Chapter 253.1. Fatty Gets Punished

The escalator made no sound in particular; it was really quiet. 
I let out a soft yawn, feeling the fatigue of heading to work early in the morning. The escalator seemed unusually long, and it appeared it’d take a while to reach the top. 
I thought I didn’t reach the top. I wouldn’t need to go to work today. I leisurely rode the escalator, lost in my thoughts.
It was my usual commute time, yet strangely, no one else was on the escalator. It was completely silent. The walls and ceiling were plain white, lacking any advertisements to break the monotony.
It was dangerous to be absorbed in my while on the escalator. I decided it was better to just wait.
The top wasn’t visible. How long would this escalator continue? What was my task for the day? 
I needed to check emails, reply necessary, and attend remote meetings… 
Every day was a repetition of the same tasks, like a cog in a machine, year after year. Pondering the tasks of the day, I waited as I rode upward.
I continued riding the escalator because I hadn’t reached the top yet. 
I continued riding the escalator because I hadn’t reached the top yet. 
I continued riding the escalator because I hadn’t reached the top yet. Without a sound, and another person in sight. I kept riding in silence. Continuing the tranquil ride, I had to wait until I reached the top. It was dangerous to run up, so I waited.
I chuckled wryly, thinking about my tasks, and role as a corporate drone. 
I kept riding, repeating the same thoughts, continuing until I reached the top. 
It wouldn’t take more than a few minutes longer. I just needed to wait patiently.
[Wake up]
“Hmm?”
I felt like someone was talking to me, which bewildered me. It was the first time someone had spoken to me on an escalator.
I looked around, but there was no one there. The escalator continued its long ascent, and looking down was just the same, the escalator stretching endlessly downward.
“What’s that? Maybe I’m just imagining things.”
Feeling a bit tired, I let out a yawn.
[Wake up, wake up.]
This time, the voice was clear, and it startled me, causing my expression to change in surprise.
“What? A ghost, maybe?”
It’s still quite early in the morning. I wished any ghosts could spare me at this hour. I looked around in a fluster and realized something strange.
The wall beside me had turned into a transparent glass panel without my noticing.
[Wake up~. It’s very dangerous!]
On the other side of the glass panel was an adorable little girl. She felt familiar as I had seen her somewhere before.
Her gray hair was smooth and lustrous. She had a halo. Her round, bright, ice-blue eyes gave off an angelic charm as she looked at me.
The girl is less than a meter tall, and she earnestly taps on the glass wall. With an anxious expression, she pounded the glass with her small hands and moved her mouth.
[Wake up, me.]
Though I thought the glass wouldn’t break with her little hands, when I inspected the glass closely, I noticed tiny cracks forming all over the glass. Each time the girl struck it, the cracks grew a bit larger.
[You need to wake up, or you won’t get to eat the parfait!]
Her adorable thoughts reached me, her breath heavy.
“Really? I can’t eat it?”
[You can’t eat it you don’t wake up soon]
“That’s troublesome!”
[Yeah, it’s troublesome!]
Placing her small hand on the wall, she answered me through the wall.
Before I knew it, the reflection I saw on the wall was the same as the girl’s appearance on the other side.
But more importantly, there was something much more troublesome!
“Parfait!”
[Parfait!]
In unison, we exclaimed the same line.
“Dangerous, dangerous! Off I go!”
I can’t eat the parfait. It was a big deal, so I decided to wake up.
[Take care! Have a safe trip!]
With a smile, she waved her hand at me.
“Yeah, see you later!”
She bid me farewell with a smile, just like she used to.
The scenery around me shattered like glass. The surroundings became glass fragments, scattering and covering the world in sparkling light.
And then, I woke up.
I jolted into consciousness. The world around me was engulfed in roaring fire, the rocks melted into glass-like substances, the air lacked oxygen, and breathing was impossible.
It was an attack from a super high-temperature fire magic. A follow-up magic after [Magic Break] that eliminated all magical effects.
It was undeniably effective.
“Mmm… how long was I unconscious?”
I pouted my lips and furrowed my brow. When I tried to walk, the effects of [Magic Break] caused my consciousness to fade, and my body stumbled. I hadn’t expected its power to be strong enough to knock me out.
Was it the effect of [Magic Break]? It felt somewhat different. It’s more like a side effect.
It felt like a magic that people shouldn’t use.
-The world trembled-
A log appeared before my eyes, but now wasn’t the time to pay attention to it. My magic armor is Wartan melting. My clothes get burned by the fire.
“What about Elizabeth?”
I quickly turned my gaze towards Elizabeth, who had also been affected by the magic and furrowed my brow in concern.
“That’s ruthless… Attacking when our magic disappeared due to [Magic Break].”
I hadn’t expected them to set up such a powerful trap involving their allies. My expectations were too naive.
Elizabeth had turned into a mere charred mass on the ground. I wasn’t sure how many times it had happened, but it was a heat that the human body couldn’t endure.
Without magic strengthened, Elizabeth was just a regular human. She had been burned in an instant.
She didn’t even twitch. She was already dead.
It reminded me of The Night of Magic’s cruelty after a long time. Even though she appeared to be the heroine, the novel was skilled at abruptly killing characters off.
“The change in the world seems to have altered the cast too…”
Sena, Elizabeth, and Tsuki were the main heroines in the original story. They even marry Shin in the final ending.
It seemed that Elizabeth had been treated as a disposable pawn.