Become My Squire (5): The Academy's Big Three
After overcoming the ordeal of the lion, what I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. And when I threw open the curtains, there stood the "Big Three" of the academy. Seeing them, my jaw dropped to the floor.
One was a 500-year-old hag, known as the strongest mage on the continent and the headmistress of the academy. Another was a skeleton, but a monster whose level was on par with the headmistress beside him. The last one, while relatively lower in level compared to those two, was still someone I couldn't ignore.
Even if his level was lower than the others, he was one of the male leads of Dawn Star Academia. To someone like me, he was a powerhouse who could crush me with a single finger. In short, every single one of them was a pinnacle in their field, an object of admiration and envy. But that wasn't why my jaw was hanging open.
This is an academy professor? What I was seeing right now was a drug-addicted elf frowning as she pulled a medicine bottle from her robes and dumped the whole thing into her mouth, and a skeleton watching her, only to open its jaw so wide that its chin bone fell right off. And the dragon-kin, looking like he couldn't care less, was focused entirely on peeling an apple with a blank expression. In any case, these people, who were supposed to be someone's idols, were performing a comedy sketch right in front of my eyes.
Even so, no matter what kind of skit these professors were putting on, I couldn't laugh. I was definitely screwed.
In the game, no matter which route you took, you'd get caught by the duty professor, but you wouldn't get penalized, likely due to the credit for killing or capturing the wolf. I remembered that if you cleared the hidden dungeon, you even received a shop discount. But the headmistress herself had come. There was no event in any route where the headmistress came in person. Especially not while flanked by two other professors. Anyone could see that this wasn't just about a penalty; they weren't going to let me off with a mere slap on the wrist.
Could it be disciplinary action? Disciplinary action at Dawn Star Academia was a massive penalty. I’m dead.
Whether she knew my inner turmoil or not, the headmistress finished peeling the apple into the shape of a rabbit and handed it to me with a face that looked quite proud of herself.
"How does it feel to have been lying down for three days, Cadet Ian?"
"Three days?"
I’d been out for that long? It didn't feel like that much time had passed. Well, my organs were wrecked and my bones were broken, so I suppose it was natural? Maybe my body was just strange for waking up after only three days after taking all that damage...
Wait... something was off. Isn't the timing a bit too perfect? Does it make sense for the professors to be gathered and waiting the moment I wake up? Usually, wouldn't they come after the person wakes up? How did they know? It was as if they knew I would wake up right now. It’s not like they’d been visiting constantly until I woke up. And they were even peeling apples.
"But, how did you know to come?"
"I told them."
At that moment, someone next to me picked up a slice of apple from the plate. I looked over in a hurry at the familiar voice and saw Kafka standing there in an academy uniform. Putting aside why she was wearing a uniform...
"You didn't get dissected?"
"What are you talking about? Why would I get dissected?"
Kafka, who was bringing the apple slice to her mouth, shrugged her shoulders with a 'what are you saying' expression.
"If you were right there, you could have used telepathy. I was worried for nothing."
I grumbled at her, relieved that she hadn't been dissected, and Kafka, chewing the apple, retorted to my grumbling. Her slit-like eyes curved even further downward as a bonus. Well, even if I wanted to notice, how could I pay attention to what was next to me when the professors in front of me were performing a comedy routine?
Anyway, why did they all come swarming in? Sigh... It really is disciplinary action, isn't it?
As if reading my mind, Professor Luke spoke up. "You seem very nervous because the headmistress is here. You don't need to worry. That is not why we came."
With a click, he reattached his jawbone, revealing the blue flames in his eye sockets as he spoke in a reassuring tone. They didn't come for disciplinary action?
"The reason we came is because of the dungeon you cleared, Cadet Ian."
The headmistress stabbed an apple slice with a fork, brought it to her mouth, and looked at me. "Combining Cadet Dante's account and the words of that spirit, it seems that dungeon was not a naturally occurring one."
She held out her palm as if asking for something. "Kafka told me that Cadet Ian would have an item that would be helpful. Could you show me that object?"
An object? 'You know that choker Ian took.''Ah.' I pulled the choker from my inventory and gave it to the headmistress. I’d picked it up just in case, but the magic had been erased by Carnwennan, and it had returned to being a normal choker. I didn't know what they could find with just that.
However, that seemed to be an unnecessary worry. The headmistress received the choker, examined it closely, and nodded, as if she had realized something. "It is certain. The lingering scent, and there is only one man who would play such tricks."
She stroked the choker a few more times and looked at Professor Luke. "It seems there was a very complex spell embedded in this. A mental-type one, at that... and it seems there was a self-destruct magic cast on it as well."
I felt a chill down my spine watching the headmistress. That choker had all its magic erased by Carnwennan. To be able to tell that just by looking at it once... Level 90 must not be a level achieved by playing around.
"But, how? Seeing that it’s still intact, it doesn't look like it was deactivated by self-destruction..."
The headmistress looked back and forth between Kafka and the choker. At that moment—clatter!
"That was deactivated by my student, Cadet Ian."
Professor Luke placed a bony hand on my shoulder and opened his jaw. No, he was in front of me just a second ago, when did he get to my side? But what did he just say?
"I saw it with my own eyes. He brought a dagger to the choker around Kafka's neck, and it was deactivated."
No, he saw that too?
"Is that so? A complex magical tool with various spells mixed in, deactivated with a single dagger..."
That was the moment. The headmistress's eyes as she looked at me changed. How should I put it? It was the same feeling as when I made eye contact with the headmistress on the day of the entrance ceremony. It was chilling.
"Ahem, isn't that not the important thing right now, Headmistress?"
