Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase01

Phase 01: Academy Towers – Magic School

Part 1

“Gwohhhh!? Wait, dangerous individual!? Is this more of that mysterious mental training!?”

“Coach☆”

The sun had risen, signaling the arrival of morning.

Fluffy blonde-haired Teleria shook the frying pan on the stove while hearing Mamilis and Henrietta’s voices through the thin wall. She was back after so long and the stove’s heat was as inadequate as she remembered. She piled plates full of tropical-style stir-fried vegetables with an accent of lemon while noting that the dark elf almost sounded like she was enjoying herself. Even though she must have been pulled into the blanket with Ayato while he rolled around during his “self-maintenance”.

Instead of placing the used frying pan in the dishpan, she reused it by adding some shrimp sauce and pasta. It was wrong to assume every kind of pasta should be cooked al dente. With a thick, seafood sauce, the noodles would be overpowered if they were too delicate. That was why she pressed them against the bottom of the frying pan to fry them. The occasional crunchy parts which provided a small surprise were the secret to making the tropical-style really stand out.

She added the pasta to everyone’s plates, but she still had one last job for the frying pan before placing it in the dishpan full of water. She was going to get all the use out of it she could.

She was in newlywed wife mode with a lacey apron over her blue blazer uniform and she grabbed the frying pan and spatula before moving to the other room. She banged the two metal objects together.

“That’s enough, Ayato. Breakfast is ready, so you need to wake up. Yes, I mean actually wake up.”

“Gwuh?”

“I-if you are done with that frying pan, hand it here, Teleria! I will split open this dangerous individual’s head with it!!”

Striker Henrietta blushed and shouted at the attacking human-sized amoeba (Ayato had his arms around her hips, his nose rubbing against her navel, and the top of his head pushing up her breasts), but Teleria didn’t want a funeral to ruin the breakfast she had put so much effort into making. Perhaps the eaters couldn’t understand how much work went into preparing the food.

At any rate.

Ayato rubbed his eyes with one hand, placed his other hand against the wall, and unsteadily walked toward the food he could smell. The thin wall made disconcerting sounds when he leaned his weight against it. Instead of pure mana-conducting silver, this was an inferior product made by mixing in scrap metal. There was a simple fireplace that burned bluish-white solid fuel, but the early morning chill still managed to sneak in through the thin walls.

Now, you are probably wondering something at this point.

Where are they right now?

“Wow,” childishly exclaimed Dark Elf Mamilis, her long ears twitching.

The fluffy blonde-haired girl kind of wished that was in response to seeing her breakfast.

The silver-haired girl had her fingertips on the windowsill and her eyes directed outside.

“That’s incredible. It’s called the Academy Towers, right? It’s so much more impressive now that the sun is out.”

A bell rang in the distance.

It was still too early for classes, so that would be the bell for morning training. Instead of a single giant bell in a belltower, a simple melody played from all the Media Summoners installed around.

“I don’t see what’s so impressive about this place compared to the sky city built atop a 100 thousand esoule area of floating land. Is this an example of ‘the grass is always greener’ phenomenon?”

Sleepy Ayato was more interested in Teleria’s cooking.

Behind the black-haired boy with bedhead, the dark elf was glued to the glass to view the distinctive scene outside. That angle was in fact one use for the photos in the pamphlets and website for prospective students.

A ring of mountains formed a natural fortress.

Several stone towers rose high into the sky at the center. Each tower was the finest school on the continent for a specific field of study and there were walkways connecting the towers at various levels. Viewed from above, it might have looked like a strange constellation.

The towers were different heights, but the tallest one was more than 1000 esoule. The place was the ultimate toy for the world’s geniuses, a research facility for the Static Continent’s greatest sorcery technology, and a collection of all the most unmanageable eccentrics.

Ayato and Teleria had once gone here.

It was a collection of schools for sorcery guns, mist mana networks, and every field of magic.

“I’m surprised,” said Striker Henrietta after sitting at the table and saying a prayer. “With all those big towers, I thought for sure they would include student dorms or at least some kind of residential area on the higher floors.”

“The towers are no more than schools, so they don’t include dorms. Although admittedly, there are plenty of students and teachers who abandon a comfortable lifestyle to spend all their time in the labs and special classrooms.”

“Yeah, I used to see a fair number of people sleeping curled up under a desk. When the deadline for sorcery projects was approaching or just before the demonstration of everyone’s original sorcery devices, there would be so many people in the towers I would see people sleeping near the entrances of the bathrooms.”

Henrietta appeared to regret her observation after receiving an explanation from the two in blazer uniforms. It didn’t take a mind reader to know whether she considered the students here to be geniuses or eccentrics.

Mamilis turned around and sat at the table.

“That’s why all these boxes litter the ground below the towers, right?”

“They are known as mobile homes, Miss Mamilis. Learning things already?”

Mobile homes were marginally better than an RV. And since this was a stationary “village”, they were all hooked up to gas, water, and the sorcery network.

“Let’s review the basics,” began Ayato while poking at his citrusy stir-fried vegetables with a silver fork. “There are signs of criminal activity within the Academy Towers. I investigated it myself, so there is little room for doubt. I do not know what is hidden here, but if nothing is done about it, we will see more incidents like the one at Laguntreat. So instead of running around putting out each new fire, I have decided to infiltrate the Academy Towers and cut it off at the source.”

This was of course directly related to his own past.

Unlike Henrietta, he was not currently fighting for any kind of public good. He had chosen the path of a Sorcery Hacker who broke the rules to reach the truth, so he couldn’t paint such a pretty picture of himself.

But while he wanted to continue researching his personal past, he also wanted to avoid causing any more major incidents that harmed other people through the attempts to obstruct him and cover up the secrets.

Enough with cutting off the branches and leaves.

It was time to take an axe to the trunk.

But not even that was enough. If there were deep roots to this disaster, he would have to dig up the dirt and sever those too.

“I’m sure a Sorcery Hacker like you is going to sneak around and steal some information through illicit means, so do I just get to sit this one out?”

