The Academy’s Deceased Ate It All - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

As soon as I got out of the car, I could tell that this place was underground because of the familiar and peculiar smell.

I looked around to make sure, but although I could see an exhaust fan, I couldn’t see any windows.
As Lee Myung-Joon said, I could see why it was difficult to find it in the usual way.

‘At least one needs to know the exact coordinates of this place to warp like Yuzuki…… .’

As I was immersed in thought, Yuzuki walked in a familiar way and opened the door of the only entrance in this space.
I was frowned upon at the appearance of the interior, which looked like a bunker in a basement.
And Lee Myung-Joon, who saw it, touched my shoulder as if to relieve my tension.

“From the look on your face, I think you’ve already noticed. That’s right, this is an underground facility with no entrances to the outside. None of us, except for Yuzuki, can come and go here freely.”

“Can you tell me all of that?”

“I’ve told you more bigger secrets than this anyway.”

With those words, Lee Myung-Joon followed Yuzuki.
I followed them and walked along.

‘It’s incredible.’

I had never seen such a facility in the original story.
As I followed the two of them, I roughly guessed how big it would be and it seemed to be about the size of a normal building.
In reality, it was probably much larger, since there were many forks and closed doors that we didn’t take along the way.
I wondered how much money and time it took to build a facility of this size underground.

“We’ve arrived.”

After a while, Yuzuki stopped in front of an ordinary door, said so, and put her hand on the doorknob.
The door opened with a clinking sound, and at the same time, I could feel a presence from the inside.

“Guild Master.”

A man sitting in a chair stood up from his seat and bowed politely to Lee Myung-Joon.

He was a huge man who looked to be in his mid-thirties.
And his shaved head was particularly striking.
I don’t know exactly which country he was from, but he seemed to be of Latin descent.
Mestizo, maybe? [ – Mestizo is a racial classification used to refer to a person of a combined European and Indigenous American ancestry. The term was used as an ethnic/racial category for mixed-race castas that evolved during the Spanish Empire. -Wiki]

“Any peculiarities?”

“‘Nothing, sir. Vital signals are also… nothing unusual. Still keeping her silence.”

He reported to Lee Myung-Joon and looked at me.
He seemed curious, but he didn’t say anything.

“Okay….. .”

With those words, Lee Myung-Joon slightly turned his body to get out of the way as if he was about to go in and look at me.
As I entered the room, I could find traces of people staying for quite some time along with the inorganic sound of the beeping machine.

The most impressive thing was that all of the walls on one side were made of glass.
And on the other side of the glass was a blonde-haired woman sitting slumped in a chair as if she were dead, with restraints hanging from her body.
She was Esmeralda Lysnerger.

‘It’s no joke.’

Her right arm looked serious enough to be seen from a distance.
Once again, it was a sight to see why Nidhogg’s fang was legendary weapons.

‘I didn’t realize it could have had such an effect just by stabbing an alter ego rather than the body…… .’

Of course, before I came here, I had researched all the ways to detoxify the poison of Nidhogg’s fang.
And the detoxification method was surprisingly simple.

It was to apply the blood of the person who owned Needhog’s fang to the wound.
Of course, there was a condition that it had to be blood drawn out or spilled immediately.…..
Considering other methods of detoxifying extreme poison, this condition was rather simple.

If you think about it, from the beginning it was written that the owner would have absolute resistance to the poison of Nidhogg’s fang in the item description, so in a way, it was also natural that my blood was an antibody.
It was a really fortunate story for me.

“So…… .”

“Before that, I have something to tell you.”

I opened my mouth first, cutting off the words of Lee Myung-Joon, who looked at me with a requesting gaze.
Lee Myung-Joon nodded his head once and looked at me.

“I’m sorry, but it’s really private and personal. Lee Myung-Joon… I want to talk to Hunter-nim alone.”

“That’s not allowed.”

The first person to come out was the man guarding the room.
He looked at me and said in a firm voice.

“I’m sorry to say this to your face, but how can I trust you and leave you alone with the guild master? And with her right beside you.”

Yuzuki didn’t answer, but she seemed to be actively agreeing with the man’s words as she watched me with her mouth tightly shut.
It was a natural reaction, so I pretended to sigh and muttered inwardly.

‘Don’t be nervous. It’s just as you thought.’

I said while looking at Lee Myung-Joon, who was looking straight at me.

“I risked my life to follow you because of your situation. To be honest, some people in the school may have noticed that you’ve been in contact with me many times. But you are saying that you can’t protect even one of my secrets?”

