I Became the Traitor in an Academy Story

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Seeing if I could actually hand over an artifact to her, I decided to ask for a one-on-one meeting.

But the answer came from an entirely unexpected direction.

His name was… Seojinhyeon. A student who never existed in the original story, just like her.

He looked way too powerful to be just an extra student, and he was always hanging out with Blanca. Plus, he got mixed up in the Villain’s Attack, so I was keeping a close eye on him.

Who would have thought that a sense of camaraderie would develop between him and Blanca?

Given they were together during the attack and cleared a Dungeon together, it’s maybe not that surprising.

I wasn’t the only one flabbergasted; it seemed Blanca was too, looking at Seojinhyeon as if to say, “Why are you answering?”

“Ah, no, Jinhyeon. I’m just asking to see it, not asking for it. The artifact is intriguing, right? I just want to take a look!”

Chiming in out of nowhere, Jinhyeon was met with a scrunched-up expression from Blanca, though she seemed to be trying to smooth things over.

She had to know I wasn’t just going to be a casual observer.

But hearing her say that to Jinhyeon made it clear she’d probably agree to a lot if I demanded it.

…If I pushed it a little, I might even get away with asking if I could go home.

At least one thing was clear, which was good.

The only disappointment was that I wouldn’t be able to snag the artifact.

If I pushed hard for it, I could probably grab one, but—who knows?

Is it really worth the trouble?

I don’t know exactly what Dungeon it is or the difficulty, but if it’s one where students can gang up and take down a Boss, it can’t be that high level.

Plus, being an outsider who wants something just because it’s not mine isn’t a good look.

Not that I’m as noble as them, but I had dreams of being a Hero too.

I couldn’t bring myself to act that way.

Let’s just move on. It’s not like there are no artifacts at all.

Before entering the Academy, I had picked up a few from dungeons only I knew about.

Raising my hands in a gesture of surrender, I responded to Jinhyeon.

“Of course, I just want to take a look. It’s not like we’re talking about something from a notorious Hunter’s dungeon, right? It came from a dungeon cleared by students. Naturally, I’m curious.”

“Yeah. Looking at it won’t wear it out, right? I want to show it off too….”

Jinhyeon continued to eye me suspiciously, but after catching what Blanca was saying, he seemed to relax a bit, saying it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Blanca, let us know once your emotions settle.”

“Of course, I will. Don’t worry.”

Feeling a bit awkward, I tried to come up with a comfortably nonchalant comment about how nice it was to see them safe and promptly left.

Honestly, I was a little surprised. The usually quiet guy who hardly ever stepped up had suddenly taken a stand.

Based on what I’d seen so far, I thought he’d be just hanging around doing nothing.

…It seems something went down inside the Dungeon. I’ll have to ask Blanca about it later.

– – – –

Thursday, after class.

We entered a small building near the Research Building along with our seniors.

“This used to be the club room! It feels like ages since I was last here… I used to come often when there were a lot of people around…”

Meilin, looking at the dusty interior of the building, seemed to be reminiscing.

“Did something happen?”

In the midst of this, that oblivious guy, Jinhyeon, jumped in and asked.

“…It’s not such a grand tale. The members all ran away saying to stop treating them like experiment subjects. Boo-hoo, if I had really treated them like that, I would have started with the needles.”

“Now I see why they bolted… Sigh. Senior, you’re lacking in consideration.”

Lucia yawned and poked at Meilin’s sore spot.

“That’s just too much! I am being considerate!”

…Seriously, I should have killed Jinhyeon ages ago.

Thanks to that clueless brat, the chance to hand an artifact to the protagonist seems to be slipping away.

Not just interrupting others, but I was slowly losing my favorite bits about him.

Even if it was convenient to use him, that would soon be a thing of the past, and as he grows stronger, he’ll start thinking for himself.

Just thinking about it made me feel desolate already.

I have to stop that guy from growing. But how the hell do I do that? Should I make him drink something that’ll keep him asleep for months?

“So what are we supposed to do in this building? Can we just hit that test dummy over there?”

Minho cut in to break the awkward mood, questioning Meilin.

“That’s right. Just hit the dummy while showing off your abilities.”

Since it was originally built sturdily for shelter, a little roughhousing shouldn’t be any problem!

Meilin said that and pulled out a tablet to get ready to take notes.

“Is it really okay to use a shelter as a club room?”

