I regretted going over the wall in the way that I did almost instantly. Not because of what was on the other side or anything, but because I had forgotten about the pain in my left shoulder. But it still isn’t as bad as when it dislocated in the first place, so I can deal with it. At most, I feel a little weak in my arm because of the pain.

“Ah, Shadow!” What is Coal shouting about? I know how to get down from a wall like this, I’ve gone over them plenty of times.

As I caught my fall with my legs… they gave out under me. What in Hell?!

Shadow, the enemy already took action. It seems they cast exhaustion onto you. Exhaustion… That’s fine, I guess. More importantly, it must’ve used up that thread, right? If so, that means I don’t have to deal with it anymore, which makes me a lot safer.

Of course, I can’t be certain if it did use up the thread. But I’d say it’s a reasonable guess to say that this is just a duration spell and that I’ll recover my strength in a bit.

…Coal might have to protect me at this stage… Hah, I need to warn him, then. “Exhaustion, spell.” Damn, even my voice is rough right now.

“R-Right.” He seems nervous, but at least he’s smart enough to realize that this is the perfect moment for the enemy to attack me. Stepping in front of me like that has no meaning since spells like this obviously ignored distance, but eh, fine.

But the expected attack didn’t come. Instead, a figure in grey robes walked out from behind the stand-alone building in the clearing. Long black hair, and an obviously feminine body shape… So this ‘Soul Sorcerer’ is rather a ‘Soul Sorceress’, huh?

I wonder what her aptitude is?

“Solace?! What are you doing he- No, why are you attacking Shadow!” Coal’s reaction was beyond any guess of mine.

Yet, it makes sense. He has been in the area near the mansion recently since that’s where I’ve been resting up, and this Sorceress is both an official and has been keeping an eye on me. It only makes sense that they’ve encountered each other, and people just love to introduce themselves on first meeting.

The Soul Sorceress- eh, Solace, also seems a bit surprised. “You… You’re Coal, right? I’m the one who should be asking you what you’re doing with this murderer! She’s killed at least four people!”

So that’s her play. Her only target is me, and she wants Coal to have nothing to do with this. That must also be why she went for the exhaustion instead of a straight attack, since she wants to determine who is with me and whose side they’ll be on.

Her way of going about things means that I’m safe until Coal stands down. And if he takes long enough, then this exhaustion spell will also run through its duration.

I stopped trying to get up and just let my body flop to the floor as it wants to. Since I can’t do anything for now, I might as well just watch the show.

“A murderer?! No, there’s no way Shadow would kill someone!” Coal seems to be having an intense reaction, hah. “Are you trying to say that she’s the one who killed Dust, her own friend?”

“Just shut up if you don’t know anything!” The Sorceress held out a black thread - Ah Hell, she still has that thing? As expected, the end of it with the needle was pointed straight at me. “This is a Karmic Thread, pulled from the soul of Copper after his death.”

Ah, this is why explaining things to your opponents is stupid. Not only is she giving time for the exhaustion spell to run out of duration, but she’s also revealing her cards. I’m actually slightly grateful for it this time though, since I don’t think Coal would be able to protect me if Solace tries to kill me.

Solace’s right hand moved around, yet the needle kept pointing at me. Seeing the look on Coal’s face - or whatever it was, I can’t see it from this angle, she explained, “The needle end will point at the one who killed the person whose soul it came from. So, is this proof enough for you?”

“Ah, and before you try to say that doesn’t prove anything here, know that Copper had been looking for the killer with one of these that came from a Sorceress killed in this very clearing. He had a very valid reason for attacking her.”

Um, if Coal is in love with me, he shouldn’t be swayed by this, right? Also, I’ve noticed that Shade hasn’t said anything for a while. …Could it be that this Sorceress might be able to sense it or something?

I can already guess what it’d say, though. Something along the lines of ‘You shouldn’t be relying on Coal in the first place’, or whatever. It’s not like I don’t know that; I just don’t have a choice right now, do I?

Coal fell into silence. Say, he won’t actually be swayed, will he? I can’t tell what’s going on with his expressions, but he took another step in front of me. “Even if your words make sense, you could just be lying. Plus, Soul Law isn’t even mentioned in the city’s library. Who are you really?”

From this distance, the proud smile that appeared on Solace’s face was easy to see. “I’m the disciple of Lady Alera, after all. Doesn’t it only make sense I’d know things the common person doesn’t?”

This time, I couldn’t stop my eyes from widening. The plan has to change, no matter how much I’d like to stick to it. But I can’t kill this Sorceress, or I’ll immediately be hunted down by a True Sorceress! Given the ability of just Rank 1 Soul spells to track me down as the killer, it’d be unreasonable if Lady Alera couldn’t tell that I’ve killed her disciple instantly!

