If You Did Wrong, You Must Be Punished (1)
If You Did Wrong, You Must Be Punished (1)
Master's prodding had shaken my concentration.
As a result, Winterer's surprise attack landed.
Faced with a lethal strike aimed at my carotid, I...
—Nibble. Munch, munch.
[The Trait 'Unyielding' reduces damage by 90%.]
"......?"
I wasn't particularly hurt.
My 'Unyielding' was a cheat-tier Trait that had withstood even a full swing from the Dueoksini's baseball bat.
Even if she bit down with murderous force, it would leave only faint tooth marks on my skin.
However, it had one tremendous effect.
-Squeeze.
'This position was seriously dangerous.'
Her legs were wrapped around my waist while she bit my neck.
Bluntly speaking, it was a face-to-face seated position.
Setting aside how much of our bodies were touching, it looked like a pose shared by intimate lovers.
It was exactly the kind of physical contact Master hated.
As if to prove it, I heard a sharp gasp.
"Hhk!?"
"......!!!"
'I had to explain this quickly...!!!'
I hurriedly opened my mouth.
I meant to explain that this wasn't what it looked like and that it had been a serious exchange of attacks.
———However,
-Ding!
[The caster's '???' has drawn close to the target's soul. Their souls are strongly connected!]
"......!!!?"
A notification that was familiar, yet not.
The sensation of hypnosis forcing its way into her soul.
The same thing that had happened when I broke Haru's brainwashing two weeks earlier overtook me.
'I had not even cast hypnosis this time, so why...?'
-Whooo....
Before I could understand what was happening,
[Assimilating with the target.]
-Flash.
My vision turned gray.
* * *
When I came to, I was inside Winterer's memories.
"It hurts, it huuurts...."
"W-we really succeeded, Lieutenant General Lee Wonho!!"
"Didn't I tell you it would work!!"
At the edge of my vision was a blood-soaked operating table. Mana raged around it. People embraced in celebration.
And lastly,
"Subject 1 succeeded on the first attempt. At this rate, surely...!!"
The people around her looked down and called her 'Subject 1.'
That let me understand the situation quickly.
I was experiencing the ultimate art of hypnosis, 'Assimilation.'
I was retracing the past through Winterer's eyes.
Just as I had with Haru two weeks earlier.
A shiver ran down my spine.
'Wait. What was my position with Winterer at the very end...?'
Setting everything else aside, there was one serious problem.
Until a moment ago, Winterer had been squeezing me with her legs.
She had also been gnawing on my neck.
In other words, in reality, Winterer and I were currently pressed together from head to toe.
...And now we were like that in front of Master, who was extremely conservative about such things.
'If I didn't finish this quickly, I was dead!!'
I became frantic.
Assimilation consumed only a fleeting instant.
Even leisurely reviewing all of Haru's memories had taken only one or two seconds.
But to Master, what were two seconds?
That was enough time to mince a man and woman doing unspeakable things in front of her, then wipe down her sword.
This was no time to leisurely experience Assimilation.
I had to escape immediately to save my life.
'As for canceling the hypnosis...'
[The skill 'Complete Hypnosis' is currently unavailable.]
'As expected, no. I had no choice but to watch quickly.'
Still, I had entered her soul by riding the hypnosis.
I could not use hypnosis again to escape.
I had no choice but to finish Assimilation quickly and get out.
'No choice. Time to become a skip addict!!'
-Flash.
I focused as hard as possible.
I searched for the most important points in her memories so I could jump directly to them.
If I skipped through them one after another, I'd eventually reach the end.
The scenes before my eyes shifted rapidly.
"Is this okay for me to eat...?"
"Of course. You're our pride, and you'll become our lieutenant colonel's sword."
Small hands moved busily over the spread of food.
"Krrgh... y-you said you would treat me well..."
"Subject 10 has already failed. We need a research specimen. Sorry."
"Grglglk...!!!"
Scalpels and all kinds of syringes were lowered toward the body bound to the operating table.
"Subject 1. Raise your hand. Lower it. Turn halfway around. Sit."
"......."
"Hoh. Brainwashing is more useful than I thought."
Moving like a dog before an officer with stars on his uniform.
The same brainwashing training Haru had undergone unfolded before my eyes.
The difference from Haru was that...
-Crash.
"I am human, you fuckers. I'm human..."
Unlike Haru, Winterer had resisted the brainwashing.
Whenever her mind grew hazy, she plugged her ear canals with ice.
She even froze her own flesh bit by bit.
Those days continued for years.
Her vision gradually turned gray.
"Hrhih, hrhihih...."
"......."
'A person was going mad in real time. Poor thing.'
Her eye level rose as the years passed.
Her red eyes grew murkier by the day.
Madness born of senseless violence.
It was enough to make even me briefly think, 'She was pitiful. Should I give her a redemption arc?'
But,
"Today is live combat. Go on. Fight that villain."
One day I reached while skipping.
It must have been extremely important to Winterer, because I could not skip it.
I had no choice but to watch it all...
My opinion of Winterer changed again.
"......?"
"What is wrong? You may speak."
"They said I was not allowed to hurt people."
"Ah. They meant you should not use your ability on us. That villain is fair game."
"Is 'villain' that person's name?"
"No. They decided to call monsters who think of nothing but killing people villains."
In the middle of the small training hall stood a villain bound in chains.
It was the first explanation of a villain she had ever heard.
———Immediately afterward, her gray world turned red.
-B-BOOM!!
