101. Regular Meeting
101. Regular Meeting
Having finished my conversation with Professor Buckingham in an instant, I returned to the lecture hall with light steps, as if I had just come back from a stroll.
It hadn't even been two hours since I heard from Shara that Professor Buckingham was suspicious.
You could call it short, or you could call it long.
Thanks to that, I ended up ditching another lecture, but it was well worth it.
When I arrived at the lecture hall, Liber stared at me intently.
"Atlas, where did you go after skipping the lecture earlier?"
"I went and stopped a threat that was about to unfold."
Upon hearing that, Emy made a face of disbelief.
"...You went and came back already?"
"Why would I leave something so important alone for long? It's better to end it quickly."
"It does seem like something important."
She said it was important, but it wasn't completely over yet.
Until this matter was finished, I had to occasionally check if Buckingham was moving properly, and I also had to catch those unidentified people who fed Buckingham empty words.
Verbally, he said they were professors in charge of liberal arts courses, but the fact that he couldn't even remember their names suggested they had pulled some kind of trick.
The combat magic professor—who would have easily noticed any perception-inhibiting magic—only described them as suspicious people he couldn't remember, their impressions blurry.
And he didn't even find that strange.
He wasn't trying to deceive me; he genuinely felt that way.
Besides magic, there were a few other means to make someone feel that way. I didn't know which one was the correct answer, but they all shared the commonality that it wasn't something a liberal arts professor could use.
Whether they were evangelists, assassins, ghosts, or whatever, the details would come to light at Buckingham's next gathering.
"You'll end up with an F at this rate."
"I'll just take one more next time, whatever."
"You say that so casually... Well, if you went to do something more important, it can't be helped. But don't get held back, because I want us to graduate together..."
"I've factored that in, so don't worry."
"So... you really did something important."
Liber, who cared quite a bit about grades, showed concern, but that was it.
He didn't say anything more to me after that.
With even Emy defending me, he could only express his regret.
"Alright, I know everyone thinks this is really strange, but something was decided a little while ago, so I asked everyone to gather so I could relay it."
In the lecture hall, Andy was racking his brains while gathering the students.
Originally, it was time to go to another lecture now, but something must have been decided, as everyone had returned to their respective classes.
Even as they gathered, the students wondered why they were doing this.
"What could have been decided to make us do this?"
"With incidents happening one after another in such a short period, the Headmaster must be quite pressed."
"..."
Glancing over, I saw Woodville sitting next to Casey.
Had they gotten close in the meantime?
It didn't feel that intimate, but it wasn't the feeling of Casey pushing her away either.
I knew Dorothy Woodville was extremely good at matching people's moods, but I didn't know it would even work on Casey.
Well, even though she came from a self-made commoner family, she was by no means ordinary, considering she claimed the position of class leader in this academy full of pure-blood supremacists.
"The holding of the Hunting Festival in two weeks has been confirmed. Those wishing to participate in the hunt, raise your hands."
"T-two weeks???"
The students were appalled at the announcement that the Hunting Festival would be held in two weeks.
'Has the Headmaster gone senile? Two weeks?'
It was absurd to think that the preparations could be finished in two weeks, as if the Hunting Festival were some neighborhood marathon.
No, even a marathon is prepared slowly over months, so what was he thinking trying to finish the preparations for a festival involving the entire academy in two weeks?
Andy had a look of resignation on his face.
I didn't know what happened during the meeting, but it seemed Andy wasn't too keen on it either from his standpoint.
The hunting participants Andy was recruiting literally meant the personnel who would participate in the magical beast hunt, the core event of the Hunting Festival.
Because it was a festival, not an exam, he asked whether they would participate.
"...Well, you just have to tell me within this week, so take your time thinking about it. If you get a good score, bonus points are added, and there are prizes for up to the top 4 teams."
Participating was a clear advantage.
If you participated in the hunt, as Andy said, bonus points were added, and there were prizes.
