Chapter 35
Chapter 35
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Foolish Dean
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mask.
Expressionless, emotionless golden eyes gaze down at Caramel.
“Huh?”
“What the hell is this guy...”
He appeared so suddenly.
Without any warning, poof—the masked man materialized.
A chill runs down her spine in an instant.
[Shall I help you?]
The masked man's question.
“Help me!”
The moment Caramel blurted it out, she felt like she'd crossed an irreversible line.
[Then, does that mean you'll make a deal with me?]
Why.
Why does he keep suggesting a deal?
Is this a deal... or a threat?
Caramel hesitated to respond.
The words rose to her throat and sank back down... but the masked man moved his hand again.
“Y-Yes, okay!”
Caramel hurriedly opened her mouth just before his hand could finish its motion.
The masked man lifts his head with a satisfied glint in his eyes.
- Whoosh.
The hand gripping Caramel vanishes.
- Thud!
“Argh!”
“Wh-What...!”
The five men tumble to the floor simultaneously.
As if their feet got caught on something, they're flung into the air.
“Wh-What...”
Caramel stands there dazed for a moment before snapping to her senses and hastily ducking behind the table.
She peeks out with just her head, watching the scene.
“You bastard!!”
One of them draws a dagger with rage-filled eyes and charges at the masked man.
“Eek!”
The moment Caramel cries out in surprise, the man's wrist snaps unnaturally, and the masked man's knee slams into his gut.
“It's a mage! Be careful!”
“Damn it, where'd this guy come from!”
As the other men scramble to create distance.
The masked man disappears.
“Huh, where'd he go?”
“Watch out!”
Just like when he appeared.
Without a sound or sign, he evaporates into thin air.
“Huh... Huh?”
Caramel yelps in fright, pulling her head back in and clamping her hands over her mouth.
“Everyone, get down!!”
The sound of glass shards clinking together.
- Shatter!
Right in front of Caramel, glass fragments embed into the wall.
Gasp.
Caramel cautiously pokes her head out again.
“Kehehe... so there you are? You masked dog.”
...The masked man is bleeding from the glass shards.
“Ah....”
Caramel senses it instinctively.
This is... impossible.
The moment that thought crosses her mind.
“...Huh?”
The blood flowing from the masked man... starts flowing backward.
Defying gravity, the blood seeps back into his body, and the wound closes in an instant.
- Plink, plink.
The glass shards embedded in his body fall to the floor.
- Crackle.
Caramel stares wide-eyed, trying to make sense of it... but she understands nothing.
The masked man draws a sword from somewhere.
An oddly heterogeneous sword.
And... the five men sink into a small puddle that appears on the floor.
“Huh... Huuuh?”
Caramel stares at the puddle with a blank face.
A few seconds later, the men burst out from the water.
“You bastard... sent by Moonlight, huh...”
One man still conscious speaks to the masked man.
“Urgh... so it was Moonlight after all...”
Moonlight.
A name rapidly gaining power in the gray zone lately.
The moment she hears it, Caramel's face turns pale.
Whoosh.
The masked man turns his head and approaches Caramel.
[Are you alright?]
“Y-Yes! More than alright! Customer...? Customer? Partner? Patron? Uh....”
Flustered, Caramel trails off.
If he's really from Moonlight... one wrong word and her head might really fly.
[Call me Puppet.]
“Pu-Puppet?”
[Yes.]
“Th-Thank you, Puppet.”
[We'll protect this place, so you'll make a deal with me?]
“O-Our...?”
Definitely... this man is from Moonlight.
[Yes, us.]
“Y-Yes....”
Caramel suddenly recalls what she'd done.
She'd rejected Puppet's offer once and even chased him away.
“D-Do you need blood?”
[Do you have something like sore throat medicine?]
“Th-Throat medicine?”
[When I speak, I vomit blood.]
“......”
Isn't that... not something cold medicine can fix?
“I-I'll definitely find some...!”
[Then I'd be grateful.]
“...If there's none, I'll make it!”
For the first time today, Caramel feels like she needs to live like a proper human.
After a life of making only bizarre drugs, now she feels like she should do something meaningful.
“Urgh, urgh....”
The men sprawled on the floor start to rise.
“Moonlight... we won't let you get away with this!”
“Just you wait, Moonlight...!”
Spouting extra-like lines left and right, they hurriedly flee the workshop.
“Sh-Should I kill them!”
[That might be a bit much.]
And so... Moonlight's subordinate, Puppet.
That was how his moniker spread through the gray zone.
***
‘No... is it really that scary?’
No more conversation seems possible, so back at the dorm, I flop onto the bed and stare at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Moonlight.
Caramel started trembling the moment she heard the name.
‘Moonlight, huh....’
A criminal group making a name for itself in the gray zone right now.
Still small-scale... but in the future, it'll extend its influence even to the cradle.
‘Even so....’
Is it really worth trembling that much?
Moonlight now is like a dull blade.
‘Hmm... wait... is it?’
In ‘Aka Calamity,’ Moonlight is described as: once you step in, you can never get out.
Try to leave? Betray them? Your family, friends, connections—everything gets severed at the root.
