Why Did I Have to Enroll

Chapter 106:

Ban Yu-won gazed up at the tower with a deeply contemplative expression.

Friday morning.

They were going to challenge the tower as Rebellion members.

"For some reason, it feels like it's been ages since we entered the tower."

"It's actually been three weeks."

"At least in the tower, there won't be any bitches after Yu-won..."

"Luciel, watch your language."

Not only had it been a while since they'd entered the tower with these members, but Ban Yu-won was also feeling particularly nostalgic since he'd been spending so much time lately socializing with others through student council and club activities.

"This group really does feel the most natural."

"Easy for you to say. You abandoned us yesterday to go drinking with the student council people."

Seeing Light still bothered by yesterday's events, Ban Yu-won responded with a smirk.

"Meeting other people just makes me appreciate you all even more."

"Such a smooth talker... But today, Ban Yu-won, you won't need that silver tongue of yours."

"Ah, right. That's true."

Hearing the resolve in Dokgo Yeon's voice, Ban Yu-won remembered what had happened three weeks ago.

After the trial in Room 23 that had been conducted purely through 'words,' they had ultimately failed to resolve the situation and had to leave.

While Ban Yu-won blamed himself for saying unnecessary things to the members, Dokgo Yeon was blaming herself.

"When we go in, eliminate every enemy you identify with your eyes. That's how we'll end Room 23. Everyone agrees?"

"I'll just follow whatever Yu-won does."

"Me too... as long as we don't kill innocent people. Last time was too much."

Dokgo Yeon's determination bordered on hostility, while Luciel simply offered unlimited support for Ban Yu-won, and Light still couldn't see NPCs as mere NPCs.

With a bitter smile, thinking that Light might not be much help in rooms with NPCs for a while, Ban Yu-won entered the tower with his companions.

A shift occurred, and they arrived directly at Room 23.

"We must kill him too!"

"But night is approaching. How about we disperse for today and continue the trial tomorrow?"

"Hey, you all should speak up too. Isn't he suspicious?"

Amid the rapidly changing scenery, voices of people arguing could be heard loudly.

The environment was exactly the same as when they had last left the tower.

Though they had learned from Yumina that in trick rooms where conditions and rules for environment and location were specifically defined, time didn't pass even if they left the tower midway, they were still somewhat relieved as they had been worried.

"Now, everyone please calm down."

Ban Yu-won spoke up.

While it seemed ridiculous to ask for calm with corpses of 'trial victims' scattered everywhere, surprisingly, all eyes turned to Ban Yu-won in an instant.

It wasn't just because of the power in his voice.

With each person they hanged, whether criminal or innocent citizen, Ban Yu-won's (and of course, including Dokgo Yeon and the others) influence among the citizens grew.

As a result, they had now reached a point where if Ban Yu-won pointed to someone as the culprit, that person truly became the culprit.

"Through the process of some unavoidable sacrifices, I've finally realized something. A perfect way to distinguish between the innocent and the true criminals."

"Oh, ohhh!"

"Indeed. The deaths of the innocent citizens sacrificed in the trials were not in vain. Thanks to them, we can now identify and eliminate all the evil ones hiding in this city!"

Though Dokgo Yeon had warned against using his silver tongue, there was no need to hold back when a few words could easily resolve everything!

"So that was it! The vicious criminals were hanging citizens with false evidence!"

"And this person has discovered how to identify those lies!"

When brainwashing becomes severe, people naturally fill in the gaps even when they notice logical errors.

Moreover, if you provide some physical evidence to solidify it...

Ban Yu-won extended his finger and released an ice bullet (??), an elemental magic he had been researching to combine with swordsmanship.

—Thud

Its structure was an extremely simple bullet-shaped ice.

Since it originated from Ban Yu-won's fingertip, there was no delay, and since it moved in the exact direction he pointed, there was no trajectory delay either.

Originally, elemental magic activates faster the simpler its form and coordinate settings are, so this ice bullet was the result of developing the most powerful magic that could be created as quickly as possible!

As for why ice, it was because after absorbing so much from the frost giants last week, ice was currently his strongest element.

"Huh, what?"

"He's dead!"

Except for the Rebellion members, no one probably saw what had shot from his finger.

To people's eyes, it must have looked like someone simply collapsed when he pointed his finger.

The problem was what happened next.

The person's corpse turned pitch black, and sticky demonic energy (??) began seeping out.

"He really was a murderer!"

"The murderer is dead!"

[Stealing Judgment 1, Star Trace 0.1.]

Ban Yu-won smiled with satisfaction as he confirmed the concept being absorbed from the murderer.

The ice bullet's speed and power were flawless, the All-Seeing Eye's ability to judge good and evil was perfect, and it was excellent that the trick room's rules didn't activate even though he killed someone without warning.

There was no need for proper questioning; they could clear this room just by finding and killing all the black ones.

"Did you see? Thanks to the sacrifices of the innocent who died before, we can now find and kill only the murderers!"

"Ohhhhh!"

"You truly came to save our city!"

"Thank you, thank you...!"

"You must have contracted with a righteous constellation!"

The citizens who had initially fired warning shots and been wary of him were now half-worshipping him, bowing their heads.

And among them, the hidden criminals—the contractors of constellations—were clearly acting suspiciously, wondering if Ban Yu-won could really identify them.

"This cannot be!"

Finally.

A man with a somehow familiar voice stepped forward and shouted.

"First you judge people as you please, then you sacrifice the innocent! And now you've gone as far as choosing people to kill at your whim! Sure, the person who just died was a murderer, but how can you be certain the next one will be too?"

Now he remembered.

This was that man—neither angel nor maiden—who had been moving alone, praying to constellations on that night when he and Dokgo-yeon invaded the small city.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Step aside! We must eliminate all murderers before night falls!"

