“……This has to be a dream. Yes, of course it is.”
In front of the enormous marble bulletin board on the first floor of the Academy’s main building.
Leaning on my cane with trembling hands, I stared blankly up at the names written on the group assignment list for the freshmen’s “Magical Beast Subjugation Practicum.”
[Group 7]
Leader: Lumen (Commoner Special Admission)
Member: Kailan del Rothschild (House Rothschild, Ducal Family)
Member: Sylvia von Krauss (Krauss Magic Tower)
Member: Ellara von Valerius (Imperial Knights)
Perfect.
Three bombs more than capable of destroying the entire world setting, and one terminally ill patient who might drop dead at any moment, had been tied together in one cramped group project.
What the hell did the professor’s brain structure look like for them to create such a catastrophic combination?
‘The Academy practicum is a major event in the original story. If Lumen and I end up in the same group, friction is guaranteed, and a penalty will trigger!’
Just as I was clutching at my hair and screaming inwardly—
“Well, well. Perfect timing, Kailan del Rothschild.”
A familiar, confident voice came from behind me.
When I turned around, there stood Lumen, the male lead of the original work, glaring at me with sharp eyes, his red hair fluttering.
At his waist hung the crude practice sword issued by the Academy, but the spirit he exuded was no less than that of a legendary hero.
Lumen strode right up to me and stopped in front of my nose.
“You’ve seen the group assignment list, I assume. I’m the leader of Group 7. No matter how much of a young lord of a ducal house you may be, inside the practicum grounds, you’ll follow my orders as group leader.”
“…….”
“I don’t know what terrible black magic you’re using to control Senior Ellara and Lady Sylvia, but during this practicum, I’ll be sure to expose the wicked foundation you’re hiding.”
A declaration of war blazing with a sense of justice.
Normally, I would have wanted to ignore him because it was annoying, but a merciless blue quest window appeared before my eyes.
[Warning! You have been confronted with a provocation from the original protagonist.]
[Condition: Trample upon the group leader’s authority and display the dignity of an “arrogant mastermind.”]
[Penalty upon failure: 3% decrease in vitality and severe difficulty breathing.]
Fuck. My current vitality was 7%. If 3% got shaved off here, I’d be dying at the entrance to the forest, let alone subjugating magical beasts.
Pressing hard against my throbbing temple, I slowly twisted my head toward Lumen and let out a cold sneer.
“Group leader? Orders?”
I tapped the tip of my cane against the floor with a sharp click and scoffed.
“Looks like some commoner bastard thinks pinning on one Academy badge means he’s holding my leash.
If you don’t want the practicum grounds to become your grave, stop barking in my path above your station and quietly guide the way. Like a mongrel.”
At my verbal abuse, Lumen’s face flushed red and blue.
Just as he clenched his fist and was about to burst with rage—
“How dare a creature lower than a mongrel bark at my lord.”
“You’re the group leader? Even a passing orc would laugh.”
From both sides, murderous intent and icy chill surged out at the same time, sharp enough to flay flesh.
At some point, Ellara and Sylvia had appeared, blocking both my shoulders as if guarding me, just moments away from aiming their weapons at Lumen.
“Ghk……!”
Lumen gritted his teeth and retreated under the overwhelming pressure of the two geniuses.
He cast me a hate-filled look that seemed to say, “You cowardly villain hiding behind women,” then turned on his heel and headed to the practicum grounds first.
Phew, I survived for now.
But the real hell began now.
The “Shadow Forest,” located on the outskirts of the Academy.
This place was a perfectly controlled safe zone for freshmen’s first practicum, inhabited only by low-grade goblins and slimes.
……At least, that was how it should have been according to the original setting.
“Kailan. The ground is muddy, so your shoes might get dirty. I’ll take the lead and freeze it for you.”
“My lord! There is a danger that tree branches may touch your precious body. I shall cut them down first and clear a path!”
“Hey, you crazy women, stop it! Please just walk normally!!”
Ten minutes after entering the forest.
Sylvia was freezing every patch of mud my feet might touch to absolute zero, creating a natural ice rink,
while Ellara was slicing even a single leaf falling over my head with sword aura, destroying the forest’s ecosystem.
Lumen was walking far ahead alone with his sword in hand, but because of this insane protective uproar, the low-grade magical beasts had long since fled in terror before they could even come near.
