06. Did I Do Something Wrong to You?
06. Did I Do Something Wrong to You?
In any group, whether for good reasons or bad, the one who stood out always made their presence felt.
Atlas was a person who stood out for bad reasons.
When everyone stood together in formation, he couldn't be seen, so he had no choice but to always come to the front.
And anyone who felt the need to point that out was guaranteed a trip to the infirmary.
To Andy Robinson... no, to the apprentice members who went through the same period as him, Atlas Titan was the stuff of nightmares.
A junior two cohorts below Andy and the worst mad dog in the order's history, the Ankle Biter, the Black Gremlin, the Injustice Excavator, the Physical Therapist, the Etiquette Injector — all kinds of nicknames clung to that bastard.
Andy hadn't just heard these things from someone else; he, too, was one of the victims who'd been beaten to a pulp by Atlas over a slip of the tongue.
Probably, until Atlas shed his apprentice tag... no, even after he became a full-fledged knight, it was quicker to find someone in the same cohort who hadn't been hit by him. His presence in the Imperial Knights was utterly unique.
Even when the number of people he'd beaten badly enough to require infirmary visits climbed into triple digits, Atlas never once faced punishment for 'violence' from the Knight Order.
Those who went to the order to report being beaten half to death by Atlas were made to run laps around the drill grounds, guilty of being a senior who went whining after getting thrashed by a single junior.
In the Imperial Knights, the order demanding the greatest martial power, the strongest one was always in the right.
The very clause seniors once used to justify inflicting all manner of injustices on their juniors was the same one that ended up ensnaring them.
Rumors heard in social circles portrayed him as nothing more than a dim-witted eldest son from Titan, so much so that people were reluctant to even look at him. But if that was dim-witted, what did that make the people he was running around beating up?
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He hadn't intended to chase him this far.
But when the blatant stare directed at him soured his mood and he glared back, their eyes met, and the man bolted.
Seeing him flee made pursuit an instinctive, natural reaction.
'That was Senior Andy.'
He'd realized as he chased him — the fleeing instructor (presumed) was his senior from the Imperial Knights.
He sifted through his memories, and the figure came back to him.
He hadn't been that noticeable a person.
Being unnoticeable meant he wasn't someone who'd caught his attention back in his apprentice days.
After all, his younger self had been so brimming with bloodlust, so loaded with stress, ready to explode the moment anyone dared utter an insult about his height.
Why had he run? It was odd to think he'd fled just from meeting eyes.
Given how unmemorable he was, it didn't seem like he'd committed some grave sin against him during the apprentice days.
Seeing him bolt the instant their eyes met, maybe he'd been part of the mob that ganged up on him and got beaten along with the rest.
But back then, the seniors had all come charging in, each trying to defend their own sense of pride. He didn't hold that kind of thing in his heart.
"Senior, did you do something wrong to me? Why are you running?"
"Th-There's no way, is there? How many years has it been? Four?"
"It must be about that long."
Four years meant they hadn't seen each other's faces even before he'd quit the Knight Order.
Regular member Andy and Atlas, who'd held heavy responsibilities, held different ranks, so they'd worked in different places.
"So, why did you run?"
"Why did you chase me??"
Well, why had he chased him? The man had run like he had something to feel guilty about, so he'd followed.
"I chased you because you ran."
"I ran because you were chasing me and it was terrifying!"
"What on earth did I do to make you terrified? That's ridiculous. But anyway, what brings you to the Academy, senior?"
"Ugh... I retired... I couldn't keep up anymore..."
"That's a shame. A senior of your caliber could have reached Master eventually."
"Did you eat something weird? Why are you talking me up so much?"
"I give you a compliment and you still give me shit."
He hadn't just been saying empty words.
The man had not been without potential. If he'd trained without major incident into middle age, reaching the realm of a Master would have been well within his grasp.
Maybe he'd finally been broken in live combat. It couldn't be helped.
The Imperial Knights were the greatest armed force, and for that very reason, they were frequently deployed to places ordinary people couldn't even handle.
"How are you here? Isn't this your busiest season?"
In spring, there were always operations to suppress and break the morale of monsters and barbarian tribes swarming the borderlands. There shouldn't have been time to be lounging around a place like this.
"Something important came up. I dropped my letter of resignation and left."
"And the Director just accepted that?"
"Who knows?"
"Then it's desertion, isn't it? Can you handle the aftermath?"
"That's why you have to help me out, Senior."
"Me...?"
"You understand that my being here is a secret, right?"
"Why should I...! If you get caught, I'll be in trouble too!"
When Andy took an uncooperative tone, the longsword planted in the floor let out an unpleasant hum and advanced forward.
"This isn't a request."
"Ugh..."
It moved through the solid stone floor as if cutting through pudding, stopping near Andy's neck.
Andy could also cut stone with a sword if he cloaked it in aura.
But cutting stone without cloaking the blade in aura was something beyond Andy's comprehension.
"If you cooperate, I'll make sure the compensation is worth your while."
"Urgh... khh..."
.
.
.
.
.
.
Seeing Andy's back as he trudged away, having surrendered and looking drained, gave him a refreshing sense of relief.
It was such a good payoff that he could forget all the unpleasant things that had happened a little while ago.
'Finding a collaborator inside the Academy... what a great start.'
Now that he had a faculty member as his collaborator, one worry was off his mind.
It was even better that the man said he was assigned to be in charge of the new students.
---------------------------------------------------
Even though the exam was over, Lucia Russell remained waiting in the holding room.
Most people left to get their dorm assignments once the exam ended, with no need to stay inside, but she deliberately waited in front of the door leading to the exam hall.
