I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 653: Ghost of Past Memories (1)

Blood splattered as the throne's backrest was sliced diagonally.

The owner of the red blood was Diena.

Diena's neck was intact.

Instead, a wound formed on one of her shoulders, causing blood to flow.

Surna, who had swung the sword, looked rather dissatisfied.

"I clearly intended to behead her."

For just a moment, a wave emanating from Diena reached Surna, interfering with his mind.

She couldn't stop the sword swing, but she managed to alter its direction.

It was unbelievable. What Diena just used was clearly a divine power.

But how could divine power interfere with another apostle?

"Even with a transferred divine power, it should be impossible to interfere with me. What exactly have you been doing all these years?"

"You're curious about that in the middle of a fight?"

"I've got time now. There's only you and Pademan left anyway."

Surna was right.

The defensive forces Diena had prepared couldn't stop the Owens.

They might have bought time if they fought, but when Helia burned more than half the troops with the dragon's breath, the tide quickly turned.

At least Pademan, the Holy Knight Captain, was still holding out.

He proved that he wasn't made Knight Captain for nothing as he faced Pantos.

His small, rock-solid body was a weapon in itself, and his martial arts, enhanced by holy power, delivered potentially fatal blows with each strike.

But his opponent was an even greater monster.

The fight that initially seemed equal changed when Pantos began hunting in earnest.

-Slash!

At first, it was just wounds marking his body.

Pantos' claws tore through the armor, leaving traces on the skin.

With holy power, he could recover quickly, so there was no need to worry about them.

Pademan had a strange feeling.

Something felt off.

Trying to shake off this feeling while continuing the fight, Pademan failed to realize he was sinking deeper into quicksand.

All his armor was gone.

The wounds on his body weren't just cuts but tears in muscles and bones.

Finally, when Pantos tore off one of his arms entirely, Pademan realized that he had been played by the beast-man before him all along.

The torn arm quickly regenerated with holy power, but his pride couldn't.

"Kuhp!"

Pademan gritted his teeth and charged at Pantos.

-Boom boom boom!

Each time they collided, the air exploded with ear-splitting thunderous sounds.

Pademan fought fiercely, squeezing out his lungs and pushing his heart to beat at maximum capacity.

Yet Pantos remained too calm and relaxed in such a situation.

Fists filled with holy power were deflected in strange directions due to the bizarre energy flowing through Pantos' body.

No proper hits landed.

Conversely, every one of Pantos' attacks was critical.

It was an unequal fight.

Like a solid rock being eroded from the outside by sand and wind, Holy Knight Captain Pademan, pushed to his limits, fell to one knee.

He thought he had pushed himself to the extreme many times before.

Coughing blood, tearing muscles, grinding bones.

Even after becoming Holy Knight Captain, he never slacked in his efforts.

That's what it meant to have reached this position.

But

"What on earth is this monster?"

He didn't want to admit it, however he had no choice but to acknowledge it.

His mind, armored with faith, was broken, and his body, forged through harsh training, collapsed.

In this state of complete exhaustion, what Pademan felt was bewilderment.

Could such a monster exist in this world?

And did such a monster ally with a bastard trying to overthrow the Holy Nation?

What made Pademan even more desperate was the realization that he, who had dismissed beast-men as savage beasts, was now being treated like one himself.

'Ah. I see.'

Only after the outcome was decided did Pademan realize this wasn't a fight.

This was a hunt.

He was the prey. The beast-man before him was the hunter.

How ironic—a human being hunted by a beast-man he once treated as an animal. Wasn't he now less than a beast?

If he had fallen to some cowardly trick, he might have used that as an excuse to get angry, but Pantos had crushed Pademan head-on.

The result was so perfect that even if he tried to dispute it, he had no choice but to concede.

"Hah. Hah. I am......"

-Thwack!

Pademan's head exploded as he opened his mouth to speak.

Pantos casually dusted off his fist, which wasn't even stained with blood, and lost interest in the headless corpse.

"Well, at least he made for decent prey."

Now only Diena remained.

As Diena tried to extend her scale, it was cut in half with a scraping sound.

"I told you. Such things won't work anymore."

"How annoying...!"

"The same goes for that throne."

-Rustle!

Just as golden chains emerged from behind the throne, they were finely sliced as if shredded.

Simultaneously, black chains appeared from somewhere, rushing in from all directions and binding Diena tightly to the throne.

It was an illusion used by Helia.

As Diena bit her lip and tried to counterattack, spears made of blue mana flew in and pierced various parts of her body.

-Thunk thunk thunk!

"Kuk!"

Diena groaned in pain as they pierced her flesh.

"Don't exaggerate. I avoided all vital spots."

With Rudger joining in, Diena was in no position to do anything.

Who would have thought the inner fortress's defenses would be breached like this?

"...Even if you've captured me, it's useless. The path to the inner sanctum can't be forced open even by the likes of you."

"I know that."

Diena expressed confusion at Surna's answer.

"If you know, why keep me alive? What, you find it a pity to kill me outright, so you want to torture me instead?"

"Of course not. You might have enjoyed such things under the pretext of eliminating heretics, but we're quite gentlemanly."

There was more to keeping Diena alive than just that.

"You...seemed to know about my divine power."

"So what? The divine power of the Great Demon Surna has been passed down in our Holy Nation for a long time. After all, the demon's power is merely 'learning'."

Diena sneered at Surna.

The Great Demon Surna's divine power, unlike other apostles, wasn't transcendental.

Everything he had shown so far was merely acquired through learning.

"That's right. Even the swordsmanship I use is nothing more than something I learned. It's quite unfair. Some can create tangible illusions, put others to sleep, or control minds, but all I have is this."

