Spring Day (3)

Finding the meeting spot wasn't difficult.

When I received the hint about a forest, I asked myself: relative to my quarters, which location would serve best for a quick meeting?

Someone might ask how I could possibly know, given that the Empire had more than one or two forests, but the answer was simple.

The correct site was the forest behind the academy.

There was a reason ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Intelligence Bureau had selected this spot out of all the possible forests.

Geographically speaking, excluding this one, the nearest forest was at least thirty minutes away.

They would have envisioned a scenario that allowed a swift meeting and dispersal without any confusion along the way.

Moreover, it was a secure location protected by a high-grade defensive barrier.

As a precaution against unforeseen incidents, every individual who visited this forest was meticulously recorded.

The intent to safeguard students had unwittingly transformed this place into a meeting point that combined two advantages in one: distance and security.

If word of this reached the chancellor, he would undoubtedly flip out over such activity on educational grounds, but I'd done nothing wrong.

The Intelligence Bureau had started it, so the chancellor would have to take his complaint to the Imperial Court.

"Here?"

As I reached the heart of the forest, an old tree stump came into view.

The spot looked perfectly suited for a friendly chat.

I sat on the stump and scanned my surroundings.

Only shadows stretched out beneath the soft moonlight.

I saw nothing.

I waited for a while after that.

Then I sensed a faint trace of Mana that felt deliberately concealed.

Without turning my head, I attempted to start a conversation with the other party.

"I didn't expect you to be this late."

"My apologies. I was delayed handling an urgent task."

Crunch. Crunch.

Since I was firmly holding my position, I could feel the other person approaching from the front.

Gradually, at the edge of my vision, the person who had called for me came into sight.

"It's a pleasure. I'm Sian Merkel, from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau's Public Security Division."

He had black hair, and his overall look was built around those white eyes, his face utterly expressionless as if he had no intention of showing any emotion.

On top of that, the black coat he wore to conceal his affiliation stood out.

He wouldn't look like Imperial personnel, but rather like a typical noble.

Even as he tried his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠best to mask his feelings, he still looked haggard, perhaps worn down by his work.

I was just as tired, so I tossed out a light joke.

"You must be very busy."

"Yeah, well… It's been especially hectic lately."

My gaze naturally drifted toward his waist.

Merkel was a swordsman, not a mage like Flora.

Judging by the Mana I could feel from him at that moment, his level was at least in the high 6th tier, even by a conservative estimate.

No, with this much Mana, he was most certainly at level 7.

After finishing my brief assessment, I rose from my seat and continued our conversation.

Just as Welton had done, Merkel also found it quite interesting to be meeting me.

"I never imagined I'd actually meet the Apostate."

"Surely you know my perfectly normal name by now."

At my slightly sharp retort, Merkel scratched the back of his head before speaking.

"Internally, we're just so accustomed to calling you by that epithet. I apologize for that."

Merkel's swift apology left me with nothing more to say.

Prolonging the discussion would do no good, so I steered us toward a different topic.

"…Let's get to the point."

"Understood."

Merkel continued in an unwavering voice.

"I made contact because I have a few questions regarding the recent slums incident."

"I expected as much. So?"

"Then we can get through this quickly. Do you have any information acquired through the Demons, or any items you've obtained?"

"Coincidentally, I have an item I wanted to show you."

Merkel was surely hoping for a worthwhile outcome, but I had also been waiting for precisely this moment.

I intended to hand over the valuable information I'd extracted while running through the Demon's Confession.

"You can take this and analyze it."

I took a seed from my coat's inner pocket and handed it to Merkel.

He frowned, as if sensing that the seed was anything but ordinary.

"What in the world is this…?"

"The Demons' ambitions were quite grand."

I picked up the seed, which closely resembled a sunflower seed, and mentioned the Demons' plan.

"The Demons' objective was to spread these seeds through the slums to cultivate potential Demonized Humans."

"Cultivating Demonized Humans… Who led the Demons in this?"

"Have you heard of Chimera?"

Chimera.

A level 6 Demon who had mastered Demonic Energy manipulation through alchemy. Despite the relatively low level, he was a tricky opponent to deal with.

In my previous life, killing him in battle had been the easy part, but the Demonic Energy that Chimera had scattered everywhere had slowly continued to trip me up.

That was why the key was to end things quickly and decisively before he could pull any stunts.

As if Merkel also knew this, he clicked his tongue and for the first time let a flicker of annoyance show.

"So that irritating one has been making moves."

"Indeed."

My instincts told me that now was the only time to bring up the Artifact.

I aimed for a breakthrough now that we'd established common ground over this troublesome Demon.

"Could this be the chance to review a measure to lower the Artifact restrictions?"

"That seems difficult."

"Even if it means being pushed back by the Demons?"

"Who knows. That's a matter for the Empire to judge."

He didn't hesitate for even a moment, as if he had an internal manual he was following.

As expected, Imperial officials weren't to be trusted.

I'd have to blaze a trail with the mindset of a pioneer.

