Chapter : 119

“This is insane.”

Even though she had already searched the entire dungeon, there was no sign of Theo.

All she found was a broken magitool that had been used to monitor Theo's cheating.

Where the hell did he go? Beatrice roughly messed up her hair.

“You’re making me dizzy.”

“My head is already dizzy enough, you know?!”

At Beatrice’s shout, Evan’s eyes sharpened.

Feeling the killing intent on her skin, Beatrice decided to meekly shut her mouth.

No matter how much her own insides were burning, it was clear that it was less than Evan's, so how could she complain?

She had no choice but to shut up and try using the search magic one more time.

“Ha, this is insane.”

If someone goes missing in a dungeon, the probability of finding them is extremely low.

That's why, no matter how much a dungeon has been cleared, sending a student in alone was extremely rare.

However, she never thought such a thing would happen in this dungeon.

Who could have predicted that such a problem would arise in a dungeon that the academy had used for exams thousands of times over a thousand years, and where tens of thousands of students had safely come and gone without any accidents?

Moreover, of all people, it had to be Theo Lisitoel!

At this point, it was certain that the world hated either Beatrice, Evan, or Theo!

“I hear footsteps from afar.”

At Evan’s mumble, Beatrice quickly shut her mouth.

She hadn't requested support from other professors, so it meant there was an intruder…

Should she quickly subdue them and send them up?

As her head spun, a person suddenly appeared in their line of sight.

“Professor!”

At the sight of Lucius, who was panting as if he had been running continuously, Beatrice jumped.

The intruder is Lucius?

“Lucius?”

Beatrice was astonished by the appearance of another of her students.

Why are you here? He would have heard the news through Zephyros, but the entrance to the dungeon should have been sealed with magic─

“Ah.”

Lucius, that damn hero, must have broken the magic with the Holy Sword and come in.

Beatrice, who had belatedly realized the truth, shut her mouth at the look Evan was giving her.

To be so preoccupied with search magic that she failed to check anything else, at this point, she was disqualified as an academy professor.

“Evan, this is clearly a special situation—”

Just as Beatrice was about to hastily defend herself, Lucius cut her off.

“Um, I think I know where Theo is.”

“What did you say?”

Evan immediately grabbed Lucius’s shoulder tightly.

“Is that true?”

“Yes!”

Actually, it wasn't him, but ‘Albedo’ who could find out.

Lucius’s conscience pricked him for lying to his respected teacher.

But right now, Theo was what mattered.

“Just trust me!”

Lucius declared confidently to the two professors, his green eyes shining.

Just wait a little, Theo!

* * *

Ignoring the body that was crying out in extreme fatigue, he moved forward.

As he climbed the stairs a little more, he faced another room.

Please, I hope this time it's not a trial that involves fighting like the mirror.

Although he had recovered some mana while moving, it would be depleted after using a skill once or twice.

“Cough.”

When he coughed, he could taste the sticky blood in his throat.

Damn it, why am I the one suffering?

The one who suffers like this is supposed to be the protagonist.

Swallowing his sorrow, he took a short, deep breath and then opened the tightly shut door.

[Third trial, you have entered the Room of Judgment.]

Room of Judgment?

The confusion was brief, as a bright light exploded before his eyes.

He reflexively closed and opened his eyes, and a vast courtroom spread out before him.

“……?”

It was a familiar courtroom.

It felt like just yesterday that he had stood in the defendant's seat.

Am I going to be judged here again?

I'm afraid I'll get used to the defendant's seat at this rate.

As he was about to stand in the defendant's seat with a hollow laugh, the courtroom door opened.

And the person who entered through the wide-open door was─

“Cian?”

Golden hair, eyes that held the blue fields, an impression that was always neat and gentle, a man who could be called the hero himself, Lucius.

Lucius, who had entered the courtroom, looked truly peaceful.

It reminded him of the day he had first come to the academy.

What happened? Why are you here?

He reached out to grab Lucius, but his hand passed right through him.

As if he were a ghost.

However, even that shock was insignificant compared to what followed.

Lucius passed right through him and stood in the defendant's seat.

“What the hell… is happening?”

What did Lucius do wrong?

As if in answer to that question, his vision shifted in an instant.

From the high vantage point, he could see Lucius below.

He was occupying the judge's seat, which had been empty.

