Epilogue I’d Let the Whole World Burn, If That’s What It Took! “Urgh…,” Christina groans as she wakes from her long slumber. Her body feels heavy, and she can’t quite get a grip on reality. The last thing she remembers is heading down into that dungeon. “Where am I…?” Her arms and legs are fastened to the wall. She tries to break free, but she can’t muster any strength. Her magic is sealed. “Ah, you’re up. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.” Christina looks over to where the voice came from and sees Isaac. “Why…why am I all bound up?” “Because I bound you.” “Ah.” “You don’t seem surprised.” “I always knew you were a shallow man. People who are hiding something usually are.” “I’ll be sure to make a note of that.” “Where are the others?” “Claire and the princess are with my master.” “Your master?” “That’s right. My master.” All he does is parrot the same phrase back at Christina. Apparently, he doesn’t intend to give her any more details than that. Then he points at the far wall. “And Suzuki is sleeping over there.” On the other side of the room, Suzuki is bound the same way Christina is. Christina breathes a sigh of relief. “Suzuki…” “Unfortunately, he might never wake up again.” “Wh-what do you mean?” “The gas I used to put you all to sleep is especially potent on people with little magic. It’s not uncommon for them to fall into a slumber from which they never wake.” “Suzuki…” “Whatever’s come over you? He’s just a low-class aristocrat from a petty branch family. It’s not like you to mourn for some nobody.” “I mean, you’re not wrong…” Once Isaac points it out, Christina realizes just how shaken up she is. Just as Isaac says, Suzuki is just a low-class aristocrat from a petty branch family. For a duke’s daughter like Christina, he should have been utterly replaceable. “I thought his talents would prove useful to the Hope family. That’s all there is to it,” she says. “Ah, I see. Well, to be honest, I couldn’t care less whether he lives or dies.” Christina glares at Isaac. “You’re saying that his life means nothing to you?!” “Not a thing. All I care about is finishing my job.” “What are you plotting?” “Your body has a lot of potential. My organization intends to use it to its fullest.” “And what organization is that? Are you talking about the Shadow Garden?” “The Shadow Garden? Please. Don’t lump us together with those greenhorns. We’ve been ruling this world for countless— But I’m forgetting myself. Telling you this won’t accomplish anything. After all, it won’t be long before you become a soulless puppet.” Isaac pulls out a syringe filled with red liquid. “Now, let’s get this over with. If I waste too much time, I’m liable to miss the arm’s momentous unsealing. With talent like yours, I imagine you’ll become a Second Child. Though poor Suzuki wouldn’t even make it as a Third.” With a sneer, Isaac presses the syringe up to Christina’s arm. “Don’t…! Here’s a question: Where did Nina get off to?!” Isaac grimaces. “She vanished.” “She what?” “That gas should have put all of you to sleep, but before I knew it, she was nowhere to be seen. It’s not like she could have made it out of the Sanctuary alive, but ugh. It just means more cleanup for me.” Isaac presses more force into the syringe. “No!” “Good-bye, Christina.” Then something moves in the corner of Isaac’s vision. “Why are you making so much noise? I was having such a nice nap…” The voice belongs to Suzuki, who by all rights should be fast asleep. “S-Suzuki…,” Christina stammers. “Wha—?! You woke up?!” Suzuki lets out a listless yawn. “Yeah, obviously. Is that really so weird?” “W-well, no matter. You waking up won’t change anything. You’re an eyesore, so I’ll get rid of you first.” Isaac takes the syringe and heads over to the spot where Suzuki lies tied up. “Get rid of me?” “Hmph. Maybe once you’re a puppet, you’ll finally shut up,” Isaac says, then stabs the syringe at Suzuki’s neck. “You’re gonna get rid of me?” Suzuki’s lips curl into a smirk. “Yeah, that’s not happening.” The next moment, Isaac’s body jolts. The syringe of red liquid tumbles from his hand and rolls across the ground. “What…?! Rgh… Gurk…” Suzuki plants his right hand directly in Isaac’s gut. That there is a palm strike—and a brutal one, launched straight at Isaac’s abdomen. Isaac clutches at his chest and reels backward. Bloody froth dribbles from his lips. “That’s impossible… How did you get out of those restraints…? Your magic was supposed to be sealed!” “It was easy. I just dislocated my joints,” Suzuki replies as he undoes the restraint on his left hand. After folding his joint in a way no human should be able to do, he slips free from the manacle and returns his hand to normal so quickly, it’s like watching a video in reverse. Next, he neutralizes the restraints on his ankles in much the same way. “That’s not normal…” “So, what now? Weren’t you going to get rid of me?” “Tch… Don’t go getting cocky, loser.” Isaac’s eyes flash with rage. “You have no right to look down on me!” He draws his sword. Suzuki reaches for the weapon at his waist as well, then tilts his head. “Where’s my sword…?” It turns out his sheath is empty. “Bad news for you,” Isaac tells him. “I got rid of your sword.” “Ah.” Suzuki reaches into his