Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 352 The Unknown Cortriñe

"Millie."

The scene in front of Elson's mansion was indeed tragic, so tragic that even the Goddess of Bath dared not look directly at Roland's location. But she hadn't expected that the people inside Elson's mansion held such an important place in Millie's heart. That they could bring the usually resilient Millie to the brink of collapse.

"No, that's not how it is."

As if gripping the outstretched arm of the goddess of the bath with some lack of strength, Millie kept repeating similar words.
"I...I knew it would turn out like this."

With her head down, Millie spoke haltingly about what she had kept buried in her heart for so long.

The day after the "Pigeon" area disappeared, when the "Tin Man" area was sealed off, Millie, by fully regaining her previous soul perspective, realized that the Elson mansion where she and the Bathing Goddess had once lived might not have disappeared along with the Pigeon area.

The scene before her eyes represented the very situation Millie had feared most, which had now actually occurred.

"This"

Hearing Millie's words, the goddess of the bath couldn't help but feel a tightness in her chest.

Not only was the place where they once lived transformed into purgatory. If they had known these things were likely to happen, their actions would have been as if they themselves had escaped from this worst place, leaving only those in the mansion in purgatory.

"There's nothing we can do about it."

The goddess of the bath spoke words of comfort to Millie with great difficulty.

At this moment, the goddess of the bath realized for the first time that "there is no way" really was just an excuse. And excuses can never be true comfort.

Even if she realized it, she had to say something; she couldn't let Millie be overwhelmed by the negative emotions brought on by those almost uncontrollable things.

"Maybe, maybe there are still people alive in the mansion!"

As she uttered those words, the goddess of the bath echoed in her mind, "What good would it do to be alive?"

She disliked this kind of "rationality" that only surfaced in such situations.

Regardless of whether it's meaningful or not, Millie needs some hope right now.

Even though those hopes were very unrealistic, the goddess of the bath still longed for that familiar yet slightly different young figure who had accompanied them the longest in this fairy tale world.

"There are still people alive."

Millie slightly raised her eyes, gazing at the silent mansion, and pursed her lips.
"Okay! Let's go inside and take a look!"

Slowly rising to their feet, the Goddess of Bath and Millie walked past the deceased Roland at the mansion's entrance and entered the Elson mansion.

"I'm sorry, Yu-nee. I wasted my time on unnecessary things."

Inside the Elson mansion, Millie, gradually regaining her composure, meticulously inspected every corner of the spacious residence and spoke to the Goddess of Bath.

"So there's no need to apologize or thank them one by one."

Looking at the place she once lived, now a desolate wasteland, the goddess of bathing found herself feeling even more distressed than she had imagined.

"Am I being ridiculous? I've known for a long time that most people in this world are created based on memories and perceptions. I've even witnessed the destruction of a world, yet I'm still being asked about this."

Millie said with some self-reproach.

This opportunity to explore was obtained through a rare coincidence combined with Xia Luoluo's "sacrifice." Furthermore, no one knew how much time they had left. Yet, despite this, she delayed for a considerable period due to her inner vulnerability.

"So you guys are all too 'heavy'. Why do you have to overcomplicate things?"

The goddess of bathing couldn't help but sigh.

"And another thing, you've come to the right person about creation, whether it's real or virtual. To be honest, Millie, please don't take offense. In my opinion—or rather, in my initial opinion—everyone and everything in your perceived real world is virtual. They're meticulously designed and manufactured. I was just playing a game, wanting to see what kind of joys and sorrows you could express in your own world."

The goddess of the bath reminisced about the events of the past.
"But I don't know when it started, I just figured it out. Game or reality, virtual or real, it doesn't really matter. What matters is my own feeling, my own judgment. I believe I truly spent time with you all, and that time was very important to me. So you are real and necessary to me. And we have undoubtedly lived here with Xiaoxiao for two months. So it has nothing to do with whether he was created or whether he is destined to disappear. As long as you feel that he is necessary and real, then he is necessary and real!"

"."

After listening to the words of the goddess of bathing, Millie remained silent for a while before speaking in a low voice.
Sometimes, I don't know whether Sister Yu's heart is strong or weak.

"Of course it's powerful!"

"Besides, I'm not just fixated on the junior professor's matter."

"Uh, thinking about it carefully, it's true."

As the goddess of the bath became somewhat embarrassed by her words going astray, Millie clenched her fist tightly in front of her chest.

Although many things still require time to think through and clarify, she has now at least managed to organize her thoughts to a point where they won't affect the immediate issues at hand.

The search at Elson's mansion resumed.

Millie seemed to recall the technique she had mastered at the Elson-style swordsmanship dojo, "Cross Hall," which allowed her to roughly sense the presence of those around her. As a result, her search efficiency increased considerably.

However, the result was quite cruel.

The vast Elson mansion, including the hundreds of disciples in the Cross Hall, has yet to be claimed by anyone.

"Corteline."

I couldn't help but recall the tragic state of the bathing goddess in Prista, and once again felt a strong sense of nausea.

If the same words she said to Millie could apply to Cortriene, would that really mean...
Shaking her head to temporarily put aside the extraneous thoughts in her mind, the Bathing Goddess continued to follow Millie as she explored the extremely tranquil Elson mansion.

Just as the two had explored most of Elson's mansion, a crisp cracking sound suddenly rang out without warning.

"Huh? This is it?"

Millie, with her keen senses, immediately located the source of the sound. When the Goddess of Bath looked up in the direction Millie was facing, she was surprised to see the dark night sky shattered into pieces.

"Signs of Regional Collapse"

Having experienced a landslide in the snow-capped mountain area, Millie's gaze immediately narrowed, and she took the hand of the Bathing Goddess to prevent them from getting lost.

Before her voice had even faded completely, the entire hill where Elson's mansion was located began to shake violently.

