Chapter 141
"...Just, I sobered up."
Selena was always drunk.
Whether it was on alcohol.
Or longing.
Or sadness.
She staggered with pitiful steps.
As if she would sink forever.
But
Intoxication eventually wakes up.
Because reality exists outside of alcohol.
The drunkard was the same.
Nothing had changed.
She just sobered up.
From the intoxication and alcohol she had suffered for so long.
From memories.
From her younger sister.
"I was drunk for too long."
The woman lamented quietly.
The executive who had been looking down at her for a while clicked his tongue.
"Putting on such worthless hypocrisy."
"......"
"I'll kill you in the most painful way."
The mana oath.
If he just made the brand breathed into her heart go berserk, killing Selena would be easier than bursting a bug.
But instead of killing her, the executive handed her over to his subordinates.
What hung on his lips was thick mockery.
"We shouldn't let a traitor go so easily."
The executive ordered.
"Lock her in the underground. In a prison where not even light enters. I'll personally strip the traitor's bones and flesh."
Afterwards.
Dark red robes moving busily.
The woman was dragged away helplessly.
"......"
Her receding back.
For a moment, a speck of black shadow seemed to be stuck on her delicate back.
It was a shade that soon scattered like a dream.
***
An underground prison where not even a trace of sunlight entered.
Selena was bound in chains.
Three days had already passed in this blood-soaked scenery.
Was it because she hadn't even had a sip of water during that time?
"......"
The woman had become as weak as she could be.
Unfocused eyes, blood hardened dark red, wounds festering on her thighs.
It felt like a flower trampled recklessly.
But.
If asked if she was broken, she wasn't.
The drunkard was just waiting for an opportunity.
An opportunity to give those guys one last blow.
Creeeeak-.
The closed iron bars opened with a scream.
Following that, a man walked in.
It was the executive who had imprisoned Selena here.
Though he had just continued detention without any particular measures for the past three days.
It seemed he had thoughts of doing something today.
"Have you been well?"
A perfunctory question.
In the man's hands were various torture instruments like wire saws, pliers, knives.
It seemed his words about killing her painfully weren't just a joke.
Was he trying to threaten her on purpose?
The executive laid out the instruments one by one before her eyes.
So she could easily infer what pain there would be.
"Then, I'll recommend it for the last time."
Before starting everything.
The man made a final proposal.
"I won't mind the loss of materials. Even burning down a branch... I think they were just that level of guys."
A tone as if bestowing mercy.
"He still needs your power."
"Ha."
"If you express willingness to cooperate, He will embrace you again. It means He will bestow mercy."
"B-bullshit... it's not mercy or anything, you mean there's still a use for me, right?"
"That's right. Because it's not easy to plant a spy in the academy's top brass."
"Shameless bastards..."
"Choose carefully."
The wire that the man took out shone precariously.
As if ready to strip flesh and bones at any time.
The executive whispered.
"His revival has approached right before our eyes. When that time comes, your younger sister may receive mercy too. Haven't you missed family for the past few years? Are you going to give that up now?"
Younger sister.
Only those words particularly pierced her lungs.
Lianne unconsciously came to mind.
-Big sister!
Even now, that voice was still vivid.
How could I forget you?
You were my star even at the bottom, the only meaning I loved in life.
Your sister's love never changed for even a moment.
But.
"Go eat shit."
Lukewarm tears flowed down her cheeks.
But her eyes were wide open.
Because she had decided not to be bound anymore.
Selena Drunkard.
For her, family was no longer a word referring only to her younger sister.
The master who had taken her in from the bottom.
Colleague professors who were together despite bickering.
Even students who always smiled brightly.
'Galimar Academy.'
All of that was home and the woman's family.
It was also affection she had belatedly realized.
And
-Master.
A certain boy.
The child who had taken many of her firsts.
A disciple she was grateful and sorry to.
She hoped she wouldn't be ashamed of that kindness even at the end.
Even to such an adult.
