CHAPTER 102: FIRST PHASE PART 5

"...Bro, what a surprise!" I say, upon finding my brother in the maze.

"Hana, what do you think about the maze?" He asks me a very direct question.

"It’s not just a maze, but I think the monsters show the way out." My brother and I start walking through the maze together since we’ve reunited.

"How’s the brainwashing going?"

Superior Brainwashing - Capable of controlling the mind of a target after asking a specific question. After some time, the target will act normally but will always be active to obey an order. Can only be used once per target.

"Not as well as I imagined. Princess Evangeline, Duchess Celeste, Saint Rosaline, Director Akari, and Grand Duchess Pandora somehow managed to avoid it." Several of the powerful figures I tried to use my ability on ended up avoiding it.

I don’t know how they avoided my ability, but now I can’t use it on them anymore, which is a big loss. It would have been great to have those powerful figures as "allies."

"I see... that’s too bad," my brother says, not seeming to care much about this failure.

"Is it? I thought you wanted me to order Pandora to be with you," I say, referring to what he had asked me before.

"I have other ways of dealing with that. Anyway, keep increasing the number of people you control."

"Other ways? Have you seen the way she looks at us? Those idiots Yuki and Kaito may not have noticed, but she hates us to the point where it wouldn’t be surprising if she killed us." Tsubasa and I were able to see the hatred she demonstrates towards us.

Even if she doesn’t do or say anything negative, her eyes and posture still show how she feels about us.

At the very least, she would never like Tsubasa in a normal way.

"Yes, I know."

"Brother, I don’t understand what you saw in that gloomy girl to start liking her." I have no idea why he started liking that girl, but I can’t see a future where the two of them are together.

It’s simply impossible for her to like Tsubasa. I don’t know the reason for so much hatred, but she hates us and hates us too much to easily change her mind about it.

"It doesn’t matter if she hates us, we can use my ability for that."

"...And do you think you’d be able to use that on her? I doubt you’d be capable of it."

"Maybe for now, but in the future, there’s a chance because I’ll have more status than her, and maybe I won’t even need to wait to get stronger than her. If I find her in the right situation, I can use my ability."

"Haaa...." I sigh. I think love really is blind. That girl has nothing good in my eyes. In fact, she seems to attract bad things, as if she’s a looming threat over our lives.

"I can’t understand you, brother. There are so many options in this world, why just that girl?"

"...I don’t know? I just liked her, I guess. She’s the complete opposite of the annoying fiancée Dad wanted me to marry. She just seemed interesting."

"Brother, just because something is interesting doesn’t mean you can put your hands on it. That girl seems like the kind where even her love is dangerous. Don’t expect to suddenly discover that you’ll have a clichéd love with her, being different on the inside."

"We know people well enough to know that Pandora is cold inside and out, and we also know enough to know that she can kill you, and I won’t try to avenge your death."

"...Yes, yes, I know how active you’d be in that matter," he says sarcastically, in response to my statement about not avenging his death.

’Foolish brother’ I can’t think of anything else. He’s letting love cloud his judgment. Nothing good will come from that dangerous girl. If I had been able to use my ability on her, it might have been feasible for my brother to be with her, but without using anything, that girl is simply too dangerous to risk it.

"Shall we separate? It’s faster if we try different paths." I say hurriedly, wanting to get away from this foolish brother, just in case love is contagious and I catch it from him too.

"Okay... I feel like you thought of something malicious." He says as he goes down a different path.

’I should have used my ability on him in the past.’ Now that I’ve told him how my ability works, he won’t fall for it. I should have been more daring in the past.

He’s playing with fire, and I might end up getting burned along with him, which I don’t want.

I return to walking through the maze, thinking about how I can proceed with the plans we have. Maybe I should try using my ability on the king if I have the opportunity. I think the level has to do with why strong people can avoid my ability.

But it will take a long time for our plan to be completed. Also, I think the church is lying to us, that’s very suspicious.

