CH 106

After carefully listening to their conversations, I learned about a few new interesting details.

Unlike the real life Swanhaden who was still the heir to the dukedom, dream Swanhaden had already taken on the position and was the duke. He first entered the school during senior academy, and it seemed like he was already a duke when he entered the academy.

“Poor blue class. Honestly, shouldn’t they just close down the academy?”

“Seriously. Why is the principal and the emperor just letting him roam free like this? There’s a psychopath walking around the academy where students are.”

“You know how the academy is. It feels like they’re crowding us all in one place instead of actually protecting us. Anyway, did you hear about what happened when that one blue class student accidentally got dragged in to an incident with the Blanche duke?”

“Yeah. It’s infamous. He cut off all of their arms and legs and counted down how long it took to find everything. His torso was just bouncing around the hallways like a bug. I couldn’t look. I just plugged my ears and ran away.”

“Seriously, can nobody punish him? Can’t they revoke his position?”

“Can’t. He’s not bound by law. He’s as much of a genius as he is a psycho so he’s good at playing with the rules. He’s good at taking care of things in the dark, too. He has a ton of accomplishments from warzones so nobody can do anything to him. Unless everyone who’s been harmed by him bands together or something.”

I questioned if I was listening to the truth as I listened to their conversations.

Cutting off arms and legs were just the start, and if anyone caught his eye he’d cruelly rip them into pieces or crush them and treat them to put them in pain, again and again. He would heal others, but he’d put them through incredible shame when he gave them his potions.

Apparently, there were a few forbidden phrases when it came to Swanhaden. It was ‘Please heal me.’ and ‘Please save me.’ Apparently, he would make them go through more pain if he heard it. For those who asked to be saved, he would do exactly as they asked and save them. But staying alive would be so painful that they would eventually say, ‘Please kill me.’ and beg for death, but he apparently refused to kill them until they went mad.

“Hey, hey, hey! Swanhaden’s over there!”

“He’s out of his mind. Let’s hurry back.”

The students pacing the dorm hallway all saw someone at the end of the corridor and rushed into their rooms. All of the students were gone in an instant. It became completely silent.

I could hear footsteps coming from the end of the hallway. With even steps, each footstep rang through the hallway. The hallway was so quiet that his footsteps rang clearly. It had been so loud just moments earlier, but silence enveloped the area with only the lone sound of footsteps accompanying it.

It just happened to be pouring outside while it had been drizzling just moments ago. I could hear the sound of water dripping with a tok, tok, and a light fixture momentarily blinked. Flies buzzed amidst the dim light. Suddenly, the light fixture let out a fizzing noise as the light became dimmer.

The footsteps I had heard from behind me grew louder and louder. If I turned around, I would see a familiar face. But I was, for some reason, scared to turn around.

It could have been because I had gotten scared after listening to the students’ conversations. But it was more so because I instinctively felt a terrible sense of danger. Chills ran down my spine for no reason.

I wouldn’t even be visible to him in the first place. Why was I so scared? I couldn’t remember it too well, but I tried to remember the original Swanhaden from the novel. He was an incredibly cruel person in the novel.

He didn’t think of people as living, feeling beings. He seemed to think of humans, including himself, as just a hunk of meat.

Anyway, I decided not to look at Swanhaden right now. If I turned around to stare at Swanhaden, it would be me looking at him face to face, and that scared me. I decided to walk forwards without looking back.

My actions right now were the equivalent of watching a horror movie and pausing the movie right when I thought the ghost was going to pop out in the screen. Yes, I was a coward.

I tried to return to Cory’s room without doing anything else. But I needed to go down a flight of stairs to get back to Cory’s room, and that meant that I had to pass by Swan.

I had no choice but to turn around. But I couldn’t even think of using magic because I didn’t have much energy these days.

If I could float around, I would float out of the window or something, but I couldn’t do that either. No, even if I could fly outside, it would be a bit too much for me to leave through the window.

Because even if people couldn’t see me, they would be able to see all of the things I did with other objects. If I opened the window, it would probably look like the window just opened by itself.

It was just a dream, but I was still incredibly limited in my actions. If I got hurt here, I just got a bad feeling that I would be injured in real life, too. Just like how my exhaustion here was the same in real life.

