There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 39

When our lips parted, the butler was standing beside me. Seeing the butler show his bare hands as if he had no intention of attacking me, I gave a faint smile.

“The smell of burning is foul.”

The lips that said so were wet. I was about to wipe my mouth, glistening and damp with Ryuseong’s and my saliva, with my sleeve, but seeing it was soaked in blood, I licked it clean instead. So this is what burning corpses smell like. The smell of charred black meat.

It’s disgusting, fishy, and nauseating.

“It seems the security personnel have all been wiped out. Seeing as they were used for human skin masks, there might still be some living guards, so search for them. They might have just peeled off their facial skin.”

“…Yes, Young Master.”

“Call some people to handle the bodies. I know we can’t trust the security detail, but even if we make new enemies, we need to clean up the streets first—”

Just then, my keenly honed senses detected someone’s approach.

I tried to squeeze my forearm to draw blood, but Ryuseong, twisting his body to step one foot out of the car, was faster in drawing his sword.

—Slice.

Wait, what was that?

I couldn’t even follow it with my naked eye. It must have been a difficult posture to even find his balance, but the sword was swung at an unbelievable speed, and its energy drew a line in space.

A horizontal straight line.

A brilliant internal energy, like a pale blue will-o’-the-wisp, struck someone directly.

Zzzzt, thwack!

Was Ryuseong this strong at this point in time?

A surprisingly powerful blow cut a four-story concrete building in half. The building, its cornerstone cut, began to collapse.

But judging by the sharp and annoying sound from across the way, it seemed they had defended. Since there was no sound of metal, I concluded that the opponent was likely a magician, and was about to reassert control over my scattered blood when…

In an instant, a magic circle nimbly swirled in the air, supporting the collapsing building.

And, a murmur that crossed space.

“Oh my! Rest assured, you genius cadets, it’s me! A professor from the magic department! Hahaha, with so many people dead, there’s no way the academy wouldn’t send out a patrol, is there? For all our appearances, Arae-a is a prestigious institution, and we put effort into maintaining the peace in Seoul!”

That way of speaking, anyone could tell it was that professor. Professor A-Plus, famous for never giving out A+ grades.

With dozens of chaotically glowing mint-colored magic circles floating around him, he appeared, parting the acrid, black smoke, and grinned.

“By the way, you’ve done something tremendous!”

It was true, but the butler’s eyebrow twitched. He looks kind of pissed?

“This is not a scale that you can cover up no matter what you do, Lord Cassis. Is it my duty to have you shipped directly to prison?”

“…How dare you speak so carelessly to my master, you erased name of Kaizen…”

When the butler spoke grimly, A-Plus made a fuss.

“Oh, for god’s sake. Vincent! You were still alive! But don’t you attach ‘Kaizen’ to me. There’s nothing I find more disgusting than Kaizen! I was the one who cut ties, so why am I the erased name? It’s Kaizen that’s the erased family name!”

Honestly, it seemed A-Plus had a point, but it was fascinating to see the butler taking my side, so I decided to stay quiet. I mean, it’s fun, isn’t it? Am I the only one? Power’s lackey versus the one who speaks the truth. Am I the only one who likes this kind of thing? The victory of power is the best.

Anyway, it was nice of Professor A-Plus to tell me the butler’s name, which I didn’t even know. But instead, the butler’s aged face began to fill with anger.

“If you hadn’t been rude to my lord, I would have treated you as a professor guiding the young master. But you, as a professor of the academy, didn’t ask about a cadet’s injury but started with some ridiculous threat!”

“Aha, that is certainly my fault, isn’t it…? Ahem, but an injury? Hmmm. Huh?”

A-Plus’s eyes widened as if he had only just noticed my wound.

“Lord Cassis, why are you injured?”

…Dear God, are you listening? Please let me smack this bastard in the head just once.

“Against lackeys of this level, with your skills, there’s no way you’d get hurt, is there? Ah, were you perhaps letting your guard down because your lover was beside you? My, my.”

‘Is that something you say to an injured person?!’

That’s what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t answer with Jeong Ian’s ego. I quickly decided to make an excuse.

“Haha, what a ridiculous notion. Lately, I have been sealing magic other than blood magic, so my response was slow. I intend to use other magic as well once my blood magic reaches a satisfactory level.”

“Gasp, selection and concentration? But the price seems too high for something you’ve concentrated on! No, wait… more importantly, you did this by using blood magic in actual combat for the first time—? …You truly are a genius, Lord Cassis.”

No, this isn’t a matter of genius, it’s thanks to Cassis’s blood being a damn valuable sacrifice. Anyway, A-Plus, who had been staring at me as if I were possessed, said so and shook his head, then waved his staff and summoned a carpet.

“…Get on. Let’s go to the infirmary to get treated. You there, Vincent, I’ll issue a permit later, so you follow along as well. I’m sure you wouldn’t allow me to take Lord Cassis alone anyway.”

