Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: The Ideal Asleep in the Abyss
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The sky was clear.
Not a single cool breeze brushed by.
And yet... pure white snow was quietly falling.
It was the end of summer.
In this stagnant time where even the wind held its breath, the pristine white snow kept falling endlessly.
Centered on the mansion... blanketing the roofs, burying the gardens, and even whitening the forest boundary.
"Ahh..."
The woman known to the world as the "witch."
Bellamir, the Calamity of Lust, smiled.
At her feet, the beings once called spirits bowed their heads.
Hundreds of them.
But not a single one among them could be called a spirit anymore.
Their radiant light had vanished, their forms had decayed, and even their origins were shrouded and twisted by pitch-black darkness...
"My children..."
At her gesture... the forest awoke from its dream.
Ancient trees shot up toward the sky, taking root as they rose.
Branches pierced each other, stripping away bark, and thick sap like blood dripped from the gaps.
"It's okay if you fail..."
The corners of her mouth slowly curled up.
As if everything had been designed that way from the start.
Even if Delbar blocked the spirits, even if no one died, even if their peace continued...
"The moment they... believe they've won themselves..."
That single moment.
The gap where arrogance and relief intersect.
The vulnerability as their guards slowly lower and their minds loosen.
"That moment will become the rift we've longed for..."
The very instant they raise their glasses and open the gates of victory.
The corrupted beings will stand on that threshold.
So...
"Go and die."
Even if the fate of death approaches.
Even if the end brushes their fingertips.
"We... will be reborn in the dream."
Even if our names are erased.
Even if our forms shatter.
Even if our wills fade.
We... will be reborn in that dream which can never come true.
***
I stared blankly out from the mansion.
The boundary line dividing the mansion and the forest.
Pure white snow piled up along that line, and a corrupted spirit lifted its foot.
- Crackle!
Just one step.
It merely touched the drifting snowflakes, and in that instant, the spirit's body froze solid.
I looked up.
At the top of the mansion.
There stood Duke Delbar, silently wearing a laurel wreath formed of ice on his head.
'......'
And above him... a massive magic circle large enough to blanket the sky glowed brightly.
I couldn't understand it at all.
Why had someone this powerful never once appeared during the "Akareang"?
'The witch subjugation... after the semester starts.'
The witch... meaning the Calamity of Lust.
The subjugation against her was surely scheduled after the Cradle's semester began.
So why was the witch attacking Delbar at this point?
'Hmm......'
No matter how much I racked my brain... there was only one conclusion.
'I still don't get it.'
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[ Adel ]
Breakthrough Limit: ★★☆☆☆
Attributes
: 「Abyss」
: 「Space」
: 「Void」
Stats
: Stamina: 14 (D)
: Strength: 4 (F)
: Intelligence: 28 (B)
: Mental Strength: 31 (A)
: Mana: ■ ()
Talents
: 【All talents are fixed at 'Lowest' due to the 'Stigma'.】
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An realm beyond calculation, even for my smart head with 28 Intelligence.
Wasn't it foolish from the start to think a mere human could comprehend a Calamity's thoughts?
- Crackle... Crackle!
The moment hundreds of spirits crossed the forest boundary.
They merely brushed against the snowflakes drifting in the air, and froze solid on the spot.
'...No wonder there's no reaction.'
At first, I was puzzled.
The Calamity was attacking Delbar, so why was everyone so calm?
But now I got it.
No matter how corrupted they were, the witch herself wasn't stepping up...
The corrupted spirits were just expendable sacrifices.
But even that much couldn't mount the slightest resistance against the duke's magic.
'...Sacrifices?'
Suddenly, I mulled over the word.
I had unconsciously thought of them as "sacrifices."
Why?
Because that's how it looked to my eyes right now.
So... sacrifices for what?
......I had no idea.
'Tch... still don't get it.'
Whatever... it didn't matter.
This was Delbar territory.
In terms of magic, Veronica... was outclassed.
The Delbar with power rivaling Cradle's vice principal, Kaus.
Unless the witch controlling the corrupted spirits came herself, breaching this mansion was impossible.
And...
- Thwack!
'......'
The Mikurebi that had been playing somewhere in the snowfield was now throwing snowballs.
"...Atchoo."
Mikurebi sneezed, its snout twitching as it let out a giggling sound.
Then... it started packing snow again with its two fins flapping.
'What are you doing.'
