Chapter 83
Chapter 83
Chapter 83
EP22 - Sector 4 Discipline Department (2)
I walked into the gaps between the debris. Much had changed with the destruction of the building. The way they treated me had changed, and the way I treated them had to change as well.
“I am Dante Hiacapo, Senior Professor of the Assassination Department. I came to inquire about the collective Rifts that have occurred in Sector 4. However, you are refusing to process my request.”
‘Ah, Assassination…!’ At the mention of Senior Professor of the Assassination Department, fear seeped into everyone’s eyes. The reason I hadn’t revealed it from the start was because I was curious about their normal state.
“The Rifts will erupt between tonight and dawn tomorrow. We must rectify the situation before then. So, from now on, you will cooperate with me. You may object if you wish.”
“……”
No one raised an objection.
As my head cooled slightly, I was a little surprised. Among the memories of Dante, who was synchronized within me, there were quite a few related to the Discipline Department.
Was the original Dante a member of the Discipline Department? In any case, it was a good thing.
“You on the left. Go now and print out the weekly patrol logs and bring them to me. All four weeks since the Assassination War.”
“Ah……”
At that, the man’s face turned ashen. As if he had something to hide.
“If you tamper with or attempt to falsify the logs, you will die by my hand.”
“Y-yes……”
The man went into the back of the office.
“You in the middle. Where is the duty Discipline Officer?”
In response, one member hastily made a phone call, while another explained. It was a long-standing practice of the Administration Bureau that the Discipline Officer only appeared in special circumstances.
“Do you think that makes any sense?”
“……”
In other words, they were on duty without a person in charge.
“Go and summon the Discipline Officer.”
“Ah! B-but… the Discipline Officer is celebrating their wedding anniversary today…”
Wedding anniversary?
As the members looked troubled, the one on the right asked.
“Would it be alright if we proceeded amongst ourselves…?”
“It would not.”
“If it’s a collective Rift… we can call the emergency standby team…”
“No.”
There was no need to look further.
As soon as I spoke, the man’s expression hardened.
“H-how…”
“You lack the ability to take responsibility for this situation.”
“……”
“If the wedding anniversary was that important, the Discipline Officer should have made the effort to switch shifts. If you say it’s due to practice, then such practices should be abolished.”
There was no reason here for me not to summon the Discipline Officer.
“However,”
I looked directly into the man’s eyes.
“Who are you to try and negotiate with me?”
“……”
The man’s expression froze.
“Know your place.”
A voice, authoritarian and oppressive, emerged, surprising even myself. But oppression is sometimes necessary.
Then, the man next to him spoke.
“I-I’ll call right away…!”
However, the man making the call was a ploy to buy time to think about this situation. How did I know this? Because it just appeared on my 【Script】. Where the Discipline Officer was and what he was doing.
“Member.”
“Yes…?”
“Where is the Discipline Officer?”
“Ah, as I said, he’s celebrating his wedding anniversary… He’s probably at a restaurant with his wife…”
I cut him off and asked again in a slow voice.
“Where is the Discipline Officer?”
“With his wife at a restaurant… …Or perhaps at a bar…”
“Where?”
“That…”
“Where?”
“……”
The man’s mouth closed.
“Why are you lying?”
Thump. The 【crystal ball】 fell from his hand.
He dropped it in surprise.
His fingertips began to tremble like an aspen leaf.
“……”
The wedding anniversary was a lie.
They say the magistrate of a border town wields absolute power, and this was such a place. The Discipline Officer had not come to work today. He frequently left with an out-of-office pass to go out and play, and he had the connections to make it possible. Today, he seemed to have gone out for entertainment.
I approached him, coming right up to his nose, and looked down at his face. He avoided my gaze.
“Even with the situation this dire, you still don’t respect me.”
“……”
“Then, how long must I continue to respect you?”
“……”
“My patience is wearing thin.”
The frozen man, trembling, clutched the 【crystal ball】 in his hand. It seemed he intended to call the Discipline Officer properly now. It was no longer necessary. I kicked his hand away.
Thump.
The 【crystal ball】 that fell again rolled down the slope and touched my opposite foot. I stomped on it with my boot.
CRACKLE-
The glass sphere began to shatter.
The terrified member could not dare to resist.
“You.”
“Ah, yes…!”
I called out to the member in the middle. This matter could be resolved easily if it went smoothly. After requesting support from higher-ups, we just need to find and eliminate the Rifts. We had time to spare.
