Chapter 57
Chapter 57
“You’ve had a hand not only in illegal gambling, but also in theft, robbery, assault, and drug trafficking.”
“When did I ever?! Don’t talk nonsense!!”
At his indignant outburst, I held out some additional documents.
“These are the evidence the city has gathered. The documents confirm that you stamped your seal on illegal orders to your friends.”
“W-what? You don’t mean…?”
Wilhelm’s face turned pale.
He wasn’t entirely stupid, after all.
He’d figured out what had happened.
“You mean you borrowed my seal to—?!”
“Damn it, we were going to make a killing and pin the whole thing on that stupid pig bastard. And then, at the very end, that fucking— Everyone, run!!”
Of course, I had no intention of letting them go.
“You bastards! Where do you think you’re going?! Kneel before the great magic of Hans!”
“…Sir, you know that putting on airs in front of petty criminals just makes you look pathetic, right?”
Crash!
They might have seemed like they did nothing but make a spectacle of themselves, but both Linden and Hans were capable mages in their own right.
The men didn’t get far before they were all captured.
I spoke to Wilhelm, who had sunk to the ground with a dazed look on his face.
“Get up. We don’t have time to sit around. You have somewhere to go, too.”
“…W-where are you taking me?”
I answered as though it were obvious.
“Where else? You’re going to Prison, too. Even if they only used you, you were still involved in drug trafficking, so you’ll get at least ten years.”
“T-that’s a false accusation…!!”
“Who’s going to believe you? Don’t fool yourself. Now that you’ve been disowned by the Margrave’s family, you’re no different from anyone else on the street.”
I folded my arms.
“You called it a false accusation, but you knew those men were involved in drug trafficking, didn’t you? Just turning a blind eye to it when you knew would be a serious crime, punishable by at least five years.”
His hands trembled.
Then he suddenly looked at me.
“Y-you could testify that I’m innocent!”
“Why would I?”
“Why? You’re the homeroom teacher for my class…!!”
“I wonder who it was that refused to treat me like a professor. I’ve never once acknowledged a scoundrel like you as my student, either. Don’t fool yourself. It’s to my advantage if a problem student like you is expelled just as you are.”
Click!
One of the Guard knights who had accompanied us twisted Wilhelm’s arms behind his back and put him in handcuffs.
Once behind bars, he started yelling at the Guard knights at the top of his lungs.
“You lot! You’re making a huge mistake! Do you know who I am?! You’ll regret this later, so let me out right now!”
“He’s already been disowned by his family. There’s no need to give him special treatment. Handle him according to regulations.”
“Yes, Professor Ban!”
After all the things I’d accomplished, my standing within the Guard had risen considerably.
The Guard knights cried out as though telling me to leave everything to them, then sent Wilhelm a chilling smile.
“Heh heh. A precious son of a margrave, are you? We’ll put you in a room with plenty of cuties.”
“Cuties” was Guard slang for cockroaches.
“Then I’ll be heading back to the Academy.”
“No, Professor Ban! Wait a moment! You’re really leaving just like this?! I-I can’t stay in Prison!! Aaaah, what’s this cockroach?! Get away!”
Leaving Wilhelm’s screams behind me, I stepped outside the prison, where someone was waiting for me.
Just as I’d expected.
It was Margrave Leming, Wilhelm’s father.
He must have rushed here from the North Sea through a Portal.
“…I-isn’t this enough? The boy must have learned his lesson by now.”
Margrave Leming said, watching my expression.
“I’ll make it very clear to him. From now on, he’ll do exactly as you say.”
“All right. Let’s leave it here.”
“…You mean it?”
When I nodded readily, Margrave Leming looked at me in confusion.
“I’m giving up on your son.”
“!!”
“To be honest, even when I started, I was prepared for this to be extremely difficult. But seeing your attitude now, I’ve realized that changing your son is impossible. Let’s stop here, before we both waste our energy for nothing.”
Margrave Leming gritted his teeth.
“Isn’t that going too far? What do you know about our family? You don’t even know why that boy turned out like this!”
A March Count.
It was a title bestowed upon a family tasked with defending the Empire’s borders.
But the Leming family was no ordinary March Count’s family.
As the threat to the North Sea they were responsible for had eased, they had instead come into possession of the many mines there.
“They suddenly became wealthy.”
The problem was how they handled things afterward.
They should have conducted themselves with sophistication, but after living in poverty for so long, they’d become dazzled by their new wealth and behaved like nouveau riche.
By the time they came to their senses, they were despised and ostracized by noble society.
In other words, the whole family was suffering from an inferiority complex.
Wilhelm had gone astray because of that inferiority complex, too.
“I know.”
“You know? You?”
“Have you forgotten who I am? I’m Ban Trash. If there’s anyone in this world who understands inferiority complexes, it’s me.”
It was true that I had suffered from an inferiority complex.
My home life had been worse than that of an orphan.
There was no way I could have helped developing an inferiority complex.
“If you understand, then why are you acting like this…?”
“Do you really think a few kind words mixed with encouragement can make someone overcome an inferiority complex?”
Margrave Leming couldn’t answer.
“There’s only one way to overcome an inferiority complex. Experience. You have to feel for yourself that you’re not worthless.”
“…There’s no way that boy can do that, is there?”
“He can. Because I’ll make sure he does.”
“!!”
The Black Flame Dragon lent my voice an air of authority.
“Being a student of Ban Ecclesia—that’s the moment he’ll realize just what a tremendous Blessing it is.”
In the end, Margrave Leming trudged back to the North Sea with his shoulders slumped, and I spent my time taking care of personal business.
Exactly forty-eight hours later,
I went to see that bastard Wilhelm again.
His attitude had changed completely.
