episode_0103

Cradle’s student lounge.

Among the students taking a break and talking about various things, a female student with bleached hair, holding a bundle of newspapers in her arms, appeared whimpering.

She went straight to her friend who was sitting at the table burning cigarettes.

-thud!

“Hehe… Hehe… ”

Sarah put down the pile of newspapers as if throwing them away and continued to let out a heavy breathing sound.

The buttons on his shirt are fluttering dangerously as if they might burst at any moment.

“… ?”

Then, a female student with medium-short hair who was sitting in her seat, Yeoreum, gave her a puzzled look, as if asking what this was.

She took one last drag of the candle and rubbed it into the ashtray to dissipate the smoke. Then he rummaged through the pile of newspapers Sarah had brought.

-The return of the sleeping dragon… Black Lotus’s Four Great Dragons Chairman returns to the highest meeting after 15 years… Pressure to withdraw Article 25 regulation…

-Cutting out the veins with the heart inside the yam… Jeokhwa’s final decision to acquit the Lady of Compassion… Announced intention to return to the cradle…

-The battle to subjugate the no-man’s land in the southwest is imminent… Should we show off the health of Haewolhwa?

-Emergency measures issued for the first time in 63 years… Exclusive interview with Baek Seo-yeon’s daughter, Paecheon, who prevented the catastrophe

“What are you doing?”

“So… This is all what happened in the past few days… ?”

“… ”

Yeoreum looked at Sarah’s words as absurd.

“I’m saying that now… Serah, are you a demon spy? It’s all been a noisy affair for several days… ”

While Yeoreum was scolding Sarah, she was leafing through a pile of newspapers.

Then he notices something and reaches out and takes it out.

-Who is Paecheon’s sire hidden behind a veil? Baek Seo-yeon’s special feature on that man candidate…

“Huh? This is my first time seeing this too. I’m also curious about Baek Seo-yeon’s fiancé… what. ‘We would like to inform you that it has been inevitably canceled due to the circumstances of this paper… ?’ A.”

However, after flipping through the newspaper a few times, he quickly threw it back with an expression of loss of interest.

Sarah sat down next to Yeoreum and started flipping through the newspaper together, regardless of whether she scolded her or not.

After a while, she discovered something, her eyes widened, and she buried her head in the newspaper.

“‘Completion of disinfection of entire Hokyung Industrial Research Institute in B-143 area… A second-class demon disguised as a warden is killed on the spot… 57 people, including Security Bureau employees, died in the process of subjugation… ‘ for a moment… ! This is that person back then… !”

Sarah screamed out loud and continued to make a fuss.

The newspaper had a picture of a skinny man wearing glasses plastered across the front door.

The last time Sarah went on an external request, she even shook hands with him.

For a moment, she wondered whether she should be glad that the demon had returned without incident.

“Ugh… I knew that. I thought it was strange that mutations kept occurring in well-off districts! no wonder… Since they conducted illegal human experiments like this… ”

“You didn’t even think about that… I just like it because it’s close… ”

“Oh my! Look at this! This is the article I saw earlier!”

Sarah didn’t even listen to Yeoreum’s words and continued what she had to say.

She took out a bundle of rolled up newspapers and waved her arms.

“‘The new crown prince of Black Lotus is unveiled… Cover your identity with a mask and enter the cradle… ‘ this this… !”

“So, everyone knew it a long time ago except you… The kids next to me are all talking about that too… ”

Summer shook her head as if she was sick of it.

As Sarah read the article out loud, her voice was filled with excitement that had not yet subsided.

“Interview with Chairman Sa Dae-ryong… ‘Hide your identity was an unavoidable decision to avoid confusion’, ‘Nothing will change even if your existence is made public’… wow… wow… ”

After seeing the article, Sarah continued to express her admiration.

“In addition, he is likely to become the first Category 1 male wizard in 18 years… ?”

It is a law of the world that no matter how good a magician is, he cannot turn the tide of the battlefield alone, but on rare occasions, people with strength that surpasses common sense appear.

Category 1 was a separate classification for magicians who did not meet the standards. Also on the list were some names of people who were somewhat familiar to them.

Haewolhwa, the current principal of Yoram.

Baek Seo-yeon of Paecheon was the first person in the history of magic to measure a body particle amount exceeding 10,000 rubins.

Compassionate of Jeokhwa, who works alone with dozens of types of spirits and masterfully manipulates almost all types of magic.

Due to differences in innate particle sensitivity, more than 80% of Category 1 wizards were women, but only occasionally. Like a drought, male wizards appeared on the list.

Among them, the most recent to receive that classification was Sa Jae-hyuk, the former successor to Heukryeon.

And 18 years after that, Black Lotus produced another Category 1 wizard.

“For some reason, it seemed out of the ordinary during practice… When will Hyun return? I’m itching to talk quickly… ”

The voices of those around her were occasionally heard as they were contemplating whether to join the line later, but Sarah didn’t seem to care much.

This is because they have been maintaining a good relationship with the masked boy for a long time. Ever since he was treated as a traveling breed because of his unique appearance.

