Chapter 105 : Chapter 105
Volume 2
Chapter 29 : Butterfly
“Hiss... where is this?”
Still wracked by the lingering pain in his body, Muen gradually woke from unconsciousness and found himself lying in an unfamiliar room.
Before he even had time to look around, an old face smiling like a chrysanthemum suddenly popped into view.
“What the hell, who are you?” Muen nearly suffered a heart attack from the shock, but he quickly came to his senses. “You are... Professor Gran?”
“Ah, Muen, you are finally awake.”
Professor Gran stared at him with a smile so bright it was almost bizarre.
“Congratulations. The operation was a complete success. You are now a lovely young lady.”
“What?”
Muen froze.
Then his face changed drastically.
Could that Crowned One really be that terrifying?
With a single finger, had she actually changed his sex?
No. Absolutely not.
Muen hurriedly threw off the blanket over him and looked down.
He let out a long breath of relief.
Thank goodness... it was still there.
Hm? Still there?
Muen immediately lifted his head and glared at Professor Gran in fury.
“Professor Gran, could you please not make jokes like that?”
“Oh?”
Professor Gran stroked his chin in puzzlement.
“Is this not the sort of joke young people like to make these days?”
“How could it be? A joke like that is terrifying!”
“It seems I have fallen behind the times.” Professor Gran sighed, then his expression turned meaningful.
“Though... terrifying? It may be a poor joke, but it hardly qualifies as terrifying. You are awfully sensitive about it, Muen. Could it be... that you have gone through something like that before?”
“What nonsense.”
Muen shifted his gaze away without leaving a trace. “No. Absolutely not. Something that ridiculous could never happen.”
“So that is how it is. Perhaps I was overthinking things.”
Professor Gran grew a little more serious and asked,
“Never mind that. How do you feel? Is your body all right?”
“I... feel much better.”
Muen sensed the condition of his body and found that aside from some residual pain, his injuries both inside and out had already mostly healed.
But for them to have healed this quickly...
“Hm? Could it be...”
“That is right. I healed your injuries.”
“Then the one who saved me earlier...”
“Did you forget? That was also me.”
Professor Gran snapped his fingers and said,“It really was a hair’s breadth away. If I had not rushed over at the risk of my life to save you, you would have been flattened into a lump of meat with a splat.”
“I see...”
Muen let out a quiet breath.
The feeling of surviving death left his emotions rather tangled, and he said to Professor Gran,“Thank you, Professor Gran.”
“Oh, there is no need to be polite. A teacher saving a student—is that not only natural?”
Professor Gran patted Muen on the back and helped him sit upright.
“To me, it was nothing more than a trifling matter.”
“It may have been a small matter to you, Professor Gran, but you did save me. I will repay this favor.”
“Is that so?”
Professor Gran suddenly revealed an eerie smile, the kind that said, I have been waiting for you to say that.
“In that case, Muen, I happen to have an opportunity right here for you to repay me at once.”
Hm? Is that convenient? Muen jolted.
The sense of danger that had evolved through repeated victimization was now ringing loudly in his head.
This...
This had the unmistakable smell of a setup.
“To be honest, the way I meant to repay you was with money.”
Resting his chin on his folded hands, Muen said seriously,
“One million or two million? Name your price, Professor Gran, and the Duke’s estate will certainly satisfy it. Of course, if you do not want money, gold and jewels are fine as well.”
“As expected of the Duke’s son—truly lavish. Unfortunately, I am not lacking in money at the moment.”
“Then come find me whenever you are short of money. I have something to do, so I will be leaving now.”
“Wait.”
Gran grabbed Muen by the shoulder and leaned in close, his expression full of pained grievance.
“Muen, I risked my life to save you, and now you are just going to leave?”
“But...”
Muen’s mouth twitched. “Did you not just say that to you it was only a trifling matter?”
“The teacher was only being polite. How could you take that seriously?”
Professor Gran released him again, showing a meaningful smile.
