Chapter 151: Their Own Paths

Chapter 151: Their Own Paths

"She is a beautiful woman wearing a dark-colored robe, with a curvy figure."

Even though the last lecture of the semester had ended, students still gathered in the main auditorium—staring at me standing at the podium.

Today, I deliberately took some extra time to give students an opportunity to provide an answer regarding the appearance of the Dark Spiritualist.

Although everyone eagerly rushed for the Millennium Library pass, a valuable item that would be hard to obtain during their student days, they all failed.

When even Aria and Eleanor failed, they judged that there was practically no correct answer.

However, a noble male student who had been buying information about the Dark Spiritualist using the other students’ chances stepped forward and gave quite an accurate answer.

[Oh, has someone finally succeeded?]

The Dark Spiritualist beside me nodded as she stared at the boy who was describing her.

"She is shorter than Professor and her figure is not particularly large. She is an average adult woman."

I listened quietly without saying it was wrong, and exclamations flowed from the other students.

Certainly, so far, everything was correct.

"Her eyes are violet, and her skin is pale, as if she hasn't seen the sun for a long time."

"Hmm."

"What do you think so far?"

The boy thought he had guessed everything correctly since he had said a lot. I slowly nodded.

However, there was still one more thing he hadn't mentioned.

“There is one more thing left to describe."

"...Pardon?"

The male student was flustered by my inquiry. Although it was not the direction I wanted him to take, his efforts to find out about the appearance of the Dark Spiritualist were quite commendable.

Even though he used this method, I could see he had put all his resources and passion into it, so I didn’t feel reluctant to give him a reward.

However, shouldn't the answer be accurate first?

"When you see the Dark Spiritualist, there is something that stands out the most. You haven't described that yet."

"Something that stands out?"

"Yes."

"..."

The male student shut his lips tightly. With an expression showing injustice, he clenched his fists and shouted.

"Isn't this enough?! Isn't it just because you don't like the method I used to get this information?”

The boy realized that he had failed and exclaimed. I could understand why he was angry since he spent quite a lot of money on the other students to gather information regarding the Dark Spiritualist, treating them as disposable pawns.

However, doubting my fairness was not something I could overlook.

"That is not the reason. I knew from the very beginning that you were paying other students to acquire information to deduce the Dark Spiritualist’s appearance."

[That's right. We already knew that from the beginning.]

The Dark Spiritualist beside me verbally agreed even though apart from me, no one else couldn’t hear her.

I then added reluctantly.

"That is also part of your own ability, so I will allow it. But the answer cannot be wrong."

Step.

My footsteps echoed throughout the main auditorium. After a few steps, I looked at the boy in front of me.

"What is her most distinctive characteristic that you cannot miss when you first see her?"

"...”

A sharp silence followed after I asked that.

When the sweat dripping from the boy's forehead reached his chin, he finally tightly closed his eyes and responded.

"I don't know."

"Alright, what is your name?"

"...It’s Leighton Herrlich."

The Herrlich Household.

They maintained a close relationship with the Royal Family.

"Alright, Leighton. Nevertheless, you managed to come up with the closest answer, so I will give you some extra credit."

"Thank... you."

He had a somewhat unsatisfied expression due to the result he obtained. However, I immediately lowered a string of hope.

"Since no student managed to guess the appearance of the Dark Spiritualist, the owner of the Millennium Library pass is still vacant. Instead, I will give it to the top student in my class."

"...!"

The students murmured among themselves while Leighton suddenly lifted his head, looking at me intently.

Naturally, with the additional points he received, he now held the most advantageous position for the prize.

Since the opportunity to get the pass was not yet over, the students' competitive spirit was reignited.

It was one of the methods Erica had suggested to boost the students' motivation.

"Um, Professor. Could you tell us the last distinctive characteristic?"

Leighton, who had quickly turned more friendly towards me, cautiously asked.

Well, since he wouldn’t be able to use the same method next time, I extended my hand towards the Dark Spiritualist.

