Revenge (4)
Leon carefully stowed the items Bergopf had given him into his subspace pouch.
"I'll take a closer look at these later…"
Demons did not lie, so there was unlikely to be anything wrong with them. Still, cleanup came first.
Leon took one last long drag on his cigarette, then stirred his mana and crushed the butt to ash.
"Let's go."
He raced back to the Academy and rounded up a throng of instructors to handle the mess.
…And the Academy erupted into chaos.
The Academy decided to suspend classes for two days.
That an Academy student had been involved with a demon was on an entirely different level from the entrance-ceremony suicide, which had left nothing but unanswered questions. Burrow's corpse, dead in a state of demonic transformation, was an unmistakable mark of heresy.
So to uncover the truth of the incident, the moment dawn broke, the Church's heretic inquisitors began arriving one after another through Elaim's warp gate.
The ten students present at the scene—including Leon and Aria—along with anyone who had even the slightest acquaintance with Burrow, and even the professors and instructors, were all questioned one by one. In the end, the verdict was that it had been Burrow's unilateral act.
The students firmly insisted that the only reason they had gathered in such a secluded place in the middle of the night was because Burrow had summoned them. Which was actually true. And there was no reason to spill every last detail about the gathering's purpose of wanting to overthrow the nobles. The students were not stupid enough to go looking for trouble.
The heretic inquisitors had focused solely on determining whether anyone was a heretic or not, so that particular detail slipped past like a snake over a wall.
The version of events they pieced together went like this:
Aria, having accepted Burrow's invitation to the gathering, sensed something suspicious about him and secretly called for Leon. Burrow then activated a demon summoning circle while simultaneously undergoing demonic transformation, and went berserk trying to offer Aria and the other students to the demon. Aria tried to subdue him by activating a self-defense artifact she always carried, but failed. Just when she was in a desperate situation—with every student who might have helped her fallen asleep—Leon arrived in the nick of time, and together they managed to take him down.
It was a scenario everyone could accept. Even the commoner students present nodded along to Aria's account. If they thought her actions had stemmed from sensing something ominous, it made perfect sense. And the fact that Burrow had been a demon follower had been proven true.
As a result, Aria and Leon earned the achievement of having saved the students from a demon follower's clutches.
…There were a few omissions, but it wasn't wrong.
"Brother, Sister. We offer our sincere gratitude once more for striking down their schemes. The God of Order, Merteon, will surely rejoice at this."
"Hahaha! We merely did what needed to be done."
"Such heroic character…! Ah, may the blessings of the gods alone accompany you on the path ahead."
The heretic inquisitors poured gratitude and blessings upon the demon contractor for a while before returning to the Church.
A heartwarming conclusion.
After the two-day suspension ended, Wednesday arrived.
"Haa."
Philip let out a long, private sigh. He had been one of the students who attended Burrow's gathering last Sunday. Even if that bastard Burrow had been a complete piece of shit who'd tried to sell them out to a demon, Philip couldn't deny that his heart had raced at the talk of ending the nobles' tyranny. It wasn't that he'd believed a con man's words—the temptation had simply been too sweet.
Armen Pergio…
Recalling that face, Philip ground his teeth. The reason he'd been targeted was trivial. You could even call it bad luck.
"Um… that's my seat…"
"Haha, what was that?"
…That had been the start.
Perhaps because he was a mage who favored fire magic, Armen burned everything of Philip's at every opportunity. Textbooks were the least of it. Hair, shoes, shirts, bags, lunch—you name it. He'd visited the infirmary's priests for burns more times than he could count. Especially when the assignment he'd stayed up three days and nights to complete turned to ash—his vision had gone completely white.
The Academy had only been going for four weeks, and he dreaded how much worse the bullying would get.
"Haaa."
Philip kept dry-washing his face in despair as he entered the classroom.
"I'm truly sorry!"
"…???"
…And found himself face to face with Armen, slamming his head against the desk as he apologized.
"I—I was truly, truly wrong!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Head after head slammed down. The desk rattled violently. A drop of blood trickled from his flushed, swollen forehead.
"Please forgive me!"
"…What the hell is this…"
Whispers and shocked stares from the other students fixed on Armen, but he paid them no mind whatsoever.
