Returning to his room, Sarka entered the bedroom with an expressionless face and closed the door.
Ruslan stood there not knowing what to do, staring at that door.
With a complicated expression, Baigarten closed and picked up Ruslan’s luggage bag, then silently gestured for him to follow.
When Ruslan followed Baigarten out of the room in a daze, Baigarten looked around briefly before heading to the Fifth Library.
Entering the rare book storage room, Baigarten familiarly closed the door and lowered the windows and curtains.
Baigarten, who had sat down in a chair, set Ruslan’s luggage bag down beside him and reached out to indicate the chair across from him.
Ruslan swallowed and quickly sat down.
Baigarten stared quietly at Ruslan with a stiff expression, then heavily opened his mouth.
“……You must have learned a lot, Ruslan.”
The tense Ruslan swallowed while watching for cues.
……Will my memory be erased just like this?
Seeing that even Sarka’s father had been summoned and it had reached the headmaster’s ears, he was somehow afraid they wouldn’t overlook Ruslan’s matter anymore either.
He had come to know too much information because of the stories he heard today, and he felt especially anxious seeing Baigarten come out carrying Ruslan’s luggage bag.
Baigarten looked at Ruslan with heavy eyes for a long while, then soon let out a faint sigh.
After silently looking into space for a moment as if lost in thought, Baigarten soon spoke in a clouded voice.
“……I’ve kept quiet about your story……for now.”
Ruslan involuntarily exhaled a breath of relief.
Baigarten looked at Ruslan with a bitter expression, then added with complicated feelings.
“The situation……seemed like it shouldn’t get any worse than this.”
Ruslan swallowed dryly.
Baigarten fell silent for a moment with a dark expression. His rigidly stiffened eyes were troubled.
Ruslan hesitated for a long while watching for cues, then carefully asked.
“Your younger brother……is he alright?”
Baigarten looked at Ruslan quietly, then sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“……I sent him back to school for now.”
His expression was complex. His eyes, mixed with worry and anger, clouded over.
Baigarten muttered in a sunken voice.
“He was frightened a bit…… but anyway, starting next year that kid is fated to join this crucible too. ……I should think of it as him gaining time to mentally prepare.”
Baigarten’s voice seemed both regretful and resigned.
From Alberich’s attitude, Ruslan knew that Baigarten hadn’t spoken of Sarka’s dangerousness in front of his family or at least his younger brother.
Well, it didn’t seem like this cautious and taciturn man would complain about his hardships in front of his young brother. He would have wanted to show only good sides and tell only fun stories.
Baigarten’s attitude toward Alberich was that of a big brother with a large age gap who found his sibling adorable and wanted to let him enjoy only childlike pleasures as much as possible.
So even knowing Alberich would have to join this crucible, he must have postponed the dark stories as much as possible.
Baigarten, who had been silently staring into space with furrowed brows, muttered in a quiet voice.
“……Honestly speaking, I think it’s fortunate it ended at just this much.”
Ruslan raised his head. Baigarten exhaled a sigh and spoke darkly with a tired expression.
“……I had thought all the way to the worst-case scenario.”
Ruslan also briefly exhaled and slumped his shoulders.
When he saw Sarka with his reason severed, Ruslan had also thought all sorts of terrible thoughts.
Like all three of them dying right there on the spot, or the entire downtown being blown away, or a massacre occurring…….
The two looked at each other silently with stiff expressions.
Baigarten added ominously with a dark expression.
“If we couldn’t stop it here…… later it might really go all the way to the worst-case scenario.”
Baigarten’s eyes were terrible.
Ruslan swallowed dryly.
Ruslan, who had been tensely watching for cues, carefully asked.
“……What happened to……Sarka?”
Baigarten’s eyes became troubled.
Soon sighing deeply, he answered.
“……A one-week disciplinary action.”
“……Disciplinary action?”
Baigarten briefly explained with a distasteful expression.
“He’ll wear a <controller>.”
To Ruslan, who was watching for cues at the unfamiliar term, Baigarten bitterly added.
“……They inject <Angel’s Fangs> extract into the bloodstream to paralyze supernatural powers.”
Huk…….
As Ruslan’s face stiffened, Baigarten added some explanation.
