Chapter 4 |
◈ Mistaken for a Masked Monster
──────
Carmilla's Night (1)
A long day.
After the entrance examinations wrapped up, a meeting was held at Grandia Academy. The faculty had gathered in full around the circular table.
"Good work, everyone."
""Good work!""
Two weeks. That was how long the entrance exams had run. At last, the schedule was done, and it was time to settle the results.
"This cohort has quite a few standout talents."
Each faculty member worked their crystal orb. The screens were packed with assessment results, and a few clicks sent dozens of profiles flickering past in quick succession.
"Ranne Kihano. Passed without any trouble, as expected. All grades B and above."
"The eldest daughter of the Kihano count's family. She's been making a name for herself for a while now, hasn't she?"
"That's right. Exceptional talent as a knight, from what I've heard..."
This cohort had an unusually high number of promising newcomers. Several names came up in conversation.
"The top freshman is... Princess Glacia, as expected."
"Overwhelming. You could say she's practically a finished mage already."
"In sorcery and divine power too, there are some who could be called the finest..."
The faculty scanned through the records, anticipation in every glance.
Class A.
Class B.
Class C.
Class D.
And finally, the last and lowest, Class E.
Even mid-argument, they eventually came to rest on the final profile.
"Viktor..."
Viktor. One of those admitted to joint last place of this cohort. A boy with a strange mask covering his face. Through the screen, he was flashing a playful peace sign at the camera.
"Last place... the student at the very bottom of even Class E."
"He received E grades in every category except theory."
"Strange. How did someone like him even get in?"
"Apparently he scored a perfect score on the practical, but does that even make sense?"
The faculty all had their doubts. They pulled up the recorded footage from the practical examination.
[Proctor?]
[Are you alright? There's still one more left.]
Bugs don't get recorded.
So even in the footage, there were no visible effects or illusions to speak of. All the faculty could make out was a shadow flickering in and out of existence, jumping from place to place. The bored skepticism in their eyes settled into something far more serious.
"What... is this...?"
One professor muttered to himself. Everyone shared the same thought.
"It's unsettling."
"You'd almost call it bloodlust..."
The faculty all furrowed their brows. A strange chill ran down their necks.
A smiling mask.
Wide open. Still smiling.
The air was sharp enough to cut.
"And this kid is supposed to be last place...?"
Grandia Academy. The finest educational institution on the continent. Its faculty matched that reputation, each of them at the forefront of their respective fields, whether that was the sword, magic, or sorcery.
"His profile looks off too. Could there be tampering?"
"Stamina, strength, agility... they're all genuinely E grade?"
"And with those stats he overwhelmed the proctor?"
The professors' eyes narrowed.
Suspicion.
"This is last place? Just from the footage, I'd believe it if you told me he was in Class A."
"He cleared the practical with a perfect score in exactly one minute and twenty-seven seconds."
"What was the top student's record?"
"Seryla Glacia. Three minutes and twelve seconds."
"Meaning he was nearly twice as fast as the top student..."
The clown mask. Every time their gaze fell on it through the screen, goosebumps crawled up their spines.
Not quite bloodlust, there was no murderous intent behind it. Not overwhelming presence either, not with those stats. If you had to pin it down to a single word...
"It's an unpleasant aura."
Unpleasant. No, something even more alien than that, a sensation like something scratching at one side of their hearts. The aura that boy gave off was that deeply unsettling. Even a blank white page, placed beside him, would seem to turn pitch black.
"It does seem like he's using some kind of... special power."
"However you look at it, it's not a conventional one. Mana, divine energy, sorcery... not even the faintest trace of any of them."
"Something smells off here. Could he be a spy? Maybe the cultists sent him?"
"No dark mana was detected. If there'd been even a trace of it, we would have noticed the moment he set foot in the academy. Besides, for a spy, his approach is far too sloppy..."
"How can you be certain? We should always keep every possibility open..."
The temperature of the conversation dropped fast. The professors broke into an argument.
"Jumping to suspicion this easily is not good! He's a student we should be nurturing, isn't he?"
"Who said anything about blind suspicion? He's suspicious. Ignoring the signs is just as bad..."
"More than anything else, it's that performance in the practical. Impossible to believe, given those stats..."
"Certainly, some explanation for that is needed..."
The chamber buzzed with voices. Then an old man spoke.
"Enough."
""......""
Like a switch had been flipped, the professors went quiet.
The old man at the head of the table wore a wrinkled smile. That alone was enough to silence the room. The faculty bowed their heads, listening to the aged voice.
"We are Grandia Academy."
In the past, he had been called the Slaughterer of Cultists. The head who led Grandia's faculty.
The Headmaster.
"We do not discriminate when it comes to learning."
Valter Droit.
The old man spoke with a warm, easy smile, and that alone left the professors without another word to say.
"Student Viktor has met the qualifications. There is no problem with his admission."
""......""
"Of course... given the unsettling aspects, some safeguards will be necessary."
Fingers tapped lightly on the desk. On that signal, the shadow standing behind the old man stepped forward.
