Chapter 106
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 106
“Heh heh, my apologies. You’ve seen me in quite an unsightly state. Are you alright, Roen?”
The Chairman asked with a warm smile as he shed his security guard uniform. I let out a sigh of relief at his appearance and gave a slow nod.
“...Yes. You arrived just in time. I’m not hurt.”
“That is a relief. It seems I wasn’t too late. Or would you have handled it on your own even if I hadn’t shown up, Roen?”
The Chairman shrugged, his gaze drifting toward the headless corpse of the giant.
“But Roen, you don’t seem all that surprised to see my magic.”
Swoosh—.
With a mere flick of his eyes, the Chairman levitated Kiriel and her companions, who were lying in the distant bushes. It was a display of telekinesis that no ordinary academy professor could ever hope to imitate.
This was a far cry from the rumors that he had climbed to his position using nothing but schemes and social maneuvering. Watching his near-divine control over mana, I nodded slowly.
“Yes. The position of Union’s Chairman cannot be obtained through simple money games or connections. I suspected you were hiding some kind of power.”
“Hmm? But you are well aware that the Chairman’s position is just a figurehead role, aren’t you, Roen?”
“Of course I am. I simply surmised that your reasons for taking the post were the same as mine for becoming a figurehead Student Council President.”
“...”
In response to my meaningful words, the Chairman simply offered a faint smile. After giving his silent answer, he continued.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that both you and I are working hard to create a better world.”
Flick—.
When the Chairman snapped his fingers, the corpse of the hideous giant turned to dust and vanished. Watching him clean up the evidence, I asked cautiously.
“Chairman, have you by any chance met with Carmilla before?”
When I had visited the Chairman’s office the day after receiving Carmilla’s warning, he had already anticipated it and sent a message to me through Watson. This meant the Chairman was already aware of Carmilla’s movements.
At my question, the Chairman shrugged.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Perhaps it’s my age, but my memory has been hazy lately.”
“...”
As I continued to stare at him in silence, the Chairman, who had tried to change the subject, reluctantly added another sentence.
“I do recall chasing away a bat that was loitering near the Union’s main gate last night. It was making quite a racket, going ‘bang, bang.’ Hahaha.”
The Chairman grinned. That was answer enough. He clapped his hands, shifting the mood.
“Now, let’s start cleaning up. I’ll take care of things here, so you can head back now, Roen.”
“I can’t go back just yet. There’s something I need to find.”
“Something to find? Are you perhaps looking for this?”
The Chairman waved his hand, and a black crystal floated up from the ground, drifting toward me. It was a Dark Mana Stone—the very item needed to hatch the Dark Spirit.
“Are you giving it to me?”
“There’s no reason I shouldn’t. Just make sure you handle the aftermath properly so that no other rumors start.”
“Of course. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them it’s being properly disposed of under your supervision, Chairman.”
“Haha.”
The Chairman scratched his head as if troubled, then continued.
“Oh, and this is a gift from me. I found it on my way here.”
The Chairman rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a golden note, handing it to me. It was the S-grade treasure hunt note—the prize for which was a date with Freya.
“...”
It shouldn’t have been easy to find. Where in the world did he get this? And why? I frowned, looking at the note the Chairman had forced upon me.
“Isn’t this illegal?”
The Chairman beamed and replied.
“It’s only illegal if you get caught. Don’t you agree?”
He took my hand and pressed the golden note into my palm.
“For your information, I found this note at the very bottom of the seventeenth letterbox in the Grand Auditorium. The mana work on it was so exquisite that even I had a hard time detecting it. Heh heh, that Freya... I can’t tell if she actually wanted it to be found or not. She’s a hard one to read.”
*
Voltimir Territory. Near the Black Forest.
“Roen? I think I saw him heading toward the Black Forest earlier.”
In response to Jeremy’s question, a student searching the area pointed deeper into the woods.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Oh, but be careful. I thought I heard something like a scream from the forest a little while ago.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Jeremy and Freya took the student’s advice to heart and continued on their way. As they ventured deeper into the forest, Freya suddenly asked.
“Jeremy, do you really think he’s connected to the missing mana stone?”
To her pointed question, Jeremy gave a somewhat ambiguous answer.
