episode_0036

When I opened my eyes again.

What filled my vision was darkness, without even a single speck of light.

I shifted my gaze for a moment.

Nothing was visible.

Around me, only restless shadows oozed stickily.

It was truly a background drenched in pitch black.

With a short hum, I snapped my fingers.

“Hmm.”

Snap!

A light popping sound echoed.

The faint reverberation soon crystallized into an echo, filling the void of silence that had surrounded me.

A single streak of noise shattered the stillness.

Immediately after.

Fwoosh!

Flames ignited in various places.

As if they had been waiting for the sound to reverberate, the torches hanging on the walls began to flare up.

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

Before long, the scene was sufficiently illuminated.

“Ugh… Young M-Master?”

“……What happened?”

Two girls stood by my side.

The children’s expressions, as they peered around, showed clear signs of bewilderment.

Their gazes trembled subtly.

“S-Surely, the magic circle glowed strangely earlier…”

“It seems the teleportation was activated, at least.”

“Did we… did we arrive at the right place?”

“That’s… hard to say.”

The rampant phenomenon that occurred just before teleportation.

Perhaps remembering the unusual flow of mana, the two of them showed no signs of relaxing their guard.

Had they decided that assessing the situation was the first priority?

Emilia calmly surveyed the space we were standing in.

“This place feels strange.”

The air touching my cheeks was particularly chilly.

A corridor stretched out before my eyes. However, even on the long, continuous walls, no windows showing the outside could be found.

Only torches, sporadically affixed, illuminated the darkness.

Emilia fell into thought for a moment.

She then threw a remark my way, as if asking for my opinion.

“It feels like an underground space, doesn’t it?”

“I think so too.”

“The fact that torches are placed so meticulously means light doesn’t reach here even during the day.”

“The absence of windows is also strange.”

“At least, it’s definitely not the academy.”

The peculiar musty smell of a basement wafted by.

Perhaps untouched by human hands for a long time, the scene was filled with thick dust.

Even amidst that, the corridor stretched endlessly.

“……Something feels unpleasant.”

The girl murmured softly.

As I quietly looked around, Regia, who was standing behind me, grabbed my sleeve.

Her fingertips held a faint tremor.

“Young M-Master.”

“Miss Regia?”

“The emergency communication device we received… the s-signal isn’t working.”

“What?”

I checked the bracelet I was wearing on my wrist.

Just before entering the examination.

The communication device we had each received from Selena.

Originally, it should have been connected to the supervising professor’s mana and blinking with a blue light, but now it was simply off, with no signal.

It seemed to have stopped functioning altogether.

“Oh, it’s been like this since a while ago.”

“Hmm.”

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

In a situation where we didn’t know where we were or if we had arrived correctly, even our connection to the academy was severed.

In short, we were isolated.

“W-What should we do now…?”

“The academy must have realized there’s something wrong with the test. Don’t fuss so much.”

“B-But, Young Lady.”

“I said it’s fine.”

The villainess replied as if annoyed.

Though she calmly furrowed her brows, she was biting her fingernails, as if inwardly anxious.

A chaotic atmosphere lingered.

I quietly observed the situation.

‘For now… is it flowing according to the original story?’

I subtly squinted my eyes.

What appeared in my vision was the scenery of an old basement. The deep, pervasive darkness emphasized the ominousness.

The damp air resembled the breath of some monster.

Though it wasn’t the examination hall… strictly speaking, we had arrived correctly.

Because this was the stage for this episode.

I quietly traced my memories.

[EP5. Midterm Exam]

-Abandoned Laboratory, The Monster That Cannot Laugh-

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

It began with Regia’s group getting caught in a teleportation accident and waking up in the basement.

If we stayed like this, ‘they’ would soon come looking for us.

We needed to move before that.

I spoke to the two people standing with serious expressions.

“Shall we look around first?”

“Y-Yes?”

“……Are you sane?”

The two immediately looked in my direction.

Even as I received their gaze, I calmly continued stating my opinion.

“I’m perfectly sane.”

“We don’t even know exactly where this is. And you want to move recklessly in such a situation?”

“We can’t just keep waiting like this.”

“I’m against it.”

