I Became a Tentacle Monster Blooming in the Academy Garden 55

## Chapter 55 – Night of Betrayal (2)

Perhaps the signs were too obvious.

Maybe I just didn’t realize it.

Perhaps it was something that could have happened at any time, and it finally did.

It was when all the beastmen had left the den to enjoy their freedom, and I was still inside, trying to persuade Arachnella for a long time, asking if she wouldn’t like to get some fresh air.

It was out of consideration for Arachnella, hoping she could relax a bit by breathing in the outside air. However, she merely touched her still-healing skin for a moment before coldly turning her head away.

For her, who seemed so listless, going outside for a short while might only quench a brief thirst, and she probably hated the thought of having to return inside again.

And I hadn’t realized at the time that everyone felt the same way.

“W-Wait…!! Where are you going?!”

As the sharp voice echoed through the night sky, I paused in my attempt to persuade Arachnella and quickly shifted my consciousness to the large flower blooming in the flower bed, looking around.

I saw Lanie grabbing a beastman’s waist, both of them tumbling across the flower bed.

And as I noticed some of the beastmen who had gone outside running in different directions, I finally began to grasp the situation, feeling my heart sink with a thud.

“You can’t go…!! You can’t…!! Please stop……!!”

Pina, who had come to understand their situation best through our conversations, was also trying to stop them, but her words seemed to have no effect on the other beastmen.

“What’s the point of staying here? We’ll just end up being killed by that monster!
We have to move now…!!”

“Honey!! This is our last chance…!!
If we can just get outside somehow…!!”

The beastmen’s shouts and words of persuasion echoed, and even the beastmen who had initially stood by, merely watching the escape, glanced back at me with fearful eyes before finally starting to run.

In the end, except for Pina, not a single one remained; they all began to flee from around the flower bed, and I could only watch them go with a sense of emptiness.

‘Pina, let them go.’

“Huh…? But…!! Okay…
Lanie, he says to let go.”

Hearing Pina’s words, Lanie released the beastman she was holding with a reluctant expression. The freed beastman then began to run after his companions who were scattering in all directions.

Most of them would probably try to escape anywhere they could, and they would either be caught by the security magic while trying to climb over the fence or be subdued by the guards stationed at the entrance.

And then they would be restrained again and become slaves of the academy, just as they had been before.

Perhaps they would even be killed as a result of this escape attempt.

But the biggest danger of all was…

‘Pina, tell Vivian and Lanie.’

“T-Tell them what……?”

‘To go into that tunnel you went into when you were escaping from the dungeon.
Tell them to hide there for the time being.
And tell them not to come out until I call them.’

That my existence, the one who had helped them escape from the dungeon and brought them out of the flower bed, might be exposed.

After all, if I just gave them a few tentacles, they could use them to supply themselves with nutrient fluid for the time being.

When Pina conveyed my words, Vivian and Lanie, perhaps having their own thoughts about the current situation, looked up at me with surprised expressions.

“No…!! We can still catch them now…!!
I’m pretty fast…!! So if we bring the beastmen back……!!”

“Okay……”

Unlike Lanie, who desperately tried to reassure me, Vivian, after receiving the tentacle I had severed, stared down at it meaningfully for a moment, then closed her eyes tightly, grabbed Lanie’s hand, and began to drag her away.

“Vivian-nim……!! Vivian-nim…!!
No…!! We can handle this…!!”

“Shut up, Lanie. That’s what he wants us to do.
So just come with me without complaining.”

And Pina, who anxiously glanced back and forth between the two girls heading towards the dungeon and me, eventually followed them after seeing me flick the flower.

‘How did things end up like this……’

As I watched the women’s backs receding from the flower bed, I suddenly lowered the flower and paused for a moment to think.

In my previous life, I was a failure.

It wasn’t that I lacked money, but regardless of that, I had to live an empty life.

The warmth of people being together, the comfort of someone affirming me, the desperation of someone needing me.

All the things I wanted could never be bought with money.

That’s why I, now just a penniless monster, could be happy by having those small things I desired.

No, perhaps it was only half of it.

The warmth I felt from forcibly embracing those women who didn’t want it, the fabricated warmth of humans who could never affirm a monster, and the desperation of those who wanted me only out of their own needs.

‘Wasn’t it a great achievement for me to have come this far?’

I wanted to meet that ‘woman’ again.

With that one wish alone, I began to live a life more chaotic than ever before.

From a small, ugly bud blooming in this small flower bed within the academy, to a deeply rooted sunflower that now overlooked everything around the flower bed all by itself.

Had I ever lived such a passionate life?

