Chapter 93
“I can glimpse the future.”
A meaningful statement.
The dean’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.
“Have you ever heard of a prophet?”
“A prophet···?”
I was smiling with my mask half removed.
Why had I suddenly taken off my mask?
I simply thought I’d look convincing if I took it off this far.
Apparently, it was standard practice to show a little of one’s face when delivering an important line.
“That’s right, a prophet.”
A mysterious yet not excessive smile.
Without being intimidated in the slightest by the old man’s presence, I crossed my legs.
Perhaps my little performance had worked, because the dean remained silently seated for now.
He didn’t seem inclined to flip the desk over and subdue me on the spot.
He seemed intent on hearing what I had to say first.
“Student Victor. When you say you can glimpse the future···.”
“I mean exactly that, Dean.”
“······.”
“In more familiar terms, it would be [precognition].”
“Are you saying you were chosen by precognition?”
“That’s right.”
“······Precognitive abilities died out over 200 years ago. Saint Sendir was the last.”
“That’s right. One has appeared again after 200 years.”
“Hmm···.”
Fortunately, the old man showed no hostility.
His reaction was merely somewhat dubious.
‘It must be rather sudden.’
The culprit behind the unauthorized raid on the 70th floor.
It had only been a few minutes since I confessed that I was the culprit.
And now I was claiming to be a prophet who could see the future. How absurd must that have sounded?
Walter’s eyes narrowed.
Regardless, I continued.
“You must have felt it all along. That there’s something extraordinary about my existence.”
How could I make him believe me?
I had heard that words were inherently light, and had to be weighed down by the weight of one’s actions so they wouldn’t simply fly away.
In other words, if the weight of one’s prior actions was sufficient, trust in one’s words would follow in any situation.
“Think back.”
One couldn’t deny things that had actually happened.
I retraced each of my actions up to now.
I spoke of the extraordinary.
“Hasn’t an awful lot happened?”
I entered the academy with an overall stat rank of E.
And yet I had accomplished countless feats.
I conquered the entire first year in just three months,
survived an encounter with an apostle of an evil god during practical training,
and even used Jaber to apprehend the traitor hidden within the academy.
On top of that, I soloed the master of Purgatory’s 70th floor, which had remained unconquered for many years, and hacked it in half.
‘Looking at it this way, I really am a lunatic.’
And this was only what I had done inside the academy.
A dazzling trail of achievements for a mere student to have left behind.
On top of that, I pointed out the contradictions in everything that had happened so far.
“It doesn’t make sense when you think about it. Take the apprehension of the traitor, for example.”
“······.”
“I happened to get caught up in a practical-training accident, happened to survive because the apostle retreated, happened to discover that Professor Glinbert was the mastermind behind it all, happened to obtain evidence against him, and happened to end up apprehending the traitor···.”
Even a novel would get criticized for being written like that.
The old man remained silent.
‘Until now, he must have had no choice but to accept it.’
Denying coincidence didn’t offer any other explanation.
Yet he couldn’t simply threaten me, demanding 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, what else could he do when coincidence was the only explanation?
‘That’s when··· you gently introduce one hypothesis.’
The hypothesis that I was a prophet.
That hypothesis alone resolved most of the questions that had failed to make sense.
Because it allowed him to answer the question, ‘How did you do it?’ with, ‘Because he already knew.’
“I knew everything. Everything that happened was something I stopped.”
Everything fit together perfectly.
The fact that I had known the future, and that I had used it to resolve those incidents—it was all true.
The only thing I had lied about was how I came to know the future.
‘I know the future because I’m a transmigrator, not because I’m a prophet···.’
A bundle of truths neatly woven together.
I slipped a single well-crafted lie between them.
From the listener’s perspective, it was impossible not to think, ‘Huh? Is that so?’
“······.”
Walter remained silent for quite some time, as if lost in thought.
Soon, the old man’s aged throat produced a quiet question.
“Then, the power Student Victor wields···.”
“That too is a power related to the future. I hope you’ll understand that, due to the circumstances, I can’t elaborate.”
Of course, that was bullshit.
In any case, the dean seemed to be gradually preparing himself to listen.
I spoke with the most solemn look I could manage.
“In the not-too-distant future, the world will begin walking the path to its end.”
