Chapter 157. Crazy Personality

Today, the atmosphere in the student cafeteria was peaceful.

You might think it’s because some delicious food was served, but the menu alone doesn’t change the vibe.

With the chefs of moderation running the kitchen, taste becomes a meaningless concept.

Even if the food is unappetizing, there are times when people stay longer in the cafeteria, engrossed in conversation. That requires someone to create a good atmosphere.

The honor student’s exclusive table was blooming with laughter, a place where only those at the top could sit. That clear water up high naturally made the water below clear as well.

The crown princess and the princess had already grown close, laughing together as if they shared some common past.

Seeing this, the nobility of the target group was biting on a handkerchief in jealousy, while the petite wizard tickled the dark-haired Yokho girl, causing the two saints to laugh at the scene.

And then the commander’s son told the petite wizard to stop, while the top student of the Alchemy Department silently ate, completely ignoring everything.

Overall, it was a shame to ruin such a joyful atmosphere. No matter how noisy it got, as long as there was no behavior that crossed the line, it was fine, so there was no need to intervene.

The gazes of the Artificial Golems monitoring the cafeteria caught them, but they moved on without a care.

No matter how much influence they held in the Empire, one must not forget that they were still just boys and girls.

The Academy exists precisely for those youthful souls. No matter how much a demon descends, it will never ruin it.

Thus, the demon changed locations.

*

“Speak. Since when did you know?”

Lyman said forcefully. Although this was his usual attitude, today it felt particularly alien.

I had to consider him as a completely different being—not as a ‘human,’ but as a ‘demon.’

“….”

I couldn’t find the words.

My limbs merely trembled.

No matter how much I urged myself, my body showed no sign of movement.

This was not entirely unreasonable.

Even if someone else, let alone Principal Keiten, were brought in, I wouldn’t be able to move a muscle.

But I was more afraid of him than anyone else. Was it because I was weaker than the principal? Sure, that was part of it… but it was because I knew everything about him.

What he liked.

What he disliked.

What his purpose was.

How much power he had.

“Hurry up and speak. That’s the only way you can survive.”

And just how terrifying it was…

Step by step—

The demon’s every move tightened my breath.

I could always think of a way to deal with those I had faced before, but with him, nothing existed.

Power was, without a doubt, paramount. Even if I used variables, if the gap in power was vast, it’d be utterly useless.

Run away? If I managed to escape through a ‘swap,’ I might be safe for now. But he was also an Academy student like me.

He could create situations like this anytime.

“Then how did you notice…?”

I couldn’t bluff my way through this.

It was more like I got hit back with a question, but everything felt the same in front of him. Once I had been discovered, there was only one reaction he could show to whatever I said.

“How did I know…”

“…?”

“…isn’t it foolish not to notice the blatant trace I left behind?”

He had been standing directly in front of me but was suddenly behind me. He poked my back with his finger, causing my whole body to tense up.

Moreover, I could no longer use my mana. Considering he could render someone mana-less with a single long-distance blow, it was an easy task for him.

Now, even running away was no longer permitted. The fact that I could at least move my mouth meant he was interested in talking to me.

“You must already know. I was the one who displayed that screen when the student council president spoke.”

“….”

“At that time, I had tamed a Spirit to keep an eye on Jason. If there’s no response, no one can see it anyway.”

There are magical devices for surveillance in the Academy, but Jason wouldn’t have taken that into account when he was appointed as an instructor.

So, a Spirit that could hardly be sensed was perfect for this. Lyman could manipulate the Spirit like it was a projector.

“In the process of creating video footage from what the Spirit witnessed, I could see a section that was cut off.”

At first, I thought the Spirit blinked and was ready to overlook it. I had initially thought about blocking the Spirit’s view with Muto for a moment.

After all, the Spirit could do nothing apart from seeing.

“When I asked about that cut-off part, the Spirit said this.”

Although it barked like an animal, it wasn’t impossible to understand.

– It had a peculiar scent of mana! The smell of a human’s mana aged over 90 years!

“Smell…?”

I wondered what that meant.

The Spirit he used must be the skeleton bird ‘Karong.’

