Fated to Die in an Academy Novel – Chapter 129

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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The swung Holy Sword blazed with light.

A hero’s sword wouldn’t hesitate against a succubus, a demon that manipulates dreams and steals vital energy. Was this the consequence of clinging to opportunities, forcing a dream to continue, and artificially extending a life that should have ended long ago?

The Succubus Queen slowly closed her eyes.

Regret and resentment welled up, but a part of her felt a strange sense of relief.

If she had any lingering regrets, it would be this: if she couldn’t ensure the well-being of her kind, if she couldn’t achieve her dream, could she at least see *him* and her child one last time?

As if reading her thoughts—

-Do you want to live?

A sweet, yet sickening offer, more demonic than she, echoed in her mind.

There was no time to hesitate.

Facing the purifying light, her survival instinct made her nod.

-I like your quick answer.

The moment his approving voice reached her, the sphere of Authority behind her cracked.

The Holy Sword that had almost reached her stopped. As all eyes focused on the sphere, he slowly emerged from the crumbling ball.

He looked like he was hatching from an egg.

The aura he emitted made it clear that he wasn’t in his normal state.

Demonic energy.

He descended slowly from the sky while enveloped in such a massive amount of demonic energy that even she, a succubus, felt her breath hitch.

Perhaps due to absorbing the vast demonic energy, his eyes, previously a mix of gold and red, were now tinged with black and purple. His right hand, which had been covered by a glove, was now exposed, the mark on the back of his hand spreading past his wrist and encroaching on his arm.

He slowly looked at the crowd, then extended his hand towards the hero holding the Holy Sword.

At the same time, a rough hand, seemingly formed from shadows and nightmares, appeared out of thin air and grabbed the Holy Sword.

“Who are you?”

-I’ll let you live. Just play along.

“Ah.”

The Succubus Queen recognized this presence.

Did she really lend this much of her power to a human?

She thought that he was just a provisional contract, another toy for her to play with, but there was no way she would grant this much power to a mere toy.

The nobles of hell? They were nothing compared to the owner of that mark and her agent.

Even the Succubus Queen, superior to most nobles, wouldn’t be able to withstand her direct descent.

She had to show respect to her official agent.

Especially since that being was about to save her pathetic life.

“Yes.”

So, she slowly knelt and bowed her head.

“Consort of the Demon King.”

Among the countless demons of the demon world, only seven were allowed to use the title of ‘Demon King.’ The being before her bore her mark and shared her power.

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…What the hell?

I didn’t mean for her to take it this far…

Consort of the Demon King? What the hell?

This was too much. I couldn’t react.

Let me summarize the situation.

Thanks(?) to the Succubus Queen, I was wandering through the nightmare and recovered some of my lost memories. I tried to go further, but the Authority in my heart went haywire, so I couldn’t see everything.

So, I escaped to get her help, and now, Lilac was about to become a Mother-in-Law Slayer, so I hurriedly stopped him.

But just stopping him would be awkward.

So, I countered with Devil’s Touch, my newest artifact that the others didn’t know about, and since it could control demonic energy, I changed my appearance and planned to play it off as an act.

I was going for the “being controlled by the Succubus Queen” concept, but why was this lady suddenly submitting to me? She had no sense.

“S-So-hyun!”

I turned my head at Professor Cathy’s voice, and naturally, I was looking down at them.

I tried to create a relaxed atmosphere by loosening my face, since I was often accused of glaring, but Professor Cathy’s face looked a bit pale.

Wait, how should I respond to this?

If I was going for the “being controlled” act, I could just ad-lib, but I couldn’t just say anything after suddenly becoming the “Consort of the Demon King.”

“It’s So-hyun, right? We came to save you.”

The professor seemed even more anxious since I wasn’t saying anything, but unfortunately, I couldn’t answer her.

There would be no reason to save the Succubus Queen if they knew I was sane.

I still needed more information.

I understood how I transmigrated into the novel thanks to remembering my deal with the Lord of All Worlds.

But there were still many unanswered questions like why I lost my memories, or if it was really my friend who exercised the ‘Creator’s Authority.’

The memories related to that were probably also beyond the noise.

And it seemed that I needed the Succubus Queen’s power to see those memories.