Henrietta gave him a displeased look while twirling up the seafood pasta on her fork. She must have liked the pasta because she ate far more of it than the vegetables. Teleria made a mental note to not split the pasta and vegetables into two different dishes like that next time.

Ayato shrugged.

“Sky City Celedileka was one thing, but the revolver guy and Jennifer at Laguntreat appeared to be targeting us in particular. Dealing with this as soon as possible is our best course of action. Miss Henrietta, I would greatly appreciate it if you would assist me in preventing the next tragedy before it begins.”

“What about me, Coach?”

“I have plenty for you to do as well, Miss Mamilis.”

When he rubbed her head, the tall and slender dark elf held her head high and wiggled her long ears like a proud child, but Henrietta did not look pleased. She looked like a grandmother seeing her naïve granddaughter falling in with a bad crowd.

Teleria asked a question while using a handkerchief to wipe the tropically-flavored shrimp sauce from Mamilis’s mouth.

“But, Ayato. Where are you going to check? The Academy Towers are a big place. There are more than 10 towers in all.”

Ayato had an immediate answer to that.

“The Gem Science Gemboard Processing Tower.”

“…”

Mamilis held her fork in her mouth and gave Ayato and Teleria a puzzled look. The carefree way she kicked her legs below the table showed she did not understand the meaning behind this short silence.

The Sorcery Hacker smiled.

“It sounds like you have already informed them, so I will just come out and say it: that is the last place I ever wielded that revolver. That is also where I dismantled it and threw all the parts into a blast furnace. But now it seems that devil revolver holds a central position to something much bigger. I don’t know if someone repaired it or if there are spares, but that is where I will find information related to it. Not only was it the scene of that incident, but it is also where sorcery guns are produced and processed. It can’t hurt to sneak in there and perform some detailed research.”

“Makes sense.”

The silver-haired girl expressed her understanding, but she was more focused on the breakfast in front of her. Her long ears twitched happily as she began dumping the stir-fried vegetables on top of the seafood pasta for a custom dish all her own. They had very different flavors, but they went together well when she added plenty of cheese powder. It worked so well that Teleria’s eyes widened when she made a small test serving of it on a small plate for herself.

The dark elf girl may not have remembered the details of the incident.

But Striker Henrietta was a different matter. She had belonged to a law enforcement team that specialized in criminal investigations in the sky city. Any information remotely crime-related would never escape her memory.

She had been given crucial information regarding Ayato and Teleria’s past during a girl’s talk session back in a sky city inn.

“(Teleria.)”

“(Yes, he means that.)”

They did not speak out loud.

They communicated with only eye contact and lip movements.

“(That is also the school tower where I was taken hostage and Ayato shot my brother with that devil revolver.)”

That was the crux of the matter.

The Sorcery Hacker had come here in order to reclaim the past he had abandoned himself.

Part 2

After finishing breakfast, doing their hair, and brushing their teeth with a toothbrush cloth wrapped around a finger, Ayato’s group left the mobile home.

“Coach, wait a moment.”

Mamilis hurriedly stopped him while she brushed up her beautiful silver hair and put earrings on her long ears. That neatly hid her most distinctive trait as a dark elf. The earrings were a type of sorcery tool known as a Mimic Option.

Once outside, the mountain chill helped focus their mind.

It was breakfast time and a bit cold, but there were a surprising number of people out and about.

In fact…

“Coach, what are they doing? They’re having a cookout!!”

“Yeah, the mobile home’s makeshift stove is pretty weak.”

These students had an impressive setup, but only because a bob cut girl from the Cooking Club and a muscular macho from the Mountain Climbing Club were taking command of all the outdoor grills.

Ayato glanced over at them.

“Also, they say it’s easier to clean up afterwards if you do the smelly meat cooking outside.”

“They say? Ayato, it is long since time you learned how to cook yourself!”

“She has a point, dangerous individual. Then again, maybe that is asking too much of someone with no beneficial talents.”

“Oh? But, Miss Henrietta, you never cook either and your specialty is violence.”

The criminal’s teasing nearly got him an axe bayonet to the head, so Teleria and Mamilis had to hold the agent of justice back.

“Coach, can we have a cookout too!?” asked Mamilis from that pile of three different types of soft skin.

“Miss Teleria is in charge of the cooking, so you would need to convince her. But word of warning: upset her and you will be stuck with a single rock-hard piece of bread for dinner.”

One look at Ayato and Teleria was enough to know Academy Towers students all wore blue blazer uniforms.

Not everyone was wearing those, of course. The students tending to charcoal fires outside included girls in gym clothes like athletic bloomers and bike shorts. Mamilis seemed puzzled by the Cheer Squad girls who were practicing in their red midriff-baring miniskirt costumes. None of these outfits were ever seen outside the Academy Towers. For Dark Elf Mamilis, they all made her feel like she was visiting a foreign continent.

Mamilis herself was carrying a full-auto shotgun on her back and Henrietta wore her bolt-action carbine with axe bayonet at her hip. They made no attempt to hide them in a musical instrument case or anything like that, yet no one panicked. That was partially because sorcery guns could be used as the trigger for household magic, but that wasn’t the only reason.

This was the Academy Towers.

A lot of people here carried around experimental sorcery guns either to research a prototype or to perform verification tests. Those rough, large, and bizarre silhouettes did not stand out here. At the same time, crystal darts, divination sticks, and other experimental Linkage Plugs and Monitors were common too.

That was just the kind of place it was.

The students in blazers and gym clothes viewed military sorcery guns and hacking tools as no more than an academic subject.

For that reason, it was Mamilis and Henrietta’s clothing that stood out the most. Even though their clothing would have been perfectly normal in the average castle town or city square.

The armored young woman fidgeted uncomfortably.

“I don’t know how you filthy Sorcery Hackers do things, but should we really be so conspicuous? I thought you snuck around to steal data.”

“Don’t worry. Most everyone wears uniforms, but not everyone everyone. There are plenty of students who don’t wear one.”

“Really?”

“Yes, like the sad people who walk around in the nude.”

