It's Overwhelmingly Convenient That the Female Lead Has Darkened - Chapter 9
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
A corrupted female lead is overwhelmingly convenient.
#9
“Going back again—!”
“Shh.”
Daisy clamped a hand over Milo’s mouth as he tried to turn back toward the fork in the path, tilting her ear to listen.
Chittering!
Gregor, already past the junction, was scuttling toward them down the curved passage.
Tap-tap-tap.
Daisy surveyed her surroundings, listening to the distinctive clicking of an arthropod’s legs striking stone.
“Damn it, somewhere to hide—”
That was when it happened.
Clink.
A clear, bright sound rang out near knee-level.
She lowered her head to find a small, tarnished brass plate affixed to the wall.
[↓Hiding spot↓]
“What—?”
Chittering!
“Daisy! Daize! Daaaisy!”
Milo yelped in panic, pointing frantically at something.
Gregor—who’d woken up transformed into a teacher and was furious about it—now stood at the end of the curved passage.
That was right.
Standing there.
Did you know?
The teacher’s belly is even more repulsive than its back.
Chittering!
‘The detail work is insane…’
Barely holding onto her sanity, Daisy slowly lifted one leg and touched her foot beneath the brass plate.
Slick.
The stone wall trembled and wavered.
Looking closer, it wasn’t a stone wall at all—it was a curtain made to look like one.
“Daisy, Daaaisy…”
The puppy whimpered.
“I’m going to be sick…”
Me too…
Daisy pressed her hand over her mouth, her expression distant.
She’d found the hiding spot.
But it wouldn’t matter.
Their eyes had already met.
Going in now would be like helpfully announcing, “We’re over here.”
She needed to distract the teacher’s attention.
“Wait—what’s that?!”
“What? What is it?!”
Only the puppy fell for it.
Daisy lowered her hand, which had been pointing sheepishly at empty air, and thought a bit more—
Chittering!
—before that huge teacher just charged straight at them. Some manners, Gregor!
As the enormous creature bore down on her, Daisy instinctively scooped the puppy into her arms.
In that instant,
Boom!
A deafening explosion erupted, and dust billowed up in clouds.
What just exploded?
But there was no time to figure it out.
Daisy realized something.
This moment—when she couldn’t see anything—was her last chance.
Fumbling, she grabbed the puppy’s fluffy head and shoved it through the curtain, then rolled her own body in after it.
Fortunately, both of them were compact enough that there was plenty of space left inside.
“Dai—”
“Shh.”
Daisy silenced Milo and peered through the chiffon curtain, which glowed dimly with the light from outside, holding her breath.
Whoooosh…
The acrid stench of something burning filled the air, accompanied by the sharp tap-tap-tap of skittering legs.
Gregor’s massive legs were circling endlessly near the curtain.
Suddenly.
In that instant, a glossy brown leg swept through the curtain’s folds and grazed Daisy’s shin.
“……!”
Daisy swallowed a silent scream.
Please, please just leave! It’s not our fault that Gregor became a cockroach!
In that moment, the enormous cockroach froze.
As if it had heard the cry from Daisy’s heart.
Whoooosh.
And then it began to shrink.
Down to its normal cockroach size.
Its intent was clear—make itself invisible and search by smell alone.
‘Damn, it’s clever too.’
The shrunken insect scuttled about with soft, scratching sounds.
For a while it stayed in one spot, as if sniffing the air.
Then…….
The cockroach’s antennae twitched toward the curtain.
Scratch-scratch.
Daisy could see the cockroach—moving with deliberate silence (as if such cleverness were necessary)—creeping closer to the curtain.
Gulp.
Milo, gripping the hem of Daisy’s clothes, swallowed hard.
And it was the moment the cockroach began to slip one of its long antennae beneath the curtain edge that——
“Die!”
Bang!
Daisy’s foot came down with lightning speed, stamping the cockroach with crushing force and without a single breath.
“…….”
“…….”
“D-did it die?”
Daisy carefully lifted her shoe.
“…….”
“…….”
Well, rest in peace.
Stepping clear of the cockroach’s remains, Daisy exited from behind the curtain and wiped her shoe against the stone wall.
Ugh.
Milo crawled out after her, whimpering and throwing his arms around Daisy.
“Daisy!”
“I’m here. I’m here.”
“Right after we entered the labyrinth, I was suddenly alone and……!”
“Don’t cry.”
“I thought you were dead……!”
“I’m not dead.”
“You fell beneath the dormitory hall and were crushed by rocks until there was nothing left, so I had no choice but to bury an empty coffin and hold a funeral, and every night you’d appear in my dreams screaming ‘You were supposed to be the vanguard, not the rearguard, you bastard’ and grabbing my collar and shouting ‘Go find my body right now,’ so I was thinking I absolutely had to find it for you, and then this giant cockroach appeared…….”
“…….”
What kind of daydream are you having…….
As Daisy sighed and patted Milo to comfort him, she suddenly caught a burnt smell and pulled him away.
“Hey, wait a second…….”
And what Daisy then discovered in Milo Everett was…….
“Wow, you look like a mad scientist who just had a failed experiment.”
Daisy exclaimed in surprise, spotting his face blackened with soot and his hair singed and frizzled.
* * *
“So you’re saying that ever since childhood, you’ve been causing explosions without realizing it?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And you’ve blown away half a mansion.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And been expelled from your family.”
“Uh-huh…….”
