The Villain’s POV in the Academy

Chapter 34

"…I… I'm going to die?"

At Iri’s question, Miyu nodded with teary eyes.

"Th-the module you have equipped right now is eating away at your nerves… When I looked closely, even the module socket HUB you’re using now isn’t originally designed for Adaptees… When you first installed the module, didn’t you notice anything strange…?"

"If you mean the module I have equipped right now…"

My brother’s keepsake.

I instinctively reached for the socket at the back of my neck. The hard plastic and cold metal sensation traveled through my fingertips.

I stiffened my expression.

Then, with a sigh, I revealed the truth.

"Yeah. It’s always been like this."

"What?"

"Before I became an Adaptee… in other words, before I had nanomachines injected into me, I shoved it into a socket that didn’t even fit, without knowing anything. That’s why."

The memory from back then began to vividly replay before my eyes.

The time when I went looking for a back-alley Modular to identify the module’s true nature, only to get marked by thugs and chased.

I had hurriedly inserted the module into my socket so those bastards wouldn’t steal it from me.

After that, I was beaten nearly to death and lost consciousness, only to wake up lying on the workbench of the very back-alley Modular I had been searching for.

—You awake, kid?

—I… h-how did I… get here…?

—Picked you up while you were dying like some roadkill sewer rat nearby. Guess those bastards thought you were done for too, so they ditched you halfway.

So that’s how I was still alive.

Up until then, I really thought I was going to die.

Feeling a bit relieved that I was alive and hadn’t lost my brother’s keepsake, I was immediately met with the Modular’s nagging.

—Eat properly, will you? You were so damn light.

—Sh… shut up…!

—Hard to talk, huh? Just shut your mouth and listen while you rest. I’ve got bad news… and then some really bad news.

The back-alley Modular turned the monitor in front of him toward me. It showed a full-body X-ray, with red X marks scattered all over.

—The bad news is that about half of your bones are busted. You’re gonna have a hard time moving for a month or two.

—If… that’s the bad… news…

—The worse news is this.

When the Modular waved his fingers in the air, an X-ray of my skull appeared. At the back of my head was a square-shaped chip embedded deep inside.

—Looks like the beating caused your module to malfunction. Because of that, it’s made improper contact with your nervous system, and now it can’t be removed. It’s fine for now, but at this rate, it’s going to eat away at your lifespan.

—What…?

—Don’t give me that look, kid. Who told you, someone who’s not even an Adaptee, to stick a combat module into a standard socket HUB?

—C-couldn’t it be… removed… by surgery…?

—Didn’t I say no? Removing it requires two things. First, your body needs enough recovery capability to withstand the surgery. Second, we need this thing’s spec sheet.

—Why… the spec sheet…?

When I asked, the Modular smirked and replied.

—We need to know exactly what it is before we can take it out. Well, if you find a Modular better than me, maybe they could just take one look and pull it out in a snap. Oh, and you’ll also need money and proper surgical equipment. With my workshop, it’s impossible.

So, four requirements in total! Hah!

The Modular laughed heartily, like it had nothing to do with him.

I wanted to smash his face in, but my whole body hurt too much to move.

Then he spoke again.

—Ah, there is one way to take care of all those conditions at once.

—The only… way…?

—Get into the Academy.

His expression turned dead serious.

—If you’re recognized there as an exceptional talent, everything will be taken care of. Stop being Fallen’s "damn mutt" and become the corporations’ "precious little puppy"—they’ll solve your problem for you.

—…

—Come to think of it, you might even find out why your brother died. How you get in is your problem, but is there really a better way than this?

I didn’t answer.

But I had no choice.

"…That’s why I came to the Academy."

To uncover the secret behind my brother’s death.

And to remove the module.

With that goal, I decided to enter Trinity Academy.

Fortunately, the Academy’s gates were open—just barely—to those from the Fallen, and I had a decent aptitude for nanomachines.

"Somehow, I managed to make it here. There’s still a lot left to solve, though."