“If I treat it with a potion…”

“You know that if you just seal the flesh with the bones and cartilage shattered, you won’t be able to get it treated properly! It’s not just one or two broken bones, if you pour a potion on that, it’s a straight path to amputation. That’s why you have to protect the bones as much as possible, even if it means losing some flesh, so you can manage on the battlefield without professional medical personnel… Hmm, this wasn’t something to say in front of a patient with excessive bleeding either, was it? It’s advice that will become blood and flesh when you become a conqueror later, but Lord Cassis is ‘already’ a conqueror.”

…I almost took the direct route to an amputation ending. So potions don’t work on comminuted fractures. Right, in the original setting, potions mend and regenerate flesh, so I guess it feels like they would mend the bones in their broken state too. So that’s why healers and medical staff were treated so incredibly well. I was wondering why healers and medical staff were treated so well when potions existed, but this was the reason. So that’s why there’s such a thing as a medical professor. Wow. Wow. So that’s how it was…

I was almost screwed…

“Then who’s going to clean up the bodies?”

“Well, now that things have gotten this big, a police investigation will be unavoidable. The fire was so huge it was visible from the academy grounds. It’ll be difficult to secretly dispose of the bodies and pretend nothing happened, as you’ve done until now.”

…Um, excuse me, I wasn’t trying to say I wanted to pretend nothing happened, I was saying the street is so dirty that I was going to help with the cleaning crew.

I can tell that there are a lot of misunderstandings about Cassis de Millang.

‘Anyway, that means I don’t have to help, right?’

Since it was good news for me, I got on A-Plus’s carpet with a light heart. Soon, Ryuseong and Vincent also got on, and the carpet slowly began to rise. Looking down from the air, the police had formed a dense circle around the vicinity. It seems I could have really gone straight to prison if things had gone wrong.

Anyway, A-Plus sent them some kind of signal I didn’t understand, and the police responded. And we set off.

Fortunately, there was a transparent dome of wind resistance magic cast, so my wounds didn’t burst open from the wind pressure. But it was hard to trust A-Plus completely, so I was on edge, wondering if I was actually being arrested, but I started to feel a little nauseous.

Flying up to a high place after eating, I thought maybe my acrophobia and motion sickness were hitting me at the same time. But it would be embarrassing to throw up in front of Ryuseong. No matter how shameless I am, there are limits. I don’t want to puke in front of a handsome guy. So I forced myself to endure the spinning in front of my eyes. Fucking acrophobia, why are you acting up now? You were gone for a while. Is a car okay but a carpet isn’t? Well, that makes sense.

A carpet is open on all sides… damn it!

‘Does this A-Plus bastard even have a license.’

As I got progressively more pissed off and my breathing became ragged, Ryuseong gently leaned my head on his shoulder. If this happens, I absolutely must not throw up. If I did, it would be a direct hit on Ryuseong’s thigh…

‘Just kill me…’

After what felt like an eternity, we finally arrived at the academy. A-Plus must have called ahead, because the academy’s guardian totems didn’t beat up the butler. Thanks to that, we were able to meet the medical professor with all our limbs intact.

And the medical professor, our homeroom teacher, after taking my pulse, spoke directly to me for the first time.

Not words directed at a group, but words for me personally. She did it for the first time. Meaning her firm silence was finally broken.

“Why didn’t you throw up?”

Huh? What’s she talking about? The motion sickness? Well, for the sake of Ryuseong’s thigh’s cleanliness…?

“A potent poison is melting your internal organs. How did you endure this while conscious…”

…Excuse me?

“Begin preparations for surgery!”

I still hadn’t accepted reality, but the assistants and associate professors in the infirmary began to move in perfect order. No, no, wait. Potent poison? My organs are melting? Huh?

‘I seriously had no fucking idea…?’

I don’t even know when I was poisoned. I was just blankly doing as they told me in a daze, when Vincent blocked the path of the associate professor who was about to wheel the bed I was lying on into the operating room.

Seeing the butler, a setting from the original work that had been hazy began to come to mind. Hmm, right.

‘Cassis really hates having his body handled while he’s unconscious.’

I remember a scene where, after a battle, he was treated for his wounds while passed out, and when he woke up, he went off on Ryuseong like a rabid chihuahua, asking why he had touched him.

And another piece of information.

“Can’t this be resolved with just an antidote, without surgery?”

“His body will be damaged.”

“That’s fine. Just tell me if there is a way. We will prepare the medicinal ingredients separately anyway.”

“We’re in a race against time here—”

“How can de Millang trust Arae-a?”

A situation that would probably piss off any doctor.

But instead, Ryuseong moved as if he were about to cause some trouble. To be precise, the strength left his clenched fists, and his angry expression became calm.

This wasn’t anger or anything, it was a sign that he was really going to do something, so I had to handle it somehow.

“Um, everyone, please calm down. I’m fine.”

“You didn’t even know you were in that state…!”

“I have a resistance to poison. I don’t die easily, you see.”

Original work information. It was never revealed to Ryuseong, but according to the information disclosed from the principal’s point of view, Cassis has a resistance to almost all poisons! Even if it’s an unusual poison, he doesn’t die easily! The mysteries of the human body are the best!

“What does that—”

But the expressions of the people who heard my words somehow turned tragic.

Uh, huh? What’s wrong?

‘Why are you all acting like you’re the ones who’ve been poisoned?’