“Hand me a uniform! Hurry!! I am a proud Striker from a noble family!! I cannot afford to be viewed in the same category as an international pervert!!”

She shook Ayato by the collar, but he did not have a girl’s uniform to give her. He was sometimes a little tempted during Teleria’s baths, but he was a pervert with enough restraint to not cross that line.

Meanwhile, a voice called out to him from far across the schoolyard.

“Huh? Is that Ayato I see?”

“Hey, Ayato!!”

The sudden and loud voices made Mamilis jump, shrink down, and bring her hands up to her ears. Her pointy dark elf ears were hidden by the Mimic Option, but the action was reflexive.

But Ayato did not run or hide. In fact, he waved back.

“Yes, everyone’s favorite ace has returned.”

“You’re not supposed to say that yourself. You’ve been skipping class this whole time, but they haven’t counted it against your attendance or grades, have they? Damn, I wish I had that kind of goodwill built up, Hex.”

The approaching boys mussed up Ayato’s black hair or put their arms around his shoulders. It was a lot more cheerful than some dark greeting criminals would use to exchange coded secrets.

Ayato let them do it.

“So has the dining hall menu changed any?”

“After as long as you’ve been gone? Of course it has, dumbass. Oh, I bet that means you don’t know they have a smoothie machine now.”

“And keep an eye out for the new waitress. They’ve hired a real person, not just some ghost or a doll someone designed.”

After some quick catching up, the boys left.

Henrietta looked puzzled.

“Y-you were noticed. I thought we were supposed to be sneaking in.”

“I am technically a student here, remember?”

Ayato used a hand to roughly fix his mussed-up hair.

And he had some bitterness in his voice.

“Also, I used to be known as the strongest Forward. Like that one boy said, I still have a lot of goodwill built up here.”

Basically, the hard part had been reaching the school where his reputation as an ace meant something. The Academy Towers would not protect him if he was captured as a wanted criminal outside their grounds.

On his official record, he was the ultimate Forward who had never made a single mistake.

He was the hero who had rescued a girl from her hostage and reclaimed the school tower.

Not how I would describe needlessly killing someone, thought Ayato with a self-deprecating smile.

“But do not let your guard down. That goodwill does not apply to everyone. For example, the Student Council that rules over the Academy Towers. The students at the bottom might support me, but one word from those at the top and they all turn on me. Their adoration of me does not make them allies.”

“You call it adoration yourself?”

“It is an accurate description. Again, do not let your guard down. Do not forget that we are sneaking in under unnatural circumstances.”

Henrietta wasn’t sure what to think about this. It was difficult for her to accept that a wanted criminal could be adored as an ace and a popular guy.

After a group of Track Team boys jogged past them while shouting in unison, the four of them entered the closest school tower. The doormat on the floor rippled more finely than a washing sponge and automatically removed the dirt from their feet. Straitlaced Henrietta wasn’t used to that feeling on the bottom of her feet because she yelped and then quickly cleared her throat while blushing.

Ayato’s group had entered the closest of the many towers.

Mamilis tilted her head and stared at the sign on the wall.

“This is the, um, mana tower?”

“The Mana Science Data Network Construction Tower.”

Ayato’s clarification only made Mamilis look more confused.

“Oh, it’s warm in here,” said Henrietta when she crossed the threshold. She placed a hand on her hip and gave a confused look around. “But this isn’t from a fireplace. The heat seems to be rising from the floor.”

“The school towers have fairly largescale heating systems. I thought the sky city used hot steam too, but was floor heating uncommon there?”

Outside, they had been walking on plain ground without even a stone pavement, but things changed as soon as they stepped inside. The hallway was made of gentle curves and was pristinely clean. Mamilis peeked inside one of the doors lining the wall and saw chairs and desks lined up in perfect order.

The room was shaped like a slice of Baumkuchen and the few students already gathered there gave Mamilis a curious look back. Since she had her long ears hidden by her earring-style Mimic Option, she gave a nervous wave.

“What is this place? It isn’t like a training workshop. Is it a monastery?”

“In the sense that knowledge is gathered here, it is similar. But you could spend a lifetime here without learning appropriate behavior or finding your faith. Quite the opposite really,” explained Ayato with a bitter smile.

The stone tower was a giant cylinder, so the hallway gently curved along the outside wall. The classrooms were on the inner edge, so they had no windows. That was a small detail, but it prevented outsiders from peeking inside and thus added to the school’s focus on secrecy.

“I see.” Mamilis nodded. “So what do you do at a school?”

“Let’s see. Everyone gathers in the classrooms to read books and copy down what the teacher writes on the blackboard.”

“?”

“You also practice making calculations and work up a sweat in gym.”

“Um? Why?”

The concept seemed to elude Mamilis.

Pulling the trigger of a sorcery gun was sufficient to use magic, so the Static Continent lacked any compulsory education to learn how magic works. School was something only weirdos bothered with because it required paying a lot of money and it ate up a lot of time. The knowledge and skills needed to survive were generally either learned from those around you or self-taught by Media Summoner. The head of a knight family like Henrietta would have a tutor to teach them or they would spend their own money (although a noble’s money originally came from the people’s tax money anyway) to open a private school that anyone could join. Schools were not necessary for people to live their lives since the ubiquity of Media Summoners meant anyone could access the knowledge needed to teach themselves, but towns and villages in remote areas cut off from the sorcery network would still gather their people to teach them how to read and write and do simple arithmetic. But that created a vicious cycle where the children could not learn anything the adults did not know. It all made for a good excuse to extend the reach of the network.

Ayato raised two fingers.

“Miss Mamilis, if you study here, you could learn to build flying ships or sorcery vehicles that travel along the ocean floor.”

“Eh!?”

“There are plenty of rare animals out there you would never see in an ordinary life. Bird cries are a language, so if you analyze the wavelengths accurately enough, you could speak with them. Oh, right. And did you know you can contact the fish in the water using a cry that travels through the water? Study a whole bunch and learn how their systems work and befriending them could become a reality.”

“That’s incredible, Coach. I want to study too!!”

