Coldness immediately flowed into Inna's body despite her fervent resistance as she felt her burning emotions starting to freeze as well.
Then, in a blink of an eye, her whole demeanor calmed down as she held the same familiar emptiness in her eyes that made the student hesitate in mid-swing.
But due to the momentum of his movement, he wasn't able to stop his sword from moving so it continued its motion of slashing towards Inna.
And just as the sword was a hair's breadth away, Inna suddenly threw herself to the student as she easily disarmed him by hitting his wrist. It easily made him loosen his grip on the sword. But then, still having its momentum, the sword swirled by a great distance before piercing through the other side of the wall across them. The audience screamed in panic as they tried to get away from the sword, fearing that another one might come flying in the same direction.
Then, Inna proceeded to grip his wrist tighter, and with just a small yet sudden twist, a loud popping sound was heard before a scream of agony echoed throughout the whole room. It drowned out the screams of shock from the crowd which was noticeably growing in number due to the people from the first floor trying to check out what the commotion was.
Letting out a small whimper at the end of his scream, the student held tears in his eyes as he leaped back to give some distance between them. Then, swallowing the urge to cry, he clutched on his dislocated shoulder as he glared at her with intense hatred.
"You--!"
But before he could say anything more to her, Inna dashed to his side in a flash, covering their distance in a mere millisecond.
Then, still holding a blank expression despite being glared at with so much hatred, she harshly grabbed the student by the neck as she lifted him up.
Seeing the familiar arrangement, the student began to have flashbacks on what happened with Garnel and he couldn't help but panic.
He desperately gasped for air as he clawed at her hands frantically. But since his shoulder was dislocated, making his other hand useless, the single hand he used to claw at her was ineffective in making Inna budge.
Then suddenly, a soft groan resounded across the room.
But before the people could notice that the groan belonged to the 'dead' student, Garnel, the doors of the restaurant suddenly flung open as an authoritative cry rang out.
"What is with the commotion?!"
Two men clad with uniform golden armors marched their way inside the restaurant as they scanned the whole area. Seeing that nearly all the people were gathered to the second floor of the restaurant, they quickly made their way towards the center of the crowd.
It seems like the noise was getting too unbearable for the thin walls of the restaurant to contain. Hence, the crowd's cries, which was now combined with the guests' from the lower floor, began to be heard outside of the restaurant. And when these two men heard the loud and obtrusive screams, they immediately knew that something was amiss.
The crowd immediately parted to give way to the two men who oozed a strong aura as they swiftly marched towards the scene.
And when they finally arrived, Inna suddenly felt the coldness withdraw from her. She was left staring at her hand who still grasped the student's neck but she no longer gripped it tightly with the intention to kill.
Meanwhile, the student was nearly fainting, having black spots in his vision before the guards arrived on the scene. But when the strong grip of Inna abruptly disappeared, he started to slowly feel better as he gasped fervently for air.
And when he felt that his voice could now return, he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"HELP! SHE'S A MURDERER! SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME!"
His screams made Inna snap out of her thoughts as she looked at the direction where the two armored men stood. She tried to explain hastily but the panic she felt made her stutter and tumble on her words.
"N-no, I d-didn't! I w-was... H-he was… I--"
But Inna knew that no matter how she's going to deny their cries and accusations, the fact that they saw her trying to strangle the student to death was enough reason for them not to believe her.
While she continued to stutter, the two men quickly dashed to her side as they held her immobile with their hands as though she was a criminal. Inna felt too emotionally and mentally tired to even fight back so she just let them do it.
Then, addressing the crowd who seemed satisfied with the results, they began to announce.
"Since we don't have jurisdiction in this village, although being caught in the act, we, the royal guards will take the suspected criminal to the appropriate officials."
Inna closed her eyes as she sighed dejectedly.
She always thought that her 'other' self was a great power-up of some sort. She thought that she'd be able to have an easy life by relying on it every time someone tries to kill her.
She thought that it was a blessing of some sort that can help her avoid dying again.
But to think that in exchange for protecting her, she'd have to kill someone.
And many would argue that technically it wasn't her killing them purposely, but even though she switched, it truly felt like it was her.
She sees the same things her 'other' self can see...
She hears the same things her 'other' self can see…
She can feel the same things her 'other' self can feel…
The only thing that's different was that she's no longer able to control what she's doing. And that no matter how much she screams in her head to stop and switch, it just seemed like she's talking to air.
So, seeing the blood drip down as she slashed Garnel's neck was traumatizing to her.
Because she felt it.
The feel of the dagger slashing through his skin and the small splash of blood that stained her hands.
And now, despite her vehement revulsion, it forcibly switched with her to strangle the student.
As if it had its own mind…
As if it had its own plans…
As if it was just spectating through her eyes...
And Inna finally snapped out of the silly delusion she unknowingly had. She realized that the 'power-up' she took her pride on was never under her control.
But it seemed more like 'it' had the control over her.