The explosion did not sound like the thunder.
It was because the thunder rolled, echoed, and announced itself to the sky. Instead, the explosion was silently tearing apart. For those closest to the cafeteria's rear passage, the death should have been immediate.
The magic circle had not merely released explosion after all. It had unraveled the mana, stripping the walls in a violent bloom of white that erased everything.
Baston saw the light first. It swallowed his vision so completely that there was no room left for fear.
His thoughts went blank and his body moved before his mind could catch up. He was bracing for the impact with the puppet in front of him.
He closed his eyes. He was not in prayer and he was not in resignation. He did it simply because there was nothing else to do.
When Baston opened his eyes again, the first thing he noticed was that he was still breathing. The second was that the air smelled wrong.
It was not a smoke since it was sharper like the metal that was left too long in the rain, making his tongue feel numb.
He stood exactly where he had been before. Ahead of him, the passage no longer existed.
The stone walls had been peeled away as if it was scraped by a colossal blade. The floor was gouged, warped, and fused into the uneven glassy ripples.
The explosion had carved a path straight through the back of the cafeteria. It was clean, precise, and devastated except for one place.
The space directly behind Baston remained untouched. A corridor-sized void of the destruction ended abruptly at his back as though the magic itself had decided not to continue.
Behind him, Alicia and Panto were alive. The realization reached him slowly, creating warmth into his frozen fingers.
"Good… Everyone is still alive…"
The ache soon came. It was not exactly pain but it was more like pressure. There was an internal tightness that radiated from his chest outward. Baston exhaled carefully and felt it lessen.
"The puppet…"
He did not need to check because he already knew.
The summoning tool that he had deployed before was gone. The puppet was already erased by the explosion.
It was reduced to several small fragments that even he could not recover anymore. A faint flicker of his regret soon surfaced.
He had wanted to observe it longer. To test its limits, its responses, and the way it interpreted the danger. Still, the old book did not negotiate with his fate. There was a price for any of his action. Fortunately, he only needed to wait for one day before the puppet was restored.
The future tomorrow would bring back his reward from the grave then. Behind him, someone inhaled sharply.
Panto and Alicia had finally dared to open their eyes. They saw Baston's back first. He stood there still, and then, they saw everything else.
Alicia's breath was caught in her throat because the passage that they had taken a moment ago had been gone. It was reduced into the wreckage.
The blast radius extended far wider than she had expected and far wider than she had believed. However, the space where Baston stood looked untouched.
She was shocked after imagining his hidden strength.
"Baston…" she said and her voice was unsteady despite her effort to keep it calm, "Are you… Are you alright?"
He turned slightly as if he was noticing them for the first time, "I'm fine…"
The words were plain and unremarkable.
Alicia stared at him, searching for trembling hands, for uneven breathing, and for something that would reassure her that the fat boy also took a hit and exhausted.
Eventually, there was nothing. The fat boy stood there unimpressed. It was just like such explosion was nothing in front of him.
If she had tried to block that explosion herself, she would have died. Even with her family's protection items, the best she could have hoped for was the survival at terrible cost.
Still, Baston stood there as if the blast had been nothing more than a sudden gust of wind. While she was pondering hard about his background, Panto broke the silence.
"Baston! That was incredible!" he blurted out and his voice was cracking with adrenaline, "You… You just blocked the explosion! I thought… I really thought we were dead!"
He laughed loudly to express his joy. Never in his dream that death was nearby but could not touch him in the end.
Baston looked at him, then past him before his gaze briefly sweeping the ruined corridor. There would be many questions eventually from just looking at such devastation.
He didn't have any strength to explain everything. The existence of the puppet was his hidden secret. No one should know, including the two people nearby.
"When the teachers arrive…" Baston said quietly, "Alicia will explain what happened. It would be her deeds…"
Alicia blinked, "What? But…"
"You were the one who erected the magic barrier," Baston continued and his tone was even, "You reacted first and you protected us."
It was not a suggestion because it was his decision already. Panto froze and Alicia could only stare at Baston.
For a moment, she thought she had misunderstood him. By then, she saw his eyes that were full of secret and conviction. He was not afraid of the explosion but he was afraid of what came after.
The understanding dawned slowly in both of them but it took different shapes.
Panto's mind leapt immediately to the cult. He thought grimly because if this matter got out and if the people started asking questions, the academy would be implicated.
The explosion alone was alarming and Baston's involvement would make it more catastrophic. The cult had already shown that they were willing to act inside the place. If they learned what Baston was truly capable of, the suspicion would follow here.
Panto swallowed and he needed to talk to Baston later. At best, somewhere in private where the walls could not listen.
Beside him, Alicia remained silent but her thoughts were moving just as quickly.
The magic circle they had just witnessed was not something found in the textbooks. It was not the academy material and even the teachers who would soon arrive would struggle to identify it. Such explosion could not be done by the students around here.
The implication tightened her chest because if someone asked her, she also could not give the answer that everyone wanted. Apparently, she believed only Baston who could understand what had already happened.
After all, the fat boy knew about the magic circle. Not only that, he even blocked the explosion easily. Surely, he had to know something more.
Before either of them could speak another word, several hurried footsteps echoed from multiple directions.
The teachers arrived in clusters and their expressions were shifting rapidly from confusion to alarm as they took a look in the devastation.
"What happened here?" one demanded, "Who cause this?"
"There is so much damage... This wasn't an accident anymore..."
Baston stepped back slightly, lowering his head. Once again, he turned into someone unremarkable. Someone that could be forgotten in the vast space of the academy.
