I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 112

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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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Chapter 112. The Architect of the Special Class

“If you don’t like it, just say so!”

After Astria stormed away in a huff.

Krash skipped lunch entirely.

He’d already told Aslan he had something to attend to, and he made his way out without delay.

The place Krash visited during lunch hour was none other than the Special Studies Building.

The moment he stepped into the glass-domed Special Studies Building, he spotted students moving busily in every direction.

Not one of them spared him a glance.

True to its name, the Special Studies Building offered all manner of diverse courses.

As a result, the department’s students were unusually devoted to their research—more so than those in other departments.

Which meant their primary concern was their own work and papers.

It was a department where students showed remarkably little interest in others.

Krash passed through that familiar environment and arrived at a classroom marked “Alchemy Room.”

He opened the door without ceremony, and the distinctive chemical scent of alchemy drifted out to meet him.

The three-story classroom held students from the Special Studies Department and alchemy concentration scattered throughout, each absorbed in personal research at their workstations.

Krash passed by them all and arrived at a workspace crowded with an abundance of bottles and vials.

—So you’re avoiding women, but now you’re coming to see one?

Krash let Crimson Garden’s jab slide and peered inside.

There, he found someone filling a bottle with something using a pipette.

A blonde-haired woman oddly dressed in both academy trousers and a skirt at the same time.

One who was called the future Alchemy Lord.

“Darling Danpelion.”

Krash called out to the woman with the striking name.

“Huh?”

The woman turned around belatedly.

Her distinctive eyes were the first thing to catch the light as she spotted Krash and tilted her head with a small sound of surprise.

“You’re my boyfriend. Why are you here?”
“Don’t say things that’ll make people misunderstand. There’s already enough headaches around here without that.”
“Aha, so you’ve charmed someone new while I wasn’t looking? Your poor fiancée might get jealous.”

She, whom he hadn’t seen in a year, was laughing without restraint.

Only then did he bother to check the date.

“The opening ceremony is today, isn’t it? Sorry, I had no idea. My sense of time’s gotten a bit warped lately!”
“I wouldn’t call that something to boast about.”
“It’s par for the course for an alchemist, though.”

Being an alchemist didn’t seem like a glamorous profession.

“But Krash, didn’t you just get my title wrong a second ago?”
“What?”
“You should’ve called me senior. I’m a first-year student.”

Krash ignored Darling’s remark.

Instead, he carelessly pulled out a nearby chair and sat down.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you to make a certain medicine for me.”

That was the real reason Krash had sought out Darling, skipping lunch in the process.

Upon hearing his request, Darling picked up a medicine bottle with a knowing smile.

“TS No. 2?”

The moment Krash raised his fist, Darling quickly moved the medicine out of reach.

“Just kidding. So what medicine exactly? The love-at-first-sight potion is still in development.”
“If you’re trying to slip something strange into my sister’s drink, you’re dead.”
“Don’t worry. I’m the one who’d drink it.”
“Don’t you drink it either.”

Krash sighed, remarking that talking with Darling was like losing his mind every time.

Then he explained to Darling what medicine he needed made.

After hearing the full explanation, Darling tilted her head.

“Hmm, did someone try to sneak in?”
“Something like that.”

Seeing Krash’s meaningful smile, Darling quickly nodded.

“All right. It’ll take a little time, but I’ll make it for you.”
“Good. Let’s grab some lunch then.”

Krash set a sandwich he’d bought from the cafeteria on the table in front of Darling.

At the sight of it, Darling lit up with delight.

“You really are my ideal boyfriend! Will you marry me?”
“No.”

It was lunchtime for Krash and Darling, punctuated by his flat refusal.

＊ ＊ ＊

After finishing lunch with Darling, Krash headed toward the Martial Arts Building.

Perhaps it was because a succession of troublesome incidents had arisen in the days following the entrance ceremony.

Still, after catching my breath with a familiar face, my mind grew at ease.

‘I wonder if Bianca had gotten lunch by now.’

She was the type who never failed to eat her meals properly.

There was no need to worry.

-Tsk, tsk, if things keep tangling like this, you’ll end up worse than King Poseidon himself.
“Don’t turn me into a libertine.”
-What do you mean, no? Just today, how many women have you tangled yourself up with?

Krash’s expression grew troubled.

-Didn’t I tell you this beforehand? Women will keep coiling around the path you walk. So cut them off before that happens.
“Don’t go trying to cut off other people’s things.
-Hmph, what can’t a man who’s lopped off and reattached arms not cut?