"I will assign Professor Javert as the Class E homeroom teacher."
"Chief Investigator Javert... is that who you mean?"
"There is no one more reliable for a matter like this."
Chief Investigator Javert. A professor specializing in teaching countermeasures against cultists. A woman said to have killed dark mages in the triple digits.
"Professor Javert."
"Yes, Headmaster."
"You are being assigned as the Class E homeroom teacher starting this semester."
"Yes."
A dry answer. Her air, her expression, cold enough to cut. The woman looked as though she'd been cast from steel.
Red hair fell down around her.
"I'll leave the surveillance of student Viktor to you. If you discover any connection to the cultists, or anything suspicious..."
"I will handle it at my own discretion."
"I'm counting on you."
Surveillance. Investigation. Disposal.
Those three words landed like stones. The atmosphere in the chamber grew heavy and still. Through the crystal orb, that ominous mask still stood there, unmoving. Distrust and wariness flickered in the faculty's eyes.
Whether he knew of the crisis closing in around him or not, he was just bobbing his head and walking along.
"Ah, I really milked that bug for all it was worth!"
Completely carefree, as always.
***
After the entrance exams were done, I was walking through a dim alleyway. Each step carried an easy, satisfied weight.
'Perfect.'
Thinking back to the practical exam. A month of hard work since the possession, and it had paid off. Among the movement bugs, this one ranked as one of the harder ones to pull off. Even the slightest mistiming and it would fail.
'Left foot twice, right foot once, one full spin...'
Crack.
Following the sequence, my vision flickered. Five meters, covered in an instant. I kept layering the movements, one on top of the next.
Crack.
This time the jump carried even farther. A bug that exploited a command input overlap. Tricky to learn, but once you had it down, useful practically anywhere.
'Got a perfect score on the practical, thanks to that.'
The one downside was the severe motion sickness. Use it a few times in a row and the whole world starts spinning.
'Anyway, admission is a success...'
Based on my scores, I figured I'd probably end up at the bottom of Class E. Honestly, there were ways to cheat my way into the upper classes if I'd wanted, stealing a recommendation letter through a bug, or manipulating my assessment results.
'But.'
There was a reason I'd deliberately enrolled in Class E. A setup, planned from the start.
'Because something big goes down there too.'
Still a ways off, but that situation was mine to deal with. I let the thoughts drift and kept walking, cutting through the pitch-black alley. The sky had gone dark while I wasn't looking.
'Classes start in a week.'
Until then, I'd need to wait at a nearby inn.
'Well... might as well take care of something in the meantime.'
There was someone I needed to meet.
Trudge. Trudge.
Before I knew it, my feet had carried me to the edge of the city. Few people came through here. The night trembled with every breath.
"Oh, here it is."
Fifth alley. Exactly 3.5 meters walked. A wall came into view, a stone wedged beneath it. Without hesitation, I got down on my stomach over the stone and started grinding against the ground.
Thud. Thud-thud.
'Must be the rocks poking me... this actually hurts...'
I gritted my teeth and kept going. If anyone had seen me, they'd have thought they were watching a seasoned master of wild floor-humping.
There was a reason for the idiocy.
'When is this going to work already...!'
This was the exact spot where the bug triggered. I was dead serious.
'Map-clip bug.'
A bug where pressing against the wall at a specific point would cause your character to pass straight through it. I hadn't been sure it would work in reality, but it ran on the same principle as the teleport bug, press against the right spot long enough and you'd get carried through. I'd already tested it a few times.
'If I clip through here, I can get to my destination in one shot...!'
I was a person of standing. Someone with pride.
(Currently humping the floor of a back alley in the dead of night.)
I was simply enduring a bit of humiliation for the greater good.
About three minutes into my communion with the ground, I felt something like my body sliding.
Lurch!
"Whoa!"
Splat.
My body sprawled out across a damp floor. The bug had finally worked.
'Almost didn't make it.'
The scenery around me had changed completely. A damp, fetid stench jabbed at my nose.
Underground waterway. A remote one, far removed from the academy.
I got to my feet.
"Hmm."
A familiar sight. A backdrop I'd seen more than a few times playing the original game. Seemed like I'd arrived at the right place. Was it reacting to the nearby event? The status window chimed.
Ding!
[Story 'Carmilla's Night' in progress.]
[Will you accept the main quest?]
Without hesitation, I clicked Yes. The status window flipped over with a whoosh, unfolding like the pages of a book.
[Main Quest]
- Rescue 'Carmilla,' the last princess of the vampire dynasty.
- Time until Carmilla is killed: 1 hour 36 minutes
The last vampire. Carmilla.
A supporting character who, if the player didn't intervene, would be killed early in the story. That was precisely why I'd gone to the trouble of visiting this old sewer. She was someone who absolutely had to be recruited.
"Well then... shall we go rescue the princess."
From beyond the dark came screams, and the sound of movement.
I swept forward, black robes billowing, toward a girl who would be waiting for her savior.
