Villain Takes Over The Academy #Chapter 63 - Read Villain Takes Over The Academy Chapter 63 Online - All Page

Chapter 63

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]

Chapter 63

“Phew…!”

As my breath steadied and the suffocating pressure lifted, my vision brightened. My body, which had been frozen inside the illusion, felt unfamiliar—almost as if it didn't belong to me.

“At least one thing’s clear—I’ve escaped the illusion.”

The awkwardness in my movements was a telltale sign of breaking free from an illusion.

Illusion magic numbs the nervous system, and the longer one remains trapped in it, the more time it takes for sensations to fully return.

“I was dangerously close to never coming back…”

Looking back, I got lucky. With my current stats, there was no viable way to break Yang Se-ah’s illusion spell on my own. But the talisman she left behind in her office provided the key.

“She probably never imagined that someone would be able to decipher the spell inscribed on her talisman…”

Do Jin-hak’s Perception of Reality is still a relatively obscure spell.

In the combat system of Military Chronicle, where understanding the opponent’s spell structure is a major advantage, Perception of Reality has the potential to be a devastating countermeasure.

‘No matter how high-level a spell is, once you analyze its structure, the chances of breaking it increase significantly.’

Had Yang Se-ah known I possessed such a spell, she never would have made the mistake of leaving her talisman behind in her office.

Of course, I can’t always count on luck like this…

‘More importantly, where am I now?’

I had overcome a major crisis, but the situation wasn’t over yet.

I quickly scanned my surroundings and spotted a metal door—the same one Shin A-sol had been pounding on with her shield earlier.

‘So this is where I got trapped in the illusion.’

From behind the metal door, I could hear the sounds of a struggle.

I pushed it open and stepped inside, only to find Shin A-sol battling desperately in the dimly lit hallway.

‘What is she doing…?’

She was locked in combat with something unseen, dodging and parrying dozens of flying blades that came at her from all directions.

As I walked toward her, she turned to me with wide, startled eyes.

“P-Professor Do! You’re back to normal?”

Her face was a mixture of shock and relief. For her to be that glad to see me, things must have been really bad.

“What the hell is going on? And what are those blades?”

“Well, it’s kind of a long story…”

Even while expertly deflecting the incoming blades with her shield, Shin A-sol quickly explained the situation.

The moment she unlocked the metal door, my body had gone completely rigid—like my soul had been sucked out. Panicked, she had tried to break whatever spell was affecting me, but before she could make any progress, blades suddenly started flying down the hallway…

“…So you’ve been holding them off this whole time? To protect me?”

“Well, you’re a Deconstructionist Department professor. I figured you’d be able to break the spell on your own… But I didn’t know how long you’d be out, so I just held out as long as I could—ah! Watch out!”

CLANG-!

She barely managed to block a blade that had come slicing toward me, her shield absorbing the impact.

Her defensive technique was flawless, but I could see that she was exhausted—her breath was ragged, and her movements had slowed.

‘She must have been fighting like this for quite a while…’

"Iron Fortress"—one of the most renowned physical combat specialists in Military Chronicle.

For someone like Shin A-sol to be this winded meant she had been enduring a relentless barrage of attacks for some time now.

‘She really is impressive…’

She could have run away at any time, yet she stayed and fought to protect a professor she doesn’t even like. That was classic Shin A-sol.

But while her loyalty was admirable, my mind was focused on something else— A crucial clue buried in her explanation.

‘So the illusion was only cast on me?’

From what she said, Yang Se-ah’s illusion spell hadn’t affected Shin A-sol at all.

That meant I could now guess what the "switch" was.

‘It was the metal door.’

I turned to look at the door I had just passed through. That was the hidden trigger for Yang Se-ah’s illusion.

‘She had set up two layers of spells—a locking spell on the door and an illusion spell that activated when the lock was removed.’

The illusion had been concealed within the locking spell, making it undetectable.

If my Perception of Reality had been at a higher level, I might have spotted it before falling into the trap…

'At my current level, there was no way to avoid falling for that trick.'

I finally understood why I hadn’t noticed the illusion spell’s trigger. It had never occurred to me that Yang Se-ah would use such a high-level spell trick.

