episode_0201

* * *

Crack- Crack-

A rough whip cuts through the air, tearing at Eve’s flesh.

“I rather enjoy planning, you see. When I meticulously gather information and utilize appropriate means… the feeling of omnipotence as everything unfolds as I envisioned is truly exhilarating. Therefore—”

Seeker Darius rose.

He gathered his dark magic in his fist and forcefully slammed it into Eve’s abdomen.

Thwack—!

“Cough-”

“I hate… more than anything… the disruption of my plans.”

A deep bruise bloomed on Eve’s stomach, mirroring the shape of his fist. She trembled violently from the searing pain that consumed her whole body, but the chains binding her hands only tightened.

Plop-

Black blood splattered on the torture chamber floor.

Darius grabbed Eve’s hair and lifted her head high. Her limp face was now directed towards him.

“Now, I’ll ask again. This plan was largely based on the information you provided… did you deliberately include falsehoods?”

“I… I didn’t—”

His grip on her hair tightened.

The torture specialist, who had silently moved behind her, took this as a signal and began to wield the whip again.

“Tell the truth—!!”

“Ugh…”

Crack- Crack-

With each lash of the coarse leather whip across Eve’s back, her whole body convulsed.

“Stop, stop. I merely wish to have a conversation.”

“This… is also a kind of conversation—!”

The torture specialist, half-mad with lust for the beautiful woman’s blood, lashed out with the whip.

But he soon felt Darius’s dark magic and stopped.

“Stop it.”

“…Yes.”

“Good, you should be smart. This girl is a very important card. That’s why I didn’t throw her to the male prisoners and specifically called for you.”

She quietly took two steps back and stood upright. She stared at Eve’s clean vulva with trembling eyes, then licked her lips and nodded.

Darius turned his gaze back to Eve.

“I’m showing you this much leniency… you mustn’t betray me. Isn’t that right?”

“Ye… yes…”

Crash—

A harsh tug on her hair caused the chains binding her body to clang loudly.

“This incident exposed some of our power. Being frequently associated with Princess Narita and getting caught isn’t good, and above all, the plan completely failed.”

“I’m so… sorry…”

He leaned in until their noses almost touched. His darkness-swirling figure was clearly reflected in Eve’s trembling eyes.

“Don’t forget why I accepted you. ‘That man’s’ body is still in our grasp.”

“I… know.”

“Good. We must achieve it, won’t we?”

Darius released Eve and stepped back, as if nothing had happened. The sight of him smiling faintly, wiping the blood from his hands, and adjusting his attire was chilling.

“Your goal… I shall support you as well. It’s about time, so let’s go.”

With a flick of his wrist, the torture specialist reached for Eve.

“Regeneration—”

A black shadow enveloped her body, slowly regenerating it, and soon she was restored to her original smooth skin, without even faint scars.

She untied the chains from Eve’s hands and feet, handed her clothes, and returned to her original place.

“Then… see you next time.”

“…….”

As Eve accepted the clothes and bowed her head, Darius exhaled a black mist from his fingertips.

The mist enveloped Eve’s body as well, and soon her vision was completely consumed by darkness.

.

.

.

Flicker-

When she opened her eyes again, Eve found herself slumped on a cot in the academy’s infirmary.

Looking out the window, she saw that not much time had passed. It was a normal afternoon, cloudless and sunny.

Yet, the time she spent being tortured… felt agonizingly long to Eve.

Because of the special manacles that disrupted mana flow, she couldn’t enhance her body, and her completely defenseless flesh had been torn to shreds. She hadn’t experienced such helplessness outside of Moriarty.

Her gaze fell on the clothes placed on her lap.

Crash—

Torn cheap underwear and her academy uniform. Her hand tightened around the tattered garments.

“Hmph… sob…”

Drip- Thud-

She covered her streaming tears with the back of her hand.

But they didn’t stop. Her face contorted with regretful tears, Eve slowly put on her clothes.

She soon felt someone approaching from outside, and quickly pulled the blanket up to her shoulders.

Creak—

Judging by the strengthened pace, it seemed quite urgent, yet the person was quite cautious opening the door, seemingly considerate of the patient inside the infirmary.

“…Eve?”

Eve’s eyes widened at the voice from beyond the curtain.

She inhaled to speak, but no sound came out. Her throat was choked, and she weakly dropped the hand she had extended from the blanket.

The owner of the voice walked inside without hesitation and quietly drew back the curtain.

