Ella's birthday party started early in the evening and lasted late into the night.
Originally planned as a light drink and ending, it quickly turned into a bustling festival.
Whenever Ella took the lead, even the most solemn gatherings always ended up like this.
Cheerful lodies and lively dances intertwined, creating a lively atmosphere.
At that mont, as the villa door opened, the last latecor arrived.
"Oh, Maya is here!"
"Maya, hi!"
"Maya, big sis!"
They were mbers who usually kept a slight distance from her, but today they greeted her warmly, perhaps due to the heightened atmosphere.
Ella, wearing a fake crown on her head and a sparkling candy necklace around her neck, stopped twirling around Wonderstein with her arm linked, and brightly approached Maya.
"Why did you co now? It was so much fun. Haha, look at that. Gascon the daredevil, having more fun than expected."
Pointing to Gascon, who was pretending to swim in the air with a ball under his stomach, Ella laughed.
Though he didn't particularly like circuses, he surprisingly fit into such gatherings.
He confidently downed an expensive glass of wine, the result of a bet after winning against Bendict in a swimming race.
"Hahaha, is it okay for an old man to lose? Huh?"
"Maybe because you have so basic skills? Despite your age, you quickly learn techniques."
Maya's eyes cooled at her words.
It sounded like she was mocking her, as if saying, "How did you manage to get zero points in the practical evaluation despite your efforts?"
She pulled out a snack gift set from her bag and handed it to her.
"Here, a gift."
"You didn't have to, but thanks anyway! Co on, join us. You haven't eaten yet, right? Let's eat first!"
Ella tried to lead her by the arm, but Maya forcefully pushed her away.
"I'm tired. I'll go in first and sleep."
Ella's excited expression dimd slightly at her cold response.
"Oh, then what about dinner?"
"I ate outside with soone else."
She said so and glanced at Wonderstein.
Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to this side, engrossed in a conversation with Yurakne.
Thinking she was with Karen as usual, Ella nodded.
"Alright. Oh, by the way, since we're talking about it, Maya, how about giving your partner invitation to Yurakne?"
As her na was ntioned, the two talking turned to look at Maya.
Maya stiffened her neck and turned away with a cold attitude.
"I already have a partner."
"What?"
She said that and went upstairs.
Ti passed, and it was Saturday.
The day of the freshn welco party had arrived.
***
Participants of the freshn welco party usually invited senior students as their partners.
Most freshn ca from far away from ho, and within just two weeks of admission, their network was limited to mostly school people, so the choice of partners was limited.
However, this freshn welco party was different.
During the Grand Circus Prix, famous acrobats gathered near the school.
Because of them, the seniors who were supposed to be respected looked extrely ordinary.
Many freshn invited nearby active acrobats instead of school seniors.
Most of them gladly accepted the invitations.
Thanks to them, the number of students participating in this year's freshn welco party was very low.
They were called a cursed generation for many reasons.
Clara was one of the few students invited as a partner among the enrolled students.
She was invited by none other than "rren the Silent," who showed her skills in the bamboo forest on the first day of school.
"We're actually opposite, aren't we? Active acrobats inviting students, hehe."
"That's true…"
rren looked at Clara with a vacant expression as she chuckled at her.
She actually didn't like Clara.
At first, she was deceived by her kind smile and manner of speaking.
But as ti went on, she felt increasingly uncomfortable.
The movents of the enrolled students trying to exclude the freshn seed organized.
It seed as if they were moving under soone's command.
The most likely suspect was Clara, their representative.
If she hadn't approved, there's no way the lower grades could have done such things.
Most of all, the broken branch she stepped on.
It was clearly the result of Clara pushing it down with force just before.
She couldn't shake off the suspicion that Clara did it on purpose to tease her for follow her.
So rren sent Clara an invitation.
It was half a challenge.
It ant, "If you have the guts, accept and co match withso with similar ability."
But Clara accepted her invitation with such joy.
"I really wanted to participate… Thank you, Miss rren! No, we're the sa age, so can I speak informally? rren, right?"
rren reluctantly extended her arm at Clara's request to link arms at the entrance to the banquet hall.
Clara pulled her arm and hugged her to her chest.
rren, who was about to frown, couldn't bring herself to get angry at Clara's cheerful laughter.
This was all thanks to the demon misinterpreting Clara's character.
Through the Garden of Whispers, only conversations between people could be collected, and nothing could be known about their actions or thoughts.
In other words, it could only observe how they usually appeared socially.
The demon didn't know about Clara's sinister side.
Therefore, the Clara she portrayed was simply a kind-hearted girl who seed friendly and innocent.
It was natural for rren, who didn't know the circumstances, to be confused.
"You…"
"Yes? What's wrong?"
rren tilted her head in confusion at the girl's innocent expression as she blinked her eyes.
"Oh, nothing…"
Clara smiled brightly and turned her head back towards the stage.
Inside the banquet hall, there were around 200 people, including 50 freshn, 30 sophomores, their invited partners, and the organizers of the event.
Since all students were dressed in white ceremonial uniforms, to an outsider, it might have looked like a party for naval cadets.
Of course, within those regulations, they tried their best to adorn themselves.