’That sound...’ Someone seems to be fighting somewhere. I go to where the sound is coming from and find another student killing a monster. He doesn’t seem to know that he’s not supposed to kill the monsters.

’Should I get involved... that student.’ He seems to be one of the students I used my ability on.

"Don’t move." I whisper, and he freezes on command, even without hearing me speak. In an instant, he is hit by the monster and thrown against the wall.

’This will be a breeze.’ As long as we reach the enemy’s crystal before the enemies leave the maze, it will be easy.

...

...

...

"So we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You can peacefully get out of the way of the crystal, or I’ll force you to get out of there." I reached the end of the maze and entered the castle, but someone was defending the crystal.

"S-Sorry Pandora, but I can’t leave here," Kaori, who is defending the crystal, says while taking a defensive stance.

I walk towards her. She doesn’t seem very strong, but something is wrong. I stop where I am.

’My instincts tell me not to proceed from here...’ I can’t go closer to her. Something seems very wrong.

"Trap..." A thin line is in front of my field of vision, so thin that it’s almost invisible even to my extremely good eyesight.

"!!!" She seems surprised that I discovered it. I don’t know why, but this trap seems dangerous. It’s not something normal, considering that Kaori has no idea how to set traps.

I step back and throw a shadow dagger at the line. As soon as the dagger touches the line, chains appear, binding the dagger in place, while bear trap-like traps emerge on the ground where my feet would be.

"I understand why you’re so confident." This place must be full of traps.

"Y-Yes, you won’t be able to get past my unique ability, Trap Set - It allows the user to create any type of trap, and the longer it takes to set the trap, the stronger it will be."

"And now the whole place is full of them, so go away or you might get hurt or even die."

’Idiot, revealing her ability like that to scare me.’ It wasn’t a bad strategy overall. Many would give up just from hearing about this ability, but I’m not going to give up because of that.

’The only safe area must be where she is.’ Flying doesn’t seem like a good idea, as I notice there are traps even in the air.

Some seem too dangerous even for me, but there are others that are obviously weak.

I walk towards the one that seems the weakest and step on it. Soon, an iron maiden appears and closes, with thorns trying to pierce me, but I’ve covered my skin with mana, and the thorns break as they can’t penetrate me.

I break the door of the iron maiden and come out unharmed. Kaori seems a bit worried.

I keep walking, and soon another trap is triggered. A large jaw closes, but I hold the two sides with my hands and break it. A normal person would be instantly decapitated.

I keep walking but stop.

’This one is dangerous.’ I change direction. There are many, so it will take a while for me to get there. Also, I noticed that the crystal itself now has a trap, so it’s not a good idea for me to attack without knowing what kind of trap it has.

I step on a rope that activates, and ropes bind my arms and legs. Soon, a steel coffin traps me. A second later, flames are released inside, but they have no effect on me.

I break this trap and come out unharmed. Kaori seems a bit frightened, but I think she still has confidence in her other traps. I’ve noticed that they’re getting stronger as well.

’She was smart.’ She isolated herself with the crystal and left a very treacherous path to get through.

I make a right turn and step on the next one. Soon, the ground turns to sand, and a cone-shaped form emerges from the sand as I slide into it. My body reaches the bottom of the funnel, with my hips completely under the hole, and I feel something biting my legs, even piercing my mana.

’Antlion Trap... it seems to be any literal trap.’ This is not a trap made by humans, but rather made by an insect. The fact that she made it capable of affecting me shows its strength.

I use the shadows to kill what’s underneath while changing the texture of the sand to climb out again.

’This is annoying... and it’s getting worse.’ The traps only increase in strength, and the path is becoming increasingly difficult to traverse. Moreover, there are traps that I only detect when I’m close to triggering them.

If it weren’t for my instincts, I could have been severely injured or even killed.

’Is the director really going to let this girl set up these dangerous traps?’ If it were other students, they would have already lost. Only people like Celeste would be able to get through this, and even for her it would be dangerous. This just shows how unique abilities can be too dangerous.