Burn it.

A voice rang in my head.

As soon as I thought of following it, flames erupted.

Burn it all.

Each time I heard the voice, I felt my heart tremble.

The flames that had started within my body slowly spread out.

You hate being hurt, don’t you? Yet, you keep getting hurt. Didn’t that make you angry each time? Don’t you despise those who hurt you? You wish they’d disappear, right?

That emotion, akin to flames, was as red as it came from inside me.

The fire was stained with the color of that emotion, making my heart quiver.

It felt like my insides were burning with that boiling emotion.

The flames, which started to burn more intensely than usual, engulfed the small room.

If you hate being hurt, just burn away everything that causes you pain.

I slowly raised my head to the voice echoing in my mind.

I looked beyond the transparent wall where the one who always hurt me stood.

But it was no longer beyond a wall.

I took a step forward.

Where the transparent wall had never flinched against the flames, there was now nothing.

Everywhere I stepped, flames spread, and everything I had seen was burning.

The flames grew hotter.

For the first time, I felt the heat of the flames, and that heat was pain.

If you burn it all, you won’t feel pain anymore.

I looked around to see if there was anything left to burn, following the voice.

There was one place where the flames and black smoke moved strangely.

Burn it all.

As I passed through that place, a wider space opened up.

The fire spread.

The larger space burned, but the pain only intensified.

It was a pain greater than having my fists smashed, arms severed, or being drenched in blood, like my body was burning.

In the midst of writhing in pain, I saw someone beyond the flames.

It was him.

I halted my fiery advance toward that familiar face.

He spoke.

“……You really hated pain that much.”

I slowly nodded my head toward him.

“……Was it because you were told to not resist that you stayed silent all this time?”

I nodded once more.

“……You don’t have to do that anymore. Whenever you dislike something, just say so.”

He said that.

So, I replied.

Burn it.

……No.

To the voice echoing in my head, telling me to burn everything.

I said no.

For the first time, I resisted someone’s words.

As I desperately tried to suppress the flames emerging from my body, they gradually began to quiet down.

As the flames subsided, so did the pain, and my strength faded away.

As I collapsed, I saw a reflection of a girl with red hair in his eyes.

*

In the early morning when everyone was asleep.

A car sped through the silent streets.

With his gloved hand on the steering wheel, Sator checked the location indicated by the tracking spell, recalling the conversation he had with his friend yesterday.

It was quite amusing how he had asked for a bit more time, saying he’d dispose of the number ten as per the family’s orders.

He had internally laughed at that.

He never intended to follow the family’s commands in the first place.

How much time and effort had he poured into this plan?

The elders of his family had long ago come to terms with reality.

Now, he was the only one truly dreaming of the great Astra who once ruled the old world.

Even without the family’s support or the proper facilities like before, he was determined to continue experimenting on his own to complete his plan.

However, to keep experimenting, he needed to recover the most essential item.

As Sator confirmed he was almost at the destination, he looked out the window and grimaced at the sight of the building.

It was so shabby and old it was impossible to tell how long it had been standing.

It was surprising that such a dilapidated building still existed.

Looking at the building with disdain, Sator muttered.

“……Really, living in a place as revolting as you.”

If he had hidden there to avoid his gaze, it was an excellent decision.

Just seeing it made his skin crawl.

But to recover the item without resistance, he had to enter it himself.

An impossible task when in a sane frame of mind.

Rubbing his neck out of frustration, Sator let out a sigh.

Because of one disgusting thing, he had to do something so unpleasant.

His eyes shimmered oddly.

Disgusting, yet necessary.

Gathering the large trunk he had set in the back seat, Sator stepped out of the car and stood in front of the door to the second floor of the building indicated by the tracking spell.

The lock was in place, but the door itself wasn’t made of particularly sturdy material.

Using some magic he had learned for research, he managed to create a hole of appropriate size next to the doorknob.

It was probably time for them to be sleeping, but if they woke up and resisted, it would undoubtedly complicate matters.

Before opening the door, Sator opened the trunk, pulled the pin from the gas generator inside, and threw it into the hole he had made.

It would take just a few minutes for the potent sleeping gas, also used as anesthetic, to fill the room.

As the gas began seeping through the door cracks, Sator donned the gas mask he had brought and, with his hand in the hole, unlocked the door.

It was a cramped, disgusting room, like a pigsty, a place he didn’t want to linger in even for a moment.

