Night of the Full Moon (9)
Night of the Full Moon (9)
Ian looked down silently.
Pinned beneath him was the heroine, Rina Rosewell.
"Calmed down."
He exhaled in relief at her subsiding struggles.
The culprit was, unsurprisingly, the tiny blue mushroom sprouting from the crown of her head.
So small you had to squint to see it, yet it had thrown a person around like a rag doll.
The moment he removed the mushroom and applied emergency first aid, her movements stopped.
"Breathing, at least."
He could feel the faint, trembling flow of air through her partially constricted airway. He'd had no choice but to stop her from attempting to summon a high-ranking evil spirit.
She was completely unconscious, so he could afford to ease up now.
Ian loosened his grip on Rina's neck slightly.
— Hee-ssss, hup.
She inhaled at once. Her breathing didn't seem seriously impaired.
"A high-ranking evil spirit, out of nowhere..."
Even if the blue mushroom had inflated her abilities two or threefold, this was a staggering result.
A spirit mage's summonable spirit grade is bound by their magical power, but the grade they can even attempt to summon depends on the size of their vessel.
Meaning that even if the mushroom infection artificially boosted her magic, the vessel named Rina Rosewell was fundamentally capable of handling a high-ranking evil spirit summoning.
"Guess a heroine really is a heroine."
It was just further proof that a 5-star potential rating wasn't given out lightly. The title of heroine wasn't something easily earned.
"Well, that aside."
Ian rose from where he'd been pinning Rina down.
He shifted slightly and settled beside her.
"Hm."
Rina's blue mushroom infection level was extremely advanced.
To question her directly, he obviously needed to perform a proper purification.
He reached out and placed both hands on her upper abdomen.
To be precise, the area between her navel and chest.
Then he slowly activated the Earth Goddess's Authority, Dishwashing. A pure white energy gathered at his fingertips. He channeled it through his hands into Rina.
"Hngh..."
A moan escaped Rina's lips. Her body convulsed, trembling. The pain was only natural. The contaminated energy of the blue mushroom, saturated in every corner of her body, was resisting the purification.
'From the top of her head to the tips of her toes, it's saturated to a genuinely horrifying degree.'
With that much foreign energy inside her, it would have been stranger if she hadn't grown stronger. The degree of metastasis was severe, so her consciousness was likely unclear by then. In her final moments, she was essentially nothing more than a host for spreading spores. The mushroom hadn't possessed that unconscious girl for nothing. If he'd left her like this, half the girls' dormitory might have been infected by spores, and the other half could have become fodder for the Blood Rock cultists.
"Then, shall we begin?"
Ian closed his eyes.
He then amplified the output of his Authority.
Her body, subjugated by the mushroom spores, rejected the divine power.
He felt as if the connection with her had narrowed considerably.
"Hnghk!"
Rina's breathing grew ragged.
The spores' energy resisted.
But it was just mushroom spores, in the end.
- Ssssss.
He pierced through with the Authority's power.
The resisting energies burned away. In an instant, like a dike bursting, the Authority flooded in and purified every corner of Rina's body.
"Haa-auughk!"
Her body spasmed, but Ian ignored it and applied even more force.
"Endure it."
He pressed down with his hands, anchoring her flailing waist, and rode the momentum to inject the Authority.
Her clothes grew damp. Transparent beads of sweat formed; then bluish energies began to bead and trickle out.
"Hnk, hk!"
Her whole body flushed pink. A single stream of blood ran from her nose.
Her tightly clenched lips were crimson, as if about to burst. The breath escaping her was searing hot.
But he couldn't afford to be gentle.
Ian relentlessly poured in Authority, with the momentum of someone determined to scrub every last cell clean with Dishwashing. And finally, he caught even the spores he'd driven up to the very top of her head.
— Tremble.
Rina's body quivered, then went limp.
From the corner of her mouth, he sensed a faint but unmistakable breath.
"Hoo."
Only then did Ian exhale deeply.
He wanted to rest for a moment, but instead he immediately sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
He had been exposed to the spores and might have been affected.
Just as he suspected, contaminated energy had seeped into his body here and there.
"How dare a mold, of all things, set its sights on a human."
He immediately wiped it clean with Dishwashing. How dare mere mold set its sights on a body imbued with a goddess's Authority?
"A hundred years too soon. A hundred years... More importantly, why is it so sticky?"
Ian's brow furrowed as he lowered his gaze.
Blue bodily fluids had seeped out of Rina's body.
The byproducts of the purification process had pooled around them.
Ian at once activated Dishwashing.
— Flash.
The blue energy vanished, and the stickiness thinned somewhat.
