Parent-Teacher Conference
Katie showed exactly why she was called the Legion.
Thousands of monsters moved as if they were a single body. There was not a trace of waste in those movements. The thousands of Katies split into systematic formations, then proceeded to quite literally disassemble every monster and cultist hiding in the underground tunnels.
In the Legion's wake, nothing remained but half-corpses — beasts and humans alike, too broken to so much as twitch a finger.
Tiss scurried after Katie like a squirrel gathering acorns, diligently extracting Essence from the fallen.
Once Emily confirmed her help wasn't needed, she stopped going any deeper and waited near the entrance for Tiss to return.
"The little lady's grown up quite a bit."
Not a sound came from within. Tiss was using the Silent Killing Method to suppress even the noise the Legion produced.
Two years.
In that span of time — short, and yet so long — an ordinary girl from an orphanage had become the host of one of Abaddon's Spawn, grown, and somehow climbed all the way to this level.
Emily hadn't expected much at first. It had started as half a whim, but after spending time together, she'd grown rather fond of the girl. Before she knew it, she'd become the first person Tiss called whenever she needed help.
"I think it might be about time I asked her for a favor."
Emily had a request that only Shan and Tiss could fulfill — one so dangerous she'd never quite been able to bring herself to say it out loud. She'd kept it locked in her heart. Now, she sensed, the time had come to finally let it out.
A rustle.
Emily turned toward the presence she felt, and found a snow-white girl standing there.
"All done already, little lady? Katie was with you, sure, but that was still incredibly fast."
"..."
Emily offered a greeting as those blue eyes looked up at her. The white girl gazed at her steadily, her face expressionless — perhaps from exhaustion. And yet Emily felt a strange, nameless unease.
"Hm...?"
Something was off. Why was Tiss staring at her without saying a word?
"Little lady?"
"Something's off about you."
The white girl's form began to shimmer like a mirage.
"The scent of someone I miss. My daughter's scent. And... the scent of a dangerous monster."
The voice was even, without rise or fall — utterly devoid of color.
This person was not Tiss.
Emily had spent over two years at Tiss's side. She noticed the discrepancy. But by the time she did, the white girl's form had already vanished completely from before her eyes.
Why had it taken her so long to notice?
They looked so identical — like carbon copies of each other — that it had never even occurred to her that this could be that person. She remembered clearly. She'd seen that skill with her own two eyes, just recently, at the entrance ceremony.
One of the former Hero party's members. One of those who had brought down Abaddon.
The person standing before her was White Ghost herself.
A blade-aura like a chill white mist flickered at the vital points of Emily's body. Visible, yet unseen. Present, yet not there.
It was a silent threat: I could kill you whenever I pleased. Emily offered an awkward smile.
"I'm a Watcher, and the homeroom teacher of the Hunter Advanced Class, specially invited to the Academy this term. Emily. I'm also an A-Rank Wandering Hunter."
"A Watcher?"
"Yes. I've been operating officially for over ten years. Enough of a public face that I can drop the camouflage like this."
A ribbon of white smoke circled slowly around Emily's eyes.
If she didn't tell the truth, that white smoke would instantly become a blade and carve her body to pieces. Even Emily, with her exceptional sensory abilities, could barely perceive that something white was there.
Hahaha...
Emily forced the corners of her mouth up into a smile, fighting the nauseating sensation of living through a nightmare while wide awake.
She's already seen through me, hasn't she?
White Ghost asked another question.
"Blind Watcher. What's your relationship with my daughter?"
"Your... daughter?"
"Tiss. The small, cute, white girl who looks just like me."
Ah.
So that's why they look alike. She's her daughter?
No. That couldn't be right.
Emily barely managed to collect herself. She knew Shan and Tiss's true identities — they were from an orphanage run by the cult. She couldn't believe what White Ghost was saying.
Her head insisted it was impossible, and yet—
But if I think of her as the daughter, the resemblance actually makes sense, doesn't it?
The reason Tiss could use the Silent Killing Method, and how she'd come to be called "daughter" — it all fit together a little too well in reverse. Emily's mind spun, thrown into chaos by the information in front of her.
"What's the relationship between you two?"
As if there would be no third chance, White Ghost asked again, pressing for an answer.
This was no time to be lost in thought. This time, it was real. Emily knew, instinctively, that a single poorly chosen word would mean the end of her time in this world.
What was her relationship with Tiss?
Emily pondered the nature of human relationships, then opened her mouth with care.
"I suppose you could say we're... friends?"
"Friends?"
"Yes. We've known each other for over two years."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"The little lady said she needed help. For the match tomorrow. We're in the middle of some perfectly safe training."
Emily swallowed dryly at the white smoke dancing lazily near her throat. The thought that that silky, ticklish thing could transform into a dagger in a single instant was enough to make even Emily — who always kept a poker face — tense up.
A moment later, the white smoke receded, and White Ghost reappeared before Emily. Then, without a word, she quietly leaned against the tunnel wall and stared into the depths of the underground passage Tiss had entered.
"So... can I take that as a save?"
"..."
Emily stole glances at White Ghost beside her, waiting desperately for Tiss to come back.
"There's one more thing."
