Chapter 31
The next morning, I was sitting at the dining table nibbling on a piece of bread, when Qifeng, who had already left early, rushed back in!?
She stood in the entryway without even taking off her shoes and said frantically, “It’s bad, something terrible is happening—! The Imperial Guard is clashing with the occ…” fix
I was so shocked, I almost dropped my bread.
“Crap—! There are a lot of Magic Academy students among the protestors!”
Lian Qi and I looked at each other, immediately put down our half-eaten breakfast, and rushed out the door.
This just happened to be the fourth day that the “anti-smog, anti-Mana Furnace” protestors had occupied Turin Square.
Along the way, we hurried toward Turin Square through the smog. Qifeng said as we walked, “The incident started when someone in the protest march led a group to charge the royal palace, wanting to petition the Queen. And then the army came.”
“I just hope this doesn’t turn into a bloody incident.”
“Fei’er, in a little while, I want to challenge something.”
Lian Qi suddenly said this to me. I went “Eh?”, looking at her, incredulous.
“But I’m not one hundred percent confident,” she said, looking at me.
“You can do it. I believe in you,” I encouraged her, hoping my smile could fill that little bit of confidence she was missing.
Lian Qi just gave me a knowing smile, but didn’t tell me what she was going to challenge. So mysterious…
Even though the smog was thick, we luckily didn’t get lost and arrived at Turin Square smoothly.
As far as the eye could see, the two sides were at a tense standoff. On one side was a human wall formed by the fully-armed Imperial Guard. On the other was the protest crowd of several thousand, holding banners under the shroud of smog, looking like thousands of ghosts.
The crowd chanted slogans from time to time—“Abolish the Mana Furnace! Eliminate the miasma! Give us back our blue sky!” “Abolish the Mana Furnace! Eliminate the miasma! Give us back our blue sky!”
“Everyone, stop—!”
I left Lian Qi and Qifeng behind and rushed forward first. I don’t know where I got the courage, but I stood between the two groups.
When the crowd saw clearly that I was the Saintess, they quieted down considerably. This result made me sigh in relief.
A second later, Qifeng and Lian Qi also rushed to my side.
“Fei’er? That’s too reckless! What if they rush you?” Qifeng spread her arms to block me, facing the sea of protestors as she spoke to me.
“It’s the Saintess—!” A young woman at the very front of the protest line pointed at me and shouted to the crowd. Then, her eyes welled with tears as she clasped her hands.
“O, Saintess of the Holy Light! Please stop those mages from continuing to destroy the home we depend on for survival!”
Before I could say anything, a large swath of people had knelt before me.
My intention in appearing was to stop a bloody conflict. I was really worried a scene like thousands of people kneeling for a petition would happen. I can’t handle this…
I saw a girl in a Magic Academy uniform desperately trying to squeeze out from the crowd.
“Saintess-daren, I am a student at the Magic Academy! But right now, I feel like magic is going to destroy everything!”
She pointed at the smog in the sky—
“Surely you’ve seen it, right? Living under a sky like this, don’t you have the same thoughts as me?”
I felt she was a bit of a lost cause… another child poisoned by the Demon King’s plan. Even without the student council corrupting them from within, are they still so easily influenced by the outside world?
“To be honest, we’re not afraid of death! We just don’t want to live like this!” a female environmentalist shouted, holding up an anti-magic sign, drawing an active response from the crowd.
What should I say? I looked toward Lian Qi. She looked at the protestors coldly and said, “Isn’t it just smog? I’ll help you take care of it.”
Once this was said, the protestors were in an uproar. Even I looked at her, incredulous.
These people saw Lian Qi was wearing a Magic Academy uniform and accused her one after another: “What way do you have to take care of it? You’re a mage too, aren’t you?”
The crowd echoed with voices of condemnation.
Lian Qi was unconcerned. She whispered to me, “Fei’er, do you remember what I said to you before we came?”
I blinked blankly. Could she be talking about that thing she wasn’t one hundred percent confident about?
“I remember.”
“So.”
She took a step closer to me.
“So?”
“I need you to restore my mana.”
She whispered, then rushed over and kissed me!
She actually kissed me… in public!?
And it wasn’t just a “peck” and done. My mind went blank. Lian Qi’s hands wrapped around my back, caressing my long hair. Her tongue—uwaah! I can’t describe it!
A moment later, she let me go—amidst the astonished cries of the onlookers—
Amidst the astonished cries of the onlookers, she released me. I felt like I was floating, my legs a little weak.
The crowd exploded.
“Who in the world is she!?”
“Could it be… the Saintess likes girls?”
