Tonight, We Go Hunting!
Chaos erupted among the Academy students—more precisely, among the freshmen.
Word had spread that among the classmates they would be living with were none other than Demon Kings and Heroes!
The fact that those Demon Kings had slaughtered every other Demon King for the sake of peace, or that the Heroes had barely tasted real combat, hardly mattered. Demon Kings and Heroes—that alone was enough.
Half curiosity, half dread over what might happen between the two factions was the natural next step.
“I’m just giving up on enrolling. I’m sorry.”
“I-I’m scared! What if those demonkin eat us?!”
“I cannot share the same space as demonkin. I’d rather leave myself.”
“Disgusting. You expect me to live with them here? Get lost. I’m out.”
A handful of frightened students, along with a few hardline noble houses, abandoned their Academy enrollment and turned back. The same held true for some of the upperclassmen already enrolled.
The faculty found themselves in quite a bind, but what could they do? You can’t force people who refuse to stay.
Apparently even higher up the chain there had been grumbling. All this fuss over four demon girls?
The proud Imperial Academy, which only admitted the thoroughly vetted, was being sullied.
If they’d stamped the peace treaty, they should have gone home already—why stick around and cause trouble?
Lethe’s answer to every last one of those complaints was a single word.
“Idiots.”
How could they be so simple-minded? Looking no further than their own noses while trying to discuss grand strategy made him want to tear his hair out.
He knew perfectly well that a quiet pride contest simmered between the Empire, the Elves, and the Dwarves. Each side crowing that they were the best, that the others ranked a step below.
And right in the middle of that, the very demonkin who had once hammered all three of them at once—their leaders, no less—had enrolled in the Imperial Academy. Not as temporary guests or trial students, but as full, official enrollees!
Think about it. It wasn’t that the Demon Kings had come and dirtied the place; those formidable Demon Kings had been so desperate to attend the Imperial Academy they were practically climbing the walls! Package it that way and the Empire stood to gain far more.
It was an achievement neither the lofty Elves nor the Dwarves, said to possess the hands of the gods, had ever managed. Demon Kings—ones who had literally torn other Demon Kings apart—had bowed their heads and come seeking entry.
He’d already heard that the Imperial family and a few nobles shared roughly the same view. They had no intention of letting such a golden opportunity slip by; they were preparing carefully to make full use of it.
But most of the nobility, and public sentiment as well, simply hated the idea of Demon Kings at the Academy and didn’t know what to do with themselves. For now they seemed content to keep their mouths shut and watch which way the wind blew.
This is exhausting. Do I really have to babysit even this?
It was irritating and bothersome. But he had received favors; the least he could do was repay the value of them.
He hadn’t thrown his conscience away. He wasn’t some blackened, overpowered munchkin high on catharsis either. He was just a transmigrator who wanted to live modestly, taking only as much as he gave.
The Empire had treated him reasonably well in its own way, so he decided he would personally stir the pot a little.
“Y-you mean it, Sir Lethe? You’ll actually attend?”
“I will. Though if it’s a gathering where my presence would be awkward…”
“Not at all! We’re grateful, if anything. I’ll inform them at once.”
A grand banquet was to be held not long from now. Lethe resolved to appear in person.
Truthfully, it was a nuisance. Every schemer in the room would be rolling their eyes and calculating on top of calculations.
But he had to go. Only then would his girls be able to attend the Academy a little more comfortably. With that thought he opened the door and stepped into the lecture hall.
…You’ve got to be kidding me.
He barely managed to swallow the heavy sighs that rose at the scene before him.
The Academy was enormous, and that applied equally to every single classroom.
Yet inside this one, every student had deliberately clustered together in one tight knot.
At the center of that knot sat four young women—specifically, the Heroes.
Directly opposite them, with no one else nearby, sat four other young women all alone.
Astaroth, Marmar, Sitri, and El. The Demon Kings who had just joined the Academy.
Even while being openly ostracized, even while being openly provoked, they showed not the slightest shift in expression.
No—there was a change. Look at them now. The moment Lethe walked in they looked ready to die of pure delight.
Whether the Imperial, Elven, or Dwarven students treated them well or poorly was completely beneath their notice.
As if those four would take even a single point of damage from this.
He wanted nothing more than to shout at everyone to fill the empty seats and sit down properly.
But doing so would only fan the hostility directed at the Demon Kings even higher.
As it was, the odd relationship between him and the Demon Kings already drew enough ugly stares.
Because of him, those four would have to remain at the Academy whether they liked it or not.
If they were going to stay, he wanted them to have a good experience. These were the Demon Kings who had ended the war, after all. Even if they didn’t quite match the Empire’s own veterans, they had more than enough reason to be treated with a measure of respect.
