A Mistake All the Men in the World Would Make

"Pfft..."

As the headless body fell, the stench of blood instantly filled the classroom.

"Ah!!!"

Screams rang out one after another.

Especially from the girl sitting beside the Cherry Blossom Country student, Natsuki.

Warm, sticky red-and-white matter had splattered across half her face.

"Yuck!!"

Natsuki screamed in hysterics, clawing frantically at her face as she tried to scrape the stuff off.

"So disgusting! So disgusting!!"

The other Cherry Blossom Country students were also deathly pale with fright. Some bent over and retched.

In less than ten minutes.

Of the eleven Cherry Blossom Country students, Guinan had first been "killed in a counterattack," and now another had been blown apart.

Only nine remained: five girls and four boys.

The death rate was higher than in a horror movie.

Even worse...

With another person dead, the Ghost Face Marks on everyone had darkened considerably, as if absorbing the resentment in the air.

"What are you doing!?"

Lu Shiyan stared at the headless corpse, completely stunned.

He whipped around and pointed at the man in the back row who was still "sleeping," unable to hold back his accusation.

"Jiangnan! Do you know you're going to get us all killed like this?!"

"This is the Ghost Realm! Killing people makes the curse stronger! Are you trying to get everyone killed?!"

And yet...

Faced with Lu Shiyan's furious questioning, Jiangnan remained in his languid, lordly pose without even raising an eyelid.

He merely lifted his right hand lazily and waved it toward the front rows.

The gesture was like shooing away a fly.

"Got it!"

Liu Yuqing, sitting in the first row, instantly understood. She sprang to her feet and pushed up her glasses.

"Right away, Boss! Your royal mouthpiece, Yuqing, is online!"

She saluted Jiangnan with absolute loyalty.

Then Liu Yuqing abruptly turned around to face Lu Shiyan at the lectern and switched into Zaunite Mode.

"Hey, smoking uncle! What the hell are you barking about?"

"Which of your eyes saw our boss kill anyone?"

"Logically speaking, we've been in this dump of a school for less than ten minutes. Our butts haven't even warmed the seats yet!"

"And how long have you lot been here?"

"That bullshit curse, those Ghost Face Marks—they were obviously triggered by you killing people earlier!"

"By all rights, the only possible murderers here are you! We're the victims you dragged into this!"

"What gives you the right to accuse our boss?"

Lu Shiyan was taken aback by the barrage. "But he clearly just—"

"Clearly what?"

Liu Yuqing cut him off and pointed righteously at the dead creep.

"Didn't you see what that guy was trying to do to my Teacher Chen? Are you blind?"

"Our boss merely made 'the mistake all the men in the world would make'!"

"As a man, shouldn't he step in when he sees his woman being leered at by a disgusting piece of trash?"

"That's a burst of fury for a beauty! That's what a real man is!"

"What's wrong with standing up for your woman?! So what if he killed someone? What's the big deal?!"

Yu Shishi, beside her, waved her little fists and loudly backed her up.

"Exactly! Boss is the coolest! Unlike certain uncles who just smoke and pretend to be mysterious!"

"..."

Hearing this worldview-shattering, logic-defying argument, everyone present...

fell silent.

Not only did nobody speak up against it, quite a few even nodded to themselves.

Not because they feared Jiangnan's American Iaijutsu.

But because...

This was the Barbaric Realm!

A cannibalistic apocalypse!

The law and morality had long since become toilet paper.

In modern society, someone as domineering and fiercely protective as Jiangnan, who killed at the slightest disagreement, might have been a dangerous madman. But here...

He was a bold, loyal warlord who dared to fight!

The Cherry Blossom Girls who had been terrified just moments earlier now looked at Jiangnan differently.

It was the gaze of those conquered by strength.

"Sugoi..."

They almost wished they could crawl over right then and offer themselves to the powerful man.

But when they remembered that their colorful "experience" might make him look down on them...

and might even bring them a death sentence, they could only reluctantly abandon the thought.

As for the four remaining boys, they were nearly pissing themselves.

Though they also thought, "That was so cool," in their hearts, Jiangnan looked to them like a living Yama who killed without batting an eye!

What if they were next?

At the lectern...

Kujo Ran, who had remained silent, clutched the wound on her thigh and fixed Jiangnan with a cold stare.

"This Chinese man... he's so arrogant, and his strength is unfathomable..."

"Could he be the 'No Need for Words' from the intelligence reports?"

Kujo was already almost certain.

On Weird Island, nobody but that mysterious man would dare act so brazenly.

The next moment, she sneered.

"Fortunately..."

"Before abandoning the car and fleeing, I pressed the highest-priority emergency signal on the radio."

"Mr. Muraguchi should be here with the main force soon to rescue us."

