The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City-Chapter 116: Violet’s New Neighbor.

Violet is plural.

If someone is focusing on developing weapons and someone else is organizing the Academy City version of the Divine Wind Special Forces outside the island, then another person can handle matters related to friends.

The characteristic of being able to do multiple things at once grants us a peculiar sense of time, different from that of ordinary people.

There’s hardly another word that suits Violet as much as the word “simultaneity.”

Thus, I am currently in the central district of the city.

On the way to the target location, I passed through 12th Street in the central district.

This is where a shooting incident occurred about a day ago.

The devastation of that day still lingers vividly.

Looking around, I see shattered ground from explosions and bullet marks scattered everywhere.

If I look up, there’s a completely charred penthouse, and looking down, there’s a police line cordoning off the area around a 60-story building.

Nearby, people who appear to be forensic investigators are examining the surroundings, searching for suspicious evidence.

In front of them, a reporter is broadcasting in front of a cameraman.

They must be covering yesterday’s incident.

“Whoever it was, they were really dumb. A gunfight in broad daylight?”

“And they failed! What a loser.”

Whoever orchestrated it ultimately failed. Judging by the level of Awakened troops we bombed and the mercenaries they hired, it must have cost them a fair amount of money. What a shame.

Since it drew so much attention, they probably won’t attempt something similar for a while.

“What was their objective anyway? An assassination? Considering they blew up the penthouse, it seems suspicious.”

After the incident ended, what we focused on was figuring out their goal. So, we reviewed the situation at the scene over and over again.

They caused enough chaos to turn the city streets into a mess. But from the perspective of someone who knows a lot about Awakened individuals, this was just a beating spree. In fact, during the battle, they even tried to capture us with things like harpoons.

“It was obvious they were trying to restrain someone.”

Although they caused such havoc in broad daylight and got massacred by me, their movements and equipment were elite-level.

There’s no way people like them would’ve been negligent in researching their target.

I thought about it from their perspective. If I were an assassin and had properly investigated Irene, what would I have done?

“I would’ve installed a bigger and stronger bomb in the penthouse. Something magic-based!”

“Physical attacks alone wouldn’t kill her. They would’ve bombarded her with Awakened individuals skilled in using crossbows and magic.”

Engaging in close combat against a top-tier tank doesn’t add up.

Then why were they trying to kidnap her? That part remains a mystery.

“Well, I’ll just have to meet her and talk about it.”

So, I sat near the Inspection Bureau building and waited. Irene, who had been taken by the Chancellor, was supposed to come out today.

Since my phone got destroyed during the skirmish, she had contacted me using the internal phone system.

By the rules, I should’ve gone to pick her up directly, but I felt uneasy about going inside. It’d be troublesome if I ran into the Chancellor.

I thought of one worst-case scenario I might face.

—Wait, those eye colors… that hair color… No way!

—Ah, I was mistaken! Kyaaa!

Ugh, just thinking about it gave me chills. I’d have to be careful not to let anything like that happen.

As I waited, Irene finally came out.

“Been waiting for you! No injuries, I see.”

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“Yeah, I just used too much magic in a short time and got a bit exhausted.”

The moment she came out, I exchanged a few words with her.

“I had a brief chat with the Chancellor. They seemed to have a lot of questions about the incident.”

“I see. Then about us…”

“I told them what you suggested. That we’re a security unit called the ‘Ariel Group.’ They seemed suspicious but didn’t probe further.”

Hearing Irene’s words, I inwardly sighed with relief.

Suddenly appearing as an unidentified armed organization—it’s obviously suspicious no matter how you look at it.

They’ll likely investigate us further behind the scenes, but for now, it’s a relief.

“Shouldn’t we have used a different alias? Ariel is our underworld code name.”

“Well, when we operate in the underworld, we disguise ourselves anyway. Or wear masks.”

And just like that, Violet became the leader of a shady, secretive underworld organization called the Ariel Group.

At this rate, I might end up founding something like the “Violet Legion.”

“But the Chancellor seems a bit strange.”

While walking down the street, Irene opened her mouth with a face that showed some doubt. Her gaze was briefly distant, as if she was recalling the memories of yesterday.

“When I first met them, they somehow already knew my name. And the way they looked at me was a bit strange.”

“What do you mean by strange?”

“I don’t mean in a bad way. It’s just… They kept looking at me with this kind of… regretful expression.”

The moment I heard Irene’s words, I was convinced. The Chancellor is definitely a regressor. Just based on the description Irene gave, I could easily deduce it. The question now is which point in time they returned from.

“I hope they’re from the first part of the timeline, but what if it’s after that… or before?”

“That’s not something we can control. Let’s just handle it as it comes.”

Quickly running the discussion through my head, I drank the last sip of coffee left in my cup.

