Everyone's expressions hardened except Simone.
Maybe at this very moment, that woman is following Gleason.
“Oh, no!”
Gleason shook his head vigorously.
“That can’t be true! Every time I dream, I jump off the roof!”
It was a dream that ended only with death. If it had been reality and not a dream, Gleason would have already become a corpse and been buried in the ground.
So, Simone's words were nonsense... No, even if what she said was true, Gleason would have denied it with all his might.
The reason Gleason was able to maintain his sanity despite having dreams of death so many times was because he believed that dreams were dreams, no matter what happened in the dreams.
The days when he had to run and run and run again to avoid the woman who followed him, laughing and holding a knife, and feeling strangely vivid pain every time he threw himself into the ground.
If that's true, how on earth is Gleason supposed to escape this situation!
“No way, no way! How can a dream become a reality? I’ve never met that woman in real life!”
But Simone remained calm as she watched Gleason deny her words with a scream that was almost a scream.
“If you think that way, then you don’t have to be afraid of death. It’s just a dream anyway.”
Gleason's eyes wavered.
Day by day, his anxiety grew worse and he became noticeably more and more haggard. As the days went by, and the dreams continued, Gleason could not shake the fear that he would soon meet the same fate as those who had died before him.
If Gleason really thought dreams were just dreams, he would never have linked his death to a simple nightmare.
That is, Gleason also unconsciously thought that perhaps this might not end as a dream.
Simone was still looking at him expressionlessly.
“What should we do?”
“Wh, what...”
“If you think it was just a nightmare, I’ll take my leave now. I’d like to hear other students’ stories as well.”
Gleason's voice, which had been shouting almost in a frenzy, suddenly died down. His lips were trembling, neither opening nor closing.
If he had told her that what he had experienced here was nothing more than a nightmare, Simone would have really believed him and turned away.
She didn't seem to have any sympathy for Gleason. Jace, who had trained with him for half a year but never once spoke to him, seemed more humane.
“What should we do?”
When Gleason couldn't come up with an answer easily, Simone asked again.
Louis looked at Simone without saying a word.
She could sometimes be surprisingly cold and ruthless.
Normally, no matter how much the other person threw a tantrum, she would have calmed the frightened person down by whining in an annoyed tone, saying, "Oh my, it's noisy. Be quiet! I told you to take care of it. Oh, if you're scared, just go out!"
If Simone, who is like that, loses her smile and says something like that, there are two reasons. Either it is a situation where she can back out without any regrets, or she has judged it to be so dangerous that she cannot even tolerate such complaints.
Louis' gaze turned to Jace, who was focused solely on Simone.
Since he's in this academy, it's probably not a situation where she can just walk away, which means this situation is going to be a lot more difficult to resolve than expected.
Louis couldn't know what she realized and judged from Gleason's words.
'But whatever it is.'
Louis grabbed the sword handle.
Now that he's entrusted this job to her, he's the one who'll have to protect Simone.
Meanwhile, Gleason finally opened his mouth.
“Help... me. I don’t think it’s just a dream. Suddenly, whenever I fall from a high place, I start to think about it.”
“...”
“What happens to me if this isn’t a dream? I’ve already jumped off the roof, so what if this isn’t a dream?”
Gleason clutched the comforter tightly.
“I experience pain that is too vivid to be a dream. Every time I jump and my head breaks or I get stabbed by a woman’s knife, it hurts as if I was stabbed in real life. That’s why I thought it was strange.”
However, he had no choice but to desperately deny it because he could not explain the repeated deaths unless it was a dream.
Simone closed her eyes for a moment. Then, after a while, she opened them and said.
“A female student whose name you don’t even know claims that she can know the future and gathers other students to perform a ritual.”
"...Yes?"
“Students who participated in the ceremony were indeed able to see the future through their dreams, just as she said.”
“...”
“But what if the ritual they performed had another purpose?”
“What... are you talking about...?”
“For example, necromancy. Or rituals of curses.”
“...”
Gleason's mouth opened wide as if he had been hit in the head.
Come to think of it, he never once asked with curiosity what the patterns she drew during each ritual were, or what the prayers she always recited meant.
This is because the students gathered there were more concerned with improving their grades immediately than with the meaning of the pattern.
“So, for some unknown reason, a woman you had never seen before appeared in your dreams, holding a knife.”
“...”
