Chapter 127: Academy Heroine's Right Diagonal Back Seat
Chapter 127
[Someday, you'll realize it too.]
...Shut up.
[And someday, you'll end up just like me.]
...I said, shut up.
[You'll think it's better to burn everything down than to be betrayed, hurt, and sad.]
...I won't.
I won't become like you.
I promised myself that I would live strong.
As long as there are still people who believe in me, I can hold on.
---
I could feel my faint consciousness gradually waking up.
At the same time, a sound rang out, as if it was natural.
[Ding ding ding~ Good morning~ Ding ding ding~]
The faint sound gradually grew louder and louder.
[Ba ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba ba, good morning~]
It kept echoing in my head as if it was gnawing at my mind, endlessly echoing, endlessly echoing, annoyingly echoing, endlessly echoing.
It was so loud.
With a forceful punch, I hit my head hard.
"…Damn, that fucking hurts..."
The pain was so intense that my head buzzed, and tears welled up.
But it was better this way.
At least the sound that had been echoing in my head had lessened.
[Ba ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba ba, beautiful day~ It’s a beautiful day~ Ding ding ding~]
I shook my head from side to side several times to clear my mind, then sat up.
Looking around, I saw that I was in my room at Sylvia's mansion.
It seemed that Sylvia had brought me back after I lost consciousness.
When I checked the time, it was already the afternoon, past lunchtime.
Ah, am I late?
As I was thinking about that, I noticed a note on the bedside table next to the bed.
I picked it up, wondering what it was, and even without any explanation, I could tell that it was written by Sylvia, judging by the elegant handwriting that conveyed her message to me.
- Miss Scarlet, are you feeling better? The medical staff said there were no major issues with your body, but I thought it would be best for you to rest today, so I didn't wake you up. So, please don't wander around or overexert yourself. Alright? Everything that happened yesterday has been taken care of, so don't worry and get some rest. See you in the evening.
A small smile crept across my face at the note filled with Sylvia's concern.
As she suggested, I thought it would be better to rest well today.
I wasn’t in the best condition right now.
It seemed like it would take some time to get used to it if I wanted to avoid showing any signs to others.
[Ding ding ding~ Good morning~]
I carefully folded the note and placed it on the bedside table before lying back down on the bed.
As I lay there absentmindedly, the events of yesterday came to me in a blur.
...My memory was vague, but I knew that I should be thankful to be alive.
How many times did I brush with death in a single day?
If it weren't for those who helped me, I might have ended up in the afterlife.
Someday, I should thank them properly.
Thinking about that, I decided to make macarons to give to Sylvia as a token of gratitude.
Though I make them for her almost every day anyway...
Today, I resolved to put more care into making them.
With that determination, I left the room and headed to the mansion's kitchen.
I greeted the mansion's staff members as I passed by and arrived at the kitchen.
Since it was break time, the staff who worked in the kitchen were absent, so I naturally took out the ingredients for macarons and started kneading the dough.
I was so used to making them that it felt like a routine.
At this point, I felt like I could make macarons with my eyes closed.
Maybe if I have nothing to do in the future, I could ask Sylvia to hire me as her snack maker.
Though macarons are the only thing I can make...
Even with such trivial thoughts, I finished kneading the macaron dough without any unnecessary movements and moved to get the piping bag to shape the dough.
[Ding ding ding~ Good morning~ Ding ding ding~]
Suddenly, I felt dizzy and stumbled, grabbing the nearby cabinet to support myself.
Then, I heard an ominous sound as if something had fallen, and I saw the cabinet sliding out, causing all sorts of items on top to fall.
It felt like slow motion, and some of the falling items caught my eye.
Some bowls and teacups that looked incredibly expensive.
If they break, I'm screwed.
With superhuman reflexes, I reached out to catch as many of the breakable items as possible.
Thankfully, the sound that came from the items that I couldn't catch was a clattering noise, not the sound of shattering.
I let out a sigh of relief as I carefully placed the bowls and teacups down and started picking up the fallen items. Suddenly, drops of red blood fell to the floor with a splat.
A dull pain belatedly registered in my arm.
When I looked, there was a cut on my arm, and blood was slowly oozing out.