pocket and pulls out a fountain pen. He uncaps it and levels its tip at Isaac. “Well…this is all I need.” “A-a fountain pen? Don’t make me laugh!!” Isaac’s magic surges. After bearing down on Suzuki in the blink of an eye, he gives his sword a big horizontal swing. The arc it’s tracing will take it right through Suzuki’s midsection and slice him in half. Or it would, if a little pen hadn’t gotten in the way. Suzuki blocks the sword with the tip of his pen, and with a sound like glass shattering, Isaac’s sword explodes into tiny pieces. Without missing a beat, Suzuki thrusts his pen forward. “Wh—hlurk!” Its pointy tip pierces Isaac’s flesh. Isaac takes one agonizingly slow step back, then another. With a look of utter disbelief in his eyes, he reaches up and touches the fountain pen embedded in his throat. “Koff… With…a puny fountain pen…?” Drip. A drop of red ink trickles down the pen. “I’m gonna need that back, by the way. I can’t do my diary entries without it.” Suzuki grabs the pen sticking out of Isaac’s throat. “Wait… Don’t… No, NOOOOOOOOOO!” When Suzuki wrenches it out, it’s accompanied by a gushing burst of blood. The bloody ink sprays across the floor. “Ah… Agh…” Isaac crumples to his knees in a daze. Then, when he looks up at Suzuki, his eyes go wide. Suzuki’s collar has just entered his gaze, and the number on its display represents a truly unbelievable amount of mana. “Where did you get…all that mana…? Hurgh…” He coughs up a mouthful of blood and collapses. “I can’t…go out…like this… Hungh…nnng…” Blood spills unceasingly from his neck, and it doesn’t take long before his breathing grows shallow, then stops altogether. Suzuki gives his blood-soaked fountain pen an unimpressed glance. “Ugh, it’s all gross now. I guess I didn’t need it that bad after all.” He dumps it on top of Isaac’s corpse. Then he turns and walks over to Christina. There’s an ominous look in Suzuki’s eyes, and Christina loses her composure when he looks down at her. “I…um…,” she stammers. Despite herself, her heart is pounding. Still unsure of what to say, she looks up at Suzuki without moving an inch. “All that matters is that you’re okay.” Suzuki undoes her restraints. “Th-thank you, Suzuki…,” she says in a mortifyingly frail voice. “I just did what anyone would. Now, let’s get a move on. I’m worried about the others.” “Um, Suzuki, wait!” Right when he’s about to walk off, she stops him. “I…I can see now that I misjudged you. I thought you were just a hopeless underachiever, but…that’s clearly not true.” She hangs her head in embarrassment. “If you’d be willing, I’d be more than happy to bring you into the main house once this is all—” “Your judgment was right on the money,” Suzuki replies, his back still toward her. “Suzuki was an underachiever.” “What? But…that doesn’t…” “You weren’t wrong. You weren’t wrong about a thing.” There’s a cold rationality to Suzuki’s voice that Christina has never heard before. “Oh… I’m sorry. I must have said something that offended you.” “Not at all. It’s just…you should stay away from me. The path that lies before me is stained with blood. I’m a man who can’t live in a world warmed by the sun’s light.” Suzuki steadfastly refuses to turn around. The way he’s talking with his back to her, it’s like he’s rejecting the entire world. “Just what kind of burden are you carrying…?” “I have a duty. A duty I must carry out, even if it means shouldering all the sins of the world. Getting involved with me will get you hurt, and it’ll stain your hands with blood.” Then Suzuki finally turns. Upon seeing his eyes, Christina gasps. They’re as inhuman as glass beads. All the emotion has been stripped from them. No, that’s not it. Deep, deep within those glass beads, there’s a black flame of emotion, smoldering. Suzuki quietly reaches for Christina’s neck. After tilting up her slender jaw, he brings his face in close. Christina exhales his name. “Suzuki…” Lost in the depths of his eyes, she closes her own. Then a sharp crack rings out. “Huh…?” She opens her eyes and finds that her collar is gone. “Wait, my collar… But how?” Suzuki offers no answer to her question. She notices that his collar is gone, too. “There’s no time,” Suzuki insists. “We need to hurry.” He turns and walks off. There’s something very solitary about his retreating figure. “S-Suzuki…wait up!” Not wanting to get left behind, Christina rushes after him. “You might want to wake up. The situation’s a little dicey.” Claire feels like she’s hearing a voice in her head, and she opens her eyes. “Where am I…?” She’s surrounded by white fog and tied to what appears to be a shady-looking examination table. Beside her, Alexia is tied up as well. “Alexia, are you okay?! Wake up!” “Unh… What is this place?” Alexia opens her eyes. The two of them look around, then gasp. “What the…?” “What are those things?!” The first things they see are four cylindrical capsules. There are human beings inside them, suspended in red liquid. “Could those be the missing students?” “It’s them, I’m sure of it. Those are the people from the missing persons reports.” “But what are they doing here?” “They’re being drained of magic…in order to revive Diablos. We need to get out of here fast. We’re about to find ourselves in the same