Chapter 4: Sleeping with the Enemy
“Young Master, wake up.”
“Umm, what is it..”
“Young Master, if you sleep here, you’ll ruin not only your reputation but also the face of the family. So please get up quickly.”
“Heummm…”
I almost died the day after I returned because of Irina’s curse.
Shocked by this realization, I was quietly lying down dazed in the empty banquet room, but I quickly pretended to be drunk when Kania entered.
“Kania…carry me…”
“Young Master, you’re well aware that I…”
“That’s right! Our Kania is a warlock, isn’t she?”
“Y-Young Master!”
“Besides, she’s always in a weak state because of the curse she bears as a warlock…well, I guess she can’t help after all…”
“I-I’ll carry you on my back. Please, just stop.”
“Hehe…thank you! Kania!”
Kania took a deep breath as she slung me onto her back, and then she started wobbling.
“Woah… phew…”
“May I put you down for a moment?”
“I don’t think I will need to get off if you hold me in an upright position.”
“……..”
Kania trembled slightly after hearing this, then soon responded in a guttural, irritated voice.
“I’ll fix it.”
“Giddy up! Run, run!”
“…Ha, really?”
So Kania slowly started heading towards my dormitory, listening to my fake drunk rambling with her dead eyes fixed on me.
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
“What’s wrong with you this time?”
“Don’t worry about it…keep following the way you were going, you Black Magician…Oh, did I just say you’re a Black Magician, not a Warlock…?”
“…….”
And so I began imbuing life force into her while she carried me on her back.
Kania will not last long and die soon if I don’t infuse life force into her periodically like this. That’s why I have to infuse life force into her whenever I get an opportunity like this.
For reference, the larger the area of contact, the more life force I can transfer to her.
So, I tried to imbue months’ worth of life force at this opportunity, but soon I gave up when I remembered that Kania was also looking for a chance to kill me.
So I started infusing a little more life force than usual to relieve her fatigue as I snuggled close to her back and pretended to sleep.
“I don’t know if it’s God’s trick or what…”
At the same time as I was sharing my life force, Kania, who was carrying me on her back, suddenly muttered in a spiteful voice.
“…even for my sister’s sake, this time, I must kill you.”
‘That’s too much.’
I felt nauseated, as I couldn’t even spit the blood that came up to my mouth since I was already overdoing it by sharing my life force with Kania. In the meantime, she’s declaring that she’s going to kill me. Thanks to this, I felt my heartache.
However, this is inevitable as long as I act like a villain.
Now, to Kania, I’m a piece of trash that’s aiming for her younger sister, who has shown time and time again to have an outstanding talent in healing magic.
“…gulp.”
Thanks to the side effects of transferring life force, I quietly swallowed the blood in my mouth and started dozing off on her back.
Of course, I couldn’t fall asleep completely, as I was afraid of being killed while sleeping.
Sure enough, it’s hard pretending to be the villain.
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“Young Master, we have arrived.”
“Ahhh…where…?”
“This is the dormitory where the Young Master will be staying from today. The Academy has especially made sure that the room is of the finest quality, so there will be no inconvenience…”
“Get out.”
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“…Yes?”
“You should just leave so that I can get some sleep.”
I interrupted her explanation as I beckoned her to leave, pretending to be annoyed.
“Then, if you’ll excuse me.”
Kania then greeted me at 90 degrees as she smiled brightly for some reason. I stared at her for a moment, and just as she was about to open the door to leave, I muttered.
“Wait, don’t go.”
“…Yes?”
“Don’t leave yet.”
“…I understand.”
When I overturned my earlier order after she had just almost left, she tilted her head for a moment as if confused, but soon showed an expression of understanding.
Perhaps, she’s thinking, ‘What’s wrong with the Young Master?’ ‘Ah! The Young Master is going to bullshit again!’ Isn’t it possible for her to come up with the answer on her own?
“Come here for a second.”
With such a futile thought, I purchased [Mind Reading Lv1] from the skill store window of the system that had been previously floating in front of me, then called Kania over.
“………”
Then she approached me with a rotten expression on her face. I haven’t even done anything to her yet, but being scorned makes me feel like the shepherd boy from the imperial fairy tale.
[Kania’s Current Emotions: Disgust/Murderous Intent/Rage/Contempt/Shame/Firm Will]
Anyway, when I used my mind-reading skill on her, who came all the way over to me, the emotions that surfaced in front of me were a sight to behold except for the last one.
Even her most sane emotion, ‘firm will,’ must have come from her desire to to kill me eventually. This is starting to scare me a little about using mind reading skill in the future.
