I Became the Traitor in an Academy Story

---

I gently cradled his corpse in my arms. No way was I going to lay him to rest in this cursed, cold place.

I tried to reassemble the scattered pieces of him, stretching out the slime in a futile effort, but it was hopeless. All I could do was let the pieces flow into the hole.

His warm blood flowed down, but it would soon grow cold.

Just like him. Just like his dreams. Just like the world I longed for. Chilling, cold, and dead.

No expression crossed my face. It wasn’t that I felt no emotion; I simply didn’t know how to express even this much.

“I’ll make sure your journey isn’t lonely, Boss.”

Gasping for breath, I spoke to him, knowing he wouldn’t respond.

Stepping on a shard of stone, blood oozed not from my feet but black, sticky slime.

The slime flowed from my eyes, bursting through the scabs covering my wounds, oozing from the spots where my nails had been pulled out and from my split lips.

I squeezed out every bit of magical power I had left to swell the slime. Still not enough. Still not enough.

If I was going to make all these things here his companions, I needed more.

With each step I took, slime pooled around my feet, so much that I couldn’t even contain it anymore.

I felt dizzy. Was this what magical exhaustion felt like? But it had to be better than losing everything he had lost.

As a minion rushed in, confused about what had happened, I pierced him with a slime tendril.

From the pierced tendril, I could feel the magic circulating in the minion’s body.

Just my luck, I was running low on magic!

Delving deep into his body, I absorbed magic and tissue until the black thorns burst through his skin.

Through the slime, I felt magic and matter flowing into me. It helped a bit with the dizziness, but that was about it.

It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. The amount of blood I needed to cool this rage was pitifully insufficient.

I carefully broke down the absorbed minion’s tissue with toxins. Acid or alkali worked too fast.

I wanted these guys to suffer and die regretting their existence for as long as possible. If I could witness that misery, even from a distance, it would’ve been alright…

But given the numbers and the size, I quickly realized I couldn’t watch them die one by one.

So I aimed for the most painful deaths. And I’d make their base a place unworthy of human life.

I meticulously concocted my poisons.

There was no shortage of materials, since the minions of the Evil Society kept providing them.

After mixing roughly fifty or so, I felt like I had accumulated enough poison to do the trick.

“Shall I start moving?”

Was it a prison? At least the place I was in was devoid of life now. These fools wouldn’t be foolish enough to keep swarming me like moths to a flame.

Now it was time for me to go find them.

As I opened the barrier blocking off the prison from other facilities, I contracted the slime and expelled toxins in all directions.

As the aerosol form of poison rushed down the hallway toward the Evil Society’s base, the minions, caught off guard by the sudden wet breeze, began nervously wiping their faces only to freeze upon seeing me.

However, they couldn’t decide whether to aim their weapons or not, stuck in a half-hearted stance.

“The effectiveness of poison varies by exposure. Tough luck for you, huh?”

I mocked the minions of the Evil Society, who were frozen stiff, and coated my tail with slime, plunging it into their bodies.

Even if their bodies were paralyzed by the paralysis poison, they’d still feel the pain completely.

So, like this. Slowly. If I grew thorns inside their bodies…

They’d feel the sheer agony of their bodies turning into rags in real-time.

There were no screams, no reactions. But the simple fact that they felt pain was enough.

As the thorns extended along their veins, I grew impatient and pierced their hearts, killing them.

I wouldn’t waste time on minions; I still had a long way to go.

Plus, there were still dangerous foes lurking about. I needed to prepare thoroughly.

After extracting materials and magic from the already dead minion, I casually tossed aside the empty shell.

Ah, should I use that too? I attempted to dissolve the corpse into matter using the slime.

But it didn’t dissolve smoothly, resulting in a grotesque sight with bone fragments stuck in the slime… which turned out to be oddly fitting.

A fittingly ugly end for something so hideous.

It seemed like a decent enough weapon to wield as it was. Satisfied, I decided to leave it as is.

Unfortunately, I didn’t end up using that slime-stuffed weapon.

They’re all dead now.

Since the Evil Society’s base was underground, if gas was released, there’d be no way to escape.

As I walked down the hallway, I saw either the dead or dying members lined up everywhere.

I killed them all. I killed everyone hiding in the rooms. Those who were hiding. Those who were still alive. Those who survived through their abilities.

I killed them all. Stabbed, struck, crushed, sliced, and melted them.

No one was spared — men, women, children, or the elderly.

I killed them all without discrimination based on their affiliation.

I killed even the begging ones without mercy.

If they annoyed me, I made sure they died painfully.

Yet still, the anger wouldn’t fade.

Pouring more blood onto the raging hatred didn’t cool it down.

The things I had lost would not return no matter how many I killed.

And so I killed. To forget that I couldn’t get them back. I killed to quell an anger that couldn’t be appeased.

“Was it because of you…?”

In the midst of killing and killing, I finally encountered someone who looked somewhat intact.

I tried to skewer him with my tail, but he dodged in a way that made it hard to believe he had been poisoned, throwing a knife at me.

I blocked the blade with a towering pile of bones, but considering how close it came to piercing me, he must have been strong.

But then again… judging by his stiff movements, he didn’t seem fully free, either.

That worked out. Taking out the higher-ups would seriously hurt the Evil Society…

And who knows? He might have vital information hidden in that thick skull of his.

I sprayed the paralysis poison directly while shooting the bone shards lodged in the slime at him like bullets.

Initially, he evaded well, but as I poured poison on him, he slowed down and eventually collapsed, his body riddled with his own minions’ bones.

Seeing he didn’t show any strong offensive abilities, he must’ve been a strength-type. Still, considering he made it to the upper ranks, he had to be at least on par.

“How does it feel to be trapped inside that body you’re so proud of?”

I asked, pressing deeper the bone shard lodged in his abdomen.

I hadn’t expected an answer, but watching his nearly frozen face twist into a comical expression made me chuckle.

I shoved my tendril into his mouth, punctured his palate, and directly connected the slime to his brain.

Hoping for something, I discovered once again there was nothing there. Oh, there was something. Almost everyone among the officers had fled right after the gas was released.

Like cowardly fools, it turns out that’s how it was.

I never expected them to die from the poison. At the officer level, they’d either be inhuman or mostly modified humans.

In fact, it would be rare for someone like him to even be affected by poison.

…The fact I was capable of producing poison that could even take down someone like him was not something to be pleased about.

My world had already crumbled.

Even if I trampled brutally over dead bodies, turning them into chunks of red flesh, it didn’t bring me any relief.

I, from now on…

“No, I still haven’t taken him outside yet…”

I tried to unleash my frustrations, but the timing was off, so I swallowed my tears and once again held onto his corpse as I began to head outside.

At the entrance, the bodies of those who had struggled to escape piled up like a mountain.

It seemed they had locked the door from the outside.

But that wasn’t enough to stop me.

I formed a large droplet of slime, filled it with nitroglycerin, and blasted open the entrance.

Though I felt a surge of nausea from the shockwave, it wasn’t important now; I rushed outside without hesitation.

“…Boss, I did it. I made it outside.”

There would be no response. I knew better than anyone. But…

…But I wished for a reply.

If even he were to disappear, what on earth would I cling to now…?

Maybe it was the impact from the recent explosion or the extreme stress, but bile rose in my throat.

“Ugh… Ugh… Ugh…”

Despite my efforts to hold it down, I soon remembered I didn’t have to care about anyone’s gaze anymore and vomited without hesitation.

“Ugh… Ugh… Hgh… Ugh…”

As everything inside flowed out, other things followed suit as if they had been waiting.

“I… I… what on earth…”

Lost in grief, unmoored without a destination, tears wouldn’t stop streaming down my face.

Through my foolishness, I had lost my greatest friends.

By not being able to voice my warnings, I had lost the one I revered.

“Ah… Ahhh… Aaaah!!!!!”

I howled for what I was supposed to do from now on, but there was no answer to my cries.

 

---