It was a mont of deep consideration about the enemy.
An enemy is not just soone who can be defeated through brute force.
There are those like Ders, who use their wits and can strategically win over others for mutual benefit, and there are those who can be ignored if not provoked.
But what about these guys?
They are not enemies to be defeated.
I never thought of winning them over, but in so ways, they could be seen as allies supporting .
I didn’t provoke them in any way.
There was no malice felt from them.
Yet, why are they ruining every thod to save the academy, rising up and inciting action?
Inwardly, I defined them as enemies pretending to be allies, intent on ruining my life.
But they were a type of enemy I couldn’t understand, which made fear them.
“I will now expose the wrongdoing of the student council!”
Without a chance to stop him, Eric spread out docunts and pointed at a group.
“Do you know why the Archaeology Club was disbanded?”
The addressed n and won asked in bewildernt.
“Hmm? Wasn’t it because the docunts were stolen?”
“Right. They said it was aningless if it didn’t produce results…”
Eric sneered.
“That sounds reasonable at first, but the truth is this.”
Eric continued, and it was quite the spectacle.
All the records collected by previous mbers of the Archaeology Club had been destroyed under the direction of the student council.
The nas of those involved were listed in the docunts, as Eric began to point them out one by one.
“Aphil, Roland, Agdel. Was it your doing?”
The three n denied it as they sweat profusely.
“What are you talking about?”
“Us? Don’t make baseless accusations.”
“Yeah, right. It’s not like students could just unlock the club room locks. Especially not us from the Büerger Hall.”
The audience nodded in agreent.
Eric narrowed his eyes and ventured a guess.
“You three were in touch with them the day before the Archaeology Club’s docunts were stolen, weren’t you?”
The forr mbers of the Archaeology Club eyed the three n suspiciously.
“Yes, that’s right. They said they had beco interested in archaeology.”
“Right, they asked about joining the club.”
“Was that it? You bastards…”
Eric smiled in satisfaction.
“That was probably to figure out how the locks worked. Once they knew that, all they needed was to figure out so trick to make it seem locked.”
The three n sweat more as they argued back.
“That’s just baseless speculation.”
“Yeah. Have you been listening? Do you even have evidence?”
Eric tapped the docunts.
“While it doesn’t detail everything, it ntions your nas and the amount of coins paid relating to the Archaeology Club incident.”
That was enough.
The rest would be for the witnesses of their luxury to stand up.
“Right. Suddenly you started flaunting having money?”
“Yeah, and there were unusual items piling up in your room.”
“And you were splurging at the restaurant too.”
To restore Frost Heart, it was necessary to draw in the church’s capital, which ant maintaining Ders’s regi.
I wanted to shut that devil’s mouth right away, but the audience’s interest was already on him.
“We’ll interrogate them later. For now, the main instigator is the student council. So I ask, Ders, why did you disband the Archaeology Club?”
Ders shifted his gaze from Eric to my face and scowled.
Eric kept on talking regardless.
“If you don’t want to answer, I will. It must have been a problem related to the church, right? The only god you people worship would have been irritated by archaeology, a study that digs up ancient gods.”
If things continued, more dubious cases would pop up.
I’d have to ask if it had anything to do with the student council, complicating Ders’s position even further.
I had no choice but to whisper to Ders in an attempt to divert the topic.
“Hold on, Eric, is there any suspicion regarding the literary contest winners?”
“Now it’s my turn to ask. About this club’s budget, it doesn’t make sense. Our departnt is performing well, so why are they getting less than them?”
“Hmm. Keep the order. There’s plenty of ti to discuss.”
In this situation, stopping Eric’s nonsense with my own words was impossible.
This matter was sothing that only Ders, the student council president who was being directly attacked, should handle.
Although I couldn’t openly take his side, I judged that I could at least cooperate from behind to prevent this situation.
Of course, I wouldn’t do sothing immature like smiling to show that I had no hostility.
Smiling with this face would only lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.
Therefore, I approached him with a calm face, showing genuine intent.
However, he trembled and flinched.
***
Ders glared at Hersel with suspicion.
‘He was after my position.’
At first, he thought he just wanted to eliminate Rockefeller’s treatnt and use the church’s capital to restore Frost Heart.
If that was the case, they could have just talked behind the scenes.
