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Reborn as the Doomed Heir of a Mage Dynasty (Web Novel) - Chapter 168
Chapter 168
This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl
“…….”
What?
For a moment, my brain processing buffered.
‘…Was I caught?’
Sweat began to form inside my gloves. I tried not to clench my fists.
Surely this bastard can’t… perceive Retry?
No, it’s time that has already vanished. How could he know about time that only remains in my head?
As I remained silent, he tilted his head and continued.
“You look like hell inside.”
“…….”
His tone felt chilling. Though I might be overreacting.
My body must have healed itself.
It’s true that lingering effects from Retry remained, but Leo couldn’t possibly know anything else.
“As I said before, I just purified the Police Bureau. It’s only natural, since I used Divine Power too much in one day.”
“Hmm.”
“Why are you saying ‘hmm’? I went to the Police Bureau, and I just got information about the dormitory using my authority. You know well that I didn’t have time to do anything else after going to the Police Bureau. There was nothing else.”
Instead of replying to my words, Leo reached out his hand towards my left arm. I reflexively pulled my arm back.
“…….”
Leo looked down at his hand left in the air.
I knew in my head that this was a bad move, but it was a reaction I couldn’t control.
‘…Since my mind doesn’t go back to the previous state…’
I muttered obscenities to myself. I knew that everything had become null and void by turning back time, but because I remembered that everything from the injection to the baptism had happened on this arm, I unconsciously reacted defensively.
Now, neither of us spoke.
Looking only at his reaction, it seems like I made an excuse, but in this timeline, it’s the truth. I really just went to the Police Bureau.
And, do you think I could say, ‘I can turn back time’? What else would that be but a madman? Even with magic, humans couldn’t transcend time. Retry is just an ability that should immediately get me dragged to a laboratory.
‘…Say something, anything.’
As it is, there aren’t just one or two things I need to worry about.
Leo stared at my expression for a long time, then turned his head.
“Okay.”
“…….”
“If you say so, then so be it. For now.”
I stared intently at his face.
Unlike before, there was no expression on Leo’s face.
He definitely knows something. It was clear that just as I wasn’t speaking, he wasn’t speaking either, despite knowing.
“…Right, that was a good thought.”
I’m sorry, but I cannot reveal Retry. Turning back time is not within the realm of magic. It’s not just my own conviction, but something recognized by academia.
That’s why I wasn’t just happy when I first confirmed I had the Retry ability.
The problem is that if I report the warp spell on my room to the school, he will inevitably suspect how I found out about this, no matter what.
“…….”
It feels like entering a tiger’s den.
But there’s no helping it.
I can’t choose the foolish path of not reporting it, and Leo is the right person for this job. And even if I gave the same instructions to Narce or Elias instead of Leo, the result would be that Leo would inevitably find out everything anyway.
If the result is the same even by taking a detour, it is best to entrust it to Leo, even if it raises suspicion.
Leo crossed his arms and asked.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Absolutely do not enter the room, just stand in front of the door, and then go call a professor. Since I am the first discoverer, once the professor grasps the situation, I will go there too, so for now….”
First, I would send Leo, and while Leo was calling a professor, I had to go see if Narce and Elias were awake, and if they were, warn them not to warp into my room under any circumstances.
The moment I turned around after saying that, Leo grabbed the hood of my robe.
“…What now?”
“Lucas. You said to call a professor.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you planning on advertising that you’re Nicolaus?”
Only then did I check my attire.
I was wearing the formal wear I had donned to meet the Emperor.
‘This is… with so much flooding in, I don’t even have time to be conscious of my appearance.’
“You must be very tired. Hurry and change.”
I nodded and held my head for a moment.
My school uniform is at the inn. I couldn’t carry it around as it would be discovered during luggage checks at the Imperial Palace if I carried it in my bag.
Of course, I do have it in my room, but….
I can’t go there right now.
Knowing without being told, Leo let out a hollow laugh.
“…Go to the inn and come back. I’ll call a professor when you get here, so take your time.”
“No. How many sets of school uniform do you have?”
“Five sets. Why?”
This is the first time I’ve seen a bastard with five sets of school uniform.
Is this what being royalty is like?
I thought for a moment.
“Let me borrow one.”
“Sure.”
Fortunately, Leo didn’t seem to have any fastidiousness about this sort of thing.
Actually, going and coming back would be better.
But, I don’t want to warp anymore.
Even if it’s the building I just stepped foot in, I can’t trust it.
The only reason I came here so quickly was because I had to turn back time again if I didn’t preserve the scene quickly; if that problem hadn’t existed, I would have walked.
Leo thrust a school uniform into my arms.
“Here. Did you not even have enough Magic Power left to go to the inn and back?”
“It seems so.”
I answered simply and quickly changed clothes. Meanwhile, Leo repeated my words.
“You said not to open the door, right? I just need to detect Magic Power in front of the door? And then call a professor right away?”
“Yeah.”
“What the hell is it?”
“Someone seems to have put magic in my room.”
“What?”
“I found out with my authority. For now, please go there for me.”
I left as I was and knocked on Elias’s room door at the end of the corridor.
Naturally, this sleepyhead didn’t wake up.
