I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 17

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

 
“Professor Ludwig! Professor Ludwig! I heard there was a big incident?”

“……”

Elemental Magic lecture hall.

Ludwig, who had been standing with his hands behind his back, turned around at the chirpy voice.

There stood Chairwoman Alexia, her eyes sparkling brightly.

“Where have you been until now? It was a complete mess.”

“I was sleeping! Hehe.”

“……”

Looking at Alexia, who answered with a carefree expression, a sigh escaped involuntarily.

Indeed, who among the faculty would dare to wake up Alexia while she was sleeping? Perhaps only Professor Sergey.

Although she had taken office as the chairwoman of the Imperial Academy for over 3 years, as a Majin, she was still an object of fear for the professors.

Ludwig had long realized that she was not someone to be feared, though.

“So what kind of accident was it?”

“It wasn’t an accident, but terrorism.”

“What? Terrorism?!”

“Didn’t you hear from your assistant?”

“Yes! He was rambling on about something, but I only listened to the introduction before rushing over!”

“……”

Glancing quickly, Ludwig saw a bespectacled young man rushing over from the end of the corridor with difficulty.

Was he Alexia’s assistant?

Assisting a Majin with a hasty personality……

It seemed like it would be no easy task.

“I had prepared a cart of magic stones to use as teaching materials. According to the students, an explosive artifact emerged from that cart.”

“That must have been a big deal! Did you catch the culprit?”

“Not yet. Everyone related to the cart of magic stones has been taken into custody, but there hasn’t been much progress in the investigation.”

“By the way! A cart of magic stones would have had considerable explosive power! How is the damage so minimal?”

Alexia pointed at the podium.

The scorched and torn space was at most a spherical shape with a radius of 10 meters.

Everything else was intact.

“I stopped it.”

“You, Professor Ludwig?”

“Yes.”

“Huh…… Really? Are you sure?”

“……”

“Are you sure? Why did you stop talking? Yes? Yes?”

“……”

Alexia began to laugh with a playful expression.

Realizing the meaning of that laughter, Ludwig had no choice but to close his mouth and tightly shut his eyes.

For a Majin like her, it would be easy to distinguish a human’s lie.

“…… Think whatever you want, Chairwoman.”

“It’s not true, is it! Hehe, then who stopped the explosion?”

“I won’t tell you.”

“Could it be Schlus Hainkel? The top admitted student?”

“……”

“Seems like I’m right!”

“……”

Ludwig closed his eyes once again.

She could tell the truth just by looking at his expression, without him saying anything.

He had never found Alexia being a Majin as annoying as he did now.

“Hah! For the ever-so-upright Professor Ludwig to lie! There was a reason behind it!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You were trying to protect Schlus, that commoner child, right? Because if he achieved such a feat on the first day of the semester, influential families would be wary of him!”

“You’re wrong. It’s for my mage rank promotion exam, which is currently underway.”

“You’re really bad at lying, truly!”

“……”

Ludwig’s fist trembled as he clenched it.

He felt exposed whenever he stood in front of this woman.

That’s why he didn’t want to run into her……

“So where is that hero now? I want to meet him right now!”

“He’s probably in class.”

“What? Class? Isn’t it cancelled today?”

“Have you already forgotten? That child is double majoring, isn’t he?”

“Ah……”

Alexia’s eyes flickered open.

Come to think of it, Schlus was majoring in two departments: Elemental Magic and Combat Magic.

That meant he was probably attending Combat Magic class right now……

After stopping such a massive explosion, would he have the strength left to attend an additional class?

Even she, a Majin, felt like she would barely be able to stop this explosion with great effort, so could he, a human, really do it?

“Huff…… Huff…… Chairwoman…… Please slow down a bit……”

“Yusek! Follow me!”

“What? Where are we going now?”

“We’re going to observe the Combat Magic lecture hall!”

“Wh-what? We’re walking all the way there again?!”

“Shall I carry you and fly there?”

“No! I’ll run diligently!”

The assistant, Yusek, who had once experienced the hell express ride while hanging from Alexia’s hand, quickly shook his head.

It would be better to run like crazy for 10 more minutes than that.

Watching Alexia dashing away and Yusek diligently chasing after her, Ludwig sighed deeply enough for the ground to cave in.

“It’s the end times.”

Alexia, who was known for her indifference to human world affairs, showing that level of enthusiasm.

It was definitely a sign that the world was going to end.

***

“This training golem’s power is automatically determined to match your level.”

I’m fucked.

I’m really fucked.

Schlus thought so, craning his neck to the point of pain.

What kind of school makes you fight such a monster from the first day?

“Have you all seen it before?”

“Yes.”

“Right. It should be familiar.”

‘What……?’

The students nodded their heads as if it was natural.

Schlus looked around in disbelief, but his eyes didn’t betray any signs of confusion.

After all, he was already dead inside.

‘Stay calm. There must be a way. If I observe the other kids and figure out the golem’s weaknesses as much as possible……’

“Then the first one…… Right! Top admitted student, Schlus Hainkel, step forward!”

“……”

Schlus, who had been racking his brain, came forward, biting his lips.

His plan had turned to foam.

No matter how he thought about it, he could only imagine being pathetically beaten by that golem.

Even if it was a training golem, its level was adjusted to match the students of the Imperial Academy.

So for him, who had physical abilities of an ordinary person or even below that, there seemed to be no way to deal with it.

“Professor Sergey.”

“Oh, yes.”

“As long as I can immobilize the golem in any way, it’s fine, right?”

“Well, immobilizing it would be too difficult…… But if you can do it, sure.”

“Then is it okay to use a weapon?”

“A weapon? Of course not.”

“What about that iron pipe?”

“Ah, this?”

Sergey examined the iron pipe he had been carrying on his shoulder.

