My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 053: The Immortal Killer

“Elesia Ignoosis had her hand on my abdomen. With a gentle touch as if cherishing an infant. Now, what exists just below the navel?”

“The tanden.”

To the Princess’s question, Kishō answered immediately as it was his specialty.

The tanden was where all [Ki] converged. It played a role like the heart for blood. For dragonkin who wielded the power of [Ki], it was the most critical organ essential for using [Sword Ki], magic, or breath—any of them.

“This curse magic carves a formula into the target’s tanden, then creates a factory in the mental world to process the soul. The work conducted in the factory is cruel. The target’s soul is processed into a voiceless vessel, and the ego is erased. Then finally, by storing the caster’s soul in the vessel, it’s complete. Meaning, rather than remote control, she directly transplants her soul to make it her own.”

Slowly crossing his arms, Kishō groaned.

“Rather than pulling strings to make a puppet, it’s closer to possession?”

While lying on the simple bed, the Princess closed her eyelids and shook her head left and right.

“Slightly different from possession as well. Possession refers to a state where two souls exist in one body. Originally, a soul’s capacity is one person only, and forcibly shoving another soul in there to steal control of the body is the typical method of possession-type curse magic. Now, if you forcibly cram two souls into one vessel, what do you think happens next?”

“Like putting another bun on a small plate that can only hold one bun? Then it wouldn’t be stable. It’d roll off.”

“Precisely. The flaw of possession-type curse magic lies in that instability. Moreover, since the soul that’s the original owner has stronger bodily adhesion, complete takeover often fails and the invader gets expelled.”

“Like how the bun placed first would be more stable since it’s in contact with the flat surface. The one that rolls off would be the forcibly placed bun.”

Kishō convinced himself alone with his mysterious bun theory.

“In contrast, the curse magic Elesia Ignoosis uses has no such opening. The original soul is processed and made into a vessel to accept her soul. And by using the original soul as the vessel, the body shows no rejection response.”

In bun theory terms, it was like placing a box on the small plate and putting the bun inside it. The box was made from a bun, but could no longer be eaten.

Meaning, the processed soul was no longer a soul. Losing ego, having personality destroyed, becoming something else entirely. And thus, one body with one soul was realized.

“Basically, complete takeover is possible.”

Put another way, it was like choosing whatever body you liked, reincarnating, and enjoying a second life. Moreover, Kishō realized it didn’t end there.

“Wait a minute. By that logic, she can keep transferring from body to body endlessly.”

“Correct. Elesia Ignoosis is probably the name of the original human. And her current form is different. She’s likely disguised as someone dragonkin— someone we know well.”

◇◇◇◇◇

Thunder roared.

That roar yanked him from recollection back to reality in one go.

In the main building hallway, the sound of cold rain striking windows echoed intermittently.

Ōka, face pale, said as if groaning: “No way…”

Kishō probably looked the same.

“It’s not a lie. This is undeniable reality, and the threat has closed in right here.”

Ōka shook her head no no, and just as she tried to dash off, Kishō caught her arm at the last moment. He pulled her in with undeniable force. Ōka who’d collided with his chest moistened her brown eyes anxiously. Though they ended up in an embrace gazing at each other, he felt no embarrassment given the urgent situation.

“I understand not wanting to believe it. Having a killer lurking in everyday life is unbearably terrifying. But now that it’s come to this, we have no choice but to admit Kuroyō’s deduction was correct.”

According to the Princess’s deduction, Elesia Ignoosis could apparently move as just a soul like a wandering spirit. And freely travel between bodies she’d cast spells on. If this were impossible, when Alice was killed, Elesia Ignoosis should have also vanished, and the body she’d used before hijacking Alice should have been found in a soulless state.

“But in reality, all academy affiliates who participated in summer special training returned safely, with no missing persons or deaths. Then Elesia Ignoosis is still out there.”

Even the Princess apparently couldn’t assert how accurate this speculation was. That’s why she hadn’t reported it to the academy either. Publishing it without knowing the killer’s identity would result in paranoia and a witch hunt might begin—that was the Princess’s judgment.

And today, the situation had changed.

The ominous speculation was becoming reality.

If the missing female student had fallen into Elesia Ignoosis’s hands, high probability she’d been processed into a spare body.

Generally, a spare is prepared as a replacement for when the main breaks or becomes unusable. In this case, the main was the dragonkin body currently being used, and the spare was the missing female student’s body.

