Chapter 161

Chapter 161

“……Oh, Leone!”
A voice calling his name woke him from his slumber.
Leone frowned as soon as she opened her eyes. Her sleep had been interrupted, and she was faced with an unpleasant sight.
“What. Why.”
“What, why, that’s all you can say?”
The other person stands with their arms crossed and looks down, contempt in their eyes. It is a gaze that looks down on others. Specifically, it’s a gaze that grades people based on their background.
Sometimes I feel like gouging out my eyeballs. Maybe quite often.
“So what do you call it then, a hollow bitch who talks a big game when there are monsters running around outside?”
“Go, hollow bitch?”
“That’s exactly what he asked. Do you want to swear one more time, or have you gained weight in your earlobes?”
“What a bitch…….”
Unclench your arms and raise your hands.
Instead of being intimidated, Leone jumped up from her chair and stood in his face. She glared into the other’s face from a distance.
“You can hit it. You’re good at it, that kind of thing.”
“Well, if you put it that way, do you think I can’t do it?”
It was hilarious to see his eyelids fluttering even as he pretended to be strong.
She was the queen of the school not so long ago. She used to be the queen of the school, trusting only my father, but now she cowers under the weight of her own insignificant threats.
A deep sigh came from the other side of the room.
“Moderation, Leone. Claire, you too.”
“What did I do, you saw it, how he treated me!”
“Okay, come on, please. I don’t want to cause a scene between us.”
Peterson, whose horn-rimmed glasses look like they might be his own, calmed them both down. It was the promised flow. Until Claire took a step back, as if she had no choice.
It seemed ridiculous to Leone. Trying to save face while the school was in shambles. But Peterson wasn’t wrong.
Scratching further only hurt this side.
“So what’s going on?”
“Don’t you know, you’re the ones who…….”
“I didn’t ask you, Peterson, tell me.”
This is not because I want to scratch, but because I want to be objective.
I wouldn’t bet on my once upon a time dead parents, but whatever.
“It’s a food issue, Leone, you’ve been sneaking off.”
“Who?”
“I can’t tell you that, I just had the information.”
Ha, Leone giggled.
“That’s not true, I never did, and I would rather have gotten less.”
“Hmm. I don’t believe it either, but it’s a sensitive issue, can you prove it?”
“Prove it to me how. Show me my shit, will that work?”
“What a lowlife bitch!”
He glares at Peterson, ignoring Claire’s bullshit. He’s trying to look neutral while bashing Claire, but the arrow is pointing this way. It was shameless politics.
I couldn’t help but think about it.
“Should I spill it all?
I genuinely questioned whether these guys were helping us survive. It’s not like they’re fighting monsters, they’re just a bunch of sons and daughters playing cliques.
But as always, the idea was just an idea.
“It’s necessary.
Somehow, Leone ended up leading a faction, but that’s not the whole story. The group somehow manages to stay together, thanks to the better ones keeping the lesser ones in line.
Their labor is invaluable.
When it’s time to shrink your mouth.
“…… is, at least to the best of my knowledge, intact.”
“But can you double-check, just in case?”
“If it’s just a confirmation, okay.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
Peterson smiled.
He’s more than a little annoying, more than a little off-putting. Leone shudders slightly as they leave the classroom.
“Ha, no.”
March 15, 2047.
You’ve been isolated at school for a week.
* * *
Thump, thump!
“Oh, man, it sucks at night!”
“Claire, shhh, keep it down.”
“I hate it now. When is my dad coming home….”
“Just hang in there. It’s not long now.”
In the corner of the classroom, Claire squatted, sobbing, and Peterson, who was trying to comfort her, looked every inch the same. Her glasses were stuck to the frames with duct tape.
Thump!
The vibrations continued to come from downstairs. Leone peered out through the gap in the curtains at the window. There were shadows prowling the expansive grounds.
Two years ago, a disease broke out on the continent.
The disease is caused by exposure to contamination and manifests as gray crystals sprouting all over the body. Beyond the “crystallization” stage, in the late stages, the patient becomes completely unintelligent and violent.
