Chapter 45
“Hmm.”
The blue windows flickering in my field of vision.
I had no idea how many quests I had cleared just from taking part in a single practical exercise.
‘Then again··· I did deal with two calamities at once.’
The first calamity, Chil-ya (漆夜).
The event that was originally supposed to be the main focus of this practical exercise.
An unidentified barrier unfolds, and countless mutated monsters pour out.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the main quest!]
-Title: Chil-ya (漆夜)
-Description: Defeat the boss monster ‘The Red Knight.’
[You have stopped one of the Seven Calamities!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your inventory.
The Red Knight descends amid that chaos.
The player joins forces with the isolated students to oppose it.
That was the original story: overcoming the first calamity.
‘Of course.’
I cleared it in a completely different way.
I drew another calamity into the midst of one calamity, setting the stage for the two to collide.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the emergency quest!]
-Title: Welcome to Wonderland.
-Description: Prevent the Nightmare Transformation of the rampaging ‘Alice.’
[Astonishingly, you completed the quest without killing the host body!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your inventory.
The third calamity, Wonderland.
I pretended to die and withdrew from the scene as soon as Chil-ya began.
This was partly to clean up the surroundings, but ultimately, it was to drive the situation toward an even more dramatic conclusion.
Ranne and Alice were left alone.
Even then, Ranne was injured and effectively out of the fight.
Alice realized there was nowhere to run and gave up all hope.
Taking advantage of that helplessness, the nightmare ran wild, and Wonderland manifested across the entire forest.
‘The Red Knight was caught up in it and killed···.’
Even calamities have different levels.
Alice’s <Wonderland> was a concept among the highest-ranking calamities.
Its destructive power was comparable to that of the Sixth and Seventh Calamities.
How could it not be called the end of the world?
‘You could call it killing two birds with one stone.’
I summoned Wonderland through Chil-ya, then brought Chil-ya to an end through Wonderland.
‘Well··· Wonderland is particularly compatible with me.’
In the case of Wonderland, I could wipe it out with a simple bug.
The Red Knight, on the other hand, was the kind of enemy you had to defeat by steadily stacking up damage.
There was no bug that worked particularly well against it, so it was a troublesome enemy for me in many ways.
That was why I came up with the idea of summoning <Wonderland> and making the two calamities collide outright.
The plan worked perfectly.
‘Not bad.’
I moved my fingers.
I checked the rewards from the two quests I had cleared first.
After rummaging through my inventory a few times, I found the newly created items.
Ding-!
[You have completed the main quest ‘Chil-ya (漆夜).’]
[You have obtained the item ‘Fragment of Calamity (S).’]
Ding-!
[You have completed the emergency quest ‘Welcome to Wonderland.’]
[You have obtained the item ‘Broken Crown (A-).’]
Immediately afterward, two items rose into the air.
The fragment was naturally the first thing to catch my eye.
It took the form of a heavy book and was spewing an ominous aura.
Ding-!
[Fragment of Calamity]
-Category: ???
-Grade: S
-Status: Incomplete (1/6)
-Description: A fragment of an unknown calamity. If you find and combine the other fragments, something terrible might happen.
The Fragment of Calamity.
An item that had to be obtained to progress through the story.
You could acquire one of these fragments each time you cleared a calamity.
If you failed to complete all six fragments, seeing the happy ending became impossible.
The world would inevitably be destroyed during the Seventh Calamity.
‘I should keep it safe.’
I stored the fragment away again and turned my attention to the next item.
As its name suggested, it looked like a broken crown.
A black crown, cracked and shattered in places.
It was floating lightly at my fingertips.
Ding-!
[Broken Crown]
-Category: Accessory
-Grade: A-
-Status: Destroyed
-Description: The crown worn by the ruler of nightmares, the ‘Black Queen.’ It has been destroyed, and only her remnants remain. It can be worn for a maximum of five minutes a day. When worn, it allows the user to use the skill ‘Nightmare Transformation.’
[Skill Name: Nightmare Transformation]
-The user’s body becomes one with a nightmare.
-While the skill is active, the user is granted an ‘Invincible’ status.
-The user can fly without restriction and becomes free from all physical forces.
“Oh.”
So it really was an A-grade item.
A surprisingly good one had dropped.
An accessory that granted five minutes of invincibility and flight.
What was more, it was not a one-use item; it could be used once a day.
‘I wasn’t expecting much from this one···.’
Strictly speaking, <Wonderland> was a calamity that had not yet been resolved.
All I had done this time was prevent the rampage, just as the emergency quest required.
I had not killed its host body, the [Black Queen].
