NOVPUBOn the leaves of the vibrant green plants, an unusual layer of thick red adhered, droplets of blood slowly sliding down the petals, their pungent smell disrupting the silence.
Heretic Lilette desperately held back the joy surging in her heart, stopping the corners of her mouth from trembling.
She was certain that Hyperion would never dare to attack [Immortal Mercury].
Because, as soon as Hyperion got close, she would need to guard against Lilette and [Immortal Mercury]’s secret collusion.
Only Lilette would dare to boldly kill [Immortal Mercury].
For Hyperion, this was actually an invisible trap!
Far away.
Hyperion, who seemed to have understood all this, sat down dejectedly.
Meanwhile, Lilette was already rushing towards [Immortal Mercury] without hesitation. 𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
"....."
Lanci’s gaze was slightly removed from the page, briefly noticing Lilette, who was furiously tormenting the summoned creature.
This outlaw seemed very fond of self-directing and self-acting, even occasionally allowing the silver alien to counterattack herself, making it appear as though they were mortal enemies, with all her effort aimed at framing Hyperion.
Lanci turned his head back to look at Hyperion on the ground.
Just in time to meet her gaze.
Lanci quietly blinked his eyes.
The gesture meant the plan was a go.
"....."
Hyperion’s eyes were filled with speechlessness and helplessness.
She felt that even if Lanci were to bring two demon teachers to fight against the heretic, he may not necessarily lose.
Of course, it would be best to win without shedding any blood.
However, Hyperion highly suspected that Lanci merely wanted to see the heretic’s face crumble when she discovered the truth and realized she had been played.
...
A few minutes later.
On the devastated botanical garden lawn, after the joint efforts of the Director of Magic Department and Lilette, they finally successfully eradicated the silver alien creature.
Lilette exhaled a sigh of relief and looked towards the principal.
She believed the mechanism had successfully passed.
Next, the principal would help her deal with that Miss Duchess.
However.
This peaceful feeling lasted less than a second. Just as she let her guard down, a deadly non-human magical power attacked her from the side like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, utterly without warning.
It was an ambush from the Director of Magic Department.
Lilette’s reaction was incredibly fast, almost instantaneously she sensed the danger, and her body reflexively dodged this fatal attack.
Even so.
Her outer garment was sliced open by that magical power, blood seeped out from the wound, staining her dress.
At this moment, Lilette’s heart was once again filled with terror.
Far away.
The principal was still reading.
Hyperion was still sitting on the ground.
This tranquil state made it seem like the principal had no intention of executing his promise to punish Hyperion.
"Why?!"
Lilette quickly fended off the Director of Magic Department’s deadly onslaught, her eyes full of astonishment and confusion.
If it weren’t for her speedy response, she might have already lost her life.
The demon teacher by the principal’s side had also begun to act, directly attacking the second-order Black Mist Sorcerer and decapitating him.
"Foolish girl, did you really think you could deceive the principal?"
The Director of Magic Department mocked with a cold laugh.
He naturally understood the principal’s scheme.
At this moment, he was even more in awe of the principal’s Grand Sage-like wisdom.
Just with simple words, he manipulated the disobedient student to kill the difficult silver summon!
"Isn’t the principal supposed to be neutral?!"
Lilette’s heartbeat was like an out-of-control drumbeat, frantic and confused, the heavy despair brought on by reality making her brain shake.
She didn’t understand why the Shadow World was so unfair.
It felt as though no matter how she worked around the mechanism just now, she was the one who ended up being executed!
"I am of course neutral, yah, but you’re the one who broke the school rules, trying to bite back at an innocent student. If I don’t execute you, who should I execute?"
Lanci said indifferently, as if he were in his backyard flipping through a book, not even bothering to glance at the buzzing bug.
Meanwhile, Hyperion, who was sitting on the ground, finally dropped her act and let out a satisfied smile, as if mocking Lilette.
The scene she caught a glimpse of gave Lilette an instant illusion—-
She began to suspect that the principal was actually unfairly favoring Hyperion!
"Lanci, can I tell her the truth now?"
Hyperion turned her head and asked, looking at Lanci.
"Haven’t you already revealed the truth?"
Lanci teased, flipping the pages of his book without raising his head.
"Lanci.....?"