Most male students wore their school uniforms as they were, but female students added vests or ornants to stand out a little more.
Clara, being a model student, only wore her neatly dressed school uniform.
She didn't wear anything extra on top or underneath.
It had been a day since she left Pyrene's side and started living in the dormitory.
During this ti, she hadn't made a single mistake.
She wasn't surprised by this fact.
It sohow seed inevitable.
There were guesses as to the cause.
The Black Magician.
Her master.
A few days ago, she directly faced the one she had always looked at beyond the flask.
At that mont, she expected to pay the price for her sins from 17 years ago.
However, he didn't punish her.
He forgave her.
He even encouraged her to live on.
The anxiety of when she would be exposed and murdered, the doubt about the foundation of her existence, were all relieved by that.
At the sa ti, the real problem was also resolved.
Perhaps it was a matter of the heart.
Clara felt embarrassed about her vague fear of him based on wandering rumours.
Looking at what he had done in Hippodro or Dvallchep, he couldn't be called a saint.
But he also possessed kindness and affection towards his creations.
"My master…"
Clara felt her heart flutter.
She looked at the couples entering the banquet hall.
A dark-haired handso man in a black suit, wearing a black cloak, escorted a dark-haired girl in a school uniform.
Her master didn't seem to notice her, or perhaps he thinks it wise to pretend to not know her in such a place, so he didn't pay attention to her.
It was regrettable.
"I'm shaking."
Thanks to her partner's comnt, Clara managed to regain her composure.
rren looked around and said, "Well, it's not like you're the only one staring at that person."
All the people standing around the entrance were looking at him.
Among them was also Reyna's gaze.
She looked at Ella, who was standing side by side with Wonderstein, with envy.
Her invitation was snatched away by her father as soon as she arrived at the dormitory without even asking.
She was angry about being forcibly deprived, but she thought it was inevitable.
It was impossible anyway for her to surpass Ella and beco his partner.
Their relationship was not real.
Even if she called him father, he could never be a real father to her.
He was probably just accommodating her out of sympathy for the pitiful girl who had been stripped from her father figure.
It was only in her delusional imagination that he could take away her father's role or sothing like that.
The fact that her father snatched the invitation from her hands seed to show the cold reality of that.
Maybe ending the fake relationship was the answer now.
As Ella entered the banquet hall, she looked around.
"I don't see Maya."
"Yeah. She left hours before we did."
Who Maya invited as her partner had been the subject of gossip among the mbers for the past few days.
Various people were considered as candidates, but it was all just baseless speculation.
There was no way to know since the person in question didn't say a word.
Moreover, from the next day onwards, she repeated the pattern of leaving early in the morning and returning late at night, so there was no chance to catch her.
As the party ti approached, Ella finally nodded as if she understood.
"Unfortunately… She must have been bluffing. Probably pretended to have a partner even though she didn't."
"I don't think so. Maya wouldn't lie about sothing like that."
"Well, think about it. Does it make sense for soone who's been so indifferent despite spending months with the mbers to go outside and lure a man?"
"Hmm… That's true, but…"
Wonderstein also agreed with her.
Although the most likely suspect was Karen, their relationship seed irreparable from the start, and decisively, she ca in with her brother.
At that mont, there was a person crossing Wonderstein's mind.
Soone who had a connection to Maya and was in the vicinity.
If she invited soone as her partner, there was no one else.
"Ella, I understand."
"Huh? What?"
"Maya's partner."
"Really? Who is it?"
"Hehe, all the clues were there. There's no one else but the owner of the cafe she frequented…"
At that mont, the last couple entered the entrance of the banquet hall.
One of them was a well-known figure to everyone in the hall.
A man in a white robe, his face covered with a silver mask.
It was none other than Arno, the leader of the Silver Veil Circus.
Beside him was the student who invited him as her partner.
A girl with hair as white as her school uniform.
It was Maya.
***
The weekend evening in Lekcahep was quiet.
Students paired up and road the city's streets.
Only a few students remained in the dormitory to unwind from the week.
The area around the banquet hall was bustling as it was the day of the freshn welco party.
The training grounds where the taming took place were quiet too.
At the end stood a small tower, Professor Pyrene's office, which was also quiet.
However, what was inside was quite eerie.
A sticky liquid, like a mixture of red blood, flesh, and pus, slid across the floor.
Dozens of arms and legs seed to be forming and disintegrating, and the way the liquid moved seed like it was flowing.
Behind it, a broken black glass bottle was rolling around.
It was Clara who had just escaped from it.
The liquid monster glanced at the bottle in the center of the room.
Inside it were sparkling particles like stardust.
It was an item that had appeared at an auction in Vegas a few weeks ago.
It had been auctioned off to the representative of Lord Slagbrot and brought to Pyrene through his hands.
The liquid monster recalled the information about it.
A shard of Trill.
By-product of creating the Eye of Kirku.
Capable of controlling Debulroots…
The creature created a tentacle from its flesh.
It reached out for the bottle containing the shard.
Then, it turned around.
Shelves stretching up to the ceiling displayed hundreds of glass bottles.
And inside them were living organisms infected with curses collected by Pyrene from all over the world.
Still alive Debulroots.
The apostle swung its tentacle towards the shelf.
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