Chapter 12: 11

Savage Fang – Volume 1 Chapter 11: Demon of Ice

“No way… Instructor Pelmann? Why?”

Albert spoke out in a shocked voice when he saw the face that appeared from under the hood.

Hearing the quavering voice, Pelmann’s gentle smile twisted into a cruel sneer.

While the revelation had been just as shocking to me as it was to Albert, what concerned me the most about it was how a member of the Gods of the Moon cult was able to not only infiltrate but also remain undetected as a teacher at an academy for nobles.

It was a school where the children of nobility from different countries gathered, so it went without saying that the Academy should have been extra careful in vetting its staff.

And it was into such a place that this man successfully infiltrated, going so far as becoming a teacher, a position that gave him direct contact with many students. I had thought that the rumor about his background being a mystery was in regards to the students and that the administrators themselves did actually know from where he came.

Yet here we were. There had to be something going on — something completely abnormal — for a follower of the Gods of the Moon cult to be able to become an instructor at the Academy of Magic.

Had he been a member before he took the position, or did he join after becoming a teacher? Or maybe… he was an imposter that ‘replaced’ the original Pelmann? There were too many possibilities to consider, so I decided to leave it for later.

In any case, the group I thought was just a new religion that would appear in the future had been around for longer and was stronger than I actually knew… and that wasn’t something I could just ignore.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I glared at Pelmann. In contrast, his face softened back into the gentle smile he wore as a teacher.

“Tch… Have to admit, you’re pretty good. How long have you even been doing this, playing at being a teacher?”

“There was no ‘playing at’, at all. It has all been part of our plan — a plan that has been in the making for a very long time.”

I casually probed for more information, and Pelmann happily responded. But it was hard to tell if he was doing so on purpose.

“You see, as much as it disgusts me to admit, your existence is vital to our organization. And I, recognizing the necessity, took it upon myself to lead this operation, going as far as becoming your teacher so as to better monitor you. But now, what with all this unexpected meddling, it must all come to an end. How utterly vexing…”

He spoke like he had martyred himself for some great cause, but really it was more like he enjoyed talking down to us like we were problematic children who didn’t know better.

“Oh really? It was because of me that you did all of this?”

“Exactly. You see, you are the bearer of the Hair of Sulberia — that is, Iltania’s chosen one — and therefore vital to our plans.”

When he mentioned Iltania’s name, I noticed a hint of anger in his voice.

I had already suspected as much, but this Gods of the Moon cult especially hated Iltania and the teachings.

“What about Ludus? Was distributing the drug also ‘vital to your plans’?”

“No, not at all. In fact, Ludus is but one part of our operations. After all, we are aiming to build the ideal world, a utopia where people can live as they should, as their true selves!”

Apparently Ludus didn’t have anything to do with me, but… did he say it was one part of their operations? So there were other shady things they had their hands in, besides the drugs.

Would that mean their end goal… was to bring us to that future, the future that I remembered?

In my mind, I saw that future again, one where drugs flooded the streets, where people acted violently and cursed out the Hair of Sulberia.

I wasn’t the kind of person to care about what others said about me, but it would be a big problem having to live in that kind of world with this hair.

“We, the followers of the Gods of the Moon, wish to make the world a better place. To that end, we entreat you, Miss Mylene Petyul, would you lend your power and join us in our cause, our glorious mission?”

After I snorted in disbelief, Pelmann continued to speak, and he reached out to me, extending a hand out like he was inviting me to dance.

But the one to answer him was not me… but Albert.

“…What nonsense! Lady Mylene would never give assistance to any group whose schemes are as diabolical as yours!”

His face flushed red with fury.

I didn’t need him to answer for me, but the answer he had given… wasn’t wrong.

After all, I already knew working with these guys would not end well.

“Though it is unfortunate that you were the one chosen by Iltania, that does make your body — specially crafted by Iltania to hold so much magical power — a suitable vessel in which our God may reside… So how about it? Would you not like to recreate the world as you desire, as our God given form?”

Pelmann’s voice grew with passionate fervor and an insanity not unlike how he was acting earlier.

But it was just as it was with those other cultists; Pelmann spoke words, but they weren’t any that I cared to understand.

And so I gave a uncaring shrug.

