Ch.196196. Teaching Assistant (2)

Tatiana Gracel was a priestess who served the ancient gods of the second dimension.

As one might expect from someone who served such powerful beings carrying such ancient curses, her mind doesn’t easily surrender in the face of ordinary challenges.

Such powerful mental fortitude clearly enhanced her adaptability in suddenly difficult situations.

‘…Where is…’

She painfully looked around.

A pitch-black space filled with darkness.

Her head felt foggy.

Searching through her last remaining memories…

“…!”

She immediately covered her mouth.

The sensation of her head separating from her body and rolling across the floor came rushing back through her nerves.

It was a scene she remembered clearly.

The black monstrosity before her eyes. The image of it separating her head with a single strike.

She had died.

At the hands of Darwood Campbell.

“Urgh… ugh…”

She immediately covered her mouth as nausea surged up.

Fortunately, even in such a situation, her strong mental fortitude continued analyzing the situation.

‘Is this… the mental realm…?’

That was the conclusion she reached after looking around.

A floating sensation impossible to find in the material world. All physical stimuli from her body felt dim.

She had heard that this was exactly how a “spirit body” that entered the mental realm—something she only knew in theory—would feel.

“…”

The problem was why she was in such a place.

Especially when she had just died.

“Oh, looks like the processing went well.”

As she pondered this, a hateful voice suddenly reached her.

An unforgettable voice.

“As expected of Headmaster Walter. Even though this is the second one I’ve entrusted to him, it’s incredibly clean.”

The very person who had taken her life!

“Darwood Campbell…!”

She growled, calling out his name.

Then, a malevolent death energy began flowing through her body.

The power she had accumulated throughout her life seemed to be perfectly preserved even in her spirit state.

Although there were no ritual tools anywhere to refine this power, her forbidden knowledge of curses remained effective even in spirit form—

“Yes. You need to be intact.”

Darwood said with a yawn.

“Otherwise you’d have no value.”

With those words, Darwood snapped his fingers.

Simultaneously.

An intense pain that seemed to burn her mind white shot through her entire body.

It felt like her legs were being severed. Like her skin was being torn apart. Like things from “inside” were ripping through her body and bursting outward.

“Ah…AAAH….! AAAAH, AAAAAAAH–!!”

She let out a miserable scream, wrapping her arms around her head and body.

The pain was so intense that she lost control of her body, writhing on the floor like an insect. It was a terrible agony that couldn’t be blocked even by her powerful mental fortitude, which normally gave her resistance to considerable physical and mental pain.

Almost as if…

She were experiencing someone’s “death” while still alive.

Indeed, just hearing what followed made it clear that such a guess was extremely accurate.

“That’s what you did to Riru’s family.”

The Garda clan.

Those whose bodies had been sacrificed to her “ritual.”

“I asked Valkarsus to recreate it as closely as possible.”

He had made her “experience” the exact sensations they felt when they died.

Darwood Campbell continued his explanation calmly.

“You…!”

She gritted her teeth again.

Bloodshot veins rose in her eyes. She wanted to tear this man apart right now.

But before she could spit out any curse, Darwood snapped his fingers again.

This was a different sensation from before. It felt like her body was burning. Like her limbs were rupturing. Like falling from a high place, hitting the ground, and having her head crack open.

“Ah…ha…ah….-!!”

Nausea rose. Saliva dripped from her mouth. All she could do was emit pain-filled groans with a pale face.

“From now on, I’m going to recreate the sensations of all the people you killed, one by one.”

Facing her in this state, Darwood continued speaking with the same even tone.

He showed no emotion at her condition. As if it were “natural” for her to suffer like this.

“If you want it to stop, you just need to promise one thing. How about it?”

“…What?”

Even as Tatiana’s demeanor grew increasingly savage, Darwood answered without changing his expression.

“Obey me. Instead of the Luminary.”

“…”

“Serve me instead of them.”

Even as her entire body suffered from terrible pain.

Sparks flew from Tatiana’s eyes.

What she had just heard was a statement she could never overlook.

She glared at Darwood with a venomous expression.

“Just try it…!”

If nothing else.

Even if she were killed a hundred times, a thousand times, tens of thousands of times.

Her loyalty to the Luminary would never waver.

Her greatest benefactor in life. Someone who was essentially a mother figure to her.

And now, to betray that person and serve the man who killed her?

She would rather have her entire soul suffer this pain for eternity!

“Well, if that’s what you want.”

However.

Despite her resolute attitude,

Darwood continued speaking in the same even tone.

“I’m curious how far that oath will go.”

She would never waver.

She closed her eyes tightly.

No matter what evil this man did to her.

No matter what horrible things she endured.

Her spirit would never surrender!

“Well then.”

With the sound of another finger snap.

Another terrible sensation swept through her entire body.

