Epilogue
FOUR ADULTS GATHERED in one of the disused meditation rooms. Two of them were instructors to the 452ndcohort of candidate disciples.
“The cohort is very promising. I just fear things are progressing too quickly compared to the other years,” the Priest murmured, holding the report in one hand.
“Other years progressed too slowly. Besides, we have a lot of demi-humans in this group,” Konji said.
The Priest hummed, not sounding the least bit impressed. “Is that so?”
“The diversity in races this year has led to each child having a stronger sense of self, which is probably why they all teamed up during the survival training and things stagnated,” the snakeborn instructor said with a thin smile.
Most cohorts had looser ties between their members. They grew suspicious of each other, which meant more frequent and vicious killings. However, when certain members of the group were more prominent than others, the “lesser” children avoided taking initiative—which wasn’t a good thing.
“I suppose I’ll have to do something about that myself,” the Priest said. “I’ll make it so that any trust they hold for one another crumbles.”
The children needed to learn that He was the only one they could have faith in. The question was whether any of them would even survive once they were put through such a severe test.
“Some of your children are so talented that it has me jealous!” Raka, instructor for the 444th cohort, cackled. “I’d love to switch places if I could. You know you have two already dipping their toes into corporeal reforging?”
Raka had assisted in retrieving the children after their survival training. He had put his own group through such strict training that their numbers were down to half two years in. Their capabilities, however, far surpassed those who had gone through regular training. “Say, why don’t we test yours against mine, hm?”
“That’s not what we’re discussing here,” Konji said curtly.
He didn’t see any point in comparing children from different cohorts. The home was changing its policies to balance the quality and quantity of its education. Though he resisted the change, he was leaning toward the former in his methods. The home permitted his methods under the name of experimentation. Whilethey had once focused primarily on manborn children, it was decided they would trial raising a more diverse cohort. The home’s plans going forward were set to change enormously depending on the outcome.
As a result, those in senior leadership positions who favored manborns had been working to stall the experiments, doing as much as they could without breaking any rules. They had now crossed the line.
“We found that Eiseki employed herbs without authorization in order to interfere with the training,” Konji revealed, stirring a commotion from the other instructors. Eiseki was the third instructor, the one the children referred to as “Sister.”
“According to the rules, she has no right to defend herself. Given that she used these herbs on children, she must pay with her life. Does anyone have any objections?”
Naturally, there weren’t. Everyone present was of the same opinion.
“In that case, she will undergo service work.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Before the survival training started, the instructors were already waiting a little ways away from the children. They had been moved on location, and everything was ready to begin.
“I’m going to restrain you, Eiseki,” Konji said.
“I haven’t done anything yet,” she responded calmly, implicitly suggesting that she might.
“It’s too late.”
She frowned at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I know you have those herbs.”
“These? I need these for myself. I don’t produce much essence on my own,” she said, relaying her prepared excuse. However, Konji was still slowly approaching her, increasing her sense of dread. “You know what will happen if you restrain me without reason!”
“I can think of the reason later.” He grabbed her arm and twisted it upward, forcing her to drop the glass bottle in her grip. He crushed it underfoot. From inside, poison that eroded flesh oozed out. Its victims would die before they had time to take an antidote.
It would become clear in a later investigation that the poisonous herbs missing from the meditation room were just enough to fill a single bottle. Eiseki was not the one who had supplied the snakeborn girl with poison. Konji knew this, but he restrained her, anyway.
✦ ✦ ✦
Survival training was over, and we had a day off. I went to the prayer room alone, though I only came here when absolutely necessary. I otherwise avoided it at all costs. This was the fourth time I pretended to pray. The first was when the snakeborn instructor brought us here. The second was when I alerted Konji to Sister’s suspicious behavior. The third was when I gave the poisonous herbs to the snakeborn girl. I orchestrated the whole thing, from preparing the poison to falling victim to it.
I anticipated that Sister would make a move. In order to trap her, I needed someone to carry the poison and someone to suffer from it. I chose Hieda. Her hatred for the dragon girl gave her a motive. Killing her meant eliminating both an enemy and a person who knew of my schemes. She was the logical choice.
Though it was a bit of a gamble whether Sister would actually plot something for the survival training, it paid off. It might have been my flower fae abilities that subconsciously led me to the correct answer. There was no point waiting for an attack that could come from anywhere when I could just instigate it myself. Since this was an organization of assassins, I assumed using poison was highly controlled. Fortunately, I was right. The only downside to all of this was that it turned out the training I did to increase my poison resistance wasn’t all that helpful.
A large blond man sat down beside me and started to pray. He didn’t say a word to me, but the thick air of disapproval around him told me all I needed to know.
I know. I’m not going to make a habit of taking extreme measures. I only acted because I sensed Sister was after my life.
After dipping my head toward the knife on the altar, I stood up from my chair and took the walkway across from Konji to go to the exit. I pushed open the door that was twice my height and left the room.
Beside the door was a box. One that hadn’t been there before.
EPILOGUE: THE GIRL IN THE BOX