I blew Magic Power through the gap in the door and waited for a long time.
[Ugh….]
Okay.
He’s sleeping, so there’s no problem.
I crossed the skybridge to the building where Narce’s room was.
I knocked on Narce’s door too, but there was no reaction there either.
“Lucas!”
Pai warped onto my shoulder.
As expected, perhaps because she’s an animal, she immediately knew I had arrived.
“Is Narce sleeping?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay, that’s fine then.”
“What is?”
[Professor. Over here.]
[Here….]
Just then, I heard the footsteps of several people from the building connected to this one on the opposite side.
At the same time, the door in front of me opened quietly and quickly. A hand grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and pulled me inside.
“…?!”
Narce, in pajamas, smiled while clutching his chest.
“Lucas! You surprised me~”
“Who’s the one who grabbed me by the scruff of the neck just now….”
“That’s not important, is it? Right?”
“…….”
I stared intently at his face.
Narce blinked his sleepy eyes.
“Narce. How much do you know?”
“Hmm… I only know that you need my help.”
I smiled and quietly sank into thought.
“No other traces?”
“I don’t know right now~? Why?”
“No. You’re right. I need your help.”
“Ah! Let me guess. You need to match our stories since there’s a gap because of Nicolaus. Right?”
Narce said that and smiled.
I just looked into his eyes silently.
This is not a matter that can be explained so simply.
Thinking about it, he tells me everything except the information that would be problematic if he knew it, or critical information.
Why?
Does he really not know? Or is he being considerate of me?
Having just gone through what I did, I couldn’t overlook anything.
As I thought that, I brought up a different topic.
“So, can you tell me what you did from 6 PM to 12 AM?”
“Hmm~ Nothing. Since you eat dinner alone in your room anyway, no one would know that you disappeared from 6 to 7 PM. We definitely need to match our stories from 7 PM onwards. From 7 to 8 PM, I trained with my team friends, and you said you were resting because you were sick.”
Narce rolled his eyes, trying to recall.
“And… from 8 to 11 PM, I studied by myself. From 11 PM onwards, as you know, it’s bedtime, so I slept.”
“Right, that’s everything. Narce, can you say you were resting in your room from 7 to 8 PM? Let’s say you went to see Pai.”
Many people know that Narce keeps an animal.
They don’t know that it warps around and talks, though.
“Okay! After that, we can say that you and I had a strategy meeting from 8 PM. Since both you and I are leaders, the kids advancing to the 3rd round will all understand. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“Midnight is a bit late, so after that, let’s just say we went from a strategy meeting to playing board games~”
Narce took out a box from under his bed and tapped it.
Okay, the general outline is formed. It was fortunate that he didn’t meet other students after training.
As I just smiled, Narce smiled back and brought up another topic.
“But why are you wearing Leo’s school uniform? If you really needed one, you could have worn mine~ Want to swap now?”
Seeing that he’s sure, he must have used Insight.
Since there isn’t a big height difference between me and Narce, unlike with Leo, this would indeed be a much more rational choice.
But anyway, it’s not like I could walk around the corridor in Nicolaus’s formal wear, is it? I needed a school uniform to get here from there.
In any case, what he just said was a good clue.
He had figured out that I borrowed Leo’s school uniform, but he didn’t figure out *why* I had to do that.
The reason I couldn’t wake up Narce or Elias was because I didn’t want to warp into their rooms. It wasn’t a situation where I could say, ‘If you really need one, wear mine.’
In other words, Narce could not read the memories from before Retry.
“No. It fits well enough. And if I wore yours too, you’d have to do laundry twice.”
“Haha, that’s fine~ More importantly, Leo has a bright-colored jacket too.”
Student Council members wear jackets different from regular students.
Leo wasn’t a Student Council member from the first day of the first semester of the first year, so he would have one.
Anyway, that’s not important.
“Narce. Can you really not read anything about what I’ve been doing?”
“…….”
Narce stared at me intently, then smiled and asked.
“Right. You didn’t just go to the Police Bureau? If you ask like that, I get curious~ I feel like trying to use my ability until my head explodes.”
“And if you use it, can you find out?”
“Hahaha, maybe someday? Where did you really go?”
“No, it’s fine. I just went to the Police Bureau. Just, just in case.”
In conclusion, he doesn’t know.
This is normal.
I got up from my seat.
“Thanks. I’ll go now.”
“Lucas, just a moment.”
Narce grabbed the edge of my jacket.
“Why?”
There was no need to ask.
Narce immediately pointed to his wardrobe.
After that, I had a long tussle with him and could only leave Narce’s room after changing into his school uniform.
“Lucas! You’re not going to wear it for even a day, so just give it back without washing it~”
Yes, this way is much safer.
At least, there won’t be the question of why the school uniform that was the correct size until yesterday suddenly became a beggar fit. Not that anyone would remember the size of someone else’s school uniform, but still.
“Hahaha, aren’t you being too sarcastic~? It’s not that bad. Anyway, I should try my best not to arouse suspicion!”
“Okay, thanks.”
My gratitude was genuine. Aside from being bothered by laundry, there’s no loss in listening to a guy with Insight.
