Surviving as a Villain at the Academy

6 – The Demon Realm Rift (2)

When I came to my senses, I was in the arms of Asti who had revealed her true form.

“You’re awake?”

“….Yeah.”

“You got quite a beating. Does your body feel okay?”

“No, I feel like I’m dying.”

“I figured as much.”

Saying that, Asti waved her hand and drew a magical circle in the air. A murky aura emerged from it and seeped into my body, beginning to heal all the wounds on my back.

“This is…..”

“How long were you going to stay in that state?”

“You’re right. Thank you. I was originally planning to ask the priest for help, but you saved me the trouble.”

“By the way, your father is quite stern as well. It’s my first time seeing a noble house’s son being beaten to a bloody pulp like that.”

You’re telling me. I’m the crazy one who set it up like that. What nonsense about honor. If I had just made my parents endlessly weak toward their son, I wouldn’t have had to suffer like this.

“I’m just glad it ended at this. Above all, you healed me too… Oh, come to think of it, I didn’t get a chance to bring up your story.”

“I think it’s better you didn’t bring it up. If you had, it wouldn’t have stopped at just ten lashes, right?”

“You’re right. It probably requires preparation in various ways to let you stay in this manor.”

“That’s right. Since I’ve become obsessed with Arias, doing something like that would be troublesome in many ways if I suddenly brought another girl into the manor. Rumors would definitely spread that I’ve gone crazy over women.”

“Yeah. So, how should I bring up my story?”

“It’s simple. I sponsored a female student who got caught up in a difficult situation… That much should help my father understand.”

“Ah, of course. After all, you did donate quite a bit in sponsorship fees.”

“But to do that, we need some kind of incident. One where you have no decent place left to live.”

“That’s true.”

“So, I was thinking… Do you have an idea?”

“An idea?”

“You can open a demon realm rift, right? High-ranking demons like you should be able to open one as you wish, no?”

“A rift? What do you mean, of course I can. Don’t ordinary humans not know about that?”

“I can know. In the first place, if I were just an ordinary guy, how would I have known your true name?”

“….That’s true. But why the sudden talk about a rift?”

“Why, you ask? Obviously the only incident that would make you unable to keep living there is the dormitory being destroyed!”

“…..”

Asti had a look of being at a loss for words.

“It makes sense, but… So you’re telling me to open a rift in the middle of the dormitory?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh….”

“Don’t worry. With your abilities, it definitely won’t be discovered anyway.”

This was with confidence. In the original work, Asti opened the rift herself without even a word from Frau, and utterly destroyed the dormitory.

By opening a rift.

Thanks to that, Arias Winstlet also got caught up in trouble. Because the dormitory building Asti lived in was also the one Arias lived in.

“While it’s obvious I won’t get caught… To think you’d suggest the same thing I was going to right out of your mouth, I didn’t expect that.”

She looked at me with a somewhat dumbfounded expression.

“Then it’s even better. It was something we were going to do anyway, so no need to feel awkward about it.”

“What are you planning to do about the demons that come out of the rift?”

“The academy guys will take care of that themselves. You know best of all that there are plenty of capable guys at the academy, right Asti? Weren’t you there from the beginning to scout capable contractors?”

“….My nose got twisted off while I was doing that, though.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate, but are my actions really that different from what you were doing? Who told you to go leeching off of others?”

“Ah, I get it. But when should I open it?”

“Carry it out tomorrow right away.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah. It’s obviously an order. In the first place, you asked me to prepare a place for you to live quickly.”

“….Alright. But.”

“But?”

“A big room, okay? I don’t like small, cramped rooms. That’s why I studied so hard in the first place.”

“If your grades are good, you get assigned the best dormitory building, right?”

“Yeah. The same building as that Arias you were so desperately clinging to.”

“Don’t worry about that. Starting right now, my room is probably about three times the size of the room I had when I stayed at the dorms.”

“That’s to my liking.”

She smiled contentedly.

*

As soon as I returned to the academy, everything was all talk about me.

I don’t know when the word had spread that I’d been sentenced to a flogging, but there was only that talk all around me.

I had thought the academy’s punishments were weak, and word was that they had been planning to condemn me themselves.

