RATH 50

TL: Eevee

TLN: Happy Chapter 50 guys!

7. Is your backside safe? (2)

#2 Their story: Aris Ril Letia’s story.

“Why?”

The same night study time as normal.

It’s time for night study, but in a situation where escape, not study, was the primary objective we were still fighting as hard as we always did.

But how did things turn out like this today?

“I apologise, Miss Aris.”

And the person that was in charge of marking me especially, Professor Aruhan, smiled wryly as he answered my question.

“Plan A begins today.”

“…Isn’t this seriously too much against students?”

-That’s right, this is strange! What kind of academy is this meant to be!

Even the G.o.ddess of contests was complaining of inequality.

Plan A? This was?

“Students betraying each other was Plan A!”

I still fall far short of Professor Aruhan in a straight 1v1.

Because of that, the supporting backline pours on all sorts of beneficial magic onto me, and curses onto Professor Aruhan.

But today, that support was absent and on the contrary, I was the one being cursed instead.

As I turned around to see what was going on I saw a few key members of the first years attacking the other students.

Is this what we’re supposed to be learning at school?

How to attack each other!

“According to Professor Nicerwin, giving students the experience of going up against ‘divide and conquer’ strategies is a part of the curriculum…”

Professor Aruhan muttered, not looking me in the eyes as if he was also embarra.s.sed to say it as well.

Divide and conquer? Just what the h.e.l.l were you going to achieve by teaching students how to deal with that?

“What, just what did he threaten you with!”

“There were no threats.”

“S, Shir?”

My cla.s.smate, and a fellow first-year G.o.d-cla.s.s summoner.

Even so, the cold expression that Shir, my childhood friend was making towards me was shocking.

“Wh, why… why, Shir! Why did you betray us even though you weren’t threatened!”

One of my few friends that had no relations to my family, but simply between one person and another, had betrayed me.

Even if you put the circ.u.mstances of the school into account, this shocked me even more than I could ever imagine.

“Not just me.”

“Just what… what is this…”

As I saw people walk out amongst the other fallen first years, my face turned sheet white.

There were only six people walking towards me.

But when you considered that there were only 100 first years, that meant seven, including Shir.

A whopping seven percent of the students betrayed us and sided with the teachers!

And four of them were the other first years’ G.o.d-cla.s.s summoners!

Even while my thoughts were in turmoil, they said something to shock me even further.

“Professor Nicerwin said to us. He’ll exempt us from tomorrow’s night study, so side with the teachers tonight.”

H, how could it be…

The only thought that ran through my head when I heard that was.

‘Why, why not me?!”

I was the best fighter among the entirety of the first years! If the deal was exemption from night study I could wipe out half the first years by myself!

So why the h.e.l.l did he leave me out and make a deal with these posers instead!

-A, Aris? You weren’t this kind of character, right?

-Who cares about character right naaaoo!

Every day, school ends only when the clock is past ten at night.

We call it dormitories, but as a n.o.ble, as a woman, after we finish this and that the time is midnight.

It’s already the next day.

And when we wake up, it’s time to go to school.

Other schools start at 10AM, moreover, Marcis actually starts at eleven!

Why, are we the only ones to go to school two-three hours earlier? And it’s not like there’s even cla.s.s on at that time!

And school on the weekends as well! It’s the weekend, we need to stay til two in the afternoon!

I mean at least they could let us have our Sundays off, right?

Even if the people close to me since childhood all came to Yugrasia with me, this year Yugrasia selected the fewest number of enrollments in history.

Because of that, the people that couldn’t make the cut for this school, or went to another school due to family circ.u.mstances are living their school lives in other schools that aren’t this one.

And the times I can meet up with them are very limited.

Weekend afternoons.

And the school life I’m hearing from them is seriously just like a dream, something that we could never imagine here in Yugrasia!

-A, Aris? I get it so you can stop now.

-No, not yet, I still have more to sayy!

What treatment was I getting whenever we met up in the weekends to talk about what we did at school?

Everyone looked at me like I was lying, looked at me with eyes of pity, do you know how embarra.s.sing that was!

Even if I can’t meet up with boys from other schools on weekdays, I want to meet up with friends from other academies and go shopping, go to cafes, and other things like a normal student would in a normal school life!

But, but! Why was I left out and a deal made with those mid-tier G.o.d-cla.s.s summoners with those conditions!

“I… can never forgive you.”

“We had no intention of begging for forgiveness.”

