Chapter 91

Chapter 91

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 91“Hello.”

Seeing Choi Yeon smile at him as though pleased to see him, Young-je couldn't help cheering inwardly.

Right now, theirs was an uneasy party consisting only of mages. And yet one of the Academy's strongest swordsmen had appeared right before them.

“...

Uh. Hello.”

But if he looked too happy in a situation like this, there was a high chance he'd be treated like a weirdo, so Young-je decided to suppress his current emotions.

At least until she arrived.

“Seriously...! Why...! Did you...! Leave...! Me...! Aloooooone?! Ch-Choi Yeon?”

Se-ah, who had sprinted after Young-je after he ran ahead first, let out a shrill scream when she saw Choi Yeon.

“Hm? You are... I feel like I've seen you somewhere...”

“Ah! You already forgot? You asked me to give Eugene your challenge letter!”

“...

Ah. That girl. Hello.”

Choi Yeon awkwardly smiled and gave a small wave. At that, Se-ah rushed over and threw her arms around Choi Yeon.

“...

Hm?”

“We're saved! I was so nervous because there were only two mages! I'm so glad we met you, Choi Yeon!”

Se-ah shouted very confidently, as though speaking for Young-je's inner thoughts.

But Choi Yeon merely tilted her head.

At that sight, Young-je pressed a hand to his forehead and shook his head as though he roughly understood.

“Choi Yeon. Do you know what situation we're in right now?”

“Right now? Hmm, I don't know. I was definitely sleeping before morning homeroom, but when I came to my senses, I was here. Those two over there suddenly came at me with swords, so I dealt with them.”

At Choi Yeon's words, Young-je glanced at the two people lying on the ground.

No matter how he looked at it, saying she'd played with them was more fitting than saying she'd dealt with them.

“So, what's going on that everything's in such chaos?”

Choi Yeon blinked and asked first. Then, as though she'd been waiting for the chance and knew everything, Se-ah spoke confidently.

“The Villain Alliance attacked the Academy. We're right in the middle of it right now.”

“...

Terrorism? We're here because of terrorism?”

“Yes. Young-je said so, so it's probably certain, right?”

After their exchange, the two simply stared at him blankly, so Young-je eventually sighed and had no choice but to briefly explain the current situation.

The song that had played through the speakers that morning, their transfer into the dungeon, and even the villains' attack.

“Ah, then the people who attacked me just now were villains.”

“...

Choi Yeon. Did you seriously cut them down without even knowing they were villains?”

“At my family, I was taught not to hold back against anyone who draws a sword and attacks me.”

It was perfectly natural as a martial family's teaching, but for some reason, the words sent a chill down their spines.

“Then, do you two have a plan?”

At Choi Yeon's next words, Se-ah froze in place. Then she stiffly turned her neck and looked toward Young-je.

“This is where Young-je, our brains, has to step up...!”

Young-je shook his head in disbelief at Se-ah's words, which sounded as though she were proudly declaring that she wasn't the brains.

“...

First, our priority should be joining up with as many people as possible. No matter how much they're villains, they won't be able to recklessly attack a group of students packed with Awakened. And above all... there's a chance the instructors were caught up in this too, so if we find them, we'll be safer as a bonus.”

At those words, Choi Yeon tilted her head as though she didn't understand.

“If we go to the instructors, we won't be able to fight the villains. You're still going to look for them?”

To Choi Yeon, whose head was filled only with sparring strong opponents, this event was practically a special event made just for her.

And yet they were talking about avoiding battle and entrusting their safety to the instructors...

From her perspective, perhaps it was only natural that she wouldn't like it.

“Like you said, we probably won't have to fight villains. We'll be safer too. That's why I came up with a second plan.”

“...

A second plan?”

“A second plan?”

The two showed great interest in Young-je's ‘second plan.’

At that, Young-je extended his index and middle fingers and smiled.

“Find the president.”

“Eugene?

“Eugene...?”

Young-je nodded at their questions.

“Right. We find the president. With the president and Jin-woo's personalities... they'll definitely try to find the terrorist leader and take him down first. And... if it's the president, he probably has some other plan too.”

Se-ah nodded after hearing Young-je.

“That sounds good! In the process, we might also find people being attacked by villains like just now. If we help them, it could be a big help to Familia later too.”

Although that might mean fighting villains along the way, Se-ah nodded, trusting everything she'd learned so far, the teachings she'd received from various people, and the two dependable people standing in front of her.

And Choi Yeon, who had been quietly listening as well...

“We might run into other villains?”

Her eyes lit up at the possibility of another opportunity.

“...

Looks like everyone agrees. Then shall we move right away?”

The three began moving again.

As Se-ah searched for detected lifeforms around them, three lights appeared on her radar once more.

“Ah. Detected! Straight ahead from here!”

Apparently it was Choi Yeon's first time seeing a spatial mage's detection ability in person, because she poked the faint purple mana shimmering in the air with her finger.

But the mana spread out like a map simply dispersed for a moment like smoke before gathering again.

“...

This is convenient. Doesn't look like we'd get lost.”

Saying that, Choi Yeon poked the lit-up section again, while Se-ah watched her as though she found it cute.

“Choi Yeon, do you get lost often?”