Was this wretch still holding a grudge over me asking him to detach the Sword Saint’s arm?

Krash felt a sense of exasperation wash over him.

After bantering idly with Crimson Garden for a while longer, Krash stepped into the Martial Arts Building.

He pulled open the door to the classroom assigned to the second-year Martial Arts students with a creak.

The eyes of the chattering children snapped toward him all at once.

The moment they recognized him as Krash, they fell silent in an instant.

At this point, wouldn’t he have become a professor instead?

For a moment he actually considered stepping up to the podium and conducting a lecture.

One student waved his hand vigorously.

“Krash, come over here!”

That was none other than Balak.

This one was truly consistent.

So Krash, feeling reasonably at ease himself, made his way over and sat down beside Balak.

Balak chattered away eagerly beside him.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere of the class soon began returning to normal.

This was the time when he needed to be growing close to his fellow students.

The second-year Martial Arts students numbered nearly a hundred, at minimum.

Since a good many of them were nobility, everyone was occupied with building connections.

Krash observed them all quietly.

The most important reason Krash had come to Rahelern Academy was to steal skills.

But regrettably, the first cohort has more talent than the second.

Nearly all the ones worth their salt entered during the first year, after all.

‘The real problem is that there’s an unknown variable among the second cohort—someone I know nothing about.’

It was then that Krash noticed a male student with long blonde hair.

At first glance, one might mistake him for a woman.

He sat quietly, absorbed in his book.

The fake Arthur.

There was no reason to approach him immediately.

The fake Arthur was Arthur’s trap.

A snare carefully constructed to determine whether there existed another Returner besides himself.

There was no need to move hastily.

“Oh, and Anyx asked if he could see you sometime soon—he wanted me to pass that along!”
“Ah, all right.”

Anyx of Grayza.

Since their clash at the Star Sanctuary, Krash had given Anyx little thought.

He’d been far too occupied, and he’d assumed Anyx would be heading to the Academy anyway.

So the current state of Anyx was a mystery to him.

‘To be honest, I’d almost prefer he stayed as he was back then.’

He’d find out when they met.

“Krash! You promised we’d have lunch together—where did you disappear to?”

Just then, Karandis appeared at Krash’s side without warning.

She was the sort of woman who never knew when to give up.

Looking around, he noticed that Mary had somehow settled nearby as well.

Creak—

The front doors swung open, and a man walked through with a measured gait.

Unremarkable in appearance, he nonetheless carried a white cat with a ribbon tied around its neck tucked against his chest.

He placed the cat atop the raised platform.

As he stepped back, the white cat stretched languidly, rose to its feet, and settled down on its hindquarters.

Then, beneath the weight of all eyes upon it, the cat opened its mouth.

“I am Ganon Sarsha, the professor overseeing the second cohort of the Martial Arts Department.”

When the cat spoke, the children’s faces fell into bewilderment.

Of course—no one had anticipated that a cat would appear as a professor.

Only Krash knew the truth of it.

And what manner of person Ganon Sarsha truly was.

“Due to personal circumstances, I find myself meeting you in this form, though I assure you it matters very little.”

Ganon Sarsha licked his own paw, grooming himself with deliberate calm.

“Most of you will have no occasion to see my true form, I suspect.”

This was truth.

Ganon Sarsha wandered the world ceaselessly, devoted to nothing but the erasure of World Erosion.

In matters of World Erosion, he possessed knowledge that rivaled even Sepia’s own.

Such was Ganon Sarsha.

“Currently, Rahelern Academy is organized into twelve units, each commanded by a Student Captain.”

It was a system not unlike an order of knights.

Students could voluntarily elect a representative and establish their own unit.

Academic standings rose or fell according to the achievements their units accomplished.

Should a unit fail to meet baseline performance metrics, it would be dissolved after three warnings.

A Student Captain whose unit had been dissolved could never hold the rank again.

And the Academy’s resources flowed to units in proportion to their standings.

This meant the units competed fiercely, each driven by necessity.

“After six months of training, you will either join an existing unit or establish one of your own. That is when the true work begins.”

Once students chose their unit, they entered into practical training in World Erosion.

“The first-year cohort has already begun their practical assignments. In six months, you will join them in competition. However—”

Ganon Sarsha paused and turned to regard the associate professor.

