I ran down the street, following the faintly sensed aura.
I saw a woman who had been running away from a man swinging a blunt instrument with a dazed look, as the rain poured down.
âNo! Please, someone help me!â
The woman, who had been desperately crawling through the rain-soaked ground to escape, screamed when she saw the man dragging the blunt instrument approaching her.
I hurriedly ran towards the scene, struck the back of the neck of the man who was being controlled, and shouted.
âItâs dangerous outside, so please stay somewhere safe!â
âYes... Yes! Ugh... Ah! My ankle...â
The woman, who had been relieved by my shout and was trying to get up quickly, suddenly winced in pain.
Looking at her ankle, it seemed she had injured it while falling, and it was starting to swell.
She was in a situation where she couldnât evacuate to a safe place on her own.
Not only her, but it was also impossible to leave the man I had just knocked out on the street.
Just as I was about to carry them to a shelter, the scene of the street caught my eye.
âAaaah! Save me!!â
âNo... I donât want to die...â
The city was filled with people screaming and groaning in pain.
Heroes and students who had rushed to the scene were subduing the controlled people and rescuing the citizens, but there were still far too many people who needed help.
The damage would only grow uncontrollably as time passed.
The girl who had disappeared, saying she would play hide-and-seek, had promised to tell me how to stop this situation if I followed her.
Even though it might be a lie, I somehow knew she wasnât lying.
If that was the case, finding the method as quickly as possible to end this situation would prevent greater harm.
However, helping everyone I saw was impossible.
I clenched my fist and spoke.
â...Iâll call someone to help, so please stay here for a moment.â
I said this to the woman with the injured leg, then called out to a student who was running nearby.
âPlease take care of the injured and the unconscious person over there!â
The student, who was initially taken aback, ran in the direction I pointed.
After watching the student run away, I turned back towards the direction I had been running before to help the woman.
The screams of people who needed help pierced my ears.
Suddenly, I recalled a famous ethical problem from a moral class.
The problem where you have to choose whether to make a train run on a track with five people tied to it or a track with one person tied to it, to save the most people.
There is no right answer, but most people choose to save the larger group.
I was no different.
But applying that to reality felt like it would drive me mad.
The more time passed, the more people would be sacrificed, and even if I chose the smaller group, the city would still be doomed.
Still, I had to make a decision.
The bitter taste of blood filled my mouth from biting my lip too hard.
I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the screams, focusing instead on other sounds.
[Burn it.]
[Burn it to ashes.]
As the witchâs voice in my head grew louder, I started to sense the aura again.
I concentrated even more, listening to the voice, and ran in the direction where the aura was felt.
[Burn it, kill.]
As I listened to the voice, the guilt and hesitation seemed to fade away.
Only anger filled my mind.
I couldnât tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
At some point, the screams no longer reached my ears.
*
I stopped at a place not far from where our class was assigned.
The aura was coming from the park in District 15, where I always went.
Was it a coincidence?
I had first met the girl with the dark purple hair here.
I stopped and looked around, and from the front, I heard a leisurely applause.
The girl, who had suddenly appeared, was clapping and smiling at me.
âHaha, hide-and-seek is over. Even though youâve changed a bit, youâre still Eva, arenât you? You could always follow me. Youâve always followed me since the old days.â
[Burn it.]
As soon as I faced the girl, the witchâs voice in my head became loud.
The urge to burn the girl to ashes surged, but I had more important things to do, so I clenched my teeth and asked her.
â...Since you told me to follow, tell me now. The way to stop it. If you lie, I wonât let you off.â
In response to my words, the girl stretched her lips into a smile and said.
âYour temper hasnât changed. Donât worry. I have no intention of breaking my word. Since you won the hide-and-seek, Iâll tell you.â
The girl slowly raised her arm and pointed.
âCan you see it there in the bushes? Itâs hidden well, but if you look closely, youâll see it.â
Following the girlâs words, I slowly examined the flower bed.
Bushes, flowers, small saplings.
And among the plants that seemed to come alive in the rain, something grotesque that stood out.
â...What is that...â
It looked like an egg or a cocoon, but its size was far from ordinary.
It was so large that an average adult man could fit inside without any problem, and it was glistening and pulsating unpleasantly in the rain.
When I asked about the identity of this thing, the girl replied.
âInside that, thereâs a lesser demon. Itâs said to act as a transmitter, sending signals to control humans. If you destroy it, the people will stop, right?â
With that, I took a deep breath and glared at the thing, unsure if it was an egg or a cocoon.
If I could just destroy that, everything would stop.
Just as I was about to push off the ground and run towards it, the controlled people milling around the park suddenly focused their attention on me.
Women, children, men, the elderly.
Dozens of people, dozens of pairs of eyes, were staring at me without blinking.
It was a chilling scene, and I realized how many people were around the park, which was strange.
The other controlled people seemed to have a purpose, like harming others, and wandered around like zombies looking for people.
But why were so many people just milling around this park?
There was only one reason to consider.
They were guarding it.
In case something happened to the cocoon-like thing.
