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Season 1 Side Story Chapter 10. Secret of a Secret (4)

— I got goosebumps...

— Dalia was like that?

— Immediate re-evaluation of Beret.

— Seri...

The viewers were continuously shocked by Seri\'s death and Dalia\'s appearance.

Almond was no exception.

‘What is this...?’

Those crazy fanatics actually went to such lengths? Because the girl named Seri was a witch and Ran disobeyed an order?

They publicly executed a girl in the middle of a village in the name of religion?

"I am Lwindal\'s servant and the sacred executor, Dalia."

Sacred executor. The bystanders flinched upon hearing those words.

"If you don\'t want to stand trial, it\'s best to mind your own business and move along."

Bystanders who had stopped to see what was happening quickly cleared out. Even the innkeeper abandoned his own inn and ran out.

"Ran, you have no talent in healing. How many times have I told you?" Dalia spoke with a mocking tone.

"Seri... Seri! Please, hold on a little. I\'ll, I\'ll heal you..."

Seri had a gaping wound in her abdomen. Ran desperately tried to help her.

Dalia prepared to launch another spear of light.

Zzzzt...!

He seemed determined to impale both Ran and Seri.

Still hiding under the table, Almond expressed his dissatisfaction to the viewers.

"Usually, there\'s some kind of explanation before attempting to kill, isn\'t there...?"

Such villainous behavior was so different from what he saw in movies. Dalia seemed intent on not sparing Ran and Seri even a second longer.

"It\'s perfect. They’re gathered just right for execution. Very well, to the goddess\'s side─"

Boom!

"!?"

Crash!

Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed with the spear of light embedded there.

Dalia looked down at his arm in surprise.

"... An arrow?"

An arrow had pierced his forearm and threw off his aim.

Then...

Whoosh!

Another arrow pierced directly into his left eye.

"Ugh!"

Overwhelmed by the pain, Dalia quickly shifted to a defensive stance.

Whooom!

Pure white mana split into several streams, transforming into hexagonal shields. These shields were interconnected and blocked every direction.

Ting! Ping!

The arrows that Almond fired consecutively bounced off the shield. Each arrow had been aimed at lethal points.

"Ah... This isn’t good."

Being blocked like this felt so futile.

"What should I do?"

Ran couldn\'t use a protective shield like that. Was this person a notch above Ran?

— Who knows~ Hehe.

— Who knows?

— Who can say~~

While the viewers teased Almond, Dalia smirked.

"Lete... you\'re nowhere to be seen. So you helped Ran, didn\'t you? Foolish ones. Do you wish to be by the goddess\'s side?"

A cracking sound echoed.

Dalia created a gap again. At that moment, Almond\'s eyes lit up.

"When a gap appears, one of the shields disappears."

The light shields that surrounded Dalia from all sides had no gaps, but one shield would temporarily disappear when a gap opened up.

"But the angle is..."

The problem was that the disappearing shield was too far behind, making it hard for Almond to target it from his position.

"You should join the goddess too."

Whoosh!

A massive light spear flew toward Almond.

The spear, consumed by an intense light that seemed to swallow everything, would surely kill on impact. Yet...

Chiiik!

Despite its size, it made a disappointing noise. The spear merely grazed Almond\'s waist and passed without causing any damage.

"... What?"

Dalia frowned and created another spear to throw.

Bzzzt...!

Once again, the massive spear flew through the air.

Crash!

The only victim was an unfortunate inn. Almond remained unharmed.

He threw another and then two in succession...

Crash!

Boom!

Even as the inn seemed to be on the verge of collapse, Almond remained unscathed.

"How...?"

The reason for this strange spectacle wasn\'t particularly mysterious.

Almond had simply dodged the attacks.

"How, how can you dodge so easily?!"

The method of evasion itself was astonishing. He didn\'t throw himself out of the way. He just sidestepped them.

After so many spears had been thrown, Almond hadn\'t moved much from his original spot.

— Who am I? The one who practically beat JeonJaPa in the Survival Challenge! Al! Mond!

— Almond\'s major revealed lol

— White energy isn’t enough for our Almond!

— Dalia\'s expression is priceless lol

— Never seen Dalia react like this lol

The viewers were excited to see Dalia react this way.

"Who are you? You\'re clearly not Lete."

Bzzt...!

Dalia created another spear and asked.

At this, Almond\'s eyes sparkled.

‘Finally.’

Seeing one of the forward shields disappear, Almond took a crouching stance. The motion was so swift it felt like one action. Drawing his bow, aiming, and releasing the arrow took no more than a blink of an eye.

From Dalia\'s perspective, it was only enough time for him to blink.

Whoosh!

An arrow pierced his throat.

“... Kugh!”

With a whistling cry, Dalia fell.

He couldn’t even leave any last words.

"Well, that was easy. Phew," Almond spoke after releasing the breath he held.

— Woah

— Only you can pull it off this easily

— Did he die from a single shot???

— Perfect shot here too? Lol

— People should die if they\'re hit in a vital spot! Right!

— He precisely aimed for the shield\'s gap, impressive

— FYI, Dalia was (once) the mid-boss of this game.

Was that it? As Almond was reading the chat...

"Seri...!"

Ran\'s scream echoed out.

"Serrriiii!"

Almond immediately understood from his heartbreaking voice.