“The end···?”
“It means the Apocalypse will come to pass. The continent will become a sea of fire, and humanity will be annihilated. Nightmares will stir to life in the night sky, apostles answering the call of evil gods will emerge, and the world will belong to bloodthirsty vampires.”
“No, that can’t···.”
“To twist such a tragedy off its course, I came to this academy.”
A chill filled the air.
There was not even the slightest tremor in my eyes.
The old man’s expression grew quite serious as he met my gaze with a low groan.
“Is there··· some way to prove it?”
“Who knows? It’s not an ability I can control. Rather than seeing the future I want to see, random scenes flow into my mind in fragments.”
“Then you’re saying there’s no way to prove it···.”
“That’s all right. You don’t have to believe me just yet.”
Though I said that, he was already halfway convinced.
If I thought he was someone this wouldn’t work on in the first place, I wouldn’t have even attempted such a reckless gamble.
Uncertainty filled the old man’s eyes.
I put on a convincing smile.
“I’ll make it so you have no choice but to believe me.”
“How would you do that···?”
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
“······.”
Walter’s expression became quite complicated.
He fell silent, then with difficulty parted his wrinkled lips.
“So··· there must be a reason you suddenly revealed all of this to me.”
“That’s right. There’s one thing I’d like to ask of you.”
“A request.”
“Of course, I’m not asking you to grant it for nothing.”
I grinned.
“After the apprehension of the traitor, the academy promised to give me one reward of my choosing.”
“Yes, that is certainly what we said.”
“This is what I’d like to ask for.”
“What is it···?”
“Please resume the conquest of Purgatory.”
“······What?”
Perhaps it was because my request had been unexpected.
The dean looked utterly dumbfounded.
“I didn’t hunt the master of the 70th floor just because I was bored. I acted only because the circumstances left me no choice, so that I could avert the tragedy that was destined to occur.”
Purgatory had to be conquered.
For now, the monsters were trapped underground, but that would not remain the case.
When the final calamity began to stir, the monsters would surge backward, breaking through the underground and rising up.
Floors 71 through 100, which had yet to be conquered.
The monsters from those floors would flood out all at once.
If they weren’t conquered in advance, the future would be impossible to handle.
‘Especially the 100th floor··· its master is more troublesome than most calamities.’
We needed to prepare.
With the help of the Grandia faculty, the process would be much easier.
Although the conquest had been halted after it ran into the wall of the 70th floor, that had been over a century ago.
‘With the academy’s current forces, it should be enough.’
Jaber and Walter.
Those two alone could sweep through the ordinary floors.
The problem would be the special floors, placed at every tenth level, where a [master] resided.
I didn’t think we would fail the conquest, but it was an environment where casualties could occur all too easily.
“Don’t worry. I intend to conquer the 80th, 90th, and 100th floors myself.”
“You’re saying that if Purgatory isn’t conquered, the monsters inside will overflow···.”
“It’s a horrifying prospect.”
“No, more importantly, you intend to conquer the special floors alone?”
“It’s fine. They shouldn’t be particularly difficult to conquer.”
“That’s absurd. It’s too heavy a burden for a student to bear alone···.”
“You saw what happened, didn’t you? What shape the master of Purgatory’s 70th floor was slaughtered into.”
Thud-.
I slowly pulled my mask back over my face.
Then I quietly activated my killing intent, draping an appropriate sense of intimidation around myself.
“I’ll handle everything, so please leave the ordinary floors to the faculty.”
I spoke as though I were making a sacrifice, but I actually had another objective.
The rewards gained from hunting Purgatory’s masters.
I intended to monopolize every last one of them.
And it was convenient that I’d also keep the faculty from dying.
Well, if we moved together for no reason, wouldn’t distributing the rewards only become a hassle?
“Of course, given the nature of the matter, you can’t simply start at once.”
“That’s true. We’ll need to make preparations in several respects···.”
If we waited, perhaps around a fortnight?
The timing should work out after we returned from the school trip.
Walter had been pressing his fingers to his brow, but soon nodded as if about to make a decision.
“······Very well. We’ll accept this request.”
“You’re accepting it more easily than I expected.”
