I Became the Academy’s Heroine Stalker – Chapter 32

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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Bersha, hanging upside down from a stalactite on the cave ceiling, observed the man.

He only mimicked her Master’s appearance; the energy emanating from within him felt incredibly decrepit.

Like an old man on the verge of death.

That’s why his mana had a sour, stale, yet strangely earthy scent.

Even though he had been a massive black dragon, she couldn’t let her guard down just because he seemed feeble.

“Kehehe… my long-cherished ambition will finally be fulfilled.”

The man chuckled darkly and approached a magic device.

‘Long-cherished ambition?’

Bersha tilted her head.

His dark chuckle suited her Master surprisingly well, but the phrase “long-cherished ambition” seemed out of place.

Wasn’t “ambition” usually associated with revenge?

But the Han Tae-jin she knew was far from ambitious.

He was barely 20 years old; the word “ambition” didn’t fit him.

“Today, I will take this Dragon Slayer’s body and avenge myself on that bitch, his companion or lover or whatever she was. Kehehe.”

Did all species become more prone to talking to themselves as they aged?

He muttered to himself and reached for the lever of a fragile-looking magic device.

He froze, however, at Bersha’s sudden appearance.

“Hold it.”

“Gah—?! Wh-who’s there?!”

“Move your hand, and you’re dead.”

Her chilling warning made him freeze, his hand still on the lever.

In that brief encounter, he knew…

…her threat was genuine.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?!”

“A fat, one-armed black dragon?”

“What?! O-one-armed?!”

He looked at his missing left arm and glared at her.

But Bersha remained calm.

[Dreams] were the succubi’s domain.

Unless there was a significant difference in power, she was confident she could defeat this old dragon.

“So, what were you planning? Explain it clearly.”

“S-shut up! Did you think I’d be scared of you?!”

– *Crash!*

One of the magic devices behind him shattered.

Bersha’s mana whip, having returned to her hand, lashed out.

“N-no! No—!!!”

He screamed pathetically and rushed towards the device, but concentrated mana was already leaking out like oil.

It was also on fire, beyond repair.

He fell to his knees and wailed, “No! I was so close!! What have you done—!! This can’t be happening—!!”

“It is happening—!!”

– *Crash!*

Her whip lashed out again, destroying the device he had been trying to activate.

Violence was a powerful tool for communication.

Especially when using something precious as leverage.

Only three devices remained.

Even if this cavern was vast, if he transformed into a dragon, he would be trapped. Bersha had the upper hand.

Actually, now that she thought about it…

Even a direct confrontation in his dragon form wouldn’t be a problem.

“So, are you ready to talk now?”

“Noooo—!! I was so close to achieving my ambition! What have you done—!!”

He went half-mad, summoning dozens of dark mana spheres and launching them at her.

– *Kaboom!*

The destructive power was enough to shake the cavern.

But for her, the ruler of this dreamscape, it was a paltry attack.

“My turn?”

Bersha emerged from the dust cloud, her eyes glinting menacingly, and slammed her whip onto the ground.

– *Crackle!*

Yellow sparks flew from the mana-infused whip.

He had dared to infiltrate her Master’s dream and try to steal his body.

That was a crime punishable by dismemberment. Bersha had no intention of letting him off easy.

Stealing a body through dreams was forbidden even among succubi.

“Before that, what was that about a Dragon Slayer, companion, and lover?”

“Do you think I’d tell you—!!”

Well, she *had* destroyed his machines, so he probably wouldn’t want to talk.

Thinking that, Bersha destroyed another machine.

– *Crash!*

“Noooo—!!! Stop! Please stop!”

“*You* stop—!”

– *Crash!*

“Noooo! My research! Centuries of work—!!”

Her mother had once said, if violence doesn’t work, perhaps you’re not using enough violence.

Only one machine remained.

Bersha lowered her whip and issued another warning.

“So, what’s your answer?”

“You heartless bitch! Do you have any idea how much effort I put into achieving my ambition—!!”

“Answer.”

“You’ve humiliated me—!”

– *Slap!*

“Answer.”

“Ugh…!”

“If you answer my questions, I’ll let you go.”

“R-really?”

“I am the Queen of Succubi. I swear on my honor.”

The man, now a pathetic, groveling old warlock instead of a black dragon, continued.

He had realized that he couldn’t escape from this vicious woman, especially not in this enclosed cavern. Out in the open, it might have been a different story.

After hearing his brief, summarized explanation, Bersha looked unimpressed.

For someone who had lived for a thousand years, traveling between planets, ambitions fulfilled in dreams were rather cliché.

Dragon Slayers, salvation, revenge… all of it.

