Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: 13. Other People's Stories (1)
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# 124
#1 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of a Certain Villain.
-Master, when's this gonna end! This sucks!
"I'm more exhausted than you are!"
I diligently spin the silver drill in my hands.
Back in my childhood, mecha stories were symbolized by golden hammers, but later on, drills took over as the icon.
Of course, after enlisting, I realized shovels were the true kings.
-If you've got time for useless chatter, spin it one more revolution!
With the iron bat's voice brimming with rare irritation, I keep turning the drill hard.
If you're wondering where this is... I have no clue either! Underground somewhere!
To evade the princess, I abandoned all the old escape routes, tunneled through the collapsed sections, and now I'm digging out this unfinished burrow.
-Ugh! Another rock! Give up and dig somewhere else! This spot's too hard!
"No, all the soft soil connects to the existing escape routes."
I have no idea how many days have passed already.
No clue how far the encirclement has spread.
So all I can do is head underground with everything I've got.
-Impossible, impossible, impossible, no way!
"You idiot! Tunnels advance more than they did a minute ago! One turn moves it forward just a tiny bit. That's what a drill is! With this drill, I'll bore a hole through this earth for my escape! This hole will be... my path away from the princess!"
-No, that drill is me! Right now, you're drilling through the ground with the goddess's head!
"Just hang in there a bit longer. The escapee's hope and the captive's longing. Load those twin spirals and pierce a path to freedom. That's tunnel escape, that's Gren... no, Naruan's breakout!"
-Shut uuuup!
Rumble rumble!
My line that I'd heard somewhere before and the iron bat's scream.
Staring at the crumbling earth, I keep digging.
#2 Their Circumstances: Lia El Nermia's Circumstances.
First day back at school after the Imperial Tournament ended.
I'd contacted the academy saying I needed a short break, finished all my preparations, and this was the day I finally returned.
"What have you done!"
"We could have won handily!"
Won? What nonsense is that?
They're pinning the near-reversal—thanks to Yuglasia Academy's betrayal—entirely on my betrayal.
"What reason could there possibly be for you to betray us, Lady Nermia!"
I ignore the stares converging on me as the Student Council President speaks.
"A reason... you say?"
"Yes!"
The president glares at me with eyes that could pierce flesh a hundred times over if they had the power.
"I was scared."
"Scared? Of facing Yuglasia?"
"Yes."
Terrified at the mere fact that I'd dared to block the instructor's will.
That I blocked an instructor who wielded an iron bat—the pinnacle of weapons—over a wooden one!
No. 1000 told me all about it, and I was petrified.
Couldn't sleep at night, trembling in fear of when or where the instructor and that iron bat might appear.
"Why... why would you, who fought so hard for Marsis's victory!"
Well, it was more for my own victory than Marsis's, but it doesn't look that way to the president.
No need to correct him, though.
"Why? You fought alone so valiantly... we had the momentum, and yet you were scared!"
"It's the difference between knowing the truth and not."
Yuglasia students?
Tricky, sure, but not frightening.
They have limits, after all.
Compared to classmates who'd cuff the hands of someone who helped them eat or charge with sword auras over stolen food, they're downright normal.
But once I learned the instructor was pulling their strings from behind the scenes, everything felt like it was in his palm.
He might even read my thoughts, so I have to keep calling him "Instructor" with respect.
-No, even so, probably not to that extent...
No. The instructor is omniscient.
Even I, fresh from organization life, didn't recognize him smiling and greeting me right beside me.
His face was identical!
-If he disguises his face and infiltrates... could I spot him?
-I... doubt I'd be sure, Master.
Exactly. So caution around the instructor awake or asleep—double-check passersby for the instructor.
"Lady Nermia!"
I glance at the president scolding me loudly, and he starts fuming again.
"Even as a lady of House Nermia, as a Marsis student and Student Council officer, we can't just let this slide! There will be disciplinary action... huh?"
I hand the president the paper I've been meticulously preparing.
The contents are complicated, but those three letters at the top say it all.
[Resignation Letter.]
"I'm quitting the academy."
"Huh?"
"I'm done."
According to No. 1000, the instructor escaped the princess's clutches and fled the empire, but who knows.
We thought so last time, and wasn't he right there?
He might still be lurking as Yuglasia's hidden professor, and I lack the guts to stay in rival Marsis.
"I'm transferring."
I bow my head and turn, striding quickly out of the academy.
I'd already settled everything with them; I just came to hand over this resignation. Glad I could do it fast.
"Lady Nermia? Lady Nermia? Lady Nermia!"
Screams erupt behind me, but I ignore them and press forward.
-Where to now, Master?
-Where else... obviously...
Yuglasia.
#3 Their Circumstances: Aris Lil Retia's Circumstances.
"This is... peace."
"Peace is wonderful."