The dark elf had a new light in her eyes as she pushed out ahead. At times like this, eloquent Ayato was more convincing than earnest Teleria. Henrietta, meanwhile, crossed her arms and glared at him like she was watching someone trying to abduct a small child with a lollipop.

“I want to see your classroom, Coach.”

“It’s nothing special. My attendance record shouldn’t be an issue, but they might have removed my desk from the room after such a long absence.”

Then they heard some cheerful barking.

Mamilis looked over in surprise to see an animal walking down the hallway. It looked like a large, fluffy dog, but something wasn’t right. Specifically, it was a sorcery device made by taking a four-legged mana-conducting silver body and dressing it up like a stuffed animal.

The tall dark elf tilted her head like a puzzled child.

“What is that? Is it for security?”

“No, it’s just a pet robot. It might be a prototype testing its autonomous movement. Although it technically borrows some subconscious space in the brains of the people in charge of it.”

“A pet?”

“Instead of patrolling an area or following a scent, it’s only designed to look and behave a lot like a dog.”

“Why would you want to make an ordinary dog out of metal?”

That appeared to be a concept beyond the comprehension of a forest-dwelling dark elf, but she still crouched down and spread her arms to welcome the artificial dog. The way it placed its front paws on her shoulders and licked at her face with its big tongue was just like a real dog. Henrietta knew it was fake, but she still enjoyed how vigorously it wagged its tail.

Ayato whispered to the Striker so Mamilis couldn’t hear.

“Miss Henrietta, drag it away from her when you see a chance.”

“Why? She seems to be enjoying it.”

“Think back to what you have seen dogs do while walking in the park on a day off. If this dog perfectly recreates the behavior of a real one based on several people’s subconscious understanding, then it will eventually start trying to mate with her leg.”

“Move!! Move!! Hurry!! Don’t just stand there!! Get away from it!!”

Henrietta blushed bright and immediately separated girl from dog. She had once said she didn’t know how to spend her days off, so she may have had a bitter memory of a terrible experience while spending a day off in the park.

“Pant, pant!! C-curse these eccentrics. They’re rotten through and through.”

“You won’t get any argument out of me, but a well-known knight like you might want to watch what she says. Graduates of the Academy Towers often get invited to Selected Kingdoms city-states as court scientists or alchemists.”

“Bff!?” spat Henrietta.

Mamilis tilted her head, unaware what she had just been saved from.

“Oh? So this place trains hardheaded government workers?”

“Let’s just say that’s one of the more acceptable futures for the graduates. Some sell their services to criminal organizations and others find they love studying so much they never leave the Academy Towers. Everyone has their own path, so there are even some who can’t find anything to do after graduating and end up stealing fruit from street stalls.”

Since the Academy Towers researched all forms of sorcery, it contained a lot more sorcery devices than the average city. Washing the hallway’s windows was a job for table-sized scarabs crawling along the outside of the towers and stove-sized boxes fluttered around with butterfly wings in place of ribbons. The latter were delivery butterflies carrying around plastic containers made from processed liquid mana.

But it was not limited to physical objects.

The people here could do just about anything related to sorcery. In addition to the solid sorcery devices, there were incorporeal ghost maids floating around.

“Now, then.”

This early, the only people in the classrooms were the students with morning club practice and the ones who just liked to arrive early to study. A well-mannered bob cut girl was also replacing the water in the hallway flower pots. She must have been with the Beautification Committee. There might be pet robots walking around, but not everything here was left to sorcery devices.

Ayato raised a finger.

“Miss Mamilis and Miss Henrietta. Each tower is dedicated to a different field and thus has a very different look, but there is one rule in common between them all. It would be useful for you to know, so listen carefully.”

He pointed at the border between two classrooms.

They were generally evenly spaces, but there were a few exceptions where the gap between classrooms was larger. The stairs and elevators were located there.

“In the Academy Towers, the security level generally increases as you climb the towers. It starts at I and ends with C, B, A, and finally S at the very top. Each letter covers a span of 10 floors and anyone with authorization to that grade can move freely within those 10 floors. That means the letter corresponds to the security level for classified data as well. The best stuff will naturally be at the top.”

“So it uses letters. But, Coach, how do they check what your grade is? Do they break a wooden panel in two and give you half?”

“No handprint or tally necessary. Simply hold your sorcery gun’s front sight up to the reader at the gate.”

“But Coach…”

Mamilis was hesitant to continue.

Ayato wasn’t aware how much of his story had gotten to the other two through Teleria. The Sorcery Hacker who had abandoned his devil revolver shrugged and tapped the grip of his Linkage Plug sword.

“I moved my registration to this.”

That was against the rules, but he didn’t need to tell them that part.

This was not the only school tower.

A look out the window showed several more towers sticking up at random and even more walkways bridging the gaps between them.

“The teachers and sorcery research students here tend to soothe their pride by telling you they are such-and-such grade in the so-and-so tower. The higher up the ladder you are, the more you can brag.”

“Freaking eccentrics.”

“You are exactly correct, Miss Henrietta. But it is also true that the higher levels contain cutting-edge sorcery technology packed full of national secrets related to agriculture, medicine, metalworking, psychology, and even the military. Simply put, there are plenty of people who would be willing to kill to steal the information here.”

Henrietta glanced toward the stairs. They looked ordinary enough, but only because they led up to another floor in the same 10-floor block.

There had to be something more involved at the border between blocks.

Ayato smiled.

“The border floors like Floor 10 or Floor 20 are basically combat zones. You could call them security colosseums. All the Towers’ bizarre tech is gathered to build ridiculously deadly sorcery devices that defend the next block.”

“Such as?”

“They love nothing more than the biggest guns available, so even though we’re talking about an indoor battle, the weaponry could slice right through a mana-conducting silver chloride warship. And since the entire colosseum is airtight, they don’t hesitate to dump in gas and bacteria.”

“…”

“And let’s not forget the giant autonomous walking potted plant where someone modified a sticky tropical plant so it’s pollen, nectar, and even vines will make your entire party unbearably horny. Oh, or the six-legged pervert propaganda truck that uses hypnotizing soundwaves to rewrite what people consider ordinary behavior.”

