Kraken (3)
Quinie unconsciously swallowed her breath.
Anne stood there for a moment, then looked around, and approached Quinie.
“Ack…!”
Quinie backed away. Anne’s unfocused eyes drew closer.
When Quinie took a few steps to the right, Anne walked past her.
Anne wasn’t looking at Quinie. She was simply searching for Frondier somewhere in the classroom.
“…Frondier. Kill. Kill.”
Anne muttered. Quinie swallowed hard at the chilling sound.
Seeing her friend’s condition right before her eyes, she could tell just how severe Frondier’s current situation was.
A tremendous number of students were after Frondier at this very moment. And it was to kill him.
‘Did the teachers suffer the same fate?’
If the culprit’s goal was to kill Frondier, then they would naturally think of manipulating the teachers first.
If there was no response from the teachers despite the current state of affairs, it seemed certain that they had been manipulated.
“…Anne.”
Quinie looked at Anne’s still unfocused face. With no discernible emotions or consciousness, her face truly resembled that of a corpse.
However.
“…No.”
She could feel it for sure when she looked at her friend. It wasn’t a corpse. Not a corpse. How could she be thinking that while looking at her friend? Quinie bit her lip tight.
“I’ll be right back, Anne.”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})With a firm determination, Quinie made her way to her desk in the classroom.
She picked up her bag and left the classroom.
Constel was currently so noisy from all directions that it was pointless to talk about specific locations.
Something was breaking, shattering, smashing, and collapsing. It was the consequence of the students who hadn’t been manipulated trying to protect Frondier.
Quinie checked the situation outside through the window as she walked down the hallway.
But something was strange. Despite the loud noises, she couldn’t see many students here. Rather, only a few students who didn’t seem to have been manipulated caught her eye.
"Why is that? There were quite a lot of students just until a moment ago."
Then, a thought occurred to her. As the hypothesis flashed through her mind, her legs were already running.
Thud, thud, thud, she quickly ascended the building's stairs to reach the rooftop.
Clang!
Opening the door, Quinie checked the surroundings from atop the rooftop. There, she saw the second main building where she was, the first main building in front of it, the playground to the right below, and in front of it-
"The auditorium...!"
Quinie saw it. Countless students were swarming towards the auditorium. The location of Frondier had been discovered.
In front of it, walls of ice and wind barriers were spread around the auditorium. They were the magics of Aten, Elodie, and other magicians.
However, there were too many students, and it was impossible to stop them all without hurting them.
"...Ugh."
Quinie took out her fan. She sprinted across the rooftop at full speed.
At the edge, she leaped and swung her fan. Every time she swung her fan, she seemed to leap again in mid-air.
Feeling a light buoyancy and the wind lifting her hair, Quinie landed on the next building.
Towards the next building, and then the next, to get closer to the auditorium.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"No! Stop!!"
"Why do they keep going even when you hit them on the head!"
"I told you! It's no use trying to knock them out!!"
As she got closer, she saw other students like Elodie and Aten.
They were all trying their best to prevent the controlled students from getting close to the auditorium.
Quinie was the last to realize this.
"Ugh...!"
Quinie was horrified by the sight of the group of students up close. They looked even more like corpses up close. It was as if the corpses were rising and moving. Just looking at them made it hard to breathe.
"Hey! Senior Quinie!"
Sybil Forte, who was at the front of the crowd pushing people back, spotted Quinie. Quinie responded with a barely raised hand and a pale face to that voice.
Upon hearing Sybil's voice, others glanced at Quinie as well, but blocking the student crowd was more urgent.
"Sybil, is Frondier inside the auditorium?"
"It seems so! But we can't get in because of a barrier someone has put up!"
"Is it the perpetrator's doing?"
"I'm not sure, but if it is the perpetrator's doing, we need to block the students first!"
Sybil was earnestly shouting towards Quinie while blocking the students.
"But are you okay, senior? You look pale!"
"I-I'm fine. Though I might not be soon."
"What do you mean?!"
Ignoring Sybil's question.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Quinie took deep breaths with a sigh.
"Ah, I don't want to do this."
Quinie knelt down and opened her brought bag. Even as she rummaged through it, her face was a grimace.
And slowly, what she took out was a transparent mask pack.
Quinie put the mask pack on her face with a snap and slowly stood up.
The crowd of many students heading towards the square. Blocking them had now reached its limit.
Quinie took a deep breath. The inherent qi inside her quickly began to boil.
For her, a third-year student, the manifestation of aura was very easy, and her level was on a different scale compared to other third-year students.
Quinie shouted with all her might filled with aura.
"I am Frondier──!!!"
A thunderous voice loud enough to echo not only in the auditorium but throughout Constel. It was a similar manifestation to when Aster had shouted to block a horde of fleeing magical beasts.
That giant voice was enough to snatch the students' attention towards the auditorium,
And astonishingly, the crowd began to turn their backs on the auditorium and started walking towards Quinie.
"Yikes!"
Quinie's face beneath the mask pack turned pale.
Elodie Aten, who was blocking them, tilted her head in confusion.
"What's going on suddenly? The students suddenly……."
Their gazes naturally shifted towards Quinie. And upon seeing Quinie, they froze.
It was Frondier. Frondier was standing there.
With jet-black, long hair, holding a black fan, possessing a slender figure, it was Frondier, but only in face.
…A rather unsightly Frondier stood there.
