Side: Yuki
The great aerial battle ended with Poppuri finally exhausting her strength due to the difference in fundamental power.
However, even though she lost, the fight itself wasn't bad at all.
Yes, the contents were solid.
While Poppuri herself and the onlookers witnessing that one-sided battle might have felt nothing but despair, for us—who are effectively Kuro-chan's family—it was a genuinely educational performance.
"Haah... the Headmaster sure is amazing. If there were that big of a gap in raw strength, I'd just run away."
"I think the Headmaster stayed behind until the very end to protect the Academy and everyone, though?"
"...I think Tori is right. She isn't young enough inside to fight without understanding the gap in power."
The three beast-eared girls were discussing the fight among themselves.
True enough. My first impression of the Headmaster upon meeting her was terrible, but at heart, she was probably a genuinely good person. After all, she stood her ground against an opponent she had zero chance of defeating.
Well, if it were me, I would've lured the enemy somewhere suitable and then made a prompt retreat. If you can't win a one-on-one, your only choice is to surround them with numbers and set up conditions where victory is possible.
In times like that, the most important thing is how much combat data you can bring home. Reveal the enemy's movements and cards, and no matter how far above you they are, if you seal their options, you can win.
Still, what I was thinking about wasn’t that.
"Ria, what did you think about that battle?"
Since the beast-eared trio had already given their input, I asked Ria for her thoughts.
Currently, we were gathered at the inn where we were staying, having a chat. We had divided ourselves into two groups:
—One to explain the situation at the academy.
—The other to analyze the Headmaster's battle.
By the way, Taiki-kun was currently off training Eoid-kun.
Prompted by my question, Ria cute-ishly tilted her head in thought for a moment before opening her mouth once an idea struck her.
"Well... let's see. Looking at that battle, what felt strange to me was how abnormally long the Headmaster managed to hold her ground."
"Hmm? Isn't that just because the Headmaster tried really hard?"
Riel replied to Ria's doubt with a puzzled look.
Well, it's normal to think she held out that long simply because she fought frantically.
"I see. There's no doubt she fought hard, but Riel, the essence of it is different."
"What do you mean?"
"...I think their level of aerial combat experience was completely different. Kuro was only moving in midair the exact same way he does on the ground."
"Ah, I see! Now that you mention it, that's true."
Indeed. The reason the battle between the Headmaster and Kuro-chan dragged on despite the stark difference in raw power was due to a massive gap in experience.
Aerial combat — Naturally, this is something alien to people without wings. The same goes for beasts that live on the ground. However, for us people from Earth, aerial warfare became the single most crucial factor in war.
With the advent of airplanes and fighter jets fulfilling the role of wings, warfare on Earth shifted from the era of big-gun dreadnoughts to the era of air supremacy.
The conflict that made this painfully clear was World War II. The largest conflict in recorded human history, involving nearly every nation on Earth.
The second World War, which split the globe in two, washed blood with blood, and brought forth the worst weapons in human history. The total mobilized troops at the time varied across records, but it hovered somewhere in the hundreds of millions. And the total deaths—including civilians—exceeded 50 million people.
I had previously explained this World War II history back when we were introducing tanks and heavy machinery to Weed.
Naturally, Seraria was struck speechless, Rurua was stunned by the sheer number of lost lives, Derieu listened in silence, and Sheila shed tears.
Well, that's understandable.
Considering the population of a major country on this continent, you'd barely reach those troop numbers even if you drafted every single citizen across the entire land—and taking into account the food and resources needed to sustain such an army, the total population required would be far greater. And out of that, 50 million died.
Anyway, putting that aside.
During that war, The doctrine of battleships and massive artillery was swept aside by air power—In short, securing air superiority became more important than anything else. Your movements are fully exposed from above, and the means to attack from the ground up are extremely limited.
This incident clearly demonstrated that exact difference in aerial combat performance.
Kuro-chan emerged unscathed even after taking hits solely because of his absurd individual stats, but that won't necessarily be the case forever. Or rather, he was only saved because the opponent was relying on magic as her attack method. If he were up against a modern jet fighter, Kuro-chan would have died helplessly.
Attacks launched at supersonic speeds possess both kinetic energy and mass that an ordinary mana barrier simply cannot stop—not to mention armor-piercing anti-tank missiles designed to punch straight through main battle tanks. Against weapons of that class, no amount of armor thickness matters.
Panzerfausts and RPGs are famous examples, but against a metal jet formed by the Monroe-Neumann effect, the concept of structural hardness completely ceases to matte
People often have this mental image of "Magic is almighty, woohoo!!", but the reality is different. Well, magic is almighty in concept, but based on my research so far, I've concluded that defensive power cannot infinitely scale to exceed offensive power.
Why is that?
Well, it's pretty simple if you consider the fact that a mana barrier can be breached.
In the end, a mana barrier is still an object possessing a form of physical hardness.
It can be deployed anywhere and boasts decent rigidity, but once extreme pressure forces the armor past its Hugoniot elastic limit into a fluid state, it can no longer block the explosive blast, leaving that single point utterly incapable of stopping the attack.