“Enough. I can tell every last one of you is a dangerous pervert, so not a word more!!”

The beautiful knight was exactly the kind of person to charge straight in and fall victim to such traps, so she blushed and shouted for him to stop.

It was clear now what would happen to anyone who tried to break through the gate and access a higher block without permission. They would be destroyed physically and mentally by any means necessary.

“And as a simple fact, the theft of classified information simply does not happen. The place is locked down so tight no industrial spy has ever made it inside. We, on the other hand, are a Sorcery Hacker and his amusing accomplices. The higher you go, the higher your data searching privileges. The higher levels can view anything from the lower levels, but the lower levels have no way of knowing what is going on above them. It’s the same principle found in the sky city’s prison. If we want to search everything, it only makes sense to make our way to the very top.”

“Wait! You are the only Sorcery Hacker! I am only-”

“Coach, how exactly do we get up there?”

Henrietta tried to defend her reputation, but Mamilis pushed her aside and asked her own question.

The dark elf tilted her head like a small child.

“For that matter, what’s your grade?”

That was the obvious question. Ayato and Teleria were Academy Towers students. Traveling to the very top would be a lot easier if they had a free pass there.

Ayato shrugged.

“Grade E, which doesn’t even get me to Floor 50. But I am registered with this tower, the Mana Science Data Network Construction Tower. That isn’t even the tower we need. Climbing this tower does us nothing to reach the gem tower you can see out the window there. Unless we could get a gem student to vouch for us anyway.”

“We can’t get there from here?” Henrietta sounded exasperated. “Then why not go there to begin with?”

“Because then we would be forever stuck at Grade I on the very bottom,” shrugged Ayato.

“What about Teleria?” asked Mamilis.

“Grade B in the mana tower. That means I can freely travel up to Floor 70 block,” answered Teleria, waving one of her highly modified handguns to show off the front sight.

Mamilis’s eyes widened.

“I didn’t expect Teleria to be higher.”

“Because she’s a true genius. She just makes it all look so easy you don’t realize how insane it really is. Plus, she’s the pleasant kind of genius who doesn’t brag, follows the rules, and doesn’t cause trouble, so the teachers love her. She’s the ideal student really.”

Mamilis’s honest response had been a touch rude, but Ayato’s follow up had the fluffy blonde girl fidgeting. Anyone could tell how embarrassed she was.

But Henrietta, the warrior in asphalt-colored miniskirt armor, had no interest in these intellectuals bragging about their academic achievements.

She looked up at the ceiling and got back on topic.

“So this isn’t going to be easy either way, is it? I don’t know what floor the very top is, but how are we going to reach it?”

“And this isn’t even the right tower, is it? Hey, Coach, aren’t we supposed to be in the gem tower next door?”

Mamilis tilted her head and Henrietta nodded.

“There do appear to be walkways connecting the towers. But this is a school of eccentrics like you, so there must be tons of people who can use Linkage Plugs and Monitors. Surely whoever is in charge has countermeasures in place.”

“There’s a way around that,” Ayato assured her. “Plus, nothing motivates a Sorcery Hacker like supposedly unbreachable defenses.”

Part 3

The bell rang from all the sorcery devices around the school.

“Yikes, what is happening?”

Mamilis jumped and clung to Ayato’s side. Her surprise was understandable when the world around her transformed after the monotone melody played.

The dark elf trembled like a lost child.

“Th-the mood is different?”

A tense chill suddenly hung over the hallway.

Sudden changes like this may have been a unique trait of the twisted social structure known as a school. Unlike before, Ayato stood next to a pillar by the wall to avoid being seen by a teacher walking toward the stairs.

“Class is starting. It could be trouble if someone found us now, so be quiet.”

He also dropped his voice to a whisper.

He of course had a reason for this.

“Let’s see, as you should know by now, all magic can be classified into the four elements of fire, water, wind, and earth. Make sure to remember that Primary is red, Secondary is blue, Tertiary is yellow, and Quaternary is green. But they branch out even further from there to create the derivative classifications of Ex and Taboo. The basic four elements are formed when the Four Lords who rule the four directions of our vast world give a unique ‘color’ to the invisible mana flowing through the air.”

They could hear a teacher giving a boring lecture in a nearby classroom.

The dark elf’s curiosity overpowered her nerves and she tried to peek inside the classroom, so Teleria had to quickly pull her away.

If they could hear the teacher in the classroom then it was possible their voices or movements would be noticeable inside the classroom. That was why Ayato had switched to a whisper.

“The Four Lords hold a fixed position at the top, but the one-and-only Demon Lord is often described as having more ‘play’ or ‘fluctuation’ to her abilities. So even though she supports all the solid magical laws that govern our world, you might not always get the same result when observing her under the same circumstances. We should all give her a secret word of thanks. Without Nirvelphany, humanity might have been obsessed with the silly horoscopes given along with the weather forecast on the search engine’s top page. We would have had no way to improve our situation and never would have felt this heart-pounding excitement so similar to preparing to confess your love to someone.”

They could not afford to be caught now.

No longer could they move freely.

(Not that I think the teachers can actually stop the Student Council. Even if the teachers are officially in charge, the Academy Towers are truly run by the Council.)

The armor and carbine woman sighed in this world of identical blue blazers.

She shrugged.

“I will try my best not to stand out, but I do not know how security works here. Our efforts are meaningless if they have some strange technology that lets them search out people’s locations.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Ayato didn’t sound concerned. “They have a lot of tech here, but they don’t have sorcery cameras giving them a constant feed of everything from these circular hallways to the shower rooms. This school loves autonomy, so surveillance is kept to a minimum to respect the students’ freedom and dignity.”

“And the real reason?”

“The place is littered with classified research in fields ranging from entertainment to military. Why would they set up a mist mana network of sorcery cameras inside the secret base where they work on things that would get people killed if the secret got out? A robust surveillance network would be suicide here.”

