If a person holding a knife threatened to kill you, how should you react?
At the least, a sane person would try to get away first. And if they were a proper citizen, they would imdiately call the police.
“I’m sorry, sis, but I won’t be able to walk ho with you today.”
Rosemary also fit into that category. As soon as the end-of-class bell rang, she quickly got up and ran out, forgetting that she was a lady. They were graceless steps.
“What’s wrong with Lady Blanton?”
“She’s probably tired from fighting with and went for a drink.”
“I don’t think that’s it, Freyr.”
She probably went to go tell her colleagues about this.
Even with the teleportation circle, it would take a while to get to the Demon Castle. If my guess was right, then I wasn’t going to get spied on with Scope for the next few hours.
It was a perfect chance. I’d be a dumbass not to act now.
“You two head back to the dorms first. I have to talk with the teacher.”
“Alright, take care.”
“Bring back a can of beer!”
“Freyr, you can drink in the dorms.”
“... Really?”
Freyr was carried off like a sack by Lotte. Demands to be let down echoed in the hallways.
Now all that was left was to get to the Cultural Center as quickly as possible and check two things.
One was why Miss Heerlein had called to the basent of the Center, and the other was to see if Verl was there.
If Verl wasn’t there either.... well.
[What will you do?]
I’ll find him later and fuck him up.
[.......]
As I engaged in aningless chatter with the hardcover, I arrived at the Cultural Center before I knew it.
When I stepped into the basent, the damp and musty air hit my nose. Face scrunching, I went into the eting room.
–or I tried to.
Click.
The fuck, why was it locked?
“Is it not here?”
Not to be boasting, but the mory of a Golden-Eyed was unrivaled by any other race. So given that, it couldn’t be worse than a goldfish.
Right? It couldn’t be.
I knocked on the door in case soone had deliberately locked it from the inside. Knock knock knock.
Knock knock knock.
Knock knock.
Knock.
Bam bam bam!
- Who is it...?
“Open the door.”
- Excuse , I’m asking who this is.
It was a voice I didn’t know. She seed to be female, but not around my age.
I could hear the voice shaking minutely. Was I being too forceful? I didn’t think I was.
[Master, is sothing bothering you lately? Why are you so sensitive at tis....]
“Hmm.”
When I ca to my senses, I had the staff in my left hand. I was sure that I was knocking gently with my hand but I was like this before I knew it.
Was it because I had a lot of stress? Smirking, I shoved the caliper back into subspace.
“I’m Aether, a first year undergraduate. I’ve been asked by Miss Heerlein....”
- Then please say the password.
Password?
There wasn’t anything like that.
“I didn’t hear about a password.”
- No, there definitely is one.
“... White elephant1?”
- Incorrect.
“Can I break the door open?”
Maybe they panicked at the last question because I heard noises like a retriever going wild from within. It went quiet for a mont, then soone’s else’s voice drifted through the door.
It was a familiar voice.
- Apologies. The password isn’t necessary, so can you tell the na of three regions that you know of?
My thoughts slowed for a mont at the random question, but I soon realized what it ant and answered calmly.
Seoul, Busan, Daejeon. I listed three major cities in the country as they ca to mind, then the iron door swung open like I’d cried ‘open sesa’.
I saw the face of the man who ca out and took out my staff again.
“Ah, wait a sec.......”
So that’s where you were.
**Lately, I was getting the feeling that I had developed anger managent issues.
It wasn’t that I was being angry outright, but before I even realized, I was bashing soone over the head with my staff.
“Wait! I can explain everything so put that thing away!”
The staff I swung without thinking went straight for the top of Verl’s head. Verl blocked my staff with his World Tree-looking staff. The way he was struggling looked pitiful.
“This fucking ga...!”
Oh yeah, that’s right. He did say that this ga wasn’t your average difficulty.
Feeling guilty, I scratched my head and loosened my grip on the staff. Verl was heaving like he’d climbed Mount Seorak.
“Sure, do explain why you dropped out of school and are squirreling away in here.”
The two of us sat in the inner section of the basent. A few ‘coworkers’ who’d seen my shenanigans were wary, but Verl was able to put them at ease. I pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket and handed it to the guy breaking out in cold sweat.
Wiping his perspiring face, Verl began to explain.
No, there didn’t even need to be an explanation, because everything made sense with a single sentence.
“Rosemary tried to kill over the break.”
“... What did you do?”
“I stopped Miss Heerlein from going to the north more than ten tis, okay? So then she invited to the palace.”
Wow, that was a bit scary.
“She held a banquet there....”
“And?”
“She poisoned my food.”
“What poison.”
“... Beryllium.”
“Ha, seriously.”
I let out a chuckle in disbelief. She had basically given chocolate to a puppy.
“And do you know what else?”
