Interlude - After the Performance Evaluation
At the same time during the performance evaluation interlude, Eve—who had been drawing the demons' attention for Elric's sake—ended up wiping out every last one of them.
“Ugh… What is this?”
“All that from just one human?”
She had dealt with every single demon. Her original plan was simply to buy time, but the demons kept trying to break through toward the Class A students. In the end, she had no choice but to kill them all.
'I was only going to stall a little before regrouping…'
As she flicked the blood from her sword onto the floor, a voice called out beside her.
“Lady Eve!”
Turning her head, she saw the professors rushing toward her in a frantic hurry. Not long after—
“What in the world…”
“Did you really handle all of them by yourself?”
The professors gaped in utter disbelief. They clearly hadn't imagined she would eliminate every demon alone. As Eve nodded in response to their questions—
“Professors, the gate has been repaired!”
The gate reactivated moments later. At the same time—
-Vwoooong!
As if it had been waiting for this exact moment, the chairman of the Imperial Academy appeared instantly. His reaction made it obvious he had teleported the second he stepped through the gate.
“Hmm… Eve. You handled this all by yourself?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
The chairman stroked his chin in thought. Soon he spoke again.
“We’ll discuss the details later. For now, I must head over there.”
With those words, the chairman vanished from sight.
At the same time, I was lost in thought after a reward message suddenly appeared before me.
“Hmm. Looks like it’s already over here too.”
The chairman had appeared right in front of me at some point. I turned to him and answered.
“Yes. By the way, you sure took your time, didn’t you?”
“I came as fast as I could, you brat.”
The cold sweat on his forehead proved he wasn’t lying. I nodded and asked.
“So, does that mean I win the bet?”
“Sigh… Let’s talk about that later. More importantly, take the students and return.”
“What about the performance evaluation?”
“What do you mean? Of course we have to cancel it.”
At those words, the Class A students looked as if they had lost their entire country. From their perspective, a perfect score had been all but guaranteed. But the chairman wasn’t that inflexible. Sure enough—
“You don’t need to worry. I’ll give every one of you a perfect score. Since you won’t have to take the evaluation anyway.”
“”Waaaaah!!””
The next moment, the students cheered like soldiers who had just reclaimed their homeland. Some even shouted that they had regained their freedom.
'If anyone saw this, they’d think I trained them like a monster.'
-Anyone would think you trained them super harshly, Master?
'Stop whining.'
With that reply, I led the students toward the gate. And so, the performance evaluation finally came to an end.
Roughly a few days passed after that.
To summarize what happened in the interim, about half of the demons who had tried to infiltrate were captured. They originally would have slipped through unnoticed, but thanks to the information I shared, the imperial family located them with ease.
The rest of the performance evaluation naturally resumed after a single day.
'Well, it is a world with magic. A day is plenty of time.'
The shattered castle was restored to its original state after the chairman cast magic a few times. Since he was practically an archmage, it was only natural. Unlike the modern world, this place had magic.
It was then that the bell signaling the end of class rang out.
If it had been a month ago, the students would have sighed in disappointment. Instead—
“It’s over!”
“Let’s go, quick!”
“We have to enjoy our freedom while we have it!”
Having grown thoroughly sick of classes, they bolted from the room. Well, I used to do the exact same thing back in my school days, so I understood perfectly.
Thinking that, I headed for the chairman’s office. Before long I arrived.
“Chairman, may I enter?”
“Yes. Come in.”
Without hesitation I opened the door. The chairman was visible inside, sipping black tea while signing documents.
“Hey? I’m here.”
“Ah, yes. Since time is short, let’s get straight to the point.”
The chairman set down his fountain pen and stroked his beard before continuing.
“First, the parents have agreed to the after-school classes. The results Class A showed were so impressive that the parents had no choice but to acknowledge them.”
“Well, that makes sense. In a way, it was thanks to that training that they survived the demon attack.”
“I can’t deny it.”
Nodding, he took another sip of tea. Then, with clear curiosity, he asked.
“By the way, what exactly did you teach them? How did the students change so dramatically in only a month?”
“It’s simple. School from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., and during after-school sessions they dueled me every single day. I gave feedback at the same time, of course.”
“…Is that all?”
“Yes. What more would there be?”
“They changed that much in a month with just that?”
If you only heard the description, it might not sound like much. But anyone who had tasted the jukchang would know exactly how nightmarish the education I described truly was.
“Exactly. Anyway, don’t say that in front of the students. They’ll all lose their minds.”
“Hmm… Well, alright. I understand.”
