I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 19

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Trie possessed talent in swordsmanship that surpassed even her father, Gawayn.

If she devoted herself, she would go beyond being the best swordsman in the empire and approach the realm of a Sword God.

Although in the original work, the serialization was discontinued before she reached that point……

However, Trie had abandoned swordsmanship. She had given up on becoming a knight.

It wasn’t because she had despaired before her talent could bloom.

She had already reached the level of a high-ranking knight at a young age.

The trigger was none other than the death, or more precisely, the disappearance of her father, the best swordsman in the empire.

Gawayn von Schulzenburg.

As a magic knight, both a magician and a knight, he had willingly participated in the Freya-Trud War.

While serving as the empire’s strategic weapon, he had gone out on a mission one day and never returned.

His body was never found, and the Trud Kingdom didn’t propagandize about killing Gawayn, so everyone assumed he had gone missing, but as the author, I knew.

Gawayn had actually been killed by the protagonist, Hertlocker.

But ironically, even Hertlocker himself didn’t know that the person he had killed was Gawayn. It was laughable.

Anyway, that incident prompted Trie to devote herself to magic.

In order to find her father, who might be alive somewhere in this world.

And if he was dead, to break the taboo and resurrect him.

In the first place, it was uncertain whether finding her father, whom no one had been able to locate, was even possible with magic.

But one thing was clear: no matter how much she swung her sword, her father would not return.

On the other hand, magic was a field of study with no known limits and infinite possibilities.

And so, Trie sealed her beloved sword in its sheath and set out on a journey with no end in sight.

It had already been 3 years.

Magic still showed no signs of improvement, and the sword she always carried with her must have been itching to be drawn.

That’s why I was convinced that she would give in to a single request to teach swordsmanship.

“No.”

…… An unexpected answer came back.

“Why not?”

“Why, you ask? What benefit would there be for me to teach you swordsmanship?”

“……”

She wasn’t itching to draw her sword……?

I didn’t even know my own child’s heart.

It felt like my chest was collapsing.

“Then what do you want?”

“…… Magic.”

“What?”

“Can you teach me magic?”

It felt like being hit hard on the head.

You’re asking me to teach you magic as compensation when I’m trying to make you quit magic right now?

You probably believe my skills are tremendous since I was admitted as the top student at the Imperial Academy despite being a commoner, but I’m someone who can’t even take care of myself, let alone teach anyone.

But if that’s what it takes to put a sword back in Trie’s hand……

“Alright.”

“What? Really? You’ll teach me magic?”

“Yes. I’ll teach you magic. And you teach me swordsmanship.”

“Ah…… I’m a really slow learner, but is that still okay?”

“It’s fine.”

Seeing Trie’s expression brighten, I felt uncomfortable in a corner of my heart.

My teachings would be purely amateurish……

I could only hope she wouldn’t notice.

“Can we start tomorrow?”

“Sorry, but I think I can only teach you magic after the midterms. I have some things to use mana for these days.”

“I see……”

I succeeded in postponing teaching magic until after the midterms.

I’ll have to quickly skim through the textbooks in the meantime.

At the very least, I need to know enough to teach her, even if it’s amateurish.

“I can start tomorrow. Where should I teach you?”

“There’s a building used as a training room in the single dormitory room. If you come to the single dormitory room, I’ll guide you.”

“Then until tomorrow at 9 am. How about that?”

“Sounds good.”

The training room was spacious enough, and the walls were reinforced with mana, making it suitable for both sword and magic training.

With a much lighter step, I parted ways with Trie.

I had secured a place for regular meetings with Trie.

Now I had to think about how to persuade her to give up magic.

The quickest way would be to let her know that Gawayn was already dead and that there was no magic to resurrect people……

But even if I told her, she wouldn’t believe it, so it was difficult for now.

In the original work, it had taken her over a year to realize that and give up on magic.

It might be faster to make Trie despair by making her realize that she had no talent whatsoever.

“Hmm?”

When I returned to the mansion, I noticed unfamiliar shoes in the shoe rack.

Black shoes with almost no heel. I seemed to know right away whose they were.

“Welcome back, Mr. Hainkel.”

“Excuse me for intruding, Schlus.”

“……”

In the living room, Iris was sitting on the sofa, drinking tea, and Emilia was standing next to her, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“Well, um… When she said she was Mr. Hainkel’s guest, I felt bad about turning her away, so I asked if she would wait inside……”

“In short, I barged in on my own. I hope you won’t scold your attendant too much.”

