episode_0229

I stood before the baking club room door, steeling my resolve.

“This is…!”

“Our club!”

The primary goal of Awakener training institutions like Aegis Academy is to cultivate violence experts.

However, overly violent individuals tend to lack social skills.

To address this, academies support various club activities.

And the club that we Violets applied for was the baking club.

It’s a place where delicious bread and pastries are made.

As I opened the door, the sweet scent of bread wafted out.

Inside was Senior Club President Narisa, with light-brown hair.

“Hello!”

I greeted her with a cheerful voice. The Senior Club President welcomed me warmly.

“Welcome, Violet! Welcome to the baking club.”

Had he arrived before me? Levi was also there.

“Wow, you’re here!”

My heart fluttered with excitement. How fun would it be to learn baking?

“It’ll also help with food supply!”

“Mass production!”

I should establish a Violet-exclusive cookie factory.

I looked around. The ovens, cooking tools, and ingredients were all abundant.

But something felt empty.

“By the way, Senior-nim. Why are we the only ones here?”

“Ah, that’s… There were other club members originally, but some quit because they were busy, and some just listed their names. They said baking wasn’t fun.”

The senior-nim’s face fell.

“We were on the verge of having to close the club due to insufficient members, so it’s a real relief that you two have joined!”

“Ah, I see.”

Well, numbers weren’t an issue at all.

“So, what are we making this week?”

“First, since it’s your first time… Hmm, let’s try making cookies. They’re the easiest and fastest.”

Following the senior-nim’s guidance, we put on aprons and began to learn how to make chocolate chip cookies.

Already, the scents of butter and chocolate tickled my nose.

“Wow! Cookies!”

The process was simple. Following the senior-nim’s instructions, we mixed ingredients like butter, flour, and sugar, then diligently kneaded the dough into a cylindrical shape.

“Now, from here, we could put it in the refrigerator and freeze it for about an hour, but that would take too long, wouldn’t it?”

Senior Club President Narisa smiled and put on a pair of gloves etched with magic circles. Then she extended her hand towards the cookie dough.

“No way, freezing magic!”

“Exactly. This way, we can save time.”

The dough instantly froze solid.

“Now, slice and shape this, then put it in the oven to bake.”

“It’s easy….”

“We’ll be eating it soon!”

After putting the cookie dough into the oven, we baked it as is. Fifteen minutes later, we were able to enjoy freshly baked warm cookies.

“How are they? Aren’t they delicious?”

“They’re delicious!”

However, a problem arose. The amount of cookies was too small.

I wanted to eat more.

“Um, Senior-nim. I want more cookies, could you help me out?”

“…?”

“V-Violet. Don’t tell me?”

“Yes. I have to use my unique ability!”

Everyone’s gaze turned to me. I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated, and red magic surged, bringing twenty Violets into existence.

“You could use your unique ability? This is my first time seeing a duplication ability… But what are you doing right now?”

I assigned all the processes, from ingredient preparation to kneading, shaping, and baking, to the twenty Violets. As twenty hands moved simultaneously, the work speed became astonishingly fast.

“Kneading Team! Move it!”

“Shaping Team! Slice quickly!”

“Turn all ovens on! We’re entering production now!”

Senior Club President Narisa, looking at the Violets, said,

“Yes. So, Senior-nim. Please act as the refrigerator for a moment! Levi-ya, bring all those ingredients! All of them! It’s an all-out war!”

“A-all-out war! I see!”

“What? W-wait! That’s too much!”

While Levi excitedly carried ingredients and helped us, the Senior Club President frantically froze the pouring dough.

She’s truly a good senior-nim for actively helping us.

An hour later, the club room was filled with mountains of cookies pouring out of the ovens.

“Yahoo!”

With this much, I can eat to my heart’s content.

“Uh… what do I do?”

Only the Senior Club President looked at us with a somewhat troubled expression.

**

She couldn’t recall her own name.

To begin with, no one in this world cared about her name. She was just an ordinary Awakener student, one you could find anywhere.

An ordinary family, an ordinary life at a mediocre academy, not a prestigious one.

Outwardly, it was such a peaceful daily life.

But somewhere deep in her heart, it was always empty.

‘I’m sick of it. All of it.’

It might have been the grumbling of an ordinary adolescent girl. She knew she was complaining about something insignificant.

Since when? After she entered the ordinary academy, her parents began to fight with each other.

‘I’m sick of this household.’

She stayed only at the academy to avoid the uncomfortable atmosphere, but soon she grew distant from her friends and couldn’t concentrate in class.

‘This can’t go on…’

One day, after wasting yet another day, she left the academy and walked the streets forlornly.

She thought today would be another repetition of her mundane routine. Until she met them.

