Ch.1919. Chaos

Emily, who had become a blue flame judging the dead, calmly walked toward Maalks.

It was a calmness completely opposite to the boiling anger and resentment I had felt, but she had learned through experience.

That fear is more terrifying when it approaches slowly and visibly, rather than suddenly.

Because she had been a girl who trembled in fear, always trapped behind bars, listening to the footsteps of researchers walking toward her, wondering if today would be her turn.

She was using even that brief moment of approaching Maalks as an act of revenge.

Seeing this, Maalks could only tremble and prostrate himself.

[I, I was wrong! I had no choice but to follow Ditros Verdi’s orders!]

[…..]

[I’m a victim too! I’m a victim! He said he would kill us all if we didn’t do it!]

Emily stared blankly down at Maalks, who was pounding the ground and crying.

He tore at his chest with his hands and cried out.

[Please! Please, I beg you! Have mercy… just a shred of mercy!]

He looked ready to lick her feet if ordered.

Emily stood motionless, having stopped her movement.

“I wonder how Ditros Verdi discovered the existence of the monster called the Bone Worm.”

[……!]

When I intervened, Maalks’s eyes flashed as he glared at me.

If I could laugh easily, I would have sent him a sneer at a time like this.

But all I had to show him was an expressionless face, already cold with indifference.

“Why specifically the Bone Worm? There must have been many other monsters, so why did he choose one that requires an excessive amount of human bones and is barely known to people?”

[Dei, us!]

Maalks exhaled my name like a sigh. Ignoring him, I recited a page from Verdi’s journal in my memory like a biblical verse.

“November 25th. A man named Maalks came to me. He explained that the threatening momentum of immigrants crossing the Norsweden mountains recently was a sign of war.”

“His words were so strange that I found myself drawn into them at some point. I didn’t realize it during our conversation, but as I write this journal, I wonder if he, who claimed to serve the kingdom’s cause, is actually just trying to satisfy his own desires through me.”

“But what does it matter? If successful, I only stand to gain, and even if it fails, it’s no different than killing the immigrants crossing the mountains.”

“He provides the knowledge, I provide the materials.”

There was no need to say more. After saying that, I glanced at Maalks, who was grinding his teeth and shouting.

[You idiotic Verdi bastards! I told them not to leave records! Even after death, you continue to reveal your own ignorance!]

Maalks, exposed as the actual mastermind and originator of the plan, looked up at Emily.

Despite hearing the whole truth, Emily just stood there blankly.

Seeing this, I let out something like a scornful sigh.

“Ha.”

She was truly an amusing girl.

At some point, even I had narrowed my thinking, considering her just an 8-year-old because of her vivacity.

“W-what? Was that a laugh just now?”

“……”

Findenai was surprised by my sudden laughter, and Deia wore a complicated expression.

The two could only see the flame in Emily’s form, not Maalks, so they wouldn’t understand the situation, but I had no intention of explaining.

[Excuse me.]

Emily finally spoke. Maalks made a fuss and pressed his forehead to the floor.

[I’m repenting! I know I was insanely foolish! That’s why…!]

[Did you expect it?]

[…What?]

Slowly, like a crawling insect, Maalks’s eyes crept upward.

When they reached Emily’s face, his eyes widened to the point of tearing, and his mouth fell open.

[Ah, ah… aaaah!]

He realized that Emily had absolutely no intention of forgiving him.

He understood when he saw her smile.

[Why? You’ve done this to us so many times already. Making us hope you’d spare us, then taking us away to die.]

[Ah, ah.]

[This is fun. I think I understand why you all laughed so much while doing this over and over.]

Thud.

Emily’s hand grabbed Maalks’s wrist.

[Aaaaaaaaaaargh!]

Maalks’s wrist began to burn, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, struggling.

Though it was a delicate girl’s palm, there was no escape from her now that she had become flame.

[Gah! Gaah! Bu-burning! My flesh! My fleeeeesh!]

[I really like your expression.]

Smack!

Emily caught Maalks’s struggling face with her other hand.

[Gack! Uuuuurgh! Aaaaargh! Sa-save! Save meeeee!]

He felt the pain of his face and wrist burning, yet there were no actual external wounds.

Because.

[You’re already dead.]

Yes, because he was dead.

No matter how much pain he felt, there was no way to escape anymore.

[We dead people know. There’s actually no afterlife. So even if I achieve enlightenment, I can’t meet my mom and dad.]

[Guh! Uuurgh! Aaaaaaah!]

[I will. Pour every bit. Of this grudge. Onto you.]

As the desperate screams continued, I slowly turned and gestured to Findenai and Deia.

“Let’s go now. Even ladies have aspects they don’t want others to see.”

“What?”

“……”

The two, not understanding the situation, followed my lead toward the exit.

Just before leaving through the door, I glanced at Emily. She bowed her head slightly toward me as I departed.

“It’s not over yet. I’ll prepare a ritual for you, so please wait a little longer.”

[…Thank you.]

After making this final promise.

Bang.

I closed the door.

The screams continued to echo.

* * *

Robern Academy.

“How dare they!”

The dean slammed his fist roughly on the desk. The letter beneath it was wretchedly crumpled.

It was the Verdi family’s response to the letter the dean had sent.

A blank sheet with nothing written on it.

The blood vessels on the forehead of the bear-like dean bulged as he looked at the letter that meant they had nothing to say.

But what really irritated him was the current situation.

Despite such rudeness, he needed Deus Verdi.

The semester would begin soon.

After the vacation ended, returning students and new freshmen would flood in.

Especially.

