Chapter 26
-Kraaak!!
“Instructor Haru…?”
“You should call me Instructor, right?”
Thank goodness I wasn't too late.
I glanced back at Ayla, who was still sitting there in a daze, and muttered inwardly.
No matter that she was ranked second among the third-years and belonged to Class A of the Practical Class, she was still just a child.
Losing her composure and being unable to respond to an unexpected situation was perfectly natural.
‘And besides….’
Not when her opponent was a monster like this.
-Creak, creak…!!
In my haste, I hadn't even had time to draw my sword, so it was good that I wrapped mana around my palm and caught the blade itself, but….
‘What the hell is with this strength…?’
She was a new student in the Intermediate Class—not even the Advanced Class—and such a novice that she didn't even know how to use her blood vessels as pseudo-mana circuits to enhance her physical abilities.
Yet she was trying to hold her own against me through sheer brute strength alone.
A symptom in which one loses one's reason, gains monstrous strength beyond imagination, and runs wild.
I already knew of a phenomenon similar to this.
‘Beastification.’
But it was distinctly different from Miriam's case.
Although Miriam's appearance resembled beastification, she plainly retained her sense of self and reason; Kate, despite retaining a completely human appearance, displayed behavior and symptoms that matched beastification exactly.
‘There's something I don't know.’
I slowly tightened my grip on the hand holding the blade, bending the sword outward as I thought.
‘The strange mana laced with malice that this girl had been unconsciously leaking. The damaged barrier stone. And the unidentified monstrous strength beyond human limits.’
Whether she had been hiding her strength or, unable to control it, had simply kept it concealed until the decisive moment.
‘She's dangerous.’
-Hiss…!
Pure white steam rose from the blade.
‘And besides, this magic layered over the blade….’
Water-element formula magic. But it was distinctly different from ordinary water-element magic.
Her water-element magic dealt in scalding water and steam.
A type of magic similar to, yet completely different in nature from, the Lucilante family's variant water-element magic, which dealt in low-temperature water, ice, and cold.
‘My palm's getting pretty hot.’
I clicked my tongue and put all my strength into the hand gripping the steaming blade.
-Crack!!
After snapping the blade in half, I tossed the broken half behind me and grabbed Kate by the throat.
“Sorry, but this is going to hurt for a while.”
-Wham!!
Then I slammed her into the ground in one motion.
Of course, I held back. I gripped her throat firmly and made sure her back, rather than the back of her head, hit the ground first.
‘At the very least, she should be unconscious by now…!’
“Nnngh…!”
But contrary to my expectations, Kate groaned from the floor and staggeringly pushed herself up.
‘Did I fail to control my strength?’
I muttered inwardly as I took two steps back. But no matter how I thought about it, I had been ready to break at least one of her bones….
There was no other way to explain it except that Kate's durability was far greater than expected.
“It would have been better for both of us if you’d just quietly stayed unconscious.”
Troubled, I muttered as I gently bit down on my fingertip and drew blood.
From the fingertip beaded with a red drop, I drew mana together with the blood like a thread and traced a blood magic array in midair.
The basics of blood magic lay in using mana and blood simultaneously as magical mediums. The spell I used was a blood projectile with its lethality drastically reduced.
I adjusted it to be less like a high-spin bullet and more like a soft rubber one. If I aimed for the center of her forehead, I could rattle her brain and easily knock her unconscious.
“Aah, aaaagh…!”
Gritting her teeth and growling, Kate staggeringly rose to her feet. The sight overlapped with that of beastified demi-human warriors who kept rising no matter how many times they were cut, sending a chill down my spine.
I bit my lip firmly and fired the blood projectile.
-Thump!!
The blood projectile exploded with a dull sound the moment it touched Kate's forehead. Kate's eyes rolled back as she staggered and fell backward.
I quickly caught Kate as she fell with the back of her head pointed downward. If she fell like that, she would crack her skull.
Only after carefully laying Kate on the dirt floor did I let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Phew.”
A girl who didn't even know how to conceal her mana properly had been oozing murderous intent, so on a hunch, I had attached a mana trail to her.
I never thought… she'd try something like this.
It left a bad taste in my mouth. I clicked my tongue softly and turned toward Ayla.
“Miss Ayla, are you all right?”
“…Thanks to you. But how did you know….”
“Just a coincidence.”
I made up a plausible excuse and helped Ayla to her feet.
“Instructor!!”
And just then, Charlotte came running toward us out of breath, so I casually handed Ayla over to her.
“Could you help her?”
“M-me?”
