I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 816 – Side Story 89: Lexer (2)

Lexer's eyes were sharp. Rudger realized why he was showing such a reaction. Judging from the fact that he had detected the presence of the intruders above, he was capable of managing and monitoring these ancient ruins overall.

Then, a group with hostile intentions had entered his surveillance network. He couldn't help but suspect cooperation with this side.

"Let me tell you, we have nothing to do with them. Or rather, if we do, it's in a bad way."

Lexer stared at Rudger as if to confirm whether that was true.

[......Well, fine. A mage of your caliber wouldn't bother telling such a meaningless lie.]

Lexer decided to trust Rudger's level and move on. If Rudger put his mind to it, he could dismantle this kind of place easily. There was no need to go through the trouble of bringing people along.

"Who came?"

[The numbers are quite large. And, the figures I can see faintly are...... Ha, well this is something.]

Lexer clicked his tongue after recognizing the other party.

[Aren't they bastards from the Lumensis Order? How did they get here? No, and some of those with them are even black mages? Is the world about to end? Those two groups joining hands?]

The Lumensis Order that Lexer remembered wielded the most powerful influence on the continent. They committed just as much tyranny. As an adventurer who pursued freedom, he had frequent conflicts with the Lumensis Order. There was no way they could be on good terms.

"Even black mages came? How do you know that?"

[They're openly wearing black robes bragging that they're black mages, so unless my eyes are broken, there's no way I wouldn't know. More than that, what happened to the world while I was dead? I never thought the Lumensis Order and black mages would join hands.]

"The Lumensis Order collapsed."

It was Casey who answered that question.

[What? Who collapsed?]

"The Lumensis Order. Their home country, the Holy Kingdom of Bretus, was completely destroyed. The Order's power was dismantled, and those remaining there are its remnants."

Lexer's eyes widened. Soon his mouth opened and laughter burst out.

[Puhahaha! That's truly the most refreshing news of my life!]

"I guess you weren't on good terms?"

[Not at all. Those bastards interfered with me at every turn and criticized my actions. They said my acts of exploring various ruins violated their rules.]

Rudger nodded, recalling the Lumensis Order's doctrine. Ancient ruins were legacies of the distant past. The Holy Kingdom of Bretus didn't want such ruins or relics to become known to the world.

'Above all, Lexer was a romantic who loved freedom. His very way of acting couldn't help but be an eyesore to them.'

If he were just an ordinary adventurer, they could have ignored him. But Lexer was in the golden period of his life, redefining 6th circle magic at the time.

His every word and action brought considerable ripples to society. From the Order's standpoint, they had to control him somehow. If that didn't work, they were prepared to use the extreme method of elimination.

[Those damn bastards would secretly tail me when I went exploring and try to kill me. At first they tried to persuade me, but when that didn't work, they attacked in earnest. Thanks to that, I fought a hell of a lot of battles. I nearly died so many times.]

He says that, but considering his journey to Hyperborea was safe, it looks quite different in hindsight.

[Anyway, the Lumensis Order? They're nothing less than my enemies. No, they're just mortal enemies. How could I not be happy that such bastards collapsed.]

"I-I see."

Casey nodded, realizing an unexpected fact. There was no story in Lexer's biography about him having friction with the Order. It was likely that the Order had intervened with publishers at the time and censored all stories related to themselves.

[Well, I'll hear about how those bastards collapsed later. Those guys upstairs are remnants, right?]

Lexer grinned. Veronica, feeling an odd sense of unease at that sight, asked.

"Um. Aren't you already dead? No matter how much consciousness remains, they are by no means opponents to take lightly."

[Oh, mademoiselle. Are you worried about me? I'll gratefully accept that passionate heart.]

"Ma, mademoiselle?"

Veronica's eyes widened at a word that had no connection to her.

[Don't worry. I haven't been bound to this ancient ruins for a long time for nothing.]

Lexer, in hologram form, raised his palm. Light shot out in a fan shape, drawing countless shapes in the air.

