Chapter 243
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 243
Chapter Title: Lesson 47. Twist upon Twist - 3
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Including Rebellion, the Union Expedition Club now boasted a total of twenty members—a lineup so formidable that even if they entered the inter-club special tournament right now, no one could deny they belonged there.
Not only were the core Rebellion members exceptional, but nearly all the Lower Dimension Special Admission students—who had served as the foundational stepping stones propping up the bottom of their grade rankings—had solidified their basics over the first semester, honed their innate unique abilities during summer break, and were now utterly dominating their peers in the second semester.
'Well, that's only natural.'
While most students were scouted from higher dimensions, those admitted via the special track from lower dimensions possessed distinct advantages over them.
As long as Ban Yu-won nurtured and unlocked their potential with his authority, it would be strange if they didn't earn top marks.
"From this moment on, this ship belongs to Catro El Fascist!"
"As long as certain members don't pull stunts like this..."
"Gah! Ack! Aaaagh! Don't hit me there—stop hitting the spots you already hit!"
This was why it felt less like the Union Expedition Club and more like the Union Eccentricity Club...
Ban Yu-won let out a quiet sigh as he watched Stone—currently attempting a coup only to get caught by the club members and beaten to a pulp.
The motive behind the coup was simple enough.
Having reached the point where he could craft talismans that boosted all abilities by 15%, Stone had started raging that, with the tournament looming, he needed to oust Ban Yu-won and the Rebellion crew to claim the official club president spot.
His ability to empower the entire club was indeed a powerful fit for leadership, but the other members—fully aware that Ban Yu-won was the one who had elevated him this far—weren't about to endorse his little rebellion.
Or rather, Stone had always been the type to nonchalantly pull off absurd antics that left everyone wondering if he was serious or joking.
It sent shivers down their spines, but there was zero room for admiration.
Still...
'Yeah, the time for these little plays is over. Perfect timing, actually.'
Ban Yu-won had definitely picked up on whatever message Stone had been desperately trying to convey to him all along.
He'd known for a while but had played dumb to tie up all the loose ends at once.
But the spaceship had launched, and there was no turning back until everything was settled.
No one aboard could leave.
So it was time to stop treating his senior like a mere stone and just laughing it off.
"Ban Yu-won, reign of terror only brings ruin and collapse! Even if it's not me, a second Catro or third Catro will rise to shatter your fraudulent contract—mmph!"
"Mind if we talk, Senior?"
"No, leave him be."
Woo Hyul-rin suddenly appeared, trying to drag Stone away, but Ban Yu-won blocked her.
She'd been reining him in whenever he spouted nonsense like this lately—but the tension in her posture made it look like she was desperate to shut him up for good.
Come to think of it, hadn't he just said "fraudulent contract"?
Contract.
Just as he'd suspected.
"Looks like I'll have to give Stone Senior some personal re-education after all."
"Haha, leave it to me. Seems like he's got a lot pent up..."
"Let him go."
Ban Yu-won infused his words with linguistic power.
It seemed studying his grandfather's old tomes had paid off—Woo Hyul-rin, who had looked ready to yank Stone away and vanish, froze in place.
Visibly shocked, she blinked and forced her mouth open.
"Wh... what?"
"I said let him go and leave."
Even Stone's coup had been brushed off with playful banter, so when Ban Yu-won turned serious, Woo Hyul-rin couldn't muster her usual bright smile anymore.
Catro El Fascist, caught between them, blinked in confusion.
Ban Yu-won could see Woo Hyul-rin's grip tightening on his shoulders.
"Ban Yu-won, Junior? Even so, I'm your senior—we should keep things respectful..."
"Woo Hyul-rin, don't make me repeat myself. It's annoying."
Ban Yu-won sighed and extended his hand.
A single raindrop slithered out from his inventory, morphing into a sword tip gleaming with eerie light as it aimed at Woo Hyul-rin's throat.
To an outsider, it looked like a total overreaction.
Even some club members seemed genuinely shocked.
Deploying his authority to monitor everyone, Ban Yu-won continued.
"Leave him here and get out. Or do you want to try me right now?"
"Ha, haha..."
Woo Hyul-rin's eyes flickered as if weighing her options, then slowly closed and opened. In the next instant, she released Catro's shoulders and stepped back, limp as if deflated.
"No big deal and you go all stiff on me, Junior. Why embarrass me like that? If something's bothering you, just say it—instead of acting all high and mighty."
"Yeah, backing off for now? Makes sense—you're not confident yet."
Ban Yu-won snorted at her words, prompting Woo Hyul-rin to feign ignorance as she retreated a couple more steps.
