Chapter 82

In the restaurant, where some children had yet to regain consciousness.

Thinking that if the culprit were to manipulate another person and cause chaos again, a real disaster could unfold, I returned to the restaurant with Yoon Si-woo.

Only upon arriving near the restaurant did we realize that the surroundings weren’t overly noisy, allowing us to finally stop running.

If something had happened, there would have been a commotion, but seeing that wasn’t the case, it seemed there were no major issues in the restaurant.

I felt somewhat relieved, and just as I sighed in relief, I spotted Leonor lighting a magic herb near the entrance of the restaurant.

Fwoosh The raindrops clung to the slightly open window, as if trying to let the smoke out.

The raindrops were trickling down her face reflected in the glass.

As I silently observed, our eyes met in the reflection.

Leonor hurriedly wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

Then she slightly bowed her head and muttered an excuse, as if justifying her actions.

Sniff “…Damn, my eyes are stinging. This is why I shouldn’t smoke indoors. The smoke isn’t dissipating.”

Hearing that, I turned to Yoon Si-woo, who was standing next to me.

“…Could you check if the kids in the restaurant are okay?”

Yoon Si-woo nodded obediently and entered the restaurant.

Thank goodness he didn’t seem completely oblivious to the situation.

After sending Yoon Si-woo off, I approached Leonor and noticed her reddened eyes.

Ahh I let out a sigh.

Not because of the smoke.

However, Leonor pretended to be fine and pulled out a magic herb from her pocket, waving it as if asking if I wanted to smoke it.

Without saying much, I accepted it and put it in my mouth.

Then, as I lit it, I gently patted her back.

Leonor bit her lip, as though wrestling with something inside, took a deep breath, and then started to grumble.

“…Is it normal for a junior to do that to a senior?”

“When comforting someone who’s having a hard time, what’s the difference between senior and junior?”

“…Sometimes, your words make you sound like an old person.”

Leonor forced a bitter smile.

She put the magic herb back in her mouth, took a drag, and gazed out at the pouring rain.

Her eyes were filled with an undeniable sadness.

Heart thump She was a warm-hearted person.

Earlier, when I announced the news of Mr. James’s death, she looked genuinely distressed.

Leonor murmured.

“…I don’t really know about multiple personalities, but at least the uncle I knew was a good person. He didn’t deserve to die like that. He even said he’d teach me how to cook next time…”

Earlier, she had mentioned that it might be a multiple personality.

But that was different.

In reality, Mr. James was merely a victim who had been thoroughly manipulated by someone.

I cautiously spoke to her.

“…Senior, I think I might have said something wrong earlier.”

Leonor questioned back.

“Something wrong?”

“Yes. I think Mr. James might have been controlled by someone.”

“…Controlled?”

The sadness in Leonor’s eyes shifted into another emotion, and just as I was about to explain in detail, a voice rang out from behind.

“Scarlet, how did you know he was controlled? Did something happen?”

I stopped explaining and turned to see Eve looking at me with a serious expression.

I carefully replied to her.

“Nothing really happened, but upon reflection, it seemed strange. If it had been a case of multiple personalities, he wouldn’t have chosen such a death even if he was discovered… But how did you know he was controlled?”

Noticing her serious expression, I felt curiosity bubble up.

Just a little while ago, Eve had agreed with my notion that it could be a case of multiple personalities. Yet now, she seemed to already know that Mr. James was controlled.

While I pondered how she had figured that out, I recalled that she had asked me if anything had happened.

…Could it be?

“…Did something happen to you?”

As I asked, Eve snapped her fingers.

Then, a woman with short hair, wraped in a blanket and looking unconscious, appeared behind her.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Rhea, the woman I had seen during the last field practice.

Eve looked at her with a worried gaze and said.

“Scarlet, you saw her face before, right? She came as an investigator after we requested support from the Public Security Bureau, but suddenly knifed my neck and tried to burn my corpse along with hers. Luckily, I had cast an illusion spell on myself beforehand, so I survived. In any case, the Rhea I know would never do something like that. That’s how I realized she was controlled.”

