I Became the Terminally Ill Character in My Friend’s Academy Novel – Chapter 83

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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It was a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time.

No, was it really that long ago?

Lilac thought so as he raised the White Rose Sword he held in his hand.

He could naturally recall how to wield a sword, and how to use the talent that was his foundation.

The feeling of easily reaching a wall that seemed impossible to reach before.

And the feeling of being able to move beyond that wall without breaking it.

Thanks to this power, he had cut through the flames of hell and cleaved the poison of loneliness.

A sense of omnipotence, a feeling that he could do anything, pleasantly washed over him.

“Here I go.”

It could be seen as cowardly, borrowing someone else’s power, but the opponent was definitely not someone he could face while holding back.

Lilac knew that choosing your methods while arguing about fairness against an opponent stronger than you wasn’t being fair, but rather was looking down on them.

[Impressive.]

His body was light.

His movements were free.

The sword he swung effortlessly contained a profound principle he hadn’t been able to grasp before, and the holy sword light made it shine even brighter.

The sensation of the world becoming clearer eventually formed into the optimal sword path.

[I knew you were a talented boy, but you adapted to movements that transcended the wall in an instant.]

She was watching Lilac with a pleased, almost indulgent expression, as if watching a child ride a bicycle for the first time.

As if that wasn’t enough.

[Transcending the wall and perfectly wielding what lies beyond are two different things. No, perhaps it’s fine to touch upon that realm beforehand, since it’s a realm you’ll eventually reach.]

The first move.

She effortlessly deflected the slash he had unleashed despite him concentrating all of his wieldable power into a single point.

If his movements were linear, hers were circular.

In this first exchange, Lilac…

The boy with one of the greatest talents in this world…

…had to realize the undeniable difference between them.

That even now, having transcended the wall through Enhancement, he was still far inferior to her.

“Hmph…!”

But that wasn’t a reason to give up the fight he had started, nor was it enough to break his will.

[Good. Yes, good. A child with such righteousness is valuable in itself.]

“Are you sure you can afford to focus solely on him?”

Hmm?

She turned around and was slightly surprised.

Because a boy holding golden lightning in his hand was taking a javelin-throwing stance.

Lightning Transformation.

The Lightning Dragon Spear transformed into lightning and shot out to pierce the enemy.

She was surprised, but not flustered.

It was a highly accurate and powerful attack, but it was ultimately meaningless if it didn’t land. And dodging lightning wasn’t that difficult for her.

She was only slightly surprised by his skill, which was beyond his age, and the fact that the current state of the boys were vastly different from before the other boy was revived.

“Where are you going?”

So, the moment she was truly surprised was the next moment.

Just as she was about to move to dodge, a sudden iron cage trapped her.

She tried to break it and escape, but the cage was made of some unknown material and didn’t budge even with a light blow.

Aha.

So this was Ruyi Jingu Bang.

She remembered being warned about this by ‘her.’

It was an excellent judgment.

If it had looked incredibly sturdy, she would have used her full power, but she was fooled by its plain and worn appearance, which led her to use too little force.

Of course, it wasn’t impossible for her to escape, but that one second it took her to realize that was not a short time in a superhuman battle.

Lightning from the front, holy sword light from behind.

[Excellent.]

Although it was a fight against multiple opponents, she had to admit that she had underestimated the boys.

The lightning and the holy sword light struck her.

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What is this?

At first, I thought she could easily be subdued by Lilac with Enhancement.

If the person I had in mind, my friend who was probably the creator of this world, was involved, there was no way he would make himself this overpowered.

I thought his limit was intervention using OO, that black thing.

The smoke cleared up from beyond the cage, and the face behind the mask was revealed.

…Who are you?

No, well…

There was a slight possibility that it was my friend.

It was just that…

That face wasn’t his type.

Red hair and red eyes. It was a combination that could easily give a sharp impression, but perhaps it was because she was smiling so kindly, she looked gentle.

“I’m surprised. I admit it. I didn’t expect you three boys who haven’t even transcended the wall yet to display this level of teamwork.”

Although she acted as if she wasn’t surprised at all, she seemed to be sincere.

“But breaking my mask was a bad move. I’m a bit of a defective product, so I can’t control myself without it.”

