Dark had been very careful to keep his emotions in check. But the Sin Index always managed to catch him off guard when he least expected it!
He had gone out of his way to avoid socializing, pursuing a carefree life free of desire, sorrow, and joy, as tranquil as drifting clouds and flowing water.
And yet, the more he did so, the more he stood out among the childish, mischievous freshmen.
No one cared about the "rumors" from before the start of term anymore. Everyone judged Dark Dimon by what they saw and had formed an entirely new opinion of him.
Diligent, wise, handsome. He was a little aloof, but wasn't that exactly how someone of high standing was supposed to act?
By comparison, Victor Gaude, son of one of the Kingdom's Twin Swords, seemed thoroughly outclassed.
Victor hadn't received an elite education before enrolling. He'd only learned to read and write at church and memorized the basic addition and subtraction tables.
He was clever, to be sure, but he still had a boyish streak and was constantly dragged off to play by Robert.
As the saying went, those who spent time with vermilion became red, and those who spent time with ink turned black. Without Emma, the "Miss Know-It-All," keeping him in line, Victor had only Robert, who was as black as soot, for company. Naturally, he was soon tainted as well.
On top of that, he was always distracted in class by some vague, inexplicable feeling, and his studies suffered more and more.
Just as it seemed the original protagonist and the villain were about to switch places, a card game called "Love Divination" suddenly became popular among the first-years.
He continued to stick to his daily routine. Every morning, after the second class ended, he headed to the cafeteria for a moderately restrained lunch. He usually made it back to the common room at five past twelve.
Then he brewed himself a cup of coffee and continued reading.
If he had any homework he could finish right away, he did that first.
Once the homework was done, he went back to reading.
DemiDevimon brought him biscuits and snacks—small, simple treats that wouldn't trigger Gluttony.
The books he read were no longer textbooks, either. They were books from the library about Magic Guidance and magic potions.
Since he occasionally became too engrossed, his Greed score slowly crept upward.
After his third class in the afternoon, he went to the library as usual.
He'd gotten past the initial shock of seeing her, so merely making eye contact no longer triggered [Bliss +1].
But Senior Pandora's body was simply too alluring, and he was always fleeing in such a panic that he nearly lost his way.
Every now and then, he heard a soft laugh behind him.
He had no idea what it meant.
Of the seven values in total,
Sloth was the easiest to control.
Dark hadn't expected himself to have so much perseverance. After a month of effort, his Sloth score had actually gone down instead of up!
Envy was the next easiest.
The first-year textbooks were simply too easy. Thanks to the growing magic power and related talents that came with his Demon God Bloodline entering its awakened phase, he not only excelled in Arithmetic Class, but ranked among the top students in Summoning Class, Magic Guidance, and Magic Potion Class as well!
The only person whose aptitude could compare to his was Victor, who'd inherited the Hero Bloodline.
But Victor wasn't serious about his studies.
So Dark couldn't find anyone to envy.
Apart from the occasional flare-up when he saw the freshmen playing to their hearts' content or chatting about youthful topics, his Envy score barely increased—but it didn't decrease, either.
Yet as time went on, he found himself having these emotional outbursts more and more often...
Another feeling building up in his heart was Wrath!
That was right: he always managed to rein in his Wrath in time. But his anger at the Demon God Bloodline and the Demon God Assistance System had taken root deep inside him, and it was only growing deeper.
If it suddenly erupted one day...
Dark was worried about that.
Greed was still within his control, but it too might erupt without warning.
By comparison, Bliss wasn't as troubling, but Diana was getting more and more clingy. At first, she'd stuck to him alone; now she brought a close friend along, too!
Dark Dimon was reaping what he'd sown!
Whenever Diana leaned over to ask him about her homework, he couldn't help wanting to pinch her soft, rosy cheeks.
As a result, his Bliss score had gone up quite a bit.
The problem was, this thing only went up. It never went down!
Dark had wondered if he could break through it by entering "Sage mode"!
But he hadn't dared try. He was afraid he'd go berserk in an instant!
Surprisingly, Pride turned out to be the hardest to control!
Dark had originally thought it would be the easiest of the Seven Deadly Sins to manage. After all, he had his memories from his previous life. Even if his current personality influenced him for a while, he could gradually wear away that arrogance.
But he'd never imagined that his memories from his previous life were the real poison!
Looking at his Pride score, which had already passed one hundred before the month was even over, its color shifting from ripe red to a darkening purple, he felt awful.
On Friday afternoon of the fourth week of term, the freshmen were finally allowed out of the Castle for the first time. They could visit St. Marian's only commercial and recreational district—Traveler Street!
Dark silently counted the credits he had, far more than the average freshman, and knew he was running out of time.
Dark Dimon Had Reached the Turning Point
Friday's schedule was light, with only one Dueling Class in the morning.
Starting at noon, the passage to Traveler Street would open. It wouldn't close again until exactly midnight on Sunday.
During that time, every student at the academy could come and go from Traveler Street as they pleased.
It wasn't just the freshmen who had just received permission. The upper-year students, cooped up in the Castle for an entire week, poured out as well.
St. Marian provided all the necessities of life for free, but students had to buy everything else on Traveler Street.
They could spend their credits however they liked.
There were all kinds of bizarre candies and toys, pretty clothes and jewelry, and even adorable dolls.
But the most common goods were magic potions and the other materials needed to make Magitech Cards.
The professors assigned upper-year students homework that could take a week, or even a month, to complete.
They had to buy the materials for those assignments themselves from the shops on Traveler Street.
