episode_0396

A moment ago, the air around Seijis somehow grew heavy, but the break time quickly passed.

“This is the front line! It’s where we face the Red Zone’s resistance head-on!”

After finishing all the refreshments, we concluded the briefing on the outpost and future construction plans and headed to the front line.

The front line was equipped with trenches, barricades, and various obstacles, and shell craters and newly laid landmines were scattered haphazardly everywhere. Underneath the thinly spread soil in places, the glittering lines of aether catalysts were visible. These were magic circles that would explode if monsters stepped on them.

“So it’s a no-man’s-land.”

“The monsters flock here when they’re bored. The problem is that their direct assaults have decreased recently!”

It was clear to anyone that the enemy was preparing something bigger.

“What do you think, Seijis? You’re smart. Do you know anything about the Red Zone?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know much about the Red Zone. At most, I only know the theory that there are axes that cause malicious anomalies in certain areas.”

“Ugh…”

-Screech!

A scream that seemed to tear the sky echoed again from beyond the island. The two were inspecting the trenches and chatting.

“Something must be happening beyond there. Have you tried reconnaissance?”

“Well, aerial reconnaissance is completely blocked due to the anomalies and monster hordes. If you go too deep, fog settles and darkness descends, obscuring everything.”

Seijis clicked his tongue. In such a situation, his ability to help was limited.

“Nothing can be done.”

“For now, we need to focus on military buildup! Just spar with me! You can even kill me!”

“In that case, I’ll go all out. Understood?”

“Yeah! Bring it on!”

A few minutes later, an explosion soared from the training grounds. Parts of Violet’s limbs happily flew skyward.

“Aargh!”

A cheerful sparring session began, as if to blow away all previous worries into the sky.

**

While Violet was relentlessly ground down on the front lines and in training, a few interesting things happened recently.

The first was managing the newly arrived juniors.

“Alright! I’m your second-year senior! Feel free to ask me anything!”

The task currently assigned to our Violet was to guide those who had just picked up a sword for the first time through a modest dungeon. The location was the Asterados Hills. It was the peaceful dungeon dimension where I first had my experiential learning. I didn’t understand why they made me do this, but I heard it was because my grades were too good.

Sadly, our Violets could no longer avoid perfect scores in theory. Even when we didn’t try to solve problems seriously, what we learned simply remained in our heads. Perhaps this was the sorrow of a genius.

When class schedules didn’t overlap, Professor Masus occasionally called me to the basic close-quarters combat class.

“Ugh! I don’t want to do it…”

“Instead, I’ll give you volunteer points and several other benefits, and… do you see the coupon here?”

“Wow! It’s a chocolate frappe!”

Well, I wasn’t just doing this because I was satisfied with free food. So, I appeared on the class stage instead of other assistant instructors or TAs.

“Alright, this second-year senior here is Violet. In her debut, she lasted 60 seconds against Professor Lee. From now on, I will give special points to any freshman who battles her and shows outstanding performance!”

“I’ll give it a try!”

“Good, step forward!”

“Hiyah!”

-Clang!

Over the next ten minutes, I roughly took down all twenty freshmen in a single blow.

“Ow… It hurts…”

“Aargh… You’re too strong…”

“Why are they so weak!”

“Oh my… Violet… this is…”

I saw the professor clutching his head, but I decided to ignore it. Back in my day, dying and falling dozens of times was normal. This was me going easy. Just think of it as a senior’s love and endure.

“Defeat will make you stronger!”

While Professor Sharia, who taught magic theory, brought me less often after I became a second-year, the problem was that people taking notice of me had increased in other areas. This had happened before, but it got worse after I became a second-year.

“Are you the student who defeated Restraid’s former successor in a duel?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Kepler Industries offers a special intern experience…”

“No.”

After getting rid of one, I stepped outside, only for other fly-like people to accost me near the school gate.

“Hey, you’re Ruzilin, right? Hmm… so cute… No, do you know who we are?”

“No.”

“Heh heh, you don’t know us! How foolish. We are from the renowned Roberne family. An opportunity to work at a security company under our family…”

“Wow, a family? Are you nobles? Is your place perhaps better than Cascadia?”

“No! Of course, it’s not as good as that place…”

“Bye!”

Seriously, those guys were too arrogant. I was a knight too, if you think about it. When did my face become so well-known? It was quite frustrating.

“Nothing to be done, I guess!”

For now, I’ll have to be even more vigilant about securing my face.

In any case, our skill and reputation had become so high that we couldn’t escape the school’s attention. As a result, I was unexpectedly called upon to manage the juniors. Still, if I got a lot of points, I could graduate early and get pocket money, so I did it.

Of course, there was another reason. I don’t know why, but suddenly the Principal-nim asked me to watch over the freshmen. Apparently, strange things had been happening nearby recently.

