Chapter 46
Grandia Academy.
The faculty was in a full state of emergency.
And for good reason — an Apostle of the Evil God had shown itself.
Not somewhere else, but inside the very academy where practical training had been underway.
<The current situation must under no circumstances be overlooked······.>
An unidentified barrier.
Some students had even been caught up in it, and it had nearly escalated into a catastrophic incident.
Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, but the academy was thrown into complete chaos.
All faculty members were summoned to an emergency meeting.
<As Chief Investigator Javert has suggested, we are in a situation where an internal spy is suspected······.>
Afterward, discussions stretched on for several days.
In the end, the professors could only leave after staying up three days and nights straight.
Of course, nothing was resolved.
Just as with the unauthorized clearing of the Purgatory 70th Floor, they had simply controlled the flow of information to prevent unnecessary leaks.
The most compelling theory put forward was the suspicion that a spy was operating within the academy, colluding with a hostile faction inside.
Even that, however, was far from a fully settled discussion.
<Then, let us take a brief recess.>
<Faculty members, please return to the meeting in six hours.>
A long, exhausting emergency meeting.
What the faculty were given in return was a short rest.
And even that came with the instruction to catch six hours of sleep and report back to the meeting again.
"Good grief···."
The faculty members were being ground down, plain and simple.
And swept up in that same current was one particular elderly professor.
"Professor Glinbert, thank you for your hard work."
"Heh heh··· At my age, even this is too much to ask."
Professor Glinbert.
Twenty years he had held a teaching post at Grandia.
A veteran with calluses worn deep into him from decades of faculty life.
"Ugh···."
The old man pressed his fingers firmly against his darkened, sunken eyes.
Shadows flickered within the deep folds of his wrinkles.
"The things that happen in a lifetime."
The reflexive muttering that comes with old age.
Professor Glinbert furrowed his brow with a look of exasperation.
He had spent a long time at the academy, but an atmosphere this chaotic was something he had never experienced before.
"Strange incidents keep happening one after another···."
The unauthorized clearing of the Purgatory 70th Floor.
A floor that had gone uncleared for so long was conquered in a single night.
The dragon that had reigned over the 70th floor was even found as a grotesque corpse.
And yet, the faculty hadn't merely failed to catch the culprit — they couldn't even find a direction for their investigation.
"And then, before even two weeks had passed, something like this again···."
A single month. That was all it had been.
One month since Grandia had taken in its new students.
In that short span of time, two major incidents had already erupted.
Something the old man had never encountered in his twenty years of teaching.
"Good heavens··· What on earth is about to happen."
The elderly professor let out a deep sigh.
Perhaps owing to his naturally anxious nature, he could not shake the feeling of foreboding.
The paranoia of old age.
Even after staying up several nights over academy matters, what came first was worry rather than complaint.
Instead of heading to the faculty dormitory, Professor Glinbert made his way toward his own research office.
He figured he might as well get some work done rather than waste six hours on restless sleep.
'I should at least put together a simple assignment···.'
Due to the incident during the practical training period, the academy had entered a week-long suspension of classes.
He intended to use the gaps in between to prepare materials for his students.
If the students had seen this, they would have screamed about being assigned work during a suspension — but from the eyes of an educator, there was hardly anyone more genuinely devoted.
"Hmm hmm··· I do hope the students appreciate it."
The old professor muttered a wish that had no chance of coming true.
Before he knew it, he had arrived in front of his research office.
But there, stretching along the long corridor, someone was waiting for him.
"Professor Glinbert."
"······?"
A darkened corridor.
It was the early hours of the morning, and no light came in from outside the windows.
A time of night when even teaching assistants, let alone students, had long since gone home.
"Who's there···?"
The elderly professor furrowed his brow slightly.
Within his darkened field of vision, only a pure white mask was visible.
"Good evening."
A mask with a strangely unsettling smile.
Its gently curved eyes stared back at the old man.
"Who's there···?"
The kindly-looking elderly professor tilted his head in curiosity.
I smiled and offered a greeting.
"Good evening."
"You are···."
A brief frown, and then — his eyes shifting to the look of someone who recognized me.
Professor Glinbert asked with an expression that said he couldn't quite make sense of this.
As if quietly straining to remember my name.
"That is··· Viktor, was it?"
"So you do know who I am."
"But of course. From the entrance exam, and then again from the welcoming exam for new students — you gave quite an impressive showing, didn't you? I imagine every faculty member will have checked your profile at least once. And on top of that, you were caught up in the barrier during the practical training this time, weren't you? You were also one of the three who directly encountered the Apostle of the Evil God··· If anything, it would be stranger for a faculty member not to know your name."
"That does make sense. Especially right after such a major incident like this one."
I did have something of a superstar quality about me.
By now, not knowing my name within Grandia Academy was practically grounds for being suspected as a spy.
'I had clearly decided to keep a low profile···.'
