11. Nightmare of Old Memories (2)
Hesitation always leads to loss.
Karla grabbed the back of the man’s head and without any hesitation, slammed his face into the ground.
– Kuuung!
With quite a loud sound, the man’s face collided with the ground, and Karla didn’t stop there—she repeatedly slammed his face into the ground several more times. Kuuang, Kuuang, Kuuang… The repeated sounds continued as Karla lifted the man’s face.
“One down.”
The man’s eyeballs had rolled back, his front teeth were all knocked out, and he was left a bloody mess as Karla dropped him and turned around to glare at the red-eyed woman.
“You, you…”
Before the woman could say anything, she pulled her face back.
Karla’s kick narrowly missed her face by a hair’s breadth, causing a gust of wind in front of her eyes.
With that breeze, she lost her grip on Ivan, who had been held by the collar, and the woman took a few steps back before forming a hand sign once again.
“You’ve gotten slow. Pathetic.”
As Karla’s voice echoed like a monologue, her kick struck deep into the woman’s abdomen, driving her to the ground where she sprawled out, her tongue lolling out as she rolled over, spitting out a long streak of saliva and uttering a single cry of agony.
“Absolutely ridiculous.”
Karla spat on the ground and approached the woman.
Grabbing the prone woman by the ankle, Karla dragged her back to where the man lay unconscious. Seeing Ivan still lying there unable to get up, she clicked her tongue.
“You’re such an idiot.”
Pushing Ivan aside, Karla returned to the two attackers, laying them side by side and looked down at them silently.
There didn’t seem to be much she could do here, so it was probably best to load them onto Cascata’s carriage and return to the Academy.
‘Need to immobilize them. To prevent any resistance…’
The best option was to render their limbs useless.
With that thought, Karla immediately stepped on the man’s ankles and wrists, one by one, breaking them.
A disturbing crunch of breaking bones echoed as the man let out a groan of pain but did not regain consciousness. After dealing with the man, Karla turned to the woman to break her ankles and wrists as well.
And then—
Her gaze met the woman’s, who was lying face down but had turned her head back to grin.
“If you want to capture me, you’d better hurry. It’s best if you find me quickly.”
As the woman spoke, her already red eyes turned an even brighter red.
A strange feeling washed over Karla, who immediately stepped back, just as a loud explosion echoed.
“Suicide bombing…?”
The man lying beside her was now in a sorry state, rolling around, and the surrounding area was littered with debris, indicating that an explosion had occurred.
“Can’t believe how incompetent these people are…”
Clicking her tongue, Karla approached Ivan again.
Just as his consciousness seemed to return, Ivan was shaking his head, propped up halfway, and Karla looked down at him with disdain.
“… What… What the hell is going on? Karla, why are you here…?”
Seeing his confused face made Karla feel a strange twist in her emotions.
An ambush targeted at the carriage—something Ivan had clearly not grasped as he instead asked about the situation. It infuriated her.
“You. Just because you’re strong doesn’t mean you can be this stupid. What’s the point of learning magic if you can’t handle an ambush? Did you learn some magic that multiplies your lives? Because otherwise, why on earth did you learn magic?”
“…”
Unable to answer, Ivan merely listened to Karla’s reproach.
If only he could have retorted, but he stayed silent, listening, leaving Karla with no words to continue her tirade. Besides, Ivan was also a victim here.
“…It’d take too long to explain all the details. Anyway, you understand now. And… oh.”
She noticed someone limping back to where the carriage had been.
The driver of the Academy carriage, whom they all thought had been completely obliterated in the explosion, was returning.
“At least he survived. That’s fortunate.”
“Yes… Yes, thank you, Miss.”
“Even if you’re injured, it’s better than dying. Anyway, with the carriage like this… Ivan, do you know any repair magic?”
“If such magic even exists, I’m not sure.”
“You’re useless. A waste of circuits.”
Karla paused for a moment.
Somehow, someone needed to report the carriage ambush to the Academy, and it appeared this carriage driver would be tasked with that. After all, they hadn’t been away from the Academy for too long.
Which meant—Karla would have to share the same carriage with Ivan…and that didn’t sit well with her.
With her pride stung by an almost one-sided sort of inferiority she felt towards him, the idea of accompanying Ivan on the same carriage now felt especially distasteful.
“Anyway, you report the carriage ambush incident along with bringing this guy back to the Academy. The follow-up actions will be handled by the Academy. One of the attackers’ limbs have been broken by me, so they won’t resist. And Ivan, where were you headed?”
“Back to my dorm. My room caught fire.”
“… Fire?”
Karla suddenly felt an odd sensation.
—It was almost like… the great Cascata should not have to bother with some commoner like this, so just pretend we didn’t see each other.
In other words, it was an attack targeted specifically at Ivan.
If that was the case, the fire in Ivan’s dormitory room might also be related.
But this guy was just a commoner after all.
Well…only slightly, very slightly, more talented than Karla—just a commoner.
“Anyway, you return to the Academy.”
The carriage driver, who suddenly found himself walking all the way back to the Academy, looked upset.
With an injured leg, having to drag an adult man back to the Academy, it was understandable—unfortunately, Karla wasn’t the type to care about such details. After all, she was an aristocrat. To her, ordering someone around and merely confirming results was enough.
“Ivan… I’m only saying this because I don’t want you in my carriage. Is there any way to use wind magic to fly back?”
That was perhaps too blunt.
In response to Karla’s question, Ivan hesitated for a bit before answering.
“It’s possible, but my mana is depleted…I’m worried about missing class tomorrow.”
“Like worrying about salt drying up in the ocean. You’re clueless.”
With that, Karla turned her back and headed towards Cascata’s carriage.
She opened the carriage door without hesitation, climbed in, then poked her head out a moment later.
“Aren’t you coming? If not, I’m leaving!”
“Sorry, I’ll come now!”
*
It was a bit of an oversized carriage for just herself, anyway.
Ivan glanced around the carriage’s interior.
Karla seemed at ease, resting her chin on her hand as she watched outside the carriage window, but Ivan couldn’t settle down. He fidgeted, observing his surroundings.
At least they had some time alone now.
Ivan took this opportunity to try initiating a conversation with Karla.
“…Thank you earlier, Karla.”
But Karla didn’t respond at all. She didn’t even look at Ivan.
‘Returning to the way things used to be is still too much to ask, huh…’
He had almost thought that rescuing him might have eased some of their tension.
“So, how was today’s lecture?”
At the mention of the lecture, Karla turned her head sharply, looking at him with a glare before hesitating with her lips slightly parted. She then closed her eyes, breathing a heavy sigh.
“It was my first lecture of the day. That’s all. Don’t make me think about things like that after we’ve been through this.”
“That, that’s true. Sorry.”
Still, her willingness to help him suggested she didn’t hate him entirely.
That was at least a small comfort.
As Ivan thought this, the carriage arrived at a fork in the road.
To the left lay a village within the Cascata estate; to the right lay the mansion.
The carriage stopped, and Karla spoke to Ivan.
“Get off here. I’ll come by when I feel like it tomorrow morning. If you’re not there, I’ll leave without you.”
“Alright, got it.”
Ivan got out of the carriage and waved at Karla with a smile.
Although Karla didn’t return the smile, she seemed to nod farewell with her eyes—at least Ivan thought it was a farewell—and the carriage quietly turned towards the right path.
—
Late at night.
Karla, still wearing the men’s nightgown she’d used to sleep in, lay trying to sleep.
It wasn’t that sleep evaded her, but the carriage ambush earlier had stirred up too many old, terrifying memories.
With her eyes closed, Karla slowly drifted off to sleep, drawn into nightmares.
