I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 74

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Freya Imperial Academy back gate.

Sitting there, Iris had her eyes tightly closed with her hands neatly on her lap.

Although Erica, who kept pacing back and forth in front of her, was extremely annoying, she decided not to say anything.

Erica must be just as nervous.

“They’re coming!”

“Really?”

At Erica’s voice, Iris abruptly stood up.

It was true.

In the distance, two carriages were coming from the mountain road.

At that sight, Iris felt like she was suffocating.

Because it was exactly the same scene as the future she had seen with her foresight.

If things unfolded the same way as the future she saw back then, after this…

‘No. The future could have changed.’

Because the future always changed wherever Schlus went.

So it must have changed this time too.

Iris believed that without a doubt.

No, she wanted to believe that.

“Professor Sergei!”

“Oh, what brings you two students here?”

As Erica ran up, Professor Sergei jumped out of the carriage.

Soon, both carriages stopped at the back gate.

Up to this point, it was chillingly the same as what she had seen in her foresight.

“Why does your face look like that?”

“Ah… Is it a mess? I didn’t have time to straighten up.”

Sergei’s face as he laughed heartily was dark, no, haggard.

Even his characteristic hearty laughter had dropped to 10% of its usual volume.

“What do you mean you didn’t have time to straighten up?”

“About that. I’ll tell you later… Ah! Why are you taking that out already?!”

“…?!”

At Sergei’s shout, Erica turned her head and was startled.

The assistant and some students were taking out a large coffin from the second carriage.

Watching it from behind, Iris felt her heart pounding.

No way.

It couldn’t be.

“Is that a coffin, Professor?”

“Ha…”

“Give me an answer, Professor!”

“Yes… That’s right. But you must not tell anyone about this. Put the coffin back in, kids!”

“Professor! Who died?! Tell me!”

As Erica clung to him, Sergei avoided her gaze as if troubled.

Soon, Trie and Ainz staggered out of the carriage.

“Professor. It should be okay to tell Erica and Iris.”

“Yes… It’s fine since they were acquainted with him too.”

“…”

It was their first time seeing Ainz like that.

Ainz, who was trembling as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment, was not his usual self who was always overflowing with confidence, arrogant and ill-mannered.

The green-haired swordsman had also only been seen a few times, but at least she had never seen her with her shoulders drooping like that.

“Open the coffin lid. Let them see for a moment.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Sergei reluctantly approved, gritting his teeth.

Erica and Iris approached the coffin as if in a trance.

It was clear what would be inside, but they still pretended not to know.

It shouldn’t be.

It couldn’t be.

It was too early for him to die…

“Is this some kind of joke?”

“…”

“Hey. Schlus. Wake up. What are you doing there…”

Erica, who touched Schlus’ face, fell backwards.

Schlus’ face was cold.

At that moment, suddenly all of this came to her as reality and weighed down on Erica.

“Wait a minute. It can’t be… No. Why?”

“It’s because of me. Because of me… Schlus lured the magical beasts alone to save me and… Waaah!”

Ainz, who had been sobbing, finally burst into tears and collapsed.

As he cried loudly against the coffin, Trie was just clenching her fists tightly, not even noticing that her nails were piercing her palm and blood was flowing.

Her eyes were already swollen.

“Explain in detail, Professor! What happened?!”

“I’ll deliver the details later through the school. Forget everything you saw today. I showed you because you were Schlus’ friends…”

“Professor! Explain in detail… Huh?”

Erica, who was chasing after Sergei, turned around as someone tapped her back.

The red-haired girl, Selene, was standing there with her head hanging low.

“Selene. Please explain to me. What on earth happened?”

“Lady Erica… I don’t know what you think of Schlus, but I think it’s all a misunderstanding.”

“What do you mean?”

Selene’s voice was trembling.

Erica was startled by her glaring eyes.

It was the first time she had seen Selene with such a defiant gaze.

She had obediently followed the order to monitor Schlus.

“Schlus wasn’t some evil guy who made a contract with a demon. He was kind enough to hold onto recovery potions until he was covered in blood and give them to others, and brave enough to shoot up a lure spell to save Mr. Ainz who was surrounded by magical beasts!”

“Ah…”

“He wasn’t someone who deserved to be monitored. You knew, didn’t you, Lady Erica? That Schlus would sacrifice himself like this someday?”

“Th-that’s…”

“So you knew. Then why didn’t you tell me? We could have stopped it then! Even if we couldn’t stop it, at least we could have helped him! Why did you… even though you knew…!”

“…”

Her throat was choked up, and words wouldn’t come out.

She wanted to make excuses, but they just turned into grunting sounds without leaving her mouth.

He shouldn’t have died like this.

That bastard Schlus should have lived longer and died when his lifespan ran out.

She was trying to make it happen, but how did it…

“Why did it have to be when I wasn’t there…”

Erica collapsed in front of the coffin.

Looking back, Iris was still standing there blankly, unable to accept reality.

Even though it was this hard for her.

Even though her heart felt like it was being torn apart despite hating Schlus, how painful must it be for Iris?

That pain was beyond imagination.

“This crazy bastard…”

Tears fell as she held Schlus’ cold hand.

Perhaps the constant dramatic situations had numbed her senses.

Perhaps she had developed a kind of belief that Schlus would never die.

But Schlus was not invincible.

He was an ordinary human who could die absurdly anytime, anywhere.

This situation was the result of that.

“Crazy bastard… Crazy bastard…”

He was always calm and composed, so she thought he had everything planned out.

She thought he could see the future or something.

How could he come back dead like this?

“You bas…”

At some point, Erica was venting her anger without caring about the gazes around her.

