Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 504: But Harder Is Accidentally Uncovering A Conspiracy

Leaving the royal twins dilly-dallying in the living room, Thalia hurried to her bedroom to grab the brooch.

There it was on her desk — a beautiful pink diamond, carefully set into a rectangular golden frame.

The inside of the frame was engraved with delicate lines, almost too small to read unless one looked closely.

It was a stupid brooch, and it was a stupid tradition. But… she wanted to make it.

Although since this was her first time making one, it had taken her far longer than she would ever admit.

She had ruined the first. Then the second. The third had looked like something a five-year-old kid would make in an arts-and-crafts class.

The fourth had been… acceptable, sure. But this one was perfect. Oh, it was so perfect. She almost didn’t want to give it away.

Picking it up and storing it in her slacks’ pocket, she was about to turn and leave.

—Ding

But she got a notification on her desktop. Someone had sent her an e-mail. Frowning in confusion, she sat down in her chair to quickly check it.

It was a bad habit. She had a tendency to check every notification the moment it appeared.

It wasn’t because she was particularly curious. She just hated having unread messages.

They bothered her.

A tiny red number sitting somewhere on her screen, quietly reminding her that there was something she hadn’t dealt with yet.

So she opened it.

“…Oh.”

It was from the Academy.

Just skimming through the headline, she realized what it was.

The day she became the Ace, the first thing she did was request the Archive Logs.

She had her reasons. She wanted some journals.

But since the Archives were so needlessly big and unorganized, she didn’t want to wander around aimlessly searching for what she needed.

So, she thought of a shortcut she was very proud of.

She ordered the entire Logs. Only the three Aces had access to them. Now, she could simply follow the paper trails of issue and return records until she found whatever she was looking for.

It was a brilliant plan, actually. She wondered why no Ace exploited this method.

There was only one problem, of course.

It was that she wasn’t the Ace anymore.

“Did they send this by mistake?”

Or did they forget to cancel her access?

Thalia kept staring at the screen for a couple of seconds, not knowing what to do. Then she just shrugged.

It was the Academy’s fault for being so incompetent. She wasn’t not going to make use of it.

Besides, she barely got to enjoy the perks of being the Ace. This was the least she could have.

With that sound reasoning, Thalia clicked on the attachment and typed in the keywords related to the journals she wanted.

The search took a few seconds.

Then—

[Search Results: 1,847 entries.]

Thalia stared at the number.

“…What?”

Ahh.

So this was why no Ace exploited this method. There was nothing to exploit.

The thing is that the Apex Academy had been maintaining the Archives’ records for well over a century.

So even after using dozens of very specific keywords, she still got nearly two thousand results.

Thalia gritted her teeth. Then she stared at the screen a little harder, as if glaring at the number might somehow make it smaller. It didn’t.

“…You’re kidding me.”

She scrolled down. The list kept going.

There were issue records and return records, damaged records and missing records, transfer records and reclassification notices.

And, for some dumb reason, there were also five separate entries about a librarian losing a key. It was the same librarian every single time.

Thalia’s eyebrow twitched. “Why the hell do you have a record for a lost key? And why is it logged under the journal section, you dumbfuck?!”

She took a few deep breaths to control her blood pressure, then, with a shake of her head, she began scrolling again.

After scrolling through what must’ve been at least twelve pages, if not more, she grunted and decided to give up.

Apparently, her brilliant idea was a stupid idea.

Sighing, she was about to close the page…

“Huh?”

When something caught her eye.

“Ahh… wait, what?”

No, no…

This had to be a mistake, right?

It was probably nothing. A coincidence at best, but… Thalia spotted something in the return logs.

She should’ve closed the page. She should’ve just stood up and gone to find her brother.

She should not have been curious.

But she was. So she clicked open the entry logs. They were what the staff used to record which Cadet had checked in, where and when.

It took her around thirty minutes to confirm what she saw wasn’t a coincidence.

She plunged back into the chair, a hand over her mouth, deep in thought. “Fuck.”

It could still be nothing. It probably was nothing.

Jake Mel Flazer had accessed one of the personal Study Rooms back in March. Only one other person had had access to that same room before and after him.

Like she was inclined to think, it was probably nothing. Most likely. Probably.

But Jake Mel Flazer was reported to be spotted using mind control on Cadets. Someone had to have smuggled him an illegal telepathic Card.

What if the smuggler used that Study Room?

It wouldn’t be a singular incident, then. No, it would be a conspiracy. And considering who her suspect for the smuggler was…

Thalia’s expression changed. “Fuck!”