‘How utterly audacious.’

I set down Okamoto’s potion case for a moment, then strode past Shin A-sol, making my way down the abandoned school hallway. Immediately, a barrage of countless blades rained down on me from all directions.

“H-Hey! What are you doing?! That’s dangerous—!”

Shin A-sol, alarmed, raised her shield and tried to rush toward me.

But before she could reach me, I caught the incoming blades with my bare hands—one after another, without hesitation.

Clang-

I tossed the blades to the ground, and in an instant, the floor was littered with them. The moment dozens of swords had piled up, no more came flying.

“H-How…? How did you catch all those blades with your bare hands…?”

Shin A-sol furrowed her brow as she stared at my unscathed hands.

It was an expression of complete disbelief. But her reaction was only natural.

“My hands are fine because these blades never existed in the first place.”

As I spoke, the swords scattered across the floor began to blur and then vanished completely.

Another of Yang Se-ah’s illusions.

Unlike the spell that had trapped me, this was a type of illusion that created false objects in the real world.

“This kind of illusion only persists as long as you believe it’s real.”

The moment you recognize it as fake, the illusion loses its effect.

Shin A-sol muttered in a hollow voice, as if she had been possessed by a ghost.

“…I had no idea. So I was just fighting a hallucination this whole time?”

“There’s no need to feel bad about it. Thanks to you, I had time to break free.”

If she hadn’t held out, I would have been completely helpless against Yang Se-ah. I could already picture the future I narrowly avoided—being sacrificed as an offering while I flailed uselessly inside the illusion.

“Who could’ve done this? Who set this all up…?”

“You’ll find out soon enough. They couldn’t have gone far.”

“Huh? What do you mean? Who couldn’t have gone far?”

“There’s someone who’s now trapped in their own scheme.”

I picked up the potion case again and continued down the hallway.

Still struggling to make sense of my words, Shin A-sol tilted her head in confusion but followed after me.

* * *

As we walked deeper down the corridor past the iron door, bloodstains began to appear along the floor.

The same kind of bloodstains I had seen near the main entrance earlier.

The trail of blood led to an auditorium—a place that looked identical to the one I had seen inside the illusion.

Creeeak-

As I pushed open the door, the scene inside was different from the illusion. Instead of a bottomless cliff, it was a real auditorium.

Dim, flickering lights.

A decrepit, run-down stage.

The bodies of students strewn across the floor.

And, collapsed near a shattered window—

Yang Se-ah.

“Se-ah? Why are you here…?”

Shin A-sol gasped in shock and tried to run toward her.

But before she could move, I raised a hand to stop her.

“She’s the one behind this whole mess. She lured students here with anonymous emails and used illusion magic to turn them into sacrifices.”

“W-Wait, Se-ah did that?”

Shin A-sol looked utterly unconvinced.

I began explaining everything I had seen inside the illusion—every detail of how it had played out.

She could be stubborn at times, but she wasn’t dense.

“…So you’re saying Se-ah really used them as sacrifices…?”

As I spoke, I saw her expression shift. She still seemed conflicted, but she wasn’t outright denying it.

It seemed she and Yang Se-ah weren’t particularly close, which made it easier for her to accept the truth.

“…But why is she collapsed like that?”

“Because her spell broke. A spell that intricate takes a huge toll on the caster when it fails.”

This was what was known as Spell Recoil.

In Military Chronicle, the higher the spell’s rank, the more devastating the consequences if it fails.

This was why using powerful spells wasn’t always an advantage—miscalculate, and you could end up like this.

“Ugh… D-Don’t come any closer…!”

Even as she coughed up blood, Yang Se-ah crawled backward, trying to get away.

Shin A-sol’s voice wavered with a mixture of anger and sorrow.

“Se-ah… Tell me the truth. What happened to Okamoto? What about the others?”

“Well… Who knows where they are…?”

“Why did you do this?! This isn’t who you are!”

“…You think this isn’t who I am?”

Yang Se-ah momentarily lowered her head, her eyes filled with sorrow.

“It doesn’t matter... You wouldn’t understand anyway. Someone like you, who shines effortlessly...”

Her gaze turned toward me.

