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StLQ Chapter 7 - Cute Deadly Killer
🕑 Added 2025-08-10 11:09:16 +0000 UTCLich sight activated normally, without any time travel nonsense.
The purple mist covered my vision entirely. I lost my limbs, turning into a ghost-like observer. I could float around in the mist freely as I wished. My field of view was greatly improved, as I no longer had a nose or eyelids blocking my vision.
Slowly, the mist began clearing, and the scene of the lich sight formed in front of me. The branch of the World Tree materialized, as if a hologram was slowly being built. The rendering was similar to real life, though parts of the branch were slightly distorted—a grain in the wood appearing disjointed, for example, or a painting having an odd black line running across it.
My consciousness and memories remained intact. I didn’t feel weird at all, though in the real world, I was probably thrashing about in the locker unconsciously right now. My body always tried its best to kill itself while I was out in lich sight.
The culprit of the void hole formed last. In this case, the vision happened in the viewpoint of a nervous junior—a girl whose name I didn’t recognize. She was cute with lush ginger hair and freckles, wearing the academy’s uniform. She waited in the hallway after school.
With everything formed and the vision looking like reality, everything began moving.
The girl’s heart was thumping. A flood of nervous anticipation settled in her chest. She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself, as if preparing for a battle. She was afraid—not of dying, but of embarrassing herself.
Oh, god dammit, I thought, immediately realizing what kind of vision I was about to live through. As always, I could feel the emotions of the culprit, as if I was in their body. Lich sight didn’t just let me witness traumatic experiences. It let me experience all of the beautiful emotions involved in each traumatic event.
The guy that the ginger girl was waiting for walked out from a classroom, wishing goodbye to the teacher. He was tall, wearing the seniors’ uniform. He had a charming smile, impeccable posture, and a head that could make any haircut look good. He was alone, as the girl had hoped.
From there, I paid attention with half an eye. The girl pulled a note from her pocket, her heart about to explode. She asked the guy out.
To nobody’s surprise, the guy apologized, saying he wasn’t looking for a relationship. He smiled with his hand rubbing his neck and lingered around awkwardly, until his friends called for him. He left.
The rejection hit like an arrow through the poor girl’s heart. She stood there in shock, until she collapsed on the ground. She cried, the letter pressed against her chest.
Her utter anguish flowed into my body as well. The damned girl’s head was such a mess, you’d think the world had ended.
The worst part was, I cried along with her. I was forced to cry. Lich sight had taught me that human emotions were strong. Emotions like these quite literally changed the way people thought and behaved.
Really, people who were good at controlling emotions didn’t actually fight emotions directly. They just stopped the flow of emotions before truly strong emotions could arrive.
That meant… for the duration of the void hole, I quite embarrassingly cried along to the tragic rejection.
***
I woke up to find myself inside a metal box, flipped sideways on the ground.
Shouts came from around me. The locker, I realized, had tipped over and fallen on the ground. I’d hit my head from the fall, and my arms were bruised from thrashing about.
The physical pains were a small problem. I felt gravity shift as the locker was lifted up. The door opened. Half a dozen confused and shocked first years stood outside, baffled. I didn’t recognize any of them. Thankfully, I didn’t see any teachers around.
I stumbled out of the locker. One of the kids got out of the way, and I limped past them. “Thanks,” I said. “Bit of a rough night. Sorry about that.”
The kids watched after me as if I was some ghost. I made my way out of there hastily. The first years were thankfully too afraid to follow.
Rumors would probably spread after janitors wondered who broke the locker. Maybe I should stop looking at random void holes, I thought with a sigh.
I met up with my friends lower down the spiraling staircase. Seeing my bruises, Joshua blurted out, “Did you fight a fucking bear, Kai?”
Isaac asked if I’d done my homework, to which I admitted that I didn’t even know which class we had next.
The injuries or my cluelessness barely surprised my friends after yesterday. We headed to class, which turned out to be “warding and staff-wielding” by Professor Patwyn Blythe.
For now, I took classes normally to consider my next course of action, and to make sure I didn’t attract trouble and suspicion where I didn’t need to. Everything went mostly well; I spent time with my friends with only a few minor embarrassing moments, ate lunch, and survived through the classes.
Classes ranged from boring to shocking. Warding was easy enough that I could have probably taken both the written and practical tests on the spot and passed with decent scores. “Rune circle studies”, or anything to do with runes was total bullshit, and I felt like I knew less today than I did thirteen years ago.
And then there was math. I still don’t know why Lokora’s goddamned academy of magic had math class. Even Luna looked troubled when we were given a “core algebra” paper to figure out. I spent most of the class wondering what the hell letters were doing on my math problem. Regardless, I tried my best to solve the problems, knowing full well that none of this math nonsense would actually be of any help for at least the next thirteen years of my life.
Luckily, math was the final class of the day. I stretched and planned on heading to the headmaster’s office to pester him about his findings regarding Luna.
Before I could leave, Mr. Frederick, our maths teacher, came to my desk and said, “Kai, stay here for a minute.”
I flinched, worried about the destroyed locker, and asked, “Have I done something wrong?”
“Not at all,” Frederick said. “I received this for you. From an anonymous sender. I was told to give it to you at the end of class.”
I took the letter hesitantly. I recognized the handwriting immediately. This was from Donovan. The letter read,
“The suspect has been investigated. A scan has been performed, and the occupants have been interrogated. No results showed up. We will keep an eye open. The student in question seems perfectly ordinary. You have no reason to fear.”
Well… I thought. Not exactly the response I had hoped to hear.
“Thanks,” I said. “Am I free to go now?”
