Chapter 95 Volume III - 16: A Wicked Game

Chapter 95 Volume III - Chapter 16: A Wicked Game

Breathless, I asked with a deep sigh.

"Did they give up on us?"

Julian, no different from me, looked back out of the corner of his eye.

Our pursuers had given up when the distance between us and the canteen had diminished. They were afraid of that place.

"I think they did."

We stopped running, our steps slowly slowed down.

We looked at each other and it was quiet for a moment. Then Julian's face broke into a grin and I could only smile slightly.

"I didn't know you could run that fast."

"I didn't know you liked swearing so much."

We were a little relieved that the danger seemed to have been averted, but the relief was inevitably marred by the sudden sound of the watch on my wrist.

~beep!

My first thought when I heard the sudden notification was that the academy had made a new announcement, but then I realized something else: it hadn't come to Julian.

I frowned, turned on the watch, and then looked at the incoming message.

I frowned even more when it was from Aiden, and as I read what he had written, I stiffened with each word.

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Aiden: About twenty students targeted by the attackers are unconscious and hostages in the clearing at my location, and there's a gate right next to them. There's no one nearby for now but I need immediate backup, if anyone comes I'll try to hold them off as long as I can but I'm not sure how long I can hold them off.

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"Adrian? What old-"

"Julian! I'm going to send you a location, go to the canteen and bring as many strong people as you can to the location I'm going to send you! Aiden is in danger!"

Without waiting for him to say anything, I started running toward the location. I heard him calling me from behind, but I didn't care.

The location Aiden had sent me to was at the other end of the academy, which covered a huge area, but that only meant I had to be very fast.

I... I didn't want to lose someone close to me again.

I wasn't going to run away again.

I wasn't going to go through that pain again.

*******

The sensation of blood soaking my clothes seeped into my mind more and more with each passing second.

The aches, the burning sensations, the pains, for which a dagger was solely responsible... they had reached such proportions that I don't know if I would have been able to stay conscious without the Absolute Mind.

Every time the dagger touched my skin, it opened a wound that was not extremely deep but hurt as much as it could hurt. The amount of blood I lost from all these wounds was so great that my head began to spin slightly.

The little mana I had left in my body and the little regeneration with the stamina of being a wiera slowed the bleeding, but it wasn't enough. There was a limit to my body and it was not far away.

I was still calmer, though. With the Absolute Mind, my suffering didn't matter much. Sooner or later this too would end.

I could have resisted.

"That's enough so you can't move, isn't it?"

The man sheathed the dagger covered in my blood and smiled brightly.

When I realized he wasn't going to do anything more to me, I stared at him like an idiot, unable to comprehend what his purpose was.

I saw a momentary change in his expression when he saw the look on my face, the glint in his eyes seemed to intensify, but that was it. He turned around, walked among the unconscious students, and paused when he came to one of them.

It was a black-haired boy, a skinny one.

The man grabbed him by the arm without a care in the world, dragged him in front of me, and bent down. He pointed excitedly at his unconscious face, then looked at me.

"Hey! Hey! Look, how sweet he sleeps?"

Looking closely, I noticed the bump on the boy's head. He must have been punched hard before he fainted, supporting the fact that he hadn't woken up even when he was dragged.

"S- So...?"

I had to buy time, I couldn't be sure if I had sent the message to someone or not, but there was nothing else I could do.

"Look, the game we're going to play is simple. I ask you a question and you answer. And for every question you answer wrong and choose to keep quiet, we will do something very fun with these friends. How's that? How's that? Isn't that fun? Hahaha!"

Is this guy... an adult or a child? I know that wieras are hungry for chaos and things like that, but... even they don't have such sudden changes.

"Aahh... You look so great, your fearless eyes are amazing! I want to take one out and keep it after the game... We were told not to hurt you, but I guess you'll be fine if you're missing an eye, right?"

I felt a rising revulsion inside me.

It disgusted me to think that I was even half the same kind of person as this man, to be aware that such a person was in front of me.

"Ahem... Anyway! Let's start quickly, say my first name with my last name."

