I Become a Secret Police Officer of The Imperial Academy

Chapter 25

Alicia was dying in front of me.

Blood poured freely from her side, but she didn’t scream or cry in pain. She just held my cold hand tightly.

As my vision blurred and my heart pounded erratically, it felt as though my spine had turned to stone.

When I rubbed my eyes to clear the haze, Alicia stood up on her own feet, tears of blood streaming down her face as she wept.

“Ah.”

It felt like a bad dream.

When I opened my eyes, I was lying in bed.

My right hand was intact, and my body wasn’t in pain.

A dream. It was just a dream.

Yet tears were streaming uncontrollably from my eyes.

Had my tear ducts broken? At this rate, my clothes would be completely soaked.

I looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling—no, wait. It was my ceiling. My room.

A small desk with books I’d been reading recently, a shelf neatly filled, and the bed I was lying on.

I felt like I’d been pinned down by a nightmare. I inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm myself.

“…You’re awake?”

I turned toward the voice.

Ethel was sitting on a chair nearby.

“Ethel?”

“Yeah.”

Her eyes were slightly red.

Her hands fidgeted nervously, unable to stay still, and her shoulders quivered faintly.

“Ellen, are you… okay?”

“This doesn’t seem like the time to worry about me.”

“…You’re my friend.”

“Is that a joke?”

“….”

Friends don’t waterboard each other.

Friends don’t lock each other in basements and hurl abuse.

Friends don’t kill each other’s pets, no matter how repulsive.

Friends don’t imprison each other’s brothers and parents to make them suffer.

Yet Ethel still called me her friend.

Why?

I couldn’t comprehend it.

“…If I said I pity you, would that make you angry?”

“No. I’d laugh in your face and tell you to know your place.”

I’m not someone deserving of pity.

Ethel must be insane, a lunatic with a loose screw somewhere in her head.

What else could explain the first friend I made at the academy turning out like this?

Glancing around, I saw Theo in the room as well, seated silently.

So they must’ve carried me here after beating me unconscious in the basement.

As I began to feel a bit thirsty, Ethel handed me a glass of water.

For a moment, I wondered if she’d drugged it, but I drank it anyway. If I refused, she’d probably force it down my throat.

Thankfully, it seemed clean.

Looking out the window, I saw a lot of people moving in and out of the mansion.

Some were feeding porridge to the emaciated demons, while fools dressed as constables roamed the gardens.

Academy personnel were also present. Theo must have called them.

At least I didn’t have to worry about outsiders looting the property. I’d already emptied the vault to pay the servants.

The house? Let it crumble. I wasn’t going to manage it anyway.

It was all over.

Julian was likely dead—probably at Theo’s hands.

Since Isabel and Diana weren’t around, they were probably busy releasing the remaining demons.

As for who would take over the Intelligence Bureau…

With Theo involved, it’d likely fall to the Academy Director.

It felt like I’d cooked the porridge, only to hand it to someone else’s dog.

“Sunbae, what happened to my brother?”

“…If you mean the head of your family, he’s dead.”

“I see.”

We’d parted with smiles, so as far as final conversations go, it wasn’t bad.

At least we hadn’t wallowed in tears and smothered each other in gloomy emotions.

Maybe Julian had escaped to a happier world.

If his fiancée were still alive, he might’ve clung to life, no matter what.

I hadn’t met her often, but every time he returned from seeing her, he’d be grinning ear to ear, muttering about how his future would be nothing but happiness.

“What did Julian say at the end?”

“…He asked me to spare his sister. Said he did it all alone.”

“What a bastard.”

There was no point in pretending anymore.

Everyone in this room had already seen through me, seen who I really was.

There was no mask left to wear.

“So, this whole thing will go down in history as Julian Speyer’s deranged solo massacre of demons?”

Theo nodded silently in response.

“Why?”

“…….”

Even if people found out I was involved, hardly anyone would believe I had been the one kidnapping demons, killing them, and dragging people to the basement for coercive “conversations.”

On the surface, I was just a normal girl.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“…Julian handed over everything in exchange for letting you live.

From the location of the basement to where the demons were held, even how to break the spells. All of it.”