“Professor, I was wrong! I’ll do anything you say, so please get me out of here! I’ll live an honest life from now on! Waaah, I’m scared of cockroaches!”
It wasn’t simply because the bastard was timid. A prison was a place that was hard for anyone to endure.
“You’ll do anything I say from now on?”
“Yes, yes! Just get me out of this prison…!!”
“Fifth place in your year in the midterm exams two months from now.”
“…Pardon?”
“If you promise to achieve that, I’ll make a special request for leniency.”
He gaped at me.
“H-How am I supposed to do that?!”
“If you can’t, then forget it. From what I’ve gathered, you’re looking at a minimum sentence of around ten years. I suppose you can spend a long, happy time in this prison with your adorable little friends.”
“I’ll do it! Fifth place? I’ll even come in first!!”
I guarantee that was the most desperate vow he had ever made in his life.
Of course, I didn’t believe him.
‘The moment he gets out of prison, he’ll change his mind like magic.’
He needed shackles.
“Keep this in mind. If you fail to meet the condition, you’ll have to return to prison.”
“W-Where does it say that?”
“I’m getting you out on the grounds that, as your supervising professor, I’ll guide you on campus. If you don’t follow my guidance, then naturally you’ll have to go back to prison.”
“!!”
His face turned as blue as a corpse.
From now on, he would work himself to the bone to become fifth in his year.
‘Though even I don’t know whether he can really make it into the top five.’
Still, with determination like that, he would achieve something he had never managed in his life until now.
‘Well, Wilhelm’s the most urgent fire put out. The other students are the problem. And Wilhelm is only the weakest of my troublemakers. What is this, some sort of Four Heavenly Kings?’
I was letting out a deep sigh when, all of a sudden, the sky above the Free City darkened.
As if, out of nowhere, storm clouds had gathered beneath a clear sky.
‘What is this?’
My face stiffened.
My senses prickled with an eerie chill.
As though some enormous crisis were bearing down on us.
The commotion around me seemed to confirm my suspicion.
“Look at the sky!!”
“Aaah!! What is that?! A monster?!”
“No, it’s a dragon!!”
A dragon had appeared beneath a clear sky!
Just as the city was about to fall into a panic, the dragon’s body shrank with a flash of light.
It had taken human form.
The form of a middle-aged woman, with an impressive scar running diagonally across her face.
The citizens who recognized the middle-aged woman—or rather, the dragon—were horrified for an entirely different reason.
“That’s Sir Karla, the Flame of Destruction Knight, the Mad Dragon!!”
“Why would one of the Empire’s Five Greatest Swordsmen suddenly show up here?”
That’s right.
The one who had appeared was none other than Sir Karla, one of the Empire’s Five Greatest Swordsmen.
A dragon who had, unusually, mastered swordsmanship to its utmost limits and become a naturalized citizen of the Empire, even receiving a title of nobility.
She was commonly known as the Mad Dragon.
And the reason she had suddenly come to this Free City was—
“You’re Ban the Trash, aren’t you? Do you want to die?”
…because of the ‘duel challenge’ I had sent her.
‘Damn it, she’s even scarier in person. What the hell was I thinking?’
I wanted to drop to my knees that instant and shout that I was sorry, but I forced myself to hold back.
If I wanted to stay at the Academy, I had to overcome this obstacle, too.
…I had to stand up to the Mad Dragon just to stay at the Academy. I was starting to have an out-of-body moment, but I pretended not to notice and met her gaze.
“If you kneel before me this instant and apologize for the disrespect you showed me, I’ll make a special exception and let you live.”
A blinding aura surged toward me, but I endured it.
‘If I back down here, it’s over. The Mad Dragon despises the weak.’
Fortunately, I had the Black Flame Dragon.
“How discourteous. To raise your voice at your disciple’s supervising professor when we’ve only just met. It’s painful to see that this is the Way of the Sword you pursue after casting aside a dragon’s pride.”
“!!”
…Though the help was a little too much.
The Mad Dragon growled.
“…You really must want to die.”
Her killing intent was far more intense than before, as if she were genuinely furious.
It was just then, when the aura of a Level 8 knight had made my soul stiffen so completely that I could barely twitch a finger—
“Kyoo! Grrr! Grrr!”
The baby dragon, Mari, leaped out of the magic pouch and bared its teeth at the Mad Dragon.
‘Gasp! What are you doing? What if someone finds out I keep a pet?! Get back in there, quick!’
In a panic, I shoved Mari’s head back into the pouch.
But perhaps she had misunderstood what she saw, because a glimmer of interest appeared in the Mad Dragon’s eyes.
“Still, you tried to protect a baby dragon. So you’re not a cowardly coward after all.”
“??”
“If you’d tried to hide behind the baby dragon, I would have torn you apart on the spot.”
As I’d said earlier, what the Mad Dragon despised was the weak.
And by “weak,” she didn’t mean weakness in strength.
She meant a lack of will and courage.
It seemed that the way I had acted for Mari’s sake(?) had earned me a few points.
Though only a few.
“Make a proper apology for the disrespect you showed me. If you apologize sincerely, I’ll let this pass as the mistake of a reckless brat.”
“What is there to apologize for? Why do you keep saying such strange things?”
“You little—!”
“I only sent you a letter because I hoped your student wouldn’t go astray.”
I continued before the Mad Dragon could say anything else.
My tone was firm.
“There is a flaw in the Way of the Sword you pursue. In the end, your disciple will be consumed by that misguided Way of the Sword.”
Mad Dragon let out a hollow laugh.
“What could the likes of you possibly know?”
“Just by looking at the way you’re threatening me right now, I can guess enough. If your Way of the Sword were truly righteous, would you bully me so carelessly?”
“!!”