“…She tried to kill you? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Well, if you hadn’t warned me to stay alert, it could have been really dangerous.”

Eve answered with a reassuring smile, but my heart sank.

Her near-death incident reminded me of the time she had died in the original story.

She had died out of nowhere.

Could it have also been the act of someone who was being controlled?

But in the original story, her death didn’t occur this early.

I was completely lost as to what was happening and deeply confused when I heard Leonor’s voice from the side.

“…So, you’re saying some bastard controlled the uncle and did that, right?”

With bloodshot eyes, Leonor asked in a low, furious voice, gripping her hands tightly as they shook in anger.

And Eve’s following response made Leonor’s expression harden.

“Yeah, it was probably the witch’s doing.”

“…A witch?”

Leonor asked for confirmation, her face set in stone.

“I can’t say for sure, but I’m almost 100% certain. Controlling people as one wishes isn’t an easy task. Moreover, controlling two different people like this in such a short amount of time to the point of causing their death is impossible for a human.”

“But all the witches were killed in the past…”

Leonor murmured, declining Eve’s statement.

Witches were nearly mythological beings to the people of this era.

Even the greatest heroes could not be sure they could defeat them, and entire races had to be prepared for extinction just to possibly deal with one.

The very idea of such beings still being alive was hard for Leonor to accept, especially when she was told one of them was behind this incident.

But I couldn’t deny Eve’s words.

I had witnessed the girl with black and purple hair during the gym incident.

She was likely a witch.

Still, we could not afford to fall into despair.

I steeled myself and spoke to Eve.

“Then it’s close to impossible to find and stop the culprit directly.”

“Yeah, but we need to find some way to prevent this situation no matter what.”

“Is there any way?”

When I asked, Eve thought for a moment and murmured.

“I don’t think just anyone can be controlled. If it were possible for anyone to be controlled, there wouldn’t be a need to control others to try and kill me. It would be much simpler for them to control me directly.”

Recently, what terrified me most was the thought of not being myself and harming my loved ones with my own hands.

I hadn’t even considered the possibility of being controlled…

But upon reflection, I was relieved.

Although it wasn’t likely to happen, the thought of someone like Yoon Si-woo being controlled and killing people would truly be a disaster.

Feeling somewhat reassured, I grasped the essence of Eve’s words.

“So, are you saying there’s a specific person they can control?”

“Exactly. No matter how powerful a witch may be, they can’t control just anyone. There must be people they’ve prepped in advance. Controlling others isn’t an easy feat, even for a witch.”

“Then finding out who they’ve prepped in advance would be the best course of action. There might be some commonality between them.”

I said this while trying to think things through.

Looking for a commonality between Mr. James, who was controlled today, and Rhea…

One was a fifty-something ordinary man, and the other was a twenty-something empowered woman.

At first glance, they didn’t seem to share any significant commonality, and while I was deep in thought, Eve suggested.

“Maybe it could be something invisible. Let’s check it out with magic. There are a lot of wizards inside the restaurant, right? We originally came to check on Rhea, so we might be able to ask them to look for something suspicious while we’re at it.”

“…That does seem to be the only method.”

Seeing it was a plausible suggestion, I followed Eve, who was holding Rhea wrapped in a blanket, into the restaurant.

When someone carrying a wrapped person entered, the eyes of those who were observing the children, chatting about their condition, turned towards us.

After giving a nod to Sylvia and Yoon Si-woo, who were looking at me with surprised eyes, I followed Eve.

Eve approached the health teacher, who looked like she was about to collapse, and said, handing Rhea over.

“Kate, if the kids are stable, could you check Rhea first? Do a full-body examination and let us know if you find anything suspicious.”

“…Ms. Eve, I feel like I’m going to die from exhaustion; why does it have to be me…”

“Because you’re the best we have here.”

The health teacher seemed pleased by the compliment but soon shook her head.