Far away, Lilette’s confusion and unwillingness reached a peak.
She heard Hyperion call out the headmaster’s name.
Lanci.
A preposterous and frightening conjecture exploded like a dull thunder in Lilette’s heart.
At the same time, more and more doubts seemed to converge and connect in her heart.
Why hadn’t Hyperion’s teammate shown up yet?
Why was the magic power of this Radiant Demon so strong that it was almost unnoticeable?
And why did the headmaster allow the Challengers to bypass the mechanisms earlier?
All these questions intertwined together, when add the explanation "Lanci is the headmaster", it seemed to solve everything!
"Could it be... Are you Lanci?"
That was the only explanation Lilette could come up with.
"Indeed, it is me, the headmaster," Lanci gracefully confirmed, pulling out a badge that read [Lanci, Music Teacher] from his pocket and hanging it on his chest. It was as if to tell Lilette that he was not only the headmaster but also a formal subject teacher of this school.
His attitude of not looking her in the eye the whole time emphasized the stark contrast between their statuses in the Demon Academy.
"Ah!!! Lanci! You bastard!!!"
Lilette’s shout tore the air, echoing with fury and despair among the shrubs in the botanical garden.
Her eyes were red and swollen, and the bloodshot under the tears seemed about to overflow with crimson red.
She finally realized that she had been fooled by this guy like a fool.
Not only did he deceive her with the distinct hierarchical relationship between him and the Demon Professor in the headmaster’s office.
But now her mind and words have been bewitched by him, driving her to eradicate her greatest reliance on survival by herself.
At this moment.
The corridor upstairs had already gathered a large number of demon teachers, waiting to act at Lanci’s command.
"Dear teachers, please punish this student who has violated school discipline, injured classmates and teachers, and severely damaged school property."
Lanci, who was reading a book with one hand, raised his right hand, his index finger made a slight move.
The next second, the demon teachers on the corridor behind entered the classroom together.
In Lilette’s terrified eyes.
She saw a dense wall of demons as if they were about to flatten the botanical garden.
The ground started to rumble.
At this moment, she finally recalled the limit-transcending horror that a person as a human could feel in nightmares.
Even with heart-breaking despair, she couldn’t understand what kind of madman would spend a night in a demon-filled academy, progressing from a student to a headmaster.
...
"Hyperion, you must be tired after playing with the Great Love Poet."
While Lanci was reading his book, he spoke.
There was less than a minute left of the Shadow World.
From the moment the Great Love Poet was defeated, he has sensed the disturbance in the botanical garden from his office.
So, he rushed over at the first moment.
However, coming here has cost him a lot of reading time.
But fortunately, he was almost finished reading.
"Staying with you and the Great Love Poet, I feel like I officially joined the Demon Race."
Hyperion rose wearily to her feet.
A lot was learned in this Demon Academy trip.
The good news is, it was all learned from Lanci.
The bad news is, she felt that her bloodline has awakened.
Theoretically, one should learn how to be a human from a human, but she didn’t learn a drop of humanity from Lanci.
As they waited for the end of this Fourth-order Shadow World.
"Lanci!!"
At the moment, from far away, nearly swallowed by demon teachers, a sudden voice came, like a curse before death,
"You will regret helping this Duchess of the Mixed-blood Demon Tribe!!"
With this sentence at an end.
The voice of the Cultist Lilette, accompanied by the scream of despair, was drowned by the tearing sound of flesh in the tide of demons.
Lanci seemed to have no thoughts, nor reaction.
He simply continued reading his book.
But the complexion on Hyperion’s face turned somewhat pale.
The secret she had long hidden from Lanci was unexpectedly exposed at the last moment of the Shadow World.
Although she knew her demon lineage couldn’t be hidden for long.
She had planned to return to reality and find a good opportunity to confess to Lanci.
Not have him hear from someone else, making it seem like she had been deceiving him all along.
"Lanci, listen to me, I...I intended to tell you as soon as possible."
The heavy silence seemed to press her down, causing her to stifle her breath and stop talking.
However, Lanci kept his eyes on the book in his hand, as if he didn’t want to listen to her explanation.
"...I truly didn’t mean to deceive you."
Hyperion’s voice became softer and softer, like a breath in winter, gently evaporating in the cold air.