“It was something we had been considering anyway. Now that the great obstacle of the 70th floor has been conquered, I thought it might be time to move forward. However, since the culprit behind the unauthorized raid had yet to be identified, I intended to put it off. If we were to send out a raiding party, it would be best to minimize the variables as much as possible.”
“Now that I’ve been revealed as the culprit, you mean there’s nothing left to hold it up.”
“That’s right.”
Good.
A deal concluded with remarkable ease.
Just as I was smiling quietly, the old man suddenly caught me with one word.
“Jaber.”
“Hmm?”
“What do you intend to do about that girl···?”
“What do you mean, what do I intend to do? I don’t understand.”
“I’m asking because it seems you have a lot of schemes in motion. The fact that you specifically wished to become her direct assistant among all the faculty must mean you have some ulterior motive.”
A sharp observation.
Was this the heart of a father thinking of his daughter?
Walter’s spirit was calm, but he seemed more dangerous than ever.
“I have no intention of harming her. As I said before, I only desire peace.”
“Back when I was active, every man who said things like that was a swindler.”
“Then you’re about to meet your first honest man.”
“······.”
An answer so shameless it had three thousand six hundred layers of thick skin.
The old man glared at me for a moment, then spoke with a faint sigh.
“Please take good care of that girl.”
“······.”
“As her direct assistant··· for now, Student Victor is the person closest to her.”
“You must be very worried. You seem to care deeply for Chief Investigator Jaber.”
“Who knows?”
The old man’s expression clouded with sorrow.
There was a faded look in his eyes.
“It’s my fault that Jaber became so cold.”
“······.”
Words hinting at something.
A sensitive family matter.
I didn’t bother asking.
Instead, I subtly changed the subject by making another request.
“Incidentally··· you’ll have to keep my identity a secret.”
It was about time to start preparing.
Jaber would eventually take her own life.
I needed something in place to prevent that future.
“And regarding the unauthorized raid, Dean···.”
“Understood. I’ll inform the faculty separately not to investigate that matter any further.”
“No, the opposite.”
“Pardon?”
“Tell them to pursue it even more doggedly. Especially Chief Investigator Jaber.”
“What do you mean···?”
“And when they find the culprit behind the raid···.”
I smiled sweetly.
Though I was wearing a mask, so the smile could not have reached the outside.
“Add an order to kill the culprit on sight.”
The old man’s eyes wavered.
***
After a brief but intense private meeting,
I returned to the classroom humming a tune.
Perhaps it was because everything had gone smoothly according to plan.
I was in a good mood.
“Ahem.”
Just as I was opening the classroom door, someone blocked my way.
Had she been waiting nearby the whole time for me to appear?
Startled, I looked down at the hand gripping my sleeve.
“Hmm···?”
“Top student of E Class.”
An unexpected face.
She had the air of a doll carved from ice.
Pupils that seemed frozen in winter, long blue hair cascading down, and spotless skin without a single blemish.
She was the top student of A Class, and until just a few days ago, the girl called the strongest first-year.
At the same time, she was someone who had experienced an overwhelming defeat at my hands during the last practical exam.
‘Lin Glacia.’
She was looking up at me.
Before I had a chance to react, Lin stepped into my personal space.
“Oh? Lady Glacia···?”
“Come to A Class.”
“What?”
“I like you.”
“What?”
Step, step-.
She approached without preamble, closing the distance between us.
It felt like she was clinging to me to an almost burdensome degree.
What was with her all of a sudden?
Had she eaten something wrong?
Countless thoughts flashed through my mind.
“Dad···?”
As if that weren’t enough, a bigger problem arose.
“Dad? Who’s that lady···?”
The daughter (not really) who had been waiting in the classroom and come out to meet me had witnessed the scene.
Lua looked back and forth between Lin and me, then soon filled her eyes with tears.
She had the look of a young daughter who had witnessed her father meeting his mistress.
“Miss Lua! Why did you suddenly stop···?”
“Oh? Big brother···?”
Behind me, the E Class students who had followed her out stood frozen.
The girl looked at me with heartbreaking eyes.
“Dad···.”
“Miss Lua.”
“Are you going to a-abandon Lua and Mom···?”
“It’s not like that···.”
A sudden morning-drama development.
I couldn’t help but press my fingers to my brow.
‘Fuck.’
Why did things keep turning out like this?