As the goddess of the bath cried out in alarm, a huge crack suddenly appeared in the ground. Fortunately, Millie, who was prepared, skillfully guided the goddess of the bath, repeatedly dodging deadly dangers.

"The area is starting to collapse. Does that mean the 'Tin Man' has lost?"

"possible!"

So even the mutated "Tin Man" is no match for that witch?
The thought flashed through Millie's mind.

What followed was an even more violent cataclysmic event.

As the true end of the world arrived, many fluorescent white fragments began to fall from the sky.

"Memory fragments! Forget about safety and such, we can be resurrected anyway! Prioritize contacting these memory fragments!"

"Ok!"

Under the increasingly decisive command of the Bathing Goddess, Millie, whose body began to crackle with electricity, picked her up and launched herself into the largest fragment of memory falling from the sky. A familiar old movie filter appeared before them.

When the goddess of bathing and Millie opened their eyes again, they found themselves in a scene constructed from memories.

After witnessing the many atrocities committed by the "Tin Man," the Goddess of Bath and Millie actually harbored a sliver of hope.

It is expected that the "Tin Man" was not Cortrienne, and that someone else actually formed this area.

But without a doubt, their tiny expectations were ultimately just self-deception.

"It's calling me."

This is the first sound echoing in this scene of memory.

The one who said those words was a young girl who was as cute as a porcelain doll.

In a place that resembled a training ground, accompanied by two bathing goddesses and a young man and woman whom Millie was quite unfamiliar with, Corténe, who looked only three or four years old, pointed to a longsword hanging on a weapon rack and said this.

"Did they call you?"

It was Remer Elson, who was probably Cortrienne's father and Roland Elson's brother, who looked at his daughter with some confusion.

"Um!"

"Who? Ah, which one? What's calling you?"

Because there were many different kinds of weapons arranged together, Remer was initially confused, but with Cortriene's guidance, he found the sword.

It was an ordinary longsword, a standard-issue sword of the Western Frontier Army, widely circulated in the Western Frontier.

"It's this one."

boom!
Remer, who seemed to have inherited the carefree nature of the Elson family, was punched hard by his wife as soon as he reached for the longsword.

It's clear that the woman who could become Remer's wife and Cortrienne's mother was not a typical woman.

"Don't give children such dangerous things! Besides, swords can't talk!"

After uttering some stern words, Cortrienne's mother dragged the two troubled children, one big and one small, away from the training ground.

"As expected, it's Kurt's memories."

"Um"

The initial memories faded quickly.

There's not much to discuss about Millie and the Bath Goddess.

At most, the goddess of the bathing goddess sighed, saying that Cortriene had been "beautiful" since she was a child.

The only thing that both of them cared about was Cortrinet's rather fantastical claim that "the sword was calling her."

The scenes in my memory change rapidly.

Cortrienne has grown up a bit.

In this scene, Cortrienne's delicate face can only be described as bruised and swollen.

However, facing Cortriene, who was clearly badly injured, her father, Remer, showed no sign of pity or desire to avenge her. Instead, he glared at his daughter with an unusually solemn, even somewhat fierce, expression.

"What exactly do you want to do?"

"I just want to beat him."

Cortrienne, who couldn't help but lower her head in front of her tall father, whose voice was as loud as muffled thunder, answered in a flat tone.

"Defeat? That's a victory! It was just a practice session. Are you trying to kill Jim?!"

"!"

Remer's words startled the two onlookers. They didn't sound like a joke, nor did they sound like an exaggeration.

In other words, Cortriene, who looked only seven or eight years old, used a weapon that was at most a wooden sword—which was just for practice—to commit the atrocity of attempting to kill her training opponent?

"This isn't practice; it's a live-fire exercise. And even if it's an exercise, since it's real combat, it has to be done that way."

"you!"

Enraged by Cortelene's lack of remorse and her contradictory attitude with strange theories, Remer impulsively raised his hand high.

Faced with the possibility of a slap coming at any moment, Cortrienne, who had been keeping her head down, instead raised her face and looked directly at Remer's calloused hands.

"If you want to teach me a lesson, then pick up your sword, Father."

Cortrienne remarked that one of her eyes was so swollen she couldn't open it at all, but the other eye was exceptionally bright and clear.

Remer's slap ultimately did not land.

Whether out of disbelief or something else, the tall father took two steps back before lowering his raised hand with a very complicated expression.

"This"

"."

Infected by the tension and atmosphere of the confrontation between Cortelene and her father, the goddess of the bath and Millie, who were unable to utter a word due to their tense emotions, only began to talk when the memories began to flash.

"How should I put it, it's not what I imagined. Is there something wrong with Kurt as a child?!"

"Indeed, there's something not quite right."

My impression of Cortriene mostly comes from our time at Earls Academy, with a small part from Charlotte's descriptions of the two of them. I never imagined that Cortriene's "blank period" in childhood would be like this.

As they spoke, the images in their memories gradually came to a standstill.

Looking at the scene unfolding before her, the goddess of the bath couldn't help but exclaim, "Huh?"

Because at this point, Cortrinet had completely skipped her childhood and adolescence and become Cortrinet, who was now an "instructor" at the Ers Academy.

In the dimly lit corridor, beside Cortriene lay a petite student who had collapsed unconscious.

Her body also suffered many injuries, with scars all over her body, some so deep that the bone was visible.

Then, opposite Cortrienne, on the other side of the corridor, stood Fernandez Elsen, a defector from the Elsen family.

"So, why are you standing in my way, young lady? Having once given up the sword, how could you possibly be a match for me?"

His body, much taller than an average person, pointed a disproportionately small longsword at Cortriene.

With a sarcastic smile playing on his lips, Fernandez said mockingly.

(End of this chapter)