Yet, he chose to participate in a highly visible debate, which he assud was just for entertainnt.
But it wasn’t.
‘The words he spat out in that place were to prove his leadership qualities and to draw out.’
His statents at the debate would have sounded realistic to those with rational minds.
They were filled with constructive discussions rather than emotional decisions.
And Ders was convinced that all of this was going according to his plan.
‘That expression without even a hint of doubt… How long had he been scheming? Since the start of the second sester? Or perhaps, right from the mont he enrolled?’
Then, Hersel approached and whispered in his ear.
“What are you standing around for? Argue back.”
“What?” He asked incredulously, and Hersel replied in a calm tone.
“Don’t worry. There’s a way. No matter the crazy things those guys do, you have this, don’t you?”
“…I do?”
Ders swallowed his saliva and listened intently.
“Money. If it’s a significant amount of money, it can silence all complaints, no matter what the student council has done.”
It was a mont when veins popped on his forehead.
‘Yes, that was it. This bastard has been seeing as a fool from the start. Just a toy suitable for playing around. To him, I was just that…?’
After having a knife at his neck and then coming to an agreent, now he openly demanded more money.
Ders gritted his teeth and let out a murderous voice.
“If you’re going to take my position, just take it. But to insult like this… indeed, you were the scoundrel the rumors said.”
Hersel’s mouth half-opened in surprise as he blinked.
‘What is he talking about?’
Seeing Hersel’s confused face made Ders even more enraged.
anwhile, Eric kept talking.
“The pastry club. Was there any friction with the student council?”
“Hmm. There wasn’t exactly friction, but there was an incident. There’s a bread that we can only make 10 of per day because it’s hard to get the ingredients. One day, a student council mber asked for it, but we had sold out…”
“And then?”
Ders sighed as he looked at the forr pastry club president.
“Well, I told them we were sold out, but a few days later, Kerndel ca and made a scene, right?”
The revelations would likely continue into the night, and there was no proper solution.
Because, the student council mbers, who might have supported him, were worried about getting in trouble…
“Kerndel did that?”
It was just moronic Kerndel.
“Kerndel. Let’s hear more about the pastry club incident from you.”
When Eric asked, Kerndel stood up with his arms crossed.
“Hmph. Foolish.”
“Your attitude is poor. Know your place, Kerndel!”
Despite Bernthal’s sharp reprimand, true to his foolish nature, Kerndel failed to read the room and started spouting off.
“I just called foolish things foolish. These foolish people. Because, it’s a tradition passed down through generations.”
Ders, growing weary, held his forehead.
“Since the Church’s Order took over the student council, all who sat in this position did the sa. It’s kind of a tradition. So, isn’t it natural to receive it?”
Ironically, despite usually being seen as powerful, the students thought he was a moron, so the reprimand was relatively mild.
Everyone thought, ‘Ah, it figures.’
“After all, would that brat have stayed quiet? He must have gobbled up all the under-the-table money.”
“Right? I was just surprised because it was associated with the student council.”
In the end, Ders couldn’t help but smirk.
“It’s all over.”
Just as Hersel said, if he brought in a substantial amount of money, he might be able to mitigate the situation.
However, this was nothing more than a trick.
He’d just be exploited for money, toyed with here and there, and ultimately, he’d fall into ruin.
If the outco would be the sa, he preferred not to give them the money at all, with a mindset of letting them eat their words, and instead, just drop everything quickly to end the criticism.
That made him smirk even more.
While Eric was answering the students’ questions, even he stopped talking as his laughter filled the debate hall.
“Hahaha.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Why waste ti unnecessarily? Everything that ca out there is true.”
The students gasped in surprise and their eyes widened.
“What are you staring at? Why? Did you think I was so kind of saint? Fools. That’s why you get manipulated and squeezed later.”
Ders’s lips curled up, but tears stread down his cheeks.
Eric looked down with pity.
“…Has he lost his mind?”
“Yes, that’s right. Honestly, how could I not go mad? I’m already ruined, so do whatever you want with .”
Ders turned around with a face much relieved.
“I’m tired. I’m not going to waste my ti on this anymore. I’m going inside.”
Then he glanced at Hersel’s face.
He was just standing there stiffly, not moving at all.
Ders snickered and shrugged.
