Victoria’s perspective dramatically shifted as she looked at Maleficent’s expression.
She looked like she was about to explode with rage but then settled into a look of patience, as if remembering something.
But in the end, Maleficent couldn’t hold back her fury any longer. The anger that erupted transformed into murderous intent, exploding forth.
“Who?!”
Yep. Totally lost her sanity there.
I’m curious about where her sanity went, but now isn’t the time to ponder such questions.
“Who even fears you?!”
The sharp end of her staff, adorned with yellow gems, pierced through the area where my heart is.
And then, she lifted me off the ground.
I smiled at Victoria, who looked up at me with a shocked face, trying to convey, “Don’t worry.” Just then, a long finger blocked my line of sight. Immediately after, Maleficent’s finger stabbed into my face.
“What do you know about fear? What does it matter? I am the evil queen! I am Maleficent!”
The staff lifted upward.
As Maleficent raised the staff embedded in my chest, my legs dangled in the air.
Even if I’m small and light for a human, it would be difficult to lift me easily due to the center of gravity, but she seems unexpectedly strong.
“No monster can defeat me! Now die!”
Maleficent tightened her grip on my face and twisted it.
Crack.
In that moment, my head spun around, my neck shattered completely. My veins leading from my neck to my head blocked the flow of blood.
An ordinary person would have died instantly. The pain was one thing, but not having any oxygen for my brain made survival nearly impossible.
If I were a normal human, that would be true.
“Good job.”
I said with my floppy head.
Flap flap.
I tried to speak, but no sound came out.
Right. To make a sound, I need to blow air from my lungs through my throat. But that’s blocked. If I want to speak, I just need to lift my neck back up.
Huh?
If my neck falls off and twists, it would be hard to put it back on again. So I grabbed my head with the hand not holding a branch and lifted it up.
“Good job. But this isn’t the end, is it?”
If you can, do everything.
Maleficent knows that even in my head-crushed state, I can still move.
So I thought she wouldn’t be surprised if my head regenerated, but why is she looking at me in disgust as if I were a horrible bug?
“Yes, of course! If you don’t die from this, let’s see if you can rise again as dust!”
Whoosh!
Black flames engulf my body.
The dim green light swirling around must be caused by the phosphorus in my body burning, right?
I wanted to witness my last desperate struggle, but no matter how much I can regenerate, if my body gets completely burned, I might blast outward.
Before my body burns entirely, I siphoned warmth from the witch’s light.
Heh.
Hehe. It’s warm.
Not just simple warmth.
It’s not hot enough to be called heat, but it’s a warmth that gently melts my body.
As expected, a witch is a witch!
Feeling warmth for the first time in ages, I grasped the light.
There was a reason I had purposely endured until now.
I had no intention of allowing myself to be left alone by stealing warmth.
Seeing that one who mocked me lose their warmth is enough for me.
I crushed reality beneath me and grabbed the witch in front of me, turning her into a lump of meat.
I already experienced it in the second world.
I shoved the white branch I held in my hand into the center.
Maleficent couldn’t even scream and immediately became a pitch-black crown. Around the crown were white thorns surrounding it.
I have no idea what the standard for forming shapes is.
In the second world, a monster became a back, and a human became a pocket.
I thought this would also take a similar shape, but it turned into a crown.
I figured if I made it enough times, I would eventually understand the standard, and I placed it atop my head.
It hurt quite a bit.
Wearing a crown of thorns pressed down on my head caused the thorns to gradually dig into my scalp due to its weight.
I might be okay, but if an ordinary person wore it, all their hair would probably fall out.
I’m not sure, but this… If I wore another cap over it, it probably wouldn’t work. It feels like that. A tool that calls for blood is truly horrifying.
Before it stabbed too deep and blood flowed, I waved my hand.
In an instant, the black thornbush surrounding me retreated, as if turning time backward.
Then, the thornbush vanished as if it had never existed from where it had sprung up.
As the black thornbush disappeared, the harvesters began to awaken one by one.
Yep. It’s indeed a tool that can resolve the witch’s actions.
I’m not sure if it has the ability to mimic the last action performed or if it can replicate all of the witch’s actions, but it erased all the black thornbush.
And before the white thorns could deeply pierce my skin, I took off the black crown.
“Bell…?”
From behind, Victoria cautiously called out to me. When I turned around, she stepped back in fear. Am I really that scary?
“Yes, it’s Bell. This is tough to take off.”
Maleficent tangled it up on top of her head. It really seems her temperament applied directly to the device, as her hair got weirdly tangled, and it took a while to untangle.
