My Disciples Became Scoundrels - Chapter 96

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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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Kihano repeated the same question. Silence flooded the cave. Gai’s lips parted slowly.
“……No.”
I glanced at Kihano. He nodded.
Gai had not killed Hayden. That was the truth. Whether I should feel relieved about it, I couldn’t say.
I had to choose the next question carefully. I could have asked why he saved me. But that answer would take time.
I posed my second question.
“Do you wish for the people of Balanus to live?”
“I do.”
A few seconds passed. Kihano nodded once more, a slow affirmation. Even Arkel’s rigid expression softened slightly.
Not an enemy, then. Yet something felt wrong about all of it. I’d been turning over one possibility in my mind for some time now.
“Third question.”
Gai had helped me while playing at defiance. Trust had been built between us. And in the same breath, he’d bitten my ankle and fled.
Trust and betrayal—both existed in Gai at once.
And there was a word for a traitor who sought to gain trust.
Spy.
And Balanus’s enemy was clear.
“Are you connected to the Guardians?”
Gai did not answer. His eyes only shifted, as though searching for an escape. I gripped his lower jaw firmly.
I forced his head still. When I saw the defiant gleam in his eyes, my grip tightened.
“I’ll ask again. Are you connected to the Guardians?”
He contorted his face into a smile—grotesque, unsettling. The words spilled from his lips.
“No.”
It was spoken with conviction. I didn’t relax my grip. Behind me, Kihano’s voice came through.
“He’s lying.”
Gai went rigid.
“He’s lying. But what exactly are the Guardians?”
I released Gai’s face. My hand withdrew to rest upon the hilt of my sword.
“Arkel, go tend to Kihano’s wounds.”
“……Yes, Master.”
Now only Gai and I remained. I gripped the sword’s hilt tightly. Without it, I couldn’t hold back what I felt.
His face reflected in the blade—that face that usually smiled so readily, now pallid and hollow.
“What is your connection to the Guardians?”
“…….”
“Are you one of them?”
Still, no answer came. The air crackled. I drew my blade in silence.
“I have no need for you alive. Your corpse alone will suffice. You know that as well as I do.”
“…….”
“Last chance.”
I had no desire to torture Hayden’s body. But if it was necessary, I would do it.
To protect my disciples. To protect Balanus.
The moment I twisted the blade, Gai’s strained voice broke through.
“……I was bound to Hayden by money. You could say I deceived him.”
Hayden. At that name, the blade’s point faltered. Gai continued quietly.
“He came to me asking if Necromancy could bring someone back to life.”
For a moment, sound grew distant. That name—Hayden—and the fact that he had tried to resurrect someone.
The memory surfaced. Opening my eyes in the grave.
……Gai’s voice reached me again.
“As you know, no such method exists. But he looked wealthy, so I played along with him. It didn’t matter if I ran away afterward.”
Gai’s mouth twitched. As though discussing something terribly distasteful.
“I should have fled faster. Before the Guardians—or whatever they are—arrived.”
“…….”
“Hayden was killed by the Guardians, and I was dragged into it through no fault of my own. I was barely clinging to life.”
My fingers trembled. Any death would have been tragic, but if the Guardians were responsible—
“I had to transfer my soul into another body. The only corpse nearby was Hayden’s.”
Gai tilted his head and smiled—look at my face, he seemed to say.
“This was my only choice, wasn’t it?”
I clenched the blade. My hand stiffened even as my mind refused to stop working. Emotion could not bury reason.
“If you’re using Hayden’s body, the Guardians should have hunted you down.”
“……Perceptive. I couldn’t switch to another body, which was troublesome. Soul Transfer is not infallible, after all.”
Gai only shrugged his shoulders once.
“Then the Master offered a proposal. He said he’d share the method of resurrection. It’s safer to return to our original bodies, and…….”
He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
“You were trying to protect Hayden Balanus, weren’t you?”
He spoke that name with peculiar weight, as though it explained why he’d remained in Balanus.
I kept my blade trained on Gai as I asked, “Yet you still tried to flee. Did you think protection wouldn’t reach you?”
“That’s right. I learned it during the concubine incident. The Guardians are far more powerful than I thought, and Balanus is far more dangerous.”
“…….”
Gai smiled again, eyes crinkling.
“I simply choose the safer path. Always.”
From somewhere in the cave came the sound of water dripping. Perhaps it was the sound of someone’s blood falling.
—Slash!
The blade flashed. Nothing clung to its edge.
Gai’s bonds fell away. The severed rope dropped limply. I sheathed my sword.
“We return to the village.”
I dragged Gai from the cave. Arkel stood in the narrow passage, desperately ignoring Kihano’s incessant chatter.
“Master, is it finished?”
“Yes. Kihano, this is my disciple Hayden. He’s a fraud and a disappointment in many ways, so I ask that you educate him.”
“A villain, then? Understood.”
Kihano was not a poor choice for a temporary guard. He led Gai away.
I told Arkel what conversation I’d had with Gai. His brow darkened.
“Did Hayden save you, Master?”
“I don’t know. For all we can tell, Gai’s entire story might be a fabrication.”
Plausible lies are countless. Why Gai had attempted to flee remained uncertain.
My question wasn’t wrong. Yet I had the sense I hadn’t reached the core of it.
What was the question Gai had truly feared?
“I’ve decided to trust three things: that he didn’t kill Hayden, that he has some connection to the Guardians.”
Gai glanced back as he was being led away. Our eyes met.
“And that he wishes us to live.”
I found myself wanting to understand this man Gai more deeply. I had to.
As we returned to the village, bright sounds reached our ears. The villagers were embracing one another, their voices joyful.
The residents who had been afflicted by the parasitic insects stood bewildered in each other’s arms. Their minds had been freed as well.
The Doctor sprang to his feet at the sight of us. Tears streaked his face.
“Thank you. Thank you so much! They’ve all come back to themselves.”
He grasped my hand firmly. I felt him trembling, the tremor born of joy.
Other villagers approached Arkel. With glistening eyes, they offered words of gratitude one by one.
“Thank you. When you slew the goblin, we were so frightened and yet so relieved.”
Arkel didn’t answer. Unused to such praise, he only glanced toward me.
“Haha! This fellow’s quite shy, isn’t he?”
“Paladin, we’re grateful to you as well. We couldn’t do anything while you were being taken away…….”
“Ahem. I thought the village elder was a good man. But in truth, he was…….”
As Kihano launched into explanations, Gai stood apart from us, alone and still. Like an outsider.
The Elder approached him. With weathered hands, he clasped Gai’s hand firmly.
“We owe it all to you. I ought to know the name of our benefactor. What is your name?”
Gai hesitated at that question. His lips seemed to harden. After a moment, he smiled with his eyes.
“Hayden Balanus.”
“Balanus?”
“Yes. Balanus Domus.”
“I’ll remember it. That it was Hayden Balanus who saved us.”
The Elder released his hand. Gai scratched at his neck a few times. Whether the collar bothered him or for some other reason, I couldn’t say.
* * *
“High Priest, I’ve made a terrible mistake! Please, just this once!”
“Kihano. You’ve been away from the temple and your tongue has gone slack. Let’s start with your head in the dirt.”
“Please forgive me!”
Kihano’s screams echoed through Justia Temple.
Now he knelt in the Reception Room, head bowed to the ground. The High Priest stood beside him, mace in hand, looking down.
“You said you wanted to train and evangelize, so I sent you out. Instead you wandered the Fighting Arena?”
Kihano shot me a glance. I had spoken, but it wasn’t exactly my fault.
“And you say you defeated villains there? That you used your earnings to help the weak and further your training…….”

