Night of the Full Moon (4)
Night of the Full Moon (4)
Her mind was a disaster zone.
Mercy struggled to cling to a vision that kept trying to blur.
Arms and legs bound by magic.
From the bed where she lay half-collapsed, a faint, intimate scent rose up.
And pressing bare skin against her was none other than the room's owner, Rina Rosewell.
"...Nngh."
The first thing she'd felt was definitely fear.
Anyone could see Rina Rosewell was not in her right mind.
The Blood Rock Sect drained life force from its victims' blood.
No way to resist. She was going to die here. Mercy's lips quivered.
"Sweet."
Rina's lips touched Mercy's neck. She had been certain they would start sucking blood. Instead, a long red tongue traced slowly down her collarbone. The sensation was rough yet intoxicating, and Rina hastily bit down on her own lip.
"Don't be too scared. It's my first time, too. But I'm sure it'll feel good. Good enough to make you beg for more."
A voice dripping with cloying sweetness. Rina Rosewell's breath was thick with a strange heat. Transmission of the blue mushroom spores happened through the exchange of fluids. The process was practically an aphrodisiac, and the infected could never overcome the pheromones released by the vector.
Rina Rosewell gently stroked her body.
Beyond the affectionate, tickling touch, a ceaseless stream of dark energy flooded into her. The crimson light of the dyed moon stoked the heat even higher.
Mercy's toes curled at the fatal temptation.
'This is bad...'
No matter how hard she tried to hold out, Rina's cloying breath felt impossible to withstand. The rational mind that terror had buttressed began to collapse, as if a hole had been punched in a dam.
— Thump. Thump.
A fierce heartbeat pounded hard enough to shatter her sanity.
"...Hah."
A sound that signaled her readiness slipped, alluring, from Mercy's throat. Rina's eyes curved into crescent moons.
Her lips teased Mercy's body here and there, and just as she was about to absorb Mercy's heated fluids—
— Shk.
A light breeze stirred.
Rina turned her head towards the door.
A handful of her icy-cold hair fell to the floor.
At the same time.
— Crrrack.
The door, scored with diagonal lines, split in half and slid to the floor.
— Clack.
A long leg stepped through the ruined door. Staring at that composed figure, Rina murmured absently.
"Sharon Pierce."
Sharon swept the room with her eyes and frowned. She didn't care what those two women had been doing pressed together. Her only concern was gauging Rina's condition.
"Stop."
A slender sword was thrust forward without a moment's hesitation.
Rina smirked.
"Pointing a sword the moment we meet. How very like the Frost Knight, Sharon."
"Step away from that girl. Hands up."
"And if I don't want to?"
Rina brought her mouth to Mercy's body, eyes fixed on Sharon. Her eyes grew redder with every twitch of her throat. Mercy's legs shuddered.
"Seems like she's enjoying it quite a bit, too."
— Shk.
A clean blade of aura.
Instead of an answer, the hair on the other side of Rina's head was cut.
The edge of Rina's raised lips stiffened slightly.
"Ahh. The sides are so hard to grow. That's cruel. Hehe."
"Come to your senses, Rina Rosewell."
"I am in my senses?"
"I'd prefer you stopped talking nonsense."
"You know, Sharon. Lots of people might like your cold side, but I think just as many envy you and resent you for it. It's like you lean on your skills a bit too much and throw your weight around."
"......."
"Oh my, did you already know?"
"Haah."
Sharon let out a short sigh.
What on earth had made Rina Rosewell change this much?
She could scarcely hazard a guess. Her original plan had been to deal with Ian neatly, starting with the disciplinary committee. That plan might be falling apart now.
"You're broken. Why?"
"I must really look that way, huh? Lately people have been giving me strange looks. It hurts, you know. Ahaha!"
Rina laughed lightly.
For a fleeting moment, the usual Rina Rosewell could almost be felt in that expression.
"Angrlam."
And then, flowing like water, a high-rank spirit summon.
— Fwissssssssh!
Sharon hastily deployed a frost barrier, and sublimated moisture filled the air.
Overwhelming magic power. She wouldn't have blocked it without going all-out.
Sharon's eyes filled with shock.
Rina Rosewell, on the other hand, just beamed at her.
"But I've gotten stronger than before, you know?"
"......."
"So? Do you feel like paying a little attention to what I say now?"
Sharon glared wordlessly at Rina.
Taking that as a sign of surrender, Rina plopped down on the bed and swung her feet as she spoke.
"You know, Sharon. I was actually going through a rough time?"
Her tone was relaxed, as if confiding in a close friend.
It must have been her original way of speaking, which made it feel all the more alien.
"Always smiling, always considerate of others, always kind. That's the Rina Rosewell everyone thinks of, right? But you know what's funny?"
Smirk.
One corner of her mouth curled up as Rina walked to the desk.
Then she picked up a small doll.
On its surface was embroidered: [To a Close Friend.]
"When things actually got hard for me, nobody helped."