“...Recovering a Dark Mana Stone is a double-edged sword. While it can eliminate the risk of it falling into the hands of the public, there are problems that arise during the recovery process itself, not to mention the difficulty of handling, storing, and managing it afterward. And we have no idea how the person who recovered the Dark Mana Stone might use it.”
“Does that mean you think Roen is plotting something with the Dark Mana Stone?”
“That’s not what I mean, but given his actions so far, we can’t completely rule out the possibility.”
Jeremy recalled the events in his mind. He had ordered his Shadows a few days ago to attack the merchant guild’s warehouse and destroy their goods. The Dark Mana Stone had vanished in the process, and he had lost contact with the Shadows.
This was not a matter to be taken lightly. Roen or one of his associates must have been involved.
‘If not Roen, there’s no one else who could have dealt with the Shadows so cleanly and recovered the Dark Mana Stone.’
Of course, he was barking up the wrong tree entirely. Unaware of Carmilla’s coincidental intervention, Jeremy had no choice but to reach that conclusion. From Jeremy’s perspective, Roen had annihilated his Shadows and stolen the Dark Mana Stone he had entrusted to them.
Ultimately, he had to deal with Roen quickly, by any means necessary.
The method Jeremy devised was to pressure Roen by linking him to the whereabouts of the missing Dark Mana Stone. He would spread a rumor that the Dark Mana Stone he possessed had disappeared and use the investigation as a pretext to turn the blame on Roen.
Considering his and Roen’s reputations, it was obvious whose side the public would take. A crisis was also the greatest opportunity; if he could just navigate this situation well, he could make up for all his past failures. In fact, this was a chance to pin the blame for everything that had happened on Roen.
‘...In any case, there’s no link between the Shadows and me.’
The Shadows were trained to remain silent regardless of the torture they endured, so there was no risk of the attack being traced back to his orders. In the end, all that remained was the ‘fact’ that the Dark Mana Stone he had recovered was missing, and the ‘result’ that it was now in Roen’s hands.
All he had to do was fill in the links between them through various means. Today’s actions were part of that plan.
As he was lost in thought, Freya spoke.
“What are you going to do when you find Roen?”
“I’ll have to see then. I can’t question him without physical evidence, so I plan to continue the investigation gradually.”
Now that it had come to this, he needed to locate Roen as quickly as possible and conduct a search and seizure—before Roen could hide or use the Dark Mana Stone he had taken from the Shadows.
‘And this treasure hunt event is the perfect cover for him to hide or use the recovered mana stone somewhere.’
On top of that, catching him red-handed while accompanied by Freya would be the best-case scenario. Of course, it didn’t matter if he didn’t meet Roen here. It wasn’t a problem that could be solved by haphazardly wandering through the forest chasing tracks, anyway.
What was important was that he, the head of Ishtal’s disciplinary committee, was taking this matter seriously and acting personally—and ensuring that Freya and the others witnessed it.
‘The key is to shape public opinion.’
Once the mood and situation were set, no one would side with Roen. This academy was overflowing with people who wished for his downfall; all he had to do was give them a little push.
It was then, as he was darting around the Black Forest under the pretext of searching for Roen, that they ran into the Chairman in an unexpected place.
Freya’s eyes widened. “Chairman, what are you doing here?”
To meet him in the Black Forest, the border area between Ishtal and Voltimir, was highly unusual. The Chairman stroked his mustache and smiled faintly.
“Oh, it’s nothing special. I just came out to catch some pests that might harm the students.”
“...?”
Isn’t it natural for there to be pests in a forest? Freya wondered.
The Chairman asked, “But what brings you two here? You must be busy with the sports festival. Are you having a secret rendezvous? Ah, youth.”
At the Chairman’s remark, Freya answered firmly. “Of course not. We were tracking Roen.”
“Roen, you say? May I hear the reason?”
Before Freya could answer, Jeremy cut in. “It’s related to the recovery of a Dark Mana Stone.”
“Hmm. A Dark Mana Stone. Interesting.”
The Chairman stroked his chin for a moment, then looked at Jeremy with cold eyes.
“This is just an old man’s worry, but I trust this isn’t a case where someone attacked a certain place last night... and in the process, something was lost... and now, someone is trying to pin the blame for all of it on another person. That’s not it, is it?”
