She got tense, wondering if her voice had been too loud, but the man who’d been standing still for a moment slowly turned toward the two of them.

“Hic......!”

“Uh......!”

The two female students who met Arsian’s eyes froze on the spot.

Then, without realizing it themselves, they couldn’t control their trembling bodies and ended up collapsing to the floor with a FLOP.

It felt like something cold and sharp was raking through their whole bodies, and they simply couldn’t stay standing.

“.......”

Arsian bit down on his lip. At this hour, he’d thought there wouldn’t be anyone at the Academy.

Arsian knew exactly why they were reacting like that. They were frightened by the aura leaking out of his body right now.

A series of murder cases using Black Magic had broken out. The Duke of Sephra had tried to handle it personally, but the elders of the ducal house wanted to see Arsian’s ability.

In the end, Arsian had been forced to step in directly under their hardline insistence, and he was on his way back after just finishing everything.

“Damn it.”

He had executed every one of the Black Mages who committed the murders, but the process hadn’t gone smoothly, just as expected.

Because they’d used innocent people as tools for Black Magic, he had no choice but to stain his hands with the blood of countless people.

“Haah.”

He couldn’t save even a single one. There was absolutely no way to erase the Black Magic that had already been carved deeply into their souls.

All he could do was lessen their suffering through death.

Was that why? Even after dealing with all the Black Mages who were behind it, his mood was still filthy.

Killing Intent and aura were tangled up chaotically, and they wouldn’t settle down easily. It was the first time he’d ever been unable to control it like this.

Even though he’d finished the job, the reason he couldn’t go straight home was also because of this aura.

If Rio saw him like this right now, he might tremble in fear.

AAAAAGH!

It hurts... it hurts!

AAAAAGH!

S-save me......!

Even now, the sound of their screams lingered around his ears. They’d controlled people like puppets, leaving their minds completely intact.

People were terrified of bodies that wouldn’t move the way they wanted, and with their mouths they kept shouting at him to save them.

“Fucking hell.”

As if out of habit, Arsian moved his feet and headed to one place.

The spirit forest. It was the place he found himself visiting the most, before he even realized it.

When he arrived near a lake with no one around, he claimed a spot under the shade of a tree and lay down.

Rough curses spilled from his mouth again as he lay there. The images of the children who had died by his hands kept dragging his mood down.

And the more it did, the black aura spilling from his body grew thicker, quickly swallowing up the area around him.

He tried to calm his mind somehow and fall asleep, but it wasn’t easy.

Rustle.

How much time had passed like that? Unable to fall asleep, he heard the sound of someone nearby, and without meaning to, he blasted out dense Killing Intent in a WHOOSH!

Arsian sat up with irritation and widened his eyes. Someone far too familiar was standing in front of him.

“Camilla.”

She was staring at him with a startled look in her eyes.

“Cam—!”

His body flinched and stiffened mid-step as he unconsciously started toward her. Because he could still see his Killing Intent-laced aura rippling.

Worried she might get hurt, Arsian hurriedly backed away.

He tried to gather his aura back in a rush, but maybe because his emotions had surged, it was harder to control than usual.

In the end, Arsian took another step back with a downcast expression.

Haah.

What now?

Camilla let out a long sigh inwardly as she watched him. To quickly shake off the chill that was creeping over her whole body, she clenched her lips tight.

After arriving at the Academy a moment ago, she had immediately gone to find the classroom Arsian was in.

Back when she was in the Gracia Empire, he was the person who had looked after her more than anyone else.

She wanted to tell him first that she was back.

But she couldn’t find him anywhere in the classroom. Luckily, when she came to the spirit forest just in case, she was able to find him.

But it was hard to walk right up to him. A chilling sensation wrapped around her entire body.

And Camilla knew very well that it was Killing Intent.

“Arsian.”

Camilla called to him as he hesitated and kept retreating.

“Where are you going?”

Before she knew it, a smile had formed at the corner of her lips.

His aura was still so thick in the air around them that it stung her skin, but Camilla took another step closer to him.

After taking a few steadying breaths, not even a trace of trembling remained in her body.

Because I know now.

That he—Arsian—was absolutely not someone who would hurt her.

“I’m back.”

Rather than that, she was more curious why he had become this sharp. What had happened to him while she was gone?

“.......”

Meeting Camilla’s worried gaze, his eyes shook without pause.

As he watched Camilla come closer to him, a long breath poured out of his mouth.

Slide.

He pulled her into his arms and buried his face in Camilla’s shoulder.

