Clatter, clatter!
Inside a carriage rattling through the ruined streets of Death Land, Meilyn slowly opened her eyes. A dull pain throbbed through her head, her thoughts were still foggy, and her throat felt painfully dry.
What is this...?
She blinked several times and tried to gather her thoughts, only to become increasingly confused by the constant shaking beneath her.
Why am I in a carriage? Did I pass out and get sent back to Kizen? What happened to the evaluation? What about Simon and the others?
Before she could make sense of anything, a voice suddenly came from directly in front of her.
"You're awake?"
Meilyn's eyes snapped open as the wrinkled, liver-spotted face of an old man suddenly loomed in front of her. Startled, she instinctively tried to scream and pull herself away, only to discover that no sound came from her mouth and her body could barely move.
Her mouth had been tightly gagged with cloth, while both hands were bound behind her back. Even worse, when she instinctively tried to circulate Darkness, nothing responded. Whatever had been done to her restraints, she couldn't use her jet-black at all.
"Mmff! Mmmmm!"
"I can't understand a word you're saying," Javier said with a click of his tongue.
What, what, WHAT is this?! Who the hell is this guy?!
Forcing herself to calm down, Meilyn immediately tried to grasp the situation. Her gaze darted toward the window, and what she saw outside instantly destroyed any hope that she had somehow been transported back to Kizen.
The sky remained pitch-black, with those familiar red clouds hanging ominously above. She was still in Death Land, and even the coachman driving the carriage wasn't human, but a skeleton.
That weird zombie kid...
Her memories gradually returned. She remembered fighting the strange zombie, being taken away, and then losing consciousness. Somehow, she must have ended up in this old man's hands afterward.
But that only confused her further. She hadn't been bitten or eaten by the zombies, so why was there a human involved?
Javier certainly looked unpleasant enough to be mistaken for an undead at first glance, but he was unquestionably alive.
Maybe I can reason with him. If he recognizes my Kizen uniform, he should know what will happen if he recklessly harms a Kizen student.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, however, Meilyn noticed Javier's wrinkled hand reaching toward her, his eyes examining her with the uncomfortable gaze of a merchant inspecting merchandise.
@%&^$%@!!!*
"MMMMMFF!!"
Without hesitation, Meilyn recoiled and kicked him straight in the face.
Wham!
Javier's head snapped backward from the impact, but rather than becoming angry, the old man slowly raised his head and laughed. Blood streamed from his nose, only for his snake-like tongue to flick outward and lick it away.
"Keh-heh! Full of spirit, just like a young lady should be. I like that!"
A violent shudder ran through Meilyn's entire body.
"Mmff! Mmmmfff! Mmbbbbb!"
"Hm? Still can't understand what you're saying."
"Mmmmm!"
Perhaps curious about what she was desperately trying to say, Javier leaned forward and finally untied the cloth around her mouth.
"Huaaah!"
Meilyn immediately sucked in a deep breath. The moment she recovered enough to speak, she glared at Javier with enough fury to burn a hole through his skull.
"Don't you dare touch me, you filthy son of a bitch!"
"Heheheh!"
Javier merely laughed, completely unashamed by her insult, while Meilyn quickly drew her knees closer and put as much distance between them as the cramped carriage allowed.
"I'm Meilyn Villenne, a first-year student of Kizen and a member of the Ivory Tower!" she shouted. "Do you even realize what you're doing right now?!"
"To be precise..." Javier's grin widened as his gaze swept over her once more. "What I see in front of me is a corpse who used to belong to Kizen and the Ivory Tower."
"...!"
"Unfortunately, this old man doesn't have the guts to capture a Kizen student just to demand a ransom." His eyes gleamed with disturbing interest. "No, you'll make a very fine undead."
Javier suddenly seized Meilyn by her necktie and yanked her forward. Unable to use her hands to catch herself, she stumbled toward him before he grabbed her chin and examined her face more closely.
"Guh...!"
"Someone from the Ivory Tower makes excellent material. Perhaps you'll become a Skeleton Mage, or if things go particularly well, even a Banshee."
