I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 20

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Ugh……”

On a night when the moon was hidden by clouds, Emilia sat on the balcony of the mansion and groaned.

She had taken out a communication artifact to send a regular report to the headquarters, but she was struggling with what to report.

‘What on earth is going on……’

Iris von dem Flechette.

The person who had visited in the evening when the sun was about to set was none other than the Saintess of Flechette.

A genius who had been called a prodigy in healing magic at the mere age of 4.

By the age of 8, she had already invented her own original healing magic and performed miracles through it.

It all started a year ago when an epidemic spread in a rural village.

With an unknown route of infection and a 90 percent fatality rate, the imperial family finally decided to close off the village.

They blocked all roads leading to the village, allowing no people or goods to pass through under any circumstances.

In effect, they had decided to let over 500 villagers die.

At the time, everyone thought there was no other way.

They believed that the lives of 500 people were a small price to pay compared to the epidemic spreading throughout the entire empire.

That was until Iris appeared.

Iris requested permission to enter, stating that she would cure the epidemic.

The imperial family naturally refused, but Iris persistently requested entry again and again without giving up.

In the end, the imperial family granted her entry on the condition that they wouldn’t let her out until the epidemic was completely cured.

Iris entered the village where 10 people were dying every day.

That living hell where decaying corpses were scattered on the streets due to a lack of people to bury them, and a constant stench permeated the air.

As soon as Iris entered the village, she began using healing magic.

It wasn’t some kind of wide-area magic. She met each villager one by one and personally used healing magic on them.

It was said that at one point, she had run out of mana and nearly died from contracting the epidemic herself.

Even while overcoming the brink of death, Iris succeeded in curing all the villagers in the village.

In recognition of her achievement, the Papal Palace appointed Iris as a Saintess.

She was the first in history to become a Saintess while still alive.

‘And Iris is acquainted with the top student……?’

Such an incredible person seemed to know Schlus Hainkel.

Not only that. Judging from Iris’ way of speaking and attitude, the two seemed to be quite close.

‘There’s no way.’

It didn’t make sense.

The Intelligence Agency had all the information about Iris and Schlus.

But among that, there wasn’t a single point where the two could have had contact.

Even if there was concealed information about Iris, a commoner like Schlus had no such possibility.

Unless they had telepathy that only the two of them could use, Iris and Schlus should have met for the first time at the Imperial Academy.

-Your tone is a bit cold? I’m sure I told you. We’re going to be together for a long time.

Emilia slowly pondered Iris’ words.

Together for a long time……

What on earth did that mean?

-I came to talk about our future.

-You don’t have to be suspicious. I trust you. Because what you want is what I want.

-I’ll support everything you want to do.

‘What? Could it be……?’

Emilia’s pupils trembled.

Our future?

What you want is what I want?

If you only hear this, it’s as if-

‘Are they dating?’

The two seemed to have promised love and a future together.

Emilia’s thoughts came to a halt at that point.

That was truly impossible.

Why would a genius from an influential family who had even received the title of Saintess settle for a commoner whose only achievement was being admitted as the top student at the Imperial Academy?

There was no way, she thought as she shook her head, but then she remembered something someone had said.

-Love, you see, has no reason. It just comes out of nowhere one day.

It was what Eric, the director of the Intelligence Agency, who had suddenly gotten married after just one day of dating, had said.

Considering his case, the relationship between Iris and Schlus didn’t seem entirely absurd.

By the way, what did she see in Schlus to fall for him?

Other than being good-looking, having a good physique, being polite, and considerate, he had no other merits.

Come to think of it, what was more mysterious than Iris’ friendly behavior was Schlus’ attitude.

Throughout his conversation with Iris, Schlus acted uncomfortably and kept his answers brief.

Seeing that he wasn’t simply delighted when the Saintess personally offered to help him……

It seemed the situation wasn’t simple.

Maybe Schlus had a weakness that Iris was exploiting.

Or conversely, Iris had a weakness that Schlus was exploiting.

…… Or both.

‘How am I supposed to report this?’

Emilia was conflicted, unable to grasp the situation at all.

She was struggling with how to interpret the relationship between the two.

If she made a wrong assumption, she would end up submitting false information to the Intelligence Agency.

But trying to recite what she saw today as it was, the word limit made it difficult.

‘Let’s put it aside for now.’

Rather than creating confusion with false information, she should observe the situation a bit more.

She could always visit the base and explain the situation later when she had some free time.

Emilia thought so as she put away the communication artifact.

‘He’s got some nerve.’

By the way, where did he get the courage to speak informally and act disrespectfully to the Saintess?

‘Huh? Informal……?’

Emilia’s eyes widened.

Come to think of it, Schlus had spoken informally to Iris.

But he had never once used informal speech with her, who was his attendant and a commoner.

‘What?’

Emilia’s mind became complicated.

***

[The Forbidden Elixir]

[Epic Item: It deviates from the principles of this world, making it impossible to duplicate or reproduce.]

[Description: Drinking it will permanently increase a random stat by 10. It tastes bad.]

No matter how many times I used ‘View’, the text I saw remained the same.

A permanent buff to stats. And by 10 at that.

It was an absurdly generous effect.

But the problem was that I couldn’t specify which stat to increase.

If the effect went into mana sensitivity, which was already at 75, it would be a total disaster.

And this could be exchanged for just 1 store coin.

Then I could buy 10 more in the future?

