39. Ghost Story (3)
Whoooooosh…!
A black wind blew.
Wind had no color, but every gust that blew in this place carried a dense black hue.
That was probably because the place itself was saturated with thick Black Mana.
The sharply carved black cliffs rose like thorns trying to pierce the heavens, and the black castle built among them was large enough to rival Stella Academy itself. Yet it leaned slightly to one side, giving it an unstable look.
Caw… caw…
A place where flocks of crows took flight, and swarms of bats watched the earth with glittering eyes.
A space where Black Mana churned so violently that ordinary people weren’t even allowed to approach.
‘The Screaming Cliffs, the Black Castle.’
This was the place once said to have belonged to the ‘Black Mage King,’ who had ruled the Black Mages.
For Ma Yuseong, it was a place both familiar and far from welcome.
“Father. I will be taking my leave now.”
In the center of the Imperial Hall, Ma Yuseong knelt and bowed his head. At that, the man sitting high upon the throne slowly lowered his chin.
His red gaze was terrifying, and it was said that ordinary Black Mages, the moment they met it, would fall to their knees regardless of their own will.
“Come closer.”
“Yes.”
When the Black Mage King spoke in a flat tone, Ma Yuseong responded like a puppet devoid of emotion and approached him.
For a while, the king simply looked at his son.
“My son.”
“Yes, Father.”
“You… are destined to become king.”
“I know.”
“No. You do not.”
The Black Mage King cut Ma Yuseong off for a moment before continuing.
“Among all my sons, you are the weakest in power, your spirit is soft, and on top of that, tainted blood runs through your veins. You are… the worst possible heir to the throne.”
“But you resemble your mother’s eyes very closely. That is why you are destined to become king. Unlike me, who seized the throne by force and dragged the former king down, your mother was someone who naturally received everyone’s love by the will of fate…”
Ma Yuseong lifted his head.
His eyes still looked like those of a puppet…
but there was a deep fury burning within them, and the Black Mage King could not continue speaking for a moment.
He knew well that anything related to his mother was the deepest reverse scale for his youngest son.
And especially that his youngest son hated nothing more than hearing such things from his own mouth…
he knew that all too well.
Even so, he had no choice but to say it.
His youngest son still did not understand.
Just how quickly this world was changing.
The Black Mage King—
one might say that, perhaps, he possessed the greatest power in the world.
But how long would that last?
He did not trust in his own strength.
Within the next five years… or perhaps ten, he was certain that something would appear that would surpass even him.
And when that time came, Black Mage society would be utterly crushed and destroyed.
That was why a new king was needed.
A perfect king who could encompass both humans and Black Mages alike—someone like Ma Yuseong, who possessed both bloodlines.
His youngest son had been born with the qualities of a sovereign. This trait, said to be exceedingly rare even among humans, could not have appeared by mere accident.
This was unquestionably a revelation from heaven.
Ma Yuseong had to follow the destiny laid out by the gods and become the king of the world, ruling over everything.
And yet his youngest son still did not understand the depth of that intention.
He showed no desire whatsoever to become king.
Had sending him to Stella Academy to study humans been a mistake? He had become too deeply steeped in human society.
The emotions that surfaced from him from time to time proved as much.
“Do you hate that I am forcing you to become king?”
Ma Yuseong shook his head.
“I hate you, Father.”
If a son said such a thing without even the slightest hesitation or sign of emotional buildup, most fathers would be wounded.
But the Black Mage King was not.
He had already been wounded enough. His body and mind were so covered in scars that no further pain remained to be carved into him.
So he endured.
“I have driven you to your limits without reward.”
At present, his youngest son’s will was firm, but he was still too young. Too young, too ignorant of the world—that was why he behaved like this.
At only seventeen, what more could he possibly know?
So the king chose the easiest method to shake the heart of his young son.
“My son. If you decide to become king, I will grant you one wish.”
“…A wish?”
“Yes. Is there something you desire? Or perhaps something you want? I can grant you anything.”
Something you want…
The moment the Black Mage King saw Ma Yuseong’s eyes tremble at those words, the corners of his mouth slowly lifted.
As expected, no matter how much he was Ma Yuseong, a child was still a child.
The effect had been immediate.
“Yes. Tell me what you want. I will grant it at once.”
At those words, Ma Yuseong raised his head and met the Black Mage King’s eyes, then slowly parted his lips.
“I…”
He hesitated for a moment.
Then, as though making up his mind, let out a breath.
“I want your head.”
As expected, it did not look as though things would be resolved so easily.
