The Small, Writhing Thing
The cafeteria was still filled with children who had yet to regain consciousness. I had returned there with Yoon Siwoo, driven by the thought that if the culprit were to manipulate someone else to cause another incident, it could lead to a true catastrophe. It was only when we reached the vicinity of the cafeteria and realized there was no major commotion that I finally stopped running. If something had happened, there would have been an uproar, but the lack of one suggested the cafeteria was, for the moment, safe.
As I let out a sigh of relief, I spotted Leonor near the entrance, smoking a mana-herb. Raindrops clung to the slightly opened window, likely left ajar to let the smoke escape. The droplets traced paths down the glass, mirroring the reflection of her face. As I watched her in silence, our eyes met through the window. Leonor hurriedly wiped at her eyes with her sleeve, then bowed her head slightly and muttered as if making an excuse.
"......Damn it, the smoke stings. This is why you shouldn't smoke indoors. The air just won't clear out."
Hearing that, I turned to Yoon Siwoo, who was standing beside me. "......Could you check on the kids in the cafeteria and make sure everything is alright?"
Yoon Siwoo nodded quietly and stepped inside. I was grateful he wasn't the type to be oblivious to the situation. Once he was gone, I approached Leonor and saw her reddened eyes. I let out a sigh. Smoke, my foot. However, Leonor pretended to be fine, pulling another mana-herb from her pocket and waving it toward me as if asking if I wanted to smoke. I took it without a word and put it between my lips. As I lit it, I gave her back a gentle pat.
Leonor bit her lip as if something were welling up inside her, then took a deep breath and grumbled at me.
"......Is that any way for a junior to treat their senior?"
"What does being a senior or junior have to do with comforting someone who's having a hard time?"
"......Honestly, sometimes the way you talk makes you sound like an old soul."
Leonor gave a bitter smile. She put the mana-herb back in her mouth, took a drag, and stared out at the rain. Her eyes were filled with an unconcealable sadness. She was a person with a lot of heart—the same heart that had shown such pain when I delivered the news of Mr. James's death earlier.
Leonor muttered, "......I don't know much about split personalities, but at the very least, the man I knew was a good person. He wasn't the kind of person who deserved to die like that. He even said he’d teach me how to cook next time......"
Earlier, I had suggested it might be a split personality. But I was wrong. In reality, Mr. James was merely a victim, thoroughly exploited by someone else. I spoke to her cautiously.
"......Senior, I think there was a mistake in what I said earlier."
Leonor asked back, "A mistake?"
"Yes. If my theory is correct, Mr. James was being manipulated by someone."
"......Manipulated?"
The sadness in Leonor's eyes shifted into a different emotion. Just as I was about to explain in detail, a voice came from behind us.
"Scarlet, how did you know he was being manipulated? Did something happen?"
I stopped mid-explanation. Turning away from the window, I saw Eve looking at me with a hardened expression. I answered her carefully.
"Nothing specific happened, but when I thought about it, it didn't make sense. If it were a split personality, he wouldn't have chosen such a death even if he were caught...... But teacher, how did you know he was being manipulated?"
As I asked, I noticed her expression was grave. A sudden doubt arose. Just a moment ago, Eve had agreed with my opinion that it might be a split personality, yet now she seemed to already know Mr. James had been controlled. I tried to think of how she could have known, and then I remembered her asking me if anything had happened to me.
......Could it be?
"......Did something happen to you?"
When I asked, Eve snapped her fingers. Behind her, a woman with short hair appeared, wrapped in a blanket and looking limp, as if she had lost consciousness. Looking closely, I realized it was the woman named Rhea I had seen during our field training. Eve looked at her with a troubled expression and said:
"Scarlet, you've seen her face before, right? She’s an investigator who came to look into the case after I requested support from the Public Safety Bureau. She suddenly stabbed me in the neck and tried to burn to death along with my corpse. I survived because I had cast an illusion spell in advance, but regardless, the Rhea I know would never do such a thing. That’s how I knew she was being manipulated."
