I Became a Murderer in the Academy.-Chapter 113

There were many reasons for it, but mainly, it was because the Academy had faced a series of misfortunes.

Even without Serthia’s death, they had suffered greatly from monster attacks, and now one of the pillars that supported the Empire was gone.

It seemed that the people at the Academy didn’t want to acknowledge it. The students, and especially the professors, felt this way.

Regardless of public opinion, all the Academy professors respected Serthia.

And so,

“…”

“…”

When I encountered Ariel again, he had a pensive look on his face.

What could he be thinking about?

I became curious and met his eyes, but as usual, I couldn’t read him.

In the past, I might have let it go, but now I understood why I couldn’t read his thoughts.

If this power in my eyes truly originated from the Demon Lord, as Serthia had said, then the starlight opposing the Demon Lord’s power neutralizes it.

Starlight is a force that denies the Demon Lord. So, no abilities work on Ariel. At least not unless I drain the starlight from him entirely.

It’s almost laughable that, in one generation, both the hero and the Demon Lord die, only for their successors to attend the same Academy.

It feels like a twist of fate, doesn’t it?

Could this also be some deliberate design? I almost forgot that this world is, at its core, a story.

If Ariel, the hero, is the protagonist of this world, then as the candidate for the next Demon Lord, am I the ultimate villain standing in his way?

I stood beside Ariel. He hadn’t even noticed my presence until I was right next to him, which suggested he had a lot on his mind.

It wasn’t until I approached him directly that he turned to look at me.

“Oh, Iria.”

“Is something wrong?”

I asked him.

I had been curious for a while, but since I couldn’t read his thoughts, I decided to ask directly.

I knew something had been bothering him, but I couldn’t tell how Serthia’s death was connected to it.

As if he had nothing to hide anymore, he slowly began to speak.

“When I was young, I lost both my parents. It was the principal who took me in. Well, she’s not the principal anymore, is she? Anyway, it was her.”

“…”

“Then, she sent me to an orphanage. She told me she didn’t want to see me anymore. I later heard that she also killed my mother.”

By his mother, Ariel was referring to Saintess Karen.

She had been consumed by a curse before Serthia, becoming a living disaster.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Serthia who killed Karen. Once Karen turned into a monster under the curse, she was already as good as dead.

The curse killed Karen, and Serthia stopped the moving corpse.

And,

It was likely Serthia herself who suffered the most from that incident.

The intense hatred she held for the Demon Lord was evidence enough. She must have carried that burden alone.

I just hoped he wouldn’t take out that frustration on me, since it wasn’t my doing.

Ariel continued speaking.

“I must’ve been around five. My mother was still alive back then. She had this habit of disappearing sometimes, but whenever she did, the principal would tell me where she was.”

For a moment, Ariel seemed lost in memories, his face reflecting deep thought.

“That day, too, my mother had disappeared. As usual, I went to ask the principal where she was….”

“And?”

“That day, there was blood on her clothes. It wasn’t until much later that I found out she killed my mother. No explanation, just those words.”

“Oh.”

“She said, ‘I killed your mother,’ apologizing for saying it so late, but that’s how it was.”

“…”

“She told me she didn’t want to see me anymore and sent me to an orphanage with a sizable sum of money. You know the rest.”

He grew up with Sera at the orphanage, and now, here we are. I heard about it from Sera.

So that’s why she asked me to tell him she was sorry.

She’d actually wanted to say it to him face-to-face. I’d learned that by reading her final memories.

The relationship between Serthia and Ariel was more complex than I’d thought.

I had a general sense of the situation now. So, how did Ariel feel about her? Did he resent her?

“Do you resent her?”

I asked if he still held resentment toward Serthia. It was something Serthia had wondered about, something she was curious about before her death.

I asked Ariel, and he didn’t answer for a while. He seemed lost in thought, too.

But unlike me, Ariel was more mindful of his surroundings. After a moment of reflection, he looked at me and gave his answer.

“I did resent her. Back then, I was too young to understand anything. I probably held that resentment until I entered the Academy.”

“Did she tell you why she killed your mother?”

“She said she didn’t want to tell a young child like me that my mother had turned into a monstrous beast. She said it was better for me to hate her instead.”

To Serthia, Ariel was as precious as her fallen comrades. After all, he resembled them. He was like a remnant of the world her lost comrades had left behind.

I wondered how Serthia must have felt, receiving that look of resentment from him.

I might not fully understand human emotions, but judging by the expression Serthia had shown at the end, I could guess.

It told me the kind of path she had walked until now.

In the end, Serthia always tried to do the right thing. She prioritized humanity’s salvation over her own.

She did so in the past, after being left alone, and even in her final moments when she tried to eliminate me, humanity’s enemy.

It might not be my place to judge her, but Serthia was not someone who deserved resentment.

Especially not from someone like Ariel, who shared her upright character.

The swamp of twisted misunderstandings is crueler than one might think. That was my impression after hearing the story.

It made sense that Ariel had a lot on his mind. Serthia’s death must have affected him deeply.

At that point, I decided to deliver Serthia’s final message. I spoke to Ariel, who seemed lost in thought.

“I saw the principal before she died.”

“How did that happen?”

“Do I have to explain?”

“It’s fine if you don’t. You must have your reasons. What did she say?”

I recalled her words as she lay there, a sword through her heart.

And then I said,

“She asked me to tell you she was sorry.”

“…”

It seemed like that one word carried a heavy weight for Ariel.

I stood there, waiting for a long time, but he didn’t say anything.

Hopefully, delivering her message was enough. I decided to leave him alone for a while.

How he chose to take that message was up to him.

If you were to name the most influential institutions in the Empire, it would undoubtedly be the Academy or the Knight’s Order.

Serthia personally selected the elite forces that managed the Empire, so it’s no surprise.

But where would the next most influential place be?

In the capital of the continent, the Empire, there are many notable institutions, but aside from the Academy and the Knight’s Order, the largest would be the Central Church.

It’s a place that worships the Sun God and bestows the god’s blessings on the wounded.

The Central Church’s high status is due not only to its long history and size but also because it actively opposes the Demon Lord.

It supplies holy water to the Knight’s Order, which fights against the Demon Lord’s army, and once even produced a saintess who joined the hero’s party.

And this generation’s saintess, who the Central Church boasts of, is—

“Clana.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Get off the podium. You look undignified.”

She was dozing in a particularly sunny spot in the church.

It seemed as if she had nothing to do and looked quite lazy.

For a saintess, she appeared far too relaxed, which made the head nun sigh as she reprimanded her.

Does the saintess even realize that her lower undergarments were slightly visible beneath her white robes? She probably didn’t; otherwise, she wouldn’t be lying there like that.

“Clana.”

The head nun, now used to this sight, called her name.

“Yes! Is there work to do?!”

Clana immediately stood up and corrected her posture. Life in the church was dull for her.

She was a self-proclaimed lively saintess who always wanted to go outside.

“Yes, you could say that.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Academy sent a letter. They’re asking if we’d consider enrolling the saintess of this generation.”

“Oh!”

Clana covered her mouth with her hands.

The Academy? That place? The place where young men and women spend their youth together while attending classes?

The last time she visited, she was only there for work, but honestly, she’d wanted to explore a bit more.

“It seems they’re short on people. The Academy is always looking for talent. Of course, it’s up to you to decide, so if you don’t want to—”

“I want to go!”

Clana answered enthusiastically, thinking to herself that the opportunity she had been waiting for had finally arrived.