The Last Memory (4)
The Last Memory (4)
"Gonna step out for a bit."
Olivia said it offhandedly.
Kiel's face asked why she had come all the way to his quarters to tell him that.
The time was 11 p.m. Perfectly suited for misunderstandings.
"Your Ki Sense is good. We're in different quarters, but you'd notice the second I left. So I'm telling you in advance. If I didn't say anything and just went, you'd follow me."
"Mm..."
Kiel couldn't deny her words.
"Can you tell me where you're going?"
"I'll be back soon. An hour? Two at most? There's someone at the academy I know. We're just going to catch up after a long time."
"A student? Or a professor..."
"Hey, am I a child to you? Do I have to report that much?"
Kiel shut his mouth. If Olivia had other intentions, she wouldn't have bothered telling him any of this and would've just left quietly.
"Anyway, I'm off."
"R-Right... Understood."
Olivia stepped outside. Even in the middle of the night, the academy was filled with light. Everyone seemed absorbed in their studies.
[Skill 'Blink' activated.]
Olivia's form vanished. When she opened her eyes again, she was in the hallway of the fourth-year dormitory.
Like every educational institution, the academy firmly revolved around merit. Although the empire was a class-based state, the current emperor had, at the very least, been pursuing policies favorable to commoners.
'More precisely, not policies favoring commoners, but policies favoring ability.'
The emperor knew that geniuses were forged by education, not social status.
Not that they discriminated against students by ability. They merely introduced some slight differentiation.
Students with lower grades were placed on the lower floors, and students with excellent grades were placed on the upper floors.
Olivia climbed the stairs. Second floor, third, fourth, fifth. She didn't stop until she reached the very top.
Five doors stood before her.
Which meant the top five graduating fourth-years were on this floor.
'Let's see... Which room number was it?'
Olivia had come here for only one reason.
To delay the date Belphegor was summoned.
Among them, Olivia stopped in front of the door marked [Room 1]. She reached her hand toward the handle. That was the moment.
"You there."
A voice called out to her from behind. A female student with a sharp impression stood there, arms crossed, glaring at Olivia.
"Seems you've found the wrong room."
The female student took two steps closer.
"Who are you? I've never seen your face before."
"..."
Olivia pulled her hand back from the handle. The young daughter of Viscount Kainel. She was notorious at the academy for her attitude, but at least she wasn't a demon worshipper.
"Don't just stand there—explain yourself. How dare some nobody with no pedigree stand in front of Lady Yekaterina's room..."
The female student couldn't finish. The clouds shifted, and the faint moonlight through the open window fell across Olivia's face.
The female student's eyes widened. Her jaw slowly dropped. She stood there like that for a long while, having forgotten what she'd even meant to say.
"Uh, u-uhh... Uh? U-uhh?"
"You know me?"
"O, O-Of course I do! A-Anyone from the Magic Faculty would! Th-There isn't a single student who doesn't know Lady Olivia. Wh-What I said informally just now. Th-That was, well..."
Olivia stepped closer to the girl. Then she raised her index finger and brought it to the girl's lips.
"Quiet."
"...!"
"You can do that, right?"
The female student had even forgotten how to breathe. She just nodded furiously.
Olivia waited until the girl had recovered her breathing before lowering her finger and stepping back.
'Who was she again? I can't remember her name.'
Ranking among the top five in the graduating class meant she had some ability, but she was a minor character who appeared only briefly in the middle-to-late game.
The female student's lips trembled.
"M-M-M-Might I ask what business b-b-brings you here?"
"..."
Olivia considered briefly. If she had her way, she'd knock out this noisy girl, set her aside, and barge straight into Yekaterina's room. Unfortunately, Olivia didn't know how to use mental magic.
'And I can't exactly freeze her and stuff her in a room either.'
She couldn't let Kiel remember her as "the bitch who said she was going to catch up with someone but instead froze innocent students and threatened them."
"I'm here to see the occupant of this room."
"Y-Y-Y-You mean Lady Yekaterina? Ah, no. You mean Yekaterina?"
Even down to the minutiae of honorifics.
She was a more decent person than expected.
Pity she couldn't just be quiet.
"D-Don't tell me you're here to take Yekaterina as your disciple? W-Well, I suppose to become your disciple one would have to be the top of the year. Though, even that feels a little lacking... They'd at least need to be a head mage..."
"Quiet."
"I-I'm sorry!"
The female student immediately bent at a ninety-degree bow.
"Student."
"E-Elma Kainel!"
"Right, Student Elma. Would you mind going back to your room now?"
"O-Of course!"
Elma shuffled backward toward her room, watching Olivia the whole time, then gently closed the door.
Thud.
Olivia produced a wry smile.
'She's definitely awake.'
The evidence was the presence beyond Yekaterina's door—signs of life that hadn't been there moments ago.
If you caused a racket in the hallway late at night, it was more impressive if someone didn't wake up.
Olivia took hold of the door handle. Then she scattered mana past the keyhole. With a soft, sliding noise, the door opened.
Olivia stepped inside. The room was dark and silent—hard to believe it belonged to a duke's daughter.
Click, click.
