Crack!
In the empty classroom after everyone had left, Melana was trembling as she bit her nails.
I’ve been found out.
Anxiety and fear had robbed her of rational thought.
The fact that Johan had caught on to her could only be chalked up to bad luck.
She had bumped into him before she could recover from the aftermath of the counseling session, where she had dredged up things buried deep in her heart. So she hadn’t been able to manage her expression.
Turn myself in? He said I should turn myself in? And then I might get shown some leniency?
Melana knew.
Nothing had happened yet. So just as Johan had said, Lobelia would likely show her mercy.
There was still a chance for her to be rehabilitated.
Don’t make me laugh.
But she had no intention of turning herself in.
If she had been the type to stop out of fear of dying, she wouldn’t have started any of this in the first place.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she had already died half a year ago.
On the day she was originally supposed to die, she had simply survived thanks to someone’s help.
I’m going to bring Rain back to life, no matter what it takes.
She had borrowed this life.
And to repay it, she had joined the organization called the Under Chain.
The Great Sage, the leader of the Under Chain, was a monster who could even bring the dead back to life.
She had to earn his trust. And to do that, she had to risk her life.
Yes, death meant nothing.
Now that she had seen that even death could be overcome, there was no reason to be afraid.
Crack! Crack-crack!
She blocked her anxiety and fear with belief. She must not fear death.
Calm down.
She had to steady her trembling body.
Crack!
She must not assign meaning to death.
Crack!
That was the law of Under Chain.
A path of suffering meant to transcend even death and become one.
“Melana!”
“Ah…”
Melana snapped back to her senses at Jeff’s shout from the doorway.
In biting her nails, she had gone so far that her fingers were wet with blood.
That’s how anxious she had been.
“Are you okay?”
Jeff took Melana’s hand and began treating it.
Ointment and bandages. Items Jeff always carried so he could treat wounds anytime, anywhere.
“Jeff.”
“Huh? Oh, hold on. Let me finish this first.”
Melana looked down at Jeff who was tending to her hand with a worried expression, with a face full of disgust.
“You’re an idiot.”
“…Yeah, I’m an idiot.”
“And I’m a piece of trash.”
“That might be true.”
Jeff replied with a bitter smile.
“Haa…”
Melana had been using Jeff.
She had been leaking critical information to the outside through him. And Jeff, the fool, hadn’t even realized it.
And she herself, using a friend who trusted and followed her this much, was truly pathetic.
“Life is so damn hard.”
“Still, hang in there, Melana. You’ve done well so far.”
Had she really done well?
Melana looked once more at the foolishly optimistic Jeff, then shook her head.
***
“Sir Johan.”
I was learning magic from Ariel. Why was I learning magic from her when I was the one who had asked for her cooperation?
It wasn’t because I believed I could overcome this crisis on my own.
“Alright, this is [Fireball]. It’s one of the most basic spells.”
“I know.”
“Then why can’t you cast it? You said you could even use [Camouflage], which is considered an intermediate spell.”
“That’s one of the few spells I’m good at.”
I never claimed to be good at magic. It was just that I was good at a few specific spells.
[Fireball]? How could she expect me to learn such a barbaric spell?
There was no dream or hope in that.
“How am I supposed to help if you can’t even manage to send a signal when you need it?”
When I became the bait, Ariel wouldn’t be anywhere nearby.
If Ariel were by my side from the start, I wouldn’t be able to play the role of bait.
That’s why I was learning the [Firework] spell. To be able to alert her in case of an emergency.
For the record, it was a beginner-level spell.
“If you can’t even use [Fireball], which comes before [Firework], then how… It’s one of the easiest basic spells.”
“[Fireball] was created by the greatest Archmage in history. It’s not a spell to be looked down on just because it’s basic.”
“Faust is considered the greatest Archmage because he created the simplest spell, isn’t he?”
The title of Archmage wasn’t given to the strongest mage.
Magic was the systematization of an innate supernatural ability.
That title was only granted to someone who had turned their own abilities into formulas that others could use.
