Chapter 211: Academy Heroine's Right Diagonal Back Seat
Chapter 211
It all happened in an instant.
Sylvia staggered as the protective shield that had been blocking the rain disappeared.
She covered the child in her arms with her own body, as if she didn’t have the strength to evade anymore.
And just as expected, the barrage of tentacles fired by the monster rained down over their heads.
In that split second, I stepped in and took the brunt of the attack she couldn’t fully deflect.
It all happened so quickly.
*Gurgle,* blood surged from deep in my throat and spilled out of my mouth.
The child, who had made eye contact with me over Sylvia’s shoulder, looked on the verge of tears, seemingly shocked by the sight of the blood.
When a drop of my blood fell from my mouth onto the child’s face, they couldn’t hold back any longer and began to sob.
“Sorry for scaring you,” I apologized silently as I gently wiped the blood, rain, and tears from the child’s messy face with my hand.
In the child’s tear-filled, trembling eyes, Sylvia’s expression was reflected.
She, too, looked like she was about to cry, just like the frightened child.
“It’s okay… I’m… fine.”
I smiled to reassure the two of them as I said that.
Of course, I wasn’t really fine.
The monster’s attack was far more painful than I had anticipated.
And beyond that...
But unlike the teachers and others who had melted away and vanished right before my eyes...
If I had to lose someone like that again in front of me,
If I had to let another person experience such terrible pain,
It was far better for me to be the one in pain.
“The weather… is bad... It's raining here... Let’s go… inside… okay...?”
The rain continued to fall without stopping.
Knowing that leaving them out in the open like this would surely invite another attack, I quickly pushed Sylvia and the child into the sewers.
I watched the child being embraced by what seemed to be their parents, finally crying tears of relief.
Muttering to myself that it was a relief, I quietly watched Sylvia descend into the sewer.
She must have been hoping that, as I said, I was truly okay and that I would join them down there to take shelter.
But, it didn’t seem like I could grant her wish.
I saw Sylvia starting to turn her head towards me.
Various words lingered on the tip of my tongue.
But I swallowed them all back, thinking that no matter what I said, it would hurt her.
Before Sylvia could look back, I quickly closed the manhole cover.
From beneath the sealed manhole cover, it sounded as if I could hear Sylvia calling my name.
...I’m sorry for being selfish to the end, Sylvia.
Take care.
With a bitter smile, I left a silent farewell that she wouldn’t hear, and then quickly moved away into the rain.
* * *
“Hngh… Ngh...”
It hurts.
It’s agonizing.
It’s painful.
The excruciating pain that started in my back swept through my body.
If it were simply a large, sharp stake lodged in my body, it wouldn’t be this bad.
The tentacle that had been lodged in my back until a moment ago inflicted a pain that was incomparable to a mere stake.
It’s melting, it’s dissolving.
I could feel the evil energy that had flowed in from the dissolving tentacle in my back trying to break down my body in real-time.
If it were an ordinary person, they would have dissolved in an instant into a black liquid, just like I had seen happen so many times before.
“Aaah… Ahhh…!”
But I wasn’t an ordinary person.
A burst of flames erupted from the area where the monster had struck.
As if to say that I wouldn’t succumb to the monster’s tricks, the demonic energy that tried to break down my body was incinerated, and the wound on my back slowly began to heal.
Surviving an attack that should have killed me was something to be glad about, but I couldn’t find any joy in it.
Because the flames that had just flared up from my back weren’t of my own doing.
That was why I had tried to distance myself from Sylvia as quickly as possible—
It hurts.
It’s agonizing.
It’s painful.
“Shut up already...!”
The voice echoed in my head as my vision blurred.
Despite using all my strength to shake off the chilling sensation by hitting my head, the voice wouldn’t quiet down.
“Ugh... Ugh...!”
Since I took that hit from the monster’s attack, the symptoms have been getting worse.
Maybe it was stimulated by the demonic energy from the damn tentacle that had tried to dissolve me— the voice wouldn’t stop.
It felt like the restraints that had desperately held the witch at bay were now breaking loose.
The fire that had erupted from my body hissed as it met the rain.
My body was trembling.
