Chapter 24 : Mutually Assured Destruction
The night deepened.
St. Freya Academy’s back garden, usually a refined haven for noble ladies to recite poetry and admire flowers, lay eerily silent under cold moonlight.
The air carried a mix of rose and earth, the night breeze stirring fallen leaves with a “rustle” like ghostly whispers.
Ailiya stood alone by the dry central fountain, waiting.
Her navy-blue maid dress blended into the shadows.
No brick, no weapon.
She stood tall, hands in her apron pockets, her gaze calm as a bottomless frozen lake.
Soon, faint footsteps approached from the garden’s entrance.
Several figures emerged from the darkness.
Leading them was Clarissa, the blonde, blue-eyed noble girl, followed by Sophia, Bella, and Emily.
Their faces radiated arrogance and disdain, like queens come to judge a sinner.
“You actually showed up, country girl,” Clarissa sneered, her voice dripping with contempt.
Ailiya ignored the taunt, asking calmly, “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why target me?” Ailiya’s eyes scanned each face. “Since arriving at this academy, I’ve never wronged any of you. Why smear me with those vile lies on the bulletin board?”
“Reason?” Clarissa laughed as if it were absurd. “A lowly commoner like you breathing the same air as Lady Liliane is a sin! You defile St. Freya’s sanctity!”
“So, your reason is this baseless, laughable jealousy?” Ailiya asked.
“Shut up! You have no right to judge us!” Clarissa snapped.
“One more question,” Ailiya said, her voice steady. “What does this have to do with Aurora? Why drag her into it with the same tactics?”
“That special-admit?” Clarissa sneered. “She’s as out of place as you! A minor noble daring to claim she’ll be top student? Associating with you makes her equally guilty!”
“Equally guilty?” Ailiya’s lips curled into a cold, mocking smile. “Well said, Clarissa. Do you really think your actions are ‘nobler’ than mine?”
She paused, her voice rising sharply.
“You, Clarissa, swapped a rival’s dragon blood grass in the potion exam, causing her crucible to explode, nearly ruining her hands.”
“Sophia, you fed laxatives to a competitor’s horse the night before the equestrian club race to secure the lead spot.”
“And you, Bella, those anonymous love letters to Prince Leon—more explicit than my knight novels. What would your strict father say?”
Each accusation paled a named girl’s face further.
These were secrets they believed hidden perfectly.
“As for you, Clarissa,” Ailiya’s gaze settled on the now grim-faced leader. “You pose as Lady Liliane’s loyal follower, but you forged her handwriting to send anonymous letters to your father’s business rivals, stirring conflict to help your useless brother rise. Even your friends didn’t know that, did they?”
The others stared at Clarissa in disbelief.
“You… you’re lying!” Clarissa’s voice turned shrill with rage and fear.
“Lying?” Ailiya smirked. “I’m a country maid—my vocabulary for insults might not match you courtly ladies. But every word I’ve said is true.”
“And you? All you have are empty words like ‘lowly’ and ‘shameless’ to flaunt your superiority. Your anger comes from a nobody like me peeling off your fake, noble masks.”
“Shut your mouth!” Clarissa shrieked, trembling with fury.
“Don’t get cocky, maid!”
She grinned wickedly, pulling out her trump card.
She pointed to St. Freya’s tallest clock tower.
Whoosh!
A beam of light from one of her companions lit up the tower’s peak.
There, a blonde figure dangled from ropes, head limp—Aurora.
Stirred by the light, she stirred, brows twitching in pain, mumbling: “Ugh… wasn’t I… eating cake at the shop… why… no strength…”
Ailiya’s fierce, icy demeanor vanished.
Her pupils contracted, her face drained of color.
“What did you do to her?!”
“Nothing much,” Clarissa said, smirking, holding a remote-like magical device. “Just a sleeping potion in her cake, strong enough to knock out a dragon for three days.”
“Now, let’s play a game called ‘mutual assured destruction.’”
She waved a menacing red-glowing parchment. “Sign this magical contract, swearing never to speak of today or the bulletin board. Then we’ll let your friend down safely.”
“Otherwise,” she dangled the button, “one press, and the ropes release. From that height… tsk, her pretty face will be a mess.”
Ailiya’s body trembled, cold sweat pouring down her forehead.
She was back to the helpless, naive Ailiya.
“To keep you from stalling,” Clarissa’s smile turned cruel, “you have ten seconds. After that, your friend pays for your hesitation.”
“Ten, nine…”
Ailiya’s mind blanked, her eyes fixed on Aurora’s swaying figure, her breathing ragged.
“Eight, seven, six…”
“Don’t… don’t count…” Ailiya gasped, her heart pounding.
“Five, four, three—”
“Wait!”
Ailiya raised a hand, squeezing out two words with all her strength: “I’ll sign.”
