Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Monster
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Thud.
I slammed my foot down, sending the knight flying backward with a whoosh. But thanks to his armor, he didn't take much damage.
"If only I had a sword at least."
The encirclement was closing in tighter.
The knights, having realized my skills were no joke, were now swinging their blades with the single-minded intent of lopping off one of my limbs.
"What the hell are you lot struggling against just two students for?!"
Haini Rosaless was yelling something from the back, but there was a reason the knights couldn't break through me—a guy with no weapon or armor.
"Hoo."
Rin stood behind me, eyes closed, hand extended toward me.
Thanks to her support magic, I was far more agile and heavy-hitting than usual.
And with the protective spells she layered on top, I could shrug off the knights' attacks to a degree.
In the end, Haini Rosaless stepped forward herself, rapier in hand. Without any preparatory stance, she charged straight in.
Her target: Rin.
She must have figured that taking her out first would let the knights overwhelm me with numbers.
But—
Thump.
My back kick landed square in her gut, doubling her over. She staggered back a few steps before retching and vomiting on the floor.
'She said she was confident in her bodyguard skills.'
As someone who used to love creating the tiniest openings like this and countering, Haini had taken the bait perfectly.
"Stick close behind me. I won't let them touch you, so don't worry—just keep the magic coming."
"Yeah. I trust you."
Rin replied softly.
But the truth was, it wasn't as rosy as it seemed. I could hold out for now since I still had stamina left, but I wasn't actually taking the knights down.
No matter how many beasts I'd hunted barehanded in the Demon Realm Forest, I hadn't really hunted them with just my fists alone.
"Just a couple of students?!"
"Form up proper ranks and push in!"
"You bastard!"
The knights' words and actions grew rougher, clearly embarrassed at being held up by academy students.
'This is getting tough.'
I wondered where the hell the Dean was and what she was doing when, right on cue, the parlor door burst open. In came Eve and Tana.
"Here! We brought it... Huh?"
"What is all this?"
Spotting Ares and Hayun already bound, and the knights piling on me and Rin, the two wore bewildered expressions.
But seeing the book in their hands, they realized it was the surveillance record the Dean had hidden with magic.
"That! That's the decisive proof we're not the culprits!"
In an instant, every eye turned to Tana.
*
"...Yes, there's no issue with the footage."
Haini, glaring at me like she'd bitten into something bitter, bit her lip but nodded.
"Lighten up. We were the ones about to lose our minds from the injustice."
I crossed my arms and sneered. Haini let out a bitter grunt and bowed her head.
"S-Sorry."
She had no defense for trying to arrest us without a proper investigation—especially as an inspector. She had no choice but to grovel.
Of course, that didn't fully vent our anger, so we ignored her flat-out.
"Who'd have thought Hare would pull something like this."
Professor Jeffrey, Class A's homeroom teacher, clicked his tongue as he watched the footage. With the Dean ambushed by Penil's gang, he'd stepped in as the school's representative.
The moment we saw Hare in the video, the foggy haze over our memories cleared, and recollections of her came flooding back.
Not just us—others started piecing together the incident's context one after another as their memories of Hare resurfaced.
It was powerful magic, Rin argued, but so effect-focused that the counter was simple. The other professors agreed.
Rin explained it required holding two daggers, making self-defense tricky.
Of course, few mages in the academy could cast something like that over the whole place, so Haini added they were investigating that angle first.
"Then we'll investigate that student Hare and verify the Dean's assault as well. Sorry again for the inconvenience."
"What good are people like you if an apology's all it takes?"
I scoffed. Haini clenched her fists but apologized once more before storming out.
It felt like I'd worked out hard and chugged ice water.
"Well, that wraps up the immediate business, right?"
Jeffrey grinned awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable in these situations, stretched, and told us to rest until they called us again.
"I've got a ton of parent complaints to handle from this mess. You kids go rest."
He hurried off, clearly hoping the Dean would recover soon.
"So... things are sorted for now?"
Ares looked flustered by the sudden turn. No one answered right away, so I spoke up slowly.
"What if we hadn't uncovered the truth? What do you think would've happened?"