“Of course, if you insist on doing this, I will not stop you. It is just that tomorrow’s academy headline may well read: The infamous Muen Campbell, once again ungrateful beyond measure, abandoned the teacher who disregarded his own life to save him, turned away without mercy beneath the sunset, leaving the teacher grief-stricken and depressed day after day, washing his face with tears until at last—”
“Stop, stop, stop!”
Muen cut him off, horrified.
“What kind of ultimate perverted teacher-student romance with a heartless scoundrel is that? And what sunset? There is not even a moon visible in this wretched place, all right?”
“That is why...”
Professor Gran bared his teeth in a kindly smile.
Yet the more harmless the smile appeared, the more goosebumps it raised on Muen’s skin.
“You would not want your reputation to suffer any further, would you, Muen?”
“...”
The atmosphere fell into a brief silence.
Professor Gran stood there at ease, admiring the look of struggle on Muen’s face.
“How despicable, Professor Gran.”
Muen ground out the words through clenched teeth.
“Tell me. What is it?”
“It is nothing much. There is no need to be so tense, Muen. You make me sound like some strange beast people call a minotaur.”
Like an old friend, Professor Gran slung an arm around Muen’s shoulders and, after a brief thought, said,“The truth is, I have a niece.”
“A niece?”
“Yes, exactly, a niece. She... tends to sleep in a little.”
“Sleep in?” Muen looked even more puzzled. “But what does that have to do with me?”
“Of course it has something to do with you. Since she likes sleeping in, what she needs, naturally, is a bright and handsome blond big brother to go wake her up.”
“So...”
Muen stared.
“You said all this just to get me to wake your niece up?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
Professor Gran nodded.
“That is essentially it. My niece merely has a slight tendency toward a bad temper after waking. There is no need for you to worry.”
“That makes me even more worried!”
After going to such great lengths to trick him into this, there was no way it could be as simple as merely waking up a niece.
Unless...
Muen stroked his chin and said gravely,
“Your niece is actually a violent, ill-tempered mountain silverback gorilla that tears apart scoundrels with its bare hands, is she not?”
“...”
Professor Gran’s face twitched visibly.
“You certainly have a rich imagination, Muen. But that one is no gorilla.”
“That one? You said that one just now, did you not? Who refers to his own niece as that one?”
“Ahem. In any case, time is short. We will talk while we walk.”
“Wait, I am not even dressed yet. Let me go find some clothes.”
“Do not worry, I have already prepared them.”
Professor Gran wore an expression that said he had expected this all along.
He snapped his fingers, and as if by magic, a fitted formal outfit appeared on Muen’s body.
Looking at Professor Gran’s all-too-knowing smile, Muen felt indignant and chilled at the same time.
When would tools like him ever get to stand up for themselves?
But he was helpless.
All he could do was let Professor Gran sweep him along toward the unknown.
...
A few minutes later, somewhere beneath the academy.
Looking at the imposing metal gate before him, so heavy and majestic that it made a person instinctively feel small, Muen finally lost his composure.
“Professor Gran... does your niece... live in a vault?”
“A vault?”
Professor Gran gave a disdainful snort.
“This gate was forged from dozens of precious metals, inscribed with hundreds of magic arrays, and made through the painstaking labor of countless craftsmen. It could hold back an invasion by an evil god for quite some time. Even the strongest vault in Belland could not compare to even one of its leg hairs.”
“It could hold back an evil god...”
Muen’s eyelid twitched violently.
As far as he remembered, the only thing that could achieve such a level of defense seemed to be the Life Church’s Sanctuary of Life.
And if this gate had been made this strong...
“Could it be that inside is not your niece at all, but rather some kind of secret weapon of the academy?” Muen guessed.
Professor Gran froze for a moment, then immediately showed a smile of perfect innocence.
“What secret weapon? Have you been reading too many storybooks, boy? How could a place like the academy, where students are meant to study in peace, possibly possess something as violent as a secret weapon?”
“It definitely is one! Your eyes shifted just now!”
“Young people should not be so suspicious. It is a good way to notice the color of your hat is not what you thought it was.”
Professor Gran walked forward and set a crystal-clear gemstone into a recessed slot at the base of the gate.
