The Overpowered Cult Leader at the Academy Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Ulbushis (2)

The ones whose nas I had written in the Death Note I made all had sothing in common. They either definitively beca villains, or had a very high probability of doing so. Everyone except the Imperial Princess had turned out that way.

The sa went for Canis in front of —high probability of becoming a boss. Of course, since I knew the strategy inside out, it didn’t really matter even if she beca one. It’d be better if she didn’t, though.

Canis was doing her utmost to control the black monster. The way she was pulling up mana with her flushed face made think, ah, she's really trying hard!

Of course, that didn’t do anything to earn her any leniency.

“Winter.”

“Y-Yes? ?”

“Yes, you, Winter.”

“Oh, I’m—Winter. Ah.”

“Go bring the shovel over there next to the table.”

Before I knew it, Winter, who had been energetically shaking the silent bell, was now staring blankly with a dumb look. Clutching her startled chest, she brought over a folded shovel. I took it from her and imdiately carved two Thunder Horn Marks.

I looked at Canis, who was struggling, with a blank expression. Perhaps feeling my gaze, Canis turned her head.

She was doing her best to keep the black monster confined inside a mana-ford box so it couldn’t escape. A bead of cold sweat ran down her face.

“So you ca to assassinate .”

“Huh?”

“Pardon?”

Winter and Canis both let out dumbfounded sounds. In that mont of loosened focus, the black monster burst out. I swung the shovel with all my strength.

The black monster, now cloaked in lightning, let out a piercing shriek. Only then did Canis resu her suppression effort.

“Get back in, you damn thing,” I heard her mutter under her breath.

“Letting sothing this dangerous loose right in front of —you’re clearly saying you want dead.”

“Eh? No, that’s not what I ant~.”

“Then what? If I hadn’t reacted, my head would’ve been torn off just now.”

“……”

As my words continued, Canis’s expression grew strange. Like she was blaming —You're the one who said that crap in the first place. It was close to resentnt.

Her thoughts were written all over her face. Winter was standing there, hesitating, unsure of what to think.

Canis did have a conscience. Though she didn’t look troubled, she apologized with a guilty expression. I’d expected at least that much.

It was a dilemma. The secret about her that only I, who knew the story inside and out, was aware of. I couldn’t use that to bind her.

But she wasn’t the kind of person who would quietly accept getting hit either.

“Can you keep your ‘anger’ under control a bit?”

Canis froze completely. The surrounding temperature dropped.

Refusing a proposal from a family like the Ulbushis required careful effort. But that didn’t an I had to just stupidly take the hit either. Even at my subtle suggestion, Canis gave no reply.

The black monster parasitizing Canis's body was one of the ancient creatures. Its origin lay in human emotions. It was a forbidden creature born through magic that gave form to such emotions.

No one knew what that thing really was, which was probably why she went around so openly with it. But since I knew everything, I could only see it as carelessness. In the end, Canis held her tongue.

“If you’ve got nothing to say, then get lost.”

In a way, I was relieved. If she’d acted all defiant, like ‘go ahead and kill ,’ things would’ve gotten troubleso. I would’ve had to contact the Imperial Knight Order, and that would create debts I’d have to repay.

Avoiding that kind of situation was for the best. I deliberately put on a threatening face and issued an order to leave. Before I knew it, Canis had fully suppressed the black monster and reabsorbed it into her body.

“Not leaving?”

“Hm~ Sorry about today.”

Only after murmuring an apology in a subdued voice did Canis finally stand up. Winter’s gaze wasn’t kind either. Leaving behind a short apology, Canis exited the sanctuary.

She’d probably go suffer alone, shadowboxing with herself for a while. If she started harboring suspicion and resentnt, then I’d just have to be ready to crush her. Even if not, she’d be less likely to get involved from now on.

“From now on, stay as far away from stuff like that as possible.”

“Yes… I’m sorry.”

“Not like you did anything wrong. That thing probably just showed up on its own again. Damn lunatics.”

It felt like a storm had passed. I sank into the sofa and let out a deep sigh. The main story was slowly beginning to shift. Whether that was a good sign or not remained to be seen.

“More importantly… do you think it’s real?”