At my words, Lee Myung-Joon nodded his head.

“Both of you get out for a while. Don’t even think about eavesdropping.”

“Boss!”

“I’ve been alone with Yoo Ji-Hyuk a lot in the first place. If something you’re worried about was going to happen, it would have happened long ago.”

“That’s not what we meant. We’re… !”

“Hurry.”

At Lee Myung-Joon’s decisive words, the two of them looked lost for words.
However, in the end, they obeyed Lee Myung-Joon’s words and opened the door, and went out.
When only the two of us were left, he put his finger on the door and fired something.
I thought it was probably some kind of means to prevent the sound from leaking out.

“Then can I hear what you have to say now?”

“Of course.”

Before following Lee Myung-Joon, I had enough time to think.
And the conclusion I made during that time was that it was impossible to keep everything a secret since I had already come this far.

But that didn’t mean I had to tell him everything.

“As you already know, I don’t have a family.”

I could see Lee Myung-Joon flinching at my words.

‘As expected….. .’

He was the one who found out with fragmentary information that I had made Esmeralda’s arm like that.
And my prediction that there was already a backdoor investigation into me had come true.

“And I was conducting a separate investigation into Red Case. As you know, the witch Isabelle Gaudi… don’t you also know very well that she was a member of Red Case?”

“…… Yeah. She had a Red Case tattoo on her body.”

“There were other signs, right? I don’t know what it is, but it’s the markings that were on the bodies of some of the villans.”

“…….”

He nodded his head at my words.
The witch Isabelle Gaudi was a person who had ties to quite a few places.
And among them, there were some forces that were quite big.
That is why she was able to have the legendary herb called Mandragora.

‘It’s a relief that she left early.’

Originally, she had betrayed all the organizations and ran away, but what about it?
She was already dead.
I decided to make good use of her death.

“Wait, so you’re saying it wasn’t a coincidence that you were there that day?”

“Of course.”

“And even Esmeralda Lysnerger…… .”

Lee Myung-Joon looked as if he was thinking for a moment.

“So you say, you found out information about the Red Case in advance and hit its members. Is that what you mean?”

“If that’s how you understand it, it’s all right.”

“Why? No, how can you do that?”

I smiled bitterly at his question.
To be honest, it was the most difficult question to answer.

“It has something to do with the Red Case that I’ve become like this. Will it be an answer if I say this?”

Actually, it wasn’t wrong either.
Because Red Case was a major villain group closely related to the Seal of the Seven Evils in the original story.
And I thought that among those Seven Evils, Ariman must have something to do with the incident that happened to me.

“Ah….. .”

And Lee Myung-Joon, who heard my answer, frowned slightly and shook his head.
Perhaps in his eyes, I’m seen as an orphan whose parents were murdered because I had something to do with the Red Case.

“Okay… I’m sorry I asked you something that I shouldn’t have.”

He looked apologetic.
I quickly cut him off before he could raise any reasonable doubts.

I was well aware that my answer didn’t answer at all.
It wouldn’t have worked for anyone else.
However, he was the one who had seen so far and was even mentioned as an ‘affectionate’ person in the original story.
As I expected, he just looked at me with pitying eyes.

“Let’s leave my story at that and get to the point.”

There were three main reasons why I came here in the first place.

First, to keep Lee Myung-Joon in big debt.
And second, to somehow keep Esmeralda Lysnerger alive.
And finally, the third, to separate her from the Red Case, whether she likes it or not.

Originally, I thought of putting him in debt and then getting some rare equipment.
But Lee Myung-Joon… To be precise, the Thunder Lord’s Hammer needed to act as a hardliner and become a counterweight to Red Case.

‘Because it can be used as a strong support force there.’

There were also debts that he hadn’t been able to clear last time, so I was confident that I would be able to move him and his guild as I wanted.

‘And it’s good to reduce variables.’

At first, I thought that since I had already fallen into this world, the original story had already gone awry.
It was probably half right and half wrong.
Right now, I am nothing more than a gravel thrown into a huge waterway.

As long as I didn’t have the strength to withstand being thrown against the giant current, I was better off without the extra variables.
Didn’t many things change as a result of saving Lee Myung-Joon right away?

Esmeralda Lysnerger was a villain who occupied an important position in the story.
And frankly, letting her die now would have bothered me in many ways.

‘Finally….. .’

I had to put a leash on her to prevent her from doing anything else.
To do that, I had to use the knowledge I only knew.
Having concluded, licked my dry lips with my tongue.