“But just now you caused an explosion without even knowing it.”
“Yeah!”
His answer came cheerfully.
But beneath the grime, her pale blue eyes held a glimmer of anxiety.
She seemed to worry that Daisy might somehow avoid her after hearing the story.
Daisy, watching her quietly, reached out and stroked Milo’s tousled hair gently.
“You did well.”
…….
“We’re alive because of you.”
Then, catching herself, she withdrew her hand.
Right, he wasn’t actually a dog, but here she was petting him like one.
“Do it more.”
…….
Stroke, stroke.
Noticing Milo’s contented expression, Daisy decided that if it made him happy, there was no harm in it.
“But how did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That there was a place to hide there.”
There had been a sign posted right there.
“Daisy, you have incredible observational skills!”
“That’s not—”
“And you catch cockroaches so well!”
“That’s only because I need to survive—”
“It’s amazing!”
…….
“When you ran with me in the dormitory hall, that was cool too!”
…….
Faced with his gleaming, puppy-like gaze, Daisy stroked his hair instead of protesting.
The dog-like figure purred contentedly.
“Anyway, leaving that aside…….”
Daisy looked around and sighed.
Where on earth was this place?
She’d run in such a panic that she had no idea where she’d come from or which direction she’d gone.
She’d at least turned right at that fork in the path where she’d failed before, but…….
“Wow, Daisy! Look at this! It’s chocolate!”
Just then, Milo picked something up from the ground and shouted with an excited face.
It really was chocolate, wrapped in plastic.
“Don’t just pick things up and eat them—”
“Nom.”
Wait…….
“Wow, it tastes good!”
Well, he wasn’t actually a dog, so he probably wouldn’t die from it…….
“Daisy! There’s more over there!”
Daisy followed after Milo as he chased after the scattered chocolate, shrugging her shoulders.
Yeah, she’d already seen an 180-centimeter instructor, so how much worse could things possibly get?
* * *
“Listen.”
“Uh-huh!”
“From now on, don’t just pick up things like chocolate and eat them.”
“Uh-huh!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Daisy ran to escape the thunderous footsteps behind her and thought grimly:
This academy was insane.
First a 180-centimeter instructor, now a 280-centimeter giant.
A quick glance.
Looking back, she saw the one-eyed giant charging toward her, club in hand, his massive frame barreling down the corridor.
His speed wasn’t particularly fast, but his stride was so enormous that the distance closed in seconds.
“Roooaaarrgh!”
The narrowing corridor seemed to be getting in his way.
The giant swung his club horizontally.
Whoosh—! Crack—!
The club screamed through the air and mercilessly shattered the solid walls of the labyrinth.
She felt like she’d be pulverized just as easily in seconds.
“Daisy!”
“Keep running!”
Even steel-strong teenage stamina had its limits, and hers were fast approaching.
Between the hope that ‘surely they wouldn’t actually kill a student’ and the despair of ‘this insane school really does seem like it might,’ Daisy ran on.
Damn it, I’d take Mr. Gregory over this!
Screech!
In that instant, the giant Ba appeared from the opposite end of the corridor.
No, not at the same time!
“Daisy! Chocolate!”
“Damn chocolate!”
“No, there’s chocolate right there!”
Just as Milo said, a piece of chocolate lay in the middle of the hallway.
Now that she thought about it, all the chocolate so far had only appeared at crossroads.
Realizing this, Daisy looked up.
A narrow side passage appeared beside the corridor—so tight that even the giant would struggle to fit a leg inside.
“Go in first!”
She pushed Milo ahead, then squeezed her own body into the side passage, glancing back.
Crack, snap!
She saw Ba, trying to follow into the passage, get trampled mercilessly by the giant.
Cold sweat beaded on her skin.
The giant stared intently at the side passage with its enormous single eye.
Then it turned its body slowly away.
Apparently, it had decided that even destroying the walls wouldn’t let it fit inside.
“Phew…”
Watching the giant disappear, Daisy felt relief wash over her.
But then she thought of something.
Had the side passage always been this narrow?
“Daisy!”
Milo ahead cried out in a terrified voice.
“The walls… the walls keep…!”
“They’re closing in, you idiot!”
Grinding sound.
The walls on both sides of the passage were slowly pressing inward.
As the passage narrowed to crush them both, Daisy and Milo ran like madness.
A thin sliver of an exit appeared ahead.
“Puppy, jump!”
Milo, small-framed as he was, hurled himself through the exit gap.
“Ugh, damn it…!”
Then, just as Daisy—who had been crawling frantically through the ever-tightening passage—instinctively reached her hand toward the entrance,
Whoosh.
Someone yanked her out like pulling up a radish.
“Argh.”
Slam!
Behind her, the passage closed completely with a loud sound.
One more second and…
The simple thought made cold sweat run down her back.
“Are you all right?”
At that courteous yet subtly mocking voice, Daisy looked up to see the face of whoever had pulled her free.
A cold-looking boy with a large, sturdy build and short blue-gray hair, wearing sleek thin-rimmed silver glasses, met her gaze.
Daisy asked automatically.
“Your name.”
Adjusting his glasses slightly, he spoke with sharp, chilly eyes narrowed to slits.
“Stroud Burnam, if you please.”
“Burnam… wait, the Burnam Merchant Company?”
“How did you know that?”
“…”
Well, because your company went bankrupt…
Daisy swallowed a remark far too inappropriate to share with her savior and stared at the ceiling instead.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————