I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 44

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“I am Schlus Hainkel. My attendant should be at the chairwoman’s residence, so please pass on a message to her.”

“Yes. Please tell me.”

First, I stopped by the main gate of the Imperial Academy and made a request to the guard.

I had a message to relay to Emilia.

Since it was an hour round trip from the main gate to the chairwoman’s residence, I had no choice but to do this to save time.

“Please tell her I may not be able to come back tonight.”

“I will relay it exactly as you said.”

I may have to stay up all night today.

Even though I would hate to stay up all night when I have a schedule to go to the Imperial Palace tomorrow…

I had no choice.

If I didn’t want the First Intelligence Agency to be annihilated and the Kingdom to disintegrate.

“Fuck… How did it come to this…?”

I started running towards the old town again.

In the original work, this episode was light-hearted to the point of being comical.

It was an episode where the traitor, who fell for the Empire’s sweet offer and tried to run away with the Intelligence Agency’s data, got caught by Hertlocker and was thoroughly beaten up.

It was a contrived situation created solely to showcase Hertlocker’s overwhelming power.

But the guy finally succeeded in running away with the data.

Honestly, with my current self, there was no way to know how far the guy had escaped.

Perhaps he had already escaped the Intelligence Agency’s search and made contact with the Imperial Police.

If that was the case, the Intelligence Agency was already finished.

All I could do was pray that the guy was still within the old town and that the Intelligence Agency’s agents were scattered everywhere, preventing him from escaping.

Fortunately, I knew exactly where the traitor would flee to.

Because there was a scene described from his perspective.

If he succeeded in safely escaping from the base with the data, he planned to flee through the sewers.

The Intelligence Agency’s agents wouldn’t even imagine it.

Because there wasn’t a single passage to enter the sewers in the old town.

In the first place, who would consider a path that couldn’t be entered as an escape route?

Taking advantage of that blind spot, he would try to dig into the ground near the sewers.

And what I had to do was…

“Ugh. Fucking smell.”

Wait on the opposite side of the sewers.

I had to stand at the sewer entrance in the new town and cover my nose.

Isn’t this too much, even if it’s bad?

Still, it was a less nauseating smell compared to the forbidden potion.

It was roughly bearable.

I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Just a little further in, it was pitch black without a single ray of light.

I wasn’t seeing with light, so it didn’t greatly hinder my vision, but I still couldn’t help my instinctive aversion to darkness.

“Phew. This sucks, really.”

Now there was really nothing else to do.

Just quietly, endlessly waiting.

I couldn’t even move recklessly due to the risk of missing him.

I had no way of knowing if the guy would finish digging in an hour, in the middle of the night, or even tomorrow morning.

Perhaps while digging, he would be caught by an agent of the Intelligence Agency, and my waiting would be in vain.

The more I thought about it, the shittier it felt.

Why do I have to do this shit?

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“Situation report.”

-Standby Team 1. Nothing unusual.

-Standby Team 2. Nothing to report.

-Standby Team 3…

At the constant sound coming through the communication artifact, Hertlocker tightly closed his eyes.

All the checkpoints leading through the old town had agents deployed.

But even after 8 hours of searching, that damn guy was still nowhere to be seen.

There was no way he had escaped outside the search radius in that time.

He must still be holed up somewhere in the old town.

‘Where the hell is he…?’

Hertlocker was in charge of searching inside the old town.

He was the only one who could subdue the traitor without causing a commotion if he encountered him alone.

But there was no progress on his side either after 8 hours.

Could it be that he had secretly hidden in some house?

It was already late into the night.

Hertlocker gradually grew anxious.

‘We can’t let the night pass.’

The fact that the guy ran away with the data meant there was a client who wanted to buy the data.

Then he was probably supposed to hand over the data sometime tomorrow, but if time passed and the guy didn’t show up, the client would start to move.

The Imperial Police might raid the old town and extract the traitor and the data.

If that happened, it was game over.

The Intelligence Agency would be annihilated and completely neutralized.

They would lose their only means to prevent the Empire from restarting the war, the intelligence resources.

That had to be prevented no matter what.

‘Let’s use our heads.’

Hertlocker took a moment to calm his mind and body and stood upright.

He had already spread detection magic throughout the old town, but he couldn’t find the guy.

He needed to come up with a method other than running around on foot.

‘He must have a plan too.’

Surely he couldn’t have not anticipated it would turn out like this.

Being cornered was a last resort, not the best option.

So he must have thought of a way to break through their encirclement separately.

The question was, what was that method…?

‘Think. If it were me…’

Hertlocker’s mind started to turn busily.

By directly subduing the surveilling agents.

If not that, then by going over the rooftops…

Several methods came to mind, but they all seemed nearly impossible with that traitor’s physical abilities.

As Hertlocker continued to ponder-

“Through the sewers…?”

He suddenly thought of the sewers.

It was certainly a wide passage that people could sufficiently pass through and extended all the way to the new town.

It was indeed the optimal escape route, but the problem was that there was no path leading to the sewers in the old town.

There were storm drains for rainwater to flow out, but no passages for people to enter and exit.