“Improved strength? I heard an entire village fell under attack. Did you play your part in saving it?”
“……No, sir. It wasn’t I who saved the village—it was Balanus.”
He confessed it calmly, his head still bowed.
“I didn’t even realize I’d been infected by the Parasitic Insect. I was attacking the villagers instead. If Balanus hadn’t arrived, both they and I would have been consumed.”
He answered with perfect honesty, offering neither lies nor excuses.
The High Priest glared at Kihano for a moment, then exhaled a long sigh.
“One month in solitary confinement.”
“Only one month? Thank you, High Priest……!”
And so Kihano was led away. The priests of Justia Temple seemed wholly out of their minds.
Now only the High Priest and I remained in the Reception Room. He was watching me with the same rigid expression he’d worn when we first met.
“For a mere Silver Rank nobody, you performed quite admirably, didn’t you?”
At those words, the High Priest stiffened visibly. His eyes, rather than holding hostility, swirled with something far more complicated.
How much time had passed? It was only after a long silence that he moved.
The stiff frame of the High Priest slowly bent forward. He lowered his head in a deep bow.
“……I apologize for the disrespect shown until now. I spoke harshly, blinded by prejudice.”
I was somewhat taken aback. The courtesy was far more genuine than I’d expected—especially given his station as High Priest.
“Had the village been destroyed despite the presence of our priests, we could not have forgiven ourselves. I offer you our deepest gratitude.”
These people are strange, I thought. Not quite sane. Yet what they pursue is not twisted. It is not distorted.
Justice. A principle that supersedes their initial suspicion and prejudice toward me.
He slowly raised his head. His eyes, meeting mine, were clear and resolute.
“The Justia Temple wishes to offer Balanus a proper reward—something only we can give.”

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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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