Just when Emily thought it was over, White Ghost hit her with another life-or-death ambush of a question.
"Please, ask me anything, Lady White Ghost."
Emily waited with her heart in her throat — and ran straight into an unexpected wall.
White Ghost did not miss the way Emily flinched at those words.
"You. What's your relationship with my old comrade?"
"Huh?"
When I came back, White Ghost and Emily were standing side by side, looking this way.
"Whi— Mom?"
"Mm."
White Ghost answered shortly, her white, fluffy tail swaying gently from side to side.
"That wasn't a joke?"
Emily's slit eyes widened almost all the way open in shock.
Ah. Right. Come to think of it, I'd never actually told Emily about this.
"I'll explain everything later, okay? Slowly."
First I needed to figure out how White Ghost had even gotten here.
"Daughter okay?"
White Ghost came toward me.
"Ah— please don't come any closer. You'll get blood on you."
I was covered in blood. I'd even completely shut off the waterproofing function I normally used. To conserve even a little energy, I'd deactivated every ability except the Silent Killing Method I was using to keep sound from leaking outside. Then I'd poured every ounce of focus into chasing after Katie and extracting Essence.
"This should be enough for now, right?"
Shan
Mm...! W-well, we've filled about half of what we had when we first arrived in Area 3.
"Let's head back. Soak in some hot water, rest a bit, then finish the rest of the work."
I'd been grinning to myself, hurrying toward the entrance at the thought of going back to the dorms — only to find White Ghost standing there, of all people.
Shan
S-she didn't figure it out, did she?
Tiss
That's something I'll have to ask, carefully, starting now.
The one silver lining was that Katie wasn't beside me at the moment.
"I'll come visit during break."
"You bet! We'll be waiting, Best Comrades!"
I'd already said goodbye to Katie after she'd finished clearing the underground tunnels, and sent her home.
Tiss
At least the two of them won't run into each other.
Shan
I-if the timing had been even a little off, we would've been in huge trouble.
Tiss
Tell me about it.
I paused my conversation with Shan and approached White Ghost with a glad expression.
"What brings you here?"
"Worried about my daughter."
Wipe, wipe. White Ghost came up to me, pulled out a snow-white handkerchief, and carefully wiped the bloodstains from my face.
"You okay?"
"I'm all right. I was just doing a little practice to prepare for tomorrow's sparring match."
White Ghost closed her eyes and took in the scent coming off my body for a moment, then smiled faintly.
"Mm. No daughter's blood-scent. Good job."
That was the end of it.
To White Ghost, cutting a throat was no different from disposing of a corpse that was already dead. She was one who walked the path of slaughter. She had no reason to scold me for killing monsters, cult fanatics, or any other such dregs.
"But. There's a dangerous bug-scent."
Crap.
"A dangerous scent?"
"I never forget a scent I've smelled once. This one. I smelled it at the entrance ceremony."
As she spoke, White Ghost took my hand and brought it toward her face. She smelled my hand, and a small crease formed between her delicate brows.
"A bug that doesn't eat people. One of Abaddon's Spawn. A strong individual."
Shan
Eek... s-she found out.
Tiss
Hiding Katie's identity was always going to be a tall order.
White Ghost whipped her head away from me and locked her gaze on Emily, who was standing behind us with her slit eyes curved in a sly grin.
A pale killing intent rippled faintly from White Ghost's body.
"...Liar."
"Ahaha, but I didn't say a single thing that wasn't true, you know? It really wasn't dangerous."
"Calling yourself friends... a lie?"
"No, that part's real. The little lady — I mean, Tiss and I really are friends. Right, Tiss?"
I had no idea what conversation had passed between the two of them, but if I said the wrong thing now, Emily was going to die at White Ghost's hands.
First priority: keep Emily alive.
"Emily and I really are friends."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Mom."
Only after I said that did White Ghost withdraw her killing intent.
"Blind Watcher."
"Yes."
"If Tiss's mother is going to keep an eye on me, well — that's an honor."
Now that she was sure she wasn't going to die, Emily was fully back to her usual self.
"Next time we meet, I suppose it'll be as a parent and a teacher at the Academy. I'll be sure to pass along the observation-class schedule once it's out, so don't you worry."
"..."
White Ghost didn't answer Emily's half-joking remark. She just stared at her with eyes gone ice-cold, then turned her head toward me.
The face she showed me wore a gentle smile — a full 180 degrees from the one she'd given Emily.
"Daughter. See you tomorrow."
Stroke, stroke. White Ghost reached out and patted my head, then her body turned to white smoke and slowly faded away.
Thud.
"Haa... that just took ten years off my life."
Only after White Ghost's presence had completely vanished did Emily's legs give out. She sank straight down onto the ground.
"You okay?"
"Well. As you can see."
Emily ran a hand over her own throat, as if confirming she'd barely kept her head.
"Little lady, next time you bring your mom along, give me a heads-up first. A parent-teacher conference before I've even taught a single class? You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Enough joking. Let's get out of here before anyone else shows up."
If she had the energy to crack jokes, she was probably actually fine now.
Emily and I slipped out of the underground tunnels, erased every remaining trace from our bodies, and headed for the café we always went to.