Surviving as a Con Artist at the Academy

---

102. Heidern (3)

I wished everything was a dream.

That’s a summary of my past as Heidern.

I wish it had never existed from the beginning.

The fact that my seemingly reputable and esteemed parents were garbage supporting thieves and dark magic groups.

Even the revelation that they secretly used countless people as test subjects for personal research.

Living proudly and unaware of these truths only to see the family fall from grace.

The thought that kind-hearted parents couldn’t possibly behave that way.

In reality, their kindness toward me was merely to use me as a test subject for sorcery that borrowed the power of demons.

I was too young at the time, not even a teenager, to comprehend such experiences.

Could a child have predicted that the parents they respected had such a dark side?

Yet the merciless guards engrained their actions before my eyes.

The stench of experiments. The thick, black magic rising. The bloody scent and the chilling energy from numerous tools. People who had become horrifically disfigured due to the experiments.

It was a sight hard to watch. The stark contrast to the kindness that my parents had shown was clear in that moment.

Despite feeling nauseous at the spectacle, the guards forced my gaze to remain fixed on it.

There was no hint of mercy. Was it because I tried to protect them too fiercely and that angered them? Or perhaps because I was a criminal’s offspring, they showed no leniency.

From then on, I lost everything.

The pen I scribbled with on the wall, the maid scolding me while cleaning it, and the servants who practiced teaching me.

And the once-kind family, the resilient spirit.

Everything vanished… or rather, it had never truly existed from the start. All the time I had spent was gone as well.

My time was frozen, starting from the period when I nurtured dreams while reading fairy tales and grew up scribbling on walls.

I didn’t realize that my mind wasn’t growing while my body just got bigger.

Proclaimed an orphan, I was sent to a nursery. I obviously had no guilt, and being so young, I couldn’t be punished.

But the colored glasses cast upon my family applied to everyone. Even if that someone was a child.

After that, I had to be called “a seed of filth,” “a larva of evil spirits.” There was no way someone like me would be placed in a facility of good fortune.

A dark, stinking room with a director who lashed out at the managing children. I had to endure days confused about whether I was in a nursery or a prison.

There was no salvation.

It seemed the world told me that such notions were a luxury for someone with the bloodline of trash.

That was… my life before receiving the name Heidern.

Yeah, I wish all of this was just a dream.

It was so back then… and it still is now.

*

Mosria’s function ceased.

With the collapse of Void Space, a return to where it originally existed.

The final procedure, to be carried out sequentially at the end of Chapter 3.

What was once difficult in the original story was now accomplished far too easily. It wasn’t just my thought; everyone shared the same sentiment.

“It feels suspicious that things went too smoothly. Could this also be a trap?”

It’s surprising to hear such words come from Professor Radian.

“But look closely. No matter how you see it, this isn’t inside Void Space.”

“Even so, it was such a blatant victory. It might just be an illusion…”

“Hmm…”

Stella and Radian. The two professors who agreed that now was not the time to be careless kept their eyes sharp.

I felt dazed, but that was a rather rational judgment.

Not a single counterattack came while escorting Baimon, the key to victory. It seemed too strange no matter how I thought about it.

Would anyone remain passive while their life was threatened, holding weapons? Surely, there must be a reason for such absurdity.

And though we succeeded in neutralizing it, the main body was nowhere to be seen.

At this point, Mosria would attempt to flee as soon as its true form was revealed. It would think of a form akin to a small moth but would be destroyed by the shrewd protagonist.

Then Lyman, driven mad by Professor Radian’s death, exuded an energy unlike that of a human.

Mosria, having caught sight of that moment, transmitted records to Doomsday’s upper echelons just before its demise.

That information reached the ears of the surviving Enviel, and from Chapter 4 onwards, all sorts of chaotic incidents unfolded.

“But that’s that, and now is now.”

In the original story, such a frustrating development would’ve awaited us, but that was far from the case now.

Because I was currently holding onto the main body of Mosria, which was that moth.

-Huff… Human. Human!!

“Shut your mouth. Is ‘human’ all you can say?”

-Humaaaaaaan!!

My ears were ringing. It seemed like a creature that couldn’t understand words. But what could I expect from something that couldn’t even distinguish human faces?