I had no choice but to turn around to face the oncoming Swanhaden.

Silver hair, almost white, gently swished with every step. It looked like he hadn’t cut his hair–his silvery white hair passed his shoulders to rest behind it. Real life Swanhaden had short hair and was a bit taller with wider shoulders, but dream Swanhaden was slightly thinner and more delicate. He was incredibly skinnier, too.

But regardless, his beauty still made people’s heads turn. I could see his jewel-colored eyes behind bangs that covered almost half of his face.

Once I was faced with Swanhaden, I couldn’t do anything but freeze on the spot.

He had an incredibly intimidating aura. I could see madness boiling behind his half-lidded eyes.

Swanhaden calmly walked as he whistled to himself, twirling a ring with sharp blades decorating both inside and outside of the ring. His ring sliced off his finger and his body immediately repaired it again and again. Swanhaden was completely calm, as if this didn’t cause him any sort of pain at all.

The Swanhaden from here didn’t hide any of his scars and instead left them out for everyone to see. The scars decorating his body looked much more serious than real life Swanhaden’s.

Swanhaden had one hand in his pocket as he whistled to himself. His jewel-colored eyes changed color as the light hit them from different angles, but all I could see behind it was intense madness.

I stopped walking and held my breath. The closer his footsteps became, the faster my heart beat.

“I wonder why it’s so empty here.”

A slow voice rang through the hall. Swanhaden, who was steadily walking towards me, muttered to himself.

I couldn’t just pass by him easily. The wind would blow and reach him, and I just had a feeling that he would notice me if he did that. Even if this was a dream and he wouldn’t be able to see me, I couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about this.

I hugged the wall as close as I could and waited for him to pass by me. Swanhaden slowly walked closer and closer to where I was, and he was just about to pass where I was. I held my breath, scared that he could hear me.

My heart pounded in my ears. He wouldn’t see me, it’s okay, Shushu. I whispered to myself in my head. But for some reason, I had a strange feeling that he would be able to see me. An uneasy, bad feeling crawled over me. I bit my lips uneasily.

“Mm?”

His footsteps soon paused right in front of me. He stood directly in front of me as he tilted his head in confusion.

Swanhaden was still twirling his ring without a second thought. He stopped twirling it and caught the blade with his hand. There was a bit of blood as the blades dug into his flesh, but it soon healed.

“Hmm……”

He rolled his eyes in thought for a moment before shoving his blade directly at me. The blue-edged blade landed exactly in front of my eyes. I covered my mouth with my hands. I almost screamed.

“I feel a strange type of magic somewhere around here……”

Swanhaden looked around as he quietly muttered to himself. He carefully peered at where I stood before retracting the ring and began twirling it between his fingers again.

There’s nothing there, was I wrong? He quietly said to himself. He soon lost interest in me and left. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and walked away.

I sighed in relief. I seriously missed Cory, even if he was completely lifeless. He was still the most normal. No, I missed my real friends, the ones outside of my dreams. I wanted to see them.

I sincerely felt like I had just come back to life after dying once. My heart continued to pound frantically in my chest. I seriously hoped that Swanhaden wasn’t the [him] that the note was talking about. I felt like I could kind of deal with all of the others somehow, but just being next to Swanhaden made me shake in fright.

I turned around to rush back to Cory’s room. My heart was pounding so much that my head felt like it was ringing. My entire body felt like it was running hot. I couldn’t think properly. The world felt like it was closing around me. Cold sweat rained down my body from the oppressive aura. I felt like the world was twisting and turning and like the floor would swallow me whole. I floundered for a moment before finding my balance again.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Swanhaden’s eyes from moments ago. Completely empty eyes that seemed to think, “Who should I rip apart?” I felt like I had spiders crawling in my mouth and down my spine. I couldn’t get the goosebumps to disappear. I rubbed my face into my hands.

I ran as fast as I could. My breaths were coming in pants and I wanted to throw up. I was a mess of sweat and tears and my mind felt blank. I could see the door and it was just when I began smiling in relief.

Thwack!

A loud noise rang out, and I stopped breathing as pain bloomed from the back of my head.

My orange hair covered my eyes as the force of whatever hit me pushed my head forward.

