The Broken System Chose the Antagonist
Chapter 20: Break In

Chapter 20: Break In

"Yawn... So, why are we up again?" Seraphine rubbed her eyes, sitting on the edge of the table she was sleeping on. "It’s so dark outside still..."

Callum had just woken her up a few minutes ago.

"And where did Nadia and Hilda go?" She asked, looking around, failing to spot the two ladies, who were suspiciously missing together.

"Apparently, Miss Hilda went out to hunt Predicaments, so Miss Nadia wanted to go out and find her." Callum responded, in the middle of improving the boarding over the windows, having found a rusty hammer and a box of rusty nails.

He then remembered the apathetic look Nadia had on her face, "I think she was rather worried, although, uhm... she didn’t necessarily show it well."

’She was a lot more expressive when Miss Hilda was here...’ Callum thought.

BAM!

"What!" Seraphine shouted, slamming her hands on the table, "Why didn’t you try to stop her? It’s dark out, right now!"

Callum sighed.

"I’ve already tried to dissuade her, but she was... rather determined to go out and find Miss Hilda."

"Haa..." Seraphine crossed her arms, falling into deep thought.

She didn’t recall Nadia ever being so close to Hilda this early on in the story... especially when this should only be their second time meeting each other.

’I guess they must’ve found each other relatively early in the exam...? Maybe that’s why they’re so close? Wait, now that I think about it, why were they even together?’

Last, she recalled, Nadia shouldn’t stumble on Hilda until the start of the second day!

’It was stated that Hilda landed on the opposite side of Calais from where Nadia was at...’ Seraphine stroked her chin, ’Did Hilda choose to land somewhere closer to Nadia, instead? But why?’

What could’ve caused this?

"..."

’Wait, could it be because of me?’

She did recall that because of her, Hilda had jumped out of the plane a lot later than she would’ve. So, maybe it was just a butterfly effect, because of her fear?

’I hope it doesn’t change too much of the plot...’ Seraphine nursed the sides of her temple.

She then asked:

"Alright... then, how long has it been since she left? And how come you didn’t wake me up?"

"It’s been around... 30 minutes, since she left, I’ll say. As for why not "waking" you up..."

Callum’s words slowed down a little towards the end. He then turned to look at the girl sitting on the table with a twitchy, crooked smile on his lips.

"I tried waking you up multiple times, but you... didn’t wake up." Callum scratched the back of his neck, "Instead, you kinda just clinged to my hand, while muttering something under your breath... I suppose you’re a heavy sleeper?"

"W-wha—!" Seraphine stiffened in shock before letting out an awkward chuckle, "Ah, haha, yeahhh... sorry about that... heavy sleeper, you know...? just love sleeping, oooh~... just can’t get enough of it."

Callum blinked in Seraphine’s direction. Then, beamed brightly, not realising the awkwardness in her voice.

"Haha, me too!"

He then returned to improving the boarding on the windows.

And once he turned away, Seraphine immediately covered her face with her hands as a fierce blush appeared on her face. She could feel her face burn with embarrassment!

’Kill me...’ She thought before murmuring out loud by accident, "Just kill me now..."

"Hm? Did you say something, Miss Seraph—"

"N-NOPE!"

...

Half an hour passed after that, and the two ladies had yet to show any signs of return. Although this did worry the two of them...

"Haaa...! Finally done..."

A sense of accomplishment distracted them.

Seraphine fell flat onto her rear as she looked at the windows.

For the past half an hour, she had been helping Callum out with improving the boarding of the windows. And it was all worth it as, unlike before, the windows didn’t look so crudely boarded up.

’It looks pretty decent!’ Seraphine thought proudly.

She watched as Callum dusted off his hands with an equally proud look on his face.

As she was about to comment about their accomplishment, she felt a slight vibration through the ground, one that didn’t originate from the room.

It actually felt like it came from beyond the room...

"Hey... did you just feel something just now?"

"Hm? What feeling?"

"Like, a vibration in the ground."

Callum stroked his chin with a pondering face, as if he was walking backwards in his memories to try and pick up the feeling Seraphine had felt.

