Start-of-Semester Evaluation (3)

Being shoved away the first time hadn't really hurt, so perhaps it had been fine.

The second time, however, was distinctly different.

Oblivious to the four dire rats closing in, Charlotte had thought the ordeal was finally over and was about to speak to him—only for his eyes to suddenly widen in horror.

What on earth did he see?

"Wait...?"

Before she could even turn her head, her body was hurled violently in the opposite direction.

It hadn't been just one.

A total of four dire rats had ambushed them. Junon had managed to deflect two with his unique magic and barely blocked a third with his own body, but lacking enough hands to parry the last, he took a devastating blow square in the abdomen.

The impact forced a spray of blood from Junon's lips, splattering across Charlotte's shoulder in crimson momentum.

When his body finally hit the ground, he tumbled right before her feet.

If not for him...

If he hadn't thrown himself in the way...

It wouldn't have been Junon's stomach taking that blow, but the back of Charlotte's head.

Her fragile skull would have split wide open, blood pooling onto the earth. Lured by the metallic reek of fresh blood, the frenzied beasts would have torn away her skin, reducing the helpless girl into an afternoon meal.

Those who set foot on the battlefield often prayed for the exact same thing:

Please, let today pass without incident. Let everyone return home unharmed.

Yet the battlefield showed little mercy to humankind.

When a comrade fell, collective responsibility bound the squad, and every member shouldered the weight of guilt. And what if someone was injured because of your mistake? An overwhelming storm of guilt and responsibility would crash down, impossible to escape.

Charlotte had always known the concept in theory, but she had never felt it herself. That was why.

Something suffocatingly heavy bore down upon her chest.

The sight burning into her eyes wiped her mind clean, ushering in a sheer, paralyzing horror. Why was it so heavy? And why was it so terrifying? Because what unfolded before her eyes was completely foreign to her.

In the span of mere seconds, the gruesome reality flipped a dormant switch deep inside Charlotte's soul.

"Junon!!"

"I'll take point! I'll hold them off somehow, so you... wait, what?"

Crrrack—

One of the rats froze solid in an instant.

—Squeee... squeak...

The demonic beasts trembled in terror.

Sensing the demonic mana rolling off her, the rats didn't dare approach ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the human they had viewed as prey just seconds ago. Crushed beneath the ghostly mana, shuddering in fright, they slowly shrank back. Even Noel and John, barely holding up their weapons to guard themselves, swallowed hard and watched Charlotte as an icy chill settled over the clearing.

Crunch— crack— shiver—

A second beast froze solid, trapped mid-recoil as it shivered in retreat.

A third beast froze, encased in ice the very instant it turned its back to flee.

Then the fourth.

Shrouded in a murky, dark blue mana, Charlotte stepped slowly toward the frozen vermin.

And then...

—Grrrr.

Before anyone realized, Charlotte had lost herself, throat vibrating with the guttural snarl of a beast.

Why was she doing that? She had frozen the rats—why approach them bare-handed instead of finishing them off? Baffled, Noel and John exchanged glances, nodded, and opened their mouths to speak.

In that instant—

—SCREEECH!!!! SKREEEAAARGH!!!!

Cloaked in that murderous mana, Charlotte began pummeling the frozen rats to death with her bare hands, as if she could no longer cast magic at all.

Meanwhile, Junon gathered his wits and struggled to his feet.

"Hey, you two..."

"Ju-Junon...? Are you alright?"

Junon looked anything but alright.

Yet the unnerving calm in his sunken voice forewarned of disaster.

"Never mind that. Get out of here right now. Run."

"What...? What do you—"

"You're both going to die if you stay here, so get the hell out of here, you idiots!"

Junon had to clear Noel and John out of the area before Charlotte, driven mad by bloodlust, turned her gaze upon them.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

The frantic pounding of their feet tore through the forest without a second's pause.

"I-is this really the right call?!" Noel yelled, running as fast as his legs could carry him beside John.

"What else were we supposed to do?! Didn't you see her eyes?!"

"I-I mean, yeah..."

His jaw had dropped so low his vocal cords couldn't even vibrate. Their limbs had felt as frozen as the deadly ice she conjured, and their hearts had shrunk so tightly they couldn't even feel their own pulses. Every hair on their bodies had stood on end in pure terror. That was how both boys had reacted.

The mana wrapped around her was so thick with murderous intent that she no longer seemed human. Where had the quiet noble lady supporting them from the rearguard gone? In her place stood a ravenous monster.

Paralyzed by sheer terror, only Junon's shout had snapped them out of their stupor.

"Still... shouldn't the two of us have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stayed by Junon's side to help? How is he supposed to handle that alone..."

That was precisely the problem.

Without them even realizing, the three of them had already become targets for a Charlotte who could no longer tell friend from foe. The very same Charlotte who had frozen four dire rats and beaten them into bloody pulps with her bare hands.

"...If it were normal beasts, sure. But do you really think we could've traded even a single blow with her?"

"Obviously... not..."

"Right. We would've been the next corpses right after those rats."

There was no refuting it. Forget exchanging blows; they would have been lucky not to be torn to shreds in a single swipe.

