Light (1)

When I opened my eyes again, the only thing filling my vision was complete darkness—not even a single speck of light. I rolled my eyes for a moment. Nothing was visible. All around me, only restless shadows dripped down thickly. A pitch-black backdrop, drenched in utter blackness. I let out a short hum and snapped my fingers behind my back.

"Hmm."

—Crack!

A light popping sound rang out. The faint echo quickly gathered into a handful of reverberations, filling the empty silence that had dominated the space. A single thread of noise shattering the quiet. And right after—

Whoosh—!

Flames bloomed everywhere. As if they had been waiting for that very sound, the torches hanging on the walls burst into life. The lights multiplied one by one until they spread enough to fill the entire space. The surroundings had grown bright enough in no time.

"Ugh… Y-Young Master?"

"…What on earth is going on?"

Two girls stood beside me. The children glanced around with clear panic written across their faces. Their eyes trembled faintly.

"I-I’m sure the magic circle was glowing strangely just now…"

"The teleportation seems to have activated, at least."

"D-Do you think we arrived properly…?"

"That’s… something we don’t know yet."

The runaway phenomenon that had occurred right before the teleport. Remembering the ominous flow of mana, the two girls didn’t let their guard down easily. They seemed to have decided that assessing the situation came first. Emilia calmly scanned the space we were standing in.

"This place feels… alien."

The air brushing against my cheek was unusually cold. A corridor stretched out before us. Yet no windows that might show the outside world could be found along the long walls. Only the torches placed at regular intervals illuminated the darkness.

Emilia fell into thought for a moment. Then, as if seeking my opinion, she tossed out a remark.

"It looks like an underground space, doesn’t it?"

"I think so too."

"The fact that torches are placed so densely suggests that no light reaches here even during the day."

"The absence of windows is also strange."

"At the very least, it’s clear we’re not at the academy anymore."

The unique, acrid smell of a basement brushed past. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scene was thick with dust, as if no human hand had touched it for a long time. Even so, the corridor stretched on endlessly, with no end in sight.

"…This feels really unpleasant."

The girl muttered quietly. As I silently surveyed the path, Legia, who had been standing behind me, grabbed my sleeve. Her fingertips carried a faint tremor.

"Y-Young Master."

"Yes, Miss Legia?"

"That emergency communication artifact we received… the signal isn’t working at all."

"What?"

I checked the bracelet on my wrist. It was the communication artifact each of us had received from Selena right before entering the exam. Originally, it should have been linked to the supervising professor’s mana and blinking with a blue light. But now it was completely dark, showing no signal whatsoever. It seemed to have stopped functioning entirely.

"It’s been like this ever since a while ago."

"Hmm."

I checked Emilia’s as well, but it was the same. In a situation where we knew nothing—where we were, whether we had arrived properly—our connection to the academy had been severed. In short, we were isolated.

"W-What do we do now…?"

"The academy must have noticed something went wrong with the exam. Don’t get so worked up."

"B-But, Lady Emilia…"

"I said it’s fine."

The villainess replied in an annoyed tone. She furrowed her brow with a casual expression, yet she was biting her nails—clearly anxious on the inside. A chaotic atmosphere swirled around us. I simply watched the situation in silence.

So… it’s flowing according to the original story after all.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. What filled my vision was the scene of an old basement. The deep darkness emphasized an eerie feeling. The damp air resembled the breath of some monster. Although this wasn’t the exam site… if you thought about it, we had arrived exactly where we were supposed to. After all, this was the stage for this episode.

I quietly recalled the details.

In the original story, the midterm exam had followed a similar flow. Legia’s group got caught up in a teleportation accident and woke up in a basement. If we stayed like this, those ‘things’ would soon come looking for us. We needed to move before that happened.

I spoke to the two girls standing there with serious expressions.

"Shall we look around first?"

"Y-Yes?"

"…Are you out of your mind?"

Both of them immediately turned to stare at me. I continued speaking calmly despite their gazes.

"I am perfectly sane, thank you."

"We don’t even know exactly where we are. And you want to wander around in a situation like this?"

"We can’t just sit here and wait forever."

"I’m against it."