Within the intricate mechanism, which resembled a compass, seventeen gemstones had already been placed.
“So they all said they did not want to come, yet every last one of them moved quickly enough.” Looking at those gemstones, Professor Gran raised a brow.
Then he twisted his wrist, and the gemstone released a gentle radiance.
A rumble rang out.
The gigantic mechanisms unfolded layer by layer. Amid tremors like falling boulders, the grand gate slowly opened, revealing the profound darkness beyond.
Standing in the doorway, Professor Gran folded his arms and looked at Muen.
“Well? Are you going in or not? Give me a clear answer. I may want you to go, but as a professor, I am not so shameless as to force a student to do what he truly does not want to do.”
“I... will go.”
After a brief hesitation, Muen let out a long breath, as though he were squeezing every bit of air from his lungs.
“Oh?”
Professor Gran smiled. “I thought you would still refuse.”
“I did want to refuse... I simply remembered something all of a sudden.”
At that time, because written description and actual visual reality were hard to connect at once, and because of the different manner of her appearance, as well as the urgency of the situation, Muen had not thought too deeply about it.
But now that he had calmed down, many details he had overlooked were surfacing in his mind instead.
That Crowned One...
Muen lifted his head and looked at Professor Gran seriously.
“Professor Gran, the Crowned One who attacked me earlier—was that Saintess of Purification of the Life Church?”
“Oh? You recognized her?”
Professor Gran lifted a brow in surprise.
“That saintess has been gone for twenty years. I had thought none of the younger generation would know her. Why? Do you, like Principal Pink Bear, also have a hobby of collecting those fake saintess photographs?”
“No, of course I do not know her...”
It was simply that he knew the original story.
In the original story, the Saintess of Purification controlled by Lord Love had also invaded the academy.
Only at that time, It seemed to have accumulated enough power already, so there had been no appearance of that all-male cult who had existed purely as sacrifices.
In the original plot, only the Saintess of Purification had come, but an invasion by a Crowned-rank powerhouse without warning had been even more terrifying, because no one had been able to predict her actions at all.
And Lord Love’s purpose in invading the academy had been—
to hunt Ariel down.
That was right.
In the original story, Ariel, as the protagonist, had naturally provoked Lord Love, the most active evil god of the early stages, and had directly wiped out more than half of Its cult in Belland.
And so, enraged, Lord Love had directly controlled the Saintess of Purification to invade the academy and hunt Ariel down.
Naturally, Ariel, as the protagonist, could not possibly die so easily.
With her multiple cheat powers, her own strength, and that absurd cockroach-like vitality of hers, she had successfully held on until Professor Prang arrived under the protection of the grand ritual.
And after that incident, Ariel had even turned misfortune into fortune and successfully advanced into a higher realm.
It had been a very standard protagonist-leveling event.
The only problem was...
it was happening far too early.
This incident should have taken place at the end of the current school year.
Judging from the timeline, Ariel at this point should not yet have had much contact with Lord Love, much less been hated by It.
If one spoke of the next invasion event, it should have been the Bloodfiend Incident one month later.
No matter how one looked at it, it should not have been Lord Love stepping onto the stage this early.
So the reason all of this had happened...
“Could it only be because of me, this variable?”
Muen could not help showing a bitter smile.
No matter how he looked at it, it was probably because he had provoked Lord Love earlier that It had invaded ahead of schedule.
The only thing he still could not understand was this:
At that time, Lord Love had not seemed to come merely to kill him.
Its attack on him had only been incidental. It clearly had some other goal.
Otherwise, at that close a distance, if a Crowned One had attacked with full force, then unless a god’s true body had descended, no one would have been able to save him.
“So merely because I, this little butterfly, flapped my wings once, such a great storm was brewing?”
Pink Bear becoming acting principal out of nowhere.
Lord Love invaded a whole year ahead of time.
It was as though simply because Muen, the blond villain who should have exited the story a month ago, was still active in it, the entire plot had been thrown into chaos.
Though Muen very much wanted to shout that all he wanted was to live happily, and what was wrong with that, in the end...
“But it really does have something to do with me, does it not?”
