Chapter 14: Fall from Grace

Author Note:

To readers of this story who have, by chance, served time in prison:

This story is about a series of events received from the Naraka world by scum, a man who can only live by causing trouble for others and who shows no regard for his own actions, during breaks from work given to him out of mercy. Please do not take offense.

And to all other readers:

This is a story of Naraka, so there will be many descriptions that may make sensible readers frown, but please read with a generous heart.

WARNING: Contains a great depictions of violence.

14 Years Old Arc: The No-Staff of Magic Academy

Fall from Grace

Celica stopped coming to school.

The homeroom teacher only said, "She transferred to another school," and offered no other information.

Even when I went to the apartment where my beloved crybaby girl should be and asked Uncle Gerald where she had gone, he remained silent.

"I'm so lonely without Celica! Please tell me anything you know!"

When I tearfully pleaded with Aunt Najka, she reluctantly told me, with a pained expression, that Celica had moved to the home of Uncle Gerald's friend in Bellandenburg.

No matter how many times I begged her to tell me Celica's current address so that I could at least write her a letter, she remained tight-lipped and refused to tell anything more.

Even though it was only one city, Bellandenburg, Mittelland's capital, was far too big for a child like me.

Even if I went there by train and searched, I don't think I could find her.

I could no longer hold that bundle of happiness in my arms.

★

After Celica disappeared, I felt as if the world had lost its color, and eventually I started skipping school.

Even now, I sit cross-legged in a spot hidden from view by the only entrance to the school rooftop, spending my time simply reminiscing about the feeling of the animal ears and tail that girl had.

"Celica..."

Even uttering that name, I can't actually meet her.

I was utterly dejected.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a door creaking open—perhaps the building was old and rickety—followed by multiple footsteps.

Judging from the footsteps, there seemed to be four people. They walked towards the center of the rooftop. 

"Ah, this is boring. Celica's transferred schools too."

"You're right. It was so much fun when we could bully Celica."

"It was great when I could sometimes see her nipples through the gaps in her clothes. Ah, if Celica was going to transfer schools, I should have done it back then."

"If only you had found Celica sooner, we could have raped her all the way."

"How is it my fault? I mean, you'll get arrested for rape."

"It'll be fine, Celica can't talk, so she can't explain to an adult that she was raped. Besides, even if we get caught, we're just kids, so we won't get a serious punishment. We're protected by juvenile law."

"That's right! And Celica's an animal, so even if we raped her, the rape charges wouldn't apply! You can't throw someone in jail for sticking a stick up a dog's ass!"

"You're absolutely right! She was crying and wetting herself! There's no way you can call that human! Hahahaha!!"

.....

I see.

.....

.....

I jump out and punch.

"Hey! Albert! That was sudden!"

I punch again.

"This guy! Let's beat him up like usual!"

I dodge the punch that was swung at me and hit him in the solar plexus with my elbow.

I punch again.

"Hiek! Run!"

"I won't let you."

I deliver a flying kick to the fleeing back.

I stomp on the head attached to the garbage that has rolled forward without hesitation.

"I'm sorry! Please don't hit me!"

"Shut up, you're so noisy."

I kicked the kneeling boy in his panicked face.

The short body tumbled miserably across the rooftop floor.

"Albert bastard! I won't forgive— Ugh!!"

I punched another boy who had gotten back up.

I pinned the boy's right forearm, which was still attached to his body (for now) as he fell from the impact, with my left foot, and then kicked his upper arm with all my might with my right foot.

The sound of something breaking echoed.

"Ahhhh, help me!"

Someone else is trying to escape.

I swiftly caught up to the garbage that tried to flee to the rooftop door, grabbed its head from behind, and slammed it against the door with all my might.

After feeling a squelching sensation in my hand, the creature spurted blood from its nose.

I dragged it onto its back, straddled it, and punched its face from directly above.

Punch, kick, punch, kick

Punch, kick, punch, kick.

Punch, kick, punch, kick.

Punch, kick, punch, kick.

Punch, kick, punch, kick.

The other three were punched, kicked, punched, kicked in the same way.

Punch, kick, punch, kick.

If anything tried to stand up, I knocked it over and stomped on the four limbs that sprouted from its body.

