Chapter 167
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"!"
Clael and Yurii continued their patrol, but suddenly, a piercing scream rang out.
"Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
As if in response to the scream, Yurii crouched down and let out a scream of her own.
The scream came from the restroom at the end of the hallway.
Clael left Yurii behind and kicked off down the hallway.
"Ms. Yurii, please wait here!"
"M-Mr. Clael!"
"I'll go check it out!"
Yurii looked up at him with a pleading expression, but the earlier scream was clearly not normal.
Clael rushed into the restroom.
"This is..."
The men's restroom and the women's restroom.
Naturally, they were separated into two, but Clael dove into the women's restroom without hesitation.
One of the Seven Wonders took place in the girls' restroom, and more importantly, the evil presence was coming from that direction.
'Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!'
"No, help me..."
Upon entering the girls' restroom, he was met with a bizarre scene.
A female student in uniform was suspended in midair.
Black tentacles were wrapped around her body, squeezing her as if wringing out a rag.
'Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!'
And... the one lifting the girl while letting out a shrill scream was a grotesque woman cloaked in pitch-black sludge.
The woman had no lower body, and her upper half was emerging from the mirror above the sink.
"'Mary of the Toilet'... I knew it!"
It was one of the Seven Wonders—'Mary of the Toilet'.
Long ago, a female student who had been bullied by classmates at this academy committed suicide.
Her spirit, having died in the school restroom, became trapped in the mirror and could now move between all the toilets in the academy.
"'Holy Lance'"
'Gii!'
When he fired a spear of light using Holy Arts, Mary retracted her black tentacles.
The freed female student fell to the floor and immediately lost consciousness.
'Kiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!'
Mary shifted her target to Clael.
She turned her black tentacles into sharp scythe-like blades and slashed at Clael.
"Jeez... how scary."
Clael leapt backward.
He stepped just outside the girls' restroom, using the open door as a barrier.
'Gii!'
Then... the incoming scythe unnaturally stopped.
The scythe couldn't exit the girls' restroom and halted just centimeters from Clael.
"I know your weakness... You can't leave the restroom, can you?"
'Mary of the Toilet' was an enemy that could freely move between the girls' restrooms throughout the academy, changing her appearance location at random.
However, in exchange for that mobility, she could not leave the restroom.
The moment she stepped even a single foot outside, her attacks could no longer reach.
"'Holy Lance', 'Holy Lance', 'Holy Lance'"
'Kiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?'
From outside the girls' restroom, Clael launched a barrage of Holy Arts.
Mary writhed in pain as the spears of light pierced her body, flailing her tentacles in resistance... but eventually she groaned weakly and began to slither back into the mirror.
'Ki... a...'
"You think I'm going to let you get away?"
Now that she was this weakened, she was no longer frightening.
Clael strode back into the girls' restroom, grabbed Mary by the scruff of the neck, and dragged her out of the mirror.
'Kii... kii...'
"I sympathize with your circumstances of being bullied. But the girl you're attacking has nothing to do with the ones who tormented you. Stop taking it out on others."
'Kii...!'
"It's because you're holed up in a place like this that your hatred and resentment keep festering... Let's go."
Still holding Mary, Clael forcefully dragged her out of the restroom.
'...A...'
Once outside the restroom, Mary turned into light and vanished.
The particles of light were absorbed into the ceiling and disappeared.
"May you rest in peace."
The game never specified where Mary went, but he hoped she had ascended to the heavens.
The second of the Seven Wonders was resolved.
The number of anomalies plaguing the academy was now down to five.