A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

Arc 4: Separation

“―How is it? Any impressions of the exceptional performance I arranged for you, Kanaki?”

Revealing herself, Alice flashed a maiden’s beam as she spoke in a vibrant tone of voice.

In the wanted poster, I had already viewed Alice once, yet meeting her in person left me with the impression that she was a relatively young girl. In fact, she may not be that much older than Arti. The only problem was that Alice excelled at tampering with people’s bodies, which suggested that she was not necessarily the same age as she appeared to be.

“…When did you first plot this?”

Brushing aside Alice’s question, I counter-questioned her, to which she replied seemingly placidly.

“Well, about three days ago, I guess. It was right when the request came directly to ‘me’ that a flash of inspiration dawned on me. When I told them that I would accept it as long as whatever method would be used was acceptable, they agreed to it with a simple yes or no, so I figured I had no choice but to follow through.”

In short, it was a spur-of-the-moment idea that struck her three days ago, and her betrayal of me and Matthias came so readily.

It was very characteristic of her. Indebtedness and fraternity were all worth nothing to her. Whenever the prospect of pleasure beckoned, her devotion to the pursuit of enjoyment was unbounded, to the point that she would abandon everything she possessed at all costs. From my past interactions with her, I have known this to some degree, and yet it was my own consequence for allowing the situation to develop into what it was.

“…I see.”

“…Huh? Kanaki, you’re not responding as strongly as I had expected. Even the always stoic Kanaki, I thought, would feel crushed this time.”

My indifferent response apparently didn’t sit well with her. Alice’s youthful features warped in dissatisfaction.

“I mean, you know…”

That was when Alice’s voice dropped to a chilling tone.

“―Arti, you’re being vexing.”

Concurrently with her words, a dog-like demon constructed entirely of bones emerged at Alice’s feet.

The instant the dog demon crept out of the void, it swiftly pounced on Arti.

“―Eh?”

Arti cried out in consternation as she raised her disoriented, tear-stained face.

The dog demon opened its mouth, and right as its unrefined fangs was about to reach Arti, my foot pierced its wide-open maw.

“―Shiii!”

Having been driven away by the kick, the dog demon shattered into pieces in mid-air, and its bones tumbled to the floor in pieces.

With those bones soon gone, too, a bland sigh escaped Alice.

“Well, I suppose this isn’t enough to kill you.”

Alice didn’t seem in the least bit alarmed when she strolled over to us after saying this.

“Then, let’s have a direct confrontation between me and you at last, shall we? I have always hoped to kill you once, so this is like a dream come true.”

An ecstatic Alice remarked this, and then she trampled away the obstruction in her path—Eto’s entrails which were lying on the ground—with a blunt and unceremonious motion.

“―Die.”

With one breath, I closed the gap between Alice and me and kicked the floor.

Since “Sprint Move,”[i] the way of walking taught by Matthias, was adopted, Alice must have felt as though I had moved instantaneously without expending any magical power.

“Eh?”

My index finger dug into Alice’s throat as a dazed look surfaced on her expression.

Even Alice would not have been able to react due to the greatly reduced lag time for magic activation induced by limiting the deployment of Chakrameth to my index finger. Alice’s body sagged down lifelessly like a puppet with its strings torn as I wildly withdrew my finger.

Watching Alice lying on the floor, a sigh was heaved from me.

“…I knew it.”

[Ahaha, your expression was rather pleasant just now, Kanaki.]

Out of nowhere, Alice’s amused laughter arose.

Alice, who was lying on the floor, had been substituted with the corpse of a totally different woman. Even Alice was not willing to take the senseless step of standing in front of me. After all, Alice had learned about one of my abilities through Xenia. Having always masked my true identity, I was not familiar with the notion of engaging in a battle with someone like Alice, whose information about me was already in the open.

“Please show yourself, Ms. Alice. Do you fear me?”

[Don’t say such a thing, Kanaki. I was planning to torture you gradually, and now you have the urge to kill me immediately.]

“―Hii!”

Along with Alice’s voice, demons materialized from all sides of the living room, encircling us. Perhaps taking into account the small living room space, the summoned demons were all approximately the size of a small dog made of bones, as was the case earlier.

Standing in a position where I could protect Arti, I readied my fist. Although none of these demons constituted much of a threat, their sheer quantity was the dilemma. When it came to combat in this cramped room while protecting Arti, the odds were not in my favor since my magical activation speed was not that rapid. Even if I defeated the existing demons, Alice’s magical power seemed to be limitless; even if I launched a somewhat drastic suicide attack to cut my “stock,” I would definitely find myself in a tight spot.

[Are you ready, Kanaki? Perhaps someone will come to your rescue if you can hold out until sunrise?]

“…Bring it on.”

You won’t even let me get ready anyway.

Right at the time that I was about to generate magical power and at the very minimum, enhance my physical body with sorcery, a swarm of demons swarmed in and attacked me at once.

——————

T/N:

[i] It’s another actual martial art, and in case someone mistook it, the “way of walking” is the name category of the technique. No idea what’s the English name for it. But I checked on youtube and it’s called Sprint Move, a Japanese martial art by Ninja? You can check it out here. Oh, there’s probably plenty of martial arts as a reference in future chapters. It seems to be one of Kanaki’s specialty