She shot up to her feet and was out of the room in a jiffy.

Outside, Alice and Willem were howling and laughing while watching some comedy show. They spotted her as she made her way to the exit.

“Lia?” Alice called out. “What’s up? You look pale.”

“Nothing,” was her reply. Then she stopped and regarded them with a serious look. “I need to go meet the Venerables. I’ll go talk to Sam afterward. So I might come back home late. Don’t worry.”

“The Venerables?” Willem frowned, even as Alice suddenly went silent. “Is everything alright?”

“Oh, yeah.” Thalia nodded. “Totally. See you later.”

With that she was out of the apartment and, before long, into the hallway outside.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she couldn’t stop cursing under her breath. “It’s nothing. It’s probably nothing. It’s really nothing.”

She’d go to the Venerables, ask them to investigate the suspect, have them possibly look at the audit trails and all, and they would alert her that it was a false alarm.

Yeah. Everything was fine.

Her pace quickened, almost matching the frantic beat of her heart. She got into the elevator and punched the button for the ground floor.

The ride down felt unnervingly long.

Thalia kept her eyes fixed on the digital display above the door, her foot tapping a rapid, anxious rhythm against the floor.

G.

—Ding

Finally, upon reaching the ground floor, the elevator slowed to a stop. Thalia took a deep breath, smoothing down the front of her slacks and making sure the brooch was still tucked securely inside her pocket.

The heavy doors slid open.

Thalia stepped forward. She was nearly out of the elevator… but something made her freeze.

This…

This wasn’t the brightly lit lobby of her apartment building in front of her.

There were no glass doors, or receptionist desk, or polished marble flooring.

Instead, the elevator had opened into a vast, cavernous room constructed entirely of coarse gray stone. The air was cold and damp and heavy with a faint hint of sulfur.

Flickering shadows danced across towering pillars that stretched up into an unseen ceiling. “What the…”

What just happened?

Was she in the basement? This didn’t seem like the basement she’d been to before, though…

Scowling, Thalia retreated half a step back into the elevator. Her heart was now hammering so hard against her ribs that she could hear it in her ears.

She craned her neck, looking left and right out the open doors, but saw nothing except the same eerie, dimly lit stone expanse.

Okay, really, what the hell just happened?

Did the elevator malfunction? Was this a secret underground level of her dorm building she didn’t know about?

She sharply turned to her left and slammed her palm against the ‘Close Door >|<' button.

…Nothing happened.

She hit the button for her floor again. Then the alarm button. Then every single button on the panel in a breathless panic.

The elevator stayed dead quiet. Its doors remained wide open.

“Dammit! What the hell?” She growled, reaching for her phone to call the security or contact her friends—

FZZZZT—!

Only to be interrupted by a sudden, blinding glare.

She looked up and all that caught her eye was a blazing hot fire arrow that was splitting the darkness of the stone room.

It came tearing through the air directly toward her face, trailing a streak of roaring white-hot flames.

A warrior’s instinct is an incredible thing. Any normal person would’ve frozen up on the spot.

But Thalia acted long before her mind ever processed the threat. It was almost like she had precognition.

Her eyes widened. And without a thought, she threw herself out of the elevator, diving forward and rolling across the cold stone floor just under the trajectory of the projectile.

—-BOOM!

The arrow hit the back wall of the elevator cabin and exploded.

A burst of heat and concussive air blasted outward across her back, sending ash and hot sparks raining down over her hair.

She was already calling upon her Cards, preparing to materialize her armor and sword.

But it would take a few seconds. So until then, Thalia scrambled onto her knees and whirled around, her hands instinctively rising into a defensive guard.

Behind her, whatever remained of the elevator doors were finally sliding shut.

As the scorched metal edges met in the center, a strange ripple tore across the steel surface. Their metallic sheen vanished, dissolving into grainy gray texture until the doors seamlessly melted into solid rock.

Where an elevator had stood just seconds ago, there was now only an uneven wall of gray stone.

So she was trapped and was most likely going to be ambushed.

…Well, it was a matter of perspective.

One could also say her ambushers were trapped here with her now. She did always like caged fights.

The heiress of Theosbane slowly pushed herself up to her feet, her gaze darting around the enormous dark chamber.

The heat from the explosion had faded completely, replaced once more by the chilling draft of the unknown room.

“Alright,” she whispered. But she wasn’t panicking anymore. In fact, she sounded annoyed and chillingly calm as a cruciform sword appeared in her grip. “Who the fuck is there?”