"Huh?"
Rin, Ares, and Hayun turned to me, puzzled.
I got that we were exhausted, but this was too suspicious to gloss over.
"We'd have been arrested, no chance to argue. Caught red-handed stealing the former king's treasure, after all."
I pushed aside questions about what it was and why it was here for now.
"Yeah. Chilling when you think about it."
"Hmm."
Rin and Hayun reacted, and Ares fell silent, deep in thought.
"The treasure's still stolen. We'd be tortured for its location, but since we don't know, we'd just die under the questioning."
I said it calmly, but their eyes widened in horror.
That would've been our end.
"And the academy?"
What about the academy?
The Dean's position would be in jeopardy first.
A scandal this big would naturally point fingers at the top seat.
Professor Jeffrey had even mentioned inquiries from various families already.
But since they'd caught the culprit, she wouldn't face execution like us—just step down as a compromise.
"...What are you getting at?"
Ares sighed and asked. I tapped the table and answered.
"The scale's too big."
To steal the treasure, just steal it.
A mage who could wipe Hare's records and the academy's memories could've done it far simpler and cleaner.
"Rin, no mage could pull off a spell like that on the spot, right?"
"Yeah, even prepared, it'd take a week."
"The academy's huge, but at night, people stick to certain spots, so maybe less time."
Hayun chimed in with her take. I nodded in agreement.
"What's a thief's ideal? Steal without getting caught. But this spell was set up assuming discovery."
"...You saying Hare got caught on purpose?"
"That's my take."
Even Penil Leiros attacking the Dean seemed fishy.
The three mulled it over, trying to reason it out, but I just smiled and said,
"Let's rest for now. The brain works better with a break."
*
I washed up, slept deeply, and woke to another dark night.
Complaining about my messed-up body clock, I gazed at the stars outside, waiting for fatigue to hit again, when I spotted a dozing guard.
I'd heard security was beefed up after the incident, but in the late wee hours, it didn't feel like it.
'This damn academy.'
Outsiders raved about Aios Academy as the pinnacle of prestige, but inside, it was a total mess.
Like the kids of famous houses, the academy lived off past glory.
What good is a glorious history if the present sucks?
I clicked my tongue and turned—only to find someone standing in my room.
In the potentially creepy scene, she pulled back her hood, revealing the very student I'd hoped to see.
"Hare?"
I let out a hollow laugh and reached for my sword, but Hare asked flatly,
"How'd you know?"
"What?"
Her sudden question caught me off guard, but she pressed on seriously.
"The cockatrice's weakness, the shared senses—how'd you know?"
Oh, that.
I scratched the back of my head and shot back emptily,
"You're seriously here in person just to ask about that?"
"Sigh, no intention to talk, huh?"
I thought she wanted round two, but Hare backed down and made a covert offer.
"Someone's interested in you."
"Hm?"
"That person wants you. Come with me. They'll give you what you want."
"You don't seriously think I'd follow you just because of that, right?"
I laughed disbelievingly, but Hare's face stayed dead serious—like she'd really grant my every wish if I came along.
"Do you even know what I want?"
"No."
"Then what're you gonna do for me?"
She answered exasperatedly,
"I'm saying we have the power to make it happen, whatever it is."
Did I have to go along with this sloppy pitch?
The back-and-forth made it clear they had no intention of sharing details.
"What I want right now is to beat your ass and find out why you're pulling this crap."
Shing. My sword cleared its sheath and cleaved Hare in two. Thud. Her bisected body began liquefying into a sticky goo that oozed across the floor.
*
"Recruitment failed, huh."
Behind the school, on the rear mountain.
The man in the hood next to Hare sighed. She replied blankly,
"Told you he's stubborn. No way he'd come."
"Still, the boss wanted him."
The man fidgeted with his hands, then brushed off his clothes and asked,
"Assassination?"
"Here."
Plop. What Hare tossed was a finger from Penil Leiros—the one under investigation for assaulting the Dean.
They'd planned to keep him overnight at the academy since it was late, then have Haini and the knights take him tomorrow for questioning on ties to the case. Sadly, the boy's short life ended here.