Charlotte, who had pulled out a length of rope from who-knew-where and was trying to restrain unconscious Kate, whipped her head around at my words.
“I’ll carry Miss Kate. Miss Charlotte, I’ll leave Miss Ayla to you.”
“I-I….”
After hearing me, Charlotte hesitated briefly, then took Ayla's arm over her shoulder with an ambiguous expression.
“Aah!”
“Please bear with it a little. Once you receive healing magic, even displaced bones will heal right away.”
Supporting Ayla, who was screaming, with her arm draped over Charlotte's shoulder, Charlotte grumbled.
Watching them silently, I scratched my head, perplexed. Maybe they didn't get along?
Still, surely she wouldn't throw Ayla down on the way. I hoisted limp Kate over my shoulder and said.
“Shall we head to the infirmary for now?”
=
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
Supporting Ayla, who had a light bandage around her ankle, Charlotte asked.
“Yes. I've already heard everyone's account of what happened. I'll take responsibility for the rest.”
After laying Kate, still unconscious, on the bed, I reassured Charlotte from the doorway of the stabilization room.
“Handling an aftermath like this is part of an instructor’s job too, don’t you think?”
“But what if Kate wakes up and runs wild again….”
“…What on earth happened to Miss Kate?”
Beside Charlotte, dejected Roxanna muttered. I turned to her, lowered my gaze, and said.
“It’s all right. I’m not a specialist in healing magic, but… I have a pretty good idea what happened. She probably didn’t go berserk of her own will.”
“That was… a berserk state? Kate’s appearance….”
At that moment, Ayla, leaning against Charlotte's shoulder, asked.
I nodded.
“Yes. I’ve seen several cases similar to Miss Kate’s.”
“Similar cases….”
“Don’t worry.”
I reached up and gently patted Ayla's head.
“Miss Kate will be all right.”
It was a somewhat comical sight, with my hand resting on the head of a child taller than me. Still, soft physical contact like this was the best way to reassure an anxious child.
My master used to pat my head a lot too. I didn't know what other children might think, but I had never been particularly interested in doing my hair, so I had always loved my master's touch.
I hoped Ayla might feel something similar.
“I’ll tell the junior who looks up to you that you were worried about her.”
At that playful remark, Ayla opened and closed her mouth in surprise.
“It’s a secret how I knew.”
I patted Ayla's shoulder one last time, then gently nudged Charlotte forward from behind as I said.
“Now, good children, it’s time to go home. The sun’s already starting to set, you know?”
“Th-thank you for today…!”
“Thank you, Instructor!”
“…Thank you.”
As I watched Charlotte and the others hurry away after offering their farewells, I went back into the stabilization room and closed the door.
-Click.
Then I lightly locked it behind me and turned back toward the room.
Not toward the bed… but toward the window.
“Stop.”
“….”
“Did you really think I wouldn't notice that you'd been awake all along?”
Kate, with splints strapped to her limbs and wrapped in bandages, perched awkwardly on the windowsill and clicked her tongue softly.
“Besides, in that condition, even if you tried to run, you’d be caught in no time.”
“…What are you planning to do with me?”
Her tone was razor-sharp. So she'd decided to drop even the barest pretense.
I rubbed my stiff neck and asked in return.
“Then let me ask you in return. What were you planning to do to Miss Ayla?”
“Ha! You’re not asking because you really don’t know, are you?”
Kate twisted the corners of her lips as if mocking me.
“No, I really don’t.”
But I shook my head.
There were more than a few things I truly didn't know: why or how Kate had gone berserk, for one, and why she was targeting Ayla.
And… I had no idea how to approach a student like her, either.
Once again, I was reminded how incredibly lucky I'd been that all the students in Class E were kind at heart, and I slowly walked toward Kate.
During my days of training under Master, I couldn't call myself a model student, but I was at least well-behaved enough to call myself a good kid.
The worst thing I'd ever tried was secretly stealing my master's beloved minced-meat jerky and getting caught eating it.
The worst thing I'd done unintentionally was allowing my master to die before my eyes.
And the students I'd met after becoming an instructor for the first time had all been wonderfully kind and good—almost more than I deserved.
Although they had spent the first day fighting among themselves while ignoring me, and there had even been one who openly defied me… they hadn't acted that way out of genuine malice, at least.
But I had absolutely no idea how to deal with a student like this.
A student who clearly harbored hostility toward me and the malicious intent to harm another student.
How was I supposed to face a child like this? Facing Kate, perched on the windowsill and glaring at me, I sighed inwardly.