房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"..."

The black-haired boy looked around, thankfully as it was already basically night so no random student was wandering about, so he raised his hand to knock on the door – and stopped.

"...almost forgot..."

He muttered to himself and took off the pin signifying the academic year he was attending, and put it into his front pocket.

"Haa... it all would be so much easier if I could use muffle...anyway - with that, the only thing left would be..."

He smirked to himself and closed his eyes – the muscles of his face started shifting around, his body structure was also changing which was visible even through his clothes – with some dose of annoyance he realized that the form he was in right now was actually more muscular than his original one...

"A... a... a... good – this should be enough."

The boy let out some noises testing out his changed voice and smirked with satisfaction – the spell he was using to achieve that wasn't perfect but it should be enough – as long as Burushiitto didn't spend all her time staring at that annoying kid his appearance should pass for long enough.

He could try to force her to listen to him by hypnosis but the healer girl had already proved to be surprisingly resistant to that – and just as he was taught, the boy tried to pick options with less chance of failure.

Now, almost all the preparations were complete - he made sure that no one has actually seen him come there, he was so careful that he even made sure that he would be seen going inside his own room, and then he sneaked out using shadow movement...

Everything according to his favorite aunty's teaching.

"Darkness blade."

To finish off his preparations, the black-haired boy whispered an incantation and a four-inch obsidian blade of perfect darkness emerged from the top of his wrist like a hidden blade of some assassin.

"Hmph~"

The boy scoffed with a smirk and covered his newly created weapon by twisting his arm and spreading his palm, it was really easy to hide...

|How long has it been since I used this...? I am so rusty with darkness magic – if only I could use shadow gate it all could be over right now....|

He thought and clicked his tongue with dissatisfaction, thinking about his family.

|I need to be done with this as fast as possible or some teacher might notice that something is amiss... Ha...! Look at me now, am I actually worried about completing an assassination...? Father would be so angry at me, seriously...|

The black-haired boy slowly breathed out to calm himself and then he immediately took a deep breath.

|I will achieve my goal.|

He thought with conviction and raised his hand to knock on the heroine's door.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"..."

...and he waited – he immediately heard noises coming from the inside and smirked – but quickly shook his head to calm down – getting to his target was only half of the success...

"S-sir Zoemi is that you...?"

"...!"

A conspicuous voice came from the other side of the door and the black-haired boy shivered with excitement.

After a few seconds, the door opened just a tiny bit and the blond heroine peeked at him through the crack with an innocent expression.

"Yes, it is me, miss Burushitto."

The black-haired boy nodded and responded with perfect mannerism – while also making a move and pushing the door...

"...!"

...causing the heroine to take a step back running from the door, which caused her to stumble on her own feet and she almost fell on her butt as a result but somehow managed to keep her balance.

"...ugh... what the...?! Oh, never mind..."

For a moment she made a dissatisfied expression and even frowned but almost instantly she returned to her usual foolish na?ve expression...

"Sir Zoemi? Are you in a hurry?"

She asked in a worried tone and looked at the boy with confusion in her eyes.

"Yes, actually – let's get this over with."

The boy nodded and stepped into her room and closed the door behind him.

"...okay...? Listen, so the thing is..."

Burushiitto furrowed her brows at the response since she clearly remembered Zoemi telling her he would have enough time for an actual talk but ended up shrugging her shoulders as she straightened her clothes and walked towards her desk - most likely to offer the Zoemi-looking boy a seat.

...or maybe she prepared some notes to go help with the conversation...

Who knows?

Either way, it no longer mattered...

"Miss Burushitto."

"!!!!"

The black-haired boy smiled maliciously and his cold voice made the heroine stop in her track in the middle of her room and turn around to face him...

"S-sir Zoemi...? Eh...? "

The blond heroine tried to smile innocently but then blinked in confusion as if something in the boy's appearance didn't exactly match...

|Now...! Before she will realize and call for help!|

"Shadow connect, shadow emerge."

The intruder disguised as Zoemi thought and called out raising his hand.

"Eh...?"

The heroin looked around her completely terrified and before she knew it her shadow became pitch black, bulged out from the floor, and - without any warning - burst and flooded most of her room in darkness.

"Sir Zoemi, what are you...!? UMPH!"

Burushi couldn't understand the situation so she asked fearfully while her legs were shaking uncontrollably but the black-haired boy's only answer was his hand shooting towards her face to brutally blocking her mouth.