"When he arrives... I'll report what I know about this Chinese man and Lu Shiyan. I'll kill two birds with one stone!"

"With this achievement, my standing in the Lineage will rise even higher!"

"Even though my Supernatural Ability is only C-class, I'll still have the strength to contend for the position of head of the family!"

Kujo Ran was lost in a daydream.

Hoshino Hikaru saw her expression and opened her mouth to try to dissuade her.

But when she thought of Kujo's prestigious family and ruthless methods, she eventually lowered her head in cowardice.

Kujo had the pride of nobility and would never listen to a little Commoner like her.

Meanwhile, in the first row...

Chen Tong gazed at the sleeping figure in the back with adoration, her eyes practically sparkling with pink hearts.

Who wouldn't like a boy who stood up for her?

Even if he was a demon, he was her demon.

"You... you people..."

Liu Yuqing had left Lu Shiyan speechless with her verbal one-two punch. He could barely keep hold of his cigarette.

"That's enough, Lu."

Yekaterina, who had been watching the whole time, spoke up. She glanced at Jiangnan with interest, then addressed Lu Shiyan.

"That girl's right."

"I was careless. I'm the one who brought them in, so if anyone's to blame... blame me."

"Besides... that boy deserved to die."

Even his teammates had turned against him.

"Fine..."

Lu Shiyan knew he had no grounds to argue. He was just frustrated that things had come to this, and could only swallow his anger.

With trembling fingers, he pulled three cigarettes at once from the red pack, lit them all, and took a deep drag.

"I have to splurge today! Otherwise, my blood pressure's going to spike and kill me!"

"Phew~"

After exhaling a thick cloud of smoke, Lu Shiyan calmed himself down.

He casually grabbed the back of a male student's hand beside him and checked the countdown there.

His own mark was on his neck, where he couldn't see it.

[02:13]

"Two minutes left..."

Lu Shiyan's expression turned serious.

Just then...

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Footsteps echoed through the hallway outside the classroom.

A moment later, two figures appeared at the classroom door.

"Hey, Boss! And the sisters-in-law!"

"I finally found you!!"

A familiar figure came rushing in, panting.

With the disfigured left side of his face...

it was Guo Shuai, wearing a school uniform!

Behind him followed a girl in a sailor uniform, her hair tied into twin tails.

Natsuki had just about finished cleaning the brain matter off her face. At the sound, she lifted her head.

When she saw the girl, she froze.

"Huh?"

"Yayu-chan? Weren't you in the classroom earlier?"

The girl called Yayu was also one of the Cherry Blossom Country students.

At Natsuki's question, Yayu paused, then scratched her head sheepishly and gave a cute smile.

"Ah... yeah."

"When Mr. Lu led you all away, I was in the bathroom, so I didn't catch up with you."

"Later, I tried to find you, but I ran into a group of Wandering Corpses in the hallway... I was terrified."

Yayu patted her chest and pointed at Guo Shuai beside her, still shaken.

"Luckily, I ran into this... um, Mr. Guo Shuai."

"Otherwise, I really would've become 'Yayu-chan'~"

"You're so lucky~"

Natsuki breathed a sigh of relief, but a flash of jealousy soon crossed her eyes.

She looked at the man with the disfigured left cheek.

"This guy... is he the Supernatural who escaped from the Hungry Ghost earlier?"

"And he's Jiangnan's underling, too..."

"Well, look at that. Yayu the 'slut' has flown up a branch and become a phoenix."

"If she gets to cling to a powerful man..."

Natsuki felt a sour pang of jealousy.

So she quickly waved her over, putting on what she considered her most alluring smile.

"Yayu-chan! Come here! Sit beside me!"

She planned to use her friendship with Yayu as an excuse to introduce herself to this powerful man too.

"Being an underling's woman wouldn't be bad... He probably won't mind that I'm 'black.'"

"Okay~ I'm coming~"

Yayu kept her sweet smile and skipped toward Natsuki.

"Um... Mr. Guo Shuai, you can come sit with us too~"

Natsuki was still lost in her daydream.

And yet...

Just as the girl called Yayu reached Natsuki and was about to sit down...

At the window-side seat in the back row.

The man who had been "sleeping" all this time raised his right hand slightly again.

It was the same familiar gesture.

Bang.

Splat!!!

Without any warning,

Yayu's adorable, twin-tailed head, still wearing a cute smile, exploded in an instant!

Crash!

Some unknown black viscous substance burst out like a fountain.

And Natsuki, sitting directly across from him...

Once again, got his entire face splattered.

And since this time they were facing each other at extremely close range,

it coated him even more evenly than last time.

Even his eyelashes were covered in bits of flesh.

"..."

The whole room fell silent once more.