Chapter 1 - I am a professor. Not a war hero.
Chapter 1 - I am a professor. Not a war hero.
A man walked out of the lecture hall and down the hallway.
Behind him, the gazes of countless cadets were flying in from all directions.
Klaus was well aware that some were looking at him with an air of utter dissatisfaction, others with sparkling, curious eyes, and still others with quite envious gazes.
'The human cadets are undoubtedly thinking that a commoner like me is acting all high and mighty, while the elf and beastkin cadets are probably just wondering why a war hero is playing professor here.'
A truly laughable reality, and a fucked-up one at that.
He was, after all, a veteran who had fought for the Alliance—humans, elves, and beastkin—in the First Continental War.
Yet, the only ones sending him looks of favor were not the Alliance, but the Eastern Demons.
The very bastards eating, shitting, and sleeping on the land he had protected were looking at him like he was some hideous relic of a bygone era.
If this were his first time experiencing this situation, he would have completely lost his shit.
The war hadn't even ended that long ago, yet they were pushing him aside for being a commoner and keeping him in check for being a war hero; he could confidently say there was no bullshit quite like this bullshit.
'I must have been crazy. Why did I have to go and create those commoner and noble classes for those human bastards?'
A commoner is a commoner even if they die and come back to life, and a noble is a noble unless they commit a major crime.
There is no human who can cross that line.
Even if they were the one who saved the West and the Alliance from the hands of the demons.
That mindset was so rampant that even the women who could be considered decent supporting characters thought that a commoner was naturally an existence that should sacrifice themselves and serve them.
'And yet, the reason I insist on regressing as a commoner?'
Bitches who live for their own self-importance, yet are worth less than the dirt under the Demon King's toenails.
Because I don't want to pay any more attention to such things, nor do I feel they are worth it.
The Demon King, like him, felt disgusted by the sense of privilege held by human nobles and was hostile toward them.
Of course, simply being unlucky and annoyed wasn't the whole reason.
The Demon King is subdued by a traitor right here at the Continental Academy and even faces an assassination attempt by humans.
That incident was likely the deciding factor in her developing a pathological hostility toward the entire West, and especially humans, after she finally began acting as the true Demon King.
'Should I just find those bastards and crush them like I usually do?'
So, Klaus, who had been thinking about finding and crushing them as soon as the semester started in this regression as well, decided to push that timing back a little.
Because a well-timed crisis had always returned as a benefit to him; he knew this from dozens of experiences.
"Professor Klaus-nim."
A woman who had been following him while carefully watching his mood finally spoke up at the corner of the hallway where there were relatively fewer cadets.
The elves he knew didn't care about what others thought and would spit out whatever they wanted, good or bad.
As expected of Natasha, who proudly had her name on the 'Top 10 Edible Women' list he had compiled.
"What is it, Cadet Natasha?"
"It is the list of cadets who have registered for the course. I was the last one left, so I brought it."
"If you had left it there, the assistants to the professors would have come and delivered it to me."
"I wanted to talk more with you, Professor-nim, who is a war hero."
As expected of Natasha; she is a woman who is unhesitant when it comes to speaking or expressing her opinions.
Seeing her do this, even though other cadets might mistake her for an elf bitch wagging her tail at a professor from the very first day of the semester, he certainly thought she was impressive.
"It just so happens to be lunchtime. How about we have a meal together?"
"A professor and a cadet eating together on the first day of the semester. That wouldn't be a pretty picture."
"I don't mind. Let them chatter all they want. For the record, I don't care what those disgusting humans say or what those dirty wild beasts have to say. And there is no one among the elf cadets who would dare talk behind my back."
As expected of the Western Alliance, it's nothing but a dysfunctional family.
It hasn't been long since they won that grueling war, and they're already sharpening their knives at each other.
This is why they couldn't even make a peep and were wiped out by the Eastern Demons in the Second Continental War.
If this Natasha had been a woman from just any mediocre family, he would have dealt with her perfunctorily and kept his distance.
No matter how edible, no matter how tender-skinned a woman might be, if the inside is rotten, it will only cause trouble.
However, this elf woman had something even more appetizing than her body.
'A member of a family that is counted among the top three in elf society.'
Elves have no king. Instead, they have chosen a method where each family gathers to elect a representative.
The family that produced the most leaders could be considered the best among them, and one of them was Belarus, the family into which the Natasha before his eyes was born.
Even before he had the grand dream of seizing the Demon King and controlling her from behind the scenes.
He had almost never discarded Natasha and had always utilized her appropriately.
She was a woman who was capable, beautiful, knew how to be appropriately proud but also knew when to yield, and above all, was someone whose sexual compatibility with him was quite good.
The way she would bite his thing, ang, and her inner flesh would squirm gave him so much pleasure that he felt the blood rushing to his member already.
'I haven't had a woman by my side for a while, so I'm a bit starved; what should I do?'
When he was cosplaying as a war hero of the First Continental War, he couldn't afford to have even the slightest opening exploited.
For that reason, he kept women at a distance, so whenever that time came, he had to live a life of celibacy against his will.
In a world where he couldn't escape no matter what he did, one of the reasons he could endure was by devouring every edible bitch and making them cry out, ang-ang, so he felt like he was going to go crazy.
"Even if unpleasant rumors spread, it is enough to explain that a cadet, curious about a war hero, just pretended to be close for a moment to ask some questions. You know it too, right, Professor-nim? That you are the one who attracts more attention and gazes in this academy right now than even most royalty."
Whether she knew Klaus's inner thoughts or not, Natasha stepped one step closer.
And while whispering that she would strictly follow the dietary preferences of Klaus, who was human, so he shouldn't worry, she simultaneously subtly appealed to her own charm.