However, I felt that wouldn’t be right.
Discipline means order and law. It is an organization that upholds what must be upheld. But within their order, the safety of the Students was not protected.
Therefore,
“Call the Academy Discipline Department Headquarters.”
“T-to Headquarters…? Yes! I understand… But, for what reason…?”
Now, they had to follow my order.
“Request an audit.”
The expressions of the two men turned completely dark.
“Inform them that Senior Professor Dante Hiacapo is requesting an audit of the entire Sector 4 Discipline Department. Then they will understand.”
I didn’t want to live diligently.
It was a dream everyone had. If there was a man who achieved that dream, I thought it was myself.
“Hello?”
It was five minutes later that Dante Hiacapo, after demolishing the Airport Administration Bureau, called the Discipline Officer Dennis.
“Yes. Boss.”
Dennis always turned off all alarms when he had a drink, but he couldn’t turn off this one. It was the number of a senior executive from Headquarters.
“An audit? What’s so urgent that requires an audit? Hahaha.”
At first, he thought it was a joke. He had already had a drink, and he was in a good mood. It wasn’t a prank he couldn’t play on a senior executive he was close to because they often covered for each other.
But the answer he received was somehow strange.
“…Yes?”
– Hey!!
The crystal ball echoed loudly.
– Dennis, you idiot, snap out of it!?
His heart sank. He had known this senior for over 20 years, and this was the first time he had ever been this angry.
“No, why are you suddenly so angry?”
– Your Administration Bureau has been ordered for an emergency audit, you bastard!!
“……”
The alcohol buzz vanished instantly.
Emergency audit?
Suddenly?
Or was he too drunk and hearing nonsense?
Amidst a torrent of words like “Where are you now, why did you abandon your duty shift—”, Dennis hastily asked back.
“What emergency audit? Why all of a sudden!?”
– A professor requested it, to Headquarters!
“What does that even mean! How can a professor request an audit? Who is this professor in the first place!?”
– Find out yourself, you punk! Do I have to wipe your ass too!?
“I-I…. A-alright, I understand…!”
The words were utterly incomprehensible.
A mere professor could not request an audit.
After all, the Discipline Department belonged to the state, not an academic department.
He abandoned his drinking session and rushed out. While driving, he called a member who was on duty.
He needed to know what on earth had happened.
– Uh, the Assassination Professor, Dante Hiacapo…
The member who answered the phone whispered softly. He must have been nearby.
He got behind the wheel and asked.
“Assassination? Why is someone from Sector 0 here… No, more importantly, what kind of professor is he?”
– Earlier, he said he was a Senior Professor…
“What!?”
Huh!
Unbelievable.
Senior Professor?
If it were a distinguished Head Professor, perhaps.
But a mere Senior Professor requesting an audit of the Discipline Department?
He knew over 30 Senior Professors just from his phone book.
He even knew two Head Professors. And with himself standing firm, he dared to do this?
“Hey. Mark. Are you seriously saying that out loud, thinking it makes sense?”
– Huh?
“What kind of Senior Professor requests an audit!”
– Ah, that…
The man stammered.
Are these guys all colluding to mess with me…?
“No, no! Forget it! I don’t need it, I’m coming right now, so wait!”
He didn’t seem like a madman. Coming to the Administration Bureau, disrespecting the Discipline Department, and asking for the Discipline Officer?
He would go and tear him apart.
With that thought, when he arrived near the Administration Bureau, Discipline Officer Dennis’s jaw dropped. The Administration Bureau had been demolished.
In that moment, he realized the situation was beyond his control. Anyone at the professor level could destroy the Administration Bureau, but something still felt off.
His intuition told him so.
“Hello? Uh, it’s me…”
Following his intuition, he quickly made a call.
I disliked people who wielded power.
I had never thought well of those who used their high and secure positions to oppress others.
But…
“Is this all? The patrol results show no anomalies?”
“……”
I checked all the patrol logs for the past four weeks. They had conducted patrols every day and found no problems, they said.
The member just kept his head bowed. He must have found it absurd himself.
“Even a healthy plant, if moved to a greenhouse, will wither and die. That’s exactly what you are like.”
Even during the Assassination War with Kreutz, Sector 4 had been unaffected.
This place was the Academy’s most perfect greenhouse.
Around that time, the Discipline Officer came running, waddling from afar. He had a plump body and a face full of greed.
“……You’re insane.”
The Discipline Officer froze, looking at the demolished Administration Bureau.
