Ch.3030. Beginning of Term Assessment (3)

Being pushed away at first might have been okay since I wasn’t badly hurt.

But the second time was clearly different.

I didn’t even notice the four rats approaching, and thinking it was all over, I was about to request a conversation with him when his eyes suddenly widened.

‘What on earth did he see?’

“Huh…?”

The moment I tried to turn around, my body was thrown in the opposite direction.

It wasn’t just one.

When all four rats pounced, I blocked two with my unique magic and barely stopped another with my whole body, but lacking hands to block the remaining one, I ended up taking a hit to my abdomen.

Struck, Junon spat blood, which naturally stained Charlotte’s shoulder crimson with its momentum.

In the end, Junon’s body landed directly in front of Charlotte.

Perhaps.

If he hadn’t stepped in.

It wouldn’t have been Junon’s abdomen that was struck, but the back of Charlotte’s head.

Her much more delicate head would have been torn open, blood flowing out.

The beasts, smelling the pungent blood from her head, would have gone wild, stripping her flesh, and Charlotte, unable to resist, would have been reduced to a mere meal.

Those who go to the battlefield often think the same thing.

Please let me return safely today too. I hope everyone can come back without getting hurt.

But the battlefield rarely shows mercy to humans.

If someone on your team gets hurt, collective responsibility follows, and all team members gather to feel guilt.

If someone gets hurt because of your mistake? An overwhelming sense of responsibility and guilt that no one can escape crashes down.

Charlotte thought she could handle it too, but she had never experienced it directly. That’s why.

Something unbearably heavy pressed down on Charlotte’s chest, making it hard to breathe.

The information transmitted to her brain through her eyes brought such immense fear that it momentarily blanked out her mind.

Why was it so heavy?

And why was it so terrifying?

It was because this scene unfolding before her eyes was too unfamiliar an experience for Charlotte.

Thanks to this, the events that occurred in these few seconds pressed a switch that had been dormant within Charlotte.

“Junon!!”

“I’ll take the lead for now! I’ll hold out somehow… Huh?”

Crack-crack-

One rat instantly froze solid.

-Ki… kihik…

The beasts were trembling with fear.

Detecting this magical power released by someone, the rats couldn’t dare approach the humans they had only seen as prey.

The rats were crushed by the ominous magical power, trembling in fear and slowly backing away.

Even the two people who were barely blocking with their weapons could only swallow hard and watch Charlotte as they felt the chilling magical energy.

Crack- crunch- shatter-

The second rat froze. The thoroughly frozen second rat was trembling and backing away.

The third rat freezes. The moment it turned its back to flee, it was already frozen.

And finally, the fourth one.

Charlotte, surrounded by murky magical power that appeared dark blue, slowly approached the frozen rats.

And then…

-Kruk.

Charlotte had lost herself and was now making animal-like sounds.

Why is she doing that? She froze those rats, so why is she approaching them bare-handed instead of killing them?

Noel and John looked at each other questioningly, nodded, and were about to speak.

At that moment.

-KRAAAK!!!! KYAAAK!!!!

Charlotte, still wrapped in that murderous magical power, began to beat the rats. As if she could no longer use magic.

Meanwhile, Junon regained his senses and stood up.

“Hey, you guys…”

“Ju-Junon…? Are you okay?”

Junon’s condition probably didn’t look very good.

But his strangely calm voice warned of an ominous situation.

“Forget about me. Run away from here right now.”

“What…? What do you mean…”

“I said run away, you idiots, or you might all die if you stay here.”

Junon had to evacuate Noel and John, who might be targeted by Charlotte who had lost her reason and was going berserk.

***

Tap-tap-tap!

The sound of footsteps crossing the forest didn’t allow even a moment’s rest.

“I-is this the right thing to do?”

Noel asked John beside him as they ran as fast as they could.

“What else can we do?! Didn’t you see those eyes?!”

“W-well…”

Their mouths had fallen open, unable to produce any vibration from their vocal cords.

Their limbs had frozen like the cold ice she used, their hearts had shrunk so much they couldn’t even perceive their own heartbeats.

Their bodies had bristled with goosebumps, trembling in fear. That was the reaction of the two.

The murderous magical power alone made her seem inhuman.

It was as if a beast had replaced the noble young lady who had been supporting them from behind.

As they watched Charlotte in terror, Junon’s words had awakened them.

“But… shouldn’t at least the two of us have stayed to help Junon? How can he alone…”

That was precisely the problem.

The three of them had already been targeted by Charlotte, who could no longer distinguish between friend and foe.

By Charlotte, who had frozen the four rats and then beaten them to a bloody pulp with her own hands.

“…If we were facing ordinary beasts, yes. But could we really stand a chance against her?”

“Of course… not…”

“Right. After the rats, we would probably have been the next corpses.”

There was no arguing with that. They’d be lucky if they weren’t killed in a single blow, let alone putting up a fight.

“But you know, that Junon guy. He was actually much stronger than us. He’ll be fine!”

“Y-yeah. He’ll be okay. We just need to do what he told us to do quickly!”

Junon, who was facing the transformed Charlotte, had urged the two to flee.

Naturally, they had objected to Junon’s words. After all, he was the one who had saved them.

The two refused to leave Junon behind, but their resolve crumbled all too easily when Junon blocked Charlotte’s first strike.

The ground, gouged out by Charlotte’s single blow, looked as if it had cracked from prolonged drought.

There was absolutely no way the two of them, Noel and John, with just their weapons, could block such a strike from Charlotte.

-‘Ugh…! You’ll just die uselessly if you stay here. If you really want to help me, go northwest from here and bring one person. As quickly as possible!’

That’s why he had asked them to bring a man named Goden.

“He saved our dying asses, he wouldn’t have done that without thinking!”

