Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Fake
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“Got a moment?”
“Eek! Professor Erika!”
Professor Per Petra jumped in surprise at the sight of Erika Bright entering the lab.
She waved her prosthetic arm, which she’d been fiddling with, in greeting toward Erika.
“Hello! G-good morning!”
“Yes, it is. Sorry, but could I have a word with Professor Dayus?”
At Erika’s gentle request, Professor Per immediately shook out her pink hair and headed outside.
“How does someone make a splashing sound instead of footsteps when they run?”
Pindenai, who had been brewing tea beside me, stuck out her tongue at the sight of Professor Per’s outrageously ample chest.
I glared at her in annoyance, and she shrugged before pulling a cigarette from her pocket and lighting up.
“I’m stepping out for a smoke.”
I’d thought Pindenai had quit smoking, but she was back at it in no time. Even though I’d given her some of mine, she insisted on smoking her own—maybe she didn’t like what I offered?
“Uh, I-I’ll go too.”
Owen, who’d been assisting Professor Per, also made a fuss and hurried out. Ever since he learned Erika was my fiancée, he seemed obsessed with not interrupting our time together.
“What’s going on?”
I had no lectures today, so I’d planned to do some research with the equipment I’d ordered earlier, alongside the Black Necromancer. I wasn’t particularly busy.
But the urgency seeping from Erika’s expression as she came to see me wrapped around me like a shroud.
“Aria’s skipped all her lectures without permission.”
“......”
Her words furrowed my brow without me realizing it.
Aria skipping classes?
She knew I liked her acting like a proper student, so she’d been making every effort to stay in that role.
That was the only reason she remained at the academy, where there was nothing left for her to learn.
“I noticed something was off because she didn’t show up to my class, so I checked. She hasn’t attended a single lecture since your class on Monday.”
If it were any ordinary student skipping classes, I’d just shrug it off.
Plenty of them ditched to slack off, have fun, or sleep in.
With dorm life and students choosing their own lectures, the high autonomy led to all sorts of incidents.
But Aria wouldn’t skip for something so trivial.
“I’ll have to go see her.”
It looked like a trip to the dorms was in order.
“I’ll come with you. It’s the girls’ dorm, so you’ll need a female professor to accompany you.”
Erika volunteered to join as if she’d been waiting for it, and we headed straight to the women’s dormitory.
Even at 10 a.m., the dorm was full of students.
Lecture schedules varied so much that some crammed everything into the afternoon, while others made their whole day free.
The female students didn’t exactly welcome a male professor like me entering, but with Erika stuck close to my side, they just exchanged greetings and let us pass.
“I was necessary after all, huh?”
“Yeah, looks like it.”
Without Erika, I would’ve been stopped multiple times before reaching Aria’s door, wasting a ton of time.
Knock knock.
“Aria? Are you in there?”
Erika knocked and called out, but no response came from inside. I glanced at the Black Necromancer beside me.
True to her ghostly nature, she poked just her head through the door.
And then.
[D-Dayus?! What the hell is going on here......?]
The Black Necromancer called out in a panic. I immediately wrapped myself in mana and forced the door open.
There sat Aria, floating midair with her legs crossed in the meditative lotus position straight out of a martial arts novel. Mana whipped violently through the room, rejecting our approach.
“W-what’s going on here?”
Erika looked to me for answers, but I was just as puzzled about what Aria was up to.
As the mana began leaking out through the door, I thought we needed to stop it first.
Did she sense our presence?
Aria deliberately began drawing the mana back into herself bit by bit until the room fell completely still, and she slowly descended to the floor.
“Professor?”
Aria’s eyes snapped open. She tilted her head at me curiously, ignoring Erika entirely.
“What are you doing here?”
Her expression suggested she truly had no idea. She wouldn’t lie to me, so it seemed she didn’t know what the problem was.
“I heard you’ve missed classes for two days straight now.”
“Whaaat?!”
Aria’s eyes widened in shock as she turned to Erika for confirmation. Erika sighed and nodded.
“Yeah, your grades are in big trouble.”
Erika spoke lightly, assuming it wasn’t a huge deal, and Aria scratched her head while muttering to herself.
“Has it been that long? It felt like only about thirty minutes.”
“Sigh, Aria. What exactly were you doing?”
What could she have been up to that made two days feel like thirty minutes—and what was with that mana lashing out everywhere just moments ago?