Pant, pant. Haak. Eugh. I panted as I spit out a glob of saliva. I spread my hands and scratched the ground.

I didn’t have enough energy to even notice that someone had attacked me from behind. It felt like someone had slammed something down on me from behind.

I couldn’t stand up after I fell. I tried to stand but someone from behind me pressed down my back with their foot.

When I slightly tilted my head up, Swanhaden was looking down at me with wide, empty eyes.

“Hello?”

The voice was coming from Swanhaden.

“Sorry, but black magic doesn’t work on me, so.”

I turned my head completely, still on the floor, to look at Swan. He tilted his head slightly as he looked towards me. His eyes were hazy and blank.

“If I ruin this magic circle here, would I be able to see you clearer?”

With narrowed eyes, Swanhaden tried to stab somewhere with his sharp ring. But he kept stabbing the floor because he couldn’t see me clearly.

He smiled uneasily. It seemed like he couldn’t see me completely. He wasn’t staring directly at me.

I tried my hardest to move, but I was almost completely out of strength and couldn’t retaliate. It was hard enough for me to bear the pain and hold onto my consciousness.

I tried to close my eyes as I wondered if I would wake up in reality if I lost consciousness here, but I couldn’t help but worry about Swanhaden over here. I couldn’t lose consciousness in front of Swanhaden. I had no idea what would happen next.

TL;DR: Swanhaden’s back on campus and has a history of cruel behavior towards other students in school–he cut off all four limbs of a student that was unfortunate enough to be chosen as Swan’s victim and timed him looking for his own limbs, etc. All the students are, rightfully, terrified.

Shuraina listens to all of the students and is shocked. She doesn’t want to see Swanhaden because she’s scared of him after everything she heard, but has to face him to go down the stairs to go back to Cory. His hair is longer here (past his shoulders), and he’s shorter, skinnier, and more delicate. He doesn’t hide his scars, which are more serious looking than in real life. His eyes are hidden behind his bangs, but they’re full of madness. He’s legitimately kind of crazy here.

Swanhaden notices Shuraina because of the black magic, and strikes her with something heavy on the back of her head. She’s on the floor as Swanhaden presses her down on the ground with his foot, and Shushu’s just about ready to pass out from her head injury but is scared to pass out because Swanhaden scares her.

After carefully listening to their conversations, I learned about a few new interesting details.

Unlike the real life Swanhaden who was still the heir to the dukedom, dream Swanhaden had already taken on the position and was the duke. He first entered the school during senior academy, and it seemed like he was already a duke when he entered the academy.

“Poor blue class. Honestly, shouldn’t they just close down the academy?”

“Seriously. Why is the principal and the emperor just letting him roam free like this? There’s a psychopath walking around the academy where students are.”

“You know how the academy is. It feels like they’re crowding us all in one place instead of actually protecting us. Anyway, did you hear about what happened when that one blue class student accidentally got dragged in to an incident with the Blanche duke?”

“Yeah. It’s infamous. He cut off all of their arms and legs and counted down how long it took to find everything. His torso was just bouncing around the hallways like a bug. I couldn’t look. I just plugged my ears and ran away.”

“Seriously, can nobody punish him? Can’t they revoke his position?”

I questioned if I was listening to the truth as I listened to their conversations.

Cutting off arms and legs were just the start, and if anyone caught his eye he’d cruelly rip them into pieces or crush them and treat them to put them in pain, again and again. He would heal others, but he’d put them through incredible shame when he gave them his potions.

Apparently, there were a few forbidden phrases when it came to Swanhaden. It was ‘Please heal me.’ and ‘Please save me.’ Apparently, he would make them go through more pain if he heard it. For those who asked to be saved, he would do exactly as they asked and save them. But staying alive would be so painful that they would eventually say, ‘Please kill me.’ and beg for death, but he apparently refused to kill them until they went mad.

“Hey, hey, hey! Swanhaden’s over there!”“He’s out of his mind. Let’s hurry back.”

The students pacing the dorm hallway all saw someone at the end of the corridor and rushed into their rooms. All of the students were gone in an instant. It became completely silent.

I could hear footsteps coming from the end of the hallway. With even steps, each footstep rang through the hallway. The hallway was so quiet that his footsteps rang clearly. It had been so loud just moments earlier, but silence enveloped the area with only the lone sound of footsteps accompanying it.

