Became a Traitor in an Academy

Cleanup

Even for otherworldly magical beasts, as long as their bodies were made of proteins and fats, killing them wasn’t much different from killing humans.

The only difference was needing to use higher concentrations and larger volumes.

Rather, killing magical beasts was easier. Because they neither run away nor use tricks.

The minotaur that took hydrochloric acid gas directly to its face and mouth was thrashing more violently and desperately than ever before.

Not knowing how much I needed to pour to kill it, I poured until the chlorine in my body was almost gone. Fortunately, it seems to have worked well.

Its face had melted with bones showing here and there, and red sticky liquid was spasmodically spurting from what remained of its mouth.

It looked like it was trying to scream, but well. With its lungs, bronchi, and vocal cords mixing into that red liquid flowing out, there was no way to know.

The magical beast that had been twisting its body finally ended its miserable life as the acid inside its body finally melted through its belly.

Looking at how no blue core mixed with that bright red bloody water…

Lapis picked up rock fragments from when she’d struck the magical beast and brought them down on the minotaur’s skull.

Perhaps because it was already soaked in acid, she could break the skull without much force just by hitting it repeatedly.

“Here it is.”

Only after pulling out the blue jewel embedded in the brain that had somehow maintained its form did the minotaur’s corpse crumble into black dust.

“Huu, huah, hah… hauu… is it, is it over…?”

“Seems, like, it… Jin-hyeon… Jin-hyeon?! Jin-hyeon!! Wake up!!!”

From behind, Yeonhwa kept calling Jin-hyeon’s name, but there was no response.

Seems he fainted from forcefully using an ability he normally doesn’t use, plus using up his magic power.

I was going to ignore it, but since Yeonhwa was calling so pitifully, I reassured her somewhat.

“He just fainted from exhaustion, so don’t worry too much, Yeonhwa.”

“Fainted…? Oh… you’re right. Thank goodness… More importantly, we won, right…?”

“We won.”

When I declared this while showing the dungeon core, Yeonhwa fell to her knees as if all tension and strength left her body.

“Thank goodness…”

Jin-hyeon’s hair that had turned sky blue had already returned to its usual white.

…Tch, nothing’s working out.

Failed to stop him from using his ability, plus the Suicides were enhanced with my drugs.

The whole world really is conspiring against me.

Well, still, maybe I can prevent him from meeting a master like in the original work.

Since his achievements probably weren’t captured in any citizen’s video.

We’ll know that when we get out.

But before that, there was something to do.

Got to collect the victor’s spoils, the dungeon clear rewards before leaving.

Of course, clearing a dungeon yielded various artifacts as rewards.

Mining those and magic stones was a hunter’s job.

And since heroes rarely had reason to enter dungeons, being able to get them like this was quite profitable.

Otherwise you’d have to buy them from hunters who slap on premium prices saying they risked their lives to mine them.

Looking at rewards from this difficulty level, most would be waste materials to discard after extracting magic power…

Still, it feels good.

Going to where the minotaur was originally bound, there was a large chest just big enough for one person to enter.

Wait. These only appear from B-rank and above.

…Hmm.

So.

Thanks to Lapis we got through the maze for free, and the villains stationed here killed all the mob monsters, so it went much more smoothly than imagined…

Seems I underestimated it thinking it was too easy.

The rewards might be sweet.

Since the others were in no condition to open the chest, I opened it with anticipation.

And inside were numerous magic stones and various items.

While magic stones are always good items, I couldn’t tell what the artifacts were.

Ah. Right. It was so natural in games and novels that I forgot.

I don’t have a status window.

This is troublesome.

I had no way to immediately know what was a good grade and what would be useful to me.

Even if I tried to sneak something, it would just give me a headache…

Well, I didn’t take it down alone either.

The others have shares too, so I should divide it… right?

Regrettable but couldn’t be helped.

Since I don’t have an inventory either, there was no way to pocket these without being discovered.

I might manage with cloth or daggers, but there was no way with a longsword.

Okay, giving up.

There was no reason to ruin my reputation by being petty about taking those.

We could divide them after getting out first.

“Everyone, good work. Let’s go back now.”

“Let’s… do that…”

“Like this…! There. Let’s go!”

