“Why… Why, Nora!!”

I sank to the floor on my knees and broke down in tears. That was all I could do.

Nora had vanished from within me.

I had no idea that my body, which moved so freely, could be so heavy.

“Why, all of a sudden…?”

“At the same time you released your magic, I saw the foreign magic mixed within you be expelled as well.”

The director politely answered.

The person I want to ask isn’t you…  However, my mouth didn’t seem to be able to form any words, only sobs.

“I do not know by what principle another personality and magic power had mingled with your body. That’s exactly the kind of mystery we ask of applicants—after all, the true nature of ‘magic power,’ which has no actual form, is something no one has ever been able to unravel… not even by the infamous villainess of the age.”

Why?

Why did this happen?

It hadn’t even been a full year yet.

Just a moment ago, she’d been chatting with me like normal.

I couldn’t register what the director was saying.

Unanswered questions and complaints for Nora were all I had rising up inside of me.

“…We will inform you of your results later at a later time. I hope come Spring, we may meet again with smiles.”

Before I knew it, I had left the research institute.

The exam… I wondered if it had ended. Although, I didn’t really care either way.

After all, Nora had said goodbye to me. Without Nora, what was the point of becoming a researcher…?

“But maybe…”

Maybe the possession had simply been broken. What if it had broken and she had simply returned to her own body?

“I have to hurry and go meet her!”

There was no way someone that old could descend the mountain all by herself.

Yes… just as I tried heading to the carriage stop…

“There’s no point in going.”

I was grabbed by an arm.

I knew who it was even without turning around. After all, he was the villain who had been getting in the way of my hopes this whole time.

“Why… Why are you…!?”

“I thought I’d at least say goodbye to you, in the end.”

All I could do was glare at this man.

Even though crying so much while doing so was terribly uncool.

“Nora, she’s gone, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“In that case, it’s all the more reason!”

Why are you so calm even though Nora’s gone?

You’re not crying? You’re not grieving?

Was Nora really… just a plaything to you?

You really didn’t feel anything for her?

And yet, he looked down at me with a gentle gaze.

“Miss Travasta, I hope you’ll become a researcher in a way that suits you. Also, please take good care of Mark. He seems to be quite fond of you.”

“You… how can you even say that…?”

“I honestly don’t know what you’re misunderstanding about me, but…” His troubled smile tightened. “I’ll definitely return Nora to you.”

The hand he was holding me with tightened with strength.

“So please, when Nora comes back… I’m leaving her to you. You’re the only one I can entrust her to. You can hate me as much as you want— I don’t mind.”

At his painfully earnest request, I could only release a soft sigh.

“Seriously, you’ve always been so selfish.”

“When, for example?”

“Like during the sports festival in our second year.”

“Ah, you mean the lunchbox?”

That was the time he deliberately came to tell me his thoughts on the lunch I had made for Neria.

It wasn’t like I cared—as long as Neria had a pleasant lunchtime, that was enough for me. Just a simple “thanks for your trouble” would’ve been more than enough.

But he deliberately came all the way over to me and then went on to say something like, “Shall I eat lunch with you?”  His suggestion only made me feel even more miserable…

A genius would never be able to understand the feelings of a withered heart, not even in a million years.

“That’s strange. I was just trying to be considerate in my own way.”

“It’s that condescending attitude that ticks me off. Who do you think you are?”

“Haha, if only I could answer with something like, ‘the next Great Sage.’ That’d be pretty cool.”

Right, which makes him even more irritating.

He’s supposed a genius on the same level as Nora, but that weird modesty of his just infuriates me.

“A pompous title like that probably wouldn’t even stick around after my death.”

Even if he says a complaint as melancholic as that, What do you expect me to do?

“I’m glad I got to talk to you one last time.”

“I didn’t want to talk to you.”

“What a shame.”

He says it’s a shame— so why is he smiling?

Why does he look so proud of himself?

“Well then, farewell.”

Then, Eivind Dahl also disappeared before my eyes. Well, in his case, he probably just teleported somewhere else.

Now that I was left alone, I took a deep breath.

“Seriously, every last one of them is so selfish!”

I undid my hair.

Even though Neria had gone to the trouble of tying it up for me… the knot had been pulled too tight, and it was starting to hurt a bit.

After roughly loosening my long hair as though I were clawing through it, I took a step forward.

“Fine, if that’s how it is…”

For some reason, I was getting angrier and angrier.

I had ended up alone.

I was tossed around by geniuses, and in the end, I’m all by myself.

What was more, she said she’d get me all sorts of things—yet she didn’t give me the thing I wanted most.

What a terrible woman.

That’s right, Nora Noz and Eivind Dahl, they’re such awful people!

Don’t expect me to stay a good girl forever for the sake of selfish people like that!

So, I made a decision.

“I’m going to live my life the way I want, too.”

***

And so, Nora Noz, the Incorrigible Villainess of the era, disappeared.

The curtain was brought down on a life that had lasted more than 800 years, all while she heard the cries of the one she loved most.

—or so I thought.

“Why am I… still alive?”

---

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