In that sense, a great Archmage was someone who made an ability so easy to use that even a monkey could do it.
Even a simple [Fireball] must once have been someone’s unique gift.
“Let’s just use a flare.”
“What’ll you do if it gets blocked? At least with magic, you can try again as long as you still have mana, but if the flare gets blocked before it’s launched, it’s useless.”
“Then I’ll carry several.”
“If you walk around loaded with flares like that, it’ll raise suspicion.”
Well, carrying one or two might go unnoticed, but if it’s more than three, it’ll be obvious.
And what I’m carrying—or not—would be an important clue for any potential attacker, too.
To be bait, I need to reduce anything that could raise suspicion as much as possible.
“Enough. Just try it again.”
“Lady Ariel, for the record, I’m not a genius like you.”
“Don’t want to? That’s fine by me. But if you don’t, Sir Johan dies.”
So prickly.
“No, that’s not what I meant to say. Ugh, seriously… Do you think I’m saying this because I don’t want to learn [Fireball]?”
“…Aren’t you?”
This is why geniuses are impossible.
What I wanted to say was something much more fundamental.
“If you show me twice and then tell me to do it, what am I supposed to do…? I need some time to practice too.”
“This is basic magic. You just do it like this.”
When Ariel tilted her head slightly, a magic circle appeared in midair.
An absurd feat. Drawing a magic circle in the air without even using her hands.
The moment the magic circles floating around her were completed, [Fireballs] shot out all at once and began spinning around her.
Was she showing off?
Or was she just picking on me?
“Besides, Sir Johan’s registered ability is perfectly optimized for magic. Why can’t you even do something like this?”
“Shouldn’t you ask first whether I can even use my ability?”
“You can’t?”
“Don’t assume everyone is a genius like you, Lady Ariel.”
Ariel’s ability was telekinesis.
She used it as naturally as moving her arms or legs. No, not even that….it was more accurate to say it was an extension of her consciousness.
That was why Ariel had the talent to become an Archmage.
And that was also why she was slowly being consumed by her own gift.
“That’s a shame. It seemed like a good ability.”
“What’s there to be ashamed of? Until you try it, no one can say for sure whether an ability is good or not.”
“That’s true too.”
In the end, even with the same ability, the key was how freely one could control it.
Everyone in this world was born with a unique ability, but the majority couldn’t use it for their entire lives.
After all, it was a power that belonged to them alone. No one could teach them how to use it. They had to figure it out on their own.
That was why, even among those born with abilities, only a handful could use them freely.
Some had unbelievably sharp instincts.
Others had the intellect to fully comprehend their own power.
The former was Lobelia, and the latter was Ariel.
And I was neither.
“Well, but if I trained…”
“Let’s stop talking about our abilities. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. Let’s focus on what we can do right now.”
“Oh! Right, of course. For now, the magic to send a signal comes first.”
I couldn’t even cast a single [Fireball], and here I was, struggling like this. What kind of special ability was this supposed to be? There was no time to dwell on it.
“So, how long do you think it’ll take? A few minutes should be enough, right?”
“Huh?”
Wow. She was seriously something else.
Was this what a genius considered a “generous” amount of time?
I trembled in fear.
“Um, maybe we should just drop this after all. In the end, I just need to do something flashy enough to draw attention, right?”
“Do you already have something in mind?”
“How about using illusion magic to create a burst of light?”
“……?”
Ariel looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
And I understood. I knew exactly what she must’ve been thinking.
I hadn’t even managed to cast a simple [Fireball], and now here I was, claiming I’d perform a much more difficult spell. Of course she thought I was delusional.
But I had my excuses, too.
“I’m not very good at drawing magic circles. But I’m pretty decent at memorizing incantations, so this kind of magic suits me better.”
“Oh, um… I see.”
That was the thing about magic. The ways to use it were all over the place.
Since it stemmed from one’s personal ability, the methods naturally varied from person to person.
