Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 85: Back from a Strange Place

"Ugh... My head..." Koko complained, flinching as she slowly opened her eyes only to be blinded by the sunlight pouring from a nearby window. And while she instantly recognized her surroundings as her dorm room, she was curious as to how she'd even gotten there seeing as the last thing she remembered was Magara escaping behind the sweet bowl clouds... wait, what?

Almost jumping out of bed despite her fading headache, Koko ran over to the window and looked outside to see that the clouds were thankfully normal and that the gingerbread mountains had returned to nothing but rock, dirt and snow. The sun was no longer a lemon and Koko even spotted the thankfully normal looking academy students chatting happily with each other between the dorms before she walked back to her bed and sat down on it.

"I'm back!" Koko yelled happily, though her cheerfulness was soon lost as she grew concerned for her friends. After all, even if she was back at the academy, did they ever make it out of the dungeon? What happened with the last boss monster?! And after getting that thought, Koko hurried and changed her cloths before running out of her room heading for the headmaster's office seeing as classes seemed to be finished for the day. Though as she ran towards her destination, she kept her eyes open for any sign of her friends before she finally spotted Christina speaking to some of the academy's other students in one of the classrooms.

"Christina!" Koko yelled happily, attempting to stop her momentum in the hallway before she slid past the classroom's door and ended up colliding into a tower of boxes before she finally managed to stop and go back to the classroom where Christina was giving her a look of confusion.

"Koko? What are you doing out of bed?!" Christina asked as Koko walked up to her. "The priests said that you would be unconscious for at least a week but it's only been a single night!"

"Unconscious from what?" Koko asked as it was her turn to be confused.

"Do you... not remember?" Christina asked. "When we faced the last boss monster of the dungeon, you started to lose your mind."

"Eh? I lost my-?" Koko started before she began thinking about what she'd been seeing at the end of the dungeon. "Now that you mention it, things were pretty weird... But never mind that, did you two make it out okay? There's no injuries, right?!"

"Now that your awake, we're all fine." Christina made sure to assure her. "But next time, please tell us if you get hit by the puppet's darts. Apparently they're laced with a poison that makes you sick to your stomach before causing hallucinations."

"Hallucinations?" Koko asked before a sudden thought struck her. "I... didn't attack you guys, did I?"

"No no no! You didn't do anything like that!" Christina was quick to correct her. "But if I may ask, who is Magara?"

"A man of pure evil and my mortal enemy." Koko replied with a serious expression. "But the fact that I thought that I was fighting him just proves that I really was hallucinating seeing as he died years ago."

"What did he do?" Christina asked in worry.

"He killed a lot of people that I cared about and then he proceeded to try to ruin their memory!" Koko clenched her fist in anger. "He's the absolute worst person in history!"

"I... I had no idea." Christina looked at Koko as if saddened by the news as she placed a comforting hand on Koko's shoulder.

"Don't bother feeling sorry for her. Magara is a fictional character." Richard suddenly appeared in the classroom's doorway. "In other words he's the villain of Koko's favorite story who managed to win against the heroes."

"Give me back my feelings!" Christina demanded as her grip on Koko's shoulder tightened.

"Richard! You're alright too!" Koko shouted happily, twisting out of her angry friend's grip before she walked forward to greet him.