War of Love
War of Love
The stench of the blood-reeking sewer stabs at my nasal membranes, making them throb.
"Ugh..."
The scene, cruel to the point of being grotesque, triggers a visceral sense of revulsion.
"Bleaaargh..."
It eventually forces a vomit I couldn't hold back.
"Go vomit in the corner, you bastard. You've got plenty of experience, why is your stomach so weak?"
"No, but honestly... out of all the cleanup jobs we've done so far, isn't this the biggest jackpot?"
A gruesome scene that makes you doubt your own eyes. It was too precise and cruel to believe it was truly committed by human hands.
"You call this a jackpot? I've been through hell and back, but I've never seen corpses mangled this horribly anywhere in the world."
Those who arrived at this chaotic scene were men in white hazmat suits and masks. The youngest-looking man among them looked around and asked cautiously.
"By the way, who were these dead people? What kind of guys were they to die so miserably..."
"Hey."
"...Yes?"
"If you keep getting curious about trivial things like that, you won't die of natural causes and will kick the bucket early. This happened inside the Sepenteria Academy, and it's a case directly requested by the Dean."
"..."
"We just need to clean it up without a word if they ask us to. The Dean is someone who could kill guys like us without batting an eye while sitting still in their office."
"..."
"I'm warning you strictly: don't say a single word about what you saw today anywhere. We received a huge sum of money in exchange for that silence, and a binding magic has been placed on our souls. If we break the secret, we die immediately."
"..."
"Got it?"
The most seasoned-looking man scolded his subordinate with a sharp, chilling gaze.
"...Yes, I understand... I'm sorry for overstepping."
"Good, if you understand, that's enough. Then... alright, everyone, let's start working without delay!"
Just like that, without knowing who the dead were, without knowing who the culprit behind this hellscape was, and without knowing why such a thing happened, they simply began to erase the horrific scene as if it had never existed.
+++*
The dormitory for Academy administrators I was newly assigned to.
As expected of a dormitory for the management class, the facilities weren't bad at all. The space was spacious, and the furnished furniture was quite luxurious.
It was equipped with a walk-in closet, bedroom, study, utility room, and even a storage room, with over five rooms in total. It had a pleasant scent, and the plumbing facilities were well-equipped with modern standards.
However, there was one very serious flaw for me. It was the fact that there was no terrace.
My only joy after a hard day's work was to have a cup of tea and smoke a cigarette on the terrace while watching the night view, which looked like a night sea. Even now, I clock out, at least formally. Because a human can't just work 24 hours a day like a machine.
Besides, isn't Luna, the other me, on standby inside the White Rune?
Thanks to that, I can have some time to myself, albeit very little. Of course, I can't completely zone out and rest, and at night, I take a rest in a 'semi-sleep' state with the detection range expanded vastly.
I just need to activate the Law of Detection and lie in bed, so there's no need to force my consciousness to stay sharp. Aside from the holy power slowly draining away, it's not particularly physically taxing either.
It's just that I feel like crap because I don't feel like I've clocked out even after I have... and since even my terrace tea time, my only mental refuge, is impossible, I get absolutely no psychological recovery after work.
I opened the cigarette pack I had thrown on the dining table and put the filter in my mouth.
I've been trying to substitute the terrace by opening the window wide, sitting on the table, and breathing in the night air, but honestly, it doesn't taste the same at all. As a result, the number of times I smoke out of emptiness has increased significantly.
"Sigh..."
The tip of the cigarette catches fire, and the acrid smoke quietly escapes through the open window gap.
Anyway, what's a shame is a shame, let's look back on what happened today.
While patrolling boringly as usual, I scanned the information recorded in the detection control crystal ball. Most of them were ordinary and trivial records that could happen at the Academy.
But one of them triggered my intuition. A strange snake trail found deep in the sewer. I couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but by my senses, it was over ninety percent the work of heretics.
And my premonition was exactly right. They were clearly heretics, and after going through an efficient interrogation process(?), I was faithful to my main job.
I executed them without leaving any behind, keeping only one alive, and asked the core question I wanted to ask the most.
How on earth did they know the fact that the Saintess had enrolled in the Academy? Who did they hear that information from first?
It's already been a week since the Saintess enrolled, so by now, all the factions in the world that need to know probably know. A week is more than enough time for rumors to spread.
However, the fact that the heretics infiltrated the inside of the Academy in just one week is no different from saying they had already prepared meticulously beforehand. How on earth did they obtain the information at that point?
First of all, the upper echelons of the Church, key figures of the Golar Empire, high-ranking officials of the Lekhatos General Bureau, and the diplomatic ministries of each country would have naturally known. Powerful factions sending their precious talents to the Academy would desperately try to figure out who is enrolling. Finding that out wouldn't have been that difficult for them.
