Klais went over what she had seen and heard in her head.
Just what in the world was going on.......
There were so many things she had to wrap her head around.
There were dozens of things that she’d learned in passing. The Empire was on the verge of ruin, there was a far greater existence in the Demon Army called the Four Heavens, the Demon King was going to resurrect soon....... She was going out of her mind.
But what ti did she have to regroup?
Aether returned to the lab as soon as the eting was over. Akasha followed to coordinate details of the schedule.
“Hey, are you actually going?”
Akasha asked, head tilting, and Aether responded without hesitation.
“Of course.”
“Then we have to get busy.”
“If I go, I go. What’s the hurry?”
“You already got caught once at Tilette. If we’re going to infiltrate, then we have to be prepared. Change our looks, make fake IDs.”
Akasha crossed her arms and continued.
“And most of all, change that personality of yours. If you don’t, we’ll get caught even before entering.”
From Akasha’s point of view, Aether was throwing a tantrum right now.
Of course, it was a bit of a stretch to call it a tantrum, but this ant that Aether’s personality didn’t used to be this prickly.
Why else would Rosemary have freaked out?
At this rate, it was obvious that they would get caught imdiately by the Elentals even if they went to Iliad.
“We’ll have to listen to the profs and pretend to get along with the kids there. When we get there, we both have to play nice when we get there.”
“Am I a child?”
“You get like that sotis.”
Aether snorted.
“What, do we have to prepare for admissions, too?”
“Then what else were you going to do?”
It hadn’t been that long since she had left an academy, and now she had to go back to being a student.
She didn’t like repeating the sa thing. Even though she knew it was for work, Aether wasn’t happy about it.
“Still, I heard that Iliad had more of a diverse admissions system than Tilette. Looks like they have Special Admissions as well.”
“And what is this Special Admissions?”
She’d heard it from sowhere, but didn’t rember exactly.
“Literally admissions on a special basis. They also call it active preferential asures, and it seems to be a system to help Golden-Eyeds without Elentals.”
“Sounds like a rather useless system.”
“I know. And thanks to sobody, the cut-off line might have gone up due to rumors spreading everywhere that the Golden-Eyed are Beasts.”
“Not all Golden-Eyed are part of the Demon Army.”
“But the executives are all Golden-Eyed.”
Before getting caught, it might have been a different story. But now that their identity is blown, it would be difficult to sneak in again.
Which was why there was a set of internal rules within the Demon Army as well.
If one failed at infiltrating and escaped? They had to work on sothing other than that for at least a hundred years.
But the patience of the Four Heavens had reached its limit, and there was no one of the Demon Army’s top force who looked as normal as Aether.
“Anyway, I’ll get the materials together for this and bring it. I might be away in the anti. Ask Blueberry if you need anything.”
With that said, Akasha was about to leave the lab, then locked eyes with Klais.
“Ugh....”
Klais let out a small noise.
Aether’s younger twin who was the sa in every way except hair color. To Klais, she was soone who equally made her chest uncomfortable as Aether.
Noticing the faint regret in Klais’ eyes, she spoke with a wry smile.
“I did tell you again and again not to cross the line.... That’s consequences for you.”
Talking as if she knew that this would happen. Klais could only hang her head forlornly while hearing the taunting of the other Aether.
In fact, nothing would change even if she ruminated on the Demon Army’s eting.
There was no way to get out of here, and informing people wouldn’t stop the Army’s advance.
All Klais could do was watch the despair from the closest seat.
So lanting was all she could do.
Where did things get twisted.
Where did it go wrong.
What could she have done so that it didn’t result in this.
No, what could she do from now on....
It was just as she was about to co up with an answer to these inner questions.
“Hurgh...!”
Aether grabbed the leash and pulled Klais over.
The sensation of oxygen flow to the brain being cut off. Gasping, Klais was dragged over to the lab desk.
Every ti she was pulled like this, Klais beca a ss.
Saliva dripped from her mouth due to her tightened throat, and she kept jumping like a mare being whipped.
And perhaps due to having gone outside in cold winds, her cheeks were red like she had gotten slapped across both of them.
“Sit.”
Hacking, Klais followed Aether’s instructions.
Aether took her seat first, then Klais modestly bent down and sat close by.
Their eyes locked directly from across the L-shaped desk.
It was the sa seating arrangent when Klais had worked on scrolls with Aether.
“Excuse ....”
“Wait.”
