35. Inter-School Competition (1)
Sometimes, even stories that are completely pointless make it into the papers and become a minor topic of conversation.
[A girl so happy to meet her idol that she faints?]
[A Stella cadet collapses while asking Baek Yuseol for an autograph…]
Anella’s story—about how she collapsed immediately after meeting Stella’s famous boy mage, Baek Yuseol—was exactly that sort of thing.
Quite a number of paparazzi were always waiting at the café Baek Yuseol frequented, and the moment Anella held out a piece of paper to get his autograph, she fainted on the spot, and the entire thing was caught on camera in brutally clear detail.
“Mm…”
As Anella slowly opened her eyes, she frowned at the splitting headache pounding through her skull. Then the chirping voices of girls rang out softly.
“Hey, hey, Anella’s awake.”
“Huh? Seriously?”
“Ooh~ the princess awakens~”
Opening her eyes slowly and turning her head, she recognized that the girls sitting around her somehow looked familiar.
And only afterward did she remember that she had infiltrated Stella as an exchange student, and then used Nightmare’s Return on Baek Yuseol—
“…Hk!”
She abruptly jerked her upper body upright, and her head felt as though it would split apart, but that did not matter right now.
“Wh-where am I…?”
“Geez, you don’t have to sit up that fast.”
“Yeah. Why not rest a little longer?”
“Heheh. Do you remember why you fainted?”
Her friends looked at Anella with sly, playful eyes and whispered softly.
“Your wish came true, huh? Your groom is waiting for you.”
“What…?”
At those words, a chill ran through Anella, and she slowly turned her stiff neck.
This was a hospital room.
A fairly large one, at that, and in the corner, Baek Yuseol had pulled over a chair and was reading a book.
Baek Yuseol looked steadily this way as he closed the book, perhaps because she had woken up.
Anella felt an overwhelming fear and helplessness from him at the same time.
“I… I’m going to die…”
“You like him that much?”
“Baek Yuseol is sweeter than I thought, you know?”
“Seriously. He said you collapsed because of him, so he didn’t leave his seat all day. He just waited for you to wake up.”
“Wh-what…?”
Around then, Anella’s complexion slowly began turning pale, but none of the girls noticed.
To others, he might have looked sweet.
But to her, it felt like a beast of prey slowly tightening its hold around its target’s throat.
Shff.
As Baek Yuseol rose from his seat, the girls made a fuss and bolted straight out of the hospital room.
“Fighting!”
They even clenched their fists and made joking gestures as they left.
Normally they were irritating, unpleasant girls, but at this moment more than ever, Anella wanted to scream for them not to go.
“…Click.”
When Baek Yuseol came right up next to the bed and dropped into the chair with a thud, Anella let out a sharp little sound without realizing it.
“…Anella di Polanche.”
“Y-yes…”
“You study at Hanaleya Magic School in the Seberun Kingdom, and you’re currently inside Stella as an exchange student.”
“Yes…”
“And you’re a Dark Mage.”
Goosebumps prickled all over her body.
What should she do?
Unlike the more skilled Dark Mages, her dark power was sealed, and she had no ability to open that seal herself.
And even her Trait did not work on him…
What… what is this…?
Moreover, she could not feel any mana at all throughout her body.
It was as though it had frozen solid.
She had never felt so helpless in her life.
No, even if she had still had access to her mana, would it really have been possible for her to stand against him in the first place?
“…”
As Anella shook all over and could not say a word, Baek Yuseol let out a sigh.
It was true that he had intended to threaten her.
But he had not expected her to look this terrified.
Anella di Polanche…
He had infiltrated under his real name, not even an alias.
To be honest, Baek Yuseol himself did not know much about her name.
But the Jikbakguri Glasses…
as expected, had information recorded about “Anella.”
[A helper NPC who appears occasionally if you’re lucky]
[Though she appears as an enemy, if you succeed in winning her over, she can provide a great deal of help]
As a hidden NPC, Anella was also a character whose appearance in Aither World Online was determined by what choices the player made among countless options.
The exact conditions for her appearance were not widely known, but it was written that she could appear with a certain probability if the player gradually advanced through the route of “Character Ma Yuseong.”
In other words, Anella had infiltrated to monitor changes in Ma Yuseong.
As though that assumption were correct, the Jikbakguri Glasses had also displayed the line:
[Infiltrated Stella under the orders of Blackkingdom, the Dark Magic King’s right hand]
Of course, whatever circumstances she had, that was separate from the fact that she had tried to stimulate his trauma and collapse his mind, and he had no intention of overlooking that.
“Anella.”
“…Yes?”
“Why did you try to kill me?”
