Professor Comforts a Student

Of course! That killing intent... this was his true face?!

Yet the change had been so fast it was like an illusion.

The killing intent had barely appeared before vanishing abruptly.

The unsettling aura around the boy instantly faded as well, replaced once more by that weak and helpless air.

He still looked at him with those watery eyes, as though the deadly threat from moments ago had merely been another one of Snape's illusions.

Switching? He was switching between two states?

How was that possible?!

Some kind of advanced Disguise Magic?

Or... dissociative identity disorder?

No, it was more like some kind of controlled... transformation?

Snape's mind frantically eliminated possibilities, every one of them pointing toward something abnormal, even dark.

What concerned Snape even more was that, during the gap between those shifts in temperament, the boy's hand behind his back seemed to have moved incredibly quickly.

Like a hawk, Snape's gaze locked onto the hands hidden behind the boy's back.

He had something in his hand!

The thought shrieked through Snape's mind like an alarm.

What was it? A wand? Some kind of Dark Magic Item?

Or... the medium for another curse?

Just like that flower!

His earlier approach, tears, and display of weakness had all been preparation for this final sneak attack?!

Snape hesitated no longer.

Just as Skofot, relying on the frail temperament of the [Rabbit Rhymer] card, tried to approach him again and was nearly pressed against him—

"Back off!" Snape barked sharply, his voice echoing through the empty corridor, carrying unquestionable authority and a fierce warning.

At the same time, he swiftly stepped back, his wand sliding from his sleeve in an instant. Though it was not pointed directly at Skofot, he was ready to attack at any moment.

His gaze was cold and sharp, as though he were watching a venomous snake poised to strike.

"Take out whatever you are holding, Leoqi." Snape's voice was low and dangerous, every word seeming to be forced through clenched teeth. "Now. Immediately. Do not force me to take... extreme measures."

He had indeed noticed the movement of his hand.

Skofot sneered inwardly, but his face promptly took on a frightened expression. His eyes reddened further, as though he had suffered an unbearable injustice.

"P-Professor?" Skofot's voice trembled.

Yet the hand behind his back tightened its grip instead of coming out. In a tearful voice, he countered, "Y-you... are you going to use magic on me? Because I discovered the Tracking Charm?"

He was twisting the issue, trying to seize the Moral High Ground.

Alarm bells rang wildly in Snape's mind. Cunning little thing.

Snape no longer engaged in meaningless verbal sparring with him.

He stared fixedly at Skofot's hand behind his back and at that face filled with innocence and fear. The suspicion and vigilance in his heart had reached their peak.

This Leoqi was not only dangerous, but exceptionally skilled at using appearances to deceive others.

Tonight, he had to find out exactly what those hands were hiding—and just how many more unsettling secrets this boy concealed.

[Emotion Points +90] (from Snape's extreme tension, fury at being manipulated, intense vigilance toward an unknown threat, and determination to investigate to the end)

[Emotion Points: 885/100]

The air in the corridor seemed to freeze. Beneath the dim firelight, a silent struggle over trust—long since gone—and truth—shrouded in mystery—remained deadlocked.

One refused to yield, while the other pressed forward step by step. And the answer seemed to lie in the boy's tightly clenched hand behind his back.

At the moment Snape sternly demanded that he reveal what he was holding and the atmosphere became taut as a drawn blade, Skofot's thoughts raced through his mind at an astonishing speed.

He was certain I had something in my hand!

If I kept resisting, he would definitely search me by force—he might even attack directly!

The source of the Tracking Charm had to be dealt with immediately!

He swiftly asked in his mind, "System, can a card be taken back after it's used?"

[It can only be removed. No Emotion Points required.]

Removed? Perfect!

"Then remove the Location Curse from that flower!" he ordered without hesitation.

Since Snape had already destroyed the Tracking Charm, that meant he had discovered the curse.

Keeping this medium would now do more harm than good. It would be better to proactively "destroy the evidence" and create some confusion in the process.

The instant the command was issued, he felt the connection between himself and the flower Snape had confiscated severed and erased completely.