The magical device meant to provide light didn't work. Looking closely, someone had deliberately disrupted the circuit.
Of course, she already knew who the culprit was. Olivia withdrew her hand from the device. Then she slowly moved toward the living area.
The room assigned to the top student of the year was spacious. With slight exaggeration, about the size of an average classroom.
There was nothing unusual. No magic circles drawn in blood, no corpses of sacrificial humans.
Olivia's expression was indifferent. Anyone who'd put things like that right in the middle of the academy—on the top floor, no less—would have to be insane.
Certifiably batshit.
"Come out."
Olivia spoke to the wall. An ordinary white wall with nothing distinctive about it whatsoever.
"I won't say it a third time. Come out."
Slither.
A viscous darkness oozed from the pure white wall.
It stank.
The darkness slowly took on human form. From the legs upward, bit by bit, it assembled itself in intricate detail. Finally, when even the hair had materialized—
"Hmm."
It—no. Lady Yekaterina raised the corner of her mouth.
"Pleased to meet you, Olivia."
"I'm not pleased, and I've never had a little witch brat like you as a junior."
"How cruel."
Olivia clicked her tongue.
Around Yekaterina roiled a vile magical power she couldn't stand to be near.
A mage who'd contracted with a demon.
A demon worshipper's mana was far more repulsive than she'd imagined.
'I can see why mages make such a big deal about demon worshippers.'
Snap.
Yekaterina snapped her fingers, and the candles in the room flared red. Beyond the flickering light, darkness could be seen crawling up the walls.
"That aside, how did you learn my secret?"
Olivia snorted.
A secret, by definition, only counted as one if the person involved intended to hide it. If Yekaterina had wanted to conceal that she was a demon worshipper, she should've pretended to be asleep in bed—not popped out of the wall like this.
But Yekaterina hadn't done that.
She was bold. Even relaxed.
"If you won't answer... I'll have no choice but to force that mouth open."
"..."
"So why did you come alone? You should've brought Duke Kiel with you."
The entrance she'd used was sealed off by darkness.
Now she couldn't tell whether this place was a dormitory or an abyss.
"Do you know something, Olivia? No matter what I do in here, they can't hear it outside."
"So what."
"I mean you can't call for help."
Yekaterina's smile was bewitching.
"You may be an Archmage, but it has only been a few years since you attained that rank."
"So, you think I'll be easy. Is that it?"
"Well, something like that."
Now she was grinning as if she knew everything.
That sort of attitude meant she had something to rely on. Handle an opponent like that carelessly, and you couldn't even break even.
But...
'A pathetic bitch like you running her mouth in front of me.'
She'd picked the wrong opponent.
"Hey."
At the sudden informal speech, Yekaterina blinked.
"Shut up and hand over the artifact with Belphegor's summoning circle."
"...How do you know that?"
Instead of answering, Olivia wore the exact same expression Yekaterina had just worn. When the mockery in that expression registered, Yekaterina's face twisted.
"You don't seem to grasp the situation..."
"I'm on top of it, so hand it over."
"Ha... I tried to end this amicably."
Yekaterina lunged immediately. Viscous darkness tore toward Olivia from all directions.
It resembled a colossal wave—sweeping away and annihilating everything before it.
But.
Crackle.
It didn't reach her.
Thud. The frozen darkness struck the floor and shattered.
Thud.
Thud, thud, thud.
The sound of darkness shattering echoed from everywhere. Then, at some point, silence soaked the room.
There was no more darkness left to fall.
'What the...'
Yekaterina couldn't grasp the situation right away. But the moment she tracked the source of the sound and looked down, her eyes flew wide open.
She couldn't move.
'...!'
From the tips of her feet to her mouth. She was perfectly frozen.
Olivia's blue eyes looked down at Yekaterina coldly.
"Hey."
Olivia clenched her fist.
"Do Archmages look like a joke to you?"
Crrrrack.
The tighter she clenched, the colder the air became. Crrrackle! The temperature plummeted until it couldn't drop any further. With nothing left to freeze, the cold began freezing the very air itself.
"...!"
Yekaterina's eyes writhed.
Her breath, her lungs, her blood froze. But no scream was permitted. No struggle to alleviate the pain was permitted either.
"Speak."
"Huaaack! Huh, huh, haaaack! H-haaaack!"
Her fading consciousness snapped back. Olivia melted only the ice around her mouth, just enough to let her speak.
"Huuuh... Huuuuuh..."
Saliva dripped from Yekaterina's mouth. But it didn't get far before freezing solid.
Barely rallying her senses, Yekaterina spoke.
"If y-you kill me, you'll regret..."
"What, if I kill you, the students you planted suggestions in will blow themselves up in suicide attacks?"
"H-How do you...!"
Olivia wore the same disdainful look as before. But Yekaterina's reaction was different this time.
"H-How... How could you... B-Betrayal? N-No. That's impossible. There's no way..."
"Hey."
Flinch.
"I told you just now."
"T-Told me what..."
"I won't say it a third time."
Olivia clenched her fist again.
"When someone asks you."
"W-Wait..."
"Answer."
The world froze over once more.