The Academy Life Begins in Earnest
The Academy Life Begins in Earnest
After the Saintess's enrollment.
And after that shocking incident where Chief Inquisitor Lu Niginna unleashed his power without authorization.
The new semester at the Sepenteria Continental General Academy officially kicked off.
The campus was overflowing with the energy of students greeting peers from all over the world and building friendships, and everyone was enjoying the strange excitement that a new environment brings.
Students were delving deeper into their majors and burning with a passionate academic zeal to develop and improve themselves.
And such a fresh scene was no exception for the Saintess of the Three-Eyed Goddess.
Everything she encountered at the Academy was simply fascinating to her.
Students of various appearances, each with distinct personalities, and spacious, sophisticated, state-of-the-art lecture halls that perfectly reflected the characteristics of each department.
Professors imparting vast knowledge, the assistants supporting them, and even those silently managing the massive facilities.
Breathing in the same space as them, mixing and interacting—the daily life of the Academy made the Saintess's heart flutter endlessly. She was genuinely enjoying this life and was happy.
Of course, it wasn't smooth sailing from the start. At first, the freshmen and current students found the existence of the Saintess extremely burdensome and didn't even dare to think about speaking to her comfortably.
Because she wasn't just on the level of a princess from some small kingdom or the daughter of an imperial noble.
She was the high and noble Saintess of the Three-Eyed Goddess, to whom even the high-ranking clans of the Lekhatos General Bureau, the high nobles of the Empire, and perhaps even the bloodline of the true master had to bow their heads.
Who would dare approach someone called the daughter crafted by the Goddess herself and the mother of all believers without hesitation?
There was a pervasive fear of what terrible things might happen if they got involved with the Saintess and caused even a minor trouble, or if they made a slip of the tongue and were branded for blasphemy.
A rumor circulated among the students like a ghost story that, at any moment, Heretic Inquisitors might burst in one night, torturing them and demanding they confess to being heretics.
So, for the first week, a huge invisible wall was erected around the Saintess.
They didn't ignore her outright, but whenever the Saintess appeared, everyone would quietly take a detour, and if she spoke to them, they would barely finish answering politely before hurriedly leaving.
But the Academy life the Saintess truly wanted was not this kind of isolated awe.
She did not want to be stuffed as a mere noble symbol, becoming a being that caused discomfort to others.
Therefore, the Saintess moved more proactively.
She greeted them first with a bright smile, shyly asked about things she didn't know, and lent a hand without hesitation wherever help was needed. She tried to warmly embrace everyone, regardless of rank or bloodline.
Looking at the face of the Saintess approaching with the weapons of overwhelming friendliness and innate goodness, anyone, regardless of gender, couldn't help but be disarmed.
The Saintess perfectly dismantled the sharp weapons of people's wariness and the thick armor of their resistance.
In the end, there was no helping it. Students gradually began to treat the Saintess not as a 'Savior,' but as a fellow 'student' and 'friend.'
This was because they personally felt that the human charm she exuded was too lovely to push away instinctively.
At the point when the Saintess's happy Academy adaptation period was on track.
In one corner of the campus, someone else's Academy life was dragging on.
However, emotions like happiness or joy couldn't be found in that life even if you scoured it.
It was just a series of days filled only with terrible fatigue, boredom, and pain that one was sick and tired of.
Furthermore, this man's Academy life was having a significant negative impact on the people around him.
Because a man called a murderer was patrolling everywhere with a dazzling ring of light above his head, emitting an aura that was holy yet simultaneously violent.
That bizarre scene created immense anxiety and primal fear in those who witnessed it.
For the first week, protest emails poured into the Academy Administration Center's civil complaints office.
The content was that it was scary enough just having that dangerous man on campus, but he was openly emitting power and running his radar all day, making it impossible to focus on studying.
However, the Administration Center's response was cold and clear.
The subject of the complaint was currently exercising legitimate rights as an Academy Special Security Officer.
Since it was the Special Security Officer authority in the Dean's name, students and faculty had no grounds to argue further.
They just desperately hoped not to be unfairly caught in the sharp detection net that the murderer was casting.
Another week passed like that.
The people at the Academy also slowly began to get used to that bizarre sight.
The saying that humans are indeed animals of adaptation fit perfectly.
As long as they didn't speak to him directly, even if they were still startled and afraid, his passing figure began to feel like a quite ordinary scene.
Of course, the person involved in that scene hadn't adapted to or gotten used to this life at all.
+*
"Ha, I seriously don't want to live. At all."
"Hu, huut...! N-no! I really want to live diligently!"
"Ah, sorry. I wasn't talking to you. Just go on your way."
"...Y-yes! Th-thank you!"
A middle-aged man, startled by my indifferent muttering, bowed repeatedly and disappeared at a full sprint.
At this rate, I couldn't even mutter to myself in peace. Everyone made faces like their lifespans were being shaved off just from a casual remark I tossed out.
Of course, it's not that I didn't expect this cold reaction. It was something I had braced myself for to some extent.
Thanks to rolling around on the Heretic Inquisition front lines my whole life, my position rose to Chief Inquisitor, and in this world, the perception of people like us is branded as the cruel and merciless Grim Reaper itself.
