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Section 1
## Chapter I: "Magic and Electronics and Nika and All That"
Taiwan edition. Transcribed from Light Novel Kingdom. Scans: Senri Akane.
"Without precedent." "Without successor." "But that's enough." "Because you are here, aren't you?" "Because you are right here." —From the Chronicles of Den-O, "Lost and Bewildered"
♪
That Nika Fialianate was known as the student dead last in her class was, regrettably, a fact.
"Whoa, that's amazing..."
The easygoing girl—Nika—lifted her face to the sky.
Her mouth fell open in astonishment, utterly unguarded.
"So this is what they mean by awe."
Nika murmured it. Before her eyes, a dragon of steel-colored machinery beat its enormous wings and drifted through the air as leisurely as if it were swimming.
Trees among the towers. In the gaps between them the steel winged dragon opened its jaws and roared.
The sound shook the air and rattled the glass of the buildings.
This was a city. A great city, at that.
And yet, for some reason, there was not a soul in sight. The atmosphere could only be called deeply uncanny.
"GROOOOOOOOH...!"
A pack of monstrous lions could be seen charging this way.
In other words, Dull Nika. That was Nika's nickname.
Enormous bodies with the same mechanical look as the winged dragon.
No.
Nika, she—
Yurian's gaze stayed fixed on the lions ahead.
He said it under his breath.
"Because—I'm a member of this team too!"
Then the greatsword shuddered and answered, speaking.
First it devoured the pegasus, and next it swallowed the giant swordsman...
## Chapter II: "Proof of Incompetence, Young N"
"It's fine to be different." "Difference is a good thing." "It's fine if there is no difference." "It's fine even if we are the same." "It doesn't matter." "That sort of thing doesn't matter at all." "What will you do? What will you become?" "That is something you will come to know." —From "Before and After Den-O"
A few hours before the afternoon performance of Nika and the others was to begin.
"Cardinal Lo. I am Melfort Fialianate, captain of the Second Squad, acting in place of Captain Gibson of the personal guard attached to the century assigned to today's security and escort. I greet you. I am in your care."
A young man whose stern face still held a faint shadow of the boy he had once been knelt on one knee with perfect courtesy and bowed his head.
The man just entering old age who sat in the chair before him carried both authority and dignity. His mere presence tightened the air around him.
Lo took off the hat he had worn pulled down over his eyes and spoke.
"Melmel."
His manner was extremely flippant, nothing like a voice that carried authority and dignity.
"Ngh..."
Young Mel caught in his throat and nearly choked on air.
"C-Cardinal... that way of addressing me is hardly proper, and in front of my subordinates, no less."
"You say that, but there's no one here. It's just me and Melmel, right?"
Even so, Lo could relax after all.
At least in front of an old acquaintance, he wanted to show "the self he originally was," just like this.
Nothing more than Nika Fialianate's older brother, Mel Fialianate.
Mel slowly raised his head.
"Mel really..."
## Chapter III: "Electric Indifference and Young N"
"The question isn't whether you can do it, but whether you will. Though there isn't really an option not to. In other words, all you can do is do it. Right? You don't do it because you can. You can because you do it." —From "Den-O's Regret"
♪
The rain had been fierce, but it seemed to have been only a squall.
Afterward, just as the forecast had said, the weather turned fine and clear.
But because of the squall, many of the things that had been planned were canceled.
For the time being,
"It was all that sudden downpour's fault."
Taking it as such, the students each spent the last night of the expedition.
Yurian and the other elites of the "Hefu," who had been trying hard to stay calm, could not help the fatigue showing on their faces once they returned to the dormitory.
"My, my—everyone really worked hard today!"
Along with the acting principal's words of appreciation, the dormitory served a rather lavish dinner, but no one had much of an appetite.
A performance broken off by summoned beasts running wild for reasons unknown, and by the downpour.
The members of the Dieselhorst group and the Royley group, who had been caught up in it—especially Yurian and Chris Royley, appointed as captains—needed time to talk themselves through it more than they needed to accept what had already happened.
Brother Mel, who had thought he would see the little sister he loved most, yet for reasons beyond his control could not meet her and had turned back, right up to the end.
