“This is a monster,” said Dwight, pointing at the small, worm-like creature wriggling in Leah’s mind.

The school nurse murmured with an incredulous expression. “A monster?! That can’t be… There shouldn’t be any monsters inside the barrier…”

In response to her question, Dwight explained, “…Given the amount of magic detected, it seems to be a monster in an extremely weakened state. It implies that this didn’t originate from inside but rather crossed over from outside the barrier. Monsters can enter the barrier if they’re willing to become significantly weaker. The only problem is…”

“No matter how weak it is, we can’t recklessly touch something that’s in someone’s head…” Eve said, grimacing.

The brain is the most sensitive and crucial organ in the human body. Even a minor injury could lead to major complications, making it difficult to deal with a monster residing in Leah’s mind, regardless of its weakened condition. Eve gazed at the squirming monster in Leah’s brain, her expression growing serious.

“…Anyway, it’s now obvious that there’s only one entity that can manipulate monsters. They must have used some method to control Leah through that monster. Seeing that it’s in her head, I can’t think of any other possibility.”

Hearing that, I said to Eve, “So, it means that people whose heads can be manipulated by the witch likely have monsters in their minds. The scratch-like marks on the necks of the controlled individuals might be due to those creatures.”

“If they’re exhibiting strange behaviors, such as scratching their necks because of those things in their heads, then yes. We have no choice but to find those with neck scratches and somehow remove the monsters from their minds. But what do we do if we end up letting magic leak out while attempting to kill the monsters?”

At that moment, Leonore, who had been listening, suddenly exclaimed, startled.

“…Wait, wait a minute! Does that mean everyone with those kinds of scratches on their neck can be controlled?!”

“Senior, is something wrong?” I asked Leonore, noticing her complexion drain.

She responded in a trembling voice, “…I saw similar scratches this morning in our class.”

The moment Leonore said that, the area outside the cafeteria became chaotic.

“Be careful not to worsen the injury!”

“Quick! Move them to the cafeteria!”

A group of students rushed into the cafeteria, carrying one student who was bleeding profusely and had been viciously attacked all over.

Seeing that horrific sight, it was clear that this student’s life was hanging by a thread.

The witch must have controlled someone else to try and kill that student.

“Teacher! Please save him! He looks like he’s been stabbed by someone!”

“First, lay him down carefully! Hey! Stay with us!”

As the school nurse dashed toward the groaning student, who was still barely alive, I locked eyes with Eve.

I could sense what she was thinking.

We needed to find the one who was controlling him before any more victims emerged.

Eve looked at Leonore and asked, “What about the scratch on their necks?”

Leonore replied, “It’s not just one person.”

With a serious expression, she stood up and added, “…It’s ‘people.’”

—

While searching through the school, I stumbled upon a group of boys chatting near the stairs.

And noticing one familiar face among them, I caught a glimpse of myself in the window.

My face was stiff.

I couldn’t let this continue, so I took a deep breath and mumbled to myself.

Control your expression. Control your expression.

Then, I gently pulled the corners of my mouth up, creating a rather convincing smile.

Feeling that this would be just fine, I maintained the smile and approached the boys slowly.

Suddenly, one of the boys, who had been staring at me as I came closer, opened his mouth.

“Hey there, you look like a first-year. Do you need something from us?”

By chance, the boy speaking turned out to be my target.

He looked at me with some suspicion.

To dissolve that vigilance, I kept my smiling face and replied, “Yes, you’re Richard from Class 2-B, right? I’m Scarlet Evande from Class 1-A. I have something I want to say to you, not the others.”

“Something to say?”

Richard seemed a bit flustered at being called by name, but perhaps because I was smiling, he appeared to relax a little.

Seizing that moment, I boldly walked up to Richard, grabbing his arm.

With us being so close, the height difference felt a bit uncomfortable, but I had no choice if I wanted to prevent him from escaping.

I stared up at Richard while holding onto his arm and asked, “Can I have a moment of your time to talk privately?”

“Eh?! Y-yeah, of course!”

Richard quickly replied, nervous.

I relief washed over me that he hadn’t turned me down.

Holding onto his arm as I turned, I could hear the other boys murmuring from behind.

“Unbelievable… How did Richard end up with such a cute girl?”

“Damn, I thought I’d be the first to escape before him.”

For some reason, Richard’s stride grew more confident.

I led him to an isolated landing.

Once we arrived in the quiet area, he seemed nervous and asked with a shaky voice, “Um, you said you wanted to talk. So why did we come here?”

“…Could you lower your head a bit?” I said, grabbing his collar and pulling him down.

I then started unbuttoning his shirt, which was done up tight at the top.

Richard startled, shaking his head. “W-Wait, it’s not even dismissal time yet! Someone could see…”

Ignoring his protests, I continued undoing the buttons until his neck was exposed, causing his face to redden as he instinctively shut his eyes.

I confirmed the wound on his neck and raised my right hand to ignite a flame.

It was the prearranged signal.

Lighting the flame indicated that I had confirmed the injury.

Then, a brilliant light flashed from the upper stairs.

“Guh—!”

Richard screamed weirdly as a sphere of light struck him in the head.

As he collapsed, I caught him and checked on his condition.

I wondered if he was alright.

I shouted up the stairs, “…Sylvia, did you manage your power correctly?”

“I’m not used to making people faint, but I think it should be fine? I made sure to knock him out properly, so Scarlet won’t be in danger. Well, he looks fine on the outside.” Sylvia mumbled, her face deadpan as she looked at the unconscious Richard.