‘There are too many big shots among this year’s freshmen.’

Grind.

Starting with the princess of the Griffin Kingdom, numerous talented boys and girls from prestigious families were coming.

Students so luxurious that professors were already excited, calling them the golden class based on the preliminary list.

He wasn’t sure exactly ‘why’ there were so many abnormally important freshmen this year.

Anyway, he needed to resolve the current situation.

“Is there no solution?”

As the dean clutched his head in worry, Professor Gideon Zeronia entered after knocking.

Behind him stood a woman who could best be described as eerie. Dressed in a black robe with her face covered by a black cloth, she held a staff with grotesque decorations.

“Dean, I’ve found someone who can solve this problem.”

“Oh!”

This was the news he had been desperately waiting for.

The dean stood up abruptly, slamming the desk, and asked with expectant eyes.

“Is it, is it the person behind you?”

“Yes, that’s right. This is a necromancer I found with great difficulty.”

“Yes, that’s… a necromancer?”

The dean immediately frowned. A necromancer meant someone who walked the path of Black Magic.

And that meant.

“Isn’t that a criminal?”

Someone who violated the laws of the Griffin Kingdom. A kind of pathogen that should never set foot in the academy.

“Yes, that’s right. But Dean, is that important right now? The semester is just around the corner. We need to cleanse the academy before the students return.”

“Perhaps we should bring in a cleric instead…”

The dean had been thinking about bringing in a cleric, but the necromancer behind him chuckled with a chilling laugh.

“You mean those fools who claim to pray to God but all they know is how to kneel? Forget it. They’ll still be holding services even after the semester begins.”

“Ahem.”

That was certainly true.

Moreover, the exorcism rituals performed by clerics were expensive, and it was impossible to properly confirm whether they were effective.

“I am certain. If I frighten and inflict pain on the spirits, they will soon flee.”

The necromancer’s cackling words began to instill a strange confidence in him.

Yes, what wouldn’t he do to save the academy?

The dean nodded and offered a handshake to the necromancer.

“I’m counting on you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll start right away. I’ll finish it today.”

The necromancer rejected the handshake and headed outside. Just then, she encountered Erika Bright and the health professor Karen, who were coming to the dean’s office.

The dean didn’t want to inform them, but Gideon smiled and drew them in.

“You two should come along as well. The situation is about to be resolved.”

“Pardon?”

Erika frowned, wondering what he meant, but Karen recognized it immediately.

“You brought a necromancer. They’re quite rare to see.”

“As expected from someone with mercenary experience, you know well.”

So Karen and Erika joined the situation. Erika, avoiding Gideon who stood beside her, put strength in her feet to stand next to the necromancer.

“May I ask you one question?”

“Anything.”

The necromancer giggled with a relaxed smile. Despite the unpleasant feeling welling up, Erika tried to hold back and asked.

“There’s a professor who previously detected the evil spirits in the academy.”

“……”

At her words, not only the necromancer but everyone else listened attentively.

She was talking about Deus.

“How did that professor know about the evil spirits?”

“Heh heh.”

Everyone present could tell that small laugh was mockery.

“There are people like that occasionally. People with a sensitive perception of the dead. But that’s all it is. If you think about it, they’re just third-rate, barely dipping their toes in. Unlike me, they can’t control or suppress evil spirits. That’s why the academy is overflowing with them now.”

“…I see.”

Erika felt somewhat relieved inside. Honestly, the more she dug into the situation, the more it seemed like Professor Deus was connected to Black Magic.

“Ha, so he sent that letter with such an insignificant ability.”

“Professor Deus missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be reinstated.”

The dean snorted that it served him right, while Gideon smiled and agreed beside him.

Erika pretended not to hear and continued asking the necromancer.

“Actually, there’s an evil spirit I’m looking for…”

“Stop.”

The necromancer suddenly halted.

They were in the middle of the fourth-floor corridor.

“Let’s start here. This is the central location of the building.”

With those words, the necromancer immediately struck the floor with her staff.

A massive amount of mana explosively erupted around her. The mana writhed like clay and began to transform into the shape of human palms.

The fingers stretched out, and their tips became palms again. The necromancer’s magic split into hundreds of palms.

Within them, the faces of the dead, screaming in agony, could be glimpsed.

“She’s a necromancer with considerable skill. Professor Gideon, where did you find this person? At this level, she could hide from anyone if she wanted to.”

“Haha, that’s a secret.”

When Karen, who had seen necromancers a few times before, asked, Gideon responded with a friendly smile, evading the question.

It was truly amazing skill.

Even considering it was necromancy, Erika thought the necromancer’s ability might surpass her own as a professor, when suddenly.

Crack.

The staff dropped to the floor and rolled to Erika’s feet.

The palm-shaped mana naturally combusted and disappeared into the air.

The necromancer was looking at the professors.

Her body remained facing forward, but her head had completely turned around.

“Huh?”

Thud.

That was the end.

The necromancer, with her head turned around, let out a confused scream and collapsed, rolling down the stairs.

No one could say anything.

Only.

[Hee hee hee hee hee!]

The eerily chilling laughter of a girl they had heard before echoed.

Thump!

Thump!

Thump!

Thump!

The sound of heavy footsteps coming from the stairs.

“Why is that here…”

The one-armed skeleton warrior, known to appear only in the first-floor central corridor, was climbing the stairs with tremendous leg strength.

Crunch!

It immediately trampled the necromancer’s corpse as it rolled down the stairs, turning it into a mass of flesh.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Drawing its sword, it began to hack, slash, and stomp the necromancer’s corpse repeatedly, mutilating it.