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Chapter 45.
Misfortune vs. Fortune (3)
Ruin entered the classroom for Healing Studies.
Originally, he had planned to wait a bit longer before digging a tunnel, so as not to be discovered by the Hero or the Headmaster—but now, he couldn’t afford to wait anymore.
If I delay any longer, I’ll end up getting tied down here.
Well, honestly, staying in Haven itself wasn’t bad. It was dangerous since it was deep inside enemy territory, but as long as he wasn’t discovered, he could pocket an enormous research budget and salary.
The problem is that I keep getting tied down.
Because of that, he placed a hand on the floor and infused it with mana.
Shadow Barrier.
Pajik!
The shadows spread out around him in the shape of a hemisphere. It was a technique that blocked sound and presence.
A bit of a crude method, but I need to finish quickly, so I have no choice.
Finally, he poured power into the ground.
Shadow Shock.
Kwagik! Kwajijik!
When he sent the shadows flowing into the ground, something astonishing happened. Black sparks flared, and the wards and spells cast on the building stopped functioning.
More precisely, rather than destroying them, it was as if impurities had been wedged between the gears of a clock, temporarily stopping them.
It’d be safer to destroy them using a breaking technique, but I don’t have time.
Unlike the Princess’s magic, Haven’s barrier took time to break. That was only natural for a military facility.
Since he hadn’t destroyed it but merely interfered with it, it would only last about ten minutes—but that should be enough.
I’ll dig a tunnel straight to the vault.
The vault was located very deep underground. Normally, you’d need to bring a shovel and do hard labor, but Ruin didn’t need to.
Because—
“Be cast down.”
At the call to their kin, a deep darkness fell across the floor.
“O primordial residents born with the beginning of darkness.”
At that summons, shadows whirled into existence.
They looked like shadow soldiers, but in truth they were Ruin’s shadow servants. At a glance, they resembled a short-legged dog and a butler—black spirit forms.
The short-legged dog wagged its tail happily and spun in circles upon seeing its master, while the butler bowed his head.
「O Shadow Patriarch!」
Seeing that there were only two of them, Ruin clicked his tongue.
He was the highest-evolved among shadow monsters—the “Shadow King”—and could command his kin.
But—
“That’s all?”
「We are ashamed. After you disappeared, this is all that remained. The others were all devoured by other predators.」
At those words, Ginseng (the subordinate) foamed at the mouth and collapsed, and Ruin let out a sigh.
The “predators” the subordinate spoke of referred to Pride’s named individuals—special-class wanted criminals like himself.
Well, I expected as much.
It meant that while he had been missing, the shadow faction he once ruled had been completely wiped out.
I’ll have to rebuild this side too.
「Revenge! Let us have bloody revenge!」
As Ginseng spat bloody foam, Ruin looked at his subordinate with exasperation.
You could’ve done that while I was gone. You were just neglecting everything.
「Neglect? I was guarding you!」
Yes, yes.
「Without you, I can’t even handle a succession!」
I’m sure.
「You don’t believe me?!」
Ruin ignored him.
In any case, those who had attacked his forces were demons taught about in Demon-Hunting Studies. In other words, they were the same targets as the heroes and students—so it was perfectly fine to use them to exact bloody revenge.
In that sense, it wouldn’t be bad to keep pretending to be Ruins Wayne.
Since they were already targeting Firefly. For a peaceful retirement, it might not be a bad idea to backstab them while remaining Ruins Wayne.
But before that—
“Dig.”
At his command, the shadows vanished again in a swirling motion. Even though only the butler and dog remained, that was more than enough for digging a tunnel.
The problem was that he had only ten minutes a day to stop the barrier without being detected.
Which means I can only dig for ten minutes per day…
It would take quite some time to reach the vault. That was unfortunate, but in this ironclad security, it couldn’t be helped—
That was when it happened.
「Master. We found it. A treasure chest!」
At the call, Ruin raised an eyebrow.
What? A treasure chest?
“Not soil?”
「Yes! A treasure chest from the vault!」
A treasure chest already?
“That can’t be right.”
It was far too fast. It felt like less than a minute had passed since they started digging.
Sure enough, something was strange.
“You haven’t dug that far.”
The butler looked awkwardly toward the dog, who was proudly waiting after digging.
「It says it can’t go any deeper because something is blocking the way.」
…Blocked?
“But I already broke through the barrier—hm?”
Ruin looked into the pit and doubted his eyes. There was a blue membrane, different from the color of soil, and some writing on it…
-☆ ♬ No entry beyond this point ╰ ^∇^)╯♫ ☜
-Hero-
“Hero, you bastard! Did you illegally extend construction here too?!”
「Isn’t this… the Hero’s barrier?」
That meant the Hero had laid a defensive barrier over the surface. But he hadn’t detected anything like that during his investigation.
More than that, that message was infuriating!
Ruin tensed his body.
But then, suddenly realizing something, he flinched with a chill.
Don’t tell me the Hero knows about the vault?
And that he blocked it because he knew Ruin would come looking?
「More likely because this is Haven. It’s probably a device to prevent enemies from tunneling in.」
Yeah, that made more sense. That message was probably aimed at enemies too.
It had startled him, but the important thing was something else.
“You really found the treasure chest from the vault?”