His thoughts coming to an end, Muen looked at Professor Gran and asked seriously,
“If I go in and wake the academy’s secret weapon, will this incident be resolved?”
“Naturally...”
At this point, Gran no longer bothered pretending to be foolish.
“But I advise you not to call her a secret weapon. She will get angry.”
So saying she was your niece is somehow acceptable?
Muen could not help inwardly complaining.
Still, now that he had received such an answer, there was no longer any reason to hesitate.
Muen began walking toward the darkness beyond the open gate.
“Wait.”
But just before he stepped inside, he suddenly remembered something and stopped. Turning back, he asked in confusion,
“Now that I think about it, can Professor Prang not handle this incident himself?”
After all, in the original story, it had been Professor Prang who dealt with Lord Love’s invasion with the aid of the grand ritual.
Muen remembered that the saintess had been Professor Prang’s student, and the reunion between them had been rather tragic.
But no matter what, the invasion of Lord Love alone should not have reached the point where the academy would need to use something that even Muen knew nothing about—which meant it should never have appeared in the early or middle stages of the story.
“Hm? You did not know?”
“Know what?”
“Ah, right. You had already fainted by then, so you did not see it.”
“So...”
“If it had only been the Saintess of Purification controlled by Lord Love, then of course that old fossil Prang would have been enough. The problem is...”
Professor Gran sighed.
“There was another evil god as well—that Moon who holds authority over the night.”
“I see. So that Moon came too.”
Muen nodded and took another step forward.
Then he froze.
“Eh? Wait, that Moon?”
Among the evil gods, the only one who could be called the Moon was the Silent Moon, was it not?
As an evil god, appearing to meddle a little would not have been particularly strange.
The problem was...
In every version of the plot Muen knew, the Silent Moon had never once invaded the academy.
It was itself an evil god that only appeared in the middle stages, and by that time the Academy Arc had long since ended.
Why?
Was it because of him again?
But Muen could not remember ever having had any connection whatsoever to the Silent Moon.
A butterfly’s fluttering could stir up a storm, but no matter how hard it flapped, even if it rubbed its wings bald, it could never cause a volcanic eruption wholly unrelated to it.
“Professor Gran, about this matter, please explain it in more detail—”
Muen abruptly turned around, anxious to ask about what had happened earlier.
But the moment he turned, his expression stiffened, because he saw a shoe sole rapidly enlarging in his field of vision.
“If you are going in, then hurry up and get in there!”
Professor Gran kicked Muen squarely in the backside and roared impatiently,
“If you keep dithering like this, that old fossil Prang is going to get beaten to death!”
...
...
“Ow, that hurt!”
The darkness behind that great gate turned out not to be level ground at all, but a platform with a considerable drop.
So after being sent flying by Professor Gran’s kick, Muen crashed down without surprise, landing face-first.
Pain shot through him from both ends at once, and for a moment he genuinely did not know whether to rub his face or his backside first.
Fortunately, the ground was softer than he had expected, so he was not worried that his handsome face would be ruined or anything of the sort.
“That damned Professor Gran. He could at least have let me prepare myself first.”
Muen slandered him inwardly, but he himself understood well enough that time really was urgent now.
Because no one knew how long Professor Prang could endure under the assault of two evil gods.
“I will leave the answers to those questions for later. For now, I need to focus on what is in front of me.”
“This place is...”
Muen lifted his head, ready to examine his surroundings.
And then the breathtaking scene before him stunned him so thoroughly that he went blank.
Flowers.
An endless multitude of flowers.
Countless brilliant blossoms paved themselves into a magnificent sea, stretching all the way to the edge of his vision.
And beyond the horizon, even above the place from which Muen had fallen, the darkness was nowhere to be seen.
In its place was a clear and azure sky.
A gust of wind blew over him, carrying with it the rich fragrance of flowers and warm air, causing every pore in Muen’s body to open in unbelievable comfort.
It felt as though he had passed into a world where nothing remained except beauty.
“So this is... the place where the academy’s secret weapon is kept? It is beautiful.”
Muen stood there dazed for a moment, then instinctively began walking forward.