Of course…
“So the difference is big enough that someone who can’t even use basic magic might be able to pull off an intermediate spell, huh?”
The gap between basic and intermediate magic couldn’t really be brushed off with just the word “aptitude”.
It was more like the difference between an elementary schooler and a high schooler.
How could that not sound like an excuse?
“If you don’t want to do it, can’t you just say so? No need to waste time.”
Oof, really?
Ariel was clearly sulking now. At this point, I could tell whatever trust she had in me had completely crumbled.
But there was nothing I could do.
“Well… that’s how it is.”
What could I say? That was just the kind of person I was.
***
Since the Cradle was essentially a boarding school, its infrastructure was built to allow students to use the facilities late into the night.
That included the training grounds, library, and cafeteria. Students moved around the Cradle with relative freedom, and even late at night, the place was never completely empty.
However, there were differences.
While some areas bustled with people during the day, they naturally quieted down in the evening hours.
One of those places was the outdoor combat training ground.
Unlike standard training areas, this one preserved natural features like mountains and rivers, making it suitable for realistic combat practice.
Because it faithfully replicated nature, there weren’t even any streetlights at night.
So unless there was a specific reason, no one had any business going there.
But that also made it a perfect place to deceive the eyes and plot in secret.
“Damn it…”
For the past few days, Melana had been secretly keeping an eye on Johan.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have noticed her surveillance.
Or… was that just another layer of deception?
Maybe he was fully aware and was luring her into a trap.
Johan had headed to an isolated location dressed suspiciously. Yes, the whole situation felt painfully staged.
But still…
Would Johan Damus really have any reason to set a trap for me?
If he intended to catch her, he could’ve just reported her to the princess from the beginning.
Thinking back to the moment he approached her gave her the answer.
When Johan interrogated Melana, he had been forceful and full of certainty. That meant he already had solid proof that she was the traitor in Class F.
Unfortunately, that was likely the reality.
She was standing on ground where her head could roll at any moment.
But still…
Then why had Johan Damus come to a place like this?
Was he planning to meet someone?
As far as she could tell, there wasn’t anyone else around this area.
And if he intended to deliver information to Lobelia, there were far more natural ways to do so.
It was hard to believe he would go through all this trouble just to avoid drawing attention while meeting with the princess.
The princess already went to Class F herself just to meet Johan. There’s no need for such a roundabout method.
She was nervous, but that only made her more cautious than anyone else.
There was no one around. No one watching this direction.
And in that situation, Johan Damus was acting alone.
Is he perhaps a collaborator of another royal member? A double agent, maybe…
Her thoughts were in disarray. Suspicions spiraled endlessly, one after another.
Not knowing about Kult or Eden, she couldn’t make sense of Johan’s inefficiency.
And that confusion…
“Ah…”
The moment she saw Johan burying something in the ground, it vanished cleanly.
This was it.
If she missed this chance, there would be no other. Whether she acted or not, ruin awaited her.
That was why she had to do it.
I have to kill Johan Damus!
The moment that thought filled her head, she acted before she could think.
Chains unraveled in her hands.
A chain bound by five rings. The Chain of Life that was darkened now was once bestowed by the Great Sage and the leader of the Under Chain.
Whoosh!
The black chain transformed into a large scythe that reaped life.
Melana swung it lightly as if she didn’t even feel its weight, launching a surprise attack on Johan.
A perfect ambush. That was timed so well that even the princess couldn’t have reacted.
“What…?”
But as Melana swung the scythe with force, she realized something.
She hadn’t killed Johan.
“How…?”
It wasn’t a situation he could have escaped from.
He was full of openings. And yet, Johan had effortlessly dodged her scythe.
It was impossible.
An unbelievable speed.
There was no afterimage, no gust of wind from the movement, not even a trace of disturbed dust. There had been no sign of motion at all.
Melana felt a chill crawl over her skin.
An indescribable fear seemed to press down on her back.
Johan had dodged her attack.
And he had done so…
“…What did you just do?”
So silently, it was as if he had stopped time and moved.
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