The academy’s curfew was 10 p.m.

It was a rule that the academy made reasonably, since it could affect the sleeping time of other students if they returned at dawn after wandering around until late at night.

The academy students were also spending their daily lives accustomed to finishing all their work before 10pm and returning to their dormitories.

Of course, it wasn’t impossible to get out of the dorm before 10 o’clock if you wanted to.

Anyway, I didn’t recommend it because there were no stores open anyway.

Therefore, students who did not return to the dormitory after 10 p.m. had to make at least one corner to believe.

A friend or lover who will put you to bed after 10pm.

Or the annoying chore you can’t finish even if you stay up all night.

Of course, what I prepared for tonight was the second, not the first.

Although they came out two hours earlier than the promised time of 11:00 p.m., standing in front of the place where they were supposed to meet for several hours would look suspicious to passers-by.

I’m not a student at the pension department, and I don’t have any acquaintances at the pension department.

Above all, there was a possibility that today’s operation itself would not work if it showed suspicious movements and caught Professor Heims’ attention.

In the end, I moved to the meeting place just in time for the human being to disappear completely.

Saint Claire and Willia arrived first and appeared to be waiting for me.

“hello.”

“hello.”

After exchanging greetings lightly so as not to be noticed, I immediately removed the cover of the secret passage at the back of the Ministry of Pensions building.

As soon as the unnaturally covered grass and tree branches were removed, a thick iron plate hidden underneath appeared.

I put my hand in a small groove in the iron plate and pushed it aside, revealing a long ladder leading to the basement.

“… … !”

Miss Willia seemed to already know, but Saint Claire, who first discovered the secret passage, looked a bit surprised.

Surprisingly, even if you do it like this, it’s seldom noticed.

Besides, since Professor Hemes was in charge of the maintenance of the surrounding yard, no one was likely to come in and dig up the lawn.

“Before I go in, I’ll bring the fate of drowsiness to Professor Hemes.”

St. Claire immediately prayed and looked like she was going to do what she had been doing until now, but I grabbed her gathered hands and shook my head right away.

“Don’t do it, Saint Claire.”

“Yeah?”

“Most beings intoxicated with dark magic gain the power to resist primal necessities such as food and sleep. So, I recommend that you do not waste your energy and save it.”

“Even if you belong to the Dark Church, there is only one thing, right? Wouldn’t it be better to give it a try?”

“It might be, but you might find it odd. If a being who doesn’t normally sleep suddenly has a desire to sleep in his head, wouldn’t he feel something out of place?”

“… I know.”

Fortunately, St. Claire, who correctly understood my meaning, stopped praying by dropping her hands together.

“I will enter first.”

“it’s okay? Mr. Conrad is a wizard. Wouldn’t it be better for Willia, who is in the front line, to go down first, just in case?”

“I’m the only one out of the three who’ve ever dealt with the Dark Church, and above all, I’m stronger than Miss Willia in close combat, so it’s okay.”

“… … .”

The face of the escort knight turned a little gloomy, but in the end it was a fact that I had to admit.

Even against the Dark Church, claiming that I am stronger. There was no time to listen to trivial foolishness.

So, it was decided to enter in the order of me first, then Saint Clare, and finally Miss Willia, who had to close the passageway door and come down.

After climbing the long ladder leading to the basement and relying on the dim light, quietly descend to the depth of the second basement floor.

When Saint Claire’s feet touched the basement floor, she heard the sound of something creeping up against the wall.

‘Dada, dadat. All, all, all.’

It was the sound of several legs crawling along the wall alternately, like the sound of insects crawling, but it felt a little heavy to be a sound made by spiders or cockroaches.

“What, what is it?”

“Please step back, saintess.”

I focused my senses in the dark and sensed the identity of the approaching guy.

It was a very shallow sense, but I could definitely feel the magical response, and I prepared magic to kill the guy who was quickly approaching.

In the dark, the moment I thought the guy’s presence was close enough, I aimed the wind blade created at my fingertips precisely in the direction of the guy’s path.

Ugh. With an unpleasant sound like something splitting, something split in two from the ceiling right in front of me.

A human male head was attached to the neck of the huge bug-type monster that split from chest to belly instead of what should have been.

“Ugh… !”

“Huh… !”

As soon as she saw the substance of the test subject reflected in the dim light, not only Saint Clare but also Miss Willia showed a surprised look.

It was probably the first time I’d ever encountered a chimera-type monster like this.

I also struggled for a while with the memory of the first time we met, but as the place is the place, the shock of the two can be guessed.

“You’ve held up well.”

However, Saint Claire immediately blocked the leaking screams with both hands, so it was not enough to praise her.

If she had screamed like a girl, she would have had to deal with dozens of monsters of this type at once.

The operation of causing a commotion and entering secretly would also be a waste.

I felt sorry for not being able to say anything in advance because I was afraid it would look suspicious, but it seems that I was able to endure it to some extent thanks to my history of dealing with criminals in back alleys several times.

“Seo, I can’t believe the reason Professor Hemes has been buying slaves until now… .”

“They will do anything for their own pleasure. As far as I know, it is.”

This gruesome and cruel chimera was also born simply because of Professor Hemes’ prank.

If the killing of an apostle of the Dark Cult is delayed by a week, at least one victim will die a terrible end in this way.

No, most of them were waiting for a future where death would be considered fortunate.