At the same time, he abruptly sprang to his feet!

It was a large movement, carrying a sudden, resolute finality. The hand behind his back swung forward as well.

—Yet his hand was completely empty. There was nothing there!

He was making his move! Snape's nerves had been taut all along. In his eyes, Skofot's sudden rise and swing of the hand were a signal that he was launching an attack!

Especially combined with the killing intent he had sensed a moment ago, Snape was almost certain that the other party intended to use some Dark Magic Item concealed in his hand, or a Silent Spell!

He could not be allowed to succeed!

Almost on instinct, Snape moved with astonishing speed.

He lunged forward. His left hand clamped around Skofot's freshly swung, still-empty wrist like an iron vice, while his right hand, carrying tremendous force, slammed Skofot's thin body hard against the cold, rough stone wall.

Bang! With a dull thud, Skofot's back collided violently with the wall. Intense pain struck at once, blackening his vision and nearly suffocating him.

It hurts... but this is exactly the opportunity!

In that fleeting instant when his body was restrained and pain swept through him, Skofot forcibly held back his cry. Gritting his teeth, he roared inwardly:

"Switch! [Scavenger]!"

The icy killing intent erupted violently from his body once more, beyond his control. Like a tangible shockwave, it blasted toward Snape at point-blank range!

The eyes pinned against the wall, under the combined effects of agony and the card's effect, were filled with wild, cold hostility as they glared fixedly at the Potion Professor standing inches away.

Snape's breath caught under the sudden, close-range eruption of such concentrated killing intent.

Though he had been mentally prepared, the intensity of that aura and its explosion at such close range still made his heart skip a beat. His grip on Skofot's wrist unconsciously tightened further.

That killing intent... He really is...!

Yet the killing intent vanished as swiftly as a fleeting blossom.

Just as Snape prepared to reinforce his hold, even considering a Binding Charm in the next second, he clearly felt the aura of the body beneath his hands undergo another earth-shattering change.

That chilling killing intent, enough to make one's heart pound, abruptly dissipated like a punctured balloon, replaced by...

an overwhelmingly intense, physical pain and fragility.

The boy pinned against the wall turned deathly pale in an instant. Fine beads of cold sweat seeped across his forehead. The hostility in his eyes was replaced by immense pain and fear, while tears poured out and slid down his pale cheeks.

"Ugh... it hurts... Professor... let go... please..." Weak, broken sobs spilled from Skofot's throat.

His entire body looked as though it were about to fall apart. From where Snape pinned him down came the groan of bones pushed beyond their limits.

[Rabbit Rhymer]'s Fragility Buff amplified the pain and rendered it perfectly.

He struggled weakly, but that tiny amount of strength was like an ant trying to shake a tree beneath Snape's restraint.

Snape froze.

He stared hard at Skofot's face, trying to find even the slightest sign of pretense.

There was none.

That pained expression, those shattered sobs, that sense of vulnerability at the brink of collapse... all of it was so real that it was alarming.

Especially that instantaneous, utterly opposite shift in temperament—it completely defied common sense!

Even the most brilliant master of disguise could not possibly suppress killing intent so thoroughly in an instant, then perfectly imitate such pure, physical pain and fear!

What on earth was going on?!

Even with Snape's experience and intellect, he now felt intense confusion and a trace of... an indescribable wrongness.

That switch had been far too unnatural. It was as if... he had become someone else!

He abruptly released Skofot's wrist, though the other hand pinning him against the wall did not let go entirely. Its pressure merely eased considerably.

His sharp gaze swept over Skofot's empty hands like a searchlight before settling on his tear-streaked, pain-filled face.

There was nothing in his hands?

Then that movement just now... had it been deliberate?

To provoke me? Or...

Snape's brow knotted tightly.

He felt as though he had fallen into a carefully woven fog full of contradictions.

The Tracking Charm had been discovered. The flower suspected to be the source of the curse had lost its magical connection—he was almost certain that his perception in that instant had been correct—and now this boy had performed another bizarre act before him, instantly shifting from dangerous to harmless...