I Became the Academy’s Pink Airhead

An utterly gloomy afternoon.

A quiet stillness flowed, with the liveliness of midday gone somewhere.

The academy city that had been overflowing with bursting vitality.

A calmness rarely seen there was felt.

No…

It was not calmness, but closer to a sense of dissonance.

It should have been a time when slightly hot sunshine was still visible along with the chilly autumn wind. But that expectation disappeared along with the bluish fog.

For the past few days, fog had been rising endlessly.

At first, it appeared little by little in the plains surrounding the academy city. But the fog that started expanding ended up covering the entire academy city.

“Haah…”

First year students who were strolling around the grounds turn away from the streets. It was an uncharacteristic choice for them, who had always been searching for fun things since enrolling.

“Ugh, it’s cold. I don’t feel well either…”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“Let’s just go back to the dorm.”

“Yeah, even the seniors have had strange expressions lately. Is it because of this fog?”

“Well, we haven’t seen proper sunlight for days… And the railroad connecting to the outside world is blocked because of the fog.”

“The city was originally one where people with no ether aptitude couldn’t come… It’s a bit scary. Like we’re trapped.”

“Yeah…”

“Anyway, let’s go play cards in our room.”

“Okay.”

The mechanical dwarves close the factory doors early and pat each other’s shoulders. The faces that always greeted students with bright smiles were stiff.

“Hmm, maybe it’s because of the humidity, but it feels like the frame is creaking. I don’t know if it’s just my imagination… but it’s hard to breathe, and I’m having nightmares too.”

“Me too… I’ve tried changing the lubrication method, and applying lubricant in the morning, but it’s still not good.”

“With logistics delayed these days, I’m scared to do anything.”

“Yeah… Maybe because I feel uneasy, I even see illusions of students passing by on empty streets.”

“Acting rusty when you’re not even 50 years old. Back in my day, we’d manually reconnect torn joint fibers with our own hands, you bastards. Tsk tsk… Kids these days have no grit.”

“Grandpa, you were crying about how painful it was to tighten a loose screw after bumping into the doorstep recently. Even 3-year-old kids tighten their own screws.”

“…”

Everyone dispersed after the dwarf elder fled without a word. The bread hat dwarf who had been listening to that conversation suddenly looked beyond the fog and muttered:

“I wonder if Ka-Kara is doing well…”

The giant-mixed girl who was said to have been adopted from the dwarf craftsmen village. He suddenly wondered how she was doing – the girl who had treated the dwarves respectfully even though students subtly looked down on them.

“Haah, she must be… doing well.”

Kara, who acted friendly calling everyone comrade, would do well anywhere. Thinking that, the bread hat headed to the dwarf employee dormitory.

At that moment, the ground shook a little.

Rumble—

“Whoa?!”

A sudden earthquake was felt. The timid bread hat immediately tried to run to safety, but the vibration disappeared as if it were a lie.

“…”

Earthquakes occurred frequently along with the thick fog that had come.

“I… I should go back. I’m still scared of iron bars falling on my head.”

Worried that the factory roof might collapse, the bread hat looked up at the sky, glancing around. So he was able to return without noticing the illusion passing by his side.

Like that, everyone living in the academy city went into their rooms with dark expressions.

Though few people knew something was happening, they instinctively sought out safe places.

And what played a decisive role in their choices were the notices sent by each school’s student council.

Unlike usual…

A calm yet clear broadcast.

In the thick fog, announcements flow from speakers installed on each school’s grounds.

The voice was calm, but the content was terrifying.

[Announcement from the and . Due to the fog currently covering the entire academy city, numerous missing person reports are being received. For the safety of students residing in the eastern region, please refrain from going out as much as possible, and even if you do go out, stay within the designated school grounds…]

Students who entered their rooms flinched.

So many students had entered the fog where you can’t even see an inch in front of you?

Even with ether abilities, if you get lost and starve you’ll die…

‘There sure are a lot of reckless students…’

Thinking that, they abandon even the slightest curiosity to walk into the fog.

Covering themselves with blankets in their rooms, they just wait for the fog to pass quickly.

[The student council President and incoming student council president of the are responding quickly to this situation, so students should be careful not to wander in the fog…]

As if on cue, as each school’s quick response to the anomaly continued, they wait for tomorrow with a streak of relief.

And they recall the reliable appearance seen at the Combat Festival not long ago.

‘The incoming student council president seems trustworthy.’

Rumors about blurry ghosts in the fog, which normally would have spread noisily riding on anxiety, were quietly fading away.

* * *

“Good work everyone. I’ll be going now.”

“Good work to you too, President.”

Skadi, the student council president of , confirmed that the broadcast was transmitted normally and left the broadcasting club room.

Following her was Katrin, the interim student council president of and… essentially a hostage. Unlike her bold dark elf nature, she spoke while trembling.

“A-Are there really that many people missing in the fog?”

“…?”

Skadi turned around with wide eyes.

“The… the neighborhood kids are saying terrifying ghosts appear in the fog… So I wondered if everyone was dragged away by ghosts… They say the academy city is about to go to war with ghosts…”

“…”

It wasn’t very visible because of her brown skin.

But Katrin’s face was utterly pale.

‘Is she really scared of ghosts?’

To think the gold-obsessed group with the strange habit of saying ‘Damn—!’ would tremble in fear of ghosts…

‘…They’re elves, but a bit cute.’

