Chap 24-Refill

 

The moment the door opened, I instinctively almost took a step back.

…What is this room?

Why is it so messy?

The scene before my eyes was so far from the neat and antique living space of a noble lady that I had expected.

The room was by no means small.

It was a two-person room that was considered spacious even in the academy.

But what filled that large space wasn’t elegant furniture or luxurious decorations, but…

Alchemy tools.

Test tubes, beakers, burners, reflux devices, unknown catalyst containers, and various elemental notation books.

Moreover, there was a faint smell of chemicals in the air, and there were burn marks and stains all over the floor that anyone could see were traces of Alchemy.

Next to the bed was a crooked medicine bottle.

On the desk, reagents and notes were scattered in a jumbled mess.

‘My former roommate… what kind of fight were you in…’

No wonder the student who switched rooms with me had such a bright expression.

‘Well, I can’t live in a place like this.’

…

I sat on the bed and quietly looked at Elise. She was silently turning the pages of a book, her back to me.

It was obvious that she was trying to act indifferent.

I took a breath and quietly opened my mouth.

“You were the one who did that during that incident, weren’t you?”

The sound of the book pages turning stopped.

Elise’s shoulders trembled slightly.

“What… what are you talking about?”

“If you keep pretending you don’t know, I’ll have no choice but to tell everyone what I know.”

Elise slowly turned her head. She tried to maintain a blank expression, but deep in her eyes, there was fear.

She forced the corners of her lips up crookedly and said,

“You? Now? Dare to threaten me?”

Her tone was close to mockery, but her fingertips were trembling slightly.

“Who do you think will believe you, who was abandoned by your own ducal family and whose reputation is in the gutter?”

I swallowed and took another step forward.

“Yeah. Maybe my words won’t have any effect.”

Then, I brought my face closer to hers and continued,

“But Elise, I know an interesting fact about your younger sister in your family… Wouldn’t things be different then?”

“Wh-What… fact…? What do you know about my sister?Even as she said that, her voice was trembling anxiously.

I narrowed my eyes and finished speaking in a voice filled with cynicism.

“Well… I’ll just say that it’s a fact that could put the Rapellashia family in a bit of trouble if it were known.”

Elise lowered her head without saying a word.

With her lips tightly shut, her trembling eyes were directed at the floor.

“But… if you follow my instructions well… I’ll never utter that fact for the rest of my life either. How about it?”

I slowly raised the corners of my lips, giving her the most wicked and satisfied smile I could muster, and whispered to her.

After a moment of silence, Elise finally nodded slowly.

It was a movement as if she had given up, as if she had abandoned everything.

“…Okay.”

I deliberately called her with a nonchalant expression.

“Good, then… this is the first order.”

Her shoulders twitched slightly.

I pointed my chin at the medicine bottles scattered haphazardly on the desk.

“Clean this room right now! I feel like I’m going to get Contaminationed if it stays like this!”

“But… but!”

“No!!! In the first place, there’s a separate Alchemy lab!!! Why are you doing this here!!”

She hesitated for a moment, then mumbled in a small voice that could barely be heard.

“Too… too many people…”

“Haa…”

“Not easy.”

It pricked my conscience to dig into Elise’s wounds, but for her future…

I glared at her and spat out,

“That’s why you couldn’t get close to your former roommate.”

She stared blankly at me for a moment with a slightly hurt expression, then soon shouted in a fit of pique.

“Sh-She said she understood!!!”

“Do you even have a conscience? If a Lady of a ducal family much higher than her says she’ll do it, of course she’ll allow it.”

Thud-

“N-No way. That can’t be…”

I put my hand on Elise’s shoulder, who was in shock, and shouted.

“So clean those things up right now!”

…

The cleaning was finished.

No, to be precise, Elise finished cleaning.

I sat on the bed and watched her scrub the floor with her face for a long time with a sulky expression.

The sheets were changed, the reagent bottles were neatly arranged, and the burn marks… well, they were just covered with a carpet.

‘She’s surprisingly diligent…’

I didn’t know she could do this well.

“I’m… done.”

Elise said, throwing the last rag under the desk.

Her shoulders were slumped, and her breathing was exhausted.

And slyly, she glanced at me as if trying to read my expression.

“…Yeah, good job.”

When I answered that, she glared at me for a moment, then turned her head away.

Now the room was quiet.

We were left alone.

Without a word.

Silence.

Quiet.