“Ain’t interested at all. I don’t want anything to do with you guys or that so-called ‘God’ of yours.”

“How impudent… I offered salvation of the soul — solace from that disgusting prison of flesh — and you would spurn it?”

When I declined the offer, all traces of the kind professor we knew as Instructor Pelmann… vanished.

All that was left was another lunatic cultist.

“But perhaps your soul was already beyond salvation. Dear me, it seems we must proceed ahead of schedule — though we may yet offer your body as tribute. Ahh, yes, we shall have your head… We shall have your head and offer it to our lord that we may usher in a new age of chaos.”

It hadn’t taken much to set him off.

Pelmann, who had been preparing for battle, suddenly unleashed his magical power, and the room instantly grew significantly colder.

What powerful magic… This wasn’t the kind of thing a normal drug dealer or school teacher could do.

The familiar gentle smile was gone; Pelmann stared at me with a blank expression. It seemed I was no longer a student to him, just Iltania’s Hound.

“Mylene..! Ugh..!”

Despite the suffocating pressure of magical power pressing down on us, Colette still called out to me, pain evident in her voice.

She was probably trying to tell me to flee. And I wanted to, seeing the magical power this guy was using; Even taking into consideration my life as Envil the mercenary, I had never before seen magical power quite like this.

Even so, there were still things I needed to do.

“Bring it on then! If you want it, you’ll have to come and take it! It ain’t worth much to me, but it sure as hell would be a waste if I just gave it to some shitty nameless god, so pay up!”

After all, Mylene’s head had already been taken once before. And then a certain empress had gifted it to me herself, so I couldn’t go and give it away just like that.

Besides, any god that consumed the flesh of this shitty woman was dooming themselves to stomach pains.

I gave my rapier a few light swings to check the condition of my body and then unleashed my own magic.

My body began to shine, and a bright light covered me like armor.

“This is..! Did Mylene always have this much power..?!”

“Lady Mylene always fought through pure skill alone, so I do not think there is anyone who has ever seen her use this much of her power like this.”

For some reason, hearing Albert speak so proudly made me relax; it would be a problem if I gave in to the feeling, but it wasn’t so bad like this.

“Here I come.”

I declared simply, before dropping low and dashing in.

Pelmann’s eyes widened as he saw my abnormal movements.

It was time to find out how well my Beast style worked on him.

I felt a surge in magical power erupt from Pelmann as he waved an arm at me.

A moment later, that magical power swelled before me, and icicles sprang from it, up out of the ground..

But I already saw that coming, and I kicked off the ground, changing the direction of approach.

“Tch..!”

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Earlier, Pelmann had also instantly conjured a wall of ice to stop my spell; between how quickly he could activate his magic and how the ice attacked by coming up from below, I was at a disadvantage since my Beast style kept me low to the ground.

His ability to lead his aim and the speediness of his spells were first-rate.

“Here, have some more!”

Pelmann once again waved his arm, this time in an upward swing.

Three arrows of ice appeared in a vertical row before flying straight at me; there hadn’t been a delay between his invocation and the activation this time, and I couldn’t just charge right through because of how much power was in them. And that wasn’t the end of it; Pelmann brought down his raised arm, and a block of ice appeared above my head, crashing down with great force; I immediately leapt back to dodge.

The block that fell over on where I had just been standing was the size of a grown man; considering the amount of force it slammed down with, it could easily crush a person like a pulpy fruit.

This certainly was a tough opponent, and that last attack was extremely troublesome; that kind of spell wasn’t something most people could do, especially when it came at the end of three consecutive spells without delay. It wasn’t enough that Pelmann had an unnatural amount of magical power at his disposal; it was clear that he was very experienced with fighting other people.

That must have been why Colette lost. At the same time, it was a blessing in disguise; it was because Pelmann was so much stronger than Colette that he had been able to incapacitate her instead of killing her.

“That’s some magic you got.”

“It is the strength of my unwavering faith given form — power given unto me by our god Dia Myrth”

Pelmann answered as he put on a crooked smile, his eyes glowing an ominous crimson.

“That so? A blessing from your god?”

I gave a sarcastic remark only to receive a fervent, excited answer in reply.

A gift from his god, was it? I probably shouldn’t take this lunatic’s words too seriously. In the first place, things would get way too dangerous if that was all it took to obtain this much power.

