Here, there is a woman.
In a crystal palace even more splendid than the Empire itself, a woman wearing a nearly transparent dress walks alone.
“I am here alone─”
As if announcing the prologue of an opera, the woman slowly opens her mouth, and her words begin with a certain musicality.
“Becoming the ruler of all in this world─”
As the woman’s glass shoes touch the ground, numerous scenes unfold across the palace floor.
Men, bound and gagged, are being whipped as they work.
The woman dressed in leather and swinging the whip looks exactly like the woman in the dress.
As if they were alter egos.
“Angelica! Controller of all men!”
As she snaps her fingers, the walls begin to emit light with a ‘pop’.
The place sparkles like a jewelry box, and in each of the niches, countless handsome men stand topless, wearing only bow ties and dress pants, quietly standing still.
“Angelica! The ruler of all women!”
With a snap of the other fingers, on the opposite wall, countless women bang on the glass walls, crying out in desperation.
Among them were those well-known within Esdinas Academy.
There was the most beautiful female student, some who had already graduated, and even the wealthiest delinquents.
“What do you say to me?”
[Please, grant us permission, Queen Angelica!]
[Have mercy on us!]
[At least let us hold the hands of men!]
The women began to plead with Angelica.
“No! Return! I have no interest!”
Reaching toward those trapped in Angelica’s jewelry box, their desperate cries and pleas echo like a chorus.
“All of these are mine! Ah, I am the ruler of this world! The ruler of all humanity! Without my permission, no one may even hold hands-”
[Uh, this is getting hard to watch. Can we stop now?]
Snap.
* * *
Silence descends.
As soon as I take my hand off Angelica’s head, the people in the room start exchanging uneasy glances.
“Ahem.”
The eldest, Esta, clears her throat and blushes.
“Phoenix. Is this an illusion you created?”
“No. Think of it as a visualization of a dream.”
“A dream?”
“Yes. Doesn’t everyone have dreams like this? Dreams of living in a fantasy.”
People tend to dream of all sorts of things as they live.
“If a dream is particularly vivid, you tend to remember it after waking up, but occasionally, these dreams reveal deep-seated desires, just like now.”
“Miss Angelica, the ruler of the world… Hah.”
Esta covers her face with both hands. Though Angelica still lay inside the case, no one in the room could bring themselves to look at her.
“…So, that’s how she thought of me.”
“Well, it’s just a dream.”
Among the women banging on the glass in Angelica’s jewelry box were some of the people in this room.
“So, please, stop glaring like that, Evangeline.”
“T-That…! That thing turned me into some sort of beggar…!”
Evangeline trembled violently as she pointed at the sleeping Angelica.
I understand.
Compared to the relatively normal attire of the other female students, Evangeline was dressed more poorly than a beggar, with even a chain around her neck, making her appear even more desperate.
“This is quite the problematic magic.”
Ludmila also looked troubled. She stared at Angelica—or more accurately, the case projecting Angelica’s dream—with a more confused expression than even when the Angel had appeared.
“I’ve never been that obsessed with men.”
“It’s what Angelica thinks of Miss Ludmila.”
“Even if I were obsessed with men, I wouldn’t be someone who would beg and kneel to anyone like that.”
She denied it firmly.
It must be because, in her own view, the Ludmila in the dream looked far too pitiful.
“Ah, haha…”
Yunia could only chuckle softly.
Although I couldn’t bring myself to say anything more, Yunia was enduring indescribable suffering as Angelica’s heels stomped the floor, unleashing all sorts of visions.
“It feels a little strange, like I’ve just witnessed someone’s ‘delusional diary’ come to life, so it’s a bit unsettling.”
“Delusional diary? Do you write one, Miss Yunia?”
“Of course not! I don’t write anything like that! I’m just speaking metaphorically!”
Yunia raised her voice with a serious expression.
At least, she has never written one in front of me, and she’s not the type to record things in a diary, so she firmly denied it.
However.
‘Who here hasn’t had strange thoughts at some point?’
Humans are creatures of thought.
And as long as we have emotions, it’s natural to form various thoughts based on them.
“Um, Student Phoenix?”
Kadisha raised her hand from a step away from me.
“That magic, is it something that can only be used on unconscious people?”
“No, but it’s much easier to use on someone who’s asleep.”
“What….”
Instructor Esta was startled and alarmed.
“Y-You wouldn’t…?!”
Suddenly, her face turned bright red, and she stepped back two steps, her pupils shaking.
“What do you mean, ‘wouldn’t’? Did I ever use any strange magic on you when I gave you that mana massage before, Instructor Esta? Did any visions appear like this?”
I’m confident.
I stood confidently. I could say it boldly in front of everyone.
“Even if Instructor Esta had a dream, it was just a dream. I didn’t do anything, and nothing was exposed to others.”