Lian Qi kissed me in front of so many people. I was both ashamed and embarrassed, a complete mess.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I covered my lips with the back of my hand, full of shame. My face was so red it was practically smoking!
“Is this the effect you wanted? Now everyone in the whole city will know!”
“What, are you shy?” Lian Qi smiled, looking at me.
”…”
I really don’t know what to say!
“Leave the rest to me.” Lian Qi turned her back to me, and her entire body erupted with an astonishing blue magic! The force of it momentarily silenced the murmuring onlookers.
I watched as she just kept gathering magic, gathering magic, endlessly gathering magic! Even I don’t know what she’s planning to do.
Could it be…
Is she planning to use all her magic in one go?
An environmentalist shouted at her, “It’s because there are people like you who abuse magic that the environment is—”
Lian Qi struck!
At the sky!
At the smog!
She threw a punch!
Kacha, kacha, kacha.
It was the sound of a mirror shattering.
With that one punch from Lian Qi, the smog developed cracks, as if it were a shattered mirror.
Then, the cracks spread out from the point of her punch, across the sky, quickly passing over the heads of the dumbfounded crowd, until they stretched across the heavens.
I watched with my own eyes as a high-energy reaction surged from every single crack!
“This… This explosion magic is a little too exaggerated, isn’t it?…”
BOOM—!!!
The smog exploded!
Lian Qi’s explosion magic blasted the smog enveloping us. To me, it just looked like she was venting at the sky. Logically, it shouldn’t have any effect on “curing” the smog. However, a bizarre scene occurred!?
The sky—no, the smog actually collapsed!?
Are you kidding me? The smog doesn’t have a physical form. How could it collapse from an explosion?
But it really is crashing down! Like a gray cloud pressing down. As it fell, it occasionally discharged arcs of electricity, just like thunder in a rainstorm.
The protestors panicked! In an instant, everyone was swallowed by the falling smog. Although it didn’t cause any harm, the visual effect was still quite terrifying.
I covered my mouth and nose with my hand. It was pure chaos, I couldn’t see a thing. This state lasted for several seconds, and then the smog rose back into the sky. The surrounding visibility returned.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The smog that had enveloped us… was gone!?
I looked up. The sky was actually… blue. What? We can see the sun again!?
Then where did the smog go? Where did the smog that covered the Royal Capital go?
“Fei’er, look, what’s that,” Lian Qi said, pointing at the sky.
I looked in the direction she was pointing. I saw the smog that had originally covered the entire Royal Capital rapidly gathering into one spot, condensing into a… cotton candy?
“There was never any smog.”
Lian Qi said, in an icy tone, pointing at the “cotton candy” in the sky, speaking to the environmentalist protestors.
“You’ve all been deceived. The so-called smog from the Mana Furnace pollution… is just an illusion created by someone’s magic!”
“So that’s why you used explosion magic just now?” I asked.
“Mm. My explosion magic hit it, and… it hurt it, so it had to reveal its true form,” Lian Qi said proudly.
“When did you figure that out?”
“I noticed it when we left the city. The smog was like a dome, perfectly covering the Royal Capital. Didn’t that seem strange? Plus, they’ve been using slanderous methods to stir up trouble. So I started to wonder if the smog was also a scam.”
“That’s impossible—! You must be the one lying to us!”
“Yes, you’re the one lying! You’re the liar!” Someone shouted, still lost in their delusion.
That “cotton candy” quietly floated in the air. After all the smog had become a part of it, it was as if it had its own consciousness… it suddenly moved! It swooped down from the sky, grazed the heads of the environmentalist protestors, and then performed an… ‘acrobatic flip’ in the air?
A torrential downpour rained from the sky, soaking the protestors like drowned rats. They yelled and screamed miserably, and the thousands of people scattered in all directions, holding their heads. The scene descended into unprecedented chaos. The flow of people instantly separated me from Lian Qi and Qifeng.
I looked around anxiously. Lian Qi, Qifeng… I couldn’t find them in the chaos. There were just people fleeing everywhere, soaked to the bone.
I smacked my forehead in annoyance. Really… this is the second time I’ve been separated from Lian Qi! From now on… I have to hold her hand tightly.
Just at that moment, an aged voice sounded from behind me—
“Lian Qi is the transmigrator from another dimension, isn’t she?”
My heart leaped.
I whipped my head around.
In that moment, I met Professor Einstein’s eyes. He was smiling kindly at me, with countless figures passing between us.
“This matter… I haven’t told the Demon King.”
I froze. He… he really is!?
“…What do you want?”
“Let’s talk. Come see me tonight at seven o’clock, in the Mana Furnace’s core control room. Remember… come alone.”