I Became a Murderer in the Academy.-Chapter 116

Therefore, Clana was placed in a special department, where attending classes was entirely up to her.

But Clana, who had never made decisions for herself, had no idea what classes to take, or even what she should do once she took them.

This was a consequence of the convent head’s flawed teachings, the result of raising her with misguided education.

Clana was like a small boat adrift on the open sea—without a compass, without a map.

She didn’t know.

She knew nothing of this world because she had never learned anything about it.

All she did was wander.

Beautiful flowers are bound to attract pests.

All the more so for a naïve girl like Clana, who knew nothing.

The Imperial Academy had its share of beautiful women. Iria, a first-year student, was one, and Sera, a second-year, was also rather attractive, even if one had to look past her peculiar personality.

But messing with those two was a recipe for disaster.

Everyone knew what happened to those who approached Iria or Sera, not realizing they had thorns.

And so, their next target became Clana. Wandering around aimlessly, she wore a guileless face, entirely unaware of what was happening.

As she simply followed Ariel’s footsteps as instructed by the head nun, some shady individuals approached her.

They caught her just as she stood at a secluded corner of the academy, surrounding her as if to close in.

“Hey there, do you have a boyfriend?”

“Huh? No, I don’t.”

“Then how about hanging out with us after class? What classes are you taking, Saintess?”

“Um... Today, I’m attending an introductory swordsmanship class.”

It was a class that Ariel took. She had no idea what it was about, but she was following the head nun’s orders.

To carry out her mission, she had to become close to him.

And so—

“Well, perfect. I’m in that class too. Want to go together?”

Coincidentally, the thugs surrounding Clana were also students from the Swordsmanship Department.

Clana looked a bit uncomfortable. Befriending these thugs wasn’t something the head nun had instructed her to do.

She never did things she wasn’t told to do. And, even Clana knew they had approached her with impure intentions.

Their expressions were lewd, and the way one of them stroked her arm was sticky and unpleasant.

For the first time since she left the church, Clana felt the emotions of disgust and fear.

Having just stepped out of the warm greenhouse and into the world, she was still quite inexperienced in many ways.

She was learning that the world outside had both beautiful things and things that were not.

“I… I have somewhere I need to be right now…”

It was her attempt at a polite refusal.

Before coming to the academy, the head nun had warned her not to follow strange people.

And Clana instinctively recognized that these people were exactly the kind of "strange people" the nun had spoken of.

But Clana didn’t know how to assert herself. She had no idea how.

So, she couldn’t push them away. And this was the result.

“Where do you need to go? It’s just a little hangout. What’s the big deal? We’re not bad guys, you know?”

“U-uh…”

The thugs saw her hesitant reaction and leaned in even closer, becoming stickier in their advances.

Clana was just on the verge of summoning her holy blessing when—

“Gah!”

A loud smack echoed as something struck hard.

The man who had touched Clana was flung into the air.

Had someone come to help her? The guy who was kicked flew so hard he couldn’t move for a while.

Clana slowly lifted her head, which had been bowed.

She thought it might have been Ariel, but it wasn’t him who came to her aid.

Ariel, after all, was too kind to ever resort to violence against a fellow student.

The person who had saved Clana had a face far colder and younger than a hero’s. Silver hair flowed around her.

Though their hair color was similar, this person was different from Clana.

Her red eyes contrasted sharply with Clana’s blue.

“Who the hell…?”

The man who’d been kicked scratched his head in annoyance and turned to look.

“Gah!”

But his gaze quickly dropped. Before him stood someone he dared not make an enemy of.

“It’s Iria! Run!”

“…”

They fled in an instant, as worthless as they were.

Perhaps it was the sparring match with Amelia. Since then, many people had started fleeing as soon as they saw Iria.

Regardless, Iria turned her gaze to Clana.

She reached out and helped Clana up from where she had fallen back.

“Are you alright?”

“Gasp…”

To Clana, Iria seemed like a hero who had come to save her.

Iria sighed softly as she looked at Clana, who had attracted these pests.

Was she always like this? Probably not. Although Iria had lost her memory, this version of Clana felt rather strange to her.

At least she wasn’t a complete fool before.

'How much has the story changed?'

The most suspicious part was Serthia’s death.

From what Iria knew, Clana only joined the academy after Serthia’s death.

So Serthia must have been fated to die in the original story, too.

But due to Iria’s interference, Serthia had died earlier than planned.

Thus, it made sense to think that Clana had arrived at the academy unprepared.

Iria was seeing firsthand the chaos she had caused, the butterfly effect she had triggered.

Watching the troubled Clana, Iria hesitated for a moment. Should she help her or not?

Perhaps the events that were supposed to happen had been disrupted because of her. This was something Iria had to face as long as she existed in this world.

So, did it really matter that things were going wrong and getting all tangled up because of her?

Was this situation a disadvantage for her, or was it irrelevant, something that didn’t concern Iria at all?

“…”

In conclusion, it wasn’t completely irrelevant.

Iria needed to end this world and return to where she belonged.

If things continued this way, she might not reach the world’s conclusion. And that was something Iria didn’t want.

Being trapped in this world without reaching its end was her greatest fear.

So, she decided to act.

If Clana knew nothing of the outside world, she would simply teach her the harsh realities.

After all, Iria herself had been thrown into an unfamiliar world, growing up in back alleys. The quickest and surest way to learn was through hard lessons.

Recalling her own past, Iria remembered the back-alley survival lessons she’d learned.

“Um… Thank you for saving me. May I ask your name…?”

“Thankful, are you?”

“Y-yes.”

Clana’s blue eyes sparkled as she looked up at Iria’s face.

“Then pay up. Don’t you know there’s no such thing as a free lunch?”

Iria responded to Clana’s innocence with a cold expression.

“…Pardon?”

Clana’s face filled with bewilderment.

She blinked, tilting her head as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

In front of her, Iria began reciting the survival lessons she’d learned from an old friend.

“In this world, you should be wary of white things, be suspicious of unsolicited kindness… Oh, and surviving means you’re strong.”

Iria was dressed in white, offered kindness without reason, and had survived because she was strong.

Therefore, she charged for it.

This was Clana’s fault for not recognizing the danger in those three warning signs.

Clana looked at Iria in disbelief.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and pay. Or would you like to end up like those guys?”

The girl in white wasn’t a hero. If there were ever a seed of the Demon Lord, this was probably what it would look like.

With tears welling up, Clana opened her purse.