Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 414: Comrades Help Each Other [II]

Ivan saw the hit land. He was weaponizing consequences now, not merely arguing about the theft.

He was showing that he had nothing to lose, since he really had a safety net to fall back on — unlike Nathan.

While his family wasn’t as rich, Ivan was still a northern noble. And he would remain that when he eventually graduated. He could use all the money and connections to advance in high society later.

Nathan didn’t have that luxury.

The pressure was on him... and under it, he finally cracked. His fingers curled into a fist on the table, nails biting into his palms.

”You have it,” Ivan stated matter-of-factly. ”You messed up. You stole it when we were deboarding and thought you’d delay the report submission, smuggle it out of the Academy, and sell it on the black market. You were just blinded by your greed for a few hundred thousand Credits. And that’s fine. Honestly, if I were in your situation, maybe I would’ve done the same. But right now, instead of trying to pin the blame on someone or wasting time with me, how about you think of trying to get out of this mess?”

Except he couldn’t get out of this mess now.

Not alone, anyway.

Because the only one who could help him was sitting right in front of him.

Luckily, like a guardian angel, Ivan rose to the occasion. ”I can help you if you want. I still have the clearance code to the sub-vault since I brought our equipment before our departure. If you give the Pulse-generator to me right now, I’ll put it back before Instructor Reichardt cross-checks our report.”

Nathan looked down at his clenched fists, the white of his knuckles creating a stark contrast against the dark wood of the table.

His facade of a composed leader had all but shattered, leaving behind a boy who was drowning in a debt he had created himself.

Ivan didn’t bother to push. He knew the art of the wait. He simply watched the clock on the wall — 4:22 AM.

Time was on his side.

After a few minutes, the silence was finally broken.

”Why?” Nathan asked, his once proud voice nothing but a whisper. ”If you know I have it, why help me? You could turn me in and look like a hero. Why risk going into the vault unsupervised when you know it can lead to a suspension?”

”Because you’ll owe me,” Ivan replied without any delay.

Nathan was ranked twenty-one in the Cadet Rankings. Four ranks above Ivan.

While that may not seem like a lot on its own, Nathan was also very close to Leon Vaan Asta, the first-year Noble Faction leader.

Ivan could use him to get into Leon’s inner circle, for starters. After that... well, there were never enough uses for a capable and desperate debtor.

Nathan looked up, his eyes bloodshot. After a bit of reluctance, he reached into the inner lining of his tactical jacket... and pulled out a compact, obsidian-finished cylinder.

His hand shook a little as he extended it, offering the Essence Disrupter to Ivan.

...Or he would have, had his hand not suddenly grown still, frozen mid-air, accompanied by an ugly grimace on his face.

Ivan narrowed his eyes. ”Nate?”

Nathan seemed dazed for a few heartbeats, as if mental gears were churning in his head. Finally, he breathed, ”You knew it...”

Ivan frowned, confused. ”I’m sorry, what?”

”You knew it!” Nathan erupted, shooting up to his feet as his chair toppled back. ”You fucking knew it! You said I stole it during the deboarding, not when we were in the transport carrier! That meant you knew from the start when I had stolen it!”

It all made too much sense now.

The fact that Ivan volunteered to bring the equipment from the sub-vault before their mission wasn’t a coincidence. It was pre-planning so he’d still have the clearance code for now!

He also never asked for any legal or magical binding contracts. What was stopping Nathan from reporting Ivan as the thief the moment he handed over the Pulse-generator to him?

...Unless Ivan already had the proof of Nathan committing the theft. Like a photo or a recording catching him in the act.

Not to mention, Ivan had done some serious digging on Nathan’s family to know about their financial situation to rope him into blackmail.

This entire situation was manufactured from the very start!

”I— I just don’t know how you manipulated Leo into submitting the report early! But I know you did that too! You were behind it all!” Nathan screamed.

In a deadpan response, Ivan blinked at the angry young man a couple of times. Then... he decided to drop the bored act.

The corner of his lips curled up higher and higher until they were stretched into an amused grin.

He couldn’t help but holler out the laugh he had been holding back all this time. ”Manipulated? Aw, Nate... you overestimate your friend’s loyalty. All I did was tell him how you were planning to use him as a scapegoat.”

Yeah. That was Nathan’s perfect plan.

He would’ve thrown his best friend under the bus, claiming Leo misplaced the artifact in the field and tried to cover it up by submitting a wrong report.

He would’ve convinced every other team member to get in on the false testimony by promising them that a unified front was the only way to avoid a red star on their reports.

All that was ruined now, of course.

And because of this guy...

Nathan felt the floor drop from under him. He felt dizzy, lightheaded by how unfairly he was trapped.

Then he felt angry. So angry that he saw red and pounced across the table to grab Ivan’s collar, shouting in his face.

”You filthy northern rat! You fucking snake! You conniving son of a bitch, you set me up!” He loaded an arm back, ready to throw a punch that would’ve caved Ivan’s skull in.

But Ivan didn’t care in the least. He kept sitting there calmly, his collar bunched in Nathan’s white-knuckled grip, looking up with those blue-tinted dark eyes.

”Go ahead,” he dared, the amusement never leaving his face. ”Break my nose. Add ’Assault on a Fellow Cadet’ to the list. I’m sure the Grandmasters would love it when they come to collect my statement.”

Nathan’s fist trembled, hovering far from Ivan’s jaw. The air in the debriefing room felt heavy to the point it had become suffocating.

”Arghh!”

THWAAAM—!!

With his eyes threatening to spill frustrated tears, Nathan growled and grabbed the desk between them, flipping it aside with brutal force.

The heavy metal table screeched against the floor before slamming into the wall with a deafening crash.

Nathan stood panting, a hand covering his face and his chest heaving, the obsidian cylinder still clutched tightly in his hand.

Ivan adjusted his jacket and smoothed out the creases from where Nathan had grabbed him.

He let a few minutes pass, nothing but the sounds of Nathan’s fuming breath filling the quiet of the hollow chamber.

Then he checked the watch again.

4:49 AM.

”Feel better now?” Ivan asked at last, standing up and walking over. He peeled Nathan’s fingers off the Pulse-generator one by one, with the latter offering no resistance at all.

After taking the compact obsidian staff into his possession, Ivan turned around and started heading for the exit.

But of course, Nathan still had a few venomous remarks left to chip in. ”You think you’re so far ahead of everyone, but people like you always end up alone and miserable!”

That was... rich coming from a guy who had just tried to sell out his best friend.