After wrapping up my secret meeting with Mika in the library, I walked across the academy's vast grounds with heavy steps. The sun had already set, and the school buildings were illuminated by magical lights. My head was completely filled with the worst possible report I now had to deliver to my friends: an assassination.

  Stepping into the massive student cafeteria, the usual chaotic clamor enveloped me. The smell of warm food and the laughter of students filled the air. Just a few hours ago, I thought I was a part of this peaceful scene too. But now, I had literally become someone marked for death.

  I scanned the spacious cafeteria and quickly spotted the familiar trio: the Summoner Squad, consisting of Celine, Vivian, and Mara. They had staked out their usual spot and were eagerly discussing something while picking at their dinner of roast meat.

  Taking a deep breath, I approached their table, trying my best to feign composure.

  "Hey, Nyx! Over here!" Celine waved cheerfully, her blonde hair swaying.

  “What happened earlier? Why did you leave so abruptly?” Vivienne smiled, narrowing her intelligent eyes behind her glasses.

  "Have you eaten yet? If not, go grab something," Mara offered with a hearty laugh.

  Seeing their innocent smiles, it pained me to realize just how much the truth I was about to tell them would shatter their peaceful daily lives. But keeping it a secret wasn't an option.

  "Guys, I'm sorry," I said, keeping my voice as low as possible. "But we need to get out of here and change locations right now."

  "What's wrong? You look so serious," Celine asked, tilting her head.

  "There's something I absolutely have to tell you. In a completely safe place where no one can hear us."

  Perhaps sensing the gravity of my demeanor, the trio's expressions immediately shifted. Being daughters of nobles, they were adept at reading the room. They promptly abandoned their meals, and together, we left the cafeteria. We headed to Celine's private quarters in the East Wing. Since she was the daughter of the Monclair, a powerful sponsor family, she was provided with a room far more luxurious and private than those of the other students.

  We closed the heavy wooden door and locked it securely. After watching Vivienne quickly set up anti-perception and soundproofing magical wards in the four corners of the room, I sat down on the sofa in the center. The three of them sat across from me, waiting for my next words with tense expressions.

  "Actually..." I gripped my hands tightly together in my lap. "A little while ago, my life was targeted by an assassin."

  The moment those words dropped into the room, their reactions split drastically.

  "Huh!?" Mara was the first to raise an angry voice. "An assassin!? Inside the Royal Magic Academy!?"

  She sprang up like a coiled spring and began pacing around the room, unable to hide her frustration. "What the hell is going on with this academy's security!? A student gets targeted for death in broad daylight… what kind of a joke is that!? Were the guards sleeping!?"

  Mara's face was flushed red with anger as she made a gesture to reach for the sword at her waist, which she had taken off since we were indoors, but her hand subconsciously searched for the hilt. Her anger was entirely on my behalf, and that fierce friendship warmed my cold heart just a little.

  Vivienne, on the other hand, widened her eyes and gasped for a moment but quickly regained her usual composure. Because she knew I was a powerful demon, she perfectly understood the implication of me sitting here without a single scratch.

  "The fact that you're safe means... you fought them off?" Vivienne looked at me searchingly. "But wait. The opponent was a professional assassin, right? Didn't it cause a commotion? And where is that assassin now... did you let them escape? Or..."

  "I killed him," I answered flatly, trying to keep as much emotion out of my voice as possible. "I took his head, and the body is hidden inside my [Shadow Inventory]."

  "Shadow Inventory!?"

  In an instant, the look in Vivienne's eyes switched from worry and fear to pure, enthusiastic academic curiosity. "Wait a minute, is that a type of high-tier dimensional storage magic you used to store your weapon? But how are you storing a biological corpse!? Normally, storing organic matter with mass in a sub-space for a long period causes its magical structure to collapse. Is time stopped inside? Or is it a delay effect? How are you bypassing the law of conservation of mass? Ah, you must explain the foundational structure of that spell to me later..."

  "Vivi, this isn't the time for that!" I reflexively retorted, bringing her back to her senses.

  "Ah, sorry. I couldn't help it," she said, giving a small cough.

  And then, there was Celine.

  For a while, she just sat there stunned, as if she had been listening to a completely incomprehensible language. But eventually, all emotion vanished from her beautiful face, replaced by a cold look of rage.