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

I lightly shrugged my shoulders, as if asking what the problem was.

“Wouldn’t we be able to find an exit by looking around? Besides, given that it’s underground, it seems like an artificially constructed facility… we might even be able to meet people here and get help.”

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

“Then we should move even more. If there’s nowhere to get help, I think it’s better for us to take the initiative to understand the surrounding terrain.”

“……Hmm.”

Emilia hummed in thought, as if pondering.

Others might have suggested waiting in place, but for me, who had business here, I needed to look around a bit.

Because there was someone I had to find here.

‘Since their whereabouts were so uncertain, it was something even the original story’s knowledge couldn’t resolve…’

Only today had the opportunity arrived.

This was precisely why I willingly walked into this midterm exam, despite knowing it was a trap.

Of course, if I put it like that,

one might wonder why I don’t just use my abilities to search the entire basement instead of wandering around. However, exploring a space this deep and vast consumes a considerable amount of energy.

Because its scale was comparable to the Astro Headquarters.

Structurally, it was also far more intricately twisted.

‘I should proceed carefully.’

I wouldn’t waste any unnecessary energy.

Having prepared for so long, I intended to conclude this definitively.

Employee welfare, truly, is an atrocious concept.

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

As I reflected on my slight lament.

“……Alright. You must have a plan, too.”

The villainess’s answer, which I had missed, came back.

Had she finally succumbed to the serpent’s silver tongue?

Or perhaps she had recalled the terms of our deal and reluctantly decided to follow me.

Either way, I was thankful.

“Hehe.”

I stroked her head as a sign of praise.

Her blue hair neatly smoothed down. Emilia accepted my touch silently, even as she furrowed her brow.

The highlight was the clear expression of disgust she exuded.

“Then, shall we just keep walking?”

“Do as you please.”

“I, I’ll go with you, too…!”

We began to move.

Towards the endless corridor.

***

Meanwhile, in the lowest level of the basement.

A hidden room, reachable only after descending seven flights of maze-like, intertwined stairs.

A man was seated there.

“They’ve finally arrived.”

He was cloaked in a pitch-black robe.

Behind his back, a tree-like root pattern was etched. It was the symbol of the cultists.

The man secretly shifted his gaze.

Tap, tap-.

His twitching finger tapped the desk.

Unlike the outer parts of the basement, which seemed to have been neglected for a long time, this place was neatly arranged.

In the direction the man’s eyes were fixed, a screen was positioned.

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

The vast basement.

Hundreds of magic devices, installed beforehand, continuously observed and projected the situation.

The man smiled ominously.

“The Vanity girl, the top student of the year, even a summoner who handles wyverns… It seems that fellow handled things well. To get such high-quality sacrifices in my hands.”

It was a madness spreading with malevolent energy.

He caressed the grotesquely torn corners of his mouth, then began to record something in the book he held.

Dark red droplets dripped from the ceiling.

As the paper was stained red, the man’s laughter spread muddily.

“For now, shall we observe?”

It was a process to test how excellent the qualities of those sacrifices were.

He recalled the ‘creations’ he had unleashed in the basement.

Due to a lack of resources.

Most of them were low-quality failures.

“But among them, I planted just one… an ‘artwork’.”

He gazed at the screen located in the most secluded corner.

In the center of the messily scattered basement, only a bizarre shadow flickered.

The man felt a chilling thrill ripple down his spine.

The finest artwork created in Belzen.

How many creatures’ blood and flesh had been added to create that?

His lips murmured blankly.

“……Beautiful.”

He wished the sacrifices would enhance the ‘artwork’s’ perfection.

The corners of his mouth twisted sickeningly.

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

His pupils, obscured by darkness, gleamed with corruption.

The hideous tree, taking root.

The man wiped his reddened eyes and clasped his hands together.

“All for Him… the origin of all things, our Master.”

He closed his eyelids after a moment of silent contemplation.

The prayer of a believer covered in blood, it was a piece of holiness tainted by maturity.

His vision briefly went dark.

Because of this, the man did not see.

[……..]

The narrowed eyes secretly watching the screen.

The golden snake was flicking its tongue, glaring at its prey.