I’m the Slit-Eyed Character at the Academy, but I’m not the Mastermind – Chapter 441

KABOOOM!!

With a deafening crash, the wall crumbled down.

It went exactly as calculated—if you ignore the dust storm roaring straight at me.

‘Wind.’

Whoooosh-!

It’s only an F-rank [Wind], but it’s still enough to keep the dust and dirt off me.

‘Gae Bolg really is broken beyond belief.’

Smashing a wall fused with top-grade magic stones.

Normally, you needed a 7-star-or-higher spell or skill just to meet that condition.

Yet even with my trash-tier stats, I just unleashed 7-star firepower.

There’s no other way to put it. It’s broken.

Strictly speaking, the item I’m trying to get right now is something you shouldn’t be able to obtain until winter break at the earliest.

At this point, we have not even finished the first semester, so having a 7-star-or-higher skill is supposed to be impossible.

So the standard route was to come back to Trash Village after the second semester, blow up the wall, and then retrieve the item.

Naturally, I had planned to do the same.

But then.

‘I didn’t expect to get Divine Imitation in the first semester.’

[Divine Imitation] is supposed to be obtainable only after Chapter 4. Since I already stored [Gae Bolg] inside it, there was no reason not to abuse it.

The one who picks up the good loot first is the rightful owner, after all.

‘Well, the main reason is that it doesn’t affect the main story anyway.’

I sifted through the debris scattered across the floor, searching for my target.

Piles of stone and rubble were heaped everywhere, but finding it wasn’t difficult. It was emitting that distinctive glow of a top-grade magic stone.

‘Found you.’

A thick, massive club, so well-shaped it was almost beautiful.

I had one of those on my body too. On my forearm, to be precise.

Maybe it was all the training lately, but my forearms had bulked up to the size of wooden clubs.

Anyway, I picked up the glowing wooden club.

The odd part was that the base was shaped like the hilt of a sword.

[You have obtained the Primeval Mystery ‘Infinite Flame’.]

[Infinite Flame: S

A flame of endless change.

It holds the power of a nameless god, now long forgotten.

Most of its power has faded, but before the god’s fate ran out, it left behind a blessing.

— O brave one. I shall assist your dreams, so that whatever dream you pursue may be fulfilled.

A growth-type weapon that develops alongside its user.

Its growth is influenced by usage frequency, level, skills, artifacts, mysteries, and fortuitous encounters.

Current bonus stats: 0

Current bonus skills: None

Traits: Transformation , Unbreakable, Restoration]

They’ll search our bodies before we leave the mine, so there’s no way I can walk out of here with a magic stone this big.

That is, if this were just a ‘normal’ Mystery.

“Transform.”

Fwoooosh-!

Infinite Flame, still in the shape of a club, suddenly burst into flame.

The blaze was so vivid and powerful it almost stole my breath away, yet it wasn’t hot at all.

Soon, the flames converged toward my hand, gathering around my middle finger and settling there.

[The Primeval Mystery ‘Infinite Flame’ has transformed into a ring.]

This was one of Infinite Flame’s traits: ‘Transformation’.

Put simply, it’s a skill that lets it change its outward form into whatever object the user wants.

‘There were hints about this trait in the backstory too.’

To grant a woodcutter’s wish to work late into the night, it turned into a torch.

At a lord’s request, when it entered a mine to fight magical beasts, it became a weapon.

And when it lost its master and ended up stuck in a wall…

‘It became a legendary sword.’

Infinite Flame, impaled in the wall in the form of a shining branch.

Story-loving folks started spreading rumors that it was a legendary sword.

Those who heard the rumors dreamed of drawing that sword and becoming heroes.

As those wishes piled up, only the part that their hands could touch transformed into the shape of a sword.

For reference, the Unbreakable trait makes it very hard to break.

And the Restoratio trait lets it return to its original state even after being damaged.

‘And on top of that, it’s a growth-type item.’

A growth-type item that gains extra stats and skills as it develops.

Getting something this precious for free, and this early in the game?

There was no way I could hold back my laughter.

“Kekekekekeke!!”

A lewd, scheming laugh slipped out, perfectly fitting my squinty-eyed character setting.

But it’s fine. It’s not like anyone’s around to hea—

“Hm? Zero?”

An unexpected intruder. Startled, I turned around to see a man standing there.

A very familiar face. The walking definition of “half-assed,” and the instructor in charge of our group.
It was Ron.

“Something funny happen?”

“Keke, nothing like that.”

“Come on, don’t be like that. Share a bit. Nothing fun’s happened lately.”

Ron nudged me with his elbow, putting on his usual shameless grin.

Even I couldn’t help but panic. This was something that had never happened in the game.

Just how much had he seen and heard?

“Keke, it was just a hollow laugh. I almost got crushed to death, you know.”

Crumble, crumble—

The destructive force of [Gae Bolg].

Bits of stone were still dropping from all over the place.

“I see. That really could’ve been bad.”

“It was a moment that really drove home how important support beams are.”

“So what were you doing here all alone?”

“I ran away because I was scared. The magical beast looked terrifying.”

“Hmph~.”

Ron stared straight at me, an unreadable smile on his face.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because there’s no way you’d do that? Even I won’t fall for a lie that obvious.”

“Keke, it’s not a lie.”

“Now that I think about it… I don’t see it.”

“See what, exactly?”

