1 – Admission-1

“You’re sorely lacking manners.”

Her voice was elegant and lovely, but it was also cruel and sharp beyond comparison.

I was pressed by a woman standing in front of me and her numerous followers.

“Or do you not understand the common language? Maybe I’ve overestimated the academy students.”

I bowed my head deeply, avoiding her gaze, signifying my discomfort in the situation.

The woman in front of me was so noble, I could hardly approach her even with my aristocratic status.

“Either you are fearless, or thoughtless…”

Her eyes narrowed. She seemed to know that I wasn’t taking her words seriously.

Still, it made no difference.

She didn’t care about the likes of me, a common first-year student. It wasn’t in Catherine’s interest to deal with the likes of me.

The main concern was the situation at hand.

“Look there…”

“Seems like he got unlucky. Caught by her…”

Everyone was terrified of her actions.

It was a blatant violation of school rules. Even if the academy’s rules were insignificant, all students from each family, barring the royalty, should receive fair treatment.

And breaking that rule, seemed to be her intention.

“Don’t you dare look straight in the lady’s face!”

As she stared down at me, a student, presumably her guard, approached me.

She was an ordinary woman, far from adequate to be a guard when compared to Catherine, she’d better suit the roles of a maid or servant.

However, more important than the power that a servant who also uses dark forces might have, is who they serve.

“Lower your filthy gaze, bow your head!”

The situation made no sense. Catherine’s identity was undeniably noble, but plenty of nobles and royals attend the academy.

If each time they passed, they’d have to lower their eyes and bow their heads, the neck health of the academy students would seriously deteriorate.

“Is he caught for just that petty reason?”

“Why isn’t anyone stopping this?”

Catherine was also a freshman. There weren’t many who clearly understood the reason, except those from her kingdom.

“That woman, I heard she has a contract with Asmod-eus-“

Those who wield dark powers use fear as their weapon.

They compare who contracted with the more powerful Demon Duke. They scrutinize who is more brutal and arrogant, who is more devoted to evil.

It was a spectacle. It would be unthinkable for the likes of Catherine to genuinely get angry over such a trivial matter as my raising my head and looking at her directly.

It was just an effort to show the entire academy that she was an entity that could do anything and sincerely get angry over even the smallest discourtesy.

“What the hell is going on?”

At the end of the confusion, a woman who could sort out the situation appeared.

A beautiful blonde knight glared at the girl standing in front of me.

The one standing firmly in the middle of the light had nothing to fear of the villain.

A princess of a kingdom, her power built by her own effort and talent, was enough for her to never succumb to any injustice.

“Let that student go.”

Catherine furrowed her brows in apparent displeasure.

She too had missed the timing to intervene. It was probably her initial plan to torment me uninterrupted until this situation ended.

But if her opponent is a princess, stepping away doesn’t degrade her dignity either.

“Understood.”

“Consider yourself lucky!”

My escorting knight struck the top of my bowed head lightly. After that, they all left as if nothing had happened.

“… Are you okay?”

The noise had died down. The female knight checked on my well-being.

“Thank you. I owe you a great favor.”

I managed an awkward smile and greeted her. The female knight’s expression eased.

“Well held back. If it was that cunning woman, she would have prepared another trick as soon as you resisted.”

“That must be the case.”

“There’s no need to worry too much. As long as you don’t step on the evil, no matter how malicious she is, she can’t hurt you. At least, not in the academy.”

Confidence and pride were mixed in her eyes. I couldn’t help but smile awkwardly.

Because I, too, was in a position where I needed that strength.

/////

I was now in control. Into a game I used to enjoy.

I had become one of the ordinary students, neither the protagonist nor the villain.

It was interesting, but not necessarily joyful.

It was a world heading straight for destruction, and to stop it, it required a lot of luck and a passionate protagonist. Otherwise, they would run rampantly without any resistance.

Those who desired the end would induce wars among humans, and humans, who exhausted their power to crush the opposition, would pay the price. The demon king would come.

To survive, I had to stop it.

Phew…

The special perk that I had wasn’t flashing like a status screen, but when I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could approximate what I got.

Indomitable will. The top-tier skill that doesn’t waver under any mental attack or intimidation.

One of the most destructive and absolute skills in the game that could be obtained by fully researching the Light Tech Tree.

However, I didn’t have many ways to utilize this skill at the moment,

Because it neither results in money nor physical strength.

Even so, it didn’t mean there were no ways to use it at all.

“The new item that just came in is for research, so handle it with care.”

“What idiot would touch this? Besides, it would be better to thoroughly manage the student dormitory…”

I am clean. At least for now.

To gain power, I need to accept magic.

… It doesn’t seem like I have been found out yet.

The power of darkness is fundamentally contract-based.

The basic measure to summon its power is to contract with a more potent demon king.

However, I had a loophole that only I could use.

Taking advantage of the lax surveillance, I went into the storage room. As I opened the tightly sealed box, a dark liquid darker than any darkness I had ever seen absorbed the light.

“This is…”

Fragment of the void. It was a substance that was said to grant infinite dark power simply by making a declaration while in contact with it.

But, given that they were monitoring such matter, the surveillance was remarkably lax.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.

The fragments of void were not a rare commodity. They weren’t exactly lying around on the ground but if one was determined to find them, they were not difficult to acquire.

Moreover, despite its horrific form, it was a terribly harmless substance.

Those who gained the power of darkness through this matter went mad before they could even utilize the power, and that only for a moment.

If it were a substance that destroyed oneself in exchange for immense power, at least some degree of management would have been meticulously done.

But it wasn’t capable of anything. Apart from making suicidal individuals disappear in agony.

Even if someone happened to touch the substance without a clear intention, it couldn’t manifest its power.

It was truly a meaningless object that even dark wizards and knights seeking the power of darkness wouldn’t bother to touch.

And I had placed my hand inside it.

Keeuuu…

A horrific sensation was transferred to me through the tips of my fingers.

Magic, which I had only felt through text and images in the game, was coursing through my body.

It was an inevitable event for efficiency but accepting magic was again not a pleasant experience.

This hideous chaos shook my mind. Without any filtration, anybody would be overwhelmed by madness.

…Hu.

I endured it. I pulled my hand out of the black liquid.

It seemed to have decreased in quantity, just slightly.

But that was enough. I had obtained the limit of magic my body could accept.

I’d need more time to learn proper dark magic, but for now, even if I could only use basic dark magic like dark arrows, I would have overwhelming firepower…

“…What are you doing over there?”

I’ve been caught. The female knight serving Katarin was staring at me with her mouth agape.

Objectively, my behavior wasn’t appropriate. Wandering around without permission after curfew, fiddling with the materials needed for class.

But that woman didn’t seem to have the confidence to corner me with just that level of offense.

Not bad.

In the battle between those who use the power of darkness, the mindset matters more than the actual power possessed.

Showing brutality, boasting about being contracted with a stronger demon, implying that you have more secrets.

The woman in front of me was taken aback.

It’s easy to make someone who has once lost their composure shiver in fear.

I guess.

The reason she lost her composure was obvious. She saw it.

She saw me stick my hand into the fragment of the void and suck the power within it.

She must be imagining it. Trying to fit the occurrence into her knowledge.

Then I should amplify her doubts.

“What do you think I was doing?”

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