Though born with strong powers as an apostle, Surna was different.

He needed to go through the process of learning to do anything.

To swing a sword, he had to learn swordsmanship; to use magic, he had to learn magic.

He couldn't grasp things immediately either.

He needed multiple practices and trials and errors.

"But I'm grateful."

There was a time when he lamented why such a thing was considered divine power.

But now it was different.

"Humans, from birth to death, may strive to learn throughout their lives but are limited by their lifespan. I'm different."

Surna had no lifespan.

He was not immortal, but ageless.

Therefore, there was no end to Surna's learning.

If learning had no end, he could acquire everything.

There was nothing Surna couldn't learn.

"That's why it's possible. I learned your scale's power too."

Learning is enlightenment.

Enlightenment is adaptation.

The power of the holy scale that Diena used only worked on Surna a few times, including the first time.

After that, having learned and adapted to that power, Surna was no longer affected.

Though initially weak, he possessed the potential to become the strongest.

That was the Great Demon Surna.

He was threatening in ancient times, but now, after time had passed, he could be called the greatest enemy to the church.

"So what? Are you planning to learn holy laws from me?"

"I would refuse even if you offered to teach me for free. I don't want to learn such filth."

"Then why keep me alive? Let me tell you, I will never open the path to the inner sanctum."

"I don't even want that. You don't know how to get inside anyway, do you?"

"......"

Diena kept quiet, struck at her weak point.

"If you knew, you wouldn't be waiting in this inner fortress but hiding 'inside.' I'm not rude enough to ask someone who doesn't know. I kept you alive for another reason. Your existence is quite suspicious."

Suspicious existence?

Diena's eye corners trembled.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Diena van Bretus. You showed an unusual level of hostility toward me."

"So what? Is it strange for a person of the Holy Nation to hate a demon? That's only natural."

"The hatred you show is not just that. Above all, your words. You speak as if you directly witnessed what happened to Saint Arkenis that day."

"Nonsense..."

"Moreover, what you used against me momentarily wasn't some transferred divine power. It's close to the original power of brainwashing. You used that power, not Holy Emperor Salesin? Isn't that strange?"

"...The bloodline of the Holy Emperor has always been able to use such powers, didn't you know?"

"I'm well aware. It's certainly possible if you received power from the previous Holy Emperor."

But there was something that couldn't be explained by that.

"What I don't understand is that the current Holy Emperor, Salesin, left you possessing divine power. The others were eliminated for it. One was even turned into a bomb."

"I decided to bow my head and follow my older brother's will."

Surna laughed as if amused.

"Ah. And that let you off the hook? Is Salesin van Bretus the type of person who would spare his obedient little sister? Not at all, from what I can see."

Wouldn't a Diena who immediately bowed her head be the most suspicious target?

If she had the cunning to recognize the other's capabilities and bow her head, it would be uncomfortable to keep her close and use her.

"But you used the power of divine ability. Plus, you speak as if you directly witnessed what the church experienced in the past, and you're unusually hostile toward me..."

Surna's eyes gleamed sharply.

"You. You're not Diena van Bretus."

"......"

Diena kept silent, and Helia, who was listening, asked in confusion.

"What does that mean? Not Diena van Bretus? Then who is this person we've captured?"

"She is Diena van Bretus."

"...Are you joking?"

"I'm not joking. The body is certainly Diena van Bretus. She also has her memories. But... something else is mixed in."

"Something else...?"

Everyone's gaze turned to Diena as if asking if Surna's words were true.

Normally, Diena should deny such absurd speculation but she maintained her silence like someone whose core had been struck.

"...No way?"

"I told you. It's not just suspicious. Well, let me guess. Being able to use divine power and having memories of the past. You... are a fragment of someone who has continued from the distant past. That's why your memories aren't complete."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Diena immediately denied it.

After all, these were just Surna's speculations; there was no evidence to prove them true.

"Right. Without evidence, what I said is just baseless nonsense. But what if there's someone who can confirm it?"

"...What?"

"What are you doing? Since you've come this far, it's about time you showed yourself."

"Don't order me around, filthy demon."

The one who appeared, answering with a voice full of hatred toward Surna, was Setadel.

Diena widened her eyes upon seeing Setadel.

"You...!"

"Oh. Quite an intense reaction. Happy to see someone you know?"

Surna drew a curve at the corner of his eyes.

"You shouldn't recognize Setadel right away. No one in the Holy Nation should remember his appearance."

"......"

Diena realized her mistake, but it was too late.

Setadel stared at Diena.

"You're right. The body is the daughter of the previous Holy Emperor, but something suspicious is mixed inside."

"...Is that possible?"

Hans couldn't help but ask.

Souls and such were an area difficult for Hans to understand.

"In the distant past, the Bretus Holy Nation also performed spirit mediation. For that purpose, there were those who could see souls, commune with them, and conversely, command souls."

It was the technology that became the origin of [Necromancy], one of the branches used by today's mages.

"I was one of those mediators. In the past, I served as one of Saint Arkenis' closest aides."

Mediator Setadel was from the era when Saint Arkenis was alive.

The day Saint Arkenis died.

He was also the only survivor from that place.

"So it was you who opened the inner fortress gates!"

Diena understood why the inner fortress gates were breached so easily.

Setadel, who had access rights to the inner fortress from the distant past, could easily open them.

"You, who were the Saint's aide, why betray your nation?!"

"I betrayed my nation? Ridiculous. I've always been consistent. I served only the Saint."

Setadel stared intently into Diena's eyes.

More precisely, at the ghost hiding inside her.

"It was rather you who betrayed us."