Chapter 218: Academy Heroine's Right Diagonal Back Seat
Chapter 218
After the beast that invaded the city was defeated and the barrier, which had been overloaded and shut down, resumed operation due to auxiliary power...
The students who had been evacuating citizens from various locations realized that their mission was over and gathered to take a break, easing their exhausted bodies.
“Phew, we’ve passed the worst part, right?”
“Probably… I’ve been running around all day, and I don’t have any strength left.”
They all took a deep breath, thinking they had somehow overcome the crisis. But the moment of peace was brief. Among them, a male student who had been holding onto his communicator received a piece of news.
“...Huh?”
The student, who had been frozen in place for a moment as if time had stopped, quickly called for his class president in a panic.
“Uh… Mei, I just got this news…”
“What? What kind of nonsense are you saying with such a serious face? You shouldn't joke around like that.”
Mei, the class president of 1st-year Class A, approached the stammering student with a frown, scolding him loudly. What the student had just said was so absurd that it couldn’t even be considered a joke. It was the kind of unpleasant thing that shouldn't be said at all, especially when everyone was already on edge from exhaustion.
She glared at him, wondering why he was making such a fuss, but the student just looked upset, as if he was merely relaying what he had heard. Mei was confused, unable to understand why he had such a serious expression. The news sounded ridiculous—there was no way it could be true.
Scarlet would never do something like that.
But then, almost as if to contradict Mei’s thoughts, a voice came through the communicator with a beep.
The message was this:
Yoon Si-woo, the leader, was attacked by the witch and is now in a coma.
The witch, who is currently fleeing, has been identified as...Scarlet Evande, a first-year student at Aegis Academy.
Perhaps because the conversation had gotten louder, all the other students’ attention was now focused on Mei and the male student. Naturally, everyone heard the voice coming from the communicator.
“...”
For a while, there was silence.
It was probably because none of them could believe what they had just heard.
They all had memories with Scarlet Evande. They had seen firsthand how she was more desperate than anyone to save others and how she didn’t hesitate to sacrifice herself for that cause.
Especially the first-year students, who owed their lives to Scarlet when the witch had attacked the front lines. They couldn't easily associate the word "witch" with her.
That’s why Mei shook her head.
“There’s got to be some kind of mistake. There’s no way sweet Scarlet is a witch.”
Mei, who had faith in Scarlet, her friend, looked around at the other students, as if asking them to agree with her.
But none of them met her eyes.
Mei, now wearing an expression of disbelief, muttered under her breath.
“Why is everyone acting like this... Do you not trust Scarlet? How… How could you do that? She saved our lives! At the very least, as her friends, we should trust her!”
“I... I want to believe her too!!”
When Mei cried out, one of the students who had been watching nearby suddenly shouted.
They wanted to believe her. They really did.
The student looked utterly confused but continued speaking.
“But, Yoon Si-woo was attacked by Scarlet! Yoon Si-woo, who was so close to her! The Scarlet I know would never hurt her friends! And she was even interrogated before... It just makes me wonder... Was everything Scarlet showed us until now just an act? Has she been deceiving us this whole time?”
“That’s…”
Mei tried to say something in response but ended up closing her mouth. There was nothing wrong with what the student had said. Mei, in fact, had started having similar thoughts.
At that moment, she realized why the others had avoided her gaze.
The actions that Scarlet had supposedly taken were too unbelievable, making it impossible for anyone to have confidence in their trust in her anymore.
Everyone was confused.
Marin, Dwight, Daniel, Andre—
And…
“Yoon Si-woo was hurt by Scarlet...”
Even Jessie.
“Scarlet, a witch...? No, that can’t be... She’s my friend... But, Yoon Si-woo... Then, was she deceiving us all this time? If that’s true...”
Jessie muttered to herself, pulling at strands of her hair that had been bleached in patches from the stress of losing her family.
Scarlet, the kind friend she knew.
Scarlet, who sacrificed her arm to save her from the beasts and the witch.