“And? Is that it? That the best you can do? Come on, surely a blessing from your so-called god is better than that. Hell, I might even reconsider that offer of yours about joining your little group if you can show me a good time.”

“Such an impudent mouth…It seems I must seal such impertinence forevermore.”

Trying to provoke his anger didn’t seem to work. His anger had a lower boiling point — like I’d expected — but he wasn’t losing himself to his anger. Rather, it was more of a quiet, focused rage.

So what could I do next? It was getting a little annoying that none of the usual tricks I’d brought over from my previous life were very effective.

Which meant my only option now was to try using the power I’d gained in this current life of mine.

In other words, I must use magic. I’ll just take him straight on then; after all, that’s what I’ve always been training for.

“This is..! I see! To have this much magical power at such a young age… There is no more doubting that you have that detestable Iltania’s blessing…”

“Well, I can’t deny that I was blessed with my abilities, can I?”

As I began channeling more magical power, Pelmann’s face began to twist with anger; seeing this as proof of the blessings really stirred him up.

It was rather demoralizing that he ignored the effort I put into training and attributed it to this hair of mine… Yeah, no, I didn’t actually feel that way.

The truth of the matter was, it was because of my natural talent that I put more effort into it all.

It wasn’t any different in my previous life: simply, if I didn’t have the talent for it, I would find another way.

After all, it was part of my creed: use everything I can to achieve my goals, but quickly give up what I can’t use.

I crouched low again, after covering my hands with magic.

And once again, I launched myself forward. This time, my feet left sunken imprints on the stone floor, cracking it in places.

I had put magical power into my steps, strengthening my charge, and dove right in.

Honestly, I couldn’t care less about god or whatever. More importantly, a new obstacle had appeared before me: Pelmann. If he was going to keep standing in my way, then I just had to crush him, simple as that.

I didn’t mind the occasional fight, but it was nice to be able to enjoy the quiet and peaceful life I had… And I won’t let him disturb that!

“Guh..!”

Pelmann grunted in anger; had my burst of speed caught him by surprise?

He hurriedly waved his hand at me; his reflexes were still good, but he hadn’t predicted on what I’d do so his reaction was a little slower and his aim slightly deviated.

And so I only needed to move my neck a little bit over to dodge the next ice arrow.

Because he was aiming at an exact spot, even the slightest influence to the projectile’s trajectory would cause it to miss.

“Allow me to return the favor!”

As I ran, I released the magical power I had been gathering in my hand; it was the same spell his ice wall had stopped earlier. It would do more than enough damage if it landed, but…

“You may not.”

…Pelmann blocked it as easily as he did the first time. Unfortunately for him, that was what I was hoping he would do.

A similar wall of ice stopped my sphere of magic, but that was what I expected — right now, I could only make it fly forward in a straight line. I couldn’t do fancy tricks like making it curve or anything.

“What the… From over there?!”

But this was good enough for now.

I needed him to think that something was coming at him from behind the wall. All living things — not just humans — instinctively noticed anything moving within their field of vision; in combat, this was especially important so as not to miss any little movement and to react in time to anything.

After all, my spell was just a diversion, to distract him, even for a moment, as I jumped high into the air and over his ice wall.

“Wha..?!”

A look of utter shock colored the placid expression of Pelmann’s face. Though his reaction speed was as quick as ever, it was too late for him to do anything to me now.

“Guh..!”

I used my fall to land an axe kick on his right shoulder, and I felt the crunch of shattering bone.

Pelmann staggered back in pain as I landed. I quickly grabbed his left arm.

“Rahh!”

I yanked him toward me like I was pulling a rope and threw him over my shoulder, slamming him into the ground!

The force of the impact dislocated his shoulder, not to mention his torn muscles.

And just like that, I disabled both of his arms. He had to be feeling the pain, too.

I leapt back, putting distance between us. I was hoping that would settle it, but… I sensed our fight wasn’t over just yet.

“This damned Hound…”

Pelmann staggered to his feet, arms hanging limp. He swayed unsteadily like a shambling corpse, but his bloodshot eyes locked on me with a glare of unrestrained fury.

A single look said everything about how abnormal this guy was.

