Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: A World Without Special Treatment for Brats
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When I blinked, I was back where I started, as if nothing had ever happened.
Sitting in the professor's viewing box, just as I had been.
But the scene before me was completely different.
Professors and students alike were all asleep on the floor, as if it were a bed.
I couldn't be sure, but it was clear that the ones currently sleeping hadn't escaped yet.
That meant the only ones out were me and Liche, who was right beside me.
Liche's arm was broken, so she wouldn't be able to fight.
Just as I decided I had no choice but to handle this alone and tried to stand...
"Ugh..."
Someone stirred beside me and got up.
She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at me.
"Luke...?"
"No, this is Patrick."
"...Hearing that makes me feel relieved. I must really be back."
Luna looked exhausted as she spoke, and a closer look revealed she was covered in wounds.
"I'm a bit tired... I'm sorry, but I'm going to rest for a bit."
And with that, Luna closed her eyes and fell asleep as if she had fainted.
It seemed like a lot had happened to her in there, but she must have somehow won and made it out.
It doesn't look like Arthur is out yet, though.
"But seriously, what the hell is that toilet-faced bastard up to?"
Even Luna made it out. Why hasn't the event ended yet in a world where the protagonist is a transmigrator?
I don't get it.
"Tsk."
I clicked my tongue and was about to really get going when someone else stirred.
"Hweh...?"
Blink, blink.
Her bright eyes darted around until she spotted me, and then her small lips parted.
"Luke! I won!"
Yui beamed, looking utterly delighted.
What on earth had she been doing? Her hair was a mess, and there was a scratch on her cheek.
She did just come from a fight... right?
"I threw scissors, and my opponent threw rock—"
"Yeah, yeah."
There, there. Good job, sweetie.
While everyone else was in a life-or-death battle, Yui spoke as if she'd just come back from an amusement park.
"Enough chit-chat. Take Luna to the infirmary."
"Huh?"
At my words, Yui finally peeked over to the side.
Seeing Luna covered in wounds and bleeding profusely, she gasped in shock.
"Eek..."
Yui panicked, unsure what to do as she looked at Luna, who seemed on the verge of dying from blood loss.
"Wh-what happened to her?"
I shrugged.
"How should I know?"
Normally, you'd fight a doppelgänger, but just like Liche fought Hex, it's possible Luna fought something else too.
Luna seems to have some pretty severe trauma, after all.
So if you're curious, you can wake her up later and ask her yourself.
"But isn't the professor in the infirmary probably asleep like everyone else?"
Well, probably. Taking out the healer first is standard procedure, after all.
"I don't know. Go wrap her in bandages or put some antiseptic on it. You figure it out, Yui."
"Ah, oh! That's right!"
Yui clapped her hands, as if remembering something.
And as Yui's slender arm touched Luna's body, the bleeding miraculously stopped.
The wounds remained, but since blood was no longer flowing from them, the risk of bleeding out was gone.
"Oh, what's this?"
When I asked in fascination, Yui puffed out her chest proudly and said...
"I told you I won, didn't I? So now I can use that power without having to drink blood!"
Since Yui made it out on her own, she must have gained a new skill in there.
Though, having my blood sucked felt pretty good.
Kind of a shame.
"Well then, I'll be back in a bit."
"Huh? Where are you going?"
"Where do you think? I'm going to go wreck a demon."
I need to test my new skill, and I still have to show off that card trick from earlier.
"Do you know where the demon is?"
"More or less."
In the novel, it said he was watching from the tallest building in the empire, so it should be the same this time.
Even if something changed, there are only so many places you can pull a stunt like this and watch from.
So, to get there quickly, I tried out my new skill, Shadow Fight.
A shadow with an outline identical to mine appeared before me.
But it didn't show the intelligence to speak or act on its own like before.
It had become a mere puppet that moved as I thought and followed my commands.
"Hweh...?"
Yui, finding it utterly fascinating, stretched out an arm.
She used her free arm—the one not touching Luna—to poke at the shadow.