As far as I knew, Karong was a Spirit that couldn’t sense anything other than sight. Lyman likely weakened it as much as possible to conceal its presence.

So, it should have deteriorated in all five senses. Claiming it had an excellent sense of smell didn’t add up.

“Is it strange that the Spirit has a sense of smell?”

“….”

“Did you suddenly get sensitive?”

I must not have said, ‘It’s a Spirit with a flaw in its senses!’ I inadvertently reacted to that part.

“No need to hide it. You know what Spirit I used.”

“I know my Spirits well. That bone bird shouldn’t be able to sense much at all.”

At those words, Lyman scoffed and replied.

“I temporarily modified it. Just a bit of my power shared.”

“You really went through that trouble?”

– Why did you even do that?

In the main story, it’s correct that he modified Karong to use it as a projector. With those capabilities, he could have it tethered like a pet.

However, modifying its senses wasn’t mentioned in the original work. That explanation would have to come from him.

“Why? I didn’t want to go through such troublesome modifications at first. But you, being a Spirit user, should know.”

A Spirit can control weaker individuals.

“And then, someone more powerful than Karong appeared.”

Even if its senses were diminished, Karong was still quite formidable.

Turning into a skeleton bird was merely a change Lyman made. Originally a fierce Spirit, it would likely be stronger than the few Spirits that other students had tamed.

– Except for the snake Spirit contracted to me.

“So you gave it a sense of smell because of me? But there’s no guarantee that Karong smelled my scent. Do I look over 90 years old to you?”

“Yes, it’s that remark about being over 90 years that makes you suspicious.”

I’m only 17 in this physical form. There’s no way a mana scent from someone over 90 would come from me.

But I didn’t have just one person inside me.

“I’ve watched you fight several times. Especially when you fought Kent during the practical exam, you displayed quite subtle techniques. I know well because I’ve fought against someone who uses such techniques.”

“….”

“Enviel Elder, you devoured him, didn’t you? That snake Spirit of yours.”

It wouldn’t make sense to discover the aged mana in the traces of mana if I wasn’t the one who consumed it.

The peculiar sense of smell that Karong had was granted by Lyman; he surely wouldn’t miss it.

“You monopolized that damned elder I missed, and now you know that I’m concocting a projector plan and let it slide.”

There was no reason for me not to appear suspicious because I knew everything he did.

“One last thing. Do you remember the King of Talema? The one I rendered maimed.”

What was he getting at? As I asked that, Lyman reminisced about that time.

“You know everyone was scared when I chopped that bastard down, right? But how did you feel?”

Lyman could see the faces of everyone at that time. They all wore a frozen expression, but there was one person who looked calm.

“In a situation where even the principal was frightened… you were unbelievably unbothered?”

– As if you knew who I was and were reassured.

As a result, it meant I knew that Lyman was a ‘demon.’

Just this fact alone would warrant me being classified as a dangerous element.

“What I want to say is simple.”

Having said that, Lyman instantaneously lifted my neck. He whisked me away somewhere in the blink of an eye.

My feet were floating over the lake, and he stood on the surface of the lake as if it were ground. Having transported me across the lake, he finally asked.

“What’s your identity?”

It was a moment for me. We had crossed to the depths of the lake where I could drown.

And a massive shadow was swimming below the surface. Being connected to the sea, it was an environment where fish monsters could reside.

He could easily drop me here. If he felt even the slightest suspicion, he’d definitely investigate me.

Enviel and Jason had failed that way… now it was my turn.

“First, I know you’re the last son of the fallen family. You have parents and a younger sister, and you’re currently staying in the Duke’s Territory of Chain Silver.”

He seemed to have gathered some information about me. But knowing just that wouldn’t explain why I would know about his ‘demon’ identity.

In this world, only a handful knew that truth, and I, the son of a fallen family, couldn’t possibly know it.

“Hurry up and speak. I’d hate to see your family suffer.”

The protagonist is making threats now… what a spectacle.

Besides, he looks even scarier than the Demon King, making it seem like he would really harm me.

But there was no need to feel tense. As scary as his power was, I also knew very well what was on his mind.