"Still, Junon... he was way stronger than us, wasn't he? He'll be fine!"

"Y-yeah. He'll make it. As long as we deliver the message like he said!"

Holding off the radically transformed Charlotte, Junon had practically driven them away. Naturally, they had tried to refuse. Junon was the one who had saved their lives, after all.

They had protested that they couldn't abandon him, but the moment Junon blocked one of Charlotte's strikes, their resolve shattered into dust. The impact of Charlotte's blow had carved an enormous furrow into the earth, looking as if the ground had split wide open from a prolonged drought.

Two students wielding basic weapons—Noel and John—could never hope to block an attack like that.

'Guh...! If you stay here, all you'll do is die pointlessly! If you really want to help me, head northwest and bring back one specific person. Move, every second counts!'

He had ordered them to bring back a man named Goden.

"He's the guy who saved us from the brink of death. You think he'd send us off without a plan?"

"Damn right! 'Weakest vanguard' my ass! Whoever gave him that title has got to be the biggest idiot in all of Revrant!"

Finally reaching the northwest quadrant, they spotted a man whose colossal physique dwarfed anyone on their own team.

"Hm?"

"F-Found him! Pant... pant..."

"Gasp... Your name's Goden, right?"

"I am Goden. What's the matter?"

Just as Junon instructed, the two boys had located Team Tembris.

"Please help us!!"

Like a beast displaying its raw savagery, Charlotte's body was splattered with beast blood, tangled in weeds, and caked in dirt. Though she was a human cloaked only in mana, her eyes were vacant and hollow—lifeless voids devoid of light.

The sounds tearing from her gore-stained mouth were far from those of a teenage girl; they resembled the unearthly screech of an aberration. Her hands were drenched in crimson from tearing out the hearts of the four pulverized rats. Blood still dripped from her lips where she had sickeningly gnawed and swallowed those hearts whole.

Yet that hadn't come close to sating her hunger. She desperately craved the heart of the next living creature before her.

Just like a mindless demonic beast.

—Grrrr... SKREEE!

"Ugh, dammit...!"

Splatter.

Another mouthful of blood surged up my throat. With every clash, I ended up spitting more of it, and my consciousness dimmed in proportion.

"Get a hold of yourself, will you?!"

The moment I pushed her away with my Mana Shield to create distance, Charlotte lunged right back in to close the gap.

—Hraaaagh!

"Fuck..."

Charlotte battered relentlessly against the Mana Shield, trying to shatter it. All I could do was dodge and parry over and over. I had no other options besides buying time.

The second I fell, my heart would be ripped out and devoured, and someone else's would be next. I had to hold out until Noel and John brought Goden here. Until then, I had to exhaust every trick in the book to keep her restrained.

"My legs are trembling... Hey, I'm asking nicely here—can't you just go back to being the well-mannered girl you were a minute ago?"

—KRAAAARGH! SKREEE!

"Haha... What am I even doing? As if you can understand a word. Fine, fine. I'll play with you. But come on...! Could you dial back the strength a bit so we can play longer?!"

It wasn't as if this had never happened in the past.

Back when Charlotte had turned into a beast like this, the Tembris Party had called it something else. After somehow subduing her rampaging self, I remembered the conversation we shared while watching over her as she slept peacefully.

Mana Rampage.

That was what turned Charlotte into a beast.

Magic, in the end, wasn't something inherently native to human bodies; it was borrowed power that allowed one to wield supernatural abilities. Just as a power plant requires a fuel source to operate, and humans burn calories to function, magic demands a corresponding resource. And that resource is mana.

To adapt and survive on the Kempf-Litton Continent, both beasts and humans absorbed demonic energy into their bodies, channeling it through their circulatory systems to produce mana. Therefore, when mana is depleted, any living creature instinctively seeks to replenish it. For humans, that usually involves deep breathing, meditation, or rest.

However, Charlotte...

Hadn't she practically devoured the rats' hearts?

It was unmistakably the behavior of a demonic beast—stripping nutrients and mana directly from its prey.

The more turbid mana becomes, the more the caster tilts toward primal instinct and savagery; conversely, the clearer it is, the more intelligence and reason they retain. Instinct and ferocity are the essence of demonic beasts; intellect and reason belong to humanity.

In other words, Charlotte losing her mind to behave like a wild beast meant her human mana was utterly depleted.

"Phew..."

Depleted mana. The resulting thirst. Total reliance on instinct.

With three clues in hand, this gamble was worth taking.

—SKRAAAARGH!

Charlotte charged straight at me, one arm thrust forward. If an opponent with reason had attacked, they would have trapped my arms or kicked my legs to break my stance. Her outstretched hand aimed for only one target: my heart.

Thud—

"...Right. It's only the turbid mana behind the strike that's dangerous. What you're after is my heart."

—Grrr... SKREEE!

Just as I predicted, though I caught her wrist, beneath that aura lay the arm of a frail girl. The terrifying destructive power belonged solely to the dark blue mana enveloping her. In raw physical strength, Charlotte wasn't actually that strong.

"Let's hold out and think. This might sting a bit, but...!"

If I wanted to survive, I had to figure it out before I collapsed.

A way to replenish Charlotte's depleted mana.