“We are the academy’s guardians!”

So, while I was assisting, acting as a TA, and performing security duties alongside the students participating in experiential learning, one of them spoke to me.

“Violet Senior-nim, did you know? There’s a rumor that a killer is roaming around the southern district these days…”

“What? A killer?”

A junior spoke to me as I watched over the experiential learning in the Asterados Hills. She was an ordinary-looking kid. For some reason, she knew my name.

“Everyone seems to know me a little!”

This was quite surprising. Anyway, a killer. What kind of rumor was this?

“What are you talking about, a killer?”

“…Yes! Recently, people of all ages have been disappearing and then found as corpses. They say that if a black figure suddenly attacks you in a dark alley, you just swoosh! and disappear…”

“It’s probably just a baseless rumor…”

Feeling annoyed, I casually brushed it off.

“And a killer? The Restraid tin cans wouldn’t leave something like that alone.”

The Restraid were old-fashioned perverts who forced marriage on students, but at least they were faithful to their duties. So, if a particularly severe criminal messed up even a little, they would immediately break their waist or tear off a limb and hand it over to the police.

“Would that bald Cordo leave such a troublemaker alone in the territory he manages?”

Well, unless there was some evil conspiracy, I don’t think they’d do such a thing even if there were. At my brief explanation, the junior rolled her eyes and then nodded.

“That’s true…”

“So instead of daydreaming, how about you go find your things? Your friends are waiting over there.”

“Oh? Oh! You’re right! I’m sorry!”

The junior quickly grabbed her weapon and ran off.

‘A killer, huh? Just a minor rumor…’

I generally brushed off that story. That is, until the next day, when a strange headline appeared in the news.

[Southern District, Appearance of the ‘Clone Killer’? – Authorities Enter Alert System.]

“Clone Killer!”

I suddenly wondered what kind of guy he was.

**

In the dark shadows, a woman wandered through the thick fog.

-It’s because of you!

-Why! Why didn’t you refuse him! What about his orders, that relic?

People torn apart by monsters screamed. Limp soldiers in military uniforms crawled out from under the ground and grabbed her ankles. The woman knelt.

“I’m sorry…”

-Sorry? We were just porters! Why did we have to get caught up in your clan’s schemes!

-I went to an experiential learning program… the defensive line collapsed and my child died!

-I was about to be discharged… the discharge grant… my mother’s sore leg…

The woman wept.

“Please don’t forgive me…”

Grips stained with dried blood seized her from all directions.

-Die! Just die! You selfish bitch!

Resigned, she fell into silence. Until a light suddenly appeared and pulled her out.

“Huuugh!”

Ennis opened her eyes. Amidst the numbness, the only sensation she felt was her sight, which was filled with dazzling light. As her body adapted to the oversaturated senses, an unfamiliar voice roused her hearing.

“Finally, your mind is clear. Can you hear me?”

As her blurred vision sharpened, she saw a familiar face before her. A woman with long, white side-tail hair.

“Wh-where am I?”

“You’re in a hospital. More precisely, the hospital attached to the Joint Research Institute! Don’t worry. We used a hemostatic agent, and you’ve overcome excessive bleeding through transfusions. Your wrist laceration was deep, but that wasn’t the main problem.”

Bernike continued cheerfully.

“What do you mean…”

“You and your people were exposed to a powerful psychic shockwave caused by the Apostle, suffering severe mental trauma. As it went berserk, it caused a slight erosion phenomenon. It wasn’t just a simple mental issue; extensive erosion occurred throughout the nervous system. Thanks to that, it took quite a while to confirm and treat the nerve damage. I didn’t expect it to take this long, though. Surprising, isn’t it? It’s September now.”

“September… and the others?”

Only then did Ennis fully come to her senses, laboriously raising her body. Her subordinate researchers, whom she was in charge of, were also hospitalized in the ward. It was distressing that not a single one of them seemed normal.

“Hehehe… I see stars! Hehehe…”

“Wow, where is this? Eheh?”

“Why are they like that?”

“I told you, Ms. Lowell. A temporary erosion phenomenon occurred because the isolated Apostle suddenly went on a rampage. But don’t worry. They’ll return to normal soon. The medical staff from Magnabys who recently joined Restraid performed ground-breaking surgery. I assisted a little too.”

“Surgery?”

Suddenly, Ennis realized that her body was excessively numb. Her arms and body had already felt unnaturally cold, but now she felt nothing at all.

“I, my body has no sensation, so why is it so heavy…”

Bernike replied as if she had been waiting.

“We modified you.”

“Pardon?”

“Look at your hands and arms first.”

Ennis did as she was told.

-Click!

All ten fingers on both hands clicked cheerfully. Ennis froze at the bizarre sight and movement of metal protrusions sticking out between her skin. And her fingers, as if beyond their owner’s will, clicked and twitched with astonishing speed.