An inexplicable sense of relief washed over him at the fact that she wasn’t running away even after seeing him like this.

With her warmth after so long—her scent—the filthy feeling gradually faded.

Camilla flinched for a moment at his action, then patted and soothed Arsian’s back as he kept letting out rough breaths.

Without asking anything—just quietly.

She could tell his sharp aura was disappearing fast, but even after that, Camilla didn’t withdraw the hand that was calming him for a long time.

“Wow... that’s seriously too much.”

“Right?”

“Morning business is ruined again today, huh?”

“This is driving me insane!”

Sighing, the employees who had come in for work kept spilling out lament after lament. Because the front of the shop had been completely trashed.

“How many days has it been now?!”

All kinds of filth had been thrown in front of the shop. You’d believe it if someone told you every bit of neighborhood garbage had been dumped here.

The wall and the glass windows weren’t intact either. Red paint had been used ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ to smear filthy curses all over the place—things too disgusting to even say out loud.

Ssssk!

“Manager.......”

Laila, who had come in first, already had a wet rag in hand and was diligently scrubbing away the red paint.

Seeing that, the other employees stopped complaining and hurried over with cleaning tools, starting to tidy up the front of the shop.

“Bastards!”

“You got that right!”

But the resentment and curses bursting out of them weren’t something they could help.

“The Guard Corps annoys me even more.”

“Me too!”

“They say they can’t punish anyone because there’s no evidence—this is seriously unbelievable.”

“It’s so obvious who the culprit is, but.......”

“They said it’s hard to punish someone with only suspicion.”

Someone tried to cool the overheated atmosphere, but that attempt immediately fell apart at the next line.

“Isn’t this worse than when those thugs came in to cause trouble? At this rate, the shop’s going to turn into a trash can.”

“To do this to a food shop!”

“May they get divine punishment!”

The employees’ faces were full of fury.

The ones who had come before to cause trouble in the shop had been dealt with harshly by Arsian, and after that they hadn’t come again.

But the relief of thinking it was over didn’t last long.

A few days later, someone started throwing trash like this in front of the shop and making it a total mess. And not just once.

Now the employees all knew. This was all something Dorald—the biggest dessert shop by the shopping district entrance over there—had cooked up!

But Dorald’s shop kept insisting it wasn’t them and flatly denying it, so there was nothing they could do to punish them.

One day, they couldn’t take it anymore and even tried taking turns staking out inside the shop until the culprit showed up, but it was useless.

On days like that, as if they somehow knew, nothing happened at all. It was enough to drive you insane.

“Should we go over there at night and throw a ton of filth at them too?”

“I’m in!”

“Let’s keep all this trash as it is. I’m going tonight and I’ll throw it at them!”

“I’m coming too!”

As they cleaned, the clerks’ mouths kept spilling out the sound of teeth grinding.

It wasn’t just a day or two. Doing this every morning, they were so furious they couldn’t stand it. It felt like they’d only be able to breathe after getting revenge the same way.

“Still, you can’t commit a crime.”

Laila, who had been keeping silent, stopped the employees.

But Laila, who was scrubbing the glass window hard, seemed just as angry—she clenched her lips tight.

Even so, what could they do? They were furious, but they couldn’t allow themselves to do the same thing.

“What is all this?”

A familiar voice came in at that moment.

“Ah!”

“O-owner!”

Laila and all the employees quickly lifted their heads. There she was, staring at the red-smeared wall with a dumbfounded look.

“Our shop’s interior changed so drastically while I didn’t even know?”

At Camilla’s appearance, Laila’s eyes widened instantly. And then her eyes started reddening more and more.

“Ca... Camilla!”

The tough, brisk cleaning she’d been doing until a moment ago vanished without a trace as she ran toward Camilla, teary-eyed.

Tsk.

Looking at Laila throwing herself into her arms, Camilla clicked her tongue inwardly.

She didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she could guess well enough that Laila had been under a lot of stress.

So that’s why you didn’t come to the Academy.

Even though class was about to start soon, she couldn’t find Laila anywhere.

After hearing that Laila had been skipping class lately, Camilla immediately left the classroom. She’d guessed something had happened to Laila and come to the café.

“I’m back.”

“Hic......!”

At Camilla’s greeting, Laila finally burst into audible sobs.

“You worked hard.”

“Uh... uh... waaah!”

As if that line had been the trigger, she cried even more bitterly.

While lightly patting Laila’s head, Camilla swept her gaze around.

First, let’s figure out what kind of situation this is.

Who had trashed her shop like this.

Camilla’s eyes flashed cold for an instant.