She needed to explain.
“Oh, uh. My body felt off, so I was purifying the mana inside me and clearing out some waste buildup. I’ve had more headaches lately.”
You could do something like that?
It really was like the qi circulation meditation from martial arts stories. I remembered the game only having simple rest—no such techniques.
“Sorry. I’ll head to class right now.”
Aria hurriedly smoothed her disheveled hair, glanced at me cautiously, grabbed her notebook, and moved to leave.
In the end, it wasn’t a big deal. Erika and I waited outside the door for her.
As Aria, bags packed, brushed past us out the door.
A thick killing intent stabbed toward me and Erika. In an instant, her right hand, laced with hostility, aimed precisely for my throat.
Boom!
“Guh!”
[I-I saved you!]
If the Black Necromancer hadn’t shoved me away with mana, I would’ve ended up like Erika—grabbed by the throat and slammed into the wall.
Heavy breaths escaped Aria’s lips as she pinned the struggling Erika, glaring at me with pure malice.
“Who the hell are you?”
“What are you talking about?”
Her sudden question made me frown, but I started searching for a way to save Erika.
One wrong move, and Aria could snap her neck.
The situation had come out of nowhere, but panicking or agitating her would be dangerous, so I stayed calm and asked.
But her words were enough to confuse me.
“Where’s the professor? You dare impersonate him in front of me? You must have more than one life!”
“Calm down, Aria. I don’t know what you’re saying, but it’s me. Dayus Verdi.”
I conjured a blue flame in my palm. The necromancer’s flame.
I hoped this flame, unique to necromancers, would prove I was who I said.
But Aria sneered disgustingly and ground her teeth.
“A black mage, huh? So you’re from Dante. Here for revenge? I warned you—I’d kill you all if you touched the professor.”
The regressor’s heavy killing intent filled the entire hallway, making it hard to even stand.
“Get a grip. How could a Dante black mage infiltrate the academy, logically speaking?”
“How should I know? You just did.”
Aria’s grip tightened on Erika, who writhed in response.
As she thrashed about, Erika’s palm ended up right in front of Aria’s face.
A torrent of golden light poured out.
Aria’s body flew back, crashing through another door, shattering a window, and tumbling outside.
Not just a simple light spell—a suppression magic infused with spirits.
“Huff! Huff!”
Erika clutched her throat, gasping for air. I patted her shoulder—good job—then chased after Aria.
I leaped through the broken window, wrapping mana around myself for a soft landing.
Even after taking Erika’s spell head-on, Aria had only been dazed briefly before recovering.
“Aria, you with us now?”
She bared her teeth at my words, still hostile.
“I told you not to pretend to be the professor.”
“Sigh. I am the real Dayus. Kim Shin-woo, the one you know.”
I didn’t like saying my original name with this body, but Aria needed convincing.
She suddenly thought I was someone else.
“Fine, I’ll admit you look similar. I don’t know how you learned his real name either, but you’re definitely a fake.”
A chilling shock spread through my head. I’d seen this exact reaction from Aria somewhere before.
A moment of thought.
My mind raced to an answer faster than I expected.
“No way......”
Screeech!
Aria’s left foot slid across the ground, widening her stance dramatically. No sword, so she was switching to martial arts. She assumed a fighting pose.
“You know that act you pulled cost you your life, right?”
“Aria.”
“Shut up. You look alike, sure. But you’re not the professor.”
“Listen carefully from now on.”
Why had she changed like this?
It wasn’t certain yet, but the symptoms matched what I knew perfectly.
Not knowledge from the game or common sense from this continent.
Knowledge from Earth.
Maybe from a trivia book snippet I’d read?
Or a TV show?
Or something someone mentioned that I coincidentally remembered now?
Anyway.
“You’re showing symptoms similar to Capgras syndrome.”
Capgras syndrome.
The delusion that someone you’re close to has been replaced by an identical ‘imposter.’
They believe family members are disguised strangers, and in severe cases, even see their mirror reflection as someone else.
“I’m the sick one?”
Aria eyed me suspiciously, so I took a deep breath and continued carefully.
“It’s okay. Stay calm and breathe deeply. I’ll help you.”
The reason wasn’t clear yet, but Aria had Capgras syndrome.
I tried to soothe her as much as possible.
“Hmph.”
But Aria curled her lip and clenched her fist hard.
“You sure talk like the professor.”