A Hero's Regret!
As they made their way back, Nerine felt a deep sense of gratitude towards Caius for his help. She had learned so much from him, and his assistance had been invaluable.
"Thank you, Caius," she said, her voice filled with sincerity. "I really appreciate all the help you've given me."
Caius turned to her, a small smile on his face. "You don't need to thank me, I did it for the SP," he said as he took out his badge and gestured it towards her.
Nerine paused for a moment before pulling out her badge. "I know you didn't do it for free, but I feel like this amount of SP isn't enough for all the help you've given me. From finding that hidden cave to dealing with those creatures and helping me get those ingredients," she said awkwardly as she transferred the remaining 10 SP to him.
Caius shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Think of it as a favor from a friend. And who knows, maybe you can help me out with potions sometimes," he said with a grin.
Nerine's eyes widened before her face turned into one of excitement. "Sure, I will help you out anytime if it's something related to potions and alchemy!" she exclaimed.
Caius smiled and nodded before turning to leave, waving his hand. "Alright, see you in class tomorrow then," he replied.
As Caius was about to disappear out of sight, Nerine suddenly called out to him, "Y-Yeah, thank you once again, Caius! I-I hope we can work together again in the future."
Caius halted in his steps and spoke without turning back, "Sure, if the reward is worth it, count me in," he said with a smirk and then continued on his way.
Nerine watched him go, her cheeks turning pink as she realized she might have made a new friend. "Hehe, I guess I have a friend now," she whispered to herself, a smile forming on her face.
***
At the same time In Professor Scarlett's office, Scarlett sat with her head in her hands, her usually sleek black hair disheveled and a pained expression on her face. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she muttered to herself.
"...Why now? Why is my past still haunting me after all these years?" she whispered, her voice barely audible. "I should have acted without hesitation and ended her life."
The cause of her distress was none other than Griselda the gruesome, a well-known villain infamous for her curses. Scarlett had a personal history with her, and the mention of her name brought up painful memories.
Her mind drifted to the curse mark she had seen on Caius's arm, and she realized it must be the work of Griselda. She wondered how many lives Griselda had taken to create such a powerful curse, and she couldn't fathom how Caius had managed to escape her clutches. She knew all too well that Griselda never let her experimental subjects survive.
"Why does everything have to turn out this way ...sister?" Scarlett whispered, thinking back to her time with her biological elder sister, now a notorious witch.
Griselda was not always a villain, but a loving and kind person whom Scarlett had always looked up to... until an incident that changed her completely.
Griselda's descent into villainy had been a gradual one, spurred on by a tragic incident that scarred her deeply.
Scarlett knew that the incident had to do with a person who had caused her sister Griselda's transformation. "If it wasn't for that bitch," she muttered, "my sister would have never become the way she is now."
Years ago, Griselda had a deep love for her childhood sweetheart, with whom she had planned to spend the rest of her life. However, her life took a drastic turn when she offended a woman named Iliyana.
As the student council president in her academy, Griselda decided to confront Iliyana after receiving numerous complaints from fellow female students about her monopolizing the classroom using their boyfriends and fiancés as shuttle boys.
This confrontation with Iliyana had sparked a chain of events that had ultimately led to her downfall. Scarlett couldn't help but wonder what might have happened if things had gone differently. If Griselda had never confronted Iliyana, would she still be the same loving sister she remembered?
Iliyana, who was a commoner like Griselda, possessed a beauty that could not be compared to any other girl that Scarlett had ever seen. Her otherworldly beauty made her stand out from other noble girls, and she knew exactly how to use it to her advantage. Many commoners and even royals were willing to abandon everything for her, unable to resist her charm.
Griselda's fiancé was no exception. To exact revenge on Griselda, Iliyana began to seduce him, and he quickly fell into her trap. Blinded by her beauty, he began to distance himself from Griselda and move closer to Iliyana, forgetting his childhood love just like that.
Despite begging, pleading, and apologizing for her mistake, Griselda's innocence and love were no match for Iliyana's cunning. Iliyana made Griselda's life in the academy a living hell, publicly humiliating her and making her suffer until she could no longer bear it. And eventually, she was pushed to the brink.
Fueled by the betrayal of her fiancé and the humiliation she endured at the hands of Iliyana, Griselda's pain and anger led her to seek solace in dark magic.
She became consumed by a desire for revenge against those who had wronged her, and began experimenting with forbidden curses and spells. As her power grew, her once kind and gentle nature turned into something dark and twisted, Her thirst for revenge led her to not only kill the woman who wronged her, but also her beloved childhood sweetheart with her own hands.
But despite her success in taking revenge, Griselda's hatred for beauty and those who possessed it only grew. She began to view beauty as a curse, a dangerous and deadly thing that needed to be eradicated from the world. Her ruthless campaign of destruction and murder left a trail of victims in her wake, and her kill count eventually reached double digits.
But Griselda's reign of terror was brought to an end by her own sister, Scarlett, who stood against her in a fierce battle.
However, Scarlett could not bring herself to kill her own flesh and blood, and Griselda managed to escape into hiding.
This moment of hesitation haunted Scarlett and led her to abandon her title as a hero. She realized that a true hero would never hesitate to eliminate evil, even if it meant confronting someone close to them.
Scarlett believed that she had failed to uphold the oath she had taken to protect the innocent, and her sister's escape only added to her guilt and shame.
She slumped in her chair, her expression lifeless. "If only I hadn't hesitated," Scarlett muttered to herself. "No one else would have had to suffer the curse, and countless innocent lives could have been saved."
As she dwelled on her guilt, Scarlett's thoughts turned to Caius. She worried about him, knowing that he was going through a difficult time after his recent breakup. The last thing she wanted was for him to choose the path of darkness, as her sister had.
'If he found out that his curse was a result of my hesitation, would he ever forgive me?' she thought, fear gnawing at her.
She couldn't bear the thought of someone else succumbing to darkness because of her mistake. "I have to save him," she said aloud, wiping away her tears. "I have to find a way to lift his curse and restore his true appearance."
Scarlett knew that Caius was too brilliant and too important to the future of humanity to be lost to darkness. She had to guide him back to the light, no matter the cost.
With a newfound sense of purpose, Scarlett rose to her feet, determined to begin her quest to save Caius and prevent any more tragedy from occurring. "I have to guide him," she declared. "The first step is finding a cure for that curse. But it won't be easy. I remember reading that curse only works on someone whose beauty is unparalleled, whose features are beyond normal human standards." she muttered as she strode out of her office.