Chapter 94
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Heart-Pounding School Escape
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“Cough! Cough! Ugh… What the…”
Hax clutched his ringing head and slowly lifted it.
As his vision focused, he realized this wasn't the old school building.
“Fuck… Urk… Where the hell am I…”
His skull-splitting headache blurred his sight, but Hax still tried to take in his surroundings.
“Hoo… A table…? A room? …Sia, Sia!”
Spotting the lone table in the bare room jogged his memory of what happened before he blacked out.
“Buhr… I was just trying to have some fun, and this is what happens… Fuck, what a shitty world…”
Not even grasping the full situation yet, and already complaining out loud. Yeah, that was Hax, alright.
He got to his feet and checked the only clue in sight: the table.
“What’s this… Instructions?”
His eyes fell on a single sheet of paper atop it, boldly labeled Instructions in huge letters.
He began reading.
1. You have been transferred to the academy of the past.
2. Here, you are a 'student'.
3. Complete your classes and head home. Your schedule: Magic Studies - Theology - Swordsmanship.
4. You cannot leave before classes end. Strongly advise against trying.
5. Act like a normal student. It's the best way to avoid suspicion from the other 'students'.
6. Please refrain from actions that earn penalty points. We're begging you.
7. A 'culprit' is among you.
8. Before the end-of-day bell, your only escape is to ring the bell at the academy main gate and report the 'culprit'.
9. If the reported student isn't the culprit, the reporter takes the penalty.
10. Each student has a special ability. Yours is 'Lie Detection'.
11. This room will vanish soon. Staying is not recommended.
12. Good luck.
13. One of these is a lie.
“What the hell is this…”
Stunned by rules he'd never heard of in his life, Hax watched a door materialize in front of him.
“…”
The only exit from this room.
No telling what happened if the room vanished, so he had no choice but to open it and step out.
-Creak…
Stepping into a hallway alive with ordinary students milling about. If not for the old building being off-limits, it would've seemed completely normal.
'Old building… with students…'
Staring around blankly, someone called out to him.
“Hax?”
It was Walter, the heretic who'd infiltrated the academy with him.
Not exactly close, but comrades in arms with the same goal.
Hax fired off a question to fish for info.
“Walter? How'd you end up here?”
“…No idea. Came to and I was here.”
A faint chime echoed in his head.
-Ding
'What… wait… is this my special ability?'
Before he could dwell, Walter asked the dazed Hax,
“And you? How'd you get here?”
“Same as you.”
With info so scarce, the pair fell silent.
Hax brought up the one lead they had: the instructions.
“…Did you see the instructions?”
Walter paused, then nodded.
“…Yeah.”
A beat of silence, then the chime again.
-Ding
'No clue what's a lie and what's truth.'
Hax's mind reeled; so far, just the same sound every time.
And those instructions clearly said there was a culprit among them.
Had he read the same ones? Is this guy the culprit? Does he suspect me? Will I end up as the sacrifice for the cult?
Paranoia swirling, Hax held back from more questions, unable to fully trust him yet.
Seemed Walter felt the same.
He broke the silence.
“Let's head outside first.”
'Did he read them? Wants to go out?'
Mind a mess, but he was still someone familiar, at least.
Hax trailed after him toward the main gate.
'Ask about his ability? Nah, he might not even have one.'
No need to share more intel.
Still, Hax called out to Walter ahead of him.
“Walter, are you a woman?”
“What?”
Walter shot him a glare at the random nonsense.
'Shit, what a moronic way to probe… Fuck…'
As silence stretched again, Hax shook his head.
“Pfft… Just kidding, lighten up.”
“…Tch.”
This approach clearly wasn't working.
“Come on, we're comrades, right? No need to be like that.”
Grinning, hoping for a straight answer.
Walter glared, glanced back, then replied.
“Ha… Yeah, comrades.”
-Ding
That same chime again.
So everything Walter said was either all true… or all lies.
'All true, same boat as me… All lies… Wait, is this ability even real?'
Hax braced to attack and bolt at any moment.
Layers of doubt piling up, they'd arrived at the main gate unnoticed.
“Tch, nothing special… Let's go.”
As Walter reached for the gate…
-Crunch!
The chatter of laughing students, footsteps, rustling clothes—all sounds vanished.
The students' necks snapped with a sickening crack, heads swiveling to stare right at them.
After the grinding of crushed joints, nothing but silence remained.
“Gulp.”
Chills racing, Walter's hand froze short of the handle.
Sweating bullets, the two backed away from the gate.
-Crunch…
The students' necks righted themselves, and they resumed chatting happily.
The tension-dried tension shattered by a single voice.
Magic Studies class begins shortly. Students scheduled please head to Classroom 2A on the second floor.
Students surged toward the second floor.
'Everyone's going…? Then…'
-Crunch!
The pair who hadn't budged watched necks snap again, eyes locking on them.
“Gasp!!!”
All they could do was stifle their screams.
“Go…”
“Yeah.”
They hurried to the classroom.
The classroom looked like any ordinary academy room.
Except every face was a stranger.
They took empty seats side by side, blending in.
Huddled, eavesdropping on the chatter…
-Slide
The door opened, and in shuffled a black-haired old man grinning ear to ear.
The noise died, so probably the professor.
The enigmatic prof started calling roll, one name at a time.
“Boss, Totum, Mori… Hax, Walter.”
-Yes.
Following the other students, they replied.
“Yes.”
Roll call passed smoothly, but then the prof said something baffling.
“Everyone's here! Now, everyone take out your materials?”
-Yes.
What materials?
Clueless, they snuck glances around, eyes darting.
-Rustle.
As cold sweat beaded—what happens without them?—
Students pulled fingers from their bags, one each.
-Thud
““…?””
The pair's eyes bulged in confusion.
Fingers as Magic Studies materials? What kind of madness?
They had ten fingers each, sure, but none packed extra for class.
Not even as heretics.
Panic rising, eyes darting, one student stood.
“Professor, sorry. I forgot my materials today.”
Hand over heart, calm confession. The prof replied,
“Hm, can't be helped. Anyone got an extra finger to lend?”
“Yes, I'll share mine.”
His neighbor started yanking off his own finger.
-Crunchcrunch! Grind… grind… rip!
“Here, use this!”
“Thanks! Dodged a bullet there!”
Eerie as hell.
The two smiled warmly at each other.
Droplets of sticky blood still falling, but gratitude flowed anyway.
Walter and Hax had no such options.
As they considered mimicking…
“Professor! Sorry! I forgot mine too!”
Another student shot up, yelling.
The prof's torn grin drooped, and he bellowed,
“Student Mori! Didn't you forget last time too?!”
“Sorry, Professor!”
“Hoo… Corporal punishment for this class, then.”
“Understood, Professor.”
The forgetful student nodded and stepped forward.
“Hoo… Not vital content, so this'll do.”
The prof swung his hand—limbs severed, blood fountaining.
-Splurt! …Sizzle…
-Thud
The legless torso hit the floor.
The limbless student craned his neck to meet the prof's eyes.
“Thank you for your mercy, Professor!”
A smile, as if thinking, 'Glad it ended here.'