In fact, the message from the academy director was simple.
He wanted to conduct a ‘test’ to see if Sien Mirmode was suitable to be a child of the Mirmode family.
It was a faster development than I expected, though I had anticipated it. I was inwardly flustered but composed myself.
‘You were expecting this. Don’t be too surprised.’
I immediately blinked my tiny eyes and answered vigorously.
“I got it!”
“Pardon?”
“I mean I’ll go take the test!”
The assassins looked at me with stupid expressions.
I raised my chin arrogantly.
They had already decided to test me. They would make me go through the test no matter what excuse they used, intending to break my spirit while my father wasn’t around.
“To catch a tiger, you must enter the tiger’s den. Don’t you even know that?”
The maids now automatically applauded my words.
“Keu, you’re truly brilliant!”
“As expected of our muscle lord.”
The assassins sent by the academy director were still lying face down on the floor, rolling their eyes with clumsy expressions.
“Oh, and.”
“Yes?”
“Deal with those guys!”
“Make it happen!”
At my tough words, the maid sisters beat up the masked men a few more times and drove them out. Of course, I also told them to dig a hole in the back with a shovel, so they might bury them alive for a day or two.
‘Maid sisters, is it okay to live so recklessly like that?’
…I wondered if they had something they were relying on.
We were just powerless people isolated in the northern tower. Since this was the Mirmode world where the strong survived, it would be dangerous to live so recklessly without backing.
‘That’s not what’s important. I need to face off against the academy director first.’
I packed a few essentials into the rabbit-shaped bag my father had bought me.
Me, Sien Mirmode, with the bag firmly strapped over my shoulder!
I also neatly packed the mirror artifact I had obtained in advance by persuading the maid sisters. Although this low-grade artifact wouldn’t be of much help…
Anyway, I was fully prepared.
Finally, I vigorously entered the academy.
As I stepped into the large room, I saw the education officer, Teacher Lilmi, who disliked me, and an old man with white hair sitting there. I looked at Lilmi with squinted eyes.
I didn’t expect them to be so wary of a tiny kid like me.
The thought of giving them a taste of their own medicine bubbled up from my core.
“So you’ve come.”
“Hello!”
I bowed politely and stood before them.
As soon as the door closed completely, he asked with truly villainous gleaming eyes.
“Did you properly say goodbye to your insolent exiled father?”
At the words ‘insolent exiled father’, I clenched my fist, which was as plump as a well-peeled potato.
How dare you call our father an insolent exiled father?!
If our kind father had heard that, he would have fainted at such a harsh expression.
It was fortunate that I heard it. Because I could take cold and firm revenge.
I froze my heart as cold and hard as a chilly corn ice cream, then opened my mouth.
“My daddy isn’t an exile. The Duchess said so.”
The academy director’s expression twisted at the mention of the Duchess.
“…What an impudent brat. So, did you order all my subordinates to be killed?”
This accusation was a bit unfair.
‘No, it wasn’t me who dug the graves, it was the maid sisters…’
“To think you’d arrogantly kill all the assassins I sent.”
He grumbled.
No matter how I looked at it, the misunderstanding was gradually deepening.
But I didn’t bother trying to clear up his misconception.
‘I’m tired of clearing up misunderstandings now.’
When I didn’t answer and just kept my lips tightly sealed, he carelessly placed the mana stone he was holding on the desk and said arrogantly.
“I intend to give you the test.”
“What’s that?”
As expected, it was the .
I pretended not to know, but I already knew thanks to Leonhart.
The academy director sneered at me.
“You’re foolish.”
“Because she’s the daughter of an exile. Just a country bumpkin.”
Education officer Lilmi chimed in from the side. He kept flattering, his eyes sparkling, for the sake of his career advancement.
‘It’s going according to Leonhart’s and my expectations. They’re probably trying to kill me. Everyone here kills or gets killed.’
I looked at him calmly with an expression of knowing nothing.
“I’ll explain it simply. It’s a test to escape the maze.”
“A maze? How do I escape it?”
“Stand on this glass panel. You have to find the way yourself. You talk too much, little one.”
A cold gaze hoping I would be scared.
Looking at the extremely unfriendly teacher, the academy director, I opened my mouth.
“Does Sieni have to do it even if she doesn’t want to?”
“That’s right.”
“…Alright then, I’ll do it.”
