Freya Imperial Academy Back Gate.
There, Iris sat with her hands neatly placed on her knees, tightly closing her eyes.
Erica, pacing back and forth in front of her, was driving her mad, but she decided to say nothing.
Erica must be just as nervous.
“Here they come!”
“They’re coming?”
At Erica’s voice, Iris jumped to her feet.
It was true.
In the distance, she could see two carriages coming up the mountain road.
That sight took her breath away.
It was exactly the same scenery she had seen in her Future Sight.
If it unfolded just like the future she had seen then behind this…
‘No. The future could have changed.’
Because wherever Schlus went, the future always changed.
So it must have changed this time too.
Iris believed that without a doubt.
No, she wanted to believe that.
“Professor Sergei!”
“Oh, what are you two students doing?”
As Erica ran up, Professor Sergei jumped off the carriage.
Both carriages soon came to a stop at the back gate.
Up to this point, it was eerily identical to what she had seen in her Future Sight.
“Why does your face look like that?”
“Ah… Is it a bit messy? I didn’t have time to tidy up.”
Professor Sergei’s hearty laugh was dark, almost haggard.
Even his signature boisterous laughter had dropped to a tenth of its usual volume.
“What do you mean you didn’t have time to tidy up?”
“Well, I’ll explain later… Ah! Why are you taking that down already?”
“…?!”
At Sergei’s shout, Erica turned her head and gasped.
The assistant and a few students were unloading a large coffin from the second carriage.
The sight made Iris feel her heart racing.
Oh no, it can’t be.
It can’t be.
“Is that a coffin, Professor?”
“Haah…”
“Please answer me, Professor!”
“Yes… that’s right. But you must not tell anyone about this. Reinstate the coffin, everyone!”
“Professor! Who’s dead? Please tell me!”
As Erica begged, Sergei looked away, troubled.
Soon, Trie and Aintz trudged over from the carriage.
“Professor, it’s okay to tell Erica and Iris.”
“Yeah… It’s fine since you two have known him.”
“…”
This was the first time Iris had seen Aintz like this.
Aintz, who looked ready to burst into tears at any moment, was not the confident, arrogant, and brash person she was used to.
Even the green-haired swordswoman she’d seen a few times before didn’t look like this – her shoulders drooped unusually low.
“Open the coffin lid. Just for a moment.”
“Yes.”
“Sure.”
Sergei grit his teeth and reluctantly gave his approval.
Erica and Iris moved toward the coffin as if entranced.
They had a pretty good idea of what was inside, yet they pretended not to know.
Because it shouldn’t be this way.
It couldn’t be like this.
Not when That Guy was still… alive.
“I’m really sorry. I couldn’t protect you…”
“…”
“…”
When the coffin lid opened, Erica and Iris lost their words.
They didn’t sit down in shock.
What unfolded was exactly as they had expected.
Schlus, embracing a beautiful sword to his chest, lay motionless inside.
“What kind of joke is this?”
“…”
“Hey, Schlus. Wake up. What are you doing…”
When Erica touched Schlus’s face, she stumbled back.
It was cold. Schlus’s face was cold.
In that moment, everything suddenly crashed into reality, weighing down on Erica.
“Wait a minute. This can’t be… Why?”
“It’s my fault. Because of me… Schlus sacrificed himself to distract the magical beasts to save me… Ugh!”
Aintz, who had been choking back tears, finally broke down sobbing and collapsed.
While he wept uncontrollably at the coffin, Trie gripped her fists tightly, not noticing the blood trickling from where her nails pierced her palm.
Her eyes were already swollen.
“Please explain in detail, Professor! What happened?!”
“I’ll have someone explain the details later at school. Forget everything you’ve seen today. I’m just showing this because you were Schlus’s friends…”
“Professor! Please tell me more…”
As Erica pressed closer to Sergei, someone tapped her on the back.
She turned to see a girl with red hair, Selene, standing there, her head hung low.
“Selene, explain this to me. What on earth happened?”
“Erica… I don’t know what you think about Schlus, but all of that is a misunderstanding.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Selene’s voice was trembling.
Erica was taken aback by the fierce glare in Selene’s eyes.
It was the first time she’d seen Selene look so rebellious.
Selene, who had obediently followed her order to watch Schlus.
“Schlus was not a wicked man who made a pact with demons. He’s kind enough to keep recovery potions for others even while covered in blood and had the courage to cast lure spells to save Aintz, who was surrounded by magical beasts!”
“Ah…”
“He doesn’t deserve to be surveilled. You knew, didn’t you, Erica? That Schlus would someday sacrifice himself?”
“Th-that…”
“You knew, didn’t you? Then why didn’t you say anything? You could have stopped it! Even if you couldn’t stop it, at least you could have helped! You knew and yet, why didn’t you…!”
“…”
Words got lodged in her throat, and she couldn’t respond.
She wanted to make excuses, but nothing came out, only choked sounds.
He shouldn’t have died like this.
Schlus should have lived longer before his lifespan ran out.
That’s how it was supposed to happen, yet somehow… it ended up like this.
“Why did it have to be when I wasn’t around…”
Erica crumbled to her knees in front of the coffin.
Looking back, Iris stood there, blankly, still unable to accept reality.
If I feel this miserable…
How much more must Iris feel heartbroken, considering how much she had hated Schlus?
That pain was unfathomable.
“You crazy bastard…”
Tears dripped down as she held Schlus’s cold hand.
Perhaps she had grown numb to danger by always returning alive in dramatic situations.
Maybe she’d developed a kind of faith that Schlus could never die.
But Schlus wasn’t invincible.
He was an ordinary human who could die unexpectedly at any moment.