"Told you not to give him that drug for nothing. It made him rampage and act alone."
"The Leiros family kept whining, no choice."
"Sigh."
"The knights'll have a hell of a time. Leiros'll go berserk over his son."
"And if they hire us again, we profit."
It was a preemptive hit to silence any loose lips about their involvement.
Dying in custody? The Leiros side would suspect Haini and the knights, and might use them for cover-up work.
Jobs don't just fall into your lap.
You make them—that was the man's creed.
"Then... let's—"
Something caught the man's eye as he went to say "go."
From the dorm's third floor, the boy he'd just been talking to flung open his window and jumped.
He stabbed his sword into the wall mid-fall to brake, landed cleanly, then bolted straight toward them.
Even if he got here, there was no door.
The towering school wall blocked the rear mountain—they figured he couldn't reach.
But Daniel scaled a nearby tree in a flash, leaped to jam his sword midway up the wall,
used it as a foothold to vault atop,
then yanked a rope tied to the hilt to retrieve it.
His eyes locked exactly with the man's.
'Found you.'
Daniel descended the wall and charged in a straight line, his momentum pure predator on the hunt.
"Run!"
Hare, who'd been through this before, yelled urgently. The man panicked at the unforeseen chase but followed her.
"What the fuck is that guy?!"
From dorm to rear mountain—the distance, the obstacles—and he cleared it all in seconds to pursue.
Hare bit her lip and muttered,
"No idea what his deal is."
Rin had described him as timid but kind, with his own convictions.
She'd even pitied how his personality kept him from using half his skill.
But this?
'Where's the "timid" in that?!'
I'd thought him odd during the exam, and fighting him felt like raw madness.
What lunatic shreds his own body like that, even with healing mages around?!
The Daniel now was a whole different vibe from the school one.
"Crazy bastard's filthy fast!"
Despite the distance, Daniel was already right on their tails—close enough to hear his voice.
"You couldn't escape me in the forest."
His casual tone irked the man, who halted.
"I'll just kill you. No need to run."
He'd fled earlier not to lose, but to avoid pointless exertion.
"Hare, you go ahead."
"But..."
"It's fine. I'll handle it and catch up."
"...Got it."
Hare vanished in a whoosh.
Daniel didn't pursue, stopping to face the man.
"Impressive. Didn't think you'd track us like that."
"Dopple slimes need line of sight to control their clones. That told me you'd be somewhere visible from my window."
"...!"
How the hell did he know he was using dopple slime powers?
Right.
The "Hare" he'd talked to wasn't her—it was the man's clone disguised.
"Cockatrice to dopple slime? What's your deal? You don't seem like some ordinary student."
Daniel scratched his head and countered,
"What are you lot? Why use powers from beasts in that forest?"
"..."
The man had no intention of answering. His hand morphed into blue spines—slime's basic combat shapeshift.
But Daniel's sword already pierced his throat.
"Gahk!"
The man's head severed.
But Daniel kept slashing, hacking him to pieces.
Arms, legs, torso, head.
Not a pretty sight, but he was slime anyway.
"Think slicing me up like that kills me?"
The man's voice echoed. Severed limbs lunged on their own, but Daniel cleaved them aside, mounting the torso.
"Form doesn't matter. Even with your head over there, the biggest chunk's the core."
Stab. Stab. Stab.
"Gaaaaah!"
"I can at least infuse mana into my blade."
Slimes ignore physical hits, but a bit of mana counters that, Daniel said, stabbing relentlessly. The torso shrank steadily.
'Good. As it shrinks, the consciousness shifts to the limbs.'
It hurt like hell, but the brute-force hacking was working—the body dwindling.
Squelch.
Daniel grabbed nearby remnants and slapped them onto himself.
A bizarre sight with legs on the torso, but they stuck.
"Dopple slimes' minds cling to the largest mass, so fragments try reattaching. Now this is the main body again?"
"Ah..."
"Not talking yet? Let's keep going."
Daniel stabbed on. The man thrashed, thinking,
'Gotta report back!'
Survive and tell the others.
A monster had nested in Aios Academy.