Academy’s New Guard is Unusual - Chapter 94

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 94
“Where is this place?”
Volcan asked, looking around.
“Why are you asking me? It’s your dream.”
My entire body ached.
There wasn’t a single part of me that was whole.
“Ah, the Warrior’s Garden, then. Am I dead?”
“You nearly died at my hands.”
“At yours?”
Volcan tilted his head, looking me up and down with doubt clouding his expression.
“What’s with that look of disbelief?”
“It’s just—the Warrior’s Garden is a place where one fights with the body alone.”
“So it is.”
“I was strong. The strongest in our tribe.”
“You were strong. Of course, I was stronger.”
Volcan stared at me, still unconvinced.
“I’m telling you, I won.”
“Hmm, I understand. How do we get out of here?”
I didn’t bother answering.
Volcan’s face slowly hardened.
Then a smile spread across it—something like relief.
“I must die, then.”
His insight was quick for his appearance.
I nodded calmly.
Rifts manifest in countless forms. This place too is a Rift created by a Fragment of Outer Deity.
There is only one way to escape a Rift.
To seize the Anomaly at the Rift’s center.
Here, that Anomaly was Volcan.
Normally, Volcan would have to die for us to escape.
Solemnity settled over Volcan’s face.
“Then kill me.”
“What?”
When I narrowed my eyes, Volcan looked down at his own hands and spoke.
“Barbarian blood runs through my veins. Every moment, I feel the urge. To crack open skulls and pull out brains.”
Volcan spoke flatly, looking at his blood-caked hands.
“Just as black skin cannot turn white no matter how it is scrubbed, I am, in the end, a Barbarian. No matter how I try—”
Volcan gazed down at his arm. It was covered with fingernail scratches from someone’s desperate resistance.
“I can never escape it.”
Volcan scraped at his own arm. Blood sprayed and skin peeled away, but the skin remained black.
“This place suits me. Kill me and leave, brother.”
Volcan spoke calmly, looking at me. His face was profoundly reverent.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“…Did I not hear you right?”
“I spared your life, and now you’re asking me to take it. You’re worse than Milo.”
“But—but didn’t you say I must die—”
“I never said you must die. I said that’s the rule of this place.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“It’s different. There’s always an exception to every rule.”
“…An exception?”
Volcan repeated the word like a fool.
The laws of a Rift are absolute, but even they have one exception.
‘Evangeline.’
Evangeline has always been the exception within a Rift.
Not only can she find the Anomaly within a Rift, she’s spoken to it.
She could even intervene from outside the Rift into its interior.
That’s why she’s the protagonist.
If it’s Evangeline, she can resolve this situation.
The problem is I never called for her—
‘She’ll come on her own anyway.’
Evangeline might be hopeless at everything else, but when it comes to Rifts, she finds them with uncanny precision and barges in.
Without calling, she’ll come charging in talking about her ‘feelings’.
All I have to do is wait for Evangeline to arrive.
And then—
Suddenly my vision flickered.
In an instant, my surroundings had shifted to a deep mountain ravine. A place untouched by human feet.
There, naked figures ran about, howling. “Oooow! Oooow!”
In the middle of them, two children stood facing each other.
I could immediately tell which child was Volcan. One had a noticeably larger head.
Adult Barbarians running about with spears, and children standing between them.
The atmosphere looked deeply ominous.
“It’s the Proof of Warrior.”
“Proof of Warrior?”
“Proving your usefulness.”
“They seem far too young to prove their worth.”
Instead of answering, Volcan laughed bitterly.
This seemed to be Volcan’s past.
Showing his past so suddenly—
“One of you dies! If you hesitate, you both die!”
At the Barbarian’s roar, the smaller child rushed at Volcan.
While the smaller child attacked, Volcan stood there defensively, doing nothing but block.
Blood sprayed. Flesh tore away.
Unable to endure any longer, Volcan lashed out with his fist reflexively.
It was resistance born from the instinct to survive.
Crack—Volcan’s fist struck precisely at his opponent’s temple.
The child crumpled.
Volcan hastily checked on him, but the child had already stopped breathing.
Cheers erupted around them. Parents praised Volcan, saying he’d done well.
“He was my closest friend.”
Volcan explained, his voice thick with tears. Guilt was plain on his face.
Then my vision shifted again.
This time, a larger Volcan was fighting a hulking man.
The man’s face resembled Volcan’s.
“My brother. The one who looked after me like a father.”
His brother rushed at him first. Murderous intent poured from his eyes.
Again, Volcan was the victor.
“I killed him with my own hands.”
Volcan killed one, then another.
His last opponent was his mother.
Volcan fled.
“I ran because I thought I’d kill her too.”
The years that followed were no easier.
The Empire’s people oppressed Volcan for being Barbarian, and they swindled him, as guileless as he was.
“I belonged to neither the Empire nor the Barbarians.”
Volcan spoke wearily.
“You’ve suffered much.”
I nodded adequately, when suddenly the scene shifted before my eyes.
A Training Ground behind the Noble Castle, shabby in places—a place I knew well.
It was familiar terrain to me.
‘How shameless.’
I scowled deeply at this past unfolding without permission.
* * *
Two young nobles stood comfortably in the Training Ground. Their neat clothing and slicked-back hair marked them clearly as nobility.
“You were a noble?”
Volcan asked with genuine surprise.