Besides, I'm the head who leads those lunatics, aren't I? I fully understand how burdensome they find me.
But honestly speaking.
How they think of me wasn't my main concern.
In vulgar terms, I don't give a damn.
And well, the current reaction was better compared to that hellish atmosphere from a week ago.
As more time passes, everyone will become desensitized, and they'll realize the fact that I don't harm ordinary people who aren't heretics.
Of course, provided they really aren't heretics.
So, the only two things I needed to rack my brain and focus on right now were:
Ensuring the Saintess's safety, and tracking down the hidden heretics to cut off their breath.
These two were practically the same task.
"Oof."
I paused my afternoon search and flopped down onto a nearby bench.
Then, a building as grand and massive as a gymnasium came into view right in front of me. A large sign was hanging on the front of the building.
[Aura Knight Swordsmanship Training Hall]
"Aura Knight Swordsmanship Training Hall, huh..."
A question occurred to me.
If it's Aura Knight swordsmanship...
Is this the place that prince attends?
The 4th Prince of the Golar Empire. The child born with the natural talent to become a hero.
Leo Kibushi, who is scheduled to rise to the ranks of the world's strongest in the future.
He was clearly the protagonist of this world and the fated romantic partner of the heroine, the Saintess.
Suddenly, I became curious about the original plot.
"Hmm... then when will their proper story begin? Their majors are completely different, so they don't have any contact in daily life."
...
"Eh, whatever. They're the protagonists, they'll figure it out and fall in love on their own."
I quickly lost interest and shook off the useless thoughts. Anyway, other people's love lives were none of my business.
I took out a wooden box from inside my coat containing the detection control crystal responsible for the Academy's security.
When I lightly touched the crystal, a vast list of information recorded by the detection device throughout the day floated up like a hologram.
/Below the dormitory communal cafeteria: Mana collision between specific family bloodlines and use of physical force detected.
/Magic plant cultivator: Greenhouse internal air pressure rise due to rapid growth of mutant plants detected.
.
I scanned down the list with soulless eyes. These were the ordinary daily routines of the Academy that repeated almost every day.
.
/Around the central garden fountain: Abnormal supersaturation of water-attribute mana and vortex formation in progress.
/Top floor of the professor research building: Localized spatial distortion phenomenon due to explosive mana discharge occurred temporarily.
.
As it was a procedure I had to go through as a security officer, I mechanically flipped through the screens.
.
/Holy Law Chapel spire: White light emission phenomenon due to autonomous concentration of holy mana continuing.
/Student council meeting room: Multiple intellectual energy emissions and 12 personnel in a state of nervous hypersensitivity gathered.
/Culvert under the north watchtower: Mana communication signals with erased identification codes being transmitted and received.
.
However.
My gaze, which had been flipping through indifferently, stopped at one point.
.
/Path of Hoguwadia underground water pipes: Multiple animal traces detected (Reptilia, Squamata, Serpentes group)
"..."
My brow furrowed.
+++*
At the same time, inside the training hall, a man and a woman were facing off tensely.
"Sparring start!"
As soon as the signal from the professor standing in the center dropped, the two people rushed toward each other with explosive momentum and clashed their swords.
Clang─!
As the sharp metallic sound rang through the room, one person's sword was instantly sent flying high into the air.
"Ugh."
The man who seized the victory, with fluid movements without a single inch of waste, thrust the cold tip of his sword in front of the throat of his opponent who had dropped their weapon.
"Do you admit defeat?"
At the cold sensation touching their neck, the opposing student shook their head vigorously and raised both hands high.
"Ha... I admit it. As expected, I'm not on your level. You're amazing."
With this, the man's record in today's sparring was 10 wins out of 10 matches.
It was an overwhelming winning streak.
The physical ability he possessed was at an out-of-spec level that could not possibly be completed at his current age, and his innate swordsmanship sense already made it certain that he was a future Sword Master. Furthermore, his vast aura potential, which couldn't even be gauged, was enough to receive praise as the best in history.
People praised him as a talent blessed by the heavens, while at the same time calling him a vessel harboring a tragic curse.
This was because he was born after the Empire's next Crown Prince had already firmly secured his position.
He was fated to never become Emperor, but paradoxically, he held in his hands the most powerful force capable of threatening the Emperor's authority.
His name was Leo Kibushi. He was the 4th Prince of the Golar Empire.
"Sparring over! Winner, Leo Kibushi!"
With the professor's shout, Leo smoothly sheathed his sword. And while wiping his sweat with a towel for a moment, he fell into deep thought.
He was thinking about the two figures who had recently been making the Academy noisy.
One was the Saintess, praised as the most noble and beautiful in this world.
The other was the Chief Inquisitor, notorious for being the most powerful and simultaneously the most cruel in this world.
Leo Kibushi felt intense interest in both of them.
One was a mysterious woman he couldn't take his eyes off of.
The other was an absolute powerhouse who reeked of the smell of blood just from the rumors.
But for Leo right now, the weight of his curiosity was leaning more toward the beautiful woman. Because he, too, was a young man of vigorous age.
'They said it's possible to establish new clubs starting tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I'd really like to meet her there.'
+*
Sss-sss-sk─
In the dark sewer underground, the sound of something crawling rang out ominously.
Sss-sss-sk─