"Grab it."

[Huh?]

The Dark Spiritualist looked puzzled. However, she first decided to slowly reach out towards me to see. When our hands overlapped, my mana flowed to her, and the semi-transparent Dark Spiritualist gradually began to gain color.

The phenomenon was followed by exclamations.

"Wooooow!"

"What is this?! Woah! This is amazing!"

"..."

Findenai kept her lips sealed tight.

There was no sign of hesitation; she showed a firm resolve to never tell me.

"Speak."

"I won't."

"...Speak."

"I’m sorry, Master Bastard, but I definitely won't tell you anything about it. Because this is our own problem."

"..."

The ‘our own’ excluded me.

It was a clearly drawn line.

The atmosphere grew heavier.

In the silence, Findenai suddenly burst into laughter and spoke loudly.

"Damn, fine, I got it. I’m not going. I won't go. Jeez, Master Bastard really can't do anything without me."

"..."

"I'll light one last cigarette, please allow that at least."

As Findenai spoke, her departing figure and slumped shoulders looked unusually heavy today.

***

"Sssssp."

Puff.

White smoke billowed out.

Now, there were only about eight cigarettes left in the case Master Bastard gave her.

"It really tastes good."

Findenai looked at the cigarette dangling between her fingers with a bitter smile.

Normally, upon seeing a cigarette, she would want to light it immediately, but strangely, she wanted to cherish this one.

Perhaps it was because Master Bastard gave it to her. That was why she unconsciously treasured it.

Sssssp.

Puff.

Once again, she exhaled the cigarette smoke.

Leaning against the wall in an alleyway, Findenai slowly gazed up at the sky.

The sky could only be seen through the slight gap between the buildings.

If she had been born in this place and had only seen this kind of sky, perhaps she would have thought the sky was only long and narrow.

Just like I did.

For her, life was a struggle. She had never experienced freedom, so its meaning was ambiguous to her. However, because everyone else yearned for it, she, too, started fighting for freedom.

And now, she had come to truly know what freedom was.

What she had experienced so far was, in fact, something that couldn't be called living.

Struggle that couldn't be called a life.

"Puff."

Her contact with all the resistance in the Clark Republic had been cut off.

Well, it was a familiar occurrence.

Due to Doberman's meeting last time, many resistance leaders were caught, so she didn't care much if one or two more were caught.

However, the most important thing was the orphanage where she had entrusted the surviving children before she and the Scrapyard Nomads had crossed the Norseweden Mountain Range.

She had lost contact with them.

Perhaps the extermination units had finally rushed into that place.

"I’m sorry, Master Bastard."

Because if I told you, you would surely try to help me.

You'd leave behind all your important tasks to follow me.

Even if that was not the case.

If she told the truth and he still didn't let her go, it would only instill an unbearable guilt within her, making her feel like she had abandoned the children.

That was why she couldn't tell him this.

She didn't want to burden the man, who was already shouldering so much, with another burden like herself.

- At that time, I will be the one to lend you a hand.

The words he said during Loberne’s summer festival echoed in her ears. She remembered feeling so relieved that she could barely hold back from impulsively accepting that offer.

Ssk.

As if it was instinctive, she took out a photo from her front pocket.

It was a picture she had once forced him to take. His face was as expressionless as usual, but because of the drawing on the wall behind him, it looked like wings were sprouting from his back.

A photographer took it for him when they wandered around the city of artists, Claren.

Deus had Findenai’s picture and vice versa, Deus’ picture was with Findenai.

It was a secret, but Findenai occasionally looked at this picture. She secretly carried it on her person without anyone knowing.

She didn’t even know why she did it.

However, she simply felt like she wanted to do so.

"Huff."

Having smoked the entire cigarette while blankly looking at the picture, Findenai finally dropped the cigarette butt to the ground.

She placed the picture back in her pocket before stepping on the cigarette Deus Verdi had given her as a gift, exiting the narrow /genesisforsaken