155. The Calm Before the Storm
155. The Calm Before the Storm
These bastards wouldn't listen to me anyway.
Rather than trying to persuade the Holy Knights with limited information, it was better to quickly subdue the church and directly contact the Papal State to clear up the misunderstanding.
Yes, a perfect plan.
"Where do you get off threatening innocent people... it pisses me off."
I smacked the Inquisitor on the head—he'd already fainted, his eyes rolled back—and tried to leave the investigation room.
"Urgh...."
But my knees buckled again in front of the door.
My body was a wreck from moving so roughly.
I wouldn't be able to move for long.
I pulled myself together, stood back up, and opened the door to reveal a dark corridor.
I had been to the academy's church before, but never down to the basement.
This was a restricted area off-limits to ordinary people.
"Oh, has the investigation already concluded?"
The moment I stepped into the corridor, I ran into a Holy Knight on patrol.
I remembered him.
He was one of the Holy Knights who had brought me here from the hospital.
My hand moved before I could even think.
-Kung!
"Keok??"
His body folded sharply into an L-shape.
The instant I saw him, my fist, imbued with aura, launched forward and buried itself in his body.
The plate armor guarding the Holy Knight's solid abs didn't bear a fist mark, just a round crater where my fist had struck.
The Holy Knight, who had bent violently backward, collapsed to his knees, emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor, and then fell face-first into his own vomit.
"Urgh..!!"
Right after that, I emptied my own guts the same way.
I hadn't eaten anything, though, so only a pale, watery liquid came out.
"Ugh, I'm nauseous...."
It hadn't been long since I was told to lie still and rest, but using aura again made waves of nausea and chills crash over me.
Every time I tried to fight, I could clearly feel my already wrecked body getting worse.
'The Holy Knights from the Papal State, including the captain... I just took one down. Considering the personnel on fixed patrol outside, there are probably at least five more in here.'
The option of not fighting had long since been erased from my mind.
They wouldn't listen no matter what I said, so I had no choice.
In this world where I was living my second life, the best solution often came down to individual force.
I would take down every Holy Knight inside the church, contact the Papal State, and quickly bring the case to a close.
Then, if I had an article published about how the Holy Knights publicly apologized to me, it would be as if nothing had ever happened at the academy.
Getting stuck with a disgusting frame as a demon worshipper would make my future life at the academy incredibly troublesome.
The nobles, who already loved whispering behind people's backs, would seize on it as an excuse to gossip endlessly.
And then... I would have no choice but to grab every single bastard talking shit right in front of me and break their legs.
No, maybe it was already too late.
In the end, the only thing I could do right now was correct this misunderstanding as quickly as possible.
"Weapons... never mind."
The sword hanging at the Holy Knight's waist flickered before my eyes, but I decided not to touch it.
No matter how bad my physical condition was, I could take down a mere Holy Knight with my bare hands.
I wasn't trying to kill them all right now, and with my body in this state, controlling my strength was difficult. I was afraid I might unconsciously use my Aura Blade.
If I used an Aura Blade in front of everyone, it would ultimately reveal that I was a Master, so I decided to resolve this with my bare hands.
If it got too hard, I could always just steal one midway.
"Ugh... I'm dizzy... I need to end this quickly...."
I should check the investigation rooms in the corridor first and then look for the upper floors.
Leaving the fallen Red Flag Holy Knight behind, I started walking.
——————————————-
The rumor that Atlas had been dragged away spread through the academy in an instant.
Occasionally, there were students who got dragged off for investigation by the Holy Knights, but this time, they had searched the dormitory before taking him, so the severity of it was different.
"What?? My student was taken away by the Holy Knights?"
"A lot of students said they saw him being carried out of the hospital on a stretcher. I heard they found some demon-related object in his dormitory... the world is a scary place these days."
"You said it. These are uneasy times."
Andy was shocked by the news that a student from his class—though he wasn't sure who yet—had been dragged away.
"The skill test is coming up soon... I'm worried the other students will be nervous and mess up."
"That's very true. He was a noisy student anyway, so it's a good thing."
"A noisy student?"
As Andy mulled over who on earth the noisy student in his class could be, his expression grew paler and paler.
No matter how much he thought about it, only one person came to mind.
"Yes, you know... Atlas, was it? The short student with the filthy temper. From the very first week, he sent every student to the hospital. I thought that student was dangerous, and to find out he's a demon worshipper... tsk tsk."
"...Atlas?"
"I heard he had a cold or something and can't even hold himself up properly... well, the Holy Knights will take care of it."
Learning that the student who had been taken was Atlas, Andy felt as if he'd been hit in the head with a hammer.
