.｡.:✧ Chapter 29 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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*Wham.*

With a kick, the knight flew back, but thanks to his armor, he didn’t suffer much damage.

“If only I had a sword.”

The circle of knights was closing in.

Noticing my extraordinary skills, they swung their swords with a single-minded determination to at least wound me.

“What are you struggling for against just two students!”

Heini Rosales was shouting from behind, but there was a reason the knights couldn’t penetrate my defense, even without weapons or armor.

*Huff.*

Rin, behind me, eyes closed, was extending her hand towards me.

Her support magic made me significantly more agile and powerful.

Protected by her magic, I could somewhat ignore the knights’ attacks.

Eventually, Heini Rosales herself stepped forward with her rapier, striking directly without any preparatory movement.

Her target was Rin.

She thought if she could subdue Rin first, the knights could overwhelm me with their numbers, but…

*Thud.*

A backward kick hit her squarely in the abdomen, bending her body. She stumbled back, retching.

‘I’ve always been good at guarding.’

Back in the day, I enjoyed creating openings and counter attacking. Heini falling for it was a big catch.

“Stay close behind me, keep using your magic. I won’t let them get to you.”

“Okay, I trust you.”

Rin responded gently.

But the situation wasn’t as favorable as it seemed. I still had enough stamina to hold on, but I couldn’t take down the knights. Even in the Demon Forest, I never hunted beasts with my bare hands.

“Just a student, and yet!”

“Prepare the formation properly!”

“Damn bastard!”

The knights, embarrassed to be struggling against an academy student, became increasingly rough in their words and actions.

‘This is tough.’

Just when I wondered where the dean was, the reception room door burst open, and Eve and Tana entered.

“Here! We brought it… Huh?”

“What’s going on here?”

Seeing Ares and Hayun already restrained, and knights swarming Rin and me, they looked shocked.

But noticing the book in their hands, I realized it was the surveillance record hidden by magic by the dean.

“That’s it! That’s the decisive evidence proving our innocence!”

Everyone’s attention suddenly shifted to Tana.

*

“Yes, there’s nothing wrong with the video.”

Heini, biting her lip and looking defeated, nodded.

“So now its okay? We were the ones wronged here.”

I retorted mockingly, arms crossed. Heini, with a bitter expression, bowed her head.

“I’m sorry.”

Having tried to arrest us without proper investigation, she had no defense and had to apologize.

But our anger wasn’t so easily quelled.

“Who would have thought Hare would do something like this?”

Professor Jeffrey from Class A was shaking his head while watching the video. The dean had been attacked by Fenil’s gang, so Jeffrey was representing the school.

Seeing Hare in the video, the fog in our minds cleared, and memories of her returned.

Not just us, everyone started sequentially recalling the events, triggered by the memory of Hare.

It was a powerful spell, but as Rin argued, the method of breaking it was simple, and the other professors agreed.

Rin explained it was a spell vulnerable without its two key elements – defense and attack.

Heini added that only a few wizards in the academy could cast such a spell, and they were currently investigating in that direction.

“We’ll investigate Hare and also check the dean’s attack. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.”

“If an apology is all it takes, why are people like you even here?”

I scoffed, and Heini, fists clenched, apologized again before leaving hastily.

It felt like gulping cold water after a workout.

“So, is that all for now?”

Jeffrey, uncomfortable with the situation, stretched and told us to take a break before calling us again.

“I have to deal with parents’ calls because of this incident. You guys go rest.”

Then he left, seemingly eager for the dean’s recovery.

“Is everything settled, then?”

Ares looked perplexed by the sudden turn of events. In the silence, I slowly spoke up.

“What would have happened if we hadn’t revealed the truth?”

“Huh?”

Rin, Ares, and Hayun looked at me, confused.

“We would have been arrested without a chance to defend ourselves. Accused of stealing the king’s treasure, red-handed.”

It was irksome to think about what that treasure was and why it was at the academy, but I let it pass.

“That’s chilling to think about.”

“Hmm.”

As Rin and Hayun reacted, Ares pondered silently.

“We would have been tortured for the treasure’s location, but not knowing anything, we’d eventually die under torture.”

I spoke calmly, but the others looked visibly frightened.

Our end would have been that grim.

“What about the academy?”

What would happen to the academy then?

First, the position of the dean is in jeopardy.

With such a major incident, it is inevitable that there would be discussions about the dean, who holds the highest position.

