ALL NOVEL Chapter 189: Demon in the Bottle – 28
Ella’s birthday party started early in the evening and lasted late into the night.
Originally planned as a light drink and ending, it quickly turned into a bustling festival.
Whenever Ella took the lead, even the most solemn gatherings always ended up like this.
Cheerful melodies and lively dances intertwined, creating a lively atmosphere.
At that moment, as the villa door opened, the last latecomer arrived.
“Oh, Maya is here!”
“Maya, hi!”
“Maya, big sis!”
They were members who usually kept a slight distance from her, but today they greeted her warmly, perhaps due to the heightened atmosphere.
“Why did you come now? It was so much fun. Haha, look at that. Gascon the daredevil, having more fun than expected.”
Pointing to Gascon, who was pretending to swim in the air with a ball under his stomach, Ella laughed.
Though he didn’t particularly like circuses, he surprisingly fit into such gatherings.
He confidently downed an expensive glass of wine, the result of a bet after winning against Bendict in a swimming race.
“Hahaha, is it okay for an old man to lose? Huh?”
“Maybe because you have some basic skills? Despite your age, you quickly learn techniques.”
Maya’s eyes cooled at her words.
It sounded like she was mocking her, as if saying, “How did you manage to get zero points in the practical evaluation despite your efforts?”
She pulled out a snack gift set from her bag and handed it to her.
“Here, a gift.”
“You didn’t have to, but thanks anyway! Come on, join us. You haven’t eaten yet, right? Let’s eat first!”
Ella tried to lead her by the arm, but Maya forcefully pushed her away.
“I’m tired. I’ll go in first and sleep.”
Ella’s excited expression dimmed slightly at her cold response.
“Oh, then what about dinner?”
“I ate outside with someone else.”
She said so and glanced at Wonderstein.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t paying attention to this side, engrossed in a conversation with Yurakne.
Thinking she was with Karen as usual, Ella nodded.
“Alright. Oh, by the way, since we’re talking about it, Maya, how about giving your partner invitation to Yurakne?”
As her name was mentioned, the two talking turned to look at Maya.
Maya stiffened her neck and turned away with a cold attitude.
“I already have a partner.”
“What?”
She said that and went upstairs.
Time passed, and it was Saturday.
The day of the freshmen welcome party had arrived.
***
Participants of the freshmen welcome party usually invited senior students as their partners.
Most freshmen came from far away from home, and within just two weeks of admission, their network was limited to mostly school people, so the choice of partners was limited.
However, this freshmen welcome party was different.
During the Grand Circus Prix, famous acrobats gathered near the school.
Because of them, the seniors who were supposed to be respected looked extremely ordinary.
Many freshmen invited nearby active acrobats instead of school seniors.
Most of them gladly accepted the invitations.
Thanks to them, the number of students participating in this year’s freshmen welcome party was very low.
They were called a cursed generation for many reasons.
Clara was one of the few students invited as a partner among the enrolled students.
She was invited by none other than “Merren the Silent,” who showed her skills in the bamboo forest on the first day of school.
“We’re actually opposite, aren’t we? Active acrobats inviting students, hehe.”
“That’s true…”
Merren looked at Clara with a vacant expression as she chuckled at her.
She actually didn’t like Clara.
At first, she was deceived by her kind smile and manner of speaking.
But as time went on, she felt increasingly uncomfortable.
The movements of the enrolled students trying to exclude the freshmen seemed organized.
It seemed as if they were moving under someone’s command.
The most likely suspect was Clara, their representative.
If she hadn’t approved, there’s no way the lower grades could have done such things.
Most of all, the broken branch she stepped on.
It was clearly the result of Clara pushing it down with force just before.
She couldn’t shake off the suspicion that Clara did it on purpose to tease her for follow her.
So Merren sent Clara an invitation.
It was half a challenge.
It meant, “If you have the guts, accept and come match withsome with similar ability.”
But Clara accepted her invitation with such joy.
“I really wanted to participate… Thank you, Miss Merren! No, we’re the same age, so can I speak informally? Merren, right?”
Merren reluctantly extended her arm at Clara’s request to link arms at the entrance to the banquet hall.
Clara pulled her arm and hugged her to her chest.
Merren, who was about to frown, couldn’t bring herself to get angry at Clara’s cheerful laughter.
This was all thanks to the demon misinterpreting Clara’s character.
Through the Garden of Whispers, only conversations between people could be collected, and nothing could be known about their actions or thoughts.
In other words, it could only observe how they usually appeared socially.
The demon didn’t know about Clara’s sinister side.
Therefore, the Clara she portrayed was simply a kind-hearted girl who seemed friendly and innocent.
It was natural for Merren, who didn’t know the circumstances, to be confused.
“You…”
“Yes? What’s wrong?”
Merren tilted her head in confusion at the girl’s innocent expression as she blinked her eyes.
“Oh, nothing…”
Clara smiled brightly and turned her head back towards the stage.
Inside the banquet hall, there were around 200 people, including 50 freshmen, 30 sophomores, their invited partners, and the organizers of the event.
Since all students were dressed in white ceremonial uniforms, to an outsider, it might have looked like a party for naval cadets.
Of course, within those regulations, they tried their best to adorn themselves.
Most male students wore their school uniforms as they were, but female students added vests or ornaments to stand out a little more.