"......She tried to kill you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Well, if you hadn't warned me not to let my guard down the other day, I would have been in real danger."
Eve smiled as if to reassure me, but my heart sank. Hearing that Eve almost died reminded me of her death in the original novel. Her sudden death. Could that, too, have been the work of someone being manipulated? But in the original story, her death didn't happen this early. I was in the middle of a chaotic spiral, unable to grasp what was happening, when I heard Leonor's voice from the side.
"......So you're saying some bastard manipulated that man and made him do that?"
Leonor asked in a low, trembling voice, her eyes bloodshot and her hands clenched so tightly they shook with rage. Then, Leonor's expression went rigid at Eve's answer.
"Yes. It’s likely the work of a Witch."
"......A Witch, you say?"
Leonor asked, her face stiff, as if confirming what she had just heard.
"I’m not 100% certain, but it’s almost guaranteed. Manipulating people to do exactly as you wish isn't an easy feat. To manipulate two different people in such a short time—and so thoroughly that it wouldn't break even upon death—is impossible for any human."
"But, the Witches all died out a long time ago......"
Leonor muttered in denial at Eve's words. To the people of this era, a Witch was no different from a character in a myth. They were beings that even a mountain of heroes couldn't be sure of defeating, beings that required an entire race to be prepared for extinction just to manage a mutual destruction. The very idea that such a creature was alive was hard to accept, let alone believe they were the culprit behind this incident. But I couldn't deny Eve's words. I had seen the girl with the dark purple hair at the gym incident with my own eyes—I knew for a fact that a being with a high probability of being a Witch was alive and well.
Still, even so, I couldn't just give in to despair. I steeled my resolve and spoke to Eve.
"Then it’s practically impossible to find the culprit and stop them directly."
"Yes. Instead, we have to find a way to stop this situation somehow."
"Is there any way?"
When I asked, Eve pondered for a moment before muttering, "I don't think they can manipulate just anyone. If they could manipulate anyone, they wouldn't need to use others to try and kill me. It would be much simpler to just manipulate me directly and kill me."
Lately, my greatest fear was that I would cease to be myself and end up harming those I held dear with my own hands. I hadn't even considered the possibility that I might have been manipulated...... Thinking about it, I felt a wave of relief. It wouldn't happen, but if someone like Yoon Siwoo were manipulated into killing people, that would be the true catastrophe. I felt a bit more at ease and focused on the core of Eve's point.
"You mean there are specific people who can be manipulated?"
"Exactly. Even a Witch wouldn't be able to manipulate just anyone. There must be people they've already gotten their hands on. Manipulating a person isn't an easy task, even for a Witch."
"Then the best course of action is to find out who they've already targeted. There might be some common thread."
I said that and racked my brain. A commonality between Mr. James and Rhea, who were manipulated today. One was a man in his 50s, a civilian; the other was a woman in her 20s, a superpowered individual. At first glance, there didn't seem to be any plausible connection, and as I struggled with the thought, Eve made a suggestion.
"It might be something invisible to the naked eye, so let's investigate with magic. There are plenty of mages inside the cafeteria, aren't there? I came to check on Rhea's condition, so we can just ask them to look for anything suspicious while they're at it."
"......That seems to be the only way."
It was a reasonable suggestion, so I followed Eve, who was carrying the blanket-wrapped Rhea, into the cafeteria. As someone carrying a person wrapped in a blanket entered, the eyes of the people who had been chatting while observing the children's conditions turned toward us. After exchanging nods with Sylvia and Yoon Siwoo, who were looking at me with surprised eyes, I followed Eve, who was still carrying Rhea.
Eve approached the school nurse, who looked like she was about to collapse at any moment, and held out Rhea, saying:
"Kate, if the children's conditions are stable, could you take a look at Rhea first? Just do a full-body scan and let me know if you find anything suspicious."
"......Teacher Eve, I feel like I'm going to die from exhaustion, why me of all people......"
"Because you're the most skilled one here, Kate."
The nurse looked pleased at Eve's words but soon shook her head vigorously.