Still, it would be best to extract whatever information he could first.
When Baek Yuseol asked in an even voice, Anella swallowed hard.
“That’s…”
“If you don’t speak properly, I may really have to kill you right here.”
“I don’t want to do that. So I’d appreciate it if you’d answer properly.”
With her head bowed low, Anella slowly weighed her priorities.
Monitoring Ma Yuseong, and eliminating Baek Yuseol.
She had failed every mission, so even if she returned like this…
she would die.
And even if not, she certainly would not be allowed to live well-treated.
But even so, she could not betray them.
That was because she could not undo by herself the seal of dark power bound around her heart.
What do I do…?
If she betrayed Blackkingdom, she would have no choice but to live forever in a half-crippled body.
“Speak.”
That said, Anella did not possess the sort of loyalty toward Blackkingdom that would let her clamp her mouth shut and sit there against Baek Yuseol right in front of her.
Judging that her life was more important for now, she finally opened her mouth and confessed the truth.
That she had infiltrated Stella on Blackkingdom’s orders, and that she had been ordered to kill him.
“So it really was that…”
He had deliberately not asked for the finer details, but even that alone was enough for Baek Yuseol to understand everything, and he nodded.
So the Dark Mages are paying attention to my existence too.
That was…
precisely the situation Baek Yuseol had least wanted.
Once the Dark Mage faction began moving in earnest, there was no way his current weak body could possibly stop them.
He had wanted to move quietly in the shadows for as long as possible, and yet somehow he had become famous enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the protagonists, so the very idea of escaping their notice had become impossible.
“…That’s enough of that.”
“Yes…”
More than information about the Dark Mages, he was even more curious about that Trait of Anella’s.
“I want to know about your ability, Nightmare’s Return.”
“My ability…?”
“Yeah. What exactly does it do? It definitely shows the trauma someone experienced in the past, right?”
Nod nod nod nod.
That was exactly why Anella feared Baek Yuseol.
Just what kind of past had he gone through
for so many countless “deaths” to be sleeping inside his trauma?
The incident from back then had been so shocking that she did not remember every little detail clearly, but…
surely it had to rank among the most horrible experiences of her life.
And while thinking that, another thought also came to her.
Until now, throughout her life, Anella had always believed that she was the most pitiful, most suffering, and most miserable person alive.
And there was even a valid reason she had come to think that.
Through her ability, Nightmare’s Return, she was able to peek into other people’s traumas and learn who had lived the more unfortunate life.
And yet up to now, not a single person—
not one—
had ever possessed a trauma capable of affecting Anella.
Other people’s traumas…
to her, they had been no more than stories that stung a little and were a little sad.
But after experiencing Baek Yuseol’s past, she had to completely rearrange that belief.
His trauma…
was a continuous chain of pain so severe that her own mind could barely endure even accepting it.
Death, and after it death. Then another death.
That was why, even while being threatened by Baek Yuseol…
Anella ended up asking him.
“Just what… are you?”
But Baek Yuseol did not answer. He simply looked quietly into her eyes, then stood up.
“I’ll let you go, so from here on, figure things out yourself.”
“…What?”
“Go back. If you can.”
“Th-that…”
Now that he knew she had completely lost all will to fight, further threats were meaningless.
In any case, through the Jikbakguri Glasses, he had already obtained the information:
[Harmless even if spared]
And it was also a judgment made because he knew that Anella herself was a weak-hearted sort of person.
According to her settings, she had never properly killed or eaten a human before, and had only barely sustained herself by occasionally drinking blood.
The only ability through which she had ever really proven useful was Nightmare’s Return, and even that only at the level of working as an intelligence operative who dug into others’ minds to extract information.
So even if she went back like this, she would not exactly die or anything.
Though I don’t know whether she has the guts to abandon her mission of monitoring Ma Yuseong and go back…
Thinking that, Baek Yuseol left the hospital room.
…Go back, if I can?
Left alone in her place, Anella barely managed to steady her tightening heart.
Because to her, it sounded more like:
Just try going back. You might really die.
If I try to go back like this… does that mean he’ll punish me immediately…?
Trembling all over, Anella swallowed hard.
No matter how she looked at it, it seemed she would not be able to leave Stella until after she completed the entire educational course here and officially received permission to return…
[Magic Survival Acceptance Notice]
A few days later,
the screening results were announced.
As expected, not a single one of the protagonists who usually became the stars of this sub-event participated this time.
And yet it had been an event in which Ma Yuseong, Flame, Hong Biyeon, and Eizel were all supposed to take part, with Hae Wonryang and Jeremy also occasionally participating.
But on the list of accepted first-years, there was only one name.
