Charlotte Eshrelt (3)
Pitch-black hair, dark as the night sky, fluttered in the breeze. Standing before her eyes was a young man covered in freshly applied ointment over a battered, bruised body.
That was the very first sight Charlotte saw after squeezing her eyes shut.
About to speak, Junon exhaled a deep breath, swallowed his rising temper, and tossed out a single question.
"Right. I might be misunderstanding the situation, so let me ask just one thing. What exactly did she do to you?"
"What did she do? Tsk, tsk. You're pretty out of the loop, aren't you?"
One of them stepped forward, sneering, before answering.
As the student pompously recounted how a friend had been diagnosed with sixteen weeks of severe injuries because of her mana rampage, Charlotte could not utter a single word.
"...Is that all?"
"What, does there need to be more? Thanks to that bitch, my friend can't even walk!"
"I suppose since he's a commoner, there's nothing between his ears. Even given an environment like the Academy, there's a reason trash stays at the bottom."
"Besides, breaking the spirit of a bitch who could run wild and turn into a monster again at any second is just common sense."
Unlike his blunt question, the words echoing through the clearing were ones she had heard all too often.
The pointing fingers and jeers of the crowd. Anyone hearing such accusations right before their eyes would inevitably turn on her with disgust and contempt.
Yet, just as Charlotte braced herself and squeezed her eyes shut to endure the condemnation, an entirely different scene unfolded.
"Shut your fucking mouths, you piece-of-shit bastards!!!!"
Veins bulged violently along his neck as he glared at the sneering mob. With a furious roar, he charged headlong into them.
As the glade erupted into instant chaos, the small hands clamped over the girl's ears slowly slid down.
A single question carved itself into her mind, giving birth to countless others.
Why? Why are you going this far?
I could lose control of my mana right this second and slash you across the back while you're fighting them.
Just like that other student, you could break a limb, or worse, end up crippled for life.
How can you make a choice like that?
Someone who can't even tell the difference between human and beast... yes, a monster.
A beastified monster might take your life. And yet you're choosing to help me?
She couldn't understand. It was impossible to comprehend.
Charlotte couldn't fathom Junon's intentions in the slightest.
While she stood frozen in confusion, Junon, unable to hold back their sheer numbers through defense alone, threw himself into a reckless fistfight.
"L-Look at him...! He's lost it! I'll go fetch one of the professors—"
"No, forget it. Don't call anyone."
"What...?"
"With this many of us, the two of them are easy pickings. What are you panicking for?"
"Well... that's true, but..."
"At best, he's just a vanguard who can't do a thing without a weapon besides block, and then there's that freak. Running to a professor now is no different from admitting we're turning tail. You get what I mean, don't you?"
They intended to finish off both outcasts right then and there.
As they had always done: by force.
In the end, Junon was shoved back. Even in a brawl, pushing aside a single person was simple work for a mob, and the moment soon came where he had to fall back on defense once more.
No matter how sturdy a barrier might be, if the arms holding it collapsed, the barrier shattered with them.
A shield wrought of mana was no different. The instant Junon ran out of mana, a barrage of spells would come crashing down upon him and the girl behind him.
Taking that into account, what they desperately needed right now was another fighting force.
"How long are you just going to sit there on your ass?! Get up!"
Junon bellowed in sheer exasperation. His voice had risen to such a roar because she was sitting there like a fool, utterly defenseless against the incoming attacks.
A little time had passed since then, but he hadn't forgotten her sharp eloquence or the way she had silenced those who crossed the line with a terrifying demonstration of strength.
So why on earth was she acting like this? For Junon, who had seen Charlotte's true abilities during the Start-of-Semester Evaluation, it was infuriating beyond belief.
"Are you really going to take that lying down after hearing what they said?! Get off the ground and blast them with that ice magic of yours already!"
"...I can't do that anymore."
"What?"
"I said I can't! Because I don't know when I'll lose control...!"
If she drew upon mana to fight them, her consciousness might slip away again, just like that day.
And once more, she would spew that turbid mana, tearing into people, becoming no different from a humanoid demonic beast.
A future where she ran rampant was so painfully obvious. And he wanted her to cast magic?
It was impossible.
She never wanted to feel that sickening sensation with her own hands again.
To that Charlotte, Junon struck straight to the heart of the matter. Ruthlessly deep.
"What, is it because they called you a monster? You're terrified that if you use magic, you'll go wild like last time?"
Having her darkest fear laid bare so bluntly, Charlotte snapped and shouted back.
"Yes! I'm terrified, so I can't use it! If I cast magic recklessly like this, what if I lose myself entirely this time?!"
Did he have any idea how terrifying it was to lose your own mind and become a monster?
What about the horror of your consciousness slowly fading away, having no control over the atrocities you committed?
The crushing shock of waking up when it was all over, only to be told she had rampaged like a rabid beast, was an agony beyond words.
"I don't care if they call me a monster! Those are just words! But... what if I lose control of my mana and really become one?! There's no turning back from that!!!"
