How to Survive as the Academy’s Villain

Chapter 173

[That artifact was personally crafted by me. It allows two-way communication like this, and I can also check on your condition. Plus, it has automatic defense features that protect against basic curses. You should really be grateful for this.]

Beatrice’s voice rang in my head, clearly making a big deal out of the artifact she gave me, claiming she only gave it to me because we were now allies. Shaking my head, I cut off the communication with her.

“Well, it’s not bad.”

As she said, it wasn’t a bad deal at all. Actually, it was quite beneficial.

Still, the fact that Beatrice could monitor my status and situation constantly did bother me a little.

‘Isn’t my mentor doing something similar, though?’

I rubbed the back of my neck as I considered it, and with that thought settled, I headed back to my dorm, collapsing onto the bed.

*Creak.*

“Sigh.”

I lay down on the old but still relatively comfortable bed, staring at the ceiling with a deep sigh.

“It was pretty close, huh?”

Mumbling to myself, I recalled my encounter with Shador, the Elder of the shadow organization.

The overwhelming sense of despair when nothing seemed to work against his power.

I barely managed to survive thanks to the bracelet I happened to obtain, which blocked his attack. But I realized that I could’ve easily been killed that day. It was an extremely dangerous situation.

And then…

“Kamon’s father seemed to care about him?”

Kyle and Fabian mentioned that they thought the Marquis Baran Vade seemed to care about his son, Kamon Vade, although they hadn’t seen him directly.

“Hmmm.”

In the original story, there wasn’t much explanation about Kamon Vade’s relationship with his father, Marquis Baran.

Obviously, since Kamon disappeared from the story early on.

But the more I lived as Kamon Vade, the more I realized that this world had a lot of hidden details and secrets that hadn’t been mentioned in the novel.

‘There are way more secrets, and there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that I didn’t know.’

Maybe, just maybe, Baran Vade really did care about Kamon, like Fabian had suggested.

But that didn’t really matter to me.

What was important right now was…

“I got lucky.”

Thinking back, the ‘Novice Challenge’ had been a series of narrow escapes. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that divine intervention had saved me.

With my current skills and power, I couldn’t have cleared those challenges even if I had several retries. They were far too difficult for me.

“Damn, do I need to train more?”

I had been under the impression that I’d gotten stronger after learning magic from Jamie.

But the reality was…

“Stronger, my ass.”

If I had made even a small mistake or if circumstances had been just slightly different, I’d probably be lying in a coffin right now.

Still, I’d managed to strengthen the ‘Orb,’ obtained the corrupted spirit Airsya, which let me use spirit magic, and even gained a bracelet that automatically casts defense magic. So in a way, I had grown stronger.

But…

“Sigh, I don’t know.”

I let out a short sigh as I shifted positions on the bed.

*Creak.*

The bed groaned noisily again, and my heart, much like the bed, refused to settle.

‘A lot of things have changed.’

To be more precise, it wasn’t that things had changed, but rather that things had started to appear—things that weren’t part of the original story.

New backgrounds, secrets, and plots that hadn’t been depicted in the novel were emerging, throwing me into even more dangerous situations.

There was the curse carved into my body and the disappearance of the previous Red Mage, Anne Carson.

Up until now, I had hoped that Kyle, the protagonist, would solve everything by following the original storyline, eventually defeating the Demon King and reaching the ending.

But now, I was starting to realize that might just be wishful thinking on my part.

“……”

Thinking about the uncertain and treacherous future ahead made me feel a tightness in my chest.

“Not like there’s anything I can do about it right now, anyway.”

Shaking my head, I mumbled to myself and lay back down, staring up at the ceiling once again.

“Ugh, whatever. Thinking too hard about this won’t change anything. I might as well just get some sleep.”

After the ‘Novice Challenge’ ended, the Academy’s once-bustling atmosphere gradually began to quiet down as time passed.

More precisely, it wasn’t that people had lost interest in the challenge, but rather that their attention had shifted toward another daunting matter.

“Already the finals? What the hell did we even do?”

“I’m definitely going to fail this time. I can’t even remember what we learned.”

“It’s my last semester, and I need to finish strong!”

As the students’ grumbling suggested, the final exams of the third semester at Flance Imperial Academy were fast approaching.

And this applied to Kamon and his friends as well.

“Damn it, the final for Tactics is going to be practical this time.”

“Lois, you took Tactics?”

“Yeah, my sister told me it would be easy.”

Lois responded to Bren’s question with a disgruntled tone, clearly feeling misled. Hearing this, Elliot immediately snapped at him.

“Hey, Lois. Which sister are you talking about? The president or the vice president?”

“Huh? Oh, that would be…”

Lois shrugged as he was about to answer.

But then.

“I told him.”

“Rosen Ravenia?”

“Hello, Vice President.”

Rosen Ravenia, the Academy’s vice president, suddenly appeared, as she often did nowadays. The others reacted naturally to her presence, as they’d grown used to it.

“Hey, Bren.”

Rosen greeted him with a casual smile, having seemingly grown quite familiar with Lois and his friends.

Then, she turned her sharp gaze toward Lois.

“You know, right?”

“Huh? Wh-what are you talking about?”

“I won’t just sit back and watch my fiancé fail his exams.”