I realized my hands hurt halfway through. Why did I have to suffer pain for this creature?

I stomped on the solar plexus of the creature that had rolled over.

I kept stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, stomping, and, more stomping.

This continued until three police officers arrived and apprehended me from behind.

★★★

A fractured skull, a broken nose, blindness in one eye, broken upper and lower front teeth, fractured limbs, ruptured internal organs…

It was more than half-killed, but less than murder.

Albert was detained in jail for a week before being brought to trial.

However, due to his striking good looks, clear display of remorse, the fact that the victim had committed attempted gang rape, and the fact that Celica's father, Gerald Ahrenheim, used his former political rhetoric to describe Albert's character traits in his testimony, he was acquitted, on the condition that he be supervised by a caseworker working at a child welfare center.

Albert began attending school diligently again.

The other students feared him, treated him with fawning attitudes, but kept their distance.

There were no longer any girls who admired Albert.

He was alone.

One afternoon, as he was passing through the school gate after classes, someone grabbed him by the shoulder.

"You're Albert Mergen, right?"

★

He was led to a dimly lit room in the back of an abandoned factory outside the center of Nygenburg, filled with broken machinery and illuminated only by sunlight streaming through broken glass windows.

A burly man in his late teens, clad in black leather, sat imposingly on a wooden crate, asking Albert several questions as if assessing him, before making a proposition.

It was an invitation to join a street gang.

Celica, who used to cry for Albert and comfort him, was no longer there.

His parents had abandoned him.

Hungry for recognition, Albert readily accepted his offer.

★

From then on, it was days of destruction and violence.

Gang wars, store robberies, marijuana sales.

He even helped a gang member rape a woman. He repeatedly punched her in the face to silence her screams. He also held her arms down.

That night, he vomited from the disgust of realizing he had fallen to the same level as the four creatures who had tried to rape Celica.

The other boys were happy that he had given them the "opportunity," though.

Albert, intelligent, with excellent communication skills, and above all, strong, quickly rose through the ranks of the organization despite his young age.

He was recognized by his gang members, and felt good about himself, like he had become a full-fledged adult.

He learned about alcohol and cigarettes from his gang members. He felt like an adult and could envision a future where he would bring Celica back to his arms.

However, that life would eventually come to an end.

One day, Albert and his few close friends, armed with iron pipes, stormed into another gang's hideout, as instructed by their leader, only to find it empty.

One of his friends grumbled.

"What the hell? There's no one here..."

"...! It's a trap!! Run!!"

As Albert shouted to his friends, several large flashlights went off from outside the building.

Fully armed riot police stormed in.

Beaten with batons and shot with a taser, Albert was paralyzed by pain and electric shock, unable to move.

The gang leader, terrified that Albert would replace him, betrayed him and his followers, who had now become Albert's allies, selling them out to the police.

Albert, now a dangerous criminal, was finally imprisoned in Bellandenburg Juvenile Prison.

★

Bellandenburg Juvenile Prison is a facility that isolates boys under the age of 13 who have committed heinous crimes such as murder, robbery, and serial rape, and who have been exceptionally sentenced to criminal punishment.

On his first morning, Albert's belongings were confiscated, he was changed into prison-issued clothing, and then, handcuffed, he was led to the visiting room where he answered questions about his name and other details.

He was then led to the communal dining hall, where his handcuffs were removed, and after introducing himself to the other inmates, he joined their daily life.

During casual conversations with them, Albert carefully observed each inmate, trying to make a good impression while assessing how they viewed him and the power dynamics within their group.

In the evening, while using the shower in the communal bathroom, a man grinned and tried to touch Albert's shoulder.

He turned around and punched the man in the nose.

He stomped without hesitation into the fallen man's solar plexus.

After that, he preemptively struck down anyone who showed him hostility.

He punched them as soon as they got up, so he wouldn't have to face more than one at a time.

Eventually, several prison guards arrived, beat him with batons, apprehended him, and threw him into solitary confinement.

After a week in solitary confinement, Albert returned to the communal dining hall to cheers for the liberator from the rapist and the newly born boss.

The other inmates, somehow obtaining alcohol and cigarettes, began showing him kindness in every way.

