Episode 64. Intermission (2) – Spider’s Scar
It’s been a week since I achieved the feat(?) of ranking 253rd out of 253 candidates for the Warriors Division.
Around the time when the talk about the midterm evaluation results that had heated up the school was gradually dying down.
I was called by Professor Elisha and headed to her office.
“You came.”
As I entered the professor’s office, Professor Elisha greeted me with her legs crossed, dressed in her usual neat black suit.
“What’s going on?”
“The results of the investigation are out.”
“… According to the investigation results.”
She continued, looking down indifferently at a thick stack of documents, a cigarette in one hand.
“The crocodile and wolf demons that appeared in the examination room were, as expected, the servants of the jackal, the archbishop of beasts.”
“…jackal.”
The Archbishop’s intervention.
It was the worst possible scenario I could have imagined.
‘I don’t know if the future has changed, or if I just overlooked it in my past life.’
One thing is certain.
Once again, it was revealed that an Archbishop-level Mine was up to something within the school.
“Have you figured out what his purpose is?”
In response to my question, Professor Elisha took a deep drag on her cigarette and shook her head softly.
“I don’t know exactly. But… I saw a strange demon.”
“What is this strange demon?”
Are you saying that there are other demons besides the crocodile demon and the wolf demon?
“It’s this guy.”
Professor Elisha opened the drawer, exhaling smoke.
What came out of the drawer was a strange creature with an appearance similar to a leech.
In the center of the suction cup for sucking blood, there was a single eyeball smaller than a fingernail.
“This is….”
“It’s the demon that was attached to candidate Yuren’s body.”
“You were stuck to Yuren’s body?”
No way.
I personally created a barrier around Yuren to repel the demons.
Of course, it was a barrier that would be useless against a demon with many eyes, but the leech-like demon only had one eye.
There’s no way we can get through the barrier and approach Yuren… .
“ah.”
A soft exclamation escapes between the lips.
‘Come to think of it, the crocodile’s hand broke the barrier along the way.’
So, while the barrier was broken and the battle with the crocodile demon continued, that leech demon attached itself to Yuren’s body.
“… … .”
“Haha. Looks like Cadet Dale noticed too.”
Professor Elisha continued, narrowing her eyes.
“I don’t have any concrete evidence, but I think the reason the crocodile demon suddenly appeared and caused a commotion in the first place was to make the ‘leech demon’ approach the Yuren candidate.”
The crocodile’s purpose was to break the barrier I created.
‘Come to think of it, you broke the barrier right after you sent me flying.’
At the time, I thought he had broken the barrier to approach Yuren, but when I thought about it, the crocodile beast was a beast that was completely unaffected by the ‘barrier that chases away beasts’.
‘There was no reason to break the barrier in the first place.’
However, the crocodile’s hand broke the barrier surrounding Yuren’s body.
As if the goal from the beginning was to break the barrier.
‘Wait a minute. So the reason the crocodile demon didn’t appear in my previous life was because there was no barrier?’
It feels like the puzzle pieces that were scattered here and there are now falling into place.
I continued my thoughts with my eyes slightly open.
‘The wolf’s clutches released by the jackal were present in my past life as well.’
Didn’t you experience death for the first time in your past life when that wolf bit you on the back of your neck?
‘That means, in his previous life, Jackal had released his servant horse into the examination room.’
Then why did the jackal let the wolf’s clutches loose in the testing room?
‘I was trying to find out where Yuren was.’
The demons that were transformed from wolves have a keen sense of smell and are fast on their feet.
In addition, because of its herding nature, it is capable of organized action, so it would have been the optimal beast for ‘searching’.
‘In my previous life, I must have found Yuren and then taken advantage of the opportunity to attach that leech to her.’
But this time a variable appeared.
A variable called ‘Dale Han’ suddenly appeared out of nowhere and created a barrier around Yuren to repel the demons.
‘That’s why I sent out the crocodile demon that wasn’t originally planned to appear.’
To break the barrier I had created and bring the leech beast closer to Yuren’s body.
“under.”
A low laugh escaped me when I learned the full story of the incident.
‘What on earth is that leech demon that’s so desperate that it can’t stick to Yuren?’
I examined the leech writhing inside the glass bottle, but couldn’t tell anything other than that it was disgusting.
