There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 62

My head felt like it was going to explode, so I stayed up the entire night.

‘No, fuck, you guys, listen…’

Don’t you guys think this is a bit too much?

Okay, I admit I was about to fall in love. But isn’t it too much to get my heart broken as soon as I fall in love? No, this isn’t even on the level of a heartbreak.

‘Falling in love with the guy who’s trying to kill me, what is this, some cheap melodrama?’

If the world had any conscience, it shouldn’t be doing this to me. God or whatever, seriously, fuck.

‘Do you really have to screw me over this much…’

But I can’t escape reality forever.

If, if Ryuseong really is a regressor, and if he’s sizing me up, deciding whether to kill me or not, then I needed to start getting my act together.

I had to find the one single way out to protect myself… but how do I do that?

That’s right. I was currently facing a huge problem. My life has always been fucked up, but now I’ve gotten an additional fucking refill of my heart pounding every time I look at Ryuseong sleeping beside me.

‘No, fuck, why the hell did he have to be so handsome and make me fall for him, this bastard?’

Just looking down at his face was enough to make me feel good. I wonder if it wasn’t like that before, but whether it was affection or love, that emotion, whatever it is, is truly something else, to the point that a person could look so insanely handsome. So much so that I felt like I couldn’t care less that he was the one trying to kill me.

But I couldn’t just meekly hand over my sovereignty to love or whatever it was.

‘I have my pride.’

What is love, to be able to sway me like this?

Of course, the many people who had loved me were happy to be swayed.

But that’s not me. I like to be the one doing the shaking, not the one being shaken.

‘Huh, was this what they call karma?’

Is the karma of my life trying to humiliate me right now?

At that moment, Ryuseong, who couldn’t possibly imagine what kind of nonsense I was thinking to myself, scrunched up his handsome face and opened his eyes. His blue eyes were as pretty as a lake, and I liked the reflection of myself in them. No, for crying out loud. What’s there to like? Am I insane? Unable to overcome the intense feeling of patheticness, I slapped my own cheek, and Ryuseong looked at me as if he were looking at a crazy person.

After exchanging awkward glances, I felt sheepish for acting like an idiot first thing in the morning and cleared my throat a few times.

Then, Ryuseong slowly asked.

“…Are you in your right mind?”

Is this bastard messing with me? That has a double meaning.

“Yes, well.”

“About last night…”

Damn it. Swept up in the shock that Ryuseong was a regressor, the memory of last night, which I hadn’t properly processed, finally came to mind.

A deep blue shadow. A night of sobbing. I couldn’t do anything but cry like a child. The lips we met then were more of a distress signal than a kiss. Unlike now, I wasn’t in my right mind back then.

So I had no idea what he was going to say…

“Forget it. I’ll forget it too.”

“…”

But this bastard seems to have some manners. The fact that he understood perfectly that I wanted to forget and suggested we pretend it never happened is really, fuck… I should be happy, but for some reason, I feel so bad I could die. I was the fool for being comforted by you. I was the sucker for believing I could receive comfort in your arms. Those kinds of thoughts just keep bubbling up.

“…Why that expression?”

…I know, right. I don’t know what I want either.

I don’t know if I’m happy right now or if I feel betrayed by you. Who am I to feel betrayed by you? No, no. That’s not right. It’s okay to feel betrayed. You stroked me as if you liked me, so how can you now say that I was a target to be killed? Not that I’m saying I like you, but… damn it!

However, the hand that brushed my cheek the next moment was gentle and warm. It was truly driving me crazy.

“Because I thought you would hate it.”

“…”

“That’s why I said it.”

The voice whispering softly that he wouldn’t forget if it was okay to remember made my eyes well up again, and no matter how I think about it, this was definitely puberty. Just like how you burst into laughter at the sound of a falling leaf rolling by, I guess I just want to cry whenever Ryuseong so much as breathes, fuck. Let’s just go with that. Because if I don’t, I’ll go crazy.

You say you’re going to kill me, so why are you so damn gentle…

‘Since it’s come to this, I need to come up with a survival plan.’

I just stared up at him with a blank expression, then let out a small, faint smile and thought only to myself.

If I leave this dangerously charming man-bastard be, I feel like I’ll be foolishly bewitched and give him my liver and gallbladder and everything else. So, let’s decide one by one what rules I need to follow in order to survive.

‘First. Let’s thoroughly use my family’s clout!’

No matter how I think about it, I’m pretty sure this bastard can’t kill me because he’s conscious of my family.

Let’s just say for argument’s sake that he’s a regressor. Then to him, I’m the one who destroyed the world. Is killing an X-bastard like that a big deal? He could just drag me somewhere, stab-stab, and he’d save the world and get his revenge, how nice.

However, the reason this guy can’t do that is likely because he knows what it would mean to the de Millangs to kill a child of the de Millang family. An all-out war. A bloody revenge. Ryuseong’s heart probably couldn’t bear to see such things happen, right? If the relationship between the Hanra Sect and the de Millangs soured… Ryuseong is the kind of guy who can’t stand to see his family get hurt because of him.

And if Ryuseong is wary of the de Millangs, then for me, it was a “thank you very much.”

Because that’s the very reason my lifeline has been attached until now.

‘But we’re roommates? For crying out loud.’

That’s practically a full-on opportunity to kill me, isn’t it?

Well, still, if a murder happens in the room, the first person to be suspected would be the roommate, so I probably won’t be killed on campus.

In other words, I just need to prevent him from being able to stage a perfect crime.

Usually, just flaunting the fact that I’m a child of the de Millang family should be enough of a warning.

‘Second. Let’s act like I have no interest in world destruction!’

This one might be a little difficult.