Scarlet, who had been interrogated before and who had acted strangely in front of the dead beasts’ corpses.
Scarlet, who injured Yoon Si-woo, the hero who had defeated the witch.
If Scarlet was truly the witch…
“I have to... confirm it...”
Jessie, staggering, stood up from her seat and began to walk, unsteady on her feet.
Mei saw the strange, ominous look in Jessie’s eyes. If she just let Jessie walk away like this, something bad was going to happen.
Realizing this, Mei frantically yelled out.
“Hey, hey! Someone stop her!”
Startled, the students nearby grabbed Jessie’s arms. Jessie tilted her head and asked,
“Why are you holding me?”
“No, um... where are you trying to go all of a sudden?”
“I’m going to find Scarlet...”
At Jessie’s words about going to find Scarlet, Mei swallowed nervously and asked,
“…What are you planning to do once you find her?”
“I’m going to ask her if she really is the witch, if she really deceived us all this time. And if it turns out to be true…”
Jessie mumbled as she answered, but then stopped midway, pondering. If it really was true, what would she do? What could she even do?
While Jessie was still lost in thought, trying to figure out her own feelings...
[A new mission has been issued to all heroes.]
With a beep, a voice came from the communicator.
[Locate the witch who is currently fleeing and surround her.]
[Avoid direct combat as much as possible due to the nature of the opponent.]
[Once her location is pinpointed and she’s surrounded, the leaders will handle the battle.]
[The ultimate objective is...]
[The witch’s elimination.]
Once again, a cold silence fell over the group.
In that silence, Jessie faintly smiled.
---
With a loud whistling sound, fireworks shot high into the sky and burst.
The fireworks, illuminating the darkening sky, were beautiful to look at, but there was no time to enjoy them.
Because those arrow-shaped fireworks were revealing to everyone the direction in which I was fleeing.
“There! The witch ran that way!”
“Don’t let her get away! She’s the one who hurt Leader Yoon Si-woo!”
I could feel the heroes converging on my location, following the arrows.
Damn, not those cursed fireworks again.
Grumbling inwardly, I shifted directions once more to avoid being surrounded.
Not that I thought this would completely shake them off, but…
I sighed and kept running. How long had it been since I escaped from where Yoon Si-woo was?
The net was closing in on me, bit by bit.
Ever since I became a witch, my physical abilities had significantly improved, allowing me to evade capture. But it seemed even I couldn’t escape their overwhelming numbers.
“There she is!”
Every time I ran into people posted all over the place, they would set off fireworks to broadcast my exact location to everyone. There was no escaping this.
When I was hiding in the sewers earlier, they couldn’t signal my location with such flashy fireworks. But once they figured out that I was using the sewers, they stationed so many people down there that I couldn’t use that route anymore.
“The fireworks… over there!”
As I hid for a moment, fireworks went off in the distance.
That was the decoy device I had set up earlier while I was running. Thankfully, it worked, and I saw the heroes in the area rush in that direction. I let out a small sigh of relief.
Though I managed to buy myself some time this way, I knew that this strategy wouldn’t work forever. Feeling the limits of my current tactics, I quietly exhaled.
Being chased… was far more exhausting than I had imagined.
Physically, I was fine, but the mental pressure was suffocating.
As I ran, a thought crossed my mind: maybe I could break through one side of the net and escape for good.
But I quickly shook my head to dismiss the idea.
Even though I was on the run, I didn’t want to hurt others just to get away.
It’ll be fine. Somehow… it’ll work out.
Muttering to myself, I took advantage of the brief distraction and began to run in the opposite direction of the heroes.
But just as I was about to make my move...
“…Found you.”
A voice came from behind me.
Normally, I would have kept running without looking back. But the voice was so familiar that I instinctively stopped in my tracks and turned around.
And there, standing before me...
“...Jessie.”
“…Scarlet.”
…was my small friend, with madness in her eyes.
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Tfnc :33 alway worth the wait
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