The Academy’s Deceased Ate It All

"Argh, this is so annoying! Like, really, really fucking annoying!!!"

With a series of thuds, Han Su-yeong took out all her frustration on the table, kicking it again and again.

Sitting at the same table, Ivan Hunt and Lee Yu-na wore awkward expressions at her hysterical display, though deep down they understood.

Choi Hyun-woo, sitting right next to her, tried to talk her down in a bored voice.

"Hey, hey. Su-yeong. Knock it off. You're actually gonna hurt yourself."

"Mind your own business, you dumbass!"

"No, Su-yeong. Keep that up and you'll really break a toe. I get how you feel, but you're the only one who loses out if you get hurt."

He added in a teasing tone:

"Plus, a cast on your foot stinks like crazy. What if Ji-hyeok runs off because your feet smell?"

"Look at this. She acts all demure in front of Ji-hyeok, then the second he's gone, her real self—agh!?"

The kick landed with a crack loud enough to echo, and Choi Hyun-woo doubled over clutching his shin, groaning that he was dying, while Han Su-yeong glared at him, breathing hard, genuinely furious.

In the end, Ivan and Lee Yu-na had to step in and break them up.

"Hey, hey, Hyun-woo. Why are you pouring oil on the fire?"

"Su-yeong, you calm down too. You know Hyun-woo doesn't mean anything bad by it, right?"

At Lee Yu-na's coaxing, Han Su-yeong sighed and forced down the anger that had nowhere to go.

Half on the verge of tears, half still furious, she muttered:

"God, I'm so pissed off. That crazy bastard, seriously…"

"……."

Pretending to nurse his shin, Choi Hyun-woo thought back over what had just happened.

He'd been with Han Su-yeong when a male student suddenly came up, introduced himself as Rogers Nael, and struck up a friendly conversation, and Hyun-woo had wondered what the hell was going on.

The instant Han Su-yeong saw the guy's face, her expression had gone rigid.

From that alone, Choi Hyun-woo had immediately pieced it together.

This Rogers Nael was the upperclassman Han Su-yeong had been bitching about for a while—the one who'd latched onto her with relentless persistence.

The moment he realized that, Choi Hyun-woo stepped between Han Su-yeong and Rogers Nael.

He wanted no part of the hassle, and more than that, Han Su-yeong genuinely couldn't stand talking to the guy.

There'd always been men who pestered her like that, and stepping in this way had usually been enough—most of them muttered a few words and slunk off.

The problem was that Rogers Nael wasn't part of the majority. He was one of the rare exceptions.

He'd given Hyun-woo a strange, leering once-over before turning back to Han Su-yeong in a probing tone.

So you dumped that arrogant prick and you're going out with this one now? Then I guess I'll still have my shot later. Looking forward to it…

"……."

Then the bastard had added something pointed:

Good thing for you that you broke it off before you got caught up in it.

On the surface, it could've been brushed off as nothing, but Hyun-woo couldn't shake the feeling that something more was buried underneath.

And in fact, Rogers Nael had been on the verge of saying more.

But then…

'If I'd known this would happen, I never would've told her "whoever throws the first punch wins" back when I was teaching her self-defense.'

Han Su-yeong, who remembered his advice down to the word, had cocked back her fist and slammed it into Rogers Nael's jaw on the spot.

Better to shut his mouth than listen to another word of his garbage—that had been her reasoning, and her fist had served the purpose beautifully. Rogers Nael crumpled on the spot without so much as a sound.

The problem was that a passing professor had spotted it, and both of them ended up scolded and slapped with demerits.

And on top of that, when Han Su-yeong learned the other students were already spreading horrible rumors—that it had been a lovers' quarrel, that she'd been weighing two men against each other—she silently kicked a trash can, got caught, and racked up more demerits.

"Why does everyone do this to me…"

Han Su-yeong half-buried her face on the table and stamped her feet, on the edge of tears.

Lee Yu-na gave a wry smile and patted her back.

Ivan Hunt, Lee Yu-na, and Choi Hyun-woo all privately understood how she felt.

Whatever else might be said, the three of them were strikingly good-looking too, and thanks to that, each of them had run into the same kind of trouble or irritation as Han Su-yeong more than once.