So I would have understood if a mediocre item had dropped···.
‘I ended up getting something far too good.’
The corners of my mouth twitched on their own.
Two quests had yielded quite a nice harvest.
I swallowed a hum and checked the remaining quests as well.
Ding-!
[You have completed the hidden quest.]
-Title: Queen Slayer
-Description: Defeat the boss monsters ruling Wonderland: ‘Heart Queen,’ ‘Red Queen,’ and ‘White Queen.’
[Through your astonishing performance, you slaughtered all the queens!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your status window.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the sub quest!]
-Title: If you’re going to do it, do it properly!
-Description: Place third or higher in the practical exam.
[Through your astonishing performance, you took first place in the practical exam!]
-In addition to the existing reward, an additional reward will be provided.
One hidden quest and one sub quest.
These were quests I had cleared regardless of my plan.
I had simply completed my plan, only to find that they had cleared automatically.
Ding-!
[You have completed the hidden quest ‘Queen Slayer.’]
[You have obtained the title ‘Executioner.’]
[Executioner]
-Category: Title
-Grade: A
-Description: You slaughtered the Queens of Nightmares indiscriminately. You have gained courage in the face of the unknown. When this title is equipped, damage dealt to Ghost-type enemies increases by 500%, and critical hit rate increases by 500%.
‘This is pretty useful too···?’
The story that would unfold from here on.
The enemies I would face among them were as follows.
Cultists, the new vampire kingdom, and the remaining six calamities.
But Ghost-type creatures accounted for a full twenty percent of the enemies here.
‘Especially when I head toward the cultists, Ghost-type creatures will appear in droves.’
In other words, I would have an absolute advantage against two out of every ten enemies appearing from here on.
I could simply switch titles when necessary.
The next reward followed shortly afterward.
Ding-!
[You have completed the sub quest ‘If you’re going to do it, do it properly!’]
[You have obtained the item ‘Very Stealthy Necktie (B).’]
[Very Stealthy Necktie]
-Category: Accessory
-Grade: B
-Status: Pristine
-Description: A necktie once considered treasure by a legendary pickpocket of the past. It can be worn permanently, and allows the user to use the skill ‘Stealthily Great.’ The skill has a 72-hour cooldown.
[Skill Name: Stealthily Great]
-While the skill is active, the user’s presence disappears.
-The effect lasts for one hour, and the concealed presence cannot be detected by anyone.
-All sounds originating from the user—including their pulse, footsteps, and breathing—are muted.
An item that looked exactly useful for moving around in secret had appeared.
The cooldown was a little long, but it seemed useful if I managed it well.
‘This is the upgraded reward.’
The reward for finishing first in the practical exam.
Originally, it had been an item far inferior to this.
I checked the contents of the original reward list for comparison.
[Reward: Consumable Item ‘Very Stealthy Necktie (B-)’]
Originally, it had been a consumable item.
Something you used once and threw away.
But the upgraded reward had been changed so that it could be reused.
‘Good, good.’
I immediately equipped the necktie.
And after checking the final reward as well···
I opened my full status window to organize my condition.
――――
[Status Window]
Name: Victor
Title: Collector of Misconceptions
Equipped Items: Mask of the Evil God, Robe of the Evil God, Very Stealthy Necktie
Active Set Effect: The World Seen by ■■■.
.
.
Titles Owned: Collector of Misconceptions, Saint, Executioner
――――
“Whew, I’m stuffed.”
Just looking at the screen made me feel full.
Despite having been fasting since yesterday, I felt as though my stomach was about to burst.
“Nice.”
It had been an extremely rewarding settlement time.
***
The next day.
My party members and I were asked for help by the faculty.
They wanted us to explain in detail what had happened during the practical exercise two days earlier.
‘Figures.’
From the academy’s perspective, it was certainly a major incident.
Even if no one had been seriously injured, it was essentially the same as allowing an outside intrusion.
Perhaps they were truly afraid of the damage to their image, because we were treated with exceptional care while staying in the hospital room.
Alice, whose mental strength had been completely exhausted, and Ranne, whose injuries had been severe, were one thing, but even I—whose body did not have a single scratch—was forcibly made to rest in the infirmary.
‘Even the people nursing us didn’t know what to do with themselves···.’
Out of consideration for their sincerity, I decided to cooperate.
The investigator assigned to me was Javer, as expected.
Inside the spacious hospital room, the red-haired woman stood flipping through documents.
I sat on the bed opposite her and merely stared blankly at her green eyes.
“The student hunting grounds are currently closed. Faculty members have been assigned to each section, and an investigation is underway following the traces left at the scene···.”