On top of that, those who didn't participate in the hunt were automatically stuck with the hassle of having to create event booths, so the hunting participants, who just had to comfortably hunt once and come back, had it easier.
"Atlas, are you going to participate in that?"
Liber, sitting next to me, asked casually.
The fact that he was asking meant his decision would change depending on whether I participated or not.
"Absolutely not."
I didn't think there was any need to play around in such a place.
Unless the first prize was something like a hidden piece concealed within the academy.
"So the prizes for winning are still undecided?"
"Yes, if nothing special happens, it'll probably be medals and bonus points like before... and as a supplementary prize, a 'Magical Beast Statue' made of pure gold will be awarded."
If things went as planned, I'd just skip this one.
Once Buckingham's conspiracy and the instigators were all resolved, the Hunting Festival would become a good festival the students could enjoy as originally intended.
"I'm just going to enjoy the festival."
Hunting magical beasts now held no interest for me, since it was something I always did.
The pure gold Magical Beast Statue given as a prize was probably expensive, but... the experience of the festival was more appealing than a lump of gold.
It might not be the festival I knew, but since it was my first academy festival, I was going to enjoy it comfortably.
-----------------------------------
Inside a black room somewhere on the continent, not a single ray of sunshine—not even the tiniest light—shone through.
The windows were blocked off obsessively, as if trying to avoid the gaze of a god looking down upon humans from the heavens.
Though nothing was visible because not a point of light entered, several chairs were placed around a massive pentagram in the black room.
It was so zealously blocked off that even the oxygen inside seemed like it would be insufficient, but there was no problem at all.
Because truly, not a single person was present in this room.
-Dalkak!
In that dark room, the sound of something moving—dalkak—was heard.
This room—whose location no one knew, where it was unclear who had gathered—was the meeting room of the Demon Church, the very one the Church was searching for with burning eyes.
-Jijijik
A noise began to sound from the empty chairs.
Though it was a meeting room clearly empty with no sign of anyone, a rustling sound was heard, and whitish shadows rose upon the chairs.
They were specter-like forms that seemed like they would disappear at any moment, but their presence gave the illusion that people had truly appeared.
[Then, let us begin the regular meeting.]
The specter standing in the very center proclaimed.
Currently, the Demon Church did not operate anything like a central headquarters.
They were thoroughly operated as a cell organization, and organic movement between each organization was impossible.
The reason they could feel they were connected organizations was purely because of these meetings held on fixed dates.
This structure, which inevitably weakened their organizational power, was not something the Demon Church wished for itself.
The demon worshippers who tried to form a single united force instead of scattered points were all exterminated.
The 'Holy War', a subjugation operation against demon worshippers historically carried out without exception by all the continent's powers centered around the Church, annihilated the headquarters of the demon worshippers that had been united as one.
To oppose the Church and Masters who waged the Holy War, two Great Demons, 'Leviathan' and 'Beelzebub', were summoned by sacrificing 2,000 demon worshippers and surrounding lifeforms. They inflicted great damage on the Masters, but in the end, the Great Demons were banished back to hell.
Based on the experience of being shattered to pieces that day, the demon worshippers began operating strictly as a cell organization.
They came to extremely detest grouping together. A good example was that they identified each other's existence and shared opinions only through meetings. Even that was not done through direct participation, but by sending only their own doppelgangers 'remotely' using sorcery powered by demonic energy, conducting the meeting without knowing each other's locations or identities.
So that even if one was caught, the rest were safe.
The demon worshippers, once collapsed, disguised themselves in the form of the Church, mixed among people, and increased their numbers again.
Gathering believers was simple.
Because to ordinary people, God's grace was too far away, and the sweet whispers of demons were much too close.
The Church, believing it had completely eradicated the demon worshippers, was still waging war against the Demon Church, which had spread shallowly and widely like cockroaches.
[All the rituals conducted at the academy have turned out to be failures.]
[Failures? They were all successes.]
[Not a single person was properly killed; what success? Are you crazy?]
