Chapter 1 – A Midsummer Night’s Nightmare I

Re​ad on KatReadingCafe​

It was a night of drizzling rain.

A night so dark that without light, you couldn’t see even an inch ahead.

A dark forest shrouded in darkness, where even the moonlight was obscured.

I didn’t have a lantern, but it wasn’t a problem.

Thanks to the magical tool I had prepared in advance, my vision was clear.

A night-vision magical tool.

An expensive device that allowed me to see my surroundings brightly, even with only the faint starlight piercing through the clouds and leaves.

I bent the barrel of the shotgun in my hand, loaded a shell into the empty chamber, and prepared it.

Since I had checked the weather forecast and knew it would rain, I had also waterproofed it.

Unless something unusual happened, there would be no misfires.

Should I test it by hunting some nearby animals?

I briefly considered it, but there was no need to waste time unnecessarily.

“Hey! Who’s there!”

As I continued walking through the forest, I heard someone call out, having spotted me.

I turned my head and I saw two guards dressed in navy-blue uniforms.

Night guards, one holding a lantern and the other with a revolver at his waist.

One of them had no distinctive features, but the other had large ears that caught my attention.

I wondered how they had spotted me in this darkness, but it seemed the guard with the big ear had done it.

According to the schedule I had prepared, the guards shouldn’t have been passing this area yet.

Perhaps they wanted to finish their patrol early and rest, since it was raining and there were no particular issues?

Whatever the reason, I was grateful they had saved me the trouble of finding them.

Due to the distance, they couldn’t see me clearly yet.

But if they got any closer, they would notice the gun in my hand.

I had to deal with them before that.

I aimed the barrel at the approaching guards and placed my finger on the trigger.

The gun had a silencer attached, and the sound of the rain would mask the gunshot.

“Uh, student…?”

The light from the guard’s lantern illuminated the hem of my skirt.

They seemed puzzled as to why I was alone in such a place at this hour, in this weather.

“What are you doing out here alone at this time…”

Before they could finish their question, I pulled the trigger.

The heavy recoil traveled through my shoulder.

The guard in front of me fell, blood splattering.

“Ugh…?!”

The other guard quickly reached for his waist.

He grabbed the revolver holstered there and tried to draw it swiftly.

But it was already too late.

I had already aimed and pulled the trigger again.

It was a double-barreled shotgun, firing two shots at once.

There was no better weapon for taking down two targets in the same direction.

Marksmanship was my specialty.

At this distance, I never missed.

I broke the barrel, ejected the empty shells, and reloaded two more.

I felt confident I had hit them, but I needed to check the bodies to be sure.

Keeping the barrel aimed at the fallen guards, I cautiously approached.

Good, they were definitely dead.

I left the guards’ corpses behind and continued toward my destination.

Things were going well.

“~♬”

A hum escaped my lips without thinking.

My steps naturally lightened in my cheerful mood.

If only things always went this smoothly.

But they rarely did.

If things had gone well from the start, I wouldn’t be doing this now.

Well, it didn’t matter anymore.

I arrived at the dormitory where the students were resting, walking through the rainy forest.

It wasn’t bedtime yet, so light seeped through the windows.

Carefully checking my surroundings, I headed for the back door.

Once the hunt began, there would be chaos, but it wasn’t time yet.

“Oh, no. Fritz…”

Suddenly, I heard a voice and stopped in my tracks.

Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw the young master of the Doschtler family and the young lady of the Vessel family having a secret rendezvous in a secluded spot behind the building.

I had heard rumors about their relationship, but I never expected to see them like this.

Seeing lovers in a secret meeting at night reminded me of a horror movie cliché.

Whenever couples were like this, a murderer or monster always showed up.

Come to think of it, wasn’t I playing the role of the murderer now? (tl: hex :3?)

I couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.

I turned my gaze to the two, who were still unaware of my presence.

It was a perfect position to take them both out in one shot.

I aimed and pulled the trigger.

The buckshot fired from the barrel hit both of them without missing.

They collapsed, losing strength, and the blood splattered around them was washed away by the rain.

As I approached to check, I noticed the young lady of the Vessel family was still breathing.

Lucky or unlucky?

The young master of the Doschtler family had acted as a shield, it seemed.

She was still alive, unable to comprehend the sudden situation.

Her face was a mix of pain and confusion as she looked up at me.

When our eyes met, the young lady of the Vessel family looked shocked.

She probably never imagined this.

There was no connection between us.

A stranger had suddenly shot them.

The only thing she seemed to understand was that I was a student from the same academy, judging by the uniform I wore.

“Oh, dear. Miss Vessel, I was hoping to send you off painlessly…”

“…!”