“……Usually wearing a controller itself isn’t a <disciplinary action>. Rather, it’s closer to a kind of……safety device.”
“Is……that so?”
Baigarten glanced at Ruslan, then added an explanation as if thinking it better to just tell him since he’d learned this much anyway.
“……For the low blood grade vampires usually sent to this school, the Angel’s Fangs extract merely paralyzes supernatural powers and has no other effects. Rather than being tense about accidentally manifesting powers, it’s more comfortable to wear a controller. Especially when minor vampires first come out into human society, most are required to wear them.
According to principle, Sarka should have worn a controller when entering this school too, but……”
Baigarten furrowed his brows. He continued with a somewhat reluctant expression.
“……For high-grade purebloods, wearing a controller is quite……accompanied by pain, they say.”
“……How much?”
Anxiety filled Ruslan’s voice upon hearing the word pain.
From what he’d briefly heard, Sarka’s blood grade of <Perfect Pureblood> was said to be the highest and rarest grade in vampire society.
Baigarten answered with a bitter expression.
“……Enough to make daily life difficult.”
Ruslan’s complexion stiffened.
Baigarten spoke in a rigid tone while furrowing his brows.
“……For one week……he’ll suffer quite a bit. It’s <corporal punishment>.”
“……”
“……If this disciplinary action could change Sarka’s attitude, which has been getting increasingly out of control, even a little bit, that would be good……”
Baigarten’s expression remained dark as he trailed off. He seemed doubtful about whether he should have positive expectations for the effect of this corporal punishment.
Ruslan was also lost in thought with a dark expression when Baigarten suddenly looked down at Ruslan’s bag he had set beside him and pushed it toward Ruslan.
“……For now, you go back to the scholarship students’ dormitory for a while too, Ruslan.”
“Pardon?”
As Ruslan’s eyes widened, Baigarten spoke with a distasteful expression.
“The headmaster will be visiting Sarka’s room during the disciplinary period. Even we don’t know how severe the symptoms will be since this is our first time putting a controller on a pureblood of Sarka’s level.
……There’s nothing good about you being there.”
“Ah……yes!”
Ruslan hastily took the bag and nodded.
Baigarten looked at Ruslan with a somewhat distasteful expression, then soon commanded sternly as if he’d made a decision.
“……For one week, don’t leave my sight except during class time and sleeping hours.
Come report to me about the situation as soon as you wake up in the morning, and when class ends, come stay here in the rare book storage room.
Without my permission, don’t move around alone without accompanying me. Even in the scholarship students’ dormitory or classroom, avoid talking with people around you as much as possible.
I’m constantly watching, so don’t do anything to arouse my suspicion.
If I see signs of that, this time I really will have to honestly report about you to the headmaster.”
“Yes, yes!”
Ruslan clutched his luggage bag, frightened out of his wits.
If Ruslan’s existence was revealed here, Sarka’s corporal punishment wouldn’t end at just this much, and……
My memory would definitely be completely erased this time.
Ruslan swallowed tensely.
That night, returning to the scholarship students’ twelve-person room after a long time, Ruslan lay down on a new bed.
The newly brought sheets were clean and the curtains smelled nice, but Ruslan couldn’t sleep at all.
Since the situation had reached this point, he thought that Baigarten would probably urge Sarka to erase Ruslan’s memory as soon as the disciplinary action ended.
Right now Sarka had lost the power to erase Ruslan’s memory because of the controller, but after the disciplinary action ended, Sarka wouldn’t be interested in playing with Ruslan anymore either.
His heart kept pounding.
One week……. Was this the final grace period?
The things he’d learned from Sarka’s story kept spinning round and round in his head.
That the residence of the surviving vampires was indeed in the Miral Mountains.
That the party to the treaty was the Imperial government, and that exorcist forces loyal to the imperial family were keeping the surviving vampires in check instead of the eliminated hunters.
That vampires had an independent government like an autonomous city.
That Esteban School had been matching and raising the vampire children of the <Coexistence Faction> and the human children of <Guardian> families since long ago, and so on…….
Ruslan, who had been carefully examining the newly learned information, suddenly realized at some point that he was obsessed with other thoughts and couldn’t concentrate on that information.
What wouldn’t leave Ruslan’s mind was Sarka’s pupils.
The green pupils burning with hatred and pain.