If I let my mind slip for even a moment,
I felt like I would lose my sense of self and, without realizing it, burn everything around me to ashes.
Even now, I felt the same.
In my mind, it kept repeating that I was in pain,
That I should burn everything in this world that hurt me.
It hurts, burn, it’s agonizing, burn, it’s painful, burn, get revenge, burn it all, kill everything that hurt me, this world is bad, it’s agonizing, burn everything, get revenge, why won’t you believe me, I’ll burn it all, kill them all, burn, burn, burn—!!!
“—Ugh...! Haah, ugh…”
…Barely, I managed to regain my senses, which had momentarily slipped away.
My legs wobbled, feeling like they would give out.
It felt as if I were teetering on the edge of a sheer cliff.
Like a treacherous slope where even a single misstep would lead to an irreversible fall.
I couldn’t remember ever being this terrified. My body trembled violently.
I had always thought of myself as a bomb that could go off at any moment.
But only now did I realize that I had been a bomb with some time left on the fuse—until now. What happened today was catastrophic for me. The last bit of fuse that remained had burned out completely.
Now, I had truly become a bomb that could explode at any moment, without any warning.
And now that I was in this state, I knew instinctively that I couldn’t go back to the way I was before. Facing this situation head-on made it nearly impossible to keep my sanity.
But still, even in such a state, there was something I had to do.
Clinging desperately to the last thread of rationality I had left, I forced myself to move.
Running through the rain, I soon reached my house.
More precisely, Yoon Si-woo’s house, where my room was.
Suppressing the flames that kept trying to rise from my body, not wanting to burn it down, I entered the house and opened the drawer in my room.
Inside the drawer was a carefully stored box, kept safe from any shock.
It was the box containing the capsules filled with demonic energy that my uncle had given me before he died.
I took the box and went back outside.
The rain was still pouring down.
That wretched rain.
I looked in the direction of the one responsible for causing this rain.
Even after all this time, the monster hadn’t gotten as far as I thought it would.
There must have been people desperately holding it back.
But they were merely stalling it. They couldn’t defeat it.
It would take Yoon Si-woo or the other leaders coming to our aid to take down that monster.
I believed they would do everything they could and eventually come.
However, no one knew when that would be.
Looking at the relentless rain,
I thought of those who had died because of it.
And those who were still dying even now.
“...”
The more I thought about it, the more reasons I had, and there was no time left to hesitate.
My teacher had told me.
That defeating that monster wasn’t my role.
She was right.
The way I am now, I wouldn’t be of any help in taking down that monster.
Yes, the way I am now.
I opened the box I had brought from the house.
Inside were the capsules containing the demonic energy.
I knew what I had to do, but my hands trembled uncontrollably when it came time to do it.
It was nothing less than a gamble for me, and I couldn’t help feeling scared.
But I didn’t stop.
I took out all the capsules from the box.
And I remembered the words my uncle had said when he handed them to me.
“Be strong.”
I will. I steeled my resolve.
Then I shoved all the capsules in my hand into my mouth at once.
“Ngh...!”
As the demonic energy with no master seeped into my body, I could feel power surging through me.
For a brief moment, I was intoxicated by the euphoria that swept through me.
But then,
■■■■■■■■■■■■───!!!!!
The witch’s voice, whether it was a scream or a cheer, began to swirl in my head as flames erupted from my entire body.
Of course, it was a natural result.
What I had done was no different from throwing logs onto the fire that was already trying to consume my body.
Horrific sorrow, resentment, hatred, and rage all tried to devour me whole.
“Shut up, I said...!!”
With all my strength, I resisted and shouted back.
Why had I asked Yoon Si-woo to kill me?
Because I wanted to live.
I wanted to live as Scarlet Evande, protecting people until the very end.
I thought that was what true happiness was for me.
So, there was no way I’d let you take over.
Burn.
Everything.
The witch’s voice kept echoing, telling me to burn everything.
But there was only one thing you should burn.
Dripping flames from my body,
I dragged my disobedient body forward.
Toward the source of the rain in the distance.
If I was a bomb that would explode anyway,
I would decide where to explode.
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She's pretty cool
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