I Became a Murderer in the Academy. - Chapter 23

TN: Thank Nepper for the chapter.

I, with red wind in my hand, struck the giant head of the main body.

-Kieeeeeeek!!

Black stains burst out, and an ear-piercing scream echoed underground.

The surrounding shadows thrashed madly.

It seemed like the space itself was trying to swallow me.

Is one hit not enough after all?

To be honest, I didn’t expect it to be.

I cut down the approaching shadows with my dagger and wind.

After that, indiscriminate slaughter followed.

In the end, it’s just an ability to move shadows.

Although their numbers were beyond common sense, numbers were powerless in front of overwhelming speed.

Accelerated by the wind, what I saw was different from others.

It feels like time is flowing slowly.

This is a phenomenon that occurs when physical speed and reflexes surpass human limits.

The density of time increases.

Everything around me, except myself, seemed to be standing still.

In this world of extreme speed where everything seemed to stop, I cut down the rushing shadows one by one.

They can’t even follow me with their eyes.

If they saw me with their eyes, they were already cut.

I was cutting them down faster than the time it takes for their brains to process.

The fragmented shadows fell to the floor once again.

It was slimy, sticky, and unpleasant.

Should I throw away this outfit too?

I don’t know how many new uniforms I’ve destroyed in the past few days.

But still.

“Now only you remain.”

Now, only the main body and I were left.

The shadows he controlled divided when cut, but as they divided, their size decreased.

It seems they couldn’t divide infinitely, as after continuous cutting, they eventually stopped regenerating.

The underground became silent.

Having cut down all the shadows, it was as if I had cut off all his arms and legs.

In other words, checkmate.

“Don’t move.”

The main body, perhaps belatedly sensing danger, tried to attack me using black tentacles but couldn’t.

Because its eyes met mine.

Once our eyes met, it couldn’t defeat me no matter what.

Its mind was already under my control.

I can make it dream, show it hallucinations.

If I use more magical energy, I can even control its actions.

I placed my hand on the giant body that could no longer do anything and slowly read its memories.

Why was it in a place like this, and how did it become a Seed of the Demon King?

And.

“……”

After some time passed, I could understand the reason.

It didn’t become a seed by choice either.

Some behind-the-scenes force was at work.

That’s why it developed hostility towards living beings.

I slowly read its memories and grasped the situation.

Reading the memories of a creature with a lot of information sometimes had a greater effect than reading a book.

Having gained another piece of knowledge, I took my hand off the monster’s body.

After pausing for a while in that spot, its shadows began to regenerate.

As expected, its regenerative ability is good.

It would quickly return to its previous form if left alone for a few hours like this.

It would be better to kill it to prevent that from happening.

“I need to kill it.”

This time too, my hand holding the dagger trembled.

Will it feel pain if I stab it?

Blood will probably pour out.

I might have troubled sleep, and I might live with guilt for the rest of my life.

This is an emotion I don’t understand myself.

I, who have killed so many humans under the pretext of meals, am hesitating to kill a mere monster.

But I had to do it.

So I close my eyes.

In the world with closed eyes, humans and monsters looked the same.

I can’t distinguish between humans and monsters by the sensation of stabbing.

It took a lot of courage to extend my hand holding the dagger.

“……Ah.”

No.

Come to think of it, I didn’t need to stab it.

“Commit suicide.”

I ordered while maintaining eye contact with the Seed of the Demon King.

The monster stabbed itself with its shadow tentacles and died.

Only a heavy silence remained in the underground, which had been so noisy.

As I was about to turn around and leave, I stopped when I saw something shining inside the monster’s body.

It was close to the heart area of the giant body.

Curious, I opened the monster’s body with my sword and took it out.

It was a fragment of something emitting a golden light.

Is this the source of the alien power I felt from the monster?

“This is a fragment of the Demon King……”

The image was a bit different from what I thought.

I expected it to look a bit more unpleasant.

But just in case, should I keep it?

Today’s spoils of war is the Demon King.

***

Lucia, supporting Rena while moving towards the outside of the cave, exhaled roughly.

After confirming that no monsters were pursuing them, she stopped momentarily and lowered Rena to the ground.

