Ch.36Light (1)

When I opened my eyes again.

What greeted my sight was darkness without even a speck of light.

I roll my eyes for a moment.

Nothing can be seen.

All around me, only restless shadows ooze stickily.

Truly a background soaked in pitch blackness.

I snap my fingers with a short nasal sound.

“Hmm.”

Snap-!

A light cracking sound echoes.

The faint resonance soon forms a handful of echoes, filling the empty space around me that had been full of silence.

A stream of noise breaking the stillness.

Immediately after.

Whoosh-!

Flames bloom from various places.

As if they had been waiting for the sound to echo, torches hanging on the walls begin to burn.

The light, increasing one by one, soon spreads enough to fill the entire space.

The scenery had become sufficiently bright.

“Ugh… Y-Young Master?”

“…What happened here?”

Two girls are positioned beside me.

The expressions of the children looking around reveal clear signs of confusion.

Their gazes tremble faintly.

“C-Certainly, the magic circle seemed to glow strangely…”

“At least the teleport seems to have activated.”

“D-Did we arrive at the right place…?”

“That’s… unknown.”

The runaway phenomenon that occurred right before teleporting.

Perhaps remembering the ominous flow of mana, the two of them appeared unwilling to let their guard down.

Perhaps they judged that assessing the situation should come first.

Amelia calmly examines the space where we’re standing.

“This is an unusual place.”

The air touching my cheek is particularly chilly.

A corridor stretches before my eyes. However, there are no windows showing the outside on the long extending walls.

Only torches attached here and there were illuminating the darkness.

Amelia falls into thought for a moment.

She soon throws a comment to me as if asking for my opinion.

“It seems like we’re in an underground space, doesn’t it?”

“I think so too.”

“The fact that torches are placed so thoroughly means that no light enters even during the day.”

“The absence of windows is also strange.”

“At least we can be certain this isn’t the academy.”

The peculiar musty smell of a basement wafts by.

As if untouched by human hands for a long time, it was a scene filled with accumulated dust.

Amidst all this, a corridor with no visible end.

“…Something feels off.”

The girl mutters quietly.

As I quietly look around the path, Lezia, who was standing behind me, grabs my sleeve.

It was a fingertip with a faint tremor.

“Y-Young Master.”

“Yes, Lezia?”

“The emergency calling magic tool we received… the s-signal isn’t working.”

“What?”

I check the bracelet on my wrist.

Right before entering the exam.

The calling magic tool we each received from Selena.

Originally, it should have been blinking with blue light, connected to the supervising professor’s mana, but now it was just off without any signal.

It seemed to have stopped working altogether.

“I-It’s been like this for a while now.”

“Hmm.”

I checked Amelia’s as well, but it was the same.

Not knowing where we are, whether we arrived correctly, and now even our connection to the academy has been cut off.

In short, we were isolated.

“W-What should we do now…?”

“The academy must have noticed something went wrong with the exam. Don’t make such a fuss.”

“B-But, Young Lady.”

“I said it’s fine.”

The villainess retorts as if annoyed.

Though she was frowning calmly, she was biting her nails, perhaps feeling anxious inside.

A confused atmosphere lingers.

I quietly observe the situation.

‘For now… is this following the original story?’

I glance around subtly.

What meets my sight is the scenery of an old basement. The deeply settled darkness emphasizes the ominousness.

The damp air resembles the breath of some monster.

It wasn’t the exam site, but… strictly speaking, we had arrived at the right place.

Because this was the stage for this episode.

I quietly recall my memories.

[EP5. Midterm Exam]

-Abandoned Laboratory, A Monster That Cannot Laugh-

In the original story, the midterm exam followed a similar flow.

Lezia’s group gets caught in a teleportation accident and wakes up in a basement.

If we stay here, “they” will soon come looking for us.

I needed to move before that.

I speak to the two people standing with serious expressions.

“Shall we look around for now?”

“W-What?”

“…Are you in your right mind?”

Both immediately look at me.

I continue my opinion calmly despite receiving their gazes.

“I am perfectly sane.”

“We don’t even know exactly where we are. You want to move around recklessly in this situation?”

“We can’t just wait here like this.”

“I’m against it.”

“I don’t understand what you’re afraid of.”

I shrug lightly. As if asking what the problem is.

“If we walk around, we might find an exit, right? Besides, seeing that we’re underground, it seems like an artificially constructed facility… we might meet people here and get help.”

“But it looks like no one has been here for a long time.”

“Then all the more reason to move. If there’s no place to get help, I think it’s better for us to scout the surrounding terrain ourselves.”

“…Hmm.”

Amelia lets out a sigh as if contemplating.

Others might have suggested waiting in place, but as someone with business here, I needed to look around a bit.

Because there was someone I needed to find here.

‘Due to their elusive whereabouts, it was an issue I couldn’t resolve even with knowledge of the original story…’

But today, the opportunity had finally arrived.

This was the reason I willingly fell into this trap despite knowing the midterm exam was a setup.

Of course, saying it like this.

One might wonder why I don’t just use my ability to search the entire basement, but searching a space this deep and wide would consume quite a lot of output.

It was comparable in size to the Astro headquarters.

And structurally, it was much more complexly intertwined.

‘I need to be careful.’

I won’t waste unnecessary output.

I intended to conclude this properly after such long preparation.

Employee welfare is truly a cruel thing.

Who in the world asks their boss to find their missing family?

While reflecting on some lamentations.

“…Fine. You must have your reasons.”

The villainess’s answer that I had missed comes back.

Did she fall for the snake’s forked tongue after all?

Or perhaps she remembered the content of our deal and decided to follow me reluctantly.

Either way, thank you.

“Hehe.”

I pat her head as a form of praise.

Blue hair neatly arranged. Amelia accepts the gesture silently while furrowing her brow.

The point was how she exuded an air of disgust.

“Then, shall we walk straight ahead?”

“Do as you please.”

“I-I’ll come too…!”

We began to move.

Toward the corridor with no visible end.

***

Meanwhile, at the lowest level of the basement.

A hidden room that can only be reached by descending seven maze-like staircases.

A man was sitting there.

“They’ve finally arrived.”

A figure covered in a pitch-black robe.

Behind his back is a tree pattern that looks like roots. It was a symbol representing the cult.

The man shifts his gaze secretively.

Tap tap-.

His twitching finger drums on the desk.

Unlike the basement outside that seemed abandoned for a long time, it was a neatly organized scene.

In the direction of the man’s gaze sits a screen.

“They’re responding more calmly than I expected.”

The vast basement.

Hundreds of magic tools installed in advance continuously operate, reflecting the situation.

The man smiles ominously.

“The Venatti girl, the top student of the year, and even a summoner who handles wyverns… it seems he handled things well. To think such high-quality sacrifices would fall into my hands.”

It was madness spreading with a malicious energy.

After touching his grotesquely torn mouth corner, he soon begins to record something in the book he was holding.

Drip drip, dark red droplets fall from the ceiling.

As the paper turns red, the man’s laughter spreads murkily.

“Let’s watch for now.”

It was a process of testing how excellent those sacrifices’ qualities were.

He recalls the “creations” he released in the basement.

Due to lack of resources.

Most were low-level failures.

“But among them, I planted just one… ‘work of art’.”

He stares at the screen located in the most remote corner.

In the center of the chaotically messy basement. Only a strange shadow rippled there.

The man felt a chilling thrill running down his spine.

Belzen’s finest work of art.

How much blood and flesh from various creatures had been added to create that.

His lips mutter blankly.

“…Beautiful.”

If only the sacrifices would enhance the completeness of the “work.”

His mouth corners twist disgustingly.

Before the man’s eyes, the image of students stained with blood was already flickering.

His pupils, hidden by darkness, gleam with corruption.

A tree taking root hideously.

The man wiped his reddened eyes and clasped his hands.

“All for the source of all things, our master…”

After a moment of contemplation, he closes his eyelids.

A believer’s prayer covered in blood, it was a piece of sanctity stained with adulthood.

His vision goes dark momentarily.

Thanks to that, the man didn’t see.

[……]

The narrowed eyes secretly watching the screen.

The golden snake was flicking its tongue, eyeing its prey.