Some students also made their own magic potions, tools, and unfinished Magitech Cards, then set up stalls on Traveler Street to sell them.
The upper-year students who were allowed into the Dungeon could even hunt monsters, gather materials, and sell them to merchants on Traveler Street.
The merchants paid in credits, too.
On Traveler Street, one credit was worth sixteen Holy Coins. The exchange rate shifted with the market.
The freshmen, who'd been at the academy for only a month, didn't yet know that simply paying attention in class earned them virtual tokens worth a whopping 160 Holy Coins per class!
At twelve classes a week, that came to a monthly income of 7,680 Holy Coins!
And today, Traveler Street would deal a heavy blow to the students who hadn't been paying attention in class!
"Dark, want to come with us?"
"No, I have something to do today."
"Then Lolo and I will go on ahead. I heard there's a Wonder Candy Shop on Traveler Street. I've been wanting to check it out!"
With Rose's arm tucked under hers, Diana hurried off in a flurry.
Dark shook his head. He had a very specific goal today.
Before heading to Traveler Street, he took a notebook from his bag and carefully reviewed the list of items he'd copied down.
[Vampire Fang: A vampire's fang. If it pierces a blood vessel, it can calm someone down. The side effect is the bliss of being bitten.]
[Gift of Humility: A noble young man of the Demon Realm's top hat. Anyone who wears it, no matter how rude, becomes humble and courteous—but once they take it off, they fly into a rage!]
[Tears of the Ocean: A mermaid's tears. A potion brewed from them has a slimming effect. In reality, though, it achieves this by inducing anorexia.]
[Margaret's Red Dancing Shoes: The dancing shoes of the mysterious witch Margaret. Once you put them on, you can dance the most perfect dance in the world—but you'll never be able to take them off.]
[Katrina's Poison Apple: An apple grown by Queen Katrina in the palace garden. It can absorb envy and turn it into a deadly poison that puts its victim into an eternal slumber. Only a kiss filled with love can awaken them.]
[Grandet's Gold Coin: A gold coin that carries on Grandet's legacy. Whoever holds it becomes miserly and greedy to the extreme, valuing money as dearly as life and treating wife and daughter like dirt.]
[Voodoo Doll: A cursed doll created from intense envy. Sticking pins into it causes its target to feel excruciating pain.]
[Jar of Forbidden Desire: Absorbs desire, leaving people without sorrow or joy. The side effect is that they lose even the desire to think.]
[Ring of the Starry Sky: The ring of an Archmage of the starry sky. It allows its wearer to glimpse a corner of the universe and feel their own insignificance, sometimes terrifying them into a breakdown.]
[Magic Brain Dropper: Extracts small amounts of material from the brain, including emotions, desires, and knowledge. It is often used to make advanced Magitech Cards. Using it too frequently can cause indirect memory loss.]
[Holy Cross: Purifies the mind, making the wearer's thoughts pure. The side effect is that it erodes the brain.]
[Requiem Bell: Ringing the bell calms a person, leaving them undisturbed even in death.]
[Moon God Incense: Lighting a stick of incense in the study purifies the mind, clears away distractions, and improves efficiency.]
[Wrath of God: A magic wand from the old era. It turns anger into flames of magic power. As long as the anger lasts, the magical flames will never die!]
The entire notebook was filled with descriptions of items Dark had copied from various books over the past month.
These things might be magic tools left over from a previous era, or they might already have been refined into Magitech Cards.
Either way, they could suppress the Seven Deadly Sins more effectively than necessary.
But as the saying went, every gain came at a cost. Many of these things had hard-to-ignore side effects, and the price they demanded was severe.
So far, very few seemed to have no side effects on the surface.
Of those, the items Dark most wanted, whose side effects he could accept and which he thought were most likely to be found on Traveler Street, were the Magic Brain Dropper, an alchemical tool, and the Moon God Incense, a top-tier luxury item.
Dark suspected the Moon God Incense might more easily lead his mind to crave knowledge without limit—which was clearly dangerous, and would need testing.
So the purpose of his visit to Traveler Street today was to find the Magic Brain Dropper!
The Magic Brain Dropper was an alchemical tool used to extract substances from the brain, suited to the precise crafting of high-grade Magitech Cards.
After consulting many books and even asking Professor Kazel, the professor of Magic Guidance, Dark was quite sure it could effectively extract emotions and desires—provided it was used with great skill and not too often.
If he couldn't buy one on Traveler Street, he'd have to find some way to get one from Professor Kazel's laboratory.
It couldn't be used often, but if he was careful and restrained, it could serve in an emergency.
The urgent problem at hand was to draw off some of his Pride...
Only after the freshmen crowded around the Castle entrance had finally disappeared did Dark set off, walking toward the main doors with an easy, graceful air.
The aristocratic education etched into his bones ensured that even with his mind in a state of urgency, he remained perfectly poised.
The passage to Traveler Street was located in the Lake Pavilion outside the Castle.
He crossed the long, garden-style bridge and arrived at the beautiful Lake Pavilion.
Dark habitually took a moment to survey his surroundings.
The Lake Pavilion was fairly spacious. Alongside the row of seats around its edge, there were also eight matching sets of stone tables and chairs.
A line was carved into the stone pillar directly opposite him: "If we look hard enough, there is always room for improvement, waiting for us somewhere."
Dark blinked. Someone sat down on a stone stool, shifted their bottom, and vanished in an instant.
Another person wiggled around for ages, but remained exactly where they were!
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