She opened her mouth, trying to say something.

But no voice came out, only a faint, strange sound like air escaping.

Blood gushed from her mouth as she tried to speak.

It seemed her lungs had been pierced.

“Ah, don’t try to speak. It’ll only hurt if you force yourself with a pierced lung.”

I explained, but she didn’t close her mouth.

She was desperately trying to convey something.

Was it a plea for her life?

Or a request to save the young master of the Doschtler family, who was already dead?

But there was no way for me to understand her voiceless words.

“I’ll make it quick.”

As her focus faded and her eyes grew dimmer, I said those words.

She was still desperately trying to tell me something, but I ignored her and pulled the trigger.

I looked down at the two slumped bodies and broke the shotgun’s barrel.

I ejected the empty shells and reloaded.

Come to think of it, I didn’t necessarily need to use the gun.

They couldn’t resist anyway, so a knife might have been better.

I had plenty of ammunition, but it could run out.

No, I still disliked the sensation of killing someone directly with a blade.

I had experienced it a few times, but I could never get used to it.

I shook off my thoughts and turned away.

Leaving the two bodies behind, I opened the dormitory door and stepped inside.

The interior was lit, so I removed the night-vision magical tool I had been using.

The hallway was silent.

There were no bedrooms on the first floor, so it wasn’t strange that no one was around at this hour.

The gunshots hadn’t been heard, so the students likely had no idea what had happened yet.

It would soon turn into chaos, but for now, it was peaceful.

Humming a tune, I walked down the hallway.

Bloodstains and corpses were scattered around, but I felt incredibly refreshed.

It was as if all the stress I had been carrying had melted away.

How many was that?

I had been counting the remaining survivors up to a point, but I realized I had lost track.

It didn’t matter, since I wasn’t particularly trying to leave any survivors.

I had taken out the teachers and guards first to avoid interference.

If I was lucky, someone might survive.

Not that it would mean anything.

Starting with the two lovers, I began my massacre through the dormitory.

At first, the students didn’t understand what was happening, but they soon realized and descended into chaos.

Most screamed and ran for their lives.

Some brave knight aspirants picked up chairs or mops to fight back.

Of course, a chair or mop wasn’t much help against a shotgun.

Some recognized me along the way.

But that didn’t change anything.

They called out my name, pleading, but I simply pulled the trigger with a blank expression.

Begging for their lives?

Then they’d better use their friends as shields and run for it.

Asking why I was doing this?

They wouldn’t understand even if I explained, so there was no point wasting time.

As I continued the slaughter, I came across a familiar face.

A beauty with long, golden hair, tall stature, and emerald-green eyes.

Frederica of the Wallenberg family.

One of the few people I could genuinely call a friend.

She was sitting among the scattered corpses of students, trembling with fear.

Her body shook, tears welling in her eyes as she looked up at me.

I glanced down and noticed liquid flowing from between her legs.

“Li, Liese…?”

She recognized me and spoke in a trembling voice.

Her eyes, filled with confusion, showed she didn’t understand the situation.

“Good evening, Frederica.”

I smiled at her as she called my name.

She didn’t look like she could put up a fight, so I began reloading my shotgun in front of her.

Seeing me reload as if the blood and corpses meant nothing, Frederica desperately crawled toward me.

Tears and snot covered her face as she grabbed the hem of my skirt and cried out.

“Liese…! We’re friends, aren’t we…?”

I nodded and replied.

“Yes, we are.”

Indeed, we were friends.

We had enjoyed tea together, attended parties, and even gossiped about other noble ladies.

We had maintained a relationship worthy of being called friends.

Yes, we were friends.

But so what?

The corpses scattered around her weren’t killed because they weren’t close to me.

They were part of the same group, the so-called clique, that Frederica and I belonged to.

No matter what they thought inside, to others, we were friends, weren’t we?

And Frederica, last time, you suddenly drifted and sided with the Crown Prince when we were selling out the country, remember?

Of course, you wouldn’t remember in this timeline, but that’s that, and this is this.

Besides, I had decided to kill everyone I came across.

So even if Frederica had been an angel and always on my side in every timeline, nothing would have changed.

I smiled brightly and aimed the reloaded shotgun at Frederica.

Seeing the gun pointed at her, she began to beg pathetically for her life.

“No, no! Please, spare me! I’m…!”

I pulled the trigger before she could finish.

Her golden hair, once shining, was now stained red.

Ah, her beautiful face was now unrecognizable.

“I hope we can be friends in the next life too, Freddy…”

I muttered those words to Frederica’s lifeless body on the floor.

Sincerely, I hoped we could be friends again in the next life…

(tl:mc gun)