Things to Do
by Afuhfuihgs
Everyone seemed to have a lot to do outside the Labyrinth, as soon as we got out of the Imperial Palace, we scattered and agreed to meet up later. Elly also returned to the Academy, so I was left alone on the street.
The plaza in front of the Imperial Palace was still crowded with people. People waiting to enter the Labyrinth, people waiting for those who had entered the Labyrinth… countless people were looking at the Imperial Palace with eyes filled with various emotions.
A few people pointed at me after seeing the Lily Mask. Before I could attract too much attention, I used space magic to get out of there. In an alley where people’s eyes couldn’t reach, I put the mask and robe into my spatial storage and left the alley.
Now that I was out of the Labyrinth, I had a place to go. Since I didn’t have many places to go in the first place, besides the Academy, the only place left was Modest’s secret hideout.
When I returned to Modest’s secret hideout, Amber greeted me with a strange look on her face.
“How was the Labyrinth?”
“Just as I expected.”
At my answer, Amber touched her forearm and nodded. She looked troubled for some reason. Feeling a strange unease at Amber’s unusual appearance, I asked.
“…Did something happen?”
“No. Nothing happened to Modest, but….”
Amber, who had been trailing off, sighed and took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to me.
“The Guild Master ordered me to investigate whether there were any people related to the Order among the students of Transcendence Academy. So, I mobilized Modest’s information network to thoroughly investigate the students’ families and their connections to the Order, and… I found a few names.”
As I read the paper Amber handed me, I stopped at one part. Amber’s voice reached my ears as I stood frozen.
“Among them… one of Lily-nim’s friends is there.”
“…Baldwin, Aria Baldwin.”
The name written on the paper was Aria.
***
The summit of Mount Bold is a popular destination due to its beautiful scenery. Among them, there were people who forgot the name of the snowy mountain and went up the mountain late at night, only to get lost and disappear.
The Baldwin family, who ran a hot spring in the middle of Mount Bold, invested a lot of money to install streetlights and warning signs to prevent tourists from getting stranded, but they couldn’t stop people from disappearing. Mount Bold is a place where it’s difficult to even turn back the way you came.
Most of the missing people strayed from the path due to misjudgment and were often found dead while wandering around the snowy mountains. But in cases where even the bodies were not found, most people thought they were sleeping deep in the snow and forgot about them. That’s how the Baldwin family’s misdeeds have been hidden until now.
Lisa Baldwin was checking the guest list for the hot spring when she found a seemingly good prey. Occasionally, there were guests who came to the resort alone to soothe their minds. A man. She took a quick look at his face and saw that he had dark circles under his eyes and looked tired, as if he was going through a lot of mental distress.
Lisa sent a note to her husband that she had found prey and waited for the right timing. Just in time, her husband, Allen Baldwin, came to see Lisa when she received a call from an employee that a guest had gone out to see the summit.
Lisa, along with Allen, quietly headed to the summit and saw the guest looking down at the bottom of the mountain alone. Lisa exchanged glances with Allen and nodded, then went down the path first.
Lisa, waiting for her prey in the cold wind of the snowy mountain, found the guest trudging down the path alone and manipulated the lights of the streetlights installed around the path.
The guest, who was following the path relying on the light of the streetlights, did not recognize the changed streetlights and strayed from the original path, walking in a completely different direction from the hot spring.
As the guest’s back disappeared into the distance, Lisa manipulated the streetlights back to their original state and, together with Allen, took a shortcut to get ahead of the guest. There were several villas belonging to the Baldwin family on Mount Bold, and the place the guest was heading to now was one of those villas with a basement for a special purpose.
Lisa lit a fire in the fireplace to warm the air in the villa, and then brightly lit all the lights in the villa so that the guest could see it from afar.
After a while, Lisa saw the guest, who had lost his way and was wandering around the snowy mountain because the streetlights had disappeared, approaching the villa after discovering the lights in the distance.
Lisa tapped Allen’s hand and smiled, then waited for the guest to knock on the door. Finally, when the guest arrived at the villa and knocked on the door, Allen waited for a moment before going down the stairs and opening the door.
“To come here in this weather… did you lose your way or something?”
At Allen’s words, the guest nodded silently. Seeing him shivering as if he felt the cold, Allen turned his body to make way and said.
“Guests who come to Mount Bold are always welcome. You must be cold, come in quickly.”
As Allen spoke gently and led the guest into the villa, Lisa, as if she had been waiting, brought a thick blanket and handed it to the guest.
“You must be cold, right? I’ll bring you some warm tea to warm you up soon.”
“Th, thank you.”
The guest, who had put the blanket over his shoulders and sat in a chair near the fireplace, carefully wrapped his hands around the cup of warm tea that Lisa had handed him.
“Did you come with anyone?”
At Lisa’s question, the guest shook his head.
“I came here alone. My family doesn’t even know. I just… needed some time alone. But I was looking at the summit… and I ended up losing my way and coming here.”
At the guest’s words, Allen and Lisa exchanged glances and nodded.
“That’s a relief. You can rest here today, and we can go down the snowy mountain together when it gets light.”
The guest thanked Lisa for her kind words and drank the warm tea in the cup. And a little later, when the guest dropped the cup on the floor and fell asleep, the Baldwin couple skillfully grabbed the guest’s arms and legs and moved him to the basement.
After sitting the guest in a chair, Lisa, who was taking off his shoes, asked Allen.
“Don’t you think we’ll need two more by summer vacation?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to have three to be on the safe side?”