You vanish without even knowing how you died.
‘Loyal until death... no, loyal even after death.’
Hmm.
I nod.
Not being scared would be the weird part.
‘Did I say it for nothing?’
A twinge of regret hits me.
Using Moonlight's name to act like a threat might've been overkill...?
What if Caramel really believes I'm from Moonlight? No... she already does...
‘It's hard to backtrack now.’
But there's a bigger problem.
‘Cold medicine?’
I asked Caramel to make a potion to counteract the backlash from 【Stigma】 and 【Word of Command】.
...Despite my vague explanation of "sore throat medicine," she seemed to understand and nodded.
‘Can she make it?’
It was possible. Caramel's an eccentric genius.
Given enough time and materials, she'll whip up anything.
‘The problem is time.’
The story of ‘Aka Calamity’ spans three years at most.
Within three years, I need to find a way to handle this curse etched into my body.
“Human.”
Lost in thought, the loach in the tank pulls me back.
[What]
I adjust my mana, floating a whiteboard in front of the tank.
“Food.”
Did this loach not just devour a can of tuna earlier and now want more?
[None left]
“I saw you buy some earlier, human.”
The loach says it with the most shameless, slippery face imaginable.
“And you stuffed something weird into my house again, human.”
[Then eat that]
“I don't eat filthy human food. Human.”
Ah, I see.
I drop my head and sigh.
A life of feeding a loach.
Something's seriously wrong with this life. For real.
***
“Why can't you do this?”
[Why do you think I can, Dean?]
“Engraving language onto a single thread is that hard?”
[Yes, it is]
“Do you have no arms or legs? Can't handle mana? Blind?”
[I have all of them]
“Then why can't you?”
[Because you're asking me to do the impossible, Dean]
“No, you're just an idiot. Admit it. This is your chance.”
I'm about to become an idiot who can't even cast one spell.
“Say, 'I'm an idiot~' Try it.”
[Sorry, but you do it first, Dean]
“...”
“...”
“...Should I expel you?”
Losing the argument, she immediately resorts to pulling rank.
Classic Dean move.
“Hmph, even the student council president could've done it if she knew how to handle natural mana.”
[Why compare me to the President?]
No matter what, the gap between Carnel and me can't be bridged.
Some walls are insurmountable.
Status, skill, talent... even speech patterns.
“You know basic common sense, right?”
[Of course]
“Say one.”
[You're a dragon, Dean]
“Not that obvious stuff.”
...You asked for common sense?
Common sense is supposed to be obvious?
[You're an idiot, Dean]
“......”
A brief silence.
That's the signal.
- Boom!
The wall beside me shatters to pieces.
Scorch marks with hot breath.
This is how a dragon vents frustration.
[Why do you keep taking it out on me?]
“You think this is venting?”
[Yes]
“It's education. Loving... patient education.”
[You need to restudy the meaning of 'love,' Dean—]
Whoosh...
[You're so smart, Dean]
I hurriedly erase what I wrote and quickly rewrite something else.
“Hmph.”
[Threats are illegal, Dean]
“I'm the Dean, so it's legal.”
I see.
The Dean exists above the law.
“Ha... why are you the top seat? An idiot who doesn't know basic common sense as the top seat... the world's ending for real....”
[You'd be in trouble if you didn't know that, Dean]
Seriously.
Trouble in every way.
“I never said I didn't know.”
[Then why say that?]
“I just felt bad.”
[So it was venting]
“No?”
...Not venting, huh.
After smashing the wall next to me and even breathing fire right in front of me... not venting she says.
“Sigh... I'm the idiot for expecting anything from you.”
[Really?]
“No.”
What a quick pivot.
“There was a guy like you 100 years ago....”
The Dean suddenly shifts into reminiscing mode.
“But he wasn't a moron like you.”
“...”
“Why are you so quiet?”
[I can't talk]
“Oh right.”
Veronica covers her awkwardness with a few coughs and continues.
“Anyway, Arbel was a total moron, but his magic was insanely good....”
[Who's Arbel, Dean?]
“...You don't know Arbel?”
[No]
“Seriously?”
[Yes]
“...Why?”
[Huh?]
Answering questions with questions—still not used to it.
“You really are an idiot. Admit it quick. I won't end training till you do.”
[Admit it first, and I will too]
Veronica plants her hands on her hips, and glares fiercely.
“Why don't you know Arbel?”
Unable to comprehend, Veronica stomps the ground, then vanishes.
And shortly after... she drags someone over from afar.
“...What is it?”
It was Rufus, who'd been getting chewed out by Veronica's clone.
“Crown Prince, you know Arbel, right?”
“...Arbel?”
“Yeah! Of course you do?”
Rufus glances at me, then Veronica, alternating...
“I don't know.”
“......”
With that short reply, he slips away fast.
Tap. Tap.
I pat Veronica's shoulder.
[You're the idiot, Dean]
Lunch is gonna taste extra good today.
The moment I step forward thinking that...
- Hum.
An invisible wall envelops me.
‘?’
Tap. Tap. I knock on the wall... no reaction.
“...You, ten more minutes, then come out.”
Leaving those words, Veronica stomps off.