The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character-Chapter 308: Time To Finish The Act [1]

"…You…"

Ryen's voice trembled — part fury, part disbelief.

The masked man only tilted his head slightly, the faint echo of his breath muffled beneath the porcelain-white demon mask. When he spoke again, his tone carried neither pity nor malice. Just judgment.

[Then prove it was worth his death.]

The words hit harder than a physical blow. For a heartbeat, Ryen froze — the world around him dimmed, his breath stuck in his throat.

Worth… his death?

Before he could even process the meaning, a fist cut through the air like a cannon blast, tearing apart the holy light he had instinctively summoned.

"—!"

He barely had time to react. The masked man was already there, a blur of movement and intent. The impact sent shockwaves cracking through the ground, yet somehow—somehow—Ryen managed to catch that fist.

Their auras clashed, sparks of light and shadow colliding between their locked hands.

[Freezing during battle, how pathetic.]

The words came with a sneer — yet behind them, something about the man's tone almost sounded like… instruction.

"You…" Ryen's teeth ground together, fury burning away hesitation. "You don't get to talk about him like that!"

Something inside him snapped. The holy sword's radiance, once steady and pure, began to waver — rippling violently, as if something darker was bleeding through.

The masked man's gaze sharpened, sensing the sudden shift.

[Indeed… it seems you have something hidden within you.]

Ryen could feel it too — the thing surging in his veins wasn't the familiar warmth of divine energy. It was colder. Wilder. A power he didn't remember ever touching before.

The air trembled around him as light and shadow twisted together, distorting the very mana field.

He didn't understand it, didn't need to. All he knew was that if he let this power go — if he stopped holding back — that smug, unreadable mask would shatter under his hands.

A violent hum rose from his sword, the glow pulsing with unstable intensity.

And for the first time, the masked man took a step back.

[…Show me, then.]

Ryen's aura burned like a fractured sun, golden light twisting into something dark and volatile — a brilliance tainted by fury and grief.

He charged forward, voice cracking with emotion. "I'll show you what he was worth!"

The power in his strike trembled the air, but before it could land, a sound cut through the chaos — faint, ragged, and heartbreakingly familiar.

"...C-cough... Cough... Ugh... H-how...?"

Ryen froze mid-step, his breath catching in his throat. The others stopped too, stunned into stillness.

The sound came again, weak but real.

"Oh. So it's time to wake up, huh?"

The masked man's voice was calm, almost amused, as everyone's heads snapped toward the source.

There — lying amid the dust and fading shadows — was Rin.

His fingers twitched. His eyelids fluttered open, revealing a dazed, unfocused gaze that slowly began to take in the scene around him. His lips were pale, blood crusted at the corner of his mouth, but his chest was rising. Breathing. Alive.

"...Huh?" Ryen's voice came out small, disbelieving. His legs threatened to give out beneath him.

[Time passed faster than I expected.]

The masked man's tone shifted, not surprised, not concerned — just mildly inconvenienced, as if the turn of events had disrupted a carefully timed schedule.

Rin blinked groggily, wincing as he tried to sit up. His eyes darted toward the corpse of the Rose Dragon, then to the masked man, then to his friends, frozen in place.

[Since the lie's been exposed,] the masked man said, dusting his coat with a lazy motion, [let's end it here for today.]

"…A lie?" someone whispered — Rachel, maybe, though it could've been any of them.

The masked man inclined his head slightly, as if in polite agreement.

[Yes. The plan went awry because he woke earlier than expected.]

A murmur rippled through the group — confusion, disbelief, dread.

Professor Lena's lips parted as if to speak, but no sound came out. Ryen's heartbeat thundered in his ears, drowning out everything else.

What plan? What did he mean lie?

And as Rin's eyes finally focused — sharp, lucid, and strangely calm — Ryen realized something that made his stomach twist.

That faint, oppressive aura... it wasn't just coming from the masked man anymore.

Some of it was coming from Rin.

---

Rin's POV

—We don't have much time. Fusion is going to end soon.

Zaho Yuren's voice rang out in my head just moments before Ryen's aura flared and he charged at me.

'What? Already? How?!'

—They're stronger than I expected. I had to push harder to keep the balance, and now the power's slipping. If you force it any further, your body won't survive the backlash.

My heart sank. 'No, no, you can't do this now!'

Everything had gone according to plan until this point — the intimidation, the buildup, the act. I was supposed to make a clean exit after they arrived. But with the fusion about to collapse, that plan was falling apart fast.

'I wanted to see Ryen awaken… but I guess that's too much to ask now.'

—Focus, kid. Think fast.

I clenched my teeth. Right. Ad-lib it.

If the script was burning, I'd just have to improvise — flawlessly. Like it was meant to happen all along.

The moment the energy around me started unraveling, I channeled the last bit of my mana into the clone I'd left sprawled on the ground.

The "lifeless" body twitched. Then, with a weak groan, it started coughing violently.

"…A lie?" Ryen's voice cracked.

All eyes turned toward the sound. Shock rippled through the group like a wave.

The clone, still trembling, pushed itself up on shaky arms, blood trailing from its lips. It looked almost too real — even I almost believed it for a second.

[Yes, the plan went awry because he woke up earlier than expected.]

My distorted voice echoed calmly from behind the mask, though inside, I was one step away from collapsing. The backlash was worse than I'd thought — my bones felt like they were splintering with every breath.

"What… what are you talking about?" Ryen's tone was half fury, half disbelief.

[What do you mean?] I replied, feigning nonchalance as my legs threatened to give out. [If you really didn't know, shouldn't you be relieved right now? It means your friend isn't dead.]

The silence that followed was almost deafening.

Every pair of eyes — Ryen's, Lena's, Rachel's, all of them — shifted toward the clone. It was still breathing, still struggling to move, its chest rising and falling faintly.

Their expressions shifted from grief to disbelief, then to something dangerously close to hope.

And in that moment, before any of them could say a word—

Zaho Yuren's voice whispered one last warning in my head.

—The fusion's breaking. You've got seconds left. Make them count.

I straightened my back, forcing my trembling body to stand tall once more, hiding the pain behind the mask.

Time to finish the act.