Chapter 60: Night Before The Storm (6)

Elissa was a clever girl from a young age.

At an age when others would cry and throw tantrums to their parents, Elissa would politely ask her parents.

At a time when others were playing, Elissa enjoyed reading books in her room. The girl was already mature from a young age.

Even before being kidnapped by the Dark Cult, undergoing various experiments, and forcibly being afflicted with mana excess, Elissa’s mana amount was superior to that of most mages.

If she had lived a normal life and entered the academy, she could have sufficiently aimed for the realm of a great mage.

The Dark Cult also knew that fact. Because of that, the various experiments inflicted on Elissa became more severe day by day.

“Ugh, I can’t do it anymore, I really can’t. Please… save…”

“Hmm, then there’s no choice. Rest today. However, I don’t know what will happen to your family.”

“…Ah.”

However, Elissa could not rebel against the Dark Cult. She could endure the pain inflicted on her, but it was too painful to watch her loved ones suffer because of her.

Even after the Great Purge was over and most of the Dark Cult’s forces were evaporated, the experiments continued. The hand of salvation did not reach the girl trapped in the secret base of the Dark Cult.

The girl’s body gradually broke down as time passed.

Her black hair, like ebony, had long since lost its color and was bleached. The side effects of overuse of the fake Stigmata tormented Elissa every time she breathed.

The blood vessels that were overworked every day began to burst one by one. Now, having a nosebleed had become a daily occurrence for the girl.

Two years after being kidnapped as an experimental subject.

Elissa realized that she could no longer hold on.

Her mind had long since broken. The mind of a child, filled with hatred, anger, pain, and fear for two years, could not be sane.

Even though her body’s resilience was forcibly raised by receiving the fake Stigmata, the rate at which her body was collapsing was faster.

She thought it was rather fortunate. Rather than living in this pain as a puppet for the rest of her life, she thought it would be better to die and disappear.

“Hmm… is it about time?”

“Cough, what do you… mean…?”

Looking at the girl who spat out a lump of blood from her mouth and was breathing heavily, the Crusader gave an order.

“Prepare that.”

“I understand.”

What the subordinate of the Dark Cult brought was a small box. Elissa, who had a high sensitivity to water attribute mana, could feel the cool energy felt from inside the box.

Elissa instinctively knew what the Dark Cult was trying to do. They are trying to feed her something inside that box.

The Dark Cult had no intention of giving Elissa rest.

The Crusader smiled wryly and opened the box. Inside the small jewelry box was a blue sapphire like Elissa’s eyes.

“Ugh…!”

A similar energy to the fake Stigmata was felt from the sapphire. Is that sapphire the material that has been making the fake Stigmata?

Then, what would happen to her if she swallowed that whole? It’s already this painful with just one fake Stigmata engraved.

“No… way…”

“Accept it. Once you accept it, you will be at peace. All the hatred and anger that tormented you will disappear, and you will be reborn as a proud warrior of the Dark Cult.”

“Ugh!? Cough.”

The clever Elissa understood what he was saying. If she absorbs that nameless jewel, she will become an emotionless puppet of the Dark Cult.

“Just, kill… me…”

“How much did we spend on you, how could we give up on you so easily? In the first place, you are a body created to accept this ‘seed’ and become a warrior of the Dark Cult.”

With the words of the Crusader, the ‘seed’ was placed on Elissa, who was lying on the experimental table. Then, the anger and hatred that she had held towards them for two years felt like it was being washed away.

The place was filled with the gentleness unique to water attribute mana. The mana of the ‘seed’, which began to wrap around her whole body, slowly eroded Elissa.

All kinds of negative emotions that she had were melted into gentleness, and even her ego gradually disappeared. Elissa’s reaction, which had been fiercely resisting while tied up, gradually decreased.

A smile hung on the Crusader’s lips. If it goes like this, the experiment was a success. A puppet with the power of the ‘seed’ had the power equivalent to a strategic weapon.

However, there was one fact that the Dark Cult guys overlooked. Even though she was a twelve-year-old kid, Elissa was a girl with the talent of a great wizard.