-Click! Click!

“My, my hands! Why are my hands like this? No! Why is this happening!”

The mechanical tentacles on Bernike’s back moved swiftly. With a whoosh, a small needle pricked Ennis’s neck. As she slumped from the sedative administered, Bernike spoke again.

“Calm down, Ms. Lowell. It couldn’t be helped. The Apostle’s power swept you and the researchers too deeply. If left alone, your nerves themselves wouldn’t have functioned, as if cursed. The nerves in both hands, both legs, your spine… there was nowhere unaffected. If we had left your eyeballs and optic nerves as they were, you might never have been able to get up again.”

“Pardon? My spine? Uh, wait a minute…”

Touching her neck, she now felt like crying. It was because of the cold, mechanical sensation she felt from her spine all the way up to just above her pelvis.

“Professor Brodman! My, my spine, where did it go?”

Bernike replied in a rather cheerful tone, as if asking, ‘Are you only asking now?’

“Ms. Lowell, your spine has been replaced with an artificial one. Don’t worry, I personally handled that part. Do you think it’s just your spine? Both legs, both arms, your eyes… Oh, yes. Your eyes are artificial ocular relics with magical engineering treatment. Once you adapt, you’ll be able to see a wider range of full-spectrum aether wavelengths.”

“G-give it back… my spine! My waist feels strange!”

“Heh heh, why are you suddenly talking like a child? That’s impossible.”

Ennis was speechless.

“Uh… then… Waaah…”

“Don’t think so negatively. Your resistance to the Apostle’s magic has increased. I myself diligently assisted with the surgery and helped with nerve transplantation. Shouldn’t you be grateful?”

“I, I see.”

Bernike thought it was as expected. Ennis’s rapid passage through the five stages of grief was within the predicted range.

‘Indeed, her acceptance is fast.’

Ennis was a faint-hearted person. Apart from her personal strengths and high intellectual ability, she tended to become timid and easily swayed by others or authority. Bernike had seen this type of person among students and acquaintances throughout her life. And usually, the outcome was similar.

‘Even if she hadn’t been dragged here, there was a 75% chance she would have experienced a major turning point in her life.’

The conclusion drawn from inductive observation was this: the type of person whose life easily falls apart after being exploited by others. Commonly, the type of woman who meets the wrong scumbag and gets exploited to the bone. Optimal talent for a battered wife. That was Bernike’s conclusion about Ennis. And a rough plan for how to utilize such talent was already prepared in her mind.

“Be happy, it’s a Vanguard-grade modification, no less! The prosthetics embedded in your limbs and spine are expensive items, fit only for the bodies of that Archmage’s vanguard.”

“…Vanguard-grade?”

“Yes, do you understand now, Doctor? You are an important person. You shouldn’t die easily. Do you know how hard I worked to persuade the higher-ups for that surgery? The Joint Research Institute’s directive was to replace you all.”

Ennis’s face gradually shifted from surprise to a mix of apology and a tearful expression.

“I’m sorry, Professor-nim… I didn’t know that… I was just so surprised…”

“Hee hee, as long as you understand.”

Bernike was satisfied with her easy compliance. Indeed, persuading the higher-ups to modify Team Leader Lowell and her subordinates was not a bad choice, both for personal amusement and for public objectives. Now they would follow her instructions more faithfully, focusing on research until their bodies broke. In fact, they wouldn’t be able to break even if they wanted to. Because the resources and relics mobilized for the surgery, which was driven by Bernike’s personal interest, were genuine.

‘Since they survived, isn’t it good for everyone? They’ve gained an opportunity to contribute to a productive field like scientific progress, so they should be grateful.’

Thinking so, she spoke a few more words.

“Take good care of your body. We’ll start research again soon. Understood?”

“Yes! I’ll be careful. Thank you, Professor-nim…!”

She turned and left the hospital room, moving among the researchers who were still dazed from not having fully adapted to their modifications. A moment later, a white mouse abruptly poked its head out of her coat pocket.

“Squeak! To use them like this. She’s really a ponytail woman!”

Bernike chuckled at Bluebell’s shrill voice.

“Call it rationalism, little mouse.”

“Eek! The boss was right, squeak! Truly wicked…”

Bernike snickered and gently pushed Bluebell’s head back in with her left hand. The mouse retreated back into her coat.

“In the end, isn’t it a good thing? For humanity, for me, and for your master…”

Except for the Apostle, that is.

**

Our Violets began their full-fledged investigation. The name had completely seized our attention.

“Clone Killer? I’ve heard of it. It’s a rumor that appeared recently…”

The answer came quickly from Daphne. It was simple.

“Good heavens, they’re killing people with a unique ability?”

“They use cloning techniques!”

Regardless of whether it was good or bad, I wanted to meet them once.

“Could they possibly have an ability like ours?”