episode_0086

Chapter 87 – Rumors

That evening, after diligently completing my investigative activities and returning to my room, I was greeted by Yas, who had come to visit, and Kenneth, who was being tormented by them.

“Hey, friend. If you’re our friend’s roommate, then you’re practically our friend too! Don’t you agree, Abel?”

“Ahahaha… Yas, it looks like he’s in a difficult spot. Why don’t you just leave him be? He might have something urgent to do.”

“Oh, really? Hey. You’re Kenneth, right? Am I really making you uncomfortable?”

“……”

It was like a scene where bullies surrounded and tormented a timid student.

Kenneth, who had been rampaging like a madman in battle, was now unable to say anything and remained tense.

For him, it must have been bewildering for the protagonist’s party to suddenly burst in.

As I stood silently in front of the door, lost in thought, Abel, who belatedly noticed me, smiled and shot up.

“Ruan. You’re here?”

“What?! Ruan? No, when did you get here? Why do you move around without making a sound?”

“Hoo…”

At Abel’s words, Yas finally realized my presence and approached with a fuss.

Kenneth’s sigh, finally released, was pathetic.

“Why do you blame me for something you couldn’t see? Anyway, why are you here?”

I had a rough idea.

Both of them must have heard the rumors circulating within the academy.

The results were as expected.

“Ruan, we came because we heard bad rumors circulating about you. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, buddy. Who the hell spread such rumors? Even if you’re a bad guy, you wouldn’t do something like that. If I catch them, I’ll just…!”

Perhaps gaining confidence after awakening his sword aura back home, Yas began shadow boxing and showing off.

But what a pity, I’m sorry.

It’s not exactly like the rumors, but I’m already a criminal who’s raped seven women.

Some of them I even killed.

Even Yas, who cries out for sex day in and day out, would be utterly horrified if he heard the truth. Though that will never happen.

“Don’t you guys worry about it. It’s nothing much.”

“How can we not worry? They even spread weird information about you being a transmigator or something.”

“Right. Honestly, for other things, I thought it might be possible for you, but that one felt too out of the blue. On what grounds are they saying you’re a transmigator?”

“What, you bastard?”

“Whoa, whoa, calm down. I meant it in a good way.”

“Bullshit.”

What kind of nonsense is it to say, “Honestly, you look like you’d commit rape,” in a good way?

After cursing him out, I calmly expressed my opinion.

“They’re just mobilizing all sorts of schemes to bury me, I guess. There’s no evidence in the first place.”

“Ruan’s right. If you think about it, there’s no mention of who the victim is, and it’s not even detailed how they saw her face.”

“What’s that all about? Is he just unlucky? He should’ve done some good deeds normally.”

Yas glanced at me.

The true meaning in his gaze was clearly conveyed.

I felt extremely displeased.

“No, this bastard has been going on since earlier…”

“Hey, why are you like that? Honestly, you’re not nice, are you? Am I wrong?”

Yas proudly puffed out his chest, as if there wasn’t a speck of shame in his words. If I let this guy be, I won’t live to my natural lifespan.

“No. You’re not wrong. So, take this.”

Thud!

Agreeing with Yas’s words, I readily demonstrated his point by striking his stomach.

Lightly ignoring Yas, who was clutching his abdomen and collapsing, I continued my conversation with Abel.

“Anyway, I’m digging into the rumors right now, so I should be able to catch the culprit soon. More importantly, they can’t do anything to me with just rumors.”

“Then we’ll help too. We can catch them even faster, right? Hmm?”

“It’s fine. Why don’t you go study? Didn’t you mess up your midterms last semester? It’ll be a big problem if you mess up again this time, won’t it?”

“Ugh! Ruan, that’s dirty. To talk about my grades…”

As we chatted about various trivial matters like that, curfew time quickly approached.

“Ruan. Well then, we’ll be going.”

“Let me know if you need help. Got it?”

