Otherworld TRPG Game Master

69 – The Mad Magician…?

What would the magician say to us?

Would he praise our efforts and acknowledge the hardships? Considering the way he acted in the classroom, the magician was a very practical person. Rather than wasting time with such words, he might just get straight to the point.

So words of comfort were also ruled out. If it was something fitting for that magician, perhaps he would ask if we had secured the shining scalene triangle, or tell us not to dawdle because the next task is busy. Maybe it would be a pressing remark like that.

Or maybe…

If the person is extremely malicious, one could anticipate words of reproach. Even after giving a generous six days, if there was no commendable progress, disappointment was to be expected. That’s how arrogant magicians usually were.

However, what the magician who entered the room uttered first was beyond any expectations, despite pondering all possible scenarios.

“Oh, um… you’ve awakened, everyone. Was it enjoyable?”

…It was a question significantly deviating from the usual sentiments.

—–

The magician had an unusually pale complexion, lazily twiddling his fingers in a passive manner—a demeanor quite different from what was displayed in the classroom. Benet and Niore tensed up.

A magician who seemed mentally unstable behaving differently was a dangerous sign.

However, since Tara was angered by the words the magician had just uttered, she failed to notice the magician’s transformation.

Tara blinked. It was a gesture consciously suppressed to conceal her bewilderment, as she never expected to hear such words in this situation. And fearing she might have misheard, she even asked.

“…En-enjoyable?”

“Ah, yes. Um…?”

As if wondering why he elicited such a reaction, the magician tilted his head. At a glance, it might have seemed like he genuinely wanted to know. Tara was incensed by his shameless attitude from head to toe.

She glanced around. Niore’s pupils were swirling with a cynical pessimism rather than innocent idealism. Beneath Venet’s facade of composure, his face was far from unblemished.

Considering she had lost Abraham and even her divine power, she herself wasn’t in perfect condition. But couldn’t that man sense the heavy atmosphere enveloping the surroundings?

Entering the barracks of a defeated army and asking if the defeat was enjoyable – it was akin to that. She could have accepted criticism for incompetence, but enduring such a biting remark was unbearable.

Tara shouted, veins popping on her neck.

“There’s no way it was enjoyable-!!”

In response, the magician pressed his index finger to his lips, making a brief shushing sound. Unlike stuttering in his previous speech, he confidently delivered his lines.

“Tara… Lady Saint. This is just an illusionary spell.”

“…What?!”

Tara trembled, fists clenched tightly. The absurd words that turned all her experiences into meaningless illusions had genuinely angered her. Observing the magician’s transformation from behind, Benet and Nioleto couldn’t help but be furious at those words.

This was an insult with obvious intent. In the past six days, how many had died? Describing it as a fleeting illusion, the magician openly belittled the journey of the three.

The magician, seemingly unprepared for such a passionate reaction, appeared bewildered.

“Uh, uh? Did, did she not say that…?!”

“Better to curse, better to ridicule! What kind of joke is this?! Do we have to twist everything into a mess to feel satisfied?!”

“You didn’t even say it was an illusion…?! No, well, not that!”

“This bastard is really──!!”

Tara grabbed the magician by the collar, slamming him against the wall. The magician, feigning surprise, quickly switched to a forced smile as if nailed to the wall.

“Uh, um, it seems there’s a misunderstanding between us. hahahahaha!”

Mocking her to the end.

Meanwhile,

Inverting the insane magician avatar and leaping through the channels in real-time, Yuna Urensto Violet Iris, the high priestess of the violet-eyed magic tower, thought like this.

…I have to fix this!

—–

If this crazy bastard isn’t hit with a prior notice, what should I do?

While Yuna screamed “whale, whale” in her mind, there was no one to hear it here. This resentment would have to be repaid with Yuna’s Beam. The output of Future Yuna’s Beam had increased by one level.

It was good to plan a strategy to at least partially heal the disciple’s head. The operation was progressing smoothly, and the mad magician was half asleep inside the simulation world.

Now, all they needed to do was defeat the wicked foreign body in the session…

“While insulting me might be acceptable, I won’t allow disrespect to Abraham’s death-!!”

Chop, chop, chop.

The situation of being grabbed by the collar and shaking like a reed in front of the saint was beyond expectation.

He had always navigated through bizarre situations with eccentric remarks. He had tangled with the crown prince and survived, and he had tangled with the princess and survived. Moreover, the victims of this session were the fresh and lively sprouts attending the academy.

So, thinking that, as he usually did, borrowing his lines and casually uttering them might lead to misunderstandings and be overlooked…!

Looking at the saint, whose eyes were about to turn upside down with anger, it seemed like the session or whatever would end with him trying to break their heads.

Moreover, this time, it seemed he hadn’t laid the groundwork that this was all just illusionary magic. The three believed firmly in dimensional magic, not illusions.

Then, while on a safe illusionary magic tour, how about helping me a bit? No.

It was a matter of convincing her to go to the dimension where the formidable foreign press lived to save people. The difficulty level had skyrocketed.

However, just now, she said it was an insult. The saint did.

Maybe it could be resolved by the next line. Yuna, with the expression of a magician avatar, sighed along with the lines.

“D, denying illusionary magic, what, what can you possibly gain by saying⋯⋯ Ah, no. I’m sorry!”

She stopped, fearing that if she continued with the lines, she might be murdered by the saint.

What to do. What to do for real.

