Chapter 59

It was silent.

Blood splattered across the face of the merciful Buddha statue, as if red paint had been flung over it. The blood that had soaked the floor of the main hall flowed slowly, seeping toward the drainage channel.

“……”

Iri watched without a word.

Aaron Stingray.

That man had spoken at length with the monstrous monk called Araya… and in the end, killed him.

For some reason, Aaron had been filled with rage.

He was someone who almost never lost his composure. Yet, in that moment, he was half out of his mind, beating Araya to death with nothing but his bare fists.

Araya had turned into a lump of meat, unrecognizable as a human being.

But Aaron only left behind a gaze as cold as the winter wind before turning his back on Araya’s corpse.

“……”

Step, step.

The sound of his shoes grew closer.

With a stride that still carried an air of noble grace, Aaron approached right up to where Iri and Maria were.

Neither of them could even think to pretend they had fainted again.

Without meeting their eyes, Aaron spoke indifferently.

“How long do you plan on lying there?”

“…I’m sorry, Young Master.”

Maria quickly came to her senses and rose to her feet. Iri, a beat late, followed Maria and slowly stood as well.

But unlike Maria, she could not hide the turmoil in her heart.

She had heard the conversation between Aaron and Araya, and her reaction to it showed clearly on her face.

“Do you have something to say, Iri Elisbell?”

When Iri glared at him, Aaron merely turned his golden eyes toward her in return, his stare pressing down on her so forcefully that she could not bring herself to speak.

The mischievous smile he usually wore when looking at her—along with the strange warmth that used to linger in it—was nowhere to be found, making his demeanor feel all the colder in contrast.

“Uh…”

The words wouldn’t come out.

It was as if something was blocking her throat.

But, forcing her voice out as though squeezing water from a stone, Iri managed to speak with difficulty.

“W… what were you talking about…?”

“Miss Elisbell.”

Maria tried to stop her from the side, but Iri was in no state to listen. Gripping her strangely trembling hands to steady herself, she stammered on.

“T-that was a lie, right? The Chairman…”

“What are you talking about?”

“……”

She couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud.

Earlier—amid the fragmented, broken conversation she had overheard between the two men—there was one line that stuck in her mind.

—You will end up killing Iri as well.

What in the world could that mean?

Iri… ‘as well’?

Did that mean Aaron had already caused other students to die before? And if so, could one of those dead students possibly be…

Peter Jones.

Her own brother?

“……”

But in the end, Iri’s lips never parted.

Aaron’s gaze lost interest in her and moved away. He spoke to Maria with a look of faint displeasure.

“Maria.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“It’s not over yet.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not quite sure I understand.”

“He’s not dead.”

Aaron’s voice grew slightly rougher.

“The trash I dealt with today was nothing more than a puppet. The real body is still alive somewhere.”

Maria immediately grasped what Aaron meant and bowed her head.

“I’ll follow your orders.”

“A week should be enough, right?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Get yourself together and return.”

“Yes, sir.”

Their exchange had too many gaps for Iri to fully understand. But just as she was about to speak up, feeling the sting of being ignored—

Whoosh.

Aaron moved to leave before Iri could say a word.

“W-wait!”

“Miss Elisbell.”

Maria stopped her again as she tried to call out to him. Iri roughly shook off the hand holding her back and protested.

“Let go of me! I haven’t told the Chairman everything yet…!”

“This isn’t the time for that.”

“I just need to ask one thing, alright? You heard them talking earlier too, Maria. You heard Aaron say he might even kill me. That means my brother—”

“There must be some kind of misunderstanding.”

“And that’s exactly what I’m trying to find out—”

“And if you do?”

Maria’s voice cut in coldly.

“What will you do after you find out?”

“W-what do you mean, what will I do? I’ll…”

“What if Aaron really did kill your brother? Will you take revenge? Or will you just confirm it and let it go? And what if it turns out to be a misunderstanding?”

“That’s…”

Iri could not answer a single one of Maria’s rapid-fire questions. And Maria’s voice grew even colder as she spoke firmly.

“Get a hold of yourself, Miss Elisbell.”