Sarah, who thought she had a pioneering idea of her own, hummed in a pleasant voice.

“Good. In the future, if our group receives an external request, I will ask if I can handle it. Originally, Howie ate half of the distribution… ”

-bang!

Sarah’s words are cut off by the sudden nervous noise.

The person who opened the lounge door and appeared was a female student with blond green eyes.

Since she was wearing nothing but her tight-fitting gray training uniform, the curves of her well-trained body and her belly button without any flab were exposed.

“Ha… ”

She was panting lightly, exhausted, her body drenched in sweat and moisture.

“… ”

The break room, which had been noisy with Jin Ye-seo’s appearance, suddenly became quiet.

However, the blond and green-eyed female student picked up only one ice water bottle stored in the hot and cold storage room and immediately left the break room again.

Not long after her appearance disappeared, Yeoreum opened her mouth again in a cautious voice.

“… I guess it’s real.”

“What?”

“You were hospitalized in the infirmary after losing to Hyeon in the ranking match. After being discharged from the hospital, he lives in Dalian almost all day. They say it’s so vicious that you can’t even get close.”

Then Sarah grabbed both of her shoulders and pretended to shiver.

“Then don’t you start requesting a duel as soon as you arrive?”

Jin Ye-seo was also evaluated as having the potential to approach Category 1 in the future, but right now, there was a fairly wide gap between her and the masked male student.

“Well… Then wouldn’t we lose again… Huh?”

While they were talking, Yeoreum suddenly took out a magazine from the pile and read the words.

“A man who broke into a pig farm and had sex naked with a pig dies… ? The cause is intestinal rupture… ? Wow. You really have this kind of taste… ”

“What, what, what are you talking about… ! Of course it was mixed wrong… ! What a chaste person I am… ”

Sarah’s bleached yellow hair and school uniform skirt that revealed her thighs waved unconvincingly.

The women, who had been arguing for a while, looked around.

“But Yena said she would come soon, so why isn’t she coming?”

***

A deserted women’s bathroom in a cradle.

A female student with brown hair and brown eyes was having a snowball fight with a mirror.

She was glaring at herself with all her might with tear-filled eyes.

However, in the mirror, she just had an expression full of cold mockery.

The girl in the mirror spoke to her in real life.

“Spica. Give up now.”

“I don’t like it.”

Then she shook her head violently.

The woman in the mirror sighed deeply.

“You know. You can’t refuse what I say, no matter what. Because that is what the alpha entity has the right to command.”

“Profit… !”

The female student who was glaring at her with all her might suddenly swung her arm towards her temple.

In her fingers was a small, sharpened knife.

However, it stands tall and stands right before piercing the female student’s skin.

Even though the girl was trembling and putting all her strength into it, her arms somehow refused to obey her master’s commands.

When the exhausted girl finally gave up her will, her arms went limp and fell towards the ground again.

A real girl looked at herself in the mirror and let out a voice full of resentment.

“Aldebaran… !”

“Spica. Our poor, pitiful sister.”

Looking at the scene, the corners of her mouth twitched as if she was enjoying herself in the mirror.

“I’m in a situation where I can’t confide in anyone and I can’t even kill myself.”

“Stop it… !”

“Attracting magical beasts, putting his friends in danger, and stealing information from the professors and students he charmed. How could such a traitor… ”

“No… !”

She covered her ears and shook her head as if she didn’t want to hear it.

“No… ! I mean, I didn’t do it… ! You, you moved my body as you please… !”

The tears that formed droplets finally fell to the ground.

After looking at the sobbing girl for a while, I sighed deeply in the mirror.

“Spica. Antares is taming the hyper-evolved species in the north. Sadalmelik dug in among the dregs of inferior species from the south.”

“… ”

“To the east, Deneb is designing a trap for his adversary. Soon he will be in our hands.”

Even though there was no answer, the woman in the mirror continued talking to herself.

“Three of the five demonic beasts of disaster have already entered our hands. And the sisters who have delved into the habitat of inferior species are also working steadily.”

“That means… ”

“Okay. Soon the second great work will begin. I mirrored my sisters’ work and prepared more thoroughly. I will never fail.”

He nodded with a confident expression on his face in the mirror.

“And if that happens… The inferior species you love will disappear into mere ashes.”

“You… !”

“Spica. Stop rejecting your sacred mission. I don’t want to force my sister to do anything either. But if you keep acting like this… I have no choice but to make a decision.”

“Sisters… don’t do it… !”

A real-life female student clenches her teeth and glares at the mirror.

“I-I am not you… I am human… !”

“No. You are us.”

But her last resistance was swallowed up by something compelling that resonated through her soul.

“We are you.”

It constricted her body so tightly that it was difficult to breathe.

The force barely let her go after covering her body for several turns.

“… It’s time. I’ll be back, Spica. Let us never forget our mission.”

Suddenly, a sticky and heavy fog passed over the girl’s body, and she raised her head again.

The woman in the mirror was shedding thick teardrops just like herself in real life.

“Huh… ”

With a tang sound, the knife she was holding in her fingers fell to the floor.