“I had a feeling,” sighed Henrietta.

Mamilis was at the age where her curiosity in new things took precedence, but Henrietta was a strict peacekeeper who instead viewed new technologies with distrust. Ayato was mildly surprised by this reversal from the cowardly dark elf and the daring Striker.

(Miss Mamilis has come a long way. When we first met, she was afraid of a baggage scan gate.)

“Just try to remain unseen during class time. It might not make sense to you, but it’s just how schools work.”

They walked to the elevator that could reach Floor 49, the top of the mana tower’s Grade E zone that both Ayato and Teleria had access to. Even the elevator required changing cars every ten floors to pass through the security colosseum.

“Floor 49?” Mamilis tilted her head. “If your grade can get us in, then can’t we go even higher? Teleria could get us to the Grade B zone on Floor 70, right?”

“This is meaningless if we’re stuck on that floor. But that changes if we stop on Floor 49.”

They got off the elevator for the first transfer at Floor 10. Henrietta’s eyes widened when she saw one corner of this floor where all the interior walls were removed.

A dark shadow lurked there with no relation to the positions of the lights.

“Whoa, what is that!?”

“They’re called hounds. They absorb the surrounding light to hide themselves. They’re the Floor 10 gatekeepers for the Grade H door. It’s kind of ironic that they wrap themselves in shadows by bathing in more light than anyone else.”

Now Mamilis tilted her head.

“That seems like a lot for the first barrier. And darkness doesn’t sound much like a sorcery device.”

“A gatekeeper is still a gatekeeper. They’re not going to half-ass its design just because it’s for a lower grade. And its hidden form is actually very mechanical.”

Fortunately, it was harmless if they had the necessary grade.

Ayato’s group passed through the large metal door to reach the Grade H zone starting on Floor 11.

Their exploration party on the elevator was joined by a Public Morals Officer girl with a longer skirt and pigtails, but she never could have imagined everyone else on the elevator was part of a criminal gang.

They transferred elevators a few more times on their way up.

Once they passed Floor 30, they could no longer hear the voices of the practicing Cheer Squad or the jogging Track Team down on the surface. They now found themselves in a research-focused area that reeked of disinfectant and seemed almost unhealthily sterile.

Their goal was the top of the gem tower, so climbing the mana tower should have been meaningless.

However.

Ayato spoke after watching the pigtails girl get off at her destination floor.

“There is a walkway connecting to the other tower at Floor 49. And it’s a diagonal walkway, so it connects to Floor 51 of the gem tower.”

“Hm? Wait just a second, dangerous individual. There is no way their system includes such a blatant security flaw. You said authorization for the mana and gem towers are handled separately, so they wouldn’t let you take a shortcut on the walkway. Surely they have some kind of powerful military sorcery device standing guard there.”

“You are absolutely correct, Miss Henrietta. We will have to face a fearsome gatekeeper whether we try to climb from the bottom or cross over from a neighboring tower. But I never said we were taking the walkway all the way to the other tower.”

“???”

Henrietta only looked more confused, but Ayato was busy stabbing his Linkage Plug sword into an auto-sorting trashcan, an automatic well, and other weirdly high-tech appliances. He used that to increase his level: 1+1=2, 2+2=4, etc. But the blades would be noticed if he stabbed too many things, so he stopped at Level 16 for the time being.

Needless to say, the military sorcery devices meant to keep out intruders would not be hacked so easily. There was a row of gates much like a train station’s ticket gates and it was accompanied by an anthill that supported a mana-conducting silver turret with legs. Red ants bigger than a thumb were crawling all over its surface. They were clearly venomous. It was best not to imagine how many would swarm out if that hill was carelessly attacked.

Ayato wanted to hack something else.

The black-haired boy stuck the tip of his sword out the walkway window.

“Do you see the window-washing gondola on the outside there? It’s the thing shaped like a scarab larger than a food cart.”

“Y-yes. But it’s kind of gross from the underside like this. What about it?”

Henrietta wasn’t following him, so he smiled and explained.

“If we grab onto that and have it travel along the outside of the windows, we can get across without worrying about the walkways or floor gates.”

“We’re almost 50 floors up here!!!”

Her complaints weren’t going to change his mind.

He felt the biting wind on his cheeks. It was chilly on the ground here, so it was even worse this far up. The mana-conducting silver armor felt frozen, so they would have to make sure their skin didn’t get stuck to it.

They slowly travelled along the outside of the walkway with the elevated wind buffeting them. They of course had no lifelines and all four of them would fall if the 6-legged sorcery device were knocked loose from the window.

“Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!”

“Ah ha ha. I’m going to blush if you hold me any tighter, Miss Henrietta. If you need help extinguishing the fire burning in your body, stop by my room tonight. I will leave the door unlocked, my kitten.”

“Listen, dangerous individual!! If I fall, you’re falling 50 floors to the ground with me!! I, Striker Henrietta Split Destrius, will never forget the way you treated me today!!”

The straitlaced Striker shouted tearfully at him, but the mobile anthill did not react to their presence. They had to be visible since the walkway was lined with windows, but the military sorcery device would not react unless the gate sensors were triggered.

“Okay.”

After the window-washing scarab moved from the walkway to the gem tower wall, Ayato casually removed one hand from its body and opened the hallway window. Then he entered the tower. The heated air inside was much more noticeable after being exposed to the chill.

They had arrived on Floor 51, which was in the Grade D zone.

Ayato lent the girls a hand to pull them into the safe hallway.

“Thinking up ways to pass the security colosseums and gatekeepers to climb the tower without using the stairs or elevators is a good way to get into the mindset of a Sorcery Hacker. There are plenty of options beyond the window-washing scarabs, like the flying delivery butterflies or the fiddler crabs that collect the hallway trashcans. And if you could get it snagged firmly enough on the windowsill, a primitive rope ladder might work too.”

“Coach, you need to stop. Henrietta is about to cry, but if she does that in front of you, I think the humiliation would lead her to bite her tongue and kill herself.”