While the line seemed a bit worrying, I felt reassured since she wasn’t the type to easily injure people.

Leonore mentioned that there were three students in her class with neck wounds.

I had subdued one student with Sylvia’s help.

I began to worry about the possibility of sudden control; thankfully, we managed to subdue him without incident.

Hastening back to the cafeteria, I sighed in relief.

Yoon Si-woo and Leonore, who had gone to subdue the other two, had also returned safely.

The two students they brought appeared to be lying on glowing magic circles.

It was likely a confinement magic circle drawn in advance by Dwight, who had been waiting in the cafeteria.

With this in place, nothing untoward would happen even if they woke up.

I laid Richard down inside the magic circle and asked Leonore, “Senior, was there any issue when you went to find them?”

“No, I just called them out from among others and knocked them out to bring them here,” she replied.

When Leonore nodded, I asked the same to Yoon Si-woo.

He responded similarly.

I sighed again, muttering, “…Damn, then it means there are still more of them.”

The recently attacked student was brutally slashed all over.

In that condition, it was expected that he would have bled profusely.

However, the three individuals we’d brought back were totally clean with not a drop of blood on them.

Moreover, since they were with other students, it was highly unlikely that it was them who carried out the attack.

We had only caught students from Leonore’s class, 2-B.

I had thought there might be others with neck wounds among other classes and teachers, and it seemed my intuition was right.

And just then, Eve returned to the cafeteria after searching for those people.

Her expression was far more serious than when she had left.

“I didn’t expect there to be this many…”

She murmured and snapped her fingers, causing people to appear on the cafeteria floor.

We all held our breath at the sight.

More than ten students.

All had wounds on their necks, and one of them had blood stains on his uniform.

Including the students we had just brought, that made a total of fifteen.

The fact that so many people could be controlled was terrifying.

While we trembled at this realization, Dwight’s voice broke the silence.

“…Wait a second, who brought this person in?”

Dwight, who was checking the monsters in the students’ heads, stopped in front of one student.

None other than Richard.

As Sylvia and I stepped forward, Dwight nervously spoke up.

“Everyone else has monsters in their heads, but this one doesn’t.”

Sylvia looked quite taken aback by that.

“…Could it be that he only has a neck wound but no monster in his mind?”

Dwight, confused, responded, “…The form of his neck wound is too similar to the others. Was there anything unusual during his capture?”

“Nothing special, we just knocked him out and brought him here…”

I briefly recalled the process of bringing Richard.

We called him out, checked the neck wound, gave the signal, and Sylvia used a spell on his head…

At that moment, a memory flicked through my mind.

“Sylvia, hold on. Can you cast a spell on a person with a monster in their head? Like the mental stabilization spell you used on me last time? Teacher, that should be alright, right?”

I asked for permission from the visibly exhausted school nurse, who slowly nodded.

Then a sparkling sphere emerged from Sylvia’s hand and absorbed into the head of a student lying within the magic circle.

I pointed at that student and said to Dwight, “Can you check again?”

Dwight examined the student’s head and seemed astonished as he murmured, “…The monster is gone. Completely.”

“…How did that happen?” Sylvia asked, surprised at her own work.

“I mentioned that your spirit has the ability to suppress and purify magic—right? If it’s such a small and weakened monster, just a little bit of that power might make it disappear. And you did cast an attack spell on his head earlier.”

I was relieved to recall the moment when Jessie had started scratching her neck during our meal. After Sylvia had cast the mental stabilization spell, Jessie had returned to normal. I shuddered at the thought that if we hadn’t taken that measure, Jessie could have been controlled.

Dwight thought for a moment, then put his hand on another student’s head and, after some relief, said, “I tried it just to be sure, and it seems that regular purification magic works too. If that’s the case, we can treat them quickly.”

“Really? Phew, that’s a relief…”

As we began to remove the monsters from the students’ minds using purification magic, everyone let out a relieved sigh.

But for some reason, I couldn’t feel any sense of calm.

A persistent unease lingered in me, but I didn’t know why I felt that way.

While I was lost in thought, I noticed Eve pulling out her phone and making a call.

She held the phone to her ear and, moments later, seemed puzzled as she put it away and asked me, “Evande, can I borrow your phone for a minute?”

I extended my phone to her, but after a moment of looking at it, she shook her head and handed it back to me.

“What’s the matter?”

Curiously, I asked, and Eve responded, “Well, I was thinking of contacting someone outside the school to see if there were any issues, but I can’t seem to get through. It keeps saying there’s no signal. Could it be because of the rain?”

Innocently listening to Eve, I suddenly felt a chill sweep through me.

No signal.

Yes, it transmits.

And realizing the source of my anxiety, I asked Eve in a trembling voice, “…Teacher, if someone suddenly can’t do something they once could, they would obviously notice, right? Like how I can’t call now.”

Eve tilted her head at my question, then, as she glanced at where I was looking, her face turned pale.

I was looking at those purifying the monsters.

If those who could once manipulate people suddenly couldn’t, they would become aware of it.

If the one who killed to keep their secret realized it was exposed, what on earth would they do?

I didn’t want to imagine it, but somehow, I felt I understood.

I looked at her phone screen and saw the signal was nonexistent.

It couldn’t simply be because it was raining heavily.

Unless something had happened with the base station.

Eve ran to the cafeteria window and opened it wide.

It was pouring rain, and faintly, I could see the blurred scenery of the city beyond.

Fifteen people in the school, not counting James and Leah—which made seventeen.

Then, how many were in that city?

The sounds of the rain echoed.

Pitter-patter…

Pitter-patter…

Screams of terror…