No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 72

“Well done. Should I offer you a reward?”

“…You crazy bastard. The best reward would be for you to get the hell out of my sight.”

When I honestly expressed my desire to give him a double thumbs up, the principal said this while shuddering for some unknown reason. 

Well, whatever. If he wants to kick away the reward himself, it’s fine by me and I won’t owe him anything.

“Anyway, the supplies the school can provide are at best A-grade. There won’t be anything that can match Demillang Castle, which can gather S-grade items. You know that too, right?”

“That’s right. But it’s a matter of detecting poison, isn’t it?”

I smiled innocently, hiding the implication that the items sent from Demillang are suspicious, and Damyeon, who subtly rattled his jawbone, soon clicked his tongue, saying “Ting, tsk,” and began to cooperate with the poison detection work with his skull hand that had some skin attached.

This is why a person with a lot of sympathy makes their own life tiring. But from my perspective, it’s like a laborer who voluntarily appeared to take care of chores, so there was absolutely no reason to chase him away. Moreover, the principal is someone who has lived long in this world. Unlike Ryuseong, who lived poorly—actually no, Hanra is not poor but frugal. Of course, compared to Demillang, they are incomparably poor—his insight was incredible compared to that brat.

‘I could have him be a professional appraiser.’

This is information that never appeared in the original. Well, who would ask the principal to do appraisal work anyway?

“This one has poison. Don’t touch it.”

“Oh. As expected.”

The principal’s insight was outstanding! I clapped my hands and smiled brightly, and Ryuseong looked at me with an expression as if he wanted to spit on my smiling face. Why is he like that? Unless it’s on the bed, I have no intention of letting him spit on me.

But judging from the similar expression on the principal’s face, it seems he saw through my inner thoughts.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’ll give up on the part-time job offer.”

The principal stared at me intensely with his profound golden eyes, then turned his head to look at Ryuseong.

“Ryuseong. What is this crazy guy saying? Part-time job?”

“If you occasionally help with appraisal, I won’t be stingy with the payment…”

“…Why did I even talk to this bastard.”

The principal seemed to be sincerely lamenting, so I felt a bit wronged. He talked to me first, so why is he like that? But Ryuseong committed the outrageous act of patting the principal’s shoulder, and I could only feel wronged alone.

“Your lover is right here. Are you looking at something else?”

“…”

“…”

For some reason, it seems the principal is looking at Ryuseong with sympathetic eyes, but that must be my imagination, right?

Anyway, with the additional hands, the packing ended faster than expected.

Once we put a decent pile into pocket dimensions, there were almost no actual luggage bags to carry. But I heard ordinary people can’t carry multiple pocket dimension artifacts like me. Because they don’t have money. Admiring Cassice Demillang’s wealth once again, I double-checked the locations of the pocket dimension artifacts. The ring on the left middle finger, the earring on the earlobe, the bracelet on the right wrist, the anklet on the left ankle, and even the dagger attached to the garter belt. It was a good combination.

When I calmly said that at least I won’t lose all my luggage even if one arm gets sliced off, the silence in the room somehow lengthened, and I don’t know what the problem is again. Is it hard for everyone to speak? Did they get vocal cord nodules or something?

“This is field experience learning. You brat.”

Then the principal spoke in a strangely subdued voice.

“…This is field experience learning.”

“Repeating what everyone already knows, is that proof that you’ve gotten old…? The passage of time.”

“Don’t forget that you are still students.”

“Who would forget that? Unlike you, Master, I am intellectual…”

“Students!”

What, why are you yelling?

I was stunned and at a loss for words, so I just looked at him, and the principal glared at me with eyes that looked like he was going to kill a person or two.

“Don’t worry about getting your arms and legs sliced off!”

“…Oh.”

I didn’t know that? No, but please think from Cassice’s perspective too. If he doesn’t become the family head, he’s likely to be assassinated, so even if his arms and legs fly off in battle and need to be regenerated, as long as they regenerate…

Then my arm was grabbed. As I was thinking about my arms and legs getting sliced and suddenly grabbed roughly by skeleton bones, my shoulders trembled. I tried to push him away, but the principal wouldn’t let me go.

No, to be exact, I couldn’t push him away with full strength.

Because his fingertips were trembling.

“If it’s dangerous, run away.”

