Chapter 142: The Hour of Fate’s Clock Hand (1)

The surroundings are noisy.

It’s all about me and Ivan.

The kids who bet money on the outcome and won are smiling brightly and happy, while the ones who lost are all groaning.

‘Tsk tsk. You should have trusted this body.’

It’s all karma, karma.

Well, among them, there was a kid who made the absurd claim, ‘In a real fight, it seems Gerard-senior, whose sword broke, lost. Then isn’t this match invalid?’

However.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Are you really going to be that pathetic?”

“That’s a bit much, even for us……”

“Hey, hey. Just don’t give the money. I won’t take it because it’s dirty and from now on, you’re excluded from the betting.”

As curses poured in from the surroundings like a bomb, he voluntarily shut his mouth.

I thought it was possible to accept the results like that.

But that was it, there were no further impressions.

I could have told them the truth, but why bother.

I was just holding the broken longsword without much thought.

I could have thrown it away in the Ferdon Habitat, but if I put it in my subspace, I thought Clatter would use it for throwing later.

So I opened my subspace and put it inside.

In the middle of it, I felt someone’s gaze.

It was Devo.

“Thank you!”

He smiled brightly and waved and I answered by smiling back at him.

“Senior!”

And Yuria came over.

“Congratulations.”

I let out a small laugh.

“What’s there to congratulate? The final exam is tomorrow. It’s not over yet.”

“Still. You’re 1st place until today.”

“Hmm. That’s true.”

I won’t deny it.

The results of the written evaluation from the first day haven’t come out yet, but it’s a given that it’ll be a perfect score.

As long as I don’t mess up the final exam tomorrow, there’s a high probability that I’ll be at the top of the Martial Arts Department.

“By the way, are you okay?”

“What about?”

“Your body. Are you not hurt anywhere?”

Would it be too strange and out of the blue if I was moved here?

No, why.

All the other kids are only interested in the betting and the showdown with Ivan, but only one person.

Only Yuria is worried about my body.

‘Keuh, as expected. My right hand!’

Personality, looks, talent.

She lacks nothing, and on top of that, she has high loyalty.

I am proud and admirable of myself.

My insight in discovering and nurturing such talent early on.

Just then, Yuria called me with a strange look in her eyes.

“……Senior.”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you suddenly smiling so creepily?”

I quickly fixed my expression.

“Because I’m hungry. Ahem. Let’s go eat.”

After that, I ate with Yuria and then stopped by the Research Wing and bought a sword from the armory inside.

It was the same general factory-made longsword.

I thought about getting a proper one, but unless it was a unique-grade or higher artifact, they were all about the same.

Also, there was Evan’s teaching that a weapon is just a means to kill people.

Afterward, I went straight back to my dorm and collapsed on my bed.

“That was close.”

I mutter, looking up at the ceiling.

Right.

Thinking about it again, it was close.

Before I knew it, my eyes were not on the ceiling, but chasing after the red Ferdon.

Finding the creature wasn’t difficult.

I already knew about its hiding place.

In the middle of chasing it, a single sword suddenly popped out from the side.

……Honestly, it was a close call.

If my judgment had been just a little bit later.

No, it’s not a matter of judgment or anything.

It’s a much higher dimension, the level of instinct imprinted in the nerves of the body.

Before my brain had properly recognized the crisis, my body was already moving.

Chwaang!

With the hand holding the sword, I deflect Ivan’s surprise attack, and with the other hand, I accelerate and take the red Ferdon’s feather.

The feeling I felt in that instant was clearly similar to the feeling when I was swinging a sword in the realm of the unconscious.

“It means the special training I received from Evan for a month was effective.”

It was the same when I fought Ivan later.

Ivan in this world-line had achieved explosive growth incomparable to the original work, thanks to having placed the growth trait [Competitive Spirit] on me.

And that was a level that comfortably surpassed my expected range.

“I thought I could just crush him with my level.”

It’s a given that a high level means high stats.

In preparation for times like these, I had solved requests and swept up magical beasts and villains, raising my level to the point where it could be called power leveling.

No matter how much experience is shared through [Competitive Spirit], a gap is bound to be created.

And I thought that a gap of that extent would be able to make up for the gap of the Aura Sword.

But it wasn’t easy.

Ah.

Come to think of it, the [Despise] of the Tracker’s Seal must have been activated.

“No wonder.”

Artifacts are indeed a cheat.

To the point where it can easily reduce the gap in levels that I had worked so hard to raise.

Of course, I also have the artifact ‘Star’s Blessing’.

“It’s a pity. The effect of [Starlight] ended right there.”

If [Starlight] had been maintained for just 10 more seconds, I would have been able to beat Ivan more easily.

To sum it up, Evan’s special training was of great help.

“So when is he coming?”

How long has it been since Evan left?

I’m getting greedy, hoping he’ll come back soon and train me, and especially Luis and Dayle at the Lunatic.

And rightly so, our Shadow is currently operating as a small, elite system.

But in terms of combat power, there’s a slightly embarrassing aspect to attaching the word ‘elite’.

Luis does his part well.

But considering the level of the enemies we’ll be facing in the future, there’s a definite sense that he’s falling behind.

And on top of that, his training volume must have decreased with all the work he has to handle these days.

He needs to get stronger.

Dayle is…… uh.

It’s not even worth talking about.

“Come to think of it, he’s the real item-dependent one.”

I chuckled and thought about the final exam tomorrow.

The task is to catch villains.

The overall setting starts with 10 villains who have come to the Academy’s Research Wing for research purposes, escaping.