Meaning—

“This is a declaration of war. A statement of intent to openly target Kuroyō. When the time comes, she plans to switch to the spare and flee.”

“Then we need to report to a teacher.”

With bodies pressed together, Ōka fidgeted anxiously.

At this legitimate proposal, Kishō bit his lip.

“Can’t do that.”

“Why not!”

“Because the teachers are the most suspicious.”

The monster they had fought was called a Storm Turtle—an Apocalypse-class monster. Apocalypse-class was the highest rank defined by the Adventurer’s Guild. The very fact that such a monster existed in the Beast King Forest was itself undeniably the result of human interference. Even so, despite being Apocalypse-class, they should have been able to defeat it without issue if they had weapons.

“Now that I think about it, not being allowed to bring weapons—even against mere magic beasts—was definitely strange. If it was only meant to experience combat, weapons shouldn’t have mattered.”

“But if we defeated it easily, it wouldn’t be training.”

“Officially speaking.”

“So Shō-kun, you’re saying there was another motive.”

Nodding, he patted Ōka’s head.

“In the first place, holding training not in the Dragon Emperor’s territory but in Dragon Saint Ragō’s territory was unnatural. Kuroyō tilted her head at it too.”

“Yeah, I thought that was weird too.”

“Elesia Ignoosis’s motive was this: By choosing land far from the capital, prevent reinforcements from arriving quickly. Meanwhile, use the Storm Turtle to ravage base camp, then turn around to damage Kuroyō. Afterwards, hijack Kuroyō’s body and return to base camp, but since major damage occurred at base camp too, injuries to Kuroyō’s body won’t arouse suspicion. She planned to succeed at the substitution amid the confusion.”

Considering the Princess’s ability, if carrying weapons, she would’ve killed the Storm Turtle uninjured. That wouldn’t do, so weapon use was forbidden.

“Only teachers could make that adjustment.”

Ōka gasped. No rebuttal came. Taking that as consent, Kishō stuck just his head out from the pillar’s shadow and looked around the left and right hallways. Confirming no one was there:

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Huh? Where to?”

Sliding his body out from the pillar’s shadow, he pulled Ōka’s hand and emerged into the hallway. Running at a jog, he descended the stairs and headed for the back entrance on the main building’s north side. Arriving immediately at the destination back entrance, he regulated his breathing and raised one finger to Ōka, signaling “shh.” Patting the chestnut head that nodded solemnly, he placed his hand on the grand sliding door unworthy of being called a back entrance.

The moment he opened the door, loud rain sounds rushed into his ears. The back entrance continued to the Teacher Building, and large raindrops hit the connecting corridor’s roof, the sound of them bursting and scattering echoing continuously like a machine gun.

One shadow proceeded down that connecting corridor. Wearing luxurious green dragon robes.

Kishō recited what he’d organized in his mind as if memorizing it:

“Three suspects. Homeroom supervisor Instructor Mion, vice supervisor Instructor Fūga, and Academy Director Alliance Consort Seiran. Most suspicious among them is—”

He pointed at the figure walking the corridor.

Quite tall for a woman. Back straight, stride divided into perfectly equal intervals. Her long black hair was tied up in back, the nape of her neck strangely alluring. The temple pieces of her glasses also peeked out slightly.

“What!? Mion-sen— mmph—”

“I said your voice is too loud.”

Covering talkative Ōka’s mouth with his hand, Kishō raised his index finger: shhh.

The truth was, he’d been tailing one of the suspects moments ago when Ōka called out loudly, and he’d frantically covered her mouth.

“And yet Ōka. Saying I pushed you down… that’s harsh.”

“Because how am I supposed to know that!”

Ōka puffed up sulkily. He delivered a light flick to her forehead:

“From now on, listen to people more.”

“Ugh, I’m not satisfied—”

While rubbing her forehead with a fingertip, Ōka sent a resentful look, but Kishō ignored this. Instead just saying “Let’s go,” he stepped into the connecting corridor.

Ōka who’d caught up at a jog behind him voiced a question:

“But why is Mion-sensei the most suspicious?”

While keeping attention forward to not get too close, Kishō said:

“First, everyone besides the three suspects I listed has alibis. That’s fine, right?”

“Mm, the summer special training sites differed by grade, so second and third year teachers have alibis, right?”

“Correct. There are no transfer gates in dragonkin territory, so warping to distant lands is impossible.”

—Transfer gates.

Large-scale magical devices connecting space between two distant points.