‘At this rate, aren’t we going to come in last without even seeing a magical beast?’
For me, with 7% vitality, getting through without fighting magical beasts was something to be thankful for, but Lumen’s expression was rotting away.
“Hey, Kailan! Make your guards stop! This is a subjugation practicum, not some noble young master’s stroll!”
Lumen turned back and vented his frustration.
Just as I was about to shrug and offer an excuse—or rather, a villainous line disguised as one—
Ruuuumble—!!
Suddenly, a terrible vibration that shook the entire forest surged up from beneath our feet.
“W-What is it?!”
Lumen was horrified and adjusted his grip on his sword.
Ellara and Sylvia also stopped their playful(?) overprotection and instantly stood guard in all directions, blocking my front.
Kukwakwakwang—!!
Twenty meters ahead, enormous ancient trees snapped like rotten stalks of millet, and clouds of dust billowed up.
And through that cloud of dust appeared a horrific figure that should absolutely never have appeared in this “beginner’s Shadow Forest.”
A giant mutated spider over five meters long. Its entire body was covered in blood-red fur, and acidic venom dripped from its mouth. It was an A-rank magical beast, a “Blood Arachne”!
“No, what the fuck! Why is that thing in a first-year practicum site?!”
I couldn’t hide my shock. In the original work, the Blood Arachne was a mid-boss-level magical beast that only appeared in the Academy’s second-year final exam.
The story had gone seriously off the rails.
“Kieeeeeek!!”
The Arachne let out a hideous scream and spat a giant venomous spiderweb at Lumen, who was at the very front.
“Kraaaagh!”
Lumen hurriedly threw himself aside to dodge, but the base of a tree grazed by the web melted away with a sizzling sound.
“Lumen!”
I shouted reflexively. If the protagonist died here, the world would end!
“Ellara, Sylvia! Don’t stand there like idiots—kill that damn spider right now!”
When I shouted urgently, Ellara drew her longsword and answered.
“I cannot, my lord! The fact that such an anomaly has occurred means there is a high probability that another assassin targeting you is hiding nearby!
I will not move more than one meter away from your precious body!”
“She’s right! We don’t even know when the curse on your heart might erupt, so how could we leave you here!”
Sylvia, too, erected multiple ice barriers around me, wrapping me up like a fortress.
‘You stupid yandere bastards!! The protagonist is about to die!!’
Lumen was a greenhorn who had just entered the Academy. It was impossible for him to face an A-rank magical beast alone. He had already been struck by the spider’s front leg and was rolling across the ground covered in blood.
[Warning! The vitality of the original protagonist “Lumen” is rapidly decreasing.]
[If he dies, your survival probability will also become 0%!]
There was no choice.
I slammed my cane against the ice barrier and shouted.
“Drop the barrier, Sylvia! It displeases me to see my possession (group leader) torn to pieces by some other vermin right before my eyes. Open it, now!”
At my murderous bellow, Sylvia flinched and dispelled the ice wall.
I immediately staggered out toward the middle of the battlefield where Lumen and the Arachne were rolling around.
“Kailan! It’s dangerous!!”
“My lord!! You mustn’t!!”
I heard the two women’s screams, but I couldn’t stop.
After reaching the place where Lumen had fallen, I looked up at the giant Arachne. The spider’s eight eyes flashed toward me as it bared its venomous fangs.
Seeing it up close was terrifying enough to make me piss myself. If someone with 0 mana like me got bitten by that spider, even my bones would melt away in one second.
While cold sweat poured down my back like a waterfall, I glanced down at the collapsed Lumen and muttered as vilely and arrogantly as I could.
“How unsightly, brat. To kneel before a mere insect.”
“K-Kailan…… Why are you here…… Run……!”
Lumen vomited blood and tried to push me away. You righteous idiot. You’re about to die yourself, and you’re telling me to run?
But there was nothing I could do.
Did I know how to use magic? Did I know how to use a sword? Should I just take the venom in Lumen’s place and die?
Just as I raised my cane with trembling hands and desperately prayed, “Please, let something happen”—
Ssssss—!
From within the deep shadows of the forest, dozens of bizarre, pitch-black strands of demonic black energy shot out like whips!
“Kie, ek……?!”
Dozens of black tentacles instantly coiled around the Blood Arachne’s massive body and eight legs. And then—
Crunch! Craaack!!