"Iri…"

Miyu spoke carefully after hearing the story.

"Thanks to becoming an Adaptee, your cell regeneration has been enhanced, so the erosion has slowed down a lot…"

"That’s a relief to hear."

That back-alley Modular wasn’t at least a quack.

"And if it were me, I could probably remove the module even without the spec sheet… though I would need a few more pieces of equipment…"

"Yeah, I’ve heard that."

Aaron Stingray—that man—had said as much before he left.

But right after that, the Academy had been shaken by the massive incident of the Crown Prince’s disappearance, so I couldn’t bring it up easily.

You can’t exactly say to someone who’s reeling from losing their patron, "Hey, can you solve my problem for me!"

I had planned to spend a few days getting closer to Miyu and waiting until she had composed herself.

But…

"Judging by your reaction now, that’s not the only problem, right?"

"U-um… it’s…"

"It’s fine, will you explain it to me?"

"It’s because of the Wizard…"

At my words, Miyu began to look like she was on the verge of tears.

"The Wizard planted malware in your module to drive it into overdrive… Because of that, the balance you barely maintained with the nanomachines’ regenerative power was broken, and the erosion started again…"

"Meaning there’s not much time left?"

Miyu quietly nodded to my question. Anger welled up, and I clenched my fists without realizing it.

But I tried to keep my expression calm. Blowing up here would only hurt this timid girl’s feelings.

"To remove the module, we first have to remove the malware and stop the runaway state… But only the creator knows the unlock code…"

"Miyu, you can program too. Can’t you do something about it?"

"I-I’m trying…"

Her eyes flicked toward the monitor.

A screen with an enormous flood of logs scrolling by at high speed—it seemed a program was running to search for the unlock code.

Even before I asked her, she had already been working on it.

"In fact, I’ve already broken through about ninety percent of the security… The design was novel in its own way, but it actually had quite a lot of weaknesses…"

"Already?"

They say a Wizard is a realm that only the top 1% of hackers with truly special talent can reach.

And she had dismantled most of the malware made by such a Wizard in just a few hours.

‘This girl… what on earth…’

Just how much talent was hidden beneath that gloomy appearance and behavior?

But my amazement didn’t last long.

I soon realized the reason she had broached the topic like this—because the problem still wasn’t completely solved.

"The last step is tricky…"

"Why?"

"This is a bit technical, so let me put it simply…"

According to Miyu’s explanation—no matter how skilled the locksmith, if the unlocking method itself for a door lock is fixed in a certain way, it will inevitably take time to open.

For example, if it’s not a password but fingerprint or iris recognition.

Whether you clone the fingerprint or iris, smash the lock, or rip the whole door out, every method would still take a long time.

"This time, it seems a specific signal pattern using a hacking module is the key to unlocking the code… But that’s a key only the Wizard himself has…"

"S-so there’s no way?"

"In your case, we can’t use any aggressive method in this state… So I’m trying to reconstruct the key from the fragments of a specific signal your sensors captured at the time…"

Miyu stroked her mechanical tail as she continued.

"H-hacking with a module basically involves a huge amount of data, so there’s just not enough time to process it…"

It was like trying to replicate an absurdly complex key. And without even having the original to look at—only scattered fragments to guess from.

Even so, Miyu hadn’t said it was "impossible."

Only that there wasn’t enough time.

In that case…

"How long will it take?"

"About a week… but…"

"From the way you’re saying it, the module’s nerve erosion rate is faster than that, right?"

"…"

Miyu silently nodded.

At that, I slumped back into my chair.

"A week?"

I repeated it aloud, but it didn’t feel real. I had thought I’d have more time.

"Any other way? None at all?"

"There’s one… no, if we ignore practicality, two."

"You never know. Tell me both."

"O-one is to borrow Omega Investment’s motherboard for a bit."

Omega Investment.

One of New Valhalla City’s largest investment firms, run entirely by a single transcendent AI without any human intervention.

It was an AI built solely for investment and profit generation, but they said that by using its computing power, the unlock code could be found in an instant.