“Grr…” I could practically hear Coal’s annoyance. Ah, so he was never planning to believe her, but the cards are stacked far too high on her side, right? To continue rejecting the proof is equivalent to questioning the judgement of the True Sorceress herself.

What should I do? I have no clue how much longer the spell cast on me will last. But given that Solace still seems relaxed, it obviously isn’t running out soon.

Just out of annoyance, I tried moving my body… and realized I wasn’t totally overcome with exhaustion anymore! Unlike before, where it felt like every muscle in my body was giving up, there’s now only an overall feeling that I can overcome with willpower.

This’ll only last for half a minute, Shadow! That girl is casting a sustained spell, not a duration one! Ah, so that’s what it was! And Shade was silent because it was working to create a weakness in the spell’s effect… Wait, it’s possible to interfere with a spell like that without causing backlash? How strange.

But even with that, what should I do?! Using Blood Spike would kill her, but Blood Chains needs both hands and is way too obvious to cast without her noticing. None of the spells I know are useful here!

They are, Shadow. Just cast Blood Chains with one hand!

Huh?! With one hand… Since the spell has chains come out from the wounds on both hands, I have to link the two sources of blood together at the start of the spell, similar to using Steal Yin. If I could make the chains only come from one hand, then it could work…

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

That means I’d have to remove the linking seal and replace it with a self-designation one. All the seals that double the effects - five chains to ten, and such - can be removed, and the area of effect definitely needs to be shrunk, since there’ll be fewer chains to fill it up.

I don’t know how much time I have left with Shade’s interference, but I’ll just have to go for it! If it works, then I’ll survive. If not, then the backlash alone will probably kill me.

My right hand is obviously the one I’ll use, and I cut a wound open on my palm using the piece of metal embedded in the sleeve. Then, the initial seal and now self-designation… Whew, it didn’t backfire. I’m not even sure if a spell can backfire until it's fully cast, but I’ll just assume that what I’m doing works!

The area designation part of the spell was reached quickly, but I realized an issue. How the fuck am I supposed to designate the area with one hand, when it normally took two and an obvious motion?

Ah Hell, whatever. I don’t need to capture her, just interrupt her casting of the sustained spell. So why do the spells need to go for an area - just let them fly out in that general direction! The spell still didn’t backfire on me even after those changes… But that’s fine!

Finally, my wrist twisted as I directed my arm towards Solace’s position. A sickening feeling spread from my right arm across my body as blood was forced out in the form of chains.

But it worked. Five chains flew towards Solace, with their wild motions making it impossible to dodge just through normal movement. She’ll be forced to stop casting the spell and switch to a defensive one, which’ll then be my chance to attack!

As I shakily got up and prepared to run over and knock her out, one of the chains… Flung sideways and struck her right across the face.

…Did she not have any defensive or movement spells? It seemed so very odd, but the facts were right in front of me. She was knocked out, so I was safe once again.

Hell, that was nerve-wracking. Not the spell part, I was prepared to die. It seems she had stopped the sustained spell safely before being knocked out. It’d be really bad if she died to the backlash.

“Shadow…?” Right. I’d forgotten that Coal was here because of all that. I turned around to look at him while keeping a slight distance, since I don’t know what he’ll do.

But all I saw on his face was confusion. “How… How did you cast Blood Chains? No, that wasn’t even the Blood Chains from the library, was it?”

Hah, I can practically tell that the plan won’t work anymore, but I still walked over to the room that Solace had been hiding behind- The room with Dust’s corpse in it. It was visible as soon as I got close to the door, and I’m glad that the officials seem to have not messed with it.

“!” I could hear Coal’s gasp of shock as he saw the scene. Hmm, I hadn’t been the one to do it, then perhaps I would’ve had a similar reaction - and if it were my first time seeing such a scene.

My understanding of others tells me that I should also be acting shocked, scared, or whatever, but… Ah, I really can’t be bothered. Emotions are irritating. The only ones I need are my love for Flare and anger towards those who get between me and him. Everything else doesn’t matter at all.

Sadness, fear, and such… They’re only detrimental, and not suitable for me anyway.

Coal seemed to have the intention to rush forth a couple times, though I’m not sure why he would do that or why he’d then stop himself from doing so. Since I couldn’t be bothered to keep up the act anymore, I just left him there and used Solace’s own sash to tie up her hands.

If she wakes up, she won’t be able to do anything other than scream. But this place is so desolate, there’s probably not even anyone to hear it other than me. And if someone did hear… Why would they care?

When I finished with that, I noticed that Coal was suddenly standing in front of me. There was nothing but confusion on his face, and in his voice as he asked, “Why… Why did you kill Dust?”

I tilted my head. Was it that obvious? Well, the plan says to deny it, so I shook my head.

