Let's Get Some Fresh Air Too - 1
With Robens Academy's visit as the catalyst, the Imperial Academy underwent no small number of changes of its own.
First, among those who had planted themselves in the training grounds, the proportion of swordsmanship students rose to an overwhelming majority. Of course, even before Robens Academy arrived I had already cleaved the sky, but back then the students had only seen the result—the heavens splitting open—without witnessing the process of me swinging the blade. This time, however, the students who flocked after hearing the rumors got to watch every step, and they finally believed that a human being had truly cut the sky.
Filled to the brim with competitive fire, those students practically lived on the training grounds. The magic department students, shoved aside by the swordsmanship lot whose eyes had rolled back into their heads, had no choice but to spit twin streams of curses and retreat to the library for safety.
"Hello, Inspector."
"Ah, right."
"Inspector! Good morning!"
"Ah, yes. Good morning."
Respect seemed to have ignited right alongside that competitive spirit, because the number of students who spoke to me suddenly skyrocketed. Needless to say, more than nine-tenths of them belonged to the swordsmanship department.
It was an utterly unfamiliar experience. Until now, even when I managed to draw student aggro, they usually just watched from a distance or approached me indirectly through Erich. Now they popped out like random encounters and started conversations on the spot.
Fortunately, locking eyes never triggered a battle phase, but for someone who had always tried to minimize contact with students, it was awkward. When civilians talk to a civil servant too much, the civil servant ends up with a nervous breakdown.
I can't just shove them away, either.
If they had been malicious civilians I could have dodged them, but these were pure-hearted seedlings. How could I be cold when they greeted me with eyes full of nothing but respect—no greed, no jealousy? Reputation management aside, my conscience wouldn't allow it.
"Isn't it a good thing to be popular? I bet more students will want to join the Audit Department after seeing you, Chief."
"Are you a genius?"
I had called the First Division Chief to pour out my complaints, and the answer that came back was something I had never imagined.
Come to think of it, she was right. If I became an object of admiration, new civil servants would line up without me lifting a finger. Look at the Magic Tower—it was already overflowing with mages who had been enchanted by the Magic Lord. The odds that the Audit Department would follow the same path were high.
Automatic gathering.
I felt tears of gratitude welling up. Manpower that collected itself without me having to run around handing out recommendation letters. It was a miracle I had never dared dream of even in my sleep.
"Things should be easier from now on. Unless they're ridiculously ambitious or completely insane, people usually avoided the Audit Department."
"Saying that right in front of the Chief is a bit much, don't you think?"
"But it's true, so what can I do?"
The First Division Chief pouted as if asking why I was scolding her. I wanted to pinch those lips right then and there, but sadly she was correct.
The Audit Department's role and authority were considerable, yet the matching work intensity and responsibility meant that only those rotten with ambition or outright lunatics ever came. Especially after I became Chief and went on a rampage with my sword.
To be precise, there were a few who treated the Audit Department as a temporary career stepping-stone, but almost no one buried their bones there. The moment they looked useful, they ran off to another department.
Those bastards.
The moment I finished raising them, they fled like leaves in the wind. One of the measures I had prepared to prevent that desertion was the recommendation letter.
Of course, the basic purpose of a recommendation letter was to discover talent others had overlooked, but to put it bluntly, it was also a brand. You entered the Audit Department holding my recommendation letter and then bolted to another department? Anyone with a conscience wouldn't dare.
"By the way, Chief."
"Hmm?"
While I was painting a happy future in which people who would bury their bones with us increased even without recommendation letters, the First Division Chief carefully opened her mouth.
"Your body really is fine, right?"
The rare cautious question drew a quiet laugh from me. She knew enough of the circumstances to worry first.
"I'm fine. If something had gone wrong, do you think Beatrix would have just sat still?"
"Well… that's true."
She seemed to accept it wholeheartedly; the anxiety and concern lingering on her face vanished in an instant.
The executives, including the First Division Chief, knew that Kagan's sword wound still remained in my body. It wasn't exactly something to brag about, so I had never shown them directly, but right after becoming Chief I had gone for treatment several times.
Even while busy crushing the internal opposition in the Audit Department and the Second Prince's faction, the Chief still made time to receive regular treatment. Even the most indifferent person would think, Ah, that bastard's injury is no joke. When a guy like that suddenly started making noise about cutting the sky, of course they would worry.
"Well, even if something happens, I've got the next Saint and the continent's greatest mage right here. What's there to worry about?"
"Honestly, it does seem safer than the Imperial Capital."
"Right?"
In a place guarded by the ultimate holy-power user and the ultimate mage, the only way to receive an "irrecoverable" diagnosis was to die instantly. And with Kagan already in the afterlife, who was going to one-shot me? Even Dorgun wouldn't manage it.
"Still, tell me in advance from now on. I was seriously shocked when I suddenly heard the Chief had cut the sky."
At those words I fell silent for a moment and looked at her. She was forcing brightness, but I could feel the bitterness and hurt hidden beneath.