“Haa, haa……”

Of course, it wasn’t just to rest but to provide first aid.

After putting Rena down, Lucia rummaged through the backpack she brought.

Since it was too dark in the cave to see well, she first took out and lit a lamp.

She poured the low-grade holy water she had bought at the market onto the wound.

Fortunately, Rena’s wound wasn’t large.

As the holy water took effect, the bleeding stopped, and the wound healed.

After wrapping a bandage around the wound area and waiting, Rena opened her eyes while coughing.

“Cough!”

“……Are you coming to your senses?”

Lucia spoke while wiping Rena’s forehead with a handkerchief.

Terrible things had happened.

Strange shadow monsters appeared in the cave, which was said to have a low-risk level. The journal recording the cave’s ecology was lost, and Iria was left behind.

She knew the cause of the accident.

Generally, the range of magical tools used to measure the danger level of unexplored areas is limited.

Professor Eve, who was in charge, probably didn’t know the cave was connected so deeply.

The three of them had walked for hours, unknowingly moving beyond the range measured by the magical tool.

They should have noticed the gradually thickening concentration of magical energy but were too complacent.

In fact, Lucia had noticed something was off from about halfway through, but she overestimated her skills.

After all, Lucia had easily handled low-level monsters alone.

Moreover, if she struggled, Rena was there to support her, and Iria, who was even stronger than Lucia, was beside them.

So she thought they would manage somehow.

Lucia had overestimated herself, thinking they could handle whatever monster appeared.

And this was the result.

Lucia felt considerable guilt about this incident.

[Just go.]

Those were the last words of Iria, who had stood against the monsters while covering Lucia’s back.

Lucia had really left her behind.

That fact kept bothering her.

That’s why Lucia couldn’t open her mouth for a while, even after Rena opened her eyes.

“Where is this?”

“……”

“What about Iria…?”

“……”

Rena asked while clutching her stiff wound, but no answer came.

A one-sided conversation continued, with questions coming out but no answers returning.

“Why are you acting so anxious…?”

“……”

“Hey… say something!”

That’s when Rena started to feel something ominous.

Lucia just chewed her lips while avoiding Rena’s gaze.

As much as Rena was anxious, Lucia was frustrated.

The fact that she had run away without being able to do anything remained like shackles, scraping at her pride.

But she couldn’t keep her mouth shut forever.

She had to speak up eventually.

Lucia spoke heavily.

“…… She’s still inside. She might even be dead.”

“What?”

There weren’t just two shadow beings in the cave.

At least three, maybe even much more than that.

Iria had stood alone against that many shadows.

Even when Rena and Lucia charged together, they couldn’t handle one shadow.

No matter how strong Iria was, Lucia thought she couldn’t possibly take down that many alone.

Moreover, without Rena’s flames, she probably couldn’t see well.

Inside the cave was a dark space where not a single point of light entered.

So, although she felt sorry for her, she thought Iria must have died.

Until they heard someone’s footsteps from deep in the cave.

“I’m not dead.”

“……?”

“Iria!”

Red eyes stood out from deeper in the cave.

The eyes that glowed in a place too dark for human eyes were certainly Iria’s.

She walked with black shadow stains stuck all over her body.

Rena ran to her as soon as she saw her and hugged her.

But how?

That number of monsters was something even a decent knight couldn’t break through.

The shower of monsters pouring down to that extent might even have been related to the Seed of the Demon King.

But a mere student cleared them alone and escaped?

Does that make sense?

“They were just squishy and not much of a deal.”

“R-really?”

Iria said as she removed the last stain stuck to her head.

Were the monsters that came later not that strong?

Indeed, the black slime she removed didn’t look very threatening.

“Well… Anyway, I’m glad you came back safely. We did lose the journal, but…… Is the training important when an accident happened?”

It wasn’t something unexpected to come from Lucia, a woman obsessed with grades.

But it was a situation where they could have died if they weren’t careful, so even though she was frustrated, she had to be grateful for being alive now.

“Journal? You mean this?”

“……!!”

“I picked it up on the way here.”

Iria said while holding a bundle of papers in her hand.

Her contribution to this external training was significant.