By the way, it’s incredible that I can know the emotions in such detail when I’m still at level 1. I’m looking forward to how useful it will be if I level it up further.
“Status Window.”
After testing the Beginner Assistant Skill, ‘Mind Reading’, I mumbled to open her status window.
[Stats] Name: Kania
Strength: 3
Mana: ???
Intelligence: 7
Mental Strength: 4
Passive Status: Afflicted/Mana Instability/Curse of Self-Destruction
‘Isn’t her mana value strange? Is it because of the curse?’
Born with the power to wield Black Magic, Kania quite literally has the potential to cover the world with darkness.
However, she wasn’t born with just black magic.
Her ‘Curse of Self-Destruction’, which accompanied her along with her innate talent for black magic, periodically eroded her life force, and because of this, Kania, whose mana has become quite unstable, can’t even use magic properly without my help at this point.
Perhaps that’s why her mana figure seems to have appeared as a question mark.
‘After all, I have to do something about this curse.’
Of course, even with that curse, she might be alive now, but if I let it go, there will be a time when even my life force won’t be enough to help her. In just a few months, she will face her first crisis.
So I still need to accumulate as many false evil points as possible, move on to the next stage, and find a way to awaken the key to curing the curse; Kania’s younger sister.
When I finished contemplating Kania’s curse, I put on a facial expression that it was a bother to speak and beckoned Kania to leave.
“……..”
Then Kania, who also looked too bothered to speak, bowed her head briefly and left the room. In this aspect, we get along well with each other.
After Kania left her room, I was in a daze for a moment, but soon started checking my list of acquired skills.
[Acquired Skills List] – False Evil’s Intuition Lv1
Description: With your intuition as a False evil, you can detect a deadly threat once a day. – Inspect Lv1
Description: Displays important information about the target you are inspecting in the system window. – Emergency Protection
Description: Protects the target once from a fatal blow (Disposable) (Purchase limit 1/3) – Mind Reading Lv1
Description: Allows you to read a person’s emotions once per day. (Cooldown time does not apply for first use)
“…This much is still useful.”
Since the system is still in the beginner stage, there is no ability powerful enough to defeat the Demon Lord, but even this level will be quite useful to me for now.
First of all, there is nothing to say about False Evil’s Intuition, as this is a skill that I definitely need in my current situation.
The [Emergency Protection] skill seems to be the most useful along with False Evil’s Intuition out of all the skills I have right now. It’s a shame that it’s disposable, and there’s also a limit to the number of times I can purchase it, but seeing as how it protected me from Irina’s curse, its performance is guaranteed.
Other than that, Inspect and Mind Reading may occasionally be helpful. For reference, there is no cooldown for the initial use of the Mind Reading skill, so I can use it again today.
“Item Store.”
Having looked around the skills for a while, I tried to open the item store, but a red notification window popped up in front of me instead.
Notice [This feature is not supported at this stage!]
“…Does this mean I’m still far from the required level of False Evil?”
Feeling that the system was urging me to commit more evil deeds, I closed the notification window and finally opened the status window.
[Stats] Name: Frey Raon Starlight
Strength: ???
Mana: ???
Intelligence: ???
Mental Strength: 9 Passive Status: Fatigue
“…What? Why is it like this?”
Something’s strange. All figures except mental strength are coming out as question marks.
I panicked and tried to tap the stat window, but no interaction occurred except for the mental strength stats. What the hell is this?
‘By the way, my mental strength is quite high, isn’t it?’
Perhaps my mental strength is high because in the previous timeline I held back my tears while committing sins and tried not to get stained by evil.
However, why are the other stats displayed as question marks? Is it possible that I can only genuinely raise or see the stats from the next stage onwards? Or did something go wrong in the aftermath of the regression?
After looking at the system window while making various guesses, I immediately tried to level up the only interactive stat mental strength, but the system once again left me with a message that it’s not supported at this stage.
‘As expected, do I have no choice but to accumulate points by committing evil deeds one step at a time?’
After closing the system with a sigh, I closed my eyes, feeling exhausted.
The system also said I’m tired, so now is probably the time to get some sleep. After all, I will have to keep the heroines completely in check from tomorrow onwards, so shouldn’t I be in good shape?
As I closed my eyes and was about to fall asleep-
– knock, knock, knock!
“…Hmm?”
Suddenly, someone started knocking on my door, and I frowned, as I had no choice but to get up.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Young Master.”
“…Kania?”
