Sefina’s brain was nearly stopped by the scorching wave and the sharply rising shame.
‘No! Not here! I can’t be discovered!’
‘There’s no other way! I must leave immediately! Before I show such a disgraceful state in front of the students…’
Sefina had no choice. She bit down hard on her lower lip, quietly slipped her left hand into her sleeve, and gripped the handle of the ice-blue wand.
[Teleportation] magic!
Sefina’s figure, along with the wand, vanished from the sofa in an instant, and the next moment, she appeared at the top of the stairs. She looked somewhat panicked, hurried into her room, and quickly locked the door behind her.
Meanwhile, in the living room, the warm and peaceful atmosphere was broken by this sudden spatial shift.
Mia, having lost the support beneath her, dropped her head with a soft “plop” onto the cushion of the sofa.
She mumbled a dazed “mm,” her blue eyes slowly opening, blinking with the bewilderment of just having woken up.
Before she could fully wake, Kefi and Ellaria, having simultaneously lost their support on either side, had their heads tilt involuntarily toward the center under inertia—
“Thud—!”
“Ouch—!”
Two muffled sounds and cries rang out almost simultaneously.
Kefi’s forehead struck Ellaria’s temple, and the two falling heads then landed solidly on top of Mia’s head directly below.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch—!”
The three cries of pain intertwined, immediately waking all three girls. They hastily sat up, rubbing the spots where they had been hit, their faces full of confusion and bewilderment, clearly not yet fully awake from dreamland.
“W-what’s going on?” Ellaria’s emerald eyes were still misty as she looked around blankly, not knowing what had happened.
“My…” Mia pouted, pitifully rubbing the top of her head, which had suffered a double blow.
Kefi also held her forehead, her pale blue eyes sweeping across the suddenly empty center of the sofa, and she was the first to notice something was off:
“Huh? Where’s Teacher Sefina?”
At this question, Mia and Ellaria immediately reacted as well, turning to look at where Sefina had been sitting, only to find it empty, with just the open book that had slid onto the carpet.
“Where did Teacher go? Wasn’t she just here reading a moment ago?” Mia said, eyes wide.
“Why did Teacher suddenly disappear?” Ellaria stood up, warily and puzzledly scanning the living room.
The doors and windows were shut tight, with no sign of any outsider having broken in. Teacher had vanished as if into thin air.
The three looked at each other, all traces of sleepiness gone. After a brief moment of confusion, they simultaneously turned their gaze toward the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Could she have gone back to her room?” Kefi said softly.
“But there wasn’t a single sound…” Mia murmured.
“Let’s go up and take a look.”
Ellaria made the decision. Though she thought it might disturb Teacher, Teacher suddenly vanishing without a sound was simply too strange.
The three tiptoed up the stairs and arrived at the second-floor hallway.
Sefina’s door was tightly closed.
Just as they hesitated about whether to knock and ask—
The girls’ footsteps were instantly nailed in place.
A stifled moan drifted faintly through the crack of the door.
“Mmm…”
Then came breaths more rapid with each passing one, intermittent, mixed with sobs that made one’s face flush…
That sound… they were not unfamiliar with it at all. In fact, one could say they knew it very well.
Teacher Sefina… was at it again.
The air in the hallway seemed to freeze.
The three girls’ cheeks visibly flushed red at a rapid pace, spreading all the way to their ears and necks.
None of them spoke, nor dared to look into each other’s eyes. They only felt an awkward atmosphere pervading the entire hallway…
Ellaria was the first to come back to herself. She took a deep breath, her emerald eyes flickering, and said in a voice so quiet it was almost inaudible:
“Let’s… go back down first.”
Mia and Kefi felt as if granted a great pardon and hurriedly nodded.
Like startled deer, the three tiptoed back to the first-floor living room as quickly as possible.
However, Sefina inside the room was in a situation far more difficult and… chaotic than they could imagine.
Sefina leaned her back against the cold bed board, her wine-red eyes misty with moisture, her focus scattered, shame nearly overflowing.
But this time, the intensity of the magic crest’s outbreak far exceeded previous ones. No matter how hard she tried, it felt as though she was only futilely probing at the edges. Time dragged on, and the frustration and helplessness only grew stronger.
And moreover…
In a moment of blurred consciousness, Sefina’s trembling fingertips lifted the hem of her nightgown, and she saw the magic crest on her lower abdomen—
The originally intricate and eerie pattern seemed to have… extended somewhat. The design had become more complex and tangled, and its color seemed deeper as well.
It was… growing?
Or rather, its color was deepening?
How could this be?!
“Uuu—!”
Sefina suddenly buried her face into her knees, a stifled sob slipping through her fingers.
Another wave of intense throbbing struck. Sefina suddenly buried her face into her knees, a stifled sob slipping through her fingers.
A thought suddenly flashed into her mind—
She somewhat missed Versie’s skilled touch.
And Ellaria’s slender fingers.
Even… Mia’s clumsy technique wasn’t bad…
No! No! Stop! Stop!
Sefina was startled by the thoughts that had suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Why was she having such thoughts?! How could she crave the “help” brought by her students?!
This was too terrifying! Too contrary to a teacher’s ethics!
It was practically like some kind of… prelude to depravity!
Sefina shook her head fiercely, trying to drive these “dirty” thoughts away.
She bit down harder on her lower lip, her movement even carrying a hint of self-tormenting fierceness, wanting to use pain to awaken her reason and punish her “impure” thoughts.
The next afternoon, in the library inside the Church.
Sefina, dressed in a fitted black-and-white nun’s habit, sat quietly at a heavy wooden desk by the window.
Her work for the day was already done; this was a rare moment of free time.
When Sefina had been active under the identity of “Holmes” several years ago, she had never known that the Church’s library actually held so many non-public ancient records.
As for her purpose in leafing through the ancient records at this moment…
Besides the magic crest that plagued her so deeply, what else could it be?
Sefina let out a soft sigh and rubbed her faintly aching temples.
Yesterday’s “terrifying thought” that had made her heart race was still clearly branded in her memory.
The influence of the magic crest seemed to have intensified without her noticing. Not only were the reactions more violent and the duration longer, making it difficult to satisfy herself, but it had even…
It had even begun to erode her will, making her harbor those delusions she should never have.
She couldn’t go on like this.
If one day, under the full eruption of the magic crest, her reason completely collapsed, and her mind was filled with those unspeakable thoughts…
She simply dared not imagine the consequences.
She had to find a solution, or at least a way to suppress it.
Sefina’s gaze swept across a thick ancient record lying open before her.
Its pages were yellowed and fragile, recording some information about Demonkind.
However, just as Sefina’s thoughts were in turmoil, two words abruptly entered her line of sight—