Elia remained in a deserted corner of the academy park long after lunch had ended, sitting there in a daze as her thoughts went in circles.
‘What do I do? I made Ms. Lola angry.’
Nothing like this had ever happened before.
Seeing the hatred in her friend’s eyes hurt far more than all the doubts she had about Ex.
‘And Ms. Lola’s medal… I took it without even asking.’
The brass brooch-shaped medal was still clutched in her hand.
She had run away in such a panic that she never got the chance to give it back.
Every time she looked at the medal, the guilt weighing on her heart only grew heavier.
‘I’ve become a bad student, and I still don’t understand anything.’
Good students didn’t skip class.
She knew that.
But she couldn’t find the courage to go back to the classroom.
She couldn’t bear the thought of seeing Lola look at her that way again.
She had been thinking for more than five hours, yet she still hadn’t reached an answer.
‘Because I’m stupid.’
She knew that now.
She knew exactly how foolish she was, and just how terribly low her intelligence was.
She knew how much Lola and everyone around her had always gone out of their way to accommodate her.
The Goddess’s power had shown it to her in cold, objective numbers.
『Base Stats
Stamina: 6.0 [Increased by 0.9]
Intelligence: 0.5
Agility: 5.5 [Increased by 0.8]
Magic Power: 6.5 [Increased by 0.3]
Luck: 1.0 [Decreased by 0.1]
Charm: 5.0』
“Ah…”
Her Intelligence wasn’t going up.
Only her Stamina, Agility, and Magic Power continued to increase.
For some reason, even her Luck had gone down.
‘Does that mean I don’t deserve to be lucky?’
A sudden loneliness washed over her.
The kind of loneliness that made her feel completely cut off from the rest of the world.
Even Elysia, the one being she had always believed in without question, no longer answered her.
That was it.
Even Elysia had abandoned her.
Just like when she was little-
‘Wait. Did something like this happen to me when I was little?’
The fleeting thought made her realize there was something strange about her memories.
Elia slowly began tracing them backward.
‘My mother’s name was Yus. But…’
Yus.
A beautiful maid.
She had disappeared after becoming entangled in some conspiracy.
Pink hair and a beautiful face.
And yet, Elia couldn’t remember what that face looked like-
“Oh, there you are~.”
At that moment, something saturated with horrifying malice rushed toward her.
‘Enemy.’
Elia instinctively seized whatever was behind her.
Her overwhelming physical strength and astonishing reaction speed shattered the attacker’s offensive momentum in an instant.
Thanks to her Heaven-Blessed Intuition, she instinctively knew exactly where its weakness lay, and her hand closed around its throat.
Despite being the target of a surprise attack, Elia had seized complete control over the creature’s life and death.
“Ghk, ghk… Ah~ So this is why they told me not to pick a fight with you~.”
“Who are you?”
It was something grotesque.
Its overall shape resembled a female student, but disgusting tentacles and blade-like thorns gleamed all over its body.
It looked as though its entire form had been designed to burrow into something.
Only one kind of creature came to Elia’s mind.
“You’re a demon?”
“Correct~ Ghk, ghk…”
“I see. Then please die now.”
Elia pronounced the sentence with complete indifference.
She wasn’t in the mood to enjoy another ‘trial’ right now.
One demon in the form of Ex was already more than enough for her to deal with.
‘Though now I don’t even know if Mr. Ex really is a demon…’
Just as she tightened her grip, intending to crush the creature’s core-
“Elysia.”
“…!”
A word that should never have been able to come from that mouth escaped its lips.
Only Elia and Ex should have known that name in this world.
And yet the demon before her had unmistakably spoken it in that gentle, lilting voice.
“H-How do you know that name…?”
The strength vanished from Elia’s fingers.
If she had squeezed even a moment sooner, the demon’s neck would already have snapped.
“I’m carrying a message from the Goddess~”
The demon slipped free of her grasp as smoothly as flowing water.
Then it leaned closer, brought its lips beside Elia’s ear, and whispered.
“‘You’re doing well, my child.’ That’s what she said~”
“Ah… Aah…”
Those words poured into the emptiness inside Elia and filled it completely.
They were the warm words from her Goddess that she had been yearning so desperately to hear.
“She said she’s been watching you this whole time. She saw everything, including how much you suffered after falling for Ex’s wicked lies.”
“The Goddess… was watching… me…”
“It hurt her so much to see you suffering that she sent me here herself. She doesn’t want you to suffer alone anymore.”
Elia had desperately wanted someone to tell her that she was right.
At this point, she didn’t even care if those words came from a demon.
That was how close she was to falling apart.
“Hmm, hmm~”
Sensing those emotions, the demon smacked its lips and stepped back.
At some point, it had already transformed into the appearance of an ordinary female student.
Long, straight black hair.
Gentle, slightly drooping eyes.
Dark brown irises.
She was a beautiful girl with a soft, approachable appearance.
The girl spoke in a quiet voice, almost as if whispering.
“The Goddess had one more thing to say.”
“W-What… did she say?”
