Academy's Drunk Fighter-Chapter 38: First Crisis (10)

"Mm. Cool."

"...Isn’t your reaction a little too dry?"

Watching her pout in disappointment, Yoon Siwoo quietly unwrapped the food he’d bought from the Academy’s cafeteria.

"Uh... Would you maybe want to share mine instead?"

"I don’t like freeloading off other people."

"I... I see?"

Looking a little dejected, Hellicia began to eat her four-tiered stack of lunchboxes.

"You made all that yourself?"

"No, it was prepared by the head chef sent from the Mage Tower. Why? Do you want something I cooked?"

"Nah, just thinking that chef must have a rough job."

"Uuuugh..."

She seemed a little annoyed now, but he didn’t care and kept eating what he’d brought.

They’d been having these kinds of conversations for weeks now, so she wasn’t going to actually get mad over something like this.

Besides—right now, someone else in the cafeteria had caught Yoon Siwoo’s attention.

‘Did she bring her own lunch again?’

It felt like he was stalking her or something, which sat weird with him. But he could justify it—it was just to keep an eye on that ominous thing following behind the girl. It wasn’t like he actually cared about her.

‘...’

Okay. Maybe a little.

What kind of fucked-up shit did you have to do to get something like that clinging to your back without even noticing?

If something like that was latched onto him, his sanity would’ve shattered long ago.

Even if he had [Clear Mirror Still Water], it wouldn't matter.

‘Another lunchbox today.’

The scent of curry began spreading through the cafeteria.

Its strong smell wafted out, making people gag and flee their seats.

She had brought the exact same smelling lunch every single day for weeks now. Even those who didn’t care at first couldn’t help but be sick of it.

The girl herself seemed to have no idea why nobody ever sat near her. Or maybe she didn’t care about other people in the first place.

That’s why, despite the table being big enough for about twelve people, the only ones there were Esha—and the tired-looking girl sitting across from her.

‘Wasn’t she the student council president for the second years?’

He didn’t know why someone like that was with her.

Maybe she had an agenda. Or maybe they were just close.

He wasn’t sure about their relationship, but seeing Esha hand over a lunchbox to her, it didn’t seem like a bad one.

"Are lunchboxes trending now or something? I mean, the Academy food’s good too."

"That’s obvious. Meals here are mass-produced for the crowd—they're bound to be lower in quality."

"So?"

"Those who truly care about their bodies eat premium food from sources they can trust."

"If you say so."

He didn’t really think curry counted as "premium," but he wasn’t about to question her about it either, so he let it go.

"I-I mean, if you want, I could prepare one for you next time?"

"I’ll pass."

"..."

She went quiet, those strangely intense eyes avoiding his as he focused back on his meal.

Before he knew it, the girl sitting across from Esha had vanished.

Then came the alarms and emergency alert.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE – EMERGENCY ALERT]

Multiple Gates had just appeared near the Academy.

It wasn’t the kind of thing that happened often—and yet here it was, all of a sudden.

Hellicia looked at the message on her phone and, after a brief pause, smiled.

"Gates? Perfect!"

"Why?"

"Monsters come out of Gates, don’t they? Mana stones have gotten pricey lately, and I haven’t had good-quality ones for research in a while!"

"Those monsters are dangerous though. People get hurt."

"Well... that’s life, isn’t it? If you think that way, no one in the world would be able to stop worrying. And we don’t have time to worry about everyone, do we?"

It was a cold thing to say—but also true. Yoon Siwoo nodded and drew his sword.

"Sigh... Every time I see that sword, I want to study it."

"I think it’s just a normal sword."

"A sword that appears out of literal thin air is normal?"

"You use subspace too, Hellicia."

"I store things in a space I prepared beforehand. Yours isn’t like that, is it?"

"...You’ve got a point."

Right then, the girl kicked open the glass door and ran outside on her own.

"Is she crazy?"

"Uh... I mean, going out alone in this kind of situation is kinda dangerous, right?"

Hellicia tilted her head, confused by the girl’s decision.

"Why the hell would she—"

Before she could finish the thought, a sense of dread spread through the Academy.

There was no choice but to follow Esha.

"I’ll go out first and hold them off—go wild if you want."

"Nah. I’ll stay here."

"...Suit yourself."

"But aren’t you alone too?"

"Hmph. Unless a catastrophic-grade Gate pops, there’s no way I’ll lose. I’m not some idiot who’s only fought weakened bottom-tier monsters."

And with that, Hellicia stepped outside, eager to collect mana stones for her research. Yoon Siwoo stayed in the cafeteria, standing guard near the door.

Then came the deafening boom from the distance.

If he was right, the professors would take care of the monsters in no time.

But—it was lunchtime.

And he knew for a fact that the professors usually ate at the faculty-exclusive restaurant inside the central building.