Once again, I used the wind blade to completely separate the remaining head from the insect’s body.

The guy, who had been wriggling as if he had been alive for a while even after half of his body was cut, stopped moving only after his head and body were separated.

“It looks like you both have practical experience, so I have only one piece of advice for you.”

“what is that?”

“… What is your advice?”

“In the situation that will come before your eyes from now on, never hesitate.”

At the same time as I finished my words, a bizarre chimera began crawling out from beyond the wall again.

It was a human woman with the legs of a reindeer, the arms of a bear, and the head of a shark.

That alone was enough to anger Professor Hemes, but there was something else that made my blood boil.

The body of the monster, whose limbs and head were all replaced with other ones, had a badge proving that it was an academy student.

A blue badge to prove that you are a student at the Ministry of Pensions.

I knew that he was buying slaves and consuming them as his own test subjects, but I never thought he was using his students as well for his experiments.

I thought it was a rumor that students from the Pensions Department, a department not related to combat, often went missing, but I didn’t think that the reality would be such a result.

With the sound of the heavy sword slicing through the flesh, the chimera’s head separated from its body and flew away.

It wasn’t something I did. I was still preparing my magic.

It was the result of Willia coming forward and swinging her sword without hesitation as soon as she saw the monster in front of her.

“… Killing all these creatures as quickly as possible would be a tribute to those who fell.”

“That’s right.”

Willia, who correctly understood what I said, immediately took the lead and began slaughtering the chimeras one by one.

When I am also presenting the only peace I can give to the poor victims who appear in front of me, always looking in the opposite direction she is looking.

“… Please save me!”

As soon as a voice other than ours was heard, the eyes of the three turned immediately in the direction of the voice.

As far as our eyes could see, a woman with the body of a griffin and the head of a human woman was appealing to us with a pleading voice.

“Save me, please!”

“… Yeah?”

“My body was made like this by Professor Haymes! please get my body back! my… bar… .”

hooked Willia used her luminous strike directly at the chimera’s hesitant heart.

The woman who had the body of a griffin could not finish her words and laid her huge body on the floor.

“Didn’t I tell you not to hesitate?”

“… sorry.”

Willia also immediately recognized the mistake she had made and expressed a small apology to me.

I thought that I might hesitate again in the future, so I told the two of them a small truth that could lessen their conscience.

“There’s no hope of surviving since he’s already become like that, but I’ll tell you how to tell the difference between a guy who still has reason and a guy who doesn’t.”

“Yeah?”

“If there is a Chimera that still has human reason, I will never speak like that.”

A hundred if a hundred.

Among the experimental subjects created by the Dark Church, all those who had at least a little bit of reason had something in common.

“Keep in mind that if you have enough reason to talk, you’ll ask to kill yourself anyway, and you won’t spit out the words to save yourself.”

“… … .”

“… … .”

Whether it’s a being with human reason remaining somehow, or a monster whose soul has already been eroded and can’t feel anything.

The only way to save them was death.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Together with the two who completely lost their hesitation, they slain the remaining chimeras and moved deep into the hallway.

At first, even one or two monsters appeared, but as time went on, several monsters came out and attacked at once.

It seemed that Professor Hemes, having noticed the existence of the intruder, was engaging in an all-out war in earnest.

Of course, even if that was the case, the crisis that felt like my life was in danger had not yet appeared.

Poo-wook. Another fusion was knocked down by Willia’s sword, and three exploded simultaneously with my magic on the other side.

Originally, without me, the two of them would have reached the place where Professor Hemes was, somehow.

One more person has been added to that, so it would be even weirder to not be able to break through in time.

Even if she wasn’t as strong as Miss Willia was a member of the subjugation party, at least she wasn’t strong enough to become a burden.

“Ha, ha, ha.”

“Would you like to rest a little?”

“Fine… It is.”

Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t tired.

Aside from swinging a heavy sword for nearly an hour, cutting down guys who looked like half-humans was quite mentally exhausting.

Fortunately, Professor Inje Heims’ room was right in front of him, which also meant that Miss Willia’s help was no longer needed.

I passed her without hesitation and moved to the vanguard.

Killing Professor Hemes and ending the case was all I had to do.

“Please step back.”

He used weak-powered explosion magic toward the door that he believed would contain Professor Heims.

It was deep underground, and since this was the Ministry of Alchemy building, strong magic could not be used, but magic powerful enough to break down the door.

After the wooden door shattered and flew away with the sound of an explosion, the silhouette of a male professor wearing glasses was slowly revealed beyond the door.

“Today’s test subject delivery is a bit noisy. It doesn’t seem to be ‘packaged’ properly.”

“… Haymes.”

“Still, as long as the condition of the goods is satisfactory, I will bear with it. In particular, it seems that a precious specimen that is born only once in a few hundred years has arrived.”

Professor Haymes fidgeted with the mechanism in his hand and pressed one of the two buttons with his thumb.

At the same time, I felt the floor rumble and vibrate, and immediately figured out that the wall behind me had fallen and blocked my path.

Maybe it was because we were worried that we would run away in the middle if we were at a disadvantage.

From my point of view, he seemed rather confined to himself.

“What kind of animal do you three want to be? Yeah?”

“An animal that will turn you into corpse mush.”

I didn’t even think about running away from the moment I first came here anyway.