Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: The Rotten Stench (4)
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Silence hung over the spell training room.
No one dared to speak first. What had just happened? No one fully grasped the situation.
The door opened, and someone entered.
It was the new professor drawing all the attention lately, Lania van Trias.
Crack.
She crushed something resembling a bone. The moment the fragments hit the floor, she kicked off the ground.
Crack, cra-a-ack.
The barrier shattered like paper the instant she touched it. It couldn't even hold her back for a single second.
By the time they realized that much...
The situation was already over.
Kaboooom!
The spell training room shook with a deafening roar.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the floor. Dust billowed up. All of it happened in the blink of an eye.
The professors stood at the epicenter of the shock.
Thrust to the floor by the impact, they stared at the girl revealed as the dust settled.
'What just happened?'
They couldn't tell.
'Spells manifested. Mana surged.'
But they couldn't even say how many spells had been cast. These veterans of the magical arts couldn't perceive what happened in that split second.
"......"
They looked up at her with trembling gazes.
Lania van Trias.
Her robe was stained red and blue with blood. She was covered head to toe in it. But when she wiped the bloodstain from her cheek, they suddenly realized.
'It's not hers.'
Blood closer to blue than red.
The blood of magical beasts.
"Hoo..."
She let out a short breath.
Then she reached into the deep crater at the center of the impact and pulled out the traitor embedded in the floor.
Screeech, riiiip.
She walked while gripping the traitor's hair. The black blood trail dragged across the floor. No one blocked her path.
"......"
She strode silently through the parting crowd of students and professors. At the end waited knights clutching their spears in confusion.
"This one."
Lania pointed at the traitor she'd dragged in.
"Leave him be and he'll come to. Bind him and interrogate him."
"Y-Yes?"
The knights blinked.
He didn't look alive no matter how they looked at him. Conscious of their stares, Lania scratched the back of her head irritably and answered.
"He drew up demonic energy at the end. Traitors wrapped in demonic energy keep moving until you rip out their head or heart. They come back even after death."
Thud.
She nudged the traitor's body with her toe. It twitched.
"See? He's alive."
"Ah, understood. Thank you for your cooperation."
The knights took custody of the traitor.
They bound his limbs and gagged him to prevent incantations.
"We'll be going now."
With those final words, she left the scene.
Knights, professors, students—everyone stared blankly at her retreating back.
"Ahem."
Only her master, Rosel, cleared his throat with a faint smile.
2.
Havel, guard knight to the Fourth Princess, Aila.
The other knights called it a bed of nails, but Havel took great pride in his position.
'She will become queen one day.'
It might be presumptuous, but to Havel, Aila suited the role of leader better than anyone else in the royal family.
'To stand by such a person's side...'
There could be no greater honor.
Havel truly believed that.
'...But this time, I failed in my duty.'
Bitter taste filled his mouth.
Fortunately, the princess was unharmed, but not thanks to Havel or the knights.
'The professor.'
One professor had protected the princess.
She'd carved through the horde of beasts and guided her to the knight outpost. Havel knew that professor's name.
'Professor Rosel's adopted daughter, Professor Lania.'
The one he'd personally delivered the robe to last time. Recalling her face, Havel nodded slightly.
'I should thank her properly.'
For protecting the princess in his stead.
And...
"Assistant Professor of Combat Magic, Kelt."
For capturing the ringleader of this incident.
Havel lowered his gaze.
Most of the beasts had been exterminated. Knights were scouring the area for any stragglers.
All that remained was this filthy traitor.
At Havel's feet knelt the traitor, limbs bound. Contempt filled Havel's eyes as he looked down.
"Vile traitor who betrayed humanity for the demons. Your crime of unleashing beasts into the academy is grave."
"......"
No response came.
The traitor Kelt stared blankly into space, mouth agape.
Drool.
Drool trickled from the corner of his mouth.
'He won't snap out of it.'
Tsk. Havel clicked his tongue briefly.
It seemed he'd need more time to regain his senses. Torture or holy water could come later.
"Hoo..."
Havel sighed and stood.
"By the way, how exactly did you catch him?"
"Yeah, traitors are hard to spot before they draw demonic energy."
Exiting the tent, knights were chattering. Havel approached them. They turned to him.
"Ah, Sir Havel. Interrogation done?"
"Haven't even started torture. He wasn't in any state for it. Completely out of it."
"I see... Yeah, getting hit like that would do it. Miracle he's alive."
Cled, the knight who'd guarded the spell training room, nodded as he spoke. The knights' eyes turned to him.
"What, Cled? You saw it?"
"Not the whole thing, but the aftermath? Crystal clear."
Cled spoke under the knights' gazes.
Havel was curious too, so he listened closely.