So we have to catch them, and the score is given based on contribution and performance.

It goes without saying, but they weren’t real villains.

The villains’ identities were the 887th class, 4th-year cadets, and among them, the top-ranking kids were disguised as villains.

The contribution scoring is also done by them as they fight with the cadets.

Professors are stationed in case of any accidents, but the skill gap is so large that the chances of an accident happening are extremely low.

“It’ll be fun.”

I didn’t have a particular plan on how to take the exam.

Just as I’ve always done.

No matter how much the 887th class are veterans who have completed the entire Academy curriculum and have had countless real-life experiences, in my eyes, they are just the same cadets.

At best, they are at the level of apprentice knights.

‘They’ll be a little stronger than Ivan, or about the same.’

They might not be.

Because Ivan is such a cheat character.

“I guess I’ll just catch a villain or two…… and naturally become the top of the class.”

Then, a thought suddenly came to me.

What’s next?

After I become the top of the class, what do I do next?

‘I am…….’

In any case, I am a thief.

And the master of that place, who must revive a ruined thief guild.

I don’t wish to be a hero or a knight and I can’t even become one.

Of course, I have no thoughts of graduating from the Academy.

The reason I’m working so hard despite that is to launder my image.

No.

It’s different now.

I tried to launder my image and as those around me recognized and acknowledged my efforts, I unknowingly began to blend into this Academy life.

I can no longer deny that the peace, sense of belonging, and satisfaction that come from it are considerable.

It was the same just now.

Seeing the kids be happy because of me, and congratulating me, made me happy and feel good too.

‘But I can’t be like this forever.’

There is always an end.

Someday, I’ll have to say goodbye to this Academy.

As I lay there, thinking about this and that, I must have dozed off without realizing it.

Thump! Thump!

At the sound of knocking on the window, my eyes shot open.

“……”

I drew the curtains and opened the window.

On the railing, there was a note from the sewer.

***

‘Has the death flag really not disappeared?’

That was the question that popped into my head as soon as I saw the note requesting an urgent meeting.

There’s only one reason.

An urgent request.

I can roughly guess the content of the request by recalling the original work.

But what’s unsettling is that this is an urgent request.

Why?

An urgent request is literally ‘urgent’, a name used when a situation completely different from the plan unfolds and it needs to be resolved quickly.

But right now, it’s the final evaluation season at the Academy.

This important event, which happens only twice a year, and once a semester, can it be unplanned?

‘No way.’

The terror, purpose and content of what needs to be done during this final evaluation must already be detailed in their plan, ‘Raid the Academy’.

But there has been no mention of that terror until now, and for them to request an urgent meeting on the last day, what on earth does that mean?

‘The plan has gone awry for some reason.’

This was the only conclusion.

And that ‘some reason’ had a high probability of being quite important and serious.

To the point of setting aside the cult’s great cause of ‘Raid the Academy’.

‘Then it must be different from the flow of the original work that I know.’

In other words, there was a high probability that it wasn’t a death flag.

“I’ll know when I get there.”

I immediately left the Academy and headed for the Sewer District of Icata.

Tadak!

The first thing I felt upon entering the sewer was a sense of unease.

And that unease grew stronger as I got closer to the meeting place, Guartes’s laboratory, and soon, I was able to realize what the source of the unease was.

‘Besides Guartes, there’s someone else here.’

It wasn’t Rachel.

A sticky death that was flowing from the laboratory filled the entire waterway.

It seemed that someone from the Death Council had come.

“O-oh, you’ve come, Master?”

And I was soon able to face him.

“Greetings, Master of Shadow.”

As soon as I saw him, a strong question arose again.

‘Grand Disciple Margo.’

There were many High Clerics in the cult, but I couldn’t forget this guy.

Because he was Bishop Cristiano’s Grand Disciple and right-hand man.

A guy in the same position as the Darkness Council’s Galbart, who died in the mid-term evaluation.

‘Why is this guy here?’

For now, I readjusted my skull mask and took a seat with Guartes’s guidance.

“Do you know who I am?”

Margo asked.

I don’t know the intention of the question, but for now, I’ll rack my brain.

When he helped Bishop Cristiano, did Gerard meet him?

There was a high probability.

Since Margo also serves Bishop Cristiano.

When I nodded, a strange smile spread across his snake-like face.

“Is that so? That’s strange. This is the first time we’ve met.”

So that’s how it was.

But so what?

As I sat still and stared at him, Margo smiled slyly and said.

“Right, right. There’s nothing you don’t know, is there.”

“……”

“Tsk. Well, I was just curious. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Margo.”

“……”

“So stiff?”

Margo glanced at Guartes, who was standing beside him.

Guartes, who was standing between us, didn’t know what to do.

He was just sweating and darting his eyes around.

Still, if I had to choose, I liked Guartes more than the snake bastard in front of me.

“What’s the business?”

I went straight to the point.

“What do you think? It’s a request.”

With a small laugh, Margo took a request form out of his bosom.

“Tomorrow. Ah, time has passed, so is it today? Anyway, we are planning a terror attack in the final exam today and there’s something you have to do there, it’s written there, so please read it.”

I took the request form and immediately checked the contents.

And my eyes widened.

‘……It’s the same.’

With the flow of the original work.

The final event where Gerard’s death flag is set.

The same future was written in this.

‘What is this?’

My head went blank as if hit by a hammer at the sudden confusion.

And at the same time, I heard a sound from far away.

It was the sound of a clock.

Tick-tock.

It was the sound of the clock hand of fate, which I thought had stopped moving.

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