CHAPTER 111: CONVERSATION BEFORE THE SECOND PHASE

I am led to a room to prepare, in the room there is a wide variety of weapons and staffs.

I don’t choose anything, I’m just going to wait.

Knock knock knock

’Strange, no one was supposed to come...’ I go to the door cautiously, maybe it’s another assassin that Celeste sometimes sends.

I look at the door and open it gently with caution, only to see the principal standing in front of the door.

"Principal Akari? Do you need anything?" I ask with doubt, not understanding why she’s here.

The principal soon enters the room and sits down while looking at the seat in front as if silently telling me to sit down.

Without understanding anything, I make this silent request.

’Why is she here?’ I soon look at her, which creates a strange atmosphere because no one is speaking.

"Principal... could you tell me what you want? I need to prepare to compete..." I say a bit hesitantly, not knowing why she came.

"Haaa..." she sighs a little and then says in a serious tone.

"Pandora, I want you to please withdraw from the competition"

"...What? Could you repeat that, I don’t think I heard it right..." This seemed very wrong, she just said she wants me out of this competition? And if so, then why?

"Pandora, you are too sick to compete, several students have already seen you coughing up blood on multiple days, look how pale your skin is" She speaks in a concerned tone.

’I’m naturally pale...’

"Principal, I’m fine... in fact, you’re right, I’m mortally ill" The principal makes a surprised face at my unexpected "confession."

"But I don’t want to worry anyone, I’ve had a difficult life and now I finally have a little freedom to enjoy my adolescence before... well... something happens..." I say in false sadness, an acting performance that would put soap opera women to shame.

"But I can compete, in fact I want to compete, I’ve always thought when watching the competitions... Wow, how cool, one day I want to participate in this too" I’ve never even seen this competition and I don’t care about it.

However, my instincts say this, deceive this woman, just as many predators in nature pretend to be cute, I will also appeal to pity and compassion, in this dangerous world having these feelings is a weakness.

And I will exploit this weakness, and when the principal notices the truth, my fangs will be ready to tear her to shreds.

I get up from my seat and run to her, then give her a hug that surprises her.

I start to cry while saying.

"P-Please... d-don’t tell my father... h-he’ll make me stay home again... I-I don’t want that, I barely managed to get freedom to live like a normal girl... i-if he finds out I’m still seriously ill, he might take me out of the academy" I hug her tightly as tears stain her clothes.

"Pandora... I didn’t know you felt this way" She speaks in a sad tone while hugging me comfortingly.

’Fool... so easy’ I’ve always been good at acting, I needed it to escape beatings in the past, when Kaito hit me I pretended to be unconscious, when the school called to talk about my absences I pretended to be sick perfectly.

And that’s how I acquired the ability to cry purposely to escape certain problematic situations with Yuki and Kaori.

’She seems so... tasty’ I think as I look at the principal, it seems so easy to kill her, I just need to bite and tear her neck, the feeling of that is so intoxicating.

But I restrain myself as I continue the act, I need to be convincing, besides I doubt it would be that easy.

"Hick it’s s-so hard, I just wanted to have a normal life... b-but I can’t even have that" she moves her hands along my back in a comforting gesture as I cry.

"Please d-don’t take my opportunities l-like this, d-don’t tell anyone about this, if my father finds out about my condition he’ll take me out of the academy and there’s... o-other problems..."

"I-I have many e-enemies, if I’m n-not strong t-they’ll kill me hick... I-I can barely sleep at night, I-I never know if I’ll have a t-tomorrow to enjoy" Even I’m surprised by my performance, could this not earn me a skill called Acting?

"Calm down Pandora... I... understand, I won’t tell anyone about this..." She speaks in a calming tone, I feel her guard drop completely, the stupidest thing to do near a bloodthirsty monster like me.

’Is she tempting me? Why is she so foolish? The urge to bite and break only increases... I wonder what the taste of the strongest mage of humanity is’ I want to try just a little piece, but I restrain myself from biting her right here.