"You're clearly misunderstanding something—let's talk later. It's the inter-club tournament; cool your head. I was just trying to calm Catro Senior down."
"If you knew, why not step in sooner? Why wait till now and confuse me? You think I'm an idiot deep down, don't you?"
"You..."
"That's on you for being that obvious. It wasn't even scary from the start. How obvious? Even Mira would've figured it out."
Woo Hyul-rin's face flushed crimson in an instant.
She could play dumb about everything else, but when it came to the girl she had feelings for, she couldn't hide it.
Ban Yu-won glimpsed a faint ripple of curse—authority's blade flicking its tongue toward him—before it vanished.
Seeing that, he held back from provoking her further.
He'd already weeded out the group perfectly.
Recalling his Rainstorm Sword, Ban Yu-won chuckled and waved her off.
"I've said my piece. Now go."
"...Fine. I don't know what's gotten into you, but hopefully by the time we reach the abandoned dimension, you'll have calmed down. We'll talk then."
Woo Hyul-rin turned and left.
A few members started to follow, only to halt under her fierce glare. Ban Yu-won snorted at the sight.
The ship's atmosphere remained frozen solid.
That humiliating gaze—like staring down a clueless fool—which he hadn't felt since awakening to his authority!
Amid it all, one person alone tilted her head, utterly oblivious.
"Yu-won, why didn't you kill her?"
No, the opposite—she'd read the room too well.
She couldn't read emotions, but no one was more sensitive to complex mana flows.
"Aire."
"It'd be easier to kill her now. Power's nothing, but that ability annoys me."
Her tone was casual, like discussing squashing a bug she could flick away with a finger. A tiny ice arrow floated above her palm.
Some club members mistook it for the gross higher-dimension student humor and forced bitter smiles implying 'She's just like the rest.' Ban Yu-won—knowing she was dead serious—rushed over and grabbed her hand.
"Students can't target each other's lives under academy rules, Aire."
"You could cover it up."
He could, sure.
"Still no."
"...Got it. Call if you need help."
"You know I will. Thanks."
Honestly, Ban Yu-won hadn't expected her to join for this tournament until that very morning.
He'd planned to handle it solo, and her club involvement had always been spur-of-the-moment based on her mood.
...Plus, she wasn't from a lower dimension.
But for whatever reason, she'd casually tagged along that morning.
Officially part of the Union Expedition Club, no one could object.
In fact, Catro and Woo Hyul-rin's faces had been priceless from that point on.
'She won't stop their plans just by being here, but it'll make things harder for them.'
Just being a burden on them was Aire fulfilling her role splendidly.
Ban Yu-won gratefully pulled some tea from his inventory and poured her a cup.
"Your turn will come. Rest easy till then."
"Yeah... Got it. ...Dragon Slayer, come here. Play with me."
"Don't call me Dragon Slayer! I didn't kill any dragons!"
"Our cute little Dragon Slayer."
Aire smiled faintly as she took the teacup and beckoned Asha, who grimaced but obediently approached.
Watching that, Ban Yu-won wondered if Aire had really just come along out of worry for Asha.
Her sharp reaction to Asha's changes since the semester started, her insistence on joining the special match...
Their bond had clearly deepened beyond what he knew, in ways he couldn't imagine.
A twinge of exclusion faded as he watched the silver-and-gold-haired beauties cuddle up—heartwarming as ever.
"So... bug's gone. Anything left you want to say to me?"
Ban Yu-won turned to Catro, who was still staring at him blankly, and spoke leisurely.
A soundproof barrier, woven effortlessly from Origin Sword manipulation, now enveloped them.
Catro noticed it and looked momentarily awed by his control, but quickly remembered his own plight and bellowed dramatically.
"Turn this ship around! We're going back to the academy!"
Even with the barrier, he had to phrase it like that?
Ban Yu-won sighed in response.
"Can't do that. Would've handled it already if we were."
"R-Return the talismans! I refuse your ability's effects!"
"The ones I handed out to the members? Ah, you tampered with those somehow. No worries—I made them."
"......"
Catro gaped like a fish before clamping his mouth shut.
Ban Yu-won couldn't help a wry smile.
"You're always so ambiguous to the end, Senior."
"Urk—."
"If you're surrendering, do it properly. If betraying, go all in. ...Yeah, there must be a reason you couldn't—you played the fool. Some restriction. Emotionally, you're on our side."
Ban Yu-won shrugged and snapped his fingers.
Several raindrops emerged from his inventory, encircling Catro. They siphoned his origin energy to form a flawless barrier blocking sound, physical, and magical interference from within or without.