“Mm-hm, I see.”
Javer was conveying one detail after another as though filing a report.
She said that, as someone directly involved in the incident, I had the right to know what was happening.
There was no harm in listening, so I quietly paid attention.
Before long, Javer asked me a few questions.
“According to the information pieced together beforehand, an Apostle of the Evil God appeared inside the barrier. I hear it rampaged for nearly thirty minutes before suddenly disappearing without a trace. Is that correct?”
“It was a giant wearing bright-red armor. It looked to be about ten meters tall.”
“That matches the testimony of the previous two witnesses. Understood.”
Alice and I had coordinated our statements regarding the Red Knight.
Since Ranne had been unconscious at the time, we only needed to make sure our stories matched among ourselves.
It had suddenly vanished for an unknown reason while relentlessly driving us into a corner···.
“Strange. It simply disappeared?”
“We were lucky. Otherwise, all of us would have been killed right there.”
“Yes··· it certainly was fortunate. We’ll investigate that part further on our end.”
Javer nodded.
The story was suspicious, but there was no particular basis for questioning me further.
The woman turned a page and leaned forward as though moving on to the next subject.
“Student Victor.”
“Yes.”
“You’re perfectly unharmed, without a single injury. That differs from the testimony of the previous student, Ranne.”
“Hmm?”
“According to Miss Ranne’s testimony, you were trampled beneath the Apostle’s enormous foot. She added that she saw your corpse with her own two eyes. Yet for some reason, when she opened her eyes in the hospital room, you were there greeting her in perfect health.”
“Indeed. That is a very strange thing.”
Ranne’s testimony.
I had deliberately not coordinated our statements regarding that part.
No, I had actually told her to testify exactly as she had seen it.
The only things I wanted to hide were Alice and the nightmare.
There was no need to deliberately remove anything that might make me look suspicious.
‘If anything, I should let a few things slip.’
I responded calmly.
“Do you have any idea what might have happened?”
“Not really.”
“You don’t?”
“Perhaps Miss Ranne was hallucinating. I was alive and well beside her the whole time. When someone is exposed to dense demonic energy, hallucinations and auditory hallucinations can occur, can’t they? I imagine it might have been one of those phenomena.”
“A hallucination···.”
Javer narrowed her eyes.
I smiled as though asking whether there was some problem.
‘Javer Droit.’
The person currently suspecting me of being the culprit behind the unauthorized conquest of Purgatory’s seventieth floor.
In her eyes, each and every one of my actions was probably going to stand out.
Javer was silent for a moment, then brought up another subject.
Her characteristically emotionless eyes blinked.
“The faculty currently suspects the presence of an internal spy. An anomalous substance was discovered in Section A of the student hunting grounds, where the incident took place. It was buried beneath the densely wooded ground. Judging by the properties of the demonic energy detected, it has been determined to be the energy source of the barrier formed across the entirety of Section A.”
“Oh?”
“That section had been closed continuously for several days. Since the practical exercise was scheduled there, access had been completely blocked. Someone must have breached those controls and tampered with it. Anyone capable of carrying out that process so easily would, naturally, have to be an insider.”
“I see.”
I asked brightly.
“So?”
“······.”
Javer could not bring herself to say that they suspected me of being that insider.
She merely stared at me with an expressionless face.
“······I was merely informing you.”
But given her position, she could not press me any further.
I was unmistakably the victim.
An interrogative atmosphere would not have been ideal.
If I took offense, it would be the academy that found itself in trouble···
‘Of course.’
Javer was not the sort of person who cared about such things.
She was backing down now simply because she prioritized regulations.
She was following the manual and refraining from provoking the victim.
That was the kind of person she was.
Regulations.
A person who lived only beneath them.
A person who could not live otherwise.
“I think we can end our meeting here. Thank you for cooperating today.”
“Not at all. I only offered a little assistance.”
She bowed once.
Then Javer left the hospital room.
I watched her back disappear beyond the door.
Afterward, I leaned against the backrest.
I quietly mulled over what Javer had said.
“An internal spy···.”
A traitor within Grandis Academy.
It meant someone was colluding with the cultists.
I tapped my mask a few times, then twisted up the corners of my mouth into a bitter smile.
“I should get started soon.”
I’m sorry, professors.
Even if you try to find the accomplice, it won’t do you any good.
Ding-!
[Sub Quest]
-Title: Finish It Properly!
-Description: Arrest the accomplice hiding within Grandis Academy.
-Penalty for Failure: None
-Reward: A clue about ■■■
[Time Limit: 23 hours 59 minutes 56 seconds]
“I’m going to catch that bastard first.”' ],
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