・Epilogue

The wind carried the scent of blood. Eight hours and twenty-four minutes since the battle against Redonia's suddenly appearing army began—the streets were stained red. Students, teachers, the Red Army. The streets were paved with corpses, and the stifling heat accentuated the smell of iron. In the midst of it all, Guest continued to fight.

One after another, you simply kept mowing down the endless waves of the army. Was it because you had to? Or did you just want to? As you fought, smeared in crimson, scarlet, and vermilion—even the sense of time vanished.

When you realized it—Guest was standing there, having spilled a maddening amount of crimson at your feet. It all belonged to the Red Army. The hero who slew the Jabberwock.

An army of that level could no longer stop that power.

"...Well? Have they thinned out nicely? Then, it's about time I started."

A violent tremor. The sensation of your feet leaving the ground. The East Wing, now full of holes, collapses before your eyes. Rubble rains down like a storm, and what emerges from within is—

Gulp

The Crimson Arena. A monstrous structure built as if eating through the Academy City from the inside.

"This is the Purchasing Committee. The 'Red Queen.'"

The arena trembles. It is Redonia's voice, speaking to all the students remaining in the Academy City.

"I know not how many of you are left—but listen, students of Delos."

"I have now judged the false value bestowed upon this academy."

"I shall announce the conclusion."

"Rankings no longer have any value."

"Those who sit at the top, sleeping while clutching past victories—the idle."

"The fools who obsessively protect only their own rank."

"They are not the strong. They are usurpers who sit atop you, stealing your opportunities."

"And you, sinking to the bottom—what were you taught by them?"

.

"That you have no talent?"

"That you were born different?"

"That effort cannot reach them?"

"To know your place?"

"Thus were your fangs pulled, and you were conditioned to accept defeat and continue to rot."

"But did you not doubt it even once?"

"Why are only they at the top?"

"Why are only they chosen?"

"The answer is simple."

"This system does not exist to choose the strong."

"It exists to protect the current strong as the strong forever."

"If that is the case, then it should be destroyed."

"I shall grant it to you."

"The power to burn away the stagnant hierarchy and drag everything down to the same horizon."

"—The Scorched Rank (Shakui)."

"You who have survived my judgment shall all be equally 'Enscorched.' You have that right."

"That ticket will draw out your power."

"It will allow your fangs to reach the throats of those you could only look up to until yesterday."

"And the Scorched Rank shall burn hotter and stronger by devouring other Scorched Ranks."

"If you wish to defy me, so be it. But... don't you want to 'pay them back'?"

"Don't you want to teach them the taste of the mud you've been forced to lick?"

"That ticket is a right. A pass to victory."

"—But remember. The person standing next to you holds the same right."

"The one who hesitates will be devoured first."

"The one who trusts will be betrayed first."

"The one who does not reach out will have everything stolen."

"Therefore, show no mercy."

"Devour!"

"Steal!"

"Burn!"

"Drag every last coward out onto the battlefield!"

"Even if they are friends, even if they are kin, if they stand in your way, they are the enemy!!"

"Allow no one but yourself to decide your value!"

"Rewrite the ranking itself with blood and flame!"

"Show me!"

"Show those who looked down on you!"

"Show the world!"

"That your power is real! That your desire for retribution was justified!"

"That <<your life was never a mistake>>!"

"—Now, begin the proof. Reforge the academy with your own hands."

――――――――

...Just as a single gunshot echoed through the city, as if it were the trigger, the silence was shattered in various places.

A pale blue magic arrow raced through a dust-swirling alley, and immediately after, a massive explosion swallowed it along with the caster. Destruction chains. A student transformed into a giant monster rampages through the streets, gravity waves sweep away the few remaining buildings, and localized spatial anomalies and time-stops add to the chaos.

"...It has begun."

Redonia looks at her hand. The palm of an adult, after having "sold" her time.

Even though she has played a massive card, there is no trembling.

She simply waits.