Her luscious white breasts were glimpsed above her top, which she might have loosened on purpose or perhaps just because it was stifling, and a sultry scent wafted from her skin.
The fine nape of her neck, revealed as she casually pushed her hair back, presented a desire so strong that he wanted to bite it softly right then and there to leave a mark that this woman was his.
"...I am truly curious about what this story you are so curious about actually is."
Of course, he would not let his guard down.
In any case, Natasha was a member of the Belarus family and an elf with a few sly snakes in her gut.
Above all, she was a woman who subtly looked down on men until he held her and made her completely his own, so there was no way she had approached him out of genuine affection, as if she had gone crazy.
'She has an ulterior motive.'
She is approaching because he is a war hero, because he is a professor, because she can ask for favors and get something out of him.
And Klaus had allowed that approach every single time.
Because the one doing the devouring was him, not her.
"Let's talk slowly while we have lunch."
A war hero of the past and a professor of the academy in the present.
And a cadet who is a woman from a family counted among the best in the elf world.
The two man and woman began to move their feet, passing through the hallway and heading outdoors.
"...."
A demon watched that scene carefully before disappearing into the crowd of cadets.
Klaus, who had been in the middle of talking with Natasha, realized that the presence had vanished and clicked his tongue inwardly.
'Sloppy, so sloppy.'
He had known for a while that he was being tailed.
It was his creed to catch and crush a rat as soon as he found one, but this time, he decided to let it slide as a special exception.
When you think about it, the guy who just disappeared was not just a rat annoying him, but could be considered a piece of bait that brought a very luscious woman to him.
"Please, sit."
The cadets of the Continental Academy are not ordinary people.
The beastkin were all successors of influential tribes, the elves were also from well-known families, and most of the demons were nobles, as were the humans.
Of course, there were a very rare few commoners among the human cadets, but most of them couldn't even last a year and would leave on their own.
The reason was, naturally, the bullying, ignoring, violence, and threats from the human noble cadets.
Even now, as it was lunchtime, one could see people sitting on portable chairs in the garden or on the grass, or gathered at pre-arranged tables, enjoying lunch or having tea time.
Keeping each other in check, knowingly or unknowingly, and worrying about who they could join hands with and who they could drive out.
'This shouldn't be the reason the Continental Academy was created. Anyway, you morons.'
To seek peace on a continent devastated by war, exchanges between the ruling classes are essential.
To do that, the young people who will lead the future must meet, talk, share their intentions, join hands, and conceive a plan to walk forward together.
That was the very reason the Continental Academy was created; it could be seen as the 'Hope' arc of the Continental Academy.
The problem is that it was a reason thought up with nothing but hope.
Although the Western Alliance and the Eastern Demons did send their prominent figures, the reason they flocked to this Continental Academy was not to spout that kind of peace nonsense.
Some were there to keep the other side in check, some to find a way to advance into central politics.
And others were there to find the weaknesses of those who would be their enemies forever and to leak information.
It was the moment the 'Despair' arc of the Continental Academy emerged, riddled with all sorts of other dirty reasons.
'There were some who had normal thinking, though. They all gave up soon after, though.'
It might be hard to believe, but even that Demon King believed in the 'Hope' arc of the Continental Academy at first.
Even though the Western Alliance became the final victor, the damage was severe, and the Eastern Demons had no choice but to acknowledge their defeat and retreat, one way or another.
Since there was no gain in fighting anymore, and it was clear that the entire continent would be ruined if another long and horrific war like the First Continental War occurred, the Demon King believed that they should now stop fighting and seek peace.
However, that hope was shattered into pieces along with a woman's purity.
"I am not sure if the elf-style meal will suit your palate."
Cake topped with apricot jam, salad with fruit, a dish of small birds skewered and roasted whole, and even the dew liquor that elves are said to drink.
From the cadets' perspective, it would be extremely ordinary, but from a commoner's perspective, it could be called a ridiculously fancy lunch.
"This is a wonderful meal, Cadet Natasha."
At Klaus's words, Natasha smiled and gestured for him to begin the meal.
After lightly clinking their glasses, they sat in the garden and began to eat lunch.
Perhaps having realized his identity, a few cadets nearby were whispering and watching them.
They were probably gossiping that an elf cadet was already wagging her tail at a war hero.
"There are many cadets around."
He was letting her know that they were looking this way and talking behind their backs quite excitedly.
However, Natasha opened her mouth, crunching on a salad as if she didn't care at all.
"I will speak straightforwardly, Professor Klaus-nim. No, former Southern Commander Klaus-nim. Come to our Belarus family. I will ensure you are treated more preciously than any other human."
"...."
"I already know that the stupid humans heartlessly cast you aside. Those ungrateful idiots, it is still a mystery to me how they could treat you like that."
"...."
"This academy professorship does not suit you. If you come to our family, I will let you fully unleash your abilities. Not only that, we will spare no full-scale support, and...."
Crunch!
He bit into the fruit that was served with the salad, making a sound on purpose.
Only then did Natasha, realizing that Klaus was not particularly interested in what she was saying, stop talking and look at him.
"...Commander Klaus-nim."
"It is Professor-nim. Please mind your honorifics, Cadet Natasha. This is an academy, not a battlefield. Above all, that war is over, and I am a person who stepped down from the Southern Army long ago."
"You weren't stepped down voluntarily, but were forced to step down, weren't you?"
"Did it look like that? That's a pity. I really did step down voluntarily."
"That is fine. Commander Klaus, no, Professor-nim. Come to our family. Then...."
"That I can fully unleash my abilities and talents, and that I can execute my will."
"That is correct."
Knowing what I want?
It was a proposal he had already heard several times, but every time he heard it, laughter burst out.
What he wants is not some puppet on a string, dancing for others.
He just wants to be the one who controls that puppet and sweeps everything up.