"Ugh, I wanna see Ji-hyeok… I wanna hug him and breathe him in, get healed by him…"

At her blunt remark, Lee Yu-na flushed slightly, flustered.

Ivan glanced wordlessly at Choi Hyun-woo and shrugged; Choi Hyun-woo wore a look of utter exasperation.

After a long while in that pose, Han Su-yeong twisted her head around to look at Lee Yu-na.

"Hey, Yu-na."

"Yeah?"

"You're under the same supervising professor as Ji-hyeok and Ye-seul, right?"

"Right."

"…So do you know where those two went?"

Lee Yu-na answered right away.

"Hmm, Ye-seul said she had something urgent and took off first… and Ji-hyeok said he had someone to meet and would only be gone a bit. I don't know about Ye-seul, but Ji-hyeok said he'd be back soon."

"Oh, really?"

Han Su-yeong seemed to perk up a little at that.

She turned her head back and slumped half-sprawled across the table, letting out another sigh.

Unlike before, her voice had taken on a wheedling, almost whining tone.

"I just wanna see Ji-hyeok already…"

Lee Yu-na smiled faintly at her grumble.

"……."

Very faintly.

"Here you go."

With that, Yu Ji-hyeok handed a flask of blood over to someone.

The person carefully took the flask and tucked it inside their coat.

"Mm, got it."

Yu Ji-hyeok bowed politely to her.

"I'll leave it in your hands, then, Professor."

"Don't worry."

Alice Blesbuck gave him a small, reassuring smile.

"The festival's about ten days out, right? I'll have it ready and delivered within five days at the latest."

"Then I'll trust you and wait, Professor."

After coming to in Yu Ji-hyeok's dorm, Alice Blesbuck hadn't headed straight back to her workshop.

She did have business of her own at the Academy, but more than that, Yu Ji-hyeok had asked her for a favor.

Even so, she couldn't exactly walk around the Academy in plain sight.

She'd been formally expelled from her professorship, and on top of that, the rumors that she'd carried out human experiments still hadn't been laid to rest.

Well aware of all this, Yu Ji-hyeok kept his words measured, careful not to bring up the subject even by accident, and Alice Blesbuck caught on without difficulty.

She, in turn, said nothing about it either.

"Um… I caused you a lot of trouble these past few days. You've really gone through a lot because of me."

Alice Blesbuck let out an awkward laugh, looking embarrassed.

"It wasn't trouble at all."

"No, I know perfectly well how much you put yourself out for me. And on top of that… well…"

She said, faintly blushing,

"Borrowing your bed on top of everything—I can hardly face you. When you really think about it, I barged in, jumped to conclusions, picked a fight, doubted you, and then shamelessly…"

The more she spoke, the more her shoulders sagged.

Alice let out a small but heavy sigh.

"I'm really sorry. As your teacher… no, I'm embarrassed to even call myself that—I can't bring myself to look you in the eye. You trusted me with everything, and meanwhile I broke into your room, doubted you, and nearly put you in danger…"

"Professor."

Yu Ji-hyeok nodded as if to say it was really fine.

"I'm the one who didn't think it through. If I'd sprung something like that on anyone the way I did… honestly, anyone would've been shocked and suspicious. You didn't do anything wrong. If anything, the fault was mine."

Despite his clumsy performance, Alice Blesbuck seemed to have bought it completely.

It wouldn't have worked on anyone else.

She'd believed him because he was Yu Ji-hyeok, because she was the one carrying a heavy burden of guilt toward him—Yu Ji-hyeok knew that perfectly well.

Maybe because of that, a flicker of guilt prompted him to comfort her in earnest, telling her there was no need to apologize.

"If anything, I want to thank you. You agreed to help me without hesitation—I'm truly grateful, Professor."

Alice Blesbuck looked briefly startled, then murmured with a soft smile,

"I came here meaning to apologize to you, and now I'm the one being comforted."

She gave a small nod of acceptance.

"…All right, for now I'll leave it there. We'll save the details until after everything's over, just like you said. I'll trust you, like I promised. As you put it, it's all or nothing at this point."

She was about to leave when she stopped with a little 'oh,' as if she'd nearly forgotten something.

