The Villain’s POV in the Academy

Chapter 58

“Cough… kuh-hek…!”

My vision was blurry.

Maybe I had swallowed some of it—Anti-rain’s peculiar chemical smell lingered all over my mouth. After a few coughs, water trickled out.

‘Where… is this…?’

I had no strength in my body.

Looking around, I realized I had woken up in the very place where I had been fighting desperately against the zombies just moments ago.

The canal at the bottom of the slope on both sides was now filled with water. Earlier, it had only reached up to my shins—this was a completely different scene.

‘What happened…?’

I retraced my memories.

Aaron had clearly told me to somehow hold my ground near the canal… and now, I must have been fighting somewhere down there, submerged in the water…

“Ah.”

Only then did the memory return.

The underground canal had suddenly begun to shake. A torrent had surged in from far away through the sewers. To keep from being swept away by the current, I had used [Thousand Pound Weight].

“Cough… so when he said to hold out… this is what he meant… cough!”

That torrent must have come from outside. I didn’t know the exact reason, though.

“He must have asked the weather bureau to release an Anti-rain squall just over this area.”

“Hm?”

I turned toward the voice and saw Maria right beside me, close enough for our shoulders to touch. Silence lay unconscious on the ground next to her.

Maria, like me, looked like a drenched rat. Her black hair and clothes were soaked, dripping with water laced with chemical smells.

It was such a contrast from the ‘perfect secretary’ image she always maintained at the Academy that it felt strangely new to me.

“Maria, are you alri—”

“Shh. Keep your voice down.”

Before I could finish, Maria covered my mouth. Then she jerked her chin toward something, and I turned my head to follow her gaze.

‘That’s…!’

Aaron was there.

He wore black gloves on his hands, and opposite him, Araya was in a pitiful state, on the brink of death.

Around them lay the bodies of those soldiers in military powered armor I had seen earlier—literally split in half, scattered in pieces.

‘Has the fight already ended?’

It seemed Aaron had arrived and cleaned up the scene while I was unconscious. Judging by the lack of heavy battle traces, it hadn’t even been a fierce fight.

‘Ha…’

To think that the opponent we had struggled so much against was defeated this easily.

Even knowing there had been reasons he couldn’t join the battle right away, I couldn’t help feeling a wave of futility.

As I was thinking that, I realized something strange—Aaron wasn’t killing Araya immediately.

‘What are they talking about?’

The mood felt like they were having a serious conversation.

It seemed they hadn’t noticed we were awake yet, too focused on their exchange.

‘I can’t hear well from here…’

Holding my breath, I concentrated on their conversation. Bits of words began to faintly reach my ears.

“…do you think you can… resist?”

“If… somehow… then… resolve…”

Resist? Resolve?

What were they talking about?

I glanced at Maria to see if she could make sense of it—she was already entirely focused on their conversation.

With no choice, I turned my attention back to them, and at that moment, Araya spoke to Aaron through ragged breaths.

“Hiding it… won’t last… forever…”

“That’s none of your business.”

Aaron replied coldly.

Araya forced himself to continue.

“Truly full of holes… is that your strategy? Playing guardian… in place of the dead, winning favor…?”

“I could do that.”

“Hhuek… I hope you realize your position. You are, after all… a villain.”

And then his eyes gleamed.

“You will end up killing Iri as well.”

By the time I arrived, the situation had more or less been resolved. From the entrance all the way to the main hall, the corpses of humans and androids lay in uncountable numbers.

“I’ll check the inside alone. You start cleaning up from here.”

“Yes, sir!”

I left the cleanup to the Stingray employees who had come with me, stepping carefully over the debris as I moved forward.

I was worried about Iri and Maria’s condition.

Since I doubted they could hold out until reinforcements arrived, I had hastily pressured the weather bureau—under the Stingray name—to force an Anti-rain squall over this area.

Fortunately, the operation itself was a success, and a large number of zombies had been swept away by the torrent.

Among the zombies, there were probably not only reanimated corpses but also living humans whose minds had been taken over, but I didn’t have the time to worry about their safety.

‘Iri has [Thousand Pound Weight], so she probably wasn’t swept away…’

Given her specs, I thought she would be fine—but the problem was I couldn’t guarantee it 100%.

My pace toward the main hall grew more urgent.

Deeper into the hideout, I found a small group of zombies remaining.

I lightly activated the [Cloud Spider] module, disposed of them, and entered the main hall.

[W-Who’s there!]

[That’s…!]

[It’s Aaron Stingray! Damn it!]

Inside the main hall were androids armed with powered armor—about the same level as the ones I’d seen at the hotel.

They were, of course, no match for me. In one strike, I severed their waists and necks with the [Cloud Spider]’s threads.

In less than three seconds, I wiped out every hostile, and then other things came into view.

“Iri…”

Iri was lying face-down by the water, unconscious. Beside her were Maria and Silence.

It seemed the androids I’d just cut down had been in the process of pulling them out of the water.

‘Good. They’re alive.’

My [Trauma Biometric Scanner] detected no major irregularities in any of their vital signs.

I used the [Cloud Spider]’s threads to move them one by one into a corner.

Once things were relatively secure—

The last thing that caught my eye was a monk standing before the Buddha statue, looking flustered.

‘…That’s him.’

The same man captured in the footage Maria had sent me. Dressed in a thin orange robe with a shaved head, he looked every bit the monk, but there wasn’t the slightest sense of religious devotion about him.