“…Thanks for the compliment, but I’m sorry. Just fixing the kids’ internal injuries has me running on fumes… Anyway, if it’s just an examination, let the boy over there handle it. He’ll do a way better job for an exam…”

The health teacher pointed towards Dwight Neinhart from class B, a magic genius who resembled her.

He looked equally exhausted, but seeing as that was his normal state, I figured he’d manage.

Dwight, with sleepy eyes, addressed Eve.

“…Is this person the one I need to examine?”

“Yeah. Check her from head to toe as thoroughly as possible.”

“…This might give me a chance to try the new magic I learned.”

Dwight’s usually lethargic eyes lit up slightly.

Thinking that he really was obsessed with magic, I sat down nearby, waiting for him to finish examining Rhea. The health teacher looked at Eve and said.

“…Ms. Eve, are you injured anywhere?”

“…What? I cast a spell to make it invisible; how did you know?”

“Being a doctor, I can usually tell from your expression if something hurts you.”

At the health teacher’s words, Eve nervously smiled and snapped her fingers, revealing a wound on her neck where blood was oozing out.

…Was that the injury she had received when he stabbed her earlier?

It didn’t look superficial, clearly indicating how close she had come to danger.

The health teacher, with a worried look on her face, stated.

“…Let me treat you.”

“I’m fine. You must be tired. A little saliva will heal this, so save your strength for the kids.”

“…I don’t understand why everyone keeps coming in with dangerous-looking neck injuries. Rhea had a neck injury too; what on Earth is going on?”

When I checked Rhea, who was wrapped in the blanket and had her head peeking out, I noticed she indeed had multiple scratches around her neck.

Just as I was thinking about how unusual those wounds were, a strange sensation washed over me.

It was like puzzle pieces that had been scattered in my mind began to fit together.

Suddenly, I couldn’t understand why I was feeling this way, but I felt it was something I shouldn’t ignore.

What on Earth could it be?

As I pondered, I looked again at the wounds on Rhea’s neck.

“…I understood now.”

“Huh? What did you understand?”

As I muttered, Eve, who was beside me, asked.

“About their commonality. Between the two.”

It felt like every puzzle piece had finally clicked into place.

Eve had mentioned it before.

Rhea had stabbed her and attempted to burn herself with her corpse.

The reason behind having to burn with her.

It was the same reason why James had been killed in such a horrific manner.

“Mr. James had wounds on his neck too.”

Leonor, who was sitting next to me, widened her eyes and murmured.

The bandage wrapped around James’s neck before he entered the kitchen.

“…Yes. He said he got it from scratching himself.”

Scratches on the neck.

It was the reason they both had been killed in such a way.

The goal was to destroy the evidence.

Those wounds were evidence that they were being controlled, which is why they killed them to hide it.

So, we just had to keep an eye out for people with such scars on their necks.@@novelbin@@

But there was another problem.

“…Even if that’s the case, what could be causing such injuries?”

Eve mumbled.

To be frank, that was puzzling.

I recognized that the scars were a common trait, yet their form clearly indicated they were self-inflicted scratches.

What on earth had they done to inflict such wounds on themselves?

And then, Dwight’s voice reached us.

“Um, you guys might want to come check this out quickly.”

His tone was urgent, distinctly different from his usual languid voice.

As we all hurried towards him, Dwight pointed at a spot near Rhea’s head.

A panel resembling an X-ray appeared in midair.

It seemed to be showing Rhea’s brain.

Dwight pointed to a particular portion of the picture and said.

“…Do you see this? This white, thread-like thing.”

At first glance, it looked like a thin thread slightly protruding from the brain.

However, after Dwight amplified the image, we realized that it was gradually wriggling.

Could it be a bug or something?

As we all looked at Dwight in confusion, he began to speak with an unusually serious expression.

“It seems to be moving slightly, so I investigated it more closely and found signs of life. At first, I thought it might be a bug, but there’s a problem.”

We all held our breath after his next words.

“Though in small amounts, this thing has been detected as magical energy.”

A small, bug-like creature nestled in the brain.

“It’s a magical beast.”