The Disappearance and a New Phase
Bradley chewed his lip again and again, muttering her name like a broken record. “Damn it! Melina, Melina, Melina…”
The man’s legs shook so violently in the desk chair that the entire wooden surface trembled with him. “Where the hell did she disappear to!”
He raked all ten fingers through his hair, tearing out clumps of pink strands that drifted to the floor. His bloodshot eyes flicked to the clock. After several sleepless nights the red veins stood out so sharply they looked almost crazed.
Eleven at night. One more hour and it would be exactly seven days since Melina had vanished from the city of Bremen.
For six straight days the Fleming family soldiers and the academy’s forces had torn the city apart like hunters after a rat, yet they had not found so much as a fingernail clipping.
“I never should have sent that cursed thing with Melina!”
She had uncovered the identities of the people making Viagrak. Then, for her own reckless reasons, she had confronted them alone and been kidnapped. That was Bradley’s best guess. Knowing his sister’s personality—guided solely by her curiosity and love of fun—it was entirely plausible.
“I told her over and over not to act on her own…”
Even though he had correctly deduced the cause of her disappearance, there was nothing he could do about it now. He could never have imagined that Melina was at this very moment riding inside a crate on a carriage racing toward the Reinhardt Mansion, already deep inside the northern border of the empire.
“Please, Goddess Elysia, keep Melina safe. I beg you…”
All Bradley could do was pray for his sister’s well-being. His lips, already scarlet from being bitten raw, moved in a desperate whisper when a knock sounded outside the office door.
“…Come in.”
At his weak reply the door opened cautiously and a bespectacled middle-aged man stepped inside. He looked like one of the Fleming household servants; in his hands rested a small, already unwrapped box.
“A delivery has arrived for you, Sir Bradley. I came to bring it at once.”
Bradley frowned. “Haa… It’s probably just another bribe from people begging to join our lab. Couldn’t that have waited until morning?”
“Even to my humble eye the item looks far from ordinary, so I hurried… Forgive me.”
Bradley pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. “No, it’s my fault. Melina’s situation has made me overly sensitive. Just set it down.”
“Understood, Sir Bradley.”
The man placed the box on the desk, bowed, and quietly left. Bradley stared at the package.
“What could possibly have Alfred so worked up…”
He lifted the lid. Inside lay a crude, envelope-less letter and a magic stone glowing with a soft blue light.
“This is a magic stone—and a high-grade one at that… Wait, hold on?”
Realization struck. Bradley’s eyes flew wide. He shot up from his chair, clutching both the letter and the stone, and sprinted out of the office.
A short while later he was tearing through the warehouse like a madman.
“It was around here somewhere… Found it!”
What he pulled out was a magic projector, similar to the one once used in Wolfgang’s hideout, though noticeably cruder in design. Back when the Fleming family’s finances had been even tighter, they had given up on buying an expensive magic camera, but Bradley had insisted on purchasing the projector in anticipation of the day they could finally afford the real thing.
That dusty old machine was finally about to serve its purpose.
“Insert the magic stone right here…”
The moment the stone clicked into place, the projector hummed to life and began to glow. Before the image appeared, Bradley quickly scanned the short letter that had arrived with it.
To Melina’s Beloved Brothers,
To the older brothers who have lost their precious sister and now spend every night weeping, I send a video containing Melina’s final farewell. Please enjoy it with glad hearts.
“Her final farewell?”
Bradley barely had time to register the words before the video began.
“I’m sorry, Brother Bradley… and Brother Fredley… I… I can’t come home anymore.”
“Elysia have mercy—this can’t be real. Melina!”
The girl on screen looked like a sex slave straight out of a brothel, shamelessly displaying every intimate inch of her body. Even knowing it was only a recording, Bradley lunged at the image to stop her, only to slam into the hard wall.
While he flailed helplessly, the Melina in the video was taken by the man she called “Master.”
“Brother Bradley, look at Melina’s lewd little pussy getting pounded so happily by Master’s massive cock♡”
“M-Melina…”
His sister—writhing like a whore, moaning in ecstasy while an unknown man thrust into her. Was this truly the same girl he had known? The reality was too monstrous to accept. Bradley’s trembling legs gave out like a withered tree. He collapsed to his knees with a dull thud, staring with hollow eyes as his sister—now reduced to nothing but a whore—continued to be fucked on screen.
Yet even in the midst of shock and horror, his male instincts refused to stay quiet. Against his will, the front of his trousers began to swell.
The student council room at the academy, once a symbol of peaceful boredom, was unusually lively. Even though the seat belonging to Secretary Melina—who used to fill the space with her bright, carefree voice—remained empty.
Calling it “lively” felt almost cruel given the circumstances. Melina had disappeared without a trace. More than a month had passed since she had evaporated like mist on a summer day.
Since then the academy had been plunged into its greatest crisis since the first northern expedition that had forcibly conscripted so many faculty members. Melina’s disappearance, along with that of Cooper Malone—the male student who had followed her everywhere.