“She said you should obey her Apostle, ‘Gremory.’ If you do, everything will become much easier from now on.”
“G-Gremory? Who is that?”
“Gremory is the 56th-Ranked Demon, also known as the ‘Demon of Mimicry.’ She’s a Duke of Hell. And as for who exactly that is…”
The girl, Gremory, smiled gently.
“That would be me~.”
At those words, the light within the medal in Elia’s hand faded away.
This was the 『Demon Infiltration of the Academy』 penalty.
***
Elia didn’t return even after every class for the day had ended.
Lola looked utterly miserable, her eyes swollen and brimming with tears.
One small push and she would clearly burst into sobs.
“She wasn’t at the dorm either?”
“No…”
“I guess we’ll have to buy her a Mana Phone the next time we see her.”
“Mhm…”
They weren’t the only ones searching for Elia.
The professors from the martial arts department were looking for her as well.
In particular, Professor Hans, who had taught Introduction to Protego Swordsmanship that day, was wailing as though the entire world had collapsed after learning that Elia had missed his class.
“STUUUUDENT ELIAAAAA-!!! WHERE IN THE WOOOORLD ARE YOOOOU-!!!”
Ex was pretending to remain calm, but he was just as anxious as everyone else.
The fact that he had checked Gremory’s information earlier that very day only made it worse.
‘Elia is incredibly strong but has low Intelligence, while Gremory has the power of mimicry.’
The worst possible outcome was Gremory stealing Elia’s body.
Granted, that possibility should have been small given the restriction that Gremory couldn’t use that ability against someone stronger than herself.
But once the thought entered his head, he couldn’t shake it.
‘It’ll be fine. The academy’s security and defenses aren’t so pathetic that a demon can just stroll inside right now.’
So everything should be fine.
Assuming, of course, his Luck wasn’t zero.
“Elia!”
That was when Lola finally spotted her.
More accurately, Elia was walking toward them.
“Where have you been all this time?!”
With an expression that was equal parts relieved and apologetic, Lola ran toward her.
“Do you have any idea how worried we were…?!”
She had rushed over to welcome Elia back.
And yet.
“We were…”
Elia walked right past Lola.
She didn’t so much as glance at her, as though Lola weren’t even there.
“Elia…?”
From beginning to end, Elia’s eyes were fixed solely on Ex.
Ex could see the deep, dark emotions buried inside that gaze.
Disgust, hatred, anger, confusion, despair, frustration…
And yet, strangely enough, Elia was smiling brightly.
As if that were the only expression she knew how to make.
Elia stopped directly in front of Ex.
Then, with the same radiant smile she always wore, she said,
“Mr. Ex. I knew it. You really are someone who deserves to die.”
This wasn’t the confidence of someone reaffirming what she already knew.
It was the confidence of someone who had just been given new information.
“It would probably be best if I killed you right now… but then there wouldn’t be much of a ‘story,’ would there?”
“A story?”
“I heard everything. From Goddess Elysia herself.”
Ex narrowed his eyes.
‘She received a message from Elysia at a time like this?’
It was far too convenient.
Far too deliberate.
Almost as if this development had been written into the plot in advance.
Elia smiled at Ex’s silence and continued.
“So I’ve decided I won’t be fooled anymore. We won’t be traveling together from now on. I hate liars, you see.”
“A liar, huh…”
It was obvious now that his entire hand had been exposed.
The only silver lining was that no Plausibility Penalty had appeared.
‘Are System Holders exempt from the penalty rules?’
He filed that information away and sighed.
“So when are you planning to kill me? Are you going to do it here?”
“We promised we’d meet in the Tournament finals, remember? A stage like that would suit the ending of our story. Don’t you think? Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m promising not to kill you before then.”
In other words, if he pissed her off badly enough, she could kill him whenever she felt like it.
That was enough for Ex to become certain.
There was only one reason Elia’s attitude could have changed this abruptly.
“Are you Gremory?”
“…”
‘Of all things, that was the Plausibility Penalty…?’
“I’m not sure what you mean. My name is Elia.”
At least the absolute worst-case scenario hadn’t happened.
That didn’t mean the situation was good.
Gremory had stolen away the person Elia depended on.
He had avoided the worst possible outcome, but ended up with the second worst instead.
‘Why did this have to happen now…?’
Ex had only a moment to lament his situation.
Elia walked past him and spoke without turning around.
“From now on, don’t ever act like you know me again. Just seeing you makes me feel unbearably hateful, disgusted, and sick.”
“Does it really have to be like that?”
“You and I are destined to kill each other, aren’t we?”
With that, Elia passed by Ex in opposite directions.
They had become complete strangers.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
Even so, there was something he had to say.
No matter what happened, he needed to hear her answer to this.
“I’ll answer for old times’ sake. What is it?”
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t have anything left to say to you, Mr. Ex…”
“Not to me.”
The moment he tried to say the words, anger suddenly surged inside him.
He had to clench his molars to keep it under control.
Even after forcing the emotion through gritted teeth, his voice came out harsh.