“Are you really trying to pass that off as a threat?”

“….”

“If you truly intended to harm me, shouldn’t you have broken my arms and legs?”

He hadn’t done anything to me yet. I might seem suspicious, but no evil acts had been revealed.

So, all that talk about “family suffering” was completely nonsense.

Lyman Begilius, he was certainly a lunatic. I’d never seen someone with all their limbs intact who had rather provoked his wrath.

But ultimately, he was a ‘protagonist.’ Born from people’s ‘wishes,’ fictional protagonists never betray those ‘wishes.’

– Acting Lv7

“My identity?”

Wishes vary from person to person… Lyman was a popular protagonist.

He wasn’t just someone generating popularity through being a munchkin or causing a stir. Along with that, he had a ‘past’ and ‘morality’ that coexisted.

“I am…”

So I decided to take a gamble. He’d figured out I wasn’t a mundane being.

There was no more room to hide.

“I’m an Anomaly. I know a lot about this world.”

“….”

Upon hearing that, Lyman’s eyes slightly raised as he fell into thought.

Anomaly? Someone who lived for 300 years and traveled the world, but he had never heard of such a thing before.

Could he perhaps be a creator? No, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have been so easily caught.

Most importantly, his power was much weaker than mine. For someone insignificant, knowing a secret they shouldn’t is quite peculiar.

The more I thought about it, the more suspicious he became. If that were the case, I could surmise he might be manipulating events from behind the scenes as a mastermind.

“Do you really know everything…?”

“Yes.”

[Erosion Rate Decrease: -6%]

[+600 Credits]

Nodding and groaning brought down the erosion rate. Apparently, saying I knew “everything” was deemed a falsehood.

What I actually said was “most,” after all.

Swish!-

“Uagh!”

Suddenly, my body zipped through the air, and before I knew it, I was back in front of the lake. There was clear evidence of a vacuum had formed from crossing over the lake.

I thought teleportation had been used to move over there… but I could really feel it was just a mad dash.

And Lyman released my neck, returning to his ‘human’ form.

Could it be that this guy finally wanted to talk to me? Ouch! – I fell onto my backside, barely containing my expectations.

Swoosh-

“Huh?”

A rope-like thing slithered up my wrist and coiled around it. Upon closer inspection, it was a noose, and I quickly understood what it was.

“This is…”

“If you know everything, then you know what that noose is too.”

Lyman tied it around his wrist too as he spoke.

‘Pain Noose,’ the weapon used by the remaining Lyman when he snatched from the Shadow Brigade.

Typically favored for drawing objects closer, its true ability lies elsewhere.

Swish!-

Suddenly, Lyman pulled out a small knife and stabbed it into his own palm. This abrupt self-harm was, while unexpected, not just his own pain.

“Ugh!”

The intense agony shot through me as if my own hand had been pierced. The pain he felt was transmitted to me—this was the true ability of the ‘Pain Noose.’

However, only the wound existed on him.

“Argh!”

As he pulled the knife out, the pain passed through me again.

You son of a dog. Say something before you pull it out!

“You don’t need an explanation of this situation, do you?”

“Then what is it that you want to say?”

– This crazy bastard.

I wanted to curse at him, but I suppressed it with superhuman patience.

– Emotion towards the user: Hostile (Major)

I still had a long way to go before his suspicions were lifted. Lyman kept twirling the knife in his hand, saying,

“You know everything, right? Then, you must also know the future.”

Then, he pressed the knife against his neck. Realizing his intent, my heart sank.

“Would that information, the version you have, include me committing suicide here?”

Lyman grinned playfully as he left a wound on his neck.

If you were really an Anomaly… if you knew it all, you should be stopping me right now.

I felt the pain and ground my teeth. And for the first time, I grazed the tiger’s whiskers.

“F*ck.”

Swipe!-

The knife arced with overwhelming force. Within that arc, Lyman’s head rolled off like a basketball hitting the ground.

Simultaneously, his main body fell too, like a marionette with its strings cut, and my vision blurred as I collapsed.

Surviving as the Academy Scammer.

 

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