Talk about how I shamelessly showed my face back at the academy after that.

Talk that all my actions so far had been hypocrisy.

I simply remained silent. There was nothing more pathetic than getting caught up in gossip. No, for me this could even be called a good thing. After all, it was the same kind of rumors circulating in the original work.

In any case, such gossip would soon fade away.

Because today Asti would open a rift. Surely in this episode there were no deaths or injuries. Just some not-so-strong demons popping out a bit.

To be honest, it was just a simple matter of saying I left the dormitory… The problem was, that wouldn’t make the situation look dire enough that I could be taken into Rancel’s manor. It wouldn’t work if I couldn’t do that much.

In the first place, the owner of the manor was my father, not me. And of course I wouldn’t be staying there all day, and I’d pretty much be able to use it like my own manor, but I still needed permission. Let alone me bringing in a girl when I had just gotten into trouble over woman issues.

In short, I just had to stay put. Asti would create the situation anyway.

However… it wasn’t without obstacles. Opening the classroom door and going in, I saw Ruslan glaring at me with murderous gazes, along with his friends.

Of course, Arias Winstlet was there with them as well. Killing intent was spewing from them towards me. Oh my, how scary.

Cold sweat trickled down. Logically thinking, it’s scary and sad at the same time that characters I had poured my heart and soul into were trying their hardest to kill me.

But the harm would be done to them. I had to thoroughly play the villain’s role. The more I kept to the role of the villain, the more they would suffer in various ways.

Due to that, it would be quite hard on me as well. I think hypocrisy might actually be better.

There could be no phrase more ridiculous than fake evil. Rather than take meaningless actions like that, I could bring about much more positive influence. Just like delusional works tend to do.

You could say I was trapped in an ironic situation.

…I just have to endure until chapter 3. When that time comes I can make an appropriate exit, and then I’ll be able to secretly help them from a place they don’t know about. I had a rough plan thought out already.

Of course, there was no guarantee events would unfold according to that plan. The situation had twisted here and there a bit. Maybe I had made mistakes unknowingly in conversations with my father, and the very act of gaining the upper hand over Asti itself could cause massive variables in the storyline.

However, the plan itself could not be overturned. What I could do was, yes, adhere firmly to the role of the villain no matter what situation came.

The starting point for that would be… the demon realm rift uproar that would happen today. It was an uproar that completely followed the storyline, but even within it variables could exist. I just had to be vigilant for those at the utmost.

Anyway, there was quite some time until Asti would open the rift, so for now I should attend class. Thanks to Frau diligently taking notes, I had no issues at all keeping up with the lessons.

In a sense, this too could be called my retribution.

I had turned such a sincere character into a fool of a villain just because of love, so I was getting that retribution now.

Ignoring the stares aimed at me from those around me, I took on the attitude of a diligent student. From the perspective of others, it might seem disgusting.

* * *

Asti was now subtly moving her magic power in her dorm room. She made sure to properly transform the nature of her magic power so there would be no trace of dark magic, just so she wouldn’t get caught by those church guys. There’s no way she would get caught by the church guys.

Originally Asti had been unbelievably careless, but after getting beaten quite harshly by Frau last time, she had resolved to be more cautious in everything.

If the church were to find out about her existence, she knew just how much of a headache it would be, so this time she made every effort not to get caught.

“This should be good enough, right?”

Asti, who usually acted out the role of a sincere yet gloomy character with poor health. For her, slipping out during class time was no problem at all. Moreover, since demon realm rifts were seen by humans ignorant about demons as “natural disasters” that appeared randomly… no one would think someone had opened one artificially.

“hehehe~”

Asti hummed. Just the fact that she could complete such a simple task and then spend time comfortably was enough to fill her with motivation.

That her existence was subordinated to Frau couldn’t be helped, and just thinking about it made irritation well up, but… she knew very well that what’s done is done.

Hadn’t she calmly accepted the situation when she had fallen from an angel to a demon?

She just had to cater to Frau’s mood for now, and when his life ended she could get away properly. Humans had finite lifespans after all.

So for now, she just had to obediently follow his words. In the end, she would be the one laughing anyway.