“Shadow, don’t lie to me.” Yeah, it obviously wouldn’t do anything. “In fact, everything Solace said you did is probably true, right?”

Whatever, the plan’s useless now. I nodded.

But Coal didn’t get mad like I’d expected. “I’d somewhat thought it might’ve been you. I just don’t understand why you’d kill her, why you’d… torture her like that before killing her! She never did anything wrong to you!”

His shouting is a bit too loud, so I tried to step back. But that was stopped when he forcibly took hold of both of my hands. Ah, I was too careless. Doesn’t this put me completely under his mercy?

It seems he has the intention to talk, at least. I’m willing to talk - and “How dare you say that Dust never did anything to me?! Not just her, but all of you. You all bullied me every single day, so what’s wrong with me getting a little bit of revenge?!”

“What?” That look in his eyes, like he doesn’t understand what I’m talking about. It makes me want to tear out his eyes! Oh, I’m sure he can sense my hostility, yet he’s acting like he doesn’t. “Shadow, what do you mean by bullying? You were-” He shook his head, “You are part of our group. Why would any of us bully one of our friends? Do you think I’d bully Dust, or that Dust would bully Grass? Or course not!”

“You’re even more of a bastard than I’d thought, thinking that you aren’t doing anything wrong when you’ve been bullying me for years.” I’ll admit that I’m purposefully trying to anger him. But maybe I should stop, since it’s just getting me more irritated that he isn’t reacting.

“Then tell me one time where we’ve bullied you, Shadow.”

“Tsk, isn’t it obviously…” My words trailed off. Why can’t I remember? It doesn’t matter, I still know that they did. “Hmmph, why would I want to remember any of it?”

“You don’t remember it because it never happened!” His grip on my hands grew tighter. A bit too tight, ah. When I grow stronger, I’ll definitely find a way to increase my physical strength through spells, so that I’ll never have to surrender my body like this again!

“Even if I don’t remember those previous incidents before we became Sorcerers, you still always used my blood for your spells every single day when we practiced! Are you going to tell me that that isn’t bullying either, you bastard?!”

Along with my words, I tried jerking my left arm from his shoulder - hoping that he would let go due to his ‘consideration’ of my shoulder injury. But as expected, that concern was just fake, and all I ended up with was extreme pain across my entire left arm.

In response to my words, Coal just seemed dumbfounded. Yeah, he has no response to that.

“Shadow, you… You don’t remember how that came about? Grass had suggested that we share the blood we use so that we don’t have to all cut ourselves each time. You offered to do so, but… I didn’t want one person to supply blood for all six of us to use, so I put an end to it.”

His words make no sense to me. But before I could snap at him, he kept going. “But you’re really stubborn, you know that, Shadow? You wouldn’t agree to not do it, so I met in the middle and didn’t let any of the others use your blood, only myself.”

“Yeah right, you did.” I scoffed at his ridiculous words. I remember it very clearly- He asked to use my blood for his spells instead of my own all of a sudden. There was no conversation beforehand!

The urge to mock him rose up in me, and I obliged it. “You know, you seem like a real bastardly hypocrite right now. Bullying me so much in the past, but now acting all nice like everything you’ve done in the past didn’t happen, or that it was for my own good, or my fault… Heh, why the fuck do you even care?”

I glared at him, and realized that I didn’t really have a good recollection of his face. Actually, it’s not just his, I can’t seem to recall the faces of anyone I know, not even Flare. That’s not good; when I meet him again, I’ll make sure to burn his face into my memory.

As for Coal’s face… Why would I care about it with what’s going to happen to him?

Despite my glare, he just returned a normal gaze. And then he sighed, “I should’ve known that you wouldn’t notice my feelings.” Ugh, is this bastard actually in love with me? I feel like bile is rising up. But of course he kept going. “Well, does it make things clearer if I tell you that I want to marry you, Shadow?”

“No. Don’t fucking act like saying you have feelings for me can make up for the things you did in the past in any way!” I immediately snapped at him.

“Then how can I make up for it?” With those words, he pulled on my hands to force me close to his body. Fucking bastard, the only man I’d ever want to be close to like this is Flare!

I stamped on his foot while ignoring the pain that I caused myself by doing so. When that didn’t work, a feint and warning to slam my knee up between his legs made him finally let go. “There’s nothing you can do, and there’s no way I’d ever love you back. Just go fucking die!”

The plan doesn’t even matter anymore. I’ll figure something else out, because I don’t want to have anything to do with this bastard!

He’ll obviously be annoying and insistent, but if he dares try to touch me, I will kill him here and now without care for my plans. As for words, I don’t care; I know he’ll do it anyway.

“Shadow… Is this because of what Winter did? Is that the reason why you can’t trust me?”

My steps ground to a halt. I can’t run away. I’ll… make this bastard suffer a horrible death!