Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Always Watching (2)
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Neptune Harbor, the northernmost port of the Holy Kingdom of Aegis.
Neptune Harbor was the only place from which one could safely navigate the treacherous and stormy sea routes, with the Aegis Academy visible to the naked eye.
There, a woman was screaming at a crowd of gathered people, veins bulging in her neck.
“A death has occurred, hasn’t it? A body has been found, so it’s a crime! Why won’t you let us go!?”
Leading the charge and unleashing her fury was Julia Anne Smith, the new inspector in charge of security in the Neptune district.
This woman in her forties, wearing a black frock coat and a matching bowler hat, didn’t care that her tightly bound orange hair was coming loose as she insisted on setting sail.
She was well aware of the North Sea’s fickle weather, which changed by the minute, but that didn’t mean she could just sit idly by while a murder had taken place at the Aegis Academy.
“Calm down.”
A pot-bellied old fisherman in his sixties grabbed Julia’s arm as she tried to untie the ropes mooring the ship to the pier.
“Doing this is obstructing official duties! You think you’ll get away with it?”
“Well, I don’t think that’s for Inspector Smith to decide.”
His rough, iron-like hands spoke of how harshly he had lived at sea.
This veteran of veterans, who had sent countless family members, friends, and comrades to rest in the ocean, was refusing to let them cross.
The North Sea storm known as [The Capricious Whims of the North Sea] was approaching.
No ships could set out for at least the next two weeks.
“Every year around this time.”
The old fisherman looked at Julia Anne Smith, who was grunting as she gripped the rope with her other arm, and spoke.
“Something always happens at the Aegis Academy.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said. Around the time winter arrives and [The Capricious Whims of the North Sea] blows in, something always goes down at that strange academy.”
Sometimes in autumn, sometimes in early winter or late winter.
Whenever the irregular but recurring sea typhoon season began, bad news would fly in from the Aegis Academy.
Escaped cadets, deaths, suicides...
But after the bad news came, the storm would strike as if on cue, cutting off all access from the mainland.
“So we just wait for the storm to pass? How do we know when it’ll end? No, even before that—is that any way to talk? Bad news always arrives before the storm...”
Julia scowled fiercely at the old fisherman’s words and pressed him.
“No one knows if the events truly happen then, or if the news just arrives after the season has passed.”
-Whiiiiiish...
A sharp wind howled in from the distant sea, slicing through the air like a blade.
At that moment, the massive island floating alone beyond the horizon was sinking into darkness.
‘A shadow?’
It looked as if a massive black bird had enveloped the entire island where the Aegis Academy stood on Hazard Island, swallowing it in ominous shadow.
‘No, just clouds.’
She had lived her whole life in inland cities and had only been posted to this coastal city six months ago.
The locals’ clannishness hadn’t been as bad as expected, and the food and climate suited her, so she’d had smooth days.
But now, that peace felt like a lie, as a bad ‘gut feeling’ washed over her.
“Fine, let go.”
“Promise you won’t jump into the sea.”
“I won’t.”
Only then did the old fisherman reluctantly release Julia’s arm.
Strange weather, a strange town, and a strange island.
Julia pondered deeply what might happen at the Aegis Academy two weeks from now, after the local Neptune winter storm passed.
***
Three days after the diary incident, in the early dawn hours.
I visited the Wooden Cross Class’s departmental building for the first time in nearly ten days to submit my hand-signed winter semester attendance confirmation form.
It was very early, and since classes had officially ended, there were no followers who revered me as the [Executor of Aegis] crowding around, so I could move about relatively carefree.
I had even planned to call Cookie if they swarmed me in a circle, but thankfully that wasn’t