The subject can be human or animal. There were even occasional cases of mutated monsters. It was a devastating disease for human society.
The resulting variant is called a parasite.
Parasites breed other parasites. As one emerges, it raises the contamination index of its surroundings, increasing the likelihood of outbreaks. It’s like dominoes.
And so the continent’s cities crumble one after another.
Mayfield School, a boarding school, was already isolated by the time the teachers realized it. Fortunately, the shutters installed the previous year had done their job.
‘I think that’s the end of that, too.’
There are more and more parasites out there. She bangs her head on the door every chance she gets. It’s not just Claire, Leone is suffering from neuroses as well.
‘Outbreaks in schools are also on the rise….’
The situation is hopeless. As time passes, the pollution index only increases. Claire hopes for rescue, but Leone has long since given up hope.
In the end, he had to survive on his own.
As if the external problems weren’t bad enough, the internal problems were even worse.
“Leone. It’s been ten days since the faculty member who went for help hasn’t returned. I hate to say it, but I’m honestly, whoa. I’m not feeling hopeful.”
“Everyone does, they’re just pretending they don’t.”
“But now is not the time for that.”
Colin, the gym teacher who stayed behind at school, pressed a hand to my brow. The freckles around his eyes were getting darker by the day. But today, his eyes seemed to have an unknown light in them.
“I have something to tell you in confidence. Don’t tell anyone, but listen.”
Something more dismal than hopeful. Something bordering on mania.
“As you know, spellcasters are more susceptible to the effects of pollution than the average person, and there are only two spellcasters left on campus: Leone, you, and me.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“It means that we are worthy of representing this group. We deserve to be treated as such in order to survive, and the way things are being distributed now… it’s difficult.”
It was not something that would come out of a teacher’s mouth.
Leone’s face was thick with disgust as he looked at Colin. Colin recognized him and sighed, but he didn’t back down from his claim.
“Think about it. Unless help comes, it’s only going to get worse.”
Tak.
Colin tapped Leone on the shoulder and walked away. For a moment, Leone stood motionless in the empty classroom. The sound of Colin’s cheerful voice from the hallway was sickening.
Three days later, parasites appeared on campus.
“You bastards, where did you crawl in from!”
“Aaaaahhhh! Les, Leone. Help me…!”
Kwazik!
Leone hit Parasite over the head with a baseball bat. It was a weapon she’d taken from the gym’s supply closet shortly after the outbreak. In her experience, it was easier to handle and more effective than a knife.
It wasn’t the first time he’d fought; he’d gone back and forth from the dormitory to fetch food, and each time he’d had to wield a weapon, and each time, like now, he’d been covered in blood.
The company was founded by a work-study student with no parents.
“What are you doing, assholes, throw a chair at me!”
An unremarkable physical enhancement spell.
She could run faster than the average person and swing a bat with power, abilities that were intuitively helpful to her.
After a fierce battle, the Seven Parasites have been slain, but the losses have been as great as the gains. Unsurprisingly, many of the leading fighters were killed or wounded.
Among the dead was Colin. He was decapitated after going further than necessary to strengthen his position. It wasn’t a dog’s death, though, as he killed three of them single-handedly.
At least he remained a heroic teacher.
“Leone. I think the basement has been breached.”
“…Pushing the locker is also a barricade. You’re going to have to be quieter from now on.”
The limit is near.
The wounded were dying one by one without proper medical attention, some of them seemingly disappearing somewhere before they died, only to return as parasites.
Leone has gotten used to hitting her classmates on the head.
There was not a single sane person. All of them were mentally ill. Claire screamed at the top of her lungs, wrapped in a blanket, and Peterson, who had always been a talker, became increasingly reticent.
Leone couldn’t sleep.
It was a combination of things. I felt like Parasite was going to break down barricades or shutters when I fell asleep, or that my classmates were going to kill themselves or go on a rampage.
Survivors gathered together to discuss a plan.
“We can’t keep this up. We have to get out of here.”
“How. How?”
“Colin, you have a car, and I found the keys, so you should be able to use it.”
