Expulsion, and Two Years Later (1)
The charges are as follows: smuggling illegal drugs into the sacred grounds of Joachim Academy. Additionally, the personal use of said illegal substances, which created an atmosphere of discomfort and severely undermined the academy’s scholarly environment.
Furthermore, the inhumane act of attempting to pin one’s own crimes on a fellow student—specifically, on none other than Louise Violet, the esteemed daughter of the Violet family.
For orchestrating and personally executing this series of calculated and vicious crimes, Eden Rofas, you are hereby expelled from Joachim Academy and ordered to pay a fine of three hundred gold. Do you have any objections?
Objections… I had plenty. Enough to talk through an entire sleepless night if asked.
“……None.”
Yet what left my lips was a cold affirmation. I already knew that voicing my grievances wouldn’t change a thing. The entire trial had been rigged from beginning to end. The academy chancellor, the Violet family, the disciplinary committee, and the influence of several powerful merchant guilds—this verdict was never going to end in my favor.
In short, it was checkmate.
I had been abandoned.
Eden Rofas, once the top student of Joachim Academy and hailed as the empire’s brightest hope, had become nothing more than a sacrificial lamb caught in the tangled web of interests and corruption within the academy. That was all.
“Eden Rofas. You are expelled.”
The chairman seated at the judge’s bench lifted his gavel and brought it down.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The sound that signaled the end of Eden Rofas’s life.
Your life ends here.
It rang in my ears like a devil’s malicious whisper, as if someone were murmuring directly into my soul.
“That abominable bastard! How dare he try to frame Lady Violet!”
“Have you no pride as an academy cadet, you filth?”
“Get the hell out of here, you trash!”
A torrent of curses poured from the gallery. But none of it reached me. I felt as though I had been left utterly alone in a silent world.
What on earth had I done wrong for the world to trample me so mercilessly?
“Eden Rofas.”
While I was staring blankly into space, someone called my name.
When I looked up, an old man was gazing down at me with a face full of disappointment.
“I am deeply disappointed in you.”
Redona Leonhart, the chairman. My supervising professor and the man who had raised me like a father ever since I was an orphan.
“The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment. Just what possessed you to commit such an act? Do you not understand how painful it is for the professors who believed in a student as outstanding as you to witness your fall?”
“……”
“…If one commits a sin, one must pay the price. Even though I raised you with my own hands… this crime is far too grave for me to overlook. If the day ever comes when you truly repent, you may return.”
His tone was so icy it felt like it could cut flesh. It was a coldness he had never shown me, even when I had made mistakes in the past.
“I… I…”
I had believed he, of all people, would trust me. Wasn’t he the one who had watched over me more closely than anyone? The only person in the world who knew I wasn’t the kind of human who would commit such evil?
The sense of injustice rose to the back of my throat. I wanted to say something—anything.
It wasn’t me!
But that short sentence refused to leave my mouth. Only a hollow echo swirled inside me, never forming into words. Thousands upon thousands of conflicting thoughts clashed in my mind.
If I poured out my resentment. If I begged him just once to believe me. Would this man trust me?
I lifted my head and looked around. Everyone was staring at me as if I were some filthy abomination. Only then did I realize the truth.
I had been thoroughly abandoned.
No matter what I said, no one would believe me.
After a long moment of inner turmoil, these were the words that finally emerged.
“I hope… you never see me return to the academy.”
There is no warmth left for any of you.
“Because if I ever do come back to this place someday…”
Only a rising hatred remains.
“I will not forgive a single one of you.”
No more words were necessary.
“Then, farewell.”
Episode 1. Expulsion, and Two Years Later
“…Boss.”
That was already two years ago.
No matter how hard I tried to forget, to erase it, the memories of the past would occasionally surge back. The shock of being betrayed by those I had trusted so completely. Was I doomed to live forever trapped inside these memories? Could they never be wiped away?
“Boss?”
I had sworn I would never forgive them. That someday, when the opportunity came, I would drag every last one of those academy bastards who had cast me out into the deepest pit of hell. That was what I had vowed.
But the blade of my rage had cooled far too quickly. After the so-called hope of Joachim Academy fell into the gutters as a drug addict, every single day became a living hell. Hunger took precedence over fury, and the need for immediate warmth outweighed any thoughts of revenge.
That was why I had spent so long forgetting the atrocities they had committed.