It was a map of the ancient ruins. In the three-dimensionally rendered map, red dots presumed to be the enemies' positions could be seen moving.

[I invested a long time to take control of this ruins' system. I haven't completely grasped all the functions yet, but.]

Lexer stretched out his hologram hand and grasped the area where the red dots were.

[Eliminating intruders is no big deal.]

-Kurururung!

Arius, who had been walking in front, raised his head and stared at the ceiling. When he stopped, the people following behind also stopped in unison.

"Commander. What's the matter?"

"Can't you hear this sound right now?"

"Pardon? Sound......"

The paladins listened carefully as Arius said. But they didn't particularly hear any sound. It was a sound subtle enough that only the commander Arius could hear it.

Arius rolled his eyes around for a moment, then his complexion changed drastically.

"Everyone fall back!"

The paladins didn't ask why. Since the commander's order had fallen, they quickly retreated.

-Kwang!

The ceiling of the place where they had been standing just moments ago fell and crushed the ground. If they had stayed still, they would have become meat paste along with their armor.

"What the hell is going on!"

Arius turned to look at the black mages and shouted.

"We don't know about this either!"

Rufus was just as flustered. They had thought about finding an opportunity once inside to drop those paladin bastards. But they swore, this incident was not their doing.

Arius and Rufus couldn't argue about the current situation.

-Kurururung!

The faint trembling became massive. The entire ruins roared like a beast. The ceiling descended, walls opened, and the floor split.

Like removing and newly inserting puzzle pieces to fit them together, the internal structure changed rapidly.

"Uaaak! S, save me!"

A priest who lost balance as the ground shook fell over. The ceiling fell like a hammer, targeting the priest.

-Kwajik!

With a gruesome sound, the priest's figure was covered by the massive weight. Red blood flowed abundantly from the gap between the floor and ceiling that met.

No matter how many protective divine spells they wrapped themselves in, they couldn't stop a mass of at least several dozen tons from falling.

"Uaaa! How dare you!"

Arius exploded with rage. Divine power burst from his body like a storm.

-Kuwaaaaa!

A storm of divine power raged around Arius as the center. The pure white light was ferocious rather than holy.

-Kwajik! Kwang!

The divine power Arius released was thinly compressed and became blades. Kiiing. The blades rotated and began to destroy all the structures inside the ruins.

The blades compressed with divine power contained enormous energy. Even hard walls were cut easily like cutting butter with a heated blade.

If it were the ruins in their normal state, they couldn't have been destroyed like this. But right now, the interior of the ruins was in the middle of organically changing by Lexer. During the moment when fluid structural changes were possible, it couldn't help but be vulnerable to external shocks.

-Kwarururung!

Walls crumbled and ceilings poured down. But Arius didn't stop. If someone tried to eliminate them with a trap, he just had to destroy the trap itself.

When the commander stepped forward, the other paladins also mustered courage and moved. They gripped heavy blunt weapons and infused divine power. Weapons strengthened with divine arts smashed the changing walls and protruding pillars.

When the situation ended like that, only the debris of the destroyed ruins remained around them.

"Where are those black mage bastards?"

Arius immediately looked for Rufus. But those bastards had disappeared somewhere and were nowhere to be seen.

"I-it seems they ran away while we were fighting."

"Cunning black mage bastards."

"Should we pursue them?"

"Forget it. We don't have time to spare on those rat bastards. We're heading straight to the very center of the ruins."

The ruins' defense system couldn't have activated suddenly. Not unless someone did it on purpose.

Arius's eyes burned with a sinister light.

[Oh no.]

Lexer was quite flustered when the red dots were fine.

[What kind of guys......]

"That's why I told you not to take them lightly. They're remnants, but they're that much more desperate. It would be troublesome to regard them the same as other paladins."

At Rudger's words, Lexer shut his mouth tight.

"So, are you activating other defense systems?"

[I am activating them, but I shouldn't use them carelessly. Even I haven't taken control of all the systems. Moreover......]

"This place's defense system isn't that strong."

Lexer nodded.

