I’m the Slit-Eyed Character at the Academy, but I’m not the Mastermind

Chapter 306

(TL Note: Content Warning, this chapter is quite disgusting)

“Ughhhh!”

“Urrgggh!”

Was it because they could feel the bugs crawling all over their bodies? Or perhaps they were desperately trying to stop the bugs from burrowing into their eyes.

Count Zachary and Administrator Rieur began writhing desperately, their bodies moving in any way they could.

For once, their usually sluggish bodies found a purpose in moving. It paid off, as the gag in their mouths loosened slightly.

“S-Save me!”

“There’s… there’s a mad killer here!”

They screamed and thrashed around, but no one came to save them.

“The people of Carpathia probably want you both dead.”

It wasn’t a lie. Ever since they had been detained, information had been flowing in.

So many people had cooperated, and through this, Roy had learned the truth.

Count Zachary and Administrator Rieur. These two pigs.

Their deaths were what people wanted more than anything.

“S-Save me, please. I-I think the threat has been enough, right? Ah, ah! Damn these bugs!”

A bug, the size of a finger, crawled into Count Zachary’s mouth.

Fortunately, it didn’t make it into his body. His tongue managed to block the insect from getting any further.

“You still think this is just a threat? Well… fine. Think what you want.”

Hope is the force that allows humans to face tomorrow.

If a bit of hope gave these two a little more strength to keep on living, Roy didn’t mind.

They would die clinging to that hope, only realizing at the very last moment.

That they had only prolonged their suffering. That they had acted foolishly.

‘Pretending to let them live halfway through might be fun, too.’

Roy grinned at the thought. He wondered what expressions these villains would make when their hope shattered completely.

Just thinking about it entertained him.

And the more extreme the situation, the larger that hope would grow.

Roy grabbed Zachary by the chin.

“Chew.”

“Wh-What?”

“Chew it to death. If you just swallow it, what are you going to do if it lays eggs inside?”

Roy could have helped by taking the bug out himself, but he had no intention of doing that.

Zachary could read Roy’s cold intent from his eyes. He knew there was only one thing he could do.

Crunch, crack.

He felt the rough texture of the bug, its indistinguishable legs or arms writhing in his mouth.

And the moment the bug’s shell broke, liquid squirted out.

“Uweeeegh!!”

Count Zachary vomited violently.

His vision blurred by tears, he looked down at the mess he had spewed out.

Inside the pool of bile, he could see the half-dead bug still wriggling weakly.

“You’ve created a nice home for the bugs right next to your face… Thanks, you’ve saved me some trouble.”

Roy tied the gag securely, ensuring it wouldn’t come loose again.

The laxative Roy had given them earlier had already taken full effect.

During their desperate thrashing, both of them had strained too hard, causing them to defecate on themselves.

The excrement seeped out of their clothes, and the smell attracted more bugs, which eagerly laid their eggs in the mess.

“Bernstein, we might need to use some pesticide. This might be harder than I thought.”

The bugs were already swarming, and it hadn’t even been 30 minutes. At this rate, they wouldn’t last three days, let alone a month.

The larger bugs, seemingly more intelligent, avoided the area after witnessing the deaths of their fellow insects. They circled around, waiting for the right moment to strike.

“They look ready to pounce the moment we fall asleep… This is getting annoying. Should we request backup?”

Despite his words, Roy had no intention of requesting more help.

Partly because of his diligent personality, but more so because he wanted to handle “this kind of job” again in the future.

To be more precise, he wanted to take more requests from Principal Dwener.

‘To come up with such a horrific method of torture… Just who is this Dwener?’

It wasn’t just physical pain. Dwener’s method attacked all five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—while simultaneously inflicting mental agony.

The victims felt pain by the second, not by the minute, and all the torturer had to do was deal with a few bugs.

It was so efficient, yet comfortable, that even Caron, the master of torture, was impressed. And Roy felt the same way.

“He’s not just some useless figure after all… Bernstein, did you know?”

Bernstein shook his head.

Of course he didn’t. When Dwener was first appointed last year, they had investigated him together.

All they had found was proof of Dwener’s incompetence.

Even after becoming the head of the academy, Dwener’s actions were consistently useless, earning him an F-rank classification from the rat organization. He had fallen off their radar completely.

“Did he intentionally hide his strength? Or maybe he manipulated the information. Playing with the rats like toys… how interesting.”

But that wasn’t the most pressing matter right now. Roy’s main concern was:

‘What is Dwener trying to do?’

The rats were quick to pick up on things. And Roy was one of the sharpest among them.

“I doubt Dwener was secretly one of the rats.”

Based on Caron’s behavior towards Dwener last year, Roy was confident that wasn’t the case.

It also seemed unlikely that Dwener was the Emperor’s hidden sword.

‘It feels more like he and Caron found some common ground and are temporarily working together.’

Caron, being the Emperor’s tool, wouldn’t have agreed to just killing anyone. Despite his desire to butcher these two pigs, Caron wasn’t free to make such decisions himself.

“But if Dwener was the one calling the shots, it just barely fits within the boundaries.”

A principal in name only, perhaps, but still a principal.

And aiding in the disposal of those who had threatened the empire’s safety wasn’t exactly crossing the line.

“So, is Dwener’s goal… cleaning?”

Cleaning. A code word for killing.

Caron was an excellent cleaner, but his abilities were limited.

Without the Emperor’s direct order, Caron couldn’t clean up anything.

‘If even the great rat Caron couldn’t accomplish this, is Dwener planning to take over?’

If Roy’s hunch was correct…

If Dwener’s goal was to clean up all evildoers, regardless of their status as nobles, commoners, or peasants…

“Would he accept someone like me…?”

The hardest part of being a rat wasn’t risking his life to gather information.

