🎃 🎃 🎃
I was walking down the hall alone after literature class. Dum and Dee weren’t with me. The teacher had scolded them for talking to me during class, so they had to stay behind for detention and a lecture.
I can walk alone for a short distance. It’s still the middle of the day, and I have my handgun for self-defense.
It felt refreshing to be alone for the first time in so long.
I’d memorized the entire layout of the school, so I could tell where I was by referencing the number of weapons mounted to the walls.
A single spear was hung on the first floor of the western tower where arithmetic and Latin were taught. The second floor had two spears and was home to the orthography classroom. The eastern tower had one, two, or three swords hung on the wall for each respective floor.
Only the first three floors were used for classrooms.
The fourth floor contained the teachers’ residential area and the headmaster’s office.
I’ll try going up there today.
I made my way up step after step. The stone stairs were in more disrepair the higher I got—no one had bothered maintaining them.
Out of breath, I looked up at the fourth-floor landing and saw four swords affixed to the wall. I quietly pressed forward down the hall.
There was a great room with rows of beds inside left open. That was where the teachers slept. It was incredibly sparse and nothing like the dorms the students lived in.
I felt a chill and noticed the window was open. When I stuck my head out, it was nothing but cliffs underneath.
I remember Leeds saying that the back of the castle was the cliffside.
I left the great room and went in search of the staircase to the fifth floor.
Stuffed and mounted bats decorated the hallway. I examined a dance room with a broken piano and emerged in front of a familiar sight—the headmaster’s office in the western tower.
“Wait, did I miss it?”
I was sure I’d memorized every corner of the castle…
I retraced my steps but could only find the staircase down to the third floor. There was nothing that took me higher.
“Maybe it’s inside one of the rooms. …Hm?”
My eyes were drawn to a familiar marking. A modest wooden door stood in the back of the dance room. The image of a lion and unicorn facing each other was carved into its face.
It was locked. I couldn’t open it. But the door had two keyholes—one gold and one silver.
Leeds had one gold and one silver key in that keychain of his.
They were keys to the dorm, but perhaps they could open this door, too.
As much as I wanted to test it out, I couldn’t do any more exploring today.
If this was a movie about exploring ancient ruins, a locked door like this would be hiding potentially deadly traps on the other side. Wandering down strange paths without telling anyone was far too risky.
Dum and Dee were probably getting out of detention, so I used the nearest staircase to head back down. It was a cramped, dark passage originally built for servants to use.
I didn’t expect any other students to use these stairs since it was harder to get to the classrooms from them, but then…
“There you are, Alice!”
Brett, the chubby boy who gave me the Kendal Mint Cake, was coming up to the second-story landing.
“Do you need something?” I asked.
“I wanted to know if you liked the cake. Did you try it yet?”
His question instantly took me back to earlier. I’d dropped the dessert and turned it into crumbs.
“I’m sorry. I dropped it while carrying it somewhere, so I never got the chance to try the cake.”
“Oh…” Brett slumped over sadly, but then he quickly raised his sweaty face again. “I have lots more in my room, so let’s go get them!”
“Wha?!”
I let out a strange cry when he grabbed my arm.
Brett seemed extremely excited by my reaction. He was breathing heavily now.
I shuddered. I tried to remove his hands, but he stopped me.
“Please let go of me. I’m not going there,” I said.
“Don’t worry, I have my friends with me too. They all want to get to know you, Alice.”
A group of students emerged behind Brett. One of them was the boy who gave me the red ribbon. The others were upperclassmen from Unicorn Dorm who’d been watching me from afar.
“You never play with us, Alice. It’s so boring here without any girls around.”
“We won’t tell anyone if you want to let loose a little.”
“Our prefect this year is a nice guy. He won’t do anything, even if he finds out there’s been funny business.”
On the receiving end of all their creepy smiles, I actually found my mind getting clearer. I was up against four boys. Other than Brett, they looked like strong sportsmen.
I’m not sure if I can escape with self-defense moves alone.
I didn’t want to use my gun on ordinary people. If anyone knew I carried it, I’d be seen as dangerous and exiled from the island, much less the school. That left me with only one solution.
