I Became the Traitor in an Academy Story

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Even if they are beasts from another world, as long as they’re made of protein and fat, there isn’t much difference in killing them compared to a human.

The only difference is that you need to pour in a higher concentration and larger doses.

In fact, killing these beasts was easier. They don’t run away or come up with clever tricks.

The Minotaur, hit directly with hydrochloric gas to its face and mouth, was flailing around more desperately and powerfully than ever.

I didn’t know how much I had to pour to kill it, so I kept pouring until the chlorine levels in its body were dangerously high. Thankfully, it seemed to have worked.

Its face was melting away, revealing sparse bones, and from the mouth that still retained some shape, red, sticky liquid was erupting violently.

It almost looked like it was about to scream, but who knows? Its lungs, bronchi, and vocal cords were probably all mixed in with that red liquid and flowing out.

The beast, twisting its body, eventually ended its miserable life as the hydrochloric acid finally corroded through its belly.

Seeing that its crimson blood hadn’t mixed with the blue core…

Lapiz mercilessly swung a broken stone piece at the Minotaur’s skull.

Perhaps because it was already half-dissolved in hydrochloric acid, she was able to break its skull with minimal effort.

“Here it is.”

Pulling out the blue gem embedded in the still-formed brain, the Minotaur’s corpse crumbled into black dust.

“Huff, huff, haah… Is it… over?”

“It seems… so… Jinhyeon… Jinhyeon?! Jinhyeon!! Wake up!!!”

Yeonhwa kept calling Jinhyeon’s name from behind, but there was no response.

It seemed he had fainted after overexerting a power he usually never used, draining all his magical energy.

I was tempted to ignore it, but Yeonhwa’s sorry tone made me reassure her.

“He just fainted from exhaustion, so don’t worry too much, Yeonhwa.”

“Fainted… really? Oh… that’s a relief… But, did we really win…?”

“We did.”

As I declared that while showing her the dungeon core, Yeonhwa seemed to exhale in relief, kneeling on the floor as if all her strength had left her.

“Thank goodness…”

Jinhyeon’s sky-blue hair had already returned to its usual white.

…Tsk, why does nothing ever go easy?

I failed to stop that guy from using his abilities, and on top of that, the Suicide creatures were enhanced with my drugs.

It felt like the entire world was conspiring against me.

Well, maybe I could still prevent the encounter with the master like in the original story.

After all, it’s likely that his heroic deeds weren’t recorded in the video taken by a civilian.

I would find out once I got out.

But there was something I had to do first.

I needed to collect the loot of the victor, the dungeon clear rewards.

Of course, clearing the dungeon usually resulted in various artifacts as rewards.

Extracting precious stones was the hunter’s job.

And since heroes generally don’t enter dungeons unless absolutely necessary, the chance to get these rewards was pretty sweet.

Otherwise, I’d have to pay premium prices for materials that hunters risked their lives for.

The rewards from this level of difficulty were typically junk to be discarded after extracting magical energy…

But hey, it still felt good.

When I went to check where the Minotaur was originally tied up, there was a large box just big enough for a person to fit.

Wait a second. These kinds of things usually only show up from B-rank or higher.

…Hmm.

So, thanks to Lapiz, we breezed through the maze, and the villains who were occupying the area had wiped out all the minor mobs. It seemed I had underestimated how easy this would be.

The rewards might actually be sweet.

Since no one else was in a condition to open the box, I opened it with anticipation.

Inside were a large amount of precious stones and various items.

The stones were always good, but I had no clue what the artifacts were.

Ah, right. I had completely forgotten because it felt so obvious in games or novels.

I don’t have a status window.

This could be problematic.

I had no way of knowing what were good grades or what would be useful to me right away.

If I were to sneak them, it would only create more headaches…

Well, it wasn’t like I took them down by myself.

Everyone else had a stake in it too, so I would have to share… I guess?

It was a shame, but it couldn’t be helped.

I didn’t have an inventory, so there was no way to smuggle them out unnoticed.

Cloth or daggers I might manage to conceal, but there was no way to hide a longsword.

Alright, I give up.

I didn’t need to ruin my reputation over that.

We could just share it after getting out.

“You all did great. Now, let’s go back.”

“W-wait…”

“If we do it like this…! Done. Let’s go!”

