Yoon Si-woo swung his sword towards Sator’s leg.

“Kraaaah!! You bastard!!”

With a hideous scream, Sator’s body crumbled to the floor.

While rolling on the ground and clutching his leg, Yoon Si-woo looked down at him and muttered.

“Don’t make such a fuss over a broken leg. You’re lucky it’s only that for what you did.”

From Yoon Si-woo’s perspective, he was being quite lenient.

To be honest, he would have liked to execute Sator right then and there, but he had refrained and limited himself to just breaking a leg to prevent him from fleeing.

After all, he couldn’t go that far in front of Sator’s child.

Well, that child probably wouldn’t say much anyway.

Sylvia was observing Sator with an indifferent expression.

Sator, who was screaming, met the gazes of the two watching him.

Their eyes looked at him like a writhing insect, a failure.

Sator felt something bubbling inside him, more intense than the pain causing him to writhe and grab his leg.

His hands left his leg and moved towards his neck.

Scratching his neck, Sator muttered.

“What the hell… I’m not a failure. Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t fail. I didn’t fail…”

Next to where Sator was writhing on the ground, there was a container he had previously set down.

It was filled with the magical energy he intended to inject into his test subject.

Sator grasped the container that was beside his head.

The only thought filling his mind was that he had to succeed with his plan.

Thus, the action Sator chose was,

“I WILL NOT FAIL!!!!!”

He slammed the container against the ground with all his might.

The container cracked, and the magic poured out in the amount equivalent to hundreds of monster bodies.

The magic that flowed out from the container quickly enveloped the area where Sator was and spread in all directions.

At that moment, starlight twinkled.

The spread of magic that was about to cover the man tied to the chair was halted by the light flowing from Sylvia’s outstretched hand.

One of the few beings capable of having a favorable advantage over magic, the spirit of the stars.

If she had taken enough time to cast her spell, she could have gone beyond stopping it and even purified it, but the power of the hurriedly called spirit made it difficult to stop the dissemination of magic equivalent to hundreds of low-level monsters.

They had to escape the building before the magic spread out of control.

However, to maintain this state, she couldn’t move, so Sylvia shouted at Yoon Si-woo.

“I can’t hold on long! Let’s move the immobilized people outside first!”

“Just hold on a little longer!”

The moment suspicious black energy erupted from the container, Yoon Si-woo had already sliced through the bars and chains restraining Scarlet, picked her up, and jumped towards the hole in the ceiling, disappearing.

Sylvia bit her lip and looked at the magic she was suppressing.

She couldn’t help but be shocked again by the actions of her blood relative.

To diffuse such a dense amount of magic was a suicide attack intended to kill everyone here, including himself.

After leaving Scarlet outside, Yoon Si-woo returned, lifted the middle-aged man tied to the chair, and jumped up again.

And a loud noise emanated from the magic he was suppressing.

“Aaaah, ahhhh!!!! Light! This brilliant starry light of hope! Yes! The World Tree must have recognized me! I am not a failure!”

Sylvia could see Sator through the starlight and the magic.

He was lying on the ground, losing blood from holes in his body, intoxicated by the dense magic.

However, perhaps due to his delirium, he seemed to shout cheers more than scream in pain while looking at the starlight he had summoned.

Sylvia clicked her tongue at the sight.

It would be problematic if he became insane like that.

There was still so much to hear from him.

Even if they somehow drew him out and purified him, the question remained whether they could get proper answers.

“What are you going to do with him? Can he be saved?”

Yoon Si-woo, who had returned to the basement, looked at the magic and asked Sylvia.

“If we purify him quickly, I think it’s possible to save him. We need to hear more details, so please try to get him out if you can.”

At Sylvia’s response, Yoon Si-woo, who had been walking towards Sator, noticed something glowing red on the floor.

It was the chains and bars he had cut that had restrained Scarlet.

In an instant, Yoon Si-woo felt a pressing urgency to get out of there.

Sometimes, he had this feeling.

Like when he was training with Lucy, seeing an opening and deciding to attack, only to feel like he would die if he did.

Lucy called it intuition.

And Yoon Si-woo knew that in most cases, ignoring it led to bad outcomes.

“I don’t think we’ll have time to save him. Let’s just get out of here.”

“Huh? What do you mean?!”

Yoon Si-woo picked up Sylvia, who was focused on suppressing the magic, and jumped up.

“Aaaah, the light of hope! I too have become an Astra chosen by the World Tree! I no longer need Sylvia! With the witch’s power and this light, I will reclaim the Eternal Forest and become the great head of the Astra family! Hahaha! Hahahaha!!!”

Sator was cheering as he gazed at the starlight until Sylvia’s movement, caused by Yoon Si-woo, scattered the starlight.

