Chapter 184: Opening Ceremony (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 184: Opening Ceremony (3)
The new semester had begun, but the atmosphere was awkward.
It was because the RoFan party—the center of the Academy and, arguably, the center of the world—had gone missing.
“Daisy!”
“Are you okay? What on earth happened?”
So, when they finally returned, a swarm of students rushed toward them… but after seeing their social status, they naturally gravitated toward Daisy.
At least there were a few people asking the Minor Sword Emperor for details.
“What happened, Ellen?”
“…I didn't go.”
“Ah, right.”
Some even asked Ellen.
“……?”
Wait, these bastards. Do they think us sword-swingers are easy targets?
Why aren't they asking Esid or the Magic Spammer in the Magic Department? Or that Border Count guy?
Even the Magic Spammers were crawling over to the Swordsmanship Department to ask questions.
“Th-these humans. They’re too noisy.”
“Agreed. I liked the gloomy atmosphere from a few days ago better.”
“No, that was depressing, so I hated it…”
“I never know which tune I’m supposed to dance to with you…”
“C-call me Big Sister if you don't want to die!”
“Fine, I’ll just die then.”
To one side, the High Elves were bickering like a comedy duo.
“Hmm. Still, I think I could make it into the top five.”
“I think that’ll be tough…”
“No! I’ve beaten that one and that one before!”
“Sure. You’re the best.”
On the other side, the Beastkin were chatting away.
“Yawn.”
And behind them, the Ancestor had her face buried in her desk, fast asleep.
“……”
I’d heard about it before.
But the composition of this class is seriously messed up.
…Is it just my imagination?
Naturally, it wasn't just my imagination.
“Uncle. Isn't this a bit much?”
“What is…”
“You dumped all the heterogeneous species into one place. Do you think this makes any sense?”
“…I have no power. They said they wanted to join the Swordsmanship Department. What was I supposed to do?”
“Is our class the only one in the Swordsmanship Department?”
“There’s a saying passed down among Imperial agents. Don't put all your eggs in one basket… but put all your bombs in one.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means put everything dangerous in one spot and let them all blow up together.”
I could tell just by looking at him that this man had lost his mind, but I didn't realize he’d gone this far off the deep end.
“…If it blows, I’m not dying alone.”
I growled my response, but the man—who had already been hollowed out by countless hardships, unfair treatment, and having his soul drained by his superiors—was resilient.
“Yeah. If one thing goes off in there, everyone’s dead anyway.”
“……”
…Wait. Is he resilient, or is he just broken?
Then again, looking at how much he’d aged, he certainly looked like he’d been through the wringer.
“……”
I walked past Uncle Aeryun and looked into the club room.
There was the Fire Spammer, face-planted on a desk and letting out weird groans, and Taylor, who looked like he’d been burned down to white ash in the corner.
Aside from them, among the first-year juniors who seemed to have grown quite a bit after overcoming their trials…
“……?”
“……?”
A person I was less familiar with than the first-years who rarely showed up was sitting there awkwardly.
What did this mean?
“Intruder!”
At my shout, the intruder panicked and yelled back.
“I’m not!”
The intruder, shouting at the top of his lungs with a look of pure injustice, screamed his name.
“It’s me, Cameron!”
“……!”
“You remember now!”
Seeing the intruder look relieved, I crumpled my face and shouted.
“So you are an intruder!”
“You little…!”
He looked like he was about to burst with frustration, but I couldn't help it.
No matter how hard I thought, I didn't recognize his face or his name.
the minor misunderstanding was cleared up with the help of Uncle Aeryun, who had risen like a zombie.
“Adam. It’s that guy. Camel. The one in charge of the Ilias Merchant Guild.”
“It’s Cameron.”
“Stupid sword-swinger. How could you forget Cassel, the fifth guard of Ilias?”
“…Was there actually an intruder? Or were there four other guards I didn't know about? I told you, my name is Cameron!”
“Right, right. How could you forget our Harmen? You guys are too much.”
“Not a single syllable was right?!”
“He’s right, Senior. Did you really forget Senior Cameron?”
“Exactly. Senior Cameron was so good to us.”
“To think you’d forget Senior Cameron… how heartless.”
“I appreciate you guys remembering me, but aren't you meeting me for the first time today?!”
His name was Cameron.
The head of the Ilias Merchant Guild and the number one candidate to be dropped as a RoFan male lead. No, actually, he already felt like a total dropout.
He was the one in charge of Hedrick and a founding member of the After-School Dessert Club (with 0% contribution).
That man had come to the half-dead Dessert Club.
Since he was likely the richest person here, he hadn't come to leech off the club budget for desserts.
“You have no conscience.”
“That’s how all merchant types are.”
“Still, to show up only now after doing absolutely nothing.”
“I can't believe Senior Cameron would be like that…”
“It’s a betrayal, a total betrayal…”
“……No, I can deal with the others, but I’m telling you, I’m meeting you kids for the first time today?!”
I could already guess why he was here, so he got scolded not only by the second-years but even by the first-years who had grown rapidly over the break.
“If you just came to visit, I’ll acknowledge you.”
“If you say you don't need any help, I’ll apologize.”
“Though I doubt that’s the case.”
“Seniors, you’re being too much.”
“Exactly. Is Senior Cameron the kind of person who only seeks us out when he needs something?”
“After all we’ve been through, you’re being quite cold.”
“…Guys. You’re starting to scare me now.”
Sighing, the guy named Cam-whatever revealed the reason he came with a face of total defeat, like a culprit confessing everything to a detective.
