An Angel Lives in the Academy
Chapter 186: The Angel Who Receives Observation Class (9)

In this world, there are those who sell faith.

The most famous among them are called politicians. Those who sell faith to the masses and, in return, take another kind of faith.

Another type are religious figures. They’re similar to politicians, but the difference is that they sell a more systematic and dogmatic faith.

And lastly, there are cult leaders… They are the most malicious, and their power the most destructive, selling an explosive, uncontrolled faith.

Leffrey knew all three types of faith-sellers.

‘And they all have another thing in common.’

That in the end, they make you regret believing in them.

Yet, people still curse politicians while believing in new politicians. They’re betrayed by religions, yet still can't bring themselves to abandon their faith.

‘So foolish, truly.’

‘You are really stupid, Leffrey.’

That’s why he despised himself right now.

For wanting to believe in Gori.

Gori, no matter how he looked at him, was the type of person who sells faith. And even worse, he was the type who sold an explosive, uncontrolled faith.

But Leffrey desperately needed some kind of faith.

Even if it’s a dangerous, explosive faith, there was no choice.

So Leffrey, slowly, collected his wavering heart and spoke.

“What’s this method you’re talking about?”

“Ah, that look in your eyes that shows you don’t trust me, it hurts a little.”

“Please just tell me.”

Gori, the junior with a sly demeanor and a scarred body, brought out his answer all too casually.

“Just forget it all. Senior, if you forget everything you hate, then there’s no reason for you to have any killing intent towards it.”

“Forget it?”

“Yes. I don’t know how a senior who has never killed anyone before could have such a strong killing intent, but if you forget everything about the person you want to kill, the killing intent will also disappear.”

Gori continued speaking in a tone as if he were selling medicine.

“It’s actually one of the treatments occasionally mentioned in Superhuman Medicine. When someone has an uncontrollable killing intent towards someone too powerful, the doctors secretly perform this procedure for them.”

Gori continued.

“This kind of treatment is often prescribed for those who harbor killing intent toward the demon king or one of his executives. Or, well, when they start hating one of the high-ranking scumbags of superhuman society.”

But Leffrey couldn't hear Gori’s words anymore.

‘Forget everything about that man and that family?’

Then what would happen to his memories of his mother.

Perhaps they would be distorted into something like her dying of an illness or an accident.

But if he could forget, then Leffrey could avoid falling.

He could be freed from this hatred, resentment, longing, and sadness that were burning his heart.

“If senior asks, I can introduce you to a doctor who's good at the Mandrake Procedure. He doesn’t have a superhuman medical license, but among mercenaries...”

However,

Leffrey didn’t want to forget.

He didn't want to deceive himself with lies either.

‘I’ll just keep in mind that there’s a method like this. I should hear the other method too.’

Leffrey calmed himself down that way and wet his lips.

“What are the other methods besides forgetting?”

“The other method is a bit more difficult… no, not just difficult, it's an absurd method close to suicide…”

Gori trailed off.

What kind of method could it be that even Gori, who had been talking so smoothly, is now hesitating.

“Tell me.”

“Well, telling you is free. Yes, allow me to explain.”

Gori instantly changed, abandoning his sly demeanor and becoming serious. Gori was definitely either the same age as Leffrey or a year or two older, but…

Right now, he was exuding the charisma of a mature adult.

“It’s to overcome the killing intent.”

“Overcome the killing intent?”

“Yes, you literally fight against the killing intent and make it submit to you.”

A question mark appeared above Leffrey’s head.

How could that make sense? Killing intent isn’t some kind of sentient being, how can you fight against it and make it submit?

“That's too abstract.”

“Ah, did it sound like that? That was a mistake. I always prefer simple methods.”

Gori abandoned his serious demeanor again and lightly opened his mouth.

“I’ll make it simple for you.”

Snap—Gori held up three fingers.

“First, create an illusion of the person you hate. It has to be very realistic, they have to talk and act exactly like the real person. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah, I think I get it.”

One finger folded down.

“Second, regain your composure while looking at that person.”

“Regain my composure?”

“Yes, they also call it calmness or serenity. Suppressing your rampaging killing intent and regain your composure, that's the second step.”

Does this make sense?

Even now, without that person in front of him, his killing intent is still rising, so how could he possibly regain his composure in front of an illusion of that person?

Leffrey wanted to argue, but he remembered Gori saying it was an ‘absurd method close to suicide’ and closed his mouth.

“Third, shed tears.”

“I see, shed tears… what?”

A ridiculous last step.

Leffrey looked at Gori with a bewildered expression.

“What's with that suddenly. Shed tears? Is it like proving your purity through crying or something?”

“No, no. What are we, vampires, proving our purity through crying. No, wait, is the mechanism similar? Anyway, Senior, what are tears?”

“Tears? It’s the water that comes out of your eyes.”

“Oh my, you lack a bit of sensitivity.”

Gori stroked his hair and opened his mouth.

“Someone whose heart is frozen over cannot shed tears. The more one becomes addicted to killing intent and their heart grows cold, they cannot shed tears, let alone feel sadness or empathize with others' hearts.”

