Ch.4242. Noisy Screams

“…..”

Drip, drip.

Aria had bitten her nails so much that her thumb nail was worn down. She bit her lip instead and shoved her hands into her pockets.

She had been meticulously maintaining her appearance, not wanting to show any unsightly aspects, but she couldn’t contain her rising emotions.

‘Even though they’ve already broken off their engagement.’

Aria sighed. She had known for a while that Deus Verdi and Erika Bright had ended their engagement.

A relationship that was already over.

Aria thought she should have some patience, but…

When she saw Deus’s hand casually rest on Erika’s head, she felt her emotions boiling up.

Seeing his lips curve up gently, she felt like she was going to lose her mind.

“Huuuuuh!”

She took a long breath, trying to compose herself. With her eyes tightly shut, she directed her anger and jealousy toward Erika, who was feeling Deus’s touch.

‘It doesn’t matter. Yes, it’s fine.’

The professor would be hers anyway.

Knowing the future, there was no way she could lose.

‘Don’t worry, Professor. I’ll guide you through everything.’

And after saving the world together, they could live together.

Just imagining it made her face flush. As she watched Deus heading toward the academy alone, leaving Erika behind, she quickly turned her body.

Having already mastered the Yellow Dragon Step technique in her previous life, Aria arrived at the academy before Deus. Just as when she left, she effortlessly jumped over the high fence.

“Huff!”

Upon landing, she hurriedly fixed her clothes. Just to be sure, she took out a hand mirror to check if her hair was messy or if there was anything on her face.

‘Good.’

Aria, who was called beautiful wherever she went. In the past, she might have been modest about it, but now she knew her appearance was second to none.

She closed her eyes and sensed the mana.

She naturally directed her steps toward the academy entrance.

Just then, Deus was entering the academy after greeting the security guard.

“Hello, Professor!”

Aria approached with a bright smile. Deus looked at her for a moment and nodded.

“Yes, the student I saw before. Aria Rius.”

He remembered me!

He remembered me after just one greeting! As expected of the professor!

“Yes! That’s right! I heard you were injured. Are you okay?”

As she clung to him with a friendly smile, Deus looked at her impassively.

‘Did, did I act too familiar?’

This was only their second conversation in this life, but she had unconsciously approached him without maintaining distance.

The Deus she knew would find this unpleasant.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

But Deus didn’t push her away. Aria’s heart fluttered a bit at his acceptance of her approach.

‘I, I must have made a good first impression.’

Or perhaps he knew she had entered as the top student?

Certainly.

He did seem to like students with good grades.

“There won’t be any more strange phenomena, right? Actually, my friends were really scared.”

She acted like a student naturally clinging to her professor out of concern for the current situation.

A professor wouldn’t be able to brush her off easily, and Aria’s prediction was correct.

Deus walked with her and answered impassively.

“Yes, there won’t be any more such phenomena.”

“I see! That’s a relief! Why did such a thing happen in the first place?”

She asked with a curious tilt of her head, and Deus glanced toward the main academy building, sharing his thoughts.

“Even though the academy was built on a cemetery, the number and power of the evil spirits were too strong. The souls originally resting in the cemetery weren’t even evil spirits to begin with.”

“Is that so?”

“So I thought, perhaps someone deliberately summoned evil spirits to the academy and escalated the situation.”

“I, I see!”

Aria felt a tingling sensation throughout her body.

‘As expected of the professor!’

His sharp insight always amazed her, and this time was no exception.

How could he figure it out so quickly?

She had tried to make it look as natural as possible and had gone through quite a bit of trouble to awaken the angel, but the professor had figured it out immediately!

‘Finding the Spirit Stone was quite difficult. But since I’ve done it before…’

After regressing, she spent the first three months away from home, traveling across the continent.

Releasing evil spirits in the academy was quite a complex task, but with her old memories, she was able to accomplish it.

‘It was worth the effort. The professor grew instantly and immediately killed his original personality!’

Aria swayed her body, feeling the night air. She felt good knowing her efforts weren’t in vain.

“What do you think?”