"I don’t understand what you’re so afraid of."

I shrugged lightly, as if asking what the problem was.

"If we walk around, we might find an exit, right? Besides, since it seems to be underground, it looks like an artificially created ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠facility… We might run into someone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who lives here and ask for help."

"But it looks like no one has set foot here in a very long time."

"Then we should move even more. If there’s no one who can help us, I think it would be better for us to explore the surrounding terrain ourselves."

"…Hmm."

Emilia let out a low groan, seemingly deep in thought. Anyone else might have insisted on waiting in place, but since I had business here, I needed to take a look around. After all, there was someone I had to find in this place.

Because their whereabouts were so unclear, even my knowledge of the original story couldn’t solve it…

But today, the opportunity had finally come. This was exactly why I had willingly walked into the trap, even though I knew this midterm exam was one. Of course, if I said that out loud, people might wonder why I didn’t just use my power to tear the entire basement apart instead of wandering around. But searching a space this deep and vast would consume quite a lot of output. After all, its scale was comparable to Astro Headquarters. The structure was also far more intricately twisted.

I need to be careful.

I had no intention of wasting output for nothing. Since I had prepared for so long, I planned to finish this cleanly. Asking the boss to find your missing family member really was a terrible thing to do to an employee’s welfare.

As I reflected on that small lament—

"…Fine. You must have your reasons."

The villainess’s answer finally came. Had she fallen for the snake’s silver tongue? Or had she recalled the terms of our deal and reluctantly decided to follow me? Either way, I was grateful.

"Hehe."

I reached out and stroked her head as a form of praise. Her neatly arranged blue hair. Emilia frowned but silently accepted the touch. The way she radiated clear disgust was the highlight.

"Then shall we just keep walking straight ahead?"

"Do as you please."

"I-I’ll come too…!"

We began to move. Toward the corridor that had no visible end.

Meanwhile, at the deepest floor of the basement.

A hidden room that could only be reached after ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠descending seven flights of stairs tangled like a maze. A man was sitting there.

"They’ve finally arrived."

He wore a pitch-black robe. On his back was a pattern resembling tree roots—the symbol of the cultists. The man secretly rolled his eyes.

Tap, tap—.

His twitching fingers drummed on the desk. Unlike the neglected outer basement that seemed abandoned for ages, this place was neatly organized. In the direction his eyes were fixed, a screen was displayed.

"They’re responding more calmly than I expected."

The vast underground facility. The hundreds of magic tools installed in advance continued to rotate endlessly, projecting the situation. The man smiled ominously.

"The wench from the Vanity family, the top student of the year, and even a summoner who handles wyverns… It seems that fellow did his job well. To think I’d get my hands on such high-quality sacrifices."

It was madness spreading with a sinister aura. He stroked his grotesquely torn lips, then began writing something in the book he held. Dark red droplets fell from the ceiling—drip, drip. The more the paper turned red, the more turbid the man’s laughter grew.

"For now, let’s just watch."

It was the process of testing how excellent these sacrifices’ qualities truly were. He recalled the ‘creations’ he had released into the basement. Because resources had been scarce, most of them were low-level failures.

"But among them, I planted exactly one… ‘masterpiece.’"

He stared at the screen located in the farthest corner. At the center of the horribly disordered basement, only a bizarre shadow flickered. The man felt a spine-chilling thrill ripple down his back.

The greatest masterpiece created in Belzen. How much blood and flesh from living beings had he added to make it? His lips moved in a daze.

"…Beautiful."

He hoped the sacrifices would raise the ‘work’s’ level of completion. The corners of his mouth twisted in disgust. Already, the image of students drenched in blood flickered before the man’s eyes. His pupils, hidden in darkness, glistened with corruption. A tree taking root in ugliness. The man wiped his reddened eyes and clasped his hands together.

"Everything is for Him—who is the origin of all things and our master…"

After a brief moment of meditation, he closed his eyelids. The believer’s prayer, stained with blood, was a kind of sanctity tainted by adulthood. His vision went dark for a moment.

Thanks to that, the man did not see it.

The golden snake was flicking its tongue, staring at its prey.