— Fwoosh.
The doll turned to ash.
Something once clearly cherished, but no longer.
Flick. Flick.
Rina brushed her hands clean.
"I lived my life being super nice, you know? But when I was starving and scraping by, nobody helped? Hehe..."
Rina Rosewell's body swayed precariously back and forth.
Entirely separate from the madness in that motion—
Sharon Pierce opened her mouth.
"I understand Ian Blackangus took care of you."
"That bastard is—!"
— Crash!
Rina slammed the desk. Her face crumpled into a vicious snarl.
"Would you mind not bringing up that bastard's name?"
"Weren't you in the same class? He's your classmate."
"Classmate? That? What kind of nonsense is that? It was just a coincidence we were in the same classroom."
"The fact that he devoted himself to you is already a well-known rumor."
"Sharon, isn't it the same for you?"
"...My case is different."
"Funny. Who gave you that sword as a present? If you calculate everything you received by price, you got more from him than I did."
"How do you know that?"
"Like you said, we're classmates. So I had plenty of chances to observe. Ian, that is."
Sharon shut her mouth.
Rina, victorious in the verbal sparring, gave a twisted grin.
But soon the smile crumbled pathetically.
Ian Blackangus.
Thoughts of him burrowed back into her head.
The packed lunches. The supplies. The boundless generosity. And then the backstabbing and the betrayal.
A sudden inferiority complex towards Ian, who was now better off than her.
Emotions bordering on hatred.
Whenever she thought of Ian, all her emotions swelled up.
Her brain burned hot.
She felt like she might burst and turn into an idiot.
"I hate it."
"...?"
Rina began muttering to herself.
"The supplies he would hand over. The lunchboxes anyone could tell he made himself. All of it is disgustingly revolting. I hate it."
"I hate that he blocks my path so much I want to kill him."
"But hearing you talk, Sharon, it's true... He always made sure I had food."
"Why... can't I stop thinking about that guy?"
"I want to taste it again. That lunchbox."
Rina Rosewell muttered, tilting her head with bloodshot eyes.
She was a truly horrifying sight.
Sharon Pierce knew the traits she was displaying.
Sharon's mother had shown the same symptoms before she attacked young Sharon to drink her blood, so she could be certain.
"You're in the early stages of Blood Bloom."
"Blood Bloom?"
"It means you are becoming a kin of the Blood Fiends."
"No, I'm not?"
"Everyone thinks they are the exception."
"But I've never met a Blood Rock cultist?"
Rina tilted her head.
To maintain that level of reason even in the early stage of Blood Bloom—her mental fortitude alone deserved recognition. That was no reason to spare Rina's life.
Sharon ran her fingertip along the hilt of her sword as she thought that.
"Why did you come here?"
"I grew suspicious. Of your relationship with Ian... that man."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"The Kirtos Anonymous Board. There, 'Leaf' defended Ian Blackangus."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Because you, Rina, were the one operating as 'Leaf'."
Rina's eyebrow twitched momentarily.
"... Ahah. Busted, huh? I even deliberately put a little stumble in my words. Guess that much wasn't enough."
"At that time, you defended Ian Blackangus."
"I was just stating common sense."
"How is that common sense?"
"If that guy really did something wrong, then he just gets punished by the disciplinary committee. Why bother coordinating your stories?"
"That's what makes you soft. To handle a target cleanly, you must move with greater certainty and planning."
At Sharon's words, Rina tapped her lips thoughtfully for a moment.
Why was she trying so hard to bury Ian?
Rina had also wanted to get rid of him—but that was nothing more than a collection of momentary impulses.
A thought suddenly occurred to her.
"You know, something's just occurred to me."
"......?"
"Among you three... isn't there someone who has something weighing on them about Ian?"
Sharon's expression hardened.
The current Rina couldn't possibly miss a look like that.
"Would you look at that stony face on our cold city girl, Lady Sharon? Fufu."
"...Just as I thought."
"What is?"
"You, Rina, are clearly in league with Ian Blackangus."
Ian Blackangus had recently begun to show a different side.
If this woman had sided with him, that would explain things.
'Deal with Rina first, and cook Ian slowly afterward.'
Sharon glanced at the half-naked Mercy sprawled on the bed.
That will suffice as evidence. The family's honor won't be besmirched.
"The Blood Rock Sect must be eradicated."
Rina Rosewell was now strong enough to be considered outside the norm.
Stronger, even, than Sharon herself.
Nevertheless, she could be cut down.
The entire conversation had played into Sharon's intent.
In that time, Sharon had dissected everything about Rina, from her breathing to the simplest hand gestures.
A single strike.
That would be enough.
She was confident she could land a surprise attack.
"Therefore, die, Rina Rosewell."
Sharon's icy blue blade-aura was just about to lance precisely towards the space between Rina's brows.
— Craaaash!
The ceiling collapsed, and a figure appeared.
"Whoops. Took a wrong turn."
It was Ian.