Before he could even understand the situation that was unfolding in an instant, what came into his view was the back of Lucius’s hand, where the stigma was engraved.

More accurately, the back of Lucius’s hand, which should have had the stigma engraved on it, but was clean without a trace.

[From this moment, the trial of the fallen hero, Lucius, will begin.]

The sentence is passed.

“Ah.”

What kind of situation have I been thrown into?

His mind still couldn't keep up with the situation, but if there was one thing he could be sure of, it was this.

This crazy situation would remain vividly in his mind as a nightmare for a very long time.

* * *

With the sentence, the surrounding scenery changes.

A devastated mansion. It was once the Golden's mansion where Theo had been invited.

In the ruins, where everything from the wallpaper to the floor was splattered with blood, Theo vomited stomach acid.

In the middle of the ruins stood Lucius, holding the Holy Sword.

“Iris Viden.”

The cool voice was closer to that of a judge who judges the sins of people.

Lucius looked down with emotionless eyes at Iris, who was dying with a stab wound to her abdomen.

Iris's gaze, writhing like an insect, was directed somewhere.

There, Lerwon, who was already dead, lay motionless.

“Aaaaargh!!!

You, you dare! My son!!!”

Iris, stabbed in the abdomen, screamed and rushed at Lucius.

“It's strange.”

Lucius looked at Iris with a sneer.

For Theo, who had only ever seen Lucius face others with a straight and righteous gaze, the Lucius with those eyes was chilling.

“Wasn't he your son when you were torturing him?”

Stab!

The sound of the Holy Sword cutting through another's living flesh was horribly clear.

“Does he only become your son after he dies?”

Iris did not refute. She could not refute.

There are feelings that are only realized after it's all over.

Only after Lerwon's death did Iris shed tears of blood and regret.

Therefore, Lucius swung his sword.

With a slicing sound, Iris's head rolled on the floor.

There were no more screams, no more wails, no more anger.

There was only a terribly empty young man looking down at the terrible ruins he had created.

“Is this….”

Lucius?

Theo muttered at the unbelievable sight.

The Lucius who had hesitated to even kill the monster that Lerwon had become, and who had in the end extended a hand to Lerwon?

This Lucius, who had so cruelly killed dozens, hundreds of people, killed Lerwon, and killed Iris?

This is a lie! This can't be!

He is seized by a strange feeling of having witnessed something that could never happen.

[The hero has killed Iris Viden, Lerwon Viden, and 314 other members of the Golden organization.]

[It was a punishment for Lerwon Viden, who sought to become a monster that would swallow the world. For Iris Viden, who urged Lerwon Viden to become a monster. And for the 314 members of the Golden organization who condoned it.]

[175,367 people who would have died in the disaster can now avoid death.]

The mechanical voice explained the reasons for Lucius's actions in detail.

Listening to it, Theo truly wanted to gouge out his eardrums.

[Next charge.]

With the mechanical voice, a clicking sound was heard.

When he closed and opened his eyes again, he saw Lucius stabbing the Holy Sword into Zephyros’s heart.

“Hero?”

In the incomprehensible scene, Zephyros’s body, whose life had been taken in an instant, collapsed.

Theo tried to catch the collapsing body of Zephyros, but he couldn't catch anything.

Those eyes again. Terribly indifferent eyes.

Those eyes looked down at Zephyros, who was dying while vomiting blood.

“Your ■■ was going to ■■■■ the ■■■■ to ■■.”

As if there was static, Lucius's words were hard to hear.

What the hell is he saying?

“You will definitely regret it.”

Zephyros’s breathing began to fade.

Lucius continued, as if making an excuse for himself.

“So dying now will be better for me, and for you too, surely.”

Hearing those words, Theo heard something snap inside him.

“Don't spout such bullshit!”

The sweet potato hero Lucius that Theo knew had never once considered death a better option.

He was a guy who would even spare the enemies who tried to kill him.

A foolish guy who, even after being backstabbed so many times, would never take a life.

There was no way he would say such things.

[The hero has killed 79 members of the Duchy of Nevera, including Zephyros Nevera, and the servants of the duchy.]

[It was a punishment for the Nevera who would incur the wrath of the sky.]

[235,187 people who would have died in the disaster can now avoid death.]

“Shut up, shut up!!!”

Theo shouted, as if struggling.

Only Theo himself knew whether that shout was directed at Lucius or at the mechanical voice.