For You 58

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#58

Just then, the door to the shelter opened, and a guard who had been managing the situation outside entered.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. The situation outside has calmed down somewhat.”

I released Persis’s hand and moved a little away from him.

The people outside must have had a difficult time dealing with the situation, while the two of us in the shelter seemed to have spent time alone, sharing long-repressed emotions. I thought of Rikin and Iria who had been running around everywhere just moments ago. Rikin had looked so busy that he couldn’t even attend to Persis. Later, if he asks to play a few more games, I should agree to his wishes instead of turning him down.

“What exactly happened?”

I needed to hear about the situation. Stones had suddenly fallen from the ceiling, but the fact that they didn’t evacuate us to a distant location meant they were confident the situation had ended. That would mean either the culprit had been caught, or they had clearly identified the circumstances that caused the incident.

“It seems the security magic in the garden area suddenly went haywire. The magic that activated unexpectedly affected the building as well.”

“So that’s why the stones fell?”

“To be precise, they weren’t stones but klums used in the magic. They seem to have teleported to the building’s ceiling and then poured down.”

The trembling felt in the building must have been the vibration created when the magic activated. But I didn’t understand how klums were used in the magic. I thought klums only served to store magical power—could they themselves be used as a medium?

Persis, who had been quiet, asked a few questions I hadn’t thought to ask. Listening to the conversation between the guard and Persis, I fell into deep thought.

Garden, klums.

These two words floated in my mind. I had experienced something similar before. When I entered the garden at the Duke’s residence, I smelled a certain fragrance and felt dizzy. The two situations overlapped.

After first becoming aware that I had been born in Andelion’s body, there was one thing I suspected. What if the reason the Duke had sacrificed Andelion wasn’t because he was the most convenient offering, but because there was a special reason he had to be offered? What if Andelion possessed something different from ordinary people?

However, as time passed, my suspicions only diminished. If I had a special power worthy of being a sacrifice, it seemed unlikely that the Duke would have cast me aside like this. Moreover, my body was pitifully weak, perhaps even below average. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t properly master magic to protect myself.

“Ana? Are you feeling unwell?”

Persis asked me. His words spoken in a perfectly even, calm tone sounded businesslike, but Persis’s expression was full of concern for me. I shook my head casually and said I was fine. But once doubt had begun, it wouldn’t subside.

This was truly an absurd thought and might just be my own delusion, but perhaps I was the one who had activated the magic that put us in danger.

* * *

Iria’s footsteps as she walked down the corridor were confident as usual. The flowing hem of her dress and her hair, let down for the first time in a while, swayed in rhythm with her confident stride.

In the special illustration that appeared on the monitor, Iria was displaying a splendid and dignified appearance. Iria, who had begun to grow closer to Persis, had decided to confess to him on the day of the ball held at the palace to conclude the year. My heart raced at the thought that the game was reaching its final stages.

Currently, Iria, concerned about Andelion who hadn’t shown up at the hall despite having raised his affection through several events, was on her way to his lodgings. I thought at the time that an event like this, where she personally goes to fetch a character with high affection when they don’t show up at the ball, must be a game mechanic. I was completely unaware that all the other characters had already arrived at the hall.

Iria, about to knock on Andelion’s door, hears a chilling sound from inside and urgently opens the door. The sound effect coming through the speakers made even me, the player, flinch.

With the sound of a large door opening, the screen turned black. The sound of dripping blood could be heard. The string instrument playing as background music was a variation of the theme that played whenever Andelion was encountered. Though I had never cheered for Andelion and Iria, I found myself calling Andelion’s name just like Iria.

With Iria’s call, the screen slowly brightened.

Andelion’s face, lying on the floor, was shown in close-up. A moment later, the screen changed as if flickering, revealing a black blade stabbed into his abdomen. Following that blade upward, the face of the Duke, the school’s patron whom I had met several times while meeting Persis, came into view.

The Duke was standing at Andelion’s head with a cold face. He had always looked frightening, but even after stabbing his own son, his expression didn’t change at all.

[Andelion!!]

Iria urgently called out to Andelion, trying to save him. But the Duke was faster. He pulled the sword out of Andelion’s body. At that moment, a wave starting from the sword spread throughout the castle.

Iria, hit head-on by the wave, lost her balance and collapsed. The Duke, holding the dripping sword, looked at Iria coldly.

[Tell them. What they’ve been fearing will become reality.]

After coldly declaring this to Iria, who was struggling on the floor, the Duke turned away. Without giving even a glance to his son who lay with eyes closed as if dead, the Duke created a black passage in mid-air and disappeared.

It was the moment when the power of the demons, which the Empire’s people had feared, was awakening, just as the Duke had said.

I was so surprised by the sudden change in the game’s storyline at that scene, and so busy shouting about why such a thing was happening in front of Iria and Persis’s love, that I didn’t properly look at Andelion who had been stabbed by his own father.

I thought it was just a scene to portray the Duke’s cruelty, but what if the Duke had a reason to stab Andelion?

Now that I had become Andelion, something different might happen if I were stabbed by the demon sword.

That thought wouldn’t leave my mind. It was the same even after the seminar incident was resolved and I returned to the dormitory. Kara suggested that I go rest at the Duke’s residence for a while, but I said I was fine and wanted to go to the dormitory.

I wanted to investigate my body somewhere away from the Duke. If I did various things in front of the Duke, he might detect suspicious movements and stop me.

If I truly had a special power, the Duke wouldn’t welcome me discovering it.

Persis had returned to the palace for a detailed medical examination. He seemed to want to have a deeper conversation with me, but he was pushed into the carriage by the palace employees who had suddenly arrived.

Fortunately, none of the seminar participants lost their lives or were seriously injured. It was thanks to everyone’s quick response. Many people had used magic to block the falling stones, and evacuating the injured afterward was not difficult thanks to Rikin and Iria.

They were all truly capable people—it was hard to believe anyone would say they weren’t game characters. It was unbelievable that they were just nineteen years old. Although they acted composed, I was worried that these might have been too difficult matters for such young children to handle.

The one fortunate thing amidst this unfortunate incident was that the presentation that could have put Persis in danger did not take place.

Due to this incident, the seminar was postponed indefinitely, and the political science professor seemed quite disappointed that the presentation, which could have caused a small ripple in the Empire, had been buried. Whether he was disappointed or not, I thought it was really for the best. If he felt so strongly about it, couldn’t he just make a similar presentation himself? It would have been a difficult matter for even Persis to handle.

When I opened the dormitory door, I saw the Sword waiting alone.

I exhaled deeply and approached the Sword.

“Why are you back so early? Did something happen? And why do you look like that? Are you feeling unwell?”

The Sword’s concerned voice echoed in my head.

I sat down on the bed in silence and looked at the Sword placed beside me. I don’t think the Sword’s concern for me is fake. Even if it might betray me someday, I trusted the Sword in front of me now.

“Just, something happened at the seminar. I was a bit surprised.”

“What? What happened!”

The Sword was genuinely flustered and asked about what had happened to me. It was the Sword’s typical manner, caring about every little thing that happened to me.

After pondering how to bring it up, I decided to ask directly. I didn’t think the Sword would answer honestly in the first place. Even though I trusted the Sword, that didn’t mean I would follow every word it said.

After all, the Sword was a demon sword. It could lie to me and hide important information. But I believed that the emotions and concern the Sword had for me weren’t fake. So I decided to ask, knowing the Sword might lie.

“Hey. Me. Am I perhaps a little different from other people?”