The Academy's New Queen
"Jayoung?"
"We've lost contact."
"......"
In the top floor of the VIP dormitory wing, Louise Violet sat on the sofa, pressing her fingers hard against her temples as she sighed. The man kneeling before her had cold sweat streaming down his forehead and dripping from his chin, yet he didn't dare wipe it away.
"...What about Eden Rofas's information?"
"That... we still haven't received anything."
"......"
The man lowered his head, watching Louise's expression twist. She bit down on her lower lip as if trying to tear it off with her front teeth—an unmistakable sign she was about to explode.
The man hurriedly opened his mouth and blurted out whatever excuses he could muster. "B-But! We did find out his movements. It seems Eden Rofas has been intimidating academy officials. The suspects include the headmaster, Professor Ivanov, and several members of the disciplinary committee!"
"That..."
Louise grabbed the alarm clock from the table beside the sofa.
"I already know that!"
She hurled it straight at the man's head. The corner struck his forehead with a dull crack. Blood trickled down, but the man didn't so much as flinch.
"What I'm asking is how! How the hell did Eden Rofas manage to blackmail academy officials and even evade assassination? You're getting paid to do this job, so why can't you figure out something that simple?"
"He must have found their weaknesses, or perhaps there's some kind of behind-the-scenes scheme..."
"I already know that, you fucking bastard!"
Louise gasped for breath and sank back into the sofa. The man's blood dripped onto her cheek. After steadying her breathing, she spoke again.
"What about the possibility that he's the Emperor's illegitimate child?"
"We investigated, but there were no witnesses who claimed to have seen the Emperor's illegitimate child. It's also highly unlikely he's the illegitimate son of any imperial noble house. However... there is something else I must report."
"Speak."
"The Valentine family's railroad business rights have been transferred to the Floren family."
"......"
"Several students reported seeing Alicia Floren threatening Jayne Valentine a few days ago. We suspect this may be related. I'll investigate further and report back with details."
"......"
"Lady Violet?"
"Who is that?"
Louise looked down at the man with cold eyes. He pulled a file from his waist and handed it to her. It contained two photographs and personal information.
"The blue-haired girl on the right is Jayne Valentine, the eldest daughter of the Valentine family, which primarily deals in the confectionery business. The blonde on the left is Alicia Floren..."
"That's enough. Stop there."
Louise glared at the two faces in the photographs as if she wanted to devour them.
"...Alicia Floren. The bitch who got in my way when I expelled Eden Rofas."
"That's correct."
"Investigate the Floren family. Find anything and bring it to me."
"Understood."
The man turned and left the room the moment Louise finished speaking. She threw herself onto the bed and stared at Alicia Floren's photograph as if trying to bore a hole through it.
The Floren family was a ruined barony. There was no way Alicia could have seized Jayne Valentine's weakness through her own power alone. Someone must have helped her. And Louise could vaguely guess who was behind it.
In fact, anyone could have guessed it.
'Eden Rofas...'
In the end, she had to stop this man. A man from whom she could extract no information and against whom assassination was impossible. He was now running wild like a train with broken brakes. How do you stop a runaway train? Until now, Louise's methods had only focused on finding the broken brakes. But Eden Rofas had never possessed any brakes to begin with.
So there was only one way left.
Destroy the train itself.
"Are you insane?"
Alicia shouted the moment she heard Eden's plan. What stood before them was an upper-class monster. A creature that even the combined strength of ordinary academy students couldn't possibly defeat.
"We have to save people. We need to evacuate everyone."
Eden's plan was to leave the students as spectators without evacuating them. But doing so would inevitably cause casualties.
"No. That's..."
"Are you planning to kill them all?"
Alicia glared at Eden, but his eyes remained unchanged. They were completely submerged in darkness. As she stared into that blind gaze, Alicia realized instinctively that no words would stop him. Even if she refused to listen, Eden Rofas would use force if necessary to carry out his plan.