But the nightmare did not end there. In Melina’s private room they had discovered a hoard of Mandragora and the illegal magic drugs brewed from it. Beside them lay the body of a male student named Alex Piorn, dead from an overdose. He, too, had been infamous for trailing after Melina like a lost puppy.
The academy was now embroiled in the worst scandal imaginable: disappearance, death, and forbidden substances all tangled together.
Leopold, who prized the tedious order of everyday life above all else, looked at me with sunken eyes.
“Damn it… What does the board say? How did Sophia react?”
He gnawed on the nail of his right thumb like a baby sucking its finger. The left thumbnail had already been chewed down to nothing.
“The board no longer trusts us. We couldn’t prevent a student’s disappearance, let alone stop the mischief Melina was causing right under our noses.”
“This is a nightmare… Why did it have to happen while I’m president…”
Of course. That’s the real reason. He’s not worried about Melina or the missing boy at all.
I felt no particular sympathy for Melina myself. I had always known she was as dangerous as she was talented.
Leopold turned to Tania. “What about the Fleming family? Have they found any clues about the kidnappers?”
Tania shook her head, her face calm and unreadable even now. “The situation is not good. I hear Sir Bradley, who was acting as family head, is in a very bad state.”
“Damn it… First Melina, now Sir Bradley… Goddess Elysia, please watch over the Fleming family.”
Leopold muttered the prayer with all the sincerity of a stage actor. He knew as well as anyone that empty words would not bring her back.
“Haa… You still don’t get it, President?”
Jericho was staring at the gloomy Leopold. The latter waved a hand in disgust.
“Are we really doing this again? Jericho, ever since Arwen humiliated you at the banquet you’ve been obsessed with him.”
“Ugh, it’s not obsession. I’m saying he’s the only one who would pull something like this…”
Jericho’s face flushed scarlet—more from shame than anger. Apparently Arwen had once dismissed his family as completely unknown to him.
Heh. Arwen really is something.
Jericho had always subtly looked down on northern houses, typical of a southern high noble whose lands were rich and fertile. Hearing that Arwen had properly put him in his place raised my opinion of my older brother—if only by a grain of sand.
“Enough. Drop the subject. We can’t accuse Arwen on nothing but Jericho’s gut feeling.”
Leopold closed his eyes tightly, signaling the topic was closed. The Reinhardt family remained the spiritual pillar of the northern nobility. Without solid evidence, they could not brand the legitimate heir a kidnapper and murderer. Leopold’s judgment was correct.
Still, with the academic presentation right around the corner…
I had planned to settle things with Arwen during the upcoming event. My head already ached from worrying about him, and now I had to deal with missing and dead students on top of everything. Irritation toward Melina boiled up again.
You were no help until the very end, Melina… Wherever you are—alive or dead—I hope we never meet again.
“Mmm… refreshing.”
I took a deep breath, savoring the clean northern air. The academy grounds had become as familiar as my own front yard. The students’ laughter sounded like cheerful birdsong.
But my pleasant mood wasn’t only because of the fresh air. Thanks to Mr. Wolfgang properly disposing of poor Denian’s and the male student’s bodies, the Fleming family’s suspicions had never turned toward me.
After the corpse was found in Melina’s room, the academy stopped treating her as a tragic kidnapping victim and instead labeled her a problem child who had dabbled in illegal drugs. Their desperate effort to bury the scandal before the academic presentation began was finally bringing the chaotic campus back to normal.
“Well… I did almost get beaten to death by Raibel.”
After Melina had been safely delivered to the mansion, the letter from Raibel had taught me that a person’s rage could be felt through handwriting alone.
Every single word had been correct, so I could only read the letter in a chastened posture and bow my head in apology. Fortunately, Masha had worked hard to keep Melina hidden from prying eyes. Raibel had also been taking care of feeding her and cleaning up after her.
“I’m really sorry, Raibel…”
When I returned to the mansion I would have to reward both her and Masha properly. Still, everything had worked out. If I could successfully overcome the giant obstacle called Sophia at the upcoming academic presentation, I could return home with a light heart and resume training Cordelia and Isabel.
Lost in pleasant thoughts, I soon reached my destination—the academy’s version of a post office, where letters and packages for students were sorted and delivered.
“Arwen Reinhardt… One moment, please.”
The clerk rummaged through a pile of envelopes and handed me one.
“Here you are. It’s from Miss Montblanc again today.”
The name “Montblanc” was written in Raibel’s familiar, slightly crooked handwriting. I still didn’t understand why she had chosen the name of a cake, but it was her consistent pseudonym.
“Thank you.”
I took the letter and left quickly. Inside the carriage heading back to the dormitory I opened it. The contents were the usual daily reports: Cordelia was still sharp-tongued, Isabel was drinking even more heavily—ordinary updates.
“Mm… yes… uh… Fuck, what the hell is this?”
My quietly moving lips suddenly spat out a curse. At the very end of the letter, like a twist in a thriller, came the unbelievable news that my younger sister Cordelia would be attending the academic presentation as the official representative of the Reinhardt family.