As long as the drops' origin energy didn't run dry—and it wouldn't, resonating with Ban Yu-won—no one could dispel it.
Catro probably wouldn't try to breach it first anyway... but it was insurance.
"Taking that into account, my final verdict: you're on your own, Senior. Good luck surviving."
With measures complete, he turned toward the monitors, where Lucelle reported.
"We'll breach the dimensional wall soon, Master."
"Already? The trips are so fast, it never feels like traveling. Everyone, get ready. Oh—and from now on, if I call your name, come here."
Starting with Kshana, nine members hesitantly approached when named.
They were tense from the sudden standoff between Ban Yu-won, Woo Hyul-rin, and Catro—and the ominous vibe.
"Y-Yu-won Junior, I have no idea what's going on... R-Really. For real!"
"I know, Kshana Senior."
The next most prominent after Catro, wielder of a unique "sound" ability.
Ban Yu-won had invested heavily in her; if she'd betrayed him, he'd be crying in the shower right now.
"You've all done great so far. You've earned my trust through actions. So, I'll release that meaningless contract—it was just decorative anyway."
"C-Contract? Oh, the one from joining the club—."
"Exactly."
Ban Yu-won had bound every Lower Dimension Special Admission recruit with a contract upon joining.
Based on "secrecy" and "no betrayal," conditioned on "obeying Ban Yu-won while he's enrolled."
Looking back, it was an utterly coercive deal—but they'd accepted without fuss.
"No contract needed for you not to betray me."
"R-Right. There was a contract... But..."
Kshana glanced anxiously at the other club members—now standing opposed, gearing up for war.
She wasn't deeply close to Ban Yu-won, but she'd backed him unquestioningly against Woo Hyul-rin moments ago.
"No betrayal, it said..."
"It was nominal from the start. I never set a penalty for breaking the terms I proposed."
The moment he said it, Woo Hyul-rin—who'd been watching from afar—visibly panicked.
As if shocked that Ban Yu-won had realized it himself.
But Ban Yu-won pressed on calmly, ignoring her turmoil.
"So I'll void it now. Agree?"
"Y-Yeah."
Quick on the uptake, Kshana nodded, grasping why he chose this moment.
The others followed suit—and the contractual bonds linking them to Ban Yu-won snapped free.
"Good, contracts released. Let's keep doing great together."
"Don't play games with me!"
Woo Hyul-rin finally erupted.
The moment Ban Yu-won had awaited.
"Don't act like you knew all along now. That contract you forced on us is invalid! I'll complete the unfinished deal you couldn't—by making you bear the penalty, not us!"
Ban Yu-won sensed violet mana unraveling into the air with every word from Woo Hyul-rin.
She'd contracted with the constellation handling curse power: Purgatory's Gravekeeper.
It synergized perfectly with her innate curse ability.
Feeling high-density curse—beyond his own Depth 250—attempting to bind him, Ban Yu-won exhaled deeply.
"That's the geas you set?"
"Yes! Within my terms, I gain the power to invert logic! Your unfair contract—I break it to claim power! And now—the contract's master is me."
Ching! Thick violet chains materialized, linking the remaining seven members—excluding the nine just freed—and Ban Yu-won.
Woo Hyul-rin gripped them and declared boldly.
"The contract stands, so even if we attack you, you can't harm us! Penalty for breaking it: your death! And my contracting constellation, Purgatory's Gravekeeper, expands its scope—not just here, but to all my supporting allies!"
It sounded like explaining a trap card in a card game.
Was it time for Ban Yu-won to activate his own pre-set reverse trap? As anxiety flickered, the spaceship timed perfectly to punch through the dimensional wall and protective barriers shielding other dimensions.
Or rather, Woo Hyul-rin had waited for this moment to unveil her power.
"Whoa, Master. Look..."
Lucelle's voice was dreamy.
The monitors revealed the devastation beyond the dimensional wall in stark clarity.
And beyond that, countless pirate fleets lying in wait.
Woo Hyul-rin's violet chains swelled, piercing the ship to extend toward them—an astonishing sight.
True to Aire's words, a tricky and impressive ability.
As he marveled, static crackled across the ship, followed by a message from a connected vessel.
―Ban Yu-won, we've arrived――――!
"Acting like some massive space monster. What a cringy entrance."
Ban Yu-won muttered incredulously, eyeing the "allies" Woo Hyul-rin mentioned via the monitors.
Coordinates to the abandoned dimension—known only to tournament participants and the chancellor.
Dimensional Pirates of the Exodus Fleet, who had arrived ahead to await Ban Yu-won's coming.