[Class S — Baek Yuseol]
“Did you hear? They say there’s even a first-year participant this year.”
“Of course I heard. It’s Baek Yuseol.”
“He’s a first-year, but apparently he still has a really high win rate even against upperclassmen.”
“Well, if it’s him… he’s gone up against Dark Mages multiple times, so he definitely has real combat experience.”
Stories about Baek Yuseol gradually spread throughout the school.
The fact that he was the only first-year participant made his name shine all the more.
From Baek Yuseol’s point of view, it was ridiculous.
Because the protagonists had all suddenly not participated, he had ended up drawing all the attention for no reason.
Should I call this reaping someone else’s windfall…?
He did not feel good about it at all.
From the beginning, with Ma Yuseong—the strongest favorite to win—out of the picture, it was only right to say Stella’s chances of victory had basically gone up in smoke.
The reward for winning would’ve been pretty useful in the next episode, too.
It was disappointing, but what could he do?
If I don’t have it, then I’ll just have to work around not having it.
From the start, Baek Yuseol knew full well that with his current strength, he could not win the whole thing, so he had been making a slightly different plan.
“Um… excuse me…”
“Hm?”
While he was quietly looking at the class bulletin board, a tiny voice came from beside him.
“Why again.”
“I was wondering if there was anything I could help you with…”
It was Anella.
Her face was full of misery, and she kept furtively watching Baek Yuseol’s reaction, which was rather pitiful, but all he could feel was disbelief.
I told you to go back, so what are you even doing here?
Or was she abandoned by headquarters?
He had no intention of working together with someone who had tried to take his life.
But neither had he wanted to personally kill Anella, who had weak mental strength and had become a Dark Mage only because of surrounding circumstances, so he had let her go.
And yet she kept sticking to him.
What exactly is she expecting me to do?
“Go back to the dormitory, do nothing, and stay still.”
“Yes, sir!”
Anella really turned around as if she intended to shut herself inside the dormitory.
“…No, hey, wait a second.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll allow you at least to spend time with your friends…”
“Yes, sir!”
What kind of uniquely bizarre character is she?
Then again, hadn’t the original game described her as the image of a subordinate who listened well?
If he raised her favorability just a little more here, the game had said he could extract pretty important information from her, or even send her back to the Dark Mage side and use her as a double agent, so maybe leaving her as she was would not be such a bad idea.
“Baek Yuseol.”
“…Huh?”
Thinking, Who is it this time, he looked to the side, only to find Hong Biyeon standing there with one shoulder leaning against the wall, watching him.
Her expression clearly said there was something about all this she very much did not like.
“You look like you’re having fun.”
Her voice almost seemed to contain the meaning:
I went through all that trouble, and you look like you’re enjoying yourself?
What is this? Did I do something wrong?
He also wondered where in the world she had suddenly disappeared to until now, but the atmosphere was so awkward that asking felt impossible.
“The girl just now was…?”
“Uh? Ah…”
Something felt dangerous.
It gave him the sense that if he did not explain himself right away, something very bad would happen, so he hurriedly answered.
“She’s just… a bread… errand girl…”
Whether or not Hong Biyeon had even listened to what he said, she simply kept her mouth shut and stared straight into Baek Yuseol’s eyes.
“Baek Yuseol.”
“Y-yes… go ahead.”
Something felt strange.
This was not the first time he had spoken with her, and yet it felt as though this were not the Hong Biyeon he used to know.
…As though she had become more mature than before, and somehow closer too.
What on earth is this…?
Has the Hong Biyeon of the future regressed and taken over her mind or something?
Just as even that absurd delusion began to creep into his head, she walked toward him softly, step by step, and lightly pressed her palm against his chest, backing him against the wall.
And then,
without saying anything,
she simply… stared quietly into his eyes.
As though she might be able to read his thoughts if she did.
His breath caught in his throat.
No matter how much of an adult Baek Yuseol might be, with Hong Biyeon—whose appearance was as mystical as a fairy’s—standing this close, close enough for their breath to touch, it was impossible not to feel pressured.
Mm…
In the end, Baek Yuseol was the first to look away, thus declaring defeat in the staring contest.
Hong Biyeon stepped back two paces, then drove the words into his chest in a low voice.
“You—don’t even think about going somewhere alone.”
Then, bathed in the sunlight spilling into the hallway, she disappeared into the distance.
“What the hell…”
Touching the spot on his chest where the warmth of Hong Biyeon still seemed to linger, he looked toward the far end of the corridor where she had gone.
Why is everyone acting like this these days…?
The characters from the original story had changed so much that, all at once, it felt as though there was now more he did not know about them than he did.
— Read only on MugenCodex —
