Chapter 48 Part 18: Connivance.

The phone kept vibrating.

It felt like quite some time had passed. You’d think they would have given up by now.

The caller seemed relentless, continuing to dial.

I wondered how many voicemails had piled up.

I briefly considered counting them, but gave up and lowered my head.

I didn’t have the courage.

I knew I had to take responsibility, but as the moment approached, I wanted to turn away.

I even wished my parents could take responsibility for me, like when I was a child.

The phone fell silent.

I know avoidance and evasion are bad habits, but today is tough.

“…Ha.”

A weary sigh escaped my lips.

I briefly lifted my head, then buried it in my knees again.

Just like I used to do in the test tube when I was little.

As if trying to hide in the transparent glass walls.

I couldn’t hide, but I tried to, as if hoping no one would find me.

But I knew better than anyone that I couldn’t hide.

I knew that even as I wasted time like this, the moment to take responsibility was approaching.

“…Ugh.”

A faint groan escaped me.

I pictured my aunt, who must be busy trying to fix things.

…Well, it wasn’t exactly unexpected.

I figured I’d get caught at least once the moment I decided to attend school.

So, as we had agreed beforehand, she was clearly trying to disappear and hide until the attention died down.

And given the situation, my rank was probably pushed back in her priorities.

Survival comes first, to have a chance at the future.

Normally, I would have followed her, but, well.

I watched my aunt frantically preparing to flee, then lowered my head again.

Now I felt like it didn’t matter what happened.

I just didn’t want to do anything, and I wished I could fall asleep right then and there.

“…Ah.”

I lifted my head with a dazed groan.

The house, which had been bright before I closed my eyes, was now dark.

My aunt’s busy movements were gone, indicating that quite some time had passed.

It must be because I used too much power.

I must have fainted for a few hours and belatedly regained consciousness in an empty house.

As I stood up, my stiff joints creaked.

The aftereffects of overusing my power remained faintly in my body, causing a slight pain.

At the same time, I felt a strong hunger.

The thought of needing to eat rose.

Conversely, I also felt a reluctance to move to eat anything.

I sat still for a moment, letting the two thoughts clash.

It didn’t really matter which one won.

Then, I slowly stood up.

My stomach growled loudly.

And I thought it would be better to eat something before losing my rationality.

“…Ah.”

There was food at home, but it needed to be prepared.

To buy something ready to eat, I had to go outside.

So, I dragged my drowsy body out of the house, intending to buy a lot of food at the convenience store.

The sky was dark, like my future.

I felt like I had to do it, but I also wondered if I had acted too hastily.

But I had no regrets.

They say everything has a cause and effect, right? Maybe this, too, was the result of my choices in the past.

I had always intended to rush out to save my friend, even if I had to repeat it several times.

“…Ah.”

This time, it was a different kind of sigh.

Someone far away was waving at me.

Even with my diminished eyesight due to the manifestation, I could recognize the person I least wanted to meet in this situation.

“Rosena, Vice Principal…?”

The Vice Principal stopped waving and smiled.

And they began to walk slowly towards me, as if to ask for a moment to talk.

My feet started moving on their own.

Even though I knew I had to talk, my body automatically started running in the opposite direction.

But there was no escape.

There was no way to escape from a magician, especially one as powerful as the Vice Principal of the Academy.

Soon, my body stiffened.

And the Vice Principal’s face appeared, parting a veil in the air.

“Can we talk for a moment?”

I nodded in response.

My gaze naturally fell to the floor, then belatedly rose.

“Good. I have a lot to say. Because of how you handled things, you see.”

“…Yes.”

“Actually, I haven’t finished cleaning up the mess yet. But before that, the reason I came all the way here…”

The Vice Principal smiled kindly.

“…is because you’re my friend’s daughter.”

“…Me?”

“Yes, a close college friend. Your father and I used to travel around together. I searched for him for years after he went missing, but I couldn’t find him.”

There was no falsehood in those words.

They must have been searching for me relentlessly, never giving up, whenever they had time.

“I recognized you when we first met, but now I want to hear it directly from you. Are you the child I knew?”

I didn’t want to nod.

The girl you remember is no longer within me.

There is only something that has blended the girl and the young man, ground them together.

I wanted to answer truthfully like that, but my body nodded without my control.

“I see…”

The Vice Principal embraced me.

The sensation was so chilling that I was momentarily stunned.

The Vice Principal spoke again, with the warmest voice I had ever heard.

“If you’re okay with it… I’d like to become your new family…”

“That’s…”

I didn’t want to refuse.

To reach the future I desired, I should have nodded.

But I had to refuse.

The Vice Principal’s bewilderment was palpable, but I couldn’t help it.

There was no family for me.

There was no one who could replace family.

The girl’s family was all dead.

The young man’s family were people he could no longer meet.

What remained in that gaping hole were obsession and self-righteousness.

The obsession that you can’t escape me until you die because you made me this way.

Of course, this twisted and crazy me couldn’t form a proper family.

At least. Until I open the tightly locked door of my heart and heal my wounds… at least.

So, I refused the Vice Principal’s offer to reconsider and changed the subject.

“…What will happen to me? I can’t go back now, can I?”

“Not yet. You can still… go back.”

The Vice Principal continued with a sigh.

“The withdrawal form is still sitting on my desk… and we can cover the days you missed school as field experience.”

“Ah.”

“I’ll do everything I can at the Academy to create a place for you. If you want it.”

“I…”

“The choice is yours. To return… or not to return…”

“I… want to go back.”

As if waiting for those words, the Vice Principal smiled.

And like a mother of that age, they began to pour out their worries about me.

Have you eaten? Do you have a place to go back to?, and so on.

I nodded appropriately, and fortunately, the Vice Principal was perceptive.

Before long, I was walking alone on the street.

Enjoying the time alone, I clutched the credit card the Vice Principal had given me.

I already knew what I would do with it.

I would buy a lot of food at the convenience store and eat it. I wouldn’t even clean up.

My aunt would hate it, but, well.

She ran away, so I wouldn’t be able to contact her for a while.

So, without worrying, I went to a nearby unmanned convenience store, bought a lot of food, and headed home.

I had never done this before, but today I felt like I couldn’t stand it without binge eating.

I needed the calories, but I also wanted to put in the weight of a person.

I used to think about that sometimes when I was really close to going crazy.

If I ate that much, wouldn’t the stress be relieved?

I slowly started to eat.

And when I finished eating, I went to sleep.

The next morning.

Realizing I had to return to the dormitory, I got up blankly.

And as I slowly prepared to leave, I stood in front of the mirror.

“…Ah.”

My reflection, no.

My childhood self, smiled sickly.

Then I realized.

The effects of the medicine had worn off because I had used too much power.