Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 24 - Escape (I) - Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3

On Monday, when Raymond Clark in the form of "the first Sage"

performed on TV, the population's interest in Taurus Silver rose sharply. But the next day the interest began to fade away, and today, on Wednesday, it has ceased to be a topic of discussion among ordinary people.

There are no people in the world of magic who do not know the famous Taurus Silver. However, those who can use magic make up only one thousandth of the adult population. But this does not mean that 99.99%

of people live without magic, because some people are related to magic in the role of engineers, managers, politicians, soldiers and other civil servants, even without the ability to use magic in practice.

In recent years, even people who are engaged in magic began to appear, while speaking of the Anti-magician movement.

Quite a few citizens indirectly benefit from the use of magic for public order, national defense and disaster response. However, most people still live without a direct relationship to magic.

Magic is not a necessary factor for the life of modern society. At least in a social environment where you can live peacefully. Thus, even if the innocent magicians (better to say whose guilt is unknown) are harassed, they treat it indifferently. Being indifferent, you will not feel guilty.

Even if one high school student, known as Taurus Silver, tries to impose a future contrary to their will, for ordinary people it was no more than one third of the articles in the newspapers.

In the evening, when Tatsuya arrived at the temple of Kyuuchouji, this situation still remained unchanged.

18:45. Tatsuya left the train booth at a stop in front of the steps leading to the gates of the Kyuuchoji temple.

Nobody was with him. To come alone was one of the conditions for Tatsuya from Toudou Aoba.

Tatsuya, from the booth, looked slowly at the sides. Although he consciously acted so conspicuously to check... I mean, to show that he's checking that there's some kind of security around here, and that he's on the lookout, but he really couldn't find any signs of the observers.

There were signs of persecution, they just disappeared before he arrived at the foot of this hill, so it seems he was not mistaken.

It wasn't a coincidence. Perhaps the disciples of Yakumo (or even Yakumo himself) took care of it. As Yakumo does not trust the reception of guests (even if they are not invited guests) to inexperienced people making mistakes, Tatsuya decided that he did not need to worry about it.

Whom he should worry about--is about himself. Even Yakumo should not interfere with a personal conversation with the famous Toudou Aoba, a secret player in the backstage arena of the political and business world. But you can't be completely sure of that. Perhaps this place was chosen to check Tatsuya out.

Given this opportunity, he arrived 15 minutes early just in case. But if Yakumo is serious, it is extremely doubtful that so much time is enough.

Keeping this in mind, no matter how overzealous, Tatsuya went up the stone steps.

Unfortunately, Tatsuya fears came true.

Roughly in the middle of the path along the stone steps, the space around suddenly contorted. He was shown the illusion that the ladder began to increase...

No, that he himself began to shrink.

He realized that his consciousness was affected by magic. This characteristic continuous effect was the peculiarity of ancient magic.

Modern magic, on the contrary, gave importance to speed, and it did not have such features as a long action to maintain the effect.

With his sight, Tatsuya could see that reality and the illusion were overlapping. This was because Tatsuya was pushing out the interrupting spells that were trying to penetrate his mind with a Magic Sequence, reading the contents of these sequences of magic.

Even with magic acting on the Mind (Pushion information body), the sequence of magic was in the form of a Psion information body.

Although Tatsuya was not able to use Mental Interference Magic, if the Magic Sequence is in a state where the activation is not yet complete, he could defend against the magic of the enemy or even intervene with the spell.

This magic caused him to take some time to activate magic with his hand. If this wasn’t Tatsuya, he would have already become a prisoner to the illusion.

But he did not fall for the magic of illusions. Knowing Yakumo, he wouldn’t have expected this magic to stop Tatsuya. Kokonoe Yakumo was not a naïve adversary, continuing to use those methods that he has already shown that do not work. Once Genjutsu * does not work then move on to the next...

[The same magic of illusions, just apparently a term from ancient magic.]

"...Physical attack" It happened at the same time as Tatsuya said it to himself.

From two sides he was attacked by cutting vortices.

