Battlefield Tour (9)
Hindrastar stood with her arms crossed, glaring at Dian with a thoroughly sour look on her face.
What the hell is that bastard doing? Why's he making those poor old men cry?
She hadn't been following the guide's group. She'd been wandering around on her own, poking her nose into whatever caught her interest. To a dragon like Hindrastar, a former battlefield from the Four-Year War meant absolutely nothing. So she'd been standing there, bored out of her mind, when a bunch of human old-timers took one look at Dian and burst into tears.
That piece of garbage doesn't even go easy on his own kind. Not even the elderly. Then again, of course a guy like that would pull those stunts while he was chasing me down. Who in their right mind would do that?
She clicked her tongue as she watched Kirlin and Pelemiya shedding tears of their own.
And why the hell are those bitches crying?
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Just as Hindrastar was about to leave, unable to stand watching the humans any longer, a strange sound made her turn her head. Maya, the priestess from the infirmary, was quietly jotting something down in her notebook as she watched Dian.
This girl is always scribbling away. What's she even writing?
"Please do not come any closer."
The moment Hindrastar tried to sneak a peek, Maya stepped aside by exactly the same distance.
"I'm not looking, I'm not looking. It's probably nothing anyway."
Maya didn't so much as twitch at the scolding. She simply kept writing. Losing interest, Hindrastar clicked her tongue, turned around — and planted her face squarely in Knightly's chest.
"Ugh! What the hell!"
Knightly, who was considerably taller than Hindrastar, didn't even seem to register that someone had just buried a face in her chest. She was staring blankly at Dian over the top of Hindrastar's head.
"Move. Don't block me."
Knightly showed no sign of budging, so Hindrastar stubbornly shoved her face into Knightly's chest, pushing and pushing. Only then did Knightly notice her existence. She lifted a hand and shoved Hindrastar's head aside.
"Hey!"
But Knightly immediately forgot about her and went back to staring at Dian in a daze.
What's going on? Why are the veterans reacting to Professor Dian like that? That means they know each other. How would they have even met?
Professor Dian had said he'd lived in Brunswell for ten years. That would have been right after the war ended, so if he knew these veterans, it would have to have been during the war itself. Had Professor Dian fought in the recapture of Ivronik Castle?
Suddenly, Knightly recalled something he'd said last time, on the way back from capturing the troll. That he was friends with Sir Linus. That they'd done all sorts of things together. At the time, she'd assumed he was telling an outrageous lie just to mess with her. But watching him now with the veterans, she found herself entertaining a thought she could barely believe: maybe it was true.
But that really doesn't make any sense... Why would someone that important be working as a mere Chief Professor at an academy?
Seeing Knightly's confusion, Hindrastar immediately read the mood and grinned.
"You... you're curious about what the Chief Professor used to do, aren't you?"
"Do you know something?"
Hindrastar's grin widened.
"I know a few things. You'll probably faint from shock if I tell you."
"Hmm, is that so? Let's hear it, then."
"That guy was the one hunting me down during the war."
Knightly stared at her.
"Why would the Chief Professor have been hunting you during the war?"
"I'm actually a dragon, you see—"
"Bullshit."
"Hey! I wasn't finished!"
Knightly walked off with a sigh, and Hindrastar shouted after her, chasing her down.
Meanwhile, Morton and several of the Combat Department professors had been watching the same scene.
"He really did serve here, then. It wasn't just empty boasting."
At Lina's words, Morton quietly stroked his beard, lost in thought.
There were quite a few things that didn't add up if you just called him an ordinary veteran. For someone who'd participated in the recapture of Ivronik Castle, Professor Dian was far too intact. He really did seem to have been a special task force member rather than a regular soldier.
But had there even been any special task force activity at Ivronik Castle worth mentioning? Aside from Sir Linus personally climbing the cliff and opening the gates, nothing else came to mind. You could assume special task force units had been deployed and all of them had failed — but then how on earth was Professor Dian standing there with all four limbs intact?
It felt like a crucial link in the chain had gone missing somewhere in the middle. But Morton didn't dare guess what that link was. No — more precisely, he had guessed. He simply couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.
Could the records have been fabricated...? What if it wasn't Sir Linus, but Professor Dian who'd done it...? Or the two of them together...?
If you said Sir Linus had led Dian — then a special task force member — up the cliff, the pieces more or less fit. Sir Linus had a history of special task force work himself, after all. Then why hadn't Professor Dian appeared at the forefront of history? Obviously because the Imperial Palace had concentrated every spotlight on Sir Linus. There wouldn't have been any room for a mere special task force member like Professor Dian.
