Chapter 93 |
I Got Caught with a Mistress
“I can glimpse the future.”
I dropped that loaded line.
The Headmaster’s brow furrowed, if only slightly.
“Have you ever heard of a Prophet?”
“A Prophet...?”
I smiled with my mask half off.
Why did I suddenly take it off?
Because I figured this was the right moment to make it look convincing.
“That’s right. A Prophet.”
A mysterious smile, but not overdone.
I crossed my legs, not yielding in the slightest to the old man’s pressure.
Maybe my little performance was working, because the Headmaster stayed silent.
He did not look like he was about to flip the desk and pin me down.
For now, he seemed willing to hear me out.
“Student Viktor. Glimpsing the future means...”
“Exactly what it sounds like, Headmaster.”
“......”
“In more familiar terms, it would be [foresight].”
“So you are claiming you were chosen by foresight?”
“That’s correct.”
“......Foresight died out 200 years ago. Saint Sendir was the last.”
“That’s right. And now it has appeared again after 200 years.”
“Hmm...”
Thankfully, the old man did not show open hostility.
Still, his reaction was uneasy.
‘Of course this is abrupt.’
Only minutes had passed since I admitted I was the culprit behind the unauthorized Floor 70 clear.
And now that same guy was claiming he could see the future and calling himself a Prophet. Who wouldn’t find that absurd?
Valter’s eyes narrowed.
I kept talking anyway.
“You must have felt it all along. That I’m not ordinary.”
How do you make someone believe?
Words are light. I’d heard that you keep them from floating away by weighing them down with actions.
In other words, if your prior actions carry enough weight, trust in your words follows in any situation.
“Think back on it.”
No one can deny what has already happened.
I retraced every one of my actions so far.
I spoke about what made them extraordinary.
“Haven’t there been too many incidents?”
I entered the Academy with all-around E-rank stats.
Even so, I racked up one feat after another.
In just three months, I crushed the first year,
survived an encounter with an Apostle of the Evil God during practical training,
and even used Javert to catch the informant hidden in the Academy.
On top of that, I soloed the master of Purgatory Floor 70, a floor that had gone uncleared for ages, and split it in half.
‘Looking at it like this, I really do sound insane.’
And this was only what I had done inside the Academy.
Far too flashy to be the record of a single student.
Then I pointed out the contradictions.
“Honestly, doesn’t this make no sense? Even just the informant arrest case.”
“......”
“I just happened to get caught in a practical accident, just happened to survive because the Apostle retreated, just happened to learn that Professor Glinbert was the mastermind, just happened to secure evidence on him, and just happened to connect it all into an informant arrest...”
Even a novel would get torn apart for writing it like that.
The old man stayed silent.
‘Until now, he had no choice but to half-accept it.’
Even if he denied coincidence, there was no other explanation.
And he could not just threaten me blindly and demand to know what I was hiding.
At most, all he could do was keep a close eye on me.
No matter how forced it sounded, coincidence was the only explanation available.
‘At times like this... you offer one little hypothesis.’
The hypothesis that I was a Prophet.
That alone resolved most of the questions that had never made sense.
Because then “How did you do it?” can be answered with “Because I already knew.”
“I knew everything. I was the one who stopped all of it.”
Everything lined up perfectly.
That I knew the future, and that I solved events based on it, both were true.
The only thing I lied about was how I came to know the future.
‘Because I know the future as a possessor, not because I’m a Prophet...’
A neatly bundled stack of truths.
Then one carefully crafted lie slipped in between.
From the listener’s perspective, all they could think was, “Huh? Maybe that’s true.”
“......”
Valter stayed quiet for a long while, deep in thought.
Soon, his old voice finally asked a question.
“Then the power Student Viktor uses...”
“That too is related to the future. I ask for your understanding that I cannot explain the details for certain reasons.”
A lie, of course.
Anyway, the Headmaster now seemed ready to listen.
I spoke with the most solemn look I could manage.
“In the near future, this world will walk the path of ruin.”
“Ruin meaning...?”
“It means the Apocalypse will come to pass. The continent will become a sea of fire, and humanity will be exterminated. Nightmares will come alive in the night sky, Apostles called by the Evil God will awaken, and the world will belong to blood-hungry vampires.”
“No, that...”
“To twist that tragedy away, I came to this Academy.”
Cold air settled in the room.
My gaze did not waver even once.
The old man’s expression turned grave, and he met my eyes with a low hum.
“Do you have... any way to prove it?”
“Well. My ability is not something I can control. I do not see the future I want to see. Random fragments flow into my mind.”
“Then that means there is no way to verify it...”
“That’s fine. You do not have to believe me right now.”
I said that, but his reaction was already halfway there.
If he were the kind of person this would never work on, I would not have attempted a gamble this bold in the first place.
The old man’s eyes were still uncertain.
I gave a convincing smile.
“I’ll make it so you have no choice but to believe.”
“How...?”
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
“......”
Valter’s expression grew complicated.
He stayed silent, then slowly parted his lined lips.
“So... there must be a reason you suddenly revealed all this to me.”
“That’s right. There is one thing I want to request.”
“A request.”
“Of course, I’m not asking you to grant it for free.”
I grinned.
“After the informant arrest case, the Academy said it would grant me one reward of my choice.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“This request is about that.”
“What is it...”
“Please resume the Purgatory clear.”
“......What?”
Maybe because it was unexpected.
The Headmaster looked genuinely dumbfounded.
“I did not hunt Floor 70’s master because I was bored. It was unavoidable, because that was the only way to avert the tragedy to come.”
Purgatory had to be cleared.
Right now, the monsters were trapped underground, but that would not last.
The moment the final calamity was born, they would surge upward and break through from below.
Floors 71 through 100 were still uncleared.