「Yes! The scent is coming from right beneath here.」
Ginseng walked up to the barrier, poked around, and made a suspicious face.
「Right beneath? Wasn’t the vault way deeper than this? How could there be a scent here?」
Ruin’s eyes lit up. He seemed to realize something.
Could it be?
At the same time, Ruin placed his hand on the ground.
‘It’s the Hero’s barrier, Patriarch. Lend me your power for a moment.’
「Tch, you barely offer tribute, yet you only call me Patriarch at times like this.」
‘I’ll give you one more bottle of plant fertilizer.’
「Oh, really?!」
With the Shadow God’s words, Ruin’s shadow flickered ominously. The savage power of the shadow enveloped him.
With this, he could probably break through the Hero’s barrier once.
It’s a bit violent, but…
Shadow Chains.
His strengthened shadow burrowed underground. Being formless, the shadow passed through the Hero’s barrier without issue.
Kwagik!
Moments later, the golden chest the shadow retrieved from beneath the barrier appeared.
「Oh! Is that it?!」
A golden treasure chest. There was no doubt—it was the one from the vault. The chest the loyal hound had found was indeed this one.
Ruin felt a rare sense of joy. Even though it was only one, he had managed to retrieve an item from the vault without even reaching it.
But as soon as Ginseng saw the crude chest, he frowned.
「You should’ve paid more attention to the design. So what’s inside?」
‘Who knows. All the chest designs were standardized…’
If only he’d chosen different designs back then instead of being lazy.
Whatever’s inside, it’s a considerable asset.
「True. You wouldn’t have put junk inside.」
He was curious why the chest was here, but if, for some reason, the treasure chests were scattered around…
Maybe there are more nearby?
If he was lucky, he might even find his retirement fund chest.
Just as Ruin was about to search further—
“Who’s there?!”
“!”
Startled, Ruin quickly hid the treasure chest.
Soon, someone entered the dark Healing Studies classroom.
Ruin immediately went on alert. Had the guards already noticed?
But the people who barged in holding lanterns were even more surprised.
“Professor Wayne?”
“What are you doing here?”
They were none other than the Healing Studies professors.
Ruin frowned.
“You should be asking yourselves that.”
“We were on the move because of the Chairman’s orders.”
“Chairman?”
“Huh? Don’t tell me you haven’t heard that Firefly has attacked?”
“!”
The one speaking provocatively was a young professor among the Healing Studies faculty. Ruin recognized him immediately.
Doman.
A professor of Extremely Difficult Internal Injury Medicine, and the very one who had forged letters to frame Ruin as a spy.
But Ruin had already known about him.
They say he’s been slandering me in other classes.
He’d even gotten angry when the forged letter he’d sent wasn’t found at the post office.
“Why did that letter disappear?! Why!”
“I-I don’t know, Professor…! Maybe Professor Wayne found it first—!”
“If he had, he’d have reacted! Idiot!”
Since Ruin had scattered shadows everywhere to gather information, he already knew all this.
Perfect timing.
He’d been planning to deal with this guy anyway.
But Doman, who knew nothing of that, looked at Ruin with displeasure.
“Firefly has appeared and Haven is in chaos, yet a professor trusted by the Chairman is here doing what exactly?”
Hmm, what should he say?
He needed to get these people out of here.
So Ruin said:
“I sensed curse energy inside Haven and came to check.”
“What? But Firefly is still outside Haven…”
“You never know. They could make noise in the east and attack from the west.”
“Really?!”
Ruin kept a straight face. They might not have noticed anything, but he was getting ahead of the situation just in case.
Then Doman looked displeased.
“You’re saying a demon could sneak into this fortress-like Haven?”
Doman scoffed, but the other Healing Studies professors, who had grown to like Ruin after recent events, spoke up.
“Still, if you sensed something, shouldn’t we check the nearby barrier?”
“The intuition of a Demon-Hunting Studies professor is important.”
Good. That’s right. Leave already. He needed to cover the tunnel.
Just as the professors were about to move, Doman interrupted.
“I don’t see the point of checking the barrier.”
“Professor Doman!”
“Isn’t it obvious he was just slacking off? If he actually faced Firefly, his lack of skill would be exposed, so he hid instead. Firefly is a legendary opponent that even senior professors struggled with, isn’t that right?”
“Hey!”
At the same time, the Shadow God fumed.
「Hey, why don’t we just kill him?」
‘Calm down. My role is disruption, not murder.’
And although the focus was slightly off, the situation was actually favorable.
It’s good that he isn’t suspicious.
So Doman could just be used as a mana battery. With the lapis lazuli he’d gotten from the gatekeeper before, he could probably extract mana and use it.
But—
“You’re the one who filled that first-year named Owen with false hopes, aren’t you? Ultra-regeneration, my foot. I placed him in the problem class so he wouldn’t get his hopes up. If you irresponsibly fill students with false expectations, that’s unacceptable.”
“!”
“At this rate, I’ll have to summon the parents for an in-depth interview and report to the Chairman that all of this is Professor Wayne’s fault. Why don’t you come have a pleasant meeting with the Chairman?”
Ruin’s gaze turned icy.
Sometimes, the role of murderer might be acceptable too.
Ruin unfastened the button of his glove.