“……”

Though she said it with a smile, there was a chilling edge to her words that was hard to ignore.

Lois, clearly feeling the pressure, let out an awkward laugh, stammering as he spoke.

“Haha, n-no way I’m going to fail…”

“Lois, you know Tactics is notorious for having two-thirds of the class fail every year, right? You didn’t know?”

“Huh? No way, Elliot. Stop joking around.”

“That’s… actually true, Lois.”

When Bren answered, Lois’s face turned pale.

“Two-thirds fail?”

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but smirk and added a comment.

“That’s why you should’ve studied, Lois.”

“What? But I—”

“Yeah, Kamon’s right. Lois, you always slack off and just hang out at Lupinus Café instead of studying!”

Elliot chimed in, backing me up, and Lois, looking aggrieved, shouted back.

“Seriously? Do you even have the right to say that to me, Elliot?”

“What do you mean? I’m about to move up to the fourth year, a senior, and you’re still a first-year. We’re not on the same level.”

“Wow, this is so unfair, so unfair!”

Lois, clutching his chest in frustration, looked desperate, but Rosen Ravenia, who had been watching quietly, spoke up again.

“Fair or not, I’ll be keeping an eye on your grades, my fiancé.”

“Ugh.”

With that final blow from Rosen, Lois was left speechless, and she turned her gaze to me.

“Kamon.”

“Yes, Vice President?”

“You probably already guessed, but I’m here to tell you something.”

I stayed silent for a moment, staring at her. There was an amused glint in her eyes as she looked at me, making me feel like the news wasn’t going to be good.

‘No way, it can’t be… right?’

“I hope it’s good news,” I said, half-jokingly.

“Hmmm, it’s good news, but I’m not sure if you’ll think so, Kamon.”

At Rosen’s response, I desperately asked.

“Please, no. It’s not, right?”

But.

“Yep, it is,” Rosen said with a grin, her voice dropping slightly.

“The Academy administration approved the preliminary selection for the investigation team to the Vishran Hot Springs. The Dean gave permission too.”

That cursed Vishran Hot Springs.

I *really* don’t want to go there!

“And of course, the Romanoff family gave their approval as well. So, right after the third semester ends, the investigation team will be formed. Naturally, Kamon, you’ll be part of it.”

“Why? I’ve said I don’t want to go.”

“Well, you can take that up with Cecilia. I’m just passing along the message,” Rosen replied teasingly, her smile widening as she shrugged.

I let out a long sigh, shoulders slumping.

‘She’s just doing this to mess with me, isn’t she?’

At that moment, Elliot, who was standing next to me, tilted his head in confusion and muttered.

“Investigation team to the Vishran Hot Springs? What’s that?”

“Probably related to the campaign promise during the student council elections, right? Back then, they promised to choose Vishran Hot Springs as the destination for the field trip.”

“Oh, right! That happened when Kamon passed out, and we brought it up as an emergency measure.”

As Elliot and Bren talked, Rosen’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

“Yes. Thanks to the nonsense you two pulled, we now have more work to do,” she said with a smile, though her eyes were clearly not amused.

Bren fell silent, sensing the mood, but Elliot remained oblivious.

“Rosen, can I join too? I’d like to go with Kamon.”

“Oh, no, Elliot, don’t…” Bren quickly tried to stop him, but Elliot didn’t pay attention.

“What? Can’t I at least ask? Right, Rosen?”

Rosen’s smile twitched slightly at Elliot’s persistent question.

Then she replied, her tone colder than ice.

“…Do you really think that’s possible?”

Even Elliot, who was normally dense, finally got the message and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“Uh… yeah, I guess that was a bit thoughtless. Haha…”

But I wasn’t about to let him off so easily.

“No, you’re coming with me.”

“What?”

“Vice President, if I’m going, they can come too, right?”

I wasn’t going to let myself suffer alone. No way.

Rosen turned back to me with a sigh.

“Kamon, that’s—”

“I’m going to insist on this.”

“What?”

“If Elliot, Lois, and Bren don’t come with me, I’m not joining the investigation team either.”

“……”

As I firmly stated my decision, both Elliot and Bren began to panic and shouted in protest.

“No, Kamon, it’s fine! You don’t have to take us with you.”

“Yeah, we’ve already got plans for the break. It’ll be hard to go.”

The two of them waved their hands frantically, but I shook my head.

“Denied. If I go, you go too.”

“What? No way…”

“Damn it, Lois, say something!”

Elliot turned desperately to Lois, but he was in no state to help.

“Finals… Tactics… Failing… I’m doomed…” Lois, who had been stuck in a daze ever since the conversation about the Tactics final, just kept repeating the same words with blank eyes.

As the chaotic situation unfolded, Rosen Ravenia finally shook her head and muttered.

“Alright, Kamon, I get what you’re saying. But you’ll have to take that up with Cecilia. I don’t have the authority or power to change anything.”

With that, she quickly extricated herself from the situation, flashing a sly smile as she spoke.

“Well, I’m off. See you later.”

With those parting words, Rosen Ravenia left.

“Uh, Kamon?”

“Kamon, just hear us out—”

As the two tried to reason with me once again, I stood firm.

“Nope, you’re coming too.”

I spoke with unwavering determination, more resolute than ever.

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