It seemed I had been cut by one of the sharp objects that had fallen, and I was unlucky enough to get sliced.
Thinking that I needed to disinfect the wound before stopping the bleeding, I turned on the water and brought my arm under the stream.
I tensed up slightly, anticipating the sting from the cold water touching the wound, but to my surprise, the pain was much less than I expected. Feeling relieved, I turned off the water and gently wiped my arm with a towel.
"...It’s stained with blood, so I’ll have to wash this separately."
As I mumbled that and checked the towel, I tilted my head in confusion.
Even though I had washed the wound, there was no trace of it that should have been visible.
Feeling something was off, I looked at my arm and saw that the skin, which had been wounded just moments ago, was now completely unblemished.
[Ba ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba ba, good morning~]
...It wasn’t a mistake. The red marks still on the floor confirmed that the wound I just had was real.
I bit my lip slightly, took a deep breath to prepare myself, and picked up the knife that still bore my blood.
Then, I made a small cut on the tip of my finger.
With a slight pain, tiny droplets of blood formed on the tip of my finger. After a moment, I wiped away the droplets with the towel and inspected my finger.
And then, I let out a deep sigh.
The cut on my finger had already healed without a trace.
[Ba ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba ba~ Ba ba ba, ba ba, ba ba ba ba, beautiful day~]
"...What am I turning into?"
I muttered the question with a tone of resignation, but there was no answer.
[It’s a beautiful day~ Ding ding ding~]
Only the sound of the alarm echoed emptily in my head.
---
Despite everything, I managed to finish making the macarons and was about to return to my room.
"Hey there, how's your health?"
I heard a voice calling out to me, so I turned around to see an elderly gentleman enjoying tea alone on a terrace-like spot in the corridor.
I wondered who it was, and then I recognized him as the elderly man who had been sitting next to Sylvia during the interrogation yesterday.
I nodded to him and replied.
"...Yes, thanks to you, I'm fine now."
"Really? That's a relief. I have something I wanted to say, so how about keeping me company over tea for a bit?"
The elderly man gestured to the seat across from him as he made the request.
To be honest, I was feeling quite confused and wanted to be alone in my room to calm down.
But it wouldn't be polite to refuse an elder's request, so I nodded.
As I sat across from him, there was already a teacup placed at my spot, as if it had been prepared in advance.
Following his lead, I took a sip of the tea, and I could tell from the taste alone that it was a high-quality, expensive tea.
I didn't know much about tea, but it had a very refined flavor.
As I slowly sipped, intending to savor it, the elderly man spoke to me.
"So, you're Miss Scarlet, correct? I didn't have a chance to properly greet you since I've been busy, even though you're staying as a guest at our mansion. You're a friend of Sylvia's, right?"
"…Yes, it's a bit presumptuous, but we've formed a connection, and I'm indebted to her."
I hesitated slightly at the word "friend," but I agreed anyway. At this point, denying that Sylvia and I were friends would just be my stubbornness.
In response, the elderly man chuckled softly and shook his head.
"Presumptuous? Don't worry about it. Offering a room to a friend of Sylvia's is no big deal."
"...It's not just that, though. It feels like I'm always receiving help... Even just yesterday, I received more help."
"We were the ones who received the greater help. I heard you saved Sylvia. Compared to that kindness, this is nothing."
In truth, it was more like I put everyone in danger because of me.
Feeling guilty, I couldn't even look up and just kept sipping my tea, when the elderly man spoke with a gentle smile.
"And besides, didn't you say you're friends? True friends don't keep track of those things. Being able to help each other without expecting anything in return—that's what real friendship is."
"...I'm the kind of person who can't stand owing anyone," I replied.
The elderly man gave a playful smile and whispered softly.
"You say that, but truthfully, our Astra family isn't much different from you. We never forget a debt, and we always repay it. So, you better be careful not to make Sylvia hold a grudge against you. You never know what might happen. Haha!"
I hadn't expected such a dignified person to make a joke, and it caught me off guard.
Turns out, he's surprisingly witty...
As I was thinking that, I noticed the stone the elderly man had been fiddling with in his hand.
I became curious about the stone, and as I stared at it, the elderly man seemed to notice my gaze and held it out to me.
"This seems to have caught your attention."
"...Yes, what is that stone?"