At Professor Silves's cough, the headmistress returned to her original gaze. She looked at the choker once more and then turned her gaze to me. "I will speak directly, Cadet Ian. Have you ever heard of the Dawn Theater?"
Damn it, I almost bit my tongue. I never expected those words to come out of the headmistress's mouth. The Dawn Theater. A secret society where Dottore was a member as an executive, and one of the main villain organizations of Dawn Star Academia along with the Cult of the Abyss Mother. A notable feature was that all the executives, including the leader, wore masks, making them a group that valued privacy immensely.
"Judging by your agitation, it seems you have heard of it."
"Well, I suppose you heard it from Kafka."
But is it right to tell this to a mere cadet like me? Is she testing me?
"But is it alright for you to tell me this?"
"Once you were in a contract relationship with Kafka, who is already involved with that organization, I judged that it would be impossible to hide it."
She stabbed an apple with her fork again and answered. "What would you have done if I were a member of that organization?"
"I had anticipated that to some extent. However, there was a witness."
"A witness?"
"I am talking about those who entered the dungeon with you."
The headmistress chewed the apple once and continued. "When I first realized the existence of the dungeon through a few clues and heard that you suggested clearing it, we were also half-doubting."
I guess that was a bit suspicious. I just wanted to take the hidden piece for myself, so I cleared it without entrusting it to the professors. Still, clearing a dungeon alone without reporting it to a professor could look like an attempt to erase evidence.
"You fought quite fiercely. That is what Cadet Dante testified. If you were of the same organization, you wouldn't have needed to fight so fiercely."
Thanks to that, it seems I’ve escaped the situation of being misunderstood.
"Anyway, it seems this dungeon incident is deeply related to the Dawn Theater. However, there is something suspicious about it."
"Something suspicious?"
Is there such a thing?
"The reason I asserted that the dungeon you cleared could not have occurred naturally is because things related to Dottore, an executive of the Dawn Theater, were inside. And Kafka, who is contracted with you, as well."
"No matter how excellent that man is, creating a dungeon is another matter entirely."
At Professor Silves's words, Professor Luke added a word. "Cadet Dante said there must be a mole inside the academy helping Dottore."
"So I’ve been releasing spirits for the past three days, but there are no individuals who appear to be moles."
That was the same in the game. Even when I cleared the hidden dungeon, the attack happened exactly as it did, even though the duty professor had taken Kafka away. Surely, they wouldn't have failed to prepare when they clearly knew the existence of the mastermind who created the dungeon. That means they couldn't catch the mole. It was frustrating because the identity of that mole was never revealed in the game or the art book.
"How do you think about this, Cadet Ian?"
Well, if I knew that, I would have been a detective, not me.
'Did Dottore say anything?' I asked Kafka just in case, but—
'He didn't say anything like that.' Kafka shook her head.
"Is the Headmistress, Professor Luke, and Professor Silves the only ones who know this fact?"
"That is correct."
Then the case falls even deeper into a labyrinth. If there was someone other than these three, I could just crush that bastard... but the headmistress couldn't be the culprit. Why would the headmistress collude with a secret society? Besides, if it were her, she wouldn't use such petty methods; she would just erase the barrier for a moment or overturn the academy herself. The same goes for Professor Luke. If he were the culprit, he would move himself. If he ransacked the academy while the headmistress was away, no one could stop him. Then the rest is Professor Silves...
He was the one who searched for the mole, and one could see him as the most likely suspect, but this guy is a protagonist. A male lead of Dawn Star Academia. Would a male lead collude with a villain? So, naturally, Silves isn't the culprit either. Then what on earth is it?
"Then I don't know either."
"Is that so..."
The headmistress nodded as if she understood my words and stabbed an apple with her fork once more. "Then, may I ask you a personal question now?"
As soon as the Q&A with the headmistress ended, Professor Silves asked me something.
"It doesn't matter."
"I want to ask how you contracted with Kafka."
Why do you ask that?
"Because I don't feel any spirit power from you."
"Well, because Kafka is originally human..."
But Professor Silves shook his head. "Even if Kafka has the unique point of being a mixture of human and spirit, it's a different problem from a spirit contract. Even if the essence is human, if the power comes from a spirit, she has no choice but to follow the rules of spirits."
The reason I made a spirit contract despite having no spirit power is probably related to the Squire system. But I couldn't explain that.
"I don't know either. It just happened to be contracted."
"Do you mean to say it was a coincidence?"
I nodded at Professor Silves's words. I have to say it was a coincidence. I can't explain the Squire contract.
"Coincidence, coincidence. Can you really explain that as a coincidence?"
Professor Silves chewed on the word 'coincidence' repeatedly. "You need spirit power to lead a contract with a spirit, but you didn't do that. Do you really not know what that means?"
The more he heard my answer, the more Professor Silves's appearance became agitated. Seeing Professor Silves, who had only shown dissatisfaction, act like this made cold sweat run down my back. Why is this guy so excited? It's unsettling.
"You broke the rules."
Silves looked at me as if satisfied and stroked his chin. "I thought it was 'like professor, like student', but that wasn't it. To think that the antacid was here."
What are you talking about?
"You..."
"Would you be interested in learning magic from me, Cadet Ian?"
Cutting off Professor Silves's words, the headmistress suddenly joined the conversation. ...Excuse me?
The atmosphere suddenly turned cold at her words. The headmistress, who had ruined the atmosphere, continued as if nothing had happened. "You deactivated this complex magic with just a single dagger... I think that talent for interpreting and deconstructing magic is too wasted to be in the swordsmanship department."
Suddenly?