boat.” Alexia tries to undo her bindings, but they refuse to yield. Claire does the same, but is similarly unsuccessful. “Looks like our magic is sealed,” Claire remarks. “Isaac, you bastard… I’ll get you for this,” Alexia says, her voice full of venom. Suddenly, the capsules begin moving. Two of them emit a dull mechanical sound as the liquid drains from them. “Wh-what just happened?” “I don’t know…” Then they hear a voice from behind them. “You’re up? Perfect timing. The capsules just finished priming. We’ve only got ten percent left to go.” With that, a silver-haired boy appears. He’s so beautiful, it’s like he just stepped straight out of a fairy tale, and for a moment, the two girls are struck speechless. “Who are you…?” Alexia eventually asks. “I’m Fenrir, fifth member of the Rounds.” “Yo…you’re Fenrir?!” The boy who’s just introduced himself as Fenrir looks young enough to be Alexia’s and Claire’s age, if not younger. “With the power of eternal life, the age one appears is of little import,” Fenrir says as he stands before the two capsules now empty of their red liquid. “What are you planning on doing to us?” “Put you in these capsules. That way, I can revive Diablos’s right arm. I was planning on draining your magic via the collars, but if you’re going to serve yourselves up on silver platters, I’m certainly not complaining.” Fenrir lets out a cold laugh. “You’ve saved me quite a bit of effort.” “The academy’s in an uproar right now,” Claire shoots back at him. “Do you really think you’ll get away with this?” “And who’s going to punish us, exactly? The Knight Order? You people?” “Th-that’s, uh—” “We live in the world’s underbelly. Those who walk in the light can never reach us.” “There’s still the Shadow Garden…,” Alexia says quietly. Fenrir stops in his tracks. “Oh, the Shadow Garden’s going to punish us?” He gives a little chuckle. “Heh-heh.” “What’s so funny?” “I never thought I’d see the princess of a nation go clinging to the skirts of a group that shady. I feel sorry for you.” “………” Alexia’s face goes bright red. Everyone can hear her clench her jaw. “And besides, is the Shadow Garden going to punish us? You people have no idea what kind of group they truly are.” As he talks, Fenrir drags the fleshy masses that used to be students out of the capsules and discards them. “They live in the underworld just as much as we do. They’re in no position to judge us. Even if one group does end up vanquishing the other, it’ll just leave the victor to resume control of the underworld. Nothing will actually change.” He turns around. His eyes are bright red. “Now, the preparations are all sorted. The time for resurrection is upon us.” The first person he turns to is Claire. “Claire Kagenou. I’ve gotten reports about you using a strange power.” He walks over to the side of the examination table and tilts up her chin. “Rgh… Get your hands off me!” “The blood runs thick in you, but not abnormally so. Well, I suppose all will become clear in time.” With that, he holds a syringe of red liquid up to Claire’s neck. She tries to shake her head to fight him off, but Fenrir is too strong. “It’s no use,” he says. The syringe pierces her skin. Then… “I swear, just how long does he plan on keeping me waiting?” Aurora’s voice echoes through Claire’s head, and rich mana surges up within Claire. The syringe shatters, and the restraints burst open. Fenrir backs off. “Wh-what is that magic?!” “Here. I’ll let you borrow a little of my strength.” “Thank you, Aurora.” Claire draws her swords and slices through Alexia’s restraints. “Good going, Claire,” Alexia says as she brandishes her sword. Fenrir fixes his gaze straight on Claire. “Aurora? Did you just say ‘Aurora,’ Claire Kagenou?” “Yeah, so what? You know her or something?” “Heh-heh… I see. Guess I’ll have to see if she’s the real thing. Bloodfang…heed my call!” Fenrir draws a sword out of thin air. It’s longer than he is tall, and its blade is as red as stagnant blood. “Bloodfang…,” Alexia murmurs. The sword has such a powerful presence, it sends a shiver down her spine. “That’s the magic sword that was once used by the man hailed as the greatest knight ever. Is that truly the real Bloodfang?” “Be careful, Claire.” “You don’t have to tell me twice. Are you not going to fight, Aurora?” “You don’t have much mana left, right? When I use your body, it puts a heavy strain on you. Besides, it might not be a bad idea to get you used to handling the power yourself.” “…Fair enough.” Claire marshals the magic in her body. Little by little, she’s getting used to the sensation of the two distinct types of mana commingling within her. Then, in the space of a breath, she closes in on Fenrir. However, he parries her blow with ease. “Is that really all you’ve—? What?” There are red tendrils wrapping around Bloodfang. They’re extending from Claire’s right hand, and they wind around Bloodfang on her command. “With this power, I can—!” “Oh, please.” Fenrir gives Bloodfang a swing. That motion alone is enough to shred through the tendrils. Claire moves on to her next maneuver. When Fenrir swings Bloodfang at her, she dodges by stepping in too close for him to effectively hit her, then swings an attack of her own at his flank.
Chapter 83
14 min read