“Boss!”
“Goddammit, you scared the shit out of me.”
The loud voice exploding right beside my ear finally yanked me out of my brief reverie. The one shouting was my secretary, Heil. Or should I call her my second-in-command? As the organization’s number two, she could very well be considered my right hand.
I had met Heil a year and a half ago. Our encounter had been filled with an astonishing amount of twists, turns, and chaos, but that story would have to wait for another time…
I shot a sharp glare at Heil, who had just screamed directly into my ear.
“Didn’t I tell you I’d kill you if you shouted in my ear one more time?”
“You have to at least pretend to listen when I call you,” Heil replied with an exasperated expression, handing me a black document envelope.
“You’re the one who asked for this, Boss.”
“What is it?”
“How would I know? You’re the one who requested it.”
I took the envelope from her and used the dagger on my desk to slice open the seal. Inside were several sheets of paper and a single card made of special metal.
“……”
As I pulled them out, the request I had made came back to me. So this was why the memories of the past had suddenly resurfaced after staying quiet for so long.
I slid the documents back into the envelope and nodded.
“Good work.”
“And Boss, there’s this as well.”
As if she had just remembered, Heil pulled an enormous stack of documents from the trolley behind her. It looked to be at least a meter tall. She lifted the entire pile with one hand and dropped it onto my desk with a heavy thud.
“These are the approval documents that piled up while you were out on your little walk. You’ll need to finish them all today.”
“Ugh… I don’t want to.”
“Five kilograms to the Levenkl mercenary corps, twenty-five kilograms to the Magic Tower, twelve kilograms to Cieron Academy, and fifty kilograms to the Kingdom of Zekatil. These are all major deals. How long are you planning to keep putting them off?”
“Just make the decisions yourself.”
“These are critical transactions. How could I possibly touch them? You have to handle them personally, Boss.”
“From now on, you do it, Heil.”
“Do what?”
“Be the boss.”
“…Pardon?”
“Starting today, you’re the boss.”
It had already been two years since I was kicked out of the academy. I had gritted my teeth and done whatever it took to survive. Anything at all. Petty theft, bounty hunting, mercenary work… I needed something to forget the withdrawal symptoms.
After living like that for half a year, I somehow ended up as the boss of a massive organization. Well, if we’re being honest, it was a drug syndicate.
To think the guy ruined by drugs would rise again through drugs…
Louise Violet. I had only started investigating what kind of drug that bitch had forced down my throat, how it had been distributed, and how it had ended up in my system—all in order to find a tail to grab for my revenge. Yet before I knew it, I had become the largest drug distributor in the underworld.
That was the whole story.
“Whaaat??”
“If the title feels too heavy, we can call it acting boss.”
“No! It’s great! I love it!”
This was the position Heil had wanted all along. And the very position I had been desperately trying to escape.
A former drug addict becoming a drug kingpin. It was almost too ridiculous to laugh at. Even if it had been done to survive, it hadn’t been by choice. It had all been for the sake of revenge.
Justice. Swordsmanship. The things I had once believed defined my entire life had crumbled to dust. After that, the sole purpose of my existence became revenge.
My own life didn’t matter. My beliefs didn’t matter. I would make those who betrayed and abandoned me suffer pain many times greater than what I had endured. For that purpose, I had remained hidden and coiled for the past year and a half.
“No need for a formal handover, I suppose.”
“Yes, Boss!”
I could trust Heil with everything. In truth, I had only been a nominal boss from the start. The entire organization had been built by her. It was only right that it moved according to her will. This seat had never suited me anyway. Drugs. The underworld. None of it fit.
“I don’t know when I’ll be back… but take care of things until then.”
“Yes, Boss! Come back anytime you like!”
I walked past Heil as she bowed at a perfect ninety degrees and left the office. I checked the document envelope in my hand once more.
A forged admission permit and fake ID bearing the name Eren Lopez. Along with the rest of the documents—evidence that would completely destroy those who had driven me out. It had taken an entire year just to obtain all of this.
It had been a long time.
They say a gentleman’s revenge is never too late even after ten years, but I saw no need to wait that long. I didn’t want to, either. Everything was ready.
“……Louise Violet. I’ll make sure you feel every ounce of the pain I’ve lived with.”
Murmuring those words, I boarded the train headed for the academy.
Two years to the day since my expulsion.
I was returning to the academy.