Clara, being a model student, only wore her neatly dressed school uniform.
She didn’t wear anything extra on top or underneath.
It had been a day since she left Pyrene’s side and started living in the dormitory.
During this time, she hadn’t made a single mistake.
She wasn’t surprised by this fact.
It somehow seemed inevitable.
There were guesses as to the cause.
The Black Magician.
Her master.
A few days ago, she directly faced the one she had always looked at beyond the flask.
At that moment, she expected to pay the price for her sins from 17 years ago.
However, he didn’t punish her.
He forgave her.
He even encouraged her to live on.
The anxiety of when she would be exposed and murdered, the doubt about the foundation of her existence, were all relieved by that.
At the same time, the real problem was also resolved.
Perhaps it was a matter of the heart.
Clara felt embarrassed about her vague fear of him based on wandering rumours.
Looking at what he had done in Hippodrome or Dvallchep, he couldn’t be called a saint.
But he also possessed kindness and affection towards his creations.
“My master…”
Clara felt her heart flutter.
She looked at the couples entering the banquet hall.
A blond handsome man in a black suit, wearing a black cloak, escorted a dark-haired girl in a school uniform.
Her master didn’t seem to notice her, or perhaps he thinks it wise to pretend to not know her in such a place, so he didn’t pay attention to her.
It was regrettable.
“I’m shaking.”
Thanks to her partner’s comment, Clara managed to regain her composure.
Merren looked around and said, “Well, it’s not like you’re the only one staring at that person.”
All the people standing around the entrance were looking at him.
Among them was also Reyna’s gaze.
She looked at Ella, who was standing side by side with Wonderstein, with envy.
Her invitation was snatched away by her father as soon as she arrived at the dormitory without even asking.
She was angry about being forcibly deprived, but she thought it was inevitable.
It was impossible anyway for her to surpass Ella and become his partner.
Their relationship was not real.
Even if she called him father, he could never be a real father to her.
He was probably just accommodating her out of sympathy for the pitiful girl who had been stripped from her father figure.
It was only in her delusional imagination that he could take away her father’s role or something like that.
The fact that her father snatched the invitation from her hands seemed to show the cold reality of that.
Maybe ending the fake relationship was the answer now.
As Ella entered the banquet hall, she looked around.
“I don’t see Maya.”
“Yeah. She left hours before we did.”
Who Maya invited as her partner had been the subject of gossip among the members for the past few days.
Various people were considered as candidates, but it was all just baseless speculation.
There was no way to know since the person in question didn’t say a word.
Moreover, from the next day onwards, she repeated the pattern of leaving early in the morning and returning late at night, so there was no chance to catch her.
As the party time approached, Ella finally nodded as if she understood.
“Unfortunately… She must have been bluffing. Probably pretended to have a partner even though she didn’t.”
“I don’t think so. Maya wouldn’t lie about something like that.”
“Well, think about it. Does it make sense for someone who’s been so indifferent despite spending months with the members to go outside and lure a man?”
“Hmm… That’s true, but…”
Wonderstein also agreed with her.
Although the most likely suspect was Karen, their relationship seemed irreparable from the start, and decisively, she came in with her brother.
At that moment, there was a person crossing Wonderstein’s mind.
Someone who had a connection to Maya and was in the vicinity.
If she invited someone as her partner, there was no one else.
“Ella, I understand.”
“Huh? What?”
“Maya’s partner.”
“Really? Who is it?”
“Hehe, all the clues were there. There’s no one else but the owner of the cafe she frequented…”
At that moment, the last couple entered the entrance of the banquet hall.
One of them was a well-known figure to everyone in the hall.
A man in a white robe, his face covered with a silver mask.
It was none other than Arno, the leader of the Silver Veil Circus.
Beside him was the student who invited him as her partner.
A girl with hair as white as her school uniform.
It was Maya.
***
The weekend evening in Lekcahep was quiet.
Students paired up and roamed the city’s streets.
Only a few students remained in the dormitory to unwind from the week.
The area around the banquet hall was bustling as it was the day of the freshmen welcome party.
The training grounds where the taming took place were quiet too.
At the end stood a small tower, Professor Pyrene’s office, which was also quiet.
However, what was inside was quite eerie.
A sticky liquid, like a mixture of red blood, flesh, and pus, slid across the floor.
Dozens of arms and legs seemed to be forming and disintegrating, and the way the liquid moved seemed like it was flowing.
Behind it, a broken black glass bottle was rolling around.
It was Clara who had just escaped from it.
The liquid monster glanced at the bottle in the center of the room.
Inside it were sparkling particles like stardust.
It was an item that had appeared at an auction in Vegas a few weeks ago.
It had been auctioned off to the representative of Lord Slagbrot and brought to Pyrene through his hands.
The liquid monster recalled the information about it.
A shard of Trill.
By-product of creating the Eye of Kirku.
Capable of controlling Debulroots…
The creature created a tentacle from its flesh.
It reached out for the bottle containing the shard.
Then, it turned around.
Shelves stretching up to the ceiling displayed hundreds of glass bottles.
And inside them were living organisms infected with curses collected by Pyrene from all over the world.
Still alive Debulroots.
The apostle swung its tentacle towards the shelf.
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Chapter 188: Demon in the Bottle – 27
Chapter 190: Demon in the Bottle – 29