Even in this situation, Yeonhwa held Jin-hyeon in her arms.

Really fussy. Sometimes you need to be a bit harsh for growth.

While placing my hand on the chest, I crushed the dungeon core.

Then space cracked and a Gate opened again, swallowing us.

Where we popped out of the Gate was the same road where we’d been swallowed by the Gate.

But what was different was that it was no longer empty.

Heros Corporation employees installing unknown machines, Yeonhwa’s parents, Justitia, and a woman who looked like what Lapis might grow up to be.

Plus police officers, paramedics, reporters, and many others.

As soon as they saw us, they all dropped what they were doing and approached us.

Families embraced each other, reporters fought with police trying to get even one comment.

Paramedics checked the children’s conditions with guardians’ permission, and the police… came to me.

Seems the annoying things weren’t over yet.

Yeonhwa and Jin-hyeon hospitalized until stable.

Lapis went home without interference as her grandmother strongly expressed her intention to go home.

…Meaning, all the annoying things after that incident had to be handled by me who was relatively okay.

Initial situation statement, what exactly happened inside the dungeon, identity of the chest.

Connection with the Suicides, vulture reporters, etc.

Finally, only very late at night could I be released.

“You get caught up in all sorts of troublesome things even here, Blanca.”

If you ask where “here” is, it was inside Justitia’s car.

When she said she’d give me a ride since it was late, I quickly accepted.

“It’s not like I want to get caught up in them.”

I stretched while twisting my body, completely lying down in the back seat.

A low “nyaaaah” moan naturally escaped.

“…Hmnya. I haven’t done anything wrong, why is the world making such a fuss.”

“Even fighting with Yamaguchi?”

“…Noona, that was their fault for being weak.”

When I answered sulkily, Justitia just laughed “ahaha” and let it pass.

No, really it’s not my fault. They just got beaten because they were weak.

“Maybe so. You are strong too. But… that doesn’t mean it’s okay to swing that power around recklessly, Blanca.”

Justitia was trying to act like a teacher even where she didn’t need to.

Horrified by that, I preemptively mimicked what she was going to say.

“I know, I know. Actions have consequences. I didn’t do it without thinking either. I just stepped on them because they were crawling up.”

Otherwise they would have kept being annoying until now.

When I added that, she seemed to have nothing more to say and silently drove.

Then she suddenly spoke again out of nowhere.

“…Still, now you even know how to apologize.”

“What? I’ve always known how to apologize. I just haven’t because I haven’t done anything wrong until now.”

“Yes, yes. I get it.”

Bickering meaninglessly like this made it feel like being in the boss’s hideout.

…I miss it already.

“How’s the boss doing?”

“As always, even while busy he still takes exactly two hours for lunch every day.”

“Doing well then.”

Well that’s done with school talk.

Time to get to the main topic.

“So… have you found anything?”

I asked her if she had discovered any vulnerabilities. However, she reported she hadn’t found anything at all yet.

“I suppose you could call it world’s best, I can’t even figure out where to start trying to break in.”

“Then… that method is all we have left?”

“For now, yes.”

I didn’t expect it to be easy. Rather, I would have been disappointed if vulnerabilities were showing up already.

“If anything else comes up, I’ll text you then. Ah, why don’t you check the class chat room? The kids called me asking if everyone was okay.”

Ah. Right. That existed. I had just joined but completely forgot about it.

Checking the class chat room, there were messages actively asking if everyone was okay from around 4 PM.

Then as if they knew among themselves who got attacked, they were asking about the students who got caught in the Gate.

They really are good kids at heart.

When I sent a message saying I was fine while lying down, messages rapidly came pouring in even at this late hour saying they were glad.

Min-ho was even sending messages to a private chat room.

…Ehehe.

The protagonist is showing interest.

I sent back a cocky reply saying I wouldn’t fall to just this much, even using emojis that didn’t suit me.

“Appraising the artifacts will take quite a while. They say there are newly discovered types too. So… this weekend, don’t worry about anything and rest well.”

As both your teacher, and your big sister, that’s my advice.

Having arrived in front of my house before I knew it, she said that while seeing me off.

Ah, geez. I keep saying call me noona but she’s like this.

Still, she was right.

I should rest well this weekend.