"Haha, it might look like an ordinary stone, but it's actually a magical tool. It lights up when there's something wrong with your body. For an old man like me, health is the biggest concern, so I always carry something like this around."
Wow... It really just looks like an ordinary stone, but it has that kind of effect.
Impressed, I watched as the elderly man asked, "Would you like to hold it? Even if you feel fine, something might still be wrong after what happened yesterday. Health is something you need to pay the most attention to when you think you're fine."
At the mention of something being wrong with my body, I flinched involuntarily and looked at the arm that had been injured earlier.
I wondered if this could be considered a problem...
After pondering for a moment, I carefully accepted the stone from the elderly man and held it in my right hand—of course, not my prosthetic left arm.
"...It seems your body is fine. Haha, that's a relief."
The elderly man, who had been watching me closely, muttered in a voice filled with relief when the stone didn't react.
Even though I'm just a guest, he was that concerned about my health...?
Feeling a bit touched, but also slightly embarrassed, I blushed as I sipped my tea. At some point, I noticed that my teacup was empty.
...This tea is so delicious; I wonder if I could have some more.
Hesitating for a moment out of longing, I finally reached for the teapot on the table.
But just as I extended my arm, it was caught by the elderly man's hand, stopping me in my tracks.
...Was it because it’s expensive, and I'm not allowed a second cup?
As I nervously looked at him for a reaction, the elderly man chuckled and said, "Haha, the tea has gone cold."
"Oh, I'm fine with it cold..."
"But I'm not. I can't serve cold tea to a valued guest. It seems you really like this tea. It tastes best when it's hot. I'll brew a fresh pot, so please wait a moment."
With that, he picked up the teapot and poured it into the potted plant on the terrace, as if watering it.
Did it really get cold? Maybe it’s just my imagination, but it still felt warm...
But still, to throw away such expensive tea just because it cooled down a bit...
Is this what they call a bourgeois mindset?
Confused by actions I couldn't comprehend, I watched as the elderly man returned with a freshly brewed pot of tea.
And just as he said, the freshly brewed hot tea did taste better.
Even so, the thought that it was wasteful lingered, confirming that I wasn’t suited to living as a bourgeois.
---
After Scarlet left for her room, the First Elder, who was alone on the terrace, fiddling with the stone-like magical tool while drinking tea, noticed a servant walking down the corridor and called out to him.
"Sebastian, could you come here for a moment?"
"Ah, First Elder. What can I do for you?"
"This orchid seems to have died."
"What? But when I checked it this morning, it was perfectly fine..."
Sebastian tilted his head in confusion at the First Elder's words, but as he inspected the orchid that had withered and dried up, he muttered in disbelief.
"...This can't be. It wasn't overwatered, so there's no reason for this..."
"Don't worry about it. Just throw it out, pot and all."
"...Are you sure? Isn't this the orchid you cherished?"
"It's fine. It's just an orchid. I'll think of it as avoiding misfortune."
With a bitter expression, the First Elder gazed at the dead orchid in the pot and quietly muttered in a voice so soft that no one could hear.
Better this than cleaning up a corpse, wouldn't you agree?
Did the shard get absorbed into her or something?
ReplyDeleteBefore the transformation she was a homunculus with 6 shards embedded throughout her body, far from each other.
DeleteAfter being kidnapped, all the shards melted with the power of the absorbed miasma and converged through the bloodstream, replacing her heart.
All except the shard in her prosthetic arm.
She's basically 99% witch
Huh, I don't remember anything about there being 6 shards, nor about it replacing her heart when she entered the miasma. When was all this explained?
DeleteI actually had to reread some previous chapters to figure this out. This was indirectly explained in chapter 121, with these lines:
Delete"Things embedded in my head, chest, stomach, legs, and arms melted,
And then gathered back in the center of my chest, trying to replace the very source of life.
Not a bodily collapse due to miasma poisoning but a reconstruction.
To become something other than human."
I somehow missed what this was implying, that the shards all reunited as her heart, except for the one in her arm which was separated and placed into the prosthetic.
i feel more tragedy coming
ReplyDeleteIt didn't work because her body got remade
ReplyDeleteOh, so it needs to be close close to detect witch parts huh
ReplyDelete