Hindrastar Is So Unfairly Wronged (4)
"So, Knightly. How was it, fighting a real monster?"
"It's chaos. Is this really what it's like out in the field?"
"Honestly, you'll almost never run into a monster face-to-face."
"What?!"
Knightly's eyes flew wide.
"Then why did you put me through this hell?!"
"Come on, you felt it too, didn't you? That rush when the troll went down."
Knightly clamped her mouth shut, which was as good as an admission.
"You don't get many chances to go toe-to-toe with a troll. And being an agent doesn't mean you'll only ever deal with people."
"Well... that's true."
"Everything you went through today is going to serve you well. You did really well, Knightly."
"Well... I am the top student," Knightly muttered, pulling the cloak tighter around herself.
"But Professor. I'm curious too — how on earth did you knock that troll out?"
"I told you, I gave it a forehead flick."
"Haha... If you don't want to tell me, just say so."
Just like Waiver, she'd taken my honest answer as a joke. Knightly moved on to a different question.
"There's something else I'm wondering about. You were just standing there blocking the path, so why did the troll keep avoiding you and coming around the other side? How did you do that?"
"I put out Aura."
"Aura...? The thing only High Knights use...? Haah... Right..."
Knightly let out a sigh, as if she couldn't even be bothered to argue anymore.
"Then why is someone who can knock out a troll with a forehead flick and wield Aura working as a professor here? Shouldn't you at least be the Principal, or doing something important at the Imperial Palace?"
"Ah, that. They originally wanted me to be Principal, but I said no. Honestly, I wasn't even planning to come to the Academy. A friend of mine was having a kid and asked me to fill in for him, so that's why I came."
"Excuse me...?"
Knightly stared at me with the genuine expression of someone looking at a lunatic. To be fair, I wouldn't believe it either if someone told me that.
"Let's say I buy that... Then who is this friend?"
"Sir Linus."
"Please!"
The moment the name of Linus, Hero of the Continent, came up, Knightly finally snapped.
"Could you please be serious for once?!"
"Huh? I am being serious right now."
"How is any of this serious?! You knocked out a troll with a forehead flick, you use Aura like a High Knight, someone that incredible is working as an Academy professor, and on top of that you turned down being Principal and demoted yourself on purpose, and even that was only because you had to fill in for a friend having a baby, and that friend just happens to be Sir Linus who killed the Demon King — who would believe any of that?! There's a limit to how far a joke can go!! Why don't you just go ahead and say you were part of the special task force that killed the Demon King while you're at it?"
"Oh, yeah. I was."
"Professor!"
Knightly stamped her feet in fury.
"Those people all received noble titles and rose in the world, so why didn't you? It doesn't make any sense!"
"I just didn't want the extra attention, so I turned it all down, took the money, and went to live somewhere quiet. That's more comfortable, you know?"
"So you're saying you achieved a feat that will go down in history, and you could have had a hero's title, a noble rank, a fief, everything guaranteed — and you turned all of it down? For the single reason that you didn't want the attention? Who in the world would believe that?! That's something a madman would do!"
"Now that you mention it, yeah."
"Forget it!"
Believe it or don't, it was all the same to me.
I'd just finished greeting the guards and was passing through the East Gate when I noticed something odd. Over by the corner of a building, several students were hiding, only their heads poking out as they stared in our direction.
"Hah! What the—"
"I think what Sophie said was actually true?!"
The students who'd just spotted Dian and Knightly coming through the East Gate erupted in a frenzy. Both of them looked like they'd been rolling around on the ground — covered in dirt and leaves from head to toe. Sweat-soaked hair was plastered all over their faces, and their clothes were completely damp.
And on top of that, Knightly wasn't even wearing her outer shirt — just a sleeveless undershirt, with Professor Dian's cloak draped over her shoulders?! As if that weren't enough, her legs were trembling?!?!
What on earth had those two been doing in the forest!?!?!?!?!
"Sophie! Sophie! I think you were actually right!"
Alarmed by the extremely suspicious sight, the students hurriedly went looking for Sophie. But Hindrastar was nowhere to be found. She'd been right there with them just a moment ago, hadn't she?
At that moment, Hindrastar was already fleeing the scene, running toward the lecture halls. The instant Dian and Knightly had come through the East Gate, she'd spun around and taken off at a dead sprint.
Reaching the shopping street beside the lecture halls, Hindrastar stopped and glanced back over her shoulder.
Fuck. I'm so fucking screwed....
Hindrastar had tried desperately to stop the kids, but it had been completely impossible. All she'd done was ask why Dian and the class president were heading out together, and it had spread like fire through a dry reed field....
If this reaches Dian's ears, I'm actually going to die.... No matter how much I deny it, that psycho who'll lose his shit isn't going to buy it....
