The Blind SSS-Class Final Boss Is Obsessed With Me

Chapter 17: Idiots

For a long moment, the silence in the Great Hall was heavy enough to suffocate. Nobody dared to breathe, let alone take a step toward the exit.

But as the seconds ticked by, the absolute shock began to wear off, replaced by the natural friction of human denial.

"This is insane!" a voice shouted from the middle of the crowd.

A third-year noble student stepped forward, his expensive uniform stained with dust but his face flushed with anger.

He looked around at his peers, trying to rally them.

"Are we really going to listen to this trash? He’s Cian von Heist! The biggest joke in the academy! A talentless failure who couldn’t even cast a basic spell yesterday! And now he expects us to bow down to him just because he brought a demon into the school?"

"He’s right!" another voice called out, a girl from the Light Magic Family. She was trembling, her eyes darting between me and Seraphina. "Look at that thing behind him! That’s not magic, that’s corruption! If we stay here, we’re just selling our souls to monsters. The Royal Knights will come. The Church will send a holy squad. We just need to hold out until then!"

Whispers broke out like a wildfire through dry grass. The initial terror was splitting the crowd into different factions.

Some were utterly terrified, burying their faces in their hands, too broken by the sight of the dead instructors to care who was in charge as long as the walls stayed up.

Others were staring at me with mixed expressions, wondering how a good-for-nothing like Cian had suddenly gained the power to command someone like Seraphina.

But the proud ones—the high noble kids who had spent their entire lives being told they were the chosen geniuses of the kingdom—couldn’t swallow the bitter pill.

"I’d rather die out there fighting like a true mage than serve a traitor," the first boy spat. He turned his back on the dais, glaring at his classmates. "Who’s coming with me? We can make it to the eastern gates. The barrier out there looks thin. We can break through and ask for help!"

Slowly, hesitantly, a few students stood up. First five, then ten, then a group of about thirty proud noble students gathered near the back of the hall.

They looked back at me one last time, expecting me to beg them to stay, or perhaps try to bar the doors.

However, I didn’t move an inch or raise my voice. I just stood there, leaning slightly on my good leg, as a slow, amused smile spread across my face.

Beside me, the air suddenly turned dangerously cold. The dark mana around Seraphina spiked violently. The temperature in the front row dropped so fast that frost began to form on the eyelashes of the students sitting there.

She subtly tilted her head toward the escaping group. Her fingers twitched, the black-tipped nails catching the dim light.

"Cian..." she whispered. "They... insult... you. They... look down... on you. Should I... peel... their... souls?"

She was completely ready to turn the back of the hall into a mess. One word from me, and those thirty students would be shredded into red mist before they could even open the heavy double doors.

I reached out and gently tapped the back of her hand, pressing my fingers against hers to tell her to stand down.

"No, Seraphina," I murmured softly, keeping my eyes fixed on the retreating group. "Let them go."

She stiffened slightly, a quiet, confused hiss escaping her lips, but she obeyed. The crushing pressure in the air eased just enough for the fleeing students to push the heavy double doors open.

They rushed out into the dark hallways, their hurried footsteps echoing away until the doors slammed shut behind them.

The remaining students in the hall gasped, looking at me in absolute bewilderment. They couldn’t understand why I had let a significant portion of our fighting force just walk away. Even Valerius, standing near the console, looked at me with a mixture of horror and confusion.

’Idiots,’ I thought, my smile widening as I watched the closed doors.

They thought they were escaping to freedom. They thought their noble titles and standard academy magic would save them out there. What they didn’t realize was that the world outside the black ice barrier wasn’t just a battlefield—it was a literal hellscape. The rifts were spawning high-tier demons by the minute, and the ambient mana outside was toxic enough to burn a weak human’s magic pathways within hours.

By letting them leave, I didn’t lose soldiers. I just filtered out the arrogant, unmanageable dead weight without getting my own hands dirty. And more importantly... they were about to provide a perfect demonstration for the ones who stayed.

I turned my gaze back to the shivering, silent crowd inside the hall.

"Anyone else?" I asked, my voice smooth, casual, and completely terrifying in its calmness.

This time nobody moved.

"Good," I said, walking to the edge of the dais. "Now, let’s talk about the new rules of survival."

"This academy is no longer a school. It is a fortress. And you are no longer students. You are its garrison. Its builders. Its defenders."

"First, we need to secure the perimeter. Lyra, you will organize teams to patrol the inner walls. Any breaches, any anomalies, are to be reported immediately. No heroics. No glory. Just efficiency."

Lyra nodded. Standing at her right side was Clara, which I think she might have found when she was checking on the situation of the academy.

"Valerius!" I called out. "You will oversee the restoration of the academy’s infrastructure. The Core is stable, but the internal systems are a mess. I need power restored to the dorms, the mess halls, the infirmary. And I need a full inventory of all magical artifacts and resources. Prioritize anything related to communication or defense."

Valerius, despite his fear, seemed to find a sliver of his old authority. "But the mana... it’s different. It’s... colder. Darker. I don’t know if the old systems can handle it."

"Then adapt!" I snapped. "This isn’t a suggestion, Valerius. This is an order. Failure is not an option."

He flinched, but nodded. The message was clear. His life, and the lives of everyone in this hall, depended on his compliance.

I then turned my attention to the students. "You! All of you! You have skills. You have knowledge. Healers, gather in the infirmary. Engineers, report to the workshops. Mages, begin cataloging the spellbooks in the library. Anyone with combat experience, report to Lyra. Everyone else, you will be assigned to cleanup crews, resource gathering, or basic defense. No one is exempt. No one is useless."

I watched their reactions. Some looked overwhelmed, others confused. But a few, a precious few, had a spark in their eyes. A spark of understanding. A spark of hope, twisted and dark, but hope nonetheless. They were the ones who would thrive in this new world.

"Cian... hungry..." Suddenly, I heard Seraphina whisper, her voice a low growl that sent a ripple of fear through the crowd.

I turned to her, a soft, reassuring smile on my face. "Soon, we will eat."

I looked back at the crowd. "Food! We need food! Anyone with knowledge of foraging, hunting, or rationing, report to the mess halls. We will establish a sustainable food supply within these walls. We will not starve."

The sheer audacity of my plan, the cold, hard logic of it, seemed to stun them into submission. They had expected panic, despair, a desperate last stand. Instead, they got a blueprint for survival, delivered by a man who had no right to be standing, and backed by a monster who had no right to exist.

"This is just the beginning," I said, my voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper that somehow carried to every ear. "The world outside is a feast for the strong. And we, my friends, are about to become very, very strong."