Adelaide watched the figure in black who had begun to move.
For the first ti.
An expression appeared on her face.
The corners of her mouth began to curl upward slightly.
Then, she revealed a smile.
But that smile...
How should one put it?
It was very eerie.
It wasn't the kind of smile a normal person would ever show.
It wasn't a smile of happiness, nor of satisfaction, nor of victory.
It was more like...
The smile of a child seeing their ticulously designed trap finally catch its prey.
The smile of a collector seeing a long-coveted piece finally fall into their hands.
The smile of a madman seeing their delusions finally beco reality.
It carried a certain twisted joy.
It carried a certain morbid satisfaction.
It carried an emotion that had been suppressed for far too long and was finally being released.
She casually grabbed the figure in black robes on the chair next to her.
The body was unexpectedly light.
As if all the moisture and blood had been drained from it.
She tossed him aside like garbage.
The body slamd heavily onto the ground, letting out a dull thud.
The black robes fell open, revealing a withered, mummy-like corpse inside.
But the figure in black robes didn't react at all.
Just like a real corpse.
Adelaide sat down in the vacated chair.
The iron and leather chair was cold and hard.
The beast-head carvings on the armrests pressed against her elbows.
But she didn't seem to mind.
She crossed her legs.
Propping her elbows on the armrests.
She rested her chin on the back of her hand.
The light from the match illuminated her face.
That eerie smile still hung on the corners of her mouth.
"Teacher Margaret."
She spoke.
Her voice echoed in the cavernous room.
Carrying a strange kind of... intimacy.
Like a student greeting their beloved teacher.
But the emotion in her tone turned that intimacy into sothing twisted and terrifying.
"You heard everything, didn't you?"
The figure in black moved even more violently.
As if struggling.
As if trying to break free from sothing.
But no matter how hard they tried, their body couldn't actually move.
As if bound tightly by invisible chains.
As if suppressed from within by so kind of power.
Adelaide tilted her head.
The matchlight cast flickering shadows across her face.
Making her smile look even more sinister.
"Teacher?"
She said.
Her tone was filled with confusion.
"Why don't you say sothing?"
A pause.
"Oh."
She feigned a sudden realization.
Gently slapping her own forehead with her hand.
"It's because I haven't released your restraints."
"I'm so sorry."
"This student was too careless."
There was no apology in her tone.
Only amusent.
Only playfulness.
Only a sense of... that had been suppressed for too long and was finally being released.
Pleasure.
She raised her hand.
Her slender fingers snapped lightly in the air.
The crisp sound echoed in the darkness.
Like so kind of signal.
Like an incantation to break a seal.
The figure in black struggled suddenly, their entire body convulsing violently.
Like a drowning person finally surfacing.
Like a suffocating person finally able to breathe.
The hood slid off their head, revealing a familiar face.
Dark brown hair was scattered in a ss.
Dark green eyes were bloodshot.
Her lips were chapped, her face pale.
But the light in those eyes—
Anger.
Shock.
Disbelief.
And a deep, bone-deep sense of betrayal.
Margaret von Oppenheir.
Major General of the Empire.
Head of the Special Teaching Program at the Royal Knight Academy.
Was now trapped in this chair like an ordinary prisoner.
"You..."
Margaret's voice was hoarse.
As if she hadn't spoken in a long ti.
As if her throat were filled with grit.
"Adelaide... you..."
"It's been a long ti, Teacher."
Adelaide's smile deepened.
That twisted, morbid joy spread across her face.
Like so kind of contagious disease.
Like an uncontrollable madness.
"Did you know?"
She said.
Her voice was soft.
Like telling a secret.
Like sharing a story that belonged only to the two of them.
"I have been waiting for this day for a very long ti."
Margaret stared at her forr student.
Her mind was in chaos.
Too many questions were surging.
Too many doubts needed answers.
But the first thing she had to do was calm herself down.
She took a deep breath.
The air was thick with the acrid sll of extinguished candles and sothing deeper, like a mixture of rotting earth and ancient parchnt.
"Adelaide."
She spoke.
Her voice was still hoarse, but much steadier than before.
"What exactly... are you doing?"
Adelaide didn't answer imdiately.
She just looked at Margaret.
In those hollow eyes, a strange light burned.
Like a fla suppressed for too long that had finally found an outlet.
"Which matter are you asking about, Teacher?"
She said.
Her voice was soft.
"Are you asking why I'm here?"
"Or why I betrayed you?"
"Or perhaps..."
She paused.
The smile on her face beca even more eerie.
"Why I captured you and brought you here?"
Margaret's eyes narrowed slightly.
She was observing.
Analyzing.
Trying to understand the person before her, whom she once thought she knew so well.
Adelaide Isolde von Schwabenstein.
Six years ago, she had saved this girl during a disaster where the Virtual Realm went out of control.
In the ruins of a burned-down house, she had been huddled in a corner.
Adelaide was only fourteen then.
Just like now: thin, pale, and taciturn.
Her eyes were hollow, like a walking corpse.
But there was sothing about her that caught Margaret's attention.
Sothing... unusual.
Only later did she learn that Adelaide was a Wayfarer of the Path of the Hanged Man.
An extrely rare the return.