“...!”
For a moment, Jeremy’s mind went blank. He felt as if all the blood was draining from his body. As Jeremy stood frozen in place, the Chairman soon burst into a hearty laugh.
“Ah, please don’t misunderstand. It was just a wild guess. Hahaha. If I’m wrong, then that’s that.”
Jeremy silently gritted his teeth as he looked at the Chairman’s warm, smiling face.
“...”
The Chairman was hiding something beneath that good-natured smile. For him to make such an openly accusatory statement, he definitely knew something. Perhaps even the full story of the incident. He was pressuring Jeremy as if he knew of a clear link between him and the Shadows.
The Chairman’s eyes glinted as he looked specifically at Jeremy.
“I think it would be best for you two to head back now. If you do, we’ll let ‘this matter’ drop.”
*
The disturbance in the Black Forest was quietly resolved under the Chairman’s direction.
The unconscious Kiriel and her aides were moved to the infirmary for treatment, and students who had come into contact with the abnormal gremlins were assigned personnel for medical care and mental counseling.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the academy, the sports festival proceeded so smoothly it was hard to believe a battle with demons had just taken place. The treasure hunt event that Freya had ambitiously prepared had ended in a great success.
After the time limit for the hunt expired, it was time for the prize drawing that everyone had been waiting for.
Evening had fallen, and the sky was growing dark. Under the bright lights illuminating the main athletic field, tens of thousands of students had gathered in the stands, waiting for the drawing. I, too, was participating in the ceremony, but...
“Ugh.”
Currently, all my stats were halved due to the side effects of [Overload]. Just standing and walking made my head spin and my legs tremble. Drained of all strength, I sat quietly in a corner of the VIP section like a limp squid.
As I sat there blankly, the booming voice of the announcer reached my ears.
“Alright, everyone! This treasure hunt prize drawing will be conducted by President Freya herself! All eyes on her, please!”
On the temporary stage set up in the center of the main field, a large spinning wheel and a lottery box had been placed. The announcer continued.
“Every treasure hunt reward note includes a ‘raffle ticket’! When the president draws a number, the student with the corresponding number, please come forward to receive your prize!”
Each time Freya drew a number from the box, the announcer raised his voice and called it out.
“Alright, first up, number 122! Number 217, and number 83!”
“Me! That’s me!”
As the numbers were called, students ran down from the stands one by one and climbed onto the stage.
“Yes! Student number 122, congratulations on being our first winner! You will receive a gift certificate for 1 million points usable within Ishtal territory, along with a training dagger personally engraved by President Freya! Please treasure it. The president will be sad if it ends up on the second-hand market!”
“Woooah!”
After that, the designated students received their prizes in turn. Various prizes and souvenirs were included, such as commemorative dolls made by the academy and sports festival merchandise. Starting with the B-grade prizes, a spinning wheel was used instead of a lottery to draw for and distribute more valuable items.
The atmosphere gradually grew more festive. As time passed, the value of the prizes increased, and the students’ anticipation grew. The excitement peaked when Freya personally awarded the A-grade prizes—seven unique auxiliary artifacts.
And then, the final stage of the drawing event.
“Alright, this is the last one! The S-grade prize you’ve all been waiting for! Is there anyone out there who found the S-grade treasure note?!”
The announcer shouted at the top of his lungs, searching for the student who had found the S-grade note. It was the note whose prize was the main event: a date with Freya.
The main field buzzed with excitement to welcome the lucky winner. The students murmured amongst themselves, wondering who could have found it.
“Is anyone there? Please come out!”
But after a long while, the owner of the note still hadn’t appeared, and the atmosphere in the stadium began to turn sour. As the winner failed to show, students began to voice their suspicions.
As the rapidly shifting public opinion turned toxic, the organizers also began to panic.
“Ahaha, it seems the note hasn’t been found! I guess it was too difficult to find, since the prize is what it is. President?”
Freya, too, hadn’t expected this reaction, and her expression stiffened with bewilderment. Just as Freya took the microphone to offer an explanation...
“...”
After a moment of hesitation, I stood up and walked out of the VIP section.
Tap, tap—.
I tapped the microphone to draw everyone’s attention, then held up the note in my hand.
“It’s right here. The date with Freya.”