Thwack!
...Right between the eyes this time.
It hit so squarely I wondered if my mask would dent.
Mikurebi giggled again.
Now it was openly, blatantly laughing.
"Pfft."
I indifferently ducked, packed a fist-sized snowball.
Then... swung my arm back, aimed precisely at it...
Swish...
Plop.
"?"
...It missed.
My snowball landed a handspan away from Mikurebi.
The 'Lowest' talent faithfully exerted its effect even here.
Seeing that, Mikurebi grinned once more and started spinning its two fins like propellers.
Whirrr!
I took every snowball straight to the face and ended up sprawled in the snow.
'This damn fish.'
I gritted my teeth and pushed up from the snow.
My fingertips were red and frozen in the cold air, but I packed another snowball.
But... Carnel's voice stopped me.
"Adel?"
I flinched and hid my frozen hands behind my back.
Turning my head, Carnel stood there with arms crossed, looking at me.
[Yes?]
"...What are you doing?"
[Nothing.]
Instead of my frozen hands, I circulated mana to grip my pen.
Then, with a squeak, I turned the whiteboard toward Carnel.
"Hmm... Never mind. Go find Mother."
[Me?]
"Yes."
I glanced around.
...Amelia was nowhere in sight.
[Where is she?]
"That's for you to figure out now, Adel."
Carnel nodded smugly.
Her tone, her eyes, everything screamed, 'I'm not moving a single step from here!'
"I'm guarding this spot!"
......Can't argue with that.
I sighed behind my mask and turned around.
The white snow piled at my feet crunched.
Fine.
This was unavoidable.
"...Hmph."
Absolutely not because I didn't want to see...
That fish behind Carnel...
Flapping in the snow, packing snow with its fins...
And grinning like some triumphant victor...
Mikurebi.
For real.
***
"...Cough!"
Amelia trudged along, clutching the corridor wall.
A snowball clung to her head, and something resembling a snowman dangled from her shoulder.
"Ugh... where's the medicineee... medicine... strawberry-flavored supplement...!"
Her breath was white, her steps unsteady.
One hand clutched her throat, the other groped the wall as she wandered the mansion...
- Tap.
The sound of prim, disciplined shoes.
"Madam."
The head maid, Nemesis, had quietly approached at some point, holding a tray with medicine and water.
Her elegance was impeccable, even her timing perfect.
"...Overdoing it again?"
"Hmph... overdoing? What overdoing—"
Amelia, who had dramatically flung up her arm to bluff...
- Thud.
"Ah... cough..."
Collapsed straight into the snow, knees giving out.
"...You are overdoing it."
Nemesis set the tray down without a hint of disturbance and handed over the medicine with practiced motions.
Amelia obediently swallowed it, then said innocently.
"The strawberry one...?"
"Regrettably, no."
"...Ugh, it's biiiitter...."
Amelia pouted and shook her head.
But Nemesis supported her without a flicker of hesitation.
Just as she always did for the madam who had boldly demanded strawberry flavor.
"I'll escort you, Madam."
"Nooo! I haven't finished the snowman yet!"
Amelia dragged her feet in protest...
But Nemesis's expression remained utterly composed, as always.
"Eeeeng......"
That was when it happened.
Tap.
Nemesis's footsteps suddenly halted.
"...Madam."
"...Huh? Nemesis?"
Tap.
She firmly shook off Amelia's arm.
"Eh...?"
As the bewildered Amelia tried to pull back.
Nemesis swiftly drew a dagger hidden in her thigh sheath and aimed it at her own chest.
"Y-Yes, Nemesis!? What are you—"
But...
The dagger never pierced her chest.
Clang.
It slipped from her hand and clattered ominously on the cold floor.
And then... slowly... a smile both achingly familiar and unmistakably alien crept onto Nemesis's lips.
"Heh..."
The ends of her lips curved up.
Nemesis's usually prim and expressionless face twisted grotesquely...
A distortion hard to believe came from a human expression seeped in.
"You... who are you...?"
Amelia instinctively knew.
The form before her was Nemesis... but what dwelled inside was not her.
Nemesis's lips parted with a click.
"Your nightmare..."
Nemesis's arm creaked upward.
A rigid posture, mechanical like a doll.
Her fingertips aimed at the frozen Amelia.
"The dream that can never come true..."
In that instant...
Swish.
From the empty air behind Nemesis... space warped, and Adel popped out.
