Protagonist Knows Everything

Kasha tilted her head in confusion.

“Huh? What?” she asked.

I voiced my thoughts in a way that made it easier for Kasha to understand.  Kasha, who was listening closely, shook her head with a somewhat confused smile.

“Don’t say nonsense.”

“You said the same thing when I told you to use water magic.”

“……”

“Would you like to try that again?”

Kasha looked up at me with gleaming eyes.  “I… really?”

“Ah. Really.”

“I think Tay believes in me too much. You also said that I was going to be a great sage that time.”

“Well, that’s the truth.”

Kasha covered her face with her hands. But she couldn’t cover her ears that turned red.

“Stop it. Don’t say it like that.”

“……”

“If you keep speaking like that…”  Her voice was cracked.

“What do you want to say?” I asked, not understanding a single word.

“Oh, no. Nothing.”

After a few moments full of silence Kasha removed her hands from her face and said, “Okay. Let’s try it.”

“Okay. Are you ready?”

“Heh, anytime.”

I gave her “her test”.

The result was far better than I expected.

“Let’s go with this Kasha and change your expression, it looks like you saw some ghost.”

***

In the end Celia didn’t modify the magic circle. I didn’t know whether it was due to her belief in herself or just her envy towards Kasha.

Anyway, the day of the decisive battle came. All the wizards were gathered on the top floor of the tower. All their faces were tense.

Celia climbed up on a raised platform to get everyone’s attention.

“Everyone. The day is here.”  Sound-amplifying beads. Celia was holding those near her mouth as she spoke.  

“I will give a signal when Dame is right above the circle. At that moment please infuse your mana into the circle from your respective points.”

“……”

“As you may know, there is a trigger circle right behind you.”

All the wizards looked back. In the middle of the top floor there was a magic circle, like a miniature replica of the actual Tor Ribiere spell.  It was roughly around 100 meters in diameter.

“Please infuse mana into the trigger circle on my signal. Then the magic circle will be activated.”

“……”

“That’s it. All we have to do after that is watch Dame fall into the pit, exactly like it was 300 years ago.”

[Shh]

At that time, an adventurer raised his hand carefully.

“Yes. You may speak.”

“Hey… it is really unlikely to happen but, but what if we fail?”

Celia’s face hardened at those words.

“There is no way we will fail.”

“No. There are rumors floating around about how the magic circle is flawed.”

“Who made that rumour?”

At those words she looked at Kasha with a sharp glance.  Kasha was more humiliated than surprised. After all she did the right thing, humiliating her in front of everyone would leave a scar on her.  Knowing that I deliberately pulled Kasha and hid her behind me.

After taking a few deep breaths, Celia said again in her soft voice, “This magic circle was reviewed countless times, even before all of you began gathering in the tower.”

“But… what Kasha said didn’t make any sense at all…”

“Stop. Don’t say anything useless anymore.”

“……”

“If you don’t have anything useful to say then don’t speak. Anyone who will spew nonsense like this will be punished. As you may know I have been given full authority from His Majesty the Emperor.”

The adventurer’s face was full of frustration and complaints, but fearing the punishment he kept himself from speaking any further.

Celia hurriedly dismissed everyone as she felt the atmosphere in her audience growing even more tense.

“Now go to your seats. According to the schedule, Dame will appear in about two hours.”

The adventurers disbanded without hiding their gritty expression.

I headed to our area with Kasha.  Kasha arrived at her seat and put her hand on the magic circle.

“Not yet.”

“I know. I was just a little nervous.”

“……”

“Tay. Can I ask you something?”

“No.”

Kasha whined with a voice full of dissatisfaction.  “I haven’t even told you what I want to ask!!  I want to ask about the test that you took a few days ago.”

“……”

“First, focus on what’s in front of you.”

She nodded with a sigh.

After that, we  waited for Dame to appear on the horizon without talking much.

And… after some time the ground began to shake.

[Rumble.]

Birds hiding in the trees started fleeing. Wild beasts with foam in their mouths started running all around the place trampling over each other.  At the horizon a mountain was moving.

‘Mountain…?’

“Huh?”

Kasha makes a strange sound.

[Thud]

I felt the thump all the way to my very bones.  I raised my head to get a better view of the guy on the horizon, Dame.