He was not afraid of losing his direction in the endless sea of flowers, because every blossom inclined its petals slightly toward the same direction.
It was as though they were all making a pilgrimage toward some existence—or being drawn by something.
It did not take long for Muen to reach the center of the flower sea.
There he saw a girl surrounded by all manner of adorable dolls and clustered flowers.
She appeared to be sleeping, but the moment Muen looked at her, his pupils shook once, then again, then kept on shaking.
Because that girl...was a little girl and not just any little girl.
She wore a lovely pink nightdress that made her skin look all the fairer and rosier.
Her face, cradled by blooming flowers, was as exquisite as a porcelain doll, yet still carried a trace of baby fat that lent her a different kind of liveliness and cuteness.
And even more eye-catching than her features was the head of pure white hair that stood out brilliantly even amid the sea of flowers.
In short, this was a white-haired little girl.
Muen suddenly felt his heart begin pounding.
A white-haired little girl!
This no longer merely matched his tastes.
It was dancing all over them.
What sort of man could possibly resist a sleeping white-haired little girl?
“I really want to pinch her cheek...”
Seeing those soft pink cheeks, Muen could not help entertaining the thought.
Fortunately, the fragment of reason not yet utterly blinded by the white-haired little girl stopped him in time.
He remembered why he had come here.
“So this means... the so-called academy secret weapon... is this white-haired little girl?”
Muen was genuinely shocked.
He had thought it would be some hidden grandmaster, or perhaps some sort of dragon-like monster.
Never had he expected a white-haired little girl.
“Wait. A white-haired little girl and a hidden grandmaster are not necessarily contradictory.”
Muen rubbed his chin in thought.
Was it not like in those xianxia novels?
The younger someone looked, the more terrifying their cultivation might actually be.
“But...”
Muen looked again at the cute dolls around the girl.
“A hidden grandmaster... cannot also like pink dolls, can she?”
After all, even if the body were young, the mind should surely be mature.
“So that means...”
Muen lightly slapped his palm and, in an instant, imagined no fewer than a hundred thousand words’ worth of tragic backstory about an innocent and adorable white-haired little girl who had been turned into the academy’s secret weapon and then imprisoned all alone within this sea of flowers.
“No wonder Professor Gran said she does not like being called a secret weapon. No one could feel good remembering a miserable past like that.”
Thinking this, Muen could not help gritting his teeth.
“How did I never realize before that the academy was this awful? Once I get out, I will absolutely report you people for abusing a child!”
“Still...”
His eyes came alive again at once.
“If she really is an innocent and adorable tragic girl, then pinching her cheek should be fine, right?”
“This is not because I am a pervert. It is purely because she is too cute!”
“Yes. I am definitely not some creepy old man!”
His mind made up, Muen reached out and gently pinched the baby-soft cheek of the girl.
Ah. So soft.
At that instant, Muen felt as though his heart were about to melt.
“I wish this moment could stay frozen forever.”
But that was only wishful thinking.
Because then the wind came.
The entire sea of flowers began to sway at once, like layered waves upon the sea.
And the girl, amid the rustling uproar, stirred her lashes slightly and then opened her eyes.
Her red eyes first held the dazed confusion of someone who had only just awakened.
Then, as though sensing something, her gaze shifted and landed on the large hand resting against her cheek.
A hint of confusion appeared.
“Ah, you are awake?”
Muen, whose attention had been stolen for a moment by the wind and the sea of flowers, noticed the girl awakening and immediately withdrew his hand in a panic.
What now, what now? He had definitely pinched for too long.
Would she think he was some kind of perverted lunatic?
No, he needed to think of some way to make up for it.
As he floundered, Muen suddenly felt a piece of candy in his pocket.
Hm? Why was there candy in his pocket?
Could it be...
“Professor Gran...”
Muen could not help feeling a little touched.
At a critical moment, the man was reliable after all.
So Muen took out the candy, held it out in front of the girl, and with a suspiciously gentle smile, said softly,
“Here, little sister. Do not be angry. Big brother will give you some candy.”
“...”
