Rainee - The Night the tower Blew Up

Our whole plan was a success. We saw to it that The Tower got blown up. We saw to it that the students band together. We saw to it that, to some degree, we even reached the middle part of our plan.

That fact alone is more than reassuring.

"Told you, Rainee, it wasn't as bad as you thought it would."

Sitting next to me is Azama. Smiling as always, currently watching the battle unfold before a series of monitors around us.

"You're not wrong. But, well, there was no way to tell."

He's referring to the whole ordeal earlier. The part when he pretended to kill Ode'go, and I unleashed a horde of bloodthirsty monsters on the cafeteria. In retrospect, we sort of strayed from our initial modus operandi, to be honest.

We started off kinda intense. Azama was really insisting, on the whole, traumatizing them into thinking they might die, then revealing it at the end. When I saw their frightened faces, however, I couldn't stop myself.

To be honest, I'd always been an emotionally vulnerable person. You can call me neglectful and stupid, sure, but you can't say I don't have a heart. Even if I could puppet all these monsters and stop them from killing any student, what was to say of their mental state?

I dunno about you, but at that age, I would've died if a giant bone gorilla came to maul me.

In the end, we decided on a middle ground.

Scare the students into working together with a couple of attacks, then reveal it was a ploy right after.

"Now, now, Rainee, when do you plan to release the climax?"

His sudden release of energy woke me from my trance.

Where were we again?

Oh.

Right. The climax. To be honest, I was having some doubts about it. So much so that I prompted the question of its necessity.

"H-hey, do w-"

"Bzzt!" He imitated one of those sounds they played when someone lost on a game show. "Yes, we do, you pristine naive mage!"

Azama was swivelling in his chair, shaking his head upon every rotation.

"Remember Rainee, just cause the general student populations like each other, it doesn't mean that everyone does."

Case in point, he gestured to a monitor of Ceylica.

Who we saw in full detail, standing behind a glass window on the third floor.

Of course, we weren't perverts that just so happened to stalk her. It was just that she was one of the so-called 'pivots'. A kinda centre point on which the whole thing was balanced around.

Sorta like Jaiga, Tommy, Valefar, or Kło, which we also foresaw to be figures of importance. If I had to draw parallels, it would be as if they were the main characters of a story.

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Heroes who took the initiative and were interesting enough to kickstart things.

I was reminded of the 'Great man theory' when I remembered we were still in the conversation. My reverie was quickly broken by Azama scooting over, and getting awfully close, again.

"The general student body still hates the students of The Tower! Just look at good old Ceylica here, clearly delighting in a vampire getting mauled. Now, what exactly about that screams a full-bodied crescendo to you?"

I had no intention of responding. At that point, I realised that any attempt at winning a conversation was futile.

"Okay, so we're proceeding with the plan."

Though silence sealed his lips, Azama's eyes spoke for themselves.

He was probably thinking about why I still questioned our ‘Azamazing Raineechations’ when we had already mulled over it twice.

Or maybe he wasn't. I'm not very good with social cues.

"Ayalië, please bring up the Dungeon Plan." Those words came out somewhat naturally.

For reference, yes, Ayalië is that one character Azama keeps mentioning to torture me.

He had programmed the AI in my computer to accept my favourite character as a command, and I didn't know how to change it.

"Oki, master, will-do~."

He had also personally made a voice impression and replaced the computers' lines with his.

A part of me silently withered, but the rest persisted.

My expression softened as the top screens digitally reconstituted to show our work in progress.

With our combined efforts, things sped by relatively quickly. Even if Azama didn't have the vessels for magic, he was still more than capable.

Actually, more than capable is underselling it.

It was inhuman.

He couldn't cast magic, but he still knew hundreds of spells.

Able to identify their innate strengths and weaknesses.

Amongst this, he also knew how to cook, cosplay, draw, dance, voice act, shoot, and code.

Guess that's what happens when you're such a top-tier mercenary.

Actually, if I just chalk it up to him being a skilled mercenary, I think I'm doing him a disservice.

The reason he does those things isn’t out of necessity or some dumb job requirement.

It’s out of enjoyment. Something about variety and enjoying all life has to offer.

The same reason he’s still so happy to be here, probably experiencing something he never had in his life before.

For now, that was fine. But for the future?

I’m not too sure.

What will happen when he’s bored? When he’s grown tired of the repetition and wants something new?

He wasn’t a normal person after all. He was a mercenary who’s killed hundreds. If the tides turned, would he just leave?

If push came to shove and I asked him if we were friends. Would he just reply with his nonchalant response and tell me he didn’t care?

I let my frustrations loose with a sigh and shifted to face Azama.

A nonchalant expression painted his face while his body leaned backwards, gazing at monitors.

"So, you’re still insistent on having no goblins? I mean, I know you're scared of them getting traumatised from killing a humanoid, but hey, we all gotta do it sometime, right?"

"Uhh, you're talking to a guy who's never killed anyone before."

Sometimes, he really racked my brain.

"Right, right. So how about giant insect monsters instead? I know they have blood, but at least the visual discrepancies should mitigate the potential mental shock, right?"

Well, there were still a lot of details to work out. But, even so, I can still admit.

That all of this was probably the most fun I've had in years.

And that my spur-of-the-moment idea to randomly hire Azama to join my school? Absolutely deranged. Though, in the best possible sense.

Yeah, I admit, I'm a bit nuts. I’m a guy who fawns over figurines of characters in elvish cartoons and still cries over his dead master every day.

Yeah, I’m supposed to be an outstanding mage. An heir devoid of vulnerability and weakness.

Yeah, as a human, I should ally with my government and protect them against all threats.

But that’s not who I am.

The course of action my body involuntarily decides is to then release my energy.

As someone perhaps lacking in self-control, I proceed to then yell.

"I'm doing whatever I want, and no one's going to stop me!"

God. That was so cringe to say, all while shouting nonetheless. But you know what?

I don't care. Sure, Azama being the only one to hear me helps, but that’s not the real reason.

Truth is, I wanted to carve my own path in life, and I'm doing that by making this school the best I can be.

Master, or should I say Kyera. Thank you for everything.

Whatever concerns I have with Azama liking me could be solved in the future.

For once, I wanted to live in the present.