Conquering the Academy with Just a Sashimi Knife (Novel) - Chapter 94 - Finals (4)

Chapter 94 – Finals (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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At the tip of Rachel’s index finger stood a single door.

A white wooden door standing politely in the middle of a desolate wasteland. Beyond it, the wasteland simply continued onward again.

‘That thing… is the checkpoint?’

It was an utterly bizarre sight. The shabby-looking exterior only made the atmosphere feel more surreal.

As I stood there dazed, Choi Seol-ah came up beside me before I knew it and spoke.

“Geom-ma sir, that thing may look like just a door, but the magic power it’s giving off is no joke. It’s enough to distort space, even though it’s only a single door.”

“…That thing is that bad?”

“Yep, yep. It’s my first time in the Special Hall too, so I don’t know for sure, but it doesn’t feel like an ordinary checkpoint.”

Choi Seol-ah’s eyes sparkled. Normally, instructors didn’t have much reason to enter the Special Hall, so it seemed this was an unfamiliar sight for her too.

“Since I’m the leader, I’ll go check it out first-!”

Meanwhile, Rachel kicked up a swirl of dust and ran forward. Maybe the ten-minute break had done her good, because her steps were quick and full of power.

Hana senpai also flicked her gaze in that direction as if signaling me. I nodded and started walking again.

All of us gathered in front of the door. Rachel stared at it for a moment, then moved her gaze toward me. Her eyes seemed to ask for my approval before opening it.

“Let’s go in.”

“Okay!”

The instant my words ended, Rachel grabbed the doorknob. The strength of her grip made the metal creak and warp. Right after that, with a shout of “Here I go!” she shoved it as if she were trying to smash the entire door to pieces.

“Huh?”

“Careful!”

The recoil from the kick made Rachel stagger, and Hana senpai grabbed her sleeve and yanked her back.

Rachel tilted her head in thanks. Hana senpai only smiled faintly in silence.

The next moment, everyone’s eyes turned toward the scene beyond the gap in the doorway.

‘…Who puts something like this here without even a warning light?’

The first thing I saw was a long rope bridge. Planks crudely lashed together with rotted cords.

Beneath the bridge, instead of the dry wasteland, there spread a lake filled with murky green water.

The lake swelled and shrank with sticky bubbles, as if it were breathing. Calling it a lake was generous. With how thick and viscous it looked, it was closer to a bog.

Whether I knew the details or not, one thing was certain: if your skin touched that lake, you wouldn’t come away unharmed.

I raised my eyes again. At the far end of the bridge, something that looked like another landform shimmered faintly. It was long, but if one hurried their feet, it looked like something you could reach within twenty minutes.

Meanwhile, each time the bridge swayed, it let out creaking noises.

As if warning, `Do not cross that river.`

“……”

Silence lingered for a long time.

No one wanted to volunteer to take the lead.

Could that delicate jumble of planks really support my weight? If my foot slipped, I’d sink into that revolting lake.

‘Should I just give up here?’

I genuinely thought that for a moment. I had been afraid of heights since my previous life. My body might be Kang Geom-ma’s now, but my mind was still mine. To be perfectly honest, that bridge felt more distasteful to me than a demon.

“Haah.”

In the end, I shook my head and let out a long sigh. We hadn’t come all this way just to turn our backs now.

When I had faced Legion Commander Agor, I had been bold enough, hadn’t I? I couldn’t let myself chicken out over nothing more than a bridge like this. It would damage the dignity of a real man.

‘That said, I still don’t really want to just walk straight onto it…’

And so the worry started again.

But my train of thought didn’t last long.

I turned my head and looked at Choi Seol-ah. She had her hand raised to her brow like a visor and was staring fixedly at the lake while murmuring to herself.

“Ohh, so the source of all that flowing magic power was the lake. No wonder it felt so unusual.”

Choi Seol-ah nodded to herself in understanding. I addressed her by her role.

“Instructor.”

“Y-yes…?! I mean, yeah?”

Choi Seol-ah stumbled over a mix of honorific and informal speech. It seemed that using respectful language toward me had become so ingrained that she was momentarily confused.

“W-what is it, Cadet Kang Geom-ma?”

“I have a request.”

Rachel and Hana senpai looked at me once, then immediately shifted their gazes to Choi Seol-ah. Smiling meaningfully, I said.

“Instructor, you go first.”

“…Huh?”

“The middle-aged instructor said it before the exam started, didn’t he? `The reason the instructors are accompanying you is to prevent any unfortunate accidents that might befall the cadets.` Wouldn’t it fit that purpose for you to take the lead in a situation like this?”

“B-but this is still part of the exam. If I interfere as an instructor and something ends up disadvantaging you, what then?”

“There’s no way this place has surveillance cameras or anything, and it’s outside the domain of subspace, right? If we all match our stories, it feels like there wouldn’t be any way for word to leak out. And even if we do get caught, we’ll just take the penalty ourselves.”