Professor Elisha looked at her, wondering if she knew anything.
“I don’t know what abilities this leech demon has.”
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“Isn’t it something that can be figured out even with the protection of insight?”
“If my guardian angel had the power to uncover all the secrets of the world, there would be no need to hide and investigate cases like this.”
Professor Elisha smiled bitterly and sighed deeply.
“Anyway, that’s all I’ve found out.”
Although we somehow figured out that Jackal had released his evil hand to attach a leech to Yuren, we were never able to find an answer to the more important question, ‘Why did he target Yuren in the end?’
“In the end, there was no clue to track down the jackal.”
“I guess that’s how it is.”
Professor Elisha touches the scar across her left eye with a somewhat bitter expression.
“Is that scar by any chance related to the jackal?”
“…Why did you think that?”
“Because you would stroke your scar every time you talked about jackals.”
“Ha, is that why you associated me with a jackal?”
Professor Elisha swallows her laughter with a look of bewilderment.
In fact, I noticed that there was something going on between her and the jackal because of my memories from my past life, but I didn’t bother to explain it.
“… … .”
Professor Elisha, who had been keeping her mouth tightly shut and silent, opened her mouth softly.
“… I was born in a rural village in a remote corner of the imperial territory.”
Professor Elisha put a new cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
“It was a small town without even a name.”
Phew.
A thin puff of smoke dispersed into the air.
“One day, the once peaceful village was destroyed without a trace by a single man.”
“… … .”
There is no need to ask who that ‘mine’ is.
“It was because I wanted to test the power of the newly appointed demon.”
A burning cigarette.
Red sparks twinkle like blood-stained memories.
“It took less than ten minutes for the village of about 100 people to be slaughtered.”
In just 10 minutes.
Her life was mercilessly trampled upon.
So catastrophically that it is irreversible.
“I was lucky enough to survive.”
He touched the scar under his left eye and smiled self-mockingly.
“… but this ugly scar remains.”
“… … .”
“Haha. Don’t make such a serious face. It’s a common story.”
Professor Elisha shrugged her shoulders with an indifferent expression as if nothing had happened.
Suddenly, memories of my past life flashed through my mind.
The story of Elisha Baldwin, the ‘Spider with the Evil Eye’, who killed the Jackal, the archbishop of beasts, and died a heroic death.
Beyond the stories that were passed over as nothing special.
A woman’s miserable life was pictured in my mind.
‘It’s a common story… .’
That’s not wrong.
Because people whose lives were trampled by mines were widespread throughout the continent.
There is no grand twist, no heart-pounding narrative, no tear-jerking ending.
It’s a tragedy of no particular kind.
It’s a tragedy beyond measure.
It is a common, sad drama that can be found anywhere in the world.
‘but.’
Just because it’s common doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.
“Phew.”
Professor Elisha burning a cigarette with an indifferent expression.
Why is that?
Without realizing it, I reached out to Professor Elisha.
“What now….”
“Stay still.”
I turned away from Professor Elisha, who had a puzzled expression on her face, and carefully touched the scar across her left eye.
“… Candidate Dale. Do you know what you’re doing?”
How dare you touch the professor’s body without permission.
It was such a rude behavior that it wouldn’t be surprising if someone was disciplined right away.
I raised the corners of my mouth and smirked at Professor Elisha, who was glaring at me fiercely.
“Isn’t it pretty?”
“…what?”
“You said it was an ugly scar earlier. Looking at it this way, it’s not ugly at all, but it goes well with your appearance, Professor.”
“… … .”
“What should I say… Wildness? Well, that’s what it feels like. If I didn’t have this scar, my impression would have been a bit dull.”
“you….”
Professor Elisha, who was about to say something, soon trailed off and bit her lips.
“Ugh, ugh!”
Professor Elisha lets out an urgent cough and turns her head away.
Her earlobes, visible through her short black hair, were as red as apples.
“Anyway… these days, the candidates have no manners towards the professors even if you look hard. The expression ‘the end of the world’ couldn’t be more appropriate. In my time, I couldn’t even imagine touching the professor’s body, but what? You dare touch the professor’s body that’s as heavenly as you want. And what? You’re pretty? Your scars suit you? Is that something a candidate should say to a professor? To be honest, if you were to ask me if I was happy, I would say I was a little happy, but still, this is absolutely unacceptable…”
Professor Elisha mutters in a voice that sounds like she’s crawling, with her head bowed.