“At first, it must have been just a vivid dream. Even if they die, it’s just a dream. So, when the students believe that it’s okay to die over and over again, what if a woman with a knife actually appears at the same time and place in the morning?”
So how many people would be able to determine that it is reality and not a dream?
The students who witnessed the woman would have run away as usual, climbed up to the rooftop, and jumped down as usual.
Without even knowing if that was reality.
Simone finally relaxed her expression and smiled.
“That’s just my guess. It’s not certain, but surprisingly, there are quite a few curses that touch the subconscious.”
Simone has experienced this several times already.
“Ah... guess...”
It's just a guess, but under the condition that this situation is a strange phenomenon, it seems more plausible than any other reasoning.
Gleason swallowed dryly and asked.
“Then... what should I do? What should I do to survive?”
He guesses she'll just tell him to stay still and do nothing.
Louise thought.
Simone's ability is wide-range destruction magic.
Its destructive power is unparalleled, but no matter how much training it received from Geneon, its subtlety is lacking, so if he tries to help with an incompetent determination, Gleason will often end up getting in the way or even being attacked by ghosts.
Therefore, except for people like Louis and Abel who are capable of fighting on their own, they were prevented from even trying to solve the case.
It will probably be the same this time, especially since Gleason is still a student-
“So, Mr. Gleason, are you good at using a sword?”
"...Hmm?"
Louis looked at Simone with wide eyes.
You're going to make me do this without any hesitation?
Simone was smiling brightly as if she had never been cold before. Gleason nodded hesitantly, bewildered by the sudden change in attitude.
“My skills are not bad.”
Fencing is also included in the grades.
“I don’t have any real combat experience, but I think I’ll be able to defeat the enemy in front of me.”
“That’s good. That level of skill is enough.”
“Hey, Simone!”
Jace grabbed Simone urgently.
“Me too! I also trained hard in swordsmanship. I don’t dare to follow His Highness the Crown Prince... But, at least now I can protect myself-”
"He's right."
Gleason added, seeming to agree with Jace.
“I know that he stands out quite a bit in sparring with second-year students.”
“That much...”
“Yes. Let’s stop talking nonsense and just work hard.”
Simone got up from her seat and looked out the window.
“While I’m messing around here, gather up the students who are considered physically fit in this academy and evacuate the students with them.”
“...Are you talking about evacuation?”
“I think it would be better to just leave the academy.”
“Is the situation really that dangerous?”
Louis, who had been quietly watching Simone and their conversation, asked as if he didn't understand it.
Students who commit suicide because of their dreams are a minority who have undergone a ritual that day.
Other than them, these students have absolutely no connection to this matter, so what could possibly happen next that would require persuading all the students to leave this vast academy?
Based on what Simone has explained so far, he doesn't know what her instructions are intended to convey.
Then Simone slowly turned to Louis. Louis' face froze with a startled expression.
She had a look on her face that he had never seen before.
“We’re evacuating them just in case. We don’t know what will happen. For now, we’re going to find the female student who encouraged the ritual while those two are evacuating the students.”
Simone spoke to Louis with a pale, indescribable face, calm but very anxious.
“We cannot ignore the possibility that he may have appeared.”
It was a request she accepted with the suspicion that it was a curse planted by the Occult Society.
If they needed the aura of death to summon Anasis, they would have planted the curse in crowded places.
But if the curse spread by the Occult Society is true, who cast the curse now that Anasis' resurrection has been successful and the Occult Society has disappeared?
The red pattern that was used during the ritual, the sudden appearance of a female student who awakened their desires like throwing a stone into a calm lake and slowly led the students to their deaths through the ritual, that female student who had been with them for so long but whose name he didn't even know.
Who is that student?
Curse? Vengeful spirit? Would a vengeful spirit dare to perform a ritual to have an effect and torment a person?
Suddenly, she remembered the contents of a forbidden book about the life of Anasis that she had read in the old imperial library.
[Some said he was a sturdy man, some said he was a skinny woman dressed all in black, and some said he was a pale boy who looked weak.]
She or he always appeared before people in different forms. However, even if his appearance changed, it was clear that he was Anasis. Anasis was handling the power of death so powerful that it was impossible not to know its true nature.
Simone refers to Anasis as her because the last time she saw her was when she was executed, Anasis was in the form of a woman.
Simone thought.
No one today has ever actually seen Anasis.
In addition, since she cannot sacrifice the Demon King at the moment, her power is not complete.
Then, even if Anasis’s appearance changed right before my eyes, wouldn’t I not know?