It’s time to do what I practiced in my past life!
I filled my lungs with air and shouted as loud as I could.
“Pervert! There’s a pervert here!”
“What?!”
The scream caused the students to flinch. I used that moment to kick Brett between the legs.
“Oof!”
“Forgive me for this!”
Without a second of hesitation, I pushed him backwards with both hands. He tumbled down the staircase, taking two of the students with him.
I broke out into a mad dash and raced down the stairs. Even if I tripped and fell, it would be better than getting harassed by the male students.
I made it down to the first floor, only to have my hair grabbed and yanked by someone to my side.
“Eek!”
“Hahaha! Caught you!”
Fry and Batta were waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. Fry tore my hair out with a loud rip, and I knew I was probably going to have a bald patch.
“What are you doing?!” I shouted. “Let go of me! Mmmph!”
Batta covered my mouth with a cloth so I couldn’t scream. That was when Brett and the rest of the students, clutching the aching parts of their bodies, caught up to us.
“This girl really put up a fight.”
“Grab her under the arms and drag her away.”
“But get her to keep quiet before we leave. Give her a good punch in the stomach.”
Just as Batta raised his fist to strike me…
An arrow shot by right in front of his eyes.
“Whoa!”
I looked in the direction the arrow had come from. There stood Dee holding his crossbow and Dum spinning his dagger.
“What are you doing to Alice?”
Dum’s question was icy cold, and his eyes were halfway closed. He wasn’t falling asleep—he was focusing his entire vision on his target like a camera shutter.
The students were lost for words now that they realized they were his prey.
“W-We were just playing around. Why do you guys have those weapons?!”
“I’m the one asking questions. If you don’t let her go, I’m going to kill you.” Dum pointed the tip of his dagger at Fry, his eyes glinting with light.
Fry let go of my hair, startled. I fell back and landed on my bottom, but the twins’ eyes never strayed from the students.
“What were your plans with Alice?” Dee spoke next.
This time, Batta responded with hostility. “Stay out of it! Leave us alone!”
“Answer us.”
“Answer us.”
Dum disappeared, leaving only those blood-chilling words in the air.
More accurately, he’d sprinted to action faster than he could be perceived. Dum leapt toward Fry, grabbed him by the collar, and pointed his blade at the boy’s left eye.
“You have three seconds. If you don’t answer, I’ll gouge your eyes out, one by one.”
“G-Gouge?!”
“One.”
He started to count before Fry could respond. The boy knew he had no choice but to speak.
“W-We were just…”
“Two.”
“We just wanted to be friends with her.”
“Three. Ready to say goodbye to this eye?”
Dum cocked his head, and Fry sent spittle flying from his mouth.
Batta stepped in right away to answer.
“I-It’s not fair for you two to hog the girl all to yourselves! Can’t you let us have some fun with her too?”
“Ah… I’ve heard enough.”
Dum let go of Fry and leaned his body weight to one side. His long bangs shrouded his face, but his blue eyes were still peering through. They were brimming with an undeniable, murderous rage.
“Can I kill them all, Dee?”
Dee, who’d lifted me off the ground, nodded deeply.
“Tear them apart, Dum.”
“Stop this!” I shouted.
I couldn’t allow them to execute students over giving me a bald spot. Although, it was also true that I was on the verge of something very bad happening to me if they hadn’t shown up.
What sins were deserving of which punishments? The twins had spent their lives working in the underworld, so they struggled deeply to weigh such factors.
I’ll have to teach them that some people shouldn’t be killed, no matter how much you hate them.
It was my job, as the head of the Liddell family, to educate the twins—they were family, too.
“They didn’t succeed in their crimes. It’s not worth getting your hands dirty,” I said.
“…I can’t even cut them up?”
“No, you can’t,” I said firmly. “Not even when you cock your head at me so sweetly.”
Dum was displeased, so he and Dee started to discuss secretly killing them at night or during classes.
“Come on, we can make a run for it.”
The boys quietly started to move. Dee shot his crossbow in their direction without even glancing at them. The arrow landed ahead of them in the hallway, causing them to let out shrieks and topple to the ground.