Chapter 330: No, I Said Let’s Just Enjoy the Festival Normally! (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 330: No, I Said Let’s Just Enjoy the Festival Normally! (2)
Chairperson Leilan is not incompetent.
In fact, one should say she is quite capable.
Looking at the accidents that have occurred so far, one might think that’s nonsense, but if she were truly incompetent, Leilan Academy would have lost all its independent authority by now and been absorbed by the Association or the state.
The reason I’m suddenly mentioning her competence is to point out that she is the type of person who at least doesn’t repeat the same mistakes and prepares extensively in her own way.
In that sense, after the war with the demons ended, she had made her defenses against demonic energy nearly perfect.
Through barriers created by inviting Park A-ram and even external personnel capable of sensing demonic energy, she had established a system to detect any demonic energy around the Academy at all times. Furthermore, she had stocked the Academy with numerous holy-attribute artifacts to weaken any potential demons.
…Well, in reality, most of the time the barrier reacted, it was because Cadet Kang So-hyun was using demonic energy.
“…Hm?”
So, when the barrier reacted to demonic energy this time, Leilan simply assumed Kang So-hyun was up to something again, as usual.
Unfortunately, the moment she checked the details, she realized that wasn’t the case and had to let out a long sigh.
“Haa… They finally came.”
It might seem like a lackluster reaction to the highly sensitive matter of an intruder using demonic energy entering the Academy, but from Leilan’s perspective, it couldn’t be helped.
“In the end, Cadet Kang So-hyun was right again.”
She had already been warned by a student who knew the future.
He had said that a major incident would break out or an external force threatening the Academy would arrive to coincide with the festival, and he was right.
She had desperately hoped he would be wrong, but unfortunately, his words had proven true once again.
“…Still, I suppose this is on the milder side compared to his warnings about a Calamity invading or the seal of a powerful entity breaking.”
Judging by the barrier’s reaction, it wasn’t demonic energy on the level of a Demon King; it felt more like a mere(?) Noble Demon. Among the futures he had described, this had to be considered one of the better ones.
…Of course, just because it was “better” didn’t mean the fact that an incident had occurred vanished, nor did it make the mounting stress disappear.
“I can’t let the cadets fall into danger. I’ll have to handle this as quickly as possible.”
Up until this point, the Chairperson thought of the incident that simply.
“Chairperson! We have a problem!”
That is, until she saw Professor Kim Min-soo suddenly burst through the door.
“Hm? I already know. An intruder from the outside has—”
“The Association is sending an audit team…! They’re claiming our Academy staged a ‘performance’ to win over public sentiment…!”
“…What?”
What kind of bullshit was this…?
Still, she felt like she could somehow handle it up to this point.
“Leilan, we’re screwed…!”
Or at least, she would have thought so if Park A-ram hadn’t appeared immediately after to make a scene.
…She hadn’t expected a triple whammy.
“…What is it now?”
“Seo Ye-hwa is…”
“…Huh?”
“The Rank 1 Hero is visiting our Academy today!”
“…Why is that person coming here too…?”
The second day of the festival was truly turning into chaos.
* * *
The former Chairman of the AG Group.
In other words, Aisha’s grandfather was in a state that could be considered practically ruined.
Since the demon incident, the plan he had spent his entire life preparing for had collapsed, and the entity he had believed in and followed as a god had suddenly cut off all contact.
He had managed to escape with the help of a few executives who knew the situation well, but even those who were with him had either fled, saying they couldn’t take it anymore, or had scattered after internal strife.
Though he had a slush fund created by embezzling company money, most of his group was on the most-wanted list, so they couldn’t even use the money freely.
As he was slowly breaking down, unable to endure the life of a fugitive, some people reached out to him.
It was none other than the Hero Association.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say it was a specific faction within the Association’s upper management.
At first, he thought the pursuit had finally caught up to them, but they stated they had no intention of capturing them.