Maybe at this very moment, that woman is following Gleason.
“Oh, no!”
Gleason shook his head vigorously.
“That can’t be true! Every time I dream, I jump off the roof!”
It was a dream that ended only with death. If it had been reality and not a dream, Gleason would have already become a corpse and been buried in the ground.
So, Simone's words were nonsense... No, even if what she said was true, Gleason would have denied it with all his might.
The reason Gleason was able to maintain his sanity despite having dreams of death so many times was because he believed that dreams were dreams, no matter what happened in the dreams.
The days when he had to run and run and run again to avoid the woman who followed him, laughing and holding a knife, and feeling strangely vivid pain every time he threw himself into the ground.
If that's true, how on earth is Gleason supposed to escape this situation!
“No way, no way! How can a dream become a reality? I’ve never met that woman in real life!”
But Simone remained calm as she watched Gleason deny her words with a scream that was almost a scream.
“If you think that way, then you don’t have to be afraid of death. It’s just a dream anyway.”
Gleason's eyes wavered.
Day by day, his anxiety grew worse and he became noticeably more and more haggard. As the days went by, and the dreams continued, Gleason could not shake the fear that he would soon meet the same fate as those who had died before him.
If Gleason really thought dreams were just dreams, he would never have linked his death to a simple nightmare.
That is, Gleason also unconsciously thought that perhaps this might not end as a dream.
Simone was still looking at him expressionlessly.
“What should we do?”
“Wh, what...”
“If you think it was just a nightmare, I’ll take my leave now. I’d like to hear other students’ stories as well.”
Gleason's voice, which had been shouting almost in a frenzy, suddenly died down. His lips were trembling, neither opening nor closing.
If he had told her that what he had experienced here was nothing more than a nightmare, Simone would have really believed him and turned away.
She didn't seem to have any sympathy for Gleason. Jace, who had trained with him for half a year but never once spoke to him, seemed more humane.
“What should we do?”
When Gleason couldn't come up with an answer easily, Simone asked again.
Louis looked at Simone without saying a word.
She could sometimes be surprisingly cold and ruthless.
Normally, no matter how much the other person threw a tantrum, she would have calmed the frightened person down by whining in an annoyed tone, saying, "Oh my, it's noisy. Be quiet! I told you to take care of it. Oh, if you're scared, just go out!"
If Simone, who is like that, loses her smile and says something like that, there are two reasons. Either it is a situation where she can back out without any regrets, or she has judged it to be so dangerous that she cannot even tolerate such complaints.
Louis' gaze turned to Jace, who was focused solely on Simone.
Since he's in this academy, it's probably not a situation where she can just walk away, which means this situation is going to be a lot more difficult to resolve than expected.
Louis couldn't know what she realized and judged from Gleason's words.
'But whatever it is.'
Louis grabbed the sword handle.
Now that he's entrusted this job to her, he's the one who'll have to protect Simone.
Meanwhile, Gleason finally opened his mouth.
“Help... me. I don’t think it’s just a dream. Suddenly, whenever I fall from a high place, I start to think about it.”
“...”
“What happens to me if this isn’t a dream? I’ve already jumped off the roof, so what if this isn’t a dream?”
Gleason clutched the comforter tightly.
“I experience pain that is too vivid to be a dream. Every time I jump and my head breaks or I get stabbed by a woman’s knife, it hurts as if I was stabbed in real life. That’s why I thought it was strange.”
However, he had no choice but to desperately deny it because he could not explain the repeated deaths unless it was a dream.
Simone closed her eyes for a moment. Then, after a while, she opened them and said.
“A female student whose name you don’t even know claims that she can know the future and gathers other students to perform a ritual.”
"...Yes?"
“Students who participated in the ceremony were indeed able to see the future through their dreams, just as she said.”
“...”
“But what if the ritual they performed had another purpose?”
“What... are you talking about...?”
“For example, necromancy. Or rituals of curses.”
“...”
Gleason's mouth opened wide as if he had been hit in the head.
Come to think of it, he never once asked with curiosity what the patterns she drew during each ritual were, or what the prayers she always recited meant.
This is because the students gathered there were more concerned with improving their grades immediately than with the meaning of the pattern.
“So, for some unknown reason, a woman you had never seen before appeared in your dreams, holding a knife.”
“...”
“At first, it must have been just a vivid dream. Even if they die, it’s just a dream. So, when the students believe that it’s okay to die over and over again, what if a woman with a knife actually appears at the same time and place in the morning?”