Before the magical beast even had time to struggle, the black tentacles crushed the Arachne’s shell and sucked out all the moisture and life force inside its body in one breath.
“Ki, gigigik…….”
The enormous A-rank magical beast turned into a dried-up mummy in just three seconds, then crumbled into ash.
“……Huh?”
I froze in an awkward pose, holding my cane aloft in midair.
And then, by my ear, I heard faint, hoarse voices—auditory hallucinations(?)—coming from the shadows of the trees in the forest.
(Whisper, whisper) “Did you see that! The moment the Lord of the Abyss raised his hand, we responded immediately!”
“Protect the great boss! We must show him our loyalty!”
Ah.
Those motherfuckers.
It was those bastards from the anti-state terrorist organization, the black magic circle “Black Dawn,” who had infiltrated my dormitory last night!!
After hearing that I was going out for the Academy practicum, they had secretly lain in ambush throughout the forest as guards, just in case their “great king” got hurt!
The forest fell still, without even a breath of wind.
The reactions of those who had witnessed the Blood Arachne reduced to a handful of ash were nothing short of pure shock.
“W-What in the world was that…….”
Lumen, who had been lying on the ground, looked up at me while trembling like an aspen.
In his eyes stood the incarnation of overwhelming terror, someone who had freely controlled the same “pitch-black black magic” I had emitted earlier in the training grounds and erased an A-rank magical beast without a trace in a single second.
(Lumen’s misunderstanding)
‘S-Such absurd magic…… He cast it without even chanting, just by flicking his cane?! Th-That’s not human.
Even the Demon King’s army commanders wouldn’t be able to display such overwhelming power! Now I finally understand perfectly why Senior Ellara and Sylvia became that bastard’s dogs. The gap in power…… is on a different dimension!!’
And Sylvia and Ellara, who arrived a moment later, were also in shock.
(Sylvia & Ellara’s mental translation)
‘Ah……!! Despite the risk that the curse gnawing at his heart might run rampant,
in order to prevent the incompetent group leader (Lumen) from dying, he finally carved away at his own body and unleashed that wicked power!
Though he treats us so arrogantly, in the most dangerous moments, he always hides us behind his own back…… What foolish devotion!’
“M-My lord!!”
“Kailan! Your heart! Is your heart all right?!”
The two women came running to me on the verge of tears and began patting down my body.
I looked at the magical beast that had become ash,
then at Lumen, the protagonist of the original work, crawling backward across the ground while staring at me in horror as if I were a demon.
Then at the two heroines, looking at me with tearful eyes as though I were a martyr who had saved the world.
Quietly lowering my cane, I looked up at the night sky.
‘……Having the forces of darkness as subordinates really is fucking convenient.’
At this rate, before the original Demon King even descends, am I going to be subjugated first as a Demon God?
“Be quiet.”
I lightly pushed away Sylvia’s forehead as she tried to press her ear to my heart, and forced myself to wear the weary smile of a mastermind.
“My heart won’t burst just because I burned one insect. More importantly, Lumen.”
I walked toward the terrified Lumen and held out my hand to him. (Because I wanted to get him up quickly, return to the dormitory, and rest.)
But Lumen recoiled as if the hand I offered were the scythe of the Grim Reaper, slapped it away, and staggered to his feet on his own.
“D-Don’t touch my body, you demon bastard……! The only reason you saved me today was as a game, to plunge me into despair with that overwhelming terror, wasn’t it!
But I will never break! I’ll become stronger, and I’ll cut off that pitch-black throat of yours!”
Lumen screamed with his blood-soaked body, then fled madly into the forest.
“…….”
No, it’s not like I said I was going to tear you apart. I was just trying to help you up, so why the fit?
“Have you ever seen such an ungrateful beast! My lord, I’ll chase him down at once and cut off his legs!”
“Leave him, Ellara. Vermin like that will turn to ash if Kailan so much as snaps his fingers one more time, so there’s no need to waste your strength.”
The guards on either side of me proudly puffed out their chests.
In the darkness of the forest, the black mages were silently shouting, “Long live the boss!” while the two yanderes sent me ecstatic gazes.
The terminally ill villain’s Academy magical beast subjugation practicum thus concluded perfectly, as yet another universe-scale fraud.
Ah, I want to go home and lie down.