The feeling of tentacles writhing inside all the blood vessels throughout her body.

“…!”

A scream that couldn’t even form properly escaped from Tatiana’s vocal cords as a groan.

“Ah, ugh, hnnng–!!”

“This time it’s Allan Va-Thor’s death. It should hurt more than before.”

Darwood Campbell’s voice continued.

“I just learned recently that the rules of the mental realm are different from the material world. I can keep doing this to you without any time constraints or physical limitations.”

For such savage words, his expression remained unchanged, not even blinking.

“When I said I was curious how long you could hold out, I wasn’t joking.”

With those words.

Again, that finger snapped.

Again, and again.

Continuously.

“—!!!!”

Tatiana’s screams echoed endlessly through the mental realm in response.

●

How long had she been suffering this terrible pain?

Tatiana’s consciousness was sinking into the depths.

‘…Luminary…’

Her consciousness was sinking.

To a distant place. To the most precious place buried beyond her memories, to the scene that created the “will” sustaining her through this torture.

-Oh, a survivor? Still breathing?

-…Boss. Are you interested in someone like this? Looking at those injuries, they’ll probably die soon anyway.

-Nah, the undersea clan are all powerful curse practitioners. This much won’t kill her.

The memory of the first day she saw the Luminary.

She remembered the warm hands that took in the naked girl washed up on the shore—Tatiana herself.

Despite that bizarre appearance, she remembered that masked face that felt strangely comforting.

-…Who…?

She also remembered the answer that came when she groaned those words to the person carrying her.

-Hmm… I can’t tell you my name. Everyone who knows it is destined to die.

-…Huh…?

-Call me the Luminary. That’s enough.

The sole survivor from the day when the undersea clan that worshipped ancient gods was purged by the Tribal Union’s hunters for being “ominous.”

A girl covered in wounds, with nowhere to go. Waiting only for death.

The Luminary accepted her without any conditions. Nurtured her power. Provided the circumstances for her to take revenge.

Her consciousness sank deeper.

Shifting to the memory of the day when she truly began serving the Luminary as her “new master”—

“Ah, finally.”

And during this process.

A voice interrupted.

“Found it.”

Suddenly.

Tatiana’s spine went cold at a voice that shouldn’t be audible.

In her memory with the Luminary.

In her “conscious memory” where no one should be able to enter.

She heard someone else’s voice.

‘…What…’

Tatiana raised her head in shock at the voice echoing in her mind.

Darwood Campbell was looking down at her as she lay prostrate on the floor.

A faint smile played on his face.

It was a smile with such a sinister air that it sent chills down her spine.

“Well, I have someone around me who’s extremely familiar with the ghost state. And I also have a master of techniques no less powerful than yours.”

With those words, Darwood reached out and touched her head.

At the same time.

The memory of her first meeting with the Luminary was “erased.”

“…!”

Tatiana clutched her head in shock.

It was an unsightly action, but her mind was too shocked to even consider such things.

“What…!”

She couldn’t remember.

That warm touch. The face she first saw. Even their first conversation.

Nothing.

As if it had been blotted out with ink.

“Precious memories become will. They allow humans to exert endless mental strength.”

As her pupils shook wildly, Darwood removed his hand from her head and spoke.

“I thought that if I tortured you endlessly, you would definitely recall something like this. As any person would. If you just recalled such things, I could interfere that far within the mental realm.”

He explained calmly.

“The torture was just a means to that end.”

Finally.

Tatiana’s eyes filled with horror as she realized this man’s intentions.

“You… you… you… devil bastard…”

She uttered those words with a trembling voice.

Her expression, which hadn’t wavered once during the severe torture, now cracked.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

“You’re… you’re… trying to… completely distort my ‘existence’…!”

Mental manipulation. Brainwashing.

His goal wasn’t simply to cause her pain.

His purpose was to take away her “memories” entirely!

“No, not exactly.”

A sneering response came to her desperate cry.

“I’m just doing it because ‘I can use you.’ You did the same when you killed Riru’s family, didn’t you? Even bringing in the people you killed.”

With those words.

Darwood’s hand gripped her head again.

“Ah… ah…”

Again.

Another memory was erased.

Black ink splashed across the day she first received a birthday celebration from the Luminary.

Then, his hand touched her head again.

“No…”

Another memory.

The memory of the day the Luminary praised her disappeared.

The memory of the day they hugged her tightly, saying she was truly family, also vanished.

“No…! Please…! Stop…!”

Another memory.

Another memory.

All of them, erased.

Continuously.

All of them.

“…!”

After a time when she couldn’t even scream, Tatiana suddenly realized a terrible fact.

She couldn’t remember.

Like a dinner from long ago.

There was a precious person, a precious person, someone she wanted to serve even if it meant sacrificing her soul.

But, who…

‘…Who… was it…?’

