The Fading Light of Hope
The sword Yoon Siwoo swung struck Sator’s leg. "Gahhh!! You damn bastard!!" With a pathetic shriek, Sator’s body collapsed to the floor. Yoon Siwoo looked down at him, writhing on the ground and clutching his leg, and muttered, "Don't make such a fuss over a broken leg. You deserve far worse for what you've done."
From Yoon Siwoo’s perspective, he had shown significant restraint. Honestly, he wanted to carry out the "summary execution" as literally as possible, but he had settled for breaking the man's leg with the flat of his blade to ensure he couldn't escape. Besides, he couldn't do that in front of the child who shared blood with that man. Well, the girl probably wouldn't say much even if he did. Sylvia was looking at Sator with an expression of cold indifference.
Sator, who had been screaming, met the gaze of the two. It was the look one gives to a bug crawling on the floor, or a failure. Sator felt something boiling over, far more intense than the pain that had made him writhe on the ground. His hand fell away from his leg. His hand moved toward his throat. Scratching, scratching, scratching, Sator muttered, "What is this? What on earth is this... I am not a failure. Don't look at me with those eyes. I didn't fail. I didn't fail..."
Where Sator had been writhing, there was the container he had set down earlier. The container filled to the brim with the Mana he had intended to inject into the test subject. Sator grabbed the container that had been sitting by his head. All that filled his mind was the thought that he had to make his plan succeed. And so, the action Sator chose was:
"I!!! Did not fail!!!!!"
He slammed the container against the floor with all his might. The container cracked, and Mana equivalent to the remains of several hundred monsters burst out. The Mana flowing from the container instantly engulfed the area where Sator stood and spread in all directions.
At that moment, starlight twinkled.
It was the light flowing from Sylvia’s outstretched hand that blocked the spread of the Mana, which had been about to swallow the man tied to the chair. The Star Spirit, one of the few beings that held a natural advantage over Mana. If she had taken enough time to chant, she could have gone beyond blocking to full purification, but with the power of a spirit summoned in such a hurry, it was not easy to stop the Mana of hundreds of low-level monsters from spreading.
They had to escape the building before she reached her limit and the Mana broke through. But since she couldn't move her body if she wanted to maintain this state, Sylvia shouted toward Yoon Siwoo.
"I can't hold it for long, so move the people who can't walk outside first!"
"Hold on just a little longer!"
The moment the suspicious black energy burst from the container, Yoon Siwoo had already sliced through the iron bars and chains restraining Scarlet. He scooped her up and leaped toward the hole in the ceiling, disappearing. Sylvia gritted her teeth and stared into the Mana she was suppressing. She couldn't help but be shocked once again by what a relative of hers had done. Spreading Mana of such high density was a suicide terrorist act intended to kill everyone here, including himself.
Yoon Siwoo, who had jumped down from above again—presumably after leaving Scarlet outside—hoisted the middle-aged man tied to the chair and leaped up once more. And then, a loud voice echoed from within the Mana she was suppressing.
"Ahhh, ahhhhh!!!! It's the light! This brilliant, hopeful starlight! Yes! Surely the World Tree has recognized me too! I did not fail!"
Sylvia looked at Sator, who was visible through the haze of starlight and Mana. He was slumped on the floor, poisoned by the high-density Mana, bleeding from the holes that had formed in his body. Yet, perhaps due to his delirium, he was cheering at the starlight he had summoned, not screaming in pain. Sylvia clicked her tongue. It would be troublesome if he went this insane. There was still so much information she needed to hear from him. Even if she managed to pull him out and purify him, the question was whether she could get any coherent answers.
"What are you going to do about him? Can you save him?" Yoon Siwoo, having returned to the basement, asked Sylvia while looking into the Mana.
"If I purify him quickly, it might be possible to keep him alive. We need to hear more detailed stories, so please get him out if you can."
As Yoon Siwoo moved toward Sator in response to Sylvia’s answer, he saw something on the floor emitting a red light. It was the chains and iron bars he had sliced earlier, the ones that had restrained Scarlet. In an instant, Yoon Siwoo felt an urge that he had to get out of there right now.
Sometimes he had feelings like this. For instance, when he was training with Lucy and saw an opening, the moment he decided to attack, he would get the feeling that if he attacked now, he would die. Lucy had called that feeling intuition. And Yoon Siwoo knew that in most cases, if he didn't follow it, he would end up in a bad spot.
"I don't think there's time to save him. Let's get out of here first."
"What? What do you mean?!"
Yoon Siwoo scooped up Sylvia, who had been concentrating on suppressing the Mana, and leaped.
"Ah, the light of hope! I, too, have become an Astra chosen by the World Tree! Now I don't need Sylvia! With the witch's power and this light, I will reclaim the Eternal Forest myself and become the great head of the Astra family! Uwahaha! Uwahahaha!!!"