It was learning about evil people and having to do nothing about it.

Sometimes, depending on the Emperor’s orders, Roy even had to protect those evil bastards.

That was the most unbearable part of the job.

‘I put up with it because it’s for the empire’s sake, but…’

But things like this…

Seeing people who had suffered the same pain as him, as a result of the nobles’ cruel games, stirred a rage inside Roy that he could barely contain.

‘I still don’t know exactly what Dwener’s goal is, but…’

It’s clear he intends to clean up the bad guys.

Thud.

As if reading Roy’s thoughts, Bernstein tapped him lightly on the back with his foot.

“What? You want in on this too? Big dreams for someone who only just became a rat…”

Not being able to speak was a huge limitation, especially for a rat whose job was to gather information.

But Bernstein had passed Caron’s test with flying colors.

A rat with a disability, Bernstein was the first and last of his kind.

That alone proved he was an extraordinary rat.

“If you become my rival, I won’t hold back. I really want to do this job.”

“…”

“Same goes for you? Figures. Well, it’d be great if we could do it while continuing our rat work… But I think I like this side more.”

In any case, the most important thing now was to show Dwener a good performance.

Roy needed to prove his worth to Dwener.

And the best way to prove it…

“Uuuughhh!!”

“Urrrrghh!!”

The longer those two pigs stayed alive, the more pain they endured.

That would naturally prove just how valuable Roy and Bernstein were.

That they were more competent than anyone.

“Ughhhh!!”

The small boat began to sway violently as the two pigs thrashed in agony.

Roy adjusted his body to keep the boat balanced. His movements were light and joyful, reflecting his mood.

“I hope you understand that this is nothing compared to the pain you inflicted on others.”

“Urrrghhh!!”

The more they suffered, the happier Roy felt, as if his mood was soaring to the heavens.

Don’t worry. Until the day you die.

“We’ll take care of you until the very end.”

Kukuku.

Roy’s eerie laughter echoed through the swamp like the call of a demon.

“Ah, I’m exhausted.”

“Creak…”

Luna collapsed onto the bench, sprawled out. Rezé took the spot next to her.

Rezé laid her head on Luna’s thigh, her body shivering slightly, clearly not in good condition.

I lifted Rezé’s legs and wedged myself into the space next to her. Her feet rested on my lap, but no one complained.

There were no accusations of perversion, no complaints of discomfort, no biting or kicking.

Everyone just sat quietly, resting.

‘It’s only natural after pushing ourselves for two days straight.’

That’s right. It had already been two days since we started our search.

Yet we hadn’t seen a trace of the black mage, not even a hint of demonic energy.

“Maybe they’re outside the walls after all? There are so many more places to hide. We’ve already searched the inside thoroughly.”

“Keke, I don’t think so. The information Caron gave us wouldn’t be wrong.”

“Really? Then I guess we need to keep searching. Let’s rest a little and head out again.”

Of course, Caron hadn’t given us any real information.

Even so, I was certain the black mage was hiding inside Carpathia and not outside.

‘They can’t leave, after all.’

Though we were forced into the field due to unavoidable circumstances, we were still students. Just yellow chicks in the eyes of the knights.

If we got anywhere near the city gates, some knight with a helmet like a chicken comb would pop up and say, “The outside is dangerous!” and block our way.

As a side note, there was a hidden piece related to this.

‘If you try to leave the gates three times, you’ll be imprisoned. It’s a hidden piece.’

You’d only get released on the day we were supposed to leave Carpathia, so it wasn’t a useful hidden piece in this kind of situation.

Also, there were rumors that someone had tried to dig their way out using the [Digging] skill, but all they got were “Old Bricks from Carpathia’s Prison.”

So, leaving was definitely not an option.

‘Damn it, where could that black mage be hiding?’

It wasn’t part of the main quest, and there was no penalty for failing. We wouldn’t lose anything if we didn’t find them.

But the strong feeling of a connected quest was the problem.

‘It would be a waste to miss this opportunity.’

Besides, if I wanted to survive, I needed to kill the final boss, who I hadn’t been able to beat in 18 years.

The knowledge I had from before had its limits, so I needed some kind of breakthrough.

‘I don’t know what I’ll gain, but I need to do everything I can.’

The problem was that tomorrow was the day we were scheduled to leave Carpathia.

We had been searching diligently for two days, but it was impossible to check every single building.

There were also places that were locked, depending on the date.

‘If this were a multi-run playthrough, I might’ve managed it…’

But this was a one-time reality.

Prioritizing and focusing on the right places was key.

Just as I was piecing together the puzzle in my mind regarding Carpathia—

“Huh? What’s this, Rezé? What’s up with your hair?”

“Huh?”

“Something’s sticking out. On one side.”

Pop!

Rezé quickly raised her hand and began frantically messing up her hair.

In an instant, her hair became a mess, but she still couldn’t hide the strand that was sticking out.

It wasn’t hard to identify what it was.

It was the hair that always defied gravity, standing straight up on her crown—her so-called idiot hair.

Rezé’s idiot hair, which sometimes doubled as a danger-sensing radar.

It was now bent at a right angle.

‘Hold on… could this be…’

I bent Rezé’s idiot hair to the right and let go.

Boing!

The hair sprang up like a spring and bent to the left. Another perfect right angle.

It was fascinating, like some kind of compass.

“What the hell? What’s going on with your hair?”

“I-I don’t know. Maybe it’s the shampoo I used this morning… It might’ve expired…”

Shampoo expires and turns into hair spray? That’s news to me.

“…”

Rezé’s long bangs hung down like curtains.

Behind them, her eyes avoided my gaze.

And then she started sweating bullets.

This damn rabbit…

Could she have known the black mage’s location all along?

–TL Notes–

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