“You... You said my family was pitiful, didn’t you? That’s nonsense. Not once have I resented my parents. The only thing I ever resented was the limits of my own talent, my inability to make them happy...”

Struggling, Yang Se-ah crawled toward the window and flung it open. Beyond it, darkness loomed.

“The Divine Beast gave me a revelation... a revelation on how to prove my worth in this wretched school.”

“You mean precognition?”

At my words, her face stiffened in shock.

I had a rough idea of the abilities of Mak, the entity lurking within this abandoned school. It drained students of their life force and used that power to glimpse the future. That was likely how she had access to exam answers as well.

“You must have known I was coming. That’s why you installed cameras in my office.”

“Y-yes... The Divine Beast knows everything. It even knew that you and Shin A-sol would come looking for me... though I didn’t expect to end up like this...”

I had suspected as much. It never made sense that Yang Se-ah suddenly decided to help Nam Kang-ik. She must have learned of the future and feigned ignorance to get close to him, hoping to analyze my actions.

“But I bet you didn’t anticipate it back then—the single talisman you left behind in my office would lead to this outcome.”

“......”

Yang Se-ah pressed her lips together tightly.

But there was no regret or bitterness on her face. Instead, in those once-timid eyes, I could see a fanatical gleam—one eerily similar to the Nightmare Creator I had encountered in a previous timeline.

“I may not have known... but the Divine Beast is different. It sees everything. Even this very moment.”

Suddenly, she clasped her hands into a triangular shape and began chanting a spell.

The bodies of unconscious students, which had been hidden by her illusion magic, now reappeared around her.

Among them was Okamoto Daichi.

Shin A-sol gasped.

“Okamoto...! Professor, they’re still alive!”

As the illusion concealing the students dissipated, a sound echoed from outside the window.

Buuuuuuu—

It was the same eerie cry I had heard in the annex classroom before.

From the darkness beyond the window, a massive, familiar elephant-like trunk emerged.

“Divine Beast, I’ve gathered your offerings! Feast upon them and bestow upon me a new revelation...!”

Yang Se-ah’s voice brimmed with devotion. To her, Mak was not a mere entity—it was a savior, an all-knowing god.

Buuuuuuu—

However, the long, thick trunk did not reach for the unconscious students.

After sniffing them a few times, Mak quickly lost interest.

Instead, it turned—slowly but unmistakably—toward Yang Se-ah.

“D-Divine Beast...? What’s wrong...?”

She only realized something was amiss when it was too late.

With terrifying speed, the trunk coiled around her body and swallowed her whole, starting from her head.

“?!@#$%#@...!”

A ghastly scream reverberated from within the massive trunk as Mak began to drain every last drop of life from her.

“W-what just happened?! Why did the Divine Beast suddenly attack Se-ah?!”

“That thing isn’t a Divine Beast. It’s a villain that tricked her into offering sacrifices.”

“A v-villain?!”

There was one crucial truth hidden within the Sacrificial Offering Quest of the abandoned school—

The so-called Divine Beast Mak was not a deity at all. It was a villain that had infiltrated the school.

This quest was originally designed to intertwine with Yang Hak-je’s personal storyline, where the player would assist him in solving the case.

‘Yang Hak-je must have suspected it. That the Yang clan was involved in this incident.’

That would explain his keen interest in this matter.

In the original game, the player and Yang Hak-je were meant to defeat the villain, and Yang Se-ah would be expelled from the academy as a result.

‘That’s why she was never seen again in the academy after that.’

After being cast out as a disgrace to her clan, with nowhere else to go, Yang Se-ah would have eventually turned to the forbidden Blood Ritual.

Later, on the battlefield, she would reappear under the name Nightmare Creator.

All of it—just to prove her worth to Yang Hak-je and her family.

‘That must have been the fate the developers originally wrote for her...’

But this time, Yang Se-ah wouldn’t make it to the battlefield.

Not when Mak was draining the very last drop of life from her.

Crack-

The lifeless body of Yang Se-ah tumbled to the ground like a discarded piece of firewood. From outside the window, the villain Mak’s satisfied laughter echoed.

“Hohoho…! Absolutely delicious! Such a delectable dream!”