"I had a vague feeling. For ancient ruins, it's strangely lacking in countermeasures against intruders."

[It can't be helped. This ruins was built in the distant past to begin with. No matter how well maintained it is, there's nothing that can be done about some of the systems aging and going bad.]

"That too, but in reality, most of the safety devices feel like they've been delegated to the spirit beasts of the forest."

[That's......]

Lexer paused for a moment.

[I was going to explain after magnificently repelling the intruders, but I should tell you this first. This ruins is a kind of laboratory. It's a facility the ancient people made to confirm the results of experiments.]

"What kind of experiment?"

[Bioengineering.]

Rudger recalled the forest outside. From the strangely oversaturated mana there, to the geothermal heat and tropical rainforest that didn't suit the North Pole, and even the spirit beasts residing in divided territories.

"Don't tell me, the spirit beasts outside."

[That's right. They're entities born through the experiments of this facility.]

To think they made a facility that artificially raised spirit beasts.

[But too much time has passed, so the spirit beasts outside are virtually no different from wild animals. Since they weren't raised by human hands.]

"Even so, it's amazing. To think that vast forest itself was a single experimental site."

[Let's postpone the detailed story. It seems the paladins of the Lumensis Order have gotten properly heated up.]

On the hologram map Lexer had displayed, the red dots could be seen moving at high speed.

A few red dots could be seen fleeing in other directions, which were presumably the black mages.

[Since this is a laboratory protecting important experimental subjects, the internal security system isn't actually meticulous. If they carelessly brought in something dangerous, the laboratory could be ruined.]

"In other words, the current security system can't stop them."

[......If I had to say, that's right.]

Rudger turned his back, saying it couldn't be helped.

"Then can you turn off all security systems?"

[Turn them off?]

"Yes. So they won't operate no matter what happens."

[That's possible, but.]

"I'd appreciate it if you did that. I'll take care of those guys. Rather than leaving it to the ruins' half-baked security system, it's cleaner to do it with my own hands."

"I'll help too!"

When Veronica stepped forward, Rudger shook his head.

"Please stay here. It won't take long anyway."

"But for Sir Rudger alone......"

Veronica stopped speaking mid-sentence. Alone, would it not work? For that, the prowess Rudger had shown while coming here was too overwhelming. Didn't he suppress every spirit beast they saw with force?

Thinking about it seriously, it seemed possible.

"......Mm. I suppose so."

[Just in case, let me say this out of excessive concern, you can't rampage too much.]

Lexer also issued a warning. Considering Rudger's level, it wouldn't be strange even if he blew up the ruins.

"I'm confident in controlling my strength, so you don't need to worry."

Well, there's the handicap that an elephant has to fight inside an ant colony. But still, an elephant doesn't lose to ants.

"Here!"

-Kwang!

Arius kicked down the massive stone door.

As the stone door shattered, hazy smoke rose but Arius advanced without hesitation.

Though Lexer blocked the passage to buy time somehow, it wasn't enough to stop the paladins of Bretus.

Having descended deeper underground like that, he was soon able to face a man.

Arius felt the hair all over his body stand on end.

"Who are you?"

The man standing in the passage with a subtle blue tint stared this way. Those eyes were endlessly deep, making it impossible to read what he was thinking.

Even while facing the enraged paladins alone, he was calm as if observing a tranquil landscape.

"Is this all there is?"

Rudger asked in a voice tinged with disappointment.

"What?"

"I thought since you were remnants, there might at least be a cardinal-level one. In the end, this is the best these puppets with severed strings can do. Rather, I only feel disappointed."

"Dis, appointed? Disappointed?"

-Crack!

Veins bulged on Arius's forehead.

Divine power blazed like flames all over his body. A pure white halo rose above his head, and his cloak billowed without wind.

"How dare you babble such nonsense before me? I'll make you regret that statement. After I thoroughly crush your limbs, I'll confirm who you are."

Regret? Rudger responded to Arius's threat with a snort.

"Don't talk with your mouth and come at me right away. I want to finish this quickly too."

-Snap.

Arius' patience snapped.