Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: The Rotten Thing (1)
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At dawn on the day of the exam, Resti sipped the tea brewed by Aphria's maids while poring over the exam paper.
"Hoo..."
A faint wisp of steam rose with her sigh.
It was spring, but the early morning air in Aphria was still chilly. She'd kept the window open to focus, so the room had grown quite cold.
"......"
Resti silently gazed out the window.
The sun was already rising. She'd ended up pulling an all-nighter after all. Still, she didn't feel too bad about it.
'Well, I've solved it all at least once.'
Fundamentals of Mana Trading, midterm exam.
She glanced at the exam paper she'd been given in advance and nodded slightly.
She still couldn't solve number 8. But she'd fully mastered 6 and 7.
'If only I can solve it in time.'
The calculation was especially complex, demanding full concentration no matter how many times she practiced... but it should be fine. She'd done it several times already.
Bathed in the rising morning sunlight, Resti stood from her seat. She washed her face simply and changed into her uniform. With that, she was ready to head out.
A few hours of sleep here wouldn't shake off the fatigue anyway. Better to just stay up all night, she figured.
Clink.
Gathering her notebook and writing tools, she left the central academic building. The crisp morning air chased away her drowsiness.
There were about three hours until the exam.
Resti headed to a reading room near the lecture hall. She wanted to solve the problems one more time in an atmosphere like the exam itself.
"......"
How long had she walked?
On her way to the reading room, Resti suddenly felt a sense of wrongness.
'...This isn't the way.'
This wasn't the direction to the reading room.
It was the hallway lined with professors' research labs—the opposite way.
Had she gotten lost from drowsiness?
No. Her mind was clear, and Aphria's layout wasn't easy to mistake. That fact only amplified her unease.
'...Something's off.'
The moment that unease began turning to suspicion—
"Ashen."
A voice echoed.
Resti turned toward the source.
"Repulsive Ashen."
The voice drew closer.
It approached without footsteps—only the voice itself.
"I've heard about you. The child chasing after the repulsive Ashen."
The voice, now close, was eerie.
Too low and sinister for a human, yet too articulate for a beast.
"Your tales were amusing. Even after centuries, you never change. Yes, that's why the Ashen are the most repulsive. You must not have learned it in the kingdom of their origins."
The voice slithered along the floor. The low murmur crept up from her toes, slowly corroding Resti.
"Even after centuries have passed, you haven't changed a bit. And you are the proof."
Resti's consciousness slowly sank.
"I remember the Ashen Elf. I was like you too, child. You resemble me."
A pile of bones crawled along the wall.
Indescribable things swarmed. Her eyes refused to comprehend the incomprehensible.
Her dilated pupils expanded further.
Before Resti's blackened eyes—whites pushed aside—a hand reached out from the voice's owner.
"■■■■■■, won't you?"
Beyond the fractured voice, gaunt bones appeared.
Blood flowed from the flayed bones. Black blood. In her hazy mind, Resti recalled what it meant.
Black blood belonged to traitors.
The realization snapped her dilated pupils back. Resti's eyes flew wide open.
"Yes, that's it."
Someone seemed pleased by her reaction.
He tapped her forehead lightly.
"I'll call when you're ready."
Resti's vision flipped upside down.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Blink.
Resti opened her eyes. She hadn't fallen asleep. She was standing in the same spot, notebook still clutched in her hand.
A single blink.
That's all the time that had passed.
'...What was that?'
Resti blinked repeatedly. Her eyes felt inexplicably dry. She stood there in a daze.
-The exam...
-...Hurry! We're gonna be late...
Voices reached her.
Students brushed past. Resti tilted her head blankly at the sight.
'Why are they rushing like that?'
There were still three hours until the exam.
Turning her gaze with that thought, Resti glanced out the window. The sun was up. Much higher and brighter than before.
"...Huh?"
Resti sensed something was wrong.
She hurriedly checked her watch. Only 10 minutes until exam entry.
Three hours had vanished.
In a single blink, entirely.
It felt like she'd been possessed by a ghost.