Allen replied, taking out a device hidden on the basement wall. Lisa, who had taken off the guest’s shoes, nodded.
“That would be good. Just in case. Then―”
As Lisa’s words were cut off, Allen, who was putting a mana stone into the device, tilted his head in confusion. Allen was startled to see Lisa’s neck grabbed by the guest’s hand and hurriedly took out his staff and aimed it at the guest.
“Let go of that hand!”
At Allen’s shout, the guest released his hand and pushed Lisa away. As Lisa coughed and fell to the floor, Allen approached and stood in front of Lisa as if to protect her.
There had never been a person who wasn’t affected by the sleeping pills in the tea, but today’s guest seemed to have a unique constitution. Allen sighed inwardly and tried to salvage the situation.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding. We were just trying to check on the guest because he suddenly collapsed….”
A low, cold voice interrupted Allen’s words.
“Have you been luring people into the basement and killing them like this all along?”
Allen twitched his thick cheeks at the way he spoke as if he already knew about the Baldwin couple’s misdeeds.
“I don’t know what you’re tal― Keuaaak!!!”
Allen, who was trying to swing his staff, taking advantage of the gap in his guard, dropped his staff when his hand was suddenly pierced by a spear that popped out from the side. As Allen collapsed, spitting blood from his hand, Lisa screamed and grabbed Allen’s hand.
“Kyaaak, honey!!!”
“Keueueuk, keueueue…!!!”
While Lisa was applying pressure to Allen’s pierced hand, who was screaming in pain, the guest kicked the staff that had fallen on the floor far away and approached the Baldwin couple.
“Why, why the hell did you do this?”
Lisa sobbed and shouted at the guest who was grinding his teeth and asking.
“What are you talking about, this is a misunderstanding! We were trying to help you!”
At Lisa’s words, the guest let out a deep sigh. And soon, the guest’s face slowly melted down as if it were dissolving, and slime fell from his face.
“Wh, what…?”
Lisa, who was staring in shock, realized that the changed guest’s face was familiar and gasped.
“You’re… Aria’s friend?”
Ross, who had removed his slime disguise, asked again with a cold gaze.
“…Why did you do it?”
Looking at the spear in Ross’s hand, Lisa, who thought she could still salvage the situation, said tearfully. Lisa had not forgotten how much Aria had explained about Ross, who had become her friend during the vacation.
“It’s all for Aria, your friend.”
“…Does murder really benefit Aria?”
“This isn’t murder!”
Lisa shouted angrily and glared at Ross with tears in her eyes.
“Aria… lost her life to illness a long time ago.”
“What does that….”
“Our only child died of illness, and we couldn’t bear it. So, we looked for a way to revive our child and… we revived Aria.”
“That’s impossible. There’s no magic to revive the dead. It’s not magic, it’s something that requires a god’s miracle.”
Ross looked at Lisa with a look of disbelief. Lisa, who was biting her lip, revealed the secrets she had been hiding all along.
“I know. So we borrowed the power of a god. Another god who could help us….”
Ross muttered as if he finally understood.
“Did you receive help from the Order?”
“Yes, we were able to revive our beloved daughter by pledging allegiance to the Order.”
“So, you’re luring people in and killing them according to the Order’s orders?”
“That’s not it! We, we…!!!”
Lisa couldn’t continue her words. Allen, whose hand was pierced, breathed roughly and suppressed his pain, continuing the words instead.
“…Aria wasn’t revived normally. As you said, it’s impossible to revive the dead. But we couldn’t give up on Aria, and… we were able to revive Aria as a Homunculus with the Vice-Leader-nim’s proposal.”
“….”
“A Homunculus is a doll that can live on the life force of a person. We’re injecting the life force of others, extracted by a device, into Aria so that Aria can continue to live as our daughter.”
At those words, Ross realized. The reason why Transcendence Academy in another world exploded and collapsed from the inside was not because of a bomb planted by an Order spy.
The fact that the Vice-Leader created a Homunculus and that the Homunculus entered the Academy were all the result of causality. To explain why the Academy, which boasted airtight security, collapsed from the inside.
“…Does Aria know?”
“Of course not. She’s a good kid, so it would be hard for her to bear if she knew the truth….”
Suddenly, Ross recalled a conversation he had with Aria one day.
“This is a secret, but… I actually have a big scar on my head. It’s such a terrible scar that my parents tell me never to show it to anyone…!”
Ross gave a bitter smile. Even in reality, nothing just flows by without meaning. Like in a novel, ordinary conversations become sacrifices for causality.
“…There’s nothing a parent wouldn’t do for their child.”
Ross looked down at the Baldwin couple, who were lying on the floor and looking up at him. He knew the reason why they had committed their misdeeds. And he also knew what he had to do.
Ross silently put on his mask.
The Lily Mask that punishes evildoers.
*
Amber, who had been tracking Ross from the beginning, found Ross coming out of the villa and approached him. Seeing the blood flowing from Ross’s fingertips, Amber checked to see if he was injured, but it wasn’t Ross’s blood.
Ross, who had passed by Amber and was walking forward powerlessly, stopped and slowly took off the Lily Mask. A white breath flowed from Ross’s dry lips and rose into the night sky, slowly scattering and disappearing.
At that moment, a mournful voice reached Amber’s ears.
“…I guess we can’t be friends anymore, huh?”
Amber didn’t answer. That question wasn’t for Amber, but for Ross himself.
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