Originally, I was planning to pretend to be controlled and secretly make a contract with Devil’s Touch, but things got a bit complicated because of this sudden drift.

But I couldn’t come up with an alternative.

Most succubi couldn’t interfere with my dreams, and Queen-level succubi weren’t easy to find.

And besides my memory issues, I couldn’t let her cause an incident that could potentially plant the seeds of discord between Lilac and Yoo-na: the ‘Lilac killed Yoo-na’s mother’ event.

There was no way I could abandon her.

Now, the problem was whether anyone died in this dream…

-It seems that there aren’t any casualties. They wouldn’t want anyone dying before the dream world was completed.

-Devil’s Touch says it also doesn’t sense any deaths.

I could vaguely sense it too since I had absorbed most of the Succubus Queen’s Authority.

The structure of this dream world, what the Succubus Queen was trying to achieve by creating it…

…and that she didn’t intend to harm the people within this dream.

…A world where people could dream their desired dreams forever, and succubi satisfying their instincts by feeding on the endless desires generated within that world.

Depending on your perspective, the world she envisioned could be seen as a paradise, a symbiotic relationship.

An incomplete paradise that could crumble at any moment.

But even if it was completed properly, this world was destined to be short-lived.

There were many reasons, but I’ll just mention a few.

First, let’s say there was someone completely satisfied with the dream world.

Even if they could achieve everything in their dreams, their physical bodies would eventually die without sustenance.

Then, the moment they woke up from the dream, they would despair at the discrepancy between their dream selves and their real selves.

They would cling to the perfect dream world, struggling to never wake up before eventually dying from lack of vital energy.

Conversely, those who valued reality more would try to escape the moment they woke up.

Even if it was fine at first, if it continued, the world wouldn’t be sustainable, and they would have to resort to kidnapping to forcibly use people as fuel for the dream world.

How did I know that?

Was it too much of a delusion? Was it something that could potentially work?

No.

Because Yoo-na in the original story did something very similar, I could guarantee it.

She, who trapped herself in a dream world, also laughed at the crumbling world.

In the end, she said, “Ah, how fleeting,” and fought Lilac in the collapsing world.

This was troublesome. This was why complicated stories were annoying.

A villain who, despite having the justification of survival for her race, tried to use the most moderate methods she could think of.

She wasn’t completely white, but she was a light gray.

If she hadn’t killed anyone yet, if she tried to suppress her instincts and sacrifice herself for her kind…

…I should at least give her a chance to change.

Yeah. I was already the Masked Villain, so what was wrong with being the Demon King’s Consort for a bit?

As always, if I decided to do something, I would do it thoroughly.

Let’s think positively.

I hadn’t had a chance to see Lilac’s skills since the Masked Villain incident, so this was a good opportunity.

“…Save me?”

I asked Professor Cathy in a dramatic tone that was now familiar to me.

“You’re going to save me?”

My arrogant gaze swept over the crowd.

I infused Lilac’s Holy Sword, held by Black Shadow, with demonic energy, and the holy light and the demonic energy within Black Shadow’s shadow clashed with a crackling sound.

“I don’t know who you’re trying to save me from, but you’re quite arrogant, you humans.”

The light in Professor Cathy’s eyes faded as she listened to my reply, replaced by despair and obsession.

“I shall punish you for your arrogance.”

I retrieved Black Shadow and transmitted an image to Devil’s Touch, and as the corresponding life force drained away from my body, demonic energy swirling in my hand.

The mark, now reaching halfway up my arm, started to glow.

“Disappear.”

The moment I said that, a notification suddenly rang out in my head.

-Impressed by your acting. You trash ba… No, you have gained the trait ‘Acting.’-

…It even gave me a trait?

But I didn’t need it, damn it. Who’s a trash bastard?

I didn’t need it, but perhaps thanks to the trait, even the slightest awkwardness in my already natural acting disappeared.

Lilac, who had been suspicious, became alert and stepped forward.

The demonic energy I unleashed clashed with the Holy Sword’s power, and a struggle began.

“Professor, step back.”

“…Cadet Lilac.”

“You have to calm down. That’s not So-hyun standing there.”

“That’s not So-hyun? That’s So-hyun. Step aside, cadet.”

Our professor was quite agitated. But she was actually right. I was perfectly sane. She had good instincts.