And so it was. Nika, too, had been looking forward a little to seeing the brother she had not met in so long, and when that hope came to nothing her spirits sank as well.
Yurian and the Royley group...
## Chapter IV: "The Electronic Mage and Nika"
"—You'd best not try to know the answer." "—Because before you know it, it is already there." "—There is only error there." "—You can only search for the right answer inside the errors." "—The answer will surface on its own, from behind." "—No. The destination you reach is the answer itself." "—There is no answer." "—Nor any reply." "—In that case, go and find it." "—With those hands, with those feet, with that voice, with those organs, with that fate." "—But if it were me." "—I would not go looking." "—Because there is no need." "—The answer will come to me on its own." "—In order to pursue me." "—Because it wants me to answer." "—Because I am the answer." "—Why?" "—Because I am Den-O." —From the Chronicles of Den-O, "Those Who Are Faint"
♪
Would she be able to tell those two any more of what she thought, and hear what they thought in return?
Nika gazed blankly at the scenery flowing past the train window.
Back to everyday life.
Many people had been hurt. Blood had run in rivers.
"Nika Fialianate is a special student who cannot use electronic magic at all, yet got in by riding her brother's coattails."
Reed Dakushureshita.
And, with the incident of ten years ago among its causes, the magic school was wrapped in a solid security system.
Regret still lingered in the heart.
Nearly all of it was tied to the anti-Den-O, anti-Magic Council factions.
The train seemed as if nothing had...
## Chapter V: "After School for the Mage"
"Someday, it will disappear." —From "God of the Electronic Computer"
♪
The accident during the exercise was entirely the doing of a young woman teacher.
Even a magic-school system fortified against intrusion, invasion, and attack from outside might prove somewhat laxer if one struck from within.
Maskies Valentine, acting principal of the magic school, immediately sensed that this incident might have been caused by someone inside the school, though it might also be connected to the outside—anti-faction organizations such as the terror networks of the magical world. To look into that, he decided to hold still for now and let the "culprit" move freely until the situation turned critical.
But before that could be confirmed, the three students Nika Fialianate, Yurian Dieselhorst, and Reed Dakushureshita stepped into the Third Experimental Building (Island) ahead of anyone else.
The three of them faced the hardship together.
For the teachers, that was something to be glad of. The expedition must have shown its results, surely?
He had very much wanted to praise them.
"I already thought the combination of these three was interesting... I never expected it would spark a reaction like this... Is adolescence just that impulsive?"
When Acting Principal Maskies learned of what Nika and the others had done, he sighed.
Yurian took control of the Third Experimental Building and contacted the magic school's main building. Maskies and the other faculty, who had come running at the emergency summons, sternly reprimanded the three.
"That's why I said I wanted you to just leave it to the teachers...!" ...
## "Afterword"
♪
Hello, readers. I am Keisuke Hasegawa.
The other day, I watched a movie. It was done in a comic style, unhurried in pace, the kind of work that makes you smile without meaning to and moves you to tears. Zombies appear in it, but it is not a zombie film. It is about the people making a zombie film. Hasegawa is very afraid of zombies. Or rather, I cannot watch horror films, or gore, or anything frightening at all. Given my usual manner, I think that ought to be obvious... Coward that I am, I had no trouble watching this movie. Thanks to the film's tone and the people in it, I could even watch the zombie scenes laughing, "ahaha." When I had seen the whole thing, my heart was moved past words: "Ah, that was a fun movie." By all rights, that should have been the end of it. But for the three days after that, every single night—I dreamed I was being chased by zombies. No good at all. It was not "no trouble" at all. The effect was actually quite large.
Even so, in fact, through the first day and the second, I only vaguely remembered dreaming of zombies, and I never wondered why I "had a dream like that." I only thought, "Well, that was a nightmare." Then, on the third day—"Ah! Could it be because of that movie? Even though it didn't seem like a zombie film at all!"—I finally realized why I had dreamed of zombies three nights running. I had never imagined that something of that degree would make me dream of being chased by zombies, and when I noticed it, even I thought I was simply too...