As the little girl’s appearance filled my eyes, the flames rising from my hands swelled fiercely.
The sound of the blazing fire was like a whisper.
A constant echo resounding in my mind.
Burn it all.
The flames whispered to burn the girl right in front of me.
It was an impulse of sorts.
The whisper to burn everything always incited an urge to act upon those words.
Usually, it was a struggle to endure that…
I don’t know.
Why had I been resisting that impulse so hard until now?
Anyway, the important thing was that there was a reason to burn that girl in front of me.
It would be troublesome if I got caught.
So I had to burn her.
At this moment, there was no reason to endure this impulse.
The flames danced in my hands.
Feeling the whisper of the fire, I took a step toward the little girl.
Then, she looked at me with a startled expression and asked.
“Uh, Scarlet? Did you burn that beast corpse over there?”
With that question, I realized she hadn’t actually seen me absorb the miasma directly.
Was that a relief?
At least she hadn’t seen something impossible to escape from.
Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered if she had.
What mattered was that something might have sparked suspicion in her.
Suspicion, no matter how small, could balloon into something massive.
Even if it was unjust, just being suspected could land one on the burning platform in this world.
If I didn’t want to go through that experience again, I had to burn her before she suspected anything.
I glanced back.
The beast corpses that had been burning were completely gone without a trace.
At that sight, I smiled to myself.
If I burned it, that’s how it would vanish.
It would leave no trace of even the suspicion the girl might harbor.
So, I should burn.
I turned my head back and continued toward her.
But the girl kept talking to me as I approached.
“That, it’s dangerous, you know? If you burn it, the smoke could spread the miasma around. And you’re not wearing protective gear, Scarlet.”
Looking at her, I thought how annoyingly chatty she was.
If she kept babbling like that and I didn’t burn her, she’d go gossiping all over town about what she saw.
So I had to burn her.
I had resolved to do that, but one concern popped up.
Burning someone alive is incredibly painful.
But if I burned this noisy girl alive, how loud would her screams be?
People would definitely rush over hearing that sound.
That would be a problem…
Just imagining it made me anxious.
Then I’d have no choice but to burn everyone else too.
To avoid that situation, I should make her a corpse first like the beast I burned earlier before igniting her.
Before burning, let’s first make a corpse.
With that thought, I extinguished the flames in my hands.
With that state, I placed both hands on the shoulders of the girl standing so close to me.
Between my hands was her neck.
If I squeezed just a little, her fragile neck would snap like a twig.
That sound wouldn’t be loud enough for the others to hear.
Thinking that, just as I was about to move my hand towards her neck, the little girl looked up at me and murmured.
“Scarlet, are you feeling unwell?”
A hollow laugh escaped me at the sight of her worried expression.
Here she was, worrying about me while being completely unaware of the situation she was in.
That made the idea of killing her and burning her even stronger.
Burning alive is painful.
Therefore, I shouldn’t burn this girl alive, or rather, I shouldn’t burn her at all.
Burning is painful.
I couldn’t let this girl experience that kind of pain.
Because, you see, she was Jessie.
Jessie is my precious friend.
Friend, indeed.
I saw the hands resting on Jessie’s shoulders.
What was I trying to do with those hands?
Ah.
After momentarily zoning out, staring at my hands, I suddenly realized and hurriedly pulled them away from Jessie’s shoulders.
My hands trembled like I was having a seizure.
As I saw the delicate neck my hands had aimed for, memories of what I had almost done flashed before my eyes, and I felt my breath quicken.
If Jessie hadn’t been standing there with that look of confusion on her face, I might’ve collapsed right there and vomited.
“…Scarlet?”
Jessie tilted her head, calling my name.
Startled by her call, my mouth opened and words escaped.
“Ah, um…”
At that moment, I felt like I would puke from a thought that suddenly crossed my mind.
Here I was, just now trying to kill my friend, and now I felt I needed an excuse to avoid suspicion.
“I’m fine, so you don’t have to worry. I just thought if I burned the corpse, I could get rid of the miasma, but I guess that was a terrible idea! Haha…”
In my head, I desperately churned out excuses while on the outside I was putting on a silly smile as if nothing was wrong.
It was a self-deprecating sight.
What a disgusting existence I was.
But nonetheless, my body followed my survival instincts honestly.
To not show my agitation, I was trying my hardest to act like my usual self.
Fortunately, it seemed my effort succeeded, as Jessie smiled wryly and playfully said.
“Ah, well… Scarlet, you shouldn’t do such dangerous things. You should ask around first next time, okay?”
I nodded at her words.
Feeling even a little relief from her comment made me feel utterly pathetic.
Gradually, feelings of self-loathing bubbled up, and it seemed as if staying here would only amplify that sentiment.
So, just as I was trying to flee the alley where I almost committed a horrific act, I heard Jessie’s voice behind me.
“Um, Scarlet? Just checking, but you weren’t trying to do anything bad, right?”
That made my body stiffen in surprise.
I could sense the faintest trace of suspicion in her voice.
This is not good.
That thought crossed my mind.
Especially since Jessie had a hostility toward witches that reached the sky.
If she started to harbor suspicions against me, it wouldn’t be strange for my identity to be exposed at any moment.
So I needed to come up with some measures…
But as I thought that, the image of what I almost did to her popped back into my mind, contorting my expression.
But then, what was I supposed to do?
Should I really kill Jessie just because she suspected me?
That was absurd.
Just imagining it was horrific enough to make me feel like I would burst into tears.
After the earlier incident, my reasoning felt broken, leading my thoughts toward extreme conclusions.
If Jessie were to die, then I’d rather die myself.
That thought crossed my mind.
So instead, it would be better to just come clean here and get caught to be executed; that would be preferable. Just as I was about to turn to confess to Jessie, her voice rang out.
“…Uh, please forget what I just said.”
Jessie said with a light tone.
“Hehe, I must be out of my mind due to all the bad things I’ve been through lately. There’s no way Scarlet could be a bad person.”
At her words, my heart ached.
I genuinely found myself asking her inadvertently.
“Why do you think that?”
In truth, that question should never have been asked.
It was a dangerous question that could accelerate the suspicions Jessie had.
But Jessie answered my question with a voice full of certainty.
“Well, you’ve saved my life several times and always treat everyone kindly, so I can only believe that you’re a good person. Besides, Scarlet and I are friends, right?”
I halted my head that was about to turn away.
Looking at Jessie’s face now, I felt I wouldn’t be able to hide my expression.
Ironically, it was her faith in me that eased her suspicion.
That was something I should be happy about, yet I couldn’t feel any joy at all.
Now, I couldn’t even trust myself.
Her words felt like they were piercing through me with an unbearable pain.
The words “believing” and “friend” dug deep into my chest.
I wanted to shake my head.
Thoughts of what I was about to do to her buzzed in my mind.
Yet, despite that, I couldn’t tell her to stop believing in me.
“…Yeah.”
With great effort, I managed to let that one word slip out.
Jessie jumped with joy upon hearing my response, running over and taking my hand, beaming.
Worrying that she might see her neck, I tilted my head slightly upward.
Until we returned to where the others were and put on the protective gear.
Only after donning the helmet that entirely covered my face could I finally let a little of the pain I had been holding back spill out.
In the helmet where no one could see, tears dripped down, falling one by one.
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