“……”

I roughly understood what had happened.

As Emilia, she couldn’t exactly turn away Iris, who was not just a noble but a Saintess.

I fully understood her letting Iris inside without telling me. I would have done the same.

And there was no reason for me to scold Emilia.

If I angered her, she might come to my room with a knife that night……

“So why did you come here?”

“Your tone is a bit cold? I’m sure I told you. We’re going to be together for a long time.”

Iris gave a benevolent smile.

Honestly, I didn’t know what she was thinking.

At first, I thought Iris was on my side in the future as well, and that’s why she was being favorable to me…… But that might actually be a trap.

Iris was set up as a mysterious character whose inside and outside were different.

In reality, she might stand on the opposite side of me in the future, and she might be trying to deceive me to make me fall into a pit more thoroughly.

“Um…… Is it okay for me to listen to this too?”

“It’s fine. Schlus is okay with it too, right?”

“It’s fine. Probably.”

Emilia began to look around, shifting her pupils.

She was probably nervous that she might hear something she shouldn’t and lose her head.

Of course, even if she left now, she would try to eavesdrop using an artifact or something, so there wasn’t much point in sending her away.

“So why did you come?”

“I came to talk about our future.”

I think Emilia just flinched.

What is it? Is it because I’m still being cold?

“You don’t have to be suspicious. I trust you. Because what you want is what I want.”

“……”

I had to be wary.

It might all be lies.

It might be sugar-coated words to lure me into letting my guard down.

“I’ll support everything you want to do. Of course, only within the range of what I can do. It seems difficult to borrow the power of my family.”

That made sense.

Even Iris’ family didn’t know that she possessed future sight.

Even if she said, “Schlus will fight to protect the continent in the future, so we need to help him now!” no one would believe her.

“Iris.”

“Yes?”

“Can I know what you saw?”

What kind of future did she see?

I had to hear it first.

“It’s a secret.”

“……”

Iris answered with a smile.

She could have lied appropriately.

That she saw me and Iris fighting together against hostile monsters.

Or that she saw me saving Iris.

She could have lied by piecing together the future she had glimpsed.

But instead, she said it was a secret……?

This was like saying, “Please be suspicious of me.”

“Schlus, you also have secrets you can’t tell me, right?”

“……”

Come to think of it, that was true.

I hadn’t said a word about how I knew about future sight either.

So from Iris’ perspective, I was the suspicious one.

Knowing about future sight, which she had never told anyone about…… It might have seemed like I had the ability to read minds or something similar.

So my approach must have felt like a threat to Iris.

It must have seemed like a sign saying, “I know this much about you. I can destroy you and your family in an instant, so obey me.”

That way, Iris had no choice but to show favor to me, even if she disliked it.

“Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Yes. If you need help, just call me anytime.”

“I’ll do that.”

We were pretending to have a cooperative relationship, but in reality, we were deceiving each other.

Both of us had secrets we couldn’t tell each other and harbored different thoughts inside.

We didn’t even know if our interests aligned. At least until we revealed our secrets to each other.

We had formed a relationship where we couldn’t trust each other to the end.

“It’s getting late, so I’ll get going. Sorry for intruding.”

Iris put down her teacup and stood up gracefully.

With a faint smile on her lips.

It was an expression that was difficult to discern whether it was genuine or not.

Even Emilia, a master at reading emotions, probably couldn’t do much in front of Iris.

“Be careful on your way back.”

“It’s just to the dormitory right in front, what’s there to be careful about?”

“The academy isn’t always safe. We were even targeted by terrorism.”

“Is that so? Then will you walk me to the dormitory?”

“No.”

“You’re so cold. It’s troubling if you keep being like this. We’re going to see each other for a long time. Can’t you treat me a bit more warmly?”

“When the time comes, I’ll treat you that way. For now, no.”

“Hehe. I’ll be watching to see how long you can keep that up.”

Iris laughed meaningfully and left the mansion.

If I only listened to what she said, it seemed like we would form some special relationship in the future…… But I could easily see through that it was a lie.

Because it was impossible for me to feel love for a combination of letters I had created.

That much I could assert.

“Miss Emilia.”

“Ah, yes?!”

“……?”