“-Ah?”

Sator waved his hands toward the suddenly disappearing starlight, but the light eluded his grasp.

“No… No! Why! The light! My hope’s light! Cough, kwoeck…”

Sator wiped his mouth as he suddenly erupted in a fit of cough.

It was only after the pain piercing through him that he realized it was not just a cough but that he was coughing up blood.

“Ah… eh…?”

Sator, overwhelmed by tremendous pain, looked around in bewilderment.

The basement filled with magic was dark.

As if declaring he had failed.

“No…”

Sator desperately denied it and crawled on the floor.

“There must still be a bit of light left somewhere…”

Then something shining from the darkness caught his eye.

Sator crawled toward it.

What glimmered on the floor was a restraining device.

A flame stone, flickering in red.

The flame stone can absorb and store flames, but it must release them eventually.

When the limit approaches, the flame stone, which was white, turns red.

And the fact that the red light is flashing means that flames are about to be released, so caution is advised.

Seeing that light, Sator realized.

That he had failed.

The shock momentarily restored his sanity.

“… Ah.”

At that moment, flames burst forth.

The basement filled with magic, the building.

And even the last dying gasp of the elf filled with regrets

Was swallowed and disappeared into the flames.

*

When Luke opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a building engulfed in flames.

Just like when the laboratory burned before, the flames seemed determined to leave nothing behind.

Desperately, Luke struggled to rise and check on Scarlet’s well-being.

What he saw was Scarlet, unconscious, surrounded as if being protected by a pair of young people.

Sighing in relief, Luke glanced at the students beside Scarlet.

One was the famous Astra heiress, Sylvia Astra, and the other was the boy he had seen in front of Scarlet’s house earlier.

It seemed those two had saved them, but since someone was missing, Luke spoke up.

“… What happened to Sator?”

“… Inside.”

“I see.”

Sylvia, looking uneasy, gestured toward the burning building.

Although Sator had committed serious wrongs, there was still a bond between them.

It was inevitable for Luke to feel bitterness, so he replied quietly.

Sylvia looked at Luke for a moment before asking,

“You must be Luke Aegis, right? Were you involved in this plan?”

Luke, slightly taken aback by the question, replied,

“Aren’t you the heiress of Astra? Didn’t you know?”

“Your reaction suggests you’re part of it. I discovered it today. That Scarlet was an experiment subject. So, I have a lot of questions. Will you answer them?”

“… But first, let me ask you a question. What is your relationship with Scarlet?”

At that question, Sylvia bowed her head slightly to look at Scarlet.

Caressing the ring on her left index finger, she answered slowly but firmly.

“Scarlet is my most precious friend.”

Looking at her expression as she spoke, Luke felt it.

She must have heard about Scarlet’s connection to the witch and Sator but still truly believed what she said.

The boy who had previously claimed he liked Scarlet had the same expression as before, so Luke thought that maybe he could trust these two.

Scarlet would need friends like them to live like a human.

“You said the boy was also Scarlet’s friend, right? If you both promise me one thing, I’ll answer anything you ask.”

“… What is that request?”

“Promise me you won’t tell anyone what you heard today. Scarlet’s identity shouldn’t reach other ears.”

Seemingly understanding what he meant, they nodded their heads and began their questions.

Every time Luke spoke, their expressions contorted.

Eventually, the boy asked Luke,

“… You told me before that I would regret it, right? Was that solely because of Scarlet’s identity?”

Luke responded to that question with a sad smile.

“I did say that Scarlet had gone through various experiments, right? Because of that, her body has suffered quite a lot.”

A deep, deep sadness—yet something he had to accept.

“… She won’t live long.”

Seeing the shock on the children’s faces after his words, Luke spoke with a sad smile.

No, he had pleaded.

“Kids, I have one more favor to ask.”

For Scarlet to live like a person.

“Will you stay friends with Scarlet until the end?”

So that she could pass her remaining time happily.

The children, with faces that looked like they might cry, nodded.

*

Sometimes, there are things that become painful once you know them.

Unfortunately, the truth tends to be that way most of the time.

*

Sometimes it feels like this happens.

Like being pinned down, unable to move, but your mind is awake.

What I mean is, I could also hear the conversations others were having.

I heard the uncle’s voice.

“I said that Scarlet had gone through various experiments, didn’t I? That’s why her body has suffered considerably.”

“… She won’t live long.”

Hearing that, I realized once again that the one who sent me here truly had a twisted sense of humor.

No matter how much it’s supposed to be an academy story.

“As long as she lasts, by the time she graduates…”

The fact that there would be no future after graduation was, indeed, a little sad.

Stretching it out, three years at most.

That was the time left to me.