Resti hurried forward. Her steps were rushed, yet each one lacked strength.
Thud.
Resti collapsed to the floor.
Her legs had given out.
"Ugh..."
Rubbing her unresponsive ankle, Resti suddenly looked at her palm.
Her palm was red.
"...Blood?"
It wasn't flowing from her palm.
Blood kept dripping down. She looked up to trace its source.
Her reflection showed in the glass window.
Her face was pallid. Blood from her nose had stained her lips red. Her eyes were bloodshot.
No one would call it normal.
2.
Fundamentals of Mana Trading.
The midterm for this course proceeded as scheduled. Unlike other subjects, this exam was unique.
Students felt no strangeness or confusion upon receiving the paper. Instead, familiarity took its place. They'd stared at it for nearly a week, after all.
Even if they'd only seen 6, 7, and 8, the paper itself felt familiar.
"The exam time is 90 minutes."
And so, the exam began.
Most students started with number 6. 7 and 8 were beyond their interest from the start. They'd studied for a week and attended lectures, but even 6 was daunting.
Students wrote solutions based on memorization. But even that stalled halfway.
A few standouts reached the end of 6.
Yet even they couldn't find the answer. The path to the conclusion was far too convoluted.
30 minutes since the exam started.
Few students were still tackling 6 now. Instead of challenging their limits, they focused on the remaining problems.
And realized.
That the rest weren't easy either.
'1 is easy.'
Number 1 truly covered only the basics. Students finished it in under a minute.
'2 is doable too.'
It took a bit longer. But applying 1's formula made it straightforward.
'3 is... complicated.'
That's where students diverged.
Some built up formulas to solve it and moved on. Others stalled at 3.
'4......'
A handful reached 4.
The approach was the same as 1. But the number of formulas to stack was on another level.
Many got stuck at 4.
Only a few wrote answers for it.
'5.'
A tiny fraction reached 5.
That's where differentiation happened. 5 couldn't be solved with prior methods.
The solution required twisting the approach once.
Grasp that idea, and the answer came quickly. And where did that idea come from?
-Circuits are ultimately the sum of runes.
-Disassemble the circuit accordingly.
It came from the lectures built up so far.
Rak reached that insight.
Belnoa did too. They'd attended Professor Lania's classes closest to the front.
They applied those realizations to the problem.
Aila used her innate intuition for problem-solving. She could see the path ahead. She simply followed it.
Thus, each solved in their own way, applying what they'd learned.
Tick.
Time flowed on.
Drip, plip plop.
Until that sound began.
Plip plop.
Like water droplets falling. Someone glanced out the window, thinking it might rain. It wasn't. The sky was clear.
Had someone spilled water?
The exam was priority. Everyone pretended not to hear.
"Huh?"
But soon, a sound too blatant to ignore rang out.
"B-Blood... Re, Resti, you..."
A female student pushed back her chair and stood. The classroom grew noisy.
Eventually, some turned around.
"......"
In the back row, a student sat with head bowed.
She covered her mouth and nose with one hand while moving her pen with the other. The pen trembled faintly.
Finally, she dropped the pen.
It rolled across the floor.
"Ah."
She stared blankly at it.
The hand over her mouth fell away.
Blood streaked long across her revealed face. Her palm was bright red.
Her face was deathly pale.
Her lips quivered.
"Cough."
A dry hack sprayed blood droplets.
With that, Resti Eleanor collapsed onto her desk. Chaos engulfed the classroom.
And.
"......"
Raniel, standing at the podium, watched it all with cold eyes.
3.
During the exam, one student vomited blood and collapsed. It didn't end there. Several others convulsed. Most professors panicked at the phenomenon. They were unaccustomed to battlefields.
In contrast.
-Where's the knights' garrison?
One professor sought the knights immediately.
Professor McHart was one such. Though he hadn't shone in battle, he had field experience.
-Contact the knights now and call for reinforcements.
Mass student fainting.
Poisons manifesting on their bodies.
'Demonic energy poisoning.'
He recognized the symptoms instantly.