Even in the meantime, Yeonhwa cradled Jinhyeon in her arms.

Talk about desperation. Sometimes you need to be a bit cold to grow.

Placing my hand on the box, I smashed the dungeon core.

As a crack appeared in the space, the gate opened again and swallowed us whole.

When we popped back out of the gate, we landed right back on the road where we had been swallowed.

However, the difference was that this place was no longer deserted.

There were employees of the Heros Company installing mysterious machines, Yeonhwa’s parents, Justitia, and a woman who looked like she could be Lapiz’s future self.

Plus police, paramedics, reporters, and many others.

As soon as they spotted us, everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed over.

Families embraced each other, while reporters tussled with the police, eager for even a word.

Paramedics checked on the kids with consent from their guardians, while the police… approached me.

It seemed the annoying stuff wasn’t quite done yet.

– – – –

Yeonhwa and Jinhyeon were hospitalized until they stabilized.

Lapiz got to go home without interruption since her grandmother strongly insisted.

…In other words, all the annoying tasks after that incident fell squarely on my shoulders as the only somewhat intact one.

First, I had to give an account of the situation, starting from what happened inside the dungeon. The identity of the box.

Connections with the Suicide creatures, the reporters, and so on.

It wasn’t until very late at night that I was finally released.

“You just keep getting caught up in all sorts of annoying stuff, Blanca.”

When I say “here,” I mean inside Justitia’s car.

She offered to give me a ride since it was late, and I jumped in.

“I’m not getting caught up on purpose, you know.”

I sprawled out across the backseat, twisting and stretching my body.

A small, involuntary sigh slipped out.

“…Hmm. I didn’t do anything wrong, so why is the world in such an uproar?”

“What about the fight with Yamaguchi?”

“…Sis, that’s entirely on them for being weak.”

I responded pouting, and Justitia chuckled lightly.

No, really, it’s not my fault. They just got stomped because they were weak.

“That might be true. You’re strong, too. But… just because you’re strong doesn’t mean you can go using it recklessly, Blanca.”

Justitia still tried to play the teacher, even when she didn’t need to.

I followed suit, pretending to be shocked by her typical lecture.

“I get it, I get it. Actions have consequences. I didn’t do it thoughtlessly, alright? I just stepped on it because it was crawling.”

Otherwise, it would have kept bugging me.

After my addition, she seemed to have nothing further to say as she drove in silence.

Then she suddenly spoke up again.

“Still, I see you’ve learned how to apologize.”

“What? I know how to apologize? I just haven’t had anything to apologize for until now.”

“Yeah, yeah. I understand.”

As we casually bantered, it felt like we were in the boss’s lair.

…I kind of miss it already.

“Is the boss doing well?”

“As usual, even amidst the busyness, he makes sure to have his two-hour lunch break every day.”

“Sounds like he’s doing fine.”

Well, that wraps up the school talk.

Now, it was time to get serious.

“So… did you find out anything?”

I asked her if she had learned about any weak points of the enemy. But she reported that she still hadn’t discovered anything.

“The world’s best, huh? It’s at a level where I don’t even know how to pry in.”

“Then… it looks like we’re stuck with that method.”

“For now, that’s the case.”

I didn’t expect it to be easy. If sudden weak points had appeared now, I would have been disappointed.

“If I discover something else, I’ll text you then. Oh, how about checking the class chat? The kids were calling me. Wondering if everyone is alright.”

Oh right. I had forgotten about that. I had logged in but completely lost track of it.

When I checked the class chat, messages had been flying since around four o’clock, asking if everyone was okay.

Then, it seemed they figured out who got attacked and were asking for the kids who had been swept into the gate.

Guess they really are kind-hearted kids.

As I lay down and sent a reply saying I was fine, messages started flooding in, each relieved to hear back.

Minho even sent me a message in a personal chat.

…Hehehe.

The protagonist is concerned about me.

I sent back a somewhat arrogant reply, using an emoji that didn’t quite match my vibe to boast that I wouldn’t fall for just this.

“It’ll take some time to feel the artifacts. Apparently, there’s a new kind discovered recently. So… just relax and rest well this weekend.”

That was me advising her, as a teacher and as her older sister.

Having arrived right in front of my house, she dropped me off and said that.

Ah, right. She mentioned calling me her sister.

But she was right.

I should take it easy this weekend.

 

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