A chill gleamed in her black eyes.

“Don’t forget who Aaron Stingray is. Even if you’re skilled at fighting, he is the strongest in the city. Even if the Crown Prince himself were your sworn enemy, do you think you could win just by rushing at him with a gun or blade?”

“T-that’s something I won’t know unless I try—!”

“Even meeting that man face-to-face like this is already unusual. The only reason you can still open your eyes tomorrow after acting like a child, causing trouble, and showing him disrespect is because of the mercy he has shown you. Do you understand? This isn’t even a fight you can have. Unless you have a death wish, staying quiet is your best option.”

Then Maria placed the final period on her words.

“Please, grow up.”

A cold remark.

Iri bit her lip but still couldn’t argue back—because everything Maria said was correct.

She felt both frustrated and pathetic.

She had been trying to change since that day, but no one recognized it. And perhaps she hadn’t grown at all.

But then, what was she supposed to do?

Was she to simply leave her doubts unanswered and carry on with her daily life in the Academy as if nothing had happened?

She didn’t know. It was suffocating.

How could this be her own story, yet they discussed it without her, as if she were a helpless child who couldn’t do anything on her own…!

“Why is it only me…!”

A small droplet slid from her eye. Her violet irises shimmered as the moisture scattered the light in a restless way.

She tried to keep her eyes wide so tears wouldn’t fall, but they rolled out far too easily. Yet she had no thought of wiping them away.

“Miss Elisbell. No… Iri.”

Seeing her like that, Maria unconsciously pulled Iri into an embrace.

The girl was barely past twenty, far younger than herself. Maria realized she had pushed her too hard.

“I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

“L-let go of me! I…”

“I know how hard this is for you, Iri. And I know you can’t make sense of this situation. But there’s one thing I can tell you for sure—you’re mistaken.”

“Mistaken…?”

“Yes. So you shouldn’t resent Chairman Aaron too much. He’s only trying to protect you.”

Maria had already looked into it.

Into just who this ‘brother’ of Iri’s—whom Aaron shielded so fiercely—really was, and the circumstances that led to his death.

The truth was quite shocking.

The records of Peter Jones did not paint him as a good man—so much so that it was hard to believe he was the one Iri had longed for and searched so desperately to find.

And there was something else Maria could not understand.

‘Why is he hiding the truth?’

It was true that the Stingray Foundation had handled that incident rather aggressively.

But to keep silent for so long seemed only to invite unnecessary misunderstandings… or so Maria had thought. Now, however, she felt she was beginning to understand.

‘This child is still fragile.’

Iri possessed genius-level combat instincts, but her heart was still soft.

Perhaps that was why—even if she were to face the truth—she would not be able to accept it as it was.

So they were waiting.

Waiting for the time when Iri would be mature enough—mentally and in ability—to accept the truth once she learned it.

What still puzzled her, though…

‘Was Young Master Aaron ever like this?’

This way of handling things was far from the Aaron she had known.

The Aaron she knew was an arrogant tyrant who cared nothing for the feelings of others.

‘Perhaps…’

It might have had something to do with the conversation he had just had with Araya. Though she could not be certain what their words truly meant—

—Your will doesn’t matter. Do you think you can defy a predetermined fate?

—I’ll find a way.

—You were born as the Stingray’s bioweapon and as a villain. Killing is your nature. No matter how you resist, you can’t change that.

‘The premise might be wrong.’

Aaron Stingray.

If his background had anything to do with the change in his attitude, then maybe she had been gravely mistaken about him all this time.

‘I must convince Young Master Benedict.’

If her guess was correct…

It wasn’t Aaron who needed to be erased.

He should not be the one to bear the blame.

Sector E, Brandon Avenue, 13th Street.

I was guided into the VIP room of a bar called “Hopeless.” Normally, it was the sort of place reserved for Mafia executives.

Waiting for me there was none other than CL-00245—better known as Ciel.

An android who had been planning, under my orders, to distribute Junk Chips inside the Academy—and like me, a Transmigrator.

She had changed quite a bit since I last saw her.

When she was working at the Academy, she had the look of a typical maid android, but now she wore something far more punk in style.

