The Academy's Unyielding Rules
Now, by imperial decree, anyone possessing a unique ability was forcibly admitted to the academy regardless of the details. Even Anki Dunas, despite his abysmal grades, had managed to enroll under the emperor’s strict command.
“Kekeke, as expected, the academy recognizes my true worth!”
Watching him revel in the term special admission student, I couldn’t help but wonder if he even understood what it meant.
But then—oh no—trouble struck. He had been attacked by an unknown assailant, his face completely caved in.
“Find that son of a bitch right now! I’m going to knock out every last one of his front teeth!”
How dare someone lay a hand on a noble’s child? Unforgivable!
…Or so he raged, but the culprit was far too obvious.
“…Lady Diabeluna, you say?”
When a mad dog does something insane, what can you do? Anki Dunas may have had terrible grades, but he possessed one clear talent: knowing his place.
“If this person really wanted to kill me, wouldn’t it just end with a single word from her?”
His sharp instincts were eerily good at distinguishing people he could mess with from those he absolutely could not. Thanks to that, he could ignore complicated political factors and easily torment those weaker than himself.
The pinnacle of that behavior had been when his family allegedly used force to crush a rival product—something tied to the youngest son of the Helisbort family. But Anki didn’t know that.
“Ah, the academy! The academy that recognized me!”
He was receiving special treatment precisely because he was a special admission student. He had his own classroom, his own teachers, and even his own dormitory!
So if he explained his grudge properly, they would surely resolve it for him! Believing this, Anki Dunas headed to the academy’s administrative office.
“Is this matter related to significant damage to the academy? For example, building destruction, mass slaughter, kidnapping of faculty, brainwashing, or mental modification?”
“…No.”
“Is this matter related to smuggling prohibited items into the academy? For example, high-performance explosives, demon summoning circles, heavenly descent scriptures, outer god grimoires, love potions, or hypnosis tools?”
“…It is not.”
“Have you suffered irreversible harm? For example, a great demon-class curse that cannot be healed by holy power, physical dismemberment caused by such a cursed artifact, or permanent aftereffects from mental modification or brainwashing?”
“…That is not the case.”
“Did this incident occur while you were enrolled at the academy?”
“…Well.”
“In that case, it appears the academy cannot assist you. My condolences.”
Unfortunately, his perfectly reasonable and justified complaint was coldly dismissed. The academy’s forces were simply too busy repelling those who attacked the academy itself to have any spare capacity to resolve one student’s personal grudge.
On top of that, word had it that the mad dog and the incompetent child had not even enrolled.
“If they’d been in front of me, I would’ve beaten them senseless.”
In the end, Anki had no choice but to swallow his burning resentment and continue attending the academy.
“Is this the right way?”
“Yes, of course. Do you not trust me?”
“No, I trust you. The fact that you could enter the impenetrable academy grounds is proof enough.”
Perhaps the heavens had taken pity on his unjust suffering. While Anki was wandering the campus, his eyes caught sight of those two people in the distance.
Moreover, from what he’d heard, they were illegal intruders! That meant even if the assault became known, the righteous and just Anki would simply have repelled invaders!
“You damn incompetent bastard!”
It didn’t matter why the two who supposedly hadn’t enrolled had appeared again. All that mattered to Anki was that a place to vent the emotions he had suppressed for two whole months had suddenly appeared before his eyes.
“Oh, they really did come out.”
“See? What did I tell you?”
Thus, seething with rage, he charged forward…
“………”
His steps gradually slowed. Something seemed wrong with his sense of perspective.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
“That………”
It had only been two months. Just two months. So why had Helio’s physique, which Anki remembered, swelled to nearly three times its previous size?
“L-long time no see, Helio. No troubles? You look healthy, that’s good.”
The savage curves of muscle visible even beneath his clothes put the brakes on Anki’s courage. He stopped in his tracks, but unfortunately, just as he had spotted the other party, the other party had spotted him long ago.
“Wow, you even remember my name. So you’re not someone who can’t use his head—you’re just someone who doesn’t. Right?”
“I-I also…”
Thud. A massive hand landed on Anki’s shoulder. From the casual motion alone, one could tell it had been placed lightly, yet to Anki it felt like an impact that would drive him into the ground.
“T-this, this hand…”
“Hm? Ah, was I too rude? Sorry, sorry.”
Before Anki could even shout about the insolence of placing a hand on his shoulder, the incompetent who knew his place had already withdrawn it.
Thud. Thud. “Ugh, ack!”
Yet when the man laughed heartily and patted his shoulder, only groans escaped Anki’s lips.
“Nice to meet you, Anki.”
In the man’s hand, a single pebble crumbled into powder with a soft hiss. At the same time, as he bared his teeth in a grin, an instinctive chill swept through Anki’s body. It was the emotion known as fear.