So how many people would be able to determine that it is reality and not a dream?
The students who witnessed the woman would have run away as usual, climbed up to the rooftop, and jumped down as usual.
Without even knowing if that was reality.
Simone finally relaxed her expression and smiled.
“That’s just my guess. It’s not certain, but surprisingly, there are quite a few curses that touch the subconscious.”
Simone has experienced this several times already.
“Ah... guess...”
It's just a guess, but under the condition that this situation is a strange phenomenon, it seems more plausible than any other reasoning.
Gleason swallowed dryly and asked.
“Then... what should I do? What should I do to survive?”
He guesses she'll just tell him to stay still and do nothing.
Louise thought.
Simone's ability is wide-range destruction magic.
Its destructive power is unparalleled, but no matter how much training it received from Geneon, its subtlety is lacking, so if he tries to help with an incompetent determination, Gleason will often end up getting in the way or even being attacked by ghosts.
Therefore, except for people like Louis and Abel who are capable of fighting on their own, they were prevented from even trying to solve the case.
It will probably be the same this time, especially since Gleason is still a student-
“So, Mr. Gleason, are you good at using a sword?”
"...Hmm?"
Louis looked at Simone with wide eyes.
You're going to make me do this without any hesitation?
Simone was smiling brightly as if she had never been cold before. Gleason nodded hesitantly, bewildered by the sudden change in attitude.
“My skills are not bad.”
Fencing is also included in the grades.
“I don’t have any real combat experience, but I think I’ll be able to defeat the enemy in front of me.”
“That’s good. That level of skill is enough.”
“Hey, Simone!”
Jace grabbed Simone urgently.
“Me too! I also trained hard in swordsmanship. I don’t dare to follow His Highness the Crown Prince... But, at least now I can protect myself-”
"He's right."
Gleason added, seeming to agree with Jace.
“I know that he stands out quite a bit in sparring with second-year students.”
“That much...”
“Yes. Let’s stop talking nonsense and just work hard.”
Simone got up from her seat and looked out the window.
“While I’m messing around here, gather up the students who are considered physically fit in this academy and evacuate the students with them.”
“...Are you talking about evacuation?”
“I think it would be better to just leave the academy.”
“Is the situation really that dangerous?”
Louis, who had been quietly watching Simone and their conversation, asked as if he didn't understand it.
Students who commit suicide because of their dreams are a minority who have undergone a ritual that day.
Other than them, these students have absolutely no connection to this matter, so what could possibly happen next that would require persuading all the students to leave this vast academy?
Based on what Simone has explained so far, he doesn't know what her instructions are intended to convey.
Then Simone slowly turned to Louis. Louis' face froze with a startled expression.
She had a look on her face that he had never seen before.
“We’re evacuating them just in case. We don’t know what will happen. For now, we’re going to find the female student who encouraged the ritual while those two are evacuating the students.”
Simone spoke to Louis with a pale, indescribable face, calm but very anxious.
“We cannot ignore the possibility that he may have appeared.”
It was a request she accepted with the suspicion that it was a curse planted by the Occult Society.
If they needed the aura of death to summon Anasis, they would have planted the curse in crowded places.
But if the curse spread by the Occult Society is true, who cast the curse now that Anasis' resurrection has been successful and the Occult Society has disappeared?
The red pattern that was used during the ritual, the sudden appearance of a female student who awakened their desires like throwing a stone into a calm lake and slowly led the students to their deaths through the ritual, that female student who had been with them for so long but whose name he didn't even know.
Who is that student?
Curse? Vengeful spirit? Would a vengeful spirit dare to perform a ritual to have an effect and torment a person?
Suddenly, she remembered the contents of a forbidden book about the life of Anasis that she had read in the old imperial library.
[Some said he was a sturdy man, some said he was a skinny woman dressed all in black, and some said he was a pale boy who looked weak.]
She or he always appeared before people in different forms. However, even if his appearance changed, it was clear that he was Anasis. Anasis was handling the power of death so powerful that it was impossible not to know its true nature.
Simone refers to Anasis as her because the last time she saw her was when she was executed, Anasis was in the form of a woman.
Simone thought.
No one today has ever actually seen Anasis.
In addition, since she cannot sacrifice the Demon King at the moment, her power is not complete.
Then, even if Anasis’s appearance changed right before my eyes, wouldn’t I not know?
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