"That absolutely cannot happen! We cannot create any more innocent sacrifices here! Justice must be carried out properly and honorably!"

The man gritted his teeth as he shouted, blocking Ban Yu-won's path.

Though he didn't think so, he checked with his All-Seeing Eyes just in case, and the man was unmistakably pure white.

Of course, there's no way a man who had been wandering around at night searching for murderers with just one measly power could be a criminal.

He had thought that a constellation contractor who could move at night despite not being a murderer wouldn't just back down without doing anything.

But even as he thought this...

—Poof, poof!

[Stealing Judgment 2, Star Trace 0.2.]

In that moment, Ban Yu-won fired two more ice bullets, killing two more murderers.

His Star Trace, which had reached 9.8 after killing one murderer earlier and gaining that concept, instantly rose to 10, establishing an even stronger presence within Ban Yu-won's body.

Not only had the power of the concept itself grown, but his understanding of it had also deepened instantly.

He intuitively realized that he could now 'apply this Star Trace to any ability.'

A primal force that connects with all things, completely separate from magic.

In some ways, it was a mysterious power that shared commonalities with his own authority.

"You speak of innocent sacrifices? Can you still say such things after seeing these murderers who just died?"

But Star Trace is Star Trace, and right now clearing Room 23 comes first.

Ban Yu-won noticed that two more had died before he could stop it, and seeing the trembling man, he let out a derisive snort.

"You are the one obstructing the execution of justice. Whatever sense of mission you may have, right now, you are the one putting this city in danger."

"Aren't you just fabricating murderers with your ability? For all we know, you might be the real murderer!"

The man closed the distance with Ban Yu-won, preventing him from pointing at the criminals.

What made this particularly annoying was that this trick room had a rule that 'you cannot attack the innocent,' so even if it wasn't intentional, you couldn't harm innocent people.

Without testing it, he couldn't know the exact extent, but even using force just to subdue him might violate the trick room's rules.

"Nonsense!"

"The one I serve is speaking! They say there's no trace of constellation in that person! Everyone must wake up, this person is deceiving us!"

—Constellation [Breath of Life] snickers.

—Constellation [Clock of the Toy Legion] bursts into laughter, saying this is indeed a degraded copy of a constellation contractor.

While the constellations sponsoring him were mocking the opponent for being too inferior to even read constellation traces, Ban Yu-won thought it might not be that simple.

Perhaps because he had cheated in the process of gaining the constellations' unconditional sponsorship, they couldn't even recognize the traces of sponsorship...

"We must stop him...! He's a fraud!"

"You're the one who hasn't helped at all in finding the culprits, so stop interfering!"

"Ignore someone like him and hurry to find the murderers! Night will come at this rate!"

"Aaaaaargh!"

But fortunately, citizens stepped in to restrain the man in Ban Yu-won's place.

Just as Ban Yu-won was trying to discreetly turn around to point at the hiding criminals.

Massive wings of light sprouted from the man's back, and all the humans restraining him were thrown back.

—This cannot be accepted.

The voice was dramatically different from just moments ago.

—You think you can just pass by with an authority that even I, a constellation, cannot comprehend, in this space filled with irrationality, ignoring my contractor? Do you think I cooperated with the Tower to suffer such an outrage?

"Holy..."

Speaking with a voice full of resentment, the man—no, the constellation borrowing the man's body—flapped his wings and rose into the sky.

Ban Yu-won and everyone else looked up at him with blank expressions.

Meanwhile, there were others who became noticeably tense at the constellation's appearance—the murderers whose bodies appeared to be stained black.

—Night shall not fall until justice is executed.

The sun rose again in the sky where sunset had been approaching.

—I shall postpone judgment upon you lot for now.

"Aaaagh!"

"Urgh!"

Pure white thorns sprouted from beneath the feet of the nearly five remaining murderers, binding them in place, while thorns that grew to encompass their entire bodies formed a protective barrier, preventing others from attacking them as well.

In other words, he intended to prevent Ban Yu-won from clearing Room 23 by killing the criminals.

—The trial shall begin anew. From now on, you lot are the criminals.

The moment the constellation declared this, Ban Yu-won felt darkness descending upon himself and his companions.

According to his good and evil discrimination ability, the entire Rebellion party was now evil!

From seeing the contractor's ability earlier, he had roughly guessed it would be that type, but he hadn't expected it to actually be a constellation governing 'sin.'

But for such a constellation to arbitrarily create sinners, hadn't they lost any right to criticize Ban Yu-won earlier!

'And what's even more vicious.'

That man who appeared to be possessed by the constellation was still pure white.

Arbitrarily making us out to be the bad guys while claiming to be righteous himself? This is ridiculous.

However, the authority they wielded also served as a hint for Ban Yu-won.

'As it happens, I have a similar ability.'

His eyes sparkled.

The concept of judgment numbering 16 within his body radiated brilliant light, containing both vertigo and Star Trace.

But this alone is slightly insufficient.

So he added a curse to it and asked Celon for help.

—Wait, include me too.

But just as Ban Yu-won started weaving his magic, another constellation's voice interrupted.

—To think it would materialize at such a low floor, you live and learn.

The bodies of the restrained criminals suddenly melted into black, sticky liquid, and before anyone could stop it, they merged into a single creature.

The voice came from there.

A being with an appearance closer to beast than human, emanating an intense aura no less powerful than the winged man.

Yes, literally a monster in the form of a werewolf.

—What do you call this situation?

Celon, who had been constructing a magic formula, muttered in bewilderment.

Ban Yu-won whispered quietly so only she could hear.

"A complete mess, I tell you. A complete mess."