Emilia was standing there blankly, then startled and answered.

What was she doing that for?

What kind of act was that?

“I’m going to the training room. If it gets late, don’t wait for me and go to bed first.”

“Ah, I understand.”

Emilia was strangely conscious of me and seemed agitated.

I wondered why she was really acting like that.

With puzzlement, I headed to the training room.

*

“Haah……”

Looking at books for hours on end was killing me.

I think I had skimmed through about half of the textbooks by now, but I had to read them over and over again because I didn’t understand some parts.

“It’s about time……”

Was it time now?

I closed the book and called up the ability list in my mind.

At some point, a light had come on to indicate activation for the ability ‘Selection and Concentration’.

It had become available to use after midnight.

“If my hypothesis is correct, I can open the store with this.”

I carefully went over it one more time to make sure.

The condition to open the store was for all stats to exceed 10.

But it didn’t say that all stats had to exceed 10 ‘simultaneously’, so I came up with the idea that it might be possible to exceed 10 for each stat once a day using ‘Selection and Concentration’.

That way, I had steadily raised my stats until now, and there was only one left. Stamina.

‘Selection and Concentration. Use on stamina.’

I chanted inwardly without hesitation.

I definitely felt the ability activating, but there was no particular sensation.

Since it had increased the toughness of my body, there was no way I would feel it unless I cut myself with a sword to test it.

I thought about stabbing my hand with a pocket knife to test it, but my attention was soon stolen by the subtitles that appeared.

[Store opening condition has been met.]

[The store will open.]

“Finally!”

I let out a cheer without realizing it.

[A reward is given as a store opening bonus.]

[The ability Memory of True Self is enhanced.]

[The ability Selection and Concentration is enhanced.]

An unexpected reward was given.

Ability enhancement.

Let’s see how they were enhanced.

[Ability: Memory of True Self]

[Rank: Rare]

[Description: When performing a specific action, there is a low probability of awakening your original self’s memory related to it.]

Memory of True Self had changed to a form closer to a remake rather than an enhancement.

Originally, when performing a specific action for 1 hour, memories related to it would come to mind, but now it had become completely random.

This looked like a nerf no matter how I looked at it.

It seemed like memories of Schlus that I didn’t even want might seep in and interfere in situations.

[Ability: Selection and Concentration]

[Rank: Legendary]

[Description: Once a day, you can instantaneously amplify a specific stat. You can stop and use it again. Time limit: 5 seconds. Amplification amount: +99]

“Wow.”

The time limit had increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds. And now I could split the time and use it.

It was a big gain that outweighed the nerf to Memory of True Self.

With this, I could use magic on days when I had two classes.

It was just in time, as it would be difficult to maintain the top spot if I skipped even one elective subject.

“Let’s take a look at the store now.”

[Store]

[You can purchase items using Store Coins.]

[Coins owned: 11]

[Item List]

[The Forbidden Elixir]

[Low-grade Recovery Potion]

[High-grade Recovery Potion]

……

There were quite a lot of things.

But what caught my eye among them was none other than-

[The Day of Judgment]

Gawayn’s sword, ‘The Day of Judgment’.

I remembered setting it up as a cheat item, but this one had actually disappeared along with Gawayn when he went missing.

If I suddenly appeared with it one day, I would immediately be taken away by the Imperial Police.

The price was also 100 coins …… I would never buy that.

Other than that, there were some quite intuitive items and some items of unknown nature.

Recovery potions would obviously be items that healed wounds.

What on earth did the Forbidden Elixir do?

‘View.’

The ability ‘View’ didn’t work either.

It seemed it didn’t work on text, only on physical objects.

Then there was no choice.

I purchased one Forbidden Elixir for 1 store coin.

[Purchased 1 Forbidden Elixir.]

“Oh.”

Then, a glass bottle appeared out of thin air and landed on my palm.

It was a scene that would invite a barrage of questions if shown in a crowded place.

I should definitely purchase things from the store alone inside a barrier like this training room.

‘View.’

I immediately activated the ability on the glass bottle.

Then, as if it had been waiting, subtitles popped up.

[The Forbidden Elixir]

[Epic Item: It deviates from the principles of this world, making it impossible to duplicate or reproduce.]

[Description: Drinking it will permanently increase a random stat by 10. It tastes bad.]

“This is crazy.”

The effect was truly immense.

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