Which was exactly why he had to avoid openly taking their side.
“There will be a pop quiz after today’s lecture. So everyone, scatter.”
This was purely for the sake of the exam. He was not publicly taking sides, got it?
“Today’s lecture covers the great battle on the Ekan Plains two years ago. The demonkin’s momentum had surged; the Empire suffered catastrophic losses, yet the crisis finally drove humans, Elves, and Dwarves into alliance—the decisive battle that made it happen.”
This is new. Seeing Mister like this… he’s so cool!
“…At this point the Imperial command made a fatal error of judgment. By concentrating forces to punch through the center, they left the flanks to collapse, completing a massive encirclement. As a result…”
Oraboni looking so intellectual! I love this side of him too!
“The Imperial side refused to surrender and fought to the bitter end. But there was nothing they could do against demonkin pouring in from every direction. In the end some thirty thousand dead and nearly ten thousand prisoners—”
A monocle and a suit alone can make someone shine like this. As expected of Master!
“…The most horrific part was the atrocity of the demonkin slaughtering and devouring their prisoners.”
I like it. So much. I like it.
The four Demon Kings wore expressions of pure rapture, utterly lost in Lethe’s lecture. No—correction. They were lost in Lethe himself and showed no sign of surfacing.
They had assumed an instructor only handled practical combat. They had only ever pictured the way he used to train them. This was something else entirely. Something more.
Look at the black suit he had put on, the monocle perched on his face. He looked like a completely different person. He was already handsome enough as he was; adding this change made them feel they might actually go insane!
Whatever content came out of Lethe’s mouth had long since ceased to matter.
Whether the demonkin massacred prisoners, whether they threw them living into fires and ate them, whether the other students’ gazes grew uglier with every such detail—none of it registered.
The Academy… the Academy…! This place—this place is wonderful, isn’t it?!
Now I understand why Oraboni used to sing the Academy’s praises.
From now on I’ll have to treat this place as important too. A place where I can see new sides of Master like this!
Academy. Good place.
The Demon Kings’ evaluation of the Academy was rocketing upward by the second.
As a bonus, their praise for Lethe—who had wanted the Academy in the first place—climbed even higher.
Kids. Please concentrate. What are you even doing?
Of course, for Lethe standing at the podium delivering the lecture, it was enough to make him jump out of his skin.
From up here he could see everything. Every student lost in other thoughts, every bit of distraction.
In that sense, the Demon Kings sitting over there were all thinking about something else entirely.
On top of that, the way they looked at him was growing steadily more dazed. If he still couldn’t tell what those women were thinking, he would have to be either an idiot or a eunuch—one of the two.
The other students were doing everything they could to broadcast how uncomfortable they felt. Meanwhile the very targets of that discomfort were doing everything they could to devour Lethe himself. They didn’t care one bit what anyone else said.
It takes two hands to clap, and these hands simply refused to meet.
Should I take this as a good thing… or a bad thing…?
Whether Lethe’s stomach churned with worry or not, the Demon Kings remained unchanged.
By now they were openly flushing and taking deep breaths.
The only stroke of luck was that the other students still kept their distance.
“….”
And that entire scene was being quietly watched by Michaela, seated on the opposite side.
“This won’t do.”
Astaroth’s voice rang with grim resolve.
“Let’s jump him.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Are you insane?”
“…You’ve gone crazy.”
“Yeah. Exactly. I feel like I’m going crazy. Like I’m losing my mind. I’m going nuts! After seeing Mister look like that today, if you don’t catch fire you’re the weird one, okay?! Be honest, Mar. You okay down there? Sitri, you? El, you!”
It was an unbearably shameless question. Even so, one ought to know a little shame!
Marmar and Sitri were about to reflexively shout We’re perfectly fine, thank you! when—
“I’m not fine. I’m soaked! I can’t live like this! Mister’s right there in front of me and I’m supposed to just endure it?!”
Astaroth, who had thrown shame out the window and was ready to attack first. And between them, El murmuring, …A little. Damp.
With that, the other two Demon Kings couldn’t help but feel their hearts stir. In the end they wavered.
“Th-then… tonight?”
“Tonight the four of us really barge in?”
“Even Mister would have a hard time handling all four of us at once.”
What were demonkin? A race that fought and seized whatever they desired.
And Demon Kings were the ones who stood at the very peak of that race!
“All right, troops. Tonight, we go hunting!”
Just as Astaroth thrust a hand high and declared a “Mister hunt”—
What on earth… is this?! H-hunting?!
Michaela, who had happened to pass nearby and overheard the Demon Kings’ secret conference, hid her presence as best she could and continued to watch them in secret.