This confirmed it.

Although this person didn’t appear in the original story, it seemed like she wasn’t my friend either.

Was she someone who emerged from a gap in the settings, or was she a character who wasn’t mentioned in the settings book?

I didn’t know for sure, but I felt a sense of danger from her.

A smile spread across her previously expressionless face.

“Ah, as expected, I can’t control myself without the mask. I should hold back, but I can’t help but laugh.”

Chuckle… chuckle…

The smile soon turned into a distorted laugh as madness filled her eyes.

Was she the same person as before?

The gentle and somewhat emotionless woman was gradually being consumed by madness.

She raised her fist.

Thump.

Huh?

For some reason, I had a feeling that the talent she was about to use was incredibly dangerous.

“Lilac…! Shield! Block it quickly…!”

And as soon as I had that premonition, I shouted.

Lilac, who had a puzzled look on his face, hurriedly took out his shield and coated it with holy sword light.

The red thing…

Cheon Yoo-hak, who rushed over at my urgent shout, stood beside Lilac.

…gathered in her fist.

Cheon Yoo-hak’s protective qi, formed from mana, and Lilac’s holy sword light created a double-layered shield.

It was blood.

At the same time, it was the source, one of the fundamental elements that made up the world.

It wasn’t enough. I had a feeling that they couldn’t block it with their barrier when they hadn’t fully bloomed yet.

I seem to vaguely understand what her talent was.

Blood was just a symbolic, visual effect.

That was life itself.

“Ruyi…!”

Fusion.

It wasn’t the time to think about the consequences.

If I couldn’t block that attack, I would die, and I couldn’t afford to hold back and die.

A fist, not even in a proper stance, was thrown.

But it was only because it wasn’t necessary.

There were only a handful of people in the entire world who could block that overflowing red thing.

Sun Wukong’s eyes widened as he took over my body.

As if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

-A truly twisted being.

First, the holy sword light shattered and scattered.

“…Ugh…!?”

Next, Cheon Yoo-hak’s protective qi burst.

“…Gah…!?”

The two boys collapsed without any resistance, so only I and Sun Wukong remained.

Sun Wukong used my talent without hesitation and consumed my innate qi.

As if it was an attack he couldn’t even think of blocking otherwise.

Ruyi, in the staff form he was most familiar with, was swung, drawing a line.

The overflowing torrent of life force didn’t lose any momentum from that single blow.

But the single blow didn’t end there.

The lines connected to form a surface, and the surfaces connected to form a barrier.

The torrent, which hadn’t wavered even after ten or twenty strikes, began to lose momentum as the staff was swung over a hundred times, and after three hundred times, it finally began to change direction.

His hands hurt. His throat burned.

It was an attack that would have devastated the entire surrounding area with even the slightest mistake.

How much time had passed?

A thousand times.

Only after Sun Wukong, the strongest in the legend, showcased his skills and swung the staff a thousand times… did the red light finally change direction and surge towards the sky.

“Crazy.”

-I’m sorry. This is my limit.

And Sun Wukong, reaching his limit, switched control back to me.

My whole body ached even though I only blocked one attack.

But the red woman in front of me, full of smiles, raised her fist again as if she was fine even after unleashing such an attack.

Her madness-tinged interest was directed at us.

It seemed like she hadn’t even considered the possibility of us blocking it.

What stood before us was something we couldn’t possibly handle.

“Anpanman! New face!”

That is, until someone put a new mask on her face.

[Oh dear.]

The moment she wore the mask, the madness that had been engulfing her rapidly subsided.

[I went too far. My mistake.]

I had been thinking about this since a while ago, but the uncontrollable madness, the mask, and the ability to manipulate something that looked like blood…

This person…

…was a character I would have loved if I had seen her back then.

No, actually, I was still a little interested in her.

She was so cool.

A transcendent being with restrictions, a character with an absolute ruler concept with some kind of limitation. It was my favorite type of character.

Even I thought it was a crazy thought. What was I thinking while looking at the opponent who almost killed me just moments ago?

She slowly picked up the unconscious former head of the Twelve Zodiacs.

The person who had momentarily appeared and put the mask on her was already gone, and she hesitated for a moment, seemingly troubled.