"...!!? Subject 1, the brainwashing—"
"Haha, hahaha. I see. Then I'm a villain too. I'd wondered why I wanted to slaughter every last one of them. It must have been because I was a villain. Hahah! Heehee!!"
"Lieutenant General Lee Wonho, get clear!!"
"I had wondered why they were doing this to me. Khih."
Her arm reached toward a researcher, not a villain.
Her bloodied hand trembled with ecstasy.
"So I wasn't human after all."
-CRAAAAAAAAASH!!!!
Then everything exploded.
Her rotting madness bloomed into ice flowers heavy with crimson life.
Her black-and-white world turned blue and red.
"Whew, thanks. I thought the army bastards had found me and I was dead."
"There should be another laboratory. Follow me."
"Ugh. No. I'm getting out of here."
"Do you want to kill people, or die by my hand?"
"I am coming with you!"
After reducing one laboratory to ruins, she moved to another nearby facility.
Then came explosion after explosion after explosion.
The scene of a massacre unfolded before my eyes.
"Heeek. A v-villain...!"
"Now is your chance. Run, Dahye!"
—Patter, patter.
"...Aren't you going to kill those bitches too? Young ones have their own flavor when you kill—"
"Shut up and follow me. We're in a hurry."
The only survivors along her trail of ice were a few children awaiting implantation and civilians she happened to encounter along the way.
"Follow Big Sis. That is an 'order.'"
"......."
And lastly, Haru alone.
That left me conflicted.
'Judging by the slaughter alone, she was no different from a villain... Tch. It was ambiguous.'
Even in the grip of madness, she had deliberately avoided harming innocents.
She had killed only people involved in the 'Awakener Proliferation Plan,' so there was still plenty of room for reform.
But a massacre was still a massacre.
No matter how objectively vile they were, killing every last one of them was another matter.
The lieutenant colonel who had meant to become Haru's father had been caught in it and killed.
An understandable cause. An unforgivable crime.
After thinking for a moment, I decided to examine her memories more carefully from then on.
If Winterer had committed any more murders after that, I would abandon all hope and throw her into the 'Bottomless Abyss.'
"Winterer, mind if I go kill one person?"
"Hold it in. Do it later, when we're no longer being pursued."
"I do not think I'd get caught."
"You're too stupid to understand. Shut up and eat."
...I watched for about a year, and she never did.
If anything, she stopped others from killing.
'She'd have to pay for the massacre, but at this level...'
That eased my mind a little.
Enough for me to resume skipping quickly.
Scene after relatively peaceful scene flashed past.
Most of them involved Haru.
"Winterer, if you are not going to eat that Spam, give it to me. I'm hungry."
"It's for that bitch to eat."
"Is this that fattening-her-up thing again? You and I are both about to starve to death. You might as well—"
"Shut up. It is my choice."
She went hungry herself to make sure Haru ate.
She clothed her and gave her workbooks so Haru could handle the calculations for her.
She slept holding Haru every night, worried someone would hurt her in her sleep.
"You want me to find a way to break her brainwashing?"
"Yeah. I thought she'd be more fun to torment once it was broken."
"Impossible. If we could figure that out ourselves, she'd have broken it and run long ago."
"......Yeah. Too bad."
She had even subtly tried to undo Haru's brainwashing.
Even while skipping rapidly, I had to slap my forehead at that.
'Good grief. You really were a Wannabe Villain.'
Even in brief glimpses, it was obvious.
She cherished Haru like a real little sister and treated her well.
Her words only came out that way because her self-hypnosis had convinced her she was a villain.
Judging by her actions, she was simply a young girl heading a household.
Thanks to that, I made up my mind.
'I couldn't erase what she had done, but... she had treated Haru well. Perhaps I could help her a little.'
Her crimes were extremely grave, but there was still room for rehabilitation.
I would reveal the truth and make sure she received punishment proportionate to her crimes.
That was the conclusion I reached after examining her memories.
-Swooooo....
'Ah. It was almost over.'
As I thought that, the scene gradually blurred.
After passing through her long memories, I felt my soul slipping back out.
The last thing I saw was...
"Are you not going to retrieve that favorite-doll bitch?"
"It is about time I threw away a toy like that..."
"Don't lie. You spent a good ten seconds staring at the spot where you left her."
"......."
The academy lingered in her vision for a long time, betraying her attachment.
Through a gap in the ruined wall, she glimpsed Haru being carried away in the Chairwoman's arms.
"...All right. Let's go."
-Whoosh.
Only after seeing that did Winterer turn away.
* * *
And so I returned to reality.
—Squeeze.
"......."
"......."
The moment I regained consciousness, the crown of Winterer's head greeted me.
As expected, we were in something close to an embrace.
I felt no particular excitement.
'After seeing all that, it would have been disturbing if I felt anything for her.'
-Gently.
Instead, I found myself stroking her head.
Winterer simply trembled in my arms.
Her cheek was buried against my chest.
Her trembling arms and legs tangled around me.
—Clench.
"H-hic."
"......?"
'Why was she acting like this...? Ah.'
It was my fault.
Remembering those long-buried memories seemed to have triggered PTSD.
Pity welled up, and I stroked her head more gently.
-Pat pat.
"It's okay. Stay still, and you will feel better soon..."
"———Disciple?"
"Hick."
That was not it.
I started trembling too.
The reason I had skipped as fast as possible.
The reason I had forgotten while absorbed in Winterer's past now spoke from directly in front of me.
I cautiously raised my head.
"M-Mas..."
"My disciple."
"What are you doing with a villain?"
I came face-to-face with Master speaking in the clipped, icy tone she used only when truly furious.