This guy...

"Answer me! You have five seconds for each question! Five! Four..."

He counted down from five, one by one, and then there was silence.

"Haha! You didn't know, that's why the punishment is coming!"

He lifted the arm of the boy in front of him, and without even waiting a moment, he turned it backward with a simple gesture.

"Aaaah!"

The boy woke up screaming, his eyes still dazed from his unconsciousness, and he quickly turned to his arm. When he saw that his arm was upside down, he stood still for a moment, and then tears welled up in his eyes. He began to cry as if he had just realized the pain he was in.

There was nothing I could do but watch and wait.

I apologize...

I didn't express it outwardly, I thought what I thought inwardly because I knew he would enjoy it.

"What is the name of the academy?"

I didn't know what to do with the question for a moment, I thought it was just a game he was playing, I was sure he wouldn't ask questions I knew the answer to, but...

This guy... he's planning something again but...

"Five, four..."

At least I'll try.

I wanted to buy as much time as possible, so I waited until the last second and then answered the question.

"Ce- Cevilian Development Academy."

"Oh, really? That's a nice name, but I call it the academy for the weak, so it's wrong!"

The sound of bone breaking echoed through the space. Even though I knew it would be like this, that he would do something stupid again, I wanted to take a chance, but... it was futile.

"You didn't answer again!"

My eyes involuntarily narrowed and my head bowed weakly when I realized that the man had asked another question in the space between my thoughts.

I... apologize...

"Hey, hey! I know you're awake! Keep your head up, look at us, and don't miss the show! Or there will be worse."

I gritted my teeth and forced my head up.

The boy in front of me had changed, the one before had fainted from the pain.

"Watch and see! The sound of bones crunching... isn't that good?"

Another scream echoed in the field, this time the truth penetrated my mind even more.

It was because of me.

This was happening because of the choices I made.

These young people were being tortured because I came here. n0veluSb.c0m

Wasn't I the one who caused this attack in the first place? If I had been infallible, if I hadn't miscalculated, if I had thought of everything, this wouldn't have happened... would it?

Another scream echoed, and with it, I realized I could no longer hear properly.

The amount of blood I was losing was forcing my consciousness to shut down. My sense organs were slowly ceasing to function. Screams, the madman's words, students' pleas for help, crackling sounds, blood, tears...

As everything started to fall apart, I did only one thing, I apologized again and again.

I was weak, maybe I only had a few seconds not to faint... My world continued to darken and the voices became meaningless, but then I heard a clear voice that seemed to cut through all this darkness.

"Hey! Who told you that you can sleep?"

A warmth spread throughout my body, and soon after I felt that it hurt less. The voices that I had been unable to make sense of just a moment before were becoming understandable again. The blurred world became clearer and there was a hand pointing at me, glowing with a pale greenish color.

My eyes widened when I saw the hand.

I didn't want to see anymore, I didn't want to hear anymore, I just wanted to rest, I wanted to faint but... he was healing me.

"Anyway... Ah! Oh, right, of course!"

The man took his hand off me and quickly turned around, walking away from me again.

I understood that he had gone to get someone new, and I was a little relieved when I realized that I could at least rest for a few seconds.

But when he was in front of me again, time literally froze. I just stared at him, not moving a muscle, not shaking even if I wanted to.

This time it wasn't a random person he brought, it was Celine.

"I forgot! You were with that girl when I caught her, was she your girlfriend?"

Is this my... punishment?

Is this the result of my overconfidence?

Why am I not the one who suffers? Why... Just why does the result of my mistakes affect others and not me?

Why do others suffer and not me?

With the Absolute Mind, I wouldn't care how much it tortured me. Maybe I would suffer, maybe I would even go crazy, but I had no doubt that I would eventually be okay again.

Despite all this... the man in front of me was focused on other things as if he had known this all along.

Thoughts started to run together in my mind again. I felt my body heat up, followed by a feeling that slowly enveloped my body.

I gritted my teeth. I knew I was an idiot, and the more I admitted it, the stronger the feeling grew.