I say that because it’s hard for me to distinguish which actions are related to world destruction.

Still, if I try to pretend to love the world even a little, maybe something will change. You know, like pretending to be a good person.

I can’t let my family get suspicious, so I’ll have to tread the middle ground carefully, but anyway, let’s try to do something that looks bad at a glance but has good results.

I can only make such a vague and uncertain hypothesis.

‘Ah, honestly, I really don’t know what to do. How am I supposed to pretend to be a good person with my personality! Should I just contribute to world peace by raiding some monsters?’

Hmm, that’s not bad. Maybe I should plan to run a few monster raids as volunteer work during the break.

‘…What wouldn’t I do to not die.’

Then next.

‘Third. If things go south, get strong enough… to kill everyone, Ryuseong or whatever.’

…I suppose I can decide on that.

Right. What is love that I have to die for it? Love or whatever, if he tries to kill me, I will kill him. That was my resolve. It makes sense.

Taking it lying down would be X-ing annoying.

‘…I didn’t need to find out that you hate me in such a cruel way…’

I need to get a grip.

But since a person’s cloudy heart can’t clear up so easily, I decided to be a gloomy Cassis de Millang for the time being. I resolved to go around openly displaying a dreary and edgy atmosphere, as if declaring that no one should mess with me.

Of course, a superior making a subordinate feel uncomfortable might be a bad thing in terms of common sense. But my first love is trying to kill me, and on top of that, my report card is coming out today. Give me a break.

‘If I weren’t gloomy, would I even be human…’

Tsk, enough with this ridiculous first love nonsense.

Approaching it conservatively, top 20. That seems to be the highest I can get. The difficulty of the exam this time was hellish, and I also fumbled a few times in the practical exams, which were conducted separately.

The other kids seem to have bombed the written exam, but would they have messed up the practical more than me, who started over from Fire Ball? I acted brazenly, pretending I only used blood magic, but the professors’ expressions were contorted as if they were horrified, which was really bad.

All in all, I have to discard any optimistic future outlook that my grades will be good.

‘They’re Areia kids. You think they can’t study?’

Ugh, just thinking about how others will sneer at my pathetic grades is already making my stomach ache with a tingling pain. Still, if I crush them with my status, won’t I be able to smooth it over somehow?

Thinking that, I walked with heavy steps toward the report card posted like a large notice on the school wall. Honestly, my mind was so smeared and contaminated with anxiety and ominous feelings that I didn’t even have the energy to act like a jerk, but when the underlings next to me started yelling for people to move aside because a de Millang was here, a path cleared on its own.

Truly the strongest jerk squad. I acknowledge it.

But even with a path cleared, I didn’t have the courage to go in and look. Especially when I saw the students who had checked the report card glaring at me as if they’d seen a ghost.

‘Looks like my grades really are ruined, huh?’

Did I do that badly?

Areia Academy publicly executes its students’ grades. Transparently, down to what score they got on their performance evaluation using what branch of magic.

They say it’s to ensure fair grading, since not every student would use fire element magic in the same way, but from the students’ perspective, it’s a shameful experience where all their tricks are laid bare.

Especially this time, the written exam was said to be of a historically hellish difficulty.

The seniors’ speculation that the difficulty was raised to match the standards of the naturally gifted Ryuseong and Cassis of de Millang did not console the pitiful first-year students. In the end, what remained for the future was a cruel report card. That was all.

And above all.

“How can he get a perfect score using only blood magic…”

“Is he really human…”

In the world, unlike them, there was a being who got a perfect score using only magic he had learned for less than a year.

That was what brought the students to tears.

To ‘master’ the mysterious legacy built up over a sublime period of time in less than a year, to a degree that would astound the professors? If that were possible for all humans, they wouldn’t have fought against the ‘Black Fog’ for a thousand years.

In short, it wasn’t a level of control that a human could achieve.

‘So the talk about de Millang, de Millang… was true.’

‘I thought the rumors were exaggerated, but they were actually an understatement. To think he would be such an outstanding figure…’

The admiration, bordering on wonder or fear, was converted into a historic score of all A’s.

And walking gracefully through the path that everyone had naturally cleared was an aristocratic young man.

The blood mage who had plunged the students into wails and self-loathing.

Cassis de Millang.

“Hmm…”

He quietly looks up at the report card from the bottom. Wherever Cassis de Millang’s violet eyes land, the students flinch and feel pain. Why is he looking from the bottom up? Is he trying to needlessly squeeze out more of the students’ tears?

Before long, Cassis tilts his head as if puzzled. There are students whose hearts are deeply wounded by that gesture. Some students were even seen fleeing to the nurse’s office, shedding tears, afraid he would ask why such a score could possibly exist in this world.

And up, up.

When his gaze finally reached the spot where the name of the first-place student was written, Cassis de Millang.

“—Ha.”

He let out a derisive chuckle.

As if the students’ level was so pathetic that all he could do was scoff.

The sound pierced them like a dagger.

‘Shit, what a relief.’

Looks like I was the only one who survived the fiery exam.

To think I’d be first place when I was worried I’d be last! Ahhh. The indigestion from all the hard work is finally clearing up. On one hand, I did think maybe I was dreaming for beating the protagonist, but it seems Ryuseong taking that mana course and getting negative points had a big impact. Above all, the practical exam saved me. I was nervous because of the professors’ expressions, but I guess it wasn’t a big deal. Anyway, total win.

‘I’m saved. Yahoo!’

…But, why are the other kids crying so much?

Are they sad because they all bombed the exam…?

“Hoo…”

“…!”

All I can do is sigh. No matter how high the educational fervor at Areia is, grades aren’t everything…

“Tsk tsk…”

“…!”