It was an item he had taken off when a pipe collapsed some time ago and had been using well as a back scratcher.

“Something like this is fine. I thought you were going to drag in a siege cannon or something. Hahaha!”

“Then can you lend me that?”

“This……? Oh. I can lend it to you.”

Sergey tilted his head and threw the iron pipe.

The iron pipe, spinning through the air, was neatly caught and gripped in Schlus’ left hand.

What was he up to, asking to borrow an iron pipe as a weapon?

Was he planning to shoot a railgun with lightning magic or something?

Sergey crossed his arms and stepped back with an intrigued expression.

‘Mana is……’

[Remaining Mana: 52]

‘It’s fucked.’

His mana was ridiculously low to use magic.

If he tried to use gravity magic, he wouldn’t be able to move more than a few sheets of paper before running out of mana.

Then there was no other way.

He had no choice but to use the swordsmanship (though it was embarrassing to even call it that) he had honed until now.

‘But will that work?’

Let’s say he somehow managed to utilize his swordsmanship and succeeded in defeating the lowest level golem.

Given the nature of Combat Magic classes, a student’s level of power determined on the first day would influence their performance going forward.

Of course, there were cases where skills improved over time, so it wouldn’t have an absolute impact, but it was obvious that it would be critical at least until the midterms.

And Schlus was in a position where he absolutely had to maintain the top overall rank throughout the first semester, both in the midterms and finals.

Even if it was a bit unreasonable, he had to achieve good results in this test.

‘Damn it. I don’t want to get hurt……’

Schlus, who had made his decision, took a deep breath and moved his feet.

The students were puzzled by his strange posture, but two people understood Schlus’ intention.

‘Oh? Longsword swordsmanship?’

‘Longsword…… A northern lineage.’

Sergey and Trie.

They were people who had held a sword before, so they recognized it instantly.

Right foot pulled far back, iron pipe gripped with both hands and raised above the head.

Judging by the stable center of gravity and the grip on the pipe, it was definitely not a beginner’s stance.

The two were a bit surprised that there was someone who could use a sword at the Imperial Academy, where magic was taught, but that was it.

They didn’t feel the overwhelming presence that a truly dominant expert would necessarily exude, a presence that couldn’t be concealed if one didn’t pay attention.

“Then I’ll begin. The moment you take a step, the golem will start attacking.”

Bam!

The moment Sergey clapped his hands together, a loud sound spread throughout the lecture hall.

It was a sign indicating the start.

However, Schlus remained still for more than 3 seconds, maintaining his initial stance.

Even the students who had been nervously watching began to whisper and become noisy.

“What the hell. Is he scared?”

“No way. Who would be scared of a training golem? Even if he’s a commoner.”

Schlus, who had been hearing all the whispers through his sensitive sixth sense, was-

‘Fuck. I’m so scared.’

He was utterly terrified.

The height was more than twice his own.

On top of that, the bulked-up body like a kangaroo was truly horrifying.

It seemed like even a slight brush from those stone fists would crush his bones. What part of this was for training?

‘Please. There must be something useful in Schlus’ memories.’

Swallowing his saliva, he activated his ability.

‘Memory of True Self’

Then, a translucent video began to be projected all around, like a hologram.

A snowy mountain.

Schlus in the same posture as me, holding up a sword.

And the figure of a huge wolf monster in front of him was revealed.

Although it was slightly smaller than the golem, it was still chilling for someone seeing it for the first time.

However, as Schlus’ memories, emotions, and determination flowed in, the excitement began to subside.

His memories weren’t of much help.

There was no way the method of dealing with a wolf monster would resemble the method of dealing with a golem at all.

It was just that he had gained the courage to move his frozen body when faced with an overwhelming opponent.

‘Good. That’s enough.’

But that was enough.

Courage. Confidence. Just obtaining that was sufficient.

A relaxed smile slowly spread across Schlus’ lips.

‘Smiling? Is he that confident?’

Sergey tilted his head and checked the golem’s information.

Level 1.

The golem’s level, ranging from 1 to 10, was currently set to 1.

It meant that the golem had independently judged Schlus’ combat power to be the lowest, 1, or even below that.

That’s why Schlus’ smile was even more incomprehensible.

“Phew……”

Schlus took a deep breath and prepared for the final step before the battle.

It was activating his internal circuit, which he had considered a last resort.

Of course, without raising the mana attunement stat with ‘Selection and Concentration’, the internal circuit was practically unusable.

Because the mana energy discharged by his crude internal circuit would be a deadly poison to the body rather than a power source if he didn’t have high mana attunement.

However, even if his mana attunement was only 1, it didn’t mean that mana energy wouldn’t be converted into mana at all. He should be able to convert a very small portion of it.

But if he recklessly operated his internal circuit, he would end up spitting blood and fainting like last time.

There was only one solution to this.

He just needed to operate his internal circuit to the point where he wouldn’t faint.

Last time, he had injected 10 mana and caused that incident, so if he injected 1, which was 10 percent of that, it would be fine.

‘It will be worse than dying.’

Even though he himself knew it was a crazy thing to do, Schlus immediately put it into action.

Because there was no other answer.

Under Schlus’ delicate control, a drop of mana fell with a plop.

The moment that drop fell and soaked into the internal circuit……

Whirrrrrr……!

The rampage began.

‘What? Suddenly the level is……?’

Sergey was startled.

The golem’s level was rising in real-time.

In less than a second, the number that had been changing like crazy had already reached 10.

When the training golem judged the level to be 10, it meant the person was at the level of a current high-ranking knight or a stellar-ranked magician……

Or even higher.

Boom!

“What?!”

At that moment, Schlus’ figure disappeared.

Sergey and Trie could fully follow it with their eyes, but at least to the other students, it seemed that way.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