Bellard Berwen's Defeat
The result of the second request I had entrusted to Belka didn't take long to arrive. The swift turnaround made perfect sense. Dustveil was an organization that dug into every last detail, even worthless scraps of information. There was no way they would have overlooked an incident large enough to send ripples across the underworld. For the same reason, they had always kept a close ear on anything involving the Academy. Once Belka enrolled, that information had likely grown even more meticulous. In short, all they needed to do was organize what they had already gathered. Come to think of it, there had never been any reason for it to take long.
Regardless, I received the documents from Belka and headed straight back to the dormitory. I spread the papers across my desk and began skimming through them. The first section covered major incidents that had occurred across the continent in recent years. The continent was vast and its population nearly uncountable, so even narrowing the scope to just the last few years left an overwhelming amount of material. Yet my reading speed was surprisingly fast. There was simply no need to examine every detail with painstaking care.
Going over such an enormous volume of incidents one by one in a short time was impossible anyway. More importantly, it wasn't necessary. What I was doing wasn't a meticulous investigation. It was more like a game of spot-the-difference. I was looking for discrepancies between the events I remembered and what had actually taken place. That was my true purpose.
I didn't need the fine print. Rough outlines and final outcomes were enough. As I flipped through the pages, however, something made me pause.
…Hm?
I had noticed an anomaly. Several incidents differed from the information in my memory. In some cases the outcomes had changed. In others, events that should have caused considerable uproar were entirely absent from the records. Frowning, I began combing through the documents more thoroughly, searching for any common thread among the altered incidents.
At first glance, there didn't appear to be any obvious connection. The locations and timings were all radically different. Still, I refused to give up. Eventually, I found the single thread that tied the anomalies together.
…The Dark Cult.
The incidents that had changed or shown anomalies were, without exception, connected to the Dark Cult. Whether directly caused by them or indirectly influenced, these were the events that had diverged. The implication was clear: something significant had shifted inside the Dark Cult itself.
Guessing the cause wasn't particularly difficult.
Those children.
Alice, Lana, and Julia—the girls I had saved. They were the only obvious factor. Saving them must have triggered some kind of change within the Dark Cult. But the exact nature of that change remained impossible to pinpoint.
There was no helping it. Any real speculation required information, and right now I had nothing on the Dark Cult's current state.
To summarize…
Some kind of anomaly had occurred within the Dark Cult, and that anomaly was rippling outward, affecting other events.
That was as far as I could reason.
“…Haa.”
Disappointment rose like a bitter taste in my throat. I had gone through all these records not only to find discrepancies but with another hope: that any changes might give me some clue about the girls' whereabouts. Unfortunately, that hope seemed futile. The only commonality was their connection to the Dark Cult.
I shook my head, forcibly cutting off the blooming disappointment, and reached for the next document. I couldn't afford to wallow in it forever.
Not long ago, I had witnessed an anomaly in a feline monster. From that single observation, I had drawn one firm conclusion. I still couldn't explain why the anomaly had occurred, but one fact was undeniable: its cause lay somewhere inside the Academy. The reason was simple—the creature had been born on the Academy grounds and had never once left its borders.
I added one more speculation: the cause was likely a person.
I had no concrete evidence. It was pure intuition. Yet my instincts were whispering a warning—that the change felt ominous, that it carried the deliberate intent of someone hidden. Though it was only a feeling, I had learned to trust my intuition. With no evidence or clues to rely on, I decided to follow that hunch and develop a working hypothesis.
If the monster's mutation truly was artificial, identifying the culprit would be straightforward. A new pattern that hadn't existed in the game meant I simply needed to find a person who hadn't existed in the original story. Among those currently inside the Academy or frequently coming and going, I needed to locate either an unfamiliar face or someone who had no business being here at this particular time. That alone would reveal the suspect.
It seemed almost too simple.
My eyes sharpened with focus as I began examining the documents again.
.
.
.
…I failed.
I had called it a simple task, yet here I was. If I were to offer an excuse, there was one. A very simple one.
“Why are there so many?”
