A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

Right after opening the door, a solid pressure was pressed against my temple.

When my eyes shifted to the side, a sharp-eyed female was aiming a revolver at me impassively.

“I commend you for advancing this far, but perhaps one more step is needed for you.”

Bringing my line of sight back to the front, I found a petite girl sitting cross-legged in a chair. She was “Cannibal Merchant” that I met yesterday, Sasha Croizet.

Her picturesque defenselessness almost drew an unwittingly chuckle from me.

“…You are quite relaxed, aren’t you?”

“You are doomed, so that is only natural.”

“Do you expect a toy like this can kill me?”

Sasha lifted her cup and sipped her tea.

“I am aware that certain magic protects you from dying. However, have you not noticed? No magic of any kind is permitted in this space.”

“…Heh.”

I gave it a try to deploy Chakrameth, only to learn that I couldn’t even generate magical power, let alone conjure up any magic.

This place was apparently equipped with a stone that was incomparably more potent than the one used in Hansa’s store yesterday.

“Have you grasped it? By the way, the girl next to me is Olene. This girl is also in the S-rate class, so I doubt that you would be able to overcome her in a situation like this.”

“…”

This woman, “Cannibal Merchant,” was not undervalued by me. Being in the A-rate class suggested that she was highly competent notwithstanding her poor strength. Even her bodyguards were numerous and well-rounded.

For her to be this composed before my eyes right now, the situation I was in must have been extremely dire.

I held up my hands in resignation while shrugging my shoulders.

“So, what do you want from me?”

“Eh?”

“You don’t have to be so flirtatious. Unless I could be of usage to you, you would have shot me dead the moment I walked into this room. Is there a question you want to ask me?”

Her eyes dilated once as she peered into mine.

While my expression remained unaltered, she eventually began to formulate a response.

“First of all, how did you reach here?”

I was ready to say, “On foot,” but refrained from doing so.

“By wriggling the limbs of the flies that were buzzing around me.”

Seemingly unperturbed, she proceeded to pose her next question.

“The second question. Do you know where Felt is headed now?”

“I am assuming that she is on her way to this room in a panic right now. Because I have already destroyed what you were after.”

This time, the other party exhibited a touch of astonishment.

“Did you have any insight into what we were planning to do?”

“No. However, considering ‘Viper’ is your employee, I figured that you would seek to eliminate as many disgruntled elements to the maximum extent practicable, so I expected that you would pull some kind of maneuver.”

It was genuinely unanticipated that they would take action so rapidly. Thanks to that, I was compelled to execute my plan with less than 30% of the whole prepared.

“Hmm. Well, I will ask Felt when she comes back for further information about it. Finally, I would like to hear about that extraordinary magic crystal stone you are selling.”

“Huh?”

I was frankly taken aback. No way, did Hansa succumb to torture and divulge about that?

After further thought, I was reminded of the fact that I had used it myself yesterday against Felt. In that case, they would have realized it.

“Do you have any data on how it was made?”

“In my head.”

Once more, she drank her tea. She seemed to be racking her brain.

“Olene, is there any magic that enables one to peek inside a dead person’s head?”

“…There isn’t, but I believe there must be someone who possesses magic that can take control of a corpse and understand all of the corpse’s memories before death. She goes by the title ‘Art of the Corpse Princess,’ if I remember correctly.”

Hang on a minute.

“I seem to recall that person used to be in this city, is that right?”

“Yes. But I suppose she is presently being imprisoned in a prison in the royal capital.”

“Well then, I guess I should go and ask that her.”

She was easygoing, as though she were setting the menu for the evening.

“So I guess we are done now that I have asked all the questions I wanted to ask.”

“Um, do you have any more information to ask about that might help me hold on to my life?”

“Idiot. You were destined to die the moment you declined Felt’s offer.”

Bang.

The next thing I knew, the sound of something crashing in my ear brought me to the realization that I had collapsed.

“All right, Olene. Since the corpse is going to be put to use later, let’s just salt it and put it in our magical tool of storage, shall we?”

“…Lady Sasha. Please step back.”

Tsk, she has noticed.

The woman called Olene promptly pulled the trigger twice toward me, who sprang up to leap the following instant.

“Gah!?”

A brief scream was uttered by me. Each of the bullets she fired penetrated both of my eyes. Heated by the gunpowder, the bullets pierced through my eye sockets, melting my eyeballs and inflicting excruciating torment on my brain.

Temporarily deprived of vision, another shot was fired. The next shot struck me in the thigh, followed by a succession of gunshots when my movements were halted, all of which were aimed at my head, and the bullets perforated my cheeks and ripped through my soft palate. My expression nearly broke into an inadvertent strain of laughter at the relentless shooting, but when I was about to laugh, my entire lower jaw was blasted off.

Over a dozen seconds of barbaric gunfire ensued, the sound of an out-of-bullet gun falling to the floor was heard, and finally both of my eyes regenerated, revealing to me the first sight I saw: Olene, wielding a knife listlessly.

My eyesight whirled around with a flash to the side and I collided with the wall eventually before catching a distant view of my body, which was now missing from the neck up. It happened so fast, so swift.

But that was it.

“Goh!?”

Olene was completely powerless to evade the fist that had suddenly swung at her body, which she was certain had stopped moving altogether after my head had been torn off.

My vision went black as the thrusting fist pushed in even more, slamming Olene against the wall, but soon my head began to regenerate, returning my vision to its former state.

With Olene struggling to rise to her feet while bending her body in agony, I swiftly pulled out my gun and continuously pulled the trigger.

She showed a reaction until about the third shot, but after that, all she did was tremble convulsively with each shot, and by the time I ran out of ammunition, her movement had already subsided.

Being cautious, I approached her and kicked her in the head to examine her face, but her nasal bones were shattered, her nose was crooked, and I could tell from her dilated pupils that she was already a dead woman.

If feasible, I wanted to capture her alive, but it was not practical to do so without magic. Fortunately, there was one more person here, so I decided to bear with it―

So, to “Cannibal Merchant” who was seating on a chair watching, no, helpless to move, I presented her a smile of reassurance.

“Now then, this isn’t the right place, so let’s change places a bit.”