Chapter 201: Mixed Bath (1)

Chapter 201: Mixed Bath (1)

The center of the Imperial City.

The Academy's walls rise high in the center of the bridge over the gently flowing waterway.

The bridge is quiet at dawn. There are few passersby along the usually bustling streets, only a few hardworking individuals who have started their day early.

Vikir crosses the bridge and makes his way to the Academy.

Slowly, slowly.

He was in worse shape than he thought.

The blood from his back had congealed and stopped bleeding, but the energy that had been drained from him was slow to return.

'Even with the resilience I gained by changing into a dog's body, I'll barely be able to survive this... in a human body.'

Perhaps in a human body, he would have passed out already.

With that, Vikir dragged his crumbling body and barely made it to the outer walls of the academy.

Hack.

A black puppy walking with its tongue hanging out.

The guards patrolling the Academy's outer walls spotted Vikir like that.

"What a cute little puppy, and he's so tiny."

"Hey, hey, don't touch him. It looks like a sick dog. What if it gets something dirty?"

"It's dirty, let's get rid of it."

One of the guards tried to pet Vikir, but the other guard next to him stopped him.

Pow!

The other guard walked out with a sullen look on his face and kicked Vikir.

Getting his ass handed to him, Vikir was forced to walk away.

The guards giggled at Vikir and then walked away without looking back.

'...What a pitiful stray dog.'

It's not like I hadn't been on the streets before, so I knew that life on the streets was hard.

However, the feeling of the streets for humans and the feeling of the streets for dogs were worlds apart.

Vikir gritted his teeth and stuck to the outside of the wall.

He walked as close to the wall as he could without being seen.

Even a casual passerby would be wary and move away.

He didn't know when he would be attacked again.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, look!"

A drunken passerby pulls a sausage out of his pocket and throws it at him, but of course he doesn't eat it.

In fact, it only makes him move further away from the dangerous creature.

"What a stubborn dog."

The drunk shakes the sausage a few times before dropping it on the ground and walking away.

'....'

Vikir walks silently against the wall.

His eyes scanning his surroundings, but his mind replaying the previous battle with the Eight Corpse.

Morg Snake should have been the Corpse King long ago.

Sindiwendi had given him a progress report not long ago, and so far he hasn't shown any signs of disturbance.

'Looks like he's still human.'

And at that point, the Corpse Queen appeared. What does this mean?

The corpse of Gerontoe and Ahheman.

And the last thing she said was....

...But, did I mention that people are not meant to be fixed?

They were hiding in fear of being watched, but their caution didn't extend to the puppy, who had nowhere to go.

"Huh? What the fuck, asshole."

One of the boys, who had been drinking from a bottle, spotted Vikir emerging from the bushes.

Vikir turned his head to look away. The dog's body had recovered quickly, but the wounds on his body still hadn't fully healed.

The six sophomores giggled and surrounded Vikir.

"Hey, is it okay for stray dogs to roam around the academy like this?"

"They'll spread disease. Let's clean it up. It's a nice thing to do, picking up trash."

"I've been under a lot of stress lately. Let's tie him up somewhere."

"Shall we burn it alive?"

"Awww, poor thing, just throw him in the sewer over there and be done with it."

"Ah, I suddenly remember that masked bastard. Next time I see him, I'm going to carve a knife mark in his skull just like that. Let's practice first and carve it into that bastard's body."

The six bullies giggle, holding cigarette butts and daggers in their hands.

Several throw lit cigarette butts at Vikir, and a few throw liquor bottles at him, shattering them.

Spitting and kicking were commonplace.

Vikir thought for a moment.

'Maybe I should just kill them.'

It takes strength to endure, and when you're in such bad shape, it's hard to endure.

No matter how badly he was injured, if he were back in his human form, he could probably make six heads roll on the floor in a second, or even half a second.

In fact, I could probably do it in a dog's body.

But that would mean a big headline in the Academy's morning paper tomorrow.

.

It'll set other dogs and cats on fire.

I don't have a place to dispose of the body, and I don't have the stamina to do so.

Especially since my eyelids kept trying to close earlier.

[growl...]

A small cry came from above, barely audible to Vikir's ears.

He looked up to see the cub perched on the wall, its fur standing upright, looking down at him.

It looked like it might jump at any moment.

But Vikir shook his head.

The second-year students at Colosseo Academy are strong in their own way.

Six of them together would be a formidable foe for a young cub.

'I can't help it, I have to take on a human form for a while....'

Vikir was mulling over the various ways to dispose of a corpse without leaving a trace in his head.

"Cold Warrior, second year, class B."

An extremely dry and cold voice came from somewhere.

"Attendance No. 8, Pal Uspear, No. 29, Betty Realbelt, No. 58, Houser Yellop, No. 63, Seaweed Aimecom, No. 66, Bison Redmin, No. 71, Oiler Southmiddle."

A voice calling out the attendance numbers and names of the six scumbags, letter by letter.

"...What do you guys think you're doing?"

An unexpected source appeared.

A female student holding a bowl of food in one hand and a bowl of water in the other.

It was the student council president, Dolores L Quovadis.