‘Araya…’

The name he’d used when introducing himself.

I rolled the name around in my mouth a few times before furrowing my brow.

‘As expected, that’s a name that never appeared in the original story.’

Was he like Ciel, someone who transmigrated into a random body? Or was it simply a fake name?

Either way, I couldn’t be certain at this stage.

But one thing was clear.

“So it’s you.”

“…Aaron Stingray.”

He was my enemy.

After confirming each other’s identities, a few seconds of silence passed. The next moment was obvious.

Paaahh—!

Like a martial arts palm strike, he thrust his hand toward me. At the same time, a dark blue aura shot toward me like a bullet.

“Magic? Pathetic.”

My specs were already high enough to block even sniper rounds from afar. That so-called magic bullet he’d fired looked no more threatening than a crawling bug in my eyes.

I didn’t even feel the need to dodge.

Moving forward, I swatted the magic bullet aside with my hand. The dark blue mass struck my hand edge-on, ricocheted away, and smashed into the wall.

The spot where it hit began to melt as if doused in acid—or rather, it was breaking down into some unrecognizable ‘something.’

‘Spatial distortion.’

A condensed mass of magic power, twisting the point of impact. If it touched a normal human, they’d meet a bizarre and gruesome end.

But to me, it was nothing more than a child’s trick.

“Khh…!”

One step, then another.

I slowly closed the distance, cornering him. He gritted his teeth and fired another round of magic bullets.

This time, five.

They felt heavier, more menacing—likely because he’d packed in more magic power. Still, I kept moving forward without stopping.

Shhhhhh—!

I casually batted the incoming magic bullets away with my hands.

Of course, I wasn’t equipped with any Anti-Magic-related modules, but it didn’t matter.

The gloves I wore were none other than the Lv.5 Arcane Module [Cloud Spider], a top-tier combat module also known as a “Game Changer.”

A mere set of magic bullets, no matter how much magic power he crammed into them, was nothing I couldn’t deflect.

Frankly, even a flying rock would be more dangerous—it would at least have some physical force behind it.

“It’s useless. Give up.”

“Damn it.”

Araya tried something else.

He attempted to use magic to reawaken the fallen androids, or to corrupt the ground beneath me with magic bullets to bind my feet.

But it was pointless.

From what I’d seen, his abilities were at best on par with the protagonist in the original story right after developing basic necromancing skills.

In other words, no match for me.

Before I knew it, I was standing before Araya, looking down at him from a distance where I could grab him with one hand.

Compared to my height of over 180 cm, his frame was small and slight. I reached out, intending to grab him by the collar.

“Damn it!”

Even though he must have known there was nowhere left to run, he didn’t stop resisting. He roughly slapped my hand away and tried to counterattack again.

That annoyed me.

“You’re starting to get on my nerves.”

I needed information.

I had intended to keep him in at least a condition where he could still talk, but his attitude snapped the last thread of patience I had left.

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue.

Before he could try anything, I kicked him hard.

Kwaaaang—!

His body flew like a shell and slammed into the Buddha statue’s face.

“Ghhk!?”

“This isn’t over yet.”

I used the [Cloud Spider]’s threads to reel him back toward me before he could hit the floor, forcing him to his knees.

Then I kicked him again.

“Graaagh!!”

This time, he smashed through the Buddha statue and crashed into the main hall wall, before gravity pulled him down into the water pooled in the canal.

Splash—!

Rustle—

Once more, I manipulated the threads to drag him back. Then I kicked him, reeled him in, kicked him again, and reeled him in once more.

Through this repeated cycle, I beat the thought of resisting right out of him.

Of course, since he still looked like a monk, kicking him didn’t exactly feel pleasant—but my anger far outweighed any fleeting pity.

Only after I’d beaten him to the point where he wouldn’t die but was barely recognizable as a human being did my anger subside a little.

I dragged him up in front of me again.

He tried crawling away, but his trembling arms couldn’t move his body forward at all.

“Huff… huff… you… bas…tard…!”

“Good. You can still talk.”

I thought I might have gone too far, but thankfully, he still had enough strength left in his tongue.

“I’ll ask. Answer truthfully.”

“Bas…tard… why… like this…!”

“Focus.”

I pressed my foot down firmly on Araya’s already broken thigh.

“Gyaaaahhh!”

His scream… somehow sounded rather satisfying—

Damn it.

I snapped back to my senses and took my foot off before going too far.

“I’ll ask again—”

I was in the middle of speaking when—

I sensed something strange from behind.

Maria seemed to be slowly regaining consciousness.

‘Tsk. I’d better finish the sensitive questions quickly.’

Determined to choose my words carefully, I asked calmly—forcing down the anger boiling inside me.

But how long could this patience last?

“I’ll ask you. You—”

No, it was no use.

The more I opened my mouth, the angrier I became.

This wasn’t the time for questions anymore.

This bastard.

This damn bastard…!

“…Why did you do it?”

A transmigrator.

In other words, if he was a reader of the original novel—

If he was someone who had solved that absurdly difficult quiz and entered this world, I would have thought he’d never do “something like that.”

But maybe I had been mistaken.

I truly never imagined—

That there would be a transmigrator (fan) like this.

“Why did you kill the Witch Evangeline?”

I never thought there would be someone who wanted to destroy this world themselves.