Arriving at the garrison, McHart realized he wasn't needed.
Numerous knights stood arrayed.
As if they'd anticipated the incident from the start.
And at the center stood the Hound he'd met before. He issued brief orders and headed somewhere. His footsteps led to Aphria's rooftop.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Aphria's rooftop.
The two sat there, gazing at the forest and clicking their tongues briefly. Invisible to ordinary eyes, but to theirs, the demonic energy filling the woods was plain.
"Looks like it's starting."
Tracker Kalt spoke first.
"This is why I hate altars. You can't know their location or medium until they're complete."
He tsked.
"Not knowing the medium is the real flaw. Once we do, we could start countermeasures immediately."
"I have a guess."
"Pardon?"
The Ashen Mage answered flatly to the question.
"I have a guess, but I can't touch it, which pisses me off more. You know how these altars are shit—they pick a target, and you can't stop it until the ritual finishes."
"...I know all too well."
Kalt shook his head.
He'd seen such an altar on the battlefield.
"Mess up the external stimulus, and what happened before... still gives me chills."
"Yeah, and this time's pick... screw up, and we'll have another Four Heavenly King."
"...That serious?"
"Think of her as having talent on my level."
...Talent matching the Ashen Mage?
Someone like that in Aphria? Curiosity flickered, but he held back.
'Not the atmosphere for it.'
Perched on the rooftop, Raniel rubbed her chin.
"Hope she pulls through."
"Isn't that tough?"
"Doesn't seem weak-willed. And I took one precaution."
With that, Raniel sighed heavily.
"The timing's such bullshit."
"Pardon?"
"Midterms today."
"...What does that mean?"
Raniel cracked her knuckles with a snap.
The sound was menacing.
"This was a meticulously crafted exam. I wasted two weeks perfecting it just to see how they'd do. Retakes are hard with the curriculum."
"Pardon...?"
"Fuck, I put so much work into this exam, and now this goddamn altar's ruined everything. You think I'm pissed or not?"
"Uh... I've never been to an academy, so..."
Kalt pondered how to respond to his former superior. She seemed angry, but the reason was baffling.
'...Usually, hiding's the answer in these cases.'
Unfortunately, hiding wasn't an option now. Worse, he had to deliver news that would anger her further.
'...This is fucked.'
Kalt took a slow breath and faced Raniel. Steeling himself to speak, she beat him to it.
"What is it."
"P-Pardon?"
"Spit it out if you have something to say. Don't drag it out."
Her gaze sent chills down his spine. Even with her changed appearance, that sharpness remained.
Gulp.
Kalt swallowed dryly and spoke.
"Uh, I mentioned reinforcements before, right?"
"Yeah."
"I sent them toward the altar site, so you probably won't run into them, but..."
"Stop beating around the bush."
Kalt squeezed his eyes shut and blurted it out.
"The reinforcements are Hero Kyle Toben! Saintess and Divine Archer might join too!"
He practically yelled it.
Kalt had supported both Raniel and Kyle. In other words, he'd witnessed the Saintess and Divine Archer's misdeeds up close.
So when he heard of Raniel's retirement, Kalt had thought:
Ah, it finally blew up.
'They must've had a massive fight...'
The Hero was one thing, but the mage's rage at the Saintess and Divine Archer joining was predictable. Bracing for a hit, Kalt waited with eyes shut.
"......"
But no reaction came after a long pause. Kalt slowly opened his eyes. Raniel looked down at him.
"So what."
"Pardon?"
"So what about it."
Her expression was nonchalant.
"At this scale, the Hero Party showing up is expected. Weirder if they didn't."
"...Yeah, true."
"And you hid it like some secret? Worried I'd flip?"
"Uh... yeah."
Raniel laughed in disbelief.
"Kalt."
"Y-Yes."
"I separate work and personal. At least on duty, I won't charge the Hero Party to my death."
Kalt sighed in relief.
But soon noticed the oddity.
"...What about off-duty then?"
"Who knows."
Crack.
Raniel smiled as she cracked her fingers.
"Maybe smack 'em once or twice?"