Chapter 46 : The Identity of Practitioner

“We have a lot to talk about, Saya.”

The person in front of me was, no matter how you looked at it, Carne Eckermann, who had returned to normal.

“…What’s one plus one?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot?!”

Seeing her temper, it was clear that she was back.

“When is your last memory, Carne?”

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about? I passed out right after we defeated that monster.”

“…”

She didn’t have any memories of after her intelligence regressed to that of a child. In other words, only the memories up to the moment she killed Julius remained with her.

“…Why are you looking at me like that? Nothing happened while I was sleeping, right?”

“…Nothing happened. Of course not.”

I could use her actions over the past week as material for teasing her for the rest of her life, but I don’t have such a bad hobby, so let’s keep it a secret.

“…Yuri, what happened to her?”

She asked me with a serious expression. Carne fainted after seeing Yuri die, so she must have thought that she was dead.

“Fortunately, she’s alive and well.”

“…”

Hearing my answer, she buried her head in the ground and sobbed repeatedly.

“…Are you crying?”

“I caught a cold from the rain that day, okay!”

“…Oh, I see.”

If she’s happy, she should just express it honestly. The relief was evident on her face, so I could tell at a glance.

“Carne.”

Now that she was back to normal, it was time to achieve the purpose of going a long way to break her brainwashing.

“Answer my question. The person who ordered you to kill Yuri, who was it?”

“…That’s…”

It was the moment to reveal the identity of the brainwasher that I had been searching for for a long time, by hearing it directly from her mouth.

“…It wasn’t human.”

“…Wait, what?”

“What I saw wasn’t human.”

“Then what was it?”

“…Would you believe me if I said I saw it in a dream?”

“…Just keep going.”

Not only was it not human, but she witnessed it in a dream. The more I heard, the more questions arose.

“One day, a giant Sarkas with blue eyes appeared in my dream. After it appeared in my dream, I kept doing strange things. I became strangely obsessed with a woman named Yuri, and I kept thinking about wanting to kill her. Unwanted words kept forcibly coming out of my mouth. That sensation, even thinking about it now, is unpleasant. Am I crazy, Saya?”

I closed my eyes and shook my head.

“…You think I’m crazy too, right? I understand.”

“No, you’re probably normal, Carne.”

Dark magic that directly affects the opponent’s mind is more likely to work the fainter the target’s consciousness is, or the weaker their will to resist.

For example, Nightmare, a basic dark magic spell, requires the opponent to be asleep to be activated.

If the caster didn’t want to reveal their identity and wanted a more certain effect, it’s not strange at all to think that they targeted Carne when she was asleep.

“Did the Sarkas you saw look like a deer?”

At my words, she answered with wide eyes.

“How did you know!? I’ve never told anyone about this…”

“Describe the appearance of what you saw in more detail, Carne.”

“So… it looked like a strangely shaped deer, and it had two heads. But the strange thing is, the horns were only on one head.”

“Luxuria of Lust…”

“Lux… what’s that?”

It was certain.

The shape she saw, except for the eye color, matched the description of the ancient species Sarkas, Luxuria of Lust, that I saw in Vincent Freesia’s journal. It was unlikely that she had seen the rare books that were banned by law and few in number. The fact that the appearance of the Sarkas she saw in her dream matched Luxuria means that the brainwashing technique used by the caster was either related to Luxuria’s power to some extent, or used that power itself.

“Carne, where did you mainly stay before entering the academy?”

“…The academy monastery.”

“…What?”

“I stayed at the academy monastery.”

“…Wait, you were inside the academy before entering? Is that possible?”

“…Sigh. I never thought I’d have to say this. You know that I was adopted, right? Saya.”

I had heard everything from her at the shabby restaurant I went into with her that day, that she had been sold as a s*ave and that she had been adopted by a wonderful person.

“The person who officially adopted me is Commander Violet.”

“Violet…?”

If it’s a wonderful person with that name, only one person came to mind.

“You mean Commander Violet, the one I know?”

“There’s nothing to be surprised about. He adopted dozens of orphans besides me. For me, he’s a lifesaver.”

If he hadn’t adopted Carne, who was a s*ave, Carne might not be here now.