"Actually, I just finished the delivery a moment ago, using the homunculi."

"Delivery?"

"You know, the one I showed you. My mother."

"Ah."

Yu Ji-hyeok nodded right away.

He'd been told several times that Natalia Milited's body—Natalia had also been a candidate for the sacrifice—would be handed over to Lee Ye-eun and sealed inside World Tree territory.

"Looks like it all wrapped up successfully just now."

"That's a relief."

She must have stayed where she was and operated the homunculi or golems remotely on the side.

Alice Blesbuck added with a slightly mischievous smile,

"And the clan head wanted me to pass on a message—she'll come see you soon, so be ready."

"…Ah, right."

The meaning behind "red" that Lee Yu-na had explained suddenly came back to him, and when he answered in a strained voice, Alice Blesbuck burst out laughing.

"All right, I really should be going. As I said, don't worry about what you asked. And I'll pass on every word of your message to Ryle."

"Yes, thank you. And please be careful on the way back. As you know, things are still…"

"Mm, I'm well aware. Don't worry."

Alice Blesbuck nodded.

"Thank you. And I really am sorry."

With those final words, she slowly dissolved into smoke and scattered like a mirage.

Even after she vanished, he kept staring at the spot where she'd stood for a while before nodding.

"All right, now…"

Muttering to himself, he raised his phone.

The screen displayed a text message crowded with cutesy emoticons.

Ding-dong! ヽ(＊>∇〈)ﾉ

Your order has arrived!

I'll be waiting at the spot where we first met and talked at the Academy.

٩(๑〉∀<๑)۶ < Hurry up!

The place where he'd first met Evangelline Loengreen and talked with her at the Academy…

After thinking for a moment, he remembered—they'd first run into each other at the guild invitation event, and they'd talked in the waiting room while killing time before Choi Hyun-woo's match.

"But that place should be locked up by now…"

After muttering that, he gave a small nod as if it didn't matter.

If anything, the absence of people meant they could exchange the item and talk in peace. More importantly, sneaking into a building with the shutters down and the locks engaged was nothing to either of them.

The moment he texted her that he'd head over right away, a reply came back as if she'd been waiting.

I'll be waiting.

( ˇ͈ᵕˇ͈ ) Zzz….

(๑╹∀╹๑) blink

⁽⁽◝( ˙ ꒳ ˙ )◜⁾⁾ boom-chk boom-chk

"……."

Looking at the texts, Yu Ji-hyeok had only one thought.

After all this, when they actually came face-to-face, something was bound to feel oddly stiff, unlike before.

He'd seen it happen plenty of times—people who chatted just fine over text but got fidgety and tongue-tied the moment they had to meet in person.

For some reason, the Evangelline Loengreen on the other end of these texts gave off that exact vibe—someone overdoing it to paper over the awkwardness.

"Eh."

Probably just his imagination.

Dismissing the thought, he brushed off his hands and felt inside his coat.

'If anything, the timing works out.'

He confirmed the flask was still safely tucked away and gave a small nod.

He'd divided the Yoon Seul-hye blood that Jin Ye-seul had given him between two flasks, since he had separate favors to ask of Alice Blesbuck and Evangelline Loengreen.

[Well, well….]

Just then, Sbeungali's incredulous murmur drifted into his ear.

He spoke as if he genuinely, truly couldn't wrap his head around it.

[How is it that every single person you arrange to meet and talk with is a woman…?]

"I told you to keep your mouth shut for a while."

Yu Ji-hyeok snapped back in a voice too low for anyone else to catch.

[Now, that's harsh.]

Sbeungali grumbled.

[Have you already forgotten how many times yours truly fished you out of woman trouble? See for yourself—the moment I stop offering advice, you're already sinking into the mire, getting tangled up with one after another.]

"……."

[And the way it looks from here, you're not just going to end up dismembered—you're going to be shredded into so many pieces no one will ever find a trace of you—!?]

Yu Ji-hyeok had no more patience for Sbeungali's voice, cackling and mocking him from inside his head.

Better to listen to the bastard scream than hear another word out of his mouth—that was his thinking.

Leaving behind Sbeungali's pleading screams that he was actually dying, he picked up his pace.

He had to go meet Evangelline Loengreen.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!