Sator was still cheering, staring at the starlight until that very moment. But as Sylvia, who had been maintaining the spell, was moved by Yoon Siwoo, the starlight scattered.
"-Ah?"
Sator waved his hands toward the suddenly vanishing starlight, but the light could not be caught by his hands. "No... No! Why! The light! My light of hope! *Cough*, *kheck*..."
Sator wiped his mouth after a sudden fit of coughing. It was only after the pain of his insides being shredded reached him that he realized it wasn't a cough, but vomiting blood.
"Ah... e...?"
Sator looked around in agony and let out a foolish sound. The basement, filled with Mana, was pitch black. As if to tell him he had failed.
"No..." Sator crawled on the floor, desperately denying it. "The light, there must be light somewhere..."
And then, something shining in the darkness caught his eye. Sator crawled toward it. What was shining on the floor was a restraint tool. A Fire-Absorbing Stone blinking with a red light. A Fire-Absorbing Stone can absorb and store flames, but it must release them eventually. When it nears its limit, the white stone turns red. And the fact that the red light was blinking meant that the flames were about to be released, so one should be careful.
Seeing that light, Sator realized. He had failed. That shock momentarily brought his sanity back.
"...Ah."
At that moment, the flames erupted. The basement filled with Mana, the building itself, and even the final, regret-filled death rattle of the elf were swallowed by the flames and vanished.
When Luke opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the building engulfed in flames. The fire was burning as if to leave nothing behind, just like when the laboratory had burned down in the past. Luke struggled to his feet to urgently check on Scarlet’s safety. What he saw was Scarlet, unconscious and surrounded as if protected by a pair of a boy and a girl. Luke let out a sigh of relief and examined the students flanking Scarlet. One was the famous young lady of the Astra family, Sylvia Astra, and the other was the male student he had seen in front of Scarlet’s house before. It seemed the two had saved them, but because there was someone missing, Luke opened his mouth.
"...What happened to Sator?"
"...In there."
"...I see."
Sylvia gestured toward the burning building with a troubled expression. Even though he had done bad things, they had a connection. Since it was inevitable that he would feel bitter, Luke stiffened his expression and answered quietly. Sylvia looked at such a Luke for a moment before asking, "You are Luke Aegis, aren't you? By any chance, were you also involved in this 'plan'?"
Luke was slightly flustered by the question and said, "...You're the successor to the Astra family, aren't you? Didn't you know?"
"Judging by that reaction, it seems you are involved. I found out for the first time today. That Scarlet was, well, a test subject. So I have a lot of questions, will you answer them?"
"...Before that, let me ask you one question first. What is your relationship with Scarlet?"
At that question, Sylvia bowed her head slightly to look at Scarlet. While stroking the ring on her left index finger, she answered in a slow but firm tone. "Scarlet is my most precious friend."
Watching her expression as she said that, Luke felt it. Even though she must have heard from Sator that Scarlet was related to a witch, she truly believed that. The male student who had said he liked Scarlet before also had an expression not much different from that time, so Luke thought that maybe these two would be okay, and opened his mouth. Because for Scarlet to live like a human, the existence of such friends would be necessary.
"You said you were Scarlet’s friend too, right? If the two of you grant me one favor, I will answer whatever you ask."
"...Let's hear what the favor is first."
"Promise me that you will never tell anyone else about what you heard today. Scarlet’s identity is not something that benefits from reaching other people's ears."
Realizing what he meant, the two nodded and began their questions. Every time Luke opened his mouth, the expressions of the two twisted. In the midst of that, the male student asked Luke, "...You told me before that I would regret it, didn't you? Was that just because of Scarlet’s identity?"
Luke gave a sad smile at that question. "I told you Scarlet was subjected to various experiments, right? Because of that, her body has suffered a significant toll."
A deep, deep sorrow, yet one that had to be accepted. "...She won't live long."
Watching the children, who were deeply shocked by the words that followed, Luke smiled sadly and said. No, he pleaded.
"Kids, I have one more favor to ask."
So that Scarlet could live like a human.
"Will you stay as Scarlet’s friends until the end?"
So that she could spend even the remaining time she had happily.
The children who answered all had expressions as if they were about to cry.
Sometimes there are things that become painful once you know them. Unfortunately, the truth usually belongs to that side.
Sometimes it happens. Like being paralyzed in sleep, where your body won't move but your mind is awake. What I mean is, it meant that I was listening to the conversation others were having. I heard the uncle's voice.
"I told you Scarlet was subjected to various experiments, right? Because of that, her body has suffered a significant toll."
"...She won't live long."
Hearing that, I realized anew that the guy who sent me here really had a twisted sense of humor. Even if it was an academy-themed story, this was too much.
"Even if we are generous, by the time you graduate from the academy, probably..."
The fact that there was no "after graduation" was, indeed, a bit sad. Three years, at most. That was the time I had left.