Specifically, they said they could cooperate as long as their proposal wasn’t rejected. The proposal itself was quite simple.
It seemed they were coveting the personnel of Leilan Academy, which had recently seen a surge in growth.
Of course, they didn’t like the fact that cadets—who weren’t even official heroes yet—were acting on their own, but it was even more galling that the Academy was winning over public sentiment by resolving incidents at will under the pretext of having independent authority.
Unlike the Association, which only moved after a major incident occurred, the Academy stepped forward first to prevent incidents and announce them. They felt as though the citizens’ favor had shifted away from them.
There were even rumors that after the news spread that an S-rank Hero belonging to the Association had been defeated by a cadet, the public’s criticism of the Association had increased. Well, that part wasn’t particularly important.
Anyway, what mattered to them was what came next. It seemed they were in quite a bind because the support funds they received from the Yuseong Group and Cheonhwa Group had decreased significantly, while donations to Leilan Academy had increased.
Ah, of course, this wasn’t about Association activities, but rather their entertainment expenses—no, their “dignity maintenance fees.”
The proposal was simple.
They wanted him to help them by becoming a “victim.”
The narrative was that the AG Group had fallen into a trap set by Yuseong and Cheonhwa, and behind it all was Leilan Academy, which had tried to recover its image through a staged performance.
The reason Yuseong and Cheonhwa cooperated was to carve up the AG Group’s assets.
The Association, having noticed this, protected the management and intended to appear after gathering evidence. That was the plan.
Choosing the day of Leilan Academy’s festival to break the news was to draw attention and, furthermore, to denounce the Academy for leisurely enjoying a festival even after committing such acts.
They had apparently coordinated with reporters and prepared plenty of forged evidence. He had accepted because he felt he had nothing left to lose, but as the plan progressed, he began to think it wasn’t a bad idea.
The citizens were mindless sheep anyway; they would believe even forged evidence as long as it was provocative.
No matter how well Leilan Academy was doing, it would be hard for them to hold out once they were targeted by the Association.
While the Yuseong and Cheonhwa Groups wouldn’t collapse this time, if they were shaken and forced to pay massive compensation to the AG Group, this might finally be the chance for a reversal.
…If that happened, he could bring his granddaughter, who had betrayed him, and all the other bastards who had left the AG Group to their knees.
And so.
Dreaming of a happy future, he entered the Academy and began to spread demonic energy, even though no one had told him to.
It was the Demonic Energy of Sloth he had received from his god in the past.
It was an attempt to lend weight to the evidence that the Academy was actually a den of lazy, aspiring superhumans, but he didn’t know.
If he had just stayed quiet, he might have gotten halfway there.
He didn’t realize that his careless action had just provoked the monsters of the Academy.
Thus, unaware of the future that awaited him, he merely rejoiced at the thought of scattering the seeds of demonic energy throughout the Academy, grateful that the cadet he had happened to speak to possessed a better-than-expected amount of negative emotions.
* * *
And one of those who reacted to that unpleasant, low-quality demonic energy was, naturally, me.
“…Look at this.”
The ridiculous event proposed by Cheon Mu-jin… or rather, the “Retreat Meta,” seemed to be surprisingly popular with everyone. Watching them prepare so diligently had put me in a reasonably good mood.
But now some insignificant bastard was trying to cause trouble again.
How is it that not a single day passes quietly?
Honestly, it’s getting to the point of being annoying.
I’m already busy enough trying to figure out how to make Seo-ha say she’s so happy she could die.
In the end, I still haven’t resolved the issue of not being able to confess sincerely, and I haven’t reached a conclusion on how to earnestly treat the people who harbor excessive goodwill toward me.
With so much on my mind, why does a villain have to show up at a festival?
I’m really glad I told the Chairperson to prepare in advance.
Judging by the level of demonic energy I feel, as long as I provide a bit of help, the Chairperson should be able to handle it on her own without me stepping in…
Ah, damn it.