It just happened to be pouring outside while it had been drizzling just moments ago. I could hear the sound of water dripping with a tok, tok, and a light fixture momentarily blinked. Flies buzzed amidst the dim light. Suddenly, the light fixture let out a fizzing noise as the light became dimmer.

The footsteps I had heard from behind me grew louder and louder. If I turned around, I would see a familiar face. But I was, for some reason, scared to turn around.

It could have been because I had gotten scared after listening to the students’ conversations. But it was more so because I instinctively felt a terrible sense of danger. Chills ran down my spine for no reason.

I wouldn’t even be visible to him in the first place. Why was I so scared? I couldn’t remember it too well, but I tried to remember the original Swanhaden from the novel. He was an incredibly cruel person in the novel.

He didn’t think of people as living, feeling beings. He seemed to think of humans, including himself, as just a hunk of meat.

Anyway, I decided not to look at Swanhaden right now. If I turned around to stare at Swanhaden, it would be me looking at him face to face, and that scared me. I decided to walk forwards without looking back.

My actions right now were the equivalent of watching a horror movie and pausing the movie right when I thought the ghost was going to pop out in the screen. Yes, I was a coward.

I tried to return to Cory’s room without doing anything else. But I needed to go down a flight of stairs to get back to Cory’s room, and that meant that I had to pass by Swan.

I had no choice but to turn around. But I couldn’t even think of using magic because I didn’t have much energy these days.

If I could float around, I would float out of the window or something, but I couldn’t do that either. No, even if I could fly outside, it would be a bit too much for me to leave through the window.

Because even if people couldn’t see me, they would be able to see all of the things I did with other objects. If I opened the window, it would probably look like the window just opened by itself.

It was just a dream, but I was still incredibly limited in my actions. If I got hurt here, I just got a bad feeling that I would be injured in real life, too. Just like how my exhaustion here was the same in real life.

I had no choice but to turn around to face the oncoming Swanhaden.

Silver hair, almost white, gently swished with every step. It looked like he hadn’t cut his hair–his silvery white hair passed his shoulders to rest behind it. Real life Swanhaden had short hair and was a bit taller with wider shoulders, but dream Swanhaden was slightly thinner and more delicate. He was incredibly skinnier, too.

But regardless, his beauty still made people’s heads turn. I could see his jewel-colored eyes behind bangs that covered almost half of his face.

Once I was faced with Swanhaden, I couldn’t do anything but freeze on the spot.

He had an incredibly intimidating aura. I could see madness boiling behind his half-lidded eyes.

Swanhaden calmly walked as he whistled to himself, twirling a ring with sharp blades decorating both inside and outside of the ring. His ring sliced off his finger and his body immediately repaired it again and again. Swanhaden was completely calm, as if this didn’t cause him any sort of pain at all.

The Swanhaden from here didn’t hide any of his scars and instead left them out for everyone to see. The scars decorating his body looked much more serious than real life Swanhaden’s.

Swanhaden had one hand in his pocket as he whistled to himself. His jewel-colored eyes changed color as the light hit them from different angles, but all I could see behind it was intense madness.

I stopped walking and held my breath. The closer his footsteps became, the faster my heart beat.

“I wonder why it’s so empty here.”

A slow voice rang through the hall. Swanhaden, who was steadily walking towards me, muttered to himself.

I couldn’t just pass by him easily. The wind would blow and reach him, and I just had a feeling that he would notice me if he did that. Even if this was a dream and he wouldn’t be able to see me, I couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about this.

I hugged the wall as close as I could and waited for him to pass by me. Swanhaden slowly walked closer and closer to where I was, and he was just about to pass where I was. I held my breath, scared that he could hear me.

My heart pounded in my ears. He wouldn’t see me, it’s okay, Shushu. I whispered to myself in my head. But for some reason, I had a strange feeling that he would be able to see me. An uneasy, bad feeling crawled over me. I bit my lips uneasily.

“Mm?”

His footsteps soon paused right in front of me. He stood directly in front of me as he tilted his head in confusion.

