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Chapter 181: Interlude – Prison Break (2)
The room, now chilly.
Three pairs of eyes gleaming with a sharp edge turned toward me.
"Calm down, everyone. Professor Elisha was just joking."
I gulped and opened my mouth, trying to ease the tense atmosphere.
"A joke? A joke?"
"Then are you saying you weren’t with Professor Elisha?"
"No, I was, but…"
I was with her, but—
"There! See? You were together!"
"Calm yourself, Candidate Iris,"
Professor Elisha said with a faint smirk, the corners of her lips curling playfully.
"Sure, we were together. Just for a moment, engaging in some intense exercise, working up a sweat, letting out groans and screams in between."
"…"
At Professor Elisha’s words, Iris narrowed her eyes sharply.
"Professor, maybe that’s enough joking around."
"Oh dear, caught on, have you?"
"No matter how much Dale might chase after women, he’s not the kind of person who’d fool around with you in the middle of a war."
"Hoho, I agree."
Professor Elisha nodded, sipping her strong whiskey.
"So, what exactly happened between you two?"
"Dale and I fought the Archbishop of Beasts who infiltrated the Abyss."
"…What?"
"Excuse me, what?!"
Iris and Yurina’s eyes widened in shock at the bombshell Professor Elisha dropped.
"Is… Is that true?"
"The Abyss… You mean the Abyss, right? The place beneath the Hero Academy where the Demon God is sealed? They taught us it’s protected by a powerful barrier that no one can penetrate…"
Their trembling gazes were filled with disbelief.
Professor Elisha let out a bitter chuckle, as if recalling her own past, and nodded.
"We also don’t know how the Archbishop of the Beasts managed to descend to the lower depths of the Abyss. But Candidate Dale noticed his absence from the battlefield and decided to pursue him."
"Now that you mention it… The Beast Legion showed up, but the Archbishop himself was nowhere to be seen."
"There weren’t any especially strong beasts either,"
Yurina and Iris murmured, nodding as they pieced their memories together.
"And… what happened? Did Dale get hurt?"
Lanez asked, her trembling voice betraying her fear.
Although her tone resembled that of a frightened herbivore, her piercing glare and the way she bit her nails made it clear—if I’d been injured, she’d grind the Archbishop into dust without hesitation.
"Hoho, don’t worry. Nothing serious."
"So… he was injured."
"Well, it’s not like you can defeat an Archbishop without a scratch, can you?"
"I suppose… but still."
Lanez bit her nails, her leg bouncing nervously.
"And what happened to the Archbishop of the Beasts?"
"Dead."
"I see."
Lanez’s face fell into a sulk, her disappointment evident.
I sighed softly as I watched her.
‘I already told her I can’t die, didn’t I?’
Lanez had a tendency to lose control of her power if her mental state crumbled, so I had previously revealed to her the Blessing of Revival I bore.
If I were to die in front of her, the shock might trigger a catastrophic outbreak of her Frost’s Blessing.
In other words, Lanez knew I couldn’t die, no matter how severe the injury.
‘Yet even knowing that, she reacts so strongly.’
I gazed at Lanez with a complicated expression.
While I appreciated her concern, her instability was akin to a bomb that could go off at any moment, making it difficult to simply feel grateful.
‘I need to figure out a way for Lanez to control her blessing.’
With that thought, I took a sip of the liquor in my glass.
“Candidate Dale.”
“Yes?”
Professor Elisha, who had been checking her Hero Watch, turned to me with a stiff expression.
"Can we talk privately for a moment?"
I nodded and followed her out of the main hall and into the corridor outside the cafeteria.
"What’s the matter?"
"There’s a problem."
Her voice was low and grave as she began.
"The Archbishop of Corruption… Serpente, was it?"
"Yes."
One of Mephisto’s servants we had captured and detained in the Magian Containment Facility in Valhalla City.
"Serpente has escaped."
"…What?"
Escape?
"To be precise, someone attacked the containment facility during the war with the Beast Legion and broke her out."
"…Hah."
Her words made my face harden.
‘Someone attacked the containment facility and broke Serpente out during the war?’
It wasn’t hard to guess who the likely culprit was.
"Was it Mephisto?"
"There’s no confirmation, but… it seems likely."
"…"
Mephisto himself breaking into the containment facility to rescue Serpente?
For a servant he could discard at any time without a second thought?
"…Wait."
Suddenly, the words exchanged with the Archbishop of the Beasts came to mind.
Jackal had mentioned that Mephisto told him how to descend to the Abyss.
"If that’s the case… did he reveal the method to Jackal as part of a plan to free Serpente?"
