Chapter 71

The man's goons carefully drag Hector away, out of the room. As I hear their footsteps fade away, a knot forms in my stomach.

It's just so unfair. Fate seemed to finally be on my side; the steps were laid out in front of me, and I followed them through, but then it all went awry. Why did the gods give me a way to freedom and then take it away just as fast? Was it a test? Was I not supposed to take advantage of Hector? But what else could I do?

As I pondered and cursed my fate, the accursed man that all my troubles floated around approaches and frees me from my bounds. I look up at him with a scornful glare, yet he looks back with disinterest, as if my life is nothing but an ant's to him. Such a heartless man has no right to exist and take away the air of others.

He tells me to get up, and I reluctantly comply, pushing down my pride. I may seem compliant, but I am far from defeated. Allowing anger to cloud my judgment would only serve his purposes. I must stay focused and calm. After all, I have one more means of escape, hidden away, and this time it will not blindly depend upon luck.

The man, looking at my shaking legs—thanks to no one giving me a chance to stretch them—seems to become annoyed. He walks over to a table located in one of the corners of the room to do something.

I give it no mind. Seeing an opportunity to escape and make the mans life harder, I force my disheveled and creaking muscles to move, waddling my way to the exit of the room.

Unfortunately, as I continue on my path to freedom, I am met with stairs that lead down to the hall of the house. I idly recall when I was first getting dragged into this place. Back then, my poor legs had at least something going for them, and I managed to get up here with a bit of effort. But now, seeing as they have depreciated their muscle density, I suppose I should be more careful. I begin to crawl down the stairs like a toddler.

Unfortunately, as I attempt to traverse the stairs, my least favorite person comes to stop me. I sigh to myself as he forcefully grabs me by the arm and pulls me back up the whopping six stairs I managed to cover.

Well, I knew this was futile, but I still tried because if I don't stop resisting and showing protest, then I know that I am giving up and the man is winning. While some would state it would be more optimal to show the man a farce of despair, I simply can't do it. The outrage of my fate, of the lives lost and ruined by him, cannot stay suppressed in me. If I do not show my anger and wrath, what would be the point of their losses? Hector was a lesson to me. By the gods, if I give up, if I think I am safe, if I do not think further than needed, my plans will not go through. It is clear to me now that I should not have just attempted to wait idly until Hector's body lost its fight against its conditions. I should have tried something else, to speed up his demise further or even finish him off in a faster and better way. But I didn't, and so I am paying the price. That was what the gods sought to teach me, and I understand it now.

As I pondered, the man dressed me in the robes of the academy. I realized the truth of the man's plans: he never intended to do anything special with Hector; he just wanted to get me in and out of the academy. So he only used him as a shallow tool, throwing him away as soon as he was not needed. I inwardly sigh at the unneeded brutality of the man. I am sure there could have been a much less barbaric way to handle my freeing, perhaps bribery or finding a hole in the walls of the academy. Yet still, he went with not only the hardest option but the one that causes the most harm to everyone around him. With such a mentality, I don't doubt that he may be a spy of the demon lord sent to cause chaos. Hmm, yes, that could make sense. I heard there are spells to disguise one's whole body and voice. If he were a demon spy, it would make sense that he was tasked with researching the magical development of the Amber Empire. After all, the demon lord just appeared once more a couple of years ago. They should still be assessing their surrounding nations. And this could also explain the vast amount of knowledge he knows—things a simple commoner wouldn't know about.