Chapter 20
Chapter 20
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Dungeon Training (5)
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"...What is this?"
"Th, thread...? No way..."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Ah, I made it! That was so close! Whew, what a relief.
That was seriously close.
If I'd been even a little later, Yoo Siu would've been sliced in half.
Did clearing those boulders take too much time?
No, but what could I do?
I hesitated for ages, wondering if I should use more thread.
"...You, you're alive?"
"Haha, looks that way. Sorry to disappoint you, Laira."
Laira really seems to hate me.
That stings a bit.
...Though I guess it's mostly my fault.
Was she that mad about me pretending not to know and babbling about talents to confirm things?
I can't think of anything else.
No matter how I look at it, it's my fault, so I had nothing to say. That made it hurt even more.
But what choice did I have?
It was the easiest way to check.
"...How?"
"Pardon?"
"You should've been crushed by those falling rocks..."
"Oh, that? If they'd really hit me, it would've hurt like hell."
I'd used so much thread in a hurry that I felt bad wasting a bit more, so I gave them a little demonstration of my power.
Twisting and stretching it into triangles, squares, the Eiffel Tower, and even a perfect circle.
I tried out all sorts of shapes.
How's that? Thread art without hands.
Pretty cool, right?
"Luckily, my ability lets me wrap it around my body, so it doesn't hurt that bad."
"...Tch."
That's just mean.
It was my ultimate personal skill...
I'd been practicing so hard ever since I got this power, dreaming of showing it off someday!
I said I was a little hurt earlier? Scratch that.
I'm deeply wounded.
"Whatever. It's surprising you're alive, but nothing changes."
"Is that so?"
"Hunting two exhausted rabbits won't be hard."
Laira scratched her head and grinned.
...Huh?
Did I just see fangs?
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Ah, it's started. The side effects. "...The side effects are kicking in?"
Come to think of it, Laira took some shady drug to get her power.
That pill from Übermensch—I figured it had side effects.
...Right now? Suddenly?
"Ears... on her head...!"
"What? Ears on her head? ...What the hell is this?!"
Ears sprouted around the spot where Laira had been scratching her head.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ It's both a pro and a con, hehe. It's a drug that injects animal factors into humans! Animal factors?
...Ah, so that's why Superhuman. Übermensch.
Transcending humanity.
Double meaning there.
Was Laira scratching her head nonstop a precursor symptom before the ears popped out?
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ The longer it goes, the stronger the animal traits get. You become insanely powerful, but animal features start manifesting. In the end, you turn half-human, half-beast... Hold up.
I think I heard something weird.
"...Half-human, half-beast?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Yep. Like the Minotaur. Furry!
Are you kidding me right now?!
"Change it."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ ...Pardon? But the setup is that she gets animal factors, so she has to end up like that... Changing settings is hard! My head was spinning.
I'd underestimated Writer-nim's hipster tendencies.
Furry, even for an enemy?
Are you insane?
Why ruin a pretty spy girl like that?
Even for a side character, shoving in such a divisive trope is a disaster.
The novel would bomb!
The line for beastkin is ears, tail, eyes at most!
"Stop it. Add a setting or change it. Now!"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Wha—?! O-Okay! Did she not expect me to get mad?
Writer-nim panicked and hurriedly tweaked the setting.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ S-Setting added! Laira is actually a descendant of a child born between a werewolf and a human hundreds of years ago! S-So the factors don't warp her body too much! "Hoo..."
Normally, I'd wonder if that setting would convince the readers.
But I didn't have the bandwidth to think about it.
I was just exhausted, dragging my weary body, wanting nothing more than to get out of here.
Scolding could wait.
I'd gotten the video for Writer-nim to watch, so I could chew her out while we viewed it together.
"Surveillance camera setting done?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Y-Yes... Just like you said, it broke due to a sudden power outage three hours ago. Good.
I fiddled with the USB tucked inside my white hoodie.
Now I just take this, watch it leisurely with Writer-nim, and we're done.
Nothing left to see here.
How'd I get the footage?
Not that hard.
I added a setting to the guards on duty.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ They sometimes slack off and go play pool. For at least five hours. ...Add that setting and tweak it so it happened three hours ago—no need for infiltration.
Then make all the footage from the empty guard room save to the USB, add that the CCTV actually broke three hours ago despite looking fine?
Footage that never existed is created. Done.
