Episode 71. Filetta

Ah-young liked rainy days.

The day I found out about the reason, it was also raining.

In the afternoon, the playground and students are soaked under the smoke-like rain clouds, and the fishy smell of rain permeates through the windowsills.

That day, in a stiflingly humid after-school classroom, we were watching the raindrops cling to the windows.

“It’s raining. It’s the day when new friends come to visit.”

“really? What kind of friends are they?”

I was delighted to know that even though she was always alone at school, she had friends to open up to. I was at a loss for words after hearing Ah-young’s explanation.

“My veranda faces the mountain.”

She lived in an old, cramped semi-basement, and even there, there was a long veranda across from her smallest room.

“Because the mountain is right next to it, the floor of the veranda is slightly inclined. That’s why the rainwater leaking from the walls and roof collects on one side.”

Adjacent to the back mountain, a poor place where rain leaks from somewhere and insects in the mountains crawl in looking for a warm place along with the rainwater.

So when the rain stops, there is a smell of rotting rainwater and bug carcasses… .

“I really feel sorry for the children who were swept away by the rain and washed up here.”

On the other side of the pool of rainwater, bugs that are still alive cannot find a way to return to the mountain and starve to death or eat the corpses to survive.

Spiders lay their webs and wait for prey that cannot be caught, and earthworms wander on the concrete floor and eventually wither to death… . A hopeless ecosystem.

Unless it rains once again to bring in other prey, the bugs are doomed to wither away in hopeless man-made structures.

“Since the veranda is right next to my room, insects often come over on rainy days. like you want to live I wanted to stop you from entering this place from the start, but… .”

Not only does she have no idea where the bugs are coming from, but her parents didn’t even have the will to waterproof it.

“So whenever it rains, I collect bugs from the veranda and release them back to the mountain. Because I can’t leave it alone.”

“… Isn’t it hard?”

“fun. You can see a lot of cute ball bugs, and sometimes even centipedes.”

Since childhood, the veranda has been a playground with insects for Ah-young.

It’s much more spacious than a cramped room, and you can get away from your parents’ eyes… . A shelter where bug friends come to visit on rainy days.

‘I wonder if Ayeong really liked that kind of place. Wasn’t that resignation?’

When she was young, Ah-yeong sat on a chair in the middle of the veranda and enjoyed daydreaming while listening to crickets chirping.

‘… Looking down at the corpses of bugs and rainwater, what a child would have imagined by himself.’

I pictured that dark and lonely figure in my head, but Dana pulled me by the collar.

“Junior, what are you thinking?”

“… It was nothing.”

It is a sign of the end of the world, and a different world whose depth is unfathomable… . deep pond.

Dana and I, who were looking down at the world as dark as slush, received a salute from the soldiers watching the pond and then went out on patrol again.

* * *

The creatures of the pond, which had been hiding their teeth for a long time, were discovered while infiltrating the campus, so I stopped by to check if they would show their aggression without hesitation.

“On the surface, it’s quiet, not much different from before.”

“No one knows what’s going on inside… .”

3 days from the Class A duel evaluation incident that ended when Yuri’s unique magic was manifested.

All of the injured, including Yuri, were fortunately restored to health, and Principal Skillbeck was doing his best to calm the cluttered campus atmosphere.

However, on the other side, the aftermath of the pond creature’s infiltration into the school was still spreading.

“The Emperor himself said he would overhaul the entire Pond Lab and fill it with new personnel. I heard that in the future, we might be able to conduct research centered on the two of us, have you heard? We’ve made it all the way!”

“It’s been less than a year since we studied the pond… . A much heavier mission has come down than I thought.”

“It’s understandable that the juniors grasped and responded to the situation much faster than the existing researchers. Aren’t those people overly complacent?”

Due to the nature of the pond, which is a top-secret area designated by the imperial family, it was impossible for Ian to openly respond to the drowning body who infiltrated the student council in human form.

‘Because I couldn’t let it continue to move according to my will.’

Previously, I had Elma monitor the drowning body to figure out his movements, and I had been collecting evidence that he was from the pond, such as capturing the moments when he managed the strange creatures transplanted to the student members.

It was thanks to him that he was able to obtain Dana’s permission to use high-level magic at the Pond Research Institute and defeat the ‘Indigo Moth’ of the 3 water pressure species.

“I didn’t expect the first day, which I thought was over, to be so busy.”

“I didn’t know that the imperial family would move so immediately.”

I wonder if this incident was quite shocking news to the imperial family, who had only received optimistic reports that the creatures in the pond would never come close to the ground, and that even if they poked their heads out of the water, they would not be able to escape the eyes of the researchers under 24-hour surveillance.

Less than a day after the research institute reported the infiltration incident to the imperial family, an inspector from an agency under direct jurisdiction of the emperor, whose name was not even disclosed, came in and interrogated me and Dana.

He appeared to urgently grasp the situation, such as pressuring the principal to immediately conduct a race test on the drowned body.

‘It’s no wonder that monsters whose identities haven’t been revealed have lurked in the schools the princesses attend.’

Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange if schools were closed right now.

“Still, the school will not be closed or relocated because of this incident. Did the emperor say that?”

“It seemed so.”

