I Became the Traitor in an Academy Story

Chapter 166




“We’ve had all sorts of meetings, but there’s no way all the kids would agree on something.”

Everyone had different feelings for Blanca, after all.

Ageha, Yeonhwa, and Seolhwa were hoping she would come back to them, while Jinhyeon, Alice, and Changwon were wishing for judgment.

I didn’t say anything about still being undecided. I wanted her to be judged, but part of me also wanted to be normal friends with her again.

Before that, I didn’t even know where she was, and even if I looked for her, I had no idea how to fight, making it just an idle talk.

Still, there was progress.

We came up with some ideas on how to neutralize her abilities, and there were strategies based on the psyche we could glean from her various circumstances.

Since she wouldn’t harm us, her friends, we didn’t have to worry about lethal poison, and she’d likely try to avoid combat by using sleep gas or something, so we should create wind to disperse the gas and then…

Most of it was like that. Blanca wouldn’t seriously fight us, so we should quickly subdue her before she changed her mind.

Honestly, I thought it was a bit optimistic. No matter how much she was once our friend, she was now properly an enemy. Would she really let us off the hook?

Above all, since she had abandoned us to join the other side, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that she wouldn’t just throw in the towel.

But I didn’t want to douse cold water on things. At the very least, the kids were doing ‘something’ together.

Just a few days ago, they were lying around like corpses, but now they were regaining their spirits and trying different things.

It would be the wrong thing to say now, with the spark of hope just beginning to rise.

“I hope Lapiz is feeling a bit better by now…”

“Right, she doesn’t answer calls or read messages… We have to know what she’s doing. But I can understand…”

“Lapiz was the closest to Blanca. She was also her first friend. It wouldn’t be strange if she still couldn’t shake that off.”

Jinhyeon remarked that if she had shaken it off, that would have been even more surprising, as if he naturally expected Lapiz to be unable to overcome it.

Something about it made me feel like Jinhyeon had become more assertive since Blanca’s betrayal.

Not that it was a bad thing. It was Jinhyeon who rekindled the spark to capture Blanca when we were all feeling down.

I was just a bit worried. I wondered if he might also end up going down the wrong path.

That aside, it was true that Lapiz’s feelings weren’t that strong anymore, so Jinhyeon’s opinion didn’t seem wrong either.

“What if she still hasn’t gotten over it…?”

Yeonhwa asked us with concern, but Jinhyeon shrugged and said that even so, it wouldn’t change what we had to do.

It sounded irresponsible, but it wasn’t entirely wrong.

It would be better to just tell her rather than risk being caught out by not saying anything out of consideration for Lapiz.

Most importantly, Lapiz had the right to hear this.

She was the one hit the hardest by Blanca’s betrayal, being her closest friend, so it was absurd to make decisions without her.

But considering that she might go on a rampage at the mere mention of her name like last time, only we who had been a little closer to her would be going to tell her.

Jinhyeon, Yeonhwa, Ageha, and myself.

We were the kids who had stuck together since the beginning of the term. It felt painfully clear just how much Blanca’s absence was felt.

The kids, whether they were indirectly aware or outright feeling it, were making sure to bring up all sorts of other subjects, trying not to mention her.

But still, everyone was a little awkward about it. With someone who should be right in the middle of us missing, it couldn’t be helped.

“Uh, I didn’t notice it on the way here, but… where’s the intercom…?”

“Isn’t that the intercom? Oh, wait, no it’s not. Um, hold on. But it should be near the entrance…”

However, before we could even mention it to Lapiz, we hit a snag.

The way in was blocked by metallic fences, and with no intercom, we had no way to call out to anyone inside.

I tried texting Lapiz, but she didn’t respond, and there was nothing that looked useful around.

Since we had some acquaintance, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to just go ahead, but still, I wondered if aspiring heroes were allowed to do that.

If Blanca had been here, she would have suggested jumping over without a second thought. We would have eagerly agreed. Or maybe not quite that way?

Maybe we would have taken a good minute to debate. The thought was absurd enough to make me chuckle, but with no one stepping up to say “let’s jump”, I quickly felt gloomy again.

Then suddenly, without any prior hint, the barred door opened.

“Looks like someone opened it from the inside. Let’s go in.”

As soon as the door opened, Jinhyeon made that call and stepped quickly inside. Yeonhwa seemed unsettled, wondering if this was really okay without an official okay.

“If it’s a malfunction, we can apologize; if it’s intentional, then not going in would be rude.”

“That sounds a bit forced…”

True to Yeonhwa’s words, it was a bit of a stretch. But since it was a stretch, we couldn’t do a thing about it.

At least Jinhyeon got there ahead to avoid any slip-ups when meeting Lapiz’s parents or grandparents.

When we knocked on the door, her parents came out, as if they had been waiting.

“Long time no see. You’re friends of Lapiz, right? Come on in.”

Luckily, they really did open the door for us.

Once inside, her mother gestured to some metal dishes and handed us peeled apples.

“Did you come to talk to Lapiz?”

With nothing to hide, I nodded. She said with a solemn expression that she knew that and opened with a “thank you but…”

“…Lapiz seems to have been a bit shocked by what happened back then. She hasn’t been wanting to talk at all lately. So… I have something I’d like to ask of you all.”

“What is it…?”

Ageha, looking uneasy, asked what exactly her mother wanted to ask of us.

“Could you help Lapiz regain her smile?”

Her mother took Ageha’s hand, her face filled with concern as she earnestly asked us.

If she stayed like this, I almost expected her to bend down to beg, so we hurriedly replied that we’d come here because we were worried about Lapiz.

“I see… she’s made good friends, at least…”

She slightly sulked about it and said Lapiz would be inside her room.

It had been a while since I had been to Lapiz’s house, so my memory was a bit hazy, but I could recall it without much trouble.

As soon as I opened her door, I noticed that the light in her room was off. And the vibe was drastically different.

I knew it would be different, but I didn’t expect it to be this much.

The light spilling in from outside reflected on various cryptic notes pinned to the wall, photos of Blanca, and newspaper articles.

The only light coming from inside was from the computer monitor.

“It’s been a while, Lapiz.”

Seeing Lapiz staring at the computer without responding at all, I worried that maybe she had become a shut-in.

But if that was the case, her granddad would have probably wiped her memories or something, so it probably wasn’t that.

This was the result of neglecting to fix things without erasing anything.

Just as I hesitated, Jinhyeon took a step forward.

“Lapiz. We’re planning to capture Blanca ourselves. That’s why we’re here. We thought you should definitely know, so please, will you join us?”

Given that Jinhyeon wasn’t particularly good with words, I didn’t expect Lapiz to really take him seriously.

Trying to figure out how to deal with the sudden turn of events, Lapiz slowly got off her chair and asked if we were really going to capture Blanca.

“Yeah.”

Lapiz’s face… looked haggard. The innocence that once lit up her face was nowhere to be found.

But her eyes, however, were glinting with what looked like a deadly poison.

“Then I’ll go too.”

…That deadly look in her eyes? Yeah, seems spot on.

– – – –

“I expected this, but… I wish it had been a little later.”

Ultimately, the concern I had came to pass, as the person sighed.

The reason why they were sighing was because of a mysterious letter that had come to us.

Addressed to the Liberator, sent by the Evil Society, the letter’s contents were why.

The letter itself was polite, but its message could be summed up in just two sentences.

‘Do you want to join us, or do you want to die?’

Even Jack, who was about as smart as a potato, could figure that was a polite threat. The mood in the headquarters today was not good.

Of course, not a single person claimed we should join the Evil Society.

You didn’t even need to ask; everyone would be turning it down.

The reason for the sigh was just the involuntary groan that came with the realization that one more front had been added.

In the beginning, Heros Company was being bombarded with such an offensive they couldn’t get a grip, but after they set up defenses, things had cooled off without any real achievements.

So just thinking about one more front being added made me feel like slumping.

But then, at that moment, my instincts suddenly gave a jolt of warning.

Was it an ambush or a sniper? I glanced around, startled, but no signs of an ambush were anywhere to be found.

…What on earth made my instincts go off like that?

I had no idea.

 

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