“So, our Master was one of the Dragon Slayers summoned to defeat you. And you pretended to be dead, hid in his return portal, and infiltrated his dream?”

“Y-yes.”

“And due to your interference during his return, there was an error, causing some mental problems for my Master, but he seems to have recovered recently. You don’t know why.”

“That’s correct.”

“And you’ve been lurking in my Master’s dream, waiting for a chance to steal his body, using the mental rift that recently appeared?”

“…Yes.”

“So, in a way, *you* are my Master’s long-cherished desire?”

“Yes.”

The conversation ended, and a brief silence followed.

Then, the man cried out again.

He had taken the form of a frail, hunchbacked old man.

“N-no! Th-that’s not what I meant…!”

“Yes, it is. You are my Master’s ambition.”

Bersha stood up.

Her questions were answered.

Now, it was time for judgment.

She wrapped her whip around his neck and lifted him into the air.

A succubus’s title was [Ruler of Dreams].

A washed-up dragon was no match for her.

And she had no intention of sparing someone who dared to exploit her Master’s dream.

“Ugh…! You swore on your honor…!!”

“Ah, I did. But my Master is more important than my honor!”

“Noooo—!!”

The whip coiled tightly around him, constricting him.

– *Kwooh!*

– *Kuwak!*

He struggled, trying to transform into a dragon, but his efforts were futile against her, who was in her element.

He swelled like the Michelin Man, then exploded with a loud *bang* and a scream.

It was an anticlimactic death.

And a gruesome one.

The dream he had been controlling began to collapse.

There was nothing to gain from him anyway.

What could she possibly glean from a one-armed old dragon on the verge of death, banished from his own world?

He was more of a liability than an asset.

It wasn’t uncommon for individuals to be summoned for specific purposes, like Dragon Slayers.

And if she let him go, he would simply hide in a deeper abyss and plot his revenge. She had to eliminate him.

Moreover,

Prolonging this could negatively affect her Master’s mind, and someone might discover her in this compromising, dream-intruding position.

It was best to end this quickly rather than waste time extracting useless information from him.

The dream landscape began to crumble, and Bersha closed her eyes.

A smile spread across her face, filled with the joy of saving her Master.

“Oh.”

She forgot to ask for his comrade’s name.

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“Ugh…”

Tae-jin woke up.

He felt as if he had been in a deep sleep.

His fatigue was gone, and the pain in his left arm had vanished; it felt light as a feather.

He opened his eyes.

How long had he been out?

He had collapsed from the sudden, excruciating pain in his arm, unable to even breathe, despite his Frail trait not activating.

He had felt like he was dying.

Was this heaven?

Sunlight streamed in through the window. Tae-jin rubbed his eyes and looked around. He saw Bersha sitting beside his bed, smiling warmly.

“Reina, how long was I out?”

“Exactly one hour and twenty-eight minutes.”

“What? That’s it?”

“Yes.”

He had been so sleep-deprived that he thought he had been out for at least two days.

He looked down at his left arm.

The blackness was gone; it had returned to its normal color.

“Huh, it’s gone.”

“Hoho, I’m glad, Master.”

“What happened?”

Thirty minutes had passed since the dream intrusion.

But Bersha couldn’t tell her Master about it.

She had been repeatedly warned during her training:

[If the summoner learns about an unauthorized dream intrusion, it can damage the relationship and even lead to contract termination.]

Contract termination was a huge risk.

Unauthorized dream intrusions, regardless of the reason, negatively impacted the relationship.

It was an unwritten rule, almost a superstition, passed down through generations of succubi.

But Bersha didn’t regret it.

She was willing to risk it all to protect her Master, Han Tae-jin. If she hadn’t intervened, he might have been mentally dominated and harmed by the black dragon.

Even if this led to contract termination, she wouldn’t regret it.

Bersha covered her mouth and smiled brightly.

“A miracle, perhaps? The doctor also checked on you. He said you’ve made a full recovery.”

“…Really? I feel like I had a long dream… something exploding, someone begging… something about a hero, revenge…”

Bersha was familiar with human sayings about dreams.

She particularly liked the one that said, “The interpretation is more important than the dream itself.”

“Perhaps you had a strange dream?”

“…Maybe?”

Tae-jin scratched his head.

He decided to dismiss the dream, feeling refreshed and as if the pain wouldn’t return.

But that night…

When a fragment of the black dragon, absorbed into Tae-jin’s dream, manifested as a [Special Skill]…

…he began to question whether it had truly been just a strange dream.

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[T/N: Michelin Man or Michelin Tire Man, is the official mascot of the Michelin tire company. A humanoid figure consisting of stacked white tires.]

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