Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

Zero snapped his fingers and before anyone had the chance to react, sharp spikes of hard and rigid rock emerged from the ground, ceiling, and walls around Emmeric and pierced him from every direction.

The spikes entered Emmeric's body, and digging themselves in, they destroyed his inner organs. The spikes that'd entered his body from one side came out from another. His eyes bulged out, his skull was pierced and had multiple holes, and blood gushed out and dripped from the spikes.

In less than a second, he was dead as his lifeless and motionless corpse hung from the hundreds of spikes.

"Wha… H-He's dead," Seiren muttered, her face pale. "You killed him…" All the blood had drained from her face, and the same was the case for Alada and Wrena.

Wynfir didn't move either, in fact, he was the one who was scared the most.

It was a natural reaction. None of them had seen someone die before, and right now Emmeric was murdered brutally in front of their eyes. Getting scared after seeing something like this was human nature.

However, aside from everyone else, Zero had a satisfied smile on his face. He snapped his fingers again and the spikes retracted, letting Emmeric's skewered body fall on the ground. Blood splattered around the body on the ground when the spikes went back, and since Zero was standing rather close, some of it fell on his face and clothes.

After the spikes had been removed, his body was full of holes. Seiren and the others would have seen another death if there had been a Trypophobic person among them.

Zero walked close to the body and sat on his knees to take a good look at the body. He wanted to be sure, but it was now a fact that the man was dead.

He then stood up and turned to look at the girls. "What should I do with you three now?" he asked.

It scared the shit out of the already scared girls. Taking into consideration how he'd killed Emmeric, without a hint of hesitation, they were beginning to realize that their lives were in danger too.

But despite all this, Seiren somehow worked up the courage to finally speak, since she had some suspicions of her own.

"H-How…did you manage to pull all this out? You led us to this cave deliberately, from the start you knew that we were following you. You knew about our whole plan. There's no way you could've set this all up without knowing what we were up to," as her words came out, the fear inside her gradually faded.

"How did you know about it? About our plan. Who told you?" her eyes wandered toward Wynfir. She had suspicions that he could be the traitor since even after the death of his friend, he was just standing in a corner not doing anything.

But in reality, he was just too scared to move. More than anyone. Both of his friends had been destroyed by Zero right after his eyes; he now shivered just at the mere presence of this man.

However, while he may not be the one, there indeed was a traitor.

"Enemies," Zero finally said, referring to Seiren's question. "Enemies are important. They could be useful and dangerous depending on how they are treated and used, thus you should choose your enemies carefully. But you fail miserably at this.

"By bullying almost everyone in the academy, you had created countless enemies. Enemies who hate you more than anything in their life, enemies who are willing to do anything just so they can make your life worse. I just happened to come across one of these."

He uses elemental magic and creates a gap in the boulder blocking the entrance of the cave, a few moments later a girl walks in, and he closes it afterward.

He uses elemental magic and creates a gap in the boulder blocking the entrance of the cave, a few moments later a girl walks in and he closes it afterward.

Zero closes the gap on the boulder and a girl enters the cave. She walks up straight to Zero and stands beside him. It was Nsiria.

She stole a glance at Emmeric's body, and then looked away. She was probably not a fan of gore.

"You certainly did kill him," she said.

"When did I say that I was lying?" Zero appealed.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Seiren shouted, her voice loud and hot. Her blood was boiling with anger after seeing Nsiria and as she got the gist of what was going on.

"You three were so careless while following me that you didn't even realize that someone was tailing you too," Zero said. "She is one of the people you've bullied badly at the academy, and the one who told me about your plan."

***

It was when I had completed the written exam and was going toward the hall for the practical exam among the crows of other students.

I heard someone call my name and felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning back to look I saw it was a girl, a girl I didn't know.

Long dark hair and chestnut colored eyes, she had a fair skin tone and around five inches shorter than me. I was sure whoever she was, she was not a part of the main cast of the novel.

"I have something to talk," she said. "But not there. We have to go somewhere private."

['Somewhere private', she says.] Req's voice said in my said.

'Shut up for a second.'

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" I asked. I'm sure if we look past the recent events I'd done fairly well to keep myself in the background, then how the hell was a normal person approaching me on their own?

"No you don't. Now come with me," before I could react, the girl grabbed me by my hand and dragged me away from the crowd. I had the power to resist, mind you, but since I no longer cared about the plot and this situation was somewhat interesting, I decided to play along.

She brought out of the corridor and into a corner of the building; it was the corner of the garden probably since there was grass and bushes scattered around.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You might not believe me, but in the practical exam some students are gonna try to kill you," she said.

'Well, strangely this doesn't sound as weird as it should.'

"I would like to believe you but you haven't told me your name, in the first place. Don't you think starting there would be better than starting from my death?" I appealed.

"Ah, yes. I haven't told you my name, have me? It's Nsiria, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Zero," no matter what, it still felt weird saying that despite the fact that I've grown accustomed to my name.

"So Nsiria, what's this about the students trying to kill me? Is there a bounty on my head or something?" I asked, trying to pass it off as a joke in case she was kidding with me. But if she was serious about this, then it was something I'd be more than willing to listen about.

"No, it's actually realted to a guy who had beef with in the past. Winston was his name, he left the academy afterward too," she explained.

'Winston, huh? How can I forget that bastard.'

"So, what about him?" I queried.

"There his friend, Emmeric. And he wants to take revenge for you making his friend quit the acadmey and breaking his arms or whatever."

This caught me off guard for a second. How in the world does she knew about that? At that time only three of them were there, and I. No one else should know about what happened that day. I felt like I was seen naked by a crowd.

But for the moment I clamed myself and decided to let her finish. She was but a side character, after all. I can kill her easily if things come to that. I would kill her even if she was involved with the main cast, if that's what needs to be done in order to protect the leak of this information.

"Then there's the group of these three girls, I think you probably know them since they were famous for bullying in the academy. Alada, Wrena, and Seiren," there was a darkness in her eyes as she said the last name.

And of course, I was familar with these girls too, in fact I had more than a little something with them. They were the ones whom I used to manipulate Ellyn and get her under my control. If I remember correctly they were not happy by the fact that I used them as puppets to play by bid.

"Apparently, these girls have something against you too. And both of these parties met and were plotting to take you down for a long time. They were searching for an opportunity, and the practical exam gave them that. They were going to kill you during the exams, I can confirm the information. I know thier plan too, and I'd be willing to let you know that," she explained.

"And…what are you getting out of this? I'm sure you're not so kind to help me just because of the kindness in your heart or some bull shit like that."

"Of course, there's something that I will gain. And it is there loss. All I want is to see the face of that bitch, Seiren, when all her plans get ruined and she's caught red handed," her voice carried a seriouness in it, and there was intense and pure hatred backing it up.

"Why so much hate for her?" I asked.

After that she went and told me all the things Seiren had did to her, all the bullying she'd suffered, and then the humiliating defeat in the interclass training session. The reason for her hate was justified.