Lilmi handed me the mana stone as if he had been waiting for this.
The warm mana stone landed on my hand.
“Kids are all stupid, not even realizing they’re walking into their doom.”
I didn’t respond to his words.
He smirked, raising one corner of his mouth.
Sien lowered her head and smiled with satisfaction at his expression, already certain of victory.
Not too much, so the corners of her mouth wouldn’t rise too high and give her away!
You have to try it to know if something is long or short, but he shouldn’t be so excited.
He must not have heard that excessive excitement leads to certain failure.
I puffed up my cheeks round and full. When I gently deflated my soft cheeks, a long breath escaped my lips.
The game had begun.
Perhaps I too would suffer like ‘those children’ they had been tormenting…
‘I have to do this.’
And I can do it.
When I stood on the glass panel and firmly gripped the mana stone in my hand.
The academy director glared at me and said.
“In our family, the weak are devoured, you foolish little one.”
But we don’t know who the truly weak one is yet, do we?
Right?
***
How many seconds had passed?
A cool breeze blew for a moment.
I instinctively felt that where I was standing had changed.
‘I’ve arrived inside the maze.’
As I slowly opened my eyes and saw the huge wall that was three or four times taller than me, I gulped at the unexpectedly massive illusion maze.
An eerie atmosphere, a cold place where a sigh would fog up the air in front of me.
Nervous, I took one step, then two as a test.
As I walked, the width of the maze gradually narrowed. If I widened my stride just a little more, my body would be crushed. It was clear that there were limitations on movement. I couldn’t run or walk quickly in this situation.
I took a slow, deep breath.
I could see the exit far away, but it wouldn’t be easy to escape.
‘As expected, the illusions should be starting now.’
The was a malicious illusion among illusion arts.
This maze dug deep into the most terrifying inner parts of humans, dragging out painful memories.
The moment I recognized the situation, I began to hear a cold voice full of malice and yet familiar.
“Stupid X.”
“Someone like you will never be loved. Stop being so pathetic.”
“You’re clumsy in everything you do.”
Verbal abuse directed at me began to pour into my ears.
With each word, my heart pounded. Forgotten trauma came back to life.
Those words were all things I had heard in my previous life.
Memories from my past life began to slowly play out before my eyes like an old film from a projector.
I saw myself at eight years old, drinking water in the kitchen.
I could hear my parents’ voices arguing in the living room. It was a voice saying they would get divorced. I bowed my head low, intimidated, holding the cup quietly and trying not to make a sound.
Voices full of hatred pierced my ears.
‘Let’s do an amicable divorce and you take her.’
‘I don’t like her gloomy eyes. She’s quiet and stupid. It doesn’t feel like she came from my womb.’
‘Then what do you want to do? Send her to an orphanage?’
‘She looks like you, so you figure something out.’
I was a gloomy little kid with shaggy bangs that almost covered my eyes because no one ever cut my hair. But I was quick to read the atmosphere, if nothing else.
Mom and Dad were serious.
They disliked and were annoyed by me, born from a loveless relationship.
‘If you won’t take her, then send her away!’
So I’m being abandoned after all.
Because I’m useless and stupid…
Suddenly, the strength left my hands.
And, crash!
The cup slipped from my hands and fell to the floor.
Looking at the shattered remains of the glass that broke into pieces like my heart, I froze. I couldn’t move because those shattered pieces looked like my heart and like my parents’ dislike for me.
Mom rushed out of the living room towards frozen me.
I looked at Mom and took a hesitant crab step. Crunch, glass pierced my foot and it bled, but apologizing to Mom was more important.
‘I, I’m sorry.’
Still, the glass broke. My, my foot is bleeding.
It’ll be okay. She’ll understand. Maybe, maybe she’ll even worry about me.
With tears welling up in my eyes, I begged Mom. I thought about apologizing for breaking the glass cup, looking down.
But Mom, Dad. Can’t you overlook me getting hurt just this once…
I’m in pain.
My foot is bleeding and it really hurts.
I’m about to cry…
Can’t you hug me?
But Mom betrayed my expectations as if it were only natural.
‘How do you always manage to do such terrible things? Are you protesting right now?’
‘…N-no.’
I looked at Mom, my body trembling.
‘Do you know how much this costs?’
I realized my mistake.
The cup I had taken out to drink water was Mom’s precious, cherished cup.
