I’m Not the Mastermind

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Thud.

A girl’s body slowly crumbles and collapses in the flower garden.

With one eye closed, she breathes calmly, reminiscent of Sleeping Beauty.

Yujin briefly gazes down at her before raising his body.

“In the end, you didn’t really do much.”

Tiamat commented beside him, to which Yujin shrugged.

“It’s not like I did absolutely nothing. I sealed the magic, at least.”

“But this child is already turning into a demon. Specifically… you missed the timing to remove the Seed of the Demon. Be it body or soul, she is already drifting away from being human.”

“So that’s why I just sealed the magic. If I tried to extract the Seed of the Demon, this young lady would have died.”

Yujin confirmed that the erosion had already surpassed a critical point. The Seed of the Demon and the girl had long since become one.

In this state, separating her from the demon is impossible. Tiamat remarked as well.

“By now, this child and the demon can’t be differentiated. What torments her isn’t some separate entity called the Seed of the Demon. Specifically, it’s the weakness and malice that exist within her, continuously gnawing at her mind and soul.”

“Hmm… is it too late?”

“Sealing the magic bought some time. But ultimately, it’s just a matter of time… With the magic sealed, she’ll be at a high risk of weakening further. Magic is the essence of a demon’s power.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Yujin muttered to himself while stroking his chin.

If you had to be precise, the girl before him resembled a terminal cancer patient.

If action had been taken early, such as surgery, she might have been saved, but now the cancer cells have proliferated beyond measure.

No other course of action exists. Not unless time can be turned back.

But…

“Did I not mention before? The time of the Transcendents has an absolute quality to it. Absolute time isn’t an area easily interfered with, even for Transcendents. If it were, anyone from the time of the Great War would have interfered with time to secure their victory.”

Interfering with the time of Transcendents is no easy feat, no matter how close to omnipotence a dragon’s power may seem. Although it may not be impossible…

“Of course, Yujin, since you inherited my mana, you might find it not too difficult to interfere with a half-baked Transcendent’s time. But making a Transcendent revert to a non-Transcendent state won’t be so convenient.”

It’s clear that the time of a girl who has already become half-demon won’t rewind to a point where she isn’t a demon. Tiamat added that the birth of a Transcendent cannot be suppressed that easily.

“So, there’s really no way?”

Even cancer patients have chemotherapy as a last resort.

Of course, chemotherapy is an extremely painful last resort attempted out of desperation with reasons like, ‘there’s no other way,’ ‘to possibly extend life,’ or ‘we can’t just leave the patient as is,’ but still, it’s not a method with absolutely no hope.

Yujin asked if there isn’t a similar method for this girl.

“There’s no way to revert the body from demon to human. But the good news is that this child still seems to be retaining some sense of self.”

“Are you saying…?”

“Another self likely came into being within this child. Born from the Seed of the Demon, nourished by her inner weakness and evil… essentially, a new self as a demon. For this girl to maintain her sense of self, she either has to accept it, overcome it, or coexist with it.”

“Hmm.”

In short, there are options to either harmonize with the demon self, overcome it, or coexist with it.

“Harmonizing seems like the easiest option. The latter two at least seem to require an equal mental strength to that of the demon self… but from the looks of things right now, it doesn’t seem like she stands a chance.”

“That’s true, but harmonizing is actually a bit of a departure from maintaining one’s self. There’s a risk of the self becoming corrupted.”

“Hmm…”

“Of course, there are ways you can help, but… I feel like this isn’t the right time to bring it up.”

Just then, rustling sounds were heard from the grass in the garden, and something dashed towards them in a hurry. Yujin was already looking in that direction.

“The magic is leading this way!”

“Damn… The Princess!”

Two women soon burst into the garden.

***

Just earlier, at the Student Dormitory.

“She’s not here, President.”

“Damn… Was I played?”

The Academy’s President, Ines, and Professor Reina were spooked by Yujin’s not-so-joking comment and quickly moved to the Student Dormitory.

However, when they arrived, Yujin was nowhere to be found. They only caught a few students sneaking into dormitories that they shouldn’t have been in, but he hadn’t been in the Student Dormitory at all.

Only after realizing that did they understand they had been played. The one who played them had no intention of doing so at all.

But it couldn’t be helped. Yujin’s earlier comment was highly suggestive. It sounded like a warning that if they didn’t hurry, the students could be in danger… They had no choice but to act.

