Chapter: 218
After the demonic beasts that had invaded the city were defeated and the barrier that had overloaded went back online with auxiliary power.
The students, who were evacuating citizens from various places, realized their mission was complete and gathered briefly to rest their exhausted bodies.
“Phew, we really made it through the worst, right?”
“Probably… I’ve got no strength left after running around all day.”
Just as everyone was catching their breath, a boy student who was still clutching his communication device received some news that froze him momentarily.
“…Eh?”
The student stood frozen, looking panicked as he called out to his class president.
“U-um, Mei, I just got some news…”
“…What? Why do you look so serious? Are you joking? There’s a limit to joking around!”
Mei, the class president of Class 1-A, frowned and said loudly, approaching the stammering student.
It wasn’t because of what the student had said was ridiculous, but rather because it was the kind of unpleasant thing that shouldn’t even be considered a joke.
She shot the student a glare, thinking he was messing around when he was clearly tired and sensitive, but the student just looked aggrieved, as if he was only saying what he had heard.
Seeing that expression made Mei confused.
She couldn’t understand why he was making such a face.
No matter how she thought about it, it couldn’t be anything other than nonsense.
Scarlet wouldn’t do that─
But in that moment, as if to deny Mei’s thoughts,
The communication device beeped, and a voice began to flow from it.
The content was as follows.
Captain Yoon Si-woo has fallen into a coma due to the witch’s attack.
The identity of the witch, who is currently on the run after incapacitating him, is none other than…
Scarlet Evande, a first-year student of Aegis Academy.
Perhaps it was because the voice rose as they were speaking.
Everyone else’s attention turned to Mei and the boy student, and naturally, they all heard the voice emanating from the communication device.
“……”
For a while, silence fell.
Probably because they all couldn’t believe what they had just heard.
To them, Scarlet Evande was someone with whom they had spent time,
Someone who had been desperate to save people and wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice herself for them.
Additionally, because the first-years had owed their lives to Scarlet when the witch attacked the frontline, it was hard to associate her with the idea of being a witch.
Thus, Mei shook her head.
“There must be some mistake. Scarlet as a witch? That kind-hearted girl wouldn’t do that.”
Having faith in her friend, Mei looked around at the other students, as if to say, don’t you think so too?
But the other kids couldn’t quite meet her gaze.
Mei muttered in disbelief.
“Everyone, why… can’t you trust Scarlet? How can you not believe her? She saved our lives! At the very least, we, friends, should believe in Scarlet!!”
“…Ugh, I want to believe too!!”
As Mei shouted why they wouldn’t believe her, one student who had been watching her called out.
They wanted to believe. They wanted to believe in her too.
The student had the most confused expression but continued to speak.
“But, Yoon Si-woo was attacked by Scarlet…! The Yoon Si-woo we know who was so close to her! The Scarlet I know wouldn’t hurt a friend! And besides, she has a history of being interrogated, so it’s hard not to think… What if everything Scarlet has shown us until now was a ruse? What if she has been deceiving us all this time…!”
“That’s…!”
Mei, who had wanted to reply to the student’s shout, could only close her mouth in the end.
Because there was nothing wrong with the student’s words.
Mei herself had been harboring such thoughts, even if just a little bit.
She suddenly realized why the other kids were avoiding her gaze.
It was because they couldn’t believe that Scarlet would have acted in a way that was unimaginable to them.
Thus, they could no longer maintain their faith in her.
Everyone was confused.
Marin, Dwight.
Daniel, Andre.
And
“Captain Yoon Si-woo was attacked by Scarlet…?”
Jessie also spoke.
“Scarlet is a witch…? No way, that can’t be… She’s my friend… But, Captain Yoon Si-woo… If that’s the case, then has she been deceiving us all this time…? If that’s the case…”
Jessie muttered.
Tugging at her patchy hair due to the stress of losing her family.
Aah, the kind friend she knew, Scarlet.
The one who threw herself in front of a demonic beast to save her life.
But Scarlet had also been interrogated, and she had acted strangely in front of the corpse of a demonic beast before.
If that Scarlet really was a witch…
“I have to confirm it…”
Jessie staggered to stand up.
Stumbling, she took a step forward.
Mei saw the strange and ominous look in Jessie’s eyes as she suddenly tried to walk out.
She instinctively sensed something was about to happen if she let her go like that.
“Hey, hey…! Somebody grab her!”
At Mei’s shout, the nearby kids, although startled, rushed to hold Jessie back, who tilted her head in confusion.
“Why are you grabbing me…?”
“No, uh… Where do you think you’re going all of a sudden?”
“I’m going to find Scarlet…”
At Jessie’s words about looking for Scarlet, Mei gulped involuntarily and asked.
“…What do you want to do once you find her?”
“I’ll ask if Scarlet really is a witch, if she really has been deceiving us. If that’s true…”
Jessie hesitated mid-sentence, pondering.
If that were really the case, what would she want to do?
What would be the right thing to do…
At that moment, as Jessie was wrestling with her own feelings,
A voice came through the communication device with a beeping sound.
“To all heroes. A new mission is being assigned.”
The voice echoed from the communication device.
“Locate the fleeing witch and surround her.”
“Due to the opponent, engage in battle only if necessary.”
“If you can identify her location to surround her, the captains will handle the combat.”
“The ultimate goal is the elimination of the witch.”
Once again, a cold silence fell among the children.
In that silence,
Jessie gave a faint smile.
*
With a sound of “Piiing,” fireworks shot high into the sky.
Those fireworks, adorning the darkening sky, were quite beautiful to look at, but there was no time to enjoy them peacefully.
Because the arrow-shaped fireworks were revealing my escape route to everyone.
“That way!! The witch fled that way!!”
“Don’t let her escape! It’s the revenge for Captain Yoon Si-woo!!”
It felt like heroes were gathering around, following the arrow.
Dammit, more of those damn fireworks again.
I muttered inwardly as I changed direction to avoid getting encircled.
I knew that doing this wouldn’t let me completely shake them off.
But even while sighing, I didn’t stop my legs.
How long had it been since I got away from where Yoon Si-woo was?
I could feel the encroaching net around me closing in.
My physical abilities had increased significantly after becoming a witch, so I was managing to escape for now, but could I really avoid being surrounded like this?
“Ah, there she is!”
Every time I got caught, they broadcasted my real-time position with those fireworks, it was just absurd.
When I was escaping through the sewer just now, I hadn’t set up such flashy fireworks for my location, had I?
But ever since they realized I was escaping, they had deployed too many people towards the sewer, making it unusable now.
“The fireworks…! It’s that way!”
As I hid for a moment, fireworks suddenly shot up from a distance.
It was a distraction device I had set up earlier with a time delay.
Fortunately, it seemed to have worked, as I sighed with relief seeing the nearby heroes heading that way.
Even though I was improvising this time, I thought it might hit a limit soon as I let out a small sigh.
Being chased is much more exhausting than I thought.
My body was fine, but the mental pressure was no joke.
In that moment, a thought crossed my mind.
What if I broke through one side of the encirclement? Wouldn’t I be able to escape?
But I shook my head, brushing away that thought.
Even though I was the one being chased, I didn’t want to hurt anyone to escape.
Well, it would somehow work out. Somehow.
Muttering to myself, I made a break for the opposite direction of where the heroes were headed at that brief moment.
“…Found you.”
A voice came from behind me.
Normally, I would have to run away without looking back, but—
It was a familiar voice, so I instinctively stopped and turned.
And there, I saw.
“…Jessie.”
“…Scarlet.”
Standing there with a crazed look in her eyes was my small friend.
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