The moment Muen finished speaking, it was as though the whole world had been pressed into stillness.
Even the wind stopped.
All the flowers lowered their heads, as though they could not bear to witness what came next.
The girl sat up.
Her ruby-like eyes looked at the candy in Muen’s hand, then at Muen himself.
Her expression remained blank, but the corners of her lips rose slightly, as though she were smiling.
“How interesting.”
The moment the girl’s voice rang out, as beautiful as a lark’s, Muen’s smile instantly froze.
His face turned deathly pale.
That tone—so old and composed...
Could it be...
“She merely took a brief nap for a few decades, and the students of the academy have already become this bold?” the girl said, her tone utterly flat.
But Muen’s head immediately went blank with a buzzing roar.
A nap of several decades?
It was over.
She was a true powerhouse.
Damn you, Gran. You set me up.
Looking at himself offering candy to a supreme expert, Muen began seriously considering how many tables of guests he should invite to his funeral banquet.
“Hm?”
The girl stared at Muen. Her gaze was sharp, as though in an instant it had already seen through him entirely.
She let out a soft murmur of surprise.
“You seem... somewhat different.”
“Haha, I have no idea what Your Excellency means. I am just an ordinary person.”
Muen scratched his head awkwardly.
But before he could say anything more, he suddenly felt a chill sweep across his body.
“Eh?”
Muen lowered his head and discovered that in a single instant, he had become completely naked.
What the hell?
This white-haired little-girl powerhouse had suddenly stripped him?
Could it be that she was one of those legendary female degenerates?
What was he supposed to do?
A female degenerate at the level of a supreme expert had stripped him, and on top of that she was a white-haired little girl.
At a moment like this, should he simply lie down and accept it, or at least struggle symbolically?
Just as Muen was once more being dragged away by his own wandering thoughts, the white-haired, red-eyed girl suddenly leaned close.
Her finger brushed across his skin, and in her clear eyes there seemed to be stars flickering.
“The mark of the King of Withering,” she said softly.
One sentence.
One instant.
It was as though his blood froze. Muen’s whole body turned cold.
Lowering his head, he looked at the girl, whose expression still had hardly changed, and his body could not help trembling.
Terror filled his eyes.
It was like a double agent buried deep within an organization suddenly having his identity exposed by the boss himself.
But he did not hesitate for long.
That terror was instantly transformed into the fury and resolve of a last stand.
Muen’s right hand swept out from behind him.
The dagger he had hidden in his storage space flashed with cold light as it stabbed toward the girl’s vital point from a vicious angle.
At the same time, crimson flames rose along his skin and flowed toward the girl like liquid mercury.
“You truly are brave,” the girl said at the sight, in a tone that could have been mockery or praise.
She lifted one finger and flicked it lightly upward.
In the next moment, Muen’s movement froze.
The flames, too, were snuffed out at once.
Because he discovered that his point of view had suddenly become very, very high.
It was like riding a rocket into the sky.
The sea of flowers and the girl both became tiny beneath him.
Then, having reached the highest point, he began to fall.
The sea of flowers and the girl enlarged again in his sight.
Along with them, so did a headless body.
Hm?
A headless body?
Before his brain could process this incomprehensible information, Muen saw the girl move her finger once more.
And so—
Hand. Arm. Torso. Thigh. Foot.
Organs. Meridians. Bones.
Muen’s entire body was disassembled piece by piece like a set of building blocks.
And yet, during the whole process, not a single drop of blood spilled, nor did Muen feel the slightest trace of pain.
It was as though he had become a toy.
“How strange.”
The girl inspected each part one by one, then reached out and caught Muen’s head.
Looking at Muen’s terrified expression, she asked in puzzlement,
“Your body is whole, your soul is not missing anything, and judging by the trajectory of your Fate, your family is harmonious and your kin are close. So how exactly did you obtain the power of the King of Withering?”
When she reached that point, an odd look crossed her face.
“If there is anything you seem to have lost... it would only be your chastity. Did you exchange your chastity with an evil god for power?”
“...”
Muen’s mouth twitched.