That slam should’ve left him winded and short of breath, while the pain from a broken shoulder and a dislocated one should be hurting enough to stop him from speaking.

And yet here he was; not only had he gotten to his feet, he was feeling well enough to curse me out.

“You don’t feel any pain or anything? That sure is convenient.”

That was the only explanation I could think of: ‘pain’ just didn’t exist to him.

But if he didn’t feel pain, then he’d be able to keep fighting until he fell over dead from exhaustion. Was this power a blessing from his god, too? Ugh, that’s one slave driver of a god…

But unfortunately, that was probably the only way this fight would end.

Pelmann suddenly raised his arms — they should have been unusable and immovable — up towards the ceiling.

“O great God Dia Myrth, I beseech thee! Grant me the power to smite this hateful hound before me! Take these eyes of mine that I may receive your blessing!”

And he dug both thumbs into his eyes.

As though in response to his plea, the eyes of the snake on his pendant gleamed red.

“Wha–?!”

Albert and Colette both shouted in surprise. Pelmann’s crazy self-injury had creeped me out as well.

But then… a blood-red smoke began seeping from his body, and crimson thorns of magical power snaked around him.

I couldn’t just ignore whatever he was doing; I fired a bolt of my own magical power at him… but a block of blood-colored ice grew around Pelmann, shielding him from harm.

And this time, the ice had not shattered upon impact with my magic — his magical power had increased.

“Wh-where did this power come from..?”

“What sinister magic…”

In the face of this upsurge of power, Albert and Colette trembled.

I didn’t blame them; I, myself, had never seen anyone with this kind of power before.

And really, I wanted to run away myself, against an opponent like this and where my victory was so uncertain. I could only admit it as cowardly, but it was the most likely way for me to survive this encounter.

…But I couldn’t run. I couldn’t just leave behind my friends — members of royalty at that — to escape on my own, now could I?

And that was why I had to fight. It was as simple as that.

I exhaled strongly through my nose as the red ice crumbled away.

Pelmann emerged from the icy cocoon. His eyes had colored blood-red with slitted pupils like that of a snake, and they burned with murderous intent.

“I will kill you, here and now, you damned bitch..! I will have your head on a spike for all to see, and you will be our symbol of chaos..!”

Pelmann howled his words in a fury, no longer hiding his true nature.

The pressure of the magical power coming off him was abnormal — it was well beyond the limits of a normal person now.

Could it be that his god truly answered his prayers? I really didn’t want to consider the possibiliy, but… did that mean Iltania was real, too?

“If that’s true, then I have a fist that needs delivering.”

If Iltania was real, then the first thing I had to do was to complain about how that shithead Mylene was the so-called chosen one. And then I’d complain about having reincarnated me into her body.

But I could think about that later. Right now, I needed to stop this guy.

I glared at Pelmann, who made a hissing noise as me. It sounded like he was blowing air through the gaps between his teeth, but there was no time to think about that either: he charged at me with tremendous speed.

His body and its motions were more animalistic than the moves my Beast style imitated, and he let out a ferocious growl as he came at me. There was no thought behind it, just pure, feral brutality.

This should be the type of opponent I’m best at dealing with, but…

“Tch…”

Pelmann swung an arm at me; claws of blood-red ice had grown from his fingers, and he gave a deadly swipe!

I sidestepped at the last moment, with the claws passing just short of my eyes. It cut off some loose strands of hair and cut into the stone wall…

…and sliced it open with no resistance.

Faint sunlight shone in from the claw-ripped holes in the wall — those claws went through that thick stone wall like cheese..!

“Your face is all twisted up, but… I can guess what you’re feeling.”

It was usually a pretty easy task handling the guys whose only redeeming feature was their brute strength.

But right now, with this one, his power was something else. His straightforward, simple-minded attacks were easy to predict and dodge, but with that much power behind it, it was like trying to handle a dragon.

And if he could go through stone walls that easily, then this dinky rapier of mine was nowhere good enough.

“What’s wrong? Is that it for Iltania’s Hound? Let me see you struggle some more!”

Pelmann taunted in an excited voice, and he gave a wild wave of his arms.

Blood-red icicles manifested in a row before him, hovering for a moment before flying at me with blinding speed.

