I Possessed the Heroine’s Teacher

In the deep forest, three figures, dressed in thick robes, were heading towards their destination, stepping on the muddy ground while being pelted by the light drizzle.

Melchior still seemed upset about what Melissa had done to Camellia, and eventually, unable to hold back his feelings of injustice, he spoke out.

“Seriously, what the hell? Even so, you cast an aphrodisiac spell on a teammate?”

“Well, it was pretty impressive… If it were me, I would’ve jumped on him without a second thought, but she held back… I really have to give that woman credit for her patience.”

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m speaking from a moral standpoint…”

Despite the banter between Melissa and Melchior, Zig remained expressionless and warned them.

“We’re almost there. And given that we don’t know what will happen next, I think it’s better to hold off on the jokes.”

“Yeah, I guess it doesn’t really matter.”

“… But seriously, is everything really okay? You told Ricardo that, so there’s no turning back now. He’s a valuable asset, after all.”

Melchior scratched his head awkwardly and responded with a sheepish voice.

“That guy, the baby’s barely been born. At least the baby should hear his father speak. So it’s fine. The leader knows that, which is why he told us the truth.”

“Right, so we’re just supposed to act like it’s okay to die together? I’m suddenly feeling a bit hurt and teary. I want to see my grandchild born too, you know.”

“Please just shut up. You’re making this conversation go off in all sorts of directions.”

Ignoring the silliness of Melissa and Melchior, Zig continued to walk forward. Even though his feet were getting dirty from the persistent rain, he didn’t care. After all, he had already stained his hands by killing numerous black round table pawns who had obstructed their path. What difference would it make if his feet were muddied?

After walking for some time, they finally arrived at a cave with a reddish glow.

“We’re here.”

They entered the cave, which was sealed with several layers of blood magic that prevented unauthorized access, and faced a shocking truth.

“Leader, what is this…?”

“Shit, what the hell is going on here? Explain!”

Inside the cave, there should have been a coffin sealing the saintess, Media. This coffin, known as the Goddess’s Coffin, froze the physical body of the person inside while leaving their consciousness intact. It was used to preserve the person’s mind while stopping the passage of time for their body.

The coffin was indeed there, but it was wide open. And inside, there was no sign of Media, not even a single insect.

Shocked by this, both Melissa and Melchior were visibly disturbed, but Zig maintained his calm expression.

“Where did Media go? You look like you know something.”

“Who the hell kidnapped our teammate? You’re acting calm like this when your wife was kidnapped, you crazy bastard!”

Even as Melissa and Melchior grabbed Zig by the collar, his expression remained unfazed.

“Calm down.”

“Calm down, you say…?!”

“Melissa, let me ask you something. The blood magic you cast—only a few people who know about it, like our teammates, certain members of the royal family, and occasionally the Forest Spirit King who comes to treat her, could break through it and enter, right?”

“Yeah, but… ah.”

Anyone like the black round table members, heretics, or other villains would definitely fall under the influence of the blood magic.

“Still, someone could’ve broken through the blood magic… No, the magical barrier was intact. But the black round table has a lot of people with special constitutions. There are some who might be able to break through the barrier…”

“Yes, but remember the nature of the Goddess’s Coffin.”

The conditions for opening the Goddess’s Coffin, while someone was inside, were simple. Someone outside had to pull the coffin’s handle, and the person inside had to consciously allow it to open.

But the fact that it was empty meant that she had left of her own accord.

“What was needed was certainty. Now, I can say this with certainty.”

“So, you’re saying Media was the traitor?”

“No, damn it… What I’m saying is, Media was the traitor, and we unnecessarily suspected each other. What a bunch of bullshit…”

“No, it wasn’t meaningless.”

Zig, who had been fiddling with the handle of the Goddess’s Coffin, spoke to them.

“As you can see, in order to open the Goddess’s Coffin, someone on the outside needs to open it. What was needed was certainty about who opened it.”

Melissa’s expression turned pale. She seemed to have realized the truth. However, unfortunately, Melchior was not on the same page.

“The traitor is Media. So she must have been helped by someone on the inside to open it…”

“Think again about the conditions of the blood magic sealing this cave.”

“No, but… no, this can’t be… Oh, there must be a collaborator among the royals…”

“If that were the case, Ricardo would have noticed something. And… who among us has the abilities most suited to being a spy?”

“But if they were the traitor… why didn’t the Celestial Mage speak to Werner and Camellia? He could have told them!”

“Because she was someone precious to the Celestial Mage.”

Even as Zig revealed these shocking truths, he remained eerily calm. It was as though he were talking about someone else’s story.

“I told the Celestial Mage. I said I suspected her, and if I observed her and confirmed my suspicions, I would deal with it. I asked him to lead the party if I were to die.”

“Did the Celestial Mage go in your place…?”

“He said he would clear his friend’s name himself, and if he managed to do so, he would formally apologize.”

Ricardo’s face also turned pale. Looking uncharacteristically flustered, he asked Zig in a trembling voice.

“Do you mean that the certainty you mentioned…”

“I was sure there was a traitor, but I didn’t know there were two.”

Zig picked up a card from the ground and chuckled softly as he looked at the clown drawn on the Joker card.

“Isn’t it just disgustingly scary, how well a woman can act? How can she even pull off such a performance…”

“Wait, if that’s what you needed certainty for… When did you realize Media was the traitor?”

“I knew her organization was the Black Round Table fifteen years ago. And… I noticed she was plotting something from our first meeting.”

Melissa and Melchior nearly collapsed from the shock of Zig’s calm reply. He had known something was off about her from the very beginning, yet had married her and even had a child with her. They couldn’t understand his mindset.

“Shit, my brain’s on fire from all this information.”

“Hold on, before that, why the hell did you marry her if you knew she was suspicious? Did you love her so much that you could overlook all of that?”

At Melchior’s question, Zig’s expression changed dramatically. The coldness in his face grew, and it turned from blank to one of chilling, emotionless, and harsh anger.

“… Did I love Media? Unfortunately, I don’t have such feelings.”

“Then why the hell did you marry her?”

Zig clenched the hilt of his sacred sword tightly. It was a sword given to him by his benefactor, a symbol of the reason he continued to live.

“To repay a debt.”

“Repay a debt…?”

“I’m just repaying my benefactor’s kindness. And… Werner once said to me: ‘Trash should be cleaned up by the person who sees it.’”

He had heard those words and immediately put them into action. He had realized that Werner loved Media. So, their relationship had to become deeper, and before he could experience the more painful betrayal, he needed to cut off the root of it. Even if that meant mingling with a woman he despised.

At first, the woman who had shown interest in and seduced him, the owner of the sacred sword, later turned her attention to the boy who wielded the ten types of magic. He could easily foresee what she would do, how she would betray him, and how Werner, who had been betrayed by his first love, would react.

So, Zig had chosen to become the trash that stole someone’s love. He hadn’t cherished Werner any more than anyone else. He simply didn’t want someone else’s first love to end in a nightmare. He valued his own first love that much.

And he had also noticed that Werner was aiming to have a child with Glacies, who had excellent lineage. That was why Zig had deliberately distanced himself from Werner, to make him see the family he once considered his own as a stranger. He did that so that Werner could escape Media’s grasp.

“It’s probably the same reason you said harsh things to Ricardo. I didn’t want to drag him into this mess. Though it seems he’s already stepped into the mud…”

Zig made a slightly disappointed expression as he turned towards the cave’s exit.

“Dealing with the rat under the mud is the elder brother’s role, after all. That rat could bite his younger brother’s heart.”