“Don’t expect any money from the church or anything like that, Hersel ben Tenest. I’m not such a fool to be swayed that easily.”
Hersel stared blankly at Ders’s back as he walked away from the debate hall.
***
Ders had self-destructed.
The reason was unknown.
So I asked Donatan, ‘Why did he suddenly act like that?’
‘How would I know, Hersel?’
Rockefeller approached as I stood dumbfounded.
“Everyone you contact seems to go mad.”
A deep sigh escaped my lips.
Well, that’s how it is, but what matters is the restoration of the academy.
Praying that Rockefeller might have a way, I asked him.
“Do you have a way to restore the academy?”
“There was one. But, you ruined it.”
Rockefeller also stared blankly at the departing Ders.
I frowned at the soft muttering of his voice.
“If only he had been stable, we might have expected so capital from the church…”
It irked that he thought the sa as I did.
Sohow, it seed like he had allowed himself to be manipulated by Ders for his own purposes.
I made an ostentatious display of taking care of whatever I could gather.
“Anyway, you should know that you survived thanks to . How about teaching so magic?”
It was just sothing I said.
A person who wouldn’t bother to save a life.
I had just hinted in advance for later manipulation.
“Hersel ben Tenest.”
“What?”
As expected, his response was just as I had predicted.
“I do not acknowledge you as a magician.”
Already tired from running into a dead end.
To prevent my energy from being drained by raising my voice needlessly, I moved on.
But then, Rockefeller said sothing aningful.
“You’ll understand once you learn. Even within the sa unique category, there’s a gap.”
“Hmm?”
I looked up, and he looked at seriously.
“When the academy is running normally, I’ll call you. Then co to with your staff.”
I blinked in disbelief.
Rockefeller had left without paying any attention to my reaction.
Was he really going to teach magic willingly?
***
Several days had passed since the debate ended.
To sum up the events, the student council had collapsed.
If you were a zealot now, you’d be stoned, and Ders, who had been their core, holed up like a hermit in a hut with no thoughts of coming out.
Kerndel, who had always maintained a close relationship with them, just went about as usual, shalessly strutting around.
The student council was effectively disbanded, but since the positions of authority were rit-based, he wasn’t stripped of his position.
Consequently, the treatnt of the faculty naturally faded into obscurity.
As the target of their anger shifted, the students began to understand the faculty’s efforts with cooler heads and recognized that more professors had died in the spirit wars.
They temporarily prayed for the souls of the departed professors in front of the makeshift tombstones they had erected.
There was only a week left until Elder Arental was to arrive at the academy.
As I pondered how to secure a substantial budget with Frost Heart now a barren wasteland, an unexpected woman showed her face.
“Weren’t you supposed to have left?”
“Did I ever say that myself?”
Freed from the oppressive armor that had bound her, the Dorosian woman laid down a sack she had levitated with psychokinesis.
The ground thudded as if filled with heavy tal.
“Cough!”
I dusted off the dirt and asked Dorosian, “What exactly is that?”
“It’s platinum.”
“Platinum? That’s more valuable than gold bars… Is that sack full of it?”
“Yes.”
I narrowed my eyes and asked her, “Looks like you’ve robbed a bank.”
“There are ways to do that, but why bother when there’s more money at ho?”
Her response cleared my mind as I visualized how she had acquired the money.
“Blackmail…?”
The circumstances that led Dorosian to Frost Heart began to unfold.
Her father, Duke Dorosian, had drugged her and bound her in oppressive armor before exiling her to Frost Heart.
It seed unlikely that she, harboring such ill feelings, would have ekly begged for money.
As expected, my prediction was correct.
“I did give him the option to watch his mansion burn down or just hand over the money willingly.”
Given the family’s fa as a magical lineage, their house was filled with irreplaceable ancient tos and artifacts akin to magical tools.
If I had been forced to make such a choice and there was no other way, I probably would have paid as well.
“So you didn’t co here just to show off your money, what’s going on?”
Her unexpected course of action surprised .
“To prevent destruction, shouldn’t we start by resolving the situation with Frost Heart?”
“Huh?”
“You have your reasons for being here, don’t you?”
I felt a chill run through .
I knew she wouldn’t just wallow in despair or waste ti as she always had.
I had made efforts to accelerate the process that would typically co later.