“That thing that was sparkling in the wall over there.”

Ron rolled his eyes.

So that’s how it is. He’d been watching from start to finish.

This was bad. The value of a ‘Mystery’ varied wildly depending on its type, but Infinite Flame was top-tier among the top-tier.

I could probably get it back by using Caron and Principal Dwener, but it would cost me dearly.

“Hand it over. I get that Mysteries are tempting, but how can you just equip it right away? What if it’s cursed?”

“Keke, my body’s addicted to gambling. You could say curses are my idea of fun.”

“…You really are a pervert.”

Ron stepped back a little. This is why I can’t stand people who don’t respect others’ tastes!

Anyway, I was on the verge of having an S-grade Mystery taken away.

I had no choice but to use the card I’d kept hidden.

“Keke, how about we agree to keep each other’s secrets here?”

“Secrets? I don’t have any.”

“Is that so? Then I guess you don’t mind if I tell the people over there. Wow, that would be fun. You might lose everything you’ve built up so far.”

No, to be precise…

“You’d lose both of your jobs.”

“…!”

Even after what I said, Ron kept his composure.

But that, ironically, was his mistake.

That serious attitude didn’t suit Ron at all.

Realizing that himself, Ron hurriedly opened his mouth.

“That’s an interesting story. Are you saying I’m some kind of spy?”

“Not a spy, no. It’s an organization that works for the Empire.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going for that lame joke about how I’m both an instructor and an Imperial citizen.”

“Keke, if that were all, I wouldn’t be making such a big deal about it.”

“Then what? It’s not like there’s only one group that works for the Empire. Everybody works for the Empire in their own way. Do your job, the Empire gets stronger.”

No, there was exactly one exception to that.

A ridiculous organization that lived solely for the Empire’s safety and nothing else.

“Isn’t that right?”

I activated the [Eye Opening] skill as I continued.

“Ron the Rat?”

“…!!”

Ron’s eyes opened a fraction wider.

A moment later, he started chuckling.

“What are you talking about? There’s no way someone as half-assed as me could do Rat work.”

People don’t usually call themselves half-assed out loud, do they?

“More than anything, me, an instructor, being a Rat? That makes no sense.”

In terms of common sense, he was right.

Being an Imperial instructor was an ultra-elite career path.

Even if you failed to graduate, people lined up to scout you with excellent conditions.

But a Rat, a grunt with no merit, scraping by at the absolute bottom?

Comparing the two was an insult in itself.

“True. For starters, you’re way too strong to be called a Rat.”

“Exactly. With skills like mine, calling me a Rat would be ridiculous.”

“But what if we’re talking about a second-generation Rat?”

The smile vanished from Ron’s lips. I’d hit the bull’s-eye.

That’s right. The Rats, who put information above everything, for whom information is all that matters.

But even among them, a wind of change had begun to blow.

‘Caron’s second-generation Rat training plan.’

Ninety-nine percent of Rats came from commoners or slaves.

The work was brutally hard, but if you paid the poor, they’d risk their lives to gather information.

Of course, the fact that no one cared what happened to them afterward played a big role too.

A vagrant dying in the streets.

No one bothered to ask why they died.

‘Among them, those who succeeded in several missions. The promising ones were kidnapped, trained professionally, and turned into something else. That was the origin of the Rats.’

The Rats worked harder than anyone expected.

There was always work, the rewards were substantial, and the promotion system was systematic.

“But the real key was instilling the pride that they were ‘working for the Empire’.”

“…”

“After Lord Caron became their leader, he even established a system to look after the families of those who died. Thanks to that, the Rat operation settled into a stable orbit.”

Just one problem.

“Yet, the mortality rate was way too high.”

Even veterans died from a single mistake.

Given the nature of intelligence gathering, it was unavoidable, but the Rats’ death rate was exceptionally high.

“Because most of them were commoners and slaves. They had no mana, and never received any proper combat training.”

Many of them died not even to low-ranking knights, but to ordinary soldiers.

“Exactly. So over a decade ago, Lord Caron came up with a new plan and sowed its seeds.”

The so-called ‘soldier Rat training’ system.

Its goal was to raise combat-specialized Rats to protect the veteran Rats.

And that was—

“The second-generation Rats. And one of those Rats is standing right in front of me.”

Ron stared at me in silence.

Then he let out a long sigh, raised both hands, and admitted it.

“Did you hear it from Lord Caron?”

“I figured it out myself. I only just became certain.”

“…I messed up. Ah, I should’ve known from the moment he told me to observe you.”

Ron scratched his head roughly. Looked like he’d been acting on Caron’s orders.

Well, I’d suspected as much ever since we got grouped together in Trash Village.

“This is bad. Lord Caron’s going to chew me out.”

Ron pulled a miserable face. I was honestly feeling something similar.

That is, if I didn’t already know what kind of character Ron was.

“We can just keep it a secret, can’t we?”

“I’m still a Rat, you know. I can’t report a lie to Lord Caron.”

“You only need to leave out the part about this Mystery.”

“…So just report that my cover was blown? Are you a psychopath?”

You’re the one who got your cover blown. Why should I be responsible for that?

But if I said that out loud, he’d strip away the Mystery I worked so hard to get.

I had no choice but to give him a little help.

I fixed my gaze on Ron and spoke.

“Let’s make a deal.”

A deal where I’m the only one who profits.

–TL Notes–
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