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Chapter 336

[Twenty-four hours until completion of the ritual.]

It was a strange type of red-moon corruption.

Could Nyala be seeking revenge?

The thought crossed my mind, though I wasn’t certain.

After all, I hadn’t left any trace at that site of destruction.

But when I reached the exchange hall, things were not as I expected.

The sky was red, time itself seemed to drip away… yet the dormitory that should have been the center of the phenomenon remained completely unaffected.

“Leon? Where were you—”

“Anything strange here?”

“Huh? What do you mean? Everyone’s just busy enjoying the party.”

So this wasn’t the place?

“I just heard a bird cry.”

“Oh, that. Lishia Hevilion got drunk and started showing off with a golem. It broke something.”

…Then it wasn’t here.

The sky glowed red—so it had to be nearby.

If it wasn’t the Imperial Academy’s dormitory, there were only two other likely sites.

“Is there contact with the central exchange hall or Kona Academy?”

“Yes, sir. Just received confirmation—no changes reported.”

The situation was getting murky.

What on earth was happening?

“Hey. Gather everyone and stay put here, don’t move. Muyeong.”

At my call, the shadow wolf poked its head out from the darkness.

“Protect them.”

Grrr.

With a low growl, Muyeong slipped into Melissa’s shadow.

“What’s going on? Why the sudden tension?”

“Nothing big. Don’t make a scene—just wait here. I’ll take care of it.”

Her expression filled with discontent, yet she said nothing.

“You never tell me anything anymore.”

Her face showed helplessness—either toward herself or toward me for not trusting her, even after she’d become a Sword Master.

Years of bottled-up resentment seemed to spill over, and I sighed.

Then I dropped a tactical-grade flick to her forehead.

“Ow!!”

“Do I look like I’m here to mess around?”

“What—what’s that supposed to mean, you dragonfly-looking jerk?!”

“I’m your supervising instructor. I’m responsible for you all. Since when does a guardian ask their wards for help?”

“……”

“If I need help later, I’ll say so.”

“……”

“Close your mouth before your lips stick out like a duck’s.”

I poked her puffed lips until she forced them back in, and she hung her head without another word.

What good is being a Sword Master?

Or a duke of a great realm?

Even recognized as an adult—she was still not yet twenty.

“Melissa.”

“What.”

“Once the exchange ends, start preparing for the wedding.”

Her eyes widened as she lifted her head.

“Finally?”

“Yeah. With the princess issue settled, and since we planned it anyway.”

“I was wondering when you’d get around to it. So—big or small ceremony?”

“Big.”

“Small.”

Luna and I spoke at the same time.

We locked eyes.

“Big.”

“Small.”

I wanted big.

Luna wanted small.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime wedding.”

“We’re not doing it to show off to others.”

“Hey, I can afford it.”

“It’s not about others. It’s about you and me.”

Neither of us backed down.

Then Luna took drastic action.

“Small.”

She pulled out a jewel from her subspace—a single glance told me it was worth a fortune.

“W-wait, put that down—”

Crunch!

The jewel was reduced to dust in her hand.

That brute strength…

“Luna, wait—”

Slide.

“Small.”

Now she took out a necklace set with an even bigger gemstone.

“Just—calm down, okay?”

“Luna! That thing’s worth millions of Sels! Handle it carefully!”

Melissa’s shout came too late.

Crunch!

“Small!!”

Faced with her iron-clad demand, darkness fell before my eyes.

No matter how much money I earned, that kind of waste always left me dizzy.

“F-fine… small it is…”

The moment I surrendered, she tossed the jewels back into her subspace without hesitation.

When I thought about it, Cascadia’s wealth owed largely to Luna—our perfect patron saint of finances.

Sure, Orichalcum and the Paradise Artifacts contributed, but the latter weren’t steady business materials and the former always sparked conflict.

In the end, I had no choice but to accept Luna’s will.

