Reaping What You Sow
After parting ways with Bella, I still walked toward the dormitory with a tangle of complicated feelings.
Her strange bout of forgetfulness earlier had ended up amounting to nothing special in the end… yet the last sight of her—claiming she was fine while looking thoroughly confused and hurrying back to her room—still sat uneasily with me.
Was it really just simple forgetfulness?
I myself sometimes blanked on the most trivial things… so maybe that was all it had been?
I hoped it was nothing serious.
Thinking that as I walked the dormitory corridor, another thought suddenly surfaced.
Ah, come to think of it—the experiment results. Are they out yet?
I had no idea what Elise might have managed to learn from my blood, but I was still a little curious.
If I could dig up even a single clue about this damned body of mine, that would be something.
Carrying that faint hope, I opened the door to our room.
And…
"Ah."
A short gasp slipped out of me unbidden.
The room was as always—or perhaps even messier and filthier than usual. Elise's alchemy tools and unidentifiable materials lay strewn everywhere, the acrid stench of chemicals stabbing at my nose.
That much was the familiar landscape. But something had changed.
Previously her experimental gear had at least been shoved into one corner. Now the tools were arranged in the middle of the room in a bizarre formation, as if erecting a barricade. Test tubes and beakers teetered in precarious stacks, and faint lines of some unknown powder had been drawn across the floor.
Almost as if… she were marking territory.
"……."
I stared at the grotesque spectacle with a blank, incredulous expression. Beyond that line, sitting on her own bed and fixing me with a frigid glare, Elise's eyes met mine.
"Uh… Elise? What is all this…"
Before I could even finish the question, she spoke first. Her voice was nothing like the usual timid one—cold, laced with pure contempt.
"From now on, don't you dare even think about crossing this line. You trash lesbian."
"……!"
Should I just hit her once?
I sincerely considered it. But I barely reined in that murderous impulse and clenched my teeth.
"…It's not like that."
I kept my tone as even as I could, yet Elise continued to glare at me with every ounce of wariness she possessed. I let out a long sigh, decided I was done dealing with her, and started toward my side of the room—carefully, so as not to cross the ridiculous line she had drawn.
"I'm not going to cross it, so stop staring already?"
I said it as I perched on the edge of my bed. Elise didn't even pretend to listen; she kept her guard up just the same.
What the hell is wrong with her?
I shot her a look of pure exasperation, then asked the thing I had actually come here to find out.
"So, how did the experiment turn out? Anything useful?"
My question made Elise freeze for a beat.
"What experiment…? Ah! That…"
"Well? What's the cause?"
I pressed.
"The reason my body can resist Contamination. Did you find anything at all?"
Elise hesitated a moment longer, then shook her head and answered weakly.
"I don't know. No matter how many times I analyzed it… it was completely identical to ordinary people. There wasn't a single special trait."
Hmm… I had half expected that. This body had clearly been meddled with by Transcendents; it was never going to yield easy answers here.
When I showed no particular reaction, Elise suddenly started watching my face and fumbled for words.
"Th-that is… since nothing came from the blood alone… ah, probably… my family… will try to take you away and research you more thoroughly…"
Her voice trembled with anxiety.
"Well, that can't be helped."
I shrugged.
"I'm already scheduled to head to Lapellasia after midterms anyway. Nothing new there."
…Why is she being so careful around me?
My nonchalance left Elise looking frustrated. She hesitated again, then seemed to steel herself and spoke once more.
"If you go to our family… you might really… end up in a terrible situation! Not just a little blood-drawing! Maybe even…"
"Hmm…"
I propped my chin in my hand and regarded her.
"Don't tell me you're actually worrying about me right now?"
I let a faint, almost fond smile curve my lips.
"Worry, my ass!"
Elise barked, then whirled around and flopped onto her bed. I didn't miss the way the tips of her ears had gone faintly pink.
"I-it's just… if the girl who shared a room with me ends up in some weird mess… it'll mess with my sleep! Don't get the wrong idea!"
Kind. Soft-hearted.
Kind enough to worry even about trash like me. But this damned world never left children that good alone.
Couldn't be helped.
I was an evil villainess, after all. And a villainess could freely ignore any promise she had made only moments earlier.
I rose quietly from the bed and stepped lightly across the ridiculous "line" Elise had drawn.
"…!"
Sensing my presence, Elise whipped her head back toward me. Her eyes went wide with bewilderment and fear.
"You… what the hell are you doing right now! I told you not to cross that line!"
Honestly, I was a little scared myself. The last time I had absorbed Elise's curse, my condition had been anything but normal—that intense, uncontrollable pleasure. Well… if it looked as dangerous as before, I could always just blow my own head off. It would work out somehow, right?
As I drew closer still, Elise shrank into the corner of the bed, face twisted in terror.
"…Don't come any closer! Get away!"
An ominous wave of Contamination pulsed near her heart. It had been quiet for a while… and now she was letting the curse run wild? At the exact moment the two of us were alone?