“A great crisis has befallen Ilias.”
Everyone looked at him with indifferent expressions, so he frowned and continued.
“This is a problem for Ilias, but it’s also a problem for the Empire. Much like last year, it’s a planned crime taking advantage of the Empire’s Founding Festival…”
Cameron, who had been rambling on to persuade us, stopped mid-sentence when he saw the looks on everyone’s faces.
“No, seriously. How can you be this uninterested?”
Ilias.
It was a massive merchant guild with powerful influence not just in the Empire, but across the entire continent.
Last year, when Ilias’s operations briefly halted due to an incident during the Founding Festival, the entire continent felt the impact…
“Well, the thing is…”
Rarely acting as a representative, it was the Fire Spammer, not Uncle Aeryun, who frowned.
“Yes. Marie. What is it?”
“……?”
“Marie?”
“Ah, that’s me.”
The Fire Spammer, after looking dazed for a moment, lightly shook her head and spoke.
“There’s a group that’s infiltrated Ilias, right?”
“Correct.”
“With a very high probability, there are Dark Mages involved too, right?”
“That is what we suspect.”
“Hmm. And?”
“…Do you need more than that?”
A Dark Mage conspiracy reaching its claws into Ilias.
To ordinary people, those were violent words, but everything is relative.
“Not long ago, we experienced a civil war where a whole kingdom almost split into five because of a Dark Mage conspiracy.”
“……?”
Even if Ilias was a giant merchant guild with continental influence, in the end, a guild is just a guild.
Though its influence might surpass that of a small nation… when you weigh the fate of a profit-driven guild against the fate of an entire country… the latter is naturally heavier.
Furthermore.
“And at the end, a Demon was even resurrected…”
“A Demon? Those things actually exist?”
“Ah. So you didn't know.”
“They’ve shown up at the Academy a few times, though.”
“That bullshit was actually true?”
The people here had been through too much to be bothered by someone making a fuss over a mere Dark Mage.
Therefore.
Their perception of Dark Mages was far too weak for a mere conspiracy to convey any sense of gravity.
“No, wait…”
Cameron looked dumbfounded.
But it couldn't be helped.
After all, a common Founding Festival Dark Mage event was just…
“Wait, holy shit. Is this for real?!”
Looking at Boradori suddenly losing her mind, it must have been a damn big event.
Despite the lukewarm reaction, the After-School Dessert Club decided to move to stop the Ilias conspiracy… after taking a three-day break.
So, being the most functional one, I went to see Violet first to get some information.
And there was the limp Boradori, suddenly having a fit.
“What’s your problem now, you original work fanatic?”
“This is the third-year Founding Festival scenario!”
“What even is that, you weeb…”
This guy never tells me everything, just babbles about things only he knows.
“According to the original work, mid-bosses like Bell and Silence are supposed to appear here!”
“……?”
Unlike his serious tone, my response was full of question marks.
I got that it was a huge incident, but.
“Silence is dead, and Bell is just going around beating up kids.”
Literally, Silence had been dead for a long time, and Bell had been stopped once by the grown-up Sososo while doing his Swordsmanship Department dojo challenge; now they were stuck in a cycle of draws.
“That’s the problem! Normally, if a vacuum is created, someone has to fill that spot. It was easy at first because of the gap, but after that, things like Demons started popping up!”
“……”
Now that he mentioned it, that made sense.
“Is it that serious…?”
Even excluding growth over time, honestly, Silence was more troublesome than the Demons I’d seen so far.
He was the hard counter to mages just by existing. Unlike monsters that had a huge impact even on sword-fighters who relied on mana by restricting it, Demons tended to have absolute rules.
And following the laws of RoFan, the RoFan leads each had a counter for those rules.
“This time is different.”
However, Boradori said this time would be different from before.
Because.
“Silence. He’s tricky, right? Because he neutralizes mages. In that state, Bell, who overwhelmed Ellen and the Minor Sword Emperor with pure physical specs, is the worst possible combination. But in this part, there’s someone even more troublesome than them.”
He said there was someone more troublesome than Silence laying down a field that forbids mana while a curse-enhanced Beastkin goes on a rampage.
This wasn't something I could just ignore.
Who on earth was this being?!
“The Saintess of the Evil God, Delmoa.”
Apparently, she’s a Saintess who serves the Evil God. Thinking of Daisy, who was her opposite, I could understand why Boradori was making such a fuss.
Just what kind of terrifying ability did she have to cause this?!
“Delmoa’s ability is her silver tongue, which is basically brainwashing. The power of the named Demons associated with her increases in proportion to the number of people who become followers of the Evil God. And the Dark Mages who receive a share of that power each become named-level Dark Mages…”
In short, unlike a Hero-type Saintess who handles DPS, tanking, and healing alone, she was a classic Buffer-type Saintess. In proportion to the number of followers…
“So. In the original work, she sneaks near the Academy in advance, increases her followers, and then the buffed Dark Mages, along with the brainwashed followers, cause chaos throughout the Academy. Is that it?”
“Yes!”
“……Then can't we just kidnap her first?”
“…Huh?”
He looked like he’d never even considered the possibility.
“Is that even possible? It’ll be hard because civilians are involved.”
That might be true. However, there was a place I could trust.
“There are experts for this.”
“…Who?”
Who else?
“The Heresy Inquisitors.”
Three days later, I received news that Delmoa, the Saintess of the Evil God, had been imprisoned in the Academy’s underground dungeon.