Inside, the creation he had made with his friend lay on the bed, sound asleep and oblivious to the world.

For some unknown reason, her hair color had changed, and she had lost an arm somewhere, but those details were not significant.

With a blank expression, he opened the trunk and was about to close it after placing the creation inside when he frowned.

He noticed a ring studded with a red jewel on the right index finger of the curled-up figure in the trunk.

It had the form of a human, but it was, after all, a created existence.

The very fact that something born from the remnants of the Witch of Wrath pretended to be human and lingered around Astra was unforgivable for Sator.

A disgusting thing ought to know its place.

Yanking the ring off fiercely, he felt a trickle of blood from the cut gemstone.

Quickly shutting the trunk to avoid any contamination, Sator stepped out of the unpleasant room, removed his gas mask, and casually tossed the ring onto the ground.

Loading the heavier trunk into the car compared to when he arrived, he switched to new gloves to avoid contamination, and gripped the steering wheel with one hand.

His other hand was scratching at his neck incessantly.

The constant scratching had caused the skin to peel, and blood began seeping out, staining his gloves red, though Sator didn’t notice.

As the car drove away from the dilapidated building, the ring lying on the ground shone red in the light of dawn.

*

The phone rang.

Luke hesitated for a moment, holding the phone displaying a number he had almost refused to answer lately, before pressing the call button.

As expected, he heard the voice of the person he had spoken to yesterday.

[It’s been a while since we talked, Luke. Have you had lunch yet?]

“……Not yet.”

[No matter how busy you are, you should eat something. After lunch, could you come to the address I sent you? It seems the reconstruction of the lab will take a while, so I’ve temporarily set up another lab. I’d like to show it to you.]

A text with the address came right after that.

Honestly, he didn’t want to go, so Luke frowned.

He was tired of the experiments.

Just hearing about them filled him with guilt and made him feel low.

But since he had asked for something yesterday, he hesitated for a moment before hearing a shocking statement.

[By the way, it’s probably best if you don’t refuse. Number 10 is with me right now.]

His blood ran cold in an instant.

Recalling the word “dispose” from yesterday, Luke asked in a trembling voice,

“……Sator, what are you planning to do?”

[Haha, I’ll let you know when you arrive. You know you have to come alone, right? It’s not something that others should know about. I’ll take that as a yes to coming. Enjoy your lunch.]

Sator’s somewhat playful voice rang out before he hung up.

It wasn’t a situation suitable for lunch, so Luke checked the address that had come in the text as quickly as possible.

It was a mountain valley just outside the city.

*

Scarlet hadn’t shown up at school.

Sylvia looked around the classroom for anyone who might know what had happened.

“She definitely went with Jessie yesterday to get a prosthetic arm, right?”

Quietly observing Jessie, who was trembling and suddenly exclaimed,

“U-Um! She seemed perfectly fine until we parted ways yesterday! We even tested the prosthetic for a while, and she seemed okay! I have no idea why she’s suddenly not here today!”

Though Sylvia didn’t understand why Jessie looked so frightened, she really seemed to have no idea.

According to what Ms. Eve had heard, there hadn’t been any notification from the school either.

Since only the principal knew the personal details of the students to ensure fairness, there were no means to find out what was happening at that moment.

The class president from Class A, Mei, who knew her number, had tried calling but only got a continuous dial tone with no answer.

Feeling a bit of jealousy over why she knew a number he didn’t, Sylvia decided this wasn’t what was important right now.

Scarlet was not the type to skip school on her own, and she worried about what could have happened.

She noticed Yoon Si-woo next to her, wearing a serious expression.

Though he was someone who made her a bit uncomfortable, he seemed to know something, so Sylvia asked,

“Do you know anything?”

After a slight hesitation, Yoon Si-woo replied,

“……Scarlet lives alone. I was worried she might be very sick or something.”

Imagining her friend suffering alone, Sylvia cried out,

“Then that’s a big deal! Do you know where she lives?”

“Well…… she lives not too far from my house, so I was planning to drop by on my way back.”

Sylvia pictured Yoon Si-woo taking care of Scarlet.

A guy who liked her, entering a woman’s house alone?

Feeling that something shouldn’t be left as it was, and recalling her schedule for the evening, Sylvia made her decision.

Since she hadn’t been able to visit the hospital last time, this time—

“Then I’m going with you. For a visit.”