Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Everything Has a Reason
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It was a violent murderous intent.
The sticky malice clung to their soles, tightening around their throats like an enemy.
The killing intent emanating from the warrior on the first floor was terrifying enough to call it fear outright.
Even though he wasn't directing it straight at the faculty, it was this intense. He was still hacking away at the necromancer, whose face was so mangled it was unrecognizable, as if his rage hadn't subsided.
They had been frozen like that for a while, but the faculty couldn't move a muscle, their bodies stiff.
It was like stumbling upon a bear while walking a mountain path—an instinct not to draw that warrior's attention unnecessarily.
In the end.
The necromancer's body was completely pulverized. The gruesome, horrific sight turned everyone's stomachs, but they forced themselves to hold it in.
Ke伦조, who had seen countless atrocities during his mercenary days, couldn't help but grimace at the end.
But it didn't stop there.
The swordsman set his blade on the ground and slowly reached out.
Crunch.
He began tearing into it and eating.
“Urk!”
The dean finally couldn't hold back and turned his head, vomiting. Ke伦 and Erika bit their lips, forcing it down.
“...Mad bastard.”
Gideon spat out the words, unable to contain his disgust, but the warrior paid no mind.
He kept eating.
As if someone were chasing him, he devoured it frantically.
[....]
Slowly, he stood, picking up his sword.
He didn't even glance at the faculty on the stairs above as he turned and descended once more.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
“Haa!”
Once he was completely out of sight, Ke伦 exhaled the breath he'd been holding. Erika rushed to the remains of the necromancer.
“He chewed up the bones too. Ate every last bit.”
The warrior had ground the flesh and bones together and consumed it all before leaving.
All that remained on the floor were scraps of dropped meat and a pool of blood.
If not for that, they could have dismissed the whole scene as an illusion—nothing else was left.
“Geh! Gehk!”
The dean, who had vomited in a corner of the corridor, wiped his mouth with a pale, ashen face.
“D-Deus. Let's call Professor Deus. He must know something.”
Ke伦 immediately agreed.
“Agreed. Contact him right away.”
There was no reason to refuse now, and no way to resolve the incident otherwise, but Erika jumped in.
“B-But the necromancer just said it. Deus just has sharper senses than others; he's not capable of exorcising evil spirits...!”
“Enough!”
Fed up, the dean shook his head. He pointed at Erika, veins bulging, and lashed out vehemently.
“Think about it—it's all because of you, Professor Erika! You wanted to break off your engagement with Professor Deus, so you got him fired! That's why this mess happened!”
“...!”
Professor Erika clenched her fist for a moment but couldn't respond.
It was true.
Even if her intent had been to save Professor Deus, publicly, she was the villain who had ousted her fiancé.
In that atmosphere, Gideon spoke up.
“Professor Erika didn't fire Deus for personal reasons. We've caught him in bizarre behavior multiple times, haven't we?”
“...”
“Rather, we should focus on this: why the academy's evil spirits suddenly appeared.”
It was spot on.
Ke伦, who had been listening silently, and Erika, who had been investigating, had been most concerned about that very point.
“There have always been student ghost stories in the academy. But they were just that—ghost stories, kids' pranks.”
“It changed after Deus arrived?”
The dean muttered as if possessed, but Gideon shook his head, correcting him.
“Precisely, it changed after Deus left. I believe he's behind this series of events.”
Harboring a grudge from his dismissal, he created a situation where they had no choice but to need him.
The pieces clicked in the dean's mind, turning to seething rage as he roared.
“The gall! Using Robern Academy, a place of learning, for his selfish desires!? Threatening students' and faculty lives over something so petty!? This is blackmail!”
Erika tried to speak, but Gideon frowned and shook his head—no, don't interfere.
But Erika ignored even that warning and shouted.
“Wait! There's no evidence yet! Didn't Professor Deus even leave us that memo for our sake?!”
“Shut your mouth!”
Unable to hold his anger, the dean crumpled the handkerchief he'd used to wipe his mouth and threw it.
It didn't hurt, but it showed how heated his emotions were.
“Professor Erika Bright! What the hell do you want?! You were the most aggressive in pushing for Professor Deus's dismissal! And now you're defending him?! What, overcome with guilt?!”
“...”
She had no choice but to reveal it.
Even if it painted her as selfish, she couldn't burden Professor Deus further.
*I just wanted to save you.*
Exhaling, Erika clenched her fists tight.
After Deus was possessed by an evil spirit and tried to hang himself.
Every day had been hell. At dawn, she secretly followed him as he dealt with the spirits.