He thought inwardly that this great expert had a rather sharp sense of humor.
“No. That is not right. The power on your body does not seem to be a simple bestowal.”
As if she had discovered something again, the girl’s faint, delicate brows lifted slightly.
“Crimson flames with a source, a partial manifestation of law... what you have is... a god’s favor.”
“Eh?”
This time even Muen himself was stunned.
A god’s favor?
Him?
Favored by which god?
The King of Withering?
But was the fire on his body not something exchanged for through the black book?
And had that fire remained upon him merely as a means by which the King of Withering tempted him into falling?
“It would seem that even you do not understand the power upon your body.”
The girl’s lips curved very slightly, as though she had encountered something novel and interesting.
She gazed into Muen’s eyes as though she intended to see through to his deepest core.
“Still, for an evil god to bestow favor upon a mortal—this is the first time I have seen such a thing. Boy, you ought to possess other secrets as well.”
“How could that be? Did I not say so already? I am only an ordinary person.”
Muen forced out a smile.
If he had any secrets...
the black book.
But no matter how Muen called it inwardly this time, the black book did not stir in the slightest.
It was as though it had vanished completely.
“Forget it. I have no particular fondness for prying into the secrets of others. Besides...”
The girl lifted her head and looked toward the sky.
“It seems there is not enough time.”
She took the candy from Muen’s hand, tore open the wrapper, and placed it in her mouth.
A faint smile of satisfaction appeared.
“It is sweet.”
Then she stepped past Muen and walked toward the edge of the sea of flowers.
“Eh?”
Now it was Muen who was bewildered.
“You are... just letting me go? You are not going to kill me?”
“Kill you?”
The girl turned back. “Why would I kill you?”
“Because... I am connected to an evil god, and I also possess an evil god’s power?”
As far as Muen knew, the powerful people of this world were nearly all filled with disgust and hatred toward evil gods.
The moment they noticed even the slightest sign, they would wipe it out at any cost.
That was why Muen had attacked so decisively earlier. He had assumed the girl would simply erase him on the spot.
“I see.”
The girl nodded, then asked in return,
“Have you ever used an evil god’s power to kill anyone?”
Muen froze, then shook his head.
“Do you think you are a bad person?”
Muen shook his head.
“When you sleep at night, do you hear strange voices whispering in your ear, telling you to destroy the world?”
Muen shook his head again.
“Well then, that settles it.”
A flicker passed through the girl’s red eyes.
Her brows relaxed, and for the first time she smiled with unmistakable clarity.
“You are a good person, and you have done no evil. Why should I kill you?”
“But the power of an evil god...”
“Only cowards fear pure power.”
The girl turned away, leaving behind a sigh so soft it was barely there.
“Unfortunately, there are far too many cowards in this world.”
“Only cowards... fear pure power...”
Repeating the girl’s words without meaning to, Muen suddenly felt that her tiny back had grown taller as well.
He was utterly won over.
So this was the bearing of a true powerhouse?
It was unbearably cool.
Wait.
Looking at the girl’s retreating figure, Muen suddenly remembered that he was still in pieces, and cried out in alarm,
“If that is the case, then at least put me back together before you go, Your Excellency!”
“You are very interesting. I will remember you.”
The girl looked back again, then said in a tone that had turned slightly cold,
“But my face is not so easy to pinch.”
“...”
Damn it. Even a supreme expert could hold a grudge like this?
It had only been one pinch. Was that really necessary?
There was definitely some other resentment mixed into that.
“Still...”
Muen smiled faintly and murmured to himself in a low voice,
“Something about this domineering, cool, red-eyed, white-haired little girl is very much my type as well.”
The moment he finished speaking, believing only he could hear it, Muen felt his viewpoint move again.
Rising higher and higher...and then dropping.
This time, fast.
Like riding one of those tower-drop machines.
“Damn—!”
That single word was all Muen managed to leave behind as his final last words before his scream arrived.
...
The girl did not walk far.
She raised a hand and lightly drew a line in front of herself.
A doorway opened.
Outside the door, more than a dozen elderly professors—including Professor Gran—stood silently along both sides of the path.