Yet upon arriving, Yujin was missing, and all they witnessed was the scene of innocent students in a compromising situation. The President’s face was burning with embarrassment.

‘These clueless fools! I haven’t even had my first date yet!’

As she witnessed the heated rendezvous of the students, the President felt her insides boil. What kind of madness was this? She hasn’t even held a man’s hand yet!

“President, wait a moment.”

But just as the President was deep in thought, Reina handed her something.

“…What’s this?”

“It seems to belong to a student.”

A pure white cardigan. The expression on the President’s face turned grave upon seeing it.

‘Is it possible they already kidnapped the target student?’

Plus, if it was a kidnapped student… could it be…?

“Professor Reina, where did you find this?”

“Follow me.”

Realizing the seriousness of the situation from the President’s expression, Reina quickly led her away.

They soon arrived at a student dormitory.

And as the President sensed something there, she realized her worst fears were becoming reality and her expression hardened.

“Oh no… this is the Princess’s magic!”

“What?”

She sensed the magical residue belonging to the Princess.

Given its extremely weak nature, it wasn’t surprising that Reina couldn’t detect it.

Mana, Divine Power, Aura, Magic… these four sources of energy, known as the Four Great Powers, are actually spread throughout the world, making it hard for Reina to differentiate the remnants of the Princess from the magic present in the air.

If the President hadn’t been exceptionally sensitive to the energy inherited from a dragon, she likely wouldn’t have noticed it either.

“Damn… could it be the Princess!”

The President immediately began to chase after the traces of magic scattered about. Reina followed closely behind.

In a flash, they passed through the student dormitory and headed toward the Academy’s garden.

“The magic is leading this way!”

“Damn… The Princess!”

As they broke through the garden, they quickly spotted something.

“….!”

In the center of the garden, standing under the moonlight, was a black-haired man with half-closed eyes.

And before him lay a collapsed girl.

To anyone looking on, it wouldn’t be strange to see the girl in a dangerous situation, and the same went for the two women.

Actions spoke louder than words. Reina immediately dashed towards the Princess, cradling her, while the President positioned herself to confront the half-seeing man, Yujin.

“What do you think you’re doing! What the hell…!”

“Shh.”

As the President raised her voice, Yujin pressed his index finger to his lips. This caused the President to freeze momentarily.

“Don’t raise your voice like that, President. Isn’t there a student sleeping behind?”

“….!”

At that remark, the President instinctively became aware of the situation behind her. Yujin’s words resonated in her ears.

-There’s a defenseless student behind, so you’re not really thinking of starting a fight, right?

After hearing those words, the President bit her lip and turned to Reina.

“Professor Reina, take Princess Elysia to a safe place.”

“…Yes.”

Professor Reina understood that her presence would hinder the President, so she began to retreat with Princess Elysia without further ado.

“Ah, Professor Reina Sahart.”

“!”

At that moment, Yujin called out to the retreating Reina. She hesitated, then froze as Yujin smiled and spoke.

“When the Princess awakens, please let her know. If she needs help, tell her I’ll be waiting for her to come find me.”

“……”

Upon hearing that, Reina interpreted it inadvertently like this.

-We will always welcome you, who harbor a demon.

Chills ran down her spine, and without responding, Reina quickly backed away.

Leaving only the President and Yujin in that spot.

Yujin gazed at the place where Reina and Elysia had vanished and muttered.

“By the way, the Princess… I didn’t realize she was of such high status. My apologies.”

“What’s that supposed to mean… are you trying to act innocent now?”

In the middle of the night, the sight of the fallen Princess and Yujin, who was calmly looking at her, was highly suspicious.

The President, already suspicious of Yujin, found this even more suspect.

“Innocent, you say… I truly have no idea what’s going on here, honestly. If there’s any misunderstanding, I must clarify—I merely happened to run into the Princess.”

“Oh really? Just happened to?”

The President felt she was unwittingly getting entangled in something. In fact, there wasn’t really any evidence to pin on Yujin. The only reason they found him with the collapsed Princess was that she was a target the Dark Sorcerers were after.

But considering the current situation, pursuing it wouldn’t likely be a huge issue.

The President decided to remain calm and start questioning him slowly.

“…Alright then. Let me ask you a few questions.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Why didn’t you inform us until you had already arrived at the Academy? Didn’t we agree that you would contact us once everything was settled?”

This was also one of the points that raised suspicion for her. The message was that they would send someone to pick him up once he contacted them after arriving, yet now he was claiming to have come here already.