Narce looked at Pai on my shoulder and said.
“Pai, you should go inside too~”
As I detached Pai, who was clinging to my shoulder, Pai licked his lips and warped into the room.
The moment I was about to turn around, Narce called my name.
“Lucas.”
“Why?”
“Be careful.”
“…….”
I nodded and moved to the building across the bridge.
I could easily feel that the atmosphere was unusual.
Across the bridge, a door was torn off and lying on the white marble hallway.
I lifted my head and met the eyes of Leo, who was controlling his expression, and the professors whose faces were pale. My class professor spoke with a face as if he had seen a ghost.
“Student. You are safe.”
* * *
‘I am safe.’
Retry is the best ability.
If it were known to these people, it would become the second ability that would tie me down, following the fact that I was possessed.
‘Of course, right now, it won’t be Retry but something else that ties me down.’
I looked around the sterile atmosphere of the conference room.
An emergency meeting was held, even though it was past midnight.
Anyway, none of the Magic Department professors were sleeping.
This was because the incident of Adelbert’s attempted rampage had been reported to the Emperor since yesterday afternoon.
On top of that, yet another crime had occurred within the academy.
This would be a golden opportunity to catch the culprit, and the darkest night in the history of the Imperial Second Academy.
Because three consecutive crimes had occurred at the school that should be the safest in the Empire.
And I know how this story will unfold.
The Department Head Professor of the Magic Department, his face quickly turning gloomy, asked Leo.
“Student Leonard, how did you know that a dangerous magic spell was placed on your room?”
“I felt the Magic Power in front of the door.”
Leo said without expression.
The Department Head tilted his head and said.
“I didn’t feel it at all. Not until I opened the door.”
“…….”
“You, Student Leonard, felt this. Given your exceptionally keen senses, it feels plausible, but it is a little surprising that none of the four professors felt the aftereffects of that Magic Power.”
This professor must be crazy because of the consecutive incidents; he’s pushing Leo.
That being said, it didn’t seem like he thought Leo was the suspect. From the start, he’s the complete opposite of Pleroma, so putting him under suspicion is unreasonable.
It just seemed like he was desperately trying to wring out an answer as to who the culprit was.
“If you say so, I have nothing more to say. Since hearing the news that Elias was about to go on a rampage, I have been trying to inspect the dormitories of our department’s students whenever I had a chance. I didn’t know that something like this would happen from the very first day….”
“Yes, you wouldn’t have known. Did the student witness the scene of the crime? I mean, did you see anyone passing by Student Lucas’s room?”
As expected, the professor spoke according to my prediction.
Leo shook his head.
“I did not.”
“I see. Student Lucas.”
The Department Head was truly becoming impatient.
He casually nodded at Leo’s words and immediately called me.
“I heard that the student was not feeling well and was resting instead of training. Did you not see anyone approaching your room during that time?”
“No.”
“I see. Around midnight, the student wasn’t in your room. From what time were you outside your room?”
“I was out from 7 PM.”
“Where to?”
“To Narce’s room. I was there until midnight.”
At that moment, the professor from the 3rd Year Magic Department, Class 1, raised his hand.
Everyone’s gaze turned to him, as he was interrupting the conversation that was going smoothly.
He began to state the obvious.
“Everyone. I believe that the culprit behind the attempted rampage incident involving the Hohenzollern family students committed this latest crime.”
“That may be, but we should first consider a wide range of possibilities.”
“Of course. But to commit that crime, one would have to know the warp coordinates of our school dormitory, which are highly confidential to outsiders, and even the specific detailed coordinates. In any case, wouldn’t it be connected through a single passage?”
He looked around at the professors and continued.
“In the investigation regarding Student Adelbert’s alleged crime, we could not identify any professor as a suspect. Why is that?”
A self-investigation had been conducted among the professors for some time now, but no suspect had emerged.
What could be the reason?
First, there is no culprit among the professors.
Second, the professors’ investigation was inadequate. This includes turning a blind eye or intentionally doing little investigation.
The second possibility is not very likely. This is because the Emperor is involved.
Assuming they did their best in the investigation, in this case, all investigation methods except Divine Power would have been mobilized.
Since it’s impossible that they didn’t do their best in the investigation in this place, which is filled only with pro-Emperor politicians, their conclusion is ultimately….
“We limited the possible contacts with Pleroma within the academy to ‘Adult Mages’. That was the reason His Majesty the Emperor was angered. After all, there has been no progress in the investigation for the past three days.”
It must lead to the first possibility.
And how things would unfold after this was obvious.
The professors gradually understood his intention and furrowed their brows. The 3rd Year Magic Department professor continued without hesitation.
“The culprit might not be a professor, but a student. Perhaps a student who approached the victims disguised as a good senior or friend. And perhaps the culprit is a student who decided not only to disguise themselves as the first witness, but also as a victim.”
I leaned back in the chair and looked into his eyes. I had known for a long time that it would come to this, but experiencing it directly felt different nonetheless.
I had to stop one corner of my mouth from turning up.
The 3rd Year Magic Department professor looked down at me and said.
“Isn’t that right, Student Lucas Rene Askanian?”
