Chapter 15 – #014 I Am

The guy was laughing heartily, wondering what was good.

I quietly follow behind him using invisibility magic.

“Heh. I got it okay this time too.”

A guy who likes to touch his waist.

Just looking at it, it looks like it was a payment for doing something bad.

The guy hummed and continued towards the academy.

– Do you want to move on today?

It can’t be.

I am an impatient person.

Rather than walking slowly for 20 minutes, he runs in 5 minutes and waits there for 15 minutes. Even when fishing, he is so impatient that he can only do night fishing, where he gets a response within 10 seconds when he throws.

But today. A student in my class almost died, and I just saved him with my own hands.

And the person who caused the sadal is right in front of you.

‘I need to take care of it right away.’

To do that, you must first drag him to an appropriate place.

Then, I secretly stole his money bag using magic.

The guy standing in front of the academy.

Before entering, he touches his waist again and is shocked and doesn’t know what to do.

“Uh, where did it go? Boo, I’m sure it was there just a moment ago?”

– You idiot. Giggling. Are you embarrassed? Aslan, have you done this a lot?

‘Well, it’s an old story.’

The guy must have thought he had dropped his money bag on the way here, so he hurried back the way he came.
While I was following him, he spoke to me while dispelling the invisibility spell in a dark alley that I had already seen.

“Are you looking for this?”

The guy looking back at me.

When he saw the money bag in my hand, he rushed over and snatched it.

But it was a little quicker for me to pull my hand away.

“W-what! That’s my money! Give it to me!!”

“Do you have any proof that it’s your money?”

“Of course!”

“Really? I think you are a commoner… But I can’t believe it. It’s such a big amount.”

The guy hesitated as if he had nothing to say.

That’s because it was a rather large amount for a commoner to carry around.

Throw the bag in the air and catch it.

“I will hand this over to the security forces. If you are really the owner of this money, you will be able to prove it without difficulty and get it back.”

The guy’s face crumpled greatly.

In fact, if you are taken over by the security forces, you cannot get your money back unless you are a noble.

Then there are only two options given to him.

Give it up or take it back.

‘Come on, come on.’

As if responding to the sound of my heart, it screamed and rushed at me.

“Give it to me, you bastard!!”

I pretended to be surprised and paced my feet.

“Stand there! Fuck, don’t you stand there?!”

She runs away from the guy chasing her and steps into a more obscure place.
The guy was so obsessed with money that he didn’t notice anything like that, and I was able to easily lure him to where I wanted.

‘The face is well hidden. Okay, then, let’s show off our old skills for the first time in a while.’

Stop running.

And then slowly turns around.

I see a very excited man.

Its eyes flashed in the dark like a hungry wild cat, and the end of its gaze was pointed straight at the pocket of my hand.

“You think you’re screwed. How dare you take my money and run away?”

Perez said after hearing that.

– Oh, that’s a shame. Ignorant people like that need to be punished a lot. Of course, it’s a man…

‘That’s a good idea too.’

– What?

He approaches me with great strides.

It seemed like I thought I couldn’t escape anywhere now that everything was blocked.

Give that guy a light hit of magic.

‘Lethargy.’

Dump. The guy got down on his knees.
Both eyes shook violently as if they could not believe it.

“W-What? Magic…?”

But then he grits his teeth and jumps up.

“If you resist this, that’s enough!”

That’s right.

Magic can be resisted or solved.

Even a knight cadet definitely has that level of ability.

The problem is that the other person is me.

“What, what? Why isn’t it working out?”

I sit down.

Even his head is creaking wildly without being able to keep it still.

‘You can never let go. Even if an academy professor comes, he can’t solve this. The only thing that can break this spell is a feller.’

Magic is determined by earnestness + will + understanding.

The closer the three are to perfection, the lower the mana consumption rate and the higher the grade.

Among them, understanding.

I have lived my whole life being dragged around against my will.

I experienced a lot of frustration and helplessness, both in the back alleys and on the battlefield.

When I came to the Academy, I studied 1000 times and failed 999 times.

Was that why? What made him understand despair and helplessness better than anyone else…?

‘Understanding is ultimately a product of experience.’

I have experienced despair and helplessness with my whole body over the age of 60.

This kid can never solve my magic.

And perhaps he realized that, and he looked up at me, trembling.

At first glance, greed disappears and fear takes its place.

“Jeffrey.”

“H-how do I say my name…?”

“From now on, you will have to tell me the truth in everything I ask, without lying.”

The guy said, putting his head on the ground.

“Yes, yes! I understand! Ask me anything!”

“The recent suicide scandal at the Academy has something to do with you, right?”

“Well, that is…”

“Tell me the whole story of the incident.”

But have I not come to my senses yet?

Or maybe he thought that if he said it, he wouldn’t be punished.

This guy used a strategy without knowing.

“I-I don’t know! I don’t know anything about that…!”

“Really? It finally makes me show off my skills for the first time in a while.”

I put my hand on his finger.

And then the magic is activated.