To infer roughly, immediately after the Saintess's enrollment was decided, the Saintess's name must have been listed on the Academy's enrollment management department list. And it must have been transmitted to each faction's intelligence network through the mouth of the employee managing that document. This is the most realistic and probable route as of now.
And this level is actually not a big problem. Leaking the Saintess's whereabouts to the outside might be seen as a mortal sin from the Church's perspective, but this is like the routine espionage war that always happens in a special space like the Academy. The Saintess's name must have also leaked out incidentally during that complex political containment process.
So, if the news reached the heretics through an informant of an external faction, there's no need to worry too much for now. Anyway, our colleagues at the Holy Inquisition Bureau will be searching the whole world like they're hunting lice and cutting their throats one by one. Even if they are hiding in the enemy's main base right now, our inquisitors will surely root them out.
And well... actually, whether the roots are pulled out or not doesn't matter to me right now. I'm already overwhelmed with the mission of protecting the Saintess within the Academy, so I don't have the leisure to pay attention to every single heretic hiding in other countries.
But what if the situation is different from my assumption?
What if the information leaked not from outside the Academy, but from a core line inside? Or, what if there is a traitor within the Goddess Church who intentionally handed over the information?
This is a critical flaw that can never be overlooked. So, to confirm that, I asked the last survivor. Where and how did they obtain the information?
But...
─ Gurgle... Ugh...!
Pop!
Splatter!
"..."
As soon as I asked this question, the guy's head burst like a watermelon and he died instantly.
It wasn't that he died while trying to say something, nor did he activate poison in his molar or a magical suicide device. The moment he perceived my question, some kind of restriction placed on his brain activated, and his head burst and he died.
Thanks to that, even the room to dig for more information disappeared. If he had spat out even a single word, even if it were a lie, I could have inferred and approached the truth... Since he died reacting to the question itself from the start, well, there was nothing I could do.
Ha...
I roughly stubbed out the cigarette, which only had the filter left, into the ashtray.
"If only that guy Dominique were here, I could have at least shaken his soul to find out something."
I missed my subordinates who must be suffering in the field right now for a brief moment...
... No, thinking about it again, I don't really miss them that much.
+++*
[Ancient History and Power Research Club]
"Alright! Then from now on, the official name of our club is the 'Ancient History and Power Research Club'! The significance of our existence is to explore forgotten history unknown to the world and the power at its source! Everyone agrees to finalize this, right?"
At the declaration of Triana Oquel, a female student with brilliant silver hair and dazzling golden eyes, the five extraordinary students gathered in the club room nodded in unison.
"Yes, I agree, Saintess-nim! It sounds really fun. Researching history surrounded by the unknown and ancient power...! There won't be anything more heart-pounding than this."
Vashel Oglen Lekhatos, a female student with snow-white hair and red eyes who looked like a puppy, the General Saintess of the Lekhatos General Bureau, nodded enthusiastically. She was the next owner of the Lekhatos General Bureau and the only legitimate successor.
"If we are planning to devote precious time to club activities, it would be better to have a more progressive and meaningful topic. From that perspective, I think the goal of this club is sufficiently valuable."
Obeltia, a princess of the Golar Empire with deep red wine-colored hair and cold black eyes, also calmly affirmed. She was the daughter of Duke Obeltia, one of the four dukes called the pinnacle of imperial nobility.
"I also... of course... fully agree... Saint, Saintess-nim... Ancient history and unknown power... just thinking about it makes my heart feel hot..."
Dealba, a large male student who was extremely nervous, which didn't match his size, a prince of the Selman Empire, nodded while trembling awkwardly. He was the 3rd Prince of the Selman Kingdom, which is evaluated as the second-greatest military power after the Empire.
"I also unconditionally agree, Saintess-nim! I don't know if someone of humble commoner origin like me will be of any help, but I will exert all my genius for the development of this club!"
Zeta, a slender male student whose eyes were blazing with enthusiasm, announced his aspirations loudly. He was a genius counted among the best in Sepenteria, who entered this Academy solely on his own ability.
And the last person.
"Yes, let's finalize it as agreed, Saintess-nim. I look forward to working with you."
Leo Kibushi, a male student with hair resembling the red light of dawn, the 4th Prince of the Golar Empire, showed a faint and charming smile.
He was a prince who inherited the bloodline of the sun from the Golar Empire, the most powerful nation in the world, and... a child born with the natural talent to become a hero in the future, carrying the fate of this world.
"Yes! Then, club members, I look forward to working with you all!"
Thus, in a secluded club room of the Sepenteria Continental General Academy, a group gathered with big shots who would eventually change the topography of the continent was born.
It was the moment when a club with a strange fate, whose name history might remember forever in the future, began its full-scale activities.