I dove forward to dodge, rolling back to my feet with the momentum. From behind me came the sound of cracking stone, but that meant the spell didn’t have the piercing power of his claws.

“That just… cracked the wall..! Lady Mylene!”

But knowing that didn’t make his attack any less dangerous; breaking the wall like that meant it had the force of a cannonball, meaning it wasn’t a hit I could take, either.

Besides…

“…Hey now, aren’t you a little too eager about this!?”

Dozens of the same icicle floated around Pelmann; while individually these frozen projectiles weren’t as powerful as a slash from his claws, there was quantity and speed to make up for it.

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Ugh, this was really becoming a pain in the ass.

“Die!!”

Pelmann swung his arm again, directing his icicles forward as though he were handling a conductor’s baton.

And the icicles shot forward, flying through the air like a charging army of spearmen.

“Damn it all..!”

But in the same instant, I flew forward with a sudden burst of speed.

Not a moment later, the flurry of freezing spikes struck the ground where I had been standing, shattering the floor and sending rubble flying.

And there was still more to come; Pelmann fired more and more icicles as though chasing my shadow. It was an unending stream of deadly needles; while it hadn’t directly hit me yet, the icicles gouged the ground where it landed, sending toward me bits and pieces that cut into my cheeks and thighs..!

The pain was still bearable, but things would only continue getting worse from here.

I would have to stay moving for as long as Pelmann continued shooting his icicles, but there were two problems: first, Pelmann was showing no signs of running out of magical power and second, I could only run and dodge for so long until I lost my footing one way or another. So the longer this went on, the more my chances of victory worsened.

I needed to land a decisive hit before we got to that point, but to do that I would have to change change directions to face Pelmann — which meant slowing down, and the storm of icicles had an opportunity to catch up. It was simply a physical limitation of the body: I couldn’t make a sudden turn without slowing down in the process.

And if I was too impatient and messed up the timing, the icicles would be all over me, boring holes like I was a piece of honeycomb or shredding me into mincemeat.

But I couldn’t keep running without doing anything.

“Don’t go thinking you’ve already won..!”

I instantly gathered magical power into my palm and forced it into another sphere of light before pitching it toward Pelmann.

It was magic in its simplest form, and it had enough power to knock anyone out if it hit the right spot. However…

“How useless!”

An icicle floating beside Pelmann became a sword that swatted the approaching sphere away.

I was expecting as much; I knew that one shot wouldn’t be enough. While all that happened, the swarm of icy death continued unslowed and drew even closer.

But I just needed to distract him for a single instant, and that was more than enough! I immediately stooped low and pushed off with great force.

“This is so annoying!”

I grabbed hold of a steel post that held up one of the shelves in the warehouse and swung around on it.

The icicles would hit me if I stopped moving, so slowing down wasn’t an option. I had to somehow change directions without slowing down..!

“What the..!”

Unexpectedly, Pelmann redirected his icicles, aiming right where I would next move.

He had already corrected his aim..!

No, not yet! I could still make it in time!

I let go of the post and forced my body to spin around, twisting through the air.

“What..? Did I miss?! But how..?”

Because of my strange trajectory, the icicles Pelmann redirected had missed.

The spinning was disorienting my own vision, but as someone who ran through battlefields where magic rained without cease, this kind of handicap was nothing!

“I have had…”

Through my whirling vision, I could tell Pelmann was trying to direct his icicles at me, but it was also obvious that his aim was off.

Magical power wreathed my rapier, and I held it ready with the momentum of my rush behind it.

“…enough of you!”

I smashed into him with force like I was paying him back for all the damage I had taken.

“Guoooohhhhh?!”

My rapier had struck Pelmann’s body, which had the protection of that weird magic of his, and sent him flying away. The fact that this weapon hadn’t pierced through Pelmann’s defensive shell meant the magical power in his defenses was more than what I had put into my rapier.

His defense was quite sturdy overall, but there was no way he was coming out of this attack unscathed.

“Gahhh!”

Pelmann let out a choked gasp as his back slammed into the stone wall.

It should have felt as though he’d landed on his back without being able to break his fall. A normal person would have died from that kind of impact, but…

“Damned Hound..! That power… is not something that should be allowed!

While he wasn’t uninjured, Pelmann got back on his feet without much issue. It was just like earlier; the damage he’s taken should also have left him unable to breathe.