These were not vacuum blades. It was magic, which, with the support of the air, crushed stone to powder, condensed in the form of ultra plates and sent them into flight with high speed.

On the edges of the stone steps there were no hedges, only a grove.

Tatsuya instantly decomposed these four flying blades, flying from the darkness, which used to be nothing.

Of course, Yakumo’s attack should not have ended with this. A man named Kokonoe Yakumo was not so kind as to (even when he is not serious) to finish a case with two types of attack, Genjutsu and cutting vortices

The stone steps Tatsuya was standing on, were not long. This evening was cloudless and the moon shone. He was unable to see the temple gate even at night, but now everything in front of him was filled with impenetrable darkness.

And from this darkness flew arrows.

Close sounds were not heard. He could not feel any signs of magic, dampening sound, or signs of magic sending the arrows. Was it a magic trick to let out arrows without a sound, or a bow made to not make a sound when shooting?

Sending this thought to the far corner of the mind, Tatsuya sent the bulk of his consciousness to the rain of the arrows.

He laid out all the arrows as one aggregate. Applying magic, Tatsuya finally noticed that the arrows were intangible.

"Magic of false information bodies!?" It was not a simple illusion. It was Genjutsu, influencing the information dimension and deceiving vision, "seeing Information". This is a magic of the same type as

"Parade" which Lina specializes at.

It was a trick to expect that the attack would be something tangible.

Tatsuya aggravated all five senses and ran up the stone steps. There were no signs of any presence in front of him.

Tatsuya did not stop and slow down and cautiously moved forward, but at the same time he could not suppress a sense of surprise in himself, that was directly carried out.

In this battle, for the first time Tatsuya discovered the location of the enemy.

Sharpened hearing caught the sounds of rustling clothes.

Heightened smell of incense, which impregnated the clothing.

Heightened sight noticed the contour of the figure, which came out of the darkness. The figure was above him on the ladder.

Being below, Tatsuya was in a clearly disadvantaged position.

Tatsuya jumped.

When he was at the same height as the enemy, he pulled his leg forward for a blow, without fear that the situation would become uncomfortable.

The enemy curved the upper part of the body and dodged the jumping kick by Tatsuya. Flying past the remaining enemy, Tatsuya landed on a stone stage.

Now Tatsuya was higher. But now Tatsuya was in an insecure position, rotating back to the enemy.

Heightened touch caught the airflow. The enemy's attack was aimed at his back. Using Flash Casting, Tatsuya activated Move-Type Magic.

The magic activated with Flash Cast had a small scale and a low power.

The speed could be called the only advantage. But if you need to move only 60 centimeters, then with flash casting, it was not a problem. And to evade the enemy's fist, a distance of 60 centimeters was enough.

When the enemy's direct punch overcame a distance of 30 centimeters, Tatsuya was already twice as far away. The enemy's attack ended in a blunder. Tatsuya turned around and prepared to attack at the same time as the enemy began to move forward.

?

?

The edge of Tatsuya’s palm was at the enemy's neck. The enemy's Fist (Yakumo) was at Tatsuya’s armpit. Both of them stopped their hands on the verge of delivering a blow.

"Master. This was a pretty rude greeting."

"It's almost time. Come along. His Excellency is waiting."

Tatsuya looked at the watch. It showed 18:50. It's only been five minutes since he started climbing the stone steps. Tatsuya didn't think he could fight Yakumo in such a short time. It seems that Yakumo himself had chosen how long the fight would take.

Although Tatsuya limited himself as not to cause damage to the environment, he was serious in this battle. However, Yakumo was able to act so as to take the schedule into account. With a little regret, Tatsuya realized that he was still far from Yakumo.

When Tatsuya entered the main hall of the temple, there was no dust on his suit.

All of the consequences by Yakumo’s "prank" had been removed using

"Regrowth".

Yakumo led him into the inner room. Toudou Aoba expected him in the side room, which led him through a passage to the right of the main premises of the temple (where an altar of a deity stands, which is prayed to in the temple).

