Episode 68. Midterm (10)

The 2nd building of the training center was also filled with dazzlingly intense fluorescent light, but even that glow could not reveal all of the acrid smoke rising from Haril’s flame.

Faculty members who were busy just evacuating the crowded students did not have time to pay attention to the inside of the smoke in the middle of the practice room.

The observer’s seat was empty long ago, and the duel between Inna and Haril, which was in full swing, was stopped without a decision.

however… . Still, the two did not leave the training ground.

Haril felt the demons planted by Pyrretta eat away at her stomach and grow.

Little by little, but surely, it took root in Heril and absorbed mana. So much so that it feels like only the shell will remain.

Haril couldn’t bear the pain any longer.

Before she passed out, she had to step on Ina and have her value recognized by Princess Auril.

‘By the way… .’

Looking straight ahead with cloudy eyes, Ina was only looking down at her with an unstained face.

“… Haril, didn’t you hear the broadcast? The game was stopped.”

Ina’s eyes were straight as she confronted Haril. Ina stood proudly in front of her, her eyes full of the confidence that Haril had so longed for.

Ina had everything. Talent, happiness, and even a white heart that Haril doesn’t have.

‘I envy you. A life that never slips, just moving on a bright path… . If I had just a little more talent, I wouldn’t have to go this far.’

Like a mouse suddenly facing the light, Haril shrank in front of Ina.

Even though she was not proud of herself, Heryl, who was afraid of being looked down upon because of her twisted pride that raised her head, argued with Ina for no reason.

“You are good. Because I have talent, I can make a mistake in the student council together and go over to another princess without worrying about anything and pretend I didn’t know anything.”

“Because I was also in the student council… . I know I was wrong.”

“What?”

“By the way, I’m not trying to cover up my fault with a bigger fault like you.”

“… do you say that You’re a student council executive, and you’ve got everything you want from Princess Euryl, and come now!”

“If you do something wrong, apologize and ask for forgiveness. You can’t grow if you don’t know that.”

Haril’s flames rose high, casting a black shadow over Ina.

Even in the face of the unstable tidal wave of flames, Ina never lost her composure.

“Do you think such an attack would work on the Rang?”

Watching the lightly dodged flame hit the wall and collapse in vain, Ina said to Herrill.

“The fire you moved a year ago could never be avoided. You were a genius at flame control.”

“A genius… . I use it for people who are strong even if they just breathe like you.”

“Heryl, think carefully. Do you really think what’s gnawing at you really suits you? What do you do when your firepower increases, your strengths are gone.”

“How is that? specialty? Who knows.”

“I don’t understand, but why do you want to become stronger while giving up your individuality?”

“… There’s no way a kid like you would understand the anxiety of a kid like me.”

No matter how hard you try, when you don’t have the confidence to beat geniuses like Ina or Holden.

When he thought that if he got even one wrong question in this exam, he might lose his distance from the Imperial Academy.

The vague uneasiness that comes when I’m afraid that I’m having an off-topic dream or that my challenge will end up being ridiculed by others has always plagued her.

“If I had an overwhelming talent like you, would I have done this? It’s okay to be ugly, so I wanted to live without worrying about anything for a day! I wanted to live as brightly as you!”

“I don’t know.”

“I guess so. you-“

“Neither I nor Holden handle sparks any better than you. No one in my school is as good at flame control as you. Your strengths are so clear, but you said it was difficult because of your inferiority complex?”

“yes. Your strengths? It’s good to hear, it’s useless for anything. After all, all people look for is grades and talent!”

“… More important than anything else is yourself. I learned that way.”

“Ha, I’m envious that you can be happy even after hearing such mouth-watering words. If Ian had said something like that in front of me, one of them would have died?”

“I will show you, that what I learned from him is true.”

Ina, who was looking down at the twisted Haril, closed her eyes, and dark clouds began to gather.

The wind blowing with the clouds was bitterly dry and cold.

To the extent that it stimulates the survival instinct of the demon hiding inside Heril.

* * *

Ina recalled what she had learned in class E.

‘Only humans can’t let go of their lingering attachments to life and become vengeful spirits and wander around. Have you ever thought about why?’

‘Uh, come to think of it, I’ve never seen a ghost from a race other than human. It’s amazing, why are there only human ghosts?’

‘Because only humans are obsessed with illusions.’

For the different races, life is an opportunity to please the guardian spirit, and death is eternal rest.

No other race in the world gives more or less meaning to life.

Unlike this, humans dedicate their lives to realizing a mirage-like desire.

After living blinded by insubstantial goals such as honor, status, success, power, revenge, and lingering lingering feelings, even after death, the humans who remain unable to forget them become vengeful spirits and wander the nine heavens.

‘In other words, the Rang people do not understand the spirits of the spirits at all, and live their lives to relieve their grievances.’

‘Because that’s what God wants.’

‘Yes. But, Ina, you are a Rang, but you are also a human being. There are very few of them in the world, and they are very special.’

