I'm Neither the Mastermind nor the Villain

Chapter 19

The students who were evacuating and the professors leading them safely crossed the bridge and reached the annex.

But I did not enter the annex.

"Sejin! Aren't you coming in?"

I shook my head at Lee Yeonseul, who was gesturing for me to hurry inside the annex.

"I was merely accompanying you all to protect you until the evacuation was complete."

Lee Yeonseul slowly lowered her hand.

"Ah... alright. Don't get hurt!"

"Haha, I'll keep that in mind."

With this, I managed to save one person who was supposed to die in the original story.

Although I saved someone, I didn't feel any particular emotion about it.

I turned around again and walked toward the spot where the wall had been broken.

The view of the academy from the middle of the bridge with its wall blown open was quite the spectacle.

The sight of monsters swarming like ants around the large and beautiful buildings was one I wouldn't forget for a long time.

And on the outskirts of the field, many people had formed groups and were fighting against similarly clustered monsters.

"Alright! Now, freeze them!"

"Slowly! Don't rush!"

It seemed the students, who had been fighting scattered by grade, realized it wasn't working and eventually banded together to form a single force.

The sight of first, second, and third years all united and fighting monsters resembled an army of ants waging war against another ant army.

All the professors except the grade heads and the vice principal appeared to be fighting alongside the students, maintaining the front lines without being pushed back by the monsters.

And amidst the people, a strange white light shone-intense yet not blinding.

It was the light radiating from Kim Gabyeol and the other divine spellcasters.

The intense light created by the gathered divine spellcasters was strengthening and healing their allies.

The divine power emanating from that light was so strong that I wondered if even a weak monster would turn to dust just by touching it.

'The atmosphere is quite impressive. As expected of Korea's top academy.'

Despite the sudden monster ambush, they didn't panic and flee but instead fought on equal footing, which was truly brave.

Guess I should get moving now.

I leapt toward the wall the monster had broken down.

*

Suddenly, as someone jumped off the bridge, a monster below opened its mouth wide as if thinking it had just gotten lucky.

"Are you trying to eat me? How insolent."

I brought my sword, wrapped in aura, downwards and sliced the monster in half, killing it.

"Phew, to die split in half-that's quite a splendid end for a monster. Consider it an honor."

[Dark mana everywhere. Excellent, excellent.]

Thanks to the students who had rushed out ahead, this place was now piled high with monster corpses.

Monsters burned to death, frozen to death, exploded at the body-an explicit scene where the cause of death was obvious at a glance.

"Hmm, should I hunt monsters outside or inside......."

The place where I had jumped down was between the annex and the main building,

meaning right next to the field.

Most of the monsters were probably in the field.

Since it seemed they hadn't yet fully breached the security of the main building.

But if most monsters were outside, that also meant a very few had gotten inside.

And given the sheer number of invading monsters, even a 'very few' inside wouldn't be that few after all.

It was highly likely there were more than I thought.

If I considered the possibility that some people hadn't been able to evacuate, then going inside would be the right call...

'The principal will handle it.'

Isn't that why he's holed up in his office?

Right now, there was a more urgent matter.

Demon contractors.

I had to find the demon contractor.

Only by capturing the demon contractor, the mastermind behind this whole incident, could I stop the endless pouring of monsters.

"Lady Marbas, can you tell which demon the contractor summoning those monsters is contracted with?"

[Monsters are extremely common creatures in the demon realm. They're everywhere you turn your head. So, just by the monsters alone, I can't tell.

However, the overall appearance of those monsters and the magic felt during summoning resemble Gamigin's.]

Ah, so they contracted with Gamigin.

According to Marbas, Gamigin is one of Solomon's 72 demons and holds the rank of marquis.

Usually, it appears in the form of a small donkey or horse.

Its specialty is necromancy and spirit summoning.

It can summon the spirits of the dead that the summoner desires.

Especially souls who died after committing sins or drowned at sea-that's its forte.

Sometimes it appears in human form, and it's said that if you sleep with a talisman sealing Gamigin's magic under your pillow, you can meet the dead in your dreams.

'There are many theories that Gamigin is a fallen angel, so does that mean this demon contractor who caused the terror was eventually tracked down and killed by the divine spellcasters?'

Then I'd better meet them before they die.

"But isn't Gamigin's specialty necromancy and spirit summoning? Yet they can summon so many monsters?"

