Damn Academy - Chapter 245

245 – Shadow City (4)

“Is that hoodlum as good a fighter as I am?”

“He’s a weakling, but he has a right-hand man who’s a skilled fighter.”

“You’ll need to have a much better fighter than that if you want to scare me.”

Lady Bastien chuckled.

“I’m glad someone finally gave that little punk what he deserved.”

“Little punk?”

“He’s always drunk or high on drugs. Lady’s Kiss is the name of the hallucinogen popular among the Claridium nobles. They’re running rampant throughout the city, using the drug to torment civilians and nobles alike. They have powerful backers in this city, so they can commit all sorts of atrocities without any repercussions.”

“Is the mayor one of their backers?”

“….”

It must have been a dangerous question, because she remained silent.

“The hoodlum’s name is Fraser. Fraser Rainfist. He’s the only son of a well-known city councilman.”

“I’m with Eternia, so I don’t care who the city councilmen are here.”

“That’s the answer I was hoping for. Fraser applied to join the Eternia Combat Division six years ago, but he failed every time. He even tried to bribe his way in, but unfortunately, he was found out. As a result, he’s been banned from Eternia for life. I think that’s why he’s so vicious toward people from Eternia.”

“Even if he’s from Eternia, there’s no reason to be afraid of someone who failed the test so many times.”

“…As expected, you have the guts of the Archmage’s disciple.”

“May I ask why you sought me out?”

She was briefly startled and turned her back. Then, she paused for a while and exhaled with difficulty.

“I’ve been waiting earnestly for someone like you.”

“……”

The calm voice contained a sense of urgency.

“……I need someone to find my son.”

Another request to find someone.

“Aren’t there many people better than me in this city?”

“There is no one I can trust in this city. No, I shouldn’t trust anyone. You feel it too, don’t you? Don’t you? All the competent people have left as if possessed by ghosts.”

The story and the words of the old man Westwood I saw in the square are similar.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“I remember it exactly. The carriage passing through the district was damaged in an accident, and the demon inside escaped, so the Guardians were guarding the streets. My son attended a ball that day, so I was worried about him. Fortunately, my son came home late at night.”

“……”

It was an incident mentioned during the research institute tour. According to the researcher, there were no witnesses or casualties.

“But the appearance of my son who came back was strange.”

“Was he intoxicated?”

“No. He looked exactly like my son, but it was as if only his soul had been replaced with something else. He was muttering incoherent words, and his accent was different. The bracelet he always carried like a talisman was gone, and he talked to himself in the mirror.”

“Can you tell me more?”

“At first, I thought he was preparing for a play, but he wasn’t. He didn’t know that the person in the mirror was himself. He was as stupid as a dog or a chicken.”

“……”

“And I know for sure. That bracelet was something he received from a deceased friend, so he never took it off, no matter what. The initials R.B., his friend’s initials, were engraved on his shoulder. But the son who came back that day didn’t have those initials on his shoulder.”

“What happened next?”

“The next day, my son disappeared without a trace. I know for sure. That wasn’t my son. It was another being disguised as my son. Please, find my son.”

“I’ll help as much as I can, but don’t expect too much. I’m just a freshman.”

Bang!

Suddenly, the balcony door opened violently.

Mrs. Bastien’s face turned pale when she saw the person who had suddenly barged in.

“It’s Fraser. …Lie down unconditionally for now. You’ll get hurt if you don’t.”

A handsome young man with long brown hair tied back entered confidently with his arms open.

He was followed by burly men who appeared to be Guardians and personal knights.

And he forcibly dragged Hayley, grabbing both of her arms.

“Let go! Before I kill you all!”

She struck the face of the man holding her with her elbow and ran to my side and stood next to me.

Fraser staggered and walked towards me.

“Hey, I heard a VIP came, so I came, but you were already flirting with a woman?”

Then, he gulped down the bottle of alcohol he was holding in one hand.

“……”

“Did I come at an important time? No, I couldn’t just stand by when I heard you were harassing my friend.”

When he approached, the smell of alcohol stung my nose. He put his arm around my shoulder, crumpling my expression.

“Your face looks fine, so I’ll let you off the hook for hitting on her.”

He patted my chest with his hand.

“Should I call for some decent kids? There are a lot of mature ones too.”

“…”

“What did you enter Etania with? Hiccup, oh, you entered with this?”

When he tried to touch Priscilla, she roughly pushed him away.

“Don’t touch me.”

When he was pushed away, the escort knights simultaneously drew their swords and pointed the blades.

Fraser stretched his shoulders and calmed his subordinates down.

“Why, are you scared that I’ll steal your treasure?”

“If you touch it randomly, you’ll end up in the dungeon.”

That guy writhed around. I don’t know what kind of drug he was on, but as a side effect, his jaw shook every few seconds. He wasn’t in his right mind right now.

“I see. That magic sword must have gotten you into Etania, right? That damn academy of connections easily lets you in if you deal with things like that.”