Aether wrapped the chain around the desk leg and locked it tight. As if that wasn’t enough, she also put a lock on her to prevent her from running away.
Gulp.
While Klais sat there swallowing nervously, Aether took out three books from the bookshelf.
[General Theory of Elec Magic]
[Experintal Derivations of Electromagnetic Equations]
[Basic Math and Semiotics]
Thump, thump, thump.
Three books were set in front of her.
What did this an? Klais looked over the cover of the topmost book with clueless eyes.
Her eyes grew large.
“...Are these all books written by you?”
There was no response.
Instead, Aether opened up each table of contents and began circling so Chapters with a fountain pen.
For this book, here to here. The next book, here to there. The last one, from beginning until the end....
Klais’ mouth opened slightly at the unknown action.
She had a bad feeling.
And bad feelings like this were almost never wrong.
“You see the things I circled in the table of contents? Read and understand all of it.”
“Until when?”
“Until the end of this week.”
Klais barely held back a cry of disbelief.
“Why, is this too hard for you to handle?”
“I-is this all I have to do?”
“No?”
“Excuse ?”
“Don’t look so dumbfounded. You have to clean here, and do whatever else I tell you.”
Five days until this week was over.
She had to get through at least more than a thousand pages in that ti. And it wasn’t just like reading a novel, but she had to digest and savor each character of this technical content with equations.
It was clearly an impossible demand.
“I asked if you can’t even handle this much.”
“...It’ll be difficult.”
“Difficult and impossible are two different things.”
She could refuse if she wanted to, but then could get punished for it. She was a slave, after all.
She had gone through a lot of this kind of pain, so there was no need to be afraid. In the first place, Klais’ life was basically in Aether’s hands. There was nothing to lose by doing whatever she wanted.
“Looks like you would rather die than do it.”
“......N-no.”
No, she wouldn’t go that far.
She might be prepared to die, but it was normal to choose to live if she could.
She didn’t know why she was being asked this all of a sudden. Was she researching sothing? Klais racked her brain even while being conscious of Aether.
Anyway, it was better to comply if she wasn’t being asked sothing degrading.
With that conclusion, Klais nodded timidly.
She shouldn’t have.
**Like that, the first week of hell began.
Wake up at dawn, eat and clean the lab, then imdiately go for a walk around the Demon Castle.
She hated this walk the most. She didn’t understand the purpose of going around on a leash like a dog.
But despite her excuses, her legs were regaining their forr strength.
She had struggled to walk on the first day, but now she could sowhat walk and run. Of course, intense exercises were still difficult for her.
Then after coming back to the lab from the so-called walk, her main task began.
Today as well, Klais opened the book that Aether told her to read.
They weren’t easy books. Even Klais, who had been called a genius growing up, had wondered what this was at first.
And it wasn’t that she had anywhere to ask when she got stuck, either. Not only was Aether away frequently, she beca annoyed and scolded her to find out on her own when she tried to ask simple questions.
Frustration rose like an erupting volcano, but Klais couldn’t do anything.
Because Aether was a master and she a slave?
No.
Because that was how she herself used to be in the past.
Now that it was happening to her, she realized. She had only known how to rcilessly work a talented child, but hadn’t properly understood the suffering she was being put through.
Beginning to feel so guilt as she rembered what she had done, Klais couldn’t say much in front of Aether and just did what she was told.
“What on earth.......”
Another difficult text. Head in her hand, Klais turned the page.
The concept of Elec Magic was still foreign, but it was even harder without sowhere to ask.
There were Chapters that she didn’t understand no matter how many hours she struggled with it. When that happened, she’d read sowhere else first or put it off for the next day. Reading 3 difficult technical books on rotation for 16 hours a day was driving her insane.
“Ughhh....”
She kept shifting around because she wanted to get up.
However.
Clatter.
She couldn’t with the lock on her collar.
It was an environnt where she couldn’t go anywhere except the restroom and was forced to focus on the books.
Klais wiggled her toes.
This was complete torture.
Torture that left her body intact but ate away at her mind.
The bruises on her body from the needle were gradually healing, but her eyes were getting dimr by the day.
Her mind was worn out within just five days, and if she stopped focusing even a little, she’d doze off imdiately.
Most of all, she was hungry. To exaggerate a little, she felt like she was going to die of starvation.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back.”
Aether must have heard her stomach growling, because she stepped outside and brought sothing back.
It was a plastic bag full of cherry tomatoes.
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