Simply put, if something hitting it possesses a high enough mass and velocity, the targeted armor will soften, allowing the attack to punch right through.
Thus, trying to defend against a weapon—the culmination of human scientific ingenuity designed specifically by the people of Earth to crush massive, thick iron boxes called tanks—using the knowledge of a medieval fantasy world is fundamentally flawed from the start.
In reality, the correct approach is simply not to take the hit head-on, but rather to deploy layered barriers and deflect the force. Taking a direct hit is where the mistake lies.
However, that specialized barrier is something I intentionally designed to counter weapons taking advantage of the Monroe-Neumann effect; it's not something just anyone can use.
Anyway...
Back to the point.
The reason Kuro-chan struggled against the Headmaster was simply because he lacked experience in aerial combat. From now on, we need to incorporate aerial combat drills, or he might lose when it really counts.
We do have anti-aircraft artillery set up, but not in large numbers, and that's strictly surface-to-air anyway. Moving forward, we have to practice air-to-air combat. Using magic flight, or relying on Lich-type and Wyvern-type summons.
It'd be nice if we could deploy fighter jets or attack helicopters, but I'm not really feeling that direction. The costs, training, the risk of capture, and having to survey atmospheric wind currents... there's just too much hassle involved.
"That's true. Kuro-chan got hit a lot, and he was fighting purely through brute force."
"Yeah~ If Kuro's opponent had been one of us, a single hit would've knocked us out!"
"Considering that, I think the Headmaster's movements in the air were magnificent."
"...Was this what you wanted to point out, Yuki?"
Kaya's words finally pulled me away from thoughts of building an air force.
"Yeah. Well, if worst comes to worst, you just have to drag the enemy down to the ground."
"What do you mean?"
"There's no need to go out of your way to fight on the enemy's favorable field. Just rip off their wings, or disable their skills and mana output to slam them into the dirt."
"""I see."""
Lich-types, Wyvern-types—heck, almost every flying monster in this world fundamentally ignores aerodynamics.
For instance, a bird reduces its body weight to the absolute limit to maintain the capability for flight.
How extreme is it? If you applied a bird's flight mechanics to a human, you'd need to cut their weight to under one-tenth while giving them wings more than twice their body's volume.
Well, as you can tell from that, flying monsters shouldn't physically be able to fly at all. So, why can they fly? It's all thanks to miracle magic and convenience skills. Therefore, if you nullify those, the enemy can no longer fly and falls.
Given their sheer mass, just falling would probably kill them anyway. And once a monster has its magic and skills sealed and its wings broken, it can be easily finished off with tank cannons or gunfire.
"Now then, leaving the reflection on this battle aside, Nina, the Holy Sword wielder was observing the Headmaster's fight. What do you think of that?"
That's right. During Kuro-chan's battle earlier, it wasn't just us watching—the Holy Sword wielder was peeping, too.
Did they happen to bump into us while pursuing us, or was it intentionally orchestrated...?
"We can't say for sure right now. But I think waiting for information from Kirika is our best bet. Though, personally, the Headmaster seems to have lived a very long time, so it wouldn't be surprising if there's some connection."
"Agreed. An investigation like this should be done step by step, cutting off their escape routes before stepping in."
Just as Riel and Tori said, determining guilt or innocence right now is still difficult.
If they make any suspicious moves from here on out, we'll just have to corner them then. Besides, the possibility that the Headmaster here might be linked to the Holy Sword wielders is actually a great lead.
Winning her over beforehand was definitely the right call.
"Oh, by the way... how did encountering a Wyvern end up causing Kuro-chan to reveal his true form in the first place?"
Right, right, I hadn't heard the origin of the whole mess.
Even without Kuro-chan transforming into a giant beast, Tori and the others could have handled it easily.
"Ah, about that..."
"Samantha-san and Amanda-san were working so hard that it was awkward for us to step in."
"...We decided to focus on defense and only help out if things got bad. Eris also said it was a good opportunity to gauge their actual strength."
"I see."
It's true that I haven't seen Samantha-ojousan or Amanda-san's true capabilities, so I wouldn't know.
Samantha-ojousan used chantless magic once, but that was it.
In actual combat, their styles might change, and so would our evaluation of them.
"So, we were just standing by to observe, but during a brief clash, a stray pebble flew off and hit Aslin."
"Which caused Kuro-chan to leap out."
"Yes. And then he subdued it in the blink of an eye and demanded Aslin decide the Wyvern's punishment. Right after that, the Headmistress flew in, and the fight broke out..."
That stupid dog...
So because he was seen standing there with a Wyvern submitting behind him, he was mistaken for an enemy, huh?
"So why did the Wyvern end up coming back to the Academy with everyone in the end?"
I got why they were standing by to observe. But bringing the Wyvern back made zero sense to me. No matter how you look at it, that's bound to cause a panic.
"The reason we brought the Wyvern back is because Aslin gave the Wyvern to Amanda."