“…”

The guy smiles, raising one side of his lips.

Then, while shaking his mocking hand, he exclaimed playfully.

“Oops, I was wrong. Right? Everyone! This is Etania. What’s important is bloodline! Luck! Connections! That’s it. Skill doesn’t matter.”

“You’re talking as if you got to where you are right now through hard work.”

That guy who’s acting so outrageously because he has good parents.

“Are you done talking, kid? Oh, wait, I’ll show you something fun.”

The guy walks up to the cage of the devil’s beast. Then, he flings the veil open.

In there, a giant spider with legs as long as poles was curled up and sleeping. The exclamations of those watching far away from indoors could be heard here.

A medium-sized devil’s beast species. It was a devil’s beast called ‘Lectin’ that pierces the body of its prey with its long, steel-like legs.

Fraser splashed the wine in his hand onto the devil’s beast.

“Get up, you punk.”

The devil’s beast gradually responds. The subordinates nearby were surprised and tried to stop him.

“The barrier masters haven’t arrived yet…”

“Get lost, you little punks!”

He shook off his subordinates and said.

“You, hiccup, you can catch something like this, right? You’re from the great prestigious Etania, can’t you catch this?”

“What will I get if I catch it?”

“Don’t tell me you can’t catch it?”

“You won’t be able to catch it, so, yes, I’ll give you a thousand crowns.”

“That’s it?”

He wriggled his body and giggled.

“I’ll bet you a thousand crowns and the artifact that’s been passed down through generations, the Tears of the Mermaid, that you won’t be able to catch this. What will you bet?”

A thousand crowns is ten times the reward I got from the guild.

He shows off the blue jewel-encrusted ring he was wearing on his finger.

The escort knights behind him opened their mouths in shock and tried to dissuade him, but he shook them all off. It seems to be a precious item.

“I’ll bet my magic sword.”

“If you fail to catch it and someone gets hurt, hiccup, it’s your responsibility.”

“…”

Fraser roughly splashed the wine as if he were trying to provoke the beast. The beast, highly stimulated by the strong alcoholic scent, rammed its body against the cage so hard that it shook greatly.

Bang!

He was surprised and took a step back.

“Hey, if this one gets mad and goes on a rampage, it’ll tear your limbs apart. Heh heh.”

Then, he took another sip of his drink in delight.

“Step aside.”

I pulled out Priscilla.

“Oh, I forgot to add one condition. If you do that, who wouldn’t be able to catch it? Right?”

He pulled out a dagger from his waist and threw it in front of me. Then, he muttered as if he were humming a song.

“I’m sorry, but you have to catch this. Are you still going to do it? Heh heh.”

Fraser burst into laughter, and his men behind him followed suit.

I threw Priscilla to the side. Then, I picked up the dagger. Soon after, sighs could be heard from the crowd watching.

“Is he really going to do it?”

“How can he block those long legs with a dagger?”

“This is serious.”

“Won’t he just get caught and dragged here?”

The spectators began to chatter noisily.

Hailey grabbed my shoulder.

“Rookie, you don’t have to respond to every single provocation.”

“…I’m fine.”

“Damian. This is foolish.”

“My body was itching for a fight, so this is perfect.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Hailey nodded with a determined face and stepped back.

Fraser unlatched and tied the cage’s door with a rope, then handed it to the attendant and moved away.

“Block the balcony!”

The Guardians and Knights drew their swords and stood guard at the door.

I said to the attendant.

“Open the door.”

“…”

The attendant hesitated, his face pale with fear, clutching the rope.

“Open it.”

The attendant squeezed his eyes shut and yanked the rope. Soon, the cage’s door connected to the rope swung open, and the beast stretched out its long legs and walked out.

This wouldn’t be a long fight. I swung my arm straight ahead as my senses guided me.

Swish!

The dagger I threw pierced the beast right between the eyes.

Orange liquid flowed down the black handle of the blade. The beast staggered as soon as it came out, having been hit in a vital spot. Eventually, it collapsed to the floor.

“Wow!”

“What did he do?”

“I knew it ever since the Sky Demon incident. It’s not called Eternia for nothing, you know?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The people inside the room started murmuring.

“This is crazy.”

Fraser tried to deny it and run away, but I immediately swung Priscilla around. Cold air swept across the floor and froze his feet.

With his escape prevented, he raised both arms and then lowered them as if he’d given up.

I approached the demon and pulled out my dagger. His legs twitched as I removed the blade, indicating that his nerves were still alive. I went over to Fraser and wiped the bodily fluid from his clothes before putting the dagger back in its sheath.

He finally seemed to realize what had happened and rolled his unfocused eyes around with a vacant expression.

“I’ll go, I’ll go…”

I removed the ring from his weakly trembling hand.

“If this really is a great artifact, then it would benefit the world to be in my hands.”

I felt no sense of triumph. I was too desperate to indulge in such a thing.

In this ruined city, nothing was too strange to happen, and I had to gather whatever money or anything else that could help protect my body and my art club members.