A wave of dizziness hit her, and suddenly she was seized by an overwhelming craving for something sweet. As it happened, the place she'd stopped while fleeing was a dessert café on the shopping street.
Ah, screw it. Might as well eat something good before I die.
Hindrastar went into the dessert café, scanned the display case, and spotted a fresh cream cake.
Last time I went to Dian's room, that bastard was eating this like it was the best thing ever, wasn't he?
"Hey! Gimme one of these!"
Hindrastar pointed at the cream cake in the display and barked the order in casual speech without a second thought. An old habit from her Leblanc Mercenary Corps days, coming out in full force. No — from the very beginning, Hindrastar had never had any intention of using polite speech.
"Student Sophie. You shouldn't speak like that."
Someone pointed out her rude manner. She turned around to find a dark elf with charcoal skin and ruby-red eyes looking down at her. It was Kirlin, the Academy Principal, whose sweet, gentle face was nothing like a typical dark elf's.
Hindrastar had been about to snap Who the hell are you to tell me what to do, but she thought better of it. Dragon or not, after ten years with the Leblanc Mercenary Corps, she knew well enough how human society worked. That dark-skinned pointy-eared bitch was the highest authority at this Academy, so staying on her good side couldn't hurt. For now, she was a human student, not a dragon.
"Hello, Principal."
Hindrastar bowed her head deeply in greeting, wearing a smile so cute it could melt anyone's heart.
"Yes, hello, Sophie. You should always use polite speech with other people."
"Understood, Principal. Shopkeeper! I'd like one of these, please."
"You're getting the cream cake too?" Kirlin said as Hindrastar placed her order more politely this time. "I was actually about to get one myself. Want to eat together?"
"You're paying, right, Principal?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah... of course..."
She'd been planning to treat her anyway, but having Hindrastar ask so bluntly caught Kirlin off guard, and her two long ears gave a little flap.
"Shopkeeper. One whole cake, please."
Hindrastar tilted her head at Kirlin's order.
"Is someone else coming?"
"No? It's just the two of us."
"Then why are you ordering that much cake?"
"This is how I always eat it...?"
Do dark elves just eat that much as a species? Well, some races could eat a ton without ever gaining weight — that was just how they were built. Either way, it was free food, so who cared. Hindrastar had been snatched up by Dian so suddenly that she hadn't brought much money with her. Like any proper dragon, she'd built a secret hoard that nobody knew about and stashed everything there. She'd have to sneak out and collect it all when she got the chance.
"How's Academy life treating you, Student Sophie?" Kirlin asked as they ate the cake. "Anything inconvenient, or any suggestions?"
Hindrastar kept glancing eastward, worried Dian might come after her, and gave a halfhearted answer.
"Hmm? It's been less than a week, so I wouldn't really know yet."
"If anything does come up, tell a teaching assistant or one of the professors. We're doing our best to make sure you can all study in peace."
"Will do."
"And if anyone tries to pick a fight with you again because you're a transfer student and a former mercenary, don't just jump into a brawl..."
"Principal! Principal! There's a huge commotion!"
At that moment, the chief administrator came rushing over in a panic.
"There's a troll on the east side right now!"
"A troll appeared?!"
Kirlin shot to her feet, and the chief administrator shook his head frantically.
"Not appeared — captured! Professor Dian brought a troll in alive!"
"W-what?!"
Forgetting Hindrastar entirely, Kirlin took off toward the East Gate at incredible speed.
Instead of fleeing west, Hindrastar gave up on everything and stuffed cake into her mouth. Running wouldn't matter anyway — she'd still be in Dian's grasp. If she ran, that Linus bastard would show up, so she might as well just take the beating from Dian and be done with it.
"Excuse me."
"Jesus!"
Someone appeared out of nowhere and spoke to the thoroughly resigned Hindrastar. It was Maya, the infirmary priestess, wearing her violet clerical robes.
"What do you want? You got something to say to me?"
"I have come to confirm whether the bruising on your lower abdomen has fully disappeared."
"Huh? That healed ages ago."
Hindrastar rolled up her shirt and showed her smooth stomach.
"I see. A complete recovery. That is most fortunate."
Paying Hindrastar's stomach no mind whatsoever, Maya opened the notebook in her hand.
"However, I would like to know more about the conversation you had with the other students earlier. The one regarding Professor Dian and Student Knightly."
"Why do you care about that?"
"Student Knightly just visited the infirmary with abrasions in various places. In order to provide proper treatment, I need to understand the circumstances under which the injuries were sustained."
"Haaah, is that so? It wasn't anything special. The two of them went out through the East Gate. That's it."
Hindrastar had definitely kept it short, but Priestess Maya started writing something extremely long in her notebook. Her expression was so blank it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.