At my question, Marbas snorted and said,

[Foolish contractor, just because your specialty is swordplay, does that mean you can't use dark magic?]

"Ah, I see."

Now that I think about it, it's obvious.

Summoning monsters is a basic skill any dark mage possesses,

and even more so, those specifically called 'demon contractors' would certainly be able to summon monsters.

"Still, isn't calling me foolish a bit much?"

[Calling a fool a fool, what else should I call you? Do you want me to blindly cover for you just because you're a contractor? Even those winged ones living in the heavens don't always

protect their contractors unconditionally. One must realize their own ignorance and lack of knowledge so as not to remain illiterate forever.

You must fix even the smallest flaw while you still can. I say this for your own good, so take it to heart.]

This is so unfair. Did I really deserve this scolding just for asking a question?

Forget it. Since we can't communicate anyway, I'll just let it go.

Looks like Marbas is in a bad mood today.

Ignoring Marbas, I summoned Mio.

"Kyeng."

As soon as she was summoned, Mio climbed onto my shoulder.

"Mio, can you see where the monsters are being summoned?"

Mio nodded, swaying her tail as she sat on my shoulder.

"And do you sense a faint dark mana different from the monsters' dark mana whenever they're summoned?"

"Kyeng kyeng."

Mio shook her head.

I guess Mio's abilities aren't quite there yet.

Well, with dark mana everywhere, it wouldn't be easy to sense the faint mana hidden among it all.

Still, it's a bit disappointing.

If Mio could sense the demon contractor's mana, finding them would have been much easier.

Let me think.

Why did the contractor who made a pact with Gamigin get involved in this incident?

If it's revealed that they orchestrated a terrorist attack on the academy, they'd surely be hunted by divine spellcasters, the government, and the academy itself.

'Just out of curiosity?'

That could be part of it.

But would any transcendent being really let their contractor carry out such a risky plan merely out of curiosity?

Unless Gamigin is some kind of freak who uses and discards contractors like tissues, that doesn't make sense.

Then does it mean they had a goal they wanted to achieve at any cost?

And is that goal possibly within the academy?

For example, the Philosopher's Stone hidden in the dormitory basement.

*

"Hello?"

-Baek Sejin. Where are you right now?

"Me? Please keep this to yourself. I'm heading toward the dormitory."

-Dormitory? Why there?

Hearing Kim Gabyeol's voice through the phone, I hesitated.

Kim Gabyeol doesn't know that the Philosopher's Stone is currently in the dormitory.

Is it okay to reveal the truth to someone like her?

"I sensed something from the dormitory. I'm going to check it out."

My choice was simply to dodge the question.

-Graaaah!

"Whoops."

Maybe my voice during the call with Kim Gabyeol was heard, as a massive monster slammed its claw down at me.

I dodged the monster's attack and ran toward the dormitory.

Since that was the only idea I had, I was heading to the dormitory.

-What was that sound just now--.

I ended the call with Kim Gabyeol and switched my phone to silent mode.

I carefully made my way to the dormitory, trying not to get caught by monsters or people.

There were so many monsters that it was actually easy to hide my presence.

With all these monsters spewing dark mana, my own mana barely registered at all.

For the students to evacuate safely without being attacked by these monsters, just how sturdy and secure must the academy buildings have been?

And the monster that managed to break through that--

Fortunately, while there were a disgusting number of monsters, not many of them were actually strong.

Thanks to that, the students and professors were able to keep holding out against the monsters.

And any monster strong enough to be a real threat was immediately killed by the vice principal, so the situation was barely under control.

Without the vice principal, the academy would have turned into a living hell instantly.

And the casualties would have been much higher.

So I kept running, hiding my presence.

Since I hadn't learned any stealth techniques yet, I just avoided people's line of sight as best as I could.

Given the chaos, nobody would bother paying attention to me anyway.

I arrived at the dormitory.

As I stepped inside the dormitory, I felt a swirl of mana beneath my feet.

I turned around and stepped back outside the dormitory.

Once outside, the mana I had felt beneath me disappeared completely.

When I stepped back inside, I felt the mana swirling beneath my feet again.

It seemed there was some kind of barrier cast on the dormitory.

A barrier meant to keep whatever was happening inside hidden from everyone else.

'For such a barrier to have become this unstable...'

It seemed I had come to the right place after all.