Indeed, Professor Jeffrey mentioned that several families have already been contacting him.

However, since we had caught the culprit, the punishment wouldn’t be as severe as ours; stepping down from the dean’s position might be a reasonable compromise.

“What are you trying to say?”

Finally, Ares sighed and asked me, and as I tapped the table, I replied.

“I’m trying to say that the scale of this is too big.”

To steal a treasure, you just need to steal the treasure.

For a mage who could erase the entire academy’s memory while taking care of all the records about Hare, there must be a simpler and cleaner way than this.

“Rin, there’s no mage who could use such magic immediately, right?”

“Right, even with preparation, it would take at least a week.”

“Since the academy is large, but the places where people are at night are limited, it would have taken more time than that.”

Hayun chimed in with her opinion, and I nodded in agreement.

“What’s the best scenario for a thief? To steal without being caught. But this magic was prepared assuming it would be noticed.”

“Are you saying Hare got caught on purpose?”

“That’s what I think.”

The fact that Fenil Leiros attacked the dean also seemed suspicious.

The three of us racked our brains for a reason, but then I, who had raised the issue, said with a smile.

“Let’s go and take a break for now. We need to rest our minds to think clearly.”

***

After washing up and sleeping deeply, it was dark again when I woke up.

I complained about my disrupted body cycle, but as I waited to feel tired again while looking at the stars outside, I noticed a dozing guard.

I heard that the number of guards had increased because of the incident, but it didn’t feel that way in the late dawn.

‘Anyway, this academy…’

Outside, Aios Academy is renowned as a prestigious institution, but it’s a complete mess once you get inside.

Like the scions of renowned families, Aios Academy too lives off its old glory.

What good is past greatness if the present is a mess?

Shaking my head, I turned around to find someone standing in my room.

In a scene that could have been eerie, the figure revealed her face by removing her hood. It was the girl I had been hoping to see.

“Hare?”

I let out a hollow laugh and was about to grab my sword, but Hare asked me emotionlessly.

“How did you know?”

“About what?”

I was confused by her sudden question, but Hare asked me seriously.

“How did you know about a Cockatrice’s weaknesses and their shared sensations?”

Oh, that.

I scratched the back of my head and replied in resignation.

“Did you come all the way here just because you were curious about that?”

“Huh, so you don’t want to talk about it?”

I thought she was suggesting another confrontation, but instead, Hare timidly made an offer.

“There’s someone interested in you.”

“Hmm?”

“They want you. Come with me, and you’ll get what you want.”

“Do you seriously think I would follow you just because you said that?”

I asked with a hollow laugh, but Hare’s face remained serious, as if she truly believed that if I followed her, all my desires would be fulfilled.

“Do you know what I want?”

“No.”

“And yet you’re offering to fulfill it?”

Hare then frustratingly responded.

“We have the power to fulfill whatever it is.”

Was I supposed to follow her with such a flimsy persuasion?

I grew tired of this uninformative interrogation that strongly implied they didn’t want to give me any details.

“What I want is to kick your butt and find out why you guys are doing all this.”

My sword swiftly unsheathed, splitting Hare’s body in two. The halves fell with a thud and gradually turned into a sticky substance that spread on the floor.

***

“So the persuasion failed.”

At the back of the school.

A man standing next to Hare, with his hood flipped over, sighed and muttered, and Hare answered expressionlessly.

“He’s a stubborn one. I told you he wouldn’t come.”

“But the captain wanted us to try.”

The man fiddled with his hands and asked as he dusted off his clothes.

“What about the assassination?”

“Here.”

Hare handed over a finger, which belonged to Fenil Leiros, who had been under investigation for attacking the dean.

It was late, so they decided to stay at the academy for the night and hand him over to the knights and Heini the next day for further investigation into his connection with the current case. Unfortunately, the boy’s short life came to an end like this.

“That’s why I told you not to give him that stuff. He went berserk and acted on his own.”

“I had no choice, the Leiros family was pestering me.”

“Hmph.”

“The knights will have a tough time now. Leiros will lose his mind when he finds out his son is dead.”

“If they commission us again, it’s our gain.”

The assassination was carried out as a preemptive measure to prevent the boy from potentially confessing their involvement. With his death during the knights’ custody, the Leiros side would naturally suspect Heini and the knights, possibly using them for their own ends in the future.

Work doesn’t just come to you.

It was the man’s creed that you have to create it yourself.