Ruslan thought about that boy’s pupils all night long.
***
The next morning. Having waited obediently in front of the cafeteria as soon as he woke up, Ruslan jumped to his feet when Baigarten came down.
Baigarten said something to his friends with a smiling face and sent them elsewhere, then sat across from Ruslan and ate breakfast.
At Baigarten’s words that he was planning to go check on Sarka’s condition as soon as breakfast ended, Ruslan hurriedly stuffed food into his mouth.
Having quickly finished their meal, the two soon headed to Sarka’s room.
When they opened the door, Sarka, dressed in his uniform and sitting on the sofa, slowly turned his head to look back at the two.
“……The headmaster said you don’t have to participate in classes this week.”
Baigarten spoke in a rigid tone upon seeing Sarka’s attire.
Sarka looked at the two with a gaze devoid of any emotion, then replied shortly.
“Get out.”
His voice was like a machine sound. It was so devoid of emotion that one would believe it was air, not words.
Baigarten’s gaze briefly flowed to observe Sarka’s upright posture. To Ruslan’s eyes, contrary to his worries, Sarka’s complexion didn’t look much different from usual.
Baigarten must have thought so too, as he exhaled weakly and replied in a stiff voice.
“……I didn’t come to see you because I wanted to either. The headmaster told me to periodically report on your condition, so whether you like it or not, you’ll have to keep seeing my face this week. Tell me if you’re not feeling well.”
“……”
Sarka looked at Baigarten wordlessly. His expressionless pupils had neither warmth nor coldness.
Baigarten, thinking there was no need to talk unnecessarily long, briefly said goodbye and left the room.
Sarka didn’t look back.
Daily life began.
When his dormitory changed, Ruslan felt that he had returned to his own world. Where Bruce’s gang annoyingly picked fights, no one paid attention to Ruslan, and there was no particular conversation to have with anyone.
Baigarten seemed concerned about releasing Ruslan among people in a situation where Sarka had lost the power to erase memories. Sending Ruslan into the lecture hall, he warned with a stern expression not to talk with other people as much as possible.
He might have thought it was quite a cruel request, but it wasn’t particularly difficult for Ruslan. After all, no one talked to Ruslan anyway.
After the group project ended, Sarka’s friends had completely forgotten Ruslan’s existence. They accepted as natural the fact that Ruslan had returned to the scholarship students’ dormitory. Laughing and chatting as always, those noble boys were enjoying their own world.
However, Ruslan found it somehow difficult to look directly at Sarka sitting across from those boys with a faint smile on his lips as always.
Sarka’s face was, as always, pale, neat, and admirably beautiful.
Sarka looked terribly ordinary. Like a perfectly molded and fired porcelain doll.
Ruslan observed Sarka all day long.
After all, since he had no one to talk to, that was all Ruslan could do.
By lunchtime, Sarka’s face had faintly paled and he was speaking less compared to the morning, but not noticeably so. If he hadn’t heard an explanation about the controller through Baigarten and hadn’t been observing all day, even Ruslan wouldn’t have thought it strange.
Excluding only that degree of change, Sarka spent a normal routine as usual.
After lunch passed and during the afternoon class, Sarka was sitting composedly and concentrating on the lesson.
With his left arm placed on the desk lightly touching his temple area, Sarka looking down at the textbook with an indifferent expression looked like a model student enduring the tedium of the afternoon class.
However, Ruslan, who had been continuously glancing at Sarka’s profile, suddenly stopped his gaze on Sarka’s right hand.
From some point, Sarka’s right hand gripping the fountain pen was clenched too tightly with excessive force.
“……!”
Ruslan tensed up despite himself and examined Sarka’s complexion.
Because of the hand languidly touching his temple area, Sarka’s face was half-covered.
However, Ruslan noticed that faint cold sweat was seeping out on Sarka’s exposed nape.
His chest felt like it was being squeezed tight.
The frozen Ruslan forgot about concentrating on the lesson and stared intently at Sarka’s profile sitting at a diagonal angle.
Sarka didn’t move.
Occasionally when the professor started writing on the blackboard, he slowly turned his head to look forward, but that speed was gradually slowing down. Sometimes, as if losing concentration, he would just look down without budging at all.
His chest grew cold.