The pure dark elf probably wasn’t aware that pointing all this out would be a good way of delivering the finishing blow. The Striker hung her head and trembled.

“Oh? I never would have guessed you were afraid of heights. You kept the composed face of a stage actress when using the wing glider.”

“That was a tried-and-true sports tool. But what we just did is against the rules for that device!!”

“And you had no trouble at all using the sky city’s artificial air currents to soar between those tall buildings.”

“Th-the height isn’t the problem! It’s about whether or not you are using a system intended to let you fly! Just like crossing a long-abandoned suspension bridge without permission is nothing like crossing a sturdy iron bridge!! Those air currents are an official service supported by a large city’s transportation infrastructure!!”

The boy noticed a difference in values in Henrietta’s argument. He didn’t understand how you could trust something just because some giant system gave it a seal of approval. The more people who used a network, the more openings it had for someone who was up to no good.

Meanwhile, the look on Teleria’s face said she was delighted that everyone was being so lively.

Someone had died here once, so an icy atmosphere might have hung over the place if it were only her and Ayato.

“Our goal is the very top of the gem tower. That’s Floor 101, which is past even Grade S.”

“S…” muttered Mamilis, looking up at the ceiling.

The thick pipe running through there likely carried steam or air. The boiler’s heat could not melt metal, but by indirectly sending lots of air, it could help increase the intensity of a fire.

The gem sciences excelled at such things. When Ayato was disposing of the devil revolver, he had dismantled it, smashed up all the parts with special tools, and then thrown them into a blast furnace.

But for now…

“Each grade is a set of ten floors, so Grade S gets you to Floor 100. That is the final security colosseum.”

“Th-then how does the Student Council get to Floor 101, dangerous individual? Surely they don’t battle the gatekeeper every single time.”

“I wouldn’t know.” Ayato shrugged at Henrietta’s reasonable question. “What matters is that there is some final barrier beyond simply the grade increases from I to S. And you need to join the Student Council to learn the secret way through.”

That was an obvious privilege.

Despite being part of the school, that key was not found in the faculty room.

The Striker couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but the Sorcery Hacker kept going.

“Floor 101 is effectively a special grade zone covering a single floor. And a special gatekeeper was built to protect just that one floor. The top floor of each tower is used for the headmaster’s office, the board chairman’s office, and other privileged positions in the school. We can skip past a lot by going straight to the Student Council Office at the top of this tower.”

“You said we need to reach the top to investigate something, but what is even up there? A big, locked treasure chest?”

Ayato tried to answer Mamilis’s question, but he never got a chance.

He heard a footstep from down the curving hallway.

He needed to view that as unusual.

Mamilis and Henrietta showed minimal caution since they didn’t know how the school worked, but the bell had already rung to indicate the beginning of class. Slipping out of a classroom now came with a certain amount of risk. And yet it almost felt like someone had been waiting for them? But taking the risk to wait here couldn’t have been possible without a perfect grasp of Ayato’s group’s movements.

That meant whoever this was had the upper hand when it came to information.

In sorcery hacking terms, this was like having a blade against the throat or a gun against the back of the head.

It wasn’t hopeless, but escaping would require directly risking his own life.

A boy older than Ayato appeared around the hallway’s curve.

He wore the same blue blazer uniform, but he had a very different vibe. He had perfectly styled brown hair and intellectual glasses. He had the air of more than just a boy. Even the elderly teachers and the eccentrics who had abandoned common sense ages ago would step aside in the hallway to clear the way for him.

He began speaking with a decidedly unfriendly smile.

“Were you hoping to improve your abysmal attendance record? Welcome back, Hexajinx.”

That nickname carried a lot of baggage here in the same tower where that tragedy had occurred.

And this boy was well aware of that.

“And what are you doing here?”

Teleria gave a start by Ayato’s side. Maybe she hadn’t expected Ayato’s voice to sound so much icier than usual.

He continued in that same dark voice.

“I can’t imagine you spend a lot of time wandering around these lower levels.”

“Every single floor of every single school tower is a splendid academic facility provided with all the knowledge and technology a student could want. Not a single room is wasted. I use the entire academy to improve myself.”

“Ayato,” whispered Teleria, moving right up next to him.

Henrietta silently brought her dominant hand to the bolt-action carbine she wore at her hip. She could sense several presences around them. In fact, she could hear the solid footsteps of someone making their presence known. There was a group ahead and a group behind, trapping them in the curving hallway with nowhere to run. This was the same dance of intimidation made by a pack of hounds driving their prey out in front of the hunter. Ayato knew that thoughtlessly attempting to do what felt best in the moment would lead to a similar fate here.

These people all belonged to a certain organization.

Mamilis and Henrietta probably couldn’t imagine it since they didn’t understand how the school worked. This appeared to be something only Ayato and Teleria could understand thanks to attending the Academy Towers in the past.

Mamilis looked puzzled.

“Coach, who are these people?”

“I said there’s something on Floor 101 that not even a Grade S student can access, remember?”

He did not call her “Miss Mamilis” like he normally would.

She was a guest, so she wasn’t a registered Academy Towers student. These people could get the teachers’ help investigating Ayato’s actions, but it was possible they still didn’t know her and Henrietta’s names and identities. He wanted to avoid giving them that information himself.

Ayato Criminaltrophy explained while staring right at the confidently smiling glasses boy.

“That something is the Student Council Office, the fortress belonging to the Student Council President standing in front of us now!!”

Ayato immediately pushed the girls with both hands.

He pushed them out the hallway window on Floor 51, the very bottom of the Grade D zone.

The situation was much like running into the corrupt noble or millionaire while still preparing to sneak into their mansion. Meeting the President here ruined all of Ayato’s initial plans.

The Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary had to be here too.

Needless to say, the Academy Towers were their backyard.

“Ayato.”

The boy waved his right hand.

Like a magic trick, he suddenly held a weapon. It was a scythe much like the grim reaper’s, but its blade was made of a substance as clear as crystal instead of polished steel or mana-conducting silver.

That was a Linkage Plug.

“You cannot get inside the Student Council Office.”

