Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Evidence
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“Behave yourselves. We'll discuss your punishment again tonight.”
The knight slammed the door shut behind him as he left. I let out a sigh of relief. If we'd been hauled off right then, we wouldn't even have a chance to prove our innocence.
The reason we were still here was surprisingly thanks to the Dean.
The stern-looking woman with glasses was Haini Rosaless, a royal inspector.
She'd tried to arrest us on charges of stealing the former king's treasure, but the Dean had stepped in to stop her.
The Dean argued that there was no solid proof we'd stolen anything—just that we'd been at the scene—and that students couldn't be carted off on such flimsy grounds.
After some back-and-forth, Haini Rosaless agreed to search the academy for the day.
'They weren't even going to search properly before arresting us?'
It was absurd, but apparently, the testimonies claiming we'd been caught red-handed at the scene were to blame.
With four of us, we ended up spending the day together in the spacious parlor. I cleared my throat to draw their attention.
“Come over here. Let's talk about what happened yesterday.”
We'd definitely caught the culprit.
I remembered using self-harm to subdue the one casting cockatrice magic.
“But who the hell was it?”
Strangely, my mind was a fog when it came to the culprit's identity. No memories at all.
It wasn't just me.
Rin, Ares, and Hayun remembered the same situation I did, but none of us could recall the culprit.
We couldn't piece it together, even going over every detail.
“Looks like some kind of magic did this...”
“Yeah, probably.”
I nodded in agreement with Rin.
I took a deep breath and held up my index and middle fingers.
“There are two weird things about this situation right now.”
[Everyone in the academy remembers last night's incident in a distorted way.]
[We remember the events clearly, but the culprit's identity is completely gone.]
“Come to think of it, we've only lost memories of the culprit, but the events themselves are crystal clear.”
“Right. And some professors claimed they saw us stealing, so their memories must've been altered entirely.”
Hayun nodded as Rin chimed in. Ares was frowning at me, looking uncomfortable for some reason.
'What's his deal?'
He seemed bothered, but I pushed on regardless.
“The situation has contradictions that make it easy to prove. Like, they claim they saw us stealing but let us go back to the dorms to sleep.”
“Yeah. If they'd seen us, they should've arrested us on the spot.”
Hayun's expression brightened a bit.
“The key is why our memories were left intact...”
I was stumped on that part, groaning in frustration, when Rin shot her hand up.
“That's probably my magic.”
“Huh?”
“Last night, I cast a spell to help you all sleep well. It lightly touches memories and the mind to aid rest.”
It sounded scarier than I expected, but Rin waved her hands in panic.
“B-but it's never failed! I use it a lot, like I said.”
“Okay, keep going.”
“Ahem. So, the memory-altering magic from yesterday must've clashed with mine, canceling it out for us.”
“But isn't that weird too? We lost the culprit's memory, but the event distortion didn't affect us?”
Rin shook her head at my question.
“Well, about that...”
That's when the Dean burst in.
Her face was urgent as she rushed over to us.
“No one remembers the missing student you mentioned, and there's no record of them anywhere.”
“What?”
It wasn't just erasing the culprit from our memories. The mage had wiped all traces of them from every student in the academy—records and all.
That left us accusing a person who might as well not exist.
Rin added from the side.
“That's it. The mage probably cast twice. First, distorting people's memories that night—mine canceled that. But the second one, erasing the culprit, hit us full force.”
That explained the phenomenon, but it didn't give us answers.
Few mages could affect the entire academy like that.
As we shifted to talking about mages, the Dean subtly nudged my side and asked.
“You really didn't steal it, right?”
“Good timing. What do you remember from yesterday?”
The Dean looked uneasy as she recounted her memory.
“The magic alarm went off. There's a hidden underground warehouse in the building by that big tree where you were. But when we came out, the guards said they'd caught you...”
“And then they took us back to the dorms? If we were caught stealing, where's the treasure?”
“...Huh?”
Going over the details, even the Dean looked puzzled. Confidence surged back in us.
“I was worried our memories might be wrong, but we're good. Ours line up; theirs are full of holes.”
Still, no immediate solution.
With records gone, we had no way to identify the culprit.