"P-Principal... c-could you please n-not tell anyone about this, even? Promise that only you w-will know about this" I say in a tearful tone.

"Yes, I promise Pandora" She confirms in a condescending tone.

"A-And... I-I even thought about ending it all... giving up on everything, not trying anymore... hick... it’s so difficult and hopeless... b-but I persevered, to try a normal life..." She is surprised by this, I notice by her erratic movement.

Of course she would be, when a student indirectly says she’s already thought about suicide, it’s obvious she would be shaken, in fact even I’m surprised by the level of this performance, it’s so realistic.

"So please... hick... d-don’t destroy the only chance I have to live like everyone else" I move away a little so she can see my tearful face, but without separating from the hug.

"D-Don’t let the determination I had... be in v-vain... d-don’t let me die without knowing what it’s like to be happy..." Her gaze is as if her heart had broken with pity, as if she had seen something extremely sad.

"Pandora, is there anything I can do?" She asks looking directly at me.

’I think I understand...’ She is the type who trusts future generations, someone who cares about the young and hopes they will be better than the people of the past.

"N-No... I-I want to try to win the victory on my own... i-it wouldn’t be fair to use my problems... to reduce the difficulty..." I use a modest and fair girl approach, she who values justice will see my speech as a good thing.

"I understand... Pandora, when you need to vent, you can always come to my office... I wish you good luck..." She says as she releases me from the hug and gets up to leave, I wipe my tears and give a modest smile.

"T-Thank you principal... thank you very much for listening to my problems... I-I needed that"

"You’re welcome" She says as she leaves through the door, after 2 minutes I move and sit on the couch.

"Pandora... you... are false, very false, the snakes would be envious of your falseness" Violet says after evaluating my performance.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m false? She’s the fool for being fooled by a student, who told her to believe I’m sick? Fuck her, if she finds out what I am, she’ll be the first to try to kill me"

"Can I know why this very malicious choice?" Violet asks with genuine interest.

"She’s dangerous... very much so, I need her to lose the negative attention she has on me, it was obvious to me that she was keeping an eye on me, but not in a good way, but rather the kind of look for someone you believe will cause problems"

"That’s why I demonstrated fragility, by showing how "fragile" I am, it takes away some of her caution about me, what I tried to show her is a girl who tries to hide her problems behind a facade"

"So she stops seeing me as a potential problem, and starts to see me as a girl who just wants to live like everyone else"

"Besides... it was funny" I say with a mocking smile.

"I understand... I partially agree... won’t this make her even more careful and attentive to you?"

"Maybe... but I have no way of knowing, I can only wait for the future... it’s 3 minutes until the tournament, I wasted unnecessary time with this" I say as I prepare to enter the teleportation circle.

"Besides, Violet, having her having pity for me makes some things easier, like getting permission to enter the forbidden section of the library"

"I see, it makes sense, you can also find her weaknesses... good play... although it was strange to see you crying... very strange"

"I agree, I’m not much of a fan of the act of crying, but if that gives me an advantage, I’ll do it as many times as necessary" It may not be honorable, but who cares? I’m a monster, I don’t need honor.

Soon the teleportation circle shines, I quickly enter it and am teleported to some place, this place will be the arena where we will fight.

I look around the environment, a vast ice forest and where I am at the moment, the ground is soft snow while the climate is dropping small snowflakes.

Wherever I look I see trees, but the trees are made of pure ice, their leaves are slightly transparent while even the fruits are bluish with the top part slightly white.

An utterly unreal scenario for the modern world, but perfectly common in this world.

’I should look for my opponent... the first to find the other has obvious advantages’ I’ll start looking for him heading towards the sun, the arena is large but not large enough for us not to find each other in time.

Just try your luck, the ambient climate has a lot of mana which makes it difficult to find anything, I have to search myself if I want to find it.

I start wandering through the vast snowy field in search of my prey for the day, I hope it’s not Celeste, she’s annoying to fight.