On the day the midterm exams at Soul Academy begin, the academy’s morning starts before the sun even rises.
Someone, who had promised to study all night in their private room, was lamenting their own pathetic self, realizing all they had done was smear their friend’s notes with their own pillow.
Third-year students, who were already used to staying up all night, looked like they were closer to death than life, sluggish and weary.
Among those who believed they had prepared well, many were nervously trembling, unable to hide their tension.
“Lady Partlan, is something the matter?”
One of the nervous ones, Joy, noticed her own trembling hands only after Lady Rumly of the Rumly family asked the question.
“...I must have become nervous from focusing too much on preparing for this exam.”
“So even you, Lady Partlan, get nervous?”
“Hmm. Lady Rumly, just because I’m from the Duke’s family doesn’t mean I’m not human.”
Normally, Joy would get so nervous before something important that she could feel her heartbeat pounding in her chest.
However, she would use magic to artificially mask that nervousness, so no one else would know.
In other words, right now, Joy was so tense that she couldn’t even think to hide it.
If Lucy’s words were true, the Followers of the Void would soon be up to something.
Chaos would surely come to this academy. With the ladies gathered here, Joy couldn’t tell anyone else about what she anticipated, but she couldn't help feeling frustrated. At the same time, she thought about how she needed to protect them, tightening her lips.
Thinking about it, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to subtly give them a hint?
It’s not like a casual warning would mean anything if things were going to unfold today. Everyone would find out sooner or later.
“Well, I’m not nervous to the point that I want the academy to collapse. Don’t worry too much.”
“Oh, that’s a relief then.”
“I’d actually prefer something happened.”
“Me too. I wish we had just one more day to prepare.”
When Joy jokingly spoke without her usual politeness, the other noble ladies naturally continued the conversation.
This was the natural conversation among noble ladies, shaped by their hierarchical society.
In that conversation, Lady Rumly chuckled lightly and waved her hand.
“It’s a cruel thought, but such things can’t happen. This is Soul Academy, after all. There might be small accidents, but do you think the professors would let something major happen that would delay the midterms?”
Attacking Soul Academy was a rather absurd idea.
The professors here had all earned recognition in their respective fields before coming to the academy.
Even if they had retired from the front lines, it wasn’t easy to assemble a force that could take down an academy full of these monstrous professors.
Even if such a force existed, they would never be able to infiltrate this place right in the heart of the kingdom.
Would the kingdom just sit idly by while such a force moved?
“Moreover, now that the eyes of both the First and Second Queens are on us, do you think any deranged force would dare touch this place? They’d be wiped out before they even made it here.”
“Lady Rumly, you’re being too serious.”
“Yeah, you’re acting a bit like the commoner man you’ve been spending time with lately.”
“...I guess I’ve become too serious from lack of sleep.”
As the noble ladies from the Count family engaged in their usual power struggle, Joy mulled over Lady Rumly’s words. She was right.
Attacking the academy was no simple task.
Like the last time, a small incident could happen, but a catastrophe big enough to stop the academy’s schedule completely was practically impossible.
...But Lucy had definitely said it. Something big was going to happen at the academy. She had to prepare for it.
What was going to happen?
What kind of event was so big that Lucy had to warn everyone?
What exactly were the Followers of the Void preparing?
Luca sensed the presence of a blade outside the door, feeling the presence of a knight watching him.
How is it that knights can be so stealthy? If it weren’t for the magic set up with the Demon God’s power, Luca would have missed the presence of the knight entirely.
Well, even if he had sensed it, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Until everything was ready, Luca had no intention of moving from his office.
‘Is everyone ready?’
What had worked out in Luca’s favor was the power struggle between the First and Second Queens that had occurred just before this year began.
Their battle, in which each tried to insert their own supporters as professors at the academy, created the perfect environment for outsiders to enter.
On top of that, one more fortunate thing was that many of the academy’s professors had left.
The professors who had worked at Soul Academy for a long time were all monstrous figures.
Without such monstrous figures, would it even be possible to survive in an academy where nobles and even royals entered?
Yet, those monstrous professors had all taken a step back to protest the power struggle between the queens.