I didn’t think it’d be this annoying, but really? He was complaining about my power? When they only needed like ten guys with his level of power to destroy a small country without trying?

“You still wanna go, huh… Fine. Let’s just get this over with already.”

“Iltania’s Hound..! I will finish you! I will finish you and present your head as an offering to my God!”

Pelmann wiped away a thin line of blood that trickled out from a cut on his cheek, laughing breathily. His mouth was twisted in a ferocious grin that bared his teeth like a snake’s fangs.

He seemed to have lost his mind completely.

That being said, ‘Iltania’s Hound’ — he kept saying that. Did they think I was like a devout follower or servant of Iltania or something? I wasn’t religious like that, though. Part of it wasn’t wrong, but I was just a kind of stray mutt that’d snap at god if I had that opportunity.

And you know, even that stray dog had its own hang-ups — like doing everything it could to stay alive.

Pelmann raised both arms, created blades of ice out of his arms, and swung down.

I ducked and weaved through the hailstorm, before I finally drew close enough to drive my fist into his stomach.

“Kaaahhh!”

But that didn’t stop Pelmann, still smiling as his arms continued their descent.

Did he think he would be able to hit me like that? He was completely mistaken, if so. I’d long realized pain meant nothing to him, and it was especially obviously now, seeing how he kept using his arms like nothing had happened.

And I knew no damage he took would be enough to stop him from moving, as seen with how he was now even after crashing against floor as many times as he already has.

After repeating this back-and-forth exchange between us several times, I finally broke off and stepped back from the next clash.

Pelmann wasn’t feeling pain, but I could still topple him over if I attacked the right spots. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter if he had the power of his god or whatever — his body was still human, with only two legs to keep it upright.

“You bitch!”

Pelmann reacted like I was provoking him, and he charged foward with a roar of blind rage.

I quickly put up my rapier to engage him, but I wasn’t sure if this fragile needle of a weapon would be good enough for what I was about to do.

There was a certain technique I’d use with swords, back when I was still a mercenary.

The technique? Throwing my weapon.

Who could have guessed that it was hard to handle a blade of iron spinning around as it hurtled through the air?

“You..! You would throw away your weapon?!

I had aimed for his head. After all, even a monster that didn’t know pain and could forcibly move its body would die it lost its head. And as if prove it, Pelmann slid to a stop and overreached himself to dodge the flying rapier.

Well, it wasn’t like there was anything to do but dodge out of the way if a weapon came flying through the air like that. But I didn’t only do it to force Pelmann to awkwardly evade; I also wanted to distract him to create the opening I needed. And there was no better way to do so than to apparently abandon my weapon. it was funny: for all their preference for magic, people were strangely prideful about their weapons, especially if it had something identifiable on it, like a family crest. It was most likely because a weapon was a physical, solid object, something they could ‘entrust their lives to’ or whatever, which brought us to this weird ‘hates to use weapons in combat but takes pride in their own weapon’ kind of thinking.

…What a load of crap that all was.

To risk your life for the sake of pride was absurd. There was only one thing that should always be the top priority: your life.

That was why I was willing to do whatever I could to achieve my goals. If anything weighed me down, if anything kept me from my goals, I would throw it away, no matter how valuable.

— That was how the mercenary, Envil the Savage Fang, lived!

And yet, in this new life of mine, there were now two precious things I would never throw away… But this was how Mylene, the greedy tyrant, lived.

Anyway, throwing my sword had been an unexpected move that was more than enough to surprise Pelmann and give me the opening I needed.

But the real surprise had yet to come; while Pelmann was distracted, I closed the distance between us and slipped in right in front of him…

“Guhh!”

…and drove my fist into his diaphragm. The force alone would have been enough to kill a normal person.

He might not feel pain, but he would still feel like he was suffocating when I forced all the air out of his body like that. And as a side effect, the force of the blow had also caused him to bend his upper body forward..

Using that as an opportunity, I bashed in his nose with a sharp kick of my knee.

As I felt the shattering of his nose, I reached over to grab his shoulders and pushed myself up using him like a makeshift ladder.

Pelmann turned as he fell from my usage of him, glaring all the while. But it was too late for him to do anything once gravity brought me down on him.