"......I appreciate the recognition, but I'm sorry. My stamina is already hanging by a thread just from fixing the kids' internal injuries...... Anyway, if it's just a scan, leave it to that male student over there. He's much better at scanning than I am......"
The nurse pointed to a student who looked similar to her—the magic genius of Class B, Dwight Nineheart. He looked just as exhausted as the rest, but since that was his usual state, I figured he'd be fine. Dwight looked at Eve with languid eyes.
"......So, I just need to scan this person?"
"Yes. Check every inch from head to toe."
"......I suppose I can test out a new spell I recently learned."
Dwight's languid eyes flickered with a faint light. Thinking, 'As expected of a magic-obsessed freak,' I sat down nearby to wait while he began scanning Rhea. As I sat there, the nurse looked at Eve and asked:
"......Teacher Eve, are you hurt anywhere?"
"......What? I used magic to hide it, how did you know?"
"I'm a doctor, after all. I can tell by your expression if you're in pain."
At the nurse's words, Eve gave a sheepish laugh and snapped her fingers, revealing a wound near her neck that was slowly oozing blood. ......Was this the wound she got when she was stabbed earlier? It didn't look shallow, proving just how close a call it had been. The nurse said with a worried face:
"......I'll treat you."
"Forget it. You must be tired. This will heal if I just put some saliva on it, so save your stamina for the kids."
"......I don't know why everyone comes in with injuries to dangerous places like the neck. I saw Rhea over there earlier, and she had wounds on her neck too. What on earth were you doing to get hurt like that?"
At the nurse's words, I checked the area around Rhea's neck, which was peeking out from the blanket. Sure enough, there were scratches all over it. Just as I was thinking it was an unusual type of wound, I felt something strange. It was as if the puzzle pieces scattered in my mind were clicking into place one by one. I didn't know why I felt this way, but I had a gut feeling I shouldn't ignore it. What on earth could it be? As I pondered and looked at the wounds on Rhea's neck once more—
"......I know."
"Huh? Know what?"
Teacher Eve, who was sitting next to me, asked.
"The commonality. Between the two of them."
It felt like every puzzle piece had fallen into place. Eve had said Rhea tried to burn to death along with her corpse after stabbing her in the neck. The reason she had to burn to death with her was the same reason they had killed Mr. James in such a gruesome way.
"Mr. James also had a wound on his neck."
At my words, Leonor, who was sitting nearby, widened her eyes and muttered. The bandage I had seen wrapped around his neck before Mr. James entered the kitchen.
"......That's right. He definitely said it was itchy, so he scratched it and got a wound."
A scratch-like wound on the neck. There was a reason they had been killed in such a way. The purpose was to destroy evidence. That wound was proof that they were people who could be manipulated, so they were killed that way to hide it. Therefore, we had to be wary of anyone with that specific type of wound on their neck. But there was another problem.
"......Even so, why on earth would such a wound remain?"
Eve muttered. Honestly, that was the question. I knew the wound was the commonality, but the shape of the wound was clearly something self-inflicted by scratching. I couldn't understand what kind of thing would make people carve such wounds into their own bodies. And just then, Dwight's voice rang out.
"Hey, you need to come look at this together, quickly."
It wasn't his usual languid tone, but a desperate one. As we all gathered around him, Dwight pointed to the area around Rhea's head. A panel that looked like an X-ray appeared in the air. It seemed to be the inside of Rhea's brain. Dwight pointed to a certain part of the image and said:
"......Do you see this? This thing that looks like a thin white thread."
On the surface, it looked like a thin thread slightly protruding from the brain. But only after Dwight zoomed in on the image did I realize it was writhing, ever so slightly. Could it be a worm? As everyone looked at Dwight, wondering what this was, he opened his mouth with a grave expression, unlike his usual self.
"I examined it closely because it seemed to be moving, and it showed signs of life. At first, I thought it was a worm, but there's one problem."
Everyone held their breath at Dwight's following words.
"A trace amount of Mana was detected in this thing."
A small, worm-like creature nestled in the brain.
"This is a Maju."