Chapter 41

R&e;aｄ on K̀αt‌Ｒ​&e;ａd&i;ng‍Cáfe‍

“Is it finally over for now?”

Angelica withdrew her knight golems.

She sighed, almost a lament, as she watched the golems scatter to sand.

The high-rank monster’s head had been severed, and the other monsters were all exterminated.

While the immediate crisis had been overcome, everything was not yet resolved.

The girl who had introduced herself as Astaroth, wearing a mask, could return at any time, and there might be injured students among them.

Moreover, Angelica herself was not in good condition.

Minor wounds aside, the blow that tore open her chest had been quite fatal.

The shattered leg was also a serious problem.

Her shinbone had been crushed.

Standing on both feet was a torment in itself.

She had used rocks to seal the wound and was leaning on it to support her leg, but it was all just a temporary fix.

She had put on a brave face in front of the children, but Angelica objectively evaluated her own condition.

It was honestly impossible to walk in this state. She needed to minimize movement to avoid worsening her wounds.

But she couldn’t ask a student to carry her again, so Angelica snapped her fingers and created a golem for herself to ride.

“Lucia. We’re going to move quickly. You should───”

Angelica couldn’t finish her sentence.

She had intended to say, “You should ride the golem too,” but when she turned her head, no one was there.

Where Lucia had been standing just moments ago, only a cold breeze blew.

Angelica looked around, but there was no sign of the girl.

“Lucia?”

Where did she go?

◈

“I… I did it…”

Eugene collapsed, almost as if he was crumbling.

The sword, slick with sweat, slid from his grip as the extreme tension pulling at him finally released. His body felt too heavy to stand.

The heat radiating from the red-hot blade faded, and the sword returned to its normal color. He used it like a staff to support himself.

His eyelids were heavy. After overusing his supernatural ability beyond the limit, it seemed his mental strength had completely drained.

“I defeated the high-rank monster…”

Though it hadn’t solely been by his own strength, and he would have never been able to manage without teacher Si-ul’s help and teacher Angelica, he still did it.

He had won. Defeated a high-rank monster.

It was a monster that only the most skilled of heroes among the active heroes could face head-on, but Eugene had fought it without retreat, and he had managed to bring it down.

Eugene steadied his breath, a smile faintly curling at the corners of his mouth.

Though he still had a long way to go.

He had just taken the first step, and the road ahead was long.

But he was slowly moving toward his goal.

With the life saved by Yui, he was determined to become a proud hero.

Slowly, he was progessing toward the far-off ideal he had sworn to reach when he was still naive.

“Ugh…”

But that was as far as his celebration went.

Eugene grabbed his throat as nausea rose up through his esophagus.

As he vomited, the foul smell hit his nose.

‘Did I push myself too hard…?’

From the moment he first met Astaroth on the bus, until now.

He hadn’t been able to relax his vigilance for a single moment.

He had rapidly completed and used the advanced techniques he had only imagined in theory, and fought the undeniably more powerful high-rank monster.

He had pushed both his body and mind to their limits to achieve it.

Although he had been relying on his adrenaline and fighting spirit to hold his body together, now that the situation was over, the toll he had put off had come all at once.

Eugene leaned against the sword embedded in the ground and exhaled deeply.

The battle was over, but his heartbeat hadn’t slowed down.

His vision wavered. Everything in front of him blurred.

Supernatural abilities were the power of the mind.

The more he used them, the more he exhausted not just his body, but his mind as well.

As he became aware of his physical condition, it was hard to believe that just moments ago, he had been oblivious to the overwhelming fatigue and pain that now surged over him.

“Ugh… I think I’m going to die…”

Teacher Si-ul wasn’t any different.

In fact, she might be in worse shape than Eugene.

With her pride as a teacher and her sense of responsibility as an adult, Si-ul would never show weakness in front of her students, but now, she completely threw all that aside and collapsed to the ground.

It was that difficult; she felt like she was going to die.

It wasn’t a joke—she feared that if she fell asleep now, she might never wake up.

Though she often underestimated herself, Si-ul was a very skilled hero.

Not many could face a high-rank monster in a one-on-one battle.

She had fought the high-rank monster while bending space extensively, even blocking its attacks aimed at the distorted space, and had managed to fight on.

What allowed them to win this time was the attack that Si-ul had risked her life for.

Through the torn sweater, red spread out.

Even with her ability to distort space, she couldn’t block all of the attacks, and her body had been mauled.

Several ribs were broken, her left arm wouldn’t rise, and both of her legs creaked with every movement.

In the intense pain, Si-ul let out a brief groan.

Once the battle ended, it seemed the adrenaline rush had also subsided.

The light green soaked and turned red.

The blood slowly spread across the spot where Si-ul had collapsed.

“Teacher Si-ul, are you okay?!”

Eugene, realizing her condition too late, shouted urgently.

He staggered to his feet and approached her. Si-ul forced a bitter smile.

“I’m fine. I’m just a little tired. I’ve had worse injuries before.”

It wasn’t just bravado.

In fact, injuries like these were something she got used to over time.

Being a hero meant always walking on the edge of death.