"...Huh?"
That makes no sense.
How on earth did it come to that?
"Actually, while Kuro and the Headmistress were fighting, Aslin-chan talked to the Wyvern and became friends with it like she usually does. But if she brought it back as her own pet, there were too many witnesses, which could cause a massive uproar..."
Ah, I get what Tori is trying to say.
"If word got out that Aslin tamed a Wyvern, everyone around us would go wild. So since Amanda-san happened to be right there as a convenient Tamer, they dumped the responsibility onto her."
"Yes. Aslin understood the situation after Eris explained it, and she didn't mind giving Wy-chan to Amanda after they talked to the Wyvern together. She seemed to really like Amanda, too."
"They did seem to get along well."
I recalled how Aslin looked so happy showing Kuro-chan to Amanda before heading out.
"While Kuro and the Headmistress were fighting, Amanda demonstrated enough Tamer talent to ride the Wyvern right away, so she led everyone away to retreat."
"I see."
In that case, nobody would suspect Aslin tamed it, nor would we have any reason to shoulder the hassle.
Dumping it onto Amanda-san was perfect—nice move, Eris.
"Speaking of which, Yuki-san. Why is Taiki-san helping Eoid with his training? I'm... really not fond of that guy." (Riel)
"...To be honest, I don't like him. I feel like I'd get humilitated if I went anywhere near him." (Kaya)
"Right? Amanda-san and Samantha-san seem generously forgiving, but if it were me, I'd slash him dead on the spot." (Ria)
"...I wouldn't want anyone other than Yuki-san doing stuff like that to me either." (Tori)
...What an incredible reputation you have, Eoid-kun.
Well, it's only natural.
The only ones who could laugh off those lucky-pervert tropes are girls who already hold affection for Eoid.
Like I've said before, that stuff is straight-up illegal.
If he ever laid a hand on my wives, I might not slice him up like Ria would, but I'd certainly dole out a fitting punishment.
"As for why we're training him, it was just an idea Taiki and I came up with."
"An idea?"
"You guys know how we keep calling Eoid a 'protagonist', right?"
"Yeah, we know. But I still can't really believe it. For us, the only hero and husband is Yuki-san."
Everyone nodded in unison at Riel's words.
"I'm happy to hear that, but that basically means I'm expected to solve all the Academy's problems in the role of the protagonist, doesn't it?"
"""Ah."""
At my words, they seemed to realize the flaw in what they had just said.
They were essentially saying I should shoulder everything.
"...I see. You and Taiki are raising Eoid so you can dump all the troublesome chores onto that pervert."
Kaya... you're not wrong, but could you wrap that in a slightly gentler wording?
"That way, we can focus our efforts on discussions with the Holy Sword wielders and the Headmaster, as well as gathering intelligence."
"Exactly as Tori said. It gives us more free time and makes it easier to achieve our actual goals."
"And as a bonus, whenever something interesting pops up, we can stick our noses in under the guise of being acquaintances of Eoid's group."
Ria has really learned to think deviously, hasn't she?
I mean, she's completely spot on, though. Leave the tedious chores to him, and step into the fray whenever there's something we actually want.
We've secured such a convenient position. And conveniently enough, now that Amanda-san has tamed the Wyvern, Eoid's group has increased its overall combat power.
I'll have Aslin secretly bring Wy-chan back for training later.
Besides, Amanda-san has definitely raised a huge trouble flag by taming that Wyvern now anyway.
"Right about now, Eris should be telling the Headmaster and Vice Headmaster to hand off any troublesome tasks they want done over to Eoid's group."
"""Uwaa..."""
Since Eris is acting as our negotiator with the Headmaster, she's been planning from the start to pitch using Eoid—the protagonist—as a handy errand boy.
From the Headmistress's perspective, she doesn't want to incur any more favors from us either, so if a problem can be solved using cards already within her reach, she'll naturally take that route.
And with Eoid and his crew conveniently upgraded in usefulness, the moment Eris proposes it, the Headmistress will jump at the offer.
From what I gathered talking to Eoid-kun, he's already warded off a few troubles, and he's been raising flags left and right with Miss Samantha and that other girl... Cleana, was it?
Well, if this story revolves around Eoid as the protagonist, then we're basically just the side characters who show up during the training arc.
"With this, almost all the tedious hassles at the Academy can be avoided. From here on, just like Tori said, let's take our time and do our research without rushing. As for academics, keeping our grades average is fine. If they're too terrible, it'll hurt Zirba and Enaria's standing, but if they're too good, it'd be a nuisance for the students who actually came here to learn—getting compared to us."
All that's left is to relax, stay out of the spotlight, and leave everything to the protagonist—the ultimate flag magnet who attracts every plot point, good or bad.
It'd leave a bad taste in my mouth if he died, so I took the liberty of setting up a training plan to keep him alive.
Back in the day, waiting six whole days for the next episode was absolute torture.
But now, I get to watch it happen live in real-time.
I better make sure Taiki-kun and I have our cameras ready.