With nothing more than a glance, I asked the others for their opinion. The two of them both nodded vigorously, strongly showing their agreement.

“I’m with Geom-ma!”

“Me too.”

“…Ah.”

At those reactions, Choi Seol-ah’s pupils spun like little pinwheels. If it had been anyone else saying it, maybe things would have been different, but this was me. A situation where only one option was being forced on her.

Honestly, even I knew this was over the line. It was definitely cheating.

But we had already used Choi Seol-ah’s ability to detect magic power to get through the first checkpoint, so there was no reason we couldn’t use it a second time.

I understood that the purpose of this second checkpoint was to test the cadets’ nerve, but apart from that educational purpose, it was bound to be stuffed full of Balor Hoakin’s mad obsession too.

This was a place personally constructed by the founder of the Academy, a man obsessed with real combat. I decided it was better to prepare for a possible accident than to fall into that lake and end up crippled.

Choi Seol-ah was tall, almost model-like. If that fragile bridge could bear her weight, then there shouldn’t be much problem for me or Hana senpai either.

‘…Rachel’s a different story.’

Wasn’t there that old saying about tapping even a stone bridge before crossing it? The only difference here was that Choi Seol-ah would be the one doing the tapping for us.

Pa-at.

[By using your wits, the Rank of the Mind has increased.]

More or less, the team’s opinions had aligned.

By contrast, Choi Seol-ah looked up at me with eyes brimming with tears. If there hadn’t been others watching, it was the sort of face that would’ve clung to someone’s pant leg in desperation.

“I-I-I can’t do it…! I have acrophobia!”

‘Bullshit.’

As I looked silently at Choi Seol-ah, all sorts of thoughts crossed my mind. She had once tried to sabotage me and kill me.

That much was indisputably true. If I wanted to hold a grudge, even stabbing her several times wouldn’t have satisfied me. But I hadn’t punished her in that way.

Instead, I had been working her like a dog, and she had obeyed with remarkable diligence. As if trying to prove her own worth.

I slowly, very slowly, stepped toward Choi Seol-ah.

At that, she backed away one timid step at a time, until her backside hit the ground with a thump.

“Ah, shit, that hurts.”

I looked down at her quietly and then crouched. Choi Seol-ah rolled her eyes around desperately, trying to avoid my gaze. At last she lowered her head all the way. In a small voice, I said.

“If you cross this first, I’ll grant you one thing you want.”

“…Really?”

“Anything except the mark of the broodmare.”

“……”

I cut off her expectations without hesitation. Choi Seol-ah immediately pouted.

“…Mm.”

She crossed her arms and thought for a long while. Before long, as if something had occurred to her, her face brightened. Dusting off her backside, she got to her feet.

“That’s a promise!”

Honestly, I didn’t especially intend to keep it.

Still, I nodded for now.

Choi Seol-ah strode forward in long, confident steps. With her long limbs, her stride looked almost like a model’s walk.

When she came right up to the bridge, she poked at it a few times with the tip of her foot. A rope bridge that wriggled like a snake.

She gulped once, then looked back at me. Unease flickered in her eyes. I only jerked my chin toward the bridge indifferently.

“E-e-everyone, just trust me and follow carefully! This instructor will take responsibility for your safety!”

“Waaah, so cool~, clap clap.”

Choi Seol-ah’s voice trembled as she spoke.

Hana senpai chimed in with a voice that had completely lost its soul.

As if carving courage into herself, Choi Seol-ah thumped her chest twice and then took one big step forward.

The next instant, all of us lost the ability to speak.

“Kids, I think it’s safer than it looks!”

Without even turning back, Choi Seol-ah waved one hand and called out. Then she continued onward in a strange shambling crawl.

“……”

We all silently watched her from behind.

Making her valiant declaration look ridiculous, Choi Seol-ah was crawling on all fours.

* * *

“Haah, haah.”

Saki Ryozo cut her breathing into short pieces.

Because of the damned magic power, there wasn’t a part of her body left that didn’t ache, arms and legs alike. She only raised her eyes slightly and glared ahead.

‘Leon, that lunatic.’

A curse rose all the way to the tip of her throat, only to sink back down again. She didn’t even have the strength left to squeeze it through her vocal cords. Just trying to steady her stiffened body was burden enough.

Saki shifted her gaze slightly. Erio senpai’s complexion had gone deathly pale, and she looked as though she might collapse at any moment. She too had reached the limit of her stamina.

Saki distorted her eyes and then turned them back ahead.

‘If we keep matching that bastard Leon’s pace, we’re going to drop dead here.’

They had walked without resting for nearly an hour. Thanks to that, they had crossed the second checkpoint quickly and drawn close to the exam’s final destination. At this speed, they would naturally seize first place.

But Saki and Erio’s condition was a complete mess. Their stamina had bottomed out, and their legs refused to move any more.

And then there was this third location. Spiral stairs clinging to the wall continued all the way up toward a ceiling whose height was impossible to measure. A towering structure where every thousand steps or so opened into another level.