It was said that those who walked this the return must have experienced death once.
A true death.
Then, at the boundary between life and death, they chose to co back, bringing with them certain things... that did not belong to the living.
Margaret took her away.
Not just as a student, but also as...
She couldn't quite put it into words herself.
She had never married.
She had never had children.
She had dedicated all her ti to the Empire.
But when she saw that girl huddled in the ruins, she felt as if she were seeing her forr self.
She brought Adelaide back to her own residence.
She bathed her, changed her clothes, and combed her hair with her own hands.
She taught her to read and write personally.
She personally stayed with her through those nights when she woke up from nightmares.
Six years.
She watched Adelaide slowly change from a girl like a walking corpse into...
No.
She realized it now.
Adelaide had never changed.
Those hollow eyes had never truly co to life.
She had only learned to disguise herself.
Learned to pretend to be normal.
Learned to say what Margaret wanted to hear and do what Margaret wanted her to do.
And yet, she had never noticed.
"What are you thinking about, Teacher?"
Adelaide's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Thinking about our past days?"
"Thinking about how you picked up from those ruins?"
"Thinking about how you fed porridge spoonful by spoonful, and wiped away my tears over and over again?"
"Thinking about..."
Her voice grew low, carrying a strange tremor.
"How you made believe that there were still reasons worth living for in this world?"
Margaret fell silent.
Adelaide stood up.
Her movents were slow.
As if deliberately stalling for ti.
As if enjoying the process.
"Did you know, Teacher?"
She said.
As she spoke, she walked slowly around Margaret's chair.
The hem of her red dress trailed a dark red mark on the floor.
"You were the first person to ever make feel warmth."
"Before that, I thought I was already dead."
"My heart was dead."
"My soul was dead."
"I was just a breathing corpse."
"But you appeared."
Her voice beca soft.
Almost tender.
"You pulled out of the darkness."
"You gave food, clothes, a ho."
"You taught to read, to write, and how to control my power."
"You held when I had nightmares and told everything would be alright."
"You..."
She stopped.
Standing behind Margaret.
"You let know for the first ti what it felt like to be loved."
Margaret felt a hand rest lightly on her shoulder.
That hand was ice-cold.
Cold enough that it didn't seem to belong to the living.
"So, I fell in love with you."
Adelaide's voice sounded in her ear.
Low.
Like sharing a long-hidden secret.
"I love you, Teacher."
"Since I was fourteen."
"From the mont you picked up from the ruins."
"I fell in love with you."
Margaret's body stiffened.
"I want to stay by your side forever."
Adelaide continued.
Her voice began to tremble.
"I want to be the only existence in your eyes."
"I want you to look only at ."
"Love only ."
"Belong only to ."
The hand on her shoulder suddenly tightened.
Her nails almost dug into the flesh.
"But you never looked at that way."
Her voice beca sharp.
"In your eyes, I was just a child who needed care."
"A poor orphan you picked up from the ruins."
"You were good to because you felt responsible."
"You took care of because you treated as so kind of... substitute."
"You never loved ."
She let go.
Circling to the front of Margaret.
She crouched down.
eting her gaze.
In those hollow eyes, the flas of madness burned.
Along with a deep, bone-deep despair.
"Do you know how painful this is?"
She asked.
Her voice was trembling.
"To be by your side every day, watching you, yet never truly possessing you."
"To hear you call my na every day, yet knowing it's only the affection of an elder for a junior."
"Every day..."
Her voice choked for a mont.
"Watching you give your ti and energy to others every day."
"To those missions."
"To those students."
"To that..."
She suddenly stood up.
And turned away.
"To that new Little girl."
Margaret's heart sank.
"You an..."
"Pavela von Schwartz."
Adelaide's voice turned ice-cold.
"Your new student."
"The person you've been most focused on lately."
"The one you say has more potential than anyone you've ever seen."
She turned back around.
The expression on her face had returned to a state of calm.
A deathly calm, devoid of any emotion.
"The way you look at her is exactly the way you used to look at ."
"Full of interest."
"Full of expectation."
"Full of... that tenderness that drives mad."
Silence.
A long silence.
"Adelaide..."
Margaret spoke with difficulty.
"I think you've misunderstood."
"My feelings for Pavela—"
"Misunderstood?"
Adelaide interrupted her.
The corners °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of her mouth curled into an eerie arc.
"Perhaps."
"Perhaps I have."
"But it doesn't matter anymore."
She took a step forward.
Looking down at the trapped Margaret.
"What matters is that you heard everything just now."
Margaret's pupils contracted sharply.
The eting just now.
Those mission assignnts.
Those nas.
Eleanor von Schwartz.
"You brought here and made watch this... just to..."
"To let you know."
Adelaide crouched down.
eting Margaret's eyes once more.
In those hollow eyes, a twisted joy was burning.
"To let you know that the people you admire, the people you care about, are dying one by one."
"And there's nothing you can do about it."
"You can only stay here."
"Stay by my side."
"Watching it all happen."
She reached out.
Her cold fingertips lightly brushed Margaret's cheek.
"Since I cannot have your love."
"Since you will never love the way I love you."
"Then..."
Her smile beca twisted.
"I might as well have you like this."
"Able only to look at ."
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