-Well, because I'm the disciple of a good person.
-That too is proof.
-Proof that though indifferent on the outside, a warm heart lives inside.
For the voice that called her a good person.
Selena stared straight at the man.
For the first time, vitality shone in her dull red eyes.
"Being swayed by you guys for 5 years is enough."
"You're wrong."
Perhaps sensing that persuasion wouldn't work?
The executive clicked his tongue as if annoyed.
The wire saw finally extended.
It was in the midst of her last confession being heard.
"Fine... if that's your will, I'll let you go meet your beloved younger sister."
"I won't meet her. Lianne will be in heaven."
The woman smiled as if relieved.
Because she knew the end was approaching.
"A bitch like me will fall to hell."
"How unfortunate."
"And, you guys will fall to that hell with me."
"What?"
The executive who had let his guard down.
Selena didn't miss the opportunity.
It was a move she had hidden until the very end.
"Ugh...!"
She breathed mana into the brand on her heart.
A device she had engraved with her own magic just before arriving here.
Whoosh-!
The flow inside her body overloaded.
Energy circulating at high speed.
The [Oath] that existed primarily, and the [Resistance] brand added secondarily.
The two collided fiercely and possessed enormous power.
"You, don't tell me...!"
The executive's gaze dyed with bewilderment.
It was an explosion caused by the synthesis of magic formulas.
A self-destruction or suicide attack causing artificial collision by offering all the mana dwelling in life.
It contained magical power that could easily blow away a mere branch.
Selena sneered.
"Let's go. To hell."
A moment flowing slowly.
The woman closed her eyes.
Her body was hot. A body that would soon be shattered... no, not even a trace of ash would remain.
As she felt the mana running wild, a smile formed.
'If.'
A meaningless assumption.
Even if it was just that, one comes to think at the end.
In contemplation wrapping up a long life.
'What if we had been different?'
At the end of the monologue, none other than the golden-haired boy was caught.
The always kind golden-haired boy.
'If I hadn't been immersed in sadness...'
If.
If we had met in a relationship that hadn't gone wrong, could Student Yuda and I have had a better relationship?
I decided to be indifferent to death... but only you remain as a lingering attachment.
Because I didn't properly convey any of my emotions, whether words of thanks, apology, or affection, they're circling in my head like an unwritten letter.
It's truly laughable.
'I... perhaps you.'
The monologue couldn't be concluded to the end.
The end that chased me to the edge of life. As she exhaled her last breath like that.
Tak-!
"Stop there."
A bursting sound like flicking fingers rang out.
Following that, a voice was heard.
"Break."
Crash-!
Along with the noise of glass shattering, pitch black darkness covered the drunkard.
Shadows seeping between her skin.
Soon.
The energy that had been about to explode disappeared without a trace.
As if someone had lied.
"...?"
Selena expressed doubt.
Though she had sensed death and braced for the pain about to come, her limbs weren't torn apart but intact.
She couldn't feel the brand painfully squeezing her heart either.
It was strange.
She felt a cozy body heat from behind.
As if embraced in the arms of a familiar person.
The woman opened her closed eyes.
Then what was reflected in her vision was...
"Master."
"Student Yuda...?"
None other than the boy.
The boy who had been the subject of the monologue she had just muttered, the words she was conveying.
Their gazes that met by chance continued short yet long.
"I came to save you."
The snake whispered as if answering her question.
Before she knew it, the same kind smile as usual was hanging on his lips.
"Didn't I tell you? That I would take responsibility."
Why was it?
There was a scene naturally replaying.
It was part of the conversation they had shared alone in the garden on the day they attended the banquet together.
For a moment, the instant overlapped.
-Well, I wonder.
-If it's true... will you take responsibility like the superstition?
-Gladly.
-If that's what you wish.
Like then.
The snake was embracing the drunkard.
As if he wouldn't let go.
"I came to keep my promise."
Eyelids gently raised.
The pupils settled beyond them were clearly shining.