“And… stay down!”

I put all my power and weight into both legs and slammed into Pelmann, stomping into his face!

I heard the sound of crunching bone — the back of his head had probably shattered into bits against the stone floor.

Slowly, I began stepping away from the silent Pelmann, being careful to maintain my balance.

My shoes made a squelching noise as I pulled away, taking with it thin red strings of gore. My stomp had pulverized his nose, and his head had split and openly bled in multiple places; but what finally stopped him — knocked him unconscious — was the impact to his brain.

And it was probably because he lost consciousness that the opressive crimson magic he was radiating began to fade along with the pressure it carried.

“Is he… dead?”

Albert timidly asked, peeking out from where he and Colette had taken shelter.

“No, he’s still breathing. But to be honest, I was prepared to kill him if it came down to it.”

Well, he was in critical condition now, but… Pelmann was still alive anyway.

And the truth of the matter was, while I hadn’t intended to kill him, I couldn’t afford to hold back either.

I thought it would raise too many concerns if a young student like me were to kill anyone, but then again, these were dangerous people — people that had gone as far as kidnapping and threatening to kill royalty. It was possible that I could’ve gotten away with killing people like this after all…

“Well then, what should we do…”

Our battle was over, and the excitement of it had died down. I sighed in exasperation as I thought about how annoying things were about to get.

There was the princess of Colhoun with her clothes in tatters. There was the cult that kidnapped her. And for some reason the crown prince of Iltania was here and with his fiancee to boot. Then it turned out the cult’s leader was a well-known teacher from the prestigious Academy of Magic, and it had been the crown prince’s fiancee that put a stop to it all…

Since I’d refrained from killing him, there was no way I wouldn’t have to report all of this, and it was making my head hurt thinking about all the things I’d have to explain. Honestly, I wished I could just leave it all to Albert and Colette, but I was more worried about what they might accidentally reveal.

“Ugh…”

As I thought about everything, the seed of my worries suddenly gave a low groan.

It took a lot to put Pelmann out of commission, but if he was already waking up, then at least I could wring some answers out of him.

“Yo, up already?”

“You…”

Pelmann raised his head in response to my voice, but that seemed to be all he could do.

But his head immediately fell back into its pool of blood with a light plopping noise.

It was as I thought: that otherworldly power he wielded was now completely gone. Considering how strong that power made him, it wouldn’t be wrong to say he had become an avatar of his god.

…Well, not exactly, but there wasn’t any way to explain how he had become so strong. And it was lucky that we were fighting indoors; had we been outdoors, our fight might have gone on for much longer.

I walked back over, planted myself on his chest, and yanked him upright by the collar.

“So what are you assholes planning? It was one thing to kidnap Colette since she found you out, but the hell’s with spreading Ludus around?”

I put as much intimidation into my questioning as I could… but Pelmann scoffed and snorted with detachment.

Unlike those lower-ranking goons of his, Pelmann probably wasn’t going to talk.

And I couldn’t torture the information out of him either; he was already in critical condition and could just die.

“For a blessing of Iltania to be like this… Wicked though it may be, a Greater God still commands such power…”

Pelmann suddenly began to ramble on, his face still wearing its blank expression.

The bitter words that came from his emotionless face throbbed with hate.

This ‘Greater God’ he mentioned was not the one he worshipped but the one he hated: Iltania.

“What’s your problem with Iltania?”

“…I have nothing to say.”

But of course he wouldn’t answer.

“O great Dia Myrth! O great Llezevelk, our Greater God! Glory to the coming of the Gods of the Moon! Glory to a world… of chaos..!”

And then he began raving like a madman.

It wasn’t uncommon for people to pray to their gods or whatever else when they knew they were at the death’s door.

But Pelmann suddenly stuck out his tongue as though to mock me; an icy-blue sphere of magic manifested on it.

And he returned his tongue, sphere and all, into this mouth before biting down hard.

Instantly, thorns of ice sprouted out from within his head, across his entire face.

“Wah?!”

Albert let out a startled cry.

His reaction was normal; after all, the man who had been our homeroom teacher over the past month casually committed suicide right in front of our eyes.

…I expected as much, anyway, so I wasn’t surprised. I only hoped that Albert would cherish that youthful naivete I no longer had.

