The Academy’s Deceased Ate It All

“Come on, good boy. Stay still. You’ll only hurt yourself more if you move.”

My body collapsed forward as I felt something being sucked out of me.

Then Svengali pulled out a few more thorns and thrust them into my back.

(You, uh…!)

“I told you to stay still, now…let’s see…yes.”

He chuckled, then burst out laughing.

“As expected, you’d had your chance when I was weakened, but it’s me! You dare try to pull the wool over my eyes. Now, hold still, you scum.”

I couldn’t understand what he was saying.

All I knew was that he was sucking out something deep inside me.

Soon, a notification popped up before me, warning me of danger.

[@%^&~4+!!!^@#^&*_!!!]

[@%^&~4+!!!^@#^&*_!!!]

Only then did I recognize what he was doing.

And as I began to loosen the King of Thorns to make his job easier, I could feel him smirking.

“Okay, just a little more to go. Just a little more…!”

(Argh…!)

Suddenly, the thorns on my back were pulled out at once, and I screamed.

Svengali couldn’t even scream and literally exploded in the air.

What followed was an eerie sound like a strange song.

[Thorn Bird has been released!]

[A random curse is cast on enemies within the radius!]

It landed on Minerva.

I reflexively scrambled to my feet, but her palm grabbed my head and pushed it to the ground.

The next thing I know, I feel her touching my back.

(Ouch….)

“Be still, be still!”

She shouted urgently, running her cold palm down my exposed back.

I tried to get up, but her grip was so firm that I couldn’t move an inch.

After touching my back for a long time, she murmured quietly.

“You’re not hurt…?”

While she was muttering incoherently, a new notification appeared before me.

[King of Thorns’ duration has been used up.]

[King of Thorns will deactivate….]

I quickly used the power enhancement before the notification ended.

Unlike before, I didn’t see the notification that my inner voice had interrupted and rendered it invalid.

[Strengthening the King of Thorns was successful!]

[King of Thorns has ended].

[All stats are temporarily reduced due to the King of Thorns penalty!]

A feeling of exhaustion settles over me.

Another notification flashes in front of me, annoyingly bright.

[The being feeding on your mind loses its power and influence!]

[You have succeeded in identifying the ‘unidentifiable.’]

[In the future, you will be able to make a move against ‘the voice of another ending.’]

[Something preventing the awakening of your soul and mind has dissipated, and you temporarily increase your mental strength by one level!]

Margo.

And the otherworldly selves I had absorbed.

How nice of them.

They were awake and disturbed me.

I needed to figure out how Svengali knew and helped me.

But for now, at least, I had more pressing matters.

“…Thank goodness, for I would not have allowed you to be taken from me by such a man.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, immediately grabbed me from my stomach, and flipped my backside down.

I purposely offered no resistance, letting her do as she pleased.

Her eyes were still locked on my heart.

“Then… goodbye.”

Looking down at me, she slowly raised her hand.

As I watched her hand come down on my heart, I was about to use what I had prepared.

A sound echoed through the air that I couldn’t believe had come from an arrow colliding with human skin.

Minerva turned to look at the person who had wordlessly shot the arrow into her hand.

There was a woman with flowing green hair pulling at her protests.

The woman’s golden eyes glared at Minerva, filled with hostility.

“Get away from him…!”

She was none other than Ye-Eun.

***

Ye-eun wanted this to be resolved without Ji-hyuk having anything to do with it.

That’s why she had negotiated with the Ten Strongest, even at her own expense, and even participated in this dangerous battle of attrition with people she trusted within her clan.

In truth, she had no idea why she was pampering him so much.

Was she simply attracted to him?

That doesn’t explain it.

She was an extremely analytical person who preferred logic and rationality above all else, and she wanted even those who took up her time to be analytical.

This led her to analyze why she felt the way she did about him, and she came up with her own answers.

The emotion that made up the largest percentage of her feelings for him was identification.

For the first time, she felt an unfamiliar connection to someone, and that’s why she was drawn to him.

The loss of her family.

Growing up without anyone to trust.

Betrayed by someone she trusted.

The cowardice of standing still or running away, hoping things would stay the same.

To have regretted that she couldn’t resist and that it was all her fault…

He was so much like himself, yet so different.

Perhaps that’s why she felt so much sympathy for him.

At the same time, he was like herself, and yet…

She felt something beyond sympathy for him because he was in a more dire situation than she was, yet he was moving forward with confidence.

So she spared no effort to help him.

She sent him things, including weapons and armor, even though she knew it would be a burden.

She didn’t hesitate to spend nearly 20 billion on his request.

She also sent men to Hundred Rooms to gather information about his sister. (TN: Can’t find the chapter where ‘hundred rooms’ comes from. The name could be different.)

That’s why he didn’t tell him anything about Minerva.

Her instincts told her he might die if he went, and her instincts tend to be pretty good.

Yeah….

She’d forgotten.

She’d always been afraid to take that one step and regretted it for the rest of her life.

And she had to admit that if it weren’t for Svengali, as he called him, she would have regretted it all over again.

And she wasn’t the only one Svengali had called to save Ji-Hyuk.

