The Puppeteer's Broken Strings
"This, it's a Maju."
Dwight spoke, pointing to the small, worm-like creature wriggling inside Rea's brain. The school nurse muttered, her face pale with disbelief. "A Maju? That’s impossible... We’re inside the Barrier; Maju shouldn't be able to manifest here..."
Dwight answered her question. "...Judging by the amount of Mana detected, it seems to be in a severely weakened state. It doesn't mean it originated from inside; it means it crossed over from outside the Barrier. If a Maju is willing to endure extreme weakening, it can slip inside. The problem is..."
"...Even if it's weakened, it's lodged inside someone's brain, so we can't just touch it carelessly," Eve added, her face twisting in disgust.
The brain was the most sensitive and vital organ in the human body. Because the Maju had taken root in a place where even the slightest damage could be catastrophic, it was impossible to handle, regardless of how weak it was.
Eve stared at the creature squirming in Rea's head, her expression hardening. "...In any case, there is only one entity capable of manipulating Maju, so this is certain now. I don't know the exact method, but they must have used this Maju to control Rea. Given that it's lodged specifically in the brain, I can't think of any other explanation."
Hearing that, I spoke to Eve. "That means the people the Witch can control must have these Maju inside their heads. The scratch-like marks on the necks of those who were controlled—couldn't that be because of these things inside them?"
"If the abnormal behavior of scratching their necks is because of something like that inside their heads, then yes. Then we have no choice but to find everyone with those scratch marks and somehow remove the Maju. But what do we do? Even if we kill it inside the brain with magic, if the carcass remains, it might leak Mana..."
At that moment, Leonor, who had been listening to Eve, shouted in alarm. "...Wait, wait a second. Does that mean everyone with those marks on their necks can be controlled?"
"Senior, is something wrong?" I asked Leonor, whose complexion had soured in an instant. She replied in a trembling voice.
"...I saw it in my class this morning. A similar mark."
The moment Leonor said that, a commotion broke out outside the cafeteria.
"Be careful not to reopen the wounds!"
"Hurry, get them to the cafeteria!"
A group of students rushed into the cafeteria with urgent voices, carrying a stretcher. On it lay a student whose body was riddled with stab wounds, blood soaking through everything. The moment I saw that horrific sight—a state where it wouldn't have been strange if they had already stopped breathing—I knew. The Witch had manipulated someone else to attempt to murder this student.
"Teacher! Please, save them! I think they were stabbed by someone!"
"Everyone, carefully lay them on the floor! Hey! Stay with me!"
As the school nurse rushed toward the student, who was still letting out faint groans, my eyes met Eve's. I knew exactly what she was about to say. We had to find the people being controlled before there were any more victims. Eve looked at Leonor and opened her mouth.
"Which kid is it? The one with the mark on their neck."
Leonor replied, standing up with a grave expression.
"...It's not just one kid."
"...It's 'the kids'."
While searching every corner of the school, I found a group of male students talking near the stairs. I spotted one person among them, then quickly checked my reflection in the window. My face was rigid. This wouldn't do, so I took a deep breath and muttered to myself: Control your expression. Control it. I used both hands to pull up the corners of my lips, creating a fairly convincing smile. It looked good enough, so I maintained the smile and slowly approached them.
One of the students, who had been staring at me as I approached, spoke up. "Hey, you look like a junior, do you have business with us?"
The student who spoke was exactly the person I had targeted. He was looking at me with a hint of wariness. To dissolve that suspicion, I kept my smile as bright as possible. "Yes, you're Richard-sunbae from Class 2-B, right? I'm Scarlet Evande from Class 1-A. I have something I want to say to you, specifically."
"Something you want to say?" Richard seemed flustered at being called by name, but perhaps because I was smiling, his wariness seemed to soften. I didn't miss that moment; I walked up, grabbed his arm, and pulled him close. Being this close made me realize the height difference, which was unpleasant, but it was the only way to ensure he couldn't run.
I looked up at him, still holding his arm. "I have something I want to discuss with you alone. Could you spare a moment?"
"Oh?! Uh, of course." Richard answered quickly, looking restless. It was a relief; it would have been troublesome if he had refused. As I turned to lead him away, I heard the other students whispering behind us.
"No way... How is Richard with someone that cute?"
"Damn it, I thought I'd escape before him, even if he is a jerk."
For some reason, Richard's stride became incredibly pompous.
I led Richard to a secluded stairwell. Once we arrived, he seemed to grow nervous, asking in a trembling voice, "...Hey, you said you wanted to talk, so why here..."
"...Wait, could you lower your head for a second?" I said, grabbing his collar and pulling him down. I began to undo the top buttons of his shirt, which were fastened all the way up to his neck. Richard jumped, his body trembling. "W-wait, it's not even dismissal time yet, there might be others around..."
But when I silently undid the buttons and pulled his collar aside, he blushed and squeezed his eyes shut. I checked his neck, then raised my right hand above my head and ignited a flame. It was the pre-arranged signal. Lighting the flame meant I had confirmed the mark. A light flashed from the top of the stairwell.
"Ghk-!"
Struck in the head by the orb of light flying from above, Richard let out a bizarre scream and rolled his eyes back. I caught him as he collapsed and hoisted him onto my shoulder to check his condition. I hope his brain is okay. I shouted toward the top of the stairwell.
"...Sylvia, did you control your strength properly?"
"I'm not used to knocking people out, but shouldn't it be fine? If I'd been too careless, Scarlet, you could have been in danger, so I made sure it was enough to knock him out cold. Well, he looks fine on the surface."