"S-since Mr. Aaron isn’t here right now, I thought maybe we could ask that younger brother of his to get Omega Investment’s assistance…"

"That would be close to impossible."

"Y-yes…"

It was a request that might not work even if made to Aaron himself, so there was no way Benedict, who was competing with him for corporate control, would agree to it.

"Then what’s the other one?"

"Negotiate with the malware’s creator and get the unlock code from them…"

For a moment, I thought, Could that even work?

But in fact, this was the more realistic option. That was because the two of us already knew who was behind this incident.

Which meant, effectively, there was only one choice.

"…Alright."

I stood up from my seat.

Now that it had come to this, I couldn’t waste time. I had to go after the culprit right away.

Leon Albert.

That bastard leader of the Study Group.

***

[Achievement Unlocked]

Met the Emancipator ‘CL-00245’.

Achievement Points: +500

‘Damn it.’

Another sound of my plans falling apart.

Does the bastard who brought me into this world live just to ruin my plans?

No matter how perfectly I lay them out, this damn Transmigrator stuff and its perks keep throwing them into chaos—enough to give me an ulcer.

‘Think. Think.’

Assess the situation.

Why was the achievement triggered?

Was I wrong in thinking Ciel was the Transmigrator? Or does the achievement unlock regardless of whether the target is one?

Which it was would change my plans completely. For now, I had to trust my judgment.

Thankfully, I wasn’t in the form of ‘Aaron Stingray’ right now, but ‘Benedict Stingray’. Which made this perfect for probing the other side.

I lowered my voice and asked,

"What’s your name?"

"M-my manufacturing number is CL-00245…"

"No, you misunderstood. I’m asking for your ‘real’ name."

"…"

Her pupils began to tremble at my question. What I felt there was fear and confusion—emotions an android wasn’t supposed to have.

But that alone wasn’t enough to be certain she was a Transmigrator. In the original story, even Ciel was an android who had awakened self-awareness and emotions.

"I’ll ask again. I’ve known your true identity for a long time. What’s your ‘real’ name?"

"I… I don’t understand what you mean."

"Don’t play dumb. I even know you’re a Transmigrator. This is just the final confirmation."

"…"

So she chose to keep her mouth shut.

The threat wasn’t working.

Was it because she couldn’t feel pain like a human? Or was it that her mechanical body affected her emotional responses?

Either way, I had to push harder.

"Once I’ve confirmed it, you’ll die. Even if you’re not a Transmigrator, to keep the scenario on track, I have no choice but to kill you."

"L-let me go. Damaging me constitutes destruction of property owned by Trinity Academy, and…"

"Do you know who I am?"

I cut her off.

She didn’t answer right away.

"Seems you don’t. I suppose that’s understandable. But you must have heard the name ‘Benedict Stingray’ before."

"…!"

Ciel began to falter even more.

She realized that a member of the Stingray Family wouldn’t be swayed by threats about damaging ‘Academy property.’

"Then you’re… Aaron Stingray’s…"

"Little brother."

The lie slipped out naturally.

"As you’ve already figured out, Aaron is also a Transmigrator. I’m barely surviving under him."

"That means…"

Hesitation flickered in her eyes.

She was almost there.

Just one more push.

"…Yeah, he’s still alive. But it’s impossible for me to face him alone now."

"W-what do you mean?"

"He’s blocking my approach to the main characters. With my plan having failed, I have limited room to act."

"So, in other words…"

Ciel asked cautiously,

"Are you saying you were behind the recent ‘Aaron Stingray Assassination Attempt’? And you want me to help finish him off for good?"

"Exactly. I’m saying, as a fellow ‘Transmigrator,’ let’s form an alliance."

"An alliance…"

"You have no way out either. After that [Thousand Pound Weight] incident, Aaron already knows your identity. He’ll come for you soon."

"…"

Then—

As if she had made up her mind—

"My name is…"

She opened her mouth.

"My ‘real’ name is ■■■■■."

"…?"

…Huh?

…What?