“We already resolved ourselves when we betrayed the other students.”

“I don’t regret it! I… We! We just wanted to spend at least a day like normal students!”

I feel like an unforgivable reason was conveyed quite differently, but there’s no need for me to tell them.

They dare, to leave me out and play normal student by themselves!

Clang!

“Excuse me, Miss Aris. I would feel sad if you ignored me.”

But the sword that suddenly flew towards my back prevented me from achieving what I wanted.

“Professor… Stay out of this!”

“No, but I’m responsible for you, and these kids are on our side, you see.”

I bit my lip but there was no other option.

All I could do was fight my hardest!

And that day, aside from the day that the silver devil descended.

The students recorded their most disastrous defeat in the history of the night study.

***

“Owner, owner! That guy getting ragdolled, innt that the male vice-pres?”

“It is.”

The first day after initiating Plan A.

After I finished the cla.s.s for fourth years, I noticed students getting stomped on by other students in the hallways.

If it was my past life, this would be the time to call 117, no area code(1), but this situation is somewhat different.

The vice-president of the student council, the man they called the Trickster, Risen was currently rolling on the ground while making a euphoric face.

And the ones who were stomping on him were the other student council members who got backstabbed last night.

“To think he’d be this happy when all he did was come to school two hours later.”

“But he gets ta go home five hours earlier, don’t he? That’s something to be happy about.”

Ahahaha! Even as he happily laughed while getting stomped on, his happiness was on the verge of tipping over into insanity.

And the fellow vice-president Karen in particular whose face was several times more enraged than the others was aiming specifically for his family jewels, yet he’s still laughing?

Risen, was he impotent or something?

Bursting is normal when those are stomped that hard!

“But still ownerr. Doesn’t that mean Plan A is useless now? Finally my time to shine?”

The metal bat looked up at me with a look of expectation.

Hoho, this little brat!

“That’s not going to happen, so give up.”

“Uwiing… really?”

What the heck is uwiing.

“Yes. Plan A just began, why would it be ineffective?”

“The kids that sold out are already out, aren’t they? Looked like they were holding public executions in every cla.s.sroom.”

It’s not ‘looked like,’ you could hear screams coming from everywhere you went in the fourth years’ cla.s.srooms, where the majority of the traitors were from.

And the scariest thing was, the people that were making those screams were also laughing hysterically.

How should I put this, it feels like the time when I raised those kids in the organization a couple of years ago, when all I did was not feed them and they awoke to using sword ki all on their own?

Night study was a part and parcel of your average h.e.l.l Joseon’s student, but here the students are looking like they’re dying.

They haven’t even reached the gates of h.e.l.l, you know?

I still haven’t gotten to say the line [hey, that’s h.e.l.l you’re walking into,](2) but you’re giving me problems if this is how you’re all going to work?

“Owner’th way too hardcore.”

“I’m serious.”

And that afternoon, as I expected, the effect of Plan A was spectacular.

I didn’t choose the most important people as the traitors, but the stronger mid-tier students.

When I chose the students that linked the strategies that tied the operations between the middle floors and the higher floors together as the traitors, their movements were markedly slower than before.

Thanks to that, the teachers had an easier time of defeating the students as well.

Have the traitors backstab on one day, and then weaken the students’ fighting power even further by their absence the next day.

Kaaahhh~ look at this perfect strategy!

And the next day.

“I’ll do it! Pick me!”

“M, Miss Aris?”

The person who slammed open the door to my office, Aris, shouted at me with a very aggrieved yet very jealous expression.

“What is it that you were going to do?”

“Betray! I’ll be tonight’s night study’s traitor!”

And starting from Aris, the student council, and even the ordinary students came to me demanding to become traitors.

-…Is it the kids’ fault that they’re coming to you to be traitors, or is it owner’s fault for making it that way?

Since I’ve done nothing wrong, this is all the students’ fault!

-As I thought, this is owner’s fault!

Was the answer already set for you or something?

No but seriously, no matter how you look at this isn’t this 100% the students’ fault?

None of them have any sort of camaraderie, so that simply exempting them from the night study is enough for them to backstab each other!

These disloyal kids!

Back in my day when we ran from night study, when the teacher didn’t know of one person that ran with us, the rest of us all told on him and we were all yelled at together!

That was true camaraderie where we all got yelled at together and looked after one another!

