Chapter: 213
Out of the manhole cover.
Just a moment ago, the girl who had been there was nowhere to be found, and the rain poured down heavily on the empty street.
Silyvia, staring blankly at the desolate street where something that should have been there had vanished, recalled the scene she had glimpsed earlier and shook her head.
“…No. It can’t be.”
The image of people being pierced by tentacles from the sky, melting away like raindrops.
Without realizing it, she had projected the image of the girl, who had wrapped herself around her and taken the attack from the demonic beast, onto her own mind, and she shuddered, shaking her head violently and muttering.
No, no.
It can’t be.
Scarlet couldn’t have possibly died.
There must have been an urgent matter… Yes, that’s it. She must have left in haste to find someone to heal her after being attacked…
Silyvia knew how absurd those words sounded, even to herself.
But she had no choice.
She felt like she couldn’t endure it unless she denied the images popping up in her head with anything.
So, while becoming so agitated that she forgot even the formal speech she had consciously cultivated since childhood, she kept shaking her head and murmuring no, no, trying to convince herself somehow.
Right now, she was too exhausted to go out, so if she remained here resting and recovering her strength, Scarlet would surely return.
Just like she had up until this point.
When she had been kidnapped by the witch, whom she thought had no hope, hadn’t she come back safe and sound?
So, this time too, surely…
While rationalizing herself, Silyvia attempted to sit back in a corner of the sewer to rest and regain her strength.
“Ugh…”
As time passed, her body trembled like a trembling aspen, and she eventually couldn’t hold it in anymore, burying her head between her knees and bursting into tears.
Again.
She had vowed never to let this happen again, but once more, Scarlet had sacrificed herself to save her.
She had confidently said to ask for help when in trouble, and yet here she was, causing her harm instead of aiding her.
Even so, Scarlet had told her it was okay, and thus Silyvia couldn’t stop the rising sense of self-loathing.
She didn’t need anyone telling her it was okay.
Rather, it would be fine if she ranted at her too, but couldn’t she just remain alive?
After a while of sobbing with her head down, Silyvia lifted her gaze to the firmly shut manhole cover and, after a moment, unsteadily stood up.
“I need to check… I need to check…”
She could no longer endure it.
If she was alive, she wanted to see her face.
Even if not…
At the very least, she felt like she had to confirm that reality.
Of course, she hadn’t thought about what would happen after confirming it, but since staying still felt like she could go mad, Silyvia erected her body.
She knew it was a reckless act.
Even though she had rested a bit, her stamina was barely enough to move her feet.
It was utterly insufficient to wander around that rain.
But like someone who had lost their mind, Silyvia staggered and opened the manhole cover, stepping out into the street.
Outside, the cold, drenched air brushed against her body.
She could see rainwater flowing slowly along the street.
A nauseating thought surged that perhaps the girl she was searching for might be in it, but shaking her head that it surely couldn’t be, she called out the girl’s name with all her might.
“…Scarlet!”
She thought it unlikely that her voice could be heard over the sound of the rain, but in hope, she shouted her name and wandered through the streets.
However, as expected…
“Ugh… Scarlet…”
The figure she was searching for was nowhere to be seen.
“Is there… is there anyone who has seen Scarlet…?”
[What? Isn’t Scarlet with you, Silyvia?]
“Uh, that is…”
Even when she asked through the communication device, hoping someone might have seen her, she received no comforting answers.
Please, anyone, just tell me that Lady Scarlet is still alive.
She had never wished so desperately for anything before, but no one was there to say those words.
Every time she received a “not seen” response, Silyvia could feel the hope she had been clinging to slipping away slowly.
The more hope slipped away, the more she could feel the strength to move her body fading as well.
Damp droplets ran down her cheeks.
She glanced up at the sky, but what was trailing down her face was not raindrops.
If it had been raindrops, she wouldn’t be able to be alive like this.
But it seemed it wouldn’t take too long for that to happen.
The protective barrier, which had been shielding her from the rain created by her powers, was flickering lightly.
Once her recovered strength was exhausted again, this barrier would disappear like earlier.
Then she too would suffer the same fate as Scarlet had.
It was undoubtedly an urgent situation, but thoughts of evacuation did not cross her mind.
A bitter smile crept up.
She felt rather indifferent.
Perhaps it was a punishment she deserved for being a fool who couldn’t even protect her properly.
At that moment…
[Hey…! Is there a red-haired girl who can use fire among you?]
Someone’s voice echoed through the communication device.
A girl with red hair who could use fire.
With that, Silyvia felt her waning hope return.
From the hero who was fighting the demonic beasts, that call hastened her to respond urgently.
“Yes, yes…! I know her! She was a student who was just with me, where is she now?!”
[Well, whatever happened, she suddenly appeared here and had a tussle with the demonic beast—]
Scarlet was still alive.
That was all she needed to hear.
“Sob… Thank goodness…”
Silyvia collapsed onto the ground, letting her sigh of relief turn into tears.
She is alive, Lady Scarlet is alive.
How desperately she had wished for her safety.
In the moment she had been longing for such news, Silyvia had relaxed her guard and sat down, tears streaming down her face, but it didn’t take long for her to realize this was not the time to relax.
What had the communication said just now?
Scarlet was in a tussle with the demonic beast—
As this thought clicked in her mind, Silyvia quickly sprang back to her feet.
She roughly understood how powerful the demonic beasts invading the city were.
The fact that Scarlet was currently fighting such beings meant she was in an incredibly dangerous situation.
It could turn dire at any moment.