And the depth of Elissa’s hatred for the Dark Cult was beyond imagination. The guys who thought lightly of the hatred of a twelve-year-old girl had to pay the price.

“Ma, mana is running wild!”

“What…cough?!”

The high concentration of mana that constantly flowed out and the mana control ability that she had learned while being trained by the Dark Cult meshed and pushed back the erosion of the ‘seed’.

As a reaction, the Dark Cult’s laboratory was destroyed, and the Crusader-class instructor who was observing the experiment and the cultists who were helping with the experiment all died.

“…Ah.”

Elissa couldn’t be unharmed in such an explosion. Having been considerably eroded by the seed, the girl, half-lost in emotion, blankly went down to a nearby city.

Her family had long been wiped out by the Dark Cult a year ago. Seeing her family, who met a miserable end as practice for the experiments to be inflicted on Elissa, Elissa turned away without a word.

Trying to remember the fading anger towards the Dark Cult. Hiding her true feelings, clenched with revenge, under the mask of a neat expression. The girl worked hard to enter the academy.

And, she saw a guy named Marcus, who was causing terror with the Dark Cult’s ‘fake Stigmata’.

The girl, who realized that the Dark Cult’s evil hand had reached even the academy, had the hatred deep in her heart rekindled.

“…So, that’s why I’ve been feeling a bit down lately. I want to take revenge on the Dark Cult, but I’m too weak without the fake Stigmata. I felt that fact keenly in the sparring with Yelena.”

Elissa’s expression, calm despite of her painful past, had a strange will. A will to somehow clear up all the bad ties with the Dark Cult this time.

Elissa, who had been silent for a while, asked in a half-assured voice.

“Sian.”

“Yes?”

“Soon, when the midterm exam starts, the Dark Cult will attack the academy, right? Because that’s when it’s most chaotic.”

“Hmm, why do you think so?”

I deliberately did not deny Elissa’s question. Since she was already half-convinced, it was meaningless to try to deny it clumsily.

Rather, it was more likely to make her think that I didn’t trust Elissa.

I didn’t want to break the trust relationship with Elissa. I had already confirmed the material of another ‘seed’ in Elissa’s story, and I had also confirmed that the fake Stigmata and the ‘seed’ were related. Still.

The words that I wouldn’t abandon my friend weren’t just simple lies to reassure Elissa. No matter how much I lived as a loner in my previous life, I wanted to have human relationships.

“First of all, a fake Stigmata holder appeared. There’s no way I, who was kidnapped as an experimental subject and held captive at their base for two years, can’t distinguish a fake Stigmata holder.”

“I see. But, isn’t an academy attack too big of an event to suspect based on that alone?”

“Of course. But the fact that Elin-sensei was even checking my movements, who was suspected of being a fake Stigmata holder, means that an incident involving fake Stigmata holders is about to happen.”

“Hmm…”

Elissa is definitely quick-witted.

In the first place, I didn’t think that a nine-year-old orphan girl who survived until now without dying was not quick-witted.

“Besides, Sian also seemed to have a lot of worries these days. I originally thought that you were so worried because you suspected me of being a fake Stigmata holder, but I gained confidence after seeing Sian’s reaction today.”

“Confidence”

“Yes. You reacted as if it was nothing even though I revealed that I was a fake Stigmata holder, right? That means there’s another reason for your worries.”

“…That’s right.”

“And, the cause of that worry is probably the upcoming academy attack. Judging from the fact that you have the [Token of the World Tree]…

perhaps the reason you met with Elin-sensei alone was also because Elin-sensei trusted Sian as a partner to prepare for the attack together.”

How is it, am I right?

Looking at Elissa, who added that and smiled brightly, I had no choice but to nod.

“Yes. Soon the Dark Cult will attack the academy.”

I said that and added.

“But, there’s one fact that Elissa overlooked.”

“What is it?”

“The purpose of the Dark Cult is not something like chaos in the academy.”

I paused for a moment, then slowly continued.

“What the Dark Cult is aiming for is you, Elissa.”