[The plan to run the dungeon amok and offer the students as sacrifices to Lord Belphegor... and the Magically Infected Humans mass-produced in the Clover Kingdom didn't produce proper results either.]
Their topic this time was the series of two incidents that occurred at the academy.
It was a truly dumbfounding situation.
The two things mentioned earlier were both rituals that were, first of all, successful.
The Great Demon Belphegor descended upon the academy, and the Magically Infected Humans created in the Clover Kingdom successfully awakened in the middle of the academy.
The rituals were all successes.
But they didn't lead to significant damage.
Belphegor was driven back to hell without killing a single person, and the Magically Infected Humans were all subjugated after brawling with the academy professors.
To make matters worse, even the Sword Saint, a Master they had barely managed to make their ally, was dead.
[How are things going on the Clover Kingdom side these days?]
[God's watchdogs are quite skilled, so they are having a hard time. It will probably fall within 3 days...]
[It seems like it's about time to pull out.]
[I was already planning to... It's a shame. We could have created a puppet state.]
The failure of the Magically Infected Human terror led to the fall of the base they had painstakingly established in the Clover Kingdom.
The Church, having caught the scent, and the Empire, needing a target for venting, dismantled the Clover Kingdom while investigating it. The branch of the Demon Church there, which had close ties with the royal family, fell into great danger.
[The Great Demon Lords are greatly disappointed by the consecutive failures. The next ritual must absolutely succeed.]
The specter standing in the center spoke solemnly.
They seemed to harbor much lingering attachment to the plans that were successful but ultimately failed.
[But... must we continue to target the academy?]
[What do you mean?]
[Based on the common records of the previous two times... I am certain. The fact is, a 'Master' is currently hiding in the academy. As long as a Master is protecting it, attacking that place is bound to be extremely difficult.]
Until now, the academy's only weak point, so to speak, was its countermeasures against demons.
They could fend off Magically Infected Humans and demons up to intermediate rank, but they didn't even have the means to deal with worshippers or Magically Infected Humans and demons of upper rank or higher.
There was only one Holy Knight and one Inquisitor on standby at the academy at all times.
With just one each, it was impossible to withstand a fierce attack from the Demon Church.
But even when a Great Demon descended, the academy endured.
It couldn't be captured even when one of the Demon Church's greatest forces stepped forward.
In this situation, was it truly the right choice to keep sending people to the academy, which was like an iron fortress, with insufficient troops?
Besides the academy, there were plenty of places in the Empire that would hurt if poked.
[But the academy must be destroyed. It is the wish of the Great Demon 'Satan' to observe the chaos of the Empire that will follow the academy's destruction.]
At the mention of it being Satan's wish, no one could continue speaking.
The opinion of the Great Demon Satan, who created the grand plan to bring hell down upon this world instead of God's gospel, was absolute within the Demon Church.
Because their method of operation was the will of Satan itself.
[The likes of your opinions are unnecessary. 'Satan' desires it. If so, we must gladly do it.
Even if thousands of our corpses pile up, if the academy ultimately collapses, tens of thousands will die in the Empire.
Do not fear failure. Even if your soul dies, you will gain eternal life in Satan's hell.]
A few specters frowned as they looked at the Demon Archbishop—the specter who served Satan directly and thus held the most powerful voice.
They were all Demon Archbishops serving other Great Demons.
It was said that the Demon Archbishop serving Satan, who had the greatest influence on the present world, had the most authority, but from the standpoint of the Demon Archbishops serving other Great Demons, Satan's Archbishop, who acted like a commander-in-chief, was an eyesore.
Then, an unknown phantom stepped forward.
[Then... I, who have a connection, will give it a try.]
Since everyone was the same phantom, it wasn't identifiable, but it was a specter with a very confident-sounding voice.
[Demon Archbishop of Lord Belphegor... Will you do it?]
[Yes, I will go and deliver the words of the Great Demon Lords to the academy.]