"From now on, your name is not 10, but Scarlett Evandea."
The uncle said.
After my name changed, my life definitely changed as well.
In the outside world, as Scarlett Evandea, there was no pain that I had to endure every day.
Something I had never imagined before.
But I couldn't just be happy because there were things even more difficult than the pain.
[Isn't the suffering you've endured so far unjust?]
[Don't you feel angry? Don't you want to burn everything to the ground?]
[Those who hurt you, the people, the world, all of them.]
Ever since I desperately resisted the voice and extinguished the fire that was coming out of my body, the voice that I had heard would suddenly come back, and intense emotions would surge uncontrollably.
If I lost control and gave in to those emotions, I somehow knew that I would end up burning everything around me, just like last time.
And this time, it would definitely not end until my entire body was consumed by the flames.
So I resisted the voice and suppressed the flames with all my might.
Even though I would end up exhausted and spend most of my waking hours lying still.
I couldn't do it just because I didn't want to experience the burning pain all over my body again.
I could do it only because I wanted to fulfill the uncle's request.
Whenever I was in pain, the uncle would make it better, gave me a name, and was the only one who treated me kindly in that cold room.
So, as I had promised before, I wanted to become someone who could protect people.
The uncle said that if I entered the Academy, I could become a hero.
A hero is a profession that protects people.
So I wanted to become a hero.
If I became a hero, I thought I could see the uncle's happy face.
So I endured, even when it was difficult.
Thinking that if I followed the voice and burned everything, the uncle would be sad, I endured, and endured.
The morning of the day I finally entered the Academy.
I realized something.
My mind could no longer endure the incessant voice in my ear, urging me to burn everything.
I wanted to become a hero.
I wanted to see the uncle's happy face.
But even as I tried desperately to regain my composure, my vision was gradually blurring.
If the flames I had been suppressing were to disappear, the flames coming out of my body would probably burn everything around me.
Fortunately, when the uncle asked me to choose a place I liked, I had chosen a place where no one lived, just in case something like this happened.
If I lost consciousness, my body wouldn't move, so at least no one else would get hurt.
One person burning was enough.
A quiet, uninhabited building's room.
Lying on the bed, I closed my eyes, thinking about how I wanted to see the uncle's happy face.
*
On the first day of school, I recalled why Yun Siwoo was late in the original story.
While talking to Sylvia, Yun Siwoo said he was late because he helped put out a fire on his way to school.
Until now, I had just thought, "Oh, that's how it is," but when I followed behind Yun Siwoo and was late, I hadn't seen any fire.
Then, where did the fire in the original story happen?
Perhaps that was why there were 29 students in Class A in the original story, and why Scarlett Evandea didn't appear.
Maybe Scarlett Evandea was originally supposed to die on the first day.
*
I felt a nasty dizziness and a suffocating sensation as if I were tied up.
When I tried to get up, my body wouldn't move, so I opened my eyes to see what was wrong. In front of me, the guardian uncle was slumped in a chair, apparently unconscious, bound and tied.
Feeling panicked, I tried to move to help him, but all I heard was a metallic clinking sound, and I couldn't move.
Looking around, I realized my situation was even more serious.
My hands and feet were bound with chains and suspended in the air, and I was trapped inside a cell-like cage.
I had clearly fallen asleep on the bed in the room, so what the hell was going on?
It seemed as if both the uncle and I had been kidnapped.
I had thought about whether I could melt the chains with flames, but the flames that emerged from my body were immediately sucked away through the chains.
At that moment, a voice rang out.
"No matter what you do, it won't work, 10. These are special restraints made of fire-absorbing stone, just like your prosthetic limbs."
Turning to where the voice came from, I saw an elf with silver hair, Satoru, looking at me and the uncle with a nasty smile.
Although I had never seen him before, I had seen this man, who called me 10, many times in my dreams.
Perhaps these memories were deeply rooted, to the point of becoming a trauma.
My body trembled, and flames burst out from the fear and anger that welled up naturally.
I had been suspecting it for a while.
Maybe the dreams I had been having recently were the past memories of Scarlett Evandea.
Even though the memories that came back were quite serious and disturbing, they were already past events that couldn't be changed.
I had thought that if possible, I only wanted to worry about what would happen in the future.
But who could have thought that I would be kidnapped by some lunatic while I was sleeping?
Feeling more angry than afraid, I glared at Satoru, who seemed to have kidnapped us.
He frowned and pushed a long rod through the bars, pressing it against my body.
"Ah...!"
It felt as if electricity was coursing through me, and a sharp pain shot through my head.
"You've lost your memory, but you've forgotten your place as well. To think you would give me such a rebellious look with those dirty eyes... It's utterly disgusting..."
I heard a voice that sounded like he was clicking his tongue.
Satoru, with his menacing eyes, looked at me.
He seemed irritated but suddenly smiled.
"Since you rebelled, I have to punish you, right?"
I braced myself, expecting more pain, but the rod was not aimed at me.
"Aaaah!!!"
The uncle's scream echoed.
Opening my eyes, I saw Satoru holding the uncle's hair, who seemed to have just regained consciousness from the sudden pain.
The uncle, looking confused, opened his mouth.
"S... Satoru... What the hell is going on..."
"Didn't you say you wanted to see 10? So I prepared the best seat for you to see her clearly. Well, I had to bring you here forcibly because I couldn't abandon my plan. Failure is not an option in my dictionary."
The uncle shouted, sounding threatening.
"......You said the plan was to save people. What is this? You're completely insane. Do you know how serious a crime it is to commit a crime against a hero?"
Satoru started laughing, scratching his neck.
"If you hadn't tried to run away with her, I wouldn't have had to do this. And a hero? Is that what you call her? A fragment of a witch's heart, an enemy of humanity?"
Hearing those words, I finally had a rough idea of what this body was.
Although my curiosity was satisfied, my feelings became even more terrible.
Damn, of all things...
Satoru continued to laugh, scratching his neck.
"By the way, the witch weaponization plan wasn't set up to save people. It was planned to use the witch's power to clear out the monsters in the north and reclaim the great Astra's territory. I just said it that way because I needed your abilities. I deceived you, but you also deceived me, so it's fine, right?"
The uncle's face hardened, clearly shocked by those words.
Satoru continued to laugh, finding the uncle's reaction amusing.
Blood flowed from the scratches on his neck, staining his gloves red.
He looked like he wasn't in his right mind.
And yet, he was the one holding our lives in his hands.
The uncle, with a rigid face, asked.
"......What are you planning to do?"
Satoru smiled.
"What do you think? I'm going to continue the experiments to try and make that failure work. Don't worry. Astra doesn't forget debts. Although you deceived me, you did help me a lot."
Satoru pressed the rod against the uncle's body.
"I'm going to give you the chance to make a noble sacrifice to bring out her anger. So try your best to endure."
A scream echoed.
Author's Note
I'm sorry for the late update due to the final exams. ㅠ