The guy was very quiet.  Unlike other monsters, it didn’t shout or scream.  It was just…walking, silently.

“How many meters is he?”

The surrounding wizards became noisy.

“Who thought it would be that big…”

“Is that a ‘named’?”

“How did Hero Arsleine defeat that by herself?”

“Concentrate! Almost there!”

With each step it covered more than 100 metres.

All the pebbles in the vicinity were trembling, the tower itself was shaking.

I asked, “What is that?”

On both sides of Dame I saw militants, as if they were guarding it. No, it seems more like an escort rather than a guard.

Kasha looked up, narrowing her eyes and replied, “It’s the Imperial Army. If our operation fails, they will attack. They have siege weapons with them as well.”

“You mean an attack that won’t work at all?”

“……”

“Sorry. It was an useless thing to say.”

“No. Tay is right. The attack won’t work. We have to stop Dame ourselves.”

In that moment Dame stepped right over the circle. A few more steps and it will be out of the circle.

“We have to do it now.”

“It’s now!”

Celia shouted, her voice amplified with those beads.  

Kasha put her hands on her magic circle and recited the chant.  All the wizards did the same and the trigger circle started to glow.  After a few moments all of them shouted in unison.

“Tor Ribiere!”

At the same time… the ground began to crack.

[Kra-ka-boom]

Dame leaned back, losing its balance as it was trying to take another step forward.

“…”

“…”

But that was it.

“What, that’s it?”

Celia exclaimed, stupidly while keeping the beads near her mouth.

‘Thank you for getting our morale down, great job’ I thought to myself.

“Why? It should’ve worked properly……”

The ground is clearly divided.

However, the crack wasn’t big enough for Dame. Just one of its feet was caught in the crack.  The wizards also saw the scene and shouted violently at each other.

“Poetry, did you fail?”

“Oh my god! Kasha was right!”

“If we’ve lost already then I’ll write my will…”

“Celia was the one who created the circle!”

“Celia! How will you take responsibility for this?! Huuuh?!!”

Celia stumbled upon her feet kneeling down on the platform, her legs had given up.

‘That’s a very good timing.’

I exchanged glances with Kasha.

“Are you ready?”

“Uh, yes. So I…”

“Okay. Go up and give a speech. What’ll happen from now on will not be Celia, it’s a miracle that Kasha Flame will create, you have to let the people know that.”

“Tay’s doing everything, not me…”

I patted her head.

“Because the team managers stay behind.  As the HR team leader, it’s my job to support the staff. If you succeed then I succeed as well.”

Kasha’s eyes became determined.  She jumped over to the platform where Celia was kneeling looking dazed and lifeless.

‘Pity.’

Then Kasha grabbed the voice amplification beads.

“Huh? What, what is it?!” Celia asked but was ignored by Kasha.

“Everyone calm down!”

Kasha didn’t like to be in front of people or giving speeches that much, but she was still doing it.

To help herself.  To help the Hagnut guild.

It was a really nice moment.

“Keep calm everyone. Just calm down!”

Except that her language was a bit crude and not refined like a spokesperson.

“Don’t be worried. I will stop him!”

“What?! How will you stop that thing? Nothing will happen even if all of us mages shoot spells at him.”

“The magic circle was our only hope, and even that didn’t work.”

“I’ll get Torre Ribiere up again. Trust me and calm down.”

The eyes of the mages were full of shock, anxiety and helplessness. The circle that was their only hope didn’t work.  And there was no other way to stop Dame from destroying them.

That’s what they were thinking at least.

[Thud]

Dame was regaining his balance and started to pull out his leg from the ground.

“Human Resources” I whispered quietly.

The window came up.  I rolled my eyes and crossed over to my screen window.  The ability that became available to me after I became a 2nd year employee.

[Trait 2: You can do that too.]

[Allows the target to copy certain magic, skills, and abilities.]

[You have to see the object to be copied with your own eyes.]

[Cooldown: 14 days]

[Points needed: 400]

‘Gosh. My golden points.’

That ability’s name reminded me of the time when I used to teach the new employees.  One of them was really good at work.  But the conservative top guns were always on the lookout for young promising people.  That recruit faced a similar condition. To help him I just told him how I used to tackle such situations and said ‘You can do this too.’

At that moment, a new window appeared.