I immediately bound Mosria tightly with fishing line. Moreover, with the command to obey any orders, I instructed it not to send information to the Doomsday headquarters.

Now, it was just a moth that could do nothing. Yet, it remained a being born from temporal distortion.

“I’ll give you one last chance.”

-What is it, human.

“Don’t you want to cooperate with me? You have nowhere to go, after all…”

-Of course I have somewhere to go! I’ll go straight to the creator and expose everything you did! If I report you to the great 7th League, it’ll be the end for you, human!

It was truly a creature that couldn’t converse properly. At this rate, I judged that partnering with it would barely be worth the cost of gas; it was below AI level.

But there’s a rule that applies to all living beings. For those who don’t listen, a hit is the best medicine.

-Wait. What are you doing? Human! Let go of this!

I stomped down on its wings to prevent it from flying. Then, gripping the fishing pole like a spear, I aimed it at Mosria.

-Are you insane, human! Let me go! I’m the first successful artificial spirit born in the empire!

“So what.”

-Kraaaaak! Humaaaaan…

Crack!-

Just like spearing a fish with a harpoon, I drove down the fishing pole and skewered it.

As its life signs disappeared, the yellow stamp embedded in my student ID faded away.

Mosria and I were essentially one, so with the main body dead, it vanished on its own.

Sneakily-

I pocketed one of Mosria’s half-wings from its corpse.

It was a crucial temporal material needed for the Trans Card creation.

And I showed the rest of the corpse to Stella and Radian.

“Rest assured. I killed it.”

I needed to prove to the two professors that the commotion had completely settled. Thus, they gradually relieved their tension.

The issue, however, was not just Mosria. I could see Heidern collapsed, turned away from the fountain in the open space.

He had returned to reality, yet no one approached him, reducing him to nothing more than an attraction, like a monkey at the zoo.

Having been implicated as a public enemy through the ELementary Magic of the entire student body, he had become the target of scrutiny.

“Heidern…”

Radian gazed at Heidern with a troubled expression. A thought crossed my mind; if only we had paid a bit more attention to the feelings he harbored inside, would it have come to this?

“But, Radon.”

Yet just after that thought, Radian looked at me.

He asked, “Did you take down the Vice Principal?”

Unfortunately, many students were nearby, listening.

*

Epilogue of Chapter 3 and the final part of the first year’s episode.

The proposal to dismiss Vice Principal Heidern.

Due to the Mosria incident, Heidern, deemed unfit for the vice principal position, was on the verge of facing a trial.

Standing before the scale of the law, weighed heavily, he still couldn’t escape the illusion.

Ultimately, he would commit the act of kidnapping Mary and be killed in rage by Lyman.

I don’t know how it will turn out from here, but like the original story, the dismissal will be decided.

Such commonality is simple, yet the differences are quite complex.

Now, without Lyman and with Heidern having directly threatened a student, a clear distinction exists, making the outcome an uncertainty.

“Buddy, what happened to our Vice Principal?”

“I might have given him a few hits.”

Mary looked disappointed as she gazed at the incapacitated vice principal.

Then, she used healing magic to restore his consciousness. He’d be waking in a few minutes.

“Why did you do that?”

You don’t know that? I did it to defend myself.

“He’s way more handsome than me, so I got jealous.”

[Erosion Rate Decrease: -4%]

[+400 Credits]

Mary was examining Heidern’s face, studying it intensely.

“…Do you think he’s handsomer than a friend?”

“Think whatever you like.”

“Got it! If he’s handier than a friend, he must be a flower boy! I should savor this moment.”

“Yeah, right. He’s a young, fit uncle.”

“Wow! A young, fit uncle!”

[Erosion Rate Decrease: -5%]

Seeing Mary trust those words completely made it more amusing. Of course, that was out of the question.

“A young, fit uncle? What kind of nonsensical order-reversing statement is that! Don’t say stupid things.”

Ruska appeared from behind, delivering a normal person’s critique, followed by Jenny, who kindly explained like a kindergarten teacher.

“Mary, this isn’t a young person’s face. I wouldn’t say he’s ugly, but… anyway, it’s wrong to say he’s fit. You get that?”

“If he’s not ugly but also not fit, what does that even mean?”