The monsters on those floors would come flooding out all at once.
If we did not clear them in advance, we would not be able to handle what came later.
‘Especially Floor 100... its master is trickier than most calamities.’
We needed preparation.
With help from Grandia’s faculty, the process would be much easier.
Clearing had been halted at Floor 70, but that was a century-old story.
‘With the Academy’s current strength, it’s enough.’
Javert and Valter.
With those two alone, the regular floors would be steamrolled.
The real issue was the special floors every ten levels, the floors with a [master].
I did not think the clear itself would fail, but casualties could happen at any time in that kind of environment.
“Do not worry. I plan to clear Floors 80, 90, and 100 myself.”
“If we do not clear Purgatory, the monsters inside will overflow...”
“A horrifying story, isn’t it?”
“No, more than that, you’re saying you will clear the special floors alone?”
“It’s fine. It won’t be a particularly difficult clear.”
“That is absurd. Too heavy a burden for one student to carry...”
“You already saw it, did you not? What happened to the master of Purgatory Floor 70.”
Tap.
I slowly pulled the mask back over my face.
Then I let out a faint killing intent and wrapped myself in just enough pressure.
“I’ll handle all of it, so please have the staff take the regular floors.”
I said it as if I were sacrificing myself, but I had another goal.
The rewards you get from killing Purgatory masters.
I planned to take every single one.
As a bonus, no faculty would die.
If we moved together for no reason, reward distribution would only become a headache.
“Of course, given the gravity of this, you can’t start right away.”
“That is true. We need time to prepare in many ways...”
If we waited, maybe around half a month.
The timing should line up once the school trip was over.
Valter pressed his brow, then nodded as if he had made a decision.
“...Understood. I will accept this request.”
“You accepted more easily than I expected.”
“It was something I was already considering. The massive wall that was Floor 70 has been cleared, so I thought perhaps it was time to move forward. But since the culprit behind the unauthorized clear had not been identified yet, I intended to postpone it. If we send a clearing party, we should reduce variables as much as possible.”
“Now that the culprit has been identified as me, there is nothing left to block it.”
“That’s right.”
Good.
The deal came together cleanly.
I was smiling quietly when the old man’s next words caught my sleeve.
“Javert.”
“Hmm?”
“What do you intend to do... with that child?”
“What do you mean?”
“You seem to be plotting many things, so I ask. Out of all faculty, you specifically wished to become that child’s direct aide. That means you have some hidden intent.”
A sharp point.
Was this the heart of a father thinking of his daughter?
Valter’s aura was calm, but he looked more dangerous than ever.
“I have no intention of harming her. As I said before, I only want peace.”
“When I was active, everyone who said that was a fraud.”
“Then this time, for the first time, you’ll meet someone sincere.”
“......”
A reply so shameless it was like 3,600 layers of steel plate.
The old man glared at me for a moment, then spoke with a faint sigh.
“Please take good care of her.”
“......”
“Direct aide... right now, Student Viktor, you are the one closest to her.”
“You seem very worried. You must care deeply for Chief Investigator-nim.”
“Well.”
The old man’s face clouded with mixed emotion.
His eyes looked faded somehow.
“It is my fault that Javert became so cold.”
“......”
Words that implied something.
A sensitive family matter.
I did not ask further.
Instead, I shifted the topic with another request.
“For reference... my identity must remain secret.”
It was almost time to prepare.
In the future, Javert would take her own life.
I needed a safeguard to stop that future.
“And about the unauthorized clear case, Headmaster, I want you to...”
“I understand. On that matter, I will tell the faculty not to dig any further.”
“No, the opposite.”
“What?”
“Tell them to pursue it harder. Especially Chief Investigator Javert.”
“What do you mean by...?”
“And if they find the culprit behind the clear case...”
I smiled.
Even though I wore a mask, so that smile did not show outside.
“Add an order to execute them on sight immediately.”
The old man’s eyes shook faintly.
***
After that short but intense private meeting.
I returned to the classroom, humming.
Maybe because everything had gone smoothly according to plan.
I felt good.
“Hmm, hmm.”
Right as I opened the classroom door, someone blocked my path.
Had they been waiting nearby the whole time for me to show up?
Startled, I looked down at the hand gripping my sleeve.
“Mm...?”
“Top of Class E.”
An unexpected face.
An atmosphere like a doll carved from ice.
Eyes sunken in winter, long flowing blue hair, skin so clear it held not a single blemish.
She was the top student of Class A, and until a few days ago she had been called the strongest first-year.
At the same time, she was the one who suffered an overwhelming defeat to me in the last practical exam.
‘Rin Glacia.’
She was looking up at me.
Before I could even react, Rin stepped into my arms.
“Huh? Lady Glacia...?”
“You. Come to Class A.”
“What?”
“I like you.”
“What?”
Step, step.
She closed in out of nowhere, narrowing the distance.
She was pressing in enough to feel uncomfortable.
What was wrong with her all of a sudden?
Did she eat something weird?
A flood of thoughts crossed my head.
“Papa...?”
And then, if there had to be an even bigger problem.
“Papa? Who is that unni...?”
My daughter (not actually), who had been waiting in the classroom and came out to greet me, had witnessed the whole scene.
Lua looked between Rin and me, then her eyes welled with tears.
Like a little girl who had just caught her dad with his mistress.
“Miss Lua! Why did you stop all of a sudden...”
“Huh, hyung-nim...?”
Behind her, the Class E students who had followed her out stood frozen.
The girl looked at me with painfully pitiful eyes.
“Papa...”
“Lua-yang.”
“Are you, are you throwing Lua and Mama away...?”
“It’s not like that...”
A sudden morning-drama turn.
I could only press my brow.
‘Fuck.’
Why does this keep happening?
