The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character Chapter 222 222: Confession [1]

After all the chaos finally settled—and after another round of light conversations with Rachel and the others—I was finally standing where I truly wanted to be ever since Avi's downfall.

The Chairman's office.

Now, don't get the wrong idea. It's not like I ca here just because I killed Avi.

…Okay, fine. That was part of it.

But the real reason?

If word gets out that Samuel—the fake identity Avi created—has mysteriously gone missing from within the academy, then there's no doubt a full-scale investigation or search party would be launched.

And knowing the academy's efficiency… they would find .

Which would, of course, spiral into even more chaos, more questions, and more headaches.

So I ca here to save everyone the trouble. Including myself.

I ca here to co clean.

In most academy stories, the protagonist always tries to cover things up. Hide the truth. Push through on their own.

And it always ends badly. So spiral into darkness. So get manipulated. Others just go plain crazy.

I'm not doing that.

Sure, I'll leave out so details—I'm not a saint. But I won't lie. Not this ti.

The Chairman sat across from , her face as unreadable as ever. Legs crossed, fingers laced, waiting patiently.

Five full minutes passed.

Five agonizing, silent minutes.

"Are you planning to just stand there all day, Cadet Rin Evans?" she finally said, her tone dry. "It's been nearly five minutes since you walked in without a word."

I swallowed hard and finally t her eyes.

"Well… what I'm about to say might be a bit shocking. I'll probably need your help down the line too. And honestly… every ti I try to hide things, it just ends up worse. So I decided to tell you everything directly."

Her brow lifted slightly, but she didn't say anything for while.

"…That's a pretty heavy statent—especially coming from soone claiming to know the future. But… I don't think you're lying. So… what happened?"

"Do you rember the student council vice president?"

"Samuel Askal? Yeah, he's the one managing things in the president's absence, right? The professors really like him. They say he's sharp, responsible… dependable."

Please don't praise him like that. I'm about to tell you I killed the guy. That kind of build-up just makes this ten tis harder.

"Well… he gave off this strange vibe. Like there was sothing missing."

"Missing? What do you an?"

"Uh… Actually, it's not that he's just missing sothing. He's not even a person. And I don't an that as an insult—I an it literally. He's not human."

"…What?"

"You rember I ntioned that I had information about future events, right? This ties into that. But before I explain more, I want you to look at this first."

I reached into my bag and pulled out a wrapped bundle, then handed it to her.

Inside were the artifacts I'd gathered—the remnants of villains we'd taken down. Most had lost their power when their owners died, especially those that relied on contracts. Like the Marionette Mask. It no longer functioned as a relic, but…

They didn't vanish completely. The artifacts still retained traces of their users—residual mana signatures, corrupted magic, sotis even fragnts of the original will. For soone like chairman, who'd been on dozens of operations, that kind of evidence would be unmistakable.

She unwrapped the cloth slowly, her expression neutral as her eyes scanned over each item.

"…These are real," she said after a mont. "And this energy signature…"

She touched one of the fragnts lightly, frowning.

"…It's twisted. Artificial. It's not human. So you're saying Samuel was… being controlled?"

"No," I said. "I'm saying he was not Samuel at all. Just a fake identity."

"What do you an?"

Well....Here goes nothing.

"Samuel Askal was fake identity created by one of these Relics [Marionette Mask] and only that his background was fake as well as his whole existence was fake. Every ti he graduated academy he joined so no na guild and within one year ti he fakes his own death to re-enroll back at the academy, and this ti his fake identity was that of Samuel Askal, …The Vice President of the Student Council."

I took a breath. It felt like sothing had lodged in my throat, but I forced the words out anyway.

"He wasn't a real person. He never was. That thing… it just kept returning under different nas, different faces. Always flying under the radar, always blending in just enough to not raise suspicion. And this ti, it got close to the top."

The Chairman didn't say anything. Her fingers were still steepled beneath her chin, but I could see the slight narrowing of her eyes.

