episode_0027
by fnovelpiaRunning from the dormitory to the school gate wasn’t difficult. When I hurriedly arrived at the gate, a silver-haired woman was standing in front of it, so I slowed my pace and caught my breath. Breathing slowly, I approached the gate, and as if she heard my footsteps, she turned her head towards me.
“Senior Erica.”
“Coming to the gate on a night like this must mean you have something to say to me or something’s going on, right?”
“There is a spy of the Demon King in the academy.”
She looked at me with interest. Naturally, I expected her not to believe it. Just like Senior Leonard, few people knew that he was part of the Demon King, and most importantly, there was no one in this world who knew what I knew. So, I spoke up.
“Do you remember the villain who attacked behind the tavern?”
“He was caught by Ignolia’s guards, and I only heard that he committed suicide in prison.”
“I said that man had the mark of the Demon King on his arm. And I just met him at the academy fountain.”
Then she gripped her staff in her right hand.
“So?”
“Please help. There is a spy of the Demon King in the academy, and the main body is probably… in Ignolia.”
“Is that so, Astan.”
Just as a sigh of relief was about to escape my lips, a creepy feeling enveloped my entire body, and I held back the incantation.
“Mana, protect my body!”
As I shouted, the protective spell created around my body clashed with the surrounding chill. The shield, barely holding back the cold seeping into my body, seemed like it would break soon. So, I glared at Senior Erica and spoke.
“What are you doing?”
“That’s what I should be saying, Astan. Do you realize how strange your words are right now?”
“What part of it is strange?”
“You said with your own mouth that the spy of the Demon King is in the academy, and that you encountered him, but no one has crossed this gate. Does that mean he crossed the academy’s walls or moved underground? To do that, he would have had to break through the academy’s protection, but there are no traces of that. And the important thing is, can I trust you?”
“What in the world…”
The words wouldn’t come out. Are you doubting me now? It didn’t make sense. Doubting the person who mentioned the spy of the Demon King?
“Yes, if we assume what Astan said is true, then somewhere in Ignolia or the academy, the spy of the Demon King is present and appeared before you. What evidence is there to believe that? All I know is that you suddenly rushed to this gate. For example, if you were trying to enter because the protection was breached due to being the spy of the Demon King? So, I can’t help but be suspicious of you.”
With those words, she pointed her staff at me.
“Present the evidence, Astan.”
There was no evidence. The only thing I saw was everything around me, and there was no one who saw that man, and there was no evidence that the spy of the Demon King was inside this academy. There was no evidence. I ransacked my mind, quickly organizing my thoughts, but I couldn’t come up with any way.
“Should I think of it as dreaming because I couldn’t sleep?”
“The man I faced just now wasn’t his real body. A skilled magician said that they imbue their personality or memories into a golem to control it, so perhaps it’s a doll made with that magic.”
“I keep saying this, but what you saw isn’t evidence.”
“If you ask the guards of Ignolia, they will say that the man had the mark of the Demon King on his arm.”
“He’s already dead.”
At that moment, my lips were bitten. That’s right, a dead person doesn’t come back. No one can escape from Denatus’s grasp.
“If that man was a doll, wouldn’t it be possible?”
“If it was a doll, it would have broken when my magic touched it.”
There was no answer. None of them could give an answer. There was no way out of this situation where I was being suspected. If there was a way…
At that moment, a method came to mind.
“I will show you my memory.”
She looked at me with interest at my words.
“So you are confident?”
“Would I lie to you, my senior?”
And then I added one more word.
“I swear in front of the goddess of fate that I am not a spy of the demon army.”
As I spoke, I felt the mana draining from my body. The feeling of sealing the contract with Fea was strangely unpleasant. As the discomfort covered my whole body like the feeling of a large snake’s tongue licking and passing over, her laughter echoed.
“It seems like the title of the Academy’s rebel suits you, Astan.”
“I have never rebelled.”
“If your actions don’t say otherwise. Well, I’ll believe what you say. I believed half of it from the beginning, but if I poke a little and you react like this, what will happen later? Isn’t it your fault, senior?”
At my words, she laughed loudly again, and I sighed. What a strange person. Who would go around saying they are not a spy of the demon army when they are a spy of the demon army?
“Okay, my bad. I was just teasing you a bit because you’re such a funny junior. If I really wanted to attack you, you wouldn’t have lasted a second. You should have been suspicious from that moment on. Alright, witness Astan, have you spoken falsely until now?”
“I have not sworn falsely in the name of Fea.”
“In that case…”
She raised her staff into the sky. At the moment the incantation was uttered from her lips, my vision began to blur.
