There was trouble with the final exams for first-years, but all other grades went off without a hitch.
And then, night came...
Elyena had been summoned by Speranza, head professor of the first-years.
A knock resounded on the meeting room door.
“Come in,” someone said.
With that, Elyena opened the door. What she saw was a group of royal soldiers, so she blinked in surprise.
The walls of the meeting room were blocked by rows of armored soldiers. In the middle of the room was a large desk, with one-eyed Speranza looking at her sternly from the other end.
“Is something wrong, Professor Elyena? Do come in.”
“A bit of an unsettling ensemble. Excuse me.”
Elyena moved to sit down in a chair, only for a soldier to step forward. “Your staff, please.”
That indicated she was going to be detained. A saint could do nothing once their staff was taken. Speranza watched carefully to see if Elyena would do so.
She relaxed when Elyena did without a fuss. “I have summoned you here today, Professor, for no reason other than the incident this morning with the first-years’ final exam.”
“That was quite the shocker, wasn’t it? To think we would lose the ability to cast miracles and the entire dungeon would collapse! Have we figured out what happened yet?”
“The principal is leading an investigation into that matter. An incident of that nature must never be allowed to happen again. It was by luck alone that the students all emerged safely.”
“And what a relief that is. The Goddess was surely watching,” Elyena said with a smile.
Speranza did not smile back. “I questioned one of the lesser-hurt students, and as they would have it, the dungeon had magibeasts of grade two and above. As you know, the magibeasts of the dungeon were formed by giving plants a precise quantity of cursed goods. We create dungeons suitable for the students by releasing them inside, and yet...”
“The wrong magibeasts were sent in?”
“That would be impossible. I observed the magibeasts sent into the dungeon myself. The only possibility I can conceive of is that cursed goods were planted into the garden ahead of time, such that they would end up within the dungeon after it was formed. The magibeasts would have eaten those goods and reached levels beyond our intentions,” Speranza said, leaning forward. A shadow fell over her face. “Professor Elyena. You took a large quantity of cursed goods for your latest class, no?”
“Aaah, about that, you see, by complete accident I stumbled and—”
“You would claim to have an accident every single time you hold a class?!”
“Aha ha, as embarrassing as it is...” Elyena laughed, unperturbed by the vein bulging on Speranza’s forehead.
“Enough, Professor Elyena. We will be detaining your person,” Speranza declared. Soldiers stood on either side of her.
“Heh? Detaining me...?”
“You unleashed grade two and above magibeasts in a dungeon for first-years. That may as well have been attempted murder. Had things gone wrong, all of the first-years would have perished.”
“Very true. I am impressed they all survived if the dungeon was filled with high-grade magibeasts.”
“How shameless...! Professor Elyena, I am enraged. The saint candidates are the future of the country, and it is our duty to nurture them. Any strictness in our instruction is purely to prepare them for the multitudinous darkness that awaits them in real life. And yet you wished them dead with sincerity... No matter what your motivation may be, that is not to be permitted.”
“Do you have any proof I did what you claimed? Did the principal approve this arrest?”
“The dungeon magibeasts were my responsibility as head professor of the first-years. I will investigate this matter and report it to the principal when my report is complete. Soldiers, take her away!”
Soldiers on either side grabbed Elyena’s arms...prompting her to smirk.
“Acting alone, then? How convenient... Obey.”
Elyena’s eyes were instantly dyed ebony.
That was magic. It was a force that could bend the world in any direction regardless of rules, physics, or common sense.
The soldiers next to Elyena instantly pointed the tips of their staves to their own heads. “Ignaria Sein.”
The soldiers blasted their own heads with Fire miracles, then collapsed, having been burnt to a crisp. Elyena chanted again before anyone could parse what had just happened.
“Obey. Obey. Aha! Obey...!”
Each soldier hit by Elyena’s magic blasted their head off one after another. The room filled with the heat of flames and the foul stench of burning flesh. Elyena, having long missed the smell of war, could hardly contain her grin. The witch chanted with sadistic, taunting glee.
“Aha! Obey! Aha, aha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
The room echoed with the sound of laughter and crumbling armor. Soon, the only survivor left standing was Speranza. She had her staff readied, but no chants came out of her parched mouth.
“Impossible... That incantation! You are Liliana the Witch of Submission!”
The cruelest of all witches. The most infamous, and the most horrible...
Elyena picked up her own staff and pointed it at Speranza, cackling with pitch-black eyeballs. “Let me think of a story. You misjudged how to feed the magibeasts and unleashed grade two monsters—impossible for first-years to beat—within the dungeon. You killed the soldiers who pointed that out to silence them, but your good conscience could hardly bear this act of evil, and so you thought it best to join them in the afterlife. How does that sound?”
Speranza’s lips trembled. She educated with a firm hand, but that was merely a reflection of the care she felt for her students. The role Elyena envisioned for her suited her nature perfectly, but Speranza did not seem fond of it.
“What are you planning? How dare an evil witch hide themselves among the professors of Antohsa?! Goddess, give me the strength to spite her! Ignar—”
“Obey.”
Speranza’s head exploded in flames, and she collapsed.
Elyena, now alone in the room, mumbled to herself. “All I wish to change is this world, now dominated by the Goddess. I must guide Stella the Witch of Shackles properly for this.”
It was all as Speranza had imagined. Elyena had swiped cursed goods to make magibeasts within the dungeon too powerful for first-years to slay. And that was not all—she had hidden a slip in the library book and arranged for it to fall into Stella’s hands. She also gave extra cursed goods to her in class on purpose.
All to drive Stella into great danger and have her awaken as a witch.
“The body is a vessel, and our wishes are water. No matter the time and place, witches are born only from the most hellish of circumstances,” Elyena said, opening the door to leave the room. On the way, she glanced at a relief of the Goddess on the wall. “These past one thousand years have been oh so boring, Amanda. Soon I will have a witch capable of killing you ready; just sit tight and wait, aha!”
The door to the meeting room shut, leaving only silent corpses.