Probably the kind of fashion currently popular among the lower classes.

Naturally, the android LED choker around her neck was gone, so at a glance, one would never suspect she was an android.

“You were here early.”

“I didn’t know what you’d do if I were late. Besides, this is the first time you’ve called me in such a rush, Aaron.”

Ciel lowered her voice and asked,

“Is this important?”

“It is.”

At my reply, Ciel’s expression hardened, and she activated the sound-canceler in the VIP room to keep our conversation from leaking out.

“Go ahead.”

“All previous orders I gave you—cancel them. Stop everything for now.”

“What happened?”

“Evangeline is dead.”

Ciel’s face changed at my words.

She seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation at once.

“H-how did it happen?”

“It was a man called Araya. Like us, he was a Transmigrator. And at this stage, he’s already gained the ‘Necromancing’ ability.”

“Which means…”

“He’s obtained the Witch’s Blood.”

“He must have taken it by force.”

“Exactly.”

The Witch, Evangeline.

A comrade of the original story’s protagonist, Shade Wells, and a sub-heroine.

To obtain the Witch’s Blood meant to steal the magical power she possessed.

In the original, Evangeline—having fallen for the protagonist—voluntarily gave up her magic to save him when he was in danger.

But there was no way such an exchange could have happened with someone like Araya. He had likely killed her, or pushed her to a similar fate.

“That crazy bastard…”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Though called a “witch,” Evangeline was a character whose deeds were worthy of being called a “saint.”

In the final climactic scene, she once again sacrificed herself to save humanity from crisis.

Which meant her absence now signified the loss of a key figure who could have resolved that crisis.

“What… what could he possibly have been thinking?”

“He said he was just finding his own way to survive.”

That in this harsh world, he needed power to stay alive. That his own survival right now was more important than the crisis in the latter part of the story.

He rambled on about all sorts of things, but to me it all sounded like worthless excuses. Halfway through, my temper flared, and I physically shut him up.

“S-so what do we do now?”

“We just have to find a way.”

The one fortunate thing was that I was Aaron Stingray.

If I could help the remaining major characters grow enough, and maximize the group’s capabilities to prepare for the crisis, there would be an opportunity somehow.

It wasn’t as if I had a concrete plan yet, but explaining it that way made Ciel’s expression relax a little.

“R-right. At least you’re here, Aaron, and we still have plenty of time before that event happens…”

“But there’s one problem.”

In fact, more pressing than the late-stage crisis without Evangeline was this immediate issue.

“A problem?”

“Let me just confirm something. From the looks of it, a large part of your body parts have been replaced with ‘bio-products.’”

“Huh? Ah, yes. I replaced whatever I could.”

“Why?”

“W-well… I was originally human, and I wanted others to see me as human too?”

“Huu…”

Hearing that, I let out a short sigh. It confirmed that what he said was true.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“That guy ‘Araya’ told me, as if making excuses, that his consciousness was slowly merging with the ‘self’ of his body. So this latest incident was, in part, something he couldn’t help.”

“What kind of ridiculous excuse is that…!”

“That’s what I thought at first too.”

I stopped Ciel before she could get angry.

“But now, I think he might be right.”

“Wait. Are you saying, Aaron, that my replacing my body parts with bio-parts is because I’m ‘Ciel’? That my original personality influenced it?”

“In the original, Ciel was an ‘android who wanted to become human.’ So the current you as well…”

“No way! I told you already! I was originally human, so naturally I’d want to return to a body that’s more comfortable for me…”

“Ciel.”

I cut her off.

“You once told me this: ‘The only advantage of this body is that it doesn’t get tired or sick.’ Has your thinking changed?”

“……”

Ciel’s face froze, as if she’d been struck.

Holding her head, she muttered in shock, “N-no way. That’s impossible. Me?” over and over.

I couldn’t say I didn’t understand her reaction. To think your sense of self could change without you even realizing it—how could that not be horrifying?

But there was an even greater problem right now.

If Ciel had merged with the self of her body…

And if that was why her desire to return to being human had grown stronger without her realizing it…

Then what would happen to me, the villain of the original story?

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