At least, not in reality.
If Instructor Esta had a 19+ dream about marrying me and then living like dried fish until she graduated from a unicorn, that was just her own desire or fantasy manifesting in her dream.
“In fact, I thought it was fortunate that Senior Angelica harbored such ‘innocent’ desires.”
“‘Innocent’…?”
“Yes. Because, when using this magic, you can truly see the malice buried deep within someone. The so-called abyss.”
I lightly tapped the case where Angelica lay.
“I’ve even used this to uncover criminals before.”
“Criminals?”
“Someone who committed murder.”
“…!!”
Until now, everyone had been slightly flustered, but now their expressions stiffened, and they grew tense.
“On the surface, they appeared to be an ordinary noble, but their true desires included rampant murder. The dreams revealed them killing not only their own family but also random passersby.”
“…It’s not just about revealing s*xual desires, then?”
“No. Of course, even in this case, Senior Angelica’s rather unusual preferences were exposed, but…”
I lightly tapped my temple.
“In that sense, revealing sexual preferences is relatively harmless. For example… Miss Yunia?”
“Y-Yes?”
“If, for instance, you had a fantasy about treating me like… um, a male slave.”
“W-Why is the conversation suddenly turning this way?!”
As I explained to the others, I unintentionally spoke to Yunia more formally, but she was too flustered to even notice that.
“But you wouldn’t be thinking of chopping me up and freezing me somewhere, right?”
“Well, no, but…!”
“I’m talking about something [normal], [average], and [common sense].”
Normal. Average. Common sense.
These are Yunia’s favorite words.
“I-Is that so…?”
“Yes. Regardless of background, status, or age, it’s only natural for men and women to be attracted to a charming opposite. So it wouldn’t be strange for you to imagine me, the only male student in the old school building and your peer, as a ‘potential boyfriend’.”
“Mmm…”
“It doesn’t mean you’re thinking of me that way in reality. It’s just that when you imagine dating or marrying someone, it’s not like you’d picture a faceless, hairless figure as your partner, right?”
“Well, that’s true…”
“So, you naturally think of a person, and that imagination manifests in dreams like this, based on the desires that all humans have.”
I looked around at everyone.
“Isn’t it more dangerous if other desires, not related to s*xual attraction, are revealed first? Sure, everyone has strong desires that might exceed basic attraction, but if those desires involve killing people, destroying nations, or bringing about the Apocalypse, that’s even worse.”
“…!”
“So, in a way, this is better. Of course, Senior Angelica’s thoughts could still be the start of some world-ending plot, though.”
Everyone’s gaze shifted back to Angelica.
“In her dream, Senior Angelica wanted to control all men and women. No one could even hold hands without her permission, and only after receiving it could they engage in physical contact.”
“…So, if she didn’t give permission, men and women would never be able to meet.”
“Yes. Though it wasn’t explicitly shown in the dream…”
If that were to happen.
In a situation where Angelica becomes the ruler of the world, the moment a man and woman hold hands without Angelica’s permission…
Snap.
“There’s no need to dig that far into it, right?”
“…In that case.”
Kadisha raised her hand.
“If a person who dreams of such a fundamental desire for ‘human extinction’ exists, does that mean they have the potential to become an Angel?”
“Is that how you interpret it?”
“Yeah. Remember what the Angel said? ‘Kill the mortals’. It didn’t target anyone specifically, but killing mortals doesn’t necessarily mean strangling or cutting them down directly.”
Kadisha extended both hands forward and was about to clap but stopped mid-air.
“It takes two hands to make a sound, and two people to have a child.”
“I-Instructor?! What are you talking about…!”
“If someone has the desire to prevent humanity from reproducing, there’s a chance that an Angel could possess them. Could that be a valid interpretation?”
“Hmm, that might be correct.”
As expected of Kadisha.
“The end of humanity doesn’t necessarily mean everyone bleeding out and dying.”
Kadisha, being a heroine herself, is also a potential vessel for an Angel.
If Kadisha, of all people, figured out the ‘conditions for Angel possession’, there must be a reason—because she herself harbors similar thoughts to some extent.
But I won’t point it out.
Kadisha’s affection level is still low, and there’s no need to poke at her painful past and trigger a trauma unnecessarily.
However.
“If we take Senior Angelica as an example.”
It wouldn’t hurt to let her deduce some of it.
“If she controls all men and prevents reproduction, and if no new babies are born until all humans grow old and die, that could be considered the extinction of humanity. An extreme example, of course.”
Kadisha.
The potential for her ‘Apocalypse’ stems from her side as an ‘alchemist’.
It’s possible that a series of catastrophic events could arise from a drug developed by some genius alchemist.
Perhaps all men could undergo biochemical castration.
Or perhaps, all men could be turned into TS girls.