She herself didn’t know why she was crying so much.

Schlus and her clearly had no relationship.

But why…

Why did her heart ache so much?

If this was a joke, she wished it would stop soon.

She might be fine, but Iris was on the verge of going mad.

No, she might have already lost her mind.

She had been muttering something in a barely audible voice for a while…

So please wake up for Iris’ sake. Okay?

I know you hate me a lot, but can’t you wake up for Iris’ sake?

“Wake up… Wake up, you bad guy…!”

“Ugh…”

“Huh?”

A faint groan was heard from a direction it shouldn’t have come from.

Erica, frozen stiff, slowly turned her creaking head.

I wished for him to come back to life, not for the corpse to move…?

“Huh?”

“…”

Weren’t his eyes closed just now?

Why was Schlus glaring at her with his eyes open?

For a moment, Erica doubted if she was seeing things.

“What’s going on here?”

“…?!”

Schlus asked nonchalantly.

Before she knew it, warmth had returned to Schlus’ hand that Erica was tightly holding.

While Erica was dumbfounded, a crowd swarmed around the coffin.

“Schlus! Are you conscious?!”

“Professor. What kind of prank is this again? Yuck… Salty.”

“Hehe… Hahaha! Hahahaha! I salted him a bit so the corpse wouldn’t rot!”

“Salted… My ass.”

Everyone was dumbfounded and couldn’t say a word.

Only Sergei, who had checked Schlus’ pulse, grasped the situation and burst into his usual hearty laughter.

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“Should we kill him or let him live?”

“…”

In the dark forest.

Several men surrounded Schlus, who had collapsed with blood in his mouth.

They were all wearing protective suits covering their entire bodies and gas masks.

“Honestly, I think Hertlocker should decide this.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes. Schlus beat you up the most. Who else would decide if not you?”

“…”

Hertlocker was at a loss for words.

Entrusting the handling of a big shot like Schlus to the judgment of a mere low-ranking combatant.

However, whether killing or saving him, both judgments had their own rationale.

Schlus had shown a stance that was speculated to be favorable to the Kingdom so far.

The judgment was to keep him alive since the possibility of recruiting him to the Intelligence Agency in the future couldn’t be discarded.

But such a person was currently on the Empire’s side, so there was the judgment to eliminate him right away before he grew into a threat.

“Tsk. I’ll leave the decision to Hertlocker too, but I think we should kill him. We won’t have another chance if not now.”

“…”

In fact, the decision to kill him could only be made now.

Even the mighty Henderson couldn’t do anything and had his head sliced off.

Schlus was a monster that was questionable whether they could catch him even if they risked the fate of the Intelligence Agency.

Such a Schlus had appeared in front of them, dying like this, so if they were going to kill him, there would be no better opportunity than now.

If they missed it, there might never be another chance.

“Even if you decide to kill him, I won’t stop you. I won’t hold you responsible for the consequences either. I just thought you had the right to make the decision.”

“Phew…”

Hertlocker tapped Schlus’ head, recalling his memories with this guy.

On Magic Day.

He subdued me, who was holding a dagger, with his bare hands and broke both my arms.

On the day the traitor appeared.

He toyed with me in the dark, beat me up, and threw me into the cesspool.

“That fucking bastard.”

Just thinking about it still made him boil with anger.

He felt like taking off his pants right now and defecating on Schlus’ face.

That was how much he hated Schlus.

“I’ll let him live. Schlus Hainkel.”

“Are you serious? You can’t change your mind.”

“Yes. I’ll save him.”

But he didn’t want to kill him to that extent.

Because he hadn’t gotten an answer from him yet.

Why did he have so many chances to kill me but let me live?

Did he really think of me as just a training dummy?

Or was there another reason?

He had to hear that answer at least.

There was no other reason to save him.

Because it would bother him if he died without hearing the answer…

Yes. That was all.

Really.

“Unexpected. I thought you would say to dismember him and kill him.”

“If there was a way to dismember him and still save him, I would have done that.”

“…”

Once the decision was made, they couldn’t waste any more time.

The mana energy had already eroded Schlus’ lungs, and it seemed like his breathing would completely stop.

Eric quickly took out a recovery potion and mana energy antidote from his bag and poured them into Schlus’ mouth.

“Oh. Looks like it’s over.”

Before long, the black clouds covering the sky began to recede.

Soon, people from the village would come down to search for Schlus.

They had to dump Schlus somewhere and run away before that.

“Hey. What are you doing?”

“Just a moment. I can’t stand it. I have to do something.”

Hertlocker was belatedly using mana.

Wondering what it was, he saw a quite complex technique being engraved.

The engraving location was deep inside Schlus’ body, the mana of his heart.

A location that was quite difficult to detect from the outside.

And a location that was almost impossible to engrave unless the target was completely defenseless.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ll slow down his heart rate to keep him unconscious. Slow down his blood flow too. In that state, if I implant a technique that hides even the faint heartbeat and breathing…”

“A living corpse will be completed. Why are you doing this?”

The technique, which fully utilized Hertlocker’s skills, was excellent, no, perfect.

It made a living person look like a dead corpse no matter how much you looked at it.

This was virtually impossible to detect unless you ripped out the heart.

“I feel too regretful to just let this bastard live. I think I need to at least tear apart the hearts of the people around him to feel better.”

“Kuk kuk. That’s quite an evil deed.”

“Be quiet.”

Hertlocker smiled bitterly.

Pathetic and ridiculous that this was the only way he could get revenge.

As signs of people approaching were felt from afar, the Intelligence Agency agents hurriedly left the scene.

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