My fellow Korean continued to tell the whole story. As I listened and inwardly counted, there were five assassination attempts at the palace alone.
They were thods that showed how they tried to make it a natural or accidental death sohow. I wondered if it really was the sa Rosemary who’d followed around saying ‘sis’.
“She might seem like a cute kid to her own kind, but to humans or elves, she’s just a monster. She’s the commander who ruined three nations in an instant and massacred the dwarves....”
To summarize Verl’s story:
1. If he hadn’t withdrawn, he would’ve instantly died at Rosemary’s hands.
Yet he couldn’t leave Tilette right away because of .
“I’m really sorry that I couldn’t tell you ahead of ti. I’ll make sure to do so next ti so.... Please stay here.”
Well, this wasn’t a situation I could be angry about.
Even if I was betrayed, I’d just feel a little peeved. But for Verl, the mont he was backstabbed he’d be tap dancing in front of the Goddess2.
This difference may have been why I had been taking it easy. Maybe I was angry at him because I was the only one who was complacent.
Although I was in a Golden-Eyed’s body, I never strayed from a human mindset. So I needed to think as much like a human as possible–to stop the world from ending, and to not leave anyone here with grudges.
To get back to my world.
“Today’s eting will be led by Duke Argana. We have about thirty minutes until then.”
There was no ti to waste. We talked about what we couldn’t finish because of Angelica.
The first thing I had to talk about was Akasha, obviously. And about how she’d reflected in that mirror that Rosemary had made stand in front of. She was ominous in many ways.
However.
“Akasha? I don’t rember there being soone like that.”
“What?”
At the unexpected response, my throat caught like I’d eaten a potato3.
“You said you saw her during the break?”
“Yeah.”
“Then it may be a dummy data made by the Goddess because you were supposed to have left here by that point.”
“.......”
So it happened because I didn’t drop out?
“Fucking ga, seriously.”
“I told you.”
Was it a copy bug or what?
After that, thirty minutes flew by as we ca up with and modified so plans. And out of those, the most useful thing we talked about was the mirror that Rosemary left.
“That’s the ‘Inner Mirror’.”
“Inner Mirror?”
“To put it simply, it’s a mirror that lets you talk with yourself.... I don’t know how the original owner inside of you is doing, but it’s best not to go near it carelessly.”
After saying that, Verl sighed in relief, and an awkward silence settled over us at the sa ti.
Verl stared into space with urgent eyes, then let out an even heavier sigh.
“It’s still okay.”
I didn’t know exactly what he was saying, but I could take a guess.
It seed that as soon as my blood pressure exceeded 180 mm Hg, the world would end even against my will.
“Is everyone gathered? Then let us begin.”
Just then, people dressed elegantly in formal wear ca into the basent. There were a few faces that I recognized.
The very first to enter was the leader of the conspiracy, Duke Argana. He was the father of Shadiel Argana who was the head of the Student Council’s disciplinary committee.
Then followed Chairman Robespierre, Miss Heerlein, and others. One of them pointed at and Verl.
“Who are they?”
“You saw them last ti and you’ve already forgotten? They’re Aether and Verl Horde.”
“Hmm.”
A man with a beard like urchin spines ca this way, then looked each of us over.
“The elf I rember because I saw him the other day. Who’s this girl?”
“Do you not know the Golden-Eyed girl?”
“I do. I’m asking what she’s doing here.”
[What is this person? What an ass.]
He’s a type I’d see often in the lab. There was a way to deal with soone like this. If you kept your head down and your mouth shut, they left you alone.
And if you did this, there would even be people coming to your defense.
“What do you an? Do you not know that she is the one who developed Flare? She will play a technically important role in this conspiracy.”
“Flare? Ah, that’s right. Then is it this girl who stole Hasfeldt’s efforts?”
“... What do you an?”
“Why are you all feigning ignorance? I heard that there was a bitch who stole the Hasfeldt family’s research in a day!”
Should I smack him?
... was what I was thinking when Verl tugged at .
‘You can’t kill him right now.’
What the hell was this guy saying now.
I an, to be honest, I did think about smacking him, but I wasn’t going to beat him into a bloody pulp. Sure I might’ve been backstabbed a lot by the secular world but I wasn’t that an. I knew how to distinguish between business and personal!
But my lips twisted at the whisper that followed.
‘He’s Rosemary’s minion. He’s grating you on purpose so don’t ss with him.’
Oho.
Footnotes
1. Raw is 계륵 which ans chicken ribs. It's nothing substantial/useful but as it's still at, it's hard to give it away to anyone else2. Just so way of saying he would be dead, I suppose3. In Korea, the expression 'like I ate potatoes/sweet potatoes' is a common taphor for feeling frustrated (or in this case, throat caught) because of the way they suck up moisture and make you feel stuffed therefore adding a kind of pressure
Reviews
All reviews (0)