Highly suspicious, but what choice did I have? I couldn't simply leave Elise like this.
Her trembling breath and terrified eyes were right in front of me, yet—true to the role of an evil villainess—I no longer hesitated. I slowly reached my hand toward the area over Elise's heart.
"You… what the hell are you doing right now! I told you not to cross that line!"
Elise screamed in terror, but Yeon Bennet paid it no mind whatsoever. She casually stepped over the line Elise had drawn and kept coming closer.
The rumors had not been wrong. An irredeemable villainess. A lunatic who operated outside every shred of common sense. Elise bitterly regretted ever trusting someone like that enough to keep sharing a room with her, completely unguarded.
"…Don't come any closer! Get away!"
Elise cried out desperately, yet Yeon didn't even pretend to hear. She simply closed the distance, step by step. That blank face and those empty eyes felt more terrifying to Elise than any ferocious monster.
"Why… why are you doing this? If you have something to say, say it from over there—stay back!"
Elise tried her hardest to keep the tremor out of her voice, but fear already saturated every word.
Could it be… was that guess I made earlier actually true? Am I really the next target?
It hadn't been entirely baseless. The way Yeon looked at Professor Bella, the lewd glances she had directed at Elise herself… Still, if she was being honest, Yeon's reactions had been so funny that Elise had exaggerated a little just to tease her further.
But of course—true to her reputation as the worst villainess in all of Tera. Unfortunately, Elise's horrific suspicion seemed to be coming true. Watching Yeon reach slowly, without a hint of hesitation, toward her chest, Elise felt her conviction solidify.
That look. That hand. There was no mistaking it.
"Get away!"
Elise flinched hard and roughly slapped Yeon's hand aside in resistance. Yeon didn't so much as budge. As if she had anticipated the struggle, she swiftly climbed on top of Elise and pinned both of her arms down with raw strength.
It happened in an instant. Trapped beneath Yeon's body, Elise could do nothing.
Ugh—why is she this strong?
Elise was stunned. Wasn't Yeon Bennet supposed to be a problem child with mediocre grades at the academy? She had never once heard that the girl's magic or martial skill was anything special. Even granting that Elise herself couldn't properly use her specialties of magic or alchemy right now… the fact that she had been completely overpowered by sheer physical force—by a bottom-ranking troublemaker, no less—left her reeling with shock.
Yeon, as if Elise's thrashing meant nothing, once again reached slowly toward her chest. Restrained and unable to move, Elise could only watch that hand approach. Shame, terror, and rage tangled together until her mind went white.
Magic… should I use magic?
She wrestled with the thought desperately. But casting magic inside an academy dormitory—especially at another student—was of course strictly forbidden.
In that moment of hesitation—
Squelch—
Yeon's cold hand settled exactly over Elise's left breast.
In that instant, Elise was seized by a horrific sensation, as if something filthy and sticky were blooming up from inside her own body. What followed was an unbearable humiliation and revulsion, as though her most precious thing were being forcibly stolen away.
There was no more room for hesitation. Elise instinctively unleashed every last scrap of mana she had left toward Yeon.
Boom!
The sudden explosion of mana flung Yeon's body straight backward. She slammed hard into the wall and crumpled bonelessly to the floor.
"Gah…! Cough…"
The next moment, the fallen Yeon began coughing violently and spitting blood. Dark crimson poured from her mouth, soaking the floorboards.
What? That wasn't strong enough magic for this…
Elise was flustered. It had been an aggressive release of mana rather than a defensive spell, true—but nowhere near powerful enough to make someone vomit blood like that. And where had that monstrous strength that had so easily subdued her gone, for Yeon to collapse so pitifully?
A deep unease bloomed in Elise's mind.
Right then the dormitory door burst open and the dorm supervisor rushed in.
"What on earth is this commotion—gasp!"
The supervisor took in the scene and was so startled she couldn't finish the sentence. At the sudden appearance of the adult, Elise's body locked up. Her heart hammered at the thought that what she had done had been discovered.
Yet the supervisor only looked back and forth between the collapsed Yeon and Elise, then clicked her tongue and addressed Elise.
"Tsk tsk… Looks like that problem child caused another incident, Young Lady. Are you all right?"
"Yes? Ah—yes… I'm fine…"
Elise answered in a daze. The supervisor clearly assumed Yeon was entirely at fault.
Right. This isn't my fault. If that woman hadn't tried to touch me in the first place…!
Elise rationalized it to herself and nodded. Yeon was still sprawled on the floor, spitting blood in obvious agony, but the supervisor didn't spare her so much as a glance. Instead she spoke as if the whole affair were a nuisance.
"Yeon Bennet. Three additional demerit points for this disturbance. That brings your total to eleven. Per regulations, a disciplinary committee will be convened."
Without waiting for any reply, the supervisor roughly seized the fallen Yeon's arm and dragged her out of the room. The sight of Yeon being hauled away vanished from Elise's view.
…She's only reaping what she sowed.
Elise thought coldly and turned away. In the end, it was something the other girl had brought upon herself…