<613 – Delicious Linked Quest (37)>
“Y-you… could it be that you were really a Demon Minion?”
“Senior, come on, what sort of nonsense is that?”
After a series of ‘accidents’ occurred,
Belocassion reacted awkwardly like a citizen witnessing a crime scene he shouldn’t have seen.
“I’m a Magic Swordsman! The Dark Princess is just a side gig!”
“You’re doing Demon Minion work on the side…?”
“Of course I’m human! Why would I be a Demon Minion?”
Belocassion’s eyes darted toward the corpse of Four Kings El Niño sprawled on the ground and the Glass Senior, who was silently brooding next to him.
“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s definitely a misunderstanding!”
“…Yeah, sometimes you’ve got to misunderstand to stay alive.”
Anyway, this wasn’t the time to celebrate achievements or rewards.
Sure, I brought down Glass Senior for now, but in the Student Council, there could be powerful figures just as strong as him popping up from nowhere.
Thanks to the time I bought due to the Darknodi’s Dark Doppelganger Technique and the summoning of the Four Kings, the barrier finally fell.
“Oh, Jonnas!”
As soon as the barrier crumbled, the wall that had been opaque, like a creepy Magic Mirror used to spy on couples visiting a love hotel, became transparent.
But normally these creepy devices don’t let you see outside while letting you look inside, right?
Why the heck did they reverse it so you couldn’t see in from outside?
This Academy isn’t one to care about the prisoners’ privacy after all!
After a moment’s thought, I got my answer.
It was reversed!
They blocked the view for the guards for their safety!
Having been trapped on the 5th level of the Gift Academy Great Prison, this person wasn’t just an ordinary criminal.
Just looking at him might activate magic that interferes with outsiders.
But Jonnas wasn’t a heinous criminal. He was a man wrongfully accused while trying to protect an Agassi, and I welcomed him without hesitation.
“Why did you go and do something without asking?”
“What have you done, Agassi? Do you know what resolve I had to step into this prison? You committed a serious crime by attacking the prison facilities!”
“Hmph. It’s all Jonnas’ fault. Weren’t you learning from your Butler? Since he did whatever he wanted, you learned to do the same. Hmph!”
I was pouting!
Tilting my head in various directions to avoid eye contact, Jonnas sighed, bewildered.
“Please explain the situation. Who’s the collapsed student, and what is this Demon Minion’s corpse beside him?”
“This is the awakened Glass Senior, and this corpse is Four Kings El Niño, who died an untimely death after being caught in Senior’s self-detonating charge! Seems I got lucky with the lottery?”
“…Is the prisoner who came with you a student under the Agassi’s command?”
Belocassion answered immediately.
“He does whatever he’s told.”
“That’s true!”
“Well then, one gag order should be enough.”
Jonnas pointed at Glass Senior.
“Let’s say he died alongside the Demon King’s Four Kings.”
“Yikes! We can’t sacrifice this senior!”
“Is this really the time to care about those issues when we’re already escaping the Academy? Since it’s okay to overlook an accomplice, it’s fine for this student to be wearing something that marks him as belonging to the Student Council.”
“We don’t have to run anymore! We rescued Jonnas and made an excuse!”
“For an excuse… you can’t be serious?”
I nodded confidently.
“We merely intercepted the Demon King’s Four Kings’ ambush and stopped it! Jonnas is a true professor who broke through the isolation zone to aid the students!”
I flipped the narrative of the incident upside down.
Though telling such a lie would cause a slight decrease in my mana affinity and combat power as I wouldn’t be keeping my pact, I had to bear with it for Jonnas’ sake!
Jonnas realized my grand scheme and was in utter shock.
“You weren’t acting recklessly, Agassi. I sincerely apologize for doubting your ability as a Butler’s protege.”
“Hehe, don’t worry about it. It’s not that big of a deal!”
“Then may I ask why those prisoners currently fighting the Chief Guard are engaged in battle over there? If they were using the Demon King’s Four Kings hunt as an excuse, those students wouldn’t have any reason to fight like this from the start.”
“Those aren’t the prisoners who will be accompanying us, so we used them as bait!”
“Pardon?”
“I mean, the loyal followers of the hidden master, Belocassion, are taking it upon themselves to defeat the Chief Guard and escape the Great Prison!”
Belocassion protested with the most wronged expression.
“I can’t believe they’re using my name all the way here! If we’ve got an excuse to walk out of the Great Prison, can’t we hitch a ride on that excuse?”
