The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 243

I was asleep when my strange thoughts, which I had even in my dreams, manifested into terrifying apparitions.

Chronos, who was clearly dead, appeared cloaked in the power of a demon.

“Oh, what luck!” I thought, and was about to behead him when I felt a stab in my back.

“Younger sibling… huh?”

“Keuk, your sibling has been dead for a long time.”

The appearance of my younger sibling became distorted and transformed into a demon’s form.

It morphed into Belphegor, the Great Demon I had tormented countless times.

“The… Power of Domination…”

“Die, you little brat!!”

Belphegor attempted to rip out my heart, but I dodged the attack and pierced his heart instead.

“Damn… you wretched fool…”

Belphegor’s form crumbled into darkness, revealing his original visage.

“Huh…?”

Naturally, Metios, who was under the control of the Domination Demon, was bleeding out with a stab wound to his heart.

What kind of ridiculous dream is this?

I had to wake up quickly.

…

“…!!”

When I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn’t in my room.

“Atlas… are you okay? It seems like you’ve been having nightmares…”

Amy looked down at me with a worried expression.

I sneaked a glance out the window and spotted a shovel resting on the ground, caked with dry dirt.

‘Did I fall asleep like this?’

After digging up Chronos’s grave, I was in such shock that I ended up confessing to Amy.

It was clear I was deeply shaken.

I needed help.

I wanted to share everything with someone and seek advice, and that someone was Amy.

Last night had truly been a series of shocks.

The crest of the Demon Church?

Why on earth is it here?

My mind was blank.

And if it turns out they were involved in both of their deaths?

‘Should I go see Metios?’

That seemed a bit too emotional.

Could I actually trust Metios when he claimed he knew nothing?

Could I really interrogate him until I extracted everything I wanted to know?

‘No… there’s no way I could do that.’

I cannot be harsh to him.

‘Metios is…’

Memories began to resurface through the throbbing headache.

In the middle of that mansion, which was completely battered, he was the only thing that stood out, pure white.

Not my own flaws or the next head of the family, but the one who treated me as family.

There is no way I could suspect a sibling like that.

I don’t even want to.

How could I ever do such a thing to flesh and blood, my only family who I wouldn’t hurt even if I put him in my eye?

I needed more evidence.

Proper proof about this incident, that is.

“…I’m sorry for barging in suddenly.”

“It’s fine.”

Amy smiled slightly, looking pleased.

“I’m glad Atlas relies on me.”

Reflecting on what she said, I realized I hadn’t relied on anyone for a long time.

I tried to handle everything by myself.

Because it was the quickest and most efficient way.

If there was a root of all evil somewhere, I would just go there directly, smash everything to bits, and if there was something to interrogate, I’d just sneak in, kidnap them, and make them talk.

I had lived that way until now.

Even at the Academy, I thought Amy and River could manage things together, but it almost fell apart.

“Atlas, that thing we saw in the tunnel was the predecessor of the Titan family… so you mean it was Atlas’s father?”

“Yeah.”

“And… I thought he was dead, but he appeared, so you dug up the grave…?”

“I dug it up to make sure.”

There were guards protecting the cemetery, but they wouldn’t have stopped me.

I simply jumped over, dug into the earth, and opened the coffin. That was all there was to it.

“Why?”

“…No.”

I was reflecting on what happened when I unearthed the grave, trying to recall if I had missed something, when suddenly Amy was caressing my forehead.

She looked at me with an incredibly sad expression.

I must have looked that miserable.

It wasn’t a completely inaccurate assessment.

———————————

When Atlas barged into the room in the middle of the night, Amy was taken aback.

It wasn’t so much the fact that he came in at such an hour that surprised her, but rather his strange state.

Atlas was not in his right mind.

He was staggering and confused, unable to control his body properly.

Amy had watched him for months, but she had never seen Atlas look this anxious before.

And even more shocking were the words that Atlas spoke.