“Wait a minute. There isn’t? Then he just needs to make one, right?”

Hertlocker’s eyes, bloodshot from fatigue, widened.

Why hadn’t he considered the sewers as an escape route until now?

If there was no connecting path, he just needed to dig one.

“Standby teams! Immediately block the sewers-”

“Pardon? What did you say?”

“Tsk. No. Keep standing by as you were!”

Hertlocker started running, leaving the communication behind.

He wanted to order them to block the other side of the sewers… but that would create a hole in the encirclement.

Perhaps that was the traitor’s intention.

That’s why he couldn’t move the other agents and had no choice but to move himself.

Where should I go?

Should I go around to the other side of the sewers and block the escape route, even now?

Just as he was thinking that, Hertlocker felt something off and abruptly stopped.

‘What is it?’

The wind around him was strange.

This wasn’t a place where such a breeze would blow.

Due to the surrounding building structure, wind couldn’t pass through.

Yet the fact that wind was blowing meant…

There was a structurally different place somewhere nearby.

Realizing that fact, Hertlocker sharply turned around.

There was a public restroom hidden behind a wooden fence.

‘There it is!’

Figuring out the direction the wind was blowing from, Hertlocker immediately pushed open the restroom doors.

Clank clank…

“Huh?”

There was one door that didn’t open.

There was no way someone would be using a public restroom at this hour.

Hertlocker slightly stepped back and-

“Hah!”

Bang!

He kicked the door with all his might, shattering it.

Behind the door that limply swung open-

“Ha. Crazy bastard.”

There was a large hole in the floor next to the toilet, big enough for a person to pass through.

It seemed he had dug down all night, taking advantage of the soft material of the restroom floor.

Although there was a bit of a foul smell, there was no time to hesitate.

Hertlocker immediately squeezed his body into the hole.

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“Haa… Haa…”

A man wearing glasses ran along the dark path, gasping for breath.

Due to his weak magic power, the light source created by the luminescence magic could only illuminate the darkness up to a few steps ahead.

“Whoa?!”

The man, who momentarily stumbled, barely stood upright, flailing his arms.

A waterway with sewage floating by unfolded before his eyes.

If he had taken one more step, he would have fallen in.

The man gulped and tightly hugged his bag.

Because he couldn’t drop the data inside.

If he could just sell this to the Empire, he could live the life of a nobleman.

With that anticipation, the man laughed and started running again.

This time, carefully watching his steps so as not to fall.

“I think I’ve come far… When does this end?”

“It’s almost over now.”

“…!”

At the low voice coming from ahead, the man hurriedly stopped and assumed a combat stance.

The sound of shoes tapping grew closer.

Soon, from the pitch-black darkness, a man with a rhythmic gait walked out.

Seeing his face, the man cried out in surprise.

“Schlus… Hainkel…?”

“I don’t think there’s a need for separate introductions.”

Schlus Hainkel.

He was the talked-about commoner who had prevented the Intelligence Agency’s terror attack and killed the Crow Henderson.

The man, who had been tense, lowered his raised fists and brightened his face.

He was the one who had fought against the Intelligence Agency and almost killed Hertlocker.

In other words, he was essentially an ally.

“Were you the one who wanted to buy the information? I really never imagined!”

“Is that so?”

“You must have come in person because you were worried. I’m really sorry for making you come to such a filthy place.”

“It’s fine. You definitely brought the information, right?”

“Ah! Of course!”

The man hurriedly rummaged through his bag and took out a bundle of papers.

It was data containing detailed personal information, including photos of the Intelligence Agency’s agents.

How long had he meticulously planned to run away with just this one thing?

Recalling the past days, the man felt like he was about to tear up.

“Is it the original?”

“Yes! It is!”

“I hope there are no copies left.”

“Yes! I didn’t make any separate copies! This is the only original!”

Even while obsequiously bowing, the man didn’t feel any sense of discomfort.

Because all he could glimpse from Schlus Hainkel’s eyes was an endlessly deep void.

There was no way to know what he was thinking.

“Hand it over.”

“Pardon?”

“I said hand it over now. I’ll give you the compensation once we get out of this smelly place.”

“Ah, yes! I understand!”

The man hurriedly ran over and presented the file with both hands.

Because it would be troublesome if the client changed his mind due to even a moment’s hesitation.

“…?”

He slightly peeked at Schlus Hainkel’s face as he snatched the file away.

He couldn’t see his entire face since he was bowing, but he was definitely smiling.

Was he that happy at the thought of bringing down the Intelligence Agency?

No, it wasn’t that kind of smile.

It was a smile like… a demon whose mischief had been triggered.

Thinking something was going wrong, the man straightened his back.

Then he saw Schlus Hainkel smiling and holding a crumpled paper in one hand.

“Thank you.”

“No, what are you doing-”

Whoosh-

At that moment, the paper caught fire.

The man froze in place at the sight of the invaluable data that couldn’t be exchanged for anything turning into black ashes.

Soon, the remains, burnt black beyond recognition, were thrown into the sewage.

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