Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: I Didn't Want to Know.
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[The girl is not a deceased soul.]
After reading the inscription, Erika was swept up in an incomprehensible sensation. Having lived as a mage and served as a top instructor at Robern Academy.
She had deciphered countless high-difficulty magic formulas, and solved plenty of vicious problems that reeked of the examiner's malice.
Those were usually packed with dense blocks of text filling the entire page.
Yet Deus's note delivered an unprecedented sense of hopelessness with just a single phrase.
It was different from the problems that made her repeat to herself that she could solve them.
This was impossible.
It was a phrase she simply couldn't comprehend.
"If she's not a deceased soul, does that mean the girl possessing Deus isn't one either?"
She thought she'd grasped a clue, but she was back to square one. The restored portion of Deus's note was only the size of a palm, leaving no way to learn more.
"Huff, huff."
[Hee hee.]
Amid the labored breathing of Professor Per Petra beside her came the girl's mocking laugh.
Frowning, she finally noticed the girl was there.
"Who the hell are you, anyway?"
She didn't expect an honest answer; it was a desperate question spat out in surrender.
It passed by lightly.
With a playful laugh that could be sincere or false.
[An angel?]
* * *
"......!"
Crumple!
The stiff letter paper crumpled pathetically under the dean's grip.
It soon balled up, and he hurled it to the floor in a burst of rage.
Three days had passed since the necromancer's death.
Deus's reply had come again.
A straightforward refusal of reinstatement as a full professor at Robern Academy.
"Just how much more must you mock and toy with me before you're satisfied, Deus!"
Boom!
The desk trembled with a harsh slam of his fist. Despite offering top-tier compensation unmatched in the field, it had been rejected.
Truth be told, it wasn't sincere.
After the incident concluded, he planned to hold Deus accountable for the current situation.
But now, no simple supernatural explanation could cover this mess.
Even if Professor Deus was truly uninvolved, or even if he'd tried to protect the academy as his memo suggested.
Someone had to take responsibility, and Professor Deus was the perfect fit.
So he had to drag him back to the academy somehow.
But he was rooted firmly in his Northsweden mansion like an ancient tree.
How could he bring that bastard here?
"Haaa!"
With classes starting in just two days.
He saw nothing ahead but a future where the academy's students returning would make things even graver.
"Even calling in priests had no effect."
He'd summoned clergy from the cathedral near the city. As the dead necromancer had said, they just held daily services without achieving anything.
"Maybe I should shell out a fortune to bring in the Saintess."
Unlike priests who just prayed or spouted lip service about divine power while using mana.
The Saintess was known to wield true holy power.
But to keep her at Robern Academy even for a day would require donating a quarter of the operating budget.
"Haaa."
The dean sighed again, running a hand over his forehead.
Just then, Nurse Professor Kerun entered without knocking—things were so urgent now.
"Dean, the damage is getting serious."
"Sigh. Increased again?"
After the necromancer's gruesome death and devouring.
The academy's evil spirits had grown rampant. What used to be sporadic appearances.
Now they tormented and inflicted pain constantly, without warning.
It was like poking a beehive.
The fact that no one had died yet was the only silver lining.
"The students asleep on the second floor of the dormitory yesterday are all in comas."
But this report from Kerun made the dean barely hold onto consciousness himself.
"W-What? All the students on the dormitory's second floor are in comas?"
Kerun nodded gravely, shadows on his face.
"No immediate threat to their lives, but no signs of waking."
Vacation meant few students remained, so the uproar hadn't spread yet.
But if this happened with all students back?
Unthinkable.
"Other incidents too. We've sealed off the first-floor central entrance and gymnasium. And a man with a twisted body is reportedly walking the right staircase on the third floor."
"Haaa."
He sighed, knowing it changed nothing, but unable to hold it in.
As the dean clutched his throbbing head in agony, Kerun finally pressed for a decision.
"Go to Northsweden."
"......"
The dean looked up slowly, meeting Kerun's eyes. Despite his clear reluctance, Kerun spoke with conviction.
"No more letters. Convince him in person. Professor Deus is our only way out."
"Urgh."
"Leave now. I'll inform the academy's exclusive coachman."
The dean knew it was right but dreaded it.
He'd just received a rejection despite offering the best terms.
Meeting Deus without punching him in the face would be a miracle.