Player participation was essential in Yuna’s plan. There wasn’t enough time to find someone else, and the three were exceptionally skilled. They had to somehow keep the session going.

Think. Think, Yuna⋯⋯!

At that moment, a memory from her past flashed through the young sorceress’s mind. The content of the manga she had read while lounging in a manga cafe during her exploration of modern civilization with him.

It was too late to politely say, ‘Please save the world, hero.’ Look at the eyes of the three. They were burning passionately. She had messed up the first button; she had to grab the concept firmly.

I am… I am a crazy sorceress saving the world!

—–

Pasasak.

“What… what is it?!”

The magician, who trembled like a reed in Tara’s grasp, suddenly turned into dust and scattered. Then, as if reassembling in a corner of the room, he appeared and spoke with a bright smile.

It was an exaggerated smile that reminded one of a clown’s makeup.

“How… have you managed to calm down your anger?”

“….”

“I thought you needed a place to vent your emotions.”

“…Are you saying you did it on purpose?”

In response to Tara’s question, the magician lightly nodded his head.

“Half true. Actually, the term ‘illusion magic’ is not wrong. Really.”

“…Explain more specifically, magician.”

“Well, Bennett. Um. I wanted to tell you that if you couldn’t save the world… that world would disappear like a fleeting illusion. Swallowed up by the news.”

The magician projected the image of a blue planet into the air. And also a continuously bubbling mass of large bubbles. After the bubbles passed by the planet, nothing remained there.

“Old man Abraham is dead. Only his research, which wanted to make the world better, remains. Now, it will be used to destroy the world. If you are not there.”

[Are you asking us to save this world?]

“Even if you didn’t say it, of course-!”

“Wait, Tara, Niore.”

Bennett stepped forward, interrupting the two of them. And as if trying to see through the expression, he stared piercingly at the magician’s face and asked.

“Why us. And… why?”

“Because I’ve been tracking the cursed sword. You… wanted to save people, didn’t you? Because you thought the cursed sword was dangerous.”

“Why, did you leave. Magician.”

“What… do you mean by that?”

Niore grabbed Beneath’s collar. Tarad, with an uneasy gaze, looked at him. Was Beneath thinking of leaving the group? It seemed so.

Beneath turned around and gestured with his eyes to the two. He had no intention of stepping back either. He just saw it as an opportunity to uncover what the magician’s scheme was. Trusting himself, he tapped the back of Niore’s hand.

Turning back to the magician, he continued with his questions.

“Why are you so obsessed with saving different worlds? Is that item, the shining isosceles tetrahedron, really that essential?”

“No, it’s not necessary.”

“In that case, it’s even more incomprehensible. The other world has no connection to our world. Even if it disappears, even if it becomes a living hell, it shouldn’t matter.”

“Well, that’s because even in other worlds, life is valued⋯⋯.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, magician. If you really valued life, you wouldn’t release monsters in the academy or turn classrooms into dungeons.”

“⋯⋯More, dungeons? Um. So, that’s⋯⋯.”

The magician pondered for a while, as if making a difficult decision. Finally, with a downward gaze, he spoke.

“⋯⋯Do you really think all of this is unique to another world?”

From Noble mtl dot com

“What?! W-What are you talking about!”

“Exactly as I said. Do you really think all of this is unique to another world?”

“⋯⋯That statement. Could it possibly mean that it might come over to our world⋯⋯?”

The magician seemed to nod his head, or maybe not. He made an ambiguous gesture. However, that alone was enough. It was difficult to believe easily, but it was not an implausible reason.

“Of course, many questions will remain. But as much as it is an undeniable truth that helps our world⋯⋯ I’ll see you next week. Goodbye.”

“Wai⋯⋯!”

The magician disappeared as if erased from the air.

A moment of silence passed among the three remaining in the room. It was an unbelievable and heavy truth. Niore cautiously wrote.

[⋯⋯Is it really true?]

“There’s no reason to lie… If it’s for reasons like the Second Prince sending a magician to the academy or being a backup…”

“Well then, what about us…Vennet?”

“……”

Vennet remained silent as if he had something on his mind. After a long moment of contemplation, he cautiously spoke up.

“I think the magician’s words… are true. I have something to check. Later.”

“Just a moment. What’s going on, Vennet!”

Without saying anything else, Vennet dashed off somewhere.

—–

Vennet Hilton knew about the evil plans of the dark magicians unfolding at the academy. It was the spell called ‘Nightmare Summoning,’ which gathered and amplified the negative emotions of the academy students.

No one knew what was being summoned. All that was known was that it was something that could drive a person insane with just a glance.

If the magician’s words were true.

The nightmares that the dark magicians would summon might be…demons from another world.

If the mad magician’s goal was to stop that, then it made sense that he had filtered out the dark magicians from the very first day of class. Stirring up trouble by hiding the cursed sword was to find talented individuals who could leap into this other world. Every action of the magician was intentional.

Vennet was going to check the final piece of the puzzle.

He ran. The basement of the abandoned building at the academy was his destination. That was where the core of the summoning plan was. The magic circle that amplified emotions was installed there.

If the mad magician had somehow obtained information about the ‘Nightmare Summoning,’ he would have taken measures here as well, at the core.

He pulled back the carpet. A door leading to the basement came into view.

As Vennet descended the ladder, he could confirm the remnants of a shattered golem and a modified magic circle that exhibited completely different effects.