Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase04 (section)

===Part 3===

The black-haired boy’s search ended in failure.

But next to him, Teleria Nereid Aquamarine’s face was clouded.

Because she could guess how this was likely to end.

The Student Council who held all power in the Academy Towers refused to let demons walk through the school’s halls disguised as humans.

That was why they had set this all up.

In that case…

They must have been involved in that hostage situation in the gem tower. That had ended with Ayato using his devil’s revolver on Teleria’s stepbrother. Despite the fact that she had already convinced him to surrender.

But.

Had that really been the planned ending?

What if the Student Council had been working behind the scenes to advance their hatred of demons?

(Could it be?)

The nightmare wasn’t over yet.

The girl thought the guilt would crush her.

(What if my human brother wasn’t the intended target? What if it was…me, the mermaid?)

Ayato had made a mistake when he fired.

In two different ways.

Due to some kind of mix-up, Ayato hadn’t lived up to the Council’s expectations while they pulled the strings.

So her stepbrother had been shot when he wasn’t meant to die and Teleria had survived when the entire incident had been about her. The Council had conspired to have her eliminated, but she had slipped through their fingers. Sensing danger, they had focused on developing even more extreme anti-demon measures.

What if that was the truth of the matter?

The anti-mimic research would have a deleterious effect on all surviving demons. The research into recreating magic as a human-only system would mean killing the Four Lords to erase the four elements from the world.

And Ayato had given up his stable position as the strongest Forward to enter the underground world of sorcery hacking.

What if all of that was the direct result of Teleria surviving ''when she wasn’t supposed to''?

What if none of it would have happened if she had died ''like she was meant to''?