Kurono Shinguuji watched the video footage on the student terminal, her expression growing increasingly grim.
When she saw the armed prisoners collapsing to the mall floor one by one, all falling unconscious within almost a minute without a single physical blow being struck, her eyebrows suddenly shot up high.
After observing the silent, heatstroke-inducing footage carefully for a moment, she smiled and said.
"I see. Well done. This was your doing, wasn't it, Noah?"
As expected of the former world's third-ranked Blazer—she had perfectly discerned his hidden elemental method from just a short, amateur video.
But perhaps this was also because she understood her own incredible magical abilities so well.
"You truly have keen insight, Chairwoman. However, it wasn't just me—Stella and I worked together perfectly on this."
Upon hearing their conversation, Ikki suddenly realized something.
"Wait... could it be that the sudden collapse of those terrorists was actually the work of Noah and Princess Stella?"
Nene Saikyo chuckled. "What else could it be, boy? Do you honestly think the Rebellion group would all conveniently get severe food poisoning right before carrying out their massive hijacking plan?"
Ikki scratched his cheek awkwardly.
He wasn't the type with excessive fragile pride, when he made a mistake, he wouldn't stubbornly cling to it.
Driven by genuine tactical curiosity, he humbly asked, "But how did you miraculously manage to knock out so many grown men in such a short time without fighting them?"
Kurono Shinguuji smiled and explained, "It was severe heatstroke."
"Heatstroke?" Ikki wondered if he had misheard her.
Kurono continued, "When the ambient temperature is raised too high and there is absolutely no wind circulation, the human body suddenly absorbs massive heat from the environment. Those terrorist fools were also wearing heavy, black tactical gear, which severely hindered heat dissipation and increased their own body heat production. The sudden influx of external heat quickly led to fatal heatstroke."
Hearing this, Ikki suddenly recalled the intense roaring flames Stella had released during her fight earlier—the terrifying high temperatures she naturally produced could easily create the necessary conditions for rapid heatstroke.
"Could it be that they deliberately created such an extreme environment...?" Ikki was stunned.
Until now, he had always believed that as long as he had his physical sword and his unyielding will, he could become an outstanding Mage-Knight.
But if he had encountered such a hostage situation today alone, with his severely limited magical abilities, could he have resolved the incident without harm and protected everyone?
The answer was far from optimistic.
His physical fighting style wasn't suited for safely taking on multiple armed opponents, let alone a delicate rescue mission requiring the protection of soft targets.
With so many unfavorable factors combined, the best choice he could make would be to strategically retreat or wait for police reinforcements.
He couldn't have handled the incident as perfectly as Noah and Stella had.
A strange, gurgling cry echoed from the video playback.
Kurono muttered under her breath, "The Rebellion group actually created such a grotesque monster. They have truly gone mad."
She turned to the students. "You all performed very well this time. On behalf of the Academy, I promise you will receive excellent rewards later. The Seven Stars Sword Art Festival qualifiers are about to begin, so finish your police statements quickly and head back to the dorms to rest properly. The rest of the cleanup is the work of the authorities."
Nene Saikyo had been examining the charred debris on the ground, seemingly very interested in the monster's remains.
The SWAT police escorted the unconscious terrorists away one by one in heavy cuffs.
Official statements were also collected on-site.
Two older police officers divided the student group into two batches for questioning.
"I never thought I would be legally taking a police statement from a royal princess of a nation one day," the police officer remarked, looking at them nervously.
He appeared to be a serious person, but when facing Stella, he actually became somewhat shy and deferential.
Even though everything was kept simple and streamlined by the Chairwoman's presence, the next few hours were entirely dedicated to the legal matter.
By the time it finally ended, the sun was already beginning to set over the city.
Thanks to the strict protection from the school and the local police, they were spared from media harassment and could leave the mall directly through a secure exit.
Stella complained bitterly about the rare movie tickets, which ended up completely wasted because of the trouble caused by those Rebellion guys.
Just as they were about to head back to the academy, Noah felt a sharp vibration from his student handbook.
He casually took out his terminal to check the notification and immediately discovered an official email from the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival faculty office.
"Could it be that the opponent for the first qualifying match has been decided?" Stella's exclamation caught the attention of the others.
"The first match?"
"Is it for Noah?!"
"Who is the opponent?"
Noah scrolled through the sterile email, skipping directly to the bottom bracket, and saw the name of his first opponent.
First Round, Opponent: C-Rank Knight, Shizuya Kirihara.
"Kirihara...?" Ikki widened his eyes in surprise and said, "It is actually Kirihara-kun?"
"I didn't expect it to be such a massive coincidence."
They had just met earlier in the classroom and now, in the blink of an eye, his first-round tournament opponent had been decided to be him.
"Hey, Ikki, you clearly know that Kirihara guy, right? Is he actually strong?" Stella asked.
Ikki nodded with a highly serious expression. "Yeah, he is strong. Last year, he officially represented Hagun Academy in the actual Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, but because his opponent countered his Ability well, he withdrew in the second round."
"Huh?" Stella sounded as if she had heard something completely unbelievable.
"He withdrew?! He didn't even have the knightly courage to fight his opponent?!"
"Well, Kirihara-kun's official title is the Hunter, and as the name implies, he is the type who only makes a move when he is absolutely certain of victory."
"What kind of pathetic logic is that?! In that case, Noah doesn't even need to prepare for the match. If that coward has any self-awareness, he should just forfeit without a fight," Stella said lightly.
After all, even in her highly critical eyes, Noah was an overwhelmingly well-rounded fighter.
Close combat with masterful swordsmanship, mid-to-long-range devastating magic attacks, perfect detection and perception with invisible barriers—his only supposed weakness was probably his lack of physical defense in close-quarters combat and he could even use advanced healing spells to negate that.
Unless you could instantly defeat him or overpower him in every single aspect, it was impossible to bring him down.
"Well, it is true that Noah's versatile abilities perfectly seem to counter Kirihara-kun. That overwhelming elemental magic barrage would probably be impossible for Kirihara-kun to deal with while hiding."
"Are you listening, Noah?"
"Huh?"
Noah snapped back to attention and replied with a calm smile, "Overthinking the bracket now won't help."
In reality, he was highly concerned about Shizuya Kirihara's earlier terrified attitude at the mall.
He couldn't understand where that primal fear had come from when they locked eyes.
Unless... without his knowledge... something had been secretly seen by the invisible boy?