“Is this enough?”
“This much is sufficient for now.”
Unfortunately, directly ripping off his limbs or similar acts was difficult. Direct violence inside the academy was generally discouraged.
“Grow strong.”
All I could do was plant his perfectly intact body in the ground. This wouldn’t cause any permanent disability, and if he screamed, surely someone would come looking?
“Mmph! Mmmph!!!”
Of course, since one of Diana’s kidnapping kits included a gag and we were in a secluded area where he was unlikely to be found by chance, that couldn’t be helped. Since I couldn’t beat him physically, this much was necessary to balance the universe, wasn’t it?
Splash. I evenly poured fresh milk over his head before standing up.
“Hehe, the fact that you left the clue ‘this time’ means this won’t be the end, right?”
“Well, this guy tormented me every time he came and went. I’m just returning the favor.”
“Until when?”
I grinned and answered.
“Until my hatred becomes trivial.”
Diana also let out a small laugh and patted my shoulder.
“Then I’ll prepare options so you can run into Anki Dunas from time to time.”
“Thanks.”
It was a refreshing thing to hear.
“By the way, you really are a strange person.”
As Diana walked toward the administrative office, she spoke in a low voice.
“Just half a day ago, you were moving while risking danger, weren’t you? Yet now you’re dreaming of gloomy revenge. Which one is the real you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, to some extent?”
Looking at her face, it didn’t seem like she was asking out of genuine curiosity. If I had to put it into words, it was like wanting to reenact a masterpiece—reading a favorite passage again, appreciating a painting once more. She simply wanted to recreate that scene.
Is this what a regressor’s sensibility is like?
I wondered if the day would ever come when I truly understood it. With a touch of bitterness, I answered.
“The original me would have kept enduring it, wouldn’t I?”
I had felt it when I went to save that herbalist. The person named Helio Helisbort had been born with that kind of nature. An old-fashioned hero’s archetype—stubborn, overflowing with a sense of justice and altruism. Even after gaining power, he would have lectured and reformed Anki Dunas rather than harm him out of personal feelings.
“But I’ve held onto Oh Ji-o’s soul for far too long.”
The Helisbort family’s Descent was about summoning whatever was needed at the moment. Continuously summoning a single soul went against family policy and was difficult in terms of ability. Therefore, I honestly couldn’t tell whether my current state was an unknown side effect of Descent or simply the result of learning.
But one thing was certain: I was no longer someone who could purely be called a hero.
“I learned the emotions and sensibilities of Oh Ji-o, a commoner who suffered a lot of discrimination as the weak.”
Perhaps it had awakened emotions that had been latent within me. The important thing was this:
“Both are me. My desire to help others and achieve good things, and my desire to stay true to personal feelings and fulfill selfish desires. A person can never possess only one aspect.”
“Like me, you mean?”
“…Yes. Like you.”
Diana laughed brightly. Both her noble appearance and the madness she occasionally displayed were her.
“Then that’s wonderful.”
She didn’t say what exactly was wonderful. But it was clear that my answer had pleased her.
“Shall we split up here?”
“Hm? Don’t you need to be present to submit the withdrawal application?”
Although two months had vanished after enrollment, we were still admitted students. Since we had come all the way to the academy, wasn’t it natural that we should continue attending?
“Oh my, did I say something like that?”
“You didn’t, but it’s only natural, isn’t it?”
“Hehehe.”
It seemed that what was natural for ordinary people wasn’t the same for a regressor.
“Hmm…”
To be honest, I wasn’t particularly thrilled. Most of Oh Ji-o’s knowledge was tied to this academy. The moment I left, its usefulness would drop by about seventy percent.
But it’s not entirely a bad thing.
In the game, you were forced to stay trapped at the academy, but in reality, hidden events and powerful equipment could be obtained outside. Every time you left for field studies, practical training, vacations, or other events, you had to farm intensely. There were also quite a few events that had to be abandoned due to schedule and location conflicts.
The academy’s advantages were basically acquiring fundamental skills and being able to stay near relationship characters. Honestly, if you wanted to reach a personal peak, it was nothing but a shackle.
“Alright, I’m convinced. But can you really pull this off? The imperial family blocked it, didn’t they?”
“Yes. Even if I act crazy, there’s nothing I can do about that part. However, there is a backdoor.”
“A backdoor?”
“The Pilgrimage.”
“Ah, that…”
It was a keyword I knew as well. The protagonist couldn’t be sent, but you could send characters who had become companions after applying. Characters sent on the Pilgrimage would be permanently lost, but in exchange, the final boss’s specs would be dramatically lowered. It was known as the beginner route.
“…Anyway, I understand that too.”
“I’ll be filling out the documents, so would you like to look around in the meantime?”
With those words, Diana winked at me. It was easy to understand. It was a signal to farm the academy before we left.