actually i think it might be the old black magician?? dudes magic since they had a line about hostages which seems like the entirety of the academy, its staff and students are the hostage to use against the headmaster and shirone wasnt affected due to his omnipotence (JUST MY CURRENT THEORY)
i also agree it might be the black magicians magic but why is shirone being treated like an outcast like if anything they should not notice him right
you have a point fr thats what i was thinking too since it's odd how they were kinda passive aggresive to shirone who wasnt affected by the magic , but it could also be a mental/emotional tactic to use against the headmaster and shirone was just caught up in the middle of it. considering it a possibility that the old magician's plan could be to use his students and staff who currently don't recognize him due to his magic to attack him (since this is all a revenge against him + seeing how the people around shirone immediately thought that he could be a thief/infiltrator due to everyone not knowing him)
(huge brainstorm sorry about that) my theory right now is that the old magician is holding the entirety of the academy as its hostages + also using them to attack the headmaster and since as a headmaster he wouldn't hurt his own staff and student so they basically have the leverage in this entire thing
why did the art style change and why did it suddenly plummet into this “mc is forgotten by the world” type of story now? is this a joke? who the hell did the author hire to be their assistant?