After getting dragged into a few incidents, that plan had become laughably impossible.
I decided not to worry about it anymore, since I'd be getting involved in events going forward regardless.
Shrinking back just because I didn't want to stand out would only keep things from going the way they needed to.
"And yet··· what brings you to the research office? Dormitory curfew should have passed quite a while ago. Do you have permission from your supervising professor?"
"There is something I wished to discuss with Professor Glinbert."
"Hmm···? With me? At this late hour, of all times?"
"It is precisely because it is important enough to come at this late hour."
"······?"
The elderly professor furrowed his brow at the out-of-nowhere answer.
Well, that was understandable.
We had no prior acquaintance to speak of.
He may have known my name, but that was only on paper.
Since enrolling, we hadn't so much as crossed paths.
'After all, Professor Glinbert oversees the third-years.'
There had simply been no occasion for us to meet.
It was reasonable for the old professor to find this puzzling.
Without waiting for his reaction, I plunged straight to the point.
"I'll get straight to it."
"What's all this about, suddenly···."
"Would you take a look at this?"
I reached into the folds of my robe and pulled out a Crystal Ball.
A blue surface. Nothing particularly unusual about the Crystal Ball itself.
Of course, what mattered was what came next.
"A few days ago··· just before the practical training period began. I saw a notice that the student hunting grounds would be closed for a few days. So I visited them in advance to stock up on food for my tamed creature. The creature I keep takes the form of a bat, you see, and fresh monster blood is its main diet."
"Mm···."
"But, as luck would have it — perhaps because I was in too much of a hurry — I dropped the Crystal Ball I always carry for recording. I only realized this the following morning, by which point the student hunting grounds were already closed. With nothing else to be done, I turned around telling myself I'd retrieve it during the practical training."
That was a lie.
I had placed the Crystal Ball there after the student hunting grounds were already closed.
I had quietly slipped through using the wall clip bug and hidden it somewhere it wouldn't be found.
It wasn't an accident. I had placed it there deliberately.
"It seems I was in such a rush that the recording function had been left running the entire time."
But I spoke as though it had all been a coincidence.
As if recounting it to an audience.
"From that point all the way until the day of the practical training, it had been recording the whole time."
"······."
The elderly professor was listening in silence.
Perhaps because it had caught his attention quite sharply.
I quietly brought up the playback.
"And as it turned out··· something rather interesting had been captured."
Ding—.
The Crystal Ball's screen projected like a hologram.
Through the wavering image, a scene of the forest had been recorded.
Student Hunting Ground, Zone A.
"Please watch carefully."
"······."
I clicked to the precise timestamp and played the footage.
The time was the day before the practical training.
Through the dim undergrowth, someone was approaching.
A suspicious figure draped head to toe in a dark crimson robe.
The robe seemed to carry a perception-obscuring option, as whatever lay beneath it could not be clearly seen.
[Rustle, rustle—.]
The figure drew a thick bottle from within their garments.
Then twisted off the cap and poured the contents onto the ground.
A liquid with a pitch-black tint seeped into the earth in glistening, viscous streaks.
It was not a substance that looked remotely pleasant.
[Rustle, rustle—.]
After emptying one bottle, they immediately produced the next.
And so they emptied exactly sixteen bottles in a row.
The figure's movements were utterly calm, utterly unhurried.
[Whoooosh—!]
But then — who could have predicted such a coincidence.
A sudden gust of wind.
The figure's deeply pulled hood billowed briefly upward.
And for just a moment, the figure's face was caught on camera.
"Curious, isn't it?"
What a remarkable coincidence it was.
The hood had only blown up for the briefest instant.
On top of that, the surrounding area was obscured by thick undergrowth.
The darkness of night compounded the problem further, leaving visibility almost nonexistent.
A sudden gust of wind, the angle of the undergrowth, the precise point where moonlight happened to fall.
Without all of those factors aligning perfectly, there was no way a figure's face could have been captured.
"And yet, here we have such a clear shot of Professor Glinbert's face."
"······."
And.
My Crystal Ball had been placed in exactly that spot.
"Quite the remarkable coincidence, isn't it?"
By coincidence.
Purely by coincidence.
"It was you. The spy colluding with the Evil God Worshippers."
The Crystal Ball held evidence that could not be denied or deflected.
Professor Glinbert remained silent for a long moment.
His gaze had gone ice cold.
The kindly expression he had worn was dead, and in its place only a vicious murderous intent seethed.
"Heh heh··· Have you shown this footage to the other professors yet?"
"Not yet. I wanted to confirm it with the person in question first."
"Is that so···."
Clang, clang, clang—!
The next instant, iron bars came crashing down across the corridor where we stood.
A space that sealed off any escape, trapping both me and the elderly professor inside.
Glancing back, Glinbert had activated the security system using the Crystal Ball in his hand.
"How fortunate. You responded like a complete idiot···."
"Oh dear, I'm trapped."