“...

Yeah. So someone from my family always takes me places. I got lost on my first day of school and ended up late.”

“That sounds rough too... But Young-je. Why are you frowning like that?”

While talking with Choi Yeon, Se-ah glanced at Young-je's expression and asked.

Young-je, who was walking at the front of the group, looked as though he was thinking deeply about something.

“Hm? No, we're in a dungeon, but strangely, there aren't any monsters.”

“Huh? You're right? We haven't seen any monsters at all so far, have we? Choi Yeon?”

“I haven't seen any either.”

“Right?”

After hearing even Choi Yeon's answer, Young-je stopped in place and organized his thoughts.

A dungeon without monsters?

That made no sense according to common knowledge. It was like saying a red-bean bun had no red bean in it.

A situation where monsters didn't appear in a dungeon meant...

“Don't tell me...”

Young-je recalled a conversation he'd once had with Eugene while hunting insects in the dungeon.‘President. You said this is the first floor, right? Then how many floors does this place have in total?’‘This place? As far as I know, there are ten floors... but it's basically the same as having eight.’‘Eight?’‘The ninth floor is a preparation floor before going to fight the tenth-floor boss. And as far as I know, only the boss exists on the tenth floor. So you could say monsters only appear up through the eighth floor.’Eugene had said monsters didn't appear on the ninth floor.

If, like Se-ah said, the coordinates here really were similar to the dungeon beneath the club room... and if this place had a similar structure to that dungeon...

“This is the ninth floor?”

Everything made sense.

“...

If this really is the ninth floor, I don't think we can expect any support.”

Judging by appearances, when the dungeons overlapped, the people had been scattered all over the place as well.The people on the eighth floor might come up to the ninth, but if Eugene had been right when he said the difficulty increased on higher floors, they wouldn't arrive quickly.‘Then do we have to beat the tenth-floor boss with our own strength?’There were only two ways to escape a dungeon: leave normally through an exit, or defeat the boss and cause the dungeon to collapse, creating a passage everyone could use to escape.

However, in a situation like this where they had no idea who was where inside the dungeon, the only way for everyone to get out safely was to clear the dungeon.

Young-je's heart began to grow heavy.

“I have something to tell you both.”

Young-je stopped and began explaining his thoughts to the other two.

That they might not receive support, and that if they cleared this dungeon, everyone might be able to escape.

The two stared blankly at first, but gradually began to accept it.

“We can't help it. That means there's no other way out of here anyway, right?”

“The tenth-floor boss is strong? I like it.”

With their opinions unified, the three decided to head toward the three people they'd detected earlier.

If they were Academy students, they could join forces. If they were villains, Young-je judged that they'd probably be blocking the door leading to the tenth floor in order to prevent the dungeon from being cleared.

Following their destination, the group eventually reached the area near their target.

“What should we do? If they're villains, it'd be better to ambush them.”

“Should I go first?”

The two began making a plan in case the other side turned out to be villains.

Young-je said he would check first with magic and immediately cast a spell.

“saltato(Hopping).”

A pitch-black rabbit sprang out from the fountain pen Young-je swept through the air.

“If the people over there aren't wearing the same clothes as us, shake your ears. Got it?”

Young-je crouched down and gave instructions to his familiar.

The rabbit nodded as though it understood and began hopping toward the place where the others were presumed to be.

“Young-je. That familiar doesn't really suit you.”

“...

What kind of familiar would suit me?”

“Hmm... a tarsier?”

“There isn't anything in common besides glasses....

Just watch the rabbit's ears.”

The rabbit had almost reached its destination. Once it rounded the corner there, the three people would come into view.

The rabbit reached the corner, saw the scene before it, and turned toward the kids to send the signal.──Thud!

An icicle fired from around the corner pierced straight through the rabbit, turning it back into ink.

“...

Enemy.”

“...

Enemy.”

“...

They killed the rabbit.”

Two of them raised their hostility upon confirming the enemy, while Choi Yeon expressed anger over the rabbit's death.

“They noticed us too, right?”

“Probably. Anyone could tell it was a familiar. I didn't expect them to notice immediately, though.”

Now that they'd confirmed the other side were villains, there was no longer any need for the three to hide themselves.

Because in order to clear the dungeon, they'd eventually have to break through them and continue onward.

The three equipped their unique armaments and slowly headed toward the corner where the enemies waited, tense.

“You took your mentor lessons properly, right?”

“Don't you know Instructor Ji Su-hyeon? If we fought bare-handed right now, I'm confident I could beat even you, Young-je.”

“...

Do you think I just played around during my mentor lessons?”

“...

Rabbit.”

When they rounded the corner, an enormous cavern came into view.

A massive staircase leading up to the next floor.

And standing in front of it was an enormous snowman, with someone riding on top.

“...

Why are villains always so desperate to express their individuality like that?”

“Seriously. Huh? Isn't that a snowman? Among the escaped villains, the only one who controls snowmen should be Snow Girl Pa...”

“...

Villain.”

Faced with such an ostentatious display of individuality, Young-je gripped his fountain pen with an exhausted expression and swept it through the air.

“Shall we begin? marciale(In the style of a march)!”

A march announcing the beginning of battle echoed through the cavern.