“You, get lost, you bastard. See you later, Abel.”

“Yeah. See you next time!”

Click!

Abel and Yas left the room, and I turned my body halfway, sensing a chill on the back of my neck.

Kenneth, who had been doing something on his bed without much presence during our conversation, was now pointing a sharp sword at me.

“What are you doing?”

At my question, he laughed fiercely.

“Ha! What am I doing? You should know that well, shouldn’t you? I never imagined you’d be a transmigator.”

“A transmigator? What are you talking about, out of the blue?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know! I know everything.”

His blood-red eyes gleamed intensely, filled with killing intent and conviction.

Suppressing my agitation, I continued to act.

“Surely you’re not doing this because of the rumors?”

“Would I be so sure just because of *that*? Of course, I have evidence!”

“Evidence?”

“Yes! Someone like you was never around Abel before! And you seem quite close now, don’t you? Are you still going to deny it after this?!”

At those words, my expression stiffened.

Was it because I was surprised by his overly logical statement?

Not at all. Rather, it was because I was dumbfounded.

‘Is this bastard a bit stupid?’

The current situation was already vastly different from the game’s progression, yet he was suddenly concluding I was a transmigator just because I was close to Abel.

If he was just suspicious, that would be one thing, but to immediately charge in like this was self-destructive.

I aimed for that opening.

“You mean I wasn’t originally around Abel? Does that mean *you’re* a transmigator?”

“Yes! And so are you.”

Kenneth admitted it outright.

The guy, who had always only heard that he was stupid, was now completely off guard, intoxicated by his own absurd deduction.

I couldn’t help but grin.

Seeing my face, Kenneth seemed a bit flustered and yelled, pushing his sword even closer.

“What are you laughing at?!”

“I’m laughing because it’s funny.”

“What’s so funny?!”

At that point, Kenneth seemed to finally realize that his conjecture might be wrong and began to stammer.

And as he moved to wield his sword, having seemingly come to some conclusion, I spoke one word.

“Stop.”

The sword halted an inch away.

Facing his blood-red eyes, which were trembling as if shaken by an earthquake, I asked.

“If you kill me here now, do you think you’ll be safe?”

“…What?”

“Can you cleanly dispose of my corpse without leaving any trace? The Empire’s forensics team will come to investigate, you know? Earth mages and spirit users will read the building’s memories and find the culprit immediately, won’t they? Is there a way around that?”

“Ugh! Th-that…”

As expected, this foolish guy seemed to have made his decision impulsively, without even considering the aftermath.

The fact that I had been wary of him until now felt meaningless. I pushed away the strong wave of ‘what the hell’ and continued speaking.

“Moreover, if you’re caught, do you think it’ll just end with you?”

“What?”

“Your parents. Grant, who runs the inn. He’ll be in trouble too, won’t he?”

“Y-you, how do you know him? You really are a transmigator!”

Kenneth was tripping over himself again.

I picked my ear and spun lies as if it were no big deal.

“Do you not even know who’s standing right in front of you?”

“What?”

“I am Ruan Friuli. The eldest son of a Marquis family, no less. These days, noble families make it a requirement to investigate roommates. You have to know what kind of person you’ll be living with for a whole semester, don’t you? Don’t you think?”

“Uh, oh!”

If other nobles were to hear that, they might think, ‘That’s a bit much…,’ but Kenneth, who had lived his entire life as a mercenary, couldn’t possibly know that.

Looking at his current state, it didn’t seem like he was particularly well-educated even before transmigrating.

As expected, he couldn’t refute me and only flinched awkwardly.

At that point, I made an offer.

“So, shall we make a deal now?”

“A deal?”

“Yes. What do you think would happen if I ran straight to the Holy Order right now and told them you’re a transmigator? Huh?”

“Uh, that is…”

Kenneth’s eyes darted around, as if searching for an escape route. He scrutinized me persistently before exclaiming.

“Ah! Right! Th-that was it!”

