Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Confession
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A new day dawned. The villain was dead, but another would soon come crawling out of the woodwork, and while I'd taken down one cancer-spreading antagonist, the academy's fresh batch of frustrating drama was just getting started.
"How much longer do I have to wait...? This is boring, Arthin."
"Just a bit more. He's always 10 to 20 minutes late anyway."
Despite the unicorn's whining, I sat calmly in the empty classroom, peering into my floating status window in the air.
This empty classroom used to be the manga club's clubroom, or so I'd heard.
It was a pretty traditional club at the academy, boasting a ton of members, but after I got rumored to be a cross-dressing girl and they drew a forbidden love story between me and Jorba, they got busted for creating impure literature. Now they've been booted to some dingy basement corner. Bunch of idiots.
Thanks to that, Agnes told me this big clubroom would be allocated to our alchemy club later on. Other clubs were drooling over it, but clubroom assignments are the student council's domain. The power of cronyism was sweet indeed.
"Well, we'll be hanging out here a lot from now on, so might as well mark our territory or something."
"What do you take me for, you rascal?! I don't engage in such petty beastly behavior as marking territory!"
Bored, I teased him a little, and the unicorn blew up immediately.
He might act like a total punk, but having him around kept things from getting dull, so maybe he wasn't so bad after all.
"Besides, that Jorba guy's the one who wants to meet, so why do we have to wait for him?!"
"I owe him a pretty big debt this time around, and the guy's late even to his own birthday party."
The unicorn pouted, clearly unconvinced by my explanation.
To placate him, I pulled a carrot chocolate from my pocket and popped it into his mouth.
"Mmm! This is delicious! Give me another!"
"One more if you sit tight quietly for 10 minutes, got it?"
"Got it! I'll keep my mouth shut!"
Like a baby bird begging for food, he opened wide, so I tossed in another carrot chocolate. He grabbed his cheeks and started savoring it, munching away.
With the unicorn finally quiet again, I crossed my arms and closely examined the floating status window.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ 1. Check Personal Information 2. Quests (New!) 3. Shop (New!)
My status window, which used to only show my info, now had quests and a shop—features I'd never seen before. At first, I poked around everywhere, wondering what they were.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Current Ongoing Quests (2/10) 1. The Midterms Begin! 2. Complete Your Own Harem!
Quests were probably like game commissions—you clear them and get rewards. The problem was, I had no memory of ever receiving anything like this in this world, so it all felt totally alien.
'Wasn't this just a bullshit world that worked you to the bone with zero rewards...?'
I'd always thought the status window's only useful feature was titles, but now in the 5th round, tutorial rewards were popping up out of nowhere.
Just to clarify upfront: there was a tutorial—it wasn't completely absent.
When I first arrived in this world and fled to the territory, the very first thing that appeared before my eyes was the tutorial status prompt.
It wasn't anything impressive. Study this world's history, learn to handle mana, investigate Arthin Ludwig. We started with the basics, step by step.
It spanned over 15 years, so the details are fuzzy, but I think the final tutorial was killing a single demonkin.
'So why the hell is it saying the tutorial's complete now...?'
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ You have acquired your first Succession Trait! Congratulations on clearing the tutorial! The last message that popped up was about acquiring a Succession Trait.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ This trait is the authority of a being beyond the flow of time. It carries over even through regression! The unicorn, the sole contractor who persists through regressions. Clearing right after getting this trait suggests these are Succession Traits.
If I'd known about the tutorial, or this hardcore player progression system with Succession Traits, I would've hunted them down ages ago.
'...Ah, why the hell did I hit skip back then.'
Back in the 1st round, the status window felt too familiar. After a decade of genre novels, the initial thrill didn't last long. It just spouted the usual lines until skip sent you to the next tutorial.
So I started skipping midway. You guys skip tutorials in games too, right...?
'But if there was something this important, shouldn't it have popped up a reminder window after some time...?'
Damn, no wonder the 5th round perks weren't unlocking—I'd missed this whole system. Was I the real frustrating one, not Kaiyen?
Rubbing my face in frustration, I went back to the menu and opened the shop tab.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Hello, Regressor. Welcome to the shop.
Select an item to view its detailed description and price.
Your current points: 506,752 points.
Item - Arrows (10): 3 points
Item - Longsword: 5 points
Item - Recovery Potion: 10 points
Item - Mana Potion: 10 points
Item - Shadow Rabbit Magic Stone: 15 points
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506,752 points. Just looking at the number was insane.
I did the math on how it added up: about 5 years survival per round, except 4th round where I bailed early after 3 via backdoor—so roughly 30k per year. Where'd the extra 40k go?
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ System - Inventory: Sold Out System - Inventory Expansion Scroll: Sold Out System - Inventory Expansion Scroll: Sold Out System - Inventory Expansion Scroll: Sold Out
Fuck, who could've guessed inventory existed? 10k each for four—there goes the 40k.
'Phoenix Feather, 25k...'
To save Agnes from a fatal poison while fighting the lich's bone dragon, Kaiyen and I crossed the empire's desert all the way to the Desert Sultanate for a phoenix feather.