“That’s right! Who calls him the weakest vanguard? Whoever came up with that nickname must be the stupidest person in Levrant!”

As they approached the northwest, they spotted a man whose massive build was incomparably larger than their own teammates.

“Hmm?”

“W-we found you! Hah… hah…”

“Keck… Are you Goden?”

“Yes, I’m Goden. What’s the matter?”

Following Junon’s instructions, the two sought out the Tembris party.

“”Please help us!””

***

Like a beast revealing its wild nature, Charlotte’s body was covered in beast blood, roots, and dirt.

Despite being a human with only magical power surrounding her, her eyes were lifeless, as if no light could enter or leave them.

From those lips stained with beast blood came not a girl’s voice but something closer to an eerie howl.

Her hands, covered in blood from extracting the hearts of the four rats she had brutally killed.

Horrifyingly, blood still dripped from her mouth after she had chewed on the rats’ hearts.

As if that hadn’t satisfied her hunger, she was only deeply craving the heart of another living being before her.

Like a beast without intelligence.

-Gruk, KYAAAK!!

“Ugh, this is…!”

Splat.

Another handful of blood surges back up.

It was only natural that my consciousness would fade as I kept spitting blood throughout the prolonged battle.

“Get a hold of yourself, damn it!”

Just like now, whenever I push her away with a magic shield to create distance, Charlotte rushes in to close the gap again.

-HUAAAA!!!

“Shit…”

Charlotte tries to break through my magic shield again and again.

And I can only keep dodging. There was nothing else I could do but try to buy time.

If I collapse here, it’s my heart that will be torn out, and then she’ll go after someone else’s heart.

I have to hold out until Noel and John bring Goden. Until then, I must use everything I have to stop Charlotte.

“My whole body is trembling… Hey, please, can’t you just go back to being well-behaved like before?”

-KRAAAK!!! KIYAAAK!!

“Haha… what am I doing? Of course she can’t understand me. Alright, alright. I’ll play with you. But! Ugh…! Could you use a little less strength so we can play longer?”

It’s not like this hasn’t happened before.

When Charlotte became like a beast as she is now, the Tembris party called it something else.

After somehow subduing the berserk Charlotte and nursing her back to normal as she slept, I recalled our conversation.

-‘Beast transformation? A person actually becomes like a beast?’

-‘Yes. She loses her reason and rampages like a beast. That’s why we accepted Charlotte into our party.’

-‘…I see. So if it happens among our party members, you can subdue her.’

-‘Exactly! Senia, you’re so smart.’

-‘Then there must be a cause, right? A normal person doesn’t suddenly transform into a beast.’

-‘Right. I didn’t know the reason well either, but when I asked Professor Muniher recently, he explained it roughly. It’s…’

Magical power overload.

That was the cause that turned Charlotte into a beast.

Magic is essentially a borrowed power that allows humans to use abilities that aren’t inherently theirs.

Just as a power plant needs a source of energy to operate, and humans consume calories to function, magic also requires appropriate resources.

The resource consumed in that process is magical power.

Both beasts and humans have adapted to live on the Kempriton continent by accepting magi into their bodies and adapting their circulatory systems to generate it.

Therefore, when magical power is depleted, any living being instinctively tries to recover that power.

For humans, this usually involves breathing or resting.

But Charlotte…

Didn’t she practically consume the rats’ hearts?

It was clearly beast-like behavior, as if stealing nutrients and magical power from prey.

-‘Junon, what were you doing instead of attending lectures on time? Sigh, really.’

-‘I just don’t like that professor’s lectures. What can I do?’

-‘Well, I guess your juniors sometimes ignore professors they find annoying too. So, what’s the difference?’

-‘Senia. The magical power of living beings on the Kempriton continent isn’t all the same. The difference is in the turbidity. Your magical power has colors too, right?’

-‘According to Michelle’s explanation… since humans have both pure and turbid energy inside them, we use the pure magical power.’

-‘Yes. Humans mainly use pure magical power, while turbid magical power circulates in parts of the body and gets diluted again. Turbid magical power is easily supplied by the magi in the air.’

-‘Wait. So when Charlotte showed that turbid dark blue magical power wave back then…’

-‘…She had used up all her pure magical power and was craving more?’

-‘Yes… She was in a state where she couldn’t use magic anymore due to depletion. For other normal types, this would result in mana exhaustion or depletion, ending with anemia or fainting, but Charlotte’s magical power is already quite turbid, so… if it persists for a long time, it can be life-threatening.’

The more turbid the magical power becomes, the more it leans toward instinct and wildness, and conversely, the clearer it becomes, the more it maintains intelligence and reason.

Instinct and wildness are the essence of beasts, while intelligence and reason are the essence of humans.

In other words, the fact that Charlotte, like now, has lost her intelligence and reason and relies on instinct like a beast means that her human magical power has been depleted.

“Huff…”

Depleted magical power. The resulting thirst. Reliance on instinct.

With these three clues, this gambler might as well take a chance.

-KYAAAK!!!

Charlotte charges with one arm extended.

If she were a rational human with hostility, she would have sealed my arms or attacked my legs to bring me down.

The place her arm was trying to reach was just one spot: my heart.

Thump-

“…Right. Only attacks infused with turbid magical power are threatening. What she wants is my heart.”

-Kruk, KUAAAA!!!

As expected, I grabbed Charlotte’s wrist, but this was just the arm of a delicate girl. What possessed the heavy destructive power was the dark blue magical power surrounding her.

In other words, Charlotte’s physical strength itself isn’t that strong.

“Let me think while I hold out. I might get a little hurt, but…!”

If I want to live, I need to find it before I collapse.

A way to replenish Charlotte’s depleted magical power.