Magic Outbreak

The pastries Emily had painstakingly made the night before were scattered on the floor, now deliberately crushed.

Jack shoved Emily's head towards the ground. "You made these yourself, so you can lick them clean yourself. Don't leave a single crumb. Today, I'll make you understand your place."

Emily didn't resist, but a hint of stubbornness remained in her expression.

This only made Jack more furious. He raised his hand to strike.

"Stop."

The boys turned their heads and saw Lucretia standing in the moonlight. Her small, frail body shivered in the wind blowing through the drafty corridor window.

But in her eyes, there was a flicker of an unquenchable flame.

Jack, the leader of these troublemakers, clearly didn't take her seriously. Instead, a playful smile spread across his face. "Yo, the freak's here too? Perfect, I've had it out for you for a long time."

Lucretia spoke word by word, "Let Emily go. This is my final warning."

She could feel a power frantically searching for an outlet, fueled by her emotions.

Jack let out a scoff and increased the pressure on Emily's head, eliciting a muffled groan of pain as she was forced to her knees.

"If I say no, what are you going to do about it? Tell the Headmaster?"

He burst into exaggerated laughter.

"Don't you remember being confined to the small dark room for a week after complaining to the Headmaster last time? You almost starved to death. Do you even know how the food they brought you every day was obtained? Your own sister begged us on her knees for it. If you ask me, you should be grateful to us. Why are you getting angry at your savior?"

The other boys joined in with laughter, their voices filled with malice. They didn't believe a girl with arms as thin as chicken claws could pose any threat to them.

Lucretia's fingertips gradually turned white, her fingernails leaving crescent-shaped marks on her palms.

She knew that in this orphanage, Jack was the uncrowned king.

The Headmaster always chose to believe this "sensible" boy over her, the outcast, and Emily, who was always gentle and yielding.

Emily suddenly spoke, her voice incredibly soft. "Let her go. I'll clean this up. Viola, hurry back to your room and sleep. Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

As she said this, a comforting smile even touched the corners of her lips, as if it were just a trivial matter.

But Lucretia saw the tear streaks on her eyelids, her disheveled hair, her trembling shoulders, and a new bruise.

Even in this situation, Emily was still trying to protect her.

"See?"

Jack roughly pulled Emily's hair, forcing her head up.

"This is your precious best friend, a cowardly bitch. She'd rather suffer herself to make you leave. Don't you think she's the ultimate bitch?"

The other boys let out piercing laughter. Some began spitting on Emily.

Others picked up the crushed pastry fragments from the floor and maliciously smeared them on her face.

Emily's voice grew even softer, tinged with pleading. "Viola, really, you should go... Don't let them bully you too..."

This sentence became the final trigger.

A blurry memory flashed through her mind.

Another betrayed self, another different ending.

Back then, she had chosen forgiveness, merely cursing those who betrayed kindness with her last breath, ensuring they would never receive it.

But now...

"Enough."

The moonlight poured down as if it had substance, and the air instantly became thick.

Lucretia could feel her fingers growing uncontrollably hot, her pulse quickening. Something surged in her chest, wanting to break free.

"What did you say?"

Jack seemed not to have heard clearly and increased the force on Emily's hair.

"I said, ENOUGH!"

As she roared, the floor suddenly cracked open. Thick vines, like giant snakes, burst forth from the gaps in the floorboards. Upon emerging, they grew rapidly as if alive.

The surface of the vines was covered in thorns, which writhed like living things under the moonlight.

Before the boys could even scream, they were entangled by the vines, their limbs bound and lifted high into the air.

Jack finally released Emily's hair, his sneer replaced by terror.

He tried to retreat but was surrounded by more vines, also hoisted up.

Just as the thorns were about to pierce the fragile necks of the perpetrators...

"Vi...Viola?"

Emily looked at the scene in horror, but her first instinct was to step forward, as if to stop her.

"Stop, you can't continue! You'll go to jail, and your life will be ruined! You won't be able to go to school!"

This action made Lucretia's heart ache fiercely.

Even in this situation, Emily was still worried about the well-being of her tormentors and Lucretia's future.

Thorns writhed on the vine's surface, ready to pierce the flesh of the abusers if she willed it.

They would die here instantly, before they could even cry out.

But when she met Emily's worried gaze, the killing intent suddenly vanished.

She took a deep breath, reining in the thorns, letting them stop just at the boys' skin, drawing only tiny beads of blood.

No, she couldn't do this.

Not out of fear of the consequences, but because she didn't want Emily's kindness to be stained with blood.

If in her past life she punished those who betrayed kindness with curses, then in this life, she would use her strength to protect this last shred of kindness.

The entire corridor was in chaos.

Photos on the wall were askew, and a vase had fallen and shattered on the floor.

Vines, like a net, trapped the boys in mid-air.

They screamed and struggled, but couldn't break free. The air was filled with the scent of earth and plants.

The boys' shrill screams woke the entire orphanage.

The Headmaster rushed out, clad in a bathrobe, the beam of his flashlight swaying in the darkness.

The other children were also woken, and they followed the Headmaster out, peeking their heads around before letting out terrified screams at the scene before them.

The Headmaster's voice trembled, the flashlight beam illuminating the writhing, living vines. "What the hell is this! Quick, call the police!"

No one dared to approach.

The vines seemed alive, stretching out in the moonlight, turning the entire corridor into a bizarre forest.

The boys trapped in mid-air had already lost control of their bladders from fear. Jack's face was ashen, his lips trembling uncontrollably, unable to utter a word.

Lucretia stood in the center of the vine-woven jungle. She walked forward and helped Emily up from her kneeling position, letting her sit down.

Emily clutched her hand tightly, a mixture of fear and worry on her face.

"Viola... did you do this? Are you hurt?"

A few minutes passed, and instead of sirens, a group of people in suits entered the orphanage.