***
Swoosh!
【Silent Stepper】 activated, I tuned the melody of mana and swung 【Leviathan】 with all my might.
"Ah, Adel?"
Amelia's startled cry reached me, and at the same time...
- Crunch!
My sword strike was futilely blocked.
By the maid's slender arm, her delicate fingertip.
"You..."
Before I could finish, her hand swept mine aside.
- Boom!
A powerful impact hurled my body back, tumbling down the corridor.
'Witch...'
I was certain.
One of the maid's eyes was stained red.
I was convinced it was the doing of the Calamity of Lust, the witch.
'So this was the goal...'
The reason the spirits were oxidizing meaninglessly.
It had all been mere stalling.
Every focus was for this very purpose.
'......'
Of course... Delbar would have anticipated something like that.
The meaningless repeated assaults... and the true intent hidden beyond.
But...
What Delbar hadn't anticipated.
Was the witch's power.
Bellamir, the Calamity of Lust.
Unlike other Calamities, her main body was weak.
But her most terrifying trait was...
Infiltrating a person's mind effortlessly.
"Annoying..."
Slipping through doors ajar, whispering in ears like a breeze.
Thus, eroding the mind.
So the maid, too, had been effortlessly possessed by the witch in this moment, without any resistance.
And...
[ ! ]
[ Branch point entered. ]
[ The story ahead will change dramatically based on the player's actions. ]
Thanks a lot. This time it's a branch point, not an achievement.
'......You bastard.'
Couldn't you time it better?
Did it have to be right now?
...I shoved the system aside and thought.
'The target... Carnel's mother?'
And I was convinced once more.
Why Duke Delbar never appeared even once in "Akareang."
It was surely because of the Calamity of Lust, the witch.
- Shoooo...
I quietly pointed my sword tip at the floor.
The abyss spreading from the blade tip.
I would counterattack however clumsily, protect Amelia—who seemed to be the witch's target—and wait for reinforcements.
But...
That was the wrong judgment.
Swish.
"For some reason... you look tastier."
In the blink of an eye.
The witch stood before me.
I immediately activated 【Leviathan】's unique skill.
Instantly, the hidden Mikurebi revealed itself, manifesting with its power.
But...
─────!!
The abyss scattered into illusion at her mere gesture, like awakening from a dream.
Swish!
I retreated without hesitation and pointed my finger at the witch.
Weaving the melody of mana, layering another line atop it.
Inscribing silence.
"Your mind... it's pitch black."
The witch met my eyes.
Crimson pupils.
And I... intuitively knew they weren't ordinary eyes.
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【Bellamir's Eye】
Grade: Legendary
Remnant left by the previous 「Calamity of Lust」.
That eye still dreams.
Unique Skill
: 【Reverse Dream】
Guides the mind of whoever meets the gaze into the 'Reverse Dream'—a back side world.
※ Destroys upon use.
The moment you meet that eye's gaze, you no longer remain in reality.
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That eye...
Emitted a chilling, eerie glow that swallowed me whole.
- Crackle...!!
Mana surged wildly from my fingertips.
Space twisted... and between the folds of reality and unreality, a singularity opened.
"Event horizon......"
I gritted my teeth and barely uttered 【Word of Command】.
Inside the mask, blood trickled from between my lips.
But...
"Sleep..."
Sudden drowsiness flooded in.
Consciousness blurred, eyelids grew unbelievably heavy.
The world's sounds faded.
Everything sank.
...Toward the boundary of reality and dream.
"Into a dream from which you will never awaken..."
Splash.
In an instant, it felt like plunging into deep ocean depths.
My body locked.
Breath choked, vision warped.
"To the abyss where your desired ideal sleeps..."
I flailed, sinking with my consciousness.
...Desperately clinging to my mind.
That was when.
- Beep! Beep!
...A blaring magic tool alarm pierced my eardrums.
I realized I was lying in bed.
'...My room?'
Delbar ducal mansion.
My room.
......What is this?"
A murmur slipped out unconsciously.
And that made me startle myself.
"......Huh?"
...I spoke, but no blood flowed.
No horrific pain from opening my mouth behind the mask.
...Plop.
I touched my lips.
...No cold mask texture.
I sat up and slowly turned to look at the mirror beside me.
"......"
In the mirror was "me."
"Me" without the pure white mask or the stigma.
The familiar yet estranged "Adel" was there.