“Ugh, how annoying. Even in death, he’s found a way to make my life a pain.”

I gently lay Pelmann’s head back down before standing up.

He was willing to kill himself to keep from revealing his secrets. It seemed these ‘Gods of the Moon’ guys might be more than just a basic group of cultists.

And, well, martyrdom sounds great and all, but it sounded pretty stupid to me; what good was it being a zealot that would so willingly throw away your most precious thing for some worthless idea?

But if the cult always had these kinds of people — even back in my previous life — then I would have to change how I dealt with these guys, going forward.

“Ugh, what a pain in the ass.”

I wasn’t any good at dealing with complicated stuff like this. In the first place, I thought this was going to be something something minor, but everything somehow snowballed into this mess.

I let out another great sigh before burying my face in my hands.

“For now… let’s just call the guards.”

There was a massive pile of problems to deal with, but the only thing I could do was handle them one by one. So to start with, we need to inform the town guards about what has happened.

The issue was that we couldn’t just leave this place behind, since someone could happen to come by and make a mess of the scene, but at the same time, I didn’t want to leave someone behind to stand guard, splitting us up. Since this group had involved royalty in their plans — including an attempted murder — I wanted to keep an eye on Albert and Colette for the time being.

“We should find someone nearby or…”

I let out another sigh, letting my shoulders drop out of exhaustion.

Actually, wait, before that, I should see how Colette was doing after going through all that.

She was able to move and talk just fine, but she might just be forcing herself.

“…Were you injured?”

“Huh? Ah, um… No, I am fine.”

She still seemed dazed, but it didn’t look like she had any visible injuries on her.

“That’s good… I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Eh? Huh?! Y-you are..?”

Colette let out a surprised squeak as she jumped in exaggerated surprise for some reason.

That kind of reaction seemed a little suspicious to me. She said she was fine but…

“…Hey, are you sure you’re fine?”

I asked her again, curious since she was strangely timid compared to her usual self.

They had kept her here overnight, so anything could’ve happened to her. If something did, things could escalate into a real problem between countries.

In the worst case scenario, it might have happened after she was captured and was too late for us to do anything. And in that case, there was nothing we could do about the aftermath.

“N-no, I was just a bit surprised, is all…”

So she said, but her face was bright red, and she wouldn’t look me right in the eye like how she usually did.

“…No, really, I am fine. These people did not know what to do about me, but Pelmann himself ordered his men to keep away from me until they decided.”

If the person in question said it, then there really wasn’t a problem after all then.

Just in case, I checked her over for any injuries I might have missed, but Colette seemed especially nervous while I did so.

That was another unusual reaction from her, but… Well, as long as nothing happened, then there shouldn’t be any problems.

Phew, at least that was one less thing I needed to worry about.

I glanced over at Pelmann, whose face was still covered in spikes of ice.

He ended up killing himself with such a grandiose display. Was it because of the god he hung on his neck — did Dia Myrth command him to commit suicide?

But moreover, at the end, he said something about a ‘Greater God’? He had called it Llezevelk or something, I think? I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess it made sense that this “Gods of the Moon” group believed in more than one god.

But I really didn’t feel like thinking about how there were multiple groups like this one — the one we just destroyed — running around…

I crouched down toward Pelmann’s body and yanked off his pendant.

Back when he suddenly powered up with all that magic, the eyes on this pendant had began to glow, but right now I couldn’t feel anything special about this thing. I would have to look into this later.

“…Right then, we need to find the guards and tell them what happened.”

“Yes, of course.”

For the time being, I should leave the warehouse behind, taking Albert and a still-dazed Colette with me to find a guard.

I stared at Pelmann one last time… and bid him a silent farewell.

He may have only been pretending, and it had only been for a short time, but he hadn’t been a bad teacher. What a shame.

I had no sympathy for him or his choices, but… maybe he could’ve made different choices and lived a different life. It wasn’t like me to wonder about possibilities like this, but if our circumstances were just slightly different, we could’ve had an entirely different conversation — just like what has happened with me and Colette.

But in the end, it all depended on how we lived our lives. This was a good final lesson to learn from.

I turned away and began walking to the exit.

And the light that streamed in as I opened the heavy iron door could only be described as dazzling.

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