Yet, I blinked in astonishnt.
I hadn’t expected her to cooperate to this extent.
“You’re being quite proactive.”
“Do you dislike such a woman?”
“No… I quite like it.”
I inadvertently responded and fell into deep thought.
Both Rockefeller and this woman had changed.
Honestly, it was frightening to see such a shift in people not known for it…
“But was this incident supposed to happen originally?”
“Hmm?”
“You would know, wouldn’t you? If you’ve seen various futures.”
I was montarily speechless.
Indeed, I had once said to Dorosian:
-Run once, and it’s easier the second ti. Do it twice, and a third ti follows. That’s how this world will end.
It was a remark that could be misconstrued as coming from soone who has experienced multiple lifetis, although in reality, I knew many paths from playing gas.
Telling her that would likely make her even more skeptical.
Thus, I nodded along with her biased assumption.
“To be honest, this has never happened before.”
I didn’t feel the need to lie.
Rather than creating a sense of security to make people complacent, it’s better to reveal a lack and induce active help.
Yet, a variable that was utterly unpleasant for began to shift a bit in perception due to Dorosian’s new perspective.
“Should I view this as a positive phenonon?”
“Why?”
“If the sa things keep repeating, wouldn’t the sa outcos occur?”
Suddenly, I found myself staring silently at her face.
It reminded of a future version of Dorosian I had once envisioned.
***
The phantom demon Irte turned into a wisp of smoke, grabbed by Dorosian.
“Cough! You wretch! Dare you disturb the peace of the Myne?”
The Myne wander the world even in death, rely drifting asleep.
“It was hard finding you, you fool, Irte.”
Irte looked at Dorosian’s hand, which was pointing with a diamond-shaped necklace indicating what her master desired.
“You wretched woman! Did you even recover that to tornt ?”
A slap flew across Irte’s cheek.
Smack!
The sound echoed, and Dorosian, removing her glove, spoke,
“Do I look like I have that much free ti?”
“But why discard the glove?”
“I touched this thing that has been inside a monkey for thousands of years. It’s disgusting, isn’t it?”
Irte cald down her anger.
Having suffered much, complaining was pointless since her body was just a soul.
“And why did you wake up?”
“Out of spite, perhaps? To show you sothing special? Or, um…”
Despite the vague answer, Irte accepted it.
She had always been a difficult woman to understand, and albeit reluctantly, she acknowledged that her plan had failed.
“Cough. I admit failure, Dorosian. As you said, the paradise of dreams has failed.”
Irte swallowed her pride, her voice losing its earlier force.
Though adversaries, her goals had aligned with Dorosian’s.
“So what about you? Has the future turned out as you hoped?”
Dorosian, smiling slyly like a fox, shook her head.
“Didn’t I say? I’m not a prophet. It only seed so to you because I ca from the future. There are clear limits.”
Irte was taken aback.
She could travel back in ti but not forward.
From her perspective, even the current era was the past.
Furthermore, the current tiline was filled with variables.
Even if there were a way to travel to the future, it would be to a different tiline, rendering it aningless.
“Ti theory is always so complicated.”
Irte scratched her head in frustration and rephrased her question.
“So, is the flow alright?”
Dorosian tilted her head and responded, “Who knows? The academy has been destroyed, and things have deviated from the scenario in many ways.”
“What?”
“I just acted impulsively. Hoping for the best.”
Irte, enraged, exploded, “You dared to do such a thing to the king while being so reckless!”
But her next words made him speechless.
“I trust him.”
… Dorosian confessed with a deep look in her eyes, “I was worried this might be more than I could handle. But he managed it.”
Irte shrugged and smirked.
“Of course. He’s a great king. A re trifle for him.”
But Dorosian’s next words made him doubt his ears.
“Just for a second though.”
“Huh? A second?”
“His power. He can only use it for a second.”
Irte looked at Dorosian incredulously.
Then his mouth slowly fell open in astonishnt.
To read Chapters ahead 👇
CH 196-200 (The King) $3
CH 201-205 (Field Trip) $3
CH 206-210 (Troublemaker Vs Troublemaker) $3
CH 211-215 (Graduation) $3
CH 216-220 (Integrated Academy Tournant) $3
CH 221-225 (The Underdog) $3
CH 226-230 (Who am I?) $3
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