There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 54

‘I guess the ruined nation diss is a bit more of a critical hit.’

Both were messed up, but Cassis de Millan, at least, thought the ruined nation diss was a little stronger. To be precise, it got bonus points for being the first strike. Was it because of that? In their battle, where they began to charge at each other with the intent to kill, the one who quickly gained the upper hand was Logan.

“Is that all your skill amounts to? Isn’t it a disgrace to your country?”

“This son of a bitch, with every single word he says…!”

Logan is a magic lancer knight. He, too, like Dietrich, used the trick of contracting with a divine beast sealed in an artifact by a shaman, and thus commands a unicorn despite not being born with shamanistic talent.

Since he wields a typical knight’s lance, his attack range is longer than others. He can also aim to increase his destructive power with the charge of his divine beast. That’s why Lee Hyang looked almost out of his mind, trying to dodge the unicorn and the lance bare-bodied.

As a shaman, he needed to buy time to cast his spells, but the unicorn’s speed was so overwhelming that just dodging it was a struggle, and he was rolling on the floor, covered in dust.

“Hey, you son of a bitch! Let me smoke my last cigarette! I’m suffocating here!”

“What last cigarette, you’re holding a smoking pipe.”

A ‘last cigarette’ is slang for the very last cigarette in a pack, and it is an unspoken rule that everyone shows consideration for the person smoking it.

However, Logan snorted and increased his speed once again.

The lance he wielded was different from the eastern kind. It was a weapon called a lance, rather thick, with three triangular spikes on its tip.

A swing from the side would deal a blow, and getting hit by the spikes would also deal a blow, so this time too, Lee Hyang dodged by half-rolling on the floor, but he hadn’t thought that the unicorn’s head would also become a weapon.

Because of that, he took a direct hit to his torso.

POW!

Hae Yuna couldn’t even scream, and Lee Hyang was launched into the air before falling to the floor with a thud. He hung limp as if knocked out, even when prodded with the lance. The match was already more than decided.

But Logan didn’t stop. He commanded his divine beast to press down on Lee Hyang’s ankle with its hoof.

As if contemplating whether to break it or not.

“You’ll have to pay the price for your rudeness…”

“Hyang…! Hey, you guys take the exam paper. Take it. So just stop. Stop!”

“What shall we do, comrades.”

To the bland question, Capone smiled cruelly.

“You’ve already decided, what an odd thing to say.”

“You’re right. But won’t the ankle be a bit too obvious? How about we just end it with a kick to the solar plexus?”

“Not bad.”

“Still, as an example…”

Hae Yuna, without another word, was about to throw herself at them. As if she had already steeled herself to get beaten up in a three-on-one fight.

But Shin Myohan grabbed Hae Yuna’s shoulder as if to stop her.

And at the same time.

“Devour it.”

Something unbelievable happened.

The unicorn Logan had been riding suddenly vanished as if it had evaporated.

Having received a mental shock from the severed connection with his divine beast, he felt a ringing vibrate in his ears and tried to land by planting his lance on the floor, but even the lance turned to ash and scattered.

Logan, who had forced himself into a breakfall posture, sprained his wrist. But there was no time to rest. When he came to his senses, his coat was gone, his shoes were gone, his socks were gone, and even his shirt was gone. Everything happened in an instant, and there was no way to react. In the end, all that was left were his pants.

“What is this…!”

Just as the half-naked Logan was brandishing his lance in the air with a shudder.

Someone leisurely raised his upper body.

“Ow, my back hurts. This is why lying on the cold floor is no good. Heated floors are the best.”

Lee Hyang, who had pretended to be unconscious and had summoned the Vermilion Bird to devour everything, grinned.

“Lee Hyang! You deceiver…!”

“You idiots, if you fooled us with an illusion, you should have at least known that we could fool you too.”

In fact, the outcome of the fight had been decided from the very first puff of his smoking pipe. That was Lee Hyang’s state, a fact unknown to the public.

Lee Hyang, without uttering a word of such secrets, gave a brazen grin.

“Don’t be ridiculous. The duel isn’t over yet…!”

“Oh, really?”

At those words, Lee Hyang snapped his fingers. Then, a ring of flames that encircled Logan like a doughnut began to burn fiercely. The fire narrowed its spherical boundary as if to devour Logan.

He had nowhere to retreat.

“Then I’ll keep setting fires, okay? Speak clearly. Did you lose, or not?”

The fact that the Vermilion Bird is the contractor of Lee Hyang, a descendant of the Gukseong, means a lot.

The fact that a legendary divine beast encompassing East Asia had chosen Lee Hyang led everyone to treat him as the heir who would revive Daehan.

Lee Hyang found their expectations burdensome at times, but he also wanted to fulfill them. So he smoked his pipe consistently.