And he managed to slip through spatial coordinate distortions to get here. Why was that?

“It’s nothing grand. I thought it’d be rude to trouble you into coming to pick me up, so I came on my own. Oh, I’m sorry for the late contact. Once I saw the scenery of the Academy, I got a bit carried away. I was going to contact you after some sightseeing.”

The reply was highly suspect. It certainly didn’t sound like a compelling reason. She narrowed her eyes as she continued to speak.

“…The vicinity of the Academy has a spatial distortion, yet how did you arrive here so quickly without using spatial teleportation?”

“I arrived through spatial teleportation, indeed. Navigating through spatial coordinate distortions is not too challenging for me.”

“Is that so…”

The President almost spoke but caught herself. It seemed plausible. After all, he was the first sorcerer to master the art of time and space magic. Such things might just be trivial for him.

However, his innocence couldn’t be proven with just questions like these. The President probed further.

“What did you mean when you mentioned that urgent-sounding remark to come quickly before heading to the Student Dormitory?”

“Oh, that was just a light-hearted joke. I’m not a dorm supervisor, so it would have been troublesome if I mistakenly wandered into the Student Dormitory.”

“……”

Was that all there was to it? That only deepened the President’s suspicion. No matter how one thought about it, it was overly suggestive for just a simple meaning.

She pressed further.

“Then what about you being with Princess Elysia?”

“I merely ran into the Princess by chance.”

“Chance? By chance? The outer garment presumed to belong to Princess Elysia was found on the ground near the Student Dormitory. How do you explain that? Isn’t it unlikely that someone would drop their clothes while just casually walking?”

As she spoke, the President lifted the pure white cardigan. Yujin raised an eyebrow.

“Hmm… Indeed. I didn’t realize such a thing was left behind. The Princess seems to be a bit careless.”

“……”

She seemed to be unaware of the cardigan’s existence, but her statement carried significant implications. As if it were something she overlooked, she continued speaking.

“I imagine the Princess may not have realized she dropped it?”

“…Do you genuinely believe that makes sense?”

“I really have nothing more to say.”

“……”

Yujin shrugged, and the President looked at him with a tense expression.

“Then… allow me to ask one final question.”

“Go ahead.”

She felt as though he was somewhat reluctant to continue the conversation, but at least he was willing to hear her out.

“Why was the Princess unconscious?”

“Ah, that…”

Yujin paused for a moment, feigning disinterest as he gazed at the moon rising in the distance before finally speaking.

“I noticed the Princess seems to be afflicted by a demon.”

“…What? Where on earth did that come from?”

“It’s peculiar. Why would a person of such stature as the Princess be here at the Academy while being eroded by a demon?”

“….!”

The President froze upon hearing those words.

The fact that a demon was embedded within Princess Elysia was a tightly kept secret. The authorities had remained silent to prevent chaos among the public, who had begun voicing their desire to kill her.

If it became known that Princess Elysia was being consumed by a demon while living not in the palace but here at the Academy…?

The public would descend into chaos, and the Academy could be attacked for sheltering a Princess consumed by a demon.

There was a risk that the Academy could become engulfed in flames of conflict, leading to significant internal chaos. Students could suffer greatly.

Of course, the President was aware of this. She simply didn’t believe that such a fact would spread so easily from the church or the Empire.

If someone were to discover this truth, they’d implicitly cover it up. But what about the man before her?

The man before her was someone whose notoriety was known throughout the nation. What if he suddenly announced that the Imperial Princess was being consumed by a demon?

Someone would act to investigate, and perhaps the radical faction within the faith would rally around and support such claims with zeal.

Even now, within the cult, there existed a cold war between the radical faction wanting to kill the Princess and the moderate faction considering their relationship with the Empire. If a catalyst were to ignite, it could lead to an explosion.

Did he realize all of this when he published his thesis on time and space magic? While it sounded far-fetched, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

“Why are you bringing this up?”

The President questioned cautiously, her guard up. Yujin smiled brightly and replied.

“Who knows, I just thought President would be more knowledgeable about it.”

“Is that so.”

With that statement, the President was certain. Her thoughts aligned with his.

Then there was only one way forward. She had to ensure that the man before her could say nothing more.

Woooh!

“Oh no… did I stir up some trouble?”

Seeing the President summon her magic, Yujin let out a wry smile.

“Well then, I guess there’s no helping it.”

With a slight opening of his crimson eyes, he prepared for what was to come.

 

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