Gori continued.

“So shedding tears means…”

“That you have overcome killing intent.”

“That’s right.”

*Clap*—another snap—It was as if the explanation had ended.

“But you know, right? I said this method is close to suicide.”

“Yeah, if you make even the slightest mistake…”

“Your heart will freeze over. And you’ll become a monster who only knows how to kill.”

Mana break.

The monster that emerges when a superhuman is consumed by killing intent.

‘This is an impossible method. How can I endure in front of an illusion when it's already this painful?’

If that’s the case, then there was only one option left.

To forget everything.

“So, Senior, which method will you choose?”

“I…”

* * *

*Crackle*- *Crackle*-

Gori, left alone in the training hall, was doing something delinquent-like befitting his appearance.

“Phew.”

That is, smoking a cigarette.

Looking at the lowly settling cigarette smoke, Gori recalled the color of the hazy sky.

The sky of the battlefield, that dark sky,

The color of his hometown sky.

“Can't buy cigarettes, can't buy alcohol.”

Things you couldn’t buy because you were still a ‘child.’ Gori couldn’t help but have these thoughts whenever he saw such pathetic rules.

“But killing people is A-OK.”

It was truly laughable.

So laughable that he couldn't even laugh.

“That's how laws made by humans are.”

Shake shake—

A single cigarette was shaking inside the pack.

“I'm down to my last cigarette.”

He wanted to finish this quickly and go back. Before smoking this last cigarette, he wanted to return to that place without human laws.

“But why did I do that.”

Actually, it was almost over.

This mission was going to be finished really easily.

It would have been resolved without much trouble.

The target who was suffering because of surging killing intent, though the exact circumstances were unclear.

Approaching him, under the pretext of teaching him about killing intent.

Then convince him to have his memories erased to remove his killing intent.

“Yes, if you lose your memories, your killing intent will also disappear. Although you’ll lose a lot of other things too.”

Not a single word of it was a lie.

However, how much of his memories would be lost was decided by the doctor performing the procedure, and that doctor was very close with Gori.

The plan was to take Leffrey, who would become pure after losing his memories, to the other world beyond the darkness and that would be all there was to it.

But somehow he ended up telling him the other method too.

That method bordering on suicide.

“Interesting.”

Yet Gori couldn't stop laughing.

Despite his plan having gone awry, despite having to stay at this stupid academy for a little while longer, Gori found this situation somewhat fun.

That boy had been intriguing to him from the moment he had seen him.

But who would have thought.

That instead of running away by forgetting everything, the boy would choose to face his own killing intent.

Wasn’t it the most foolish of choices. If the wisest choice was to kill the target of his killing intent, and forgetting and running away from the target causing the killing intent is the second best…

Without a doubt, confronting his own killing intent was the worst possible choice.

“Kukuk.”

Laughter.

“Keukeukeukeuk.”

Gori couldn’t stop laughing.

“He’s going to fall to the worst possible path. I didn't expect things to turn out this fun.”

A twisted smile hung on Gori's lips.

“Is there anything more enjoyable in this world than staining a white canvas?”

A hand full of all sorts of scars stretched toward the gray sky.

* * *

There were many training halls at the Central Academy.

Among them, if you were to choose the most famous training halls, it would be the lecture halls numbered from 0 to 9.

These legendary classrooms, built by the first headmaster to teach the professors, were constructed using fragments of Heaven and each classroom possessed its own unique characteristic.

And Leffrey was in Lecture Hall 2.

The characteristic of this lecture hall is as follows.

Isolation.

A characteristic that, once activated, prevents entering or leaving.

Heaven was a space more difficult to enter and leave than any other space. And that’s why it was called a sanctuary and was untainted by evil.

And this classroom had the characteristics that maximized that isolation of Heaven.

‘Good. With this, even if I go berserk…’

I wouldn't be able to leave this place.

Even if he was consumed by killing intent and became a monster, there was no way for him to hurt the other students.

With that thought, Leffrey’s heart felt a bit more at ease. He then took out a certain magic scroll from his chest.

Drawn on a rather old piece of parchment, you can tell it’s clearly a magic scroll created during the Mage Tower era just by looking at it.

A magic scroll given to him by Klein.

It was a high-level spell that could summon the image of someone recorded in the Akashic Records, the absolute record of everything. Its name was definitely…

“Professor Klein called this spell ‘Simulacrum’.”

An original, more original than the original.

A magic that made the meaning of the word ‘copy’ itself meaningless.

Although it was a magic scroll that had been abandoned because it could only replicate ordinary people, not superhumans…

…It was the magic scroll that Leffrey needed the most right now.

Thump- Thump-

The sound of heartbeats he'd often been hearing lately.

Leffrey felt his blood quicken and closed his eyes, feeling his blood vessels getting colder each time blood passed through his heart.

‘You've already made up your mind to kill them. You haven’t given up yet?’

‘There is no sin in judging sinners. Let’s fly and judge that man and his entire family right here, right now.’

‘You must take revenge. There’s nothing left for you but revenge now.’

“What should I do?”

Leffrey channeled his mana into the magic scroll.