After a long sigh, I suddenly felt very heavy, like something supporting me had slipped away.
Shit… Now, that was an exhausting fight…
“Miss Mylene…!”
“Mylene!”
But things weren’t gonna calm down for a while yet. I braced myself to prevent Colette’s embrace from knocking me onto my back, and I turned to Albert (who was trying desperately not to cry) and gave him a thumbs-up.
This broke the floodgates. Albert flew at me just like Colette had.
Dammit…they’ll never stop being annoying, will they? Still…they trusted my crazy idea. Guess I’ll cut them some slack this time.
Or so I thought.
“Wait, you two, what happened to Melissa?!”
I suddenly remembered Melissa, who was likely still under Victor’s control. If she came at me now in my battered state, I wouldn’t be able to hold my own!
At least the rest of my team was still in decent shape.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Colette said. “She collapsed right when Victor did.”
“At the very least, I doubt she will lash out at us,” Albert added.
“Ya sure? Well, in that case…we’re in trouble. Bring her here.”
Just because she stopped moving doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet.
I gestured to Albert to bring Melissa to me. I got a good look at her, and noticed she was still breathing, though faintly. At a glance, it seemed like she was asleep. I pulled back her eyelids and looked at her eyeballs…and I didn’t find any peculiarities you’d see in somebody who’d lost their mind.
Then again, I only knew how to evaluate whether or not she was a threat on the battlefield. We’d need to have a specialist examine her later to know for sure—but at least for now, we knew she wasn’t in danger of dying.
I slowly laid Melissa on her side and took another deep breath in and out.
It’s finally over…wait, scratch that, it might not be over yet.
I put my hands on my knees and yanked myself off the ground. “Harrumph!”
“Easy, Grandpa,” Colette teased. “You’re gorgeous; can’t you be a little more about maintaining your image?”
“Shaddup, that ship’s sailed.”
I honestly didn’t care about Colette’s nitpicking right now. I walked over to Victor and kicked him onto his back. His hair was no longer standing on end. I sensed no magic from him either.
“Kee-hee—hee… I never dreamed the closing act would turn out this way… What a plot twist…”
After all of that, Victor was still alive. Shit, why did all my enemies have to be so hardy?
“Any last words, asshole?”
“No. It was a stellar performance… The impossible made reality… It was oh-so-beautiful…”
His body went limp as he smiled peacefully, with the look of a man who was leaving this world with no regrets behind.
“Agh—well, whatever. I’m sick of talking to you. Have fun being strangled by the guards.”
“I suppose I’ll be sentenced to death—an ending with its own appealing flavor.”
Shit…this guy just won’t let me sit back and enjoy my victory, will he!
Still, he hadn’t seemed all that eager to off himself either. Guess I’d have plenty of questions to ask him later in hell.
But first—I snatched the medal hanging off Victor’s neck—at the very least, it’s obvious that this guy’s part of the cult. Before Victor unleashed his god’s powers, he was clearly getting power from this baby. I can’t be entirely sure why, but I feel much safer confiscating this thing from him.
“Ooh… You’ve got a keen eye, my dear…”
“I’m gonna have to keep fighting your asshole friends in the future—I’m gonna learn whatever I can.”
“Haha… Pity I won’t be able to see those events unfold with my own eyes…”
With a scoffing curse under my breath, I lowered my gaze to the medal. That Dia Milus who Pearlman had mentioned was a horned snake, but this guy’s god—Zuri Dien—looked like a birdman. And a really malicious one at that.
“So that your beautiful epic may continue…,” Victor murmured mindlessly. “Let me give you a word of advice, my dear…”
I looked down at him. He seemed…sincere. It irked me that somebody so insane would take a shine to me, but I was grateful for any intel he had.
“Your enemy is all-powerful… Be wary of Garoh most of all.”
I was going to pretend to ignore him, but instead, I blurted out, “Who the hell is Garoh?”
The corners of Victor’s lips twisted upward into a smile as he continued. “I don’t quite know, but he seems to be their trump card… One wrong move and the whole world might be destroyed.”
The whole world, eh? Sounds fake, but I’ll keep it in mind.
“Nah. That won’t happen.”
“Ohh? And why’s that?”
“’Cause before it happens, I’m gonna kick your gods’ asses.”
“……Hah! Yes, of course… That attitude is what makes you you…my dear…”
And with a satisfied smile, Victor lost consciousness. He would probably spend the rest of his life in a dungeon.
Wobbling like I had a hangover, I sat back down across from Colette and Albert.
If only I could just go straight to bed…
Then the auditorium door burst open. The campus professors stormed in, guards in tow. I wanted to snap at them for being so careless when there might be magic charms scattered like landmines…but I couldn’t be bothered to speak. And the fact was, no traps had been laid out anyway—
“Mylene…is that you?! And Prince Albert? Princess Colette, too?!”
As the teachers gradually grasped what had transpired, they shook with terror seeing the two royals and troublemaker standing in the center of it all.
With an exhausted sigh, I scratched my head and carelessly said, “Err…… What lovely weather, eh, professors?”
I couldn’t be bothered to do anything else, really.