"It was over in a flash! I see her walking from way over there, covered in blood. So I asked if she was okay."
Cled waved his hands emphatically.
"She just says, 'Step aside,' like this. No time to argue, and Professor Lania flings the door open!"
Gulp. The knights swallowed dryly.
"And then?"
"What happened next?"
"Ah, that's when I missed it."
"What the hell?"
Cled let out an awkward "Ehehe."
"Too fast to follow. Just boom! something explodes, the building shakes... and that's it."
"Damn it, that's not 'seeing' anything."
"Ah, but you saw the traitor, right? Skull all caved in. Eyes bulging, teeth all gone... Eugh."
Shiver. Cled shuddered.
"She's so pretty, but scary as hell. Dragging him by the hair... Thought I was gonna piss myself."
"...Mind your language. Watch it."
"Ah, yes sir."
Havel sighed and patted Cled's shoulder a few times before leaving.
'...Either way, multiple witnesses confirm she took him down in one shot.'
Havel hadn't believed it at first.
One-shot a traitor? Seemed impossible. Traitors who deal with demons have bodies beyond human.
Especially once they draw demonic energy...
They're no longer human.
'And that traitor was bleeding black blood.'
Black blood proved he'd drawn demonic energy.
Even traitors bleed red like normal humans unless they've activated it.
'That's why they're hard to find.'
Havel pieced together the intel.
One, she somehow located the traitor.
Two, she fought him while he was cloaked in demonic energy.
Three, she subdued him in a single exchange.
The more he thought about it, the less sense it made.
"Is that even possible?"
No time to rampage, one exchange in a room full of potential hostages?
'Impossible.'
Yet the results said otherwise.
"Can't make heads or tails of it..."
Havel suddenly recalled Professor Lania passing the barracks earlier.
-Professor, your shoes...
-I'll buy you new ones. No need to tear up.
-No, that's not what I—
-I get it. I get it, so let's wash those clothes first. Hurry up and follow.
-Yees...
The girl chatting with Professor Rosel as she passed.
Her shirt, sans robe, had only a few blood splatters—no wounds.
'Not even tired.'
Havel muttered in a hollow voice.
"Why is someone that strong a professor?"
3.
"Should I just toss it..."
"Hm? What was that?"
"No, the robe's not coming clean..."
I was washing my robe and shirt in the laundry room.
The material was too precious to just rinse with water magic... Felt kinda guilty.
'...Fight without wearing it next time?'
Then the shirt would get bloody.
It was a hassle I'd never dealt with on the battlefield. Made me feel oddly down.
Bloodstains were standard there.
Priestesses like Sara insisting on white to represent the gods were the idiots.
'Why's this so white.'
And now I was feeling like those idiots.
"Hoo..."
Washing the pristine white shirt just drew sighs. The robe was navy, so stains were less obvious, but the shirt showed every speck.
'Even if I hand it to specialist alchemist launderers later...'
I needed it presentable now.
Master said so.
-As a professor, you need at least a minimum of neatness.
-Just clean it enough not to offend at a glance. Looks like we'll be here a while today.
I looked at the shirt in my hands.
Gold embroidery adorned the collar. A royal gift, delivered with the robe.
'Hard to rinse roughly...'
So I was scrubbing hard, but being so white, the blood wouldn't come out easy.
'This feels familiar somehow.'
Did I ever wash clothes on the battlefield?
I think I just rinsed with water magic and wore them. Neither Kyle nor I cared about that...
Ah.
'Me and Kyle.'
Excluding us two left those other two.
Suddenly, those crazy bitches flashed in my mind. Their voices echoed like hallucinations.
-No, Raniel! What happened to my clothes?! They're all wrinkled!
-Mine too! What is this?!
-You bitches asked me to wash them.
-Who said rinse with water magic? You ruined them! Ugh, that's why you're still a virgin!
-Foolish human. Fine, my fault for trusting you.
I froze.
-Anyway, that's why... Tsk.
-Raniel, men who don't get women aren't popular? So what if you're handsome. Your personality sucks. Zero consideration.
-Fuck, give me all your shit.
What did I do then? Right, I tore Sara's favorite casual outfit.
Riiip.
Like this.
"Huh?"
Something tore that shouldn't have? I slowly looked down at the shirt in my hands.
'Oh shit.'
My fingers trembled around the shirt.
"What? Something wron—"
Master, approaching beside me, froze too. I turned to her. Our eyes met.
After a long silence, Master slowly spoke.
"...Lania."
"Y-Yes?"
"If I recall, this was a gift from the royals. Right?"
I nodded slowly.
Master slapped her forehead with a thwack.
Author's Note
Magic exists, but hand-washing is still the best.
Ah, but drying is quick with magic!