It was Nari, with a little mud and blood on her collar.

Eve acted surprised, widening her eyes. She was indeed surprised but also knew what happened earlier in the Tara Plains.

She couldn’t let that fact be discovered.

“What’s wrong… are you hurt?”

“Ah- this, it’s not my blood. I just got back, and I heard you were sick, so I came to see.”

Nari scratched her head, trying to play it down. But Eve’s stiff expression didn’t soften.

Eventually she began to slowly recount what she had just experienced.

“I see… another attack…”

“Yeah. But it’s okay, this time nobody died.”

At that single sentence, Eve was genuinely surprised. She had heard from the Seeker that Nari had stopped Moriarty’s attack and she had been beaten until she lost consciousness as punishment.

But that no one had died, she was hearing for the first time.

Eve tried to voice the feelings welling up inside her chest, then hesitated again.

Should she say this? She had leaked information from this field trip to Moriarty for her own benefit; did she have the right to feel this way?

Many thoughts clashed in her head. Responsibility and duty, her heart, the value of human relationships. The Academy’s stance and Moriarty’s clashed, making it hard for her to even breathe.

Eve’s body was extremely weak, her emotions showing clearly on her face.

Nari, seeing her complex expression, softly embraced her head. And Eve began to cry again, the tears she had held back.

“Thank… goodness…”

Sob— sob-

Eve’s fragile voice echoed in the infirmary.

* * *

I stayed by Eve’s side until she fell asleep from exhaustion. It had been a long time since she showed such vulnerability. It felt like I’d gotten incredibly lucky.

Shake-shake-

I shook my head and left the infirmary, quietly restoring the feeling in my fingertips.

‘That final blow… lacked impact.’

The assailant who called himself “ “, a Moriarty executive. As soon as I smashed his head, he was enveloped in black smoke and disappeared, leaving no corpse to retrieve.

He definitely wasn’t dead. I was sure of it, from my fingertips and from my head. Those guys always use such ridiculous tricks to cause trouble.

I headed to the Tara Plains to further investigate the scene.

Knights were already there, controlling the perimeter, and Aspi, who commanded the knights, greeted me.

“You’ve come.”

“Yeah. The kids?”

“I sent everyone back. Most went to the dormitories, but some suffered severe mental trauma and injuries, so they need a more relaxing rest.”

Besides the female instructor who had been stabbed in the stomach, quite a few others were injured. Apparently, before tried to kill her, he fought briefly with other instructors and students.

I placed my hand on the ground where the vegetation was thick and formed an etheric veil. The attribute was Search.

‘…There’s no trace of mana.’

Judging by his ability to cover hundreds of meters in a single bound and pierce a person’s belly with his bare hands, his main magic seemed to be a physical enhancement type.

The bigger problem was the corpses of the other low-ranking self-destructing soldiers scattered around. The amount of magic in each wasn’t much, but with dozens of them lying around, the overall magical aura was strong.

I glanced sideways.

“Any identification?”

“…No. There’s nothing we can do right now. If we had investigative magical tools…”

“That’s too late.”

There were no possessions and their bodies were mostly decayed. To retrieve information about them from the fragmented remains, special tools or the support of a mage who could use such investigative magic was required. Even if I requested help from the Mage Tower or the Academy, it would take a long time to process.

“Cleanup first. I’ll take responsibility.”

“What are you going to do…”

I spread my arms out to the sides and slowly gathered ether.

Aspi sensed the swirling energy and wisely retreated, and then I gathered all the remaining mana and ether in this area.

『Attribute, [One Who Deviates From the Natural Order] is activated.』

It slowly flowed into my body. From a single drop of earth mana freshly exuded from a blade of grass, to a speck of wind mana floating nearby.

Even the scattered Moriarty soldiers’ corpses began to glow slowly, and their intertwined souls and magic also became mine.

Their memories and emotions slowly flowed into my mind.

‘…It matches what Persona said. They kidnapped ordinary people and forcibly infused them with mana.’

Why would they drag innocent people into their goals?

Then, I suddenly recalled a single phrase that uttered at the end.

“It’s my fault…”

I still don’t know what that means. It could be dismissed as the nonsense rant of a guilty villain.

However, the Academy’s second-semester final exams are approaching. Although another attack is unlikely, I don’t want to be complacent.

“I… need to do something in return.”

Turning around, I found Aspi watching me and smiling softly.

Why do they think only they can launch attacks?