After the commotion had passed, the students still waiting whispered quietly among themselves as they watched Lucia standing before the exam hall.
"Why isn't she leaving?"
"Isn't she waiting to give that guy a piece of her mind when he comes out?"
"Ugh, that's just pitiful."
It was true she was waiting for him, but not for that reason.
It was to apologize to the halfling who had gone into the exam hall, hurt by her words.
Calling him small because he was a halfling... it must have definitely wounded him.
In a society full of humans bigger than himself, it was surely a remark he had heard to the point of nausea.
Lucia, too, would have been hurt if someone told her she was big as a bear. She reflected on her own thoughtlessness.
Though the idle speculation muttered around her soured her mood, speaking up to strangers was difficult for her, so she didn't bother to correct them.
Just as the students in the holding room had cheered when they saw Lucia demolish the golem, they could also watch the exam hall from the holding room.
The halfling who had entered the exam hall was now confronting a newly replaced golem.
Unlike the golem she had seen before, this one had a pointed head, making it look somewhat different.
The moment the command to start the exam fell, the golem's head flashed brightly, and a beam of light shot out.
Then the golem was split in two.
"?!"
'I couldn't even see it...'
"Did the golem self-destruct?"
"If that happens, what becomes of the exam? Is it just over?"
"Wow... he got a free pass."
"Wish that'd happen to me too... lucky bastard, anyway."
To the other students, it looked like the golem had simply self-destructed on its own.
That wasn't it. The golem hadn't self-destructed or anything of the sort.
'That halfling destroyed the golem...!'
Undoubtedly, it was that halfling who had destroyed the golem.
At a speed so great that even Lucia couldn't properly track it, he had sliced the golem in two, faster than the golem could even attack.
Looking at the cleanly bisected golem, Lucia felt baffled.
The attack magic the golem had been about to use... no, the magic it had used, was clearly a cut above the practice golem she had faced.
For someone to possess the skill to bisect such a golem in a single stroke...
It was the moment she realized that his strength—the power that had rendered her completely helpless when she had been so confident in her own—was no misunderstanding.
She felt ashamed she hadn't been able to deduce his ability from his perfectly proportioned physique.
Halflings, because of their short stature, easily thicken to the point of being indistinguishable from dwarves if they didn't maintain themselves. Yet, despite being a halfling, he maintained a body with perfect balance.
He must have clearly put in a bloody effort. But all she had done was think he was just cute...
Though what happened afterward was even more shocking.
After staring at the bisected golem and then blankly up at the ceiling once, he re-entered the holding room from the exam hall.
And the moment he came in, Lucia steeled herself and opened her mouth.
"Excuse me...!"
She mustered her courage and spoke to him, but the instant the holding room door opened, he vanished.
Truly, he vanished, literally.
Just as when he'd bisected the golem, he escaped the holding room at a speed too fast for her eyes to catch.
Staring at the door, now wide open, Lucia thought with a feeling of emptiness.
'Did I earn his hatred...?'
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After his candid conversation with Andy, he was trudging down the hallway to go to the dormitory.
Before he'd arrived here, he had clearly intended to just watch the protagonist's situation and get some decent rest.
Though it was nothing to be proud of, the life Atlas had lived up to now was truly one of just running forward without a single day of rest.
But with the protagonist, Hayden Parker, currently missing, he didn't have the leisure to rest idly.
He had to find him as soon as possible.
The fact that the most important issue remained unresolved was as maddeningly uncomfortable as a fishbone stuck in his throat.
Yes... he had thought of the possibility that he might actually not exist.
But at the very least, he needed certainty.
And if he couldn't manage that, he had to, at the very least, prepare for the threats that would come crashing in.
If he failed to stop them... thousands of people would die.
"Ah... Thank you for earlier!"
As he walked toward the dormitory, deep in thought, someone called out to him.
The red-haired, presumed protagonist who had been late for the entrance ceremony.
"Did you attend the entrance ceremony okay?"
".... Yes."
Her face flushed as red as her hair, perhaps from recalling the countless stares she'd felt when she'd flung the door open and walked in during the solemn ceremony.
This was good; he'd been wanting to find her anyway.
He would use this chance to ask her name. Just in case, the one in a million chance... it wasn't entirely impossible that she could be 'Hayden Parker'.
'What will happen, will happen.'
That was the sentence Hayden, who couldn't save any of his family, had always carried on his lips like a habit.
"Since fate brought us together like this, let's exchange names."
"M-Me...?"
"I'm Atlas Ti... no, Nemea. Atlas Nemea."
"I... I'm Emy Parker!! It's nice to meet you..."
The moment he heard her surname, he cheered inwardly.
The first name was different, but Parker was right.
Perhaps flustered that he'd immediately introduced himself, Emy's already carrot-red face grew even redder.
Seeing her now, was her red hair, just like Hayden's, because they were family?
If so, had the family enrolled her first, and Hayden hadn't enrolled yet?
"Do you happen to have... an older or younger brother in your family?"
"Uh... I'm an only child...?"
The statement that she had no siblings made his head throb.
"That can't be right... what about cousins... do you have any? Have you ever heard of someone named Hayden Parker?"
"No... The only people I know who share my surname are my parents..."
'Fucked.'
Hayden Parker didn't exist.
He didn't know what had happened, but this conversation confirmed it with about 90% certainty.
The protagonist... the devil slayer who had to hunt demons, was confirmed to have never existed in this world from the very beginning.
The first invasion was going to start any time now.... and he had to handle it without that bastard?