‘Cutting.’

Wow… Wow!!

It’s noisy.

Move your hands immediately.

He put mana into the air and wrote ‘soundproofing’, and soon the text glowed blue and created an intangible film around it.

The pain must have subsided by now, right?

Then let’s go one more time.

‘Cutting.’

Ahhh!!!

The guy was so weak that he couldn’t even move, so he buried his head in the ground and screamed loudly.

Red liquid flows from the tip of the guy’s middle finger, forming a small puddle on the floor.

“Don’t be so harsh. I’ve only cut off 2 cm. Then, let’s go one more time.”

“Now, wait a minute! I’ll tell you, please, I’ll tell you…”

‘Cutting.’

Wow!!

It must have been quite painful, so he put his forehead on the floor and rubbed it violently.

I rubbed so hard that my forehead peeled and blood leaked out.

We can have a conversation now.

“From now on, whenever you refuse to answer, you will be cut three times like this. If you tell a lie, you will also be cut three times. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes. Hehe…”

“Then I’ll ask you again. Tell me the entire story of this suicide commotion.”

The guy answered obediently.

They surrendered to the violence that was just around the corner.

“Actually…”

The story I heard was surprising.

As I expected, this guy was acting as a pimp among the commoners and nobles within the academy.

He lured commoner female students, regardless of grade, into them with words bordering on intimidation, and even created an incident with a child nominated by a nobleman to make him do this.

And that connection even reached Prince Kenneth’s people, the academy’s dean and his secretary, and was under their protection.

“Uh, I had no choice. I also had to survive…”

“For something like that, he seemed really happy to receive the money. How much of the money did he give to the woman?”

“Well, that is…”

“It would be best to tell the truth. We can check later.”

“2:8…”

“Are you 2?”

“No… I have 8…”

– Is this complete bullshit?

The demons that could not hear anything went berserk.

Even though demons are evil, there is some goodness in transactions and contracts.

– Aslan, what are you doing? You said you were giving me your dick earlier! Fuck, throw away my anus. I can’t walk again. I’m going to make your dick the size of a troll.

‘… Calm down. And when did I say I would do it myself?’

– Oh, no?

I focused again on the man in front of me.

The guy was waiting for my treatment with a pitiful face.

‘I said I had no choice but to survive.’

It’s not that I don’t understand that way of life, but I shouldn’t have said that.

Because that’s not what these guys should say.

“I… I hate nobles. They are obviously human beings, but they ignore me as a commoner and treat me like insect livestock. But there is a type of person I hate even more than those nobles.”

Okay. A type of person I hate even more than the nobles who want to punish them even by sowing a lot of dirty seeds.

That’s right,

“Guys like you. Even though they are commoners, they turn the backs of commoners and sell them to nobles to fulfill their own self-interest.”

“Oh, no. This is… I’m trying to survive too…”

“I earned this much money in one go, right? This is roughly enough to have fun and eat well for a year.”

“Well, that is…”

“Now, tell me. I know there’s something I haven’t said yet. Tell me where you got this money. Based on that, I’ll decide whether to give you the slightest mercy or send you out of this world.”

Geoffrey bowed his head.
And then he answered in a low voice.

“It is…”

– Ugh. I feel refreshed inside. It’s a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t see it in person.

‘Please take a look at that, sister. If I see something like that, I don’t think I’ll have any appetite for a week.’

In the end, I asked Jeffrey, who confessed everything.

Will I die or will I try to survive no matter how difficult it is?

He was a man with a lot of obsession and greed for life, and he chose to live.

Then I sold him to a male prostitute.

He’ll probably have to be crushed by angry men every night and gasp until he dies.

‘In my opinion, it would have been better to just die.’

Walk quickly.

And then I take a peek inside a building.

The sign above says it is a public bathhouse.

‘There’s a secret passage leading to Stronghold here?’

I unlocked it with magic, opened the door, and carefully entered. The sight of a bathhouse completely immersed in darkness caught my eye.

It seems that the owner has gone to bed.

Still, just in case, use text magic and activate soundproofing.

Then, it is also covered with transparency magic.

Sigh. Sigh.

As I walked, the sound of the old floor screamed.

Still, the soundproofing is already perfect.

I moved forward without hesitation and reached a door placed inside the building.

As I unlocked the lock and opened the door, I was greeted by a long underground passageway of stairs.

I stepped into it without any hesitation.

– You mean to let in the girls for the party through here?

‘Okay. Unless they are commoners belonging to a specific family, no one can set foot on the noble streets.’

In particular, they are women who are gathered for the purpose of making rice cake.

Nobles who value face would never use the guarded ground passage unless they got hit in the head with an arrow.

I think it took about 20 minutes to move like that.

The passage that came down turned upward again and a door appeared.

When I approached it and carefully opened it, a forest appeared before my eyes.

Look around.

It is a small forest.

And there are a total of four buildings adjacent to that border.

Among them, there is a building with strong light coming out.

‘There you go.’

This is the place where the rice cake party is in full swing.