-I can’t read owner’s mind right now but I get the feeling that you’re spouting the bulls.h.i.t of the ages…

-Shut up and gather more mana. You’ll probably have to use it once the holidays start.

-Wiing wiing! It’s finawwy time for this G.o.ddess Arcadia to take center stage!

Thanks to that teacher named Teruteru’s demonic suggestion, I’ve finally come up with a way to use the metal bat.

Raise their fear yet not their despair, on the contrary, a method to make them struggle even harder to run away from night study!

-Dat teacher’s a devil too.

-Although it’s because of that you can come out.

-He’s an angel! He’s totes gotta be an angel following the G.o.ddess Aru!

Look at that stance change.

That aside, where previously I haven’t had more than twenty students come to my office since school started, over two hundred students have been to my office today alone.

Seriously, not for anything else, but two hundred kids all coming to request to be a traitor?

Weren’t there around 1300 students at this school? But 200 already?

So the traitor hopefuls kept on coming, and thinking well of their enthusiasm I continued with Plan A.

“Karen, how could you!”

“Risen, this was exactly what you did to me.”

The female vice-president icily looking down onto the Trickster.

“N, not Lady Aris!”

“You can’t do this to us!”

“I can’t help it either. I also want to experience the thing called freedom.”

Or Miss Aris, skilled enough to go toe to toe with Professor Aruhan on a daily basis, now fighting in combination with him to annihilate the entirety of the first years.

“Hang on a second! Isn’t the student council president betraying us just ain’t right?”

“Shut up! The student council president also has the right to freedom! How dare a traitor that’s already experienced a day off night study dare talk back? Are you going to take responsibility if Professor Nicerwin doesn’t choose me as a traitor because of you?”

Driving back the students with the power of eight high-ranked spirits, even the student council president Nerkia!

Let alone the ordinary students, but also the student council. And since even the student council president, who can be said to be the representative of the students all became traitors, it became a situation where everyone fervently wished to become a traitor.

Thanks to that, when they weren’t the traitor themselves, all the students were wary as to who might blindside them and so took their distance from the other students even while fighting the teachers.

Although their teamwork fell as a result, their gains as individuals skyrocketed!

The traitors have practically set the school ablaze! And at times like this, of course the thing you should do is pour oil onto the flames!

-This is Professor Nicerwin. From today onwards, we will be offering a special present for those partic.i.p.ating in the self-directed night study.

Five PM.

I halted the students that were moving towards their clubs or other activities in order to avoid doing the after-school cla.s.ses.

-People have been complaining how the traitors have been receiving far too many benefits.

Of course, not now. Because currently everyone wants to become a traitor.

-We will be answering that question. From today onwards, a special rule will be applied. The rule is simple. From now on, we will be giving out a ‘Traitor’s Mark’ to students who have been a.s.signed the traitor role.

There are many people who want to become traitors.

But if there are too many traitors, then wouldn’t that become a separate force rather than traitors?

That was Plan X. The last resort for if the students became overwhelmingly stronger than the teachers.

We would divide the students half and half into two teams, and only let the winning team escape, but then over half the school doesn’t partic.i.p.ate in the night study.

Then what we need to do is find a method to make everyone happy with the least number of people.

That method was!

-Those who manage to escape with a Traitor’s Mark, or manage to hold onto it until the end of night study can enjoy the privileges of a traitor.

The reaction was explosive.

“It’s here! A ticket! This guy was a traitor! Now I… kuhhk?”

“Moron. As long as you have a ticket you’re also a traitor.”

There were people who specifically hunted traitors to collect tickets.

“Wh, why… between fellow traitors…”

“Actually, I wasn’t a traitor.”

There were people who collected tickets by fooling traitors into a traitor’s alliance, taking them out and collecting their tickets.

“Now now, fifty meal tokens. Fifty meal tokens and a ticket is all yours!”

There were even people who traded material goods for tickets.

And the student council, who was supposed to be guiding them were.

“Now, there’s almost certainly a traitor among us.”

“It’s not like there can possibly be anyone stupid enough to just stand up and shout ‘I’m a traitor!’ here, is there?”

“And even if the traitor was caught, they’d still have to fight the others.”

“Yep, so.”

“The last man standing takes all!”

The student council members were holding survival deathmatches between themselves.

-Itza s.h.i.tstorm.

-That it is.

-How long’re ya gonna do this for?

-Until you show up, of course.

Meaning, until the holidays started.

The days of students backstabbing fellow students continued.