He had a suitably shaven head for a Buddhist temple. However, he was wearing a high-class business suit, clearly sewn to order. He easily held his back straight, his shoulders were wide, and the lower part of the body also had a dense physique. Signs of old age were already noticeable, but when he was young, he was undoubtedly a strong guy.

But at the same time, on his head, below his would-be hair is his most distinctive feature.

Bulging eyes under thick gray eyebrows. His face is not beautiful, it could be called Majestic. However, his turbid-white left eye caused a strange feeling of oppression of the interlocutor. This left eye created an impression of heterogeneity.

Tatsuya also paid attention to this left eye. He realized that he had already met this old man in this temple in January of this year, on the 4th, to be more precise. But they did not quite meet, he only saw Toudou by his back when he was leaving the temple. Toudou then turned and looked at Tatsuya with his murky white eye, but said nothing and left.

"Can I start introducing myself?" Tatsuya asked after sitting down on his knees and bowed.

At first he thought it would be better to sit quietly until Yakumo presents him, but then he felt that in this case he would be captured in the blink of an eye by the opponent's pace.

"Permitted."

The answer Toudou gave would sound like an anachronism if it were to be said by another person, but not by him. The voice of Toudou perfectly fit his manner of speech.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Shiba Tatsuya. It is a great honor for me to meet you."

"I am Toudou Aoba. Yotsuba Tatsuya, I've been looking forward to seeing you."

Toudou called Tatsuya "Yotsuba Tatsuya" instead of "Shiba Tatsuya".

Tatsuya, who was still in his bow, did not react to these words.

"You can raise your head. I permit you to talk directly."

Tatsuya straightened out like he was told. He did not look away, but looked Toudou straight in the eye. This was his interpretation of the meaning of "permit you to talk". But neither Toudou himself nor Yakumo reproached him for that.

"I heard from Maya. That you want to explain something to me."

"Yes."

Tatsuya didn't use such standard phrases, like, "Could you give me your time?" or "Could you listen to me?". He intuitively understood that Toudou did not need such formalities.

"I'm listening to you." And Toudou, indeed, immediately asked to go to the main topic.

"In short, I have a plan to build a plant that produces energy resources using magic."

Tatsuya said this as a preface, and began explaining the details of

"project ESCAPES". Toudou did not interrupt Tatsuya and listened to his whole story to the end.

"Clear." Toudou said after Tatsuya finished the story, saying he wanted to have a press conference as a means of retaliation in an information war that was announced by the two Clarks, Edward and Raymond.

"Then, can you allow me to go out in front of the media?"

"I give my permission. You can also use my connections to ask others for cooperation."

"Thank you very much."

Although Tatsuya said so, he did not feel joy, but vigilance. He concluded that everything went too well. Consent was not to be unconditional. There must have been some conditions. He was afraid he would be put in some impossible conditions.

"By the way, I want to ask you something."

"What's that?"

Tatsuya answered, without changing the expression on his face, but he could not get rid of the feeling that he was trying to evade the question.

Toudou may have noticed the alarmed Tatsuya, but did not take advantage of him.

"In your explanation, you mentioned that you are not looking for political power."

"Yes."

More precisely, he said that he is not going to ask for more power, if it does not interfere with the work of the plant, but he was not required to demand political power, so he did not dare to correct what Toudou said.

"I'm not just talking about the power plant. The power you possess is incomparable to anything. It's not just that it exceeds the limits expendable for one person. In fact, this is not something that may be allowed to any organizations other than the state."

Tatsuya didn't mind that. He himself seriously considered this the same as Toudou said. But despite this, Tatsuya was not going to give up his power or trust it to anyone.

"Why do you use this power? What do you want to achieve with this force?"

"A happy life."

Tatsuya responded immediately without showing any hesitation.

Hearing this answer, Toudou clearly frowned his eyebrows.

"Are you saying that this undeserved power of one man should only be used for one's own sake? Are you not interested in the welfare of society and the preservation of the state?"

"A happy life is impossible without the well-being of society. Also, I believe that at the current stage of human development, the existence of States is absolutely necessary for the maintenance of public order."