Someone like me shouldn’t have dared to use such a cup.
I was so flustered that I…
‘I’m sor-‘
Before I could apologize, Mom rushed right up to me.
Of course, Mom didn’t step on any glass thanks to her indoor slippers. Unable to contain her rising anger, she pressed her index finger hard against my forehead and screamed hysterically.
‘If you keep being such a nuisance, Mommy wants to die. Should we die together? Huh?’
As she pressed hard on my forehead, glass shards dug into my foot again and it hurt.
But Mom saying she would die was even more frightening and painful.
M-mom can’t die. She’s way more precious and valuable than me.
With a voice that grew smaller and smaller, I struggled to continue speaking.
‘I’m sorry, Mo-‘
‘Who’s your mom? Who!’
Dad, standing behind Mom with his hands behind his back, intervened.
With a cold gaze and expressionless face, he said.
‘You, act useful.’
‘…Yes, I’m sorr-‘
‘You clean up the cup yourself and come out. You should at least do that much. You have to earn your keep in this house where we feed and shelter you.’
Towards Dad, I mumbled with a cowed expression.
‘D-dad. I’m bleeding…’
‘Don’t call me Dad either. What good have you done to cry, you dim-witted thing.’
After looking down at me with a cold gaze, he soon disappeared into the kitchen with Mom. Watching my parents leave, I shed tears without even making a sound.
I’m not crying because my heart hurts.
Mom and Dad are good people and they can treat me like this. Because they feed me and give me a place to sleep.
It’s just, it’s just because I’m weak-hearted.
It’s because my tiny foot hurts from being pierced by glass shards. That’s why…
While brainwashing myself, I cleaned up the shattered cup with my bare hands.
I didn’t know I should use something like rubber gloves. Because no one had ever taught me.
Of course, cleaning up glass with clumsy hands made my hands bleed. I quietly looked down at my hands and thought.
The cuts on my hands didn’t hurt at all.
Only my heart stung with pain.
After cleaning up all the glass and limping into my room, I quietly thought.
‘It would have been better if I was never born in the first place.’
Should I really not have been born?
At the same time, noisy voices rang in my ears again.
‘So why were you born?’
‘Let’s die together here.’
‘You’ll be at peace if you die.’
‘You’ll disappear forever.’
I bit my lip hard. I could taste blood from my chapped lips. I quickly wiped around my lips with the back of my hand.
Am I really a useless child after all?
I hunched my already small shoulders even smaller.
***
The illusion maze could be viewed from the outside using a mana stone. Seeing Sien’s head bow, the academy director and Lilmi grinned.
“She’s finally bowed her head.”
“When they do that, a hundred out of a hundred die.”
“It’s easier than I thought. I was worried since she’s that demon’s daughter.”
They looked at each other and cackled for a while. They even had a glass of rum.
The academy director watched with satisfaction as Sien, who had been bowing her head for a while, finally fell to her knees on the floor.
Sien too would meet a similar fate as the other children.
Either dying like that. Or living as nothing more than a shell, constantly tormented by remnants of the past.
In any case, both were practically a death sentence for a child of the Mirmode family.
“Young Master Matthias must be furious.”
“What can he do if he’s angry? He’s just a kite with a broken string.”
Unlike what Lilmi thought, Matthias was quite remarkable.
But what could be done? It was his specialty to kill young children who seemed likely to soon sprout, while maintaining appearances.
The academy director smirked mockingly with his chin resting on his hand.
How should I put it… Seeing the back of Sien’s bowed head, her knees kneeling carelessly covered in dirt, it felt as if Matthias Mirmode himself was kneeling before him, which made him feel good.
After mocking Sien for a while, the academy director turned his gaze towards the rum.
In about thirty minutes or so, that child’s mind would be completely broken down.
But right at that moment.
“W-wait a moment.”
“What is it?”
At Lilmi’s startled expression, the academy director paused as he was bringing the rum to his lips.
“Look, she’s r-raising her head again?”
The academy director’s face scrunched up as he looked down at the illusion maze.
Until now, most of the children who had knelt and bowed their heads ended up crying helplessly with empty eyes, trapped in the maze.
But this was strange.
Sien had raised her head.
She seemed to have cried a little, but her eyes were still sparkling.
__________
The Merman is a Love-Obsessed Brain (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”