Atlas? By the Holy Knights? And in a sick state on top of that?
Various bits of information wandered through his head, stirring up old memories.
.
.
.
.
.
Yes, it was a story from back when he was still tumbling around as an apprentice in the Imperial Knights.
'I've recruited the guy on duty today. If we ambush him while he's sleeping, he won't be able to move a muscle..!'
A classmate from the same batch, who had been humiliated several times trying to pull rank on his junior, Atlas, had suggested a plan to raid Atlas while he slept.
They had already made plans to gang up on Atlas multiple times, but even though Atlas had joined as an apprentice just like them, his skills surpassed even active-duty members, so it was always the seniors who got beaten.
Last month, about 30 of them had swarmed him, but the incident ended with everyone sustaining one or two severed body parts, leaving only a scratch or two on Atlas's body.
Having finally faced reality and concluded they could no longer win in a head-on fight, everyone was now solely focused on finding some dirty method to subjugate Atlas.
'Guys who are apprentice knights are raiding the bedroom of a sleeping junior? This is so filthy I can't even.'
And Andy found those classmates utterly disgusting.
Of course, the biggest reason was that he simply didn't want to confront Atlas anymore.
No matter what, he needed to reach at least the upper Expert level before graduation to become a regular member, but back then, Andy was still blocked by the wall and hadn't reached that rank.
He didn't even have enough time to try and overcome the wall every day, so he was dumbfounded by his classmates who spent their time thinking up all sorts of dirty tricks to bully a junior.
Truthfully, in his heart, he wanted to go and ask Atlas.
Because even if you estimated his skills as low as possible, he was at least upper Expert level or higher.
He wanted to ask him how on earth he could overcome the wall.
But few people held such constructive thoughts.
The classmates who got beaten by a single junior every day were no longer objects of fear to the other juniors.
They had become a group of older good-for-nothings who couldn't even handle one tiny apprentice properly and got wrecked every day.
To reclaim their dignity as seniors, they absolutely had to crush Atlas.
'Does that look like a junior to you?'
'What does he look like to you then?'
'He just looks like a monster wearing the skin of an apprentice knight?'
'No matter what method it took.'
Andy knew everything, but he deliberately didn't tell Atlas.
They weren't that close, and honestly, he was scared to even talk to Atlas.
At that time, he could feel a hatred radiating from Atlas so deep that its depths couldn't be gauged even from afar.
And that night.
'Aaaaargh!!!'
'Fuck, how did he know we were coming??'
'No... that... that bastard is dozing off!!! He's not even awake!!'
'He swings a sword in his sleep?? That's utter bullsh— Kuaaak!!! My arm!!!'
The idiots who raided Atlas's quarters all ended up as cripples.
Atlas, a killing machine who responded to hostility even while asleep, had carved up his attackers with a single dagger hidden under his pillow.
Fortunately, they all went to the hospital and survived, but every one of them gave up on their apprenticeship.
After that, he occasionally had nightmares from those days.
The image of Atlas, in a half-asleep state, chopping up bodies with a dagger until his opponents became cripples—even phrased as generously as possible—looked like a demon.
.
.
.
.
.
After recalling that much, Andy jumped up with a start.
"I... I have to go to the church!!"
"Instructor, I understand you care about your student, but matters regarding that are for the Papal State to handle. If you go, things will only get more complicated...."
Other professors tried to stop Andy, but he shook them off and ran out.
"That's not it... the Holy Knights' lives are in danger!!!"
—————————————-
The captain of the Red Flag Holy Knight Order noticed the anomaly unfolding in the basement.
"How many personnel total are remaining inside the church?"
"Excluding those who went down to the basement, there are five in total."
It was very subtle, but there had been two large impacts from the basement.
He was likely the only one in this church who could have felt them.
In the basement... there was supposed to be the suspected student under interrogation.
Without a moment's hesitation, he gave the order.
"Gather everyone and assemble on the 1st floor. It seems the follower who was hiding among the students has revealed their true colors. Prepare for the worst-case scenario."
"Yes, sir!! Director, shall we also summon the personnel out on patrol?"
"It could be a diversionary tactic, so have them remain outside to prepare for any contingency."
"Yes, sir!!"
The captain recalled the demon body part that had reportedly been discovered in a student's dormitory.
His highest priority since arriving at the academy had been to root out all the pawns of the hidden Demon Church.
Finding them was difficult, but thanks to the efforts of the Inquisitors, they had been achieving quite significant results.
He did not know the exact position of this newly exposed student, but considering the size of that demon body part and the student's martial strength, he was certainly no ordinary student.
"So you finally show your true colors... I will not let you have your way!!"