It was one of the most horrifying things I’d heard in my life.

“Damn it. There’s no need to keep a promise made with a dead man.”

Everything had fallen apart.

At least the demons who survived would have spent their lives unable to defy humans. But Julian, that bastard, ruined it all before dying.

And now, he was dead, so I couldn’t even confront him about it.

It felt like I could storm into his office and find him buried under paperwork, smoking furiously as he stamped documents.

This unrelenting despair made me hate not just the demons, but my entire life.

I thought creating bullet holes in their heads was my new purpose, but now that felt impossible.

Did I ever ask anyone to care about my life?

Or was that what he meant when he said I was the only one left?

Had all of this—rounding up demons and torturing them—been nothing more than a meaningless task I took on because it was there?

Why? Why was being with me so unbearable for him?

Compared to Alicia, I probably was intolerable.

I looked fine on the outside, but deep down, I was just a boring girl who knew nothing except how to break people.

It should have been me who died, not Alicia.

At least with her, no one around her would have wished they were dead.

“Trapped in hell, you can’t see what’s happening here. You should’ve just finished me off.”

Honestly, I doubt Julian ended up in heaven.

Not that I’d fare any better.

“You can’t do anything now. Why should I—”

Theo’s voice faltered.

But the truth had already slipped out.

“Ethel, what about you?”

I turned my head toward her.

I had tried to kill the young demon she cared so much about. Surely, she must hate me.

“…….”

Ethel bit her lip, refusing to answer.

“Don’t you hate me?”

“…I don’t know.”

“And you, sunbae?”

Theo didn’t respond either.

The servants were gone, and there wasn’t any money left to hire more. What was I supposed to do?

Even if Julian had survived, it wouldn’t have mattered.

With his fiancée dead, any hope of borrowing money or forming alliances with other families was gone.

Should I sell this mansion?

Rich, pretentious fools would love a historic estate like this.

“The head of your family left you a message.”

“…….”

“Alicia—your sister, I assume. She told him to make sure you lived.

She said to honor her last wishes.”

Did he even understand what those words meant?

Probably not.

Expecting sympathy from someone who didn’t know how Alicia had died was asking too much.

Not that I wanted to explain it anyway.

I grabbed whatever was within reach and threw it at Theo: teapots, pencils, paper, books, clothes, blankets, pillows, even candies I used to enjoy.

My reattached right hand wasn’t moving properly, leaving me to fling everything with my left.

“Get out.”

The items I threw were harmless—none capable of so much as scratching him.

Even if I hurled a heavy stone, Theo wouldn’t feel a thing.

I knew it was meaningless, but I couldn’t stop.

“Get out!”

Theo finally stood.

He picked up a notebook from the floor and walked over to me, grabbing my flailing left arm to stop me.

He pinned me down, preventing any further movement.

“What’s this? You didn’t want to offer yourself like a whore earlier, and now you’re regretting it?

Screw you. It’s too late now. I’d rather bash my head in and die than let you touch me.”

He scoffed, his laugh dripping with contempt.

“Ha, are you even sane?

You’re hardly in a position to hold your head high and argue with me right now.”

“What do you mean, I’m not?

There’s a lunatic saving disgusting beasts in front of me.

What’s that sword on your hip for? If I disgust you so much, just draw it and cut me down already.”

If everyone but me believed demons were people, then I must be the crazy one.

But I couldn’t accept that.

I had to be the sane one.

I bit my tongue, letting blood pool in my mouth, then spat it in Theo’s face.

He retaliated by throwing the notebook at me.

It didn’t hurt, but it left me feeling utterly humiliated.

Theo opened the notebook and read aloud with a mocking smile.

“Wake up early. Chat with friends. Go to class. Talk to me. Don’t cry for no reason. Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Smile brightly.

Hah, do you follow any of these?”

Still holding my left arm, he poked my chest repeatedly with his right hand as he spoke.

“Stop whining like a brat. Just keep pretending to be the normal Ellen you made up. Do it for the rest of your life—until you grow old and die.”

I stared at Theo for a long time.

The protagonist, the savior of everyone but me.