School Arc – Chapter 13

Art’s injuries were a dislocated left arm and a bone fracture on his right leg. It seems he had fallen from the stairs.

Since it happened at the dormitory’s stairs, there were many witnesses. From the moment when Art, who was walking alone, dazed and unusually without his entourage, fell down the stairs, up until the moment he seized the handrail with his left arm in panic, but unable to regain his balance and tumbled down – the students were all there to witness it.

Since Art seemed to have been dishing out complaints that the painkillers weren’t working at all, by the time Wolf and Shade rushed in, I was at ease for the moment.

Nevertheless, it didn’t change the fact that he sustained serious injuries. It seems like his followers were all very distraught, and because the female students weren’t allowed inside the male dormitories, they were especially heartbroken.

But well… there are doctors who use healing magic in the school. Even if this was considered a big deal, Art should have come back to school healthy after 2-3 days at home.

However, he didn’t come to school, disregarding what was widely expected of him.

If one were to ask why, it’s because Art was throwing a tantrum.

That boy, who was being an inconvenience to others, said this:

『Until Lycoris comes to visit me, I won’t go back to school』

That… seemed to have been what he said.

The moment I heard this, I was annoyed.

“Hah?”, like a yakuza, I made a sound that would even turn delinquents pale. In my head, that is.

After all, the one who came to relay these words of Art was just someone amongst Art’s followers, a girl in the same year as Art. She meant no ill intention from it.

Although in a fit of anger, I intentionally ignored the request, that actually ended up tying to another disturbance.

When I heard that Lily was called out by Art’s follower in the pretense of 『wanting to apologize or something』, I hurriedly rushed out of my classroom. A feeling of deja vu, that something like this has just happened quite recently, cut in.

Actually, since I was also thinking of talking to Lily today even if I had to summon her out, this meant someone beat me to the punch.

In any case, I wasn’t deluded enough to think that his followers would call Lily out just to apologize.

Their thinking, sad to say, was something I quickly ended up guessing. In short, they speculated if things go well, they could use Lily in order to make me go visit Art.

A scene where his followers put Lily on the spot by prostrating themselves before her came to mind.

But then, what I saw when I rushed in, was a much more terrifying sight.

With a crash, a loud destructive sound was made.

As it reflected in the sunlight, the torrent of glass rained down over Lily and the group.

Though it was quite pathetic of me, I simply stared at the scene in shock.

Once I finally came to my senses, I saw, amidst the flying glass shards, Art’s followers suffering small cuts on the bare portions of their skin such as the face and hands.

There were probably some who got hit by the unfortunately large shards, besides the male students, who were dripping blood from their arms plain enough even for an onlooker to see, several remained where they were, unable to stand up, either due to fear or surprise.

Big or small injuries aside, objects that could turn into lethal weapons were falling from above in large quantities. I wonder how terrifying it must be. At any rate, I, at least, had to calm down, I told myself.

Since there was a boy who rushed over here after spotting me, I halted him by shouting「don’t run!」.

「Move calmly and slowly so you don’t get injured by the glass. You musn’t scrape off the broken glass on your clothes with your hands」

The property which makes it difficult for things like a car’s window glass to hurt the human body is famous in modern day Japan, but the glass fragments here form rough sharp edges when they break, so it is dangerous indeed. When I glanced up, the large glass window on the second floor was completely void of glass, its frame the only thing intact.

I observed the state of the male student’s injury, which looked to be a deep cut made in his haste, then pressed down on the blood vessel to stop the bleeding.

Even though it was a little ironic that the teachers quickly rushed over all thanks to the loud noise, I was still thankful for it.

「Lily! Are you hurt!?」

I called out to Lily, who was all by herself, paralyzed on the spot a short distance away. Face dreadfully pale, she looked like she was about to collapse at any time.

「Lycoris…」

Muttering in a scarcely audible voice that was so unlike Lily, she cast her eyes down as if afraid of something.

There wasn’t any visible injury I could see on her, so for the time being, I was relieved.

「Anyway, go to the medical office if you can walk」

I pinched Lily’s dress and tried shaking off glass from it. But, not even one glittering shard fell from her dress.

Then, for the first time, I started to realize that the glass fragments were not falling around Lily. It was completely clear of falling debris, almost as if the shards were avoiding her.

Lily, as if she was afraid of something, continued to look down.

These details… spread throughout the school in a flash.

Even if we can’t conceal the amount of damage that came out, there was something I was dreading very much.

（At that time…）

When I heard the crash, a fragment of glass fell down. Logically speaking, when something collides with glass that’s attached to a window frame, broken shards will fall down. If the broken pieces fell outside, the possibility that it was smashed from inside the building was high.

However, if it was just something that collided into the window, it was strange that not a single glass remained on the frame.

A power that could single-handedly hit the entirety of the large window glass, in this school, it’s obvious to infer that 『it was magic』.

In short, the glass piece broke due to magic, then rained down on top of a mass of people. it only avoided one person.

My fear was soon becoming a reality.

Inside the school, one rumour had spread as if it was a fact.

That the incident which happened today was due to Lilium Valley’s magic. No… they’re saying that to begin with, Arutad Brugmansia’s injuries were done by Lilium as an act of revenge.