“…”

“Please, just…”

That’s not a reasonable thing to say. Imagine if rumors spread that Cassice Demillang fled from the battlefield. Don’t you think it’s not just me who will be screwed? Ryuseong, who followed me, will also be screwed together. Do you think the family doesn’t know Cassice Demillang’s original personality? They’ll analyze that if a guy who wouldn’t flee even if he’s about to die retreated, he must have suffered a fatal injury, and assassins will swarm in.

I’m a regressor, but at this very moment when I can’t be exposed as a regressor, I can’t back down even if I die soon. I have to go to the battlefield with the mindset that I am Cassice Demillang.

But there’s no way I can say these things. Of course. I don’t even know why the principal is being so kind to Cassice Demillang in the first place. Professor Damyeon was originally described in the original work as having a lot of sympathy, but that sympathy was never particularly directed towards Cassice Demillang. The affection given to a disciple who was forcibly accepted due to coercion was at most ignoring his arrogant nature. Scolding means demanding change. The principal in the original work didn’t demand change from Cassice Demillang. Did he realize that he was someone who wouldn’t change? Maybe not.

Anyway, Professor Damyeon was not someone who would stop Cassice Demillang from doing crazy things.

At least when evaluated based only on his appearance in the original work.

But the principal in front of my eyes was completely different.

“Who stakes their life on something like field experience learning? Huh?”

He looked at me with anguished eyes. He seemed to earnestly wish that I wouldn’t get hurt. What was the change? That he found out Cassice Demillang frequently experiences assassination attempts? Can his attitude change completely just from that?

If that’s true, am I receiving sympathy now? Suddenly, an inexplicable anger rushed through me. Maybe because of my bad personality, whenever someone pities me, my anger explodes. But even I knew how to discern front and back. I can’t curse to his face when he says he’s worried about me, right?

“That’s what I’m saying. I have no intention of dying. Above all, isn’t it a luxury to survive on the battlefield even if you lose your arms and legs?”

“…Why should a student go to the battlefield in the first place?”

But when the principal made a rather soft remark, I also couldn’t hold back anymore.

How should I put it, do I want to be a textbook example of a terrible personality to poor Ryuseong’s friend?

“Yes, I know. This is just field experience learning, and I am a student… But Damyeon.”

I called him by his title for the first time. The principal’s eyes seemed to subtly distort as the young disciple, who always sarcastically called him by the petty title of master and sneered at him, grew up to be an adult and called him Damyeon, his forgotten name. But I had no more will to tolerate it.

I smiled at him as sweetly as if I had put honey on him and whispered affectionately, and the next moment, despair filled the principal’s face.

“Aren’t you the one who shouldn’t be saying that? At what age did I start receiving teachings under you? As far as I know, I met you before my bones were properly grown in order to conquer a dungeon at the age of thirteen. Wasn’t I pitiful then, but now I am? Are you really so sorry to see me crawling into hell even without you pushing me?”

“Cassice…”

“How petty.”

I spat out the words and laughed. The bewitching smile shone even more brilliantly, taking the distortion of your face as sadistic nourishment.

“Master, can you say there was no revenge against Demillang in you pushing young me in front of demons in the name of education?”

Actually, I am not Cassice Demillang who received education from Damyeon. Since I don’t know the proper education process of Damyeon, I’m vaguely saying it.

I don’t know how old they were when they formed a master-disciple relationship before the age of thirteen, so I’m saying before the bones were properly grown and fudging it by saying he pushed him in front of demons.

But even this clumsy attack seems to be enough to inflict a fatal wound on Damyeon, as he was spasmodically frozen like someone being butchered.

‘Well, it’s not your fault.’

I understand Damyeon. He was threatened with his life. Damyeon was oppressed by Demillang and was forced to accept Cassice as his disciple. And he was coerced to train Cassice to produce certain results. He is also a victim. However,

“After pushing me to live like that, why are you telling me to choose a different path now?”

Since I took over Cassice Demillang’s body, I had to say at least this.

“If you’ve abandoned me, you should leave me like that.”

You should know that it’s more irritating to care pathetically, so you won’t get frustrated when you use it in the future. I’d rather have him crawl and grovel, suffocating from guilt. That might make me angry in its own way, but… Anyway, I had no intention of accepting an apology. Because I’m not Cassice Demillang in the first place. If it were Cassice Demillang, I don’t know what he would have done, but at least I can’t stand injustice.

“Cassice…”

“But don’t worry.”

I smiled brightly with these last words.

“Even before you turned a blind eye, my life was already a battlefield.”

Because that’s how it would have been for Cassice Demillang.