So even if they got the alert immediately, it would still take time to respond to Gates opening all across campus.

Which meant...

Grrrrrk.

Beast-like shapes started to appear near the door.

"Guess that means we have to hold out until then."

Grrrk. Grrrrk.

The sound of claws scraping against glass. Skin-crawling.

But no one in the cafeteria looked too concerned.

They weren’t going out just in case, but with this many students present, as long as it wasn’t an apocalypse-tier Gate, there was no real danger.

To prove the point, the monsters hadn’t even broken through the glass yet. The door was reinforced with defensive magic.

They were ramming into it hard, sure—but all that showed so far were some faint cracks.

Roughly two minutes later, the door finally shattered, and monsters burst into the cafeteria.

But...

‘They don’t seem to realize who’s got the upper hand.’

They came in all shapes—beasts of various kinds, each many times larger than their natural counterparts, roaring and charging.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE – The anomaly (???) records your actions.]

No need to use any special traits. Just swordsmanship alone was enough—as he dashed into the frontlines, cutting down the monsters one by one.

Craaaaack!!!

Slice.

A beast shaped like a dog was cleaved in two—from its jaws to the tip of its tail—cut cleanly in half.

The bigger the target, the harder it was not to hit accurately.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE – Serial Kill Slash]

His graceful sword slashed through the fangs and jaws of a venomous snake beast, tore apart the limbs of a giant monkey-like creature, and split the bones of a massive tiger-shaped monster.

CRACKLE!!!

“Haaah.”

The other students were fighting too—not as well as Yoon Siwoo, but they were handling the monsters in their own way.

“Ah! I got bit!”

“I’ll heal you, come here!”

Some got hurt now and then, but since quite a few students from the magic department had been eating in the cafeteria, injuries were healed quickly.

“Hey, doesn’t something feel off about these things?”

“Like what?”

“You said mana stones are in the chest, right? But there’s nothing there.”

“Huh? ...You’re right.”

Yoon Siwoo, overhearing their conversation, dissected one of the beasts he’d killed to confirm—and sure enough, the mana stone wasn’t there.

The radiant, mystical gem he’d seen in professors’ lectures—there was nothing like that to be found anywhere inside the corpse.

Thump.

His heart pounded, a strange, uneasy sensation blooming in his chest.

“...What is this?”

A sense of dread creeping in from somewhere.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE – Danger Sense has reacted.]

Location: About twenty minutes from here.

The cafeteria and its surroundings were already cleared of monsters.

The professors had arrived at some point, tending to the wounded and checking for injuries.

But the only one who felt this creeping horror was Yoon Siwoo.

No one else noticed anything out of the ordinary.

‘...Should I go?’

Even if he told the professors, it’d only get in the way. He couldn’t just ask them to come with him without a solid reason.

Besides, they had their hands full with cleanup already.

Even if the Academy was full of talented people and considered one of the safest places in the world, it was unreasonable to expect zero casualties.

‘Yeah... I’ll go check it out. Even if I have to go alone.’

Yoon Siwoo looked in the direction his senses were pulling him toward.

Beyond the sky-high defensive barriers, he took off down the path, the unease in his gut growing stronger with each step.

.

.

.

.

.

What he finally saw when he arrived at the location—

Esha, crouched on top of an old man, wearing a strange mask.

“What the hell is this...”

All around them, the walls and interior of the Archive were shattered, partially collapsed. A man inside was gravely injured. The second-year student council president—the one who had been eating with Esha—was lying on the floor.

And then there were the monster corpses, strewn everywhere...

He couldn’t wrap his head around it.

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No—no one could understand what was going on here, no matter how quick-thinking they were.

But what unsettled him even more than the carnage—was the dreadful aura pouring out of the mask Esha was wearing.

“Apocalypse.”

That grotesque thing that had always lingered behind her... it was now leaking out from the mask.

But despite that overwhelming presence, the thing had a peculiar expression on its face.

“...It’s scared?”

Yes. That nightmare-inducing, horrifying, untouchable something... was recoiling in terror, making a face like it was watching something too horrifying to comprehend—as it looked at Esha.

And yet... even as it looked like it wanted to flee, it remained bound to her body, like it couldn’t escape.

“Say something. Please. What the hell happened here...?”

“......”

He pleaded in frustration, but the girl didn’t say a word—she just stared at him in silence.

Fwoosh—

Then, something flew at him out of nowhere.

“Ugh! What the hell—?!”

He caught it on reflex—and saw it was the old man that Esha had knocked out.

When he turned to look again, the girl was gone.

“She beat this guy half to death... wait.”

That was when the stench hit him—an overwhelming, sickening stench coming off the old man.

But it wasn’t just a smell—it was a feeling. The same dreadful aura of the apocalypse that had always followed Esha and her mask.

“...Huh?”

And then, naturally—Yoon Siwoo could only come to one conclusion.