Rapture

A few hours ago.

,Ellie-ssi, have you realized who should be called a thief now?

Each word was pronounced clearly, in a way that could be described as gentle.

Perhaps not expecting my answer, Luna looked straight at me and added with a stronger tone than before.

,Don’t approach Ross anymore.

Watching Luna’s back as she turned and left the waiting room, as if she had nothing more to say, I exhaled a thrilled breath at the emotions surging within me.

It was a feeling of humiliation that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. I had even forgotten that such a feeling existed at some point, but some cripple who popped up out of nowhere had awakened it. And in a very unpleasant way, at that.

That arrogant expression as if she were the victor, that gentle voice as if she were teaching me, that cluelessness in pointing things out… it made me want to give her an unforgettable lesson.

…Anyway, the world doesn’t let a genius’s talent rot.

I sighed as if releasing my emotions and leaned back. The locker in the waiting room, made of cold metal, stole the heat from my skin, which was flushed with excitement. The coolness on the back of my neck made my head feel clear.

The unpleasantness had already faded. There’s nothing as stupid as being swayed by such emotions.

It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. In the past, there were many people who coveted the ,perfect friend, that I had worked so hard to create.

Seeing me getting close to Ross, perhaps due to some primal instinct to take him away, there were kids who approached Ross in a friendly manner.

Something that no one had paid attention to when it wasn’t mine… they judged that it had become worthy of being a friend for the sole reason that it had become mine.

But I didn’t have the nasty habit of sharing my things with others. Ross had to remain the perfect friend to me, and to do that, he didn’t need any friends other than me.

There was no need to even make a plan. We were young. That meant it was a time when people believed what they saw more than they thought. I instinctively knew what to do… better than anyone else in the village.

Ross and some extra bitch clung to my suggestion to go pick wild strawberries. That girl, who pretended to be nice and acted coy, chattered noisily as we climbed the mountain.

Ross was listening to her, wearing an awkward smile… and I was looking around. As expected, there were kids who had come to pick wild strawberries before us. If I had discovered them even a little later, I might have torn her noisy mouth apart.

Seeing them flaunt that they had taken the spot as they looked at us, the suddenly appeared competitors, I smiled secretly without anyone noticing.

In a situation where I was keeping an eye on the suddenly appeared competitors, I timed it perfectly and released magic power towards the extra bitch who was walking ahead, without anyone noticing.

The magic power, flowing like wind along the ground, pierced the body of the child who had no mana sensitivity at all. The child’s body was thrown backward by the repulsive force.

It was a situation that happened in an instant. Ross turned around at the sudden scream and tried to reach out urgently, but it was a situation where even an adult couldn’t react perfectly.

Thanks to the steep terrain, the extra bitch tumbled down the path. She hit trees and bounced off rocks protruding from the ground. Her snow-white dress, which didn’t suit her, became dirtied with mud and blood, torn and transformed in a very fitting way.

,Aaaaaaack…!!!!!

The extra bitch, with a broken leg and injuries all over her body, screamed so loudly that it hurt my ears.

That voice, which had only felt annoying until just now, now made me feel pleasant shivers down my spine. What should I call this feeling? Relief?

The kids who had been wary of us approached and looked at the extra bitch with a mixture of concern and curiosity, then turned their gaze to Ross, who had reflexively reached out his hand.

It happened at the moment when the kids who were watching us could no longer see Ross and the extra bitch clearly because of the densely grown trees.

In the eyes of the kids, Ross’s appearance was….

It couldn’t help but look like he had pushed the extra bitch. I almost burst out laughing without realizing it at the sight of everyone being wary of Ross and surrounding the area so that the extra bitch couldn’t be seen.

One child went down to the village and brought the adults. The adults carefully took the extra bitch, who was screaming until her voice was hoarse, back to the village.

While the extra bitch was riding in a carriage with her parents to see a doctor in the next village, an investigation was taking place in the village, with the children being questioned about what had happened.

It was common for children to get hurt while playing dangerous games, but this time the injuries were severe. If it wasn’t their own mistake, someone had to take responsibility.

One child, frightened by the chief’s stern expression, pointed at Ross.

,He, he pushed Rose!

,Y-yes! He suddenly pushed Rose down the mountain!

,We saw it clearly!

They probably didn’t see the scene of him pushing her directly. If they had, they wouldn’t have said that.

They were just making wild guesses based on what they had seen later.

The extra bitch who had rolled down, Ross who had reached out his hand.

Children have a habit of blindly believing what they see.

I was swept away by a very strange emotion and raised my head with a trembling heart. And I still remember Ross’s expression, which was standing in front of me, so clearly that it comes to mind vividly when I close my eyes.