“Let me ask you a question.”

A gigantic lance swung toward where Minerva stood.

It was none other than Ahn Doo-Hoon. He looked at Minerva, who easily dodged it and then raised another lance, undaunted.

Ye-Eun looked at him with a sidelong glance.

She didn’t really know the details of why or how he was here.

All she knew was that Ahn Joo-Hyuk had set him up as his successor.

Minerva spread her hands out as if in annoyance.

Her hands then began to coalesce and form a dark, poisonous energy.

“One nuisance after another.”

Ye-Eun frowned slightly as the energy formed into gauntlets on Minerva’s hands, and Do-Hoon wordlessly raised his lance.

“The two of you aren’t enough to fill the number, so I’ll make it swift….”

As she said that, Minerva crossed her hands and covered her face to protect it.

A fierce wind blew her away the next moment, sending her flying into the distance.

The clicking of heels echoed unusually clearly.

“You didn’t tell me you’d be stuck with the Aegis, so I’ve been waiting for a while.”

It was a laid-back voice that made listeners squirm in contrast to the unmistakable echo of her feet.

Shaking her head as she walked, Belluna looked at me and waved.

“Yahoo~, are you well, Ji-Hyuk?”

After waving gently, she pouted and muttered through her lips.

“Um… no, you don’t look any better than I thought you would, but I came here to keep my promise… I couldn’t help you due to circumstances beyond my control, so you can’t return to me later and say I broke the contract, okay?”

She smirked, pounding the ground with her plump, heeled shoes.

“You’ve got all your limbs there, both your eyes, all your fingers, all ten of your toes, and a few broken bones. But don’t worry, they’ll stick together on their own if you leave them alone, so it’s all good.”

He could hear the sound of someone’s pain in his head as he grunted.

[I thought you were going to die…]

“…You brought them all here, didn’t you?”

I whispered quietly, my head half-buried in the ground.

Unlike Ye-Eun and Do-Hoon, Belluna could hear him talking to himself, but she knew he was talking to Svengali, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt.

[Do you think I snuck away for a drink, then? I’ve seen the woman from the World Tree Clan, and that wind spirit wasn’t hard to find.]

Svengali continued to speak.

I didn’t respond to his words because Ye-eun, Do-Hoon, and Belluna were getting closer to him.

“Ji-Hyuk, are you okay?”

I nodded slightly to Do-Hoon’s question, too embarrassed to say anything.

Seeing that, he didn’t say anything, just turning his head and looking warily in the direction Minerva had been flung.

[…I didn’t call him… I don’t know if it’s luck or instinct, but he found his way here alone.]

After a moment of muttering, he coughed and muttered.

[And now, for the most important thing of all, nothing is left to disturb you from within now.]

Svengali paused for a beat before continuing.

[More on that later, but to explain it quickly, it was very likely that if you found out, the beings feeding on your mind would also learn it. I had just become convinced of that myself… and the best time to take them out was when you were weakened. I apologize for not explaining that beforehand. Do you understand?”]

I didn’t accept Svengali’s apology.

I wasn’t angry in the first place.

Svengali saved my life just now.

[The problem we must solve now is that Minerva has split into human and dragon forms. Somehow, they both have substance… I don’t know much about them other than that they share wounds they take…I’ll need more time.]

I slowly pulled myself up, and Ye-Eun quickly supported me with her body.

“I remember you.”

Minerva said, stumbling through the rubble and dust.

“You are the spirit working for Milited, are you not? I remember your face.”

Minerva appeared unharmed, save for a few specks of dust in her hair.

Belluna pursed her lips in thought momentarily as she watched Minerva blow the dust out of her hair so casually and nonchalantly.

“We’re in trouble. Ji-Hyuk, can I run away now?”

“…What?”

I looked at her in disbelief at her sudden words.

She looked at me with a troubled expression and said.

“…I said I’d run away if I thought I would die. You expect me to fight that monster?”

She was still smirking.

“Because I don’t want to die, and an angry Minerva is the fastest way I know. She who remembers me as Milited’s kin. No matter how I think about it, all I can see is a future where I’m torn, burned, crushed…and whatever terms you humans have for painful death.”

“Do you think you can run from me?”

Minerva muttered in a tone of disbelief.

Belluna stuck her tongue out in a sarcastic, slightly raised manner.

“Well, you might be able to kill me, but at least you won’t be able to stop me from running away. I’m pretty good at it.”

“…….”

Minerva gestured with her hands.

Poison began to form again, and Belluna muttered a slight exclamation of admiration.

“If you make a single mistake, I’m leaving.”

I looked at her in disbelief.

Ye-Eun did the same, and even Do-hoon glanced at her with worry.

Belluna, who was still relaxed, widened her eyes in surprise before letting out a small sigh.

“Well… I guess I can’t run away now.”

I turned to where her gaze was.

Minerva slowly turned her head to follow.

Han Soo-Young.

Choi Hyun-Woo.

Ivan Hunt.

Lee Yu-Na.

And finally, Jin Ye-Seul, with something wrapped around her right arm.

Svengali smirked and muttered.

[Took them long enough.]

I wanted to hug Svengali.