“I was also told that the letter has to be disposed of before you can leave the class with it,” Frederick said. “I will handle that for you.”
“Sneaky, huh?” I said, but handed Frederick the letter. He wished me a good rest of my day, and I was free to head home.
The moment I exited the classroom, a frown appeared on my face. This just got a lot more difficult. I knew I could trust Donovan’s scan. He was Lokora’s best mage, and amongst the top one hundred worldwide. If his scan said Luna’s house was free of lifeblood, Luna really didn’t have anything in her house.
Of course, Luna could have been hiding the shards outside somewhere, gathering small amounts of lifeblood from animals and magical beasts. More likely, she probably received the shards from an accomplice.
I could follow her after school…
I gave thought to that option, though quickly dismissed it. Luna was a far more skilled mage than me. She’d know if I was following her. There was a good chance I’d either waste my time or make things worse by following her.
Even better would be to befriend her. To become acquainted with the crime directly.
I was on my way to the wardrobes and jackets, when a hissing sound caught my attention. A slight blue glow came from the hangers on the opposite side of me.
Suddenly, I recalled a memory from somewhere hidden in my head. I’d lived through this event once before already. I already knew what was happening on the other side of the wardrobes.
I walked over and saw Luna, squatted down and facing the frame of the metal wardrobe. An ice-blue snake poked out from underneath, hissing at Luna. A frost cobra. Lokora’s most dangerous native reptile. Their venom could freeze a human limb. If untreated, it could lead to amputation, or death if the bite hit close to vitals.
The cobra threw its fangs at Luna. The attack stopped mid-air, as if hitting a wall. Mana flowed from Luna’s fingers, casting a mana barrier between herself and the snake. The cobra continued throwing its fangs, while Luna calmly defended, as if playing with it.
In my past life, I remembered shouting “Cobra!” in genuine panic, prompting Luna to retract her spell in hopes of not being seen casting magic. A teacher had rushed to the scene to chase the cobra away.
This time, I admired her spellcasting from the side. Luna’s control over mana was gracious and smooth, like a calm riverflow of crystal clear water. She shaped the mana to magic seamlessly, forming a physical, glass-like barrier.
I walked up and squatted next to Luna. A bit behind her; I didn’t want any surprises from the snake. Unlike Luna, I didn’t know how to form a spell-like that on the spot.
“You like snakes?” I asked.
The snake continued attacking. “Not really,” Luna said.
“You’re not afraid of freezing to death?” I asked.
Luna shrugged. “The nurses are nearby. If it bites me, I can scream and they’ll save me.”
“True enough,” I said with a funny smile. “It looks cute up close.”
We watched the cobra attack the shield for a little longer. Whatever was going on in its little reptile brain, it didn’t seem to consider escaping an option. It tried to hit different spots, as if Luna’s spell was just one bite away from breaking.
“It’s sad,” Luna said. “The cobra thinks I’m a threat. So it lashes out desperately. But I’m not trying to hurt it. I would pet it if it let me.”
“Really? You’d pet a cobra?”
Luna didn’t respond. Her eyes remained cold and uncaring, slightly melancholic. She almost looked sad as the cobra continued attacking.
The expression surprised me a lot. I had expected Luna to be the type to murder animals for fun. Although, it wasn’t uncommon for killers to be interested in deadly reptiles, or spiders and such.
Suddenly, a high-pitched scream came from behind us. I glanced behind me to see Ella. She dropped her textbooks and shouted. “Snake! It’s a cobra!”
Luna flinched. She called off the barrier, and her mana formed a different spell. I watched in awe as Luna flawlessly shaped mana to create a small shockwave of air. The cobra received the light blow to the face, which finally scared it away. It slithered away.
She’s way better than me, I thought. Luna wasn’t just a prodigy; she was a full-fledged mage already. That kind of casting wasn’t something ordinary fourteen year olds were supposed to achieve. Her raw power was probably still lacking as her mana core developed, but her control over mana was legitimately on par, if not more proficient, than some of the academy’s teachers.
Mr. Frederick rushed to the scene, hearing Ella’s screams. He had his staff ready to blow off any snakes, but the cobra had already escaped. He turned to Luna. “Where did it go?”
Luna pointed in the complete opposite direction and calmly said, “There.”
“Luna used magic!” Ella said.
“Of course I did,” Luna said with no change in her expression whatsoever. “I protected myself from a snake attack.”
“Everything is alright,” Frederick said. “We are lucky the headmaster’s apprentice was the one to get attacked. Luna knows how to defend herself.”
Ella had the that’s not fair expression, clearly jealous beneath her fears.
“You’re safe to head home,” Frederick said. “We will locate the snake by tomorrow. You won’t have to worry.”
I thanked him. Luna didn’t. She grabbed her coat. It was a light summer coat that would barely protect her from the wind, let alone winter. She headed for the doors. I hurried to grab my own coat and ran to catch up to her.
When out of earshot, I said, “You pointed him in the wrong direction?”
“The snake won’t kill anyone. I think.”
You think…? Its bite is deadly, you know.
I didn’t say any of that. I just smiled. “You’re interesting, Luna. I’d love to talk with you more often.”
Luna batted an eye. “Being good at magic doesn’t make me interesting. I’m just weird.”
“Liking snakes does, though,” I said. “That’s prime weirdness. Being weird is the most interesting type of interesting there is.”
Luna furrowed her brows at me. I smiled back.
Instead of receiving a response, however, Luna turned at the next intersection. Toward the opposite direction of our houses. She didn’t say goodbye or wave, or try to excuse herself. She just walked away without a word.
I watched her go, wondering what exactly I had said wrong.
Not a good compliment, huh?