"You should have stayed in your lane, commoner."

"!!!!"

His cold voice made every hair on the heroine's body stand on its end in absolute horror.

"Hou! Hop! Ham hem he hehohihe...! Hoooop...!"

She tried to scream abd tell him that she is the heroine of this game, but her voice was not only her voice was blocked by the attacker's hand.

|NOOOOO! IT'S THE BAD END IN HIS ROUTE AFTER ALL!|

Burushiitto got fooled by the disguise of the black-haired boy and her mind came up with the only reasonable explanation – that Zoemi was going to kill her because she did something wrong in his route...

Her struggle was completely useless.

"Hoo! Heehs hoop!"

The blond girl still tried to call out and at least beg for mercy, but it was not meant to be.

The black-haired boy didn't come to torment her or make her suffer – she was in his way, so she had to disappear.

"And to think that this wouldn't be necessary if you just listened and get along with Xeonith... oh well... Goodbye."

The black-haired boy sighed and his darkness blade plunged through the heroine's heart...

"...!"

Burushitto sucked in the air but still, no sound could be heard.

"..."

The attacker twisted the blade in her chest and the light disappeared from the heroine's eyes.

He let go and allowed her body to fell backward into the perfect veil of darkness underneath his feet.

The red flower bloomed on the girl's chest, getting bigger and bigger as her body was sinking into the darkness...

...and then...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

...the fabric of time got torn apart by the panicked voice of a child...

--------

"Master...?!"

Zoemi froze in place turning away from Miriette and Rokiana talking, feeling the sudden dreadful chill in his stomach and the next moment...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

To the accompaniment of a panicked voice of a child, an unbelievable pain struck the black-haired attendant's body, it felt like something was ripping out his soul and twisting it while it was still connected to his body.

His skin, fat, muscles, bones, and every other part of him was screaming in agony when the indescribable feeling crushed against him like a tidal wave.

Everything faded and turned bleak like a sepia as a terrible noise filled the space and the fabric of time and space itself ripped apart and everything started flowing backward.

But at the same time as everything he did during the evening was playing out in reverse, another separate point of view was clearly visible inside his mind.

Somehow while he was still in the Aspakeony Academy, he was also in some odd dimly lit room filled with various antique and treasures – he was sitting on something peculiar too – a crystal box containing...

...a cut-off human arm...

Being at the two places at the same time almost ripped Zoemi to shreds – but thankfully the agony ended as suddenly as it began and the boy's mind returned right back to his body and...

------

Zoemi was preparing the evening meal for his master as always, although he kept on checking his pocket watch time and time again to make sure that he isn't taking too long.

There was nothing wrong with him going to visit the heroine at nighttime, but it sure would turn inconvenient if she fell asleep or worse – get herself in trouble by trying to meet up with him herself after the curfew hours.

Zoemi was well versed in stealth and he could use spells that aided him in saying hidden, but the same could not be said about the girl who wielded the healing attribute.

So yeah – that was already hanging over Zoemi's head – but it wasn't his only worry either.

Well... it wasn't something that had something to do with him or his master, and not even the heroine either – but it was something that was getting on his nerves for some time already...

More specifically – the feud between Veo and Patishi and Teo.

Veo and Patishi were fine – the only thing they did was ignore Teo – but in turn, the ignored Teo was now Zoemi's direct coworker who was so distressed by the situation, that she was more of a burden than actual help.

Zoemi knew far too little to actually pick a side, but he sure knew that if the others didn't want to let him in on how and why this whole thing started, he at least would like Teo to act like her older sister and the younger girl.

"...huh...?"

Suddenly, the black-haired boy straightened his back and blinked in confusion stopping working on the meal in front of him.

"Wha...? What...? Huh...?"

He looked around in complete disbelief – he could swear that he was in Miriette's room just a second ago!

No, really!

He surprised teacher Rokiana and she broke her communication crystal and he brought her to Miriette so she could explain to Mizoe why she suddenly ended their call...!

So why...?!

"Sir Zoemi...? Is everything alright...?"

Teo, momentarily stopped glancing towards Patishi and Veo and tapped the boy's shoulder, calling out to him in a concerned voice.

|Why am I back here?!|

Zoemi shook his head while a dreadful chill spread through his stomach.