Startled by Deus’s sudden question, Aria snapped back to attention.

“Pardon? About what?”

“This incident. From a student’s perspective, it can’t just be overlooked.”

“Ah, that’s right. Distrust toward the academy is inevitable. Even though there was a notice that withdrawal applications haven’t been processed yet and can be canceled, trust has already been broken, so hardly any students are canceling.”

“I see.”

“But I’ll continue attending! There’s so much I want to learn here!”

Aria actually thought it was for the best.

No need to allocate the professor’s precious time to other students.

Seeing Deus keeping his mouth shut, seemingly troubled, Aria smiled and said:

“Don’t worry too much! The students who want to stay will stay! Only the truly dedicated ones will remain!”

‘You have nothing to worry about, Professor.’

I’ll lay all the tiles for you without you knowing.

Do you know, Professor?

Actually, I helped you learn necromancy.

Even black market dealers can’t easily obtain basic textbooks on such difficult necromancy.

I think you’ve become quite familiar with handling necromancy through this incident.

‘Keep getting stronger like that. This time, you absolutely must not die.’

Suppressing a smile, Aria suddenly realized she had followed Deus all the way to the faculty dormitory.

“Oops, I was so engrossed in our conversation that I kept following you. I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

‘Ah! I must have made a good first impression! Such a kind professor!’

She would probably writhe in bed later, replaying today’s events over and over.

“May I ask you one thing?”

As Aria was about to turn away with regret, Deus’s voice held her back.

“Yes? Anything.”

Aria looked at Deus with a bright smile, full of anticipation.

A question?

What question would he ask?

As she waited with that bright smile…

“Do you feel no guilt for terrorizing the academy?”

Her smile began to crumble.

* * *

“Do you feel no guilt for terrorizing the academy?”

At my words, Aria’s picture-perfect smile began to crack.

She couldn’t even manage her expression properly and laughed awkwardly.

“Wh-what are you saying? I’m not…”

“Hmm, should I explain in detail?”

Since she was pretending not to understand despite clearly getting it, I decided to dig deeper.

“I’m asking why you woke innocent sleeping souls and turned them into criminals.”

“……”

Aria closed her mouth tightly and stared at me with unfocused eyes.

I continued my rebuke with the same expressionless face.

“A grandmother who only wanted to give candy to her grandchild became a grotesque evil spirit feeding her eyeballs to the academy students.”

“……”

“An orphanage director who loved children used twisted methods to protect students, putting all the female students on the second floor dormitory into comas.”

“……”

“A child who enjoyed running around climbed onto others’ beds at night, causing terror by asking them to play together.”

With each statement, Aria’s head lowered further.

“Even if you didn’t know what they would do, you were the one who woke the sleeping dead.”

“Do you have any evidence?”

Aria’s voice was low.

It contained more fear than hostility.

“Do you have evidence that I did it?”

Aria declared boldly, pounding her chest. As she spoke, she seemed to gain confidence and nodded her head vigorously.

“You’re suddenly accusing me, so you must have a reason. Or are you just randomly accusing anyone?”

The Aria I saw in the game was quite intelligent despite appearances.

Normally, she wouldn’t have left any traces.

But now, perhaps due to her emotional state, she didn’t realize she had missed something significant.

“You shouldn’t suspect a student without evidence, Professor. You startled me.”

Aria laughed nervously, regaining her composure. She seemed reassured by my silence, but…

“You’re noisy.”

I put my hands behind my back and closed my eyes briefly. It was so noisy my ears were ringing.

“Pardon? Was my voice too loud?”

I shook my head at Aria, who was looking intimidated.

“No, not your voice.”

A cacophony of voices, far worse than a single girl shouting, spread around us.

[It’s this bitch!]

[She came months ago! Stirred us up and left, the crazy bitch!]

[Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!]

[I’ll tear and devour your tender flesh!]

Weak evil spirits still remaining in the academy, following Aria.

Cutting through their voices, I spoke calmly.

“The voices of the souls crying out that you’re the culprit are too noisy.”

Aria’s expression hardened once again.