“What about Mali?”
“This thing.”
I held up the crown I barely managed to untangle. It was an object that looked like a thorny crown, with white thorns entwined around the black crown.
However, it wasn’t real thorns but rather had a cold metallic texture.
“Is it dead?”
“It’s hard to say this is alive.”
Victoria, who was staring intently at it, suddenly collapsed to the floor.
After fighting here for quite some time, it’s no wonder she fainted.
I grabbed Victoria’s arms and legs and rolled her to lift her up. It’s a method used by firefighters to carry someone.
Then, I kicked the crown on the ground up and headed toward the dormitory where Victoria lives.
While carrying Victoria on my shoulder and looking around, I noticed people waking up from sleep, coming out of their homes, and inspecting the surroundings.
Not everyone looked fine.
Among them were some holding soggy, crushed meat fragments, crying with scratch marks all over their bodies.
The ones on the broad street had probably been caught and ground up when the thornbush grew.
The already deceased couldn’t be revived.
As I helplessly witnessed the warmth of the dead escape, I carried Victoria back.
The damage was substantial.
The scenes in all the areas I passed through looked similar. There were traces of something having burrowed into the buildings, and bloodstains stretched long across the roads.
The air was filled with the stench of blood and meat, along with a faint rotten smell.
But the trail of blood was cut off right in front of the Royal Academy.
Seeing the marks of the thornbush colliding with an invisible wall and bouncing back, it seems the Royal Academy had set up a barrier like my lodging.
Maybe that’s why the road from the main gate to the classrooms was not stained with blood.
I suppose it lessens the scars on Victoria’s heart.
I moved Victoria into her room. As soon as I entered, I set her down and grabbed her cheeks, stretching them.
“Ugh, ugh!”
Victoria jolted awake, startled.
“Wake up.”
“Bell? Huh? Huh? This is my room?”
She stared at me with a shocked expression, then looked around, hesitating, before standing up.
“Yes, it is. Go shower right now. Here’s a towel.”
I pushed the bewildered Victoria into the bathroom and rummaged through the closet for fresh clothes. Then I opened the bathroom door.
Kyahhh!
Victoria, caught off guard while undressing, startled and covered her body.
Is this how girls her age are?
Besides, I see naked bodies, whether male or female, as nothing more than warmth carriers now. I don’t care at all.
“What are you surprised about? Change into these underwear. I know your arms and legs are scraped but make sure to wash properly.”
“Are you my mom now?”
“Victoria, you’re just being too careless.”
I picked up her worn-out clothes and tossed them into a corner, then looked around the room. It was a mess, probably due to the thornbush invasion.
I left the damaged areas as they were and tidied up what I could.
When I finished cleaning up to a reasonable extent, Victoria emerged from the bathroom, soaking wet, with only a towel haphazardly draped around her.
“Victoria. Dry off.”
“I’m too hungry to feel energized…”
Now that I think about it, she bled a lot and used her psychic abilities quite a bit too. During the harvesting period, while the body strengthens, an ordinary person would probably be bedridden, but aside from being a bit tired, she seems okay.
Having observed Soo-oh, I learned to tell how much one should feel pain and how much one is okay with it, so Victoria is likely the same.
I sat Victoria down and dried her hair with a towel.
“Your touch is delicate; have you dried someone’s hair before?”
Gently patting, Victoria turned her head to look at me and asked. So I turned her head back forward with my hand and replied.
“Yes, I have.”
“Who? A child? Speaking of which, Bell, you weren’t a married woman, were you?”
“Are you out of your mind, humanity?”
At my words, Victoria grumbled, fidgeting her feet.
“Still, sometimes you feel like an aunt. Right now too.”
Is that so?
“I’m just four months old.”
“The person inside, I mean.”
When put that way, I guess I am quite older. But I say this back.
“There’s no one inside, Victoria. Asking about red pills is a no-no.”
“Red pills?”
“Oh, that’s not a phrase used in this world. It means it’s beautiful to keep a secret a secret.”
The blue pill reveals beautiful lies, while the red pill unveils filthy truths.
I guess yesterday’s faded memories still affect me.
I made Victoria comfortable enough to rest. Then I pointed to the door.
“Just apply the medicine and eat on your own.”
“Yes, Mom—”
Victoria made a face like she despised being scolded, but I lifted up Maleficent, which I had placed on one side of the entrance.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With that, I waved goodbye to Victoria and left the room.
Now, it’s time for me to return to my accommodation.
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