Usually, when I think like this…
Ding~
…Is there actually some kind of law of nature at work here?
When I checked my smartphone, sure enough, there was a summons text from the Chairperson.
There’s no way she’d say she can’t handle this level of demonic energy, so it’s safe to assume some other accident has occurred.
“…Sigh.”
“Hm? So-hyun, what’s wrong?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. The Chairperson called for me briefly. I’ll be right back.”
“Oh? Okay. Then can you serve the last additional order the fathers placed?”
“Yeah.”
My father, who argued that suddenly switching the event to a “Retreat Meta” would make all the kids’ hard work go to waste; Cheon Mu-jin, who argued that adjusting and sublimating it into an event was the role of an adult; and even Ha-ni’s father, who for some reason was caught between them, having a conversation with my father.
I don’t know why they keep acting like that here, but thanks to them, business was being affected.
Specifically, there were already many women taking up seats for a long time because of the “Lilac” Cheon Yu-hak, but now there were even more.
Just as I finished serving and was about to head to the Chairperson’s office, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
…Couldn’t I get some help with this?
* * *
“…I heard that wrong, right?”
I hadn’t.
I thought I just had to crush some villain who had sneaked into the Academy, but a much more headache-inducing situation was unfolding.
“…Regrettably, judging by your reaction, it seems you heard correctly.”
“Aha, so those ungrateful bastards at the Association have finally caused an incident?”
“Yes. The timing is too artificial. The villain who sneaked into the Academy is likely one of theirs too…”
“…Ha.”
I burst out laughing because it was so absurd, but for some reason, the Chairperson flinched.
“Oh…? Cadet Kang So-hyun, for a moment just now, the atmosphere…?”
Ah, crap.
I thought I was fine because I seemed normal, but I must have been stressed yesterday.
Or maybe it’s because the stupidity of the Association bastards is beyond my imagination.
…Or perhaps it’s because I met the Lee Yu-na of those days for the first time in a long while.
Anyway, the killing intent I just emitted wasn’t at a level a cadet should be capable of.
Well, it’s a bit late for me to worry about acting like a cadet, but killing intent is a bit different from power or artifacts.
“…Are you okay?”
“Yes. Just… it’s just too absurd.”
“No, honestly, you don’t look okay at all…? Your expression right now is a bit…”
Well, I can roughly guess why the Association bastards are acting this way.
And because I can guess, it makes it even more contemptible.
I’m going to crush almost all of them in the long run anyway, but since I still need the Association for now, I can’t destroy them entirely.
Still, since they were the ones to pick a fight, I’d like to weaken the Association a bit in advance.
Which bastard was crazy enough to poke Leilan Academy?
The Association President and that “Flash” guy are probably cowering from my threats, so it wouldn’t be them.
It wouldn’t be those old-fashioned Justice Faction guys either.
Then it must be them.
The Honor Faction.
Those bastards are the furthest thing from “honor” among all the factions in the Association, yet they call themselves the Honor Faction.
“Anyway, I don’t know what the Association is thinking, but if they’ve come here with a plan, it could be a bit dangerous.”
“They’ve probably prepared false testimony or forged evidence. That’s how those bastards usually operate.”
“Uh, um. That’s true, but… do you happen to have a grudge against the Association?”
Ah, damn. I keep slipping up.
“So, I called you because I wanted to ask if you had any ideas on how to handle this. If you have a plan, Cadet Kang So-hyun, I wouldn’t want to act on my own and mess it up.”
“Ah, I don’t have a plan, but you don’t really need to do much.”
“…Eh?”
The moment the word “Association” came out of the Chairperson’s mouth, I had already made up my mind.
“Just handle the guys from the Association when they start picking a fight.”
Since it’s a festival, I decided to do something flashy.
“…I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but everything will be fine, right?”
Of course. Everything will be just fine.
After all, isn’t it perfectly normal for a masked villain to appear at an Academy festival?