The normally haughty professors all lowered their heads together the moment they saw the girl emerge.
“Mentor Meradomir,” the professors said respectfully.
“Mhm.”
The white-haired, red-eyed girl nodded lightly and looked at them.
“It has only been a few decades, and you have all become so old. Dudley, the last time I saw you, you could still stand with your back perfectly straight.”
“To still be alive and able to see Mentor once more is my great fortune.”
The oldest of the professors actually wiped at his tears, revealing a childlike emotion.
“There is no need to say such dispiriting things in a reunion like this.”
The girl spoke softly.
“Still, being awakened this time was indeed beyond my expectations. According to my previous calculations, I should have awakened five years later.”
“It is because we are incompetent. We failed to protect the academy.”
All the professors showed shame upon their faces.
“This is not your fault. Even though I only realized it now...”
The girl lifted her head, and a trace of gravity entered her voice.
“The course of Fate has shifted so greatly without anyone noticing. The Moon, whose trajectory originally had no intersection with the academy at all, has now rammed directly into it.”
“We do not know the details either. Prang seems to know something, but because of the silence pact, he cannot reveal it casually.” Even the usually unserious Gran wore a solemn expression before the girl.
“It does not matter.”
The girl waved a hand. “Once I go to meet it, I will know the exact circumstances. As for you all, go attend to your own affairs—or go rest early. At your age, there is no need to leave your bodies in even worse condition.”
“Yes.”
The professors lowered their heads respectfully, like children being instructed by their parents, not daring to show the slightest disobedience.
But just as they were about to leave, Gran suddenly leaned his head into the doorway and saw Muen inside, split into floating pieces, his head bobbing rapidly up and down.
A delighted smile of schadenfreude instantly appeared on Gran’s face.
Good thing he had been farsighted. Otherwise, the one in that state now might well have been him.
But just as he was about to pull his head back, he heard Muen’s voice from inside, full of howling misery and burning outrage:
“Your Excellency! Professor Gran just called you his niece!”
“...”
Professor Gran turned his head back with an awkward smile and found the girl silently looking at him.
Her expression was so meaningful that it was exactly like the one he himself had worn when facing Muen earlier.
...
...
Under the ghostly blue moonlight, Professor Prang’s face was pale.
The wound on his chest was still seeping blood, but that wound no longer mattered.
What mattered was that he had reached the brink of collapse.
This collapse did not refer to Mana.
With the supply of the grand ritual, his Mana was nearly inexhaustible.
But controlling the grand ritual while also casting magic had pushed his mind close to ruin.
His brain was throbbing in pain now as well.
And at his feet, those ghostly silhouettes that had emerged from the land of silence under the moonlight were surging like a tide, tearing at the structures layer by layer and eroding their way into the depths of the academy.
“This cannot continue.”
Professor Prang gritted his teeth.
“I must protect the academy, even if it costs this old life of mine.”
Just as Professor Prang prepared to stake everything on one final struggle, a sigh sounded through the air.
“Prang, you are still as rigid as ever.”
“Mentor Meradomir?”
Seeing the tiny figure that had appeared before him without his noticing, Professor Prang’s eyes filled with confusion. Then he abruptly understood.
“Those bastards—they woke you?”
“If they had not woken me, you would have died.”
The girl took the pink star-tipped wand from Professor Prang’s hand.
A wand that had looked absurdly out of place in Professor Prang’s grasp now seemed utterly natural in the girl’s hand, as though it had always belonged there.
“You should go rest.”
The girl said,
“I will handle this place.”
“Yes.”
Professor Prang answered respectfully.
Rigid as he always was, he held not the slightest doubt toward that order.
“Ah, right.”
The girl tilted her head and suddenly said,
“As for that girl over there who was eroded by Lord Love, I preserved the very last glimmer remaining within her. She should still be able to say a few words. Treasure them well.”
“What...”
Professor Prang froze for a moment, then his eyes reddened. He bowed and saluted.
“Thank you, Mentor.”
“There is no need to thank me.”
The girl said softly,“It was no more than lifting a finger.”