[Actually, I wasn’t originally designed this way.]

What nonsense was this, suddenly?

Lilac and Cheon Yoo-hak were unconscious, so she seemed to be talking to me, but I couldn’t understand her abrupt words.

[To be precise, it’s more accurate to say that I’m a defective product, downgraded from the original design.]

…What? Was this trash talk? ‘You lost to this defective product!’, was that it?

[She told me. The role I was assigned this time was a scattered ‘Omnipotence.’ She said she had to add that setting to forcibly bring me here from another world.]

What did she just say? Another world?

[So, I heard that I’m more related to you than to her.]

Huh.

Something… a memory…

A part that I couldn’t recall due to the noise became clearer, like fog lifting.

-This wasn’t part of the plan.

-It’s necessary for OO.

My head hurts.

I felt like I would pass out at any moment.

-What have you done?

-Why? Is there some rule that Lilac has to be the main OO?

Whose memories were these, and who was I talking to?

-Hey, let’s stop.

-Stop? Stop what? We’ve sacrificed so much to get this far, and you want to stop?

Yes, it was wrong from the beginning.

We shouldn’t have done it.

-Yes, that’s why we have to fix it. Now.

-Says who?

We glared at each other fiercely.

-Says me, bitch.

My consciousness that had reached that point sank back into darkness.

[I’d like to take you with me if possible, but an obstacle has intervened. I haven’t been permitted to fight her yet, so I’ll see you next time.]

The last thing I heard was that unknown voice.

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“I don’t remember anything…”

Foolishly, after regaining consciousness, I realized that I didn’t remember anything.

No, I remembered fighting, rescuing Professor Cathy, and the appearance of an unknown character afterwards.

What I couldn’t remember was something completely different.

-You really don’t remember anything?

Sun Wukong asked, but I couldn’t remember what I couldn’t remember.

There had been noise in my memories ever since I arrived in this world.

It wasn’t inconvenient for daily life, and I didn’t know exactly what I couldn’t remember, but the noise had faded for a brief moment this time.

But I couldn’t remember what I saw beyond that noise, what triggered it.

I felt like I heard something, but what did I hear?

If I tried hard enough, I felt like I could remember it.

But whenever I tried, something in my heart would squirm and interfere.

“…This.”

Tsk.

I lost my focus.

Since it was basically a private room, I could refocus if I wanted to, but I didn’t feel like doing it now.

And judging by my experience so far, an uninvited guest would probably arrive soon.

Click.

Oh, academy transmigrator special: Premonitions are usually right.

The guest was Professor Cathy.

I was about to greet her, but something about her atmosphere wasn’t right.

She didn’t have her always bright smile, and her emerald eyes that shone with confidence were now devoid of light.

…Was she brainwashed again…?

The moment I thought that.

“Sob.”

She sobbed and suddenly hugged me tightly.

Well, it wasn’t a strange reaction, considering the incident.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m okay.”

Actually, it wasn’t okay. I had a hole in my stomach, and I was now raising some strange gunk in my heart to undo her brainwashing.

But I didn’t resent her.

…I had a rational suspicion that I might be more into women than I thought, but this feeling wasn’t that.

I was just happy that she was safe, that things were going in a good direction.

As I gently stroked her hair, she pressed herself closer to me.

Come to think of it, I heard women didn’t like having their hair touched. Was this okay?

“More.”

“What?”

“Touch me more.”

A strange passion and longing dwelled in her eyes as she looked up at me.

Y-you’re not insinuating anything inappropriate, are you, Professor…?

Well, I couldn’t just stay like this, so I raised my hand again to stroke her hair.

If only Lilac and Cheon Yoo-hak, who were wearing hospital gowns, hadn’t come in together through the door that opened with a click.

“…Excuse me.”

“Sorry, So-hyun.”

Sorry for what? I’m innocent, you bastards.

Well, I couldn’t say I was entirely innocent, but I felt wronged here.

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T/N – Well, there was a beatdown, but it was the MC and his friends who were on the receiving end.

The plot thickens… How interesting. As for the character the MC is talking about, she’s probably someone his author friend designed in the settings book but ultimately scrapped. But she said she was a defective product of the original and came from another world, the author friend is pulling all the stops to f*ck the MC over.

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