  "To attempt to assassinate a student under the protection of the Monclair family... a student whose identity my own father guaranteed." Celine's voice was quiet, but beneath it boiled the unwavering pride of an old noble house. "This isn't just harassment. It's a clear declaration of war against my family, and the ultimate insult. Who sent them?"

  "I don't have definitive proof, but... it was probably Penelope Ashworth," I replied. "The assassin hinted at it right before they died."

  Penelope was the dangerous central figure of the traditionalist faction in the academy, and the main ringleader behind the insidious bullying Enid and I had faced so far.

  "The Ashworth family..." Celine crossed her arms, deep in thought. "It is definitely abnormal. Until now, she preferred underhanded, petty social sanctions, like scattering chalk dust on a desk or spilling ink. Leaping straight from that to the ultimate extreme of assassination is entirely too unnatural. It's not like her."

  "Why does she want to kill me that badly?" I held my head in my hands. "Is it because of my half-demon facade? Or because I'm in the way of the traditionalists?"

  "That alone is too weak a reason," Vivienne began analyzing, a hand on her chin. "Assassination carries an enormous financial cost and huge political risk if it fails. I can only assume she either sees you as a definitive threat, or there is some massive plot moving behind the scenes that we don't know about."

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  "Either way, it's utter crap," Mara spat out. "The problem is what we do next. They might send more assassins."

  From there, we spent several tens of minutes discussing various possibilities and countermeasures. However, none led to a decisive breakthrough. To learn Penelope's true intentions and completely seal off her next moves, we would have to disrupt and dismantle the Ashworth family's powerful information network and financial resources. But for a mere student, even if one of them was a demon with overwhelming power, to accomplish that was, realistically speaking, an extremely difficult path.

  "Still, we have no choice but to do it," Mara said, clenching her fists and looking at me with eyes full of strong resolve. "We aren't just classmates anymore. We're in this together."

  "Exactly. Cowering in silence in the face of an assassination threat would be a disgrace to the Moncler name," Celine agreed forcefully.

  "First, let's start drafting a detailed strategy on how to outsmart their information network. Thoroughly," Vivienne said with a serious expression, pulling out fresh parchment and a quill.

  Watching my reliable friends, I felt the burden on my shoulders lighten just a little. I still had many secrets, and the situation was hopelessly complex. But at the very least, I had comrades willing to fight alongside me like this.

  We stayed right there and began drafting our very first strategy to strike back.

  Leaving Celine's luxurious private room behind, I walked alone down the academy's dead-silent hallways.

  The Royal Magic Academy is beautiful at night. Moonlight filtering through stained glass and the pale magical lights illuminating the corridors at regular intervals cast long shadows against the majestic stone walls. If I were still on Earth, I would have been absolutely thrilled by this scene straight out of a fantasy RPG. But right now, to me, even this silence felt like nothing more than a terrifying stage where a new assassin could leap out from anywhere.

  In my head, the overly dense events of just this single day swirled around like a broken merry-go-round.

  "Huff..."

  I let out a deep sigh, leaning slightly against the cold stone wall, letting its chilly sensation seep into my horned forehead.

  Basically, they firmly believe that I am the "reincarnation of the Demon Lord." In that case, even if clearing up this misunderstanding is already physically impossible, shouldn't I just make the most of my position of absolute power as the Demon Lord?

  If I just gave a single order, like, "Do not look for the Saint," or "Do not kill anyone", they should bow down and obey. It seems like an incredibly advantageous card, enough to flip the whole board.

  However, reality isn't that sweet. What would happen if I ordered them not to kill the Saint? With their flawless intellects and fanatical loyalty, they would look puzzled for a split second before immediately and favorably twisting my words: "I see! You intend to let the Saint live and swim freely, causing the Church to rot and collapse from the inside! It is the profound stratagem of our King! Our shallow minds could never have comprehended it!"

  It's a guarantee. It's been like this all along. Even my minor mistakes or comments born purely out of laziness have been mistaken for parts of a genius master plan. This misunderstood mastermind status wasn't convenient at all; it was a curse where my true intentions never got across.

  Still... at the very least, issuing an order to refrain from direct assassination should buy some temporary time. Besides, back in the library, Mika had admitted that her friendship with Enid was genuine, even if it has strategic value. Even for a ruthless pragmatist like Mika, who felt zero guilt about using people as political pawns, she wouldn't actively want to kill a friend if she had other options.