His wrinkled fingers brushed across her cheek as though he were evaluating the condition of some expensive merchandise.
"Of course, it really is a shame. Such beautiful hair and a pretty face will probably be lost in the process, but that can't be helped. Let's hope that after becoming an undead, you at least find yourself a good mas—"
Crunch!
"G-GYAAAAAGH!"
Meilyn sank her teeth into Javier's finger with everything she had.
The metallic taste of blood immediately filled her mouth, but she refused to let go until Javier began writhing from the pain. The moment his grip loosened, Meilyn released his finger, pulled her head back, and slammed her forehead directly into his face.
Thunk!
"Gah!"
Javier toppled backward and rolled across the carriage floor.
That's it!
She had bought herself a chance.
Meilyn's eyes immediately darted toward the carriage window. Her hands were still bound and she couldn't use Darkness, while jumping from a carriage moving at this speed could easily leave her severely injured, perhaps even kill her.
But compared to what awaited her if she remained here, that risk seemed far more appealing.
Once her decision was made, Meilyn didn't hesitate. She threw herself toward the open window and managed to get half of her body outside before something suddenly clamped around her ankle.
Grab!
"...!"
"Wahaha! It's no use!"
Javier violently pulled her backward, dragging Meilyn straight back into the carriage. Before she could recover, a brutal blow struck her abdomen, knocking the air from her lungs and sending her collapsing onto the carriage floor.
"Guh...!"
Javier immediately grabbed a fistful of her sky-blue hair and forced her head upward, his earlier amusement now mixed with irritation.
"Well done, girl! Even without your hands or Darkness, you still found the courage to fight back and attempt an escape. It really proves that Kizen doesn't accept just anyone."
He reached down toward Meilyn, preparing to restrain her properly this time.
"But this is the end."
Meilyn squeezed her eyes shut.
Damn it...
Disgust and helplessness twisted together inside her chest. She had entered Kizen with so much pride and ambition, yet she hadn't even accomplished anything she could truly be proud of.
And now she was going to die here, in the back of some filthy carriage, only to have her corpse turned into an undead by someone like this.
At that exact moment, an enormous impact crashed into the roof of the carriage.
BOOOOM!
The entire vehicle violently lurched to one side. The horses neighed in panic and veered from their path, while Javier nearly lost his balance and Meilyn was thrown against the carriage wall.
"What?!"
Javier snapped his head upward, his expression immediately changing.
"What's going on?!"
BOOM!
Before Javier could figure out what was happening, the roof of the carriage suddenly burst inward. Broken pieces of wood scattered across the interior as someone dropped straight through the opening and landed between him and Meilyn.
It was a young man wearing Kizen's school uniform, his white hair standing out clearly even within the dim interior of the carriage.
Meilyn's eyes widened the instant she recognized him.
"...Knox!"
The fear and despair that had filled her expression only moments earlier disappeared almost immediately, replaced by unmistakable relief. Javier, on the other hand, visibly stiffened when he realized that another Kizen student had somehow caught up with their moving carriage.
Knox didn't answer Meilyn right away.
His crimson eyes first swept across her condition, taking in the ropes binding her hands, her disheveled uniform, and the obvious signs that she had been struggling fiercely against her captor. Although she appeared injured, she was fortunately still conscious and, more importantly, alive.
Good...I made it in time.
Only then did Knox slowly shift his gaze toward Javier.
"...Hmm."
There was no smile on his face this time.
Javier instinctively flinched beneath that calm stare, his earlier confidence wavering for a moment before he quickly forced himself to regain his composure. His grip tightened around his staff as he stepped away from Meilyn and prepared himself for battle.
Calm down. It's fine.
No matter how intimidating those eyes were, the person who had arrived was still wearing a first-year Kizen uniform.
He's just a freshman kid at best...!
Knox's gaze remained on Javier for only a moment before his figure suddenly disappeared from where he stood.
Javier's eyes widened. Before his mind could even register the movement, Knox had already appeared directly in front of him, leaving only a fading afterimage behind at his previous position.
The distance between them had vanished in an instant.
Staring straight into Javier's eyes, Knox spoke in an ice-cold voice.
"You...are dead."