“Rest for a moment, Astan.”
My mind shook as my vision rapidly blurred. I tried to grasp my senses amidst the slowly crumbling sight before me, but it was impossible.
I slowly surrendered to the darkness enveloping me.
I heard the sound of water droplets in my ears. It was the sound of something falling, followed by the sound of something burning in the fire. It was dark as if something was covering my eyes, and I felt a soft touch. Where am I? At that moment, when I tried to move my hand out of curiosity, it felt like my hands were already tied and couldn’t move. My mouth wouldn’t open.
And at that moment, whatever was covering my eyes was removed, and I squinted at the sudden influx of light. As I slowly became accustomed to the light, I saw people sitting in front of me.
Six people.
And as I looked at Erica senior sitting on the left and Leonardo senior sitting on the right, and the others, I noticed black badges on their chests.
“Has she woken up?”
“They just brought her here after making her faint, and Isabelle hasn’t arrived yet anyway.”
In response to a female senior’s words, Erica senior replied, and then Leonardo senior opened his mouth.
“Quiet. I understand that everyone may not feel good being called late at night, but this is an important matter, so Erica must have summoned us.”
“It doesn’t seem like a big deal, though.”
“Cloe.”
“Yes, yes.”
In response to Leonardo senior’s words, the senior called Cloe closed her mouth, and I cautiously tried to open my mouth, but it wouldn’t open.
“She seems like she wants to say something?”
“Erica, release her.”
“Oh, she accidentally used a silence spell. She only uses restraining spells.”
As Erica senior waved her wand lightly, my mouth opened. And as soon as my mouth opened, I held back my words.
“Greetings, fifth years.”
“More polite than I thought. Didn’t the rumor say she froze the library?”
“It was the lounge, and Erica did it. Could a first-year do something so bold?”
“Erica, you’re amazing too! How did you freeze the lounge?”
“It was a mistake. I didn’t even intend to freeze it.”
As I watched those conversations, cold sweat naturally trickled down my back. I heard many conversations and naturally grasped who was who.
The platinum-haired senior sitting next to Erica senior is Chloe senior, and the senior sitting closest to me is Andris senior, who Erica senior mentioned. The seniors of Leona are sticking out their lips as if they don’t like it, and I carefully took a breath.
And in the midst of such silence, the sound of the door opening was heard.
“Sorry, am I a little late?”
When I turned my head at the voice, a woman was walking towards us. It felt familiar somehow.
It was a violet hair. The pupils were a light black, and the hair sparkled like amethyst, emitting light on its own. It was a mysterious hair. If there were stardust, it would shine like this… It was such beautiful appearance that anyone, man or woman, passing by her would surely turn around to look more than once. The pupils were large, and the lips were red. There was a memory somewhere.
However, that memory did not come to mind. And when our eyes met, she smiled at me. The smile was so bright that it seemed blinding. If I had met this woman in a completely unfamiliar situation, I would have surely fallen in love with her, she was such an elegant woman.
“Isabel is usually late, so this is considered early.”
“Still, it’s proper to leave early. If the representative of the 5th grade is this late, what should we say to the other students?”
“Leave the kids from the 5th grade who hardly come to the academy alone.”
“Anyway, Isabelle is practically a dragon, so what’s the point of meeting her like this? She’s always late or unable to come to the gatherings, and only delivers the contents of the meetings.”
“I’m sorry…”
The woman referred to as Isabelle slowly walked to her seat and sat down, and at that moment, it seemed like words were about to spill from her lips.
The resurrection of Denatus.
She was… the strongest in the 5th grade, the top woman of this academy.
“Well, now that Isabelle is here, let’s start the student meeting. What’s on the agenda for today, Erica?”
“The agenda for today is that somewhere in this academy, a spy of the Demon King’s army is hiding. That will be the topic of our meeting. We’ve invited Astan, a 1st-year student, as a witness.”
“This isn’t an invitation, it’s a kidnapping, isn’t it?”
“Let’s just focus on the result.”
“Alright then, let’s start the meeting.”
And Isabelle looked at me as she spoke.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Astan.”
“…I don’t remember meeting you.”
“I remember you.”
At that moment, something seemed to come to mind.
A cat.
The woman who had been where the cat followed, the woman I mistook for a ghost… that woman.
“I thought you were a ghost.”
“Isabelle is treated similarly to the academy’s ghost, existing but no one has seen her.”
Upon Erica’s senior’s words, I slowly nodded.
“We’ll talk about this later. For now, Astan, please testify.”
At her words, I cautiously opened my mouth.
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