‘Ugh… this is so awkward.’

Should I say something?

No, if I bring up something unnecessary, I’ll only raise her guard, right?

“……”

“……”

She was a character with the worst social skills among the playable characters, and I was no different…

I sat on the bed, crossed my legs, and folded my arms, glancing at the desk for no reason before turning my gaze to Elise.

Elise sat on the sofa, crossed her arms, and glanced at me.

We watched each other without saying a word, and after a long silence…

“…I’m going to sleep.”

Has her guard dropped a little?

Elise strode to the bed, silently fluffed the blanket, and slipped right into it.

With her face buried in the pillow, she quietly pulled the blanket up to her chin.

‘Phew… finally.’

Of course, I wanted to sleep too.

Really.

But…

The reason I stubbornly gave up the single room and stayed in this room.

It was because I could secretly check on her condition only after confirming that Elise had fallen asleep.

So…

‘Hurry up and sleep, Elise.’

I quietly blinked, looking at her back covered in the blanket.

In this moment of sitting in a state of nothingness, waiting for the other person to fall asleep,

I held my breath to avoid breaking the silent air and anxiously began to observe Elise’s breathing rate.

Until she really fell asleep, I had to survive alone in this boring air.

…

After confirming that Elise had fallen asleep, I quietly exhaled.

Soft breathing.

Occasionally, rustling sounds from inside the blanket.

Her back, gently rising and falling, visible over her shoulder.

‘…She’s asleep.’

I carefully got up from my seat and looked around the room once more.

It was definitely more organized than when I first came in, but there was still a somewhat chaotic energy remaining.

There were no noticeable Magic Circles or Barrier device.

I had secretly checked while Elise was cleaning earlier…

But I narrowed my eyes again, wondering if I had missed anything.

However,

‘There’s nothing. Nothing that looks like a medium for the Curse… at all.’

The Curse was still hidden somewhere in her body.

For now, the only way was to check directly.

I quietly approached Elise’s bed.

And carefully, I slightly lifted her blanket.

‘Is this… um… acceptable?’

I couldn’t measure it properly because it was covered by her underwear, but it was still a size that could barely be called large.

‘…But is it okay to do this?’

I was a little worried, but I’m not a man anymore anyway.

We’re both women, so it’s okay to touch each other’s bodies…

‘I’m sorry…’

Still, I apologized in my mind for the sake of my conscience and placed my hand on her chest, specifically over her heart.

Thump.

As soon as I placed my fingertip, a familiar vibration subtly touched my palm.

I very subtly raised Mana and began to analyze the Curse by following the texture of that vibration.

I was more confident than anyone else in the world when it came to Contamination.

— Swish…

Mana spreads.

And it was at that moment.

Crackle

‘…What?’

Suddenly, the flow of Mana was distorted.

A foreign energy that started from my fingertip began to flow backward up my arm.

‘This is…!?’

Without delay, the Curse that was in her body instantly climbed up my Mana.

A very elaborate and complex design.

There were only a few beings who could do this.

First of all, Calamity-Class Monster.

But if they had moved, my teacher or the level 9 powerhouses would have noticed.

Then what’s left is…

The Contamination Worshippers after all.

When I released Elise’s Curse, they must have sensed it and created a new Curse aimed at me from the start.

But…

‘You really picked the wrong Curse.’

The Curse that came in through Elise slowly began to consume my body.

A pain as if my head was being torn apart.

An external will trying to dominate my mind through the cracks of consciousness.

Endlessly whispering voices.

Fragments of emotions crawling like insects.

Each word pierced my consciousness like an awl.

‘I have to resist…’

A desperate and ecstatic moment when will is deprived and ownership of the body is transferred to another person.

Unable to move without someone’s command.

Thoughts are there, but actions are not allowed.

Even with eyes open, what is contained within is the will of others.

Even if you want to open your mouth and speak, no voice comes out.

Even if you don’t want to kneel, your body moves on its own and submits.

Even if you want to die, you move to live.

Even if you want to live, you walk towards death as ordered…

Miserable and helplessly…

“Heeut… haa…”

[SYSTEM]

Unique Ability ‘Masochist’ is activated.

Along with tremendous pleasure, power that far surpassed level 5 instantly rushed into my body.

A power so great that it couldn’t be compared to being punished or bullied by students in front of others.

Ah.

My head cleared instantly.

This…

Can I get a refill?

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading!