The Academy’s Doomed Young Lord Dies Ten Thousand Times

Chapter 52 - The Road to Midnight (4)

A battle of wits is not a simple game of dice. It is even less an act of choosing one of the actions your opponent might take and praying that you are right.

It is a battle of 'reading.'

The opponent's attack motions, subtle movements, expression, the extent of their depleted combat power, the difference in skill between you and them, the number of options left for yourself.

A battle of wits is a momentary struggle where you must gather all that information in an instant and simultaneously reach a conclusion that is 'inevitable.'

Gabriel possessed a natural talent and ability for such battles of wits and psychological warfare.

Yes. The moment Rain Enlight engaged him in a battle of wits, the boy's defeat was sealed.

But that did not mean it was the end.

***

Yes, that was my last resort. To turn the tables at the last moment using the 『Outlaw』.

-Ah, so that temporary physical enhancement is finally over, is it! That was quite fierce~.

He was clearly aware of 『Moment of Decisive Battle』. That meant he had prior information about me.

As I mentioned before, I had somewhat predicted that information about me might have leaked.

After all, the academy was crawling with Ad Astra's eyes, including Claudio.

For some reason, the House of Enlight, which belonged to Ad Astra, had tried to kill me... so I had anticipated that information about me would also be marked.

'But, I never revealed this.'

However, the situation was different for the 『Outlaw』. I had only used it during the Judgment subjugation, and I had kept its identity thoroughly concealed within the academy.

The protrusion of one piece of information conversely serves to hide another that hasn't been revealed.

When light shines on an object, a shadow is inevitably cast.

That was what I was aiming for. To target Gabriel, who would have let his guard down, trapped in the thought that 『Moment of Decisive Battle』 was my trump card.

To use his arrogance of believing he had completely figured me out.

Baaang-!!

The distinct, loud report of the 『Outlaw』 echoed through Ailton Hall.

However.

Fssst-.

The form of Gabriel that the muzzle was aimed at scattered into the air without even leaving an afterimage against the 『Outlaw』's destructive power.

Yes, just like smoke.

Eventually.

Thwack-!

From behind me, I could feel the sensation of a dagger tearing through my skin and digging in.

“...Dammit.”

Yes, it was a complete defeat.

'You cunning bastard, not letting your guard down for a second with such a clear advantage.'

After that... there was nothing more to see. With all my strength, I forced my limp head up and looked behind me.

“Haha.”

Then, I saw Gabriel's face, grinning with those snake-like eyes.

'To make that face right after stabbing someone to death.'

I felt like spitting in his face, but my body wouldn't move at all.

“Keuk...”

Pain filled my body. It seemed the poison from his main weapon, the dagger 『Viper』, had spread through my body in an instant.

Crunch.

As if enjoying my pained expression, he twisted the dagger he'd stabbed in once before flinging my body away.

Thud.

'It's getting dark. Are my eyes not opening properly?'

As befitting the main weapon of a cadre from the main villain group... the poison spread quite fast.

Or it could just be that my body's performance was crap.

Yes, I was dying. Just as I had over 200 times before.

It hurts.

It's hopeless.

It's hateful.

These were the feelings I had every time I regressed by being killed by someone. The exceptions were when I chose to die or was killed by a monster.

“...”

Beyond my blurring vision, Gabriel's still-grinning face flickered.

The final moments of Mathieu, whom he had killed and desecrated, flickered.

The pain constricting my body was still there.

'I will definitely kill you.'

And that made such a thought firmly lodge itself in my mind.

To put it another way, it made me hammer the killing intent towards him into my brain.

Just like I had with the ones who murdered me on the day I first fell into this world.

Finally, as my consciousness became hazy, as if sinking below the surface of water, the last thing I felt was...

“...Mister... Rain...!”

It was Serene's voice, faintly calling my name.

[System: You have overcome death times.]

***

Was it about four years ago? The developer of held an official polling event.

There were various categories for the poll. A comprehensive character popularity poll, separate popularity polls for male and female characters, a poll for the most impressive story, and so on.

In most categories, people's votes were fiercely divided.

The screentime distribution in was generally even, and the characters each had their own charm.

However, among those polls that showed such an even distribution, there was one category that received an overwhelming number of votes. It was the category, 'Who was the villain you disliked the most while playing the game?'

Yes, the fandom's officially worst villain, who recorded an overwhelming vote share to take first place in that category.

As you might have guessed, it was 'Dismantler' Gabriel.

Gabriel literally had all the elements that got on the players' nerves, and the first reason cited for this was his one-dimensional characterization.

He was that kind of person. A despicable villain who felt pleasure from inflicting pain on others, and a madman who tried to understand humans through it.

There was no context. There wasn't even a background that made him that way.

Born into a wealthy family, he grew up with nothing to want for, but he couldn't resist his own nature. That was about all there was to his story.

He acted that way because he was born that way, a perfect fit for the worldview of the final boss, 'The One.'

Another factor that contributed to his unpopularity was that the quality of his evil deeds was far worse compared to other villains.

Massacring civilians was a common occurrence in the story, and to exaggerate a little, more than half of the supporting characters who were friendly to the players were killed by him.

Fitting for such a rotten-to-the-core personality, his lines that scraped at the players' nerves were also top-notch.

He would scratch at the characters' painful pasts or taunt them after killing an NPC who was set as a likeable character.

'The developers who created such an annoying character... I thought they were amazing, in a way.'

He even had a long life. Even if you managed to defeat him, he would escape saying he'd see you next time, and in the end, Gabriel only met his death in Part 5, the final chapter.

As the power of the final boss, 'The One,' grew, he grew stronger along with him, and as a bonus, this growth presented the players with a boss battle of vicious difficulty.

Such a malicious character would show his face whenever he felt like it from Chapter 1 to the final Chapter 4, drawing all sorts of aggro... How could one not dislike him?

Even setting aside such external factors, I couldn't help but feel an instinctive revulsion from him as a person.

He was not a person who could be tolerated in this society. He looked down on the very existence of human beings from the start.

I had only faced him for a short time, less than two minutes, but that much was certain.

-My, how wonderful~ So wonderful! Don't you dare lay a hand on my shtudent~.

The words he'd spouted while desecrating Mathieu's corpse, his face that had laughed at me as I died, consumed by poison, were still vividly etched in my mind.

Anger boiled within me, but on the other hand, I might have felt a little relieved. Why?

'Because from now on, I don't think I'll feel a shred of guilt in killing him.'

My main objective in this main story, 'Prelude to Ruin,' was, as I said before, to prevent the theft of the 『Key of the Apex』.

'The materialization of the final boss, The One, in the physical world began with the theft of this artifact.'

But there was another objective just as important as preventing the theft of the 『Key of the Apex』, and that was the elimination of 'Dismantler' Gabriel.

I did mention it briefly once before.

Such a question might arise. Other First Astros are also participating in the Prelude to Ruin, so why specifically must I kill Gabriel?

It wasn't just because Gabriel was a bastard who deserved to be killed.

'The real problem was that he causes the assassination of the Southern Alliance's leader, a major incident that will trigger a civil war in Part 1, Chapter 3.'

It would be a long story, but to summarize, it was something like this. In the southern earldoms of the Abellon Empire, the setting of , an uprising of the populace, unable to bear the exploitation, breaks out.

The leader of the Southern Alliance, a confederation of southern nobles, originally intended to handle this incident moderately, but he is assassinated by Gabriel between the events of Part 1, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4.

With the logic that the assassination was instigated by the populace who were hostile to the Southern Alliance, the hardliners gain power, and as a result, the rebellion spreads in earnest, and the empire is engulfed in the flames of war—something like that.

The resulting turmoil was further exacerbated by the clandestine activities of the Imperial Prince, Claudio. After all, he was on the side of the mastermind.

Naturally, that's why I absolutely had to prevent this civil war.

'Gabriel is the only assassin-type villain among the First Astros of 『Ad Astra』. If I eliminate him, the assassination won't happen for now.'

Well, of course, I don't think this alone will be enough to stop the civil war. If the villains of were that easy, it would have been a bit more convenient.

However, by twisting the original plan, I would be able to buy a little time.

If I could prevent the assassination by killing Gabriel, I might be able to somehow stop the civil war through Regina during that gap.

From Regina's perspective, stopping the civil war could be used as her own achievement, so it would be advantageous in the struggle for the imperial succession as well.

Of course, if that happened, the story of Croban Trase, one of the main characters of whose story progresses during the civil war part, would differ from the original...

Well, it wouldn't be worse than the civil war breaking out.

Eliminating Gabriel was not in itself a conclusive solution.

It was just the first step towards stopping the civil war, and furthermore, towards stopping The One.

'But if I don't take the first step, I can't even begin.'

To kill Gabriel, a First Astro.

It seemed a bit too harsh for a first step, but... when had I ever walked an easy path?

Yes, I had to do it. It was stating the obvious, but it was true.

“...”

After returning to the checkpoint, I looked at the clock on the southern entrance of Ailton Hall.

The time when I had rushed in to save Elwin.

'11:34.'

About 30 minutes left until midnight. The day was almost over.

“...How much time will have to pass before I can hear the bell toll at midnight.”

But for some reason, I felt that the road to midnight seemed impossibly far away.