“Then…”

Something caught the man’s eye just as he was about to say let’s go.

A boy he had just been talking to on the third floor of the dormitory opened the window and jumped out.

The boy made a clean landing by inserting his sword into the wall to slow down, then started running precisely towards this side.

But even if he came this way, there was no door anyway.

They thought he couldn’t come to the back mountain where they were because the academy wall blocked the way.

However, Daniel, while running, quickly climbed a nearby tree and then leaped, inserting his sword in the middle of the wall.

Using it as a foothold, he jumped up onto the wall.

Since he had tied a rope to the end of his sword, he pulled it from atop the wall to retrieve his sword.

Exactly at that moment, Daniel’s and the man’s eyes met.

‘Found you.’

Daniel, who had started running straight towards them after climbing down the wall, had the demeanor of a predator beginning its hunt.

“Run!”

Hare, having experienced this once before, shouted urgently, and the man, though startled by the unexpected situation, followed her.

“What the hell is that guy doing!”

From the distance from the dormitory to the back mountain to the numerous obstacles in the way, he was chasing them extremely fast.

Hare also muttered, biting her lip.

“I don’t know what that guy is up to.”

When she had heard about him from Rin, he was described as timid but kind, and a kid with his own set of beliefs.

He was skilled, but it was a shame that he couldn’t use half of his ability because of his personality.

But what was this?

‘How is that timid!’

He had thought it strange during the exam, and when he had fought directly, he even felt a kind of madness.

What kind of crazy person would so recklessly injure their body, even with mages around who could use healing magic!

Anyway, the Daniel at the school and the Daniel now seemed like entirely different people.

“Crazy bastard, so damn fast!”

Daniel had already caught up right behind them despite the significant distance.

“You can’t escape from me in the forest.”

The man, feeling provoked by Daniel’s confident voice, stopped in his tracks.

“I’ll just kill you, no need to run away.”

He had chosen to run not because he couldn’t win, but because he didn’t want to use his strength recklessly.

“Hare, you go on.”

“But…”

“It’s fine. I’ll handle this and come back.”

“Alright.”

Hare disappeared swiftly.

Daniel did not bother chasing her but stopped with the man in front.

“Amazing, I never thought you’d chase us from there.”

“To manipulate a doppelganger, a Dopple Slime needs to keep it in sight. Thanks to that trait, I knew you’d be in a position where you could see my room window.”

“……!”

How did he know he was using the abilities of a Dopple Slime?

[T/N: lol]

Right.

The entity he had just been talking to was actually not Hare but the man’s doppelganger transformed into Hare.

“From Cockatrice to Dopple Slime? What exactly are you? You don’t seem like an ordinary student.”

Daniel scratched his head in response to the man’s question.

“What about you guys? Why are you using the abilities of the beasts in that forest?”

“……”

The man’s hand transformed, and blue spikes appeared. A basic combat technique of shape-shifting slimes.

But Daniel’s sword had already pierced through the man’s neck.

“Gah!”

The man’s neck was severed.

But Daniel didn’t stop there; he continued to swing his sword, cutting him into pieces.

Both arms and legs, the torso, and the head.

It wasn’t a pleasant sight, but the man was a slime after all.

“You don’t think cutting me like this will kill me, do you?”

The man’s voice was heard. The severed arms and legs moved on their own, but Daniel ignored them and climbed onto the man’s torso.

“Shape doesn’t matter. Even if your head is over there, the largest part is the real body of the slime.”

Thump thump thump.

“Aaagh!”

“I can at least infuse mana into the tip of my sword.”
Daniel continued to thrust his sword into the slime, which was impervious to physical attacks but could be countered with even a slight amount of mana. Consequently, the slime’s upper body began to shrink progressively.
‘It’s working, as it keeps shrinking, the consciousness will shift towards the side where the arms and legs are.’
Although it was truly painful, the relentless slashing caused its body to gradually diminish.
Thud.
Daniel picked up his scattered remains and reattached them to his body.
It was a bizarre sight, legs attached to the torso, but they were indeed attached.
“Dopple Slimes have a tendency to gravitate towards their larger part due to their consciousness being housed there. So, now that this side has grown larger again?”
“Ah…”
“Still no plans to talk? Let’s continue then.”
Daniel kept stabbing the sword into the creature, while the man, floundering, thought to himself.
‘I must convey this!’
Surviving to tell his comrades.
That there’s a monster nesting in Aios Academy.

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