Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Seiji hoped that the Hypnosis Academy and the other daring idea were just jokes, but Natsuya was evidently serious.

He felt that loading would be the best way to deal with this incident by preventing the magic balls from occurring in the first place. But although that was what he thought, he didn’t have enough information right now on who the culprit was.

He and Natsuya both believed that this incident was caused by a well-hidden Awakened at school. However, this was still only their hypothesis.

It was currently a new generation ever since the Midnight Incident.

Perhaps this was a brand-new mystical phenomenon, or this could even be the reappearance of some ancient type of special phenomenon… At any rate, it was also possible that this wasn’t caused by an Awakened.

The second day of the sports competition.

Seiji’s Year 1 Class 5 faced off against Year 1 Class 2 for their third football match.

This team which consisted of other students in the same grade didn’t have any will to slay the dragon at all. They even seemed to be rather afraid of the Magic-Devouring Dragon.

Seiji managed to score two points very easily. Class president Koji Hoshihara then scored another point as well.

When Year 1 Class 2 saw that they were now trailing by three points, their originally low morale sunk to the very bottom. The entire class was filled with an aura of having given up.

Year 1 Class 5 felt rather bored as it was extremely evident that their opponents had given up. This caused Seiji’s class to also stop trying hard.

And so, the football game turned into a very low quality football game to watch. However, very few spectators left despite this.

That was because none of them were here to see the football game at all! Instead, they just wanted to see mystical phenomena! In fact, many spectators even brought digital cameras. However, Natsuya and Hitaka managed to obstruct this using their student council powers.

Seiji withstood everyone’s gazes. He had an ominous premonition.

Although he was somewhat annoyed at everyone watching him, his ominous premonition was stronger than his annoyance. However, he couldn’t notice anything at all despite constantly maintaining his Astral Vision.

Things were the same for Natsuya who was watching from outside the football field.

She, too, had an ominous premonition, but was similarly unable to find anything out of the ordinary. This also went for Hitaka next to her, as well as Rana who was hiding in invisibility.

This was quite problematic!

All four of them could sense that something was obviously wrong! But none of them were able to find anything, which was obviously bad.

They knew that there was a problem, but didn’t know where. This was a terrible feeling to have.

And then, something bad really did end up happening.

Seiji received another chance to shoot for a goal. He aimed for the right half of the goal without using very much force.

Even though Seiji used such a soft kick, Year 1 Class 2’s goalie didn’t even try to block the ball. The ball slowly flew towards the goal… but suddenly changed directions at a sharp ninety-degree angle and viciously smacked into the goalie’s face!

*Smack!* A loud and clear sound rang out.

The goalkeeper collapsed.

Everyone instantly started a huge commotion now that they saw what they wanted! Someone was actually injured!!

Seiji and Natsuya frowned simultaneously.

Despite constantly maintaining Astral Vision, both of them only saw a flash of red light on the soccer ball.

It was impossible to determine where the red light originated from or who cast the spell!

Natsuya asked Hitaka and Rana and confirmed that this was all they saw as well.

The goalkeeper wasn’t seriously injured. But when he saw Seiji coming over to apologize, he screamed out in terror.

“Don’t come over! You monster!!”

His eyes were wide open in terror as if he really saw an actual demon.

Seiji could only stop in his footsteps and inwardly exclaim at finally hearing such a classical phrase.

The goalkeeper’s teammates all stared at the Magic-Devouring Dragon with similar wide-eyed expressions of terror.

“Ahhhhh!!!!”

The goalie screamed out loud and crawled up while sprinting at top speed. He ran incredibly quickly, as if he was really escaping from a real dragon!

As if his other teammates were infected with his fear, they also screamed and ran away. All of them ran away at far faster speeds than what they showed during the football game.

Just what were they seeing?

Seiji inspected himself with Astral Vision just in case, but saw nothing wrong.

He then looked at everyone else. He saw that his own classmates were looking at him with merely confused expressions.

The referee was the same way. He had a confused expression, but no signs of fear or anything else.

“I didn’t do anything at all,” Seiji told them. “I have no clue why that ball acted like that.”

This was the honest truth.