"I don’t think so... you think you imagined it?"

Seraphine pushed herself off the ground as she walked to the door, opening it slightly.

"It didn’t feel like my imagination."

She took a single step out the doorway, entering into a hallway that was partially damaged and covered in dust. Fortunately, the area in front of the door was exposed to moonlight, so she wasn’t too afraid of the dark.

Seraphine took a look to her left, narrowing her eyes. But found nothing in that direction.

She raised an eyebrow as she looked to her right. There was also nothing.

’Was it really a part of my imagination?’

The Transmigrator scratched the top of her head, befuddled. As she turned to close the door, she felt the exact same tremor hit her again. This time, she knew exactly where it came from now.

She looked back to her right. And this time, she found something.

Exposed in the moonlight was a creature crawling on the ground.

It was a Scoundrel.

But something was different about it...

Unlike other Scoundrels, its muscles looked more deteriorated, and its skin was a deep black char. It was also missing the majority of its fur, its eyes were missing lids, and, shockingly, it was also missing its legs!

The Predicament also emitted a faint black smoke from its body, which led to the impression that it had just escaped a nasty fire.

"Huh?" Seraphine blinked at it blankly, short-circuiting for a split second.

She then immediately dashed back into the room and hastily closed the door with a SLAM.

"CALLUM, HELP!"

"W-what!?"

Callum, who was just swinging around a metal rod for fun, instantly froze up; his expression a mixture of surprise and panic.

"What’s wrong? Did you actually see something outside?"

Seraphine fearfully nodded, her eyes already beginning to water with hysteria as she tried to barricade the door with a table.

"I-IT’S—!"

CRUSH!

"KYAAAHA!"

Before Seraphine could finish her sentence, the Scoundrel on the other side had caused a hole through the door. Its arm was now flailing inside, scratching against the surface of the table Seraphine was standing near.

"PREDICAMENT! IT’S A PREDICAMENT!"

CRUSH!

Clawing through the door with one arm, the fiend on the other side destroyed the upper part of the door. It then began to crawl in, its long, pointy tongue hanging out of its mouth as it salivated.

Although the rate at which it crawled was ridiculously slow, most likely due to its injuries, Seraphine found herself unable to move; she found herself frozen in fear.

Luckily, she managed to break out of her daze and stumble back, narrowly dodging a swipe to her face, which would’ve torn it off.

She then fell onto her rear, continuing to watch as the Scoundrel broke into the room.

But that was until Callum stepped up.

Brandishing the metal rod he was swinging around earlier, he imbued it with his Vitality and stabbed it into the Predicament’s left eye.

SHNK!

"SKREEEEH!"

As the shrill scream penetrated Callum’s eardrums, blood splattered across his hands as he stabbed deeper.

’To think we would be attacked when Miss Hilda isn’t here!’

He gritted his teeth as he struggled to force the Predicament back, while also dodging its flailing claws.

"Argh...!"

SWISH!

Callum widened his eyes as he stumbled backwards, the metal rod in his hands now cut in half.

’Even with my Vitality wrapped around it, it managed to slice it in half?!’ He internally remarked with dread.

Turning back to face the Predicament, Callum watched as it lunged at him with threatening speed, tackling him to the ground and knocking the metal pole out of his hand.

SNAP! SNAP!

Using all the strength and Vitality he could muster, he kept the foul jaws of the Scoundrel away from his face, but only barely. With his hands clasped around the Predicament’s wrists, he watched as the monster bent its long, sharp fingers to claw at his hands.

He winced in pain.

Even though the Predicament was undoubtedly weakened, to an astonishing degree, he was still being overpowered!

But that was about to change a second later.

"Miss Seraphine, any help now would be appreciated—!"

"AHHH!"

STAB!

With the combat knife from one of the satchels, Seraphine swiftly delivered a savage blow to the Predicament’s remaining eye—instantly destroying it and causing the monster to go blind.

Then, fueled with intense hysteria, Seraphine began to repeatedly stab at the Scoundrel’s destroyed eye.

STAB! STAB! STAB!

