A Third-Rate Villain’s Sweet Life Exploiting Academy Bugs – Chapter 122

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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My first encounter with Lev Denec… was definitely about wind archery.

-It’s okay. You can teach me.

-Teach you? …Me?

-Yes.

-If it’s the basics, I can learn on my own…

-No, wind archery.

Selena was taken aback.

The fact that she couldn’t use wind archery was widely known at Clarice.

-Is it because you’re a half-elf?

-What good is an elf without that? Such a shame.

But he was different from other humans.

As they trained and spent time together… she realized he wasn’t joking about archery, that he genuinely believed she could master wind archery.

So was it a miracle?

After that, Selena felt something that had bound her break free.

What followed was a series of successes. Just as he said, she mastered wind archery, improving day by day.

Gradually, she could reach for the dream she had longed for.

.

.

.

-Whoosh…

A chilly wind began to blow through Plotine Forest.

Since the trees were dense, blocking out much of the sunlight, the temperature here felt even lower.

-…

‘I… have to pull myself together…’

Selena focused her mind, trying to steady her trembling hands.

A wave of emotions had washed over her too quickly.

-You’ve worked hard. You too.

Touched by Lev’s unexpected words of comfort, she had poured out too much of her heart to him.

And in that moment, as if signaling that she had crossed a line, arrows flew towards him.

‘But… I don’t want to end it like this…’

Until the very last moment, as he was being pierced by arrows, he had tried to protect her.

What a foolish and absurd man.

Selena’s rebuttal was met with a long silence before the dark elf finally spoke.

“…I said I had no business with you today… Are you taking responsibility for what you just said?”

“…Yes.”

Selena had made an enemy of the only other half-elf in this world.

Darian.

The dark elf who appeared in the legends of Krune, just as her mother had told her.

She was probably evil.

She had betrayed her clan, abandoned humans, and sided with the demons.

That alone was enough reason for Selena, a student of Clarice, to fight.

But, looking at this situation rationally, if she fought, she would definitely lose.

There was no chance of victory.

Therefore, the best course of action was to hand over Lev Denec, the target of the dark elf Darian, who might even be a demon collaborator.

But she couldn’t do that.

Her feelings for him were stronger than she had thought.

‘Since when… did it start?’

When he saved her from a life oppressed by the Shafty family?

Or when he disbanded Kaelan’s Royal Class circle, which had been a threat to her?

Or perhaps from the moment she saw him save everyone during the Crimson Ash subjugation?

Or when he yielded the Hero Candidate spot to her at the L’Conta Grand Festival?

‘…I don’t know.’

What was certain was that Selena needed him.

Those feelings might not be entirely pure.

Of course, the same could be said for him.

He still hadn’t revealed his ultimate intentions.

But the biggest difference between Lev Denec and other humans was that, regardless of his reasons, he lived for others.

His actions were sometimes difficult to understand in the dog-eat-dog world of Clarice, but that was why they resonated with her even more deeply.

“…If you intend to protect this boy, I have no choice but to use force.”

“…Go ahead.”

“…”

Selena, having regained her composure, had one last gamble left.

It was the words Darian herself had spoken:

‘I have no business with you today.’

If it was a demon’s order, even a fellow elf had to be killed if they interfered.

That’s how demons were.

But the fact that Darian was taking the time to try and persuade her meant that there was something she wanted from Selena, not just Lev.

-Thud.

Selena placed her aimed bow on the ground and knelt.

“…”

“…Unfortunately, pleading won’t work. The more you stall, the closer this boy gets to death.”

-Sweep.

Darian laid Lev on her lap and picked up an arrow.

“What are you trying to…?”

Before Darian could finish her question,

“If you’re going to take Lev, kill me first.”

Crimson blood trickled down Selena’s neck as the arrowhead pierced her skin.

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Darian’s path was paved with betrayals.

The bond with Krune, which had seemed eternal… the humans she thought she could truly trust… had started to crumble the moment he disappeared.

There was no need to elaborate further.

These were sharp fragments of memory that had tormented Darian her entire life, remaining vivid and painful.

It was foolish to deliberately dredge them up.

What was important was the present.

Darian had betrayed humans and elves and made a contract with a demon. It was the best she could do.

In exchange for becoming the great demon’s subordinate, she had secured a promise for the survival of the elven race if the demons won the war.

She was tired of humans.

Those disgusting humans, even if they won the war, would only fight amongst themselves.

They would repeat the same mistakes.

Therefore, breaking this cycle of conflict was the reason she betrayed her clan and became a demon’s pawn.

But was this also a demon’s scheme?

The time limit to fulfill the contract was longer than she had anticipated, and in her current condition, she couldn’t endure.

Therefore, Darian had to designate a successor to carry out the demon contract she had made.

Someone who could abandon both the elves and humans.

Someone with exceptional talent.

‘A half-elf like me…’

She had determined that Selena Windforce was the most suitable candidate.

.

.

.

“…Stop.”

Words she shouldn’t have uttered escaped Darian’s lips in a moment of surprise.

The suitable candidate was Selena Windforce, who was respected by neither humans nor elves.

She was the only vessel capable of inheriting Darian’s abilities…

Selena, as if she had expected this, pressed the arrowhead deeper into her neck.