However, people’s suspicions wouldn’t vanish just because he told them the truth.

The commotion in the spectator stands wouldn’t settle down at all. The very atmosphere itself seemed to be quite tense.

Year 1 Class 2’s team all left the ball field, so the game was forced to be paused.

Year 1 Class 2’s class president requested Year 1 Class 5 to take Seigo Harano off the field. Otherwise, Year 1 Class 2 would refuse to continue playing.

“We don’t have any reason to accede to such a request! It’s your own responsibility if you want to give up on the game!!” Year 1 Class 5 class president Koji Hoshihara responded forcefully, believing in his own classmate.

“That guy is a real monster! You saw it as well, we’ll die if we play with him!!”

“That was just an accident! Harano-san isn’t a monster!! Take back those foolish words of yours!!!”

“Why should I take them back! It’s the truth!! Everyone saw that ball quite clearly!!!”

The two class presidents started arguing loudly in public. The referee, stuck in the middle, had a helpless expression. More and more students started gathering around to watch the spectacle as word of this spread.

It was becoming difficult for even the teachers to deal with this situation. And if the teachers got involved, perhaps this incident would end up worsening even further.

Actually, Seiji was fine with not playing anymore. But when he saw his class president arguing so vociferously for his sake, he didn’t feel like he should volunteer to step down.

After a long argument, Year 1 Class 2 ended up choosing to give up on the game.

All the members of their class’s team were willing to take the reputation hit as cowards rather than continuing to play with the Magic-Devouring Dragon.

And so, Year 1 Class 5 obtained victory… a victory that they couldn’t be happy about at all.

“Rana eavesdropped while invisible on the Year 1 Class 2 students talking among each other. According to them, they saw a black mist covering your body and your eyes glowing blood-red as if you really were a demon,” Natsuya told Seiji when they met up after the game was canceled.

“…They saw magical hallucinations?”

“That’s highly possible. But, it’s unknown who did that to them.”

Both Seiji and Natsuya fell silent.

It was unknown who used such an ability and cast this hallucination magic. This incident would be impossible to resolve until they identified the culprit.

No… wait.

Seiji suddenly thought of one possibility.

Genhana High School… this entire school was actually constantly under the effect of a large-scale magic spell. It was just that both he and Natsuya had forgotten about this spell, because it had never had any problems before.

The spell formation covering the entire school!

Could it be that something was wrong with this spell formation?

Seiji told Natsuya about this inference of his, causing something to flash in her eyes.

“It’s possible… I’ll check it immediately!”

“Do you need any help?”

“No need. I’ll be fine with just Hitaka with me. Stay here. It’ll be more helpful for my inspection.”

Natsuya then took Hitaka with her and hurriedly left.

Seiji didn’t want to stay behind here so that everyone could gawk at him. However, this was the place where the incident happened, and him staying here would be better for her to find the problem’s cause… if there was one with the school’s spell formation.

The football game had ended prematurely, so there was plenty of time until the next match. The football field itself was empty, even if the spectator stands were full.

And so, Seiji took a football and started kicking it by himself on the field.

“What’s the Magic-Devouring Dragon doing? Does he want to create another magic ball?”

“Could it be that he’s summoning… or luring a demon here?”

“Could it be that he wants to exorcise a demon here? That it’ll be dangerous here, which is why he had the student council president leave here?”

“Wouldn’t that be bad for us if we stay behind then?”

As if he could hear their comments, Seigo Harano turned to face the spectators.

“It might be dangerous here if you stay. You should all hurry and leave!” Seiji shouted this to all the spectating students.

The students started a commotion yet again. Some left, but many students still wanted to watch if something else would happen.

( Updated by NovelFull )

“Are you going to exorcise a demon here, Harano-san?” A boy student who carried a camera steadied his courage and shouted back to Seiji. “Can I take pictures of the process?”

Seiji was rendered speechless.

He recalled Natsuya’s daring idea, causing his cheeks to twitch.

“Depending on the situation, an exorcism might really occur here… but taking pictures is absolutely forbidden. If you take secret pictures, you’ll take full responsibility for any consequences!” Seiji responded in a severe tone.