"Isn't it cool? Now I can really do a double lariat."
"Wow... It's a shadow, but I can touch it!"
When I took my greatsword out of my inventory, the shadow was suddenly holding a greatsword made of shadow.
The reason I summoned it now was to find the demon quickly.
I ordered the shadow to sit and hold its sword horizontally, and once it had faithfully complied, I climbed onto its greatsword.
"Well, I'm off."
"Okay!"
I ordered the shadow to launch me with all its might.
The faithful shadow swung its sword with all its strength as commanded, and I timed my jump perfectly, soaring into the air.
-CRASH!!
I slammed my head on the ceiling above the spectator seats on the way, but I crashed right through it and kept flying.
When I came to my senses, I was flying through the sky.
"Now~ where could you be~"
Naturally, the first place I checked was the roof of the tallest building in the empire, just as described in the original novel.
But, as if expecting this, there wasn't a trace of a demon where he was supposed to be.
So next, I scanned the buildings that offered a good view of the academy from a distance.
As I checked them one by one, prioritizing those that seemed to have a clear line of sight to the academy...
"Found you."
The rooftop of a large building a short distance from the academy.
There, I spotted a hooded demon.
I unsummoned the shadow I'd left below and resummoned it right next to me.
As I held out my arm, the shadow grabbed it and twisted its torso powerfully.
Then it threw me with all its might in the direction I had just been looking.
***
"Hmm-hmm~♪ Hmph-hmph~♬"
Someone was sitting on the edge of a stone building, legs dangling, humming a tune.
It was the demon, humming away, pleased that his plan was going so smoothly.
"The Headmaster should be breaking out soon, so I guess I should get ready to run."
The demon didn't overestimate his own abilities.
He expected that at least one person would manage to break free from his power, and he predicted that person would be the Headmaster, Lucia.
If she could be killed by something like this, they wouldn't have bothered with troublesome methods like traitors or assassins and would have just gone for an all-out war.
Just as the demon was stealthily getting up to leave...
-KRA-BOOM!!
"Wh-what the!?"
Something came flying in fast from behind the demon and crashed onto the rooftop.
It was so fast that a cloud of dust and stone fragments billowed out.
"Ugh... my back..."
A voice came from within the smoke, and a silhouette became visible through it.
He'd expected someone to get out, but for it to be someone other than the Headmaster was unexpected.
The demon quickly jumped off the rooftop, trying to escape then and there.
However.
-Snatch!
"Hehe, you're not going anywhere."
"......?!"
A hand shot out, grabbed the hood he was wearing, and yanked him back.
"Let go of me!!"
"What's this? You're just a little brat."
"I'm not a brat! I'm Mamon!!"
"Telling a stranger your name so easily? Sounds like something a brat would do."
The child-like demon, Mamon, was much older than he looked, similar to Yui.
While he was young for a demon, 'young' for a race that lives for centuries was a very different concept from 'young' for a human.
Mamon, too, was a demon who had lived far longer than Luke, but his mental age was that of a child.
"Grr...!! Let go! Let me go!!"
"And what will you do if I let you go?"
"Run away, of course!"
"That's what I thought, which is why I'm not letting you go."
Luke swung his arm wide and slammed Mamon, whom he held by the scruff of the neck, straight into the ground.
-SLAM!
"Aargh!!"
"You know something?"
He grinned as if this was all for the better and spoke in a chilling voice.
"I don't go easy on brats. Even less so if they're juvenile delinquents."
Having suffered a lot in his past life, he shuddered at the mere thought of brats and juvenile delinquents.
As long as laws existed, society would always favor children over him, which was why Luke, aside from behind a monitor, wouldn't even speak to brats.
But after transmigrating, the situation had changed drastically.
Laws existed in this medieval era, but there were no laws for children.
This was a medieval setting, a place where children were abandoned at birth, abused, and starved to death in back alleys.
Whether a child was five or six, if they caused trouble, the responsibility fell not on the parents, but solely on the child themselves.