Swanhaden was still twirling his ring without a second thought. He stopped twirling it and caught the blade with his hand. There was a bit of blood as the blades dug into his flesh, but it soon healed.

“Hmm……”

He rolled his eyes in thought for a moment before shoving his blade directly at me. The blue-edged blade landed exactly in front of my eyes. I covered my mouth with my hands. I almost screamed.

“I feel a strange type of magic somewhere around here……”

Swanhaden looked around as he quietly muttered to himself. He carefully peered at where I stood before retracting the ring and began twirling it between his fingers again.

There’s nothing there, was I wrong? He quietly said to himself. He soon lost interest in me and left. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and walked away.

I sighed in relief. I seriously missed Cory, even if he was completely lifeless. He was still the most normal. No, I missed my real friends, the ones outside of my dreams. I wanted to see them.

I sincerely felt like I had just come back to life after dying once. My heart continued to pound frantically in my chest. I seriously hoped that Swanhaden wasn’t the [him] that the note was talking about. I felt like I could kind of deal with all of the others somehow, but just being next to Swanhaden made me shake in fright.

I turned around to rush back to Cory’s room. My heart was pounding so much that my head felt like it was ringing. My entire body felt like it was running hot. I couldn’t think properly. The world felt like it was closing around me. Cold sweat rained down my body from the oppressive aura. I felt like the world was twisting and turning and like the floor would swallow me whole. I floundered for a moment before finding my balance again.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Swanhaden’s eyes from moments ago. Completely empty eyes that seemed to think, “Who should I rip apart?” I felt like I had spiders crawling in my mouth and down my spine. I couldn’t get the goosebumps to disappear. I rubbed my face into my hands.

I ran as fast as I could. My breaths were coming in pants and I wanted to throw up. I was a mess of sweat and tears and my mind felt blank. I could see the door and it was just when I began smiling in relief.

Thwack!

A loud noise rang out, and I stopped breathing as pain bloomed from the back of my head.

My orange hair covered my eyes as the force of whatever hit me pushed my head forward.

Pant, pant. Haak. Eugh. I panted as I spit out a glob of saliva. I spread my hands and scratched the ground.

I didn’t have enough energy to even notice that someone had attacked me from behind. It felt like someone had slammed something down on me from behind.

I couldn’t stand up after I fell. I tried to stand but someone from behind me pressed down my back with their foot.

When I slightly tilted my head up, Swanhaden was looking down at me with wide, empty eyes.

“Hello?”

The voice was coming from Swanhaden.

“Sorry, but black magic doesn’t work on me, so.”

I turned my head completely, still on the floor, to look at Swan. He tilted his head slightly as he looked towards me. His eyes were hazy and blank.

“If I ruin this magic circle here, would I be able to see you clearer?”

With narrowed eyes, Swanhaden tried to stab somewhere with his sharp ring. But he kept stabbing the floor because he couldn’t see me clearly.

He smiled uneasily. It seemed like he couldn’t see me completely. He wasn’t staring directly at me.

I tried my hardest to move, but I was almost completely out of strength and couldn’t retaliate. It was hard enough for me to bear the pain and hold onto my consciousness.

I tried to close my eyes as I wondered if I would wake up in reality if I lost consciousness here, but I couldn’t help but worry about Swanhaden over here. I couldn’t lose consciousness in front of Swanhaden. I had no idea what would happen next.

TL;DR: Swanhaden’s back on campus and has a history of cruel behavior towards other students in school–he cut off all four limbs of a student that was unfortunate enough to be chosen as Swan’s victim and timed him looking for his own limbs, etc. All the students are, rightfully, terrified.

Shuraina listens to all of the students and is shocked. She doesn’t want to see Swanhaden because she’s scared of him after everything she heard, but has to face him to go down the stairs to go back to Cory. His hair is longer here (past his shoulders), and he’s shorter, skinnier, and more delicate. He doesn’t hide his scars, which are more serious looking than in real life. His eyes are hidden behind his bangs, but they’re full of madness. He’s legitimately kind of crazy here.

Swanhaden notices Shuraina because of the black magic, and strikes her with something heavy on the back of her head. She’s on the floor as Swanhaden presses her down on the ground with his foot, and Shushu’s just about ready to pass out from her head injury but is scared to pass out because Swanhaden scares her.