I washed my face with the water pouring from the sink in the bathroom.
While doing so, the sound of the garbage disposal seemed to ring in my head, making me feel nauseous, but after vomiting several times, there was nothing left to come out.
I rinsed my mouth and, with trembling hands, turned off the faucet before leaving the bathroom.
As if he had been waiting nearby, Yun Siwoo cautiously approached and asked with a worried look on his face.
"......Scarlett, are you okay?"
"......Yeah, I'm fine now."
I answered in a small voice to Yun Siwoo's question.
But as I answered, Yun Siwoo's expression turned sour.
......This is why talking to this guy was so annoying.
"......No, I'm not really fine. How could I be, damn it......"
I spat out a curse-laden answer and took a deep breath to calm myself.
Inhaling deeply, exhaling.
But it seemed to have little effect, so I sat down and curled up, burying my head between my knees.
Without realizing it, a monologue slipped out of my mouth.
"......I did it because I was sure that person was the culprit. If left alone, I didn't know what they might do, so I thought we had to catch them quickly......"
The brief pause before I answered when asked if there were any blurry parts in my memory.
And the sudden change in tone when I answered, as if I had become a different person.
At that moment, I somehow knew.
If Mr. James really had a different personality, then the one answering was the culprit.
That's why I had shouted in anger.
If something had gone wrong, the culprit could have killed the students and my precious friend.
I thought that if we didn't catch him quickly, there might be more victims.
I had acted on that thought alone.
"......I didn't want this to happen......"
The scene I had witnessed in the kitchen wouldn't leave my mind.
When I entered the kitchen, there were dishes laid out inside.
I remembered Mr. James smiling and saying he would cook for the people who had been suffering and couldn't have lunch today.
Mr. James was that kind of person.
I had succeeded in finding the culprit.
But the culprit, once exposed, had made an extreme choice, and as a result, Mr. James had died.
It all felt like my fault.
The whirring sound of the garbage disposal kept echoing in my head.
The sound of the garbage disposal. The sound.
At that moment, I felt something was off.
I lifted my head, which had been buried in my knees, and asked.
"Yun Siwoo, before you broke the door, the sound you heard was the garbage disposal, right?"
"Uh?! Uh, yeah. It was definitely that sound."
For some reason, Yun Siwoo, who had been sitting in front of me with his arms spread, quickly straightened up and answered my question.
I didn't know what he was trying to do to me, but that wasn't important right now.
I asked him again.
"When you heard that sound, didn't you hear anything else?"
"......I don't think I heard anything else besides that."
Yun Siwoo's answer made me frown.
No matter how I thought about it, it was strange.
Even if the door was closed, the walls were thin enough that a loud noise would have been heard. With Yun Siwoo's enhanced senses due to the Holy Sword, he shouldn't have missed it.
But he said he hadn't heard the sound that he should have.
I quickly went over the events in my mind.
The dining hall, the kitchen, the split personality, the questions, the garbage disposal, the sound.
And in the next moment, a shock like a hammer to the head hit me, and my hands began to tremble.
"......No, that wasn't it."
The realization made my voice slip out.
The premise itself was wrong.
"......It wasn't a split personality."
The worst scenario I had never imagined made me jump up urgently.
"Scarlett?!"
Yun Siwoo, looking flustered, asked me.
"The real culprit was someone else!"
A split personality meant the body was still the person's own.
No matter how crazy they were, they wouldn't choose to die so horribly just because they were caught.
With so many kitchen tools, they would have used a knife to commit suicide.
Moreover, no one could be ground up in a garbage disposal without screaming.
There was only one answer that could explain all of this.
From the beginning, the body wasn't the person's own.
I shouted, my face contorted.
"Someone was being controlled!"
*
In the kitchen where the horrific incident had just occurred, a few teachers were having a serious conversation.
"......I can't believe Mr. James was the culprit."
"More accurately, it wasn't Mr. James but his other personality. The student who figured it out first said it was a split personality. I never thought that's why the lie detector didn't catch him......"
"Mr. James is really gone? How could this happen......"
The teachers' faces twisted in shock at the revelation that a long-time acquaintance was involved in the incident and in sorrow at the loss of a friend.
But the immediate priority was to fully resolve the case, so Eve, who was like the representative of the teachers, spoke up.
"......It's a tragic event, but now that we've found the culprit, we need to figure out how the terrorist could use magic inside the barrier. I heard a mid-level demon appeared in the school last time. If there's a problem with the barrier that prevents magical entities from entering, it's not just today's terrorist attack that's the issue."