"......They would have died anyway if we hadn't found them, Alicia."
Eden murmured in a low voice.
"Change your mind. I'm not sacrificing them. I'm saving their lives while executing my plan."
Alicia felt a hint of fear at his words. His thinking was completely twisted.
The assumption of "if we hadn't found them" was unnecessary—it was sophistry. In that moment, Alicia understood. Eden Rofas was broken. He was warped somewhere inside, unable to even recognize that his own thoughts were wrong.
Alicia shook her head and stepped backward.
"Absolutely not. If you're going to do that, I won't cooperate."
Eden Rofas's eyes flashed red at her words. He approached the retreating Alicia until he stood right in front of her.
"...It seems you've misunderstood something, Alicia. I'm not asking for your cooperation."
His gaze was that of a beast.
"Cooperation only exists between equals. Do you think we're equals? If you won't listen, there are plenty of substitutes. Most of the fallen nobles' children hold grudges against Louise Violet. Plus, there's the condition that they can turn the ones who tormented them into slaves. Do you really think anyone would refuse that?"
"......"
"I could discard you right now. The railroad business rights I took from Jayne Valentine, the threats you made to her... Can you handle that?"
"Eden..."
Alicia felt her fingertips trembling. He was right. She was standing in a pit of fire. Eden Rofas was the one who had reached in and pulled her out. If he changed his mind and let go, she would fall back into the flames. So she couldn't refuse.
"Then... I have a condition."
"Speak."
"Only I and your assassins will fight. You protect the students around us. If even one of them gets hurt, I won't care whether I die or get abandoned again."
"If that's all..."
Eden nodded and ran toward the upper-class monster, shouting.
"Don't run! Fight back! If we let it escape, it'll head for the residential areas!"
Watching his retreating figure, Alicia fell into confusion. The upper-class monster heading for the residential areas... Students who entered the academy often came seeking wealth and honor, but they also carried a sense of justice and duty. The noble belief that aristocrats, knights, or mages must protect the weak. Eden was cleverly exploiting that belief—for his own goals.
'Which one is his true face?'
The human side that had shown a hint of loneliness when parting with Jayoung, and the vengeful demon who could trample one or two lives without hesitation for his revenge. Which of these was the mask?
Of course, thinking about it changed nothing. Right now, dozens of lives hung by a thread, and the only one who could stop it was Eden. In any case, she had no choice but to move according to his plan.
'While protecting as many lives as possible.'
Alicia ran forward and stood before the wolf. It was enormous enough to be called the size of a house. The terrifying scale, something she had never seen in her life, made her legs tremble.
"Everyone, get behind me!"
A staff shot out from her robes.
'Anyway, I won't be the one attacking.'
As Alicia's staff sliced through the air, multiple wounds appeared on the wolf's body. It was merely the assassins charging in at high speed to attack before vanishing again, but to the eyes of mere academy students, the attacks were too fast to even see.
So Alicia's role was simple. She only needed to align herself as much as possible with Eden Rofas's intentions.
*
".....She was that strong?"
"What was her name again. Alicia Floren?"
"You know, that... girl who got marked by Louise Violet two years ago and was bullied."
"Ah, the one who confronted Professor Ivanov, asking what he was going to do about his complaints..."
"Yeah, her. If she had that much skill, why did she get bullied all this time?"
Five minutes had passed. Only five minutes. An upper-class monster was dangerous enough that even five knights dispatched from the imperial palace would need a full hour to barely hold it back. Yet that monster had been butchered in the blink of an eye. The house-sized wolf lay collapsed, bleeding from wounds in every part of its body.
"...Is anyone hurt? Everyone?"
"No..."
Alicia Floren. The name was etched into the minds of the roughly twenty students present. And about an hour later, after the professors and academy officials who had rushed over upon hearing the news, the mid-term practical evaluation was concluded early. By the time the injured were moved and the situation was resolved, night had already fallen, and the next day dawned.