This would be a truly regrettable story for Jeremy, who had worked so hard gathering ghost stories about the 7th Main Tower, but Flame wasn’t especially interested in the ghost stories themselves.
Because among the countless rumors and pieces of nonsense, she already knew which one contained the actual truth—and what that truth was.
Knowing the beginning, development, and climax without knowing the ending.
That was exactly what it meant.
Whether it was a novel or a game, Flame knew the middle of the story thoroughly.
That was something even Baek Yuseol did not possess.
It was Flame’s strength alone.
At lunch.
Jeremy sat down in front of Flame, who had been going around investigating with Anella and had now ended up eating together with her.
Flame’s face crumpled like paper that had been dunked in water, but Jeremy paid it no mind and spoke with a bright smile.
“Flame, I found out something interesting. Want to hear it?”
“Wow, how fascinating.”
“Don’t be like that. It’s about the ghost story of the 7th Main Tower. You’re really not interested?”
‘What?’
Flame’s eyes narrowed, and Jeremy smiled.
Just as expected.
But the reason she reacted like that had nothing to do with simple curiosity.
‘Was Jeremy involved in the ghost story arc?’
Whether it was a novel or a game, there was one thing that couldn’t be helped.
Not every character could always play an important role in every episode.
That was true of both female-oriented games and male-oriented ones.
And in this particular episode…
as far as Flame remembered, Jeremy’s presence had been almost nonexistent, while Ma Yuseong’s had been extremely large.
And yet, the one who had gone back to the main house and vanished without a trace was Ma Yuseong, while Jeremy was the one running around here instead.
‘Ugh. The original work got twisted again, didn’t it.’
This sort of thing had happened far too many times already for her to be shocked by it every single time, but even so, she couldn’t help feeling a little flustered.
“Fine, I’ll hear it. Go on.”
As though he had been waiting for that, Jeremy’s eyes sparkled as he began telling her all the 7th Main Tower ghost stories he knew.
Of course, most of them were completely useless, so Flame found herself yawning.
But Anella, who sat beside her, seemed to find them quite entertaining.
“Really? There’s a seven-headed monster in the 7th Main Tower?”
“Mm. They say there is.”
“Ooh, that’s kind of amaz— goodness me, honestly, what am I saying…”
Every so often, Anella would blurt out something that sounded exactly like an older woman, then hurriedly try to manage her expression. From Flame’s perspective, that only made her seem funnier and cuter.
To be perfectly honest,
everything Jeremy told her was useless. Every single bit of it.
There wasn’t even one genuinely important rumor among them.
Aside from Anella reacting now and then from the side, Flame merely propped her chin on one hand and kept sipping her drink with a bored look on her face, until Jeremy’s own expression visibly dimmed.
“Is it not interesting?”
“Nope. You can go now.”
“Ugh…”
He rose weakly from his seat, then suddenly parted his lips as though something had occurred to him.
“Flame. Just in case, I don’t recommend digging too deeply into this ghost story.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“…There are people who don’t look kindly on you. A lot of them.”
Jeremy’s bitter smile seemed shadowed somehow, and Flame felt a slight chill run over her skin. She had never seen that boy make an expression like that in person before…
but in the original romance-fantasy story, she had seen something very similar described once or twice.
At times, a shadow would fall over Jeremy’s smile.
No one noticed it.
Except for the blue-haired girl alone.
“Jeremy. Why are you so angry?”
He was angry. Quietly, with a smile still on his face…
like the eye of a storm, so that people never realized the disaster about to befall them.
But his anger would inevitably devour everything around him.
You would not be an exception.
In the original romance-fantasy story, there had hardly ever been a time when Jeremy genuinely became angry. The greatest explosion of rage had probably been when Eizel’s heart completely turned toward Ma Yuseong and the two of them ended up kissing at last…
It didn’t seem quite that severe now, but Jeremy was definitely feeling intense anger at the moment.
‘Did I make him mad by being cold to him?’
No.
That didn’t seem likely.
At the very least… Jeremy wasn’t the kind of person who became angry at a lady who had caught his eye.
Even if he would torment that lady until she herself said she wanted to die.
In the original romance-fantasy story, Jeremy’s anger usually only surfaced when he was at risk of losing Eizel, whom he had loved one-sidedly.
But in reality, his heart had shifted from Eizel to Flame…
‘So is there something involving me?’
She had no idea.
Jeremy hadn’t become angry even when she and Baek Yuseol had pretended to date, so it was hard to imagine what could have pushed him this far.
“Hey, wait a second—!”
She tried to grab Jeremy and ask again, but he had already left.