Managing and maintaining transfer gates required a nation-scale budget, not something individuals could own. Also in this world, teleportation magic usable by individuals didn’t exist. Meaning, no need to consider alibi fabrication via spatial transfer.

“So those who could have committed the crime were first-year instructors Mion and Fūga. Add to this the academy director who could move freely and can’t be excluded either.”

“I see.”

Ōka who’d regained some composure nodded. Her complexion had returned to normal too, and her usual carefree self was coming back. People fear the unknown, but are surprisingly strong against things with clear causality. Perhaps her fear had lessened now that a suspect was identified.

The wall-less connecting corridor occasionally had horizontal rain blow in. While casually becoming a wall to protect Ōka, Kishō continued:

“The Storm Turtle damaged base camp around evening on the second day. The two teachers who responded apparently lost to the Storm Turtle and temporarily went missing.”

“Yeah. I heard they became decoys to protect students and fell off a cliff.”

“Right, but this is extremely suspicious.”

“Mm, is it?”

Ōka who’d shifted to carefree mode tilted her head. At that relaxed, easygoing attitude with loosened tension, Kishō felt deflated, but there was no need to deliberately scare her, so he didn’t point it out.

“From the third to fourth day controlling Alice, the dragonkin body should have been soulless and bedridden. Don’t you think the missing status was a perfect situation to hide this?”

Ōka’s eyes widened to draw perfect circles.

“Shō-kun, amazing. Just like Yō-chan.”

Beast King Forest, evening of the second day. The culprit feigned combat with the Storm Turtle and left the battle line. Then got ahead of Kishō’s group, attacked and killed merchants who’d wandered into the forest, hijacked Alice’s body, and switched places. Then hid in the sail wagon waiting to be discovered.

“Probably hid the real body somewhere safe. The missing teachers were found around midday on the fifth day, so the timing matches perfectly too.”

“Mm, but you know. Assuming the culprit is Mion-sensei, Fūga-sensei was also found on the fifth day. I heard they were both collapsed in the same place, so what if Fūga-sensei had woken up first?”

“That they were both found in the same place is news to me…”

Kishō twisted his neck looking up at the swirling rain cloud sky with a troubled expression. His gloomy look was because he couldn’t think of a reason to deliberately place the soulless body together with a colleague teacher.

“In that case, high probability she’d robbed Fūga-sensei’s consciousness by some method. But why deliberately take that risk…”

Ōka tugged at his sleeve lightly.

“I’m thinking, you know.”

She said in a somewhat reserved, hesitant tone.

“Maybe deliberately staging the disappearance also had the intent of increasing people without alibis, anticipating being suspected like this. In that case, the two teachers who’d become the final choice really needed to stay missing until things were over, right?”

Westport’s urban legend.

Despite mass killings, not a single body was discovered.

If this story were true, Elesia Ignoosis was an extremely cunning killer.

If such a killer aimed for a perfect crime, laying groundwork for alibi fabrication wouldn’t be strange. In fact, looking now from a suspicious perspective, the two teachers being missing served as the final smokescreen. If only one had gone missing, there’d be only one suspect, and doubt would’ve turned to certainty. Ōka’s point was correct.

“I see. Foreseeing this situation, to avoid clear identification, she placed the unconscious colleague teacher under her own control.”

Recognizing anew that the enemy was a formidable opponent, Kishō steeled himself. Then patted his friend’s head for providing unexpectedly useful information.

“That’s a pretty sharp observation for you, Ōka.”

“Uh, Shō-kun? You just made fun of me, didn’t you?”

Ōka puffed up with a “that’s really offensive” face. When she made that face, he couldn’t help wanting to tease her.

“You caught me.”

“Ugh, you’re annoying!”

Ōka who’d puffed her cheeks like a blowfish exhaled and voiced a question.

“But could she really target Alice-chan who wandered into the forest by coincidence so conveniently?”

“If not coincidence, then it was inevitable.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“A mage on Elesia Ignoosis’s level could have released magic beasts onto the highway and driven the merchant caravan into the forest.”

“I see.”

Walking beside him, Ōka nodded admiringly. Then saying “But you know,” she stopped walking.

“You still haven’t answered my question. Why do you think Mion-sensei is the culprit? By your logic, Fūga-sensei works too, right?”

Asked this, Kishō also stopped. And stated the most important fact:

“Curse magic is in the dark attribute lineage. Meaning, the culprit’s aptitude attribute is darkness.”