Finally, retrieve the thread wrapped around the USB.
Easy, right?
Even the Academy can't have every teacher watching.
They're too busy herding all those students—who has time to check CCTV?
They just outsource to some reliable security firm.
High-quality staff is always in short supply.
...And accidents happen because of that complacency.
Man, right after the guards stepped away, bad luck with a blackout.
And a traitor shows up in those three hours? What a coincidence.
"Wh-What the...!"
"Sorry for catching you off guard like this, Laira."
I hugged my white hoodie tighter for no reason. Even knowing no one was watching, it made me hesitate.
Spotlights are nerve-wracking.
She didn't notice, right?
Yoo Siu bolting in panic made me unravel the school uniform threads first before the leotard. Now I've only got the leotard under the hoodie.
A little used up is one thing, but blocking the rocks and clearing boulders took most of it.
I smiled like nothing was wrong, but I could feel my face heating up.
Embarrassing.
"Die for me?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ It was a sneak attack.
Laira, flustered by the sudden turn, couldn't react to Arte's strike from afar.
And that was it.
"Sh-She’s... dead?!"
"Yes, she is."
The thread-bound dagger flew straight, and Laira, distracted by her transformation, didn't notice it hurtling toward her back.
...And that was the end.
The easy takedown of the Minotaur, and the end of Laira, who’d threatened my life.
A hollow death.
"Well then, I'm off."
"...You’re not gonna kill me."
"...? Why would I kill you, Siu?"
Yoo Siu sighed in relief, convinced Arte wouldn’t kill him.
He’d seen her face flush red as she killed someone.
She killed wearing that expression, yet he’d survive.
Shame washed over him.
He’d entered the Academy to become a hero, but watched someone die right in front of him.
Laira had been after my life.
He knew that. It’d be weirder if he didn’t.
But, but... The hero Yoo Siu aspired to wasn’t hung up on such things.
Heroes don’t just kill villains on principle.
The hero in his heart smashed any hardship head-on.
A being who’d push through the justice he believed in, even if the world hated him.
Aspiring to that, yet feeling relief that he survived while someone else died?
Ridiculous.
"Yoo Siu, Arte! Answer if you’re there! You alive?!"
"Oh, Teacher’s here."
Want to head back first? You look beat.
He stared hard at Arte as she asked.
"Wh-What... happened?"
"Right now, I’m weak. Immature mentally too—I nearly died to one turncoat villain."
"Huh?"
"...Someday, I’ll be stronger than you."
Yoo Siu stood on his own and walked toward the teacher’s voice.
For now, he was still immature.
Couldn’t even handle one traitor like Laira, yet talking about surpassing her?
To Arte, it’d sound like a chick peeping.
But she was off guard.
For some reason, she was interested in him.
Amelia was right. He didn’t know why, but she wouldn’t kill him.
Her reaction in a situation where killing him wouldn’t be weird.
At least for a while, he wouldn’t die.
He was immature.
...But immature meant room to grow.
That’s why he came to the Academy.
Keep letting your guard down.
Someday, I’ll surpass you.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Eek... That scared me. Th-Thought she noticed. C-Cold..."
Did I sweat too much from the tension?
The cool breeze turned my cold sweat into a sudden chill, stealing my body heat.
I pulled up the hoodie to cover, but couldn’t block the draft completely.
Spring can still be cold.
Plus, no school uniform anymore.
"Still, all’s well that ends well, Writer-nim. Nearly disappointed in the protagonist. A growth type, huh?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ D-Don’t remind me. Yoo Siu is the only protagonist! It’s fine if he’s a bit weak early on! "Doing it again. You were crying, 'The protagonist ditched his heroine and ran...! Waaah!'"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Kyaaah! Kyaaah! Kyaaaaaaah! No, but I'm not even a heroine.
...Whatever.
In that timing, that place, that situation—standing behind the protagonist facing a villain, anyone would think heroine.
Probably means that.
"Anyway, what now?"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Th-That’s why I said kill her! Heroine kill! "Ow, even so, I feel bad. And heroine? I already lied and said she’s dead."
No matter if it’s not human, you feel sorry.
If you wreck a wild animal’s home and it freezes to death in the cold, a decent person feels bad.
After all this, killing her would leave a bad taste.
"Tail’s out too."
Amazing.
...Wanna touch it a bit?
I’ve always wanted to pet a beastkin tail.