“Hey, there. You awake, sweetie?”
“You little bitch…,” Pearlman grunted, looking up slightly—that was as far as he could move. His face sank again, into his own pool of blood, with a dribbling noise.
So my suspicions were true: The powers he’d been imbued with earlier were all gone. Now that I knew his abilities were only temporary, it made this whole divine possession thing a little more plausible.
No… There’s no other explanation for that level of power, regardless. If our fight hadn’t been contained to a room, it probably would’ve dragged out even longer.
I carelessly walked up to Pearlman, sat on his stomach, and pulled him up by his collar. “What the hell made you guys do all that shit? I assume you only kidnapped Colette because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time—but what was the point in distributing those drugs?”
I pressed him hard—but Pearlman only snorted cynically with a cool demeanor. This guy wasn’t like his lackeys. He wouldn’t sing so easily. And besides, if I roughed up this middle-aged man any further, he really would meet his death. Torture was meaningless if the guy died.
But Pearlman suddenly got a somber look in his eyes, and he said deliriously, “To think Eltania’s protection was so powerful… I guess even a rotten god is still a god…”
The bitter words felt extra malicious, coming from a man with a vacant expression in his eyes. Of course, the god he was referring to in this case was not the deity they worshipped, but Eltania.
“Why exactly do you hate Eltania that much?”
“I have nothing to share with the likes of you.”
But he wouldn’t tell me why.
“To our deity Dia Milus…our Sovereign God Lesewelk…and to the future world of the Gods of the Moon… Glory to the world of chaos to come!”
Maybe those really were the delirious words of a madman. It’s not unusual for a man to mutter prayers to his gods on his deathbed.
Pearlman stuck out his tongue at me. A magic bullet of blue ice rested atop it. He yanked his tongue into his mouth, crushing the blue ice with his teeth. Then thorny ice crystals sprouted all over his face, ripping his skin apart.
“What—?!” Albert gasped in shock.
Our homeroom teacher had just killed himself. I guess it was only natural for Albert to be shocked. But I wasn’t surprised… I imagined something like this would happen. It’s important to let kids be sensitive, though.
“Well, shit. Yet another thing to deal with…”
I gently set Pearlman’s face on the floor and stood up. Taking your own life to keep your secrets protected was a pretty ballsy move. It seemed like these Gods of the Moon were a much more organized religion than I’d taken them for.
Being a martyr sounds noble and all, but it’s not worth a damn. You’re nothing more than a fanatic who’s eager to throw away what should be most important to you.
Knowing that guys like this were coming out of the woodwork this early made me realize that my former impression of them as a new religion was probably wrong.
“What a mess.”
I hated it when things got complicated. What I’d assumed was a simple problem had gotten much bigger than it was at the start, like a snowball being rolled into a snowman.
I gave a heavy sigh, pressing a hand to my forehead and said, “Okay, first things first—let’s get a guard.”
We had mountains of problems to deal with. So our only choice was to start tackling them one at a time. And our first task at hand was to tell law enforcement what had happened.
But we couldn’t leave the scene of the crime—the kidnappers’ friends might come back and tamper with it—and I didn’t want to split us up and weaken our defenses, either. These were guys who had no qualms about putting the murder of royalty in their master plan. I didn’t want to let Colette and Albert out of my sight, at least for now.
“Guess we should go find someone nearby…” I sighed loudly, my shoulders slumping. But first, I had to worry about Colette’s injuries. I knew she could move and talk, but some people with a high pain threshold could still walk and talk even when they were on death’s door.
“Are you…hurt bad?”
“Huh? Oh… Hmm, no, I’m all right.”
She seemed a bit dazed, but she wasn’t as hurt as she looked.
“Good… Glad you’re okay,” I said quietly, sighing in relief.
“Wheh?! R-really?” For some reason, Colette’s shoulders shook dramatically.
I frowned dubiously at her… But I guess for now, she at least seemed to be feeling okay. “Hey… Are ya sure you’re all right?” I asked, her out-of-character timidness concerning me.
They had held her captive all night. There was no telling what they’d done to her. We might have had a national crisis on our hands. She’d already been abducted—it was too late to change that now—but if those freaks had done anything worse to her, there really would be no coming back from that.
“Oh…uh, yeah. I’m just a little frazzled… That’s all.”
Strong, aloof Colette’s face turned red. She was coyly avoiding my gaze, a gesture I would never have been able to imagine coming from her.
“I’m fine, truly. They still hadn’t decided what they were going to do with me. And Pearlman ordered them not to lay a finger on me until they’d organized their thoughts.”
As long as Colette was telling me the truth, it seemed like she was mostly all right. She wasn’t hurt, but the more I looked her up and down, the smaller she shrank. It didn’t seem at all like her, but as long as they hadn’t done anything gross to her, we were in the clear.
Phew… That’s a weight off my shoulders.
I cast a glance at Pearlman, ice spikes growing through his face. The fanatic had died a martyr. And the one who made him do it was that god hanging from his neck—the horned serpent deity, Dia Milus.
That Sovereign God he mentioned also concerns me… Lesewelk, I think he said? I highly doubt it, but I sure hope the Gods of the Moon isn’t a polytheistic religion. I don’t even want to think about the possibility of multiple deities like that.
I crouched over Pearlman’s body and borrowed his pendant with a crest. It had glowed whenever he’d charged up his magical energy. I felt no power coming from it in my hands, but I figured I might need to have a better look at it later.
“Okay… I’m gonna go find somebody to get us a guard.”
“Understood, my lady.”
I left the dazed princess in Albert’s care and temporarily put the storehouse behind me. I cast one final glance at Pearlman, whispering a silent farewell.
Even if that madman was who he truly was inside, I did think he was born to be a teacher. What a waste. I wasn’t going to pity the guy for making the wrong choice and dealing with the consequences—but I just wished he’d realized he could have chosen to live his life a different way. Even I acknowledge it’s a bit out of character for me to say this, but I really do believe that all it takes is a change of your way of life to turn enemies into earnest friends. Colette was living proof of that.
At the end of the day, we choose how to live our lives. Even though you were a fake teacher, ya taught me a great lesson, buddy.
I looked away from him and turned back to walk out of the storehouse. The outside light streaming through the half-shut door felt crazy-bright on my eyes as I pushed open the heavy iron door.