Leaving Melissa in charge of the dormitory’s safety, I headed for the central exchange hall.

The sky remained red, unchanged.

Two hours had already passed.

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* * *

[Time Until Ritual Completion: 22:49]

At first, I thought it was counting minutes and seconds.

Turns out it was hours and minutes.

A relief, I suppose—what had looked like twenty-four minutes became twenty-four hours of breathing room.

Still, that was little comfort since I’d found no clue to the cause.

We’d searched every inch of the dorms and surrounding area—nothing.

Only the Kona Academy dorms remained.

“Even this place looks fine. What’s going on?”

It was far too normal compared to typical red-moon events.

But Luna disagreed.

“No. This is the place.”

She strode off and pointed behind a building, at a mound of earth.

“Here.”

[2nd-Circle Earth Magic]

[Dig]

I didn’t even need to ask what she meant.

When I cast Dig, the ground split open to reveal a pulsating red glow—an eerie sigil.

That wasn’t magic.

It was a ritual masquerading as one.

“Looks like someone inside Kona Academy either submitted to an Outer God or got possessed and murdered.”

…And why hadn’t you noticed that?

I scolded the Librarian in the air.

[Such cases are enacted by mortals of this world, not directly by extradimensional beings. Thus, I cannot detect them as Outer God movements.]

So even the Librarian’s senses weren’t omnipotent.

I wasn’t used to these phenomena, but Luna seemed to recognize them instantly—she’d seen something like it before.

[If a similar event occurs again, I’ll detect it immediately.]

Almost as if reading my thoughts, the Librarian hastily added that note.

“So the culprit’s one of the humans inside, right?”

“We could interrogate them… but looks like we already found our suspect.”

At her words, I turned toward a staggering figure approaching us.

A maid, eyes blank, walked unsteadily forward—her hands clutched a dagger drenched in blood.

She looked ordinary, yet the power emanating from within her was anything but.

And her head—

A grotesque jellyfish-like creature enveloped it, tendrils coiling tightly around her body.

She looked beyond saving, but neither Luna nor I moved to rescue her.

“She’s already dead.”

“A corpse.”

Through my necromancer’s Soul-Sight, I saw no spirit left within.

Luna must have sensed her vital signs were gone as well.

Did Kona Academy still not realize what was happening?

Bzzzt!

“What now, at a time like this.”

A sudden call through the comm artifact—the head of the Moon Watchers.

“What is it?”

—What have you done? Nyala is hunting down the cultists, slaughtering them! If this continues, we can’t predict—

Hearing her frantic accusation, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh, so it went that way? Good. Let them wipe each other out.”

—What?

“I’m busy. Talk later.”

Before she could respond, I shut off the artifact.

* * *

The jellyfish-crowned woman charged at us like a starving zombie.

BOOM!

Before she could reach us, a wraith leapt from my shadow, tearing her body to shreds.

Desecrating corpses wasn’t pleasant, but she was already dead—and something told me she wouldn’t die any other way.

“That’s gruesome…”

Even just looking at the jellyfish made my stomach turn.

Beneath its translucent skin were dozens of eyeball-like spheres, twitching and rolling independently.

And worse—the creature hadn’t latched onto her head.

Her skull had burst open, and the jellyfish had grown out from within, fusing completely with her body.

This wasn’t something placed on her—it was something born inside.

“Are all extradimensional beings this disgusting?”

Remembering the hideous Void Gluttony, I felt the same revulsion.

You needed a strong stomach to face things like this.

Strangely enough, despite the commotion, Kona Academy’s dormitory remained calm.

The monster’s body melted into liquid and vanished without a trace once it died.

In this tangled situation, I decided to act simply.

BANG!

I flung open the hall doors.

Dozens of startled eyes turned toward us.

“The culprit is inside this room.”

Luna narrowed her eyes, scanning the crowd blankly watching us.

“No one here is tainted by Outer-World power.”

“Ah. Then something’s wrong with that reading.”

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