I Became A Side Character Fated To Suffer-Chapter 35:Austin’s Horror

"In the end... all of you are merely stepping stones."

His voice lost any softness now, and it turned cold and absolute.

"Tools to carve a path toward something far greater."

He turned slightly and looked back at the Devil’s Seed, and his expression carried obsession.

"...A new order."

The chamber seemed to grow darker, and the crimson glow intensified.

For a brief moment, Rico’s shadow behind him did not match his form. It twisted and expanded, and something far more sinister seemed to move within it.

"And when it’s complete..."

His voice dropped to a whisper.

"...even the gods will kneel."

Silence followed, and it felt heavy and suffocating.

Then Rico chuckled, and the sound was low and controlled.

Utterly inhuman.

Far above, in the world of the living, the chaos continued without pause.

...

"Ugh... my ribs..."

"Who the hell punches like that..."

"I think my soul left my body..."

At the center of this battlefield of injured people stood Instructor Aesa, her arms crossed tightly across her chest and her expression dark enough to frighten even the healers.

Her sharp eyes burned with restrained fury as they slowly swept across the rows of injured cadets. Every bandage she saw made the vein on her forehead twitch a little harder. Finally, her gaze shifted toward the one person standing calmly in front of her as if none of this chaos had anything to do with him.

Austin.

Aesa looked around the infirmary again, taking in the full scene of destruction. Then she slowly turned her head back toward Austin. Then to the beds again. Then back to him. The silence in the room became so heavy that even the groaning cadets quieted down, sensing the storm that was about to break. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"...Austin."

Her voice came out frighteningly calm.

Austin immediately raised both hands defensively, as if surrendering before a judge.

"Listen—"

Aesa suddenly pointed toward the rows of injured cadets behind her. "Why," she began slowly, her finger moving from bed to bed, "is half of my class in the infirmary?"

Then her voice exploded like a cannon blast.

"WHY IS HALF OF MY CLASS IN THE INFIRMARY?!"

Several injured cadets flinched so violently that one nearly rolled off his bed. A healer dropped a bottle of medicine with a small clatter. The entire room froze.

Austin rubbed the back of his head with a helpless expression and sighed. "Stop accusing me falsely... I didn’t send it to everyone."

Aesa’s eye twitched dangerously.

"Oh really?"

"Yes really," Austin replied calmly, as if defending a perfectly reasonable argument. Then he lazily gestured toward the open door behind them. "There is still that black puppy and red chicken out there."

For a moment, the room fell silent.

Aesa blinked in confusion and tilted her head. "Huh? Who?"

Just then the infirmary door creaked open.

CLACK.

A tall boy slowly walked inside while limping slightly. His black hair was messy from battle, his cold eyes looked completely unfazed, and his uniform was torn in several places. It was Elderic.

Behind him followed a red-haired girl whose clothes were covered in soot and scorch marks, her expression irritated enough to set the entire room on fire again.

Elderic paused when he noticed Aesa and Austin standing near the entrance. He glanced at Austin, then at Aesa, and sighed as if he had already predicted this exact situation.

"Instructor," he said calmly while rubbing his bruised shoulder, "thanks for upgrading our status to puppy and chicken from chicks. It’s truly a great honor."

He limped past them toward an empty bed.

"But it would be even better if you remembered our names."

The red-haired girl walked past Austin and shot him a glare that could probably melt steel. "If I’m the chicken," she muttered irritably, "then you must be the butcher."

Austin grinned without missing a beat. "Correction. I’m the chef."

"You are dead next time we fight."

"Get in line."

At that exact moment—

POP.

A thick vein bulged violently on Aesa’s forehead. Then another. And another. The healers nearby slowly took several cautious steps backward, sensing the incoming disaster. Even the injured cadets instinctively pulled their blankets higher as if hiding from an explosion.

Aesa slowly turned her head toward Austin, her face twisting with rage.

"You..."

Her finger trembled as she pointed at him.

"You absolute brain-rotted, battle-addicted lunatic!"

Austin blinked, looking mildly offended. "That’s a bit harsh."

"Harsh?!" Aesa pointed dramatically toward the rows of injured cadets. "You sent Eighty-THREE CADETS here!"

Austin immediately raised a finger with a confident expression.

"Correction."

The room froze.

"Seventy nine."

Aesa stared at him as if her brain had stopped processing information. "...What?"

"Two of them fainted from fear before I even touched them and two of them didn’t fight." Austin explained helpfully.

Several cadets buried their faces in pillows. Someone wheezed violently while trying to suppress laughter. Even a healer had to turn away for a moment.

Aesa stared at Austin in complete disbelief, clearly debating whether academy regulations allowed instructors to strangle visiting fighters.

Austin simply shrugged.

"Look on the bright side."

"There is no bright side!"

"Of course there is," Austin replied calmly, pointing toward the exhausted healers moving between the beds. "They are getting excellent practical experience today."

One healer in the corner subconsciously nodded in agreement before immediately freezing when Aesa slowly turned her head toward him.

"...Ignore that," the healer muttered quickly while pretending to check someone’s bandage.

Aesa inhaled deeply.

Then exhaled slowly.

And then she began unleashing curses at Austin with the creativity of a seasoned battlefield commander.

"You reckless idiot... mana-brained barbarian... walking catastrophe... battle-crazed menace...!"

Austin stood there patiently, listening as if receiving valuable feedback from a supervisor. When she finally paused to catch her breath, he tilted his head slightly.

"Are you done, or is there a second round?"

The vein on Aesa’s forehead pulsed violently.

"You are banned from sparring for a week."

Austin froze in horror.

...

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