  But as my thoughts spun, a new, massive cause for concern surfaced in my mind.

  General Diablo. The other Demon General, whom I hadn't even met face-to-face yet. According to Mika, he was extremely skilled at infiltration. Twenty years ago, he murdered the real Duke Andras and completely took his place using advanced transformation magic involving cellular-level physical changes. What's more, he's a remarkably cold-blooded man who would casually publicly execute even his own allied demon spies just to maintain his perfect cover.

  Even if I directly ordered him not to kill the Saint, would a ruthless man like that obediently comply? I know absolutely nothing about his personality or his thought process. There's a very real possibility that he would take it upon himself to secretly interpret it as, 'True loyalty means secretly removing obstacles for our King whose memories are incomplete,' and come to assassinate Enid anyway. My orders to Mika were ultimately just a temporary band-aid; they weren't a fundamental solution.

  As I kept walking, my thoughts drifted to another, darker, unfathomable place.

  Just a few hours ago, in a deserted old hallway, I had strung up the professional assassin tailing me upside down and killed him.

  The problem wasn't so much the fact that I had killed a person, but rather my emotions immediately afterward.

  I hadn't felt an ounce of guilt, fear, or disgust. There was only an eerie sense of satisfaction and quietness, akin to brushing away an annoying bug.

  Back on Earth, I was an ordinary person who would almost faint just from seeing blood. But now taking a life didn't stir a single emotion in me. It felt as though my mind was being dragged down by the specs of this High Demon body, steadily losing its humanity and mutating into a true demon.

  Suddenly, a terrifyingly rational logic crossed my mind.

  If I could kill a human who tried to kill me without feeling any emotion... conversely, if it was for the sake of protecting my precious friends, even if I were to massacre all of those fanatical demon generals, wouldn't that be something acceptable to me?

  ...Right?

  If I just erased them before they tried to kill Enid, wouldn't all the problems be solved?

  "Ugh..."

  I reflexively stopped in my tracks and shook my head hard, forcefully brushing off that incredibly dangerous train of thought. No good, everything is getting way too complicated. I was just supposed to want a quiet, peaceful, and lazy academy life. So why am I standing at the center of such a blood-soaked conspiracy?

  Anyway, right now I need to focus on the problem in front of me. Enid. She had completely bought into the lie Mika made up on the spot about a secret underground resistance organization opposing the traditionalists, and, of all things, begged to join it. It was like the holy weapon sent by the Goddess to destroy demons was voluntarily sending her resume to the demonic conspiracy organization trying to kill her. You couldn't find such intense irony even in a third-rate comedy.

  Should I welcome her into the organization (which was actually a gathering of demons) and keep her under surveillance close at hand, or coldly push her away and distance her somehow? I had to make a decision as soon as possible.

  Trudging heavily down the East Wing corridor, I finally caught sight of the heavy door to my room, Room 347. I pictured the faces of Freya and Maribel, those bothersome and noisy roommates of mine. The bickering between a 54-year-old elf and an efficiency-obsessed human genius seemed like a symbol of peace now. Feeling like I could return to my everyday life just a little, the tension in my shoulders began to release.

  That was when it happened.

  From out of the dim shadows at the end of the hallway, a single figure unexpectedly stepped forward.

  I flinched and stopped. The person's face was illuminated by the pale magical light, and I unconsciously held my breath.

  Perfectly styled blond hair, flawlessly refined movements, and an overwhelmingly imposing presence that anyone could tell belonged to the highest of noble bloodlines. He was one of the main cast members in this otome game-like world, and the man with the highest probability of being chosen by the Church in the future as the Hero to subjugate the Demon Lord.

  Prince Mathias…?

  Why was he in the hallway of the girls' dormitory at this late hour, without even a guard?

  "Nyx Shadowmare."

  The prince called my name quietly, but with a tone that brooked no argument, unique to royalty.

  "...Your Highness? What are you doing in a place like this, so late at night..."

  I straightened my back and hurriedly performed a perfect aristocratic curtsy as I asked. He stared straight at me with a serious, somewhat frantic look in his eyes.

  "Forgive me. But I absolutely had to speak with you alone. It is a matter of utmost urgency."