However, Albert never trusted them

Ultimately, even in juvenile prison, violence was Albert's answer for everything.

★

It was Albert's first early morning free time since entering the juvenile prison.

There, he sat at the top of the stairs leading from the main prison building to the courtyard, puffing on a cigarette while desperately trying to recall the image of the girl who was the embodiment of his happiness, a memory fading from his mind.

The other inmates were enjoying themselves, playing soccer and catch.

Suddenly, a cheer erupted from inside the prison's iron bars.

"Whoa! She's so cute today too! That beast-girl!"

"Yohoo~, turn this way, beast-girl! Let me see your pretty face!"

At that moment, Albert dropped his cigarette.

The large triangular ears on her head, the yellowish-silver hair, the refined profile, and the beauty mark beside her golden right eye.

There she was, the crybaby girl he had just pictured in his mind.

'Celica is as beautiful as ever.'

As Celica watched the young prisoners from beyond the prison fence, frightened, the boy beside her shielded her, moved to the side where the prisoners were, and quickly took her hand, walking away.

Seeing the object of his longing for two years, Albert was left speechless.

Albert was so dazed that he only realized his free time was over when a prison guard brought down his baton on him.

★

From that day on, during his free time in the mornings and evenings, Albert began to gaze out the iron bars from behind the other boy prisoners.

That girl, clad in the long, jet-black robes of the Magic Academy, seemed to be growing more beautiful each day.

Albert really wanted to call out to her right then and there.

But how could he let her see his current, fallen state?

Furthermore, he couldn't stop comparing himself to the boy standing beside her, protecting the girl he loved, and this weighed heavily on him as a deep sense of inferiority.

He learned from a boy prisoner who considered himself well-informed that the boy beside Celica was apparently a descendant of General Friedrich von Bernstein, the great hero admired by every boy born in Mittelland.

Every night, when Albert lay in his bed in the communal cell, he couldn't stop fantasizing about harming the boy with the slanted eyes who walked beside his Celica.

★

As he spent his days watching Celica walk by from afar, the age limit of 13 for juvenile prison prisoners was approaching.

Suddenly, he was summoned to the reception room.

He was handcuffed by two prison guards and led into a reception room, unlike the sterile visiting room, furnished with warm and inviting items. He was forced to sit on a sofa next to a large marble table.

Prison guards stood on either side of Albert, a little behind him.

After waiting for a while, the door suddenly burst open with a loud bang.

A middle-aged man in a military uniform adorned with numerous medals entered with a firm gait and began speaking without a moment's pause.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Major General Augustine von Mackenbauer, of the Mittelland Wehrmacht General Staff. You don't need to remember my name. A scumbag like you will never have the opportunity to meet me again."

Two men in military uniforms, presumably his attendants, also enter the reception room.

Continuing to give Albert the disrespectful and contemptuous looks, Major General Mackenbauer slowly walks around the edge of the room, continuing...

"I've looked into you, Albert. Normally, I'd ask why someone with a decent brain and good financial situation ended up in this place, but I'm not interested in your life. So, I'll just state my business.

Listen, first and foremost, you're scum! You're the trash of Mittelland society! No matter how much you use your supposed sociability, decent people will reject you once they know what you've done."

"....."

That's right.

Mittelland, the world of Naraka, is not kind enough to welcome someone who has strayed from the righteous path back in with a simple "Welcome back."

If such an exception were to be made, it would only be for those born into exceptionally good families.

"Your future will be darker than the abyss of the underworld. You will be reproached, belittled, and exploited. And this is your just treatment; no one will defend you.

However, there is one way to avoid this predetermined future of ruin. You will be respected and feared by people as a hero.

That way is to sign this document. You have three minutes to decide. I don't have time to dwell on you alone."

Major General Mackenbauer said this, then received a piece of paper and a pen from his accompanying officer and roughly tossed it towards Albert.

The top title read, [Consent Form for Magical Transformation Surgery]

One of the prison guards behind him used a key he was holding to unlock Albert's handcuffs.

"....."

'If with this I could get even a little closer to that girl who was like a symbol of happiness....'

Albert Mergen wrote his name on the consent form.