Ina recalled Professor Ian’s teaching and spoke to Herril.

“Empathy and understanding are needed to comfort the perilously shaken soul.”

“Ha, that’s your misunderstanding-“

“By the way, you’re a hawk right now.”

When Ina closed her eyes, the scorched training ground began to freeze white.

The terrible blizzard did not stop, and lightning struck from time to time as if to scold the dimmer sunlight.

The training ground turned into a white tomb, sucking in the warmth of everything standing there, and the shining sky calmly looked down at the earth like a crow, waiting for death.

“This is the memory of the dead exiled to the Ark. And this-”

“Kuh… !”

As Ina beckoned, a blue bolt of lightning fell on the flames that Haril poured out.

The white embers left by the fangs of Florone, the god of wolves, burned up proudly even on the ice and danced with the blizzard.

“… The fighting spirit of the great wolves.”

The power of free magic is determined by the sharpness of the image.

To vividly accept the soul’s memories and emotions, and to embody the ups and downs of their lives through free magic.

It was Ina’s own magic that allowed her to fully understand and sympathize with not only the guardian spirits but also the grudges of humans, that is, ghosts.

“Heril, now you are no different from a wandering ghost.”

“yes… . Maybe.”

The fireballs she shot were slower than Ina’s thunderbolts, and the pillars of fire she raised lost their power in the pouring snowstorm.

‘I tried to die! I didn’t sleep and I prepared this only. why! You keep getting farther and farther away.’

Heril’s flames were extinguished in the snowfield spread by Inna.

And, the moment when Haril lost his will to fight. Feeling a threat to her life from Ina, did she try to find a new host?

Haril’s eyes reddened, then blurred in an instant.

And… . A creepy sound came from within Haril’s body.

She was afraid of the changes taking place in her body, but her body was already out of her control.

soooooooooooooooooooooo

A black stem broke through Haril’s left arm and sprouted a dark leaf, and Ina gasped at the sound of something tearing.

However, Haril calmly stared at the black vine that wrapped around her wrist and descended to the floor.

It was amazing. The trembling pupils stopped vibrating, the heartbeat gradually slowed, and a strange vitality circulated in the body.

“As you said… . My outbursts may not have meant anything.”

The vines, which are both plants and beasts, spread out toward Ina using Haril’s life as fertilizer.

Her blood was mixed in the red fruits that were still small.

In the middle of a bloody vineyard, Ina prayed to the wolf god.

Her intent to kill was directed at the vine that devours Haril.

“Heril, to be honest, I don’t want to help you. but… .”

In order for Haril to pay for the crime she committed against Sepia, she had to be alive first.

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Just as the Rang tribe purifies and ministers to the souls of heavy sins, Ina first made up her mind to defeat the monster that encroached on Heril and make atonement for her.

“Let’s calm down first. Haril.”

* * *

Filetta was standing in the face of the arc’s fierce wind blown by Inna.

Something that was neither rain nor snow poured all over her body. Her body temperature was cold from the beginning, and it slowly flowed down without melting.

‘Even in this kind of weather, that paint continues to brighten instead of being turned off.’

The stronger the light, the darker the shadow. Filetta hid in the shadow of the trees standing around the agoge and looked up at the scene of the duel between Eugene and Yuri.

Her eyes no longer flickered in the dark.

It will take a long time for a half-burnt indigo moth to recover. It wasn’t enough that all the plans had failed, and precious power was lost.

‘It’s not just that.’

Pond researchers eventually figured out her true identity.

If you think of Professor Ian, who is always aware of all the movements of the drowned body, it is said that it will happen someday… . The timing was much earlier than expected.

‘Different from Akula’s time, is it because I came into direct contact with humans?’

Pond researchers have been convinced for years that pond creatures cannot come to the surface. To them, the pond was an unknown world to be explored, not a den for invaders.

So, of course, they couldn’t easily accept the absurd claim that the creature in the pond broke through the strict surveillance and sneaked into the school and manipulated humans.

However, Professor Ian persuaded them. Perhaps she was looking for solid evidence, such as a video or photo of the moment she came into contact with a human.

‘If I had been hiding behind an organization member like before, stepping on their tail wouldn’t have been easy. After all, boldness comes with a price.’

I’ve never felt threatened by the pond researchers before, but if all of them are equipped with a level of strength similar to Professor Dana’s I met today, the problem becomes serious. I heard that the people who study the pond are superior to the other professors in Kiruna, but I didn’t expect them to be strong enough to subdue 3 water pressure-dwelling species at once.

‘I don’t know what the two are like, but it’s clear that they are cooperating.’

If Dana absorbs Ian’s intelligence, it will turn into an irreversible disaster for the drowned body.

She was about to step back for a while to devise some countermeasures, but muttered as she looked at the Agoge dormitory where Eugene was fighting bloody battles.

“Eugene, you too should follow my plan. It will be less painful for you.”

With the breath, her self-talk vanished.

The drowned body was tainted by the sleet and quietly disappeared.