“Don’t you have anything to say to Lola?”
Lola’s shoulders had completely slumped.
Her arms were folded tightly against herself as she struggled to hold back the sobs threatening to spill out.
Ex could accept Elia cutting him off like this.
After all, there was no denying that he had deceived her all this time.
But she had no right to end things with Lola this way.
Lola had never lied to her about anything.
“…”
Whatever Elia took from his words, she gave no answer.
Instead, he heard the sound of her fist clenching tightly.
“So that’s all it meant to you. Fine. I give up too.”
“…”
“Yeah. Get lost. And don’t ever act like you know Lola again.”
There was nothing left for them to discuss.
Ex left Elia behind and hurried toward the crying Lola.
As he tried to comfort her, Lola buried her face in Ex’s chest and finally broke down in tears.
Elia watched them for a moment before turning her head away.
She walked alone down the darkened road, grinding her teeth.
“I’ll kill you… I swear I’ll kill you…!”
The look on Elia’s face was so vicious it was almost impossible to describe.
“Every last one of you…!”
It was the first moment in Elia’s life that she chose a goal entirely for herself.
***
Ex spent a long time comforting Lola before finally sending her back to her room.
Only then did he have a chance to organize his thoughts.
After returning to his own room, he slowly went over the situation from the beginning.
‘One thing is certain.’
Based on everything he knew so far, the situation could be summarized like this.
Gremory was definitely Elysia’s Apostle.
Gremory had infiltrated the academy, and he had no idea who she was disguised as.
Gremory had made contact with Elia and stolen the initiative from him.
Gremory knew an enormous amount about Ex.
‘In other words, I’m overwhelmingly disadvantaged when it comes to information.’
He didn’t know exactly how Elysia communicated with the characters.
But one thing was certain.
Information would continue to leak.
Still, there were a few possible advantages he could infer from what had happened.
‘Why was Elia unable to communicate with Elysia?’
At some point, Elia had started behaving as though her connection with Elysia had suddenly been severed.
That condition had persisted, which was exactly what had allowed Ex to shake Elia’s faith in the first place.
It wasn’t difficult to guess when the cutoff had happened.
‘The moment she came to the academy.’
Keeping that in mind, Ex considered another fact.
The system’s abilities weren’t omnipotent.
Most of them showed a powerful fixation on ‘plausibility.’
It couldn’t simply make anything happen just because it wanted to.
‘If she could kill me that easily, she would’ve just sent the villains or other major characters a message saying, ‘Ex is a demon.’’
But she hadn’t.
Instead, she had specifically gone through Elia and Gremory.
Which meant one thing.
‘She can’t.’
‘There are specific conditions that have to be met before she can interfere.’
If he thought back to what had happened with Elia, one possible conclusion emerged.
‘Can she only interfere with someone when they’re outside the academy?’
The evidence was laughably thin.
But his instincts were telling him there was a very good chance he was right.
“If I’ve got a hypothesis, I can just test it.”
Ex immediately called Serry.
“Use Setting Edit to send Lola the message, ‘You okay?’”
Serry remained silent for a moment after receiving the order, then responded.
『The target is currently located on the ‘Main Stage.’
This message cannot be delivered.』
The implication of that answer was obvious.
‘My hypothesis was right!’
Whether a message could be received depended on the recipient’s location.
He had confirmed that messages couldn’t be sent to someone on the ‘Main Stage.’
His excitement was short-lived, however, as Serry continued.
『This request does not use an official function.
A penalty will be applied to the point cost.』
『Total Cost: 10,000 points
Warning! Point consumption is proportional to the number of characters requested.』
『Current Editing Points: 52,700』
“…Ugh!”
A single attempt at sending a message had cost him 10,000 points.
That was a painful price to pay just to confirm a hypothesis.
“When you say it isn’t an official function, does that mean I’ll be able to use it properly later?”
『That information cannot be disclosed under your current authorization.』
“Yeah, figured…”
Even so, this meant the situation wasn’t entirely bad.
‘If Gremory infiltrated the academy, getting back out should be difficult. The security level still hasn’t been lowered.’
Entry into and exit from the academy were being strictly controlled.
Gremory’s infiltration had only been made possible by an adjustment caused by the Plausibility Penalty.
He didn’t know who she had mimicked, but if she was posing as a student, leaving the academy should have become extremely difficult.
In other words, there was a good chance Gremory was currently cut off from Elysia.
If so, there was only one thing Ex needed to do.
‘I have to meet the Imperial Prince right now.’
He hadn’t even told Andras what he planned to discuss with the Imperial Prince.
That meant the only information Gremory could possibly have was that ‘Ex intends to deceive the Imperial Prince.’
And the claim that he intended to deceive the Imperial Prince had been a lie from the very beginning.
Gremory was operating on false information.
Which meant this was his chance.
Ex hurried outside.
His destination was the Imperial Prince’s office building within the academy.
He was going to meet one of the Empire’s most powerful men, and its greatest source of intelligence.
–TL Notes–
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