It was a demon tower, the dwelling place of demons within Gehenna.

And the founder, Balor Hoakin, had even recreated that at a roughly similar scale.

Even in the middle of that, Saki kept count of the steps she’d climbed in the back of her mind. So far they had ascended a total of 4,897 steps without rest.

The demon tower itself felt as though it pulsed like living flesh. If one carelessly braced a hand against the wall, sticky mucus would ooze out. Saki had accidentally touched it once and felt goosebumps race down her spine.

On top of that, because the magic power here was even denser than in the first and second zones, her stamina was disappearing like snow under sunlight. It felt as though the demon tower itself were gnawing away at human life force and using it as nourishment.

Even so, Leon moved ahead without hesitation, as though he had no leeway or need to pay attention to his teammates. At the sight of that, what little patience Saki had left finally vanished.

“Hey-!”

A shout burst from between Saki’s pale lips. Leon slowly turned his head back. Erio Fine, too, breathing in ragged, difficult gasps, looked back and forth between Saki and Leon.

“What is it this time?”

A voice cold enough to be chilling. In the corners of Leon’s eyes there was a frost-like sharpness. A grim dizziness clawed through her whole body along her veins.

Cold sweat ran down Saki’s cheek. Then, suddenly, Leon gathered up that look in his eyes and shook his head sharply.

“Sorry, Saki. I guess I’m more on edge than I realized because I’m tired too.”

Leon added that with an awkward smile.

“If we climb just a few more stairs, we’ll reach the fifth floor. Let’s rest there.”

“……”

Saki gave no answer at all. She simply held his gaze in silence for a long time. As Saki stared straight into Leon’s eyes, her pupils sharpened.

“Anyway, let’s all hang in there just a little longer. I’ll go ahead first and check the fifth floor. Come up slowly.”

With that, Leon quickened his pace and climbed the stairs. Saki watched his back for a while, then turned her head away.

Erio Fine was clinging to the slimy wall, looking as though every last ounce of strength had drained out of her. The male instructor gently tried to soothe her as she retched over and over, her stomach visibly churning.

“We’re almost there now. Just hold on a little longer.”

“…Haah, haah. Instructor, I really can’t walk anymore.”

Even with the instructor’s encouragement, Erio shook her head, tears and saliva trailing from her face. The instructor looked helpless, caught between what to do and what not to do.

Those scenes were all being captured in Saki’s eyes.

Step, step.

Saki turned and walked over toward the lagging Erio. When she reached Erio’s feet, she crouched down and presented her back.

“Get on, senpai.”

“…Huh? But…”

“The person who can still manage it has to be the one to carry you. Get on quickly, before I change my mind. Just bending my knees like this is already hard enough.”

Erio hesitated for a long while, then finally entrusted her limp body to Saki.

“Ugh… ngh…!”

Magic power was already cutting through her body, and adding the weight of another person on top of that made it feel as though she might die at any second. On top of that, despite her thin frame, Erio senpai was as heavy as a block of metal of the same size.

“…Sorry. I’m really heavy, aren’t I?”

“Senpai, after this exam, lose some weight… How can someone with nothing but bones still weigh this much.”

Saki bit down on her lower lip and stepped forward.

Sacrificing herself for someone else. It was an action she never would’ve imagined herself taking in the past.

Suddenly, one face rose in her mind. One person who never spared himself no matter what danger stood before him.

Just as Saki gave a little snort and tried to steady her wobbling knees, Erio suddenly whispered in a low voice.

“…Hey, Saki.”

“Senpai, I seriously feel like I’m going to die if you say one more word right now, okay? We can talk after we cli-”

–Thuk.

A dagger buried itself in Saki’s collarbone. The blade sank deep enough to reach near her lung.

“Ghk.”

Saki’s pupils shook violently, and a groan of pain escaped her. Then she pitched forward.

Her forehead struck the steps and split open. Blood ran out in web-like streams, dyeing her vision red.

Saki barely managed to move only her eyes and look behind her.

Within that reddish vision, Erio Fine was slowly lifting the corners of her mouth, while the instructor stood with his hands behind his back, looking down on her. The eyes of both of them gleamed ominously.

Then Erio Fine opened her mouth.

“I was worried you’d notice me, or Leon would, while we were coming all this way. But Saki, thanks to you making such a mess, things went much more smoothly than expected. Thanks~.”

“…Haah, haah.”

“Ah, and that dagger’s coated in poison, so don’t bother trying to stand up. If you do, you’ll only die faster.”

Erio tapped Saki’s cheek lightly. Then, humming to herself, she said to the instructor.

“Ah, right. Bring that one up too. If the babies coming after us see a corpse sprawled out on the stairs and run away, that’d be a problem.”

“Yes.”

The instructor grabbed Saki by the ankle and dragged her up the stairs.

As fresh blood smeared across the wall and the steps, her pupils only grew cloudier and cloudier. In the thinning edge of her consciousness, Saki called one name.

‘Geom-ma…’

Her eyelashes slowly lowered.