“Including me, the many children he adopted ate and slept in the monastery. Some of the girls became nuns.”

‘Carne in a nun’s habit, I can’t imagine it.’

Violet adopted her. And he adopted not only Carne but dozens of others. At this point, the anecdotes about him are overflowing.

Suddenly, I remembered what Chris said. Chris’s claim that <he is a being who should not remain in this world>. No matter how you look at it, Violet is a good person, so why did he say that he should disappear?

“When we slept, all the children always gathered on the second floor of the monastery to sleep. The day I had that dream, I fell asleep among the other kids as usual.”

“…Who can enter the second floor of the monastery at night?”

If the caster targeted Carne while she was asleep, there was a high possibility that it was someone who could enter the second floor of the monastery without being suspected.

To sneak in, they would have had to avoid the strict security of the academy and the eyes of the nuns who keep their eyes open all night guarding the monastery.

“Except for the nuns, not many people. The abbot of the monastery, and the janitor who sometimes comes to repair the facilities…?”

I also know the janitor in the academy. He’s a bit eccentric, but he’s a pretty good person on the inside and has no magical abilities. It was hard to think that he was the caster.

‘Then who the hell…?’

Is there a nun in the monastery with such ability? The ability to brainwash someone for over a month?

No matter how much I thought about it, no suitable answer came to mind.

I managed to free Carne from the brainwashing, but this is useless…

“…Come to think of it, there’s one more person who can come in…”

Carne, who had been quietly watching me, spoke.

“Who is it?”

“…No, no. Come to think of it, it seems like nonsense.”

“I’ll be the judge of that, so just tell me. Hurry!”

I grabbed her shoulders and brought my face close.

“…So, the person I was talking about is someone who can freely come and go in the academy as they please, and is in the highest position…”

Carne hesitated for a long time, and finally opened her mouth.

“Violet…nim.”

“…”

Violet.

He is the commander of the Spirit Masters, and at the same time the headmaster of the academy, and I have never put him on the list of suspects. He was a hero of the Armonia Empire recognized by everyone, and at the same time, the Spirit Master I respected the most.

It’s hard to imagine him brainwashing his adopted daughter in that way.

‘…A dark magic Spirit Master. And, the only human who single-handedly defeated an ancient species.’

He had deep knowledge of brainwashing and clearly understood the limits of his abilities.

“Carne. What time did you regain your senses today?”

“If you’re talking about when I woke up, it was just after 8 pm. I looked at the clock as soon as I woke up, so it’s certain.”

Violet started his speech at exactly 8 o’clock. After the clock tower bell rang to announce the hour, he began his speech, and less than five minutes later, his shoulder was pierced by Chris’s arrow.

‘…It’s too much of a coincidence.’

The time Carne regained her senses and the time he was hit by an arrow coincided exactly. One of the most certain ways to destroy the magic cast by the caster is to break the caster’s concentration by giving a strong stimulus to their body. Therefore, the fact that Carne came back right after he was hit by Chris’s arrow was hard to see as a coincidence, no matter how I thought about it.

‘Could it be, from the time I visited him early on…’

I remembered his words that he had a persistent headache, and the hints about brainwashing that he gave me. Perhaps, as soon as I mentioned brainwashing, he noticed and deliberately leaked information and tested me.

‘…I have to go to Yuri and tell her this.’

The only person besides me who shares the secret is Yuri. Together with her, based on the information I’ve found, we might be able to determine if he really is the culprit.

“Carne, I’m going to go see Yuri for a moment.”

“At this hour? What about your shower?”

“Something urgent came up. I’ll do it when I get back.”

Without even having time to hang up the dress I had taken off, I ran quickly to the hospital room where Yuri was. The purpose of the brainwashing that was cast on Carne was to end Yuri’s life. If he really was the person who cast the brainwashing, and he realized that the brainwashing had already been broken and that Yuri was still alive, I don’t know what will happen next.

I ran the distance to the hospital room in one breath, and I opened the door to Yuri’s treatment room.

“Yuri…!”

Inside Yuri’s treatment room, which I opened, stood Violet with the same gentle expression as always.

“…You seem to be in a hurry, Saya.”