“Professor Elisha?”
“Eek!”
Professor Elisha, who had been muttering something, suddenly jumped up from her seat.
She opened her mouth with an expression so lively that it was hard to believe that she was Professor Elisha, who usually had an indifferent expression like a stone block.
“Oh, anyway! We will continue to investigate the Jackal, so Cadet Dale, please cooperate!”
After Professor Elisha sent out such a one-sided notice of cooperation, she ran out of the professor’s office as if she was running away.
“… … .”
Left alone in her office, I leaned back in my chair and extinguished the half-burned cigarette she had left behind in an ashtray.
“… a jackal.”
The thought suddenly crossed my mind that perhaps the people I needed to take care of in this life weren’t just my colleagues from my past life.
* * *
A demon with a huge body that looks like a moving mountain made of fur when viewed from a distance.
An old man was sitting on a demon’s body with as many as eleven pupils.
“Oh my. This is so pitiful. What should I do…?”
The old man looked down at his intricately patterned palm and let out a low sigh.
The pattern carved into the wrinkled palm had parts of it erased, as if skin had been peeled off.
“Tsk tsk. He was someone I cared about.”
An old man clicks his tongue in regret as he looks at the erased pattern.
However, unlike what he said, the old man’s gaze at the erased pattern was as indifferent as looking down at the dead ant that had been trampled on the side of the road.
Wooooow!
The space near where the old man was sitting became distorted, and a young man with snow-white hair appeared.
The young man approached the jackal, walking leisurely through the air as if there were invisible stepping stones in the air, and bowed respectfully to him.
“You were here.”
“Oh, you’re here?”
“Yes, it’s been a while, Jackal.”
The white-haired young man smiled broadly and adjusted his gold monocle.
“How did the favor I asked you to do go?”
“Kekekekeke. Who do you think I am? Of course I succeeded. Well… something a little annoying happened, though.”
“Is it a bother?”
“Croaker is dead.”
“Croaker?”
A white-haired young man recalls his memories at the jackal’s words.
“Oh, you mean that crocodile bite?”
“okay.”
“Haha. Your naming sense is still the same.”
“Huh? What’s wrong with Crocker?”
The white-haired young man shrugged his shoulders silently, looking at the jackal who opened his eyes wide as if he really didn’t know.
“By the way, the eight-eyed demon died during the candidate exam, so… Did the professor intervene?”
“Hehehe. How could the candidates kill Crocker? Of course it would be the professor’s doing.”
“Then it would most likely be Elisha Baldwin.”
“Yeah, so that clever spider bitch got his tail stepped on or something?”
“That’s right… As Mr. Jackal said, something troublesome has come up.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
A jackal with a wrinkled forehead and a clicking tongue.
“That child is really pitiful… He must have seen his parents being bitten alive right in front of his eyes at such a young age.”
“… … .”
The white-haired young man frowned in displeasure as he looked at the jackal, who was clicking his tongue and looking pitiful.
“Let’s get back to the main topic.”
“Ah, okay. Well… something bothered me, but I figured out what you asked me to do.”
The jackal let out a nasty laugh, like scraping iron, and rubbed his fingers against the pattern carved into his forearm.
Blood seeping out from his fingers as the pattern was erased.
He continued speaking, licking the blood with his tongue.
“As you expected, the stigmata that Yuren Helios bears are not those of the ‘Sun God’ but those of the ‘Moon God’.”
“Huh, I see.”
A white-haired young man smiling while fiddling with his gold monocle.
The jackal turned to the white-haired youth and asked.
“What does this mean, anyway? Just because I have the stigmata of the ‘Moon God’ doesn’t mean I can’t use the Sun Sword.”
“Haha. Well, I wonder if she thinks that way too?”
A white-haired young man shrugs his shoulders with a meaningful smile.
“Mephisto, what on earth are you planning to do?”
“Well, you’ll know when you see it.”
Mephisto, the Archbishop of Corruption, smiled brightly as he looked at the Helios family mansion in the distance.
“The moment when the sun swallows the moon.”