Tatiana collapsed face-down on the floor, her face deathly pale.

The physical pain she had been enduring until just now was no longer an issue at all.

Now.

Her “soul” had been completely drained.

That emptiness filled her entire body.

“…No.”

Tatiana crawled across the floor, writhing.

Her head, which had never bowed even during endless torture, now hung low.

She bowed her head to this man. Knelt before him. She looked ready to lick his feet if he commanded it.

“…Please…”

She begged in a fragile voice.

“I’ll do… anything… Whatever you want, I’ll be your slave if you want a slave. If you want a plaything, I’ll gladly serve…”

With desperation. With a wish to give anything she could give.

“Please… just… don’t take this away…”

The memories she truly cherished, please.

The foundation that formed her very being, please.

She begged again and again.

Even with her vision blurred by tears, hoping that her voice might move this man’s heart even a little.

“Fine.”

Those words fell indifferently.

“I won’t erase them. I never intended to from the beginning.”

“…!”

Tatiana looked up at Darwood with a suddenly brightened expression.

“But.”

At his next words.

“I’ll overlay them.”

Her expression immediately turned to despair.

“…What…?”

“I said I’ll overlay them.”

Darwood reached out again and touched the forehead of Tatiana, whose eyes had lost their light.

“I won’t erase your memories. However.”

To Tatiana, who continued to shed tears with a doll-like expressionless face.

A frost-like declaration fell.

“I’ll just change the object of your loyalty from ‘the Luminary’ to ‘me.’ That’s why I erased those memories.”

Over the Luminary’s memories, blotted out with ink.

The existence of ‘Darwood’ is painted over.

This man would take the Luminary’s place. He would brainwash her to make it so.

Looking at Darwood as he said this, Tatiana finally realized.

This man, from the beginning.

Had no intention of showing her even a fingernail’s worth of mercy.

“…Devil.”

As those words flowed from her mouth like a groan.

Tatiana’s consciousness went dark.

●

Some time later.

In the mental realm, Tatiana Gracel was trying to lick my feet.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Valkarsus and Calivan Chrysanyx looked back and forth between her and me with astonished expressions.

While it probably felt like an eternity to her, the actual time that had passed was only 15 minutes.

This is how the mental realm works. A time axis that operates completely differently from the material world.

I’m glad I asked Walter for help.

“Wait.”

“Ah, aah… Master…”

“Wait. No.”

“Ah, uh, aah…”

She looks up at me with desperate eyes.

Her eyes convey a plea to let her lick just once.

Clearly, the plan to “overlay” her loyalty to the Luminary onto me seems to have worked successfully.

Somehow.

It feels like it worked almost too well.

‘…Wait a minute.’

Does this mean the Luminary was constantly subjected to this kind of behavior from her?

Is that person some kind of crazy pervert?

“…You’re one to talk.”

“…I agree.”

“…”

The stares from Valkarsus and Calivan beside me are piercing.

“…What?”

“No, at this point I honestly think it’s reached the realm of art. You’re an admirable man.”

“I agree, Boy King.”

“…”

Honestly, I couldn’t argue with such comments this time.

Nevertheless, I had no choice.

< Item Info >

[ ▲ Tatiana Gracel ] [ Processed ]

[ Specialty: Curse ]

[ Form: Spirit ]

[ Processing Options ]

▶ Subordinate as a familiar

▶ Apply to item as enhancement material

▶ Resummon in complete form (disappears after one use)

Applying her as enhancement material to an item isn’t a good option. Tatiana is fundamentally someone who can be used repeatedly.

In that sense, resummoning with disappearance after one use is also rejected. If possible, it’s better to subordinate her as a familiar that can be reused multiple times.

The problem is that subordinating her as a familiar incurs penalties that reduce most of her abilities unless she gives her “personal consent.”

It’s meaningless if she doesn’t serve voluntarily.

“…So you completely brainwashed her mind to make her voluntarily obey you?”

“Yes.”

“…”

“You’re such a bad person. How nice to feel no guilt even doing something like this.”

Just thinking about what she did to Riru, she deserves this treatment.

I felt at least some guilt when using Lana, but with someone like this, I truly feel nothing.

“…Well, you’ve always had a tendency to become ruthlessly savage against enemies. You were like that before, and it seems that tendency has grown stronger now?”

“…”

Well, that’s probably.

Influenced by what I used to do.

The job I had before being transported into the game, I mean.

Calivan sighed deeply and said:

“Anyway, what do you plan to use her for after going this far?”

Didn’t I already answer that question?

“I told you before doing this, didn’t I?”

While tucking the lion breastplate containing Tatiana’s soul into my chest, I continue:

“After this, I need to see someone in the Holy Empire.”

Bishop Luminol.

The person I need to have a final confrontation with before the trial begins.