I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 95

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“We’re going to be late, really. Hurry up.”

“You can barely stand and you want me to leave you here? Stop struggling.”

I ran across the Imperial University grounds, carrying the whining Emilia on my back.

At the main gate, they seemed to realize I was in a hurry as soon as they saw me and just let me in.

To be honest, I considered running all the way to the exam hall with Emilia on my back.

But it seemed like I might have just enough time, so I decided to drop her off at the mansion first.

“Lie down. You seem to be poisoned with some kind of paralytic toxin, so don’t push yourself until you can move again.”

“Go, hurry. Stop worrying about me…”

I dashed out, leaving behind Emilia with her worried expression.

About 2 minutes left until the exam ended.

There was no time to change clothes.

‘Selection and Concentration. Use 1 second on agility.’

The 4th second.

I quickly leaped towards the exam hall.

I couldn’t waste the last second on agility as I needed it for something else.

Now there was less than a minute left.

Bang!

As I flung open the door, all eyes in the exam hall instantly turned to me.

Everyone was already here.

Well, who else would arrive with less than a minute to spare besides me?

I suppressed the urge to stagger and went down the steps as quickly as possible.

Ludwig was glaring at me with a slightly displeased expression.

I was confident I wouldn’t be surprised even if it turned out Ludwig had hired Jin.

“Did you lose your answer sheet?”

“Answer sheet? I didn’t bring such a thing. I will submit my answer now.”

“10 seconds left until the submission deadline.”

“That’s enough.”

“How on earth are you going to submit…”

10 seconds.

Time was tight.

‘Selection and Concentration. Use 1 second on magical power.’

It was fine even though the exam paper I was going to use as an answer sheet had burned.

As long as there was mana present, anywhere could become an answer sheet.

For example, this exam hall.

It was full of mana and spacious, perfect for writing answers.

The formulas for the problems I had solved were all in my head.

I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing only on the flow of magic, and simultaneously unfolded formulas in all directions.

From 1 to 9. All at once.

‘What is this?’

But the picture being drawn was strange.

They were just simple geometric lines and shapes, but as they combined and overlapped, they soon created a certain picture.

A green meadow…

Who would have thought that connecting all the answer formulas would result in such a landscape?

Even I, the author, had no idea that this was hidden in the first semester midterm exam for Elemental Magic.

Well, I had never described it.

No, wait a moment.

‘I did.’

I had briefly mentioned it in passing.

A description of Ludwig turning away with a hollow smile after grading all the submitted answer sheets.

At the time, I had just thrown in any random detail, intending to bring it up again later.

In the end, it was never brought up again until the work ended.

That throwaway detail was being brought back in this world in a way I never imagined.

Only then did I understand why some of the problems had felt somewhat forced.

I had wondered why, in magic studies where concise and efficient circuits were considered beautiful, some questions required unnecessarily complex and inefficient formulas as answers.

It was purely to complete this picture.

‘Damn it. Number 10…’

But one corner of the landscape was blank.

It was where the answer to problem 10, which I hadn’t been able to solve until the end, should go.

Well, it would probably just be more green fields, so I wasn’t too curious or disappointed.

If Erica got a perfect score, I wondered who would end up ranked first.

‘No, I’m crazy.’

I should have been disappointed.

If Erica got a perfect score on this exam, I was in danger of losing the top rank to her by a narrow margin based on the score distribution.

But there was no way I could solve number 10 now…

‘Huh?’

At that moment, on Ludwig’s desk.

One of the piles of exam papers showed a change.

Two exam papers with the answer to number 10 written on them.

The security on the formula of one of them suddenly became a mess.

I turned around in surprise, refocusing my senses.

‘That one…’

Iris was waving her hand with a smiling eye expression.

The two who had solved problem 10.

It was obviously Erica and Iris.

And the only one who would predict this situation and deliberately loosen security so I could steal the answer to problem 10 was Iris.

Erica didn’t have that level of perception and wit.

She was probably still gaping stupidly, just appreciating the landscape drawn by this flow of magic.

‘Thanks for letting me copy.’

It hurt my pride a little to accept Iris’s favor, but I had no choice now.

I was in no position to be picky.

Before the overcharged magical power completely dissipated, I quickly copied the answer to number 10 and engraved it in the blank space.

After doing all this, it would be bad if it turned out to be the wrong answer.

“Ah.”

A groan escaped from Ludwig.

It was understandable.

I was surprised too.

What filled that blank space was none other than a brightly smiling boy wearing a straw hat.

It was Ludwig himself.

Only then did I realize.

This was the scenery of Ludwig’s hometown from when he was young.

The place that had now become a land of death, devastated by war.

Ironically, it was Ludwig himself who had turned his hometown into a wasteland.

He had to lead and directly command a magic artillery unit, engulfing his own hometown in flames.

With his own hands, he had locked his hometown away in his memories.

Ludwig probably believed that none of the students would discover this picture.

In fact, in the original work, no one noticed it.

The reason he went through the trouble of fitting in problems even though he knew they wouldn’t be discovered was…

He must have secretly wanted to see one of the students complete the picture.

He wanted it to be completed, but didn’t want to show others the past of his hometown sealed in his memories.