I was about to rack up more false evil points, as I was furious at the guy who dared to knock on my door in the middle of the night, but oddly enough, Kania was the one standing in front of my room.
“What’s all that?”
“…My luggage.”
I don’t know why, but her luggage is piled up in the hallway in front of my room.
“Then, excuse me.”
“…..?”
As I was tilting my head at such a strange sight, Kania suddenly pushed me inside the room and started unpacking her bags, one by one.
“…What are you doing?”
“I’m unpacking?”
“No, why are you unpacking your luggage here?”
“From today on, I have to stay here too.”
“…What?”
Startled by her words, I soon calmed my pounding heart and started speaking slowly.
“…What kind of bullshit is this? You belong to the dormitory where all the lowly beings gather; this is the dormitory for nobles.”
“Didn’t you know?”
Upon hearing my words, Kania smiled quietly and some unexpected words came out of her mouth.
“I entered the academy as Young Master’s servant.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Kania entered the Academy as a regular student in the previous timeline, if I recall correctly. So why is it like this now…
“Yesterday, I asked Young Master’s father via telegram. And fortunately, I got permission.”
“…Why the hell?”
“Isn’t he just worried about the Young Master, his son, who he lived with for a long time?There’s no other reason.”
Kania coldly replied to my question with a puzzled look and then added a few more words with a smirk.
“Oh, and the Duke also said this, ‘Monitor the Young Master so he won’t cause trouble.’ If you kick me out, he’ll have you expelled from the Academy.”
“Damn it.”
The moment Kania said ‘expelled,’ the system displayed a red warning window.
Warning! Game Over Crisis!
The Path of False Evil System considers the following three scenarios as ‘Game Over.’
1. Expulsion, or no longer attending the academy for some other reason.
2. The death of Main Heroines, even if it’s only one.
3. The System Owner dies in a situation other than the ‘Final Battle’.
Yes, the system is constraining me in this way. Among them, the one that has now become a problem is the first case, expulsion from the academy.
According to my ancestor’s words in the prophetic book, it’s a constraint because the background of ‘Dark Tale Fantasy 2’ is the Academy… Thanks to this, I’m now in a tough situation.
So why can’t I just explain the situation to my father, who knows I’m a False Evil, and then expel Kania or make her a regular student?
Because this damned world isn’t that easy.
Because of the magic spell cast on the prophetic book, at the moment of my regression, anyone besides me who knew the contents of the prophetic book will have their memories recalibrated.
Such a magic spell was cast because the system will penalize me by shortening my lifespan if someone finds out I’m a false evil.
Therefore, if the ‘Game Scenario’ mentioned in the prophetic book is correct, perhaps by now, my father has transformed into a person who treats me harshly because of my foolish behavior, and at the same time, he can’t abandon me because of his fatherly love.
It’s a very awkward and strange setting, but what can I do about the ‘Constraint’ of the ‘Scenario’? After all, there was a reason my ancestor was so fond of the term ‘Dog shit game.’
Anyway, in conclusion, in my previous life, I couldn’t tell anyone the truth in order to make the hero’s armament rampage, which uses ‘good’ as its source of energy. Despite that, my father cheered me on and consoled me, and now my father is no longer by my side.
In other words, there’s no one who can help me.
While I was in such a depressed mood, Kania, who had unpacked all her luggage in my room, laid down on the extra bed, then bid me goodnight with a stiff smile.
“Then… Good night, Young Master.”
“……..”
After conveying her words, Kania quietly closed her eyes and fell asleep.
“…This is driving me crazy.”
After a moment of outrage, I thought about going outside to sleep but soon realized that Kania might find that suspicious if I did that all the time for no apparent reason. And more importantly, there is nowhere I can sleep outside.
It won’t be easy to get a good night’s sleep from now on.
‘No, can I even sleep in the first place?’
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“Tonight, I pray to the Holy Sun God…”
While Frey was staying up the entire night with his eyes wide open,
“…I apologize that I’m an apostate who dared to doubt the existence of the Sun God, and I’m extremely grateful that you’ve given me another chance.”
In the women’s dormitory not too far from the dormitory he was staying in, a girl of small stature reverently held her hands together in prayer.
“Even though I’m ashamed of myself, I dare to beseech the Sun God…”
She is known to the world as the ‘Pure-White Saintess’ thanks to her elegant and lustrous white hair, kind and pure heart, and the golden aura blooming from her body.
“…please help me this time, so I can tear Frey Raon Starlight to death.”
She soon finished her prayer with a cold expression on her face.
“…If necessary, I will offer you the life of this Ferloche Astellade.”