"I mean, do you mind giving your power to the state for your own well-being?"

"I would not use such arrogant phrases as 'giving power'... But if you look from the standpoint of public order and National Defense, you, Your Excellency, are correct."

"That's good. Yotsuba Tatsuya."

Toudou again called Tatsuya "Yotsuba Tatsuya". They sat opposite to each other and looked into each other's eyes. Seeing the expression on the face of Toudou, Tatsuya realized that he was not mistaken, and said so intentionally.

"I want you to do what I used to do. Be the deterrent force of this country."

The words of Toudou puzzled Tatsuya.

(What does he mean by deterrent force? Does he want me to officially announce that I am the user of Material burst? But then it cannot be called "the same as before...")

"...You want me to declare myself a magician of strategic class?”

Tatsuya decided not to waste time, rewinding his thoughts that were deadlock, and directly asked Toudou about his intentions.

"Now it is not necessary. But if you need to, do it."

"Does that mean that in case of a military threat, I have to confront it?

Like in the fall of two years ago?"

At the end of October 19th, Tatsuya destroyed the fleet of the Great Asian alliance with Strategic Class Magic. (Does it mean that he will have me play this role again in the future?)

"Deterrent power is the ability to stop a threat from becoming a reality.

The ability to confront a military threat that has become a reality is a conventional military force, not a deterrent force. The power of deterrence is something that is desirable, but should not be used."

But this probably wasn't what Toudou wanted.

"You don't understand?"

"It's a shame to admit, but I don’t."

In fact, he didn't fully understand what Toudou said. But Tatsuya decided not to speculate, but just to ask the right answer.

"This is nothing complicated for you. It is enough to deter other countries by instilling fear in them."

Understandable, mentally agreed Tatsuya. This was roughly the same conclusion he came to.

Apparently Toudou wants Tatsuya to play the role of the Demon King.

But not as the king of demons, as in an RPG, which must be destroyed by a hero. It’s more like a transcendental being who can cause disasters by simply reaching out.

"Your Excellency has previously said that it is desirable that a deterrent force should not be used. But to scare the enemy, don’t you need to show them your strength?"

"If there is a need to demonstrate, usage can’t be avoided. I'll leave that decision to the people behind you."

And it seems that he will not have to choose this remedy. Tatsuya recently wondered whether a deterrent force was a necessary evil.

Changing the activity of magicians from the military sphere to a civil one. As a result, the power of the military, which relies on the shoulders of magicians, will be reduced.

Magic is a force that is somewhat unrelated to the amount of material resources. The magicians that provide combat power are the aspect with which even small countries can confront large countries with many resources.

If the magicians' fighting power is not grasped, small countries will likely not be able to confront large countries. Unfortunately, it is easy to predict a future in which the world will plunge into the era of war if the four major world powers notice this and begin to absorb the world.

And if the world is again enveloped in the fire of war, magicians will start to be used as weapons again. Trying to improve the lives of magicians is a vicious cycle.

Perhaps to avoid such a future, he will inevitably have to become a deterrent force, replacing the lost fighting power of magicians who have gone into the civil sphere. Tatsuya thought so before he heard Toudou’s demand.

If Tatsuya becomes a deterrent force, then "Project ESCAPES" — the first step to releasing magicians from their fate as weapons — will receive not only the tacit approval of Toudou, but also his support.

Tatsuya had no reason to refuse.

"As Your Excellency wishes."

Tatsuya expressed his intention to accept the Toudou’s proposal with an indirect expression.

"Are you sure?" For the first time, Yakumo spoke, who until now only silently listened to the conversation between Tatsuya and Toudou. "In that case, you will be lonely."

"I don't mind."

atsuya really needs only one person. If this person is near, he will never feel lonely. The feelings of Tatsuya were arranged in such a way.

And he knew that this person, Miyuki, would never leave him. Even death will not be able to separate Tatsuya and Miyuki. Because he won't let that happen.

Being separated from other people was not a cause of concern for Tatsuya.

Yakumo’s warning did not frighten Tatsuya.