“What is?”

Winter asked cautiously, her expression uneasy. I tilted my head at her reaction.

“About the head of the Duhein Family.”

“Don’t know. Doesn’t matter either.”

“Oh.”

“No matter what those guys do, the Family Head won’t die so easily. He’s built that way—a monster by design.”

I thought of the boss fight. I eventually overca it, but it was never easy. The most elite talents from the Imperial Knight Order, along with Bereninche and several well-known na characters, all had to jump in just to barely win.

The boss fight was tough, but the entire episode surrounding it was even harsher. Still, compared to Bereninche, it was nothing. You had to beat her solo, after all.

“But that’s not what’s important.”

What I needed to think about now was Episode 1, which would begin soon. It was just one part of the overall build-up, but the scale of it was massive.

I still rembered how shocked I was the first ti I encountered it. The developnt had been completely beyond anything I could’ve predicted.

“Winter.”

“Yes?”

“What would you do if sothing unreasonable happened?”

“Sothing unreasonable? Uh… like what?”

“What if the world turned upside down?”

Winter looked at like it was absurd. As if to say, You really think about stuff like that? It irritated a little, but I didn’t show it. This was all for her sake, after all.

“Well… I don’t know. Maybe I’d just pray and trust in the Goddess?”

“That’s the stupidest answer I’ve ever heard. Go get so paper.”

“Okay…”

Was that really the kind of answer I was hoping for? As I grumbled in frustration, Winter dejectedly brought over so paper. In the ga, I wouldn’t die because I’d log in for each episode—but it never hurt to be cautious.

I wrote down advice on how to survive Episode 1. It would definitely help her quite a bit when I wasn’t around.

***

Once she stepped out of the sanctuary, Canis’s stiff expression finally relaxed. It was a strange feeling. Davide had definitely used the word ‘anger’.

Though it was just a single, seemingly insignificant word, it wasn’t sothing you’d use so casually or without reason. It was clear he knew sothing. No matter how much she thought about it, only one conclusion ca to mind.

— Rudeness. Revenge.

“Quiet, will you? This is all your fault~”

— Prude. Displeasure. Punishnt.

Anger, the creature that had erged from Canis’s body, spoke in a displeased tone. She jokingly shifted the bla onto Anger in an attempt to lighten the mood.

A lifeform born from forbidden magic that manifests emotion in physical form—Anger had been created from Canis’s own fury.

No matter how she looked at it, Davide clearly seed to know about that fact.

— Electricity. Pain. Rage.

“He looked like he knew about you, didn’t he?”

— Question.

How could soone like Davide know sothing like that? It was a secret that even most of the Ulbushis bloodline wouldn’t know unless they were direct descendants.

Canis tried to recall the information she’d previously gathered. Davide Duhein. 22 years old, second-year in the combat division. Grades were average, and his class attitude was described as problematic.

Irritable and violent in everything. A bundle of inferiority complex, jealous of his younger sibling, who was said to be extrely gifted.

“There’s sothing off, right?”

— Affirmation. Unexpected. Suspicion.

None of the information she’d dug up matched. The only thing that lined up was that he had a nasty temper. Everything else was wrong. She’d heard his combat ability was nothing special.

But that lightning strike that pierced Anger had surprised her. Reacting to Anger’s attack timing like that was by no ans an easy feat either.

Above all, what shocked her the most was his perception. To sense the Ulbushis family’s intent from that tiny hint—Canis had to admit, it was the most surprising thing to happen to her this year.

She looked at Anger. The creature, which never normally appeared in front of others, had reacted to a single word from Davide.

There was sothing there.

“He called it a scripture, didn’t he?”

— Electricity. Shock. Pain.

“Yeah, electricity always hurts.”

And thanks to that, things had gotten complicated. She could’ve forced him into cooperation, but sothing about it made her hesitate. She had a feeling it would only lead to more troubleso matters, so she held her tongue.

What she was most curious about—how did he know about Anger’s existence? Sure, he could have hidden his power and ability. That, at least, was explainable. But this was different. This couldn’t be brushed off so easily.

“No way…”

That’s when she arrived at a possibility. The ancient magic long believed to be exclusive to the Ulbushis family. Though it was said to be under strict control, it wasn’t sothing that could be completely regulated.