Sylvia walked down the stairs, muttering as she looked at the unconscious Richard. It was a slightly unsettling thing to say, but she wasn't the type to hurt people easily, so I could rest easy.
Leonor had said there were three students in her class with marks on their necks. We had just subdued one of them with Sylvia, who had followed me out of concern. I had been worried about what would happen if they suddenly attacked while being controlled, but thankfully, we had succeeded without incident.
I returned to the cafeteria, worried about the others who had gone to subdue the remaining targets, and let out a sigh of relief. Yoon Siwoo and Leonor, who had gone to handle the other two, had already returned. The two students they brought were lying inside glowing magic circles. They were likely restraint circles Dwight had drawn while waiting in the cafeteria. With these, even if they woke up, nothing would happen.
I laid Richard down in a magic circle and asked Leonor, "Senior, did you have any trouble when you went to catch your targets?"
"No, I just called them out from where they were with other kids and knocked them out."
As Leonor nodded, I asked Yoon Siwoo the same thing. He gave a similar answer. I muttered with a sigh.
"...Damn it, then that means there are more than just these people."
The new victim had been riddled with wounds. If they had been attacked like that, there should have been blood everywhere. But the three we had subdued were clean, without a single drop of blood on them. Furthermore, if they had been with other students, it was unlikely these students were the ones who had committed the act. We had only caught students from Leonor's class, 2-B. I had suspected there might be people with marks in other classes and among the teachers, and it seemed my suspicion was correct.
And then, Eve, who had gone out to find such people, returned to the cafeteria. Her expression was much sterner than before.
"I never imagined there would be this many..."
Eve muttered, snapping her fingers, and people appeared on the cafeteria floor. We gasped at the sight. Over ten students. All of them had marks on their necks, and one student's uniform was stained with blood that must have splattered from somewhere. Including the students we had just brought, there were fifteen in total. While I was trembling at the fact that so many people could be controlled, Dwight's voice rang out.
"...Wait a second, who brought this person?"
Dwight, who had been checking the Maju in the students' brains, had stopped in front of one student. It was none other than Richard. When Sylvia and I stepped forward, Dwight said something baffling.
"Everyone else has a Maju in their brain, but this one doesn't."
Sylvia was completely taken aback. "...Could it be that he was someone who only had the mark on his neck but no Maju in his brain?"
When she asked, Dwight replied with a confused look. "...Even so, the shape of the mark on his neck is too similar to the others. Was there anything special that happened while you were bringing him in?"
"Just... knocking him out and bringing him here..."
I retraced the process of bringing Richard. Calling him out, checking his neck, sending the signal, and then Sylvia casting a spell on his head... At that moment, a memory flashed through my mind.
"Sylvia, wait. Can you cast a spell on the head of someone who has a Maju inside? You know, the mental stabilization spell you cast on me before? Teacher, that would be fine, right?"
I asked for permission from the school nurse, who looked exhausted from the treatment, and she nodded slowly. A sphere glowing like starlight emerged from Sylvia's hand and was absorbed into the head of one of the students lying in the magic circle. I pointed to the student and said to Dwight, "Can you check this one?"
Dwight examined the head for a moment, then muttered with a shocked face.
"...The Maju is gone. Completely."
"...What happened?" Sylvia asked me, surprised even though she was the one who had done it.
"You said Sylvia's spirit has the ability to suppress and purify Mana. I thought if it was a Maju that small and weakened, it might vanish if it touched that power. I had cast an attack spell on his head earlier."
It was fortunate that the memory of Jessie's strange state while we were eating together had suddenly surfaced. Jessie had definitely scratched her neck back then, and she had been fine after Sylvia cast the mental stabilization spell. I shuddered to think that if we hadn't taken those measures then, Jessie might have been controlled.
Dwight pondered for a moment, then placed his hand on someone's head and finally said with relief, "I tried it just in case, and it seems possible with standard purification magic. If this is the case, we can treat them quickly."
"Really? That's a relief..."
As they began to remove the Maju from the students' brains one by one using purification magic, everyone looked relieved. But for some reason, I couldn't feel at ease. A sense of unease kept gnawing at me. While I was wondering why I felt this way, I saw Eve taking out her phone to make a call. She held the phone to her ear, then after a moment, put it away with a strange expression and asked me.
"Evande-yang, could I borrow your phone for a moment?"
I offered my phone from my pocket, but Eve looked at it for a moment, shook her head, and handed it back to me.
"What's wrong?"
Eve replied, "No, I wanted to contact someone to see if there were any problems outside the school, but for some reason, the call won't go through. It keeps saying it's out of service. Could the signal be blocked because of the rain?"
I was listening to Eve without much thought, when suddenly, I felt my blood run cold. The signal isn't getting through. And then, realizing the source of my anxiety, I asked Eve in a trembling voice.
"...Teacher, if someone suddenly couldn't do something they were able to do, they would know, right? For example, like not being able to make a call, just like now."
Eve tilted her head at my question, then looked where I was staring, and her complexion turned deathly pale.
I was looking at the people who were purifying the Maju. If they suddenly couldn't control the people they were able to control, they would know that fact. The person who had been murdering others to avoid being discovered as the controller. If they found out that fact had been exposed, what would they do? I didn't want to imagine it, but for some reason, I felt I knew.
I looked at my phone screen and saw the indicator showing no signal. It couldn't be like this simply because of heavy rain. Unless something had happened to the base station.
Eve ran and threw open the cafeteria window. It was raining heavily, and beyond it, the city landscape was visible, blurred. 15 people in the school, no—17, including Mr. James and Rea. If so, how many people were there in that city?
I heard the sound of the rain-drenched city. The sound of rain. The sound of rain. The sound of screams.