“So, is that everything?”
“Yes. For now, that’s all.”
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
With those words I left the chairman’s office, completely unaware of the letter he held in his hand.
The chairman of the Imperial Academy, Hain, let out a deep sigh as he watched Elric leave. He stared at the letter bearing the Vandesar family seal and muttered.
“Should I have told him about this?”
After leaving the chairman’s office, I spent some time back at the mansion examining my body.
'It definitely feels much better than before.'
-It looks the same to me, Master?
'These things are impossible to notice unless you’re the one experiencing the change.'
What I meant by improvement was my physical ability. The reason I was checking was simple: this was the reward I had received. I had been too busy dealing with the aftermath of the performance evaluation to inspect it until now, but today it was clear. My physical capabilities had risen significantly compared to before.
That made sense.
-Whooooosh!
I could now use body strengthening without any burden. Before, I would have been exhausted in under a minute. Now it was different. With my current physical ability, I could maintain it for at least five minutes.
-Still. You’re as weak as ever, Master.
'Well, I did regress. There’s nothing I can do about that.'
With those words, I spent the rest of the day thoroughly testing exactly how much my body had changed.
Meanwhile, at that same moment, four women sat inside the student council room with deadly serious expressions. A cold, heavy silence flowed between them.
“......”
“......”
“......”
“......”
In truth, an entirely unexpected situation had occurred. To be honest, while they hadn’t been completely certain, the assumption that Elric had regressed was nearly one hundred percent. They had naturally expected him to step forward before the terror incident happened… yet…
“I never imagined Professor would simply stay quiet like that.”
At Student Council President Rose’s words, the other three nodded in complete agreement. She then asked Eve.
“Professor Eve, you were watching right beside him, weren’t you? What do you think?”
“To be honest, I don’t know anymore. He clearly wasn’t flustered during the first terror attack, but at some point I saw him showing signs of panic.”
“Hmm. What about you, Sena?”
“Judging by his movements and breathing, it matches. But when I look at his behavior, it feels like it doesn’t.”
“Professor Jane, what did you observe about the young master’s actions?”
“Young master is simply living his daily life as usual. He hasn’t shown any unusual movements whatsoever.”
“I see…”
Elric was displaying movements completely different from what they had predicted. They had thought this incident would confirm whether he had regressed, but instead it only created even greater confusion.
'Could the professor somehow know we’re holding this meeting…?'
The thought briefly crossed Rose’s mind, but she quickly shook it off.
'No, that can’t be it.'
If he knew they were meeting, he definitely wouldn’t stay quiet. It was obvious he would run away again just like last time.
'I have no idea what we should do about this.'
While the women except Sena were racking their brains, Sena raised her hand and broke the silence.
“I have a good idea.”
All eyes turned to her. Jane tilted her head.
“You have a method?”
“It’s not a guaranteed method, but there is at least a way to make the professor lower his guard.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“I simply need to go on a date with the professor.”
“”......””
The three stared at her with completely dumbfounded expressions. It wasn’t as if they didn’t want to date him themselves. But if he had truly regressed, it was obvious he would refuse outright. After all, Elric was the one who had fled from them in the first place. There was no way he would agree to a date.
“You’re misunderstanding. I have the right to go on a date with him.”
“What do you mean?”
“During after-school classes, the professor promised to grant one request in exchange for my help. So, wouldn’t it work if I get him to drink alcohol and catch him off guard?”
“Hmm…”
It seemed like there was more to her intentions, but the strategy itself wasn’t bad. It was undeniable that Elric was strong now, yet that strength didn’t necessarily come from superior physical ability. Therefore, if he drank naturally, he might reveal the truth.
“But couldn’t Saintess Sena get drunk first?”
Jane immediately pointed out the flaw. If Sena became intoxicated before him, the entire plan would be pointless. As Rose and Eve looked at her, Sena gave a triumphant smile.
“Hehe. If it were the previous round, maybe. But do you really think I would get drunk before the current professor?”
“Hmm. It does seem unlikely.”
“Right. That probably won’t happen.”
“Indeed. That wouldn’t make sense at all.”
While Sena’s physical abilities weren’t exceptionally outstanding, none of them thought she was weaker than the current Elric.
“Then I’ll take it that everyone agrees.”
“”“Yes.”””
With those words, the women all returned to their respective tasks.
At that moment, they had no idea.
That Elric’s physical abilities had increased.
Or just how weak Sena was to alcohol.
And, as a side note, the other three secretly held another meeting behind Sena’s back to decide exactly when they would monitor her date with Elric.