Confusion and injustice, a desperate look that he had no one on his side.

Ross, with tears welling up in his eyes, desperately claiming that he didn’t do it.

The village chief raised a whip, saying he was lying, and the children also believed what they had seen and cornered Ross.

The adults who came after hearing the commotion listened to the situation and looked at Ross with cold eyes. Ross’s mother, who came late, listened to the story and approached me, not Ross, and asked.

,Did Ross really push her?

You shouldn’t betray a friend. You shouldn’t lie.

So I didn’t say anything.

Just….

I lowered my head, tears welling up in my eyes, fidgeted with my fingers, and glanced at Ross’s expression with a face full of conflict, not knowing how to answer.

Ironically, that became the answer, and Ross’s head turned with a ,slap- sound. Ross’s mother bowed to the other adults and apologized repeatedly, and the adults clicked their tongues and muttered about how to educate children.

But Ross insisted until the end that he didn’t do it. Ross, who shed tears of injustice and didn’t give in even when the village chief hit him with a whip, was eventually grabbed by the hair by his mother and dragged away.

That day, the child’s screams continued to be heard from the house next door. It was time for everyone to go to sleep, but the crying didn’t stop.

I gave Choco, who hadn’t eaten for three days because he had rubbed his body against a friend who had come to my house, his food and waited for Ross’s punishment to end.

As I listened quietly to the sound of Choco gobbling up his food, finally, with the sound of the door opening, Ross, with clear marks of being beaten all over his body, was chased out naked.

,I, I did wrong. I did wrong…. Please let me go home….

Ross, who was knocking on the door with a voice full of tears, shut his mouth tightly and sat down, sobbing, at the shout from inside the house to shut up.

I stroked Choco’s cute head, then quietly left the house and approached Ross.

Hearing the sound of someone approaching, Ross reflexively covered his body, met my gaze, bit his lip, and avoided my eyes.

Was he embarrassed? His reaction was so cute that I went even closer to Ross.

,D-don’t come….

Ignoring Ross’s plea not to come closer, I held out the rice ball I had prepared in advance.

,Ross, you didn’t have dinner, did you?

Ross, whose whole body was covered in bruises, slowly raised his head. His lips were cracked and thickened with blood scabs, and his swollen blue eyes, illuminated by the moonlight, were especially pretty today. There was a bump on his forehead, as if he had been hit with something.

He was embarrassed by the fact that he was naked, but his hunger was greater, and Ross took the rice ball I held out with trembling hands and ate it like Choco.

,…I believe in Ross.

The hand that was eating the rice ball stopped abruptly. Ross looked at me with a face covered in snot and tears, as if he still had tears left to shed.

If I really believed him, why didn’t I stand up for him? He could have asked that. But Ross wasn’t in his right mind right now. He was in a situation where he was doubting himself due to repeated punishments.

A lifeline thrown in a situation where he was struggling in a swamp of despair.

The resentment and ill will towards his parents, who didn’t believe him, and the children who lied that he had done something he didn’t do, melted away with just one word from me.

,Th, tha… tha…nk….

His pronunciation was inaccurate because his lips were cracked and he was crying, but Ross was sincerely grateful to me, the only one who believed in him.

,Of course. We’re friends, right?

Ross shed even more tears at my answer.

,Y-you’re the only one who be-believes in me… Ellie, Ellie is the only one…. My frie-friend is only Ellie in this world….

At that moment, I felt a very strange pleasure that made my lower abdomen tingle. It wasn’t the kind of satisfaction I usually felt. My whole body trembled, and it was a pleasure that felt like my brain was burning.

I vividly felt that strange pleasure and created the most beautiful smile I could. Realizing that I would become addicted to this feeling.

,Yeah, that’s right. I’m your only friend.

I added as if promising to my perfect friend who was only looking at me.

,From now on, forever.

.

.

.

The sound of the door closing reached my ears as I was momentarily lost in old memories. When I came to my senses, Ross, who had changed into a manly figure unlike the small and gloomy figure in my memory, was approaching me.

Ross, who used to be swayed by me, now pleased me beyond satisfaction. If I expected a 70-point reaction, he would return it with 90 points, 100 points.

The only person who made me happy among the predictable and obvious people.

He was happy now with the joy of being temporarily off the leash, but he was a fool who didn’t realize that he couldn’t escape the fence that he had built so firmly for a long time.

With a voice that could only be described as rapturous and a smile that I had never seen before, Ross looked at me and asked.

,Wanna do something bad with me?

At that question, my lower abdomen tingled again.