn't the type to ditch on a whim.
"Thirty seconds left…!"
"…Hey, we… good job making it this far."
"What?"
"Leo, you too. The other schools were buzzing about how far the team with royalty would go. Must've been tougher on you than us."
Leo frowned at that.
"No, don't think about giving up yet…."
[We will now begin the round of sixteen of the 151st Bavarian High School Division 2nd Year Potion Brewing Competition.]
Leo fell silent.
The students' faces had already turned ashen.
With things this bad, even the reporters' cameras, which he hadn't noticed before, now grated on his nerves.
The crowd's murmurs did too.
It was clearly just pre-exam chatter, yet it felt like they were talking about their team.
"…No."
He couldn't let himself crumble too.
Even with only three left, they had to go down without regrets. He needed to rally his friends while the pre-exam instructions played.
Far off, he saw the announcer pick up the mic.
In that instant, a piercing thin screech assaulted his ears.
Screeeeech—!
"Ah!"
"What the?!"
Students at multiple tables winced simultaneously.
The noise persisted. Faces twisted further.
'…Not mic feedback?'
Whirrrrr—
Now alarm tones overlapped.
Leo plugged his ears and looked up.
[Fire alarm. Please evacuate immediately via emergency exits.]
* * *
Splash—
[Fire alarm. Please evacuate immediately via emergency exits.]
'…Phew.'
Success.
I dodged the cascade pouring over my face and tossed the three now-soaked, extinguished matches into the trash.
'Put 'em to good use.'
For melting the sprinkler's solder.
Sure, they were meant for the alcohol lamp, but who cared now.
As it was a lab, the sprinklers here were linked to the emergency bell.
Beyond the window, the same bell rang in the gym.
'…It really reached all the way there.'
Not connected buildings, but adjacent, so it made sense.
The moment I thought that, the bell cut off.
I'd actually sent Pie to Narké with that in mind.
'Couldn't evacuate 10,000 people just to report someone trapped here.'
I'd told him to head straight to management, and thankfully, Pie relayed it right.
'I considered waiting for Narké….'
But with time so tight, I couldn't just sit idle through the delays.
And it was really a matter of seconds.
When I triggered the sprinkler, the clock showed thirty seconds to start.
Not that melting the solder was solely for that.
Bang—Boom—!
"Lucas!"
Beyond the downpour, Narké grinned like it was all a game.
In contrast, the lab manager stood nearby with a grave expression.
'No fire, but property damage, huh.'
"No."
Narké cut off my thought bluntly.
The manager raised his voice over the water to ask.
"How long have you been locked in here?! Do you know who did it?"
"Since twenty minutes ago. No idea who."
"Huh…. The alarm delayed the start. Run!"
Narké grabbed me and bolted.
As we exited the building, I glanced back and muttered.
"…Gotta donate to the fire budget here."
"Haha, that sounds weird coming from a high schooler."
Huh?
I figured this noble brat wouldn't get real-world stuff.
Sprinting full tilt, we reached the gym's participant entrance in three minutes.
"…!"
"Wha—!"
Far away at our team's table, the two Class 1-A students and Leo stared in shock.
Everyone knew two from our team were missing, so other teams reacted the same.
One student bolted from his seat toward us.
"Uwaaaah! Why so late! Thought we were done for…."
"Sorry. Got locked in the lab."
"Huh?!"
"Later. How much delay?"
"Dude, it got pushed back ten minutes right before start. Insane timing, right?!"
Leo, listening with a decade-older look, sighed and scanned me up and down.
"…Why's your gown soaked? Don't tell me…."
"What."
"You triggered the alarm?! No way?"
"Man, that's not a normal high schooler thought, but you're adapting~"
"...."
Leo laughed weakly, now drained for a different reason.
Probably thinking about evacuating 10,000 people.
I got it—no choice, but it didn't sit right with me either.
Giving up, Leo asked something else.
"…So, locked in the lab—what's that mean?"
"Exactly that."
"Someone did it to keep you out?"
Leo glanced around at the students.
Our teammates seemed to catch on, faces hardening.
"…What? Trying to knock our team out…!"
"Who knows."
That's what I thought first.
If it was another school's students.
After unexpectedly taking first at the invitational, they couldn't just brush off 'your fault' talk as nonsense.
'If that's it, kids might chalk it up to rash heads….'
The real issue was the other possibility.
Ever since Plleroma traces showed in the Papal States, my brother—who'd been itching at me—might've been probing my mana use or trying to confine me home for the week.
I'd asked if he was involved somehow.
And got a 'yes'.
Turning right, I spotted cameras from newspapers and the exam recording/broadcast cams.
With my disheveled state, and investigators coming soon, word that I triggered the sprinkler would spread fast—to my brother's ears too.
'Good.'
That's why I did it.
If he was testing my mana, I wasn't about to give him a quiet answer.
'And earlier, I thought just reaching quarters….'
Didn't happen.
No stopping here now.
"Guys."
"Yeah?"
"No plans to stop at the quarterfinals, right?"
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