There were too many suspects. Or, to put it more plainly, too many new faces. People I had definitely never seen in the game, individuals who shouldn't have been at the Academy during this period, had poured in en masse for reasons I couldn't fathom. Dozens upon dozens of unfamiliar students now walked the grounds.
In other words, there were far too many people to suspect.
“Ugh…”
Monitoring this many people? Impossible. With sufficient funds and influence it might have been feasible, but for me right now it was nothing more than a pipe dream.
“…Haa.”
In the end, I decided to abandon any immediate attempt to identify the culprit. It seemed I would have to wait until more clues surfaced.
Quite some time passed after that. And in that time, Elion became famous.
It was only natural. Elion was the kind of person who drew attention simply by existing. Her background wasn't particularly remarkable, but she herself was. She possessed the kind of ethereal beauty one might find in a fairy-tale prince. She was kind to everyone, possessed a gentle demeanor, and boasted genius-level talent that stood out even among the Academy's elite. She would have become well-known even if she had simply lived an ordinary student life.
But Elion didn't remain passive. Almost as if she were deliberately announcing her presence to the world, she began resolving incident after incident within the Academy. Starting with the maniac disturbance, followed by the strange screams from the research building, the music box of the exhibition hall, and many others—she and her group solved every notable case that had captured the students' attention.
As a result, Elion naturally rose to celebrity status. And she was only a first-year who had enrolled recently.
For some, such fame would have been a dream come true. Yet becoming famous is never entirely good. Everything in this world has two sides, and fame is no exception. When someone gains renown, it is only natural that others will feel jealousy and envy.
Elion was no exception. As her name spread, people who viewed her unfavorably began to appear. It would have been better if their jealousy had stopped at cold glares or whispered slander behind her back. Unfortunately, it did not.
Some began to provoke her directly.
Had Elion's family background been more prestigious, such things might never have happened. Sadly, within the Academy, the Verdiel name held only average weight. Many students saw her as an easy target and began to harass her. They approached with jealousy, envy, and malice, seeking to torment her and even challenging her to direct confrontations.
Elion crushed every single one of them head-on.
She accepted every duel from those who looked down on her and defeated them all. Overwhelmingly. In the end, rather than diminishing, her fame only grew stronger.
Had it ended there, it wouldn't have been much of a problem. She would have simply become even more famous.
The real issue arose afterward.
Elion's combat prowess had become the subject of widespread attention. She had dismantled countless challengers with an overwhelming gap in skill. Naturally, that strength drew even more interest. More and more people grew curious about her true ability. The number of challengers kept increasing, and Elion, never one to back down, defeated them all without exception.
Her exploits were so dominating that the term divine might seemed fitting. Eventually, people began to ask the inevitable question:
If Elion Verdiel and Bellard Berwen were to fight, who would win?
Bellard Berwen.
The next heir of the Berwen family had been the center of the entire Academy's attention from the moment he enrolled. Bellard had been special from the start—not because of his background, but because of his sheer talent and ability. From day one, no first-year could possibly rival him. Even those with established reputations and acknowledged genius couldn't stand against him.
According to the professors, Bellard had already surpassed the level of an ordinary first-year. He was a genius. A monster. No one could oppose him. No one could even come close to his throne.
But what if that opponent was Elion Verdiel?
Would the story be different then?
At first, only a few dared to voice such thoughts. Yet as Elion's fame continued to grow, so did the number of people whispering that question. In the end, the rumors reached Bellard's own ears.
His response was straightforward. He went directly to find her.
His motivation was simple curiosity. He wanted to test the skills that everyone had been buzzing about. There was not the slightest trace of tension in his demeanor. It was only natural. Bellard had never once considered the possibility that he might lose.
The duel between Bellard and Elion thus became the center of everyone's attention. Yet despite the excitement, the predictions were heavily one-sided. Almost everyone believed Bellard would win. They acknowledged that Elion was talented, but they insisted she could never reach Bellard's level. She might put up a decent fight, but she would ultimately fall. Elion Verdiel, they claimed, would simply become another name added to the long list of those who had been defeated by Bellard Berwen.
Under the weight of all that attention and those lopsided expectations, the duel finally took place. And the result was something no one had anticipated.
Bellard Berwen's defeat.