“There was a predecessor of the Titan family, who I thought was dead, in the Demon Church’s ritual hall… and when I dug up his grave, the coffin was empty and had a dreamlike symbol drawn inside?”

His companion was equally stunned by this shocking revelation.

While they knew Atlas had trouble with his parents during his upbringing, the fact that the head of the family was involved with the Demon Church was absolutely shocking.

Just the mere association with the Demon Church was shocking enough, but that he had been declared dead, had a funeral, and was buried — what did that even mean?

“Something… something has gone horribly wrong.”

It seemed that Atlas’s companion was just as shocked.

He felt no guilt whatsoever for digging up his parents’ grave.

It had felt odd since they arrived in their hometown.

It was normal to either feel happy or at ease upon returning to one’s hometown, but Atlas seemed restless, as if he couldn’t settle down.

He kept moving about restlessly, and absentmindedly fidgeted with his collar.

‘This mansion must be like a living nightmare to Atlas, so it’s only natural for him to feel uneasy.’

His companion stated bluntly.

‘Atlas is such an amazing person, so why…’

The biggest reason Atlas had become obsessed with growing taller was likely due to the family’s unhealthy obsession with it.

“The head of the Titan family must be tall. The head of the Titan family is called a giant in the Blade Mountain region. A person like him could never be satisfied with someone like Atlas, who was born with a height defect. The Vision Swordsmanship, passed down generation to generation, is known to peak for those with great height, making it even worse for him.”

He had overcome all the trials set for him as the next head of the family, but the most important element, height, was missing.

Atlas’s father, the predecessor of the Titan family, was reportedly not pleased by this and would always torment Atlas.

He had infused his body with terrible essences that even ordinary people could not handle, and forced him to undergo intense training that was impossible for someone young and weak.

Now, it was said to be a miracle that Atlas was entirely sound of mind and body.

“Originally… no. That’s not the case.”

There were moments when he would mutter incomprehensible words, as if he were thinking about other things, but his companion knew quite a bit about the Titan family.

“Love and respect for the parents would be completely absent; only hatred would fill their hearts, for they must have hated Atlas too.”

“…”

Amy suddenly felt sorry for Atlas, who was reasoning through the events in his own family with an air of indifference.

He spoke so casually about digging up his parents’ graves.

In normal circumstances, that would be a truly horrific thing, yet he seemed to treat it as no big deal.

Having grown up receiving love from her parents, Amy found it incredibly sad to witness Atlas’s indifference.

Would the strength he gained in his hands come at the price of sacrificing those feelings?

His short temper towards specific words, and the obsessive concerns over his height that he should have let go of by now, all of that…

If he earned a bloodied hand in exchange for giving up all his good childhood memories, then it made Atlas far too pitiful.

…

“…I can’t give a definite answer either.”

As expected, that was the response that came.

In fact, it felt somewhat relieving.

“I should investigate this place further. Such a major incident must have left some traces elsewhere.”

“Right. It equally gives us a good excuse to go poking around.”

“An excuse, you say?”

I explained to her the story I had heard from Carlos.

“Apparently, undead have been appearing en masse in the Blade Mountain region?”

Upon hearing those words, Amy’s expression went pale.

Having met the Great Necromancer, Kirke, she might have automatically thought of that direction.

“Ah… Atlas, don’t tell me…”

“It’s not Kirke.”

I declared that assertively yet saw her expression deemed it hard to believe.

“That’s not true, is it?”

“If he says he isn’t, what can we do about it? He was told to investigate, so if he isn’t, he’ll probably try hard to prove his innocence.”

The deadline I had given Kirke was running short.

In the meantime, I would do what I could.

“I should go around here smashing some undead to dust.”

“Is that really okay?”

Even so, would it be all right for her, an outsider, to go around poking around here? Amy asked cautiously.

I laughed at her.

“Do you think there’s anything here that could stop me?”

I had anticipated this moment and had everything prepared.

Now, no one could stop me if I decided to act.