However, Director Georg looked at how Ristia was acting and perceived it as being something other than plain madness, so he asked her, “What do you plan on doing with us?”
“What do I plan on doing with you? No, that’s my line here. What were you planning on doing, coming into my room?”
“W-Well...”
“I was half-convinced from what I heard, but you... did do something to Maria, didn’t you? No, you’ve been doing something, haven’t you?”
“She talked?!”
“Judging from that reaction, that was your handiwork... No, the handiwork of you and the others, Director Georg. What kind of immoral acts did you people subject her to?”
“W-Well...”
“Well, what?”
“Well... take this, bitch!” Suddenly, Director Georg caused his right arm to flash. The moment Ristia identified the flash as coming from him tossing a small magic item, the item emitted an intense light, which enveloped the room in white.
“Hahahah! You let down your guard! You may be a sorcerer, but you can’t do a damn thing if you can’t see! I’m going to make tears run down your pretty little face until you regret ever screwing around with me!” Director Georg grinned perversely, pulling out the knife he had concealed at his hip. He then circled to Ristia’s flank and sprung at the girl. Much to his dismay, Ristia maintained regular vision throughout all his actions, stopping the tip of the knife between her fingers.
“What?! How can you react to my attack?!”
“‘How’? Because I can see it just fine...”
“Impossible! That flash hit you dead-on!”
“You thought seeing a flash would disable my vision?” Sure, it got bright all of the sudden and startled me, but that wouldn’t stop my eyes from working properly... right? Ristia pondered as she looked on, confused.
“Wh-Who in the devil are you?”
“I told you a second ago. I’m a normal girl.”
“Like hell a normal girl like you exists!”
“Grr... I am a normal girl, though.” Not only did he call Ristia “not normal” yet again, but the knife was threatening to rip up her favorite camisole, which angered her enough to smash the knife caught between her fingers. The shattered pieces of the weapon flew about, slicing up Director Georg’s cheek.
“L-L-L-Like hell someone like you is normaaaaal!!” He screamed from the depths of his soul. Being able to make such a quip in this situation showed rather strong confidence, but the truth of the matter was that his fear had simply reached past its limits. As Director Georg quaked in his boots, Ristia dragged him down to the ground.
“Damn it all! What are you going to do with me?!”
“I’ll decide on that after you tell me what you did. Now... what did you do to Maria?”
“Y-You think I’m just going to talk?”
“Of course I do.” Ristia squinted her eyes, using her vampiric charming powers. As soon as she did, the light of reason started to disappear from Director Georg’s eyes. “Now, tell me what you did to everyone... and I mean everything.”
“What I did was...”
Once turned into her servant, Director Georg went into detail about his catalogue of reprehensible acts. Apparently, Maria was taking the full brunt of the damage in order to protect the other children, but his vile acts didn’t stop there. With the exception of Maria, every child in the orphanage had to be under the age of twelve, or they were forced to “graduate” from the institution. Director Georg was using the orphanage as a front for an illegal child slavery ring, and the man that had accompanied him was apparently an accomplice with many other crimes under his belt. After pulling all that information out of him, Ristia was on the verge of raging out of control, but she was suddenly reminded of Nanami’s reaction from when she had killed Gawain. That memory caused her to regain her cool and release the charm spell she’d cast over Director Georg. It wasn’t long before Director Georg was back to his senses. He understood that he was being controlled by some mysterious ability and had spilled the information about all of his crimes, making his face twist in fear.
“P-Please! Spare me! I swear I won’t go against you! You can have this orphanage!”
“Huh? You’re giving me the orphanage?” The unexpected offer made Ristia blink in surprise.
“Sure, you can call yourself Director and do whatever you want. Also, I swear that I’ll never bother you ever again! So, please, let me off the hook!”
“You’ll never do anything bad ever again?”
“I won’t! You have my word.”
“If you mean that, I won’t kill you.”
“Really?!” Ristia nodded her head in reply to Director Georg’s question. That was her decision, made out of consideration for the children’s happiness. In her mind, she needed to do something for the children, and that wasn’t killing Director Georg; it was securing a place where they could live in peace. Hence, Ristia made a deal with him—a deal that she would spare his life in trade for ownership of the orphanage, under the condition that he repented for his crimes and vowed never to commit them again. Ristia then followed Georg to the Director’s office, where he transferred the deed to the orphanage over to her and also wrote her a letter of authorization, bestowing her the title of Director.
“That makes the orphanage one-hundred percent yours. So hold up your end of the bargain!”
“Yup, a deal is a deal. And I never go back on one. That being said... if going back on your word is your intention, then you’re dead. Am I clear?”
“Yes, of course! I promise!”
“So you say... But what do you really think?” She once again used her charm powers, ordering him to tell her his true intentions.
“Hah! I’m obviously just saying whatever to make you believe me. You think I’d ever give up on having the time of my life? Also, mark my words, I’m going to get my revenge on you.”
“...As I figured. I’m relieved that you didn’t have a change of heart. I made that deal out of consideration for the kids, but I personally found you beyond sparing.”
“What are you...? W-Wait, that was a, um... a misunderstanding!” Director Georg started to panic after being freed from the charm, but Ristia’s crimson eyes flashed as she set an offense-oriented spell into action.
“No, stop!! ...Huh, what? Nothing happened. Hahah, don’t scare me like... that...?” Director Georg made a complete one-eighty from fear to relief, but he suddenly found himself on his rear.
“What’s going on? I suddenly lost my balance and... My toe! What the hell? What’s going on?!” Director Georg’s toe was starting to fade away into particles of light, and once he noticed what was happening, he shrieked in distress.
“It’s an offensive spell that will gradually disintegrate you from the toes up, eventually erasing even your soul from existence. That should be enough time... until you die. Reflect on your past actions before your life ends in the meantime.” Ristia put the letter and the deed into her Item Box, turned herself away, and was about to exit the room when Director Georg let out a pathetic yell to stop her.
“W-Wait! Please wait! I gave you the orphanage like I said I would, so this goes against what you promised!”
“What are you talking about? Our agreement was that I wouldn’t kill you if you would repent for your crimes and never commit them again, and I upheld it.” Her agreement with Director Georg was that she wouldn’t take his life if he gave the orphanage to her and vowed to reform himself, never falling back onto the same sins. She had planned to hand him over to the city officials, sparing his life as she had agreed to if he held up his end of the bargain, but... he didn’t. Ristia didn’t have a single reason to compromise with him now.
“Killing you if you broke our agreement was part of the agreement.”
“You can’t... be serious... W-Wait, please! I was wrong! I swear I’ll change my ways this time! So please, I’m begging you, spare me!”
“...I bet you scoffed at Maria’s pleas when she was at your mercy, didn’t you? But it’s fine. I’ll make it so that your voice won’t be heard outside of this room, so shout all you’d like,” Ristia declared in a cold and solemn voice as she shut the door to the director’s office behind her with a slam, also casting a spell over the door so that it would temporarily remain shut.
“Now then... That leaves the other one.” Ristia returned to her quarters and forced the unconscious man awake, intending to put him through the same interrogation process as Georg—which led to her disintegrating both that man’s body and his soul in a similar fashion.
──2──
“Aah... I feel terrible.”