The students snapped their heads up to look at us. They cried out at the sight of the half-lion, half-eagle monster—and at me riding him.
The headmaster, teachers, and Charles were at a loss for words.
“Hold on tight!”
Robins swung his wings down and backward to push through the waves in the air. All he had to do was incline his head to send us instantly soaring upside down and straight to the ground at tremendous speeds.
“…!” I desperately clung to him and swallowed my scream before it could escape.
Robins spun us around before finally righting his body just before we hit the ground. We touched down behind Charles.
He flapped his wings and sent the students flying backward with that gust. Amidst the chaos, Charles looked at Robins like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But his face was full of strong emotions at the same time.
“Gryphon the demon…and Miss Alice?”
“We came to save you! My friends are here too!” I said.
The other five were jumping down from the building at that moment.
Dum and Dee had their weapons out like they were ready for war. Jack unsheathed his saber while Leeds landed with Dark—who was clutching his hat—on his knee like a cushion.
The teachers couldn’t believe they could jump from such a height without being injured.
I hopped down from Robins’ back, stood in front of our group, and came face to face with Headmaster Caterpillar.
“Stop this attack on Charles,” I ordered. “We’re the ones you’re really after, right?”
“Phew. What guts you have to defy me. Gryphon, tear these people to bits.”
“No…” Robins shook his head. “I don’t want to kill anyone. Alice, Dark, Jack, the Tweedles, and Nurse Leeds are people I care about. I want to protect everyone just like Charles does!”
Robins’ emphatic voice was trembling. I knew the demon was experiencing a similar pain and fear to that of a rebellious child opposing their father.
“That voice…” When he heard the unexpected sound of his friend’s voice, Charles blinked heavily. “Are you Robins?”
Robins flinched. He turned his face away awkwardly before giving a small nod.
That only made Charles furrow his brow. “Why didn’t you tell me you were the one who saved me?!”
“I didn’t know how to say it to you. Besides, humans despise demons…”
But Charles denied that part. He wiggled his bound body to face Robins better. “I was searching for you this whole time. I would’ve died without you. You’re the one who gave me a future.” He stood up on unsteady legs and buried his face in Robins’ chest. “Thank you for saving me, Robins.”
“…Right. Of course…” Robins gritted his teeth as he took in Charles’ deepest gratitude. Then he looked at the headmaster with an intensity in his eyes that wasn’t there before. “I’ll never follow your orders. I’ll protect Charles, the students, and Ark School itself!”
“Don’t be so careless. Deus ordo seclorum.”
I gasped when I heard that spell.
It’s the one we learned in demon studies!
As soon as the words were out, Robins’ eye color went from golden to a deep, bottomless black. Those words exorcized demons. While they didn’t work on Dark, Robins couldn’t put up a fight against his contract’s master.
His eyes rolled backward, and he opened his massive beak to let out a roar.
“Aaaaaaah!”
“What is it, Robins?!” Charles cried.
“Something’s wrong. Get away from him!” I dragged Charles away from Robins by the hand. “Robins can’t deny the headmaster since he’s the one who owns his contract. We have to find that contract and free him. Dum, Dee, I’m counting on you!”
“Got it!”
“Got it!”
The twins began to battle with Robins, who’d gone into a blind rage.
Dum went in for a direct slice of his dagger while Dee fired an arrow at his blind spot while he was distracted. They were perfect when it came to teamwork. However, Robins instantly plucked the knives and arrows out with his beak and claws.
“Are you hurt, my lady? You did well getting through all that, too, Prefect.” Jack rushed up to us and cut away Charles’ ropes with his saber.
Charles was startled by how easy it was for him. “Who are you people…? No, that’s not important right now. This ‘contract’ is the one Gryphon entered with the castle’s original builder, right? I’ve heard that man hid it inside his cape so it would never be stolen. A memo of his left in the library mentioned it.”
“But then where would the headmaster have hidden it?” I wondered.
Robins had told us he never found it, no matter how hard he searched throughout the school. There had to be a secret hiding place somewhere.
Now that I think of it, the headmaster is wearing the same robe he always does.
Headmaster Caterpillar walked around with his long robe dragging behind him. But he never had a new one made, even though this one had snagged and ripped.
If the original lord of the castle had worn it on his own body, then the headmaster was probably doing the same.
I left Charles with Leeds and called Dark over.
“I think the contract is sewn inside the headmaster’s robe,” I said. “We’ll handle him, so you take care of Robins. Can you stop him without getting hurt?”
“That’s my specialty.” He kept one hand on his hat and used the other to hold his cane out horizontally. Dark’s blue eyes peered out from under the brim. They sparkled as if lit with fire. “Hello, Gryphon, the demon. Care to test your strength against mine?”
A light blue beam shot out from the tip of his cane. It hurdled toward Robins like a cannonball, struck his wings, and expanded into an orb. It was big enough to wrap around him and embed deeply into the ground.
The light had formed a birdcage. Robins snarled and thrashed inside of it, unable to escape.
The headmaster staggered—he never expected his Gryphon to be locked away.
“Will that do the trick?”
“That’s plenty.”
I threw my hands up toward the sky and prayed: “May these immortals be freed from their spell.”
The center of my chest prickled with heat. White bands shot out rapidly and branched off in every direction. Just as the teachers tried to run, some even dislocating their backs to escape, the light struck them.
Headmaster Caterpillar’s body was constricted by it too. His eyebrows went high enough to reveal his wide eyes underneath.
“What’s going on…?” he strained.
“This is my power.”
His face warped with fright when I answered honestly.
“You possess such a power…? Are you people stigmata?” he asked.
“You only just realized? Well, it’s too late to do you any good now.”
Flames of rage were burning inside me despite the cold answer I gave him. Passion was a means of fueling my power. My anger strengthened the beams of light pouring into the teachers and hit the spell that had frozen their bodies in time.
An orange clock formed under their feet—Robins’ crest. My power had been stopped short by Robins’ spell. But I was too weak to break through. I was trying to force myself past the spell when Dark tapped his cane on the ground.
“Time for my power to come to the rescue.”
Dark’s magic traveled through the ground and ate into the clock seals. My bands of light glowed brighter and brighter until finally…the clocks shattered.
That was when the teachers’ bodies started to crumble like clay dolls.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
Their final screeches pierced our ears from every direction.
Their time had come. Once the spell was broken, nothing but death awaited them. There was no human dignity in the way they perished—as was to be expected from those who’d strayed from the course of nature.