Two contradictory feelings.

Perhaps this was how a criminal who deliberately leaves clues after committing a perfect crime feels.

That psychology of knowing it shouldn’t be discovered, yet hoping someone would find it.

“Time’s up. Go sit down.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Ludwig was unusually flustered.

I turned my back on Ludwig and squeezed in to sit between Iris and Erica.

Erica shot me an incredulous look.

What?

“Good work. This concludes the first semester midterm exams. You may all go home now.”

With a hasty conclusion, Ludwig disappeared.

It was over.

Really over.

The 48-hour midterm exam that felt like a week had finally ended.

Soon the students began to shout in exultation, savoring their freedom.

They rushed out of the lecture hall in droves.

But even during this, Erica and Iris sitting on either side of me remained silent.

The atmosphere felt ominous, and when I tried to get up, Iris’s foot pressed down firmly on my instep.

Use words.

What terrible manners for someone calling herself a saintess…

It was a bit absurd.

“What on earth happened?”

Finally, when only the three of us were left in the lecture hall, Erica leaned in uncomfortably close.

She was damn pretty.

Her beauty was certainly overwhelming up close like this.

“I don’t think I have any obligation to explain myself.”

“I was worried when you came in covered in blood!”

“Worried? Don’t make me laugh. You’d be rejoicing if I died.”

“Mmph…”

I snorted as I watched Erica close her mouth, unable to deny it.

The other day, when I had a “secret meeting” with Lady Lichtenburg, I knew full well that Erica had been watching from afar.

Being the thick-headed Erica who had all sorts of misunderstandings in the original work, she was probably making another ridiculous assumption based on that.

Of course, in a direction unfavorable to me.

In the end, it was obvious she would hate me, Schlus, one way or another.

Because that was the kind of person Erica was.

Even in the original work, she liked Hertlocker but was an idiot who never realized her own feelings until the very end.

It was probably not much different here either.

Of course, there was no Hertlocker here, so she wouldn’t end up liking anyone.

“But still… I waited for you today.”

“Huh. To escort me again today?”

“N-no? Just! I was just passing by! I was passing by the Chairman’s dormitory and thought our paths might overlap! Just for 1 minute? No, 30 seconds? I just waited briefly while tying my shoelaces!”

“…”

Erica was babbling nonsense, fanning her face vigorously as if she was hot.

If Erica said about 1 minute, she probably waited for about an hour.

I felt a little sorry that she almost ruined her exam because of me.

No, that was a lie.

Actually, I didn’t feel sorry at all.

“Hmm… Erica. I had no idea you were escorting Schlus during the midterms.”

“I said I wasn’t!”

“Fufu. Good job.”

“No… I couldn’t protect him in the end even though I was supposed to be escorting…”

Erica said in a deflated voice as she looked over my blood-stained clothes.

It seemed she had already forgotten her denial of escorting.

“No, it’s because of you that he was able to submit it just in time. If you hadn’t escorted him, Schlus wouldn’t be here now.”

“R-really?”

True to her gullible nature, Erica immediately brightened at Iris’s words.

It wasn’t wrong.

Given that I had barely made the submission in time, if I had been attacked even once during the midterm period, I probably wouldn’t have been able to submit on time.

“H-hmph! So! Schlus Hainkel? Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

“Sigh. Thank you.”

“S-sigh? Is that how you show gratitude-”

“But didn’t you say you never escorted me?”

“Ah. Th-that’s right. I said it wasn’t escorting, remember?”

“Then what exactly am I supposed to be grateful for?”

“Huh? Huh? That’s… Wait a minute. That was escor- No. It wasn’t. Huh?”

Erica broke down.

I turned my head to look at the culprit, and she was wearing an innocent – no, an “innocent-looking” smile.

As expected of childhood friends, she seemed to know well how to break Erica.

“Schlus.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

“…”

Iris said, straightening her back and pushing out her chest, with one hand on her chest.

She was really milking it…

But I had absolutely no intention of expressing gratitude for this incident.

Strictly speaking, Iris hadn’t shown me the answer – I had stolen it.

This definitely wasn’t because I was sulking over what happened before.

Screech…

I silently pushed back my chair and stood up.

“I should go. My attendant is waiting.”

“You’re just dripping with honey, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“Nothing. Hurry and go. If you can.”

Iris kept saying strange things.

I ignored her and was about to take a step when-

“Ah.”

I lost my balance and tilted forward.

Judging by how my whole body wasn’t responding…

Damn it.

Magical power exhaustion.

But why did this scene feel familiar, like I’d seen it somewhere before…

Poof.

“Huh.”

I felt something soft against my face.

A gentle sensation enveloped me, and a sweet scent tickled my nose.

“I knew this would happen.”

My voice sounded strange because my mouth was buried in flesh.

By the way, was it my imagination or did Iris’s body tremble slightly every time I moved my mouth?

What’s wrong with her?

“Is that so?”

“I-I-Iris! What on earth are you doing?!”

“Ha…”

I sighed at the loud voice coming from behind.

This whole situation was just too tiring.

I felt like I wanted to just fall asleep like this.

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[My man needs to learn some goddamn manners ffs, iris is good but im on the emilia ship for life]