A faint glow shimmered from the iron bars.
Those didn't appear to be ordinary iron bars.
It was likely a security system integrated with some form of barrier technique.
"Hahaha! You should have gone to the other professors first!"
Perhaps he felt relieved.
The old man broke into a bright, unrestrained laugh, throwing both hands wide open.
The corridor was already sealed, and there was no visible path of escape.
"Oh no···."
"I just need to kill you here, and everything is resolved! You're the only one who knows about this footage! Just you! Nothing but a pathetic little brat!"
Gone was the dignified manner of speech, replaced by a wild, erratic shout.
At his fingertips, sharp mana crackled with deadly intent.
It seemed he intended to kill me and silence the matter for good.
A chill ran down my spine at the unexpected turn of events.
"You little shit! You miserable brat! You nearly gave me a heart attack! Damn it, damn it, damn it! I thought I'd been caught! Good thing I just need to tear you apart and it's all over! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
This was not someone dialogue could reach.
Being a member of the Evil God Worshippers, the man's mind was clearly not intact.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
"Oh no··· this is a problem."
I meant it.
The opponent was a veteran professor who had held a teaching post at Grandia for twenty years.
The gap in our abilities was not something that could be bridged.
This wasn't an opponent that could be handled with a quick burst of damage like during the Nightmare.
He wasn't a vampire either, so the Stake Fragment would do nothing.
On top of that, in this research building corridor, there were almost no bugs I could exploit.
"Die! Dieeeee! You little brat!"
There was no hole to slip through with the wall clip bug either.
Meanwhile, the opponent was steadily closing in.
"D-Damn it···."
A true crisis.
And on top of that, my overall stats were E-grade — a glass cannon through and through.
One hit from a veteran professor's magic, and my innards would be scattered across the floor.
"I just need to kill you! Cover it up and it's over! The situation's already a mess anyway — nobody's going to care if some commoner, mixed-blood, Class E failure like you goes missing! What? And if they do care, so what! Even if someone finds it suspicious, I'll never be caught! Does anyone seriously think that I, a third-year supervisor, would have done anything to a student I've never even met? Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! All that bravado marching in here, you little puppy! You insolent brat!"
"P-Please, spare me···."
This had been a miscalculation on my part.
To think Professor Glinbert would react this erratically.
The original plan was to show the evidence and have a calm conversation···.
"Hahaha! Are you crying? Cry! Cry more! Beg me to spare you while you're at it! I'm still going to kill you! I'll smash that stupid Crystal Ball too! I'll dissolve it in acid so nobody can ever find it!"
"Ah··· I really was too careless! To think I'd be killed helplessly like this! I'm so scared!"
Scared.
Scared.
"······Did you really think that's what I'd say?"
I dropped the act I'd been putting on in my voice.
I am someone who possesses the memories of another.
Someone who always prepares the next step, and the one after that.
From the very beginning, this situation had been within the palm of my hand.
"Professor Glinbert — you've just admitted to being the spy yourself, haven't you?"
"Yeah! So what! So what! You're going to die right here anyway! Hahahahahaha!"
"Hmm··· Is that right?"
I tilted my chin as if sinking into thought.
Then slowly turned my head and looked beyond the corner of the iron bars outside.
"Did you hear that? Professor Javert."
"······What?"
Glinbert froze in place.
Understandable — there hadn't been so much as a hint of another presence in the corridor.
'But.'
I was certain.
That she would have been watching the situation from beyond those iron bars.
More precisely — that from the moment I left the infirmary, she had been following me in secret.
'Because that was the entire point.'
The reason I had deliberately acted in a way that would make Javert suspect me.
The reason I had made her suspicious of me — and had her keep watch.
I had used her.
An unfavorable field for me.
A place where almost no bugs could be exploited — Glinbert's Research Office.
'Solely. From the very beginning. All along. To conquer this place.'
Click.
The sound of heels against the corridor floor.
Before long, a red-haired woman stood behind the iron bars.
Having been concealed around the corner until just a moment ago, she would have eavesdropped on our conversation from beginning to end.
"Professor Glinbert."
"Ja— Ja— Javert, Chief Investigator? How, wh— what brings you to a place like this···!"
A cold gaze.
Those green eyes were fixed solely on the spy.
At Javert's fingertips, a brilliant white radiance flickered.
"A fascinating conversation it was. Killing my student and then covering up the incident···."
Crack, crack, crack—.
The iron bars that had been blocking the corridor with a sealed barrier.
The woman crumpled them with a few gestures of her hand.
The iron bars and the barrier alike shattered into pieces.
"Would you care to say it once more."
Her characteristically inorganic gaze turned on the elderly professor.
The color drained from Glinbert's face.
I smiled at the old man.
A twisted curl of the lips — the kind of smirk reserved for someone who had proven themselves a fool.
"Smile, Professor."
Now then.
Have a taste of our Javert.