Strange creatures whose identities were not properly identified were crawling up from the controlled area near the school. If it were me, I would have evacuated all the students right away.

Considering that it is a wartime situation where there is an endless battle of attrition with demonic beasts who endlessly try to cross the border, it is not that the emperor’s decision is incomprehensible.

It would be a financial burden to suddenly move Kiruna, the world’s largest educational institution, which is called the symbol of the capital.

“The imperial family must have been trying to calm the citizens’ anxiety about the war, so we don’t want to add to the confusion.”

If Kiruna is shut down without revealing the reason, people who do not know the details will have no choice but to associate it with war.

“I think so. During the emergency meeting, there were many vassals who wanted to return Princess Frill and Princess Eurill to the imperial family, but the emperor said that even that was not possible… . Oh right. It came to my mind while I was talking about it, junior.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know what happened to the drowned body?”

* * *

“… It’s a nice day.”

“Did you know you could say something like that?”

Clearly ignoring Euril’s scolding, Paletta sat by the window and bathed in the sunlight.

There were only the two of them in the student council room, covered in light shade with ivory curtains.

Most of the executives needed time to recover their bodies and minds, and there was one student who said goodbye to this place, so Euril decided to close the student council briefly until the incident was settled.

‘For a few days, we’ll be spending just the two of us.’

Knowing that the other person had no reason to think that spending time with the emperor’s daughter was an honor, Auril felt disgusted by the profile of Payleta looking at the summer pool with her chin on her chin.

Because she was born with an unapproachable status, she spent a long time alone.

It was a quiet weekend morning when I would have been studying alone.

Euril looked at the plate of Filetta, which had only strawberry cake left among the many desserts, and asked bluntly.

“Hey, I heard you were judged human in the race test and released? Everyone came to find out that you parasitized those monsters on Eugene and Haril, but how did you get out?”

“It was possible because everyone except Ian and Dana thought the indigo moth was my body.”

It is said that the indigo moth took over all the evil that she committed.

Despite the high-intensity examination conducted by the imperial family, Filetta’s blood mana concentration was normal and her physical functions were no different from those of ordinary people, so they could not find any additional grounds to judge her as a drowned body.

“Really? give me a hand Hmm… . It’s real. I was very cold before.”

“There were people who thought I was like an evil spirit, but even the priests couldn’t find anything special about me.”

Her name was put on the list of people subject to A-level surveillance, but it was only a heart attack.

In the end, the imperial investigation team had no choice but to conclude that Filetta was a victim who was parasitized by moths.

“Since the moth was a third-class entity, different from that of Heril and Eugene, they said that he must have lost his memory from the shock when he was parasitized.”

“I know it’s because of me. It was possible because I continued to track the investigation process in the name of protecting the executive, but without me, you would really die.”

The power of the imperial family is literally omnipotent.

It wasn’t difficult to kill a single person with a single heart attack, so it wasn’t a lie to say that Euril saved Filetta.

Having reached that point, Filetta tilted her head towards her as if she had just spoken well.

“Come to think of it, I was curious about that. Why did you save me?”

“… What?”

“Now the mana in my body is no different from that of a normal human. If I can’t lend you my strength, am I worthless to you?”

“Uh, that… .”

Filetta showed Auril a small bottle filled with a very black liquid to Euril, who was contemplating an answer.

“You don’t have to regret your choice. Because my power hasn’t gone away… . I won’t be able to borrow the power of the other guys anymore.”

“… ?”

widely-

Like lilacs in full bloom. When Filetta flicked her hand, countless light purple moths flew in and covered the student council room in an instant.

Euril, who unknowingly reached out to a moth passing in front of her eyes, exclaimed in surprise.

“light… ! Are you this, magic? Do you also use magic?”

“I intend to learn.”

As she harvested the moths, the student council, which had been painted mauve, returned to its original state.

She showed the black vial once more to the still-stunned Euril.

“This is a condensed liquid of the mana contained in my blood. As long as this remains, I can continue to be your strength.”

By cutting off the connection with the pond, Pyletta’s heart was no longer able to produce dense mana.

A body without mana decays. It wasn’t that she was rotting now, but it was only a matter of time after all.

‘… This black mana extracted when blood is diluted is the last.’

In other words, this liquid was like her life. If you take it in small doses, you should be able to live a little over a year.

It was an amount that would be depleted in less than half a year if I used magic excessively, but I did not regret it because it was a decision I made knowing everything.

It was okay to live a short life if I could explore the human potential that Ian showed.

If I wanted to show a little more greed there, I wanted to see Ian’s face stained with a sense of defeat at least once, but that’s a secondary issue.

‘… I don’t think I need to tell Auril about this.’

“I guess I need to focus on re-establishing the integrity of the student council. You better turn off Ian and Frill for a while.”

“Is there a truce?”

“Now that a new unique magic user has appeared around Ian, we should prepare to face him.”

Filetta turned her head back to the window to warm herself up in the pouring sunlight. The warmth I felt for the first time, unknown when I was under the pond.

Did you go out for a walk? Following Eugene and Yuri through the window with only her eyes, she cut a small piece of strawberry cake and put it in her mouth.

“… Ugh.”

“That’s not good.”