"Huff, huff… please…"
He simply kept bowing his head, begging for mercy without end. Bloodshot eyes. Cold sweat streaming down. He looked as if something were hunting him.
"…"
Philip couldn't believe what he was seeing.
And so—this bizarre phenomenon of nobles pouring their entire souls into apologizing to commoners was happening all across the Academy. More precisely, to the commoner students who had attended Burrow's gathering that day. What they all had in common was that they were terrified of something, plunged into extreme fear.
Behind an abandoned building in a corner of the Academy grounds, the soil had blackened, soaked through with blood. The thick, metallic scent of it hung heavy in the air. Bloodstains and scraps of flesh were scattered everywhere, and in the corner, empty potion bottles were piled up like a mountain.
"Stress just melts right away, doesn't it?"
Aria carefully wiped the blood spattered on Leon's face with a handkerchief, smiling prettily.
"It does."
Leon pulled out a cigarette, stuck it between his lips, and swept back his disheveled bangs.
"I should use them whenever I get bored from now on."
"Please call me too."
"Of course. Next time let's hit the martial arts department. I've got a few kids marked already."
That's right. Taking the list Aria had prepared and personally "educating" the nobles who'd been up to no good—that had been Leon's doing.
Of course, it wasn't out of any sense of justice. He had simply needed outlets to freely unleash his violence. While pocketing a bit of "tuition" along the way.
Two birds with one stone. Two birds.
And cleaning up the place where you live is only natural. Like a full moon that must wane—keep piling things up and eventually something bursts. If things kept going like this, there was no telling when the commoner students' grievances would explode into an uprising.
In the original story, that incident had been triggered by Burrow. But there was no guarantee something similar wouldn't happen again. No—if anything, while the process had been removed, the root cause still remained, so the probability of it happening was very high. In that sense, Leon could be said to have pulled the weeds out by the roots.
…Would it have been more fun to just leave them and watch what they did?
As he inhaled the smoke, sunk in a bit of regret and contemplation—
As expected, Master is just too soft-hearted.
Aria was watching him from behind with a peculiar gaze.
Those kinds of people are completely useless even if you help them.
Back to Wednesday afternoon.
The Class A students gathered at Training Ground 1 as usual, all wearing deathly expressions. The thought of resuming hellish training was already agony. Having had an unscheduled two-day break only made the reluctance bloom all the more vigorously.
But those thoughts vanished cleanly the moment they saw Leon ambling into the training ground.
"La-la-la~!"
Whatever good thing had happened, Leon was in high spirits today. If it had been anyone else, a good mood would have been a blessing—but that madman was at his scariest when he was smiling. The students adjusted their stances for no reason and fretted at their sword hilts like talismans.
Soon after, Cheren arrived at the training ground with crisp, measured steps.
"Cadets, it's been a while."
It was clearly a greeting meant for everyone, yet her gaze was locked solely on Leon.
"As you all know, an unfortunate incident occurred at the Academy recently."
"It was a major event that could have cost several students their lives."
"Fortunately, thanks to Cadet Leon's efforts here, it was stopped. Everyone, applause."
Clap clap clap clap clap!
Every single student clapped with enthusiasm. Separate from their fear of him, the Class A students fully acknowledged him as a warrior. Hadn't he saved a student from assailants before as well? His personality might be a bit—no, quite a lot—rotten, but they couldn't dismiss what he'd actually accomplished. There was also the fact that Leon's skill overwhelmingly surpassed every student present.
Once the applause died down, Cheren continued.
"As this incident has shown, the world is crawling with countless evils and enemies that threaten the Empire."
"That is why we always need thorough training and preparation for real combat. In that sense…"
Cheren paused for a moment, and anticipation lit up the students' faces.
"Starting today, we begin practical exercises. All of you, follow me."
"Wooooaaaaah!!!"
The students erupted in cheers as one. Whether they were that happy about not having to do physical training, they all beamed with smiles and threw their arms around each other.
Meanwhile, Leon was smiling for a slightly different reason.
Outdoor practical exercises. Wasn't that just the perfect combination of words for something to go wrong?
This is gonna be fun!
For Leon, who found the nonstop stream of events nothing but delightful, it was pure joy.