“It’s fine. It’s an old shelter. Originally, it should be torn down, but I made it into a club room on the cheap.”

At that moment, Jinhyeon, still blissfully clueless, jumped in and declared he would go first, stepping into the chamber to show off his abilities.

Ice, electricity, wind.

Jinhyeon was showcasing a mind-blowing variety of abilities for just one person, as if it was no big deal.

Meilin, fascinated and hurriedly taking notes from behind the reinforced glass, decided it was enough and called Jinhyeon out to ask:

“It seems your abilities are mostly elemental! But can you use fire?”

At that question, Jinhyeon hesitated for a moment before stiffening his expression and replying.

“I can use it. It’s just… too scary to use right now. I still don’t have the confidence to handle it properly…”

There had been an incident.

As Jinhyeon said that, Meilin awkwardly laughed, saying that in that case, it couldn’t be helped.

“Well… the analysis shows your strength and power are excellent, but… it lacks finesse. It feels like a child who just awakened their powers is swinging around.”

“That’s because I didn’t use my power for a long time due to the incident.”

“Oh… okay… so, are you okay now?”

“No. But I’m going to confront it.”

“Haha, yeah. I’ll be rooting for you. Now, next up… Blanca!”

Not wanting to see Jinhyeon trying to cheer me up, I stepped inside the test chamber.

As I entered, memories of my time in the lab flooded back, and my mood took a nosedive.

“Ready…”

Of course, it was better than that hellhole. Still, I couldn’t shake off the tension.

“Start!”

Channeling all that resentment, I pummeled the dummy, clouding the area with smoke to obscure vision and sneaking in attacks one by one.

Remembering to coat my fists and nails with poison, I continued hitting.

In the midst of this, I decided to ask my senior something.

“…Okay. That’s enough! I think I gathered enough data!”

Hearing my senior’s voice through the speaker, I stopped beating the dummy and made my way out of the test chamber.

“You can handle close combat easily! Plus, being able to synthesize various toxic substances is a threat. You can release poison gas, right?”

“Yes. But I chose not to because cleaning up would be a hassle.”

“Nice, nice. I feel like I need to learn that kind of consideration. Now… let’s ask a few things. Do you have any ranged attack methods?”

“I can spew gas to cover a wide area, but I can’t pinpoint one target or direction.”

Upon hearing that, my senior nodded and busily typed on the tablet.

“Ranged response… limited. Next, it seems the poison you used on the dummy was uniform. Is there a penalty for only being able to use one substance?”

“To some extent… yes. I can’t synthesize multiple substances at the same time. When I synthesize, I can only create one substance at a time. Since the synthesis speed is quick, it’s not really a penalty.”

And usually, I can take down things with just one type of poison, so there’s no real need to use multiple.

When I added that, my senior nodded in understanding.

“Multi-synthesis… currently impossible. Lastly, if you inhale the poison gas you release, what happens?”

“I break it down into harmless substances. I can decompose anything that enters my body. The decomposed material mainly gets stored as fat.”

“Fat…? Wait, anything?”

“Yes. Though it shouldn’t happen, I think I could manage to break down wood.”

I hadn’t tried it, though.

As I said that, Meilin chuckled and thanked me for the effort, saying she could now set improvement plans for the future.

“So it seems your body can turn anything you eat into fat…”

Meilin looked at me with a slightly eerie gaze and paused before heading upstairs.

“So, I don’t even need to take a look…?”

“You already analyzed it last time, right? So I guess it doesn’t need re-confirmation, does it, Lucia?”

“…Maybe.”

Minho was naturally building a bond with Lucia.

Watching them happily interact, he suddenly approached me, asking if that meant I was okay to drink coffee then.

“Huh, what?”

“You said you could break anything down, right? So you can drink coffee without any problems, right?”

I looked it up, and they said that the cat Ain wasn’t exactly completely fine.

Minho said that while showing interest in me.

“…That’s not exactly why. I was up almost all night that day.”

Holding back a swell of emotion, I answered Minho sincerely.

“O-Oh? Was that because you knew? Isn’t it better to break it down?”

“Of course it’s better to break it down. But… if I do that, it makes it hard to feel like I’m really living.”

Beyond that, I could control the chemical reactions in my body.

However, for the most part, I didn’t want to.

If I did, I’d feel like I wasn’t a precious human being but just a bio-machine moving by chemical reactions and electrical signals.

So I don’t break those down.

…I didn’t say that.

 

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