“How many people can fit on it, and where are we going in the first place?”
“…… Stop grabbing my shit, motherfucker, or get the fuck out of here!”
It wasn’t a very nutritious discussion.
Leone closed her ears as the chatter continued. Listening to their mindless nonsense was only making her head hurt.
I don’t know if I’d call it fortunate, but contrary to my fears, the food situation was pretty good. After the catastrophe of two years ago, the school had stockpiled a lot of long-shelf-life foods like canned goods.
Plus, my mouth shrunk on its own.
I had a classmate who would quietly leave the classroom without anyone noticing. They didn’t get hurt or get sick. Once they left, they never came back.
The students didn’t talk about him as if he had promised.
Leone sometimes heard visions. Whenever she did, her eyes in the mirror would catch an odd glint in them, like Colin’s one day.
And, and…….
Boom!
That day, he was awakened by a loud noise. He realized he had fallen asleep. I looked around and saw several students dozing off.
“Wake up the neighbor. I heard a noise downstairs.”
Leone glanced out the window and swallowed hard. The Parasite had broken through the front gate and was entering the school grounds.
The shutter, my last resort, was smashed.
“…Get ready for a fight, it looks like the front gate has been breached.”
“Aaaaahhhh…! No, I don’t want it anymore, Dad….”
I glanced at Claire, who was crouched down and biting her nails, and clicked my tongue; she was useless to the end. But I didn’t feel like cursing anymore, so I silently picked up my bat and got up off my ass.
I went out into the hallway.
There were less than a dozen people behind him. No, I thought, this is too many. As I turned my head, my eyes caught the early evening moon outside the window.
A weak laugh escaped me.
“If I knew this was going to happen, I’d bite his head off.”
“Do you want to go back and wake up now?”
“I’ll do it. He put a lock on my glasses before.”
I giggled but didn’t retrace my steps. Bang, bang, bang, and I could hear the stacked chairs and desks below collapse. It was enough to bring all the Parasites in the neighborhood.
The stench and footsteps grew closer.
The students camped out on the second-floor landing and waited. The obstacles they had set up were plentiful. Soon, three parasites covered in crystals came up the stairs.
“Grab them one by one!”
One after the other, the parasites came over the barrier. With her experience, it wasn’t hard after three, but Leone knew it.
It’s just blood from a new foot.
– Kaaaaaah!
The sound of gore and blood drew the Parasites. Dozens of Parasites rushed in at once. A flailing arm yanked a boy’s leg out from under him, knocking him to the ground.
“Let go of me, let go of me… Aaaaahhh!”
The blood splattering everywhere was venomous red. The moral judgment to help was quickly dismissed in her head. Leone shouted as she backed away from the stairs.
“Get out of the hallway!”
The Parasites chased after the students who made it safely through the stairs.
They raced down the corridor, stumbling and swaying. A horde of Parasites stalked their prey like a swarm.
“Leone, Leone, Lee, what do we do now?”
“Ugh, hmmm, why did I come to this shitty school, you bastard….”
As the distance closed, his heart beat faster.
There was a buzzing sound in my ears, like an insect flapping its wings. I had imagined death so many times, but when it actually happened, it took my breath away.
The stench paralyzed my nose. My vision blurred, and tears welled up in my eyes.
“Assholes.”
Leone gripped the bat with all her might. More than fear, she felt a surge of frustration and Chapter. It was maddening to think that after living so fiercely, she would be the monster’s prey.
She stomped the ground. Toward the hordes of parasites.
A strange sense of liberation rose in my chest.
Kwazik!
Inyoung broke the window and stepped into the hallway. Leone’s eyes widened. The man’s shadow was long in the dusky moonlight.
A minigun soon appeared in the man’s hand.
-Drrrrr!
The parasites were swept away in a flash. The barrel shortened, spewing out rounds at high velocity. After a few moments of echoing gunfire, dozens of Parasites littered the floor.
“……?”
Leone let go of the bat without realizing it. As she stood frozen, the man slowly turned around. His dull black-brown eyes met hers.
“You’re alive. You suffered.”