Si-ul distorted the space around her wounds using the last of her strength.

She needed to stop the bleeding temporarily to prevent it from becoming life-threatening.

“I’m going to get scolded by the nurse…”

She muttered to herself in a tired voice.

At least it seemed her condition wasn’t too dire.

Eugene let out a sigh of relief.

With the worry gone, his strength seemed to drain away.

He kneeled down and lowered his head.

He felt like he shouldn’t fall asleep, but his eyelids grew heavy.

Now that the situation was under control, he might just let himself pass out.

He smiled weakly and blinked, his eyes growing heavier.

“…Hmm?”

A sound brushed against his ear.

What was that? A voice?

He struggled to lift his head, seeing Arin and Leo running toward him.

Eugene pushed himself upright. His body felt weighed down with the force of a hundred tons.

They seemed worried about their friends who had fought the high-rank monster and the homeroom teacher.

He waved his hand as a gesture to reassure them that he was okay.

However, their pace didn’t slow down. In fact, it only quickened.

Leo even used his acceleration ability, but perhaps because of the exhausting battle, his energy was depleted, and soon his supernatural ability faded.

“…?”

Eugene watched them in confusion.

What were they shouting? His ears were ringing, and he couldn’t make out the words. It felt like the sound was muffled.

“…Still…!”

“Get up… you idiot…!”

What? What’s going on? Why are they acting like that?

The high-rank monster was already taken down, and all the remaining monsters had been dealt with.

There shouldn’t be any need to rush like this…?

Eugene furrowed his brow and focused on listening to their voices.

With such anxious expressions, what were they trying to say—?

“The ‘crisis’ still isn’t over yet!”

“Get up already, you idiot!”

A cold shiver ran down Eugene’s spine.

He instinctively tried to rise.

But perhaps because he had pushed himself too hard, his legs wobbled and he collapsed back down.

A rancid smell spread through the air.

Pffft! 

The sound of leather tearing rang out.

Eugene turned his head.

The corpse of the high-rank monster, which had lost its head, was cracking like an egg.

“What…?!”

The color of its scales had faded to white.

Cracks spread across its body. A disturbing pulse emanated from the corpse.

It was breaking. As if new life was emerging from an egg… No, it was more like a reptile shedding its skin.

Kukuk. Krrrk.

The sound of hard objects grinding against each other echoed.

Then, finally, with a loud explosion, the corpse burst open.

From the high-rank monster’s body.

A crimson form shot out like a projectile.

“Ah…?”

A bloody mass was charging straight toward Eugene.

He had grabbed his sword, but his arm wouldn’t obey him.

Even though he tried to leap away by pushing off the ground, his movements were sluggish.

In an instant, the sharp claws rushed toward him.

The world slowed down. Eugene’s vision fully captured the form of the monster.

It was a monster similar to the one he’d just taken down. Although its size had shrunk a bit, the aura and pressure it gave off were no different.

Eugene blankly watched as the claws swung wildly and violently.

Although the world slowed down, his own movements had also slowed.

He gripped his sword. It was too slow. He pushed his legs to leap. It’s no use. I’m too late.

The tremor in the air brushed against his skin.

Eugene’s pupils trembled fiercely.

I can’t dodge. I can’t block.

I’m going to die—

“Watch out!”

Fwok!

Something pushed Eugene’s chest.

It wasn’t the monster’s brutal claws.

A small, soft hand shoved him away.

Eugene’s face felt something hot.

Feeling heat was a rare sensation for someone like Eugene, who controlled fire.

The warmth that now stained his face and school uniform a deep red was nothing compared to his own flames.

Just the warmth of a human body.

But it burned.

More than ever.

A heat fiercer than the moment he’d been burned on his hand engulfed Eugene.

“Ah… aaah…”

A groan full of pain erupted.

It wasn’t even a proper scream—just a voice that sounded like air escaping.

The monster’s claws, which pierced her back and went through her chest, finally released their grip.

Golden hair fluttered and scattered like feathers.

“Kyaa… Ahh… Ugh…”

The claws that had pierced through Eugene were now embedded in Lucia’s body, who had pushed him away, her body rising slowly.

In a fit of rage from the sudden interference, the monster violently lifted her before tossing her to the ground like trash.

Thud!

Lucia’s head slammed into the ground, her neck snapping.

She spun like a ball, rolling across the floor.

Blood trailed behind her like a trail.

Eugene’s gaze followed her as she tumbled.

After rolling several times, Lucia’s bloodied body finally stopped, her vacant, unfocused eyes locking with his.

“Lu…”

His mouth went dry.

His head froze, as if it had turned to ice.

Thud.

The sound that shouldn’t have come from his heart reached his ears.

“Lucia────!!!”

A scream-like cry tore from Eugene’s throat.

It was a cracked voice, dry and unfamiliar even to him.

 

Author Note

The show was supposed to last longer than that but it ended so abruptly.

This was a failure!

Translator Note

Something that would happen in ‘The girl wants to be murdered’ isn’t it? Speaking of it, you should check out that novel as well. 

Sadism seeps in the air, heh.