But if they were all civilians, even if there were dozens, I could subdue them without causing harm.
I had trained to handle 17 lesser demons alone.
I took a deep breath and prepared to run through the crowd and destroy the cocoon.
At the same time, the people who had been standing still like mannequins started to move.
A few of them lunged at me.
It took only a few seconds to subdue them.
But during those few seconds, I sensed that something had gone wrong.
âY-You... crazy...â
Another cocoon was forming around the spot where the original cocoon was, made of people.
Dozens of people were surrounding the cocoon, intertwining their limbs to hold it together.
âDamn it! Get away from there!â
I tried to forcibly pull them apart, but it was difficult.
They were holding on with all their might, refusing to let go.
When I tried to pull a man on the outer edge, I heard a cracking sound and quickly let go.
But the man, even with his broken arm, showed no change in expression and remained firmly intertwined with the others.
They had become puppets, showing no pain and following orders.
It seemed that, literally, they wouldnât let go of the cocoon unless they were killed.
âLet go... please... please...!â
No matter how much I shouted and shook them, my voice didnât reach anyone.
It made me so angry.
At the witch who was controlling people in such a terrifying way.
I took a step back, fearing that the flames I was about to unleash might hurt the people.
Then, the girl whispered from beside me, watching the scene.
âDonât you want to stop it? If you destroy whatâs inside, these people will stop.â
As if giving advice to a child who didnât know what to do.
âItâs just a few dozen people. If you kill them, itâll be over.â
The girlâs words echoed in my head.
[Burn it.]
There were only a few dozen people.
If I had to choose between five and one, and I chose to save the five by sacrificing the one, that was human nature.
The girl climbed onto the cocoon made of people and looked down at me, smiling.
âYouâre good at burning things, arenât you? Donât you want to kill Naru? Iâll stay here, so burn us together. Just like you burned the village and the forest before.â
[Burn and kill.]
Seeing the girlâs smile, the voice in my head grew louder.
The anger that had been boiling up from deep within consumed my reason.
I quietly pressed the button on my left prosthetic arm.
Memories flooded in.
-Evangelin, from today, you are a part of our village.
People are selfish.
-That woman was a witch! Our children died because of her!
To save the majority, sacrificing the minority is a human thing.
-Revenge! Burn the wicked witch to death!
Then, wasnât it only natural for them to die?
If sacrificing just a few dozen people could save thousands or even tens of thousands of people in the future, wouldnât that be the right thing to do?
Actually, it didnât matter.
-Ahaha, poor Evangelin. Youâve been through so much. Itâs all because of me. Those bad people, they donât even know. Oh? Wow, thatâs a huge flame.
[Burn. Burn. Burn. Burn to make them suffer the same pain I did.]
I just wanted revenge.
I didnât care if people got caught up in the process.
It was also their karma.
The gem in my palm absorbed the flames and turned red.
The flames burned red, red.
The left sleeve of my school uniform caught fire from the intense flames coming from my left arm.
The girl, watching this, laughed and clapped.
âIndeed, you should play hide-and-seek and burn things again, just like before. Right, Evangelin?â
Evangelin, I stretched out my flame-licked arm towards the one who had given me that damn name.
The girlâs eyes, which were sitting on top of the cocoon, glowed with the flames.
Just as I was about to release the gathered flames forward,
I saw the words etched in flames on my prosthetic arm.
The flames shot out, not forward, but upwards.
The flames that shot upwards illuminated the rain-filled sky and then disappeared.
âHuh? Evangelin?â
To the girl, who was puzzled, I muttered, recalling the words I had just seen.
â...My name isnât Evangelin.â
Scarlet.
â...Scarlet Evande.â
That was the name I had promised to protect people with.
The girl, who had been sitting on top of the people, looked at me for a moment and then spoke.
âWhy did you shoot it upwards without killing anyone?â
I looked up at the sky.
The sky was dark with rain and storm clouds.
Even if visibility was poor, something that suddenly sparkled in such a dark sky would be easily seen from a distance.
It was a simple task, but my mind had been clouded by the voice in my head until now.
I answered her question.
â...If I canât stop it without killing, I can call someone who can stop it without killing.â
The flames I shot into the sky were a signal to someone who was rescuing people near the original work site.
Someone who was openly worried about me.
I thought she would run here faster than anyone else when she saw my flames.
And that thought proved to be correct.
Seeing the twinkling starlight in the distance, I smiled slightly.
âHaha, this is fun.â
The girl, who saw the light, smiled slightly.
She slowly got up from atop the people and introduced herself.
âScarlet Evande, right? Iâm Beatrice, the witch of sloth you speak of.â
Introducing herself, the witch of sloth, Beatrice, jumped down to the ground and stretched her lips into a smile, saying.
âIâm looking forward to seeing who youâll be the next time we meet.â
With that, the witch disappeared from the spot.
Author's Note
I... I am Scarlet Evande!
Thank you for waiting so long.
As an apology, I will update multiple times today.
I will write through the night and post it when I wake up!