The associate professor approached and handed him a list.

“Those whose names I am about to call will bypass the six months of training. As you learned during your entrance examination, you are bound for the Special Class.”

The children’s expressions transformed in an instant.

The third examination results had not been announced at the test site itself.

So this was the first moment they would hear the outcome.

“Members of the Special Class will train alongside the first-year cohort. Your formal status remains second-year, but you will be deployed into live operations.”

Even Krash registered visible surprise at this.

And for good reason—before the Regression, the Special Class didn’t even exist.

‘I don’t know who suggested it, but it’s rather clever.’

For some, a single real engagement teaches more than a hundred training drills.

“Then I shall now read the names.”

He placed his hand on the list as he spoke.

“Krash Valheim.”

And as expected, the first name called was none other than Krash.

“Of course it’s Krash!”

Karandis’s eyes grew even brighter as she gazed at him.

Everyone had anticipated this outcome.

After all, if Krash fell, they all fell.

And amid that inevitable response, Krash swallowed a bitter laugh.

Not one of them knew what he’d done to earn this place.

“Mary Diana.”

Mary’s selection was equally unsurprising.

“Balak Hogma.”
“Hehe, I made it too.”

He too was counted among Stalon’s Three Pillars.

“Glen Diana.”

Next, a man standing at the end of the list was called.

His face had been clouded with discontent throughout.

Glen Diana, a cadet branch of the Diana Family like Mary.

His gaze fixed on Mary, brimming with irritation.

Before the Regression, he’d been nothing like someone who revered her as a god.

“Karandis Porseus.”

When her name was called, even Krash’s expression registered surprise.

As Krash turned his gaze, Karandis thrust out her broad chest with unabashed pride.

When Karandis set her sights on a goal, she could pour everything and more into reaching it.

The moment she witnessed Krash’s strength at the entrance ceremony, she’d resolved to make him her groom.

And so she’d scraped and clawed her way through the third exam to claim her place in the Special Class.

A formidable determination indeed.

When Karandis winked and squeezed one eye shut, Krash’s expression shifted to that of a man who’d glimpsed something he shouldn’t have.

“Haring Lagraine.”

At the announcement of the next name, Krash’s gaze drifted sideways.

Black hair threaded through with violet tones, cropped short.

A violet-shaped hairpin fastened in her locks.

‘The Poison Seal.’

Daughter of the Poison King, ranked among the Top Ten Under Heaven—and the one who’d killed Bianca, who’d become a ghost.

She met no student’s gaze, her eyes cold as winter frost.

To look at her expression alone, one might think she was shutting out the entire world.

“And finally, Arthur Gramalte.”

With the announcement of the false Arthur, Ganon tapped the paper aside and set it down.

“Those listed above comprise the Special Class.”

The moment he finished speaking, the classroom door slid open with a creak.

And everyone who laid eyes on whoever had opened it drew in a breath and gasped.

Flowing blue-black hair and eyes gleaming with an arrogance that bore no trace of human warmth.

A woman in the Martial Arts Department uniform walked in with perfect posture.

One of only two of her generation to receive a star epithet—a prodigy of the age.

The Sword Star, Charlotte Valheim.

She strode into the classroom without preamble and planted herself with arms crossed, stance decisive.

“Follow me. Second generation of the Special Class.”

She spoke her words without explanation, tossing them out like commands.

She was the very epitome of supreme solitude—the sort who stood alone above all.

Krash turned to look at Charlotte, his expression asking a silent question.

And when their eyes met, she offered that signature smile of hers.

In that instant, Krash understood.

There had been no Special Class before this.

So why had one suddenly appeared now?

Because someone had proposed it.

And the one who’d come to lead away the new members of that Special Class was none other than Charlotte herself.

‘So that’s what this is, then. That mad woman of mine.’

She sought out the Headmaster, the former Sword Star Durandal, faced him in combat to prove her worth, and managed to present her proposal.

Krash’s expression turned astonished.

There were indeed those who had carried out Durandal’s words from the entrance ceremony to the letter.

But none of them had won his recognition.

Yet Charlotte had pushed through and submitted her proposal to Durandal, establishing the Special Class.

She was planning to deploy Krash, who would arrive later, into real combat alongside the inaugural cohort.

‘……I underestimated Charlotte.’

Now he understood why Arthur suspected her of being another Returner.

Only one person could pull off something this audacious.

Charlotte Valheim and no one else.

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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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