A warning from the author:
Please prepare your heart before reading this chapter if you are not good with insects.
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An Uproar
In the early morning of the first day of the week, the screams of young ladies echoed throughout the academy.
The target was the path leading to the Embroidery class. It was the only place where Emma was separated from her brothers.
While Emma went to class herself, her brothers and Joshua were also heading to the Practical Skills for Hunters class.
That ‘thing’ was dropped from above Emma, who walked alone on the road where the boys and girls were separated neatly into two for the boys had to take compulsory subjects.
A black body.
Long legs that didn’t seem proportional to the body.
Something falsely similar to a spider.
And an ET-like form that was not supposed to exist in this world.
Robert and Bryan, who were lying in wait for an ambush up a tree in the lush academy, estimated the time Emma would walk right underneath them, and turned over the box densely packed with ‘that’.
*drop*
*drop*
*drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop…*
“E-eek, ahhhhhhhhhh!”
The first to scream was the unlucky lady who was walking behind Emma. When the first one fell on Emma’s head, she had mistaken it for a leaf and had to look closely to know what it was.
And that ‘thing’ fell in large quantity the moment she could see its form clearly.
With the scream of one young lady as the cue, all the other young ladies heading to the Embroidery class turned their heads and witnessed that scene.
“Hiiiiiiii, ahhhhhh!!!”
“Aaaaahhhhhh!!!”
“Nooooooo!!!”
“Uwaaaaahh!!!!”
There was a state of utter panic.
The young ladies fled all over the place at once.
Among those were young ladies who had fainted on the spot, and young ladies who had tripped over the fainted ladies and fell. Then, the fleeing young ladies stepped on those fallen ladies and also ended up falling.
The fleeing young ladies then bumped into the young ladies who couldn’t digest the situation, and likewise toppled over. Following that, the fleeing young ladies stepped on those fallen ladies and fell yet again.
The panic caused another panic, and the agonizing cries of many young ladies spread around the academy.
The academy turned into hell in an instant.
Robert and Bryan had never expected it to turn into such an uproar.
“R-Robert-sama, i-isn’t this terrible?!”
“O-Our plan was a b-big success, Bryan… Time to run!! S-S-S-Serves you right, Emma Stuart!!!”
When they looked at Emma, the number one victim, among the escaping young ladies, she appeared to be writhing in agony as she crouched on the ground, probably paralyzed from fear.
Other than the two who ran away in a hurry, there were no other male students on the scene.
Because this was the road leading to the Embroidery class.
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“What happened?!”
Marion, who always came barely on time to class, entered the classroom vigorously. Then, she hurried over to her usual seat with the usual members.
By the time Marion had passed through that road, the royal castle’s Knight Order had already been dispatched in a hurry to take care of the incident as they had sensed something unusual had happened in the academy. In the midst of the chaos, the young ladies who had fainted were being taken to the first aid room, the confused young ladies kept screaming, the young ladies who tripped and fell were being treated, and some were still crying while trembling.
Even when Marion inquired from the knights, they only shook their heads and didn’t give her any answer.
It seemed like the knights had no clue about what had happened either.
“A t-t-t-t-terribly d-d-d-disgusting thing was there.”
Francesca, who was only ten meters behind Emma during the incident, answered as she quivered with tears.
“A-Around Emma-sama, it was as if it was aiming for Emma-sama. That something s-surrounded Emma-sama…”
Perhaps just the memory of it made her nauseous, but Francesca kept covering her mouth with a handkerchief and trembled to the point her teeth clattered.
“Are you alright, Francesca-sama?
As Marion hugged Francesca’s shoulders, her unending trembles reminded Marion of the earlier restlessness she felt.
Just what on earth did she see?
“The situation had been like this by the time we arrived, right, Caitlyn?”
“Uh-huh, the situation has been like that by the time we arrived, Catherine.”
The twins also stroked Francesca’s back worriedly.
“I-I-I… E-Even though I had to save E-Emma-sama, I ended up r-r-r-running away. H-H-How terrible I was, e-even though Emma-sama h-h-has always been kind to m-me. N-No one, n-nobody w-w-went to h-help Emma-sama…”
With tears falling in large drops, Francesca wept about having abandoned Emma.
At a glance, Emma was cowering as numerous of that rustling ‘something’ surrounded her.
Her mind knew that she should help her, but her body, or maybe her instincts, went against it, and she ran away as fast as she could.
“Emma-sama was already gone when I went to take a look at the scene. …Catherine-sama, Caitlyn-sama, I will have to ask you to look after Francesca-sama for a while. I’ll go to take a look at the first aid room. Perhaps Emma-sama was being taken there.” The moment Marion stood up from her seat, a male teacher, who was not their embroidery teacher, entered the classroom.
“Today’s class is canceled. We have contacted your respective houses. After someone from your house picks you up, please wait at home for further notice. For boarding students, I will now send you to the dormitory. The academy will send people to inquire about today’s situation. When that time comes, please kindly cooperate with us.”
Catherine and Caitlyn, who lived at the dormitory, were asked to follow the teacher.
“Pardon us, Marion-sama. Please take care of Francesca-sama until someone from House Delacour picks her up.”
They couldn’t leave Francesca alone in her current condition. Marion had no choice but to nod at the twins’ words.
Just what exactly happened in the academy?
Is Emma-sama safe?
This was the first time in the academy’s history where an uproar required knights to be dispatched.
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Author’s words: Whew, I had unexpectedly turned it into a school panic (sweat)