After Seraphine discovered that the Scoundrel failed to regenerate its legs and charred body, even until now, she knew it had to be because of one thing.

It was almost killed with the use of Vitality, which was stunting its healing factor!

STAB! STAB! STAB!

With tears in her eyes, Seraphine cried out:

"STAY DOWN, STAY DOWN, PLEASE STAY DOWN!"

Despite the warm blood squirting onto her clothes, despite how uncontrollably she shook, she couldn’t stop attacking...

’Not until it stays down!’

And eventually...

It did.

"Haa... haa..." Seraphine breathed raggedly, the front of her clothes now drenched in sticky blood.

Callum managed to crawl out from underneath the Predicament, which had collapsed on top of him; its face brutally mutilated by Seraphine’s savage onslaught.

But he paid no mind to it as he immediately got up to comfort Seraphine, who looked like they were on the verge of a breakdown.

"T-this was my first time ever k-killing— hiccup... anything before..." Seraphine trembled, deeply traumatised by what happened. "T-the blood hiccup it smells so bad... I-it’s also sticking to me!"

Although she knew that the Predicament was trying to take her life, that didn’t mean she was fully prepared to kill one yet. Even though it had been a few days since she transmigrated, she still hadn’t been able to completely acclimate to this life yet.

’How do the main characters in those novels do it so easily...?’ Seraphine sniffled.

Callum hugged her and began patting her back, his gaze soft.

"It’s fine, everything’s fine now!" He said, although it felt like he was also telling himself that, given the way he was always shaking.

He, too, was horrified by what had just happened.

"You did amazing... and you were really cool out there. If it weren’t for you, I doubt I would still be alive..."

Seraphine immediately hugged him back as she cried much harder.

And as the two embraced each other, trying to soothe each other’s fears, they didn’t notice the subtle twitches from the Predicament’s "corpse".

Without any warning, the corpse, despite having no eyes, immediately leapt towards the two—unwilling to die without taking them down with it!

’It’s not dead yet!?’ Callum scowled.

Hastily throwing the two of them to the ground, they rolled under the leaping Predicament, who immediately crashed into a wall.

After getting up to his feet and pulling Seraphine up as well, he watched as the monster spun around. And discovered that the mutilations on the Predicament’s face were beginning to heal!

Callum’s eyes instantly widened in horror as his breathing hitched a little.

He glanced at Seraphine with a questioning look in his eyes.

’Did she not use Vitality when stabbing it?!’

As much as Callum wanted to question the girl about that, he knew he couldn’t waste any more time, nor could he allow the Predicament to hear them.

He had to figure out how to kill it—and fast!

Callum looked around for anything that could help him, and that eventually led him to settle his gaze on the boarded-up windows.

He narrowed his eyes.

The young man now had a plan.

After taking a deep breath to steel his resolve, he rushed towards the window, leaving Seraphine in shock at what he was doing.

She then watched as he began to tear off the boardings they had made on the windows, completely setting them back half an hour’s worth of effort.

Now Seraphine felt like crying inside as well!

Due to the commotion from what Callum was doing, the Predicament was immediately attracted to it. And when it confirmed that the familiar scent was standing in front of where it was facing, the Scoundrel charged up its arms before lunging towards Callum.

It soared through the air, the blood from its face and missing lower half splattered through the air.

And luckily—

CRASH!

—It all went according to Callum’s plans.

The Scoundrel shattered through the remaining boards on the window and plummeted out of it, falling towards the ground at an intense velocity and...

THUD!

Plummeting to its death, headfirst.

It was now actually dead.

Callum stumbled back as his legs soon gave out, causing him to drop onto his rear. His entire upper body was covered in some kind of wound, be it scratches or shallow fleshwounds in his hands...

He winced as he clutched his shoulder, finding it to sting when he touched it. At the very last second, the Predicament managed to cut into his shoulder a bit. Luckily, not enough for him to bleed out.

"What a day..." Callum thought out loud before looking towards Seraphine, who was on the floor like him.

At this very moment, the two of them had the exact same thought in mind:

’I want to go home...’