Skadi was inwardly amused by the cute behavior shown by the materialistic dark elves, but didn’t show it.

“There are no missing people. Other schools’ students are patrolling too.”

“Huh?”

“If we tell them not to come because ghosts appear in the fog like you said, do you think the academy city students would listen? They’d rather run out to see the ghosts.”

Even to Katrin, the academy city students seemed like the type to do that.

“I… I guess so?”

“Right.”

Skadi turned around and walked away again.

Katrin nodded in understanding, then suddenly stiffened.

“…Then are the ghosts real?”

“…”

“H-Hey? It’s scary when you stay silent like that! Senior? President? Lord? Master? Master? Please say something…!”

“…”

* * *

Swooosh—!!

“Yop—☆”

I threw a chop at the chaos insect that dared to poke its head out. Then the sight of the adult chaos insect writhing in pain was really funny.

‘If it hurts that much, don’t come out of the dungeon in the first place—☆’

Take my cutie pretty punch☆

Bop☆

Grooooar—!!

“Ahahaha—☆”

You know how even adult-level chaos insects laugh along when I laugh?

The glossy black one wiggling its pincers looked just like it was laughing hysterically!

Crayfish crayfish dance time—☆

Wiggle wiggle those pincers~

It’s so nice that everyone’s happy when you smile.

Ah, but that’s separate from showing mercy—☆

I won’t show mercy even if I smile!

Then the chaos insect showed me teeth like ether transmission stones and smiled.

-Honhahaha—☆

Hmph!

Outdated flirting… zero points.

Ah…

By the way, the chaos insect’s laughter is my imagination.

No matter how big an insect gets, it can’t laugh, right?

Anyway, when I ‘borrowed’ Astrid’s greatsword and smacked its head, the chaos insect burst again this time.

Burst (physically).

Splat—!!

Wow~♪

Awesome fireworks…

It would have been romantic to watch with Hilde.

“Phew—☆ When this fight is over, we’ll go see fireworks together♪”

Eiya☆

Surprise death flag—♪

These days I’m trying to say death flag lines as much as possible.

Why? Because a negative times a negative equals a positive!

Clang—!

When I lowered the yellow greatsword it returned to Astrid. Maybe because it’s a merciful sword like that kind child… I was able to smash its head in one hit like this.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t ‘borrow’ Astrid’s ether skill [Eternal Stage] because it’s connected to the vampire’s unique characteristics.

I wanted to try dancing in a fancy yellow dress in the glamorous fog at least once…

By the way, why was I beating up chaos insects in the plains like this?

‘Hmm… what was I trying to do?’

With that thought, I slapped my own cheek.

Slap—!

“…”

Then along with the stinging impact, I remembered things about from the remaining fragments of memory.

…

I remembered.

‘Not yet.’

There are still… things I need to remember.

There are things I need to keep from ‘his’ memories.

Recall.

What did I do?

‘I informed the that this phenomenon is a sign of a great calamity. And I told Hilde the last main story information I knew.’

What did I intend to do?

‘To block ’s final interference and variables, I came here… to the foggy plains. As expected, followers and chaos insects were appearing all over the foggy plains.’

Good.

I recalled it.

I nodded like that and looked ahead.

The sight of the gloomy foggy plains.

Thick fog covered the vast plains, and corpses of chaos insects were scattered throughout the fog.

Sticks scattered here and there sway in the wind. Flagpoles left behind by [Rider of Rebellion], once called one of the [Three Heroes], remain in spots throughout the dim view.

And Rota rushed over here and spoke to me.

“Senior! Are you okay? Why did you suddenly hit your own cheek?”

“Ahaha—☆ Maybe it’s because of this weather… I got sleepy☆”

I lightly scratched Rota’s orange cat ears that felt something was off. Then with a purring sound, she blurted out worriedly:

“…Don’t overdo it alone. We can fight now too.”

“Okay♪ I’ll be careful next time—☆”

“You always say that but overdo it anyway.”

Rota mutters dissatisfied and goes back to searching for flagpoles.

And perhaps surprised by me suddenly borrowing the greatsword, yellow fog appeared in midair and Astrid appeared.

“Wh-What’s going on?! Why did this lady’s greatsword suddenly disappear with a poof?!”

Jumbled speech.

I greeted her politely like a servant. I had decided to play along with her concept once.

“It is nothing, O noble of the night—☆”

“…No matter what, it’s a bit much to say it’s nothing while looking at this…”

Astrid looked at the blood-soaked plains with dumbfounded eyes. Then she narrowed her eyes and looked at one spot.

Woong—

With a small tremor, a precarious human figure appears and wanders.

“…”

“…”

Astrid and I watched to prevent people from approaching ‘that’. But we didn’t antagonize it like Helina.

The echo reverberating in this land was… an existence where the scent of those who once existed here remained.

“Let’s just let it return.”

“Okay.”

Astrid sprayed yellow fog to prevent people from passing near the echo. Then she looked this way and said:

“…In this lady’s view, this situation seems more precarious than imagined. Is that not so?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve seen many forms of non-humans while handling fog… but this is the first time I’ve seen them appear so clearly and speak.”

“…”

Astrid’s blonde hair rippled in the damp wind of the plains.

“What lies beyond there?”

“…”

A place where thick fog was rising. I felt like I could hear faint crying sounds from beyond there.