'World Tree Sprout, 13k...'
To purify the unicorn dying from magic corruption, we adventured a full month in the elven forest and barely snagged a World Tree leaf.
To fend off the crashing wave of mental exhaustion, I chanted self-delusions nonstop and closed the shop.
'I've done fine without that crap. It's not that I'm an idiot—I'm just too damn skilled!'
Of course, that didn't change the fact that I was an idiot. I checked just in case—dragon hearts and elixirs were there, but no hair loss meds.
Staring at the shop would only amp up my self-loathing on top of the stress, so I resolved to avoid it unless absolutely necessary.
"Why the long face, Arthin? As the academy's top romantic, you should be thrilled."
Then the door opened, and a familiar bronze-skinned redhead hunk strolled into the barren clubroom with its lone chair.
"You think maybe it's 'cause you blew past our meetup by 20 minutes, Jorba?"
"Naturally, I trust my generous-hearted friend understands."
Jorba dragged over a chair and sat across from me, all traces of his recent suspicious probing gone. He looked relaxed and laid-back, just like our first hospital meeting.
Yeah, this was the Jorba Pelkas I knew well—a man as big-hearted and far-sighted as his overflowing wallet.
"So, is this little miss the unicorn from the rumors?"
Jorba leaned toward the unicorn with a grin, but it hid behind me, face stern, and declared firmly to him.
"Don't speak to me so casually, you lecher. No matter how times change, you skirt-chasers are the eternal enemies of us unicorns."
"...What the hell, Arthin? Does she hate me?"
"She's saying you're such a playboy she can't stand being near you."
As I mentioned before, even after the Demon King's army invaded, unicorn contractors are duty-bound to exterminate all filthy philanderers who defile virgins—like the Golden Sun.
I had zero intention of following that duty, but fundamentally, Jorba and the unicorn were like oil and water. They could never mix.
"Huh, but aren't you messing around with Agnes and Shaomei? That's miles from the pure love unicorns dig."
"N-no, Arthin's different! He's a direct ally endorsed by the King of the Plains! He's the kind of contractor I can tolerate with my generous heart!"
The unicorn screeched, muttering that the guy was annoying, and clung tight to my collar.
Still suffering trauma from being abandoned by the King of the Plains, huh.
"...I never confirmed I was 'messing around' with Agnes or Shaomei."
"Oh, I've got sharp eyes, Arthin. When Shaomei came begging me for you, her face was that of a girl deep in puppy love. Plus, I still remember what Kaiyen said."
This perceptive little sparrow. I clicked my tongue inwardly and nodded.
"...Yeah, I'm dating Shaomei and Agnes. Serious about both."
"Knew it! You kept denying, but I saw right through you!"
Jorba smirked triumphantly, like he'd won big. Guess fooling his razor-sharp intuition was impossible.
"So, care to explain how you suddenly ended up dating Princess Agnes Ermengarde too?"
"...Not curious how Shaomei and I got together?"
"I was waiting for that with Shaomei! You two pure-brained types weren't advancing at all, driving this big bro nuts!"
I suddenly recalled he'd been the one teaching me during my sickbed visit that I'd enjoy a handjob.
"Anyway, no dodging. Tell me everything from start to finish. I even postponed dates with the ladies to hear this."
"...Fine. But from here on, believe every word. No lies."
No backing out now that we'd come this far. I slowly began recounting everything I'd been through—and what was happening now.
"This is my fifth life."
Jorba's expression shifted the instant he heard my opening line.
**
The Gold Class dorms boasted countless amenities.
One was a salon for secret talks. With future world leaders overflowing in Gold Class, their conversations often included topics that couldn't leak outside.
The salon was a magical space, thoroughly isolated from the exterior, designed for comfortable sharing of such stories.
Chairs and sofas were premium imperial craftsmanship for easy serious chats, and the ever-fresh refreshments were top-tier enough for royalty.
Windows showed illusory forest views via magic, not real ones, and only students inside or the dorm supervisor could open the door.
All these touches highlighted the Gold Class supervisor's efforts for a relaxed vibe, but right now, the salon's atmosphere was more awkward than a suit with two buttons off-kilter.
Violet Purplecrow, Lin Shaomei, and Princess Agnes Ermengarde had been together 30 minutes but hadn't exchanged a single real word yet.
"...The tea's quite delicious, isn't it?"
"It really is. The pastries are top-notch too—try the Mont Blanc."
"...Yesh it ish. I wash shurprised when I tried it. Should bring shome for Big Brother Arthin..."
Shaomei panicked mid-sentence. Glancing around hastily, Agnes and Violet fake-coughed and dabbed their lips with napkins.
"Ahaha, the tea was so hot it made my jaw lock up for a sec!"
"Oh my, same here. We should ask them to mind the temperature next time."
Even flustered by Arthin's name, the two maintained their poise with smiles. Seeing that, Shaomei flashed back to her hellish week of nonstop martial arts training without food or sleep.
'...Please spare me, Big Brother...'
Unfortunately, the most crucial person, Arthin, wasn't there. For a moment, Shaomei felt like she finally understood why he suffered from hair loss.