“Hello, are you perhaps feeling tired of life these days?”

She thought she was wandering downtown, but before she knew it, she was walking down a secluded alley. They appeared without a sound, smiling kindly as they spoke to her.

“Who are you?”

“We are from the Ilsindang. We engage in activities to find inner peace and enhance life’s focus through meditation and rituals. Are you interested?”

The person who brought her here told her to call him a missionary.

“There’s no need to overthink it. Just come, listen to some good words, and have a cup of tea.”

Going there, on a whim, the girl found inner peace.

“Empty your mind. Feel the fundamental stillness within you.”

Daily repetition of meditation and mind-body calming rituals.

“Reality changes with how you perceive it. What troubles you stems from yourself.”

Lectures that were difficult to understand, yet somehow offered answers.

“Don’t worry, close your eyes. See, it’s gone, isn’t it? Your anguish.”

“Y-you’re right.”

The unsettling mental fog that had enveloped the girl unknowingly lifted.

‘Every day feels new.’

The girl had been able to smile again since some point. She thought it would last forever.

A few weeks later, the girl began to feel a subtle unease.

The gathering called Ilsindang was excessively secretive and exuded a strange atmosphere.

“To approach deeper truths, we must willingly burn away our ignorance.”

The girl asked.

“Um, what is truth? I’ve learned about it many times, but I still don’t quite understand.”

The missionary said.

“Truth cannot be known without understanding the deeper layers of the world. To do that, you must abandon reality. Everything that surrounds you.”

They subtly advised her to leave the academy and her home.

A bizarre feeling hidden within their seemingly kind words.

Feeling uneasy, the girl hastily returned home.

Then one night, as the girl was returning home, she closed her eyes and opened them to find herself bound inside the Ilsindang building.

“Huh…? Why am I here…?”

What greeted her was a grotesque altar.

An unknown ritual was being performed. The Ilsindang members, who had seemed kind before, were performing the ritual with strangely distorted faces.

Confused, she belatedly realized that she couldn’t move.

“W-why are you doing this?! Missionary-nim!”

Terrified, the girl struggled to escape, but forms of indescribable color had already surrounded her.

The girl’s attempt to circulate her magic with all her might was futile.

And then the missionaries approached.

“N-no! Let go of me!”

As the chanting of those leading the ritual began, a perplexing scene unfolded before the girl’s eyes.

Beyond that, colorful lights, a land not of this world,

Sinister silhouettes, difficult to regard as human.

A cold, snowy field. Beyond it stretched a massive—

“Aaaaaah!”

The next moment, the female student stood alone in a strange, fog-shrouded space.

‘Where am I?’

An unfamiliar yet déjà vu-inducing place.

As she scanned her surroundings, a black figure abruptly appeared before her eyes.

It was one of the missionaries who had brought her here.

The woman grasped the female student’s face with an arrogant grip.

“L-let go of me!”

The girl resisted using self-defense techniques.

The missionary flinched at her attack and fell.

Just as she was preparing a counterattack, the resistance space trembled, and the world began to shatter.

Through the cracks that formed as it split, terrible memories poured out like waves, like wounds spewing red blood.

“A-aaaaah!”

Parental conflict,

Distancing from friends,

Isolation and wandering.

And even the fear she faced at the Ilsindang.

Fragments of cruel memories, clinging to the girl like sticky darkness.

“N-no…!”

Now, the figure before her eyes twisted even more grotesquely.

Having shed its human form, it seemed to embody the madness born from all the fear and despair entangled within the girl.

“A-aaaaa…”

Gnawed away. Vanishes. Transforms.

Within her consciousness, scattering like bubbles, a final scream extended and then vanished.

‘Please stop… No…’

On the altar, the thing that had been the girl rose and examined its body from side to side.

“This attempt was successful too. Though there are still individual differences.”

The male missionary standing in front spoke.

“It will soon get used to it. This is merely a test.”

The girl, now merely a husk, raised her head and looked into the mirror. For a moment, a cluster of stars reflected beyond her vacant eyes, then vanished.

“Young beings, easily swayed psychologically, are also easy to infiltrate.”

Beyond the mirror, the image of someone screaming was momentarily reflected.

“Hmph, that’s why humans accustomed to Aether are troublesome…”

The girl scoffed at her other self in the mirror and waved her hand. The afterimage disappeared.

“Our methods have been verified through various procedures. Let’s return to our original target location.”

“The vigilance is intense. Don’t forget that several of our organizations were recently targeted.”

“It’s merely reconnaissance. There’s no problem if we fail.”

As the two whispered to each other, the Ilsindang members, with vacant eyes, bowed as if swaying.

The girl no longer remembered her name.

She didn’t care.