Although the dean had worked tirelessly to fill those positions, it was clear that the academy had become somewhat lacking in quality compared to before.
Having worked at the academy for a long time, Luca had acted as a mediator between the old professors and the new ones, secretly sowing the seeds of chaos in between.
Thanks to that, many of the professors had been replaced with followers of the Demon God, and in some cases, even graduate students below the professors had been replaced.
Despite the favorable circumstances Luca had created, overthrowing the academy was still impossible.
Even though some monsters had left, there were still plenty of monsters remaining.
Additionally, there were some threatening students at the academy, and if things dragged on for too long, the kingdom’s other monsters and hunting dogs from the Church of the Great God would lead their forces and come to punish the Followers of the Void.
Fully aware of this, Luca decided to take a different approach instead of facing things head-on.
With the knowledge he had gained from working at the academy for so long, combined with the power of the Apostle of the Void, he could do a lot of damage.
‘Let’s begin soon.’
Waking up early in the morning, I quietly watched Erin as she touched her hair.
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Meeting the Perverted Apostle had clearly helped Erin, as she was growing at an impressive speed with each passing day.
If it were just about grooming me, she could be compared to the Perverted Apostle herself. Satisfied with the finished hair, I nodded and got out of bed.
“Pathetic Erin.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Stay locked up in this room today.”
“...What?”
I signaled to the fox beside me, who immediately jumped onto Erin’s shoulder and distracted her with its magic.
Erin tried to resist the fox’s power but stumbled and eventually collapsed onto the bed.
“The goddess must really cherish this child. She had quite the trouble.”
“Is your power really that weak?”
“Tch. No matter how much it’s divided, it’s still the main body. If it weren’t for the goddess’s power, would I be struggling to put this child to sleep?”
Watching the fox sneer, I told her to take care of Erin before stepping outside.
<There’s a faint trace of the Demon God’s energy inside the academy. They’ve begun moving.>
‘Hmm. So they’ve been infiltrating among the professors already.’
I had an inkling of this when Luca was involved, but it seems there are more of them than I expected. It wouldn’t make sense for them to move so boldly unless that were the case.
<What exactly are they planning? The powers of the Followers of the Void can’t possibly destroy this place.>
‘I’m curious about that too.’
Most quests involving the Followers of the Void at the academy involve the protagonist smashing their underhanded schemes.
It’s rare for them to act in this manner.
I wonder how they’ll approach this. I’d love it if whatever happens is something fresh and exciting.
...But thinking back to the incident in the forest, I suspect I’ll only be betrayed after raising my expectations.
Once I had armed myself and stepped into the academy’s plaza, I felt the ominous energy coming from the highest point of the Soul Academy’s main building.
That’s the place... where the academy’s barrier is.
Normally transparent, the academy’s barrier now glowed a dark shade of black, as if it had swallowed all the light in the world.
“...What?”
“What’s going on?! What’s this?!”
“Ahh!?”
“Is this a sudden exam?!”
“Let’s start by lighting a fire.”
The sudden darkness caused confusion all around, but after a while, the surrounding sounds quieted down.
<...Demon of Darkness?>
The scene I had seen once before caused my grandfather to panic, but I firmly shook my head.
‘No, this is different.’
This darkness isn’t the kind of power that devoured all human senses like the Demon of Darkness did. This blackness still left the five senses intact.
<Then, this is...>
‘Yeah. It’s just what I expected. I’ll probably get betrayed after getting my hopes up.’
<...Hmm?>
‘These unimaginative fools.’
I muttered under my breath as the scenery inside the darkness started to form.
A barren, dead land where no life could be seen, and ominous creatures lurking on top of it.
The sun, now turned completely black.
‘Someone once said the Void is the absence of all things.’
That was something the Demon God of the Void itself had said in the game.
‘A place where all blessings in the world are absent. That’s the space of the Void.’
<Wait a minute. Then this place is...>
‘Yeah. I think so.’
Right now, I, we, and everyone at the academy have been invited to the space of the Void.
‘It’s not fun, is it?’
To be exact, it’s more like we’ve been invited to act like we were.
<Is now really the time to be talking like this?!>