It was still a bit damp, but... well, this much seemed bearable.
"Detestable spore bastards."
While he was at it, he purified all the bodily fluids that had soaked Rina and her surroundings.
For a short while, he hunted down every last blue trace and purified it.
"Hm?"
A gentle, earthen light enveloped Ian.
This subtle energy. It was the same feeling as when he'd encountered the Earth Goddess statue before.
"Oh?"
He instinctively sensed that his Authority had grown.
Ian closed his eyes and focused on Dishwashing.
- Flash!
The Authority activated without any need for physical contact with the target.
Light radiated out, purifying the room.
If the old 'Dishwashing' was like having to scrub spotless with detergent by hand, then now...
"Is it more like a dishwasher now?"
From dishwashing to a dishwasher... His Authority had unexpectedly advanced a step. It was quite pleasing. Pleasing, but...
"......."
The terminology was a bit... a bit something.
Ahem. If it's good, it's good, I suppose.
Shake, shake.
Ian shook his head to dispel the stray thoughts.
Rather than such useless musings, the priority was this scenario's final boss.
Rina Rosewell, who had fallen into a peaceful slumber.
Her face, once full of venom, had relaxed.
Her hair, which had turned blue, was regaining its original color.
Thus, the girl who would have been the final boss of Chapter 1, Act 1 returned to her original heroine's appearance.
Looking at her eyelids, gently closed, and the eyelashes softly fluttering above them, he had to admit it: a heroine was indeed a heroine.
The current Rina Rosewell was harmless. He had purified every last bit of the mold that had multiplied her abilities several times over. Even if she were to spring up now and suddenly start casting magic, Ian was confident he could block her without difficulty.
'I've grown that much, too.'
Seeing that harmless figure, a thought suddenly surfaced.
In a game, the premise that heroines must be kind-hearted is a given. They smile brightly the moment they see the player, they like him, they cling to him. No player ever suspects that there might be falsehood in the heroines' actions.
But.
To Ian, this place was not a game but reality.
Heroines are people too, and no one is purely good.
Or rather, let him put it this way: A heroine who is only kind is nothing more than a doll, isn't she?
"...I have no choice but to think that way."
Having to constantly suspect the heroines.
That was the fate of Ian, the one who possessed Pongpongi's body.
And so, at this point, he couldn't help but arrive at this thought.
'I'm glad you're human like this.'
He was glad they weren't girls who just seemed blindly nice, that they had corners which invited suspicion.
He could be cold-headed.
And precisely because of that, he was finally able to suspect, converse, and come to understand one another.
To face them not as game heroines, but as individual people who appear in reality.
"Nnn. Ian."
Rina murmured, her lips twitching.
Outside the window, the bright full moon was fading before he knew it.
The end of this scenario was approaching.
The final villain, Rina Rosewell, had been purified like this.
Soon, the professors, having grasped the situation, would belatedly rush to this place, Median House.
"A handprint was left on her neck."
Perhaps he'd gripped too tightly earlier, because red finger marks remained on her pale white neck.
It seemed like it might cause a misunderstanding if anyone saw it, but...
Well. A handprint was something that could be dealt with later.
More importantly, he still had questions to ask her.
Ian lightly shook Rina.
◆
Her vision slowly brightened.
Rina wrestled with her hazy consciousness.
Was she dead? Or had she somehow returned to reality?
— Blink, blink.
Her two eyes flickered open.
Only then did her vision fully return.
It was the dormitory that now felt like home.
And 'he' was standing there, too.
"...Ian?"
"You're awake?"
"...Yeah."
Ian Blackangus.
He was gazing at her with the same cold eyes as always.
The reason her heart raced at those eyes.
Rina now knew that reason.
"U-um, listen."
How should she say this?
Gratitude, apology...
"So, I mean. Thank you, no, sorry comes first... um, well."
A multitude of emotions tangled, and her mouth moved on its own.
Even so, she had made a resolution. She would definitely apologize. She would gladly accept whatever punishment he gave her. She had to convey that to Ian somehow.
But Ian shook his head firmly.
"Save that for later. More than that, I'd like you to answer my questions."
"...Huh? B-but!"
Fish-like, gaping.
Rina panicked, her lips wandering.
She needed to apologize. And she needed to thank him for saving her like this. She needed to thank him for waking her from her pretense of goodness.
"Rina."
Ian cut her off with utterly cold finality.
His cold gaze was like a father scolding a child for being petulant.
'Ah.'
Only then did Rina realize her position.
She was deeply indebted to Ian. What he wanted, what he desired, took priority over her own petty wants.
Realizing her position, Rina bowed her head deeply and answered.
"...Okay."