It sounds a bit strange, but it means he increased his intimacy with the Vermilion Bird…

The Vermilion Bird is a high-ranking divine beast among divine beasts, so when he was young, his intimacy with it was low, and there was a danger of him almost burning himself to death, unable to handle its excessive power, but it was different now. The Vermilion Bird’s flames could easily devour a person if Lee Hyang wished.

“If you don’t admit it quickly, you’re really going to die. Will you admit defeat? Or not?”

But Logan chose a third path.

“…Capone! Dietrich! Dispel the magic!”

“What?”

By breaking the magic that was blocking the ripple of mana stirring inside the barrier.

[ I S M E L L T H E S C E N T O F M A G I C ]

[ I S M E L L T H E S C E N T O F S O R C E R Y ]

[ U N A U T H O R I Z E D ]

“Hey, you crazy bastards…!”

“Let’s all die together!”

[ C A T C H I N G T H E I N T R U D E R S ]

[ W I L L C A T C H A N D R O A S T T H E M ]

It was a grand operation to turn everyone into vengeful spirits to be caught by the guardian jangseungs.

“…”

“…”

And so, my lackeys and Ryuseong’s friends were taken away. For real. Truly for real. There was an escape attempt, but everything was futile in the face of the guardian jangseungs’ running skills.

“…Do you think they’ll really be roasted and eaten?”

“…Well, at least they won’t have to get firewood from far away.”

I nodded reluctantly. I guess so. Since jangseungs are made of wood, after all.

“…Still, it looks like they reached an agreement before they were caught.”

This time, Ryuseong nodded. He must have been recalling them, who had reached a minimal agreement before being caught.

“Hey…! We came out to duel because we couldn’t stand the sight of each other!”

“What are you talking about?”

“That would get us fewer demerits than a theft incident…!”

He was right, and so they decided to do that. The evidence would also be excellent, as they continued to spew hateful words at each other as if they despised one another, even as they were dragged away, tied together like dried corvinas on the guardian jangseungs’ ropes. Though the fact that they meant it sincerely makes me dumbfounded.

It would be nothing compared to the fit of madness we experienced when Logan almost crossed the line.

Ryuseong was about to jump down, and I stopped him because I ‘saw’ the Vermilion Bird hidden in the air. But from Ryuseong’s perspective, I must have looked like someone who, as a de Millan, approved of his subordinates trying to break Lee Hyang’s ankle, and because of that, we almost fought like crazy people on the chandelier. If Lee Hyang hadn’t gotten up quickly, the things that were either jewels or real pearls on the chandelier would have all been shattered.

Anyway, the hallway in the early morning, after the cadets had been dragged away, became peaceful again. It had become quiet, just as the guardian jangseungs had wanted.

“…How anticlimactic. To think this major incident would end like this. It was fun, though.”

“…What is wrong with your character.”

I’m not sure about that. Shall we go back now, there’s nothing more to see here. Just as I was about to say that, I heard footsteps. Ryuseong also heard something and placed a finger on his lips.

The barrier was still up, but we held our breath and listened for some reason.

The sound of scurrying steps soon stopped in front of Professor Goecherte’s office.

I thought another cadet had come to steal, but the level of baldness was clearly Professor Goecherte himself.

“Phew. Phew. I’m in a hurry, a hurry.”

Had he been half-awakened by the noise of the jangseungs? He seemed to have run in a hurry, panting and resting his hands on his knees, before rushing into his office with a fingerprint scan. And he opened a certain drawer. The nameplate on the drawer glinted in the moonlight. D3.

From that moment on, I started to feel a strange sensation.

“Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness.”

It was because Professor Goecherte was stroking his chest in relief, holding a bundle of papers.

“I thought, since the guardian jangseungs were making a ruckus here, that it might have been stolen…”

“…”

“The exam papers are safe. Phew.”

Professor Goecherte, wiping his sweat exaggeratedly, put the exam papers back in that drawer, came back out, and disappeared beyond the dark hallway.

And, it was then that we were truly unable to say anything.

“…”

“…”

…From what point was that sunbae’s story true?

We couldn’t deny the fact that we had witnessed with our own two eyes that the exam papers were indeed in drawer D3. In that case, did Professor Goecherte really designate today as the day for the exam papers to be stolen?

Would a professor who does such a crazy thing really exist?

But to say it was nothing, how could we explain why the sunbaes called him Goecherte the Eccentric, when the professor didn’t normally act eccentrically?

Then, if that’s the case, was all of it true…?

“…”

“…”

The investigation would be endless. But we were cadets who had no intention of stealing the exam papers, and after looking at each other, we reached a tacit agreement.

And so, we slowly descended from the chandelier. And we ran back to the dormitory without looking back. Maybe it was because the night was chilly, but I felt a shiver run down my spine for some reason…

For the record, to talk about the future, strangely enough, that sunbae ended up doing well on this subject’s exam. How he could have done that when he didn’t study a lick normally is something I just.

Decided to live without knowing.

‘There’s no way a normal person like me could understand crazy people…’