I held up my right hand and drew a magic circle on the entire floor.
“…Mmm…?”
A questioning voice leaked out from the great tree of Eniyunien.
It was probably because he used the magic of <Illusion Mimicry Rainel> to hide all sixteen of them in darkness.
Following that, I used <Concealed Magic Power Najira> to conceal the magic power of all of them.
I used <Thought Communication Leaks> to tell everyone what I was going to do, so that the great tree of Eniyunien would not notice.
“I understand!”
“I’ll definitely do it!”
“Leave it to me!”
The girls of Fan Union shouted in high spirits.
After using [a certain magic], I deactivated <Illusion Mimicry Rainel> and erased the darkness in this place.
“…Nuuuuh…?”
A surprised voice leaked out from the great tree of Eniyunien.
I guess it was understandable. The darkness cleared, and sixteen Anos Voldigoad emerged from the darkness.
They had all been transformed by the magic of <Illusion Mimicry Rainel>.
“What’s this supposed to mean?”
” There’s also the question I just asked you. I want to make sure that there is no cheating.”
One of the sixteen of us stepped up and said.
“If Gunnier’s stairs want to, they can intentionally fail me on this test.”
“I will do no such thing. I am the Great Tree of Education.”
“That’s just an assumption. Let’s say that the Great Spirit Reno was still alive. What if her life depended on it?”
“…That’s…”
“I’m sure you, a spirit, would do anything to protect the Mother. Wouldn’t you?”
The Great Tree of Eniyunien muttered with a heavy heart.
“That is correct.”
“Then it is possible that you would go rogue to protect the Spirit King.”
“…If we’re talking about possibilities, I can’t deny it… but I have not done anything like that this time…”
“Hmm. Well, I don’t want to think that the spirits have turned against us either, since I thought I had built up a good amount of trust with Reno.”
The mention of Reno’s name seemed to have an extraordinary effect, and the great tree of Eniyunien snorted.
“There’s no point in being suspicious all the time. This way, you won’t be able to intentionally make me drop out of the trials. Whether I make it through the trials or not, we will leave no grudge against each other.”
In <Illusion Mimicry Rainel>, all sixteen of them are in my form.
As long as they don’t know who the real me is, they can’t intentionally fail me, so it will truly be a test of luck.
“When I open the door, I will break the spell of <Illusion Mimicry Rainel> and show you my original form. As long as you’re not cheating, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“…Hmm. I understand. If it makes you feel any better, you can do whatever you want…”
I grinned and called out, “Let’s go”.
The sixteen of us moved to our respective staircases and began to ascend in unison.
After about ten minutes, we saw a door in front of us.
All sixteen of us had arrived in front of the door. We breathed in unison as we opened the door.
The next thing Ellen sees is a staircase leading down.
“Yay, it’s out! I was able to imitate Anos-sama, I think I’m on to something today.”
The <Illusion Mimicry Rainel> lifted, and Ellen returned to her original form.
She clenched both fists and walked down the stairs happily.
And in front of the real me, there was a staircase leading up.
“Hmm. Looks like we hit it.”
I communicate to Misha and the others with <Thought Communication Leaks>.
“Who else won?”
Then Lay’s voice replied.
“Looks like we got lucky.”
Misa’s voice was heard next.
“Haha… I won too…”
So the three of us won.
Since five out of two were correct, two out of Nousgalia, the Scarlet King, the Curse King, and the Dark King would be correct. It seems reasonable to assume that two of the three who went first knew about the winning staircase, but I can’t be certain.
“Well, let’s go.”
I walked up the stairs leading to the top.
Of course, it wasn’t luck that made me choose this path.
Along with <Illusion Mimicry Rainel>, I used the fusion magic <Equal Division Source Fusion Je Dishaisis>.
I divided all sixteen people’s sources into sixteen equal divisions, collected one piece of each source, for a total of sixteen pieces, and fused them together.
In other words, until just a moment ago, all sixteen of them were me. Or, more precisely, they were me, divided into sixteen equal parts.
Of course, they were also me, Sasha, Misha, Lay, and the girls from the Fan Union.
When <Equal Division Source Fusion Je Dishaisis> was released, and I returned to the original one source, that source would gather somewhere within the sixteen equal divisions of sources.
I had adjusted the magic so that it would converge on the source with the ascending staircase.
There were sixteen staircases, and one in four had the correct path.
Then all I had to do was become one of the sixteen.
That way, I could draw all the winners and losers.
All I had to do was choose the right one among them.
“Nn…?”
On the way up the stairs, I felt an unnatural flow of magic.
It was coming from behind the wall.
“Who are you?”
I asked, and a familiar voice came back from the other side of the wall.
“Oh, is this it?”
The wall of the big tree split in two, and I saw a passage at the end of it.
There was a girl wearing a hood, Rina.
By the way, we are going to request NU to update novel’s title to The Misfit of Demon King Academy so don’t be surprised when it happens.