Perhaps Dalia\'s statement that Ran had no talent in healing was true.

[Girl (★★) Cleared!]

***

After Seri died, the screen went dark and lit up again.

‘Where am I?’

Suddenly, everything changed and Almond looked around. He found himself in what looked like a dusty warehouse. A bit of light came from above, suggesting it could be underground.

"... Lete. Do you need to keep following me? Perhaps you should leave too. There might still be a chance."

Ran’s weakened voice could be heard.

"Ran."

Almond rose to find Ran. He realized that Ran was right beside him, hidden behind a large oak barrel.

After escaping from the academy, Ran put on some weight but looked emaciated again.

"... There\'s no hope now. The Order will tighten their search. They won\'t operate alone like they did with Dalia..."

"Ran."

"...?"

Ran swiftly raised his head.

"Almond?"

"Yes, it\'s me."

"Haah."

Ran chuckled and showed a smirk.

"Why did you come back now?"

"What...?"

Bang!

Suddenly, Ran rose and grabbed Almond by the collar.

He could have avoided it, but Almond let him, thinking he needed to allow this.

"All this time...! Do you know what Lete and I had to go through? Because you killed Dalia..."

Thud!

Almond and Ran lost their balance and fell. With Ran on top, he grabbed Almond\'s collar again.

"... Because you killed him, now even Lete is a death row prisoner in the Order! He became a major criminal without knowing anything! Sniffle..."

Tears poured from Ran\'s eyes like rain. Looking into his teary blue eyes was like a rain shower under a clear sky.

"... Ran."

Almond gently pushed Ran away while holding his hand.

The drained Ran retreated and leaned back into a slump.

"I\'m sorry," Ran whispered and buried his head in his knees.

"If you hadn\'t killed Dalia then, I would\'ve died... I\'m sorry... I just... had no one else to blame..."

"..."

Almond pondered what to do in this situation.

Seri was dead, and Ran seemed utterly hopeless.

"I\'ve thought hundreds of times... maybe it\'s better just to die. As long as the Order chases me, I\'ll die if I’m caught..."

To Ran, the Order was everything. If they were after him, he believed he\'d run all his life and die without anyone\'s help.

"It\'s almost like I... killed Seri... I wasn\'t supposed to meet Seri..."

Boom.

Those words felt like a heavy blow to Almond\'s heart.

“It\'s almost like I killed So-Yeon...”

Almond approached Ran and tightly held his youthful hand just like Hyeon-Ju had done to him.

"Ran, Seri wasn\'t a witch. You were the only one in the Order who believed that. Thanks to you, she lived a little longer."

"... Not a witch? But how can you be so sure?"

"The critical evidence you mentioned, the blood phenomenon... is just menstruation that every woman goes through."

"... What?"

"It\'s true."

"But, that can\'t be..."

Ran shivered as if he couldn\'t believe it. It felt like his entire belief system was shattering.

"It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. It’s a truth you were bound to find out after leaving the school.”

"Then, the reddish-brown hair that she never tied back, her green eyes... and the long nails?"

"Did Seri have long nails on her pinky finger that day?"

"...!"

"They say witches store their power in those nails and would never cut them, but she didn\'t have long nails that day, did she? Maybe she cut them for hygienic purposes since she started working at the inn. It wouldn\'t make sense if she was a witch, would it?"

"How... How could that be...?"

"Besides, not tying her hair might just be Seri\'s preference. Just because her eye and hair colors matched the desert witch, it might have been a story roughly tailored to fit Seri."

"..."

Ran was unable to recover from the shock.

"But if someone was brainwashed like you, they would definitely think Seri was a witch."

These boys had been under the care of the cult since they were abandoned at the orphanage. They weren\'t openly brainwashed soldiers, but boys with slightly skewed concepts in their heads. That was even more terrifying because it was hard to tell them apart from ordinary people.

"You believed that Seri wasn\'t a witch based solely on your feelings and intuition. You guessed right. Your love might have saved Seri for a few more weeks."

"... Sniffle... Sniffle..."

Ran buried his head in the ground. Almond could only see his trembling back, but he knew. Ran\'s heart was slowly healing.

"The cult definitely wanted to kill Seri."

He wanted to dig into the root cause of this incident. The cult tried to kill Seri and even fabricated the perfect evidence.

Why did they have to kill that young girl? Just for Ran\'s sake?

"There must be a reason. Do you have any leads?"

"I\'m not sure..."

"Tell me about Seri. Start with what her parents did for a living."

Ran began talking about everything he knew about Seri. He had observed Seri for a long time, so he knew a lot. How her eyes drooped when she smiled or how being near her made his heart beat faster. There were many other trivial details.

Among all of them, Almond managed to pick out one clue.

"... Wait, what did her father do?"

It had to do with her father.

"He was a professor. He studied a discipline called chemistry, but he passed away around the time I started observing her."

The timing was strange. He passed away just before the order to kill Seri was given to Ran.

"What was her father researching?"

"Something called Blue Hole, I think. I\'m not exactly sure what it is..."

Blue Hole? What was that?

Almond thought for a moment.

Ding.

[You are one step closer to the secret!]

***

[Beginner\'s Tip: Witches store their power in the nails of their pinky fingers. Especially if they stain it with nail polish, the power is said to be stored more freshly.]