episode_0138

A pleasant bell sound that announces it’s time to leave school.

Is it because the next day is the weekend?

The sound of bells ringing throughout the school brought smiles to the faces of all the students.

Unlike them, Ariel had a worn-out face for some reason, and as I and I walked out of the classroom, chatting away, Lily was there again today, waiting for me.

“You worked hard in class, Sera. Drink this.”

“……Thank you Lily.”

I took a sip of the water bottle she handed me, and the cool water ran down my throat, quenching my thirst.

‘….It’s a little awkward.’

I had a lot to say, but let me get to the point.

Lily has changed.

There must have been some trigger. After the incident in the bathroom last time, Lily’s behavior toward me changed a little.

Before, he acted as if he was going to eat me, but recently, his attitude has become much more relaxed, and his blatant gaze towards me has also become considerably gentler.

If it’s good, then it’s good.

Because the previous Lily was a bit burdensome.

Lily’s words, asking me to show her how to pee, still made my face red every night.

Just thinking about it made me feel like I could die from embarrassment.

But I didn’t think Lily would make such an unreasonable request right now.

I was curious as to why Lily had suddenly become so gentle.

I decided not to say anything, thinking that if I asked for nothing, something else might happen.

So, as the four of us walked back to the dormitory, Lily looked at me and spoke to me.

“Do you know tomorrow?”

I nodded slightly in response to her words.

“……Yeah.”

Today is Friday.

Tomorrow is the weekend I promised to Lily.

It was the day we went to see my older sister Dania together.

….Honestly, I wasn’t confident.

The confidence to face her confidently and brightly.

Still, in a corner of my mind, the thought that maybe Sister Dania hated me lingered and tormented me.

And this feeling probably won’t go away until I meet Dania in person tomorrow.

In the end, there was no way to solve the problem other than going to my sister.

While I was making up my mind like that.

“…..Are you two meeting tomorrow?”

A cold, calm voice came from next to me.

When I turned my gaze, the owner of the voice was Ariel. She was looking at me calmly with eyes that were slightly less bright than before.

“Uh..yeah..”

I answered absentmindedly.

Now that Lily and Iris are back to normal, Ariel has been acting strangely.

He was clearly a lively and bright child even a week ago.

Now, with a gloomy atmosphere, her eyes were empty.

..I wonder if Ariel has a story too.

Ariel’s face distorted for a moment after hearing my answer, then she quickly walked towards me and grabbed my hand.

“Tell me something.”

“Yeah… story..?”

Ariel’s sudden behavior left me feeling bewildered.

“I have something to say.”

I turned my head and looked at Lily.

Lily also made a puzzled face, then nodded her head while looking at me bewildered.

Kkadak-

I turned my head again in surprise at the strange sound.

Ariel’s face looks more distorted for some reason.

Soon she took my hand without saying a word and led me somewhere.

It wasn’t long before I started walking with Ariel.

The place where my footsteps and hers stopped was a place we had been to before.

A deserted alley in the Academy where Iris had previously committed suicide.

Ariel dragged me there, pushed me against the wall, and placed her arms on the walls on either side of me as if she couldn’t escape.

“Ah..Ariel?”

I looked at Ariel with trembling eyes.

Without hesitation, she placed her lips on mine.

“Huh?!”

Before I could react, Ariel’s tongue slid into my lips and wrapped around my tongue.

And from then on, Ariel’s tongue began to poke around in my mouth as if it were an animal.

“Ugh! Huff!..Sigh…!”

I tried to push her away, but her body wouldn’t budge.

I knew that Ariel’s physical strength in the original was weak, but for some reason I just couldn’t get her off me.

Chuup-! Churp-!

“Hehe..! Ouch!”

A rough kiss that could almost be called violence.

Her momentum made me feel like I was going to lose my soul, so I was slowly losing strength in my body.

As time passed like that.

Ariel must have been tired too, because she let out a rough moan and released my mouth free.

Then, as if water was pouring down.

A significant amount of saliva mixed between her and me and dripped to the floor.

“Haak..ugh..Ariel what is this..what is this..”

I asked her while Ariel and I took deep breaths and tried to catch our breath.

“…Why are you rejecting it?”

But what came back to me was an extremely low and cold voice.

“What…?”

“Why are you refusing?”

“Well..well, you suddenly kissed me..”

Ariel’s face, with its gloomy appearance and shadows under its eyes, felt somehow repulsive.

“It’s something that’s natural between women.”

“…..Ah.”

At Ariel’s words, my past actions quickly flashed through my mind.

There were so many common sense things that I took for granted because I was fooled by Lily.

Mostly the possible expressions of affection between girls… I gave them all to Ariel.

‘Ugh… we’re in big trouble…’

What should I do?

I told her everything so proudly. What would Ariel think if I said no now?

No. In the first place, it would have been fortunate if it had not been cut off, let alone looked pathetic.

He got close to her and even gave her a passionate kiss.

From Ariel’s perspective, it wouldn’t be strange at all to be treated as a sex offender.

