A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

“Hah… hah…”

In the seemingly boundless grove of mixed trees, Alice was limping her way through.

Moonlight was obstructed by the foliage in the wildly overgrown thicket, which no one tended, and only a faint moonlight was able to penetrate the thicket. Under conventional circumstances, Alice would only need to channel her magical power through her optic nerves and benefit from night vision, whereas in her present state, even the slightest use of her magical power to do that would be unwise.

Alice, who was once a powerhouse with an overwhelming amount of magical power and was acknowledged by both herself and others, now struggled to walk at a crawling speed with a fist-sized hole in her abdomen and half of her intestines protruding outward.

For an average person, death would have ensued, or at the very least, walking would be out of the question.

But even so, Alice Raison de Trile was undeniably alive.

“Hah… h-heh, did they assume that my body is still flesh and blood…”

Having established that no pursuers were forthcoming, Alice forced herself to regulate her rough breathing, and the corners of her mouth distorted into an arc. In fact, had Kanaki and the others made a pursuit now, even Alice would not have been in a position to control the situation.

To put it another way, Alice has suffered such lethal damage that even those two cautious men were positive that her death was definite. And yet, the only reason why she was able to escape alive in this way was that even Alice’s own body was already a corpse.

“Perfect Undead”. A unique magic employed by Alice to manipulate corpses as if they were living human beings, but this was not limited to that. Being capable of moving unused internal organs would correspond to being able to carry out vital activities in the absence of the use of such organs. In other words, even if Alice’s heart was pierced or her internal organs were devoured, provided that another person was available to take her place, she would be able to survive even if separated from the main body of Alice.

Even so, aside from Mr. Matthias, it is a wonder that Kanaki is capable to “such an extent”.

While frantically dumping her magical power to repair the hole in her abdomen, the thought of Kanaki, whom she had assumed to be of a lower rank, flowed to Alice’s mind. Despite harboring a complex magic called “Soul Eater,” she had figured that it wouldn’t matter if the base of the magic was identified, but never did she suspect that he was still concealing a technique so profound that it could break through her “Infinity Wall”. That may have been a magic that even reached the level of a legendary existence among magicians―special-class magic…

“…Haha, I guess I don’t have the luxury of dwelling on such things right now.”

Alice dismissed her musings on Kanaki there, and devoted her focus to addressing the crisis at hand.

For now, it was the replenishment of magical power. The corpses that were currently under her control must be assembled here at the earliest opportunity, and she must squeeze as much magical power out of them as she can to recover her magical power…

“―I finally found you.”

“―!?”

Perhaps it was Alice’s distinguished magical sense that prompted her to get down on the spur of the moment.

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In a split second, all the trees that had lined the ground above Alice’s head were reaped.

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“―What is this absurd amount of magical power…!”

From overhead, which opened up in an instant, the moonlight descended on Alice, a stark shift from earlier, and she narrowed her eyes.

When her vision eventually became accustomed to the light, astonishment gripped her eyes at the sight of the figure standing in front of her.

“Karen Ortesia…!?”

“Hello, Art of the Corpse Princess. It seems that ‘Kaguya’ took care of you while I was sleeping.”

Karen Ortesia, the girl who should have been sleeping in the hospital room until only a short while ago, greeted Alice with a cool face. Alice, however, was responsible for crushing Karen’s lung while she was asleep. No amount of skilled doctors could have restored her to the front lines in such a short period of time.

“I learned that you were to blame for the deaths of the seniors who were guarding me in the hospital room. If it were true, I would like to annihilate you here without question, but I am a member of Kaguya as well. For the sake of my seniors who fulfilled their duties and died in the line of duty, I cannot afford to entertain any personal feelings here. Therefore, Alice Raison de Trile. You shall be constrained here and now.”

More than anything else, Alice did not have time to spare right now to wonder why Karen was completely healed.

That was not because Alice was working out how to escape, but because the next moment, Karen’s strike with the back of her sword drove Alice into a state of unconsciousness and into the darkness.