“Anyway! He’s neither handsome nor ugly!”

…Even I couldn’t understand what that meant. I wanted to revoke the compliment that had been given moments ago.

In response to their conversation, Ruska felt frustration and chided Jenny.

“Say it straight, you fool. If he’s ugly, just admit he’s ugly.”

“How can you say that? We’re talking about the Vice Principal here, it would be rude.”

“Fear not. He’s no longer anyone significant now.”

Cough – Heidern barely regained his senses amidst a cough, shaking off confusion.

He opened his eyes, pondering for a moment before wearing an empty expression.

“Oh! Young, fit Vice Principal! You’ve come to your senses?”

Mary, utterly oblivious, scanned Heidern’s face with a flushed expression.

“Younger… younger?”

Heidern was about to fall into thought again.

“Enough already.”

“Ah!”

Mary let out a cute whine as Ruska gave her a light bop on the head. Then I locked eyes with Heidern.

He glanced around briefly, seemingly grasping the situation, then a bitter smile formed on his face.

“So this is what it came to.”

All the students were safe. Somehow, magical suppressors had been attached to him.

Having fallen for the sweet talk of the artificial spirit disguised as a divine voice, he had committed the biggest mistake of his life.

Thus, he wanted to make known to the world the injustices of his past. The rationale behind his existence.

“So what will you do now?”

“Well, it’s obviously going to be a dismissal. Sitting in a position without the ability to judge situations properly and trying to kill students, right?”

“….”

As I pointed it out coldly, Heidern let out a faint chuckle.

With self-deprecation and an unfathomable hint of insanity in his laughter, Jenny and Ruska prepared to draw weapons at any moment.

He was a man who had kidnapped Mary despite recognizing his own inadequacies. He was not someone who would rethink his actions due to such a matter.

So, the suppressors were fitted in advance.

The handcuff-like suppressors indicate that he was the suspect. In the original story, the lack of charges had led to chaos, but now the circumstances were clear enough to prevent any issues.

If the dismissal proposal passed and he was taken away, it would be over. There would be no more rest for this hopeless old man.

“But no matter what thoughts the Vice Principal holds, I won’t say anything.”

“What do you mean by that?”

But I… knew the reason behind his growth.

So far, I only had game knowledge, yet based on the absorbed memories of Enviel, I felt like I understood his detailed feelings.

His real name was Lawrence Maruk. “Heidern” was a name given by Enviel, meaning to live a new life.

He had been denied life multiple times.

Forsaken by society, he walked a thorny path, wishing instead that everything was just a dream, living day by day.

He had thought he received salvation upon meeting Enviel, but… he had respected them without knowing their true intentions once again.

The first time was tolerable, but the second was unbearable. An explosion likely to burst at any moment had erupted right here.

“You wouldn’t want to live with your past being denied, would you?”

“….”

“That fear was why you were led astray by the tongue of the artificial spirit. I get angry over what you did to me, but I’d hate to deny the life of someone as wronged as you.”

I could see the student’s face, looking down at me with disdain. It was an ironic situation, a teacher learning from a student, yet Heidern smiled grimly.

“You understand my past?”

“Of course.”

People may have sins, but it’s a freedom to interpret and understand the past.

“You’d feel the same, right?”

“Yeah, right! The young and fit Vice Principal must have a story too. I’ve seen it plenty in Nobel Records.”

Mary rambled on excitedly. Then she turned and questioned Jenny standing behind her.

“What about you?”

“We can understand you to some extent. However…”

“…But that won’t spare you from being confined.”

A harsh reply swept through the group. Still, Heidern’s expression remained unfaltering.

I noticed Mary, staring at him. Her blank face was… always enviable.

If only I could be free-spirited without thought, it wouldn’t feel so hellish.

“Is that sincere?”

“….”

“Is the saying you won’t deny me… sincere?”

The answer was simple.

‘Of course.’

As morning broke, the guards arrived, and they took Heidern away without mercy. Yet, Heidern wore an oddly refreshing expression as he was dragged away.

Watching him face the sunset, I felt an unsettling feeling arise. I had answered nonchalantly, yet no decrease in erosion occurred.

Surviving as the Academy Scammer.