“No, he might have been So-hyun until just now, but the moment he attacked us, he changed completely.”

I could now deceive Lilac even without the Perception Distortion Mask. So why wasn’t I happy?

Ignoring them who were wary of me, I approached the Succubus Queen.

“…First, I’ll ask. What did you do to me?”

Hey, if we were going to act, we should at least share the setting. I needed to know what I was supposedly afflicted with.

“I used the nightmares and demonic energy gathered in this dream world to make it easier for you to accept us.”

Ah? Oh, I see.

Come to think of it, she infused me with everyone’s nightmares and demonic energy, in addition to the Authority, to manipulate me.

She made up a story based on that?

But it was quite plausible.

From the others’ and the professor’s perspective, they came to the deepest part of the dream and found me trapped while floating in a sphere of nightmares and demonic energy.

It wouldn’t be too unnatural even if her original goal was to create the ‘Demon King’s Consort.’

“I see.”

I shouldn’t talk too much with this kind of character.

I had to maintain the silent and aloof act.

“Then what are they?”

And it was more advantageous to ask questions than to answer them.

I saw it in novels.

“They are thieves who came to harm you.”

I could feel everyone’s bewilderment.

“Such insolent fools.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Don’t be ridiculous…!”

Ha-ni yelled indignantly, but I pretended not to hear and spoke to the Queen.

“They’re noisy.”

“It is my fault for failing to eliminate the intruders. Please punish me.”

Oh, I thought it was a bit much at first, but she was actually a good actress.

“Punishment.”

Devil’s Touch read my intention and created a contract with demonic energy.

A contract of absolute obedience.

It was practically a slave contract, an unequal agreement where the subordinate couldn’t disobey the master as long as their life was guaranteed, but she didn’t hesitate to reach out and offer her blood to the dagger I held out.

The contract was then completed.

“Good. Punishment it is.”

And the Succubus Queen vanished as if melting into thin air.

…She’ll be okay, right? It would be troublesome if she died after I went this far to save her.

-Yes, fortunately, I am alright.

…So she was okay. But why was she using formal language when the others couldn’t even hear her?

This time, there was no answer. She was so unpredictable.

Now, I needed a natural way to take care of this.

The professor, looking at me with dying eyes…

Lilac, looking determined…

Ha-ni, gripping her sword hilt with displeasure…

And Cheon Yoo-hak, nodding while looking at Black Shadow…

…What should I do with them?

As I was wondering how to start, two more people appeared.

One was Kim Ga-eul with a complicated expression, and the other was my sister, her face slightly red.

They observed the situation for a moment, then looked flustered by my changed appearance.

My sister was the first to speak.

“Cathy unnie, snap out of it.”

“Na-hyun, what do we do? So-hyun…”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s okay. So-hyun isn’t completely gone yet.”

…Huh? What was she talking about? I was clearly acting like I was corrupted.

I wasn’t gone?

“I met So-hyun right before I woke up from the dream.”

…Huh?

Ah, that was right.

The others woke up on their own or as the dream progressed, but my sister was so deeply trapped by the Authority that I had to wake her up personally.

Wait, weren’t you sleeping? This was embarrassing.

“At first, I thought it was a dream, but he definitely talked to me. He seemed conscious too. There’s no way he’s completely gone in such a short amount of time.”

…Huh? This was a chance, wasn’t it?

I adjusted the demonic energy and dropped the act for a moment.

My eyes, momentarily tinged with purple from the demonic energy, flashed with their original red color, and at the same time, I clutched my head as if in pain.

“Ugh.”

A glimmer of hope flickered in their eyes.

A sliver of light remaining within a comrade that had been possessed by the villain. It was cliché, right?

I could probably just struggle a bit and then naturally lose.

-…Are you playing the villain again?

It seemed like Sun Wukong was saying something, but I couldn’t hear him since I was corrupted.

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T/N – Hell yeah! Actor Kang So-hyun is back! Honestly, for me, the MC is at his best when he is acting. Though did Yoo-hak figure something out? He was looking an awful lot at Black Shadow…

Also, the trash bastard comment makes me think that it’s the author friend who is playing as the Creator. Though why would she do all those horrible things if that was the case?

Lastly, who wants to bet if the MC can actually lose as planned?

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.