It was not yet the time to feel relieved that she was alive.
Whatever she had been thinking when going to fight the demonic beast, she needed to rescue her before anything happened.
With that thought in mind, Silyvia used all her strength to cast a flight spell.
Just a moment ago, she hadn’t even had the strength to walk, so where had this sudden energy come from as a flurry of tiny stars appeared before her.
Carrying herself onto the stars, she flew up into the sky, piercing through the rain.
She didn’t even need to check where the demonic beasts were; she already knew.
In the distance, amidst the falling rain, she could see flames rising sporadically.
Silyvia hoped that the flames would not extinguish.
The fact that the flames were flickering was evidence that Scarlet was still alive and well.
“Lady Scarlet… Lady Scarlet…!”
Could it be that her strong will to protect Scarlet lent her this strength?
The small stars racing through the sky carried Silyvia faster than ever, swiftly guiding her to where Scarlet was.
What Silyvia arrived to see was…
“…Huh?”
Scarlet was caught in tentacles, being consumed by the enormous maw of the demonic beast.
With a loud gulp, the image of the red-haired girl that had just been there vanished into the beast’s mouth.
Once more, seeing someone she wanted to protect disappear before her eyes, Silyvia shrieked.
“Ah… Aah!! Aaaaaah!!! Give her back!!! Give her back!!!”
Screaming, wailing.
She directed an attack spell towards the demonic beast.
“Uh…?!”
Or rather, she tried to.
But with the flight spell she had just cast, Silyvia had long since passed her limits.
The fatigue that hit her like a freight train crumbled her once carefully held body.
Even fallen on the ground, she reached out toward the demonic beast, her body writhing, but her power, exhausted beyond measure, would not grant her the attack necessary to reclaim Scarlet.
What was permitted was simply to watch helplessly again as someone precious vanished.
“Why, why…! I promised this time I would protect you… Why can’t I do anything again…!”
Despite all her training and efforts not to let it happen again, the feeling of helplessness engulfed Silyvia as if she were about to spit blood.
Yet, no matter how much she cried out, nothing changed.
It was the reality that she could not even take revenge on the demonic beast that swallowed Scarlet, grinning with satisfaction.
But then,
“Ah…”
Flames erupted from the body of the demonic beast that had swallowed Scarlet.
There was no need to ask whose flames they were.
She was emitting the final flames from within the demonic beast’s belly.
The demonic beast, taken by surprise as the flames began to consume its body, flailed around, trying to extinguish the flames clinging to it.
However, no matter how much it struggled, the flames would not die out.
Instead, they continued to burn fiercely, wrapping the entirety of the beast in flames.
Even though it was a high-tier demonic beast of gluttony with remarkable regeneration capabilities, it showed an oddly helpless appearance as the burned areas wouldn’t heal.
In that moment, Silyvia happened to recall what Telos had said in today’s class.
The weakness that existed in the demonic beasts of gluttony.
He had mentioned that there was a core somewhere in the bodies of these beasts, and that core was usually located in the most developed part of their anatomy.
She had heard from other heroes.
That Telos had been swallowed and killed by that beast.
For it to consume someone with a significantly blessed body, perhaps the most developed part of it was the stomach where the digestive organs congregated.
Could it be that Scarlet knew that fact…
As that thought completed in her mind, all Silyvia could do was cry quietly.
The girl was that kind of person.
Someone who took it for granted to sacrifice herself for others.
[■■■■■■■■…]
The burning demonic beast fell to the ground with its last gasp.
As it collapsed, the darkened sky began to clear, and the rain gradually stopped.
Like it was waiting, the barrier that had disappeared was reestablished.
With the end of one girl’s sacrifice, the city that had plunged into unprecedented danger regained its peace.
Though she hadn’t wished for it, the girl’s end was nothing short of heroic.
With tears in her eyes, Silyvia thought of her sacrifice, the form of life she had shown.
That she alone would remember it until the very end.
It was then.
The glowing embers burning the demonic beast grew stronger again.
“Huh?” Silyvia uttered, astonished.
Amid the confusion, her voice was laced with a glimmer of hope.
With that faint hope filling her heart, she called out the girl’s name.
“Lady Scarlet…?”
And as if responding to that call.
Like a legendary phoenix reborn from the flames, a girl with red hair slowly walked out from the fire.
“Lady Scarlet…!”
Silyvia exclaimed, her entire face lighting up at the miraculous sight.
And having heard that voice, the girl slowly turned her eyes toward Silyvia.
“…”
The moment their eyes met, a chilling realization coursed through Silyvia’s body.
“…Lady Scarlet?”
And then,
“It’s dangerous…!”
A hand that suddenly pulled her back.
What on earth was happening.
She felt an intense heat, as if her skin was about to burn, from nearby.
As she turned her gaze toward the source of the heat, Silyvia’s expression gradually stiffened.
It was inevitable.
Just where she had been standing moments ago, a writhing flame was blazing.
If the nearby hero hadn’t pulled her away, that fire would have consumed her whole.
Slowly, Silyvia looked at the girl standing there.
And at the girl who was engulfed in a deep crimson flame.
And
Ah…
The girl was grinning like a madwoman, yet at the same time had a horrid face of anguish.
With thick tears the color of that very flame streaming from her eyes.
Ah…
As their eyes met, Silyvia realized.
The Scarlet she knew did not have such a gaze.
She didn’t have eyes filled with blame, hatred, sadness, and rage.
Ah…
The realization hit her hard.
That ‘she’ was no longer Scarlet Evande.
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