Had Professor Dian really climbed that cliff alongside Sir Linus...?
Unlike Morton, who was lost in grim speculation on his own, the other professors reacted positively, each in their own way. Lina wiped away tears like the other female professors, and Waiver and Orendi were deeply moved as well. These were the types who took the good with the good.
Brog and Kazadar were nowhere to be seen. Genev just stood silently in the castle's shadow, and nobody had any idea what he was thinking. Professor Anna scratched her head by herself, muttering that the grass in the courtyard looked like excellent quality and would make a fine pasture. She had no interest in anything that wasn't a horse.
Plenty of other students had witnessed Dian's reunion with the veterans, but hardly anyone questioned it or thought about it deeply. The rumors that circulated were completely baseless: that the silver-tongued Professor Dian had said something like "thank you for your service" and "we're grateful," and the veterans had gotten emotional; or that Professor Dian had come here on volunteer work in the past.
These were young students who'd grown up hearing the legends of Sir Linus since they were little. To them, the hero of the recapture of Ivronik Castle was Sir Linus, and the idea that someone else might have helped him was something they couldn't even begin to imagine.
After they'd finished touring everything, including the mural of Sir Linus inside the castle, Professor Ismera led the students out. The morning's guided tour was over, and now they were heading down to eat their packed lunches before the return trip.
As she loaded the students onto the lift one by one alongside the other professors, Ismera suddenly felt a surge of anger.
Where on earth has that so-called Principal disappeared to? She's been missing this whole time! Wait a second. Now that I look, the Combat Chief Professor is gone too? These two dumped all the work on me and went off somewhere together to do what, exactly?!
Furious, Ismera left the scene to the other professors and stormed back toward the castle, fuming.
"Oho, the pointy-eared professor's pissed."
Kazadar chuckled and stepped aside as he took in Ismera, who looked ready to bite someone's head off. Spotting Dian and Kirlin walking toward her from further back, Ismera strode over and snapped at them.
"What do you think you're doing right now?"
"Huh? Doing what?"
Dian blinked, and Ismera's self-control snapped.
"You are the Combat Chief Professor! If you've come on a battlefield tour, you ought to be fulfilling your duties! Dumping everything on me and taking a leisurely stroll?!"
"A stroll?"
"Nngh! There is a limit to my patience! And Principal!"
"M-me...?!"
Startled, Kirlin answered in formal speech she didn't normally use.
"Yes! Principal! I'm talking to you!"
Ismera was about to continue when a guide came rushing over from the other side.
"Excuse me! Teacher! Teacher!"
The guide planted himself in front of Dian, blocking him, and Ismera, unable to finish what she'd been saying, found herself stepping back in confusion.
"You've finally come."
The guide took Dian's hand, and Ismera's eyes went wide, completely at a loss as to what was happening.
"Our veterans have been waiting for you, sir."
"Ah, well... you really don't need to say things like that."
Dian glanced around with an awkward expression.
"The reason they've been working here, in a place filled with such terrible memories, was all because of that. Because they believed you'd come back someday."
The guide shook Dian's hand as he went on.
"At first I thought they were talking about Sir Linus, but they insisted that wasn't it. They can't speak, so we couldn't communicate perfectly, but they said there was someone else. Honestly, even this morning I didn't believe it..."
Overwhelmed with emotion, the guide couldn't continue for a moment.
"Thank you for coming. Now, at last, the veterans can find some peace. And this..."
The guide held out a heavy pouch.
"It's what the veterans have been setting aside, little by little, from their wages all this time. It's not much, but it's from the heart..."
"Eek!? Don't give me that!"
Dian flailed both hands, hastily refusing it.
"I didn't come here for something like this. Please tell them — just living well is more than enough repayment. Anyway, I'll be going!"
Dian grabbed Kirlin's wrist and fled out of the castle.
Wh-what is this situation...?
Bewildered, Ismera watched Dian recede into the distance, then turned to the guide to ask what on earth that had been about.
"Excuse me, what just happened?"
But the guide was already heading back into the castle, sniffling and wiping at his eyes.
"Professor Ismera! Hurry up! This is the last lift!"
She was about to follow when the professors called out to her from the opposite direction. Caught in the middle, Ismera eventually turned her steps toward the lift.
What was that just now...?