Yes—from the First Division Chief's position, it was only natural to feel left out. Her lover could have been injured, and she had learned of it through rumors instead of from the man himself. Not feeling hurt would have been inhuman.
This was my mistake. With the final boss who would flip the table with magic the moment things went wrong standing right beside me, I simply hadn't thought as far as the First Division Chief back in the capital.
"I'm sorry. I'll tell you right away from now on."
"As long as you know."
She gave an exaggerated little huff of a snort, and I smiled softly.
"There won't be any more 'there was also that kind of person at the ending—' situations…"
"Aaaaah—! Why do you remember things like that so well?!"
Anyone who heard that and then forgot it would be the strange one.
Anyway, I finished the call after asking her to pass along my regards if she managed to reach the Fourth Division Chief. The Fourth Division Chief seemed to have already gone north; contact wasn't getting through. If Dorgun would just die already, the Fourth Division Chief could get some rest too.
As the Crown Prince had said, managing the guests who had come to the Academy was left to the headmaster. My role had ended with cutting the sky, and it would have looked strange for an auditor to play host anyway.
In the meantime Robens Academy was technically here for an observation tour, so they went through various formal activities, but the head swordsmanship instructor handled those without trouble. The Robens Academy vice-headmaster belonged to a rival faction, so the instructor put his whole heart into the job in more ways than one. His personal job satisfaction seemed to be at an all-time high, so I left him to it.
"Mar, I'm here."
While the headmaster and the head instructor faithfully performed their respective roles, I was practically rooted in the student council president's office.
Word that I was the clubroom's resident spirit had apparently spread even among the Robens Academy students; a few brave ones had come looking for me all the way there. To protect my small, precious free time, I needed to take refuge somewhere appropriate. Disturbing a civil servant who was resting was a sin.
"Welcome. Did you run away again today?"
"Run away? I came because I missed you, Mar."
"Even if it's just words, thank you."
Seeing Margeta smile made embarrassment wash over me. Of course I had sought her out every day even before the students started hounding me, but now I was staying far longer. She must have realized long ago that I was here to hide.
"I heard the people from Robens Academy will be returning to their country soon. The Academy will feel empty again."
The subtle look that accompanied those words made it certain. Once the Robens students disappeared I wouldn't linger the way I did now, so she was pressuring me that she would miss it.
"People who were never here originally are just going back. What's there to feel empty about? The people who are already here are more than enough."
"Hehe. I suppose so?"
When she applied pressure that blatantly, the only possible answer was that I would keep doing well from now on. From this day forward the student council president's office was the second clubroom…
Besides, this was Margeta's final year, but I still had to stay at the Academy next year. We would have to live apart for a whole year, so I needed to stick as close as possible this year.
…Even after we get married, we have to live separately?
Thinking about it, something felt off. Once Margeta graduated we planned to marry, yet the groom—me—would still have to remain at the Academy? Was that right?
Next year I would either hire a dedicated teleport mage and commute by teleport every day, or find a way for Margeta to stay at the Academy. Becoming a goose dad the moment I got married was a bit much.
If it comes down to it, I'll just sign a one-year contract.
If I couldn't find a decent method no matter how hard I looked, I would simply hire a mage. It was gold that only piled up because I never had time to spend it anyway. Using some of it at times like this was how you kept the currency circulating.
A backstab is called a backstab because it arrives without warning.
"Uh, Karl? Could you take a look at this for a moment?"
"Yes?"
The vice-president quietly entered the student council office, handed Margeta a stack of documents, and vanished. Margeta stared at the suddenly piled papers with a bitter expression, then began checking them and soon called me in a dubious voice.
Strange. Last year Margeta had asked me to help with student council work quite often, but that had honestly been an excuse to spend even a little more time with me. Now that we were officially lovers, there was no real need for that anymore.
And yet she had called me? That meant something strange and headache-inducing had blown up.
"What is it?"
Pushing down my unease, I approached Margeta. She held out the documents she was holding—
"Karl. If you close your eyes you can't see."
"Just give me a moment like this."
The instant I spotted the familiar phrasing on the papers, my eyes shut on pure instinct.
Fuck.
I saw it. I saw it.
The familiar sentence engraved on the documents—the sentence I could not understand seeing at the Academy at this particular timing.
"It's a document about this year's school trip."
When I closed my eyes, Margeta kindly began explaining the contents. No, you don't have to. I'm not ready to hear it yet.
"We were going to go to the Boyar Duchy again like last year, but it looks like we'll have to rework the plan."
"Yes… I see."
But closing my eyes and covering my ears could not undo something that had already exploded.
"After the Boyar Duchy, now the Cenes Duchy. Maybe Ulken next year?"
Even though Margeta went as far as joking, I could not open my mouth. The Cenes Duchy—the western region of the Empire ruled by the Salon ducal house.
And the current head of the Salon ducal house, the Duke of Cenes, was—
"Kaaaaarl~!!! Long time no seeee!!"
The Lush Duke. No—the Wise Duke.
I was going insane. I hadn't even seen her yet and the embarrassing image of her already raising a bottle in greeting was autoplaying in my head.
Get out of my skull right now, Lush Duke…!