She giggles while eating cake at the café.
Delicious. And joyful.
"We never knew what happiness was."
"You're right, Aris. These simple things are happiness... I never realized it before. Makes me reflect on my past self."
I sip warm tea and gaze out the café window.
Sunlight.
The sun is out.
On a weekday. And yet!
I'm not at the academy—I'm at a café, having tea time with Syr!
"Sniff... it's great."
Lately, I've gotten so sentimental.
Born into House Retia, I never cried no matter how sick or pained I was as a child.
Now a bit of warm sunlight and tea nearly brings tears.
"This is..."
"Academy life without Night Self-Study..."
This is true student life, living like a proper student.
"By the way... Professor Niserwin won't come back, right?"
"I hope not..."
Syr's remark, as if it just occurred to her, makes me frown slightly too.
It was the day after the Imperial Tournament ended.
The whole student body was panicking over Professor Niserwin's disappearance.
"What? Gone?"
"Why? Why's he gone! Don't tell me it's void because he left after our deal!"
"No way, that's crazy!"
"It's Niserwin! What if he just left the demon alone and quit himself?"
"For what!"
"To torment us!"
"Noooo! This is Niserwin... Niserwin's trap!"
Returning triumphant from our victory, only to hear Professor Niserwin had vanished.
Everyone trembled with wild imaginations.
Our savior was the principal: low presence but Yuglasia's highest authority, one of the empire's mere 36 education elders.
"Professor Niserwin was summoned by the empire. It's a loss for the academy, but..."
The principal addressed the gathered students with a regretful expression.
"Yesss!"
"Freedom!"
"No more... no more demon!"
The students cheered wildly, dubbing it the true day of liberation.
That was just days ago.
"What if he returns for a Night Self-Study comeback event..."
"Or starts it anew as the new professor..."
Absurd nonsense that could only exist in imagination, but slap "Professor Niserwin" on it, and it suddenly feels all too possible.
"Sigh... but probably not, Aris. I heard from the vice president that in exchange, the empire's sending new professors."
"Really?"
"Yeah, straight from the Student Council grapevine, so it's legit."
Syr was already receiving handover from the vice president on the role.
Everything she was learning seemed less academy handover and more bizarre rituals, but with the predecessor being clueless Senior Liseng about Student Council duties, what could you do.
I just hope Syr keeps her innocence and doesn't turn into a vice president clone.
...Though that's probably wishful thinking.
"Aris? Aris?"
"Huh?"
"Were you talking to the goddess again?"
"Yeah."
Syr's beaming smile looks oddly sinister somehow, but I don't voice the foolish thought.
"Seriously, Aris, you're so close to Athena. Anyway, given any thought to it?"
"Oh, that?"
Her words remind me of what Syr had recommended.
"Student Council President election... Think I can do it?"
Student Council President election.
The new council forms soon, handovers begin.
Syr suggested we join together to make academy life better.
She's not elected yet, either... but with the vice president's shadowy connections—er, influence—she's guaranteed a win?
"Yeah. Let's do it, Aris. Huh? We can't let silver demon stuff happen again! I've even made campaign slogans!"
"Well..."
Syr scoots over with cake and teacup, her persistent urging wearing me down until I agreed to run for Student Council President.
And then
"I... won?"
"No one fits president better than you, Aris."
I stared blankly at Syr, elected female vice president beside me.
Even with my fame, 1st-years snagging key Student Council posts over 3rd-years felt off...
"It's fine, Aris. Old Yuglasia might care, but now it's all about skill!"
"S-Syr? That was an inside thought! I didn't say it out loud—how'd you know!"
"Vice president skill."
"What's a Student Council vice president's job anyway?!"
From the traitor Liseng's successor, not even proper leader Senior Karen!
"Hee hee, Liseng Senior has her merits despite appearances?"
"Even now!"
Syr's eerie mind-reading power terrifies me.
So many changed since academy days, but Syr's the only one not by Professor Niserwin.
"Heh heh heh, am I not the Syr you know?"
"Stop, you're scaring me!"
After that—the greatest terror since the silver demon.
No Night Self-Study, no Professor Niserwin, no silver demon. Second semester ends, and on 4th-years' graduation day.
"Hm? What's this?"
In what was now my office—the Student Council room, fully handed over by now-(former) President Nerkia Senior—I spot a suspicious safe.
"Time's tight, but..."
Graduation ceremony's starting soon.
I'd stayed to finalize the student rep speech.
"But this unease..."
Like a divine revelation urging me to open that safe.
Don't, and I'll regret it. Right now!
"Goddess."
-Yes.
I summon the spear at her request.
Aura naturally surges.
No steel safe withstands aura.
"Documents...?"
Inside the neatly bisected safe: a single sheet.
"...Huh?"
A record of the (former) president's outrageous misdeeds.