He gritted his teeth and asked me.
“Hey, you! What the hell is this supposed to be?”
“I have one question. Why did the Discipline Officer leave his post during duty hours?”
“Professor! Before pointing out my mistakes, what is this you’re doing!? This isn’t right…!”
The man twisted his words strangely.
“…Mistake?”
“Listen! I heard you’re a promising professor in the Assassination Department. Even so, this is overstepping your bounds! Shouldn’t you be doing something you can handle?”
“……”
“I don’t know what you’ve told your superiors, but this is too much! Professors and the Discipline Department should each do their best in their respective roles. How can you destroy the Administration Bureau just because you’re upset? Are you underestimating the Discipline Department too much because you have some power?!”
I didn’t reply. I was looking at my 【Script】. The intention behind his lengthy speech as soon as we met was that he had requested the Headquarters’ emergency standby team.
He was mistaken in thinking that if he contacted the highest authority, I would be subdued.
I had no reason to engage in conversation, so I listened.
“…And what Rifts? As you can see from the patrol logs, we’ve checked everywhere, and there were no Rifts! Don’t you even know that Rifts cannot occur in places with the Stigmata of ‘Peacefulness☮’!?”
A statement I could not overlook came out.
“Can you take responsibility?”
“…So, stop this rampage, and… …What did you say?”
“Can you take responsibility? For the absence of Rifts.”
“I am the person in charge of this sector! Of course, I can take responsibility! There has never been a case in history where a Rift appeared within the domain of ‘Peacefulness☮’! Do you not even know that as a professor?”
This fool still doesn’t know. One of the Rifts, twisted by Mana throughout Sector 4—
“There’s one here too.”
It was on the floor to the left of where he was standing.
＊ Monster Rift [B++] [90%]
Checking the status window, it was different from the Rift I saw on the street during the day. This one was preparing to erupt at any moment.
However, the Discipline Officer had a seizure.
“…There’s no way there is! Are you seriously claiming the cracks in the walls and floor here are [Rifts]?”
I suddenly stood up and walked. I approached him. Due to the difference in height, I had to look down significantly.
The Discipline Officer tensed but did not back down. As if confident.
“Then, open it.”
However, at my words, his expression became uneasy.
He frowned and tilted his head.
“…What?”
I gestured with my eyes.
Towards the torn gap on the building floor.
“You know how to open a Rift, don’t you? You’re a warrior too.”
“……”
“Open it. Touch it and inject Mana.”
The man’s mouth closed. He was unable to refute my claim that something nonexistent existed, especially since I was so confident.
“If you don’t know where it is, I’ll show you. It’s right here.”
I scraped the Rift with the tip of my sword. Grrr-
“Reach out and inject Mana.”
“……”
The man was now frozen, unable to say anything. If a Rift is opened incorrectly, one never knows what might emerge. The first to be attacked is the one who opens it. Every warrior knows that.
“Why are you standing still? I told you the location of the Rift.”
“……”
“Have you forgotten how to bend? Shall I help you?”
“…J-just…”
Suddenly, an invisible hand gripped the man’s body. Then, it pressed his stiffly held body down to the floor. “Cough…!” He struggled but could not escape.
The other members nearby were terrified. But no one moved.
“Now, it’s right in front of your eyes.”
“……”
“You can open it.”
“……”
The unease in the man’s heart seemed to deepen. He no longer even looked at the crack. He was just stiffly frozen.
“You’re resisting again. I told you the location and how to bend. Shall I teach you how to extend your hand next?”
“J-just… just…”
“Understood. I am a kind professor, so I will teach you how to extend your hand.”
Screech – I drew my sword and stabbed his hand.
CRASH!!
‘Kkkhhhhaaaak!!’ The man let out a scream. I pulled the hand that was stabbed by the sword towards the Rift. His hand, crying out in pain, was dragged towards the Rift. Yet, the Discipline Officer tried to resist.
“Why are you resisting?”
“Ugh…! Hhuk…!”
“Or is it difficult to bend your forearm now?”
“Ah, ah…. Th-there, there’s, uh…”
When the Discipline Officer was prolonging his speech earlier to buy time.
I thought to myself, what was he taking responsibility for today? I pondered.
I had been thinking about it, but there was nothing.
“You said you’d take responsibility.”
I do not consider this action excessive at all. His laziness could have killed dozens of people, and furthermore, Gray. Not killing him now proves my character.
With such reasoning, I said in a low voice.
“Open it.”