[Store]

[The Forbidden Elixir]

[Price: 2 Store Coins]

“Huh?”

I was sure it was 1 before.

At some point, the price had risen to 2.

Was it a system where the price increased the more I bought?

Assuming it kept increasing by 1, I could buy 3 more with the coins I had now.

If I drank them all, would my stats really increase by 40?

Just as I was about to impulsively make the purchase, my eyes caught a certain phrase on the store screen.

[Store Upgrade]

[Upgrading the store will add new items.]

[Cost: 10 Store Coins]

There was also an option to upgrade the store.

The only items currently available in the store were the Forbidden Elixir, recovery potions, and Gawayn’s sword.

I wanted to see some other items, but the problem was that the upgrade cost was 10 store coins.

“This is a bit of a dilemma.”

Should I upgrade the store with the remaining 10 coins?

Or should I stock up on the Forbidden Elixir or recovery potions?

I started to ponder.

The decision I reached after much contemplation was-

“Let’s save them for now.”

To save the coins.

There might be a situation later where I needed a recovery potion after using all the coins to upgrade the store.

Or the Forbidden Elixir or recovery potions I stocked up on might become useless.

So for now, it seemed best to save them and buy the Forbidden Elixir if I urgently needed a stat increase, buy a recovery potion if I needed healing, and upgrade the store if the coins kept accumulating with no use for them.

“Phew.”

Looking at the glass bottle on the floor, I sighed involuntarily from the tension.

I had no choice but to drink the elixir I had already purchased.

It’s not like the randomness would change if I drank it later.

I carefully removed the cap, as if the glass bottle would break, and raised it with both hands.

The smell…… wasn’t particularly noticeable.

“Please. Anything but mana sensitivity……!”

It would be nice if mana or strength increased.

Then I would be able to defeat most small fries in combat without using ‘Selection and Concentration’.

I brought the glass bottle to my lips, offering a prayer to who knows who.

“Ugh……”

It really tasted terrible.

Oh my god. It wasn’t even a bitter taste like herbal medicine, it was just disgusting.

The more I drank, the more it felt like something was coming up from my stomach.

Fearing that the effect wouldn’t manifest if I didn’t drink it all, I ended up emptying the glass bottle.

“Ugh……”

My face was contorting in all sorts of ways.

Even after drinking it all, my stomach was so queasy I felt like I was going to die.

“Oh.”

The empty glass bottle blurred and soon disappeared.

Did it automatically disappear when it was all used up?

I called up the stat window while wiping my mouth.

[Displaying Stats.]

[Vitality: 16]

[Strength: 12]

[Agility: 5]

[Stamina: 5]

[Mana: 1]

[Mana Attunement: 1]

[Mana Sensitivity: 75]

[Calculation Ability: 18]

Vitality was the same. Strength was also the same. Agility was the same too……

What the hell? What changed?

I carefully looked through it again, and there was one stat that had changed.

Calculation Ability.

It was a stat with such little presence that I didn’t even know it existed.

Calculation Ability was indeed a cheat stat that could completely neutralize all the formulas deployed by the opponent if it was high enough.

But being moderately high like this made it difficult to dismantle formulas in real-time.

However, if you ask if the increase in the stat is completely meaningless, that’s not the case either.

Calculation Ability also had a considerable influence on formula deployment.

With a stat of 18, I could deploy formulas about twice as fast as an average person.

It meant that 1 second would be reduced to 0.5 seconds.

It wasn’t a huge difference, but it would be quite helpful in combat situations where every second counted.

“Second place from behind.”

Still, it sucked.

Unless every time I drank the elixir from now on, Calculation Ability would increase.

No way. That wouldn’t happen.

I thought I had stepped in shit and left the training room.

“A newspaper?”

There was a newspaper inserted in the front gate.

It was barely 3 am now, did newspapers get delivered at this hour?

I picked up the newspaper and entered the mansion.

I turned on only the floor lamp in the living room and unfolded the newspaper.

I thought news would have arrived by now.

-The Day of Magic is approaching. The capital is in the midst of preparing for the event……

As expected.

The Day of Magic was not far off.

The Day of Magic was a day commemorating the divine blessing of magic descending upon the continent.

Actually, the Day of Magic itself wasn’t very important.

It was a holiday I had forcibly created just to have an occasion to hold an event.

In the original work, the Day of Magic event didn’t play a significant role.

It was just a place the protagonist and Iris visited for a date.

Nevertheless, the reason I was paying attention to the Day of Magic was simple.

Because that damn idiot protagonist failed to get admitted to the Imperial Academy.

A general of the Imperial Army was scheduled to attend this event.

The Kingdom’s Intelligence Agency had planned to assassinate the general during the event, but they deliberately let it go out of concern that the protagonist’s infiltration into the Imperial Academy would narrow his scope of activity.

But in this world where the protagonist failed to pass, there was no such thing.

That murderous machine of a protagonist would barge into the event venue without any hesitation and kill the general.

‘I can’t let that happen.’

I had to stop it.

I had to prevent the relationship between the Empire and the Kingdom from deteriorating further and the war from resuming.

The two of them fighting and exhausting each other was the shortest path to a bad ending.

‘I have to stop Hertlocker by any means necessary.’

I would finally get to see the face of our protagonist.

That murderous ghost who had become a real villain, unworthy of even being called the protagonist.

Daddy’s coming to meet you, you son of a bitch.

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