If a commoner's child was rude to a noble, it was perfectly legal for the noble to take the child's life on the spot. That was just the nature of this era.
And so, Luke rejoiced.
There were no bizarre laws protecting minors, and without monitors, there were no brats acting tough behind the shield of anonymity.
If any of them got out of line, he planned to bestow upon them the 'rod of correction,' just as he had done in the past.
He hadn't had a chance to deal with any brats since transmigrating, so he hadn't had an opportunity to bring out his rod of correction. But the current situation was perfect for teaching this insolent brat a lesson.
First, he was a demon, so no matter what Luke did, he couldn't be accused of child abuse. And second, while he looked like a brat to Luke, he himself claimed he wasn't one, which meant Luke could beat him without reservation.
"Hehe... Where did a little treasure like you pop out from? Huh? You cute little thing."
Luke grabbed the demon's cheek and stretched it out.
His eyes formed crescents, and his smile was so wide it looked like it might tear his face apart.
"H-Hieeek!"
Mamon was terrified by that frightening expression.
But, as expected, things were about to go very badly for Mamon.
Because Luke planned to unleash all the frustrations of his past life right here.
"Right. Your name was Mamon, wasn't it? Watch closely, little Mon. Big bro is going to show you a fun magic trick."
"Stop talking nonsense and let me go!!"
"Tsk, tsk. Is that how you speak to an adult?"
The reasons for teaching him a lesson just kept piling up.
Luke immediately activated Man's Man.
Mamon was forced to his knees without putting up any real resistance.
"Aargh?!"
"I'll show you a magic trick even kids can follow."
The disappearing thumb trick.
Luke pulled something that looked like a playing card from his inventory, one he had made a while back.
Then, with a quick, light motion, he drew a line with it.
Normally, a thin card couldn't perform the feat of cutting off a finger.
But the card Luke had made was crafted from a monster's scale, making it harder and sharper than steel.
Which meant.
-Slice!
"Huh...?"
It had more than enough sharpness and durability to sever a finger.
"AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!"
Blood spurted from the stump of Mamon's severed thumb.
"Ta-da! The finger has disappeared! Oh my, how magical!"
"My finger!! My finger!!!"
Hey, don't be such a baby over a finger.
Especially after you've killed who knows how many people.
In this event, there were a rare few, like Luke, who managed to escape.
So what about those who didn't?
It meant they were either still holding on, or they were dead.
In the original story, this event actually resulted in a significant number of deaths.
Because it was a novel, this world had no obligation to keep anyone alive except the protagonist.
So if they didn't get stronger, the chance at life given to an extra would be immediately revoked.
And Mamon was the one who had killed those extras.
"Little Mon. Didn't your parents teach you what happens when you kill people? Oh, right, do demons even have parents?"
"Grr... I have parents too!! I have a mother!!"
"No father, I see. A single-parent household? What a shame. There are no government subsidies for that around here."
"You... You...!!!"
Just like his bratty appearance suggested, Mamon was easily provoked.
"Don't worry. You're going to die here. And in a few months, I'll send your mother to hell to join you."
"YOU BASTAAAAARD!!!!"
The enraged Mamon swung his fists wildly, but...
"Not so fast! I activate my trap card! Magic Cylinder! This card negates an opponent's attack and inflicts damage equal to their attack points!"
The card Luke tossed playfully stabbed Mamon in both eyes, causing him to cry tears of blood and scream in agony.
"Gyaaaah! Gyaaaaaaaah!!"
"Brat eliminated!"
***
"Waaaaaaaaah!!!!"
-Fssssss...
Mamon wailed as if his heart was breaking, and then he suddenly began to crumble into dust, starting from his legs.
"Wait, what?"
He died just from losing a finger and his eyes? Does that even make sense?
I was planning to play with him a little longer.
What a shame...
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your... ]
Normally, killing a demon should grant a skill, but I guess I already got an advance with Shadow Fight, because I didn't get anything.
"Tch. How anticlimactic."
Feeling a bit empty, I turned and headed back to the academy.