Crash-!

Crack-!

Shattering the thick concrete walls, Mak finally revealed his true form.

With the head of a massive elephant, four arms, and an elongated trunk, Mak was a villain modeled after Ganesha, the deity from Indian mythology.

As soon as his true identity was exposed, Shin A-sol gritted her teeth, looking ready to lunge at him.

“Why would you do this…? Se-ah helped you this entire time!”

Shin A-sol’s voice trembled with fury, but Mak only clicked his tongue as if he truly had no choice.

“You saw it on your way here, didn’t you? Everything in excess leads to disaster! Those who are too greedy must be punished! This poor child dreamed far too big for the talent she possessed! A dream much greater than the other offerings…!”

Yang Se-ah had only ever held onto one dream.

To become the person who could help Yang Hak-je the most.

To prove to her entire clan that she was not useless.

But that was a dream beyond the limits of her own abilities—an impossible aspiration that had enticed Mak’s insatiable hunger.

“The bigger the dream, the richer and sweeter its scent. And I… I simply cannot resist such an aroma…!”

“You monster…!”

With her shield raised, Shin A-sol charged like an enraged bull. Mak, however, shut his eyes and swiftly began chanting an incantation.

Whoosh-!

Shin A-sol launched a relentless barrage of shield strikes, her attacks imbued with overwhelming strength.

Yet Mak dodged them effortlessly. Despite his massive frame, he moved with an almost unnatural agility, evading each attack as if he already knew exactly where the shield would strike.

“Buuuuh… You have quite the enticing scent yourself. I wonder what kind of dream you’re carrying?”

Having missed every single strike, Shin A-sol was left completely vulnerable.

Seizing the opening, Mak’s long trunk coiled around her in an instant.

“L-let go of me…!”

Shin A-sol struggled with all her might, but breaking free was no easy task. If someone with an A-rank strength stat like hers was unable to budge, then there was a high probability that Mak had cast a spell to debuff her physical abilities.

‘Of course, blindly attacking him was bound to end like this.’

I had already expected this outcome the moment Shin A-sol recklessly charged in.

Mak’s ability, Future Sight, was what made him the primary villain of the Sacrificial Offering of the Abandoned School quest.

By absorbing the life force of countless students, Mak had greatly enhanced his power, allowing him to foresee his opponents’ movements in battle, down to the very second.

‘Ordinary attacks won’t even scratch that massive body.’

When I first heard about this quest, I had already known about Mak’s ability. So naturally, my first priority was to figure out a strategy to defeat him.

If I had brought Yang Hak-je along, the quest would’ve been much easier. After all, there are divine spells that can seal an opponent’s magic.

But my goal was to earn Yang Hak-je’s respect.

And to do that, I needed to complete this quest without relying on his help. I had to come up with an entirely new strategy.

‘The problem is that the key item for my plan… is inside that.’

The crucial item I had devised for this fight was currently locked away inside Okamoto’s potion case.

If I couldn’t figure out the case’s password, the quest would end in failure.

“Ugh! Get this disgusting trunk away from me! You freak of a—! Professor! Are you seriously just going to stand there?!”

Shin A-sol was barely holding back Mak’s trunk from swallowing her head.

I decided to take a shot in the dark.

“When’s your birthday?”

“W-what? Why the hell does that matter right now?!”

“It’s not about curiosity—it’s about necessity. You better answer quickly. Unless you want to end up a dried-up mummy like your friends.”

I gestured toward the pile of students collapsed on the floor. Among them was Okamoto, whose face had grown alarmingly gaunt from having his life force drained.

“M-May 26th…!”

She must have really wanted to avoid becoming a husk because, despite her ongoing struggle with Mak, she quickly blurted out her birth date.

I immediately punched the numbers into the potion case.

The most important person to Okamoto was, of course, Shin A-sol.

And if the four-digit code was related to her, there was only one possibility.

0, 5, 2, 6…

Click-!

The case opened with a completely different sensation than before.

At the same time, a system message appeared before me.

Ding-!

[You have discovered Okamoto’s hidden secret.]

[Your relationship with Okamoto has advanced to a ‘close’ bond.]