“Could he have sothing like you?”

— Sa kind? Denial. Denial!

Anger recoiled in disgust at her suggestion. Despite its intense reaction, Canis couldn’t dismiss her suspicions. Among the possible ways soone could know this secret, that one still felt the most plausible.

“A missing emotion…”

The magic, nad Emotion Build, removed the most intense emotion from a person. In Canis’s case, her rage had taken form as Anger. And since then, she could no longer feel anger herself.

Canis began to wonder if Davide, too, was missing an emotion. What had his eyes looked like just a mont ago?

— Boredom. Apathy.

“Right… there wasn’t even a flicker of surprise in him.”

The information she had gathered through her intelligence network couldn’t be entirely false. There was still a good chance that sothing had changed recently.

There had been news that stirred the public. That human trash had beco the master of the scripture. After that, his actions changed. He suddenly founded a religious order and began living quietly.

“A new possibility. A new secret.”

It was a hypothesis that needed verification, but it wasn’t a bad one. Maybe it could even improve her current condition. Just the thought of that made her unable to hide her excitent.

The shadow of her family that had followed her for most of her life. A man who might hold the key that had been locked away for years.

“Get clo—huh?”

Suddenly, Canis found herself caught in an inexplicable phenonon. Her steps continued steadily, but the surrounding scenery remained unchanged.

Puzzled, she looked down at her feet and realized she was floating in midair. It wasn’t sothing impossible for soone who ranked second in the Magic Departnt, but she wasn’t using any magic right now.

— Question. Question. Situation.

Wondering if it was soone’s prank, she scanned the surroundings, but felt no trace of interference. If it was sothing she couldn’t sense, it had to be either a large-scale spell or an extrely refined illusion.

“Uh—huh?”

Her body, which had started floating, suddenly jolted into motion. Canis was flung straight toward the ceiling. She quickly cast a levitation spell and found herself standing fully upright—on the ceiling.

“This is a headache.”

— Question. Question.

Gravity had inverted. Yet the furniture and room decorations were all in place. Only she was experiencing reversed gravity.

She calmly observed the situation. She felt the flow of mana in the air. It was subtle, but different from usual. Still, it wasn’t enough to explain such a bizarre occurrence.

“Think he might know sothing?”

— Denial.

“Still, let’s go. You never know.”

Keeping her cool and assessing the situation, Canis retraced her steps. She also had to soothe Anger, who was visibly displeased.

Eventually, Canis arrived back at the sanctuary and used levitation magic to lift herself up. Since gravity had flipped, she knocked on the door now suspended high in the air.

“I’m coming in~”

She opened the door and entered. Davide and Winter looked up at Canis as she ca in. Winter was lying dazed on the ceiling, her expression vacant.

“You’re taking it well.”

“‘Y-Yes’?”

“…Sir!”

So annoyingly uptight. Even while replying, she looked at him with a disapproving glare. Davide, far calr than expected, silently watched Canis, then checked on Winter.

“Do you know what’s going on?”

Canis’s question was t with silence from Davide. Winter, who had been stunned by the bizarre phenonon, finally ca to her senses after Davide roughly shook her.

“S-Senior… am I dreaming right now?”

“This is reality.”

“B-But this looks like the ceiling. And the furniture’s all—”

“Get a grip. Panicking won’t help. It’s already a ‘phenonon’ that’s occurred.”

Ah—only then did Canis nod in agreent.

“A barrier? For one this large and discreet…”

“Target is human or lifeform.”

“And the purpose?”

“No idea. Figuring that out sounds like sothing the vice-representative of the Magic Departnt should handle.”

Davide stretched and got up.

“First, should we head to the shelter? Let’s try crowd-sourced intelligence.”

“Hmm. I suppose.”

She had no better suggestion than going to the shelter. Though calling it collective intelligence probably wouldn’t help much. Feeling full of skepticism, Canis levitated both of them.

Winter, receiving help unexpectedly, flailed in panic and ended up getting scolded by Davide. She felt wronged. Wasn’t it stranger to stay calm in a situation like this?

She quietly swallowed back tears.