“Did you find something?”

“Yes! You don’t have any evidence! What are you going to do without evidence?!”

I can’t believe he brought up evidence.

It’s been half a year since he transmigrated to this world, but it seems he still hasn’t adapted.

I should definitely enlighten him this time.

“Is that really necessary?”

“What?”

“How much human rights do you think they’ll care about for an intruder from another world? If I just report you, they’ll investigate. They probably won’t need evidence.”

“D-don’t lie. That can’t be true!”

“You still can’t accept it? Well, then there’s nothing for it.”

At this rate, the argument would drag on needlessly. To save time, I took out an item I had hidden in my pocket.

Click!

When I pressed the button, sound flowed from within.

-“Does that mean *you’re* a transmigator?”

-“Yes!”

As I maliciously played back only the parts unfavorable to him, Kenneth’s face turned pale.

“Th-that, when did you….”

“Since you pointed your sword at me, of course. So, have you thought about making a deal now?”

“This can’t be…”

Kenneth, having completely lost his will to fight, now pointed his sword to the floor.

I lightly stroked my neck and stated my demand.

“From now on, obey my commands. Then I’ll keep your identity as a transmigator a secret.”

“…Are you going to use me as a slave?”

“Well, not quite like that. I’m just making a useful pawn. So, what are you going to do? Decide.”

Kenneth’s combat power was too weak right now, but even if it wasn’t for that, there were other ways to make use of him, so it was good to make him a subordinate.

He seemed to ponder for a moment, then, having concluded there was no longer any breakthrough, nodded his head.

“I’ll become your subordinate. But you absolutely have to keep it a secret. Understand?”

“Of course. Then I’ll give you your first command. Tell me all the information you know.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

For an hour after that, I extracted all the information from Kenneth.

And the conclusion I reached was…

‘This guy was completely useless, wasn’t he?’

Kenneth’s information was so shoddy that one could learn it just by playing through the first run.

‘No wonder he’s so weak.’

Instead of the valuable nuggets that one would only know after at least three playthroughs, he only had the major things that could easily boost his stats, or rather, he couldn’t grow because all those things were stolen by other transmigrators.

He said he’d almost struck out in half the dungeons he’d explored so far, which pretty much said it all.

“Hoo… This won’t do.”

“What?”

“You’re too useless like this. First, you need to grow. And stop saying ‘What?’ all the time. It’s annoying.”

After chiding Kenneth, I took out a piece of paper from my spatial pocket and wrote a letter of introduction.

“Here, take this.”

“…What is this?”

“A letter of introduction. Take that and go to the Friuli family mansion. Then, I’ll assign a suitable knight to train you.”

In truth, it wasn’t just a favor, but largely for the purpose of easily monitoring Kenneth. This way, I could block as many variables as possible.

Being able to fully grasp his growth trajectory wasn’t bad for me either.

“Are you allowed to give something like this to me?”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said? That you’re too weak to be useful. Just get stronger quickly.”

When I forcefully pressed the letter of introduction into his hand, Kenneth looked up and spoke with a touched expression.

“You… you were a good guy?”

“What do you mean ‘good guy’? I’m doing this because I plan to exploit you.”

“Even so, thank you! I’ll train hard!”

Kenneth burned with resolve, as if he had finally caught a glimpse of hope.

As much as I wanted to give him the countless hidden pieces in my mind, I couldn’t, as it would expose my true identity.

‘I should reveal it only after trust has built up, at least.’

I don’t know when that time will be.

As I nodded in satisfaction, I suddenly remembered something I had forgotten and asked.

“By the way, what did you do in your original world? I heard that all transmigrators are criminals.”

I subtly slipped in an unrevealed fact, but Kenneth didn’t seem to notice and confessed his true identity.

“Me? A serial killer.”

“…What did you say?”

“I killed a lot of people, so I was in prison.”

It seems I shouldn’t trust this bastard.