Grave narrowed his eyes.
“Can’t you tell at a glance?”
He genuinely couldn’t. This was Grave—the kind who threw a punch at the slightest provocation.
If his skin had been any darker, Volcan would have sworn Grave was a Barbarian.
And yet he was noble-born.
It didn’t seem believable, but Volcan smoothly changed the subject.
“Training with your father at night—that’s admirable.”
“Admirable?”
“It is. In our tribe, we couldn’t even imagine such a harmonious father and son—”
Then his father suddenly began beating the boy with a Club.
The Club was wrapped in Aura.
There was a saying that when struck with Aura, your very soul bruised. Being hit with Aura hurt that much.
To mercilessly beat a boy who hadn’t even finished growing with Aura—
And yet the father was smiling brightly the whole time.
“Why would he do such a thing—”
“It’s a Family Secret Technique. Beating with Aura hardens the body and optimizes the body’s constitution for Aura. It was actually quite effective.”
“No matter how effective, how could—”
Even Volcan found it abhorrent, yet Grave remained unmoved.
Then suddenly, fierce flames erupted. Fire swept through the castle as if the heavens themselves were enraged.
A slender woman walked through the flickering inferno, her footsteps crisp and deliberate.
“Oh, is she coming to rescue him? Thank goodness—”
Before Volcan could finish, the woman seized the boy by the hair.
“Solid-looking. Perfect for experimentation.”
The woman performed magical experiments on the boy every day.
He burned in flames, froze solid, was electrocuted by lightning.
What his father had done seemed like child’s play by comparison.
“How could anyone do such things—”
“Because she’s not human. She’s the Witch.”
At the word “Witch,” Volcan’s jaw dropped.
Volcan knew the Witch’s infamy well.
She often kidnapped Barbarians for experimentation.
Among Barbarians, there was even a saying: if the Witch takes you, bite your own tongue.
To be captured and experimented on by her—
Then the Witch embedded something terrible in the boy’s chest. The boy’s entire skin turned black, as if charred.
It looked like he’d been cursed by the gods.
“Thanks to it, I learned Magic quickly. Almost like it was engraved on me.”
Magic was hardly the issue now.
And that wasn’t even the end.
Next, he was captured by the Church and subjected to experiments. They tortured him repeatedly, trying to create a battle priest, healing him with Holy Power only to hurt him again.
A succession of horrors that “terrible” barely described.
Volcan’s own past seemed pitiful by comparison.
And yet—
“How can you be so calm about it?”
Volcan asked, looking at Grave.
Grave’s mouth twisted into a smile.
“Is there anyone without a past?”
It was a smile as dry as desert sand.
* * *
‘What’s happening?’
Milo bit his lip as he watched Volcan lying face-down and Grave looming over him.
Grave’s hand pressed down on Volcan’s head, and suddenly Grave’s hand and Volcan’s head fused together like a single piece of flesh.
The problem was they kept fusing further.
Even Milo could tell something was very wrong.
“What—what is happening here?”
At Darkin’s question, Milo swallowed hard.
“I don’t know, kid. Let’s try pulling them apart. Grab Volcan.”
“If we just pull, I fear something terrible will happen—”
“What, you want to let them merge completely? Grab him! Come on!”
“Yes, understood!”
At Milo’s shout, Darkin frantically grabbed Volcan.
Milo gripped Grave as he spoke.
“On three, we pull! One—”
Darkin braced himself.
Milo found himself shouting before he knew it.
“Three!”
“…Why didn’t you count two?”
“Two is silent. Never mind. This isn’t working.”
Milo shook his head. This approach wouldn’t do. Then what should—
“Evangeline! Where the hell are you going?”
“I’m getting a feeling from over here! The feeling! Clarity!”
“What feeling now—”
Then a familiar voice came from behind.
I turned to see Evangeline and Andy.
“Look! Here! You two were hiding and eating cookies!!”
Evangeline, spotting them, came running over at once.
“Why are you two like this? Did you fight?”
“No, it just happened suddenly. Don’t interfere—”
“Wait. Something’s wrong here. If you leave it like this, something terrible will happen!”
Already, Grave’s hand was being sucked into Volcan’s bald head.
It was obviously a disaster, yet Evangeline puffed up like she’d made some grand discovery.
“Of course something terrible will happen! His hand is being sucked into his head!”
Unable to bear it, Andy roared out.
Milo thought Andy’s temperament had somehow gotten worse since they first met.
“Can you fix this?”
Milo asked, looking at Evangeline.
Evangeline might act like a scatterbrain most of the time, but that ‘feeling’ of hers had been invaluable in the Rifts, hadn’t it.
“I’ll give it a try.”
Evangeline rolled up her sleeves.
Her thin arms were revealed, covered in scars.
The atmosphere immediately turned solemn.
Then Evangeline raised one hand and spoke.
“Cookie.”
“…What?”
“Give me a cookie. So I can concentrate.”
Not understanding what cookies had to do with concentration, Milo quickly placed one in Evangeline’s hand.
Evangeline popped the cookie into her mouth. Her cheeks puffed out like they might burst.
And then, with a very serious expression—
“WAKE UP!!!”
She shouted with absolute confidence.
‘She didn’t just want a cookie, right?’
Milo looked at Evangeline and thought, then immediately shook his head.
Surely she wasn’t that helpless.
“Another cookie!!”
…She was.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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