“If you can convince the Student Council Execution Headquarters and avoid prison time, then feel free! But is that alright? You’ll be labeled as the ringleader and your sentence will increase dramatically!”
“Ha, life really is unfair. Sure, I exploited the monopolistic issues with the ingredients using lowerclassmen, but to endure this much torment from someone worse than a demon…”
Belocassion openly grumbled.
“If it weren’t for that darn glasses-wearing guy, we wouldn’t even have had to find an excuse of taking down the Demon King’s Four Kings. Why the heck is he fighting the Four Kings instead of focusing on the Dark Princess?”
“Glass Senior was just doing his job! Just like how you did your job and got imprisoned!”
“You idiot! That ‘doing your job’ thing is gonna get me blasted by Dark Mana!”
Forcing a harsh comment, Belocassion seemed to be wishing for his death, but alas, that wasn’t likely to happen.
Because I didn’t want that either.
“Are you coming back to your senses, Glass Senior?”
I squatted in front of him, gently placing my hand on his head, and after three seconds, he coughed up blood.
“Ugh, Nodi…”
“Senior, you’ve gotten hit by Dark Mana! They blatantly used Dark Mana to attack, so your entire body’s flow has probably been tainted. If we don’t act soon, you’ll either die from Dark Mana exposure or transform into a Demon Minion in order to survive!”
“D-die…”
“There’s a way to return to your normal self without dying, you know! Sign a contract and I can guarantee your safe return!”
“……”
“Aren’t you expected to live up to the hopes of many as a graduate of the previous Student Council President? To meet their expectations, you must endure this humiliation and live!”
“C-could you please…”
Fortunately, Glass Senior was different from Ishtar last year, who blindly lashed out like a berserker shouting “Dark Mana will kill!”
“It’s not anything special. Jonnas, the professor, thwarted the Demon King’s Four Kings ambush, and both I and Ishtar infiltrated to thwart their invasion, so please state that outside!”
Glass Senior glared at me with a venomous gaze.
“No, then.”
“Wha—?”
“I will die, and you will be trapped in the Great Prison.”
With Glass Senior’s declaration of a bad ending where everyone is unhappy, I quickly channeled Dark Mana into one of his vital organs by using the hand resting on his head.
“Argh!”
In horrible pain, Glass Senior screamed, but alongside the pain, he experienced a ghastly sense of transformation—as if new flesh was sprouting inside him.
His eyes widened in fear.
This crazy girl, are you seriously trying to generate a Dark organ that’s adapted to Dark Mana within me?
With a bright smile, I answered for him.
That’s correct!
“If you become a Demon Minion, people will think you’re framing me! A Demon Minion trying to hide the truth behind the Four Kings’ death, and a spy of the Demon King trying to frame the Agassi and the Butler who fought for peace in the Academy! Who’s gonna believe the testimony of a traitor to humanity?”
So now, Glass Senior was in a bind.
Would he cooperate, expel the Dark Mana, calmly write Belocassion’s contract, and promise not to harm each other in order to save his life?
Or would he try to pull off a failed second self-destruct attack, risk being labeled as a Demon Minion, and find himself imprisoned where Jonnas was?
“I concede…”
Glass Senior chose to surrender.
*
“So that happened!”
“…Is that really true, Burte Glass?”
“It is true.”
Belocassion, who had defeated the Chief Guard and fled in a hurry, along with the prisoners of the Great Prison.
The four of us—me, Jonnas, Ishtar, and Glass Senior—who were left standing in the now vacant place shamelessly welcomed the instructors who came next to visit the Great Prison.
I felt suspicious though.
This doesn’t seem right.
Despite feeling doubtful, the corpse of the Demon King’s Four Kings had been discovered.
There was no way we couldn’t believe it!
“The Oknodie search-and-capture team was obviously not captured themselves, so it must be true. I never expected to receive such help from the Foundation’s high-ranking officials.”
“Is this how the world’s number one terrorist group takes into account terrorist angles to stop the Demon Army’s terror?”
The instructors who hastily convinced themselves of this happy news urgently relayed it to their supervising professor.
The supervising professor rushed in only to find the corpse of the Demon King’s Four Kings.
“Wait, how is this real?”
The instigator of sending all the student council members, the instructors.
The one behind all those instructors was Professor Mahabharata.
Mahabharata couldn’t hide his astonishment.