“They gave me their contact info too, saying to reach out if I ever needed anything. I don’t fully trust them yet, though…”

“Oh.”

Looking at the note Irene showed me, my eyes widened. With this, even if direct contact isn’t possible, we could at least report things related to the Academy.

After finishing all the minor conversations, I stood up from my seat.

“Anyway, that’s good news. By the way, Irene, your house burned down—do you have a place to stay?”

“Oh, well…”

Irene’s face darkened.

I grew curious about the reason. It didn’t take long to find out, as she explained it herself.

“All my accounts are frozen. I barely have any money.”

“Didn’t you live near the school? What about the house you rented?”

My poor friend, who lost her home overnight, shook her head.

“I can’t go. The attackers this time have planted bombs in my house. It’s a place with thick security where no one could easily get in. They must’ve tampered with it somehow, too.”

I thought her reasoning was valid.

“Then, why don’t you stay at my place? Like how Lucian’s group does?”

“Would that really be okay?”

“It’s not about whether it’s okay or not, there’s no other way! Come to my house. Even if there’s another attack, I can support you right away, so don’t worry.”

She hesitated. Irene’s golden eyes wavered with embarrassment and guilt.

“If you come to my house, you’ll get free food and even money! And since it’s right next door, we can spar every day.”

“…When you put it like that, it makes sense.”

When I insisted, Irene chuckled lightly. That must mean she agreed. I immediately put my friend in the car and headed to the factory.

「Alright, everyone, listen up. Irene is on her way. Isn’t there a spare room in the dorm? Go clean it up!」

「Ugh! What a pain.」

While the convoy carrying Irene headed to the house, Violet moved to clean an unused dormitory room in the factory.

Once she finished and came out with the cleaning tools, she bumped into Lucian, who was standing outside the room.

“What’s this? Why are you suddenly cleaning?”

“Well, we have a new neighbor. Irene is moving in!”

Lucian gave me a strange look and then asked in a blunt tone.

“What’s the deal? Why’s she coming here all of a sudden?”

“Oh! Well, her house… No, it’s nothing important!”

“…?”

He stared at me with a face full of questions, but I ignored him.

Not long after, Irene arrived, and I welcomed the new tenant.

“Tonight’s a party!”

First, I decided to throw a housewarming party.

There were a lot of things I wanted to ask her and things to dig into, but for now, she seemed really tired.

「But what about school?」

「I asked her, and she said she’d tell me the details tomorrow.」

Hmm, there’s a lot I wanted to talk about related to the academy anyway.

**

The purpose of Violet splitting herself up and working everywhere was to destroy the academy.

More specifically, it was to crush the heads of everyone involved in the academy’s experiments, punish them thoroughly, and burn their facilities to the ground.

However, based on the data obtained through brokers and my own investigations, it wasn’t a simple matter of killing one or two people and calling it a day.

The head of the school board was the chairman, and the chairman was connected to the Four Great Clans.

Judging by how a clan-affiliated airship and elite troops were mobilized last time, it seemed the so-called “former leader” still had influence.

The deeper I dug, the more things came out, like peeling an onion. To take down the academy, there would likely be friction with the Magna Nabis Clan as well.

The only thing we could do was prepare thoroughly.

「Alright, what’s the status of the dormant Violet deployment?」

「It’s a success. Unless they rip open the walls, there’s no way they’ll find her.」

Since the day I discovered the underground research lab of the school, the scientists inside had been conducting suspicious experiments without end.

Previously, I had planned to kidnap them but later canceled it.

It seemed too risky.

My thoughts changed over time.

We had grown considerably and our numbers had increased.

It was now entirely possible.

“Ah, damn it! The power’s out again!”

“Has anyone seen the documents that were here?”

Before that, I’d already been busy disrupting their research with simple pranks.

Short-circuiting the electricity was standard, turning off switches, sneaking into blind spots to steal documents, or unplugging computers.

I even clogged their drains with tissues to cause backflow.

The best reaction I got was when I shoved a basket of rotten fish into the ventilation system.

The chaos was priceless.

“I’m going to throw up!”

“What the hell is that smell?”

Of course, I immediately removed the fish before I could get caught.

Every day, I sabotaged their research and looked for weaknesses in the lab.

First, I mapped out the structure of the underground particle accelerator. I identified key points to destroy to make it irreparable.

At the same time, I redrew the lab’s layout and pinpointed the locations of passages leading to the surface.

Kidnapping dozens of researchers at once required preparation.

If things went according to plan, I’d kill those who needed to be killed and spare those who could be spared, deciding their fates later.

「It’s done. Deployment complete.」

To ensure the heavily armed Violet Squad could storm in at any time, I placed dormant Violet clones in the ceilings, floors, and gaps between walls of the underground lab.

They were like teleportation beacons.

I didn’t know when the day would come, but when it did, everything would burn and disappear!