“Who ever said I need to get in there?”

“A very Sorcery Hacker thing to say. A shame I know you are bluffing. And even if you did get in, you could not get it open.”

“Oh? So there’s something more than just the room’s door? A locked drawer maybe? Or perhaps a locker made of thick, military-grade mana-conducting silver?”

Ayato bristled when the tip of the blade casually touched the floor. This was something only a Sorcery Hacker like him could recognize. He was deeply glad he had sent the girls out the window first. Thin, invisible lines of mana mist raced across the walls, floor, and ceiling to instantly take control of this space.

This boy was a true Sorcery Hacker. Ayato had switched weapons after he was forced to abandon his old one, but this genius could control his Linkage Plug and Monitor and hack other people’s magic as casually as he used a knife or fork. It was said he could easily bring down an entire city-state all on his own. And Ayato knew that wasn’t just a baseless rumor.

Ayato felt surrounded by a living hell. Like he was trapped in a giant spiderweb meant to capture humans whole.

He placed his foot on the windowsill.

(He’s on another level entirely!!)

“Bring your devil revolver next time. In a battle between Sorcery Hackers, the half-baked skills you have thrown together are no match for me. You cannot break through my net.”

“!”

He had to retreat and try again later.

Before the spiderweb fully closed in on him.

He immediately jumped from the window to follow after the girls he had already pushed down.

Option 02: The Combined Royal Family’s Secrets

Everyone has their secrets.

And organizations grew by obtaining every last one of those secrets.

The Combined Royal Family’s small lakeside castle’s true value was found in its dungeon.

That cold, stone space was somehow different from a natural cave. The magical lights and people’s sweat and breaths may have transformed the unseen smells there.

But this was a nightmarish transformation.

Shadows of death and pain were adorned by metal bars, metal panels, and chains.

In those shadows, a woman in glasses was leaning forward to an unnatural extent and restrained in a thick piece of wood with three holes to hold her neck and wrists.

Her name was Jennifer Evening.

The Academy Towers Student Council Advisor in a tight skirt suit was immobilized like someone awaiting execution by guillotine, but she still moved her eyes behind her glasses to carefully observe even the small finger movements made by the room’s master. Her vision hadn’t been taken with a blindfold or by gouging out her eyes, but not out of kindness. A large mirror was placed in front of her so she could see her own humiliating pose.

She couldn’t imagine what would be done to her next if she displeased the room’s master.

Only sadists enjoyed causing pain. Causing unnecessary pain could actually be detrimental since it could end up killing her before she talked or even numb her sense of pain. No matter how much of a delicacy it was, anyone would get sick of roast beef if they were served it every meal for three days straight.

That was why the pros actually disliked bloodshed. They avoided doing the same thing repeatedly. They always provided new stimuli and never let the fear get old. It was important to maintain an atmosphere much like slowly moving a pin toward an overinflated balloon.

So who was the considerate master of this room?

The person slowly pacing the room between poor Jennifer and the mirror was a young girl. She was a maid with her silver hair worn in ringlets.

“Now, then.”

She was Angela Messenger, the manager of Fermiliquidio, sword of the 5th in line to the throne.

“Tell me everything you know about the Student Council you manage. Do that and I will let you take a more comfortable position. But I will not forgive you no matter what you do.”

“…”

That one statement hinted at both reward and punishment.

Angela’s voice had an unnatural quality, like a flavor that was both salty and sweet.

“There is no need to drag out the cruel whips or candles. Force someone into an unnatural pose and their body will begin to cry out in protest all on its own. I know those indecently lifted hips are approaching their limit. Tell me what I want to know and I will show you some kindness.”

Jennifer was indeed at her limit.

That was a simple fact – no extra theatrics were needed there.

She was being carefully and precisely tormented based on a perfect understanding of the human body’s structure, so this information had been calculated out with greater accuracy than a train schedule.

So Angela didn’t even need to count to three.

“S-Surace Bran Zorca Totalinus. Sex: Female. Age: 17. Position: Student Council Vice President.”

One of the maid’s eyebrows shot up.

This information was not what she could call crucial, but it did suggest a member of the Combined Royal Family was part of this. Depending on how this played out, Angela could be assassinated to cover up that fact.

But she kept going.

Her primary job was to preserve the royal family’s peace. Maybe that very royal family would send an assassin after her, but her own life was secondary.

“Continue.”

“She loves bathing. She is a skilled fighter, but whenever she works up a sweat or messes up her hair, she immediately goes and takes a bath. She often skips an entire hour of her classes for that reason.”

“…”

“Sibell Wildcat. Sex: Female. Age: 15. Position: Secretary. She faithfully obeys any orders or instructions, but she loses interest quickly and wanders off. She likes to nap in the sun, so search the sunny and breezy areas if you want to find her.”

“…”

“Gark Bryan. Sex: Male. Age: 18. Position: Treasurer. That hulk of muscles has a surprising fondness for cute things. And he actually believes he has kept that fact hidden. Hee hee. Even though it’s so obvious.”

This was taking an unusual turn.

Angela briefly wondered if a suggestion had been implanted in the woman’s mind to guide her in this direction, but a closer inspection showed things were even more unusual.

Jennifer Evening had been restrained for a long period with her neck and wrists held by the thick piece of wood and her butt sticking up high to inspire embarrassment. She looked like a dog preparing to mate and a proud person should have found that unforgivable, but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes damp.

There was no doubting it.

She was enjoying this.

Angela found this job unpleasant, but that teacher was breathing heavily.

“Hee hee. Hee hee hee hee hee. I know exactly how to get you to treat me more roughly, so I have calculated out exactly what I must do to earn a reward. Ha ha☆ A reward!? Oh, how indecent of me. But you are the only one in the world willing to insult me and whip me, so this must be a trial of love. I can take anything you throw at me. Now love me so hard it leaves scars!!”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Angela froze, her mouth forming a small triangle.

This was even more messed up than she had feared.

Finally, the young maid cursed the world under her breath.

“This woman has fallen for the love story of the criminal and the hostage, hasn’t she?”

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