If that were the case, it could cause significant chaos in the city inside the barrier, which they believed to be safe.
Another teacher asked Eve.
"Did you request support from the Public Security Bureau's investigator?"
"Since we've identified the culprit, there's no need to control access anymore. None of us teachers have the expertise for this. They should be here soon."
As soon as Eve finished speaking, a short-haired woman in the Public Security Bureau uniform entered the kitchen with a stern expression and spoke.
"I am Investigator Lea Abella from the Public Security Bureau. Academy teachers, please assist with the investigation."
Eve looked at her for a moment, then sighed and said quietly.
"......Lea, you were close to Mr. James, right? You don't have to pretend to be okay in front of us. It's alright to cry."
Lea, an Academy graduate, whose eyes had reddened, wiped them with her sleeve and forced a smile.
"......I'm on duty now, so later. If I start crying now, I won't be able to stop."
"......Yeah, you've grown up, Lea."
"......I've always been mature, haven't I?"
Lea's words brought a slight smile to the teachers' faces.
They all remembered her from her student days.
Eve also smiled slightly and asked Lea.
"Can't even take care of your own body, can you? What's that scratch on your neck? Still fighting with cats over snacks like you used to?"
Lea's face turned bright red as she shouted in response to Eve's revelation of her past.
"Not with cats! I...I'm starting the investigation now! Everyone, please leave!"
As Lea shouted at the teachers leaving the kitchen, her expression turned gloomy once they were all gone.
She had heard a rough explanation over the phone, but it was hard to believe.
Mr. James was a split personality and a terrorist.
In her memory, Mr. James was always a kind person who would smile and make snacks when asked.
So, while grieving over his death, Lea was determined to uncover the truth behind the incident and reached out to the items in the kitchen.
*
Psychometry, the ability to read the memories of places or objects.
Eve, knowing that it took time to read old memories, waited for Lea to come out.
When Lea, who had been alone in the kitchen for a while, came out with a stiff face, Eve asked her.
"Did you check everything?"
Lea slowly looked around and then said to Eve.
"......This isn't something to discuss in a crowded place. Can we talk somewhere more private?"
There were several students in the dining hall.
If the information was sensitive, it might not be good to share it, so Eve nodded at Lea's request.
As soon as they entered the on-duty room attached to the faculty office, Eve asked Lea.
"So, what exactly happened?"
Lea, who had been asked, looked around the on-duty room and then slowly gestured for Eve to sit next to her on the long sofa.
"Let me tell you. Please sit next to me, teacher."
Eve sat next to Lea and laughed.
"You used to call me 'teacher' even when I told you to call me 'sensei.' Now you call me 'teacher' so easily."
"Did I?"
"You did. Do you not remember? Anyway, can you tell me what happened?"
Lea leaned in close to Eve and whispered.
"I made another mistake."
Thud.
A kitchen knife was embedded in Eve's neck.
Eventually, the light faded from Eve's eyes, and her body collapsed to the floor.
Lea slowly scratched her neck and watched the scene before unfolding a blanket from the on-duty room.
She sprinkled oil from the kitchen onto the blanket and covered the fallen Eve with it, then slowly crawled inside.
Inside the oil-soaked blanket, Lea took out a lighter.
The flames burst into life.
Once teacher and student, they burned to death in one place.
And that hallucination, Eve watched while lost in it, a knife pressed to her throat.
After pulling Lea, who had been lost in the hallucination, away from her body, Eve wiped her neck.
A slight bloodstain was visible on her hand.
"......That was close."
She had completely trusted her former student.
The only reason she managed to react in time was because of Scarlett's advice yesterday to never let her guard down.
"......I should thank Miss Scarlett."
Muttering to herself, Eve looked at Lea with cold eyes.
Lea Abella, a troublemaker but a kind and cheerful child.
She was absolutely not the type to do something like this.
This meant she had been brainwashed or controlled.
Both types of magic were strictly prohibited for ethical reasons, and it was impossible for a human to remain under such a powerful spell until they burned to death.
This meant there was only one entity capable of such a deed.
"......A witch."
Author's Note:
I was feeling really bad, so this update is a bit late.....
I went to get tested for COVID-19 because I was worried, but I hope it's negative......
Anyway, Eve survived dramatically.
With Kyouka Suigetsu and Tsukuyomi, people who use such abilities usually don't die even in dire situations.