When he was possessed and tried to kill himself, she chased and saved him.
Strangulation: 7 times.
Dismemberment: 6 times.
Burning: 3 times.
Starvation: 9 times.
The damned times the evil spirits had tried to kill Deus.
That's why she fired him to save him, making him lose all affection for her.
She'd told him countless times to stop, but...
Never mind.
She didn't want to recall those conversations.
“The truth is.”
In any case, Erika intended to tell everything she knew. That Professor Deus had been suppressing the evil spirits, and she was the bad one.
She'd abandoned the academy to save Deus, who had been holding them back.
But at that moment.
[Shh.]
Her vision went black with a ding. Professor Erika felt a strange floating sensation in her body, realizing she'd collapsed only when she hit the ground.
Thud.
Professor Erika fainted outright.
“Erika!”
Startled by the sudden event, Gideon rushed to hold her, but.
“Step aside.”
Ke伦 intervened, checking on Erika.
“Just fainted. She hasn't been sleeping well lately. Take her to the infirmary and let her rest.”
“...”
The conversation halted amid the shock, but the dean declared it settled.
“We'll send another letter to Professor Deus! Haa, it's a tight timeline from Northsweden to Robern. He might not arrive until after classes start.”
He ground his teeth and added.
“Once this is resolved, we'll hold Professor Deus accountable. Let him slink back for now, but when it's over, he won't return to his hometown so easily.”
Now it was a race against time.
Student evaluations scarier than evil spirits.
The dean clutched his throbbing head, asked them to handle cleanup, and returned to his office.
Already dreading the groveling letter he had to write, he pounded his chest in frustration.
*
“Refuse it.”
“...You serious?”
Five minutes as usual.
Deia waved the letter I'd pinched between my fingers, asking again.
I had no idea why she peeked at my mail uninvited, but anyway.
Deia gave a subtle look at my response to the academy's reinstatement request.
“I'm not saying this out of personal bias, okay? Like, hoping you'll get out of this mansion quick, or I hate your face, or you're wasting my five minutes—nothing like that.”
“Talkative as ever, Deia.”
“Ahem, no. It's just... opportunities like this don't come twice. Robern's semester is starting. This is your last chance.”
I knew.
Miss this timing, and returning to Robern Academy as faculty was practically impossible.
My original plan was to drag it out and head back right at this moment.
But.
“I still have unfinished business.”
I couldn't leave the Verdi mansion yet.
*The reinstatement offer is tempting, but unavoidable.*
It promised research funding, materials, financial support. A bold proposal that even tempted Deia for a second.
Plus, the golden generation—protagonist and key game figures—entering en masse, chance for direct ties.
I decided to pass.
“Because of Emily?”
“Yeah.”
I answered flatly, ignoring Deia's crestfallen expression.
The little girl's lingering grudge wasn't fully resolved yet. And while at it, I planned to exorcise all the resentful evil spirits around the mansion.
It was necessary for my necromancy going forward.
“...”
At Emily's mention, Deia opened her mouth as if to ask something, then closed it.
Click.
Five minutes up.
Deia turned without hesitation and left my room.
Pindenai's returning footsteps echoed.
I unfolded the map I'd set aside when Deia entered and picked up my pen.
*If I can't help from inside, I'll do it from outside.*
Ultimate goal: prevent the continent's downfall.
Ways to aid the protagonist weren't limited to being a professor beside him, so my pen busily marked spots on the map.
All key game episodes or major item locations.
But what about the academy's remaining evil spirits? someone might ask.
I'd decided to let that go.
*It was odd, thinking about it.*
Because in the game, the ghost story episode existed but wasn't this extreme.
*Probably stirred the hornet's nest by showing up, or maybe the protagonist's arrival puts them into dormancy.*
As long as I didn't poke them excessively, they'd sleep on their own.
....
.....
.......
“Will they really?”
Thud.
Setting down the pen, I furrowed my brow, closed my eyes, and leaned back into the chair.
Really.
Had the evil spirits, dormant in peace, awakened just because I—one person—arrived?
I'd thought it over countless times.
Formulated hypotheses repeatedly.
Pondered, and pondered again.
My conclusion, from the academy days onward, was one.
“No way.”
Everything has a reason.
Like Deia hating me to the point of loathing.
Like Erika Bright firing me because she'd lost affection for my stubborn self.
Like the bone centipedes reawakening with Maalks's appearance.
Like the faint screams from the mansion's basement even now.
Like the deep self-inflicted scars on my wrists.
The academy's evil spirits had their reasons too.
I exhaled.
Picked up the pen again, marking Robern Academy's location.