And this was the result.
“You crazy bastard…”
He was always composed and calm, making her think he had plans.
She thought he could even foresee the future.
Yet, how could he die and come back like this?
“Damn it…”
Inevitably, Erica began pouring out her rage, no longer caring about the gazes around her.
She couldn’t even understand why she was crying.
Without a doubt, Schlus and she had been nothing to each other.
So why…
Why did it feel like her heart was being rent apart?
If this was a joke, she wished it would stop soon.
It’s fine if I’m okay, but Iris is on the brink of losing it.
Or maybe she had already lost her mind.
Muttering something in a barely audible voice for a while now…
So please, wake up for Iris. Okay?
Even if you really hate me, can’t you at least wake up for Iris?
“Wake up… wake up you bad guy!”
“Ugh…”
“Huh?”
A soft groan came from the direction where it shouldn’t have come.
Frozen in place, Erica slowly turned her groggy head.
She had wished for him to come back to life, but she hadn’t wished for a corpse to start moving…?
“Uh?”
“……”
Hadn’t he just been with his eyes closed?
Why was Schlus now staring at her with open eyes?
For a moment, Erica doubted whether she was seeing things.
“What the heck is happening?”
“……?!”
Schlus casually asked.
Before she knew it, warmth returned to the hand that Erica was firmly holding.
While Erica stood bewildered, a crowd surged around the coffin.
“Schlus! Are you back to your senses!”
“Professor, what kind of joke is this? Ugh, ugh… damn.”
“Haha… Haha! I didn’t want the body rotting, so I sprinkled a little salt on it!”
“What kind of salt… damn it.”
Everyone was at a loss for words, unable to say a single thing.
Only Sergei, after checking Schlus’s pulse, understood the situation and burst into his usual hearty laughter.
*
“Are we killing this guy? Or saving him?”
“……”
In the dark forest.
Surrounded by several men in protective suits and gas masks, Schlus, still clutching blood in his mouth, lay unconscious.
“Honestly, I think this needs to be decided by Hertlocker.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Yeah. You took the most hits from Schlus Hainkel. Who better to decide than you?”
“……”
Hertlocker was at a loss for words.
To leave the decision regarding someone as significant as Schlus to a low-ranking combatant was insane.
Yet, whether to kill or spare him, both decisions had their own rationale.
Keeping Schlus alive wouldn’t hurt too. He might be useful for the Intelligence Agency someday.
However, since he was currently aligned with the Empire, the other option was to eliminate him before he became a threat.
“Ugh. I’ll also leave the decision to Hertlocker, but I think he should be killed. If not now, the chance might not come again.”
“……”
In fact, deciding to kill him could only be done right now.
Even the great Henderson wouldn’t be able to fight back against a monster like Schlus.
With the fate of the Intelligence Agency at stake, could they even capture him?
With Schlus appearing in such a deteriorated state, it was the best opportunity to eliminate him.
If they missed it, the chance might never come again.
“I won’t stop you from killing him. I won’t hold you accountable for the outcome either. I just thought you had the right to decide.”
“Ugh…”
Hertlocker gave Schlus’s head a smack, recalling the memories of this guy.
Day of Magic. He had disarmed her and broken her arms with bare hands.
On the day the traitor appeared, he had toyed with her in the dark and tossed her into a cesspool.
“You bastard.”
Thinking about it still made her blood boil.
She felt like just throwing down her pants and shitting on Schlus’s face right now.
That’s how much she hated him.
“I’ll save him. Schlus Hainkel.”
“Are you serious? There’s no going back on this.”
“Yes. I’m saving him.”
But it wasn’t out of desperation.
She still wanted an answer that she hadn’t heard from him.
Why he didn’t take the chance to kill her despite having so many opportunities.
Did he see her as nothing more than a training dummy?
Or was there another reason entirely?
She had to hear that answer.
There was no reason for saving him other than her curiosity.
She didn’t want to feel unsettled by not hearing the answer…
Yeah, just that.
Nothing more.
“That’s unexpected. I thought you’d want to chop his limbs off.”
“If there’s a way to keep him alive after chopping him up, I would have done that.”
“……”
Once the decision was made, there was no time to waste.
After all, Schlus’s mana was already eating away at his lungs, and his breathing was about to stop entirely.
Eric quickly pulled recovery potions and a mana antidote from his bag and poured them into Schlus’s mouth.
“Oh, looks like it’s done.”
Before long, the black clouds covering the sky began to recede.
He would soon be searched for in the village.
Before that, they had to dump Schlus somewhere and escape.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Just a moment. I’m too worked up. I have to do something.”
Hertlocker was hastily channeling his mana.
Curious, Erica looked and noticed a complex spell was being engraved.
The location of the engraving was deep inside Schlus’s body, near his heart.
It was a location nearly impossible to detect from the outside.
And almost impossible to inscribe unless the target was completely defenseless.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ll slow down his heartbeat to maintain a state of unconsciousness. I’ll also slow down blood flow. Then I’ll inscribe a spell that will conceal even the faintest heartbeat and breath, and…”
“What?! So he’s a living corpse now? Why go through all that trouble?”
Hertlocker’s skillful spell was perfect, making anyone look like an actual corpse regardless of how they were alive.
Unless someone inspected his heart, detection would be virtually impossible.
“It’s just that I feel too regretful to let him go just like that. I want to at least tear the hearts of those around him a bit to feel better…”
“Ha! That’s a wicked thing to do.”
“Shut up.”
Hertlocker forced a smile.
He felt pathetic and silly that this was the only way he could take revenge.
As soon as he sensed a presence approaching from a distance, the agents of the Intelligence Agency quickly left the scene.
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