"I can’t say for sure,"
Elisha responded, shaking her head slightly.
"But if that hypothesis is true…"
"…Then it was a double decoy."
We had assumed Jackal and the Beast Legion were distractions while he descended into the Abyss.
But if—
If Jackal himself was the decoy…
“I don’t understand. Is there really a reason to go so far to save a familiar? A bishop is nothing more than a disposable pawn to an archbishop, isn’t it?”
“…I don’t know.”
It was incomprehensible.
Despite an extensive interrogation about Serpente, she didn’t seem to know much about Mephisto.
Right.
As Professor Elisha had said, she was nothing more than a “disposable pawn.”
“And yet they used even another archbishop as bait just to save that familiar?”
It wasn’t just burning down a house to catch a flea—it was like burning down an entire city.
“…I’m sorry.”
“What? For what?”
Professor Elisha’s face darkened as she continued.
“For losing the demon you trusted me with, Candidate Dale… through my carelessness.”
“Oh.”
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So that’s why she was apologizing all of a sudden.
“It’s not your fault, Professor Elisha.”
This was a scheme that used even an archbishop as bait.
No matter how careful she was, this would’ve been impossible to prevent.
“Still…”
“Even if I had known Jackal was the bait, I would have gone after Jackal first.”
Serpente or Jackal.
There wasn’t even a need to compare which was more important.
“Hmm.”
Professor Elisha’s face, which had been clouded with gloom, brightened like the break of dawn.
“As expected, Candidate Iris was right.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re too daring.”
“…?”
What’s that supposed to mean?
“Well, anyway… this only deepens the mystery surrounding Mephisto.”
“Indeed.”
To go to such lengths just to save their own familiar…
‘Mephisto….’
Letting out a heavy sigh, I looked up at the sky.
No matter how hard I combed through my memories of my previous life, I couldn’t guess Mephisto’s true objective.
‘What is it you’re after?’
The school buzzed with a festive atmosphere.
The sky was gradually being dyed by darkness.
* * *
An abandoned building in Valhalla City.
In the pitch-black darkness, a man wearing a white mask sat.
“Hmm.”
The man stroked his chin and spoke in a low voice.
“What’s your objective?”
“……”
At his question, a handsome man with silver hair and a golden monocle kept his lips sealed.
Beside him, a silver-haired woman lay collapsed, her face exhausted.
The Archfiend Mephisto and his familiar, Serpente.
With a rustle, Mephisto lifted Serpente and gently laid her on an old bed in a corner of the room.
The masked man leaned lazily against the back of his chair, watching Mephisto.
“I believe I told you to use the chaos to bring Lanez Malam to me?”
“……”
“No answer?”
At the masked man’s persistent questioning, Mephisto finally opened his mouth.
“My expectations were off.”
“Off, you say?”
“Lanez Malam joined the war.”
Originally, Lanez was supposed to be hiding in the school with the other junior candidates, but somehow, she ended up on the battlefield where the war against the monster horde raged.
“With the professors of the Hero Academy and Lionel Ryu there, I couldn’t extract Lanez.”
“Hmm. So instead, you chose to save your familiar?”
A soft chuckle leaked out from beneath the white mask.
“Well… from what I see, it seems like saving your familiar was your priority from the start.”
“……”
At the masked man’s continued words, Mephisto clamped his mouth shut.
“Ah, no matter. It doesn’t significantly affect the plan anyway.”
The masked man leisurely stood up and glanced at Serpente lying on the bed.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“…Yes.”
“What’s the relationship between you and that familiar? You don’t seem to meet with her often.”
“……”
“Hmm. No answer this time, either?”
The masked man laughed, his shoulders shaking.
“In any case, you’d better be careful.”
“…Careful?”
“Having someone precious to you can often be your most fatal weakness.”
“……”
At the masked man’s words, a killing intent flickered in Mephisto’s eyes.
“If you ever lay a hand on Serpente…”
“Oh my, how scary. I don’t dare say anything now.”
The masked man playfully raised his hands in mock surrender.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of harming your dear, beloved familiar.”
For some reason, even with the mask covering his face, it felt as though the man’s wide smile could be seen.
“At least, not for now.”
“……”
Mephisto clenched his fist so tightly it seemed it might break, biting down hard on his lips.
“You know, it’s fascinating… risking your life to protect nothing more than a familiar.”
The masked man’s eyes gleamed with curiosity as he looked at Mephisto.
“Not very demon-like of you.”
“……”
Mephisto turned away from the man and spoke in a low voice.
“And you… are not very hero-like.”
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