“Good.”
Clarissa’s smile widened.
She tossed the contract and a quill pen into the dirt at Ailiya’s feet like garbage.
“Sign it. No tricks.”
Ailiya glared, humiliated, but crouched, picking up the contract and pen.
Her hands shook, hesitating, but she steeled herself and signed her name.
She handed the contract back.
Clarissa inspected it, satisfied, passing it to a companion.
“Now this wretch can’t say a thing,” she sneered.
She raised her foot, kicking Ailiya’s shoulder, sending her sprawling.
“Who do you think you are?!” Clarissa loomed over her, face twisted with rage. “A filthy bug from the countryside, daring to challenge me? I spread those rumors—so what? I wanted you ruined! Out of St. Freya!”
She kicked Ailiya again.
Ailiya curled up, tearful, clutching herself, pleading shakily: “I… I did what you asked… Aurora… let her go…”
“Sure,” Clarissa laughed like a maniac. “I’ll let her go.”
She raised the button.
“I’ll let her go.”
She pressed it hard.
“No—!”
Ailiya’s desperate scream echoed as she reached futilely for the button.
Clarissa and her group burst into triumphant, grating laughter.
Ailiya’s hand fell, and she collapsed, pounding the cold ground, sobbing, roaring: “You promised… to let her go… why…”
Thud, thud, thud…
Her movements slowed, her cries faded, until she lay limp.
Just as Clarissa’s group thought her broken, Ailiya took a deep breath.
“You people… are truly vile.”
She rose slowly, wiping tears and dirt from her face. Her once-fearful eyes now held only chilling calm.
“You…” The girls flinched at her shift, whispering she’d been driven mad.
But Clarissa didn’t laugh. A dark premonition gripped her.
Ailiya looked at the arrogant, puzzled faces, her lips curving into a smile. She playfully stuck out her tongue.
Clarissa, sensing something, whipped her head toward the tower.
Aurora, who should’ve plummeted, was climbing like a seasoned mountaineer, using the “cut” rope to haul herself back into the tower’s window.
She even waved cheekily.
“When… when did she break free?!” Clarissa shrieked.
“Break free?” Ailiya tilted her head. “Oh, that? You never really bound Aurora.”
“The drugging, my crying, my despair… haven’t you figured it out?”
Ailiya flicked off a stray blade of grass from her hair.
“It was all a performance Aurora and I put on for you dear ladies.”
“I love seeing you high-and-mighty types make those… idiotic faces.”
“So what?!” Clarissa roared, her bravado hollow. “Even if the binding was fake, this contract is real! Break it, and you’re dead!”
“Mutual assured destruction, right?” Ailiya nodded.
“But… knowing Aurora’s binding was fake, why would I sign it? Or rather, if I dared sign it, would it still matter?”
Clarissa froze, her face paling.
Ailiya pulled a small microphone-like magical device from her pocket.
“The news club uses these to broadcast across campus, linked to amplifying magic stones.”
She smiled. “By the way, the speaker for this mic is hidden in the big tree by the noble dorm’s entrance. Your… colorful words should’ve been broadcast by now.”
Clarissa’s group realized the gravity, their faces ashen, some collapsing in fear.
Ailiya, in her maid dress, sighed: “Ah, mana-tracking compasses, magical gaming consoles… these devices are so convenient.”
She stepped forward, looming over the kneeling Clarissa.
“Now, dear lady, what else do you have to say?”
Checkmate.
Apologies? Clearing rumors? I don’t need them anymore, Ailiya thought coldly.
“No… impossible…” Clarissa shook her head, denial giving way to desperate madness.
“A mere country girl! A lowly maid!”
She leaped up, brandishing an ornate wand at Ailiya.
“Serpent Bind!”
A roaring water snake, formed of pure elemental water, lunged at Ailiya.
Ailiya was faster.
“Flame Arrow!”
A standard half-meter flame arrow formed instantly at her wand’s tip—not a weak flicker but a blazing, sun-core golden-red, wrapped in intricate, visible flame runes.
The golden arrow collided with the water snake midair.
Boom!
Water and fire exploded into thick steam, enveloping the garden.
In the fog, Clarissa lost Ailiya’s trace, gripping her wand nervously, pointing wildly like a cornered beast.
“I’m so done with you self-righteous nobles…” A cold voice whispered in her ear.
“…I don’t like you one bit.”
Clarissa spun, only to see Ailiya emerge ghostlike from the steam, right in front of her!
She raised her wand in panic, starting a spell: “Wat—”
Ailiya’s fist answered.
It carried all her grievances, frustrations, and fury since arriving in this world.
Swift as lightning, heavy as thunder.
Thud!
A dull, teeth-gritting impact.
Clarissa’s face contorted grotesquely, her body flying back like a broken kite, crashing hard into the ground.
She was out cold.