I had even laughed in ways I couldn’t have imagined in my previous life, indulging in curiosity, a sense of accomplishment, and a strangely stirring sentimentality.

The tickling sensation of the long, vivid magenta hair.

The woman’s whisper, sharing her warmth and affirming me, was echoing in my ears once again.

‘I’m happy, Enic. Are you too?’

By feeling that, I might have already been saved.

As she said, at this moment, I could say that I myself was happy.

Could I, who felt that way, finally let go of everything else?

In my mind, which had shut down all senses as if I had closed my eyes, a small fragment of memory suddenly surfaced.

Even though she was crying, the look in her eyes towards me was warmer than anything I had ever felt, a scene resonating silently in my heart.

Along with an enchanting smile, but with a truth so clear that even I, who knew so little about humans, couldn’t help but recognize it.

[I love you]

I began to reactivate all the senses in my body once again.

Gathering all the kernel worms that had been scouting escape routes and reviewing all the cards I could play, I began to assess the situation around me and derive the best course of action.

Vivian, Lanie, and Pina had long disappeared from sight.

And far off in the direction of the main gate, it seemed that some of the beastmen had finally been discovered, as shouts and fierce voices could be heard.

Gathering the vibrations sensed by the kernel worms in the vicinity, a scene unfolded like a 3D stereoscopic display: some male beastmen were confronting the guards and fighting, while female beastmen were trying to slip away in the chaos, but ultimately being blocked by the impenetrable cordon.

The male beastmen continued to fight, and the female beastmen turned back and scattered, fleeing deeper into the academy.

Feeling as if I were looking down at a map, I began to initiate the actions I needed to take immediately.

“Kyaaaak!! Hyaak!!”

“Escape…!! Euhp!!”

I grabbed the female beastmen who were quick-witted enough to run back towards me with my tentacles and shoved them into the still-open den. Then, looking at the female beastmen who were fleeing in other directions, I quickly issued an order to ‘that one.’

– Krrrrrr

The ground shook, and as the vibrations traveled up my roots, the female beastmen instinctively stopped in their tracks.

– Kwaeeeeeeeng!!

They were startled by the trumpet-like cry emitted by the creature that suddenly burst through the ground and raised its head above the earth, and they turned around and began to flee.

A secret weapon that couldn’t be used unless the guards were distracted like they were now.

The giant kernel worm moved around to various locations, driving the female beastmen, and eventually, the female beastmen who were forced to move towards the flower bed were one by one wrapped around the waist by tentacles and thrown into the den.

With this, my practical goal was achieved.

But not stopping there, I immediately turned my head and looked towards the main gate, where a chaotic scene was unfolding.

“Kuaaaak!! Break through me!!”

Perhaps because they were disregarding their own lives, the beastmen and guards were engaged in a fierce battle.

Considering the guards’ considerable skills, the beastmen were surprisingly holding their own.

Entrusting themselves to instinct, they bit and clawed back even after being struck by sword attacks. Seeing this, I quietly moved my leaves and picked up a handful of spiders accumulated in the leaf venturi.

Because I had used so many on Arachnella, not many had survived, but the ones that had were worth their weight in gold.

Placing the spiders on a leaf, I pulled back the folded leaf like a catapult and released it, launching the spiders. They scattered widely, like a handful of gravel, flying towards the beastmen and guards who were locked in combat.

‘The spiders’ attributes changed while I was subduing Arachnella.’

The spiders had bitten Arachnella, injecting spider venom, and had devoured and digested the spiderwebs she spewed.

As those spiders fell to the ground with a thud, some of them colliding with the beastmen and guards, everyone in the area was startled and tried to see what was falling.

But before they could even identify it, the spiders rushed at them and stung them with their poisonous needles, and it didn’t take long for everyone to collapse on the spot.

‘Enic said I evolve.
Then this… must be evolution……’

I merely watched indifferently as the spider venom, which would normally only have the effect of causing a brief paralysis, easily knocked them unconscious.

And after everyone, from the human guards to the male beastmen who seemed to have some resistance to the poison, had completely fallen, I flicked the flower, and a giant earthworm sprang from the ground, swallowing everyone up.

No, to be precise, one person remained.

A guard who had lost an eye after being struck by a beastman’s clawing attack, and then been knocked unconscious by the spider venom.

The giant kernel worm, having swallowed everyone except him, carefully crawled back into the hole it had emerged from, and the spiders that had been scattered across the ground, having completed their mission, began to crawl back towards the flower bed.

‘I said I would survive. No matter what.’

As I watched the spiders return to the flower bed, my mind was filled with the desire and desperation of someone who refused to give up.