She was taking seriously.

I continued, slowly.

"I only figured it out because I've seen this before—in… the future I told you about. He was supposed to infiltrate the academy deeper. Then, later, when the internal systems were at their weakest… he'd trigger sothing catastrophic."

"You an… like a coup?" she asked, voice low.

"Not exactly a coup. More like a purge. Students, faculty… everyone. All wiped out in the chaos. He wasn't working alone, but he was the entry point. The first thread in a much larger web."

"..."

"....."

There was silence between us as she digest the information I provided her and after few monts of silence, she looked back at .

"Where is now?"

Her voice of sharp, with dengerous edge around.

I just looked back into those eyes of her.

"I killed him last night. He. Is. Dead."

"What did you say?"

"I think you heard first ti fine but it's seems like you want to hear it again" I took deep breath and continued "He is dead." This сhаptеr is frоm thе соllесtiоn аt

Her expression didn't change—not imdiately.

The silence that followed was like the stillness before a storm.

A slow, almost imperceptible exhale escaped the Chairman's lips. Then, she leaned back in her chair, fingers tapping against the armrest. Once. Twice. Three tis.

"I see," she finally said, voice calm—too calm.

But that calmness? It wasn't comfort. It was containnt.

"You killed him. Just like that."

"It wasn't just like that," I said, my voice calm, but low.

She stared at , searching my face. "Then tell this—why didn't you report it? Why didn't you say anything? Why go that far?"

I took a breath. "Because I judged him as a threat—not just to the academy, but to the world. He was dangerous. I couldn't risk letting him slip through the cracks."

It wasn't a decision I made lightly. But I made it.

Technically, cadets weren't supposed to kill villains outright. That was the official stance.

But in practice?

They just didn't want us to cause a ss. As long as we didn't draw too much attention, no one would stop us. In fact, if soone really dangerous went down, there was a high chance we'd be praised, not punished.

Which was why the Chairman wasn't furious because I'd killed soone.

No, he was angry because I'd done it on my own.

"…You could've told soone," she said after a mont, her voice quieter now. "You could've called . Or anyone."

The Chairman's words hung in the air like a slowly settling fog.

You could've told soone.

I looked at her. She wasn't yelling. She wasn't demanding. But the weight behind her voice… it hit harder than any accusation could have.

I wanted to say sothing clever. Deflect. Make a joke. Buy myself ti.

But I didn't.

Instead, I leaned forward slightly and t her eyes head-on.

"I didn't want to risk it," I said. "If I'd told soone, even you… word might've spread. And if that thing caught wind, it would've vanished again. Changed nas. Changed faces. And we'd be back to square one."

Silence.

Then her voice ca, steady.

"So you thought taking matters into your own hands was the only option?"

"It wasn't the only option. It was the last one."

The Chairman stared for a mont longer before letting out a slow sigh and reclining again.

She ran a hand through her dark hair, her nails tapping lightly against the wooden desk.

"…You're lucky."

"Lucky?"

"That you were right."

I blinked.

"If that thing really was what you say it was… if the artifacts really back your story… if the reports from last night match the mana traces left behind… then yes. You're lucky. Because if even one piece of this hadn't lined up, Rin, I'd have you suspended right now and sitting under interrogation by the Disciplinary Tribunal."

She leaned forward, folding her hands again.

"But instead… I have to accept that you saved the academy from sothing far worse. That doesn't an I like what you did. But I understand it."

"…Thanks," I said, quietly.

"Don't thank . You still acted recklessly. No matter how capable you are, you're a cadet. You're not untouchable. If anything had gone wrong, I'd be preparing your eulogy instead of this conversation."

That one stung more than I expected.

"There is one thing I still want to tell you about."

"What is it?"

Chairman sighed, expecting sothing worse then this...Which isn't wrong since what I am about to reveal her isn't what she expected to hear.

"It's about the real identity of the Samuel Askal."

It was ti to reveal her who he was.