“…What the hell?”
Stella’s faculty numbered in the hundreds, and among them there were professors who had no connection with each other whatsoever.
On the other hand, it wasn’t particularly strange for professors to form groups and become close.
“Professor Raidin. I heard Chekiren caused quite a scene the other day.”
“I calmed him down well enough, so there is no need for concern.”
“Calmed him down, you say… Heh heh.”
Raidin was known for being terrible at socializing, yet he attended a professor gathering every single week.
‘The Sunshine Professors Social Club.’
It didn’t need some grand name just because it was a social club. It was simply a matter of people around the same age, with similar tastes, meeting and becoming friendly regardless of subject.
This gathering, the Sunshine Professors Social Club, was no different.
The ages and genders of its members varied wildly, and at first glance there was no obvious point of commonality between them.
And yet not a single one of them missed the meeting each week, maintaining a surprisingly close bond.
No.
There was one common point, after all.
Every last one of them was a Black Mage hiding their identity.
“…There have been more absentees lately. The room feels rather empty.”
No one knew what route Eltman Eltwin had used to discover them, but he had started weeding out their fellow Black Mages who had infiltrated the academy.
Because of that, the Sunshine Professors Social Club had ended up with a few more empty seats than before, and it was a bitter thing indeed.
Among the several hundred faculty members, around thirty were professors who had infiltrated under false identities.
It was never easy for a Black Mage to infiltrate Stella under the identity of a professor, and it required enormous sacrifice and cost. Yet in an instant, more than a dozen of them had been swept away.
Still, since they had all known from the moment they infiltrated Stella that their comrades might be silently killed, no one grieved.
They were simply a little unsettled.
“So then, Professor Raidin… I hear you have taken charge of this project. Can you really handle it?”
The project they were referring to was the 7th Main Tower.
It had been part of the Black Mages’ plans since the very first moment they infiltrated Stella, because the belongings of Abeline Starberg—also known as the former leader of the Black Cult—lay dormant there.
At the time, the moment had not yet come, so all they could do was wait.
But now, at last, it was about time to locate the 7th Main Tower and retrieve them.
…Unfortunately, however,
despite all the effort spent infiltrating the academy, professors could not enter it directly.
Only someone with the status of a student could set foot in the 7th Main Tower, so they had no choice but to scatter related rumors all throughout Stella.
“The students have taken the bait.”
“Before long, a student may appear who fulfills the entry conditions.”
“But lately, there is one student who has been bothering me.”
The person in question was obvious.
The commoner girl, Flame.
Recently, she had been running all over Stella Academy not to investigate the rumor itself, but to find the very person who had spread it.
Naturally, there was no way that kind of behavior could escape the eyes of those involved.
“Shall we dispose of her?”
“She’s such a haughty little thing that I rather think playing with her might be entertaining. Heh heh.”
“Yes. We’ve been watching her closely already. The moment she crosses the proper ‘line’… we intend to snatch her up immediately.”
The others began muttering in sinister tones.
There was, without question, not a single sane one among them.
Raidin slowly swept his gaze across the room, then said decisively,
“No. With Headmaster Eltman’s vigilance growing sharper, I think it would be best to stay quiet for now. Besides, even if one or two students run around, they won’t be able to uncover anything.”
“Hm… That is true.”
No matter how much Flame was praised as a genius, she was still only a seventeen-year-old student. Within the school, professors held far greater authority, which placed severe limits on what she could do.
“…So, anything related to Flame—I will handle it.”
Raidin had always been known as the diligent type, and whenever something arose that might even slightly disadvantage the Cult Leader, he was the one who stepped forward to resolve it at once.
That was why, among his peers, he was known as the errand boy.
If he was willing to handle the troublesome work of his own accord, who would stop him?
“Heh heh. What is this, Professor Raidin? Were you trying to keep the fun for yourself?”
“Good. Professor Raidin is someone we can entrust it to.”
“Do give her a proper scolding ‘as a professor.’ We’ll take our leave now.”
“My, my. My lecture time is approaching too.”
Without any special signal, the gathering dissolved, and as his peers left one after another, Raidin too silently rose from his seat.
‘Flame…’
His fellow Black Mages assumed Raidin meant to dispose of Flame, and had entrusted the matter to him on that basis.
But Raidin was thinking the exact opposite.
That girl was closer than anyone else to the secret of the 7th Main Tower.
So then…
if she could be used, then shouldn’t she be used?
Thinking that, Raidin was the last to leave his seat.
Once everyone had gone, silence settled over the luxurious café room.