"...So. You're just going to sit there and let those bastards beat you senseless?"
"I'd rather that! I... I can't take any more of this...!"
What more was needed? Wasn't that enough?
Choosing the lesser evil to stop the worst possible tragedy from unfolding—wasn't that enough?
Yet to someone who had spent his entire life clawing his way up from rock bottom, settling for the status quo was nothing short of lethal poison.
"So you're going to live the rest of your life being called a monster? Why don't you even try to change it yourself?!"
"That's..."
"If you were truly fine with being called a monster, you wouldn't have clamped your hands over your ears!! If that were true, instead of that frustrated, tear-streaked face, you would've crushed them under your boots without batting an eye!! Am I wrong?!"
Just as Junon said, Charlotte's tear-stained face was twisted in raw, indescribable anguish.
He couldn't fully comprehend her feelings, nor could he shoulder all her pain. But because he had tasted despair time and time again, he understood the state she was in.
They hadn't suffered the exact same fate, but his life had been just as steeped in solitude as hers.
"Unlike you, I'm not a noble. I'm a commoner, and I'm a guy who can't cast a single spell capable of scratching a monster."
The world had never expected anything from him. He had known only fingers pointed in scorn.
To someone born without a shred of talent, frustration was an old friend, and despair widened its maw with every passing day.
And yet, he had stood back up.
"But there's one thing I know for sure. If I do nothing, I'll never change. If you don't want to hear that kind of bullshit ever again, you need to stand up right now."
The words never change pierced deep into her heart.
To remain like this forever, terrified of becoming a monster, trembling with anxiety while people pointed and jeered.
Not jealousy or envy, but blame and condemnation. The whispered gossip of classmates behind her back. The cold stares dripping with suspicion and fear.
"Are you planning to just sit here and watch that happen for the rest of your life?"
...Just sit here and watch? Something like that...
"I... don't want to..."
She hated it. Being branded a girl wearing the skin of a beast. The whispers that she would become a monster one day. This suffocating loneliness, unable to talk to anyone like a normal human being.
"I don't want that...!!"
She wanted to tear it all down.
Believing she simply needed to act more mature, Charlotte had swallowed her true feelings down again and again. Now, her honest voice finally burst forth. The festering wound that had been trapped inside had at last found a way out.
"Then start from the beginning. We've got plenty of spectators right here—it's the perfect chance to prove it to them."
"Prove it...?"
"Yeah. Show them with your own hands that you won't lose control when you cast magic! Prove that you wouldn't bother triggering a mana rampage over trash like them!"
And so, the young girl's resolve began with the metallic tang of blood from biting her lip.
As she took that first step forward to cast away her fear, the boy gently pushed her small back.
"Their spells are about to pause. It takes them time to chant, so run wild to your heart's content then. I'll block everything that comes your way."
He shoved her forward—toward the path of victory known as change.
So, what was the truth behind the commotion along that quiet walkway?
A girl was insulted, and she fired back fiercely against the slander. That was the official story that spread later.
However, it was also an undeniable fact that Charlotte had drawn upon a massive amount of mana for the two of them to fend off so many opponents.
"Ugh...!"
As an ominous prelude to a rampage, turbid mana began to coil around Charlotte. Her eyes grew hazy, and her consciousness teetered on the brink of snapping.
Yet she did not lose control.
"Just take a nap for now."
"Y-You..."
"You're not going to rampage, so don't worry. I guarantee it."
The reason her eyes fluttered shut this time was not madness—it was sleep.
Though it had not taken long for her eyes to open again, the girl had dreamt.
It was an unimaginably sweet dream. In it, she had returned to her peaceful, ordinary days, and she had never wanted to wake up.
Yet she had to return to reality.
When every familiar face in the dream shook their heads and drifted away into the distance, the corners of her eyes were wet with tears.
As she floated back to consciousness, the first things to greet her were several strange sensations.
A gentle warmth, as if leaning against something broad and steady. A subtle, rhythmic vibration rippling across her entire body. An unfamiliar texture tickling her cheek, accompanied by steady body heat.
Sensations she had never experienced in her life.
Flinching at the bizarre feeling, she began to flutter her eyelids when a man's voice reached her ears.
"Ah, you awake?"
Hearing the black-haired young man answer as if he had been waiting, she finally realized she was being carried on his back.
Overwhelmed by a wave of embarrassment she had never felt before, she completely lost her composure. The precocious dignity and mature poise she had tried so rigidly to maintain vanished without a trace.
"W-What on earth is going on here...?! Explain this right now!!"
"Whoa, hey, Charlotte! It's dangerous to squirm, so just stay still! L-Look, the mana stabilizer kept you from going wild, and, uh, I used the right dose of sleeping herb... Ow, ow, ow, OW!!"
"E-Enough! Forget the explanation, put me down! Right this instant!"
"Aargh! Fine, I get it, so let go of my hair already?!"