Chapter 17 - Dekan Searches For A Victim

“Cornelia, follow me.”

Although he was the first person to flee the exam room, Dekan was not in a hurry to flee with Cornelia.

Instead, he brought Cornelia to the corner of a nearby hallway and hid there.

They waited till more demon students fled the classroom. Only then did Dekan and Cornelia start following the demons.

It was very probable for there to be dangers present in the hallway. It was better to follow the demon students and have them scout ahead.

Dekan and Cornelia followed the crowd through the maze-like hallway.

Whenever a split path appears, the students would split into different groups.

Dekan would always choose to follow the largest group of students.

If one doesn’t know where the important facilities such as the cafeteria or library were in a new school, it would be best to proceed toward the direction with the greatest number of people.

Of course, it was obvious that these demon students were not trying to find a place for food or to study.

From their appearance, it seemed that they were searching for a ‘place of refuge.’

They were scared to even run in the hallway. Instead, they were moving with rapid yet quiet and soft steps.

This made Dekan even more certain that it was dangerous to wantonly move about the hallway.

The only exception would be Cornelia.

She was the only student who left the exam room through regular means.

That red-colored demon ticket was most likely used to avoid the ‘danger’ in the hallway.

“Where are we going?”

Cornelia’s quiet voice sounded beside Dekan.

Her speech was extremely fluent. Merely, she can tell that she cannot speak with a loud voice.

“Just follow me.”

“Okay. Thanks for earlier.”

The Shadow Worlds had a mechanism that allowed all challengers to automatically speak the same language. Thus, even if one was to be teamed up with challengers from different nations or a Shadow World with a special sort of background narrative, one will not encounter any language barrier.

Cornelia seemed to be very happy after she discovered that she was able to fluently communicate with Dekan.

Communication was actually this much more liberating in the Shadow World than the real world.

“It’s nothing. I was quite good with the mechanisms of the first classroom. It might be your turn to handle things next.”

Dekan pondered for a bit before asking, “Speaking of it, what’s my current appearance?”

“You look about the same as before. Hmm… it seems like you look a bit better than before.”

Cornelia carefully thought about it before answering.

“...I have a rough idea what sort of demon I’ve become.”

Dekan didn’t want to say it.

But, frankly speaking, it might be useful.

“Are we not joining the other challengers?”

Cornelia asked.

“No, it’s more efficient for us to explore separately. It’s fine for the two of us to work together.”

The mission of this Shadow World was not for all six of the challengers to unite and take on together. Instead, it was a map exploration against time.

Dekan examined the current exploration progress on Mission Objective 1.

Although it was increasing, the speed of increase was extremely slow.

This meant that the exploration progress was not completely dependent on the surface area explored.

Perhaps the different locations in the Demon Academy weighted differently on the exploration rate. Perhaps the more dangerous a place is, the more the exploration rate will progress.

Furthermore…

Not completely trustworthy, not needed and not wanting to deal with them.

Those three reasons were more than enough justification for Dekan to not contact the other challengers right now.

Dekan does not want to encounter troublesome hindrances or bossy individuals.

It was enough for him to have the super enforcer Cornelia by his side.

He had done his utmost duty by assisting the other four challengers in rapidly leaving that exam room.

For now, he was not concerned with the state of affairs of the other challengers.

Dekan discovered that there were fewer and fewer demon students beside them. Most of the students had found classrooms along the way and hid themselves in them.

It was time to act.

Even if a demon student was to suddenly disappear now, the other demons will not notice it.

“Cornelia, go and invite a demon over to have a chat.”

“Gotcha.”

Cornelia suddenly sped up her pace. She grabbed the shoulder of a demon student ahead.

The demon student turned his head around abruptly. He looked at Cornelia angrily and was about to curse her out.

“What the f…”

It was then that he discovered that he was only able to turn his head around and not his body.

He wasn't able to move!

It was like a mountain was crushing his shoulder!

That was no pat on his shoulder at all, it was simply arresting him by the shoulder!

If she was to put more strength into her hand, his shoulder would be crushed!

Upon locking eyes with Cornelia, the demon student was scared speechless.

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Cornelia had a terrifyingly cold expression. Her overwhelming power brought him endless fear.

That guy behind her…

Was he not the culprit who caused the chaos in the exam room?!

These two people were actually behind me? Terrifying!

Dekan walked over to the demon student. With a gentle voice, he asked, “Why are you all fleeing?”

The demon student was furious to hear that question. Unfortunately, he didn’t dare express his anger.

If it’s not because of your bullshit, we would be able to pass time peacefully in the exam room. There’s no need for us to be this alarmed!

Although he was cursing in his heart, he could only answer obediently, “...it’s not yet time for classes to be dismissed. If we are to encounter the school director, we’ll be killed.”

Dekan: “Continue. When are classes dismissed?”

Demon student: “Classes run for an hour each and there’s a thirty minute rest period between classes. We are only allowed to move about the hallway during the rest period. There’s music signaling the beginning and ending of the classes.”

Dekan nodded.

No wonder the students were all searching for classes to hide in.

Skipping classes equates to death.

This academy was extremely strict with their rules.

His evaluation of the school increased.

That said, it seemed like what he did earlier had truly ruined the demon students that knew how to answer the questions on the exam.

To the demons, that exam room was a rather moderate game.

Originally, they were able to spend two hours long in the class and enjoy a thirty minute break in between before coming out.

But, their exam room was completely ruined by Dekan and they were forced to participate in other classrooms’ terrifying games.

No wonder this demon student looked like he wanted to kill me.

Dekan thought to himself.

Alas, there’s no end of virtuous achievements.

As Buddhism says, it’s not wicked to be wicked against demons.

“What sort of classroom is the one ahead?”

Dekan pointed to the room ahead.

They were standing in a rather ‘styled’ hallway.

Ancient oil lamps illuminated the various vivid and life-like demon portraits. It gave off a feeling of gracefulness within terror.

Onward, one could see a gorgeous carpet leading to the other end.

If Dekan guessed correctly, it should be a sort of fine arts classroom.

Perhaps it was a game relating to painting. If so, Dekan would be quite good at it.

Demon student: “That’s the cooking classroom.”

Dekan: “???”

Was there a need for the set surrounding a cooking classroom to be this stylish?

Was this the cooking classroom of an upper class demon?

“Forget it, let’s enter it.”

There were no longer many demon students still searching for a classroom to enter. If they were to continue walking down the hallway, it would become very dangerous.

Dekan began to walk toward the carpeted classroom.

The demon student wanted to quickly turn around and get away from these two bearers of ill luck. However, he discovered that Cornelia had no intention of releasing her grip.

Gradually, her hand was placed onto his arm and, like a captive, he was forced to move forward.

“Classmate, it is fate for us to run into each other. Let us proceed together.”

Dekan spoke with a smile.

That smile caused the demon student’s blood to run cold.

You two must be planning to use me as a cannon fodder!