BXBX NOVEL Chapter 78: Damage Control
Chapter 78: Damage Control
Translated by XianPiete
Olivier looked at everyone and said, "I don\'t know how much may have escaped, or how many people there are, but a faction within the students have been wearing armbands with the Council of Magic logo calling themselves disciples of the Sixth. Ella brought it to my attention so I confronted Doreen about it, she told me that it was just a group of Princess Viana\'s friends. They are all from El Pais De Lotharios. One student claimed that a member of the group cast water balloon during a fight between students."
Madeline looked at Olivier coldly and asked, "Are we going to go through with the original plan? Do we kill them all?"
Everyone gave each other a good hard look and finally, Guy spoke up, "Our choices are clear. We either release magic to the world in a fair manner, or we exterminate the leak. The question I have, are we prepared to kill our friend?"
*****
Yura Gorou was laughing as he watched his favorite anime on his computer while eating a bowl of instant noodles. His room was filthy, decorated with a combination of games, military items, manga, and trash. He was a slovenly man with a three-week growth of hair on his face, unbrushed, unwashed hair, and a t-shirt for his favorite moe game, Noble School. He laughed so hard at one scene he started to choke and fell out of his chair on to his back. He blacked out, his heart stopped and all brain activity stopped.
A few minutes later everything restarted. He threw up the noodles and began to breathe. He rolled on the ground as a dizzying amount of unknown memories flooded his mind, he threw up until he dry heaved and then crawled to his feet, checking his body for wounds. In place of wounds, he found that everything was wrong and yet felt correct. He stumbled to the bathroom and looked in the mirror that was his, but not his and looked at a face that was his but not his. His eyes looked in the mirror and saw his friends on his vomit-stained shirt.
He turned on the water and cleaned his face, he looked at himself again and said out loud, "I am Claude de Rouvroy. Claude de Rouvroy. Who the hell is Yura Gorou?" His mind raced, then things started to come together, the things Guy had told him. It was all true. He raced over to the computer that he shouldn\'t know how to use and booted up the game, Noble House: Renaissance. He didn\'t play the game, instead, he looked through the game\'s credits, "I have to get a message to them! The game\'s developers, maybe they can do it? Why do I know these things? Wait, Guy\'s sister, I should tell her, how do I find her? Swords! He said she used swords... It was called Kendo. Wait, I used to be in a kendo club!"
Claude sat still trying to sift through his new memories that were scattered together with old memories. At some point, he discovered internet pornography and many hours were lost. Shockingly he found that his body had many different images and animes of his friends, something called rule 34. His new body had its own responsibilities and Claude was never a man to shirk his duty, so he went to his job at the Sando where he worked as a sandwich artist. Claude found that his new body was horribly out of shape so he started training daily and even returned to his old Kendo Dojo where he could practice the sword. He was severely scolded and called a chuuni by the instructor for his style even when he won. The more he practiced it, the more he understood that this was Guy\'s sword style.
As Claude was practicing by himself two pretty girls walked over and one of them asked in a strange language that resembled French, "Your sword style, that\'s only taught at the Academy de L\'échec, right?"
*****
Doreen, Princess Viana, and several students were all asked to come to their Order\'s training room. Once the came inside the doors were sealed by armed and armored knights. The six other members of the Council of Magic were there along with the status board. Olivier had his normal goofy smile as he asked, "Hello students, for those of you who don\'t know me, I am the Fourth Mage of the Council of Magic, Olivier de la Marche. We are here today to do a status check, we believe that there are some of you who have what it takes to become real mages. We\'ll be going from Dorm to Dorm to pull out the best of the best."
Guy smiled and asked, "Doreen, you left the meeting early yesterday, so won\'t you come to join us please?" Madeline nodded.
Doreen looked at Princess Viana for an ok before slowly walking over and joining the rest. One by one the students were tested, each student saw their stats and looked proud not knowing what the numbers meant only that some were higher than others. As each student passed, they were lead out of the training room and returned to the dorm. Finally, when it was Princess Viana\'s turn she smiled and asked, "I have no interest in becoming a mage, may I skip this exam?"
Madeline shook her head and said, "I\'m sorry but the information the status board gives will give us a benchmark for your abilities. Our records indicate you missed the entrance status check as well. We\'ll need you to touch the board, please."
Princess Viana\'s pleasant expression turned to one of violent rage, she called, "Fireball!" And then yelled, "Doreen kill them!" as a ball of fire struck out toward the gathered mages.
First Mage Diggory said, "Water wall." Causing a sheet of water to rise up and put out the fireball.
Doreen stood there looking on in horror at Princess Viana, her heart was telling her to help her love while her mind knew that there was no way this was right. She called out, "Isabel stop this, what are you doing? These are my friends!"
Guy said, "Lightning Bolt." A streak of lightning lanced out and killed Princess Viana.
Doreen stared at the burning corpse of Princess Viana and then at Guy her hand shook as if she was going to cast a spell against Guy, while tears ran down her face. Olivier walked over and hugged Doreen and whispered in her ear, "It was Isabel who killed Claude. She wanted to kill all of us because we killed her family. I\'m sorry Doreen. I\'m sorry, but she had to die."
Doreen looked up at Olivier and whispered in a hoarse voice, "I know, just... Let me have a few minutes."
Guy walked over to Doreen and asked, "Do you hate me?" Doreen swung her fist at Guy and hit his chest, she hit him over and over and then fell against him crying.
Guy just held her there. She sobbed out, "I\'m so sorry. I put everything in danger, I\'m so so sorry." Her body shook with the sobs as she cried.