The Dean and Rin dove into a heated debate on memory magic while Hayun stared blankly, fidgeting with her fingers.
Ares quietly beckoned me to the corner of the parlor.
“What's up?”
His sour expression didn't bode well.
'Now that I think about it, we haven't talked much lately.'
“I heard from the talk earlier. Why didn't you save Rin right away yesterday?”
“...What?”
His eyes burned with the zeal of a holy knight purging evil.
“From what they said, you could've saved her without letting her suffer like that.”
“Yeah.”
I admitted it casually, and Ares raised his voice.
“Then why did she have to go through that pain?!”
“...”
The girls' eyes turned our way.
They looked confused about the sudden fight, but I racked my brain for a decent excuse.
I couldn't say: In my past life, she led the army that slaughtered the continent, so I tested if near-death triggered some awakening.
'How do I even explain that?'
As if hearing my thoughts, Ares grabbed my collar and growled.
“Spit it out straight, Daniel McKlein. Give me one wrong word, and I'll kill you before the knights do.”
He bared his killing intent openly.
At first, I wondered how to excuse myself to someone clueless, but his aggression stirred my own anger.
I gripped his hand, forcing him to grimace and let go.
“If you don't know anything, just shut up.”
“What?”
The entire continent's population—wiped out.
Even I, living in the forest, heard the rumors and stopped by a nearby village to verify.
It was already a massacre by the army.
A mother shielding her child, dead.
Then that mother rose, ripped out the child's tongue, and killed them.
The child revived and started gouging out friends' eyes.
Death knights cackled as they hunted fleeing survivors.
Heads skewered on spears like apples.
“Why just watch them die? Why? Because it was necessary.”
Rin was my precious childhood friend, my faded first love.
I didn't know then, but she'd written letters to my sister and cleared misunderstandings with her friends to protect me from expulsion.
In the past life, she killed me and Eris—still a trauma—but I couldn't blame the current Rin for that.
Separate from that, I knew.
What horrors that beautiful, kind girl would unleash in the future.
The continent's fate hung on my choices.
So I tested her, confirmed.
Not just for me—for her too.
Understand why she became the army's leader, save her, stop the massacre, let her live normally.
If not...
Killing her was obvious.
Couldn't judge on personal feelings.
Truth was, I was a bit scared.
Her recent glimpses echoed that past aura.
'If her change wasn't external but internal...'
I'd assumed external: curse, brainwashing, infection.
That past Rin felt so different, tears in her eyes as she killed me.
But last night, when she attacked, I felt a similar vibe.
If that's her hidden nature?
Regrettable, but I'd have to kill her.
If inherent, it'd erupt eventually.
Couldn't guard her forever.
Of course, just possibility.
Even with the instinct, she might not turn.
Any odds, if risking continental genocide, eliminate for sure. My stance.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Ares pressed as I held back words, but Rin and Hayun pulled us apart.
“Stop it! Daniel must've had his reasons.”
“Yeah, I'm fine.”
“...”
Seeing Rin force a smile hurt. My heart still ached there—sorry—but I looked away.
“Fine, fight if you want, but not now.”
The Dean intervened, and Ares nodded reluctantly. I focused on solutions without a word.
“We just need to prove that student's existence—the one we can't remember.”
Show they vanished suddenly, and even the knights and inspector would acknowledge magic.
“But was it really a student?”
Hayun tilted her head, and I had no answer. Even that was questionable.
Rin spoke up.
“It was a student. Felt like someone close to me.”
“Right... close to you...”
Close to Rin.
Close... to Rin?
“Wait...”
A flash hit me. I looked at the Dean, but the answer dawned before she spoke.
'Damn it.'
I remembered kicking away the key to this in the past.
Bitter taste filled my mouth as Rin widened her eyes, nodded vigorously, and approached.
“It's there! Still there!”
“...What?”
What was she on about? Before I could process, she glanced around and whispered in my ear.
“I told the Dean not to dispose of it.”
“...!”
Stunned at how she knew, I stared, but she just grinned with no explanation.
Anyway.
I went straight to the Dean and said quietly.
“The saved footage monitoring Rin—it has the culprit on it.”
If close to Rin, they'd be with her.
We still had the academy surveillance videos of Rin's movements those past few days.