"Alicia knows what happened…" he said meekly, "She realized something was wrong before the explosion occurred and she protected us."
Panto reacted instantly, following the words of his savior. In this time, he must devote all of his effort toward Baston. Even it was a lie, it was a means for survival.
"That's right!" he added loudly, "If Alicia hadn't stepped in, we'd all be dead!"
He gestured wildly, exaggerating his fear, his gratitude, and his admiration, "She was amazing! She was truly heroic!"
The teachers exchanged glances. The traces of mana left behind were chaotic but one thing was clear that no ordinary student could have survived at the epicenter.
If it was a noble and if it was her magic item, that would fit the explanation. Alicia felt the heat rush to her face as the praise rained down on her from all sides.
She nodded when appropriate and she answered carefully while keeping the story simple.
Eventually, one teacher gestured firmly.
"Alicia, come with us to the office. We need a full account from the beginning of the story."
He then turned to Baston and Panto, "You two may return to your dormitories."
Panto bowed obediently and Baston shuffled away without comment.
No one stopped him and no one questioned him. As they left, Panto glanced back once while watching the teachers surrounded Alicia like an eager witnesses around a polished truth. They did not even glance at Baston.
For some reason, that bothered him more than the explosion.
*****
After the chaos settled, the hunger returned. It always did anyway toward the fat boy. He spent so much energy just to block such explosion.
"I'm going to eat," Baston said simply.
Panto hesitated before he nodded. At this time, he offered his service to his savior only. The bullied fat boy slowly turned into someone greater among the others currently.
"I'll check if the cafeteria is still open."
Baston watched him leave and the suspicion was flickering briefly before fading.
Panto had changed since there were less mocking from him. Maybe, the experience of nearly dying did that to the people. When Panto returned, his face was tense.
"They're closing the cafeteria…" he said quietly, "I don't know when they will open it again."
Baston frowned because if the cafeteria was closed, he could only seek food outside the academy. The outside food meant money but he did not have any money to spend.
"Today might be the last day," Panto added hurriedly, "By the way… I ordered something already."
Baston said nothing and when the food arrived, it was excessive.
It was a whole roasted chicken. It was bigger than anything Baston had eaten since arriving in this world. He stared at it for several seconds.
"This is too much..." Baston thought, thinking how to eat it fully before it went cold.
Panto shrugged, forcing a laugh. "Don't worry on the money. It's on me since you saved me..."
Baston ate slowly and thoughtfully. He did not notice the waiter slipped something onto the tray until afterward.
It was a coupon and it was usable for certain restaurant at the outside of the academy. It was valid starting tomorrow. Baston stared at it for a long time after finishing the meal.
*****
In the meantime, Alicia stood alone in the corridor outside the teachers' office. The accolades were still ringing in her ears.
She should have been elated but the unease gnawed at her. After all, Baston's credit had been misplaced and the evidence had vanished. The one who had done a great deal had already walked away untouched as if the explosion had never been meant for him at all.
While she was busy of telling the concocted lies, Baston lay awake long after the dormitory lights dimmed.
The academy was quiet again deceptively and the footsteps no longer echoed in the corridors.
There was no ringing bell and no shouted orders from the teachers. To anyone listening from afar, it might have seemed as though the explosion had never happened.
The illusion disturbed him and he could only stare at the ceiling.
The food coupon was resting on his chest, rising and falling with each breath. The paper felt thin and ordinary. It seemed unimportant yet this small coupon was the most precious item he had.
Considering what had happened, it was a ticket to eat free at the outside. That alone made it very valuable than money.
Meanwhile, the old book lay beside him. It was closed and its worn cover was dull in the lamplight.
Baston did not touch it. He had learned that unnecessary contact invited the attention. He believed that attention would invite the judgment.
His thoughts returned to the moment of impact. It was not the explosion itself but the process before it.
The magic circle had not reacted to Alicia. It also had not reacted to Panto. It had reacted only to him.
That realization settled slowly and heavily like a stone that sank into still water.
If the magic circle had been triggered by his presence, then its purpose had never been random. It had not been meant to collapse the cafeteria or cause chaos. It had been a meant to confirm something.
Perhaps, it was a test for the fate or for the reaction.
The old book had given him the tools but not the answers. Every time he used it, the world responded in the ways that felt uncomfortably deliberate.
Baston did not dare to confirm. His senses remained turned inward, replaying every detail he could recall. It was the path of destruction, the precise cutoff behind him, and the absence of recoil.
The way the pressure inside his chest had reverberated as if something unseen had taken note of his response and decided it was acceptable.
The question was what would be his next fate then?
*****
Meanwhile, Alicia sat alone in her room. Her hands folded tightly in her lap. She had replayed the teachers' questions over and over, examining each of her answers for the inconsistency.
The story she told was clean. It was logical, supported by her status and the magic items she carried. It was indeed too clean that it worried her.
The real disasters left the messes or the contradictions with missing details and the disagreed witnesses.
However, no one had questioned her account beyond the surface-level confirmation. No one had asked why the magic circle had activated and no one had asked why its destruction path stopped.
The most concerning of all was no one asked about Baston at all. She pressed her lips together toward that fact.
The fat boy had not once looked surprised by the explosion's outcome.
He had not asked the questions and he had not reacted out of proportion. It was as if he had expected it.
If Baston had access to another informant, then that informant might also know that she currently carried a credit she did not earn. Such credit that would soon be reported upward beyond the academy into the places where the truth had a way of resurfacing.
She did not fear the punishment of lies. She just feared of being used.