The rest of our conversation was nothing special.

I warned him to be careful, as there could be humans cooperating with the Demons.

I gave the long-tailed rat as an example.

Upon hearing that, Merkel shared an untold detail from the aftermath.

"When we arrived at the site, it had already been severely compromised."

"Were there signs of a break-in?"

"No. The entire area around the main base had been burned to the ground. The goal was to destroy the evidence."

He then gave a small nod and added a word of thanks.

"Without you, Mr. Karon, the investigation might have hit a dead end."

"That's good to hear."

This was an unexpected development.

I hadn't known the Demons would use magic to clean up the entire area.

Given that I'd missed it at the time, it seemed to be a spell that triggered upon death, like a Geas.

Thanks to that, I now knew how they handled their loose ends.

I decided I would keep this in mind for an interrogation next time.

Just when I was feeling satisfied with a decent gain, Merkel said something shocking.

"Are you aware you've been attracting quite a bit of attention within the Empire recently?"

"What?"

I was so stunned that I accidentally raised my voice.

Whatever the reason, attracting attention was never a good thing.

In the first place, nothing good ever came from a high-priority wanted criminal drawing attention.

That was why I had been trying to live as quietly as possible as an academy instructor, and now the Empire had its eyes on me?

I set out to suppress this immediately, before any annoying problems could arise.

Now that my objective was complete, I stopped him just as he was about to leave.

"Why am I drawing attention?"

"It's nothing much. You'll find out soon enough."

If it was nothing much, then why did I feel this ominous chill?

At the time, I brushed it off as no big deal.

But it didn't take long for me to find out.

* * *

As if his words had been some kind of prophecy, the academy's atmosphere had shifted into something a little different from usual.

Not to mention the bulletin boards, but the students' chatter was all abuzz about the problem I'd set.

"Hey, did you see the column problem this time?"

"You're talking about Spring Day, right? A senior told me it's considered one of the hardest column problems ever published."

I realized that the attention he'd mentioned meant this.

Honestly, it wasn't a bad situation.

They were evaluating Spring Day positively, after all.

The chancellor had probably been hoping for this reaction.

By now, I could easily imagine him grinning from ear to ear.

So after finishing my lecture, I'd been planning to head to the chancellor's office and observe the reaction, but…

"Instructor Karon! Do you have a moment?"

On my leisurely walk to the lecture hall, I ran into him as he came sprinting over in a frantic rush.

Anyone watching would have thought he was being chased by a Monster.

Since that incident, I'd been quietly keeping a close eye on him, worried he might do something foolish, but fortunately, he seemed to have been doing well.

Professor Prokel waved his hands around as he caught his breath.

"Hoo… Huff… Haah… I've been looking for you for thirty minutes."

"Do you have an urgent matter for me?"

"In a way it's urgent, and in a way it might not be. Most of all, I need to know your schedule."

I looked closer and saw the column fluttering in his right hand.

In his other hand, he clutched a notebook stuffed full of memos.

A column in one hand, a notebook in the other.

It was a combination I'd been seeing a lot across the academy today. Most of the students were carrying them around like swords and shields.

The common factor among them all was that they mentioned Spring Day.

Was the interest now even reaching the faculty, beyond just the student body?

I had a slight feeling of foreboding, but I paid it no mind.

I pulled out my pocket watch to check the time and found I had just enough leeway for a conversation.

"I do have a lecture starting soon."

"That won't be a problem. I only wanted to ask one thing."

Suddenly, he was directing a gaze at me that sparkled with an almost burdensome intensity.

I instinctively stepped back, but Professor Prokel thrust the column toward me and exclaimed:

"Would you happen to be the one who posed the Spring Day problem?"

"I don't possess that level of skill."

Pretending to take a brief, curious look at Spring Day, I then shook my head.

My instincts screamed at me that identifying myself as the author here would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lead to an uncontainable firestorm.

It was the same intuition that had saved my life time and again, crying out in warning.

"Hmm, and yet you're a mage who could more than handle it."

"It seems the last lecture left a strong impression on you."

"It certainly did! It was a tremendous help."

He showered me with praise one moment and nearly launched into a debate about Spring Day the next, but I used my lecture as an excuse and managed to slip away.

After much ado, I finally arrived in front of the lecture hall, but the commotion here was no different.

Without exception, everyone was murmuring about Spring Day.

"They say the Magic Tower is looking for the person who wrote this Magic Circle problem."

"Why all of a sudden?"

"I think they're planning to ask them to do a presentation on it."

"The problem is tough, sure, but is it that level?"

The chancellor had asked me to raise the difficulty, but I'd still kept it at a level appropriate for the academy.

'It's not exactly at the level that would reach the Magic Tower, after all.'

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was inwardly agreeing with the students' chatter, but as I stepped into the lecture hall, the words that followed were anything but ordinary.

"It's not just for a simple presentation. They said the Magic Tower Master wants to meet the author, no matter what."

It was good that a way to meet the Magic Tower Master had opened up, but…

This had turned into quite a nuisance.