Chapter 61: What’s wrong, darling? Only just now decided to come looking for me?
The evening felt colder than usual. Estiel sat up at the peak of the tower he called home.
He’d arranged a huge stack of books and documents around himself, tossing aside anything that didn’t fit what he needed.
The books he’d carefully sorted were all related to corruption in one way or another, along with material on Blood Moon, given that Blood Moon itself produced a level of corruption almost identical to the Seed of Corruption.
Over the past several years, Estiel had spent his time holed up in this tower, purely to research that seed. Of course, understanding it perfectly was impossible, given certain limits he found difficult to cross.
The air around him felt genuinely cold, carrying that distinct wintry scent, refreshing and faintly ominous all at once.
Estiel didn’t turn around at all. He sensed someone appear behind him, showing up without any warning whatsoever, as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world to do.
"Master Estiel~ sorry to intrude."
Hearing that familiar voice, Estiel set down the book he’d been reading, adjusted his glasses, and turned around, glancing at a girl with pale, snow-white skin.
"Ah, you’re here. Need something?"
Erness strolled in casually, then took a seat without being asked. Estiel didn’t budge from his spot, just watched Erness as she looked around the whole room at her leisure, her face twitching slightly.
"...Master Estiel, don’t you think you should tidy up this room of yours?"
"It’s not that bad, is it?" Estiel chuckled, amused. "People clean up because they’re afraid of bugs, but there aren’t any bugs here!"
"That’s not really the point," Erness said, a stiff smile crossing her face. "Sure, but don’t you think it’d be nice to at least straighten things up a little?"
Estiel scoffed, waving a hand dismissively, his expression turning sulky.
"Ah, yes, yes, yes, of course, you’re a princess who once lived somewhere grand and glittering."
"Hehe, that’s all in the past now."
Clicking his tongue, Estiel let out a long sigh. He got up and sat in the chair across from Erness, pouring green tea into two cups as he asked.
"So, what is it this time?"
"Ehmm," Erness played with her hair for a moment. "So, I wanted to ask permission to—"
Erness didn’t get to finish her sentence before Estiel’s face scrunched up, clicking his tongue.
"Ask permission? As if you’d actually listen if I said no."
Erness froze at that, her cheerful smile going flat for a moment, but she quickly cleared her throat.
"Right... you know how it is, hehe, it’s not that I want to act like this, but... you understand the reason, don’t you?"
Estiel didn’t answer right away as she said that, mostly because the atmosphere around them seemed to shift.
She took a small sip of the green tea, lowering her cup, and with a calm expression, glanced at Erness.
The smile on the girl’s face, and the way her once-white eyes were now swirling with a hazy, spinning gray, brimming with madness.
"I was wrong. I was genuinely wrong. Master Estiel, you saw it, didn’t you? What happens to the ones who aren’t dealt with quickly enough."
That smile then turned utterly hollow, leaving behind an intense killing intent, laced with a hatred so old and deep it ran to the bone.
For a moment, Estiel’s own smile went awkward, freezing on his face. After a beat, he let out a sigh.
"As if I could ever stop you. You stubborn thing," After that, he scratched at his hair and glanced out the window, where the sky was slowly darkening. "How’s he doing, by the way? I’ve heard a few rumors that you’ve been ignoring your boyfriend. You know that’s not good for his condition."
The moment Eiros was mentioned, Erness’s body trembled, and all that suffocating tension that had filled the air just moments ago vanished, replaced instantly by Erness’s usual silly expression.
Her lips twitched.
"Well... that’s... it’s not like I meant to, hehe," For a brief second, Estiel caught a certain glint flash in Erness’s eyes as she continued: "I just wanted to mess with him a little. That’s what he gets for being a bit naughty."
Estiel listened calmly, his expression stiffening as he decided to take another sip of tea, drawing a few breaths, letting Erness’s words sink in.
After that, he answered in a somewhat lower voice:
"I see..."
Erness nodded firmly, a smile on her face, then glanced over at the stack of books Estiel had been studying and asked with obvious interest.
"So, how about you, Master Estiel? Making any progress on the corruption seed? Or maybe on how to kill someone whose stigmata makes them immortal?"
Hearing that, Estiel shrugged. His irritation was plain on his face as he forced himself to smile.
"I’ve barely even started researching it! How am I supposed to make instant progress? This is genuinely complicated, princess, please don’t ask me about it, ugh...."
Tears looked like they were about to spill from Estiel’s eyes as he started whining. That made Erness freeze for a moment, then burst out laughing in amusement.
"Alright, guess I’ll head back now. Apparently my boyfriend’s been waiting in front of the dorm since this afternoon, I can’t leave him waiting any longer."
Erness was about to stand up and teleport away, but suddenly she paused.
"Ah, right... guess I’ll let him wait just a little longer, hehe."
Then, giggling to herself, she finally got ready to teleport, hearing Estiel let out a tired sigh from across the room, his smile stiff, saying:
"Remember, don’t go overboard with whatever you’re planning, Princess Renessa."
Erness blinked a few times, then pouted as her body slowly began to fade away.
"Stop calling me that name."
***
The girls’ dormitory sat directly across from the boys’ dormitory building. The two were separated only by a low hedge wall, so it wasn’t hard to get from one building to the other.
Of course, actually entering the other building would be a problem. Girls couldn’t enter the boys’ building without permission, and the same rule applied the other way around.
Today, the girls from the dormitory building had gathered together. Some had decided to hang out in the garden, some stood right in front of the building, and others watched from their own dorm windows.
What were they all watching?
"Poor guy.... Erness really did just dump him. Look, he’s been waiting since this afternoon."
"Well, what do you expect, apparently he pushed Erness into the river during the beginning-of-semester exam...."
"....Seriously? No wonder. He can’t even be gentle with his own girlfriend."
A girl watched Eiros while letting out a short sigh.
"Still, he looks so pathetic..."
"Yeah, he must really regret it by now. Where else is he going to find a girlfriend as sweet and beautiful as Erness?"
The whispers never let up. If anything, they kept looping in their own strange way, spinning up new scenarios that had never even happened.
Eiros, the unwitting star of this whole little drama, looked absolutely miserable. He sat on a garden bench, positioned right in front of the girls’ dormitory building.
’....When’s she going to show up?’
His gaze drifted up to the night sky. The moon was slowly rising, and stars had already begun scattering across the darkening sky.
The air was also gradually growing colder, to the point where Eiros was genuinely worried he’d catch a cold if this kept up.
’This doesn’t make any sense.’
Why was he even doing this?
Whether Erness was mad at him or actively avoiding him wasn’t even something he needed to worry about, right?
So why was he acting like this, letting the seed inside him slowly grow just by making himself suffer over it?
Eiros couldn’t wrap his head around it anymore.
He slumped back against the bench, listlessly, and kept on waiting. A few first-year girls tried striking up conversation with him, and all Eiros could manage was a limp nod or a weak shake of his head.
’I miss my bed.....’
He let out a sigh.
Then, right at that moment.
Eiros felt the air around him turn bitterly cold. That familiar scent, that sensation he knew all too well, made him jolt upright, straightening his posture.
Yes! It was Erness!
She appeared out of thin air, then looked at Eiros, who’d gone completely rigid. And, just as he’d feared, Erness wasn’t even smiling.
"...What’s wrong, darling? Only just now decided to come looking for me?"
Instead, Erness wore a small, cold smile on her face.
***