I was too scared to tell her the truth.

But…I have to tell you.

If I had kept it a secret and pretended not to know, nothing big would have happened, but I absolutely could not do that.

Knowing and not saying anything is an act of ignoring and deceiving Ariel.

At the very least, telling her now would be basic consideration for her.

It was I who gave her the wrong idea. So it’s my job to pick her again.

Even though Ariel might hate me, I didn’t want to lie to her.

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth, prepared to be hated by her.

“Ariel..Actually. I was wrong.”

“What?”

He swallowed once and spoke with difficulty at Ariel’s words, which had completely sunk and become slurred.

“Sa…Actually, I was wrong. You were right in the beginning that girls kiss and have skinship…”

“…..What?”

“I…I misunderstood…I…I’m sorry…Can’t you just think of all the things that happened in the past as if they never happened?”

Ariel stared blankly at me for a moment, then quickly shook her head and scrunched up her face.

“….ha.”

My body shrank even further at her reaction.

‘I guess I’m going to be hated after all..’

Well, it’s natural, I did things like kissing and touching her body… so it’d be strange if she didn’t hate me.

I closed my eyes tightly, ready to accept any insults she might throw at me at any time.

“….Is it because of Lily?”

But what I got back was an unexpected answer.

When I slowly opened my eyes, there was Ariel staring at me blankly.

“You lost interest in me. Because of Lily.”

“Huh…?”

“These days, you’re only with Lily…You two always go out on separate dates…Why? Why don’t you pay attention to me?”

“Huh…Huh?”

“Why? Why are you only interested in Lily? I’m the one who met you first and became close with you. I’m the one who takes classes with you and laughs with you every day.”

“Ah..no-”

“That’s right, right? Is it because I lost to Lily in a pointless duel? Did you lose interest in me because I’m weak?”

It was as if something that had been building up had exploded. A sticky aura was emanating from Ariel.

An atmosphere that could not be emanated from her who was always lively.

Even in the novel, Ariel never once showed such a dark side.

Of course, her face hadn’t looked good lately, but I thought Ariel’s personality would brighten up again soon, so I let it go.

But what on earth does this mean..?

“Ah..Ariel, what..there’s some misunderstanding..”

“Okay, Sera.”

Ariel let go of the hand she was holding tightly to me. She quickly turned her back on me and began walking down the alley alone.

She, who had been moving further and further away, looked back at me and then informed me.

“Just wait and see. I’ll do whatever it takes to become stronger than Lily.”

“Ariel Misunderstanding-”

“Then things will go back to how they were before.”

She cuts me off and continues talking.

Her sinister face seemed impervious to any persuasion.

“Until then, we’ll be friends.”

Ariel’s eyes, as she spoke, were filled with a hint of madness, as if she were addicted to something.

After finishing speaking, Ariel leisurely walked out of the alley.

I just sat down on the floor and stared blankly at where she had been.

“What the heck is this….”

[You are truly a sinner, my disciple.]

It seemed as if I was hearing my teacher’s voice from somewhere in my head.

* * *

“All preparations are complete, Your Majesty.”

The knight in dark armor knelt and saluted.

The red-haired woman sitting on the throne, resting her chin on her hand, spoke wearily at his words.

“Are you sure you don’t have any other plans?”

Even though the moment she had longed for had arrived, the woman spoke with a calm expression.

“Yes. I dare say that it is right to follow Melum’s plan.”

“Hmm. This is going to be a typical massacre. Not fun. ”

At the woman’s words, the knight bowed his head even further and began to persuade her.

“I’m sorry to say this, but there are still so many things we are not prepared for. We have to take advantage of this to have a chance of winning.”

“Odds of winning?”

As the woman’s face crumpled, the knight instinctively knew that he had slipped out of his tongue.

“How presumptuous of you to dare to think of the possibility of defeat when the real woman is coming forward.”

As the atmosphere around them began to turn ominous, the knight hurriedly knelt down and begged for her forgiveness.

“I have committed a sin worthy of death. I dared to insult the great Demon King. Please punish me.”

The woman looked at the article quietly for a while, then let out a short sigh as if annoyed and said.

” It happened. I just feel bad because it seems like it’s going to be a trivial fight. ”

“Thank you for your kindness.”

The woman did not respond to the knight’s words. Instead, she began to touch a map lying next to her with her fingers.

Her fingers, which had been wandering around the map for quite some time, suddenly stopped at a certain point.

“What a shame. I heard this warrior was pretty strong, so I was expecting a good fight, but he ended up getting killed like this.”

“It is the will of the Lord, so what can I do?”

“What’s so urgent? I don’t really understand.”

A woman’s finger circling a spot on a map.

“The longer you prepare, the more extensive the war will be.”

A woman’s finger on a map. Her finger was pointing to a certain place.

A place all too familiar to anyone from the Empire.

The city of Ruither, known as the heart of the empire.

And inside it.

Where the hopes of the empire gather.

It was Regis Academy.