“Think carefully! Humans are nothing but a series of betrayals…!”

Selena’s actions only became bolder.

“What’s so great about that pathetic man?!”

In that instant, Darian realized.

The man, now pale as a sheet, gasping for breath… the reason he had only used the wind barrier on Selena… there was no need for a complicated explanation.

It was simply to protect her.

She had been deliberately denying this simple truth because she didn’t want to believe it.

“Good. At this rate, both Lev and I will…”

“Stop…!”

If this continued, both Marcosias’s orders and her own plans would be ruined.

Darian cried out desperately,

“You, you…! You have the potential…! If you side with the demons like me… someday, a world where half-breeds like us can be recognized…”

Despite Darian’s rhetoric, Selena only smiled wryly and shook her head.

This was a good place to die for Selena Windforce.

The constantly blowing wind comforted her, her parents were right beside her, and the man she might come to love… was leaning against her.

“…”

Selena, readily accepting death, tightened her grip and,

just like that,

pierced her own throat.

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.

.

.

How much time had passed?

Like a gentle breeze, I naturally opened my eyes, and in my view was Selena’s neck wrapped in bandages.

‘…’

A view only possible if she was using my lap as a pillow, something she usually abhorred any form of physical contact.

“You’re awake.”

Selena gently stroked my hair. Her slender fingers felt pleasant against my scalp.

-Ding.

Checking my skill window, the Spring of Souls was still there.

It seemed I hadn’t died after all. Which meant…

-Ding! Ding! Ding!

Fortunately, the answer was right in front of me.

“…She disappeared. After healing you…”

Now that I looked closer, Selena’s eyes were red and puffy.

‘…She must have been crying.’

In the original Reincarnation Academy story, Selena, unable to learn wind archery, would experience a great sense of disillusionment during the Crimson Ash subjugation and inherit Darian’s abilities.

This would later become the cause of her being witch-hunted.

‘So… this is the right way, isn’t it?’

Seeing that my body, which had been riddled with arrows, was now completely healed, it seemed everything had gone according to plan.

Darian, to prevent Selena from doing something reckless…

in other words, to save me, had transferred her demonic power to me.

As if blaming me, the reward window lit up in crimson.

‘It couldn’t be helped.’

From the moment I inherited Andras’s abilities, I had been tainted with black magic.

Like… a middle-aged man who smoked cigarettes of his own volition and then needlessly postured, saying,

-Don’t do this kind of thing.

I didn’t want to leave behind a setting where my favorite heroines would suffer consequences.

Selena spoke, her voice slightly hoarse,

“…I know everything now. I heard everything… from her.”

“…”

“What the Shafty family was trying to do to me. The reason I couldn’t learn wind archery… everything. You already knew, didn’t you?”

“…”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I kept… suspecting you.”

“…”

“And…”

Selena asked in a melancholic tone,

“…Were you really planning to die in my place?”

No one liked dying, but at that moment, I had been sincere.

I answered in a way that would be least burdensome for her.

“…Well, a world with only bad people would be too unromantic…”

-Embrace.

-!

Selena pushed me down to the ground and straddled me.

“Hold me.”

At her ambiguous words, I followed her command in the least suggestive way possible.

I held her in my arms.

She was warm.

Full of life, as if she were truly alive.

It was a warmth I could never have experienced in the game or the novel.

The green grass.

Selena’s small sanctuary.

We lay there, sharing each other’s warmth for a while.

.

.

.

“It’s cold… I should have told him to dress warmly…!”

Yeriel, having finally calmed down from the events of the day, waited for Lev at the transit station closest to Seraphi Dormitory.

Whenever he came back this late, it meant something had happened…

‘…He said he would be careful… so it’ll be alright…’

She didn’t doubt him anymore.

She simply trusted him.

And today…

she decided to be a little more proactive with her feelings.

Compared to Aria, who had already exchanged confessions with him, Yeriel hadn’t properly conveyed her feelings yet.

She resolved that it was okay to be a little selfish about this.

‘I hope he doesn’t feel too pressured, with the selection test coming up…’

Lev was surprisingly considerate.

‘I shouldn’t rush it… slowly…’

She recited the words she had prepared in her mind.

Though embarrassed, a bashful smile crept onto her face.

-Rumble…!

“!”

Just then, the last transit train arrived, revealing the silhouette of a man who looked like Lev.

“Le…!”

But there was another person next to him.

A platinum blonde elf.

Selena Windforce.

Lev had his usual slightly complicated expression, but…

“…!”

Selena was different.

Unlike her usual icy demeanor, she seemed shy.

And her face was slightly flushed, naturally initiating physical contact.

Yeriel implicitly understood what this meant.

“…”

-Thump!

Something began to sprout once more within Yeriel’s heart, which had been shaken by Aria.

“…Lev… is really… popular…”

This feeling of despair then transformed into something else, beginning to consume Yeriel’s pure spirit.

“…Yes… if I stay like this, I’ll lose him before I can even confess…”

-Crackle!

The dense mana emanating from her body clashed with a subtle black magic, sparking like static electricity.

And so, Yeriel, her eyes completely devoid of light, walked briskly towards Lev.

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