Creak.
The door opened, and Professor Kerun entered.
"Dean, the damage is getting serious."
A cut on his nose, bound gray hair, oddly pale eyes.
Identical to Kerun's appearance, speech, and demeanor from moments ago.
"Huh?"
"......"
The dean gaped, glancing between the two Keruns. The first one clenched his fists to charge.
But the second Kerun shrugged and grinned ear-to-ear.
"That fucking bitch, you got here first, huh?"
Whoosh.
The second Kerun vanished.
Watching, Kerun felt hollow but figured the academy's dire state had sunk in for the dean.
Clutching his face with both hands, the dean muttered.
"Let's go. To Northsweden."
* * *
"......"
The past few days had been a blur of incomprehensibles for Deia.
And the cause was obvious.
Deus Verdi, second son of the Verdi family. Her second brother was to blame.
She called him second retard for convenience, but anyway.
Lately, his actions were so bizarre they kept drawing her eyes.
He used to disgust her just by entering her sight.
Now his mysterious behavior oddly captivated her.
Especially confronting the Verdi family's hidden shame head-on, taking responsibility in the family head's stead, and prioritizing the victim girl.
Honestly, if it weren't Deus, she'd call it admirable.
"So what the hell is he doing now?"
Out on patrol in Northsweden's streets, Deia spotted Pindenai smoking by a streetlamp for supplies and asked.
Even before the master's sister Deia, Pindenai didn't extinguish her cigarette, exhaling smoke leisurely with a shrug.
"Said he needed something. Came to buy it."
"And you're what, doing?"
Normally, the maid would handle errands while the master waited outside or stayed home.
"Me? Bodyguard. And he said if I go, I'll buy weird shit, so just wait."
"......"
Fair enough.
This wild maid would probably grab booze and smokes with the money and suggest bingeing together.
Recalling family head Darius's defeat to this unruly woman, Deia clicked her tongue, then asked what was on her mind.
"Deus learned black magic, right?"
"Hm? You didn't know?"
Pindenai's casual answer nearly buckled Deia's legs in surprise.
"More precisely, necromancy. You get the vibe from how he lifted Emily's grudge underground. Blocked the mountain lord crossing the range with it too."
Skipping the mountain lord details, Pindenai lit another cigarette.
She had to steal these moments or the non-smoking fanatic master would leave no time to clear her head.
Deia wrinkled her nose at the smoke, fanning it away, and pressed.
"Why learn something like that? If word gets out, the family cuts ties immediately."
"Kekeke, won't he disown himself first?"
True. Deia swallowed her response.
Recent Deus was so unlike the one she knew that watching him confused her.
Pindenai exhaled smoke, muttering intrigued.
"Well, necromancy's fascinating. Know this? If a stronger spirit's around, you can get possessed."
"P-Possessed?"
"Basically, an evil spirit takes your body. Bad cases, you lose memories. Kekeke, hilarious, right?"
Pindenai laughed like an excited imp at whatever amused her.
But.
"Lose... memories?"
Deia's mind floated puzzle pieces into place.
'Evil spirits possessing you might erase prior memories.'
'Deus started acting like a different person six months ago.'
'What if the reason... is learning necromancy?'
......
"Maybe."
When Deus was very young, if an evil spirit possessed him.
And he barely regained control, learned necromancy to protect himself?
The second retard who'd said and done unforgivable things to her as a human.
What if he was actually an unrelated evil spirit?
It wasn't unconvincing.
Incestuous lust toward his sister was utterly unacceptable from Deia's view.
'His personality changed too much.'
A total transformation, like a different person.
No way?
Really?
Once the thought hooked, it snowballed.
Deia chased memory fragments to prove her hypothesis.
"Ah, that woman's back."
Pindenai snickered, nodding at a woman.
Deia, lost in thought, halted and looked ahead.
A flashy beauty clinging to Deus holding a paper bag.
A woman from the brothel he frequented.
"Deus! Where've you been? I missed you so much! I'll give you service—did that maid not tell you properly?"
"......"
"Why no answer? I missed you tons. No one's as big and skilled as you. Today I'll service you deeeep! Wanna go now?"
Deus stared silently at her.
Then Pindenai whispered to Deia, giggling.
"She said last time they even rim each other."
"Ah, please......"
She didn't want to know about the second retard's sex life.