“I will detoxify her, of course, and I will make her open her mouth.”

“What?”

Lee Myung-Joon looked at me as if he had misheard.

“I can do it.”

He stared at me blankly at my guarantee.
After a brief moment, he asked me.

“Then why did you send those two out?”

“I’m going to say something very suspicious during the interrogation process. And I didn’t want to talk about my personal story.”

In order to catch Esmeralda Lysnerger, I had to do that.
And it would be better if as few people as possible got to know this important information.

“To be honest, I can’t trust anyone else, unless it’s Lee Myung-Joon.”

“…… .”

He looked at me with a bewildered look, and then made an expression as if he knew what to do.

“Yeah, what are we hesitating about now?”

He said so and stepped aside.
There was a door leading towards the glass wall.

“Just so you know, you can’t use violent methods.”

“Don’t worry.”

“You’re not going to use any kind of reading magic by any chance, are you? I already tried, but I had to stop because there’s a trick that caused mana reflux to occur as soon as someone dug into her head.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Okay… Then lastly.”

Lee Myung Joon nodded in response to my tantrum.
Was he always this annoying?

‘Because of my younger sister, when I see students, I want to take care of them. Is it because of that setting?’

It was when I put my hand on the doorknob without thinking much.
Lee Myung-Joon grabbed my wrist and suddenly held out his palm to me.

“If you have a weapon, give it to me and go. This is a principle, but it is also to protect you in case of any possible situation.”

At his words, I silently unwrapped and handed over a pair of supply daggers that the academy had given me.
After receiving it, Lee Myung-Joon raised his hands as if he had nothing more to say and took a few steps back.

“Whew…… .”

I stood in front of the door and sighed for a moment.
Behind the glass wall, Esmeralda was still slumped over.

I opened the door with a rattling sound.

* * *

The first thing that welcomed me as soon as I opened the door was the unpleasant smell peculiar to old patients.

Glancing at the place that used to be a glass wall, I saw nothing but an ordinary wall.
As expected, it was a magic mirror.
Perhaps from the other side, Lee Myung-Joon was looking at this place with a lot of tension in case of an unexpected situation.

“…… .”

Even though I came in, she remained immovable.
I picked up a chair and placed it in front of her and sat down there.

“Long time no see.”

After she heard my voice, she staggered a little and looked up.
With her haggard and contorted face, she looked at me, and then she let out her breath in a hoarse voice.

“Oh. It’s you.”

“You don’t look so good.”

She smiled slightly at my words.

“Thanks to whom. If I get out of here, I’m going to rip you to death in return.”

I pretended not to hear her threat.

“Don’t you have to live first to do that?”

“Aha, no wonder.”

Esmeralda nodded her head.
She looked at me and then looked towards the glass wall, she said.

“They couldn’t open my mouth, so I guess they sent you in? It’s an admirable effort, even letting a kid in instead.”

“I don’t think that’s what the person who was caught by that kid would say.”

“Yeah, did you come all the way here just to mock me?”

“No way.”

I got up from my seat and approached her.
Then I placed my hand on Esmeralda’s skinny right arm.

“I’m here to do my business.”

I pulled out the Nidhogg’s fang that had been hidden in my arm and pierced her arm.
Still, she just had an unpleasant expression on her face, as if she didn’t feel any pain.

I quickly scratched the palm of my hand.
I grabbed her arm, feeling the blood flowing out of the wound.

“What are you doing now… that’s… ?”

Esmeralda, who was very irritated, seemed to have lost her words as she saw her arm heal in an instant.
And when I saw it, I was surprised to the point that I even shut my mouth.
It was because I didn’t know it would be so effective.

‘Ouch.’

Having been holding Esmeralda’s arm even after it was healed, I came to my senses and let go of her hand.
Then I took a small breath when I saw that she was still looking at me with a hostile expression.

‘Good….’

This was just the beginning.
I just hoped that I had some talent as an actor.

“Yeah, this arm is definitely… So, did you come all the way here to detoxify this? To keep me on a leash a little longer?”

“What bullshit”

I snorted as if it wasn’t even funny.
Then I moved the chair and sat right in front of her, whispering quietly in her ear.

“The red border will be the boundary of this world.”

She shuddered in fear at what I said.
Because what I said now was their passphrase, which only the direct members of the Red Case knew.

“Do you get it now?”

I am a member of the Red Case just like you.
Staring at her eyes, which were momentarily frozen, I said.

“Esmeralda Lysnerger. I am here to deal with the traitor.”