The Fall (4)
Perhaps because of the shocking scene they had just witnessed, Roseline and Chloe were unable to speak for a long while.
A person who had been alive only moments ago lay sprawled on the floor.
Someone who, until just now, had been screaming that it wasn't his responsibility and desperately demanding they hand over the signal stone.
And now, neither of them could say a word.
Roseline looked at Serena.
Serena was so calm that it was hard to believe she had just taken a person's life. Her breathing wasn't even slightly disturbed, and her fingertips didn't tremble.
She was smiling, almost tenderly.
"I'm the one who killed him. So there's no need to be scared, Roseline."
Roseline's lips trembled.
"Serena…."
There was nothing she could do but say her name.
Marien was buried beneath the pile of stones, and Theodore lay crumpled on the ground.
Chloe was clutching the rocks that buried Marien with bloodied hands.
And she herself…
was simply standing there, having done nothing at all.
"You…."
Roseline swallowed hard.
Her voice wouldn't come out properly, but she had to speak. This was not something that could simply be let slide.
"You just killed a person."
"Yes."
Serena admitted it in a light tone, without a shred of excuse. She didn't claim it was a misunderstanding, didn't say she'd had no choice.
At that sight, Chloe finally found her voice.
"You… just now…."
Only then did Serena turn to look at Chloe.
"So you saw."
The color drained from Chloe's face.
Serena's eyes went straight to Roseline.
"Chloe saw it. What are you going to do now?"
"What do you…."
"Are you going to let her talk?"
At those words, Roseline's breath caught in her throat.
Serena was trying to hide what she had done — and she was laying the responsibility for it down at Roseline's feet.
Choose.
"Why are you asking me that?"
"She's your friend, isn't she?"
Serena said quietly.
"You're the one who has to protect her."
Roseline glared at Serena.
Her body shook with rage and fear, but before either of those, an unbearable revulsion rose up to the back of her throat.
Yet even at the sight of her, Serena did not retreat a single step.
Then, from the darkness, a wet, viscous sound echoed.
Slither. Slither.
The black tentacle pinned down by Theodore's sword had apparently come loose. From the far end of the corridor, a black liquid was slowly making its way across the floor.
The smell — like rotting marshes mixed with scorched oil — came flooding back.
Chloe sucked in a breath.
Roseline instinctively moved her hand to search for her sword, but her body wouldn't obey. Pain shot up from her ankle, her shoulders felt heavy as lead, and her fingertips kept trembling. Even so, she tried to grip her blade.
"Perfect timing, actually."
"Serena?"
Silver thread slithered along the ground. It wound around Theodore's fallen body, binding his neck and arms, his waist and legs, and then lifted him slowly, as if hauling up cargo.
Roseline's eyes went wide.
"What are you doing?"
"Cleaning up."
"Stop it."
"He's already dead."
"That's not the point!"
Only then did Serena turn to face her.
"Then what is?"
Roseline was left speechless.
"If we leave him here, the professors will see him."
"…."
"You saw it. Chloe saw me kill him, so the cleanup has to happen."
At the flick of Serena's fingertip, Theodore's body was dragged toward the darkness.
"If that thing takes him, the story gets much simpler."
"Serena!"
Roseline took a step forward.
Her ankle buckled at that very instant. Just before she could fall, Serena's thread caught her lightly at the waist.
"Don't move. In your state, you can't fix any of this."
The black thing was drawing near.
When Theodore's corpse dropped before it, there was a brief silence — and then the black liquid surged over the body, devouring it little by little.
Chloe clapped a hand over her mouth at the sight. Roseline couldn't look away.
Until a moment ago, Theodore had existed. Now he did not.
Serena spoke as if it were nothing at all.
"From now on, Theodore Graham was dragged away and eaten by a monster."
"…."
"It's not a lie, is it?"
It wasn't a lie — but neither was it the truth.
Theodore had certainly been dragged off once by that black thing. And right now, he was being swallowed by it as well.
But one thing was missing from between those facts.
The part where Serena killed him.
"You really are… the worst."
"Yes."
Serena nodded and stepped closer to Roseline.
"But what you need to do right now isn't hate me."
"…."
"Look at Chloe."
Roseline's gaze shifted slowly.
Chloe was shaking in front of the pile of stones where Marien lay buried. Was it that she couldn't understand what she had just witnessed — or that she understood it all too well, and that was why her face looked like that?
"What happens if that girl talks?"
Serena whispered.
"If she says that Theodore was killed by you — that you saw it, and stayed silent anyway—"
"Stop…."
"The professors will come down. Someone died, so investigators will be dispatched. Chloe will have to retell it, over and over — from the moment Marien died, to the moment you stayed silent."
Roseline swallowed hard.
"Are you threatening me?"
"No. I'm giving you a choice."
"A choice?"
"Yes."
In the darkness, the Abyss writhed.
Serena spread the threads from her fingertips. Silver strands stretched out to grip the ceiling and walls, veiling the black residue and dust like a thin curtain.
"Will you expose me?"
"…."
"Or will you save Chloe?"
Roseline, unable to say anything, looked at Chloe.
Bloodied hands. Shoulders trembling intermittently before the pile of stones. The voice that had said she'd heard Marien's last words.
Even after delivering that message, Chloe still couldn't bring herself to look Roseline in the eye.
Roseline clenched her teeth.
"I'm not trying to cover for you. I'm… going to protect Chloe."
"Exactly."
Just then, a sound of stone cracking came from above.
Crunch. Rumble.
Light seeped through the collapsed ceiling. The magic circle's blue glow spread through the cracks in the stone, and soon the protective barrier's formation descended below.
The rescue team was coming down.
Serena slowly lifted her head.
"The professors will be here soon."
"…."
"Decide before they arrive. Theodore was taken by the Abyss. That's the only thing you have to say."
"Student Arzen!"
The supervising professor, the first to descend, stiffened the moment she laid eyes on Serena.
"Why did you go in ahead? You were supposed to follow containment protocol."
I didn't answer.
"Acting alone is a breach of our agreement. When a student interferes with a rescue operation without authorization—"
"Save that for later."
I pointed toward the darkness ahead.
The supervising professor's brow hardened.
"What did you just—"
"It's up ahead."
"What is up ahead?"
"The Abyss."
Wariness registered on the professor's face before understanding did.
Right. These people wouldn't know about any of this.
The black liquid was writhing in the darkness. The Abyss that had swallowed Theodore's body had not fully retreated. It crawled slowly along the walls and floor, surging upward as if trying to mimic a human silhouette — then collapsing again.
"It's a monster of a type I've never seen before. Mana contamination is severe. Do not approach it."
The supervising professor immediately raised her staff.
"Deploy protective barriers! Rescue team — extract the survivors first!"
"Get the injured out first. That thing is faster than you'd think."
"Students do not give the orders here."
The professor snapped briefly.
But her gaze was already locked on the darkness ahead.
As the barrier formation unfurled, a blue membrane spread across the ground — and when the black liquid touched its edge, a strange sound rang out.
The Abyss fled, abandoning its position.
It lowered itself into the shadows, receding backward like flowing water. The professors did not pursue it.
The rescue team went to Chloe first.
Chloe hadn't moved from Marien's side.
"Student Hartwell. Let go of her."
"No."
"Evacuation comes first right now."
"I said no."
Rather than forcibly pulling her away, the rescue team approached the pile of stones where Marien was buried.
Marien's body was slowly drawn out from beneath the rubble.
"Death confirmed."
The moment those words fell, Chloe's shoulders collapsed.
Roseline did not close her eyes.
It felt as though, if she looked away from this too, there would truly be nothing left.
Then the rescue team asked:
"And Student Graham?"
Serena said nothing — she was simply looking at Roseline.
I have to tell the truth. That I watched Serena kill Theodore.
But the moment those words left her mouth, Chloe would be dragged back into the middle of that scene all over again.
Before the pile of stones where Marien died. Before the floor where Theodore fell. All the way back to the instant Serena's thread had coiled around her nape.
All of it.
Roseline clenched her fists.
"…He was dragged away by the monster."
"Did you confirm his death?"
Should I say no? Should I say I confirmed it?
"I could not confirm it."
In the gaze Chloe fixed on Roseline, there was betrayal and confusion.
And beneath them, a grief that had not yet ended.
Roseline received that look with a steady expression, and Chloe, in turn, did not open her mouth.
And so the two of them were trapped in the same silence.
"Student Graham — missing. Recorded as taken by an unidentified monster. Probability of survival is low, but once the upper corridor is secured, a search team will be organized."
"Student Belloa. Are you able to walk?"
"Yes."
She answered, but her feet wouldn't move.
"Your ankle doesn't look good. We'll support you."
"I'm fine."
She wasn't fine, but she didn't want to be carried, either.
She felt that if she leaned on anyone right now, she would truly fall apart.
Just then, the supervising professor's gaze landed on Roseline's hand.
"Student Belloa. Hand over the signal stone."
Only then did Roseline look down at her own hand.
It was still glowing faintly inside her palm.
The thing she had gone to retrieve to save everyone. The proof that she had abandoned Marien.
"Student Belloa. The signal stone must be collected."
Roseline tried to force her hand open, but her fingers wouldn't move.
The edges of the signal stone dug into her palm, bringing pain, but she couldn't let it go.
Roseline's breathing began to quicken.
Then Serena drew close and said quietly:
"Let go."
Roseline's eyes wavered.
She should have raged. She should have refused.
These were the words of someone who had just killed a man, thrown his corpse to a monster, and wrenched her own silence into the bargain.
And yet — why? — her fingers slowly loosened.
One by one.
The signal stone dropped into the professor's hand.
Roseline stared at her hand.
It was empty.
A hand that had let go at a single word from Serena.
That fact couldn't possibly weigh less than Marien's death — and yet, strangely, the emptiness in her palm lingered there with an entirely different weight of its own.