[Would you like to use the unique ability ‘You can do that too’?]

I nodded.

[Please set the target.]

‘Kasha Flame.’

[The unique ability ‘You can do that too’ is activated. Please select the object to be copied.]

‘Tor Ribiere.’

[Kasha Flame is now allowed to use Tor Ribiere.]

[400 Personnel evaluation points will be deducted.]

[Personnel points required until the next promotion: 80/3500]

[To proceed, please review and approve.]

Once again, the draft document screen popped before my eyes.  I raised my hand and signed in the payment box.

-Kim Ill-do.

At that moment, I looked at Kasha and nodded.  Kasha’s eyes lit up, and she stood up straight facing Dame with her small back towards all the wizards.

Then she aimed her hands on Dame and said, “Suck the Devil’s Toes in Hell! Dame!”

“Are you sure that’s a magic spell?”

The next moment, a huge magic circle appeared beneath Dame’s feet.  The magic circle that Celia had made vanished.

“Tor Ribiere!”

It is completely different from before. Even someone like me who didn’t understand magic knew.  It was the true Tor Ribiere that descended upon this land 300 years ago.

[Kra-cack, Kra-cack, Kra-ka-booom]

The land opened up in an instant. A huge 3 kilometer wide hole opened up right beneath Dame’s feet.

Until now, Dame had only been walking silently, without making any noise.  But the moment the ground cracked, he gave out a scream that shook every organ in my frail body.

“Screech.”

The dragon fell into the earth, with nothing but one of his hands grabbing the edge of the hole made by Kasha.  It was obviously trying to climb back up.

“Close it! Close it now! Kasha!”  I cried out loud without knowing it.

“Ugh. Even if you don’t say that…”

“Kasha!”

“Close it. Close it!”

[Rumble]

The hole in the ground closed up as quickly as it had appeared.  And Dame, who could not overcome the pressure from both sides, let go of the edge.  Falling into the deep abyss underneath

“Ahhhhhh!”

Kasha closed her hands together and finished the spell.  After a few moments. The hole was completely sealed.

To my annoyance, a dust cloud covered the vicinity around the tower afterwards making our vision limited.  However, after some time the dust cloud dissipated, and only the imperial army remained.

“Wow! She did it! She did it.”

“Now I can go back alive!”

“How the hell did that happen? How did she invoke that spell all by herself…”

“Is Kasha the great sage?”

“Nonsense. It’s a miracle! It’s a miracle!”

Each of the wizard’s voices soon turned into a cheer.

“Kasha! Kasha! Kasha!”

But in the face of all the cheers, her face turned red, and Kasha ran down the steps in a hurry.

She could’ve stumbled down the stairs if she didn’t pay attention.  She pushed her way through the crowd to find me.

“Tay? Where are you? Tay…”

“Here.”

“Tay… I did it. I did it.”

“Well done.”

“I did it. I did it. Uh, huh?”

To see if she was relieved I crouched down.  She was staggering.

The spell didn’t use her mana as it was generated fundamentally from my ability.  So her mana shouldn’t have been exhausted…

“You didn’t even sleep yesterday night, right?”  I yanked her by her arm and asked her.

“Hehe, It wasn’t just yesterday, but I didn’t sleep for the last three days.”

“That’s why your eyes have dark circles beneath them.”

“Tay is also… saying that like you res….”

“Kasha?”

She didn’t answer.  She fell asleep completely leaning on my arms.  I laughed at the sight and hugged her after picking her up.

“You shouldn’t fall asleep anywhere like this. What if someone takes advantage of you?”

I mumbled like that and tried to leave.  But countless adventurers blocked my path.

“Hey. Talk to me for a second.”

“How the hell did that happen? Is Kasha really the great sage?”

“Which guild are you affiliated with?”

“So what’s your name?”

I answered softly, “Please, stay quiet.”

“……”

“Our Hagnut Guild’s adventurer is sleeping.”

In the midst of all this, I will be a great employee  that did not forget to promote the guild.

I glanced at Celia.  She had a blank face, as if her soul had left her body.  As soon as she noticed my gaze, she trembled, and soon bowed her head.

‘I’m going to have a talk with you, but later.  If you can perform as per my expectations then you will pass.’

Then I’ll make you spew each one of your secrets, like that finance manager.