Chapter 44: Still Has High-Level Experts?!
Sunlight streamed through the glass window. A ginkgo tree stood right outside. The wind rustled its leaves, and dappled light danced across the floor. A gentle breeze caressed his face. The slightly dazzling sunlight made him squint, so Matou Yu slowly opened his eyes.
"…Did I sleep through the entire night?"
He looked around and noticed Tiamat was gone from the ward. The IV needle that had been in the back of his hand had also disappeared.
At that moment, faint laughter and the cheerful voices of children playing drifted in from outside the window.
Matou Yu slowly sat up, got out of bed, and quietly walked to the window. He looked down.
Several children were gathered around a little girl, laughing and playing what looked like hide-and-seek. The girl at the center of attention seemed to sense the gaze from the ward. She lifted her head, and a bright, adorable smile bloomed on her cute face.
The instant Matou Yu saw that smile, his heart gave a violent thump.
For some reason, he felt an extremely familiar aura coming from her.
On impulse, he left the ward and took the elevator down to the hospital grounds.
As Matou Yu approached, the children who had been playing with the girl all retreated to a safe distance. They stared at him with perfectly calm, identical smiles—as if they had been copied and pasted. Bathed in bright sunlight, that emotionless kindness carried a chilling, hypocritical feeling.
Despite the strange gazes, Matou Yu kept his expression calm on the surface. He looked at the girl and softened his voice as much as possible, smiling.
"What's your name?"
The girl looked up at him timidly. "Big brother, you can call me Kugaoka Tsubaki."
Kugaoka?
Matou Yu had never heard that surname before. And the other one feels like a magus… His mind was in turmoil, but he maintained a gentle, brotherly demeanor.
"Tsubaki's sick? Why is she in the hospital?"
Tsubaki quietly shook her head. "I don't really know either… My parents were always very busy with work. I was sickly, so whenever I had to take medicine they kept me in a freezing room. It hurt so much, but I didn't dare cry. If I cried, they would get angry."
Her young voice suddenly dropped.
But soon, as if remembering something happy, her small face lit up again with a bright smile.
"But ever since I was admitted to this hospital, Mom and Dad stopped getting angry. They even buy me lots of ice cream! And everyone plays with me every day. It's really fun."
"Big brother, did you come to play with me too?"
She looked at him with a modest yet hopeful gaze.
Matou Yu kept his smile, hesitating as he tried to answer.
At that exact moment, an overwhelming sense of unease crashed over him again.
The little girl's smile was completely genuine.
But the smiles on her friends' faces were eerily perfect and identical.
"Ah—"
Just then, a clear, beautiful incantation suddenly rang in his ears.
"More friends have come? Mr. Black always brings Kugaoka Tsubaki so many friends."
Kugaoka Tsubaki looked past Matou Yu, staring at something behind him with a gentle smile. Then her innocent eyes sparkled and she cried out in genuine delight.
"Big sister! You're so beautiful! Kugaoka Tsubaki has never seen such a pretty big sister before!"
Matou Yu turned around.
A blue-haired woman in a deep blue dress stood there. She no longer carried her usual petite, Lily-like demeanor. Instead, she radiated a mature, deeply maternal warmth. Her clear, bright red eyes—like a crimson cross—were filled with gentle affection, as if looking at a child.
"Tiamat… what are you doing here?" Matou Yu blurted out.
Tiamat walked to his side and answered in an incredibly soft, loving voice.
"I came to see this child."
She walked straight to the girl and slowly knelt down. Then she spread her arms and gently embraced Kugaoka Tsubaki's tiny body.
"…Huh?"
Kuruoka Tsubaki blinked. Her bright smile wavered for a moment. Her small body unconsciously tensed, and she even tried to push Tiamat away.
In her subconscious, any approach or touch from an adult had always meant only one thing.
"Why are you crying? As the descendant of the Kuruoka family, offering your body for magecraft is an honor. Can't you even endure this little pain?"
Deep in her memories, her father's disgusted gaze resurfaced in the darkness.
"Shut up. Don't make a sound. Tears affect the activity of the magical bacteria inside you. If you're useless even at this, then stay locked in this dark room and survive on your own."
Her mother's voice, filled with unconcealed irritation, pierced her eardrums like a sharp blade.
Since she was very young, Tsubaki had been nothing more than a tool for her parents' human experiments. All she remembered was a cold, sterile white room and the cruel eyes of her real parents—as if they were looking at a dead object.
Every time the bacteria implanted in her body caused unbearable pain, and every time she couldn't hold back a groan, she was met with merciless beatings and harsh scolding. She always felt she hadn't produced enough results and had angered her parents. So she tried harder to be a good girl.
She obediently accepted the pathogens, obediently endured the agony that felt like thousands of ants gnawing at her bones, obediently lay on the dark hospital bed, and never made a sound—no matter how much her body trembled from pain.
This hellish suffering continued until one day an uncontrollable bacteria experiment exploded. The entire family of three fell into a vegetative state, their lives hanging in the balance.
"This world is nothing but a false dream."
At that moment, Tiamat's incredibly gentle yet impossibly cruel words reached her ears.
Yet the exceptionally warm embrace only tightened around her.
"But… you don't need to be afraid anymore. If this world has given you so much suffering, then come back into Mother's arms. No matter what terror or pain awaits, Mother will heal it all."
The girl looked up blankly and met the woman's impossibly gentle gaze.
Then—
Snap.
As if a dam had burst, overwhelming, bitter emotions surged through her heart. Large tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed onto the floor.
"Tsubaki… knows this is just a dream… Tsubaki knows Dad and Mom would never smile at her like that… and that everyone here is something Mr. Black created…"
"But Big Sister… if I wake up… Tsubaki will have to go back to that cold, dark room… and her whole body will hurt so much again…"
"Big Sister, please don't chase Tsubaki away! Tsubaki will be a good girl and won't cause any trouble…!"
The girl cried desperately, pleading in the humblest tone.
"If this dream could last forever… and everyone could stay peacefully by Tsubaki's side like this… that would be truly wonderful."
Then—
Buzz!
The pale white mist that had been quietly drifting nearby suddenly began to boil violently the moment it heard its Master's heartfelt prayer.
The Pale Rider, symbolizing death and plague, possessed no human morality or reason. There was only one conclusion: maintaining this false peace forever and keeping everyone by Kugaoka Tsubaki's side for eternity was impossible in the real world.
Therefore, the only correct path was to spread the plague to its fullest extent—dragging every person in this city, and even the cold, despairing reality outside, into the dream—so that an eternal dream could be created for the girl amid endless sleep and assimilation.
Then—
The pale mist silently vanished into the dream.
…
In the next instant, in the real world—at Snowfield Central Hospital—
Buzz—!
Pale white mist centered on the hospital spread like a tsunami through the corridors, outward from the building, and in every direction across the city.
It was the power of the Pale Rider, symbolizing plague and divine judgement. Any life it touched died instantly. The plague sent them into an endless false dream.
Snap.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed through the now-silent hospital corridor.
It was the crisp, beautiful sound of luxurious golden high heels striking the tiles.
Her long silver hair swayed slightly in the cold wind. The terrifying mist that even magi avoided obediently parted left and right upon touching her, as if encountering an inviolable transcendent law, and continued spreading outside the hospital.
Ishtar stopped for a moment and curiously observed the living-looking pale mist at her feet. A light shone in her seductive red eyes, and a satisfied smile appeared on her lips.
"Originally I only came to visit the master, that girl… I never expected such an unexpected harvest."
"But besides that—"
The heavenly goddess slightly turned her head and glanced toward the end of the long corridor behind her.
In a dim corner where even the mist seemed heavily suppressed by some magical power, a sturdy black figure stood silently, unnoticed by anyone.
The man wore the skin of the Nemean Lion. His face was covered by tattered cloth. He simply stood there, yet the terrifying demonic pressure radiating from him made the surrounding air groan.
"Are you… Archer?"
Ishtar stared at the giant before her.
"If I'm not mistaken, you also came here looking for the child in this building, didn't you?"
Alcides gave no answer. He slowly raised the massive black war bow in his hand and pointed a cold arrow straight at the woman.
"I have no obligation to answer your questions…"
His low, hoarse voice carried bone-chilling killing intent.
"Shameless false god."
"Is that so…"
Instead of growing angry at the insult to her divinity, Ishtar showed a haughty smile.
"A mere mad dog that can't even reveal its true identity and reeks of sewage… how dare it bark at me, a goddess!"
"Very well. If you and the master hiding in the gutter are so eager to die, this goddess will show mercy and smash your pitiful souls and bones to dust right here!"
Terrifying magical power quietly spread outward from Ishtar.
"Are you in such a hurry to die…?"
Hearing this, Alcides showed a mocking smile, as if he had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.
"It seems you have no idea why I'm in this building… foolish goddess."
Ishtar's brows furrowed slightly. For some reason, she suddenly had a very bad premonition.
She faintly smelled an extremely strong scent of gunpowder in the air.
As if realizing something, her expression changed.
"You madmen… don't tell me—!"
…
At almost the same moment.
Several kilometers away from the central hospital, inside a dark, ruined factory.
Bazdilot expressionlessly struck a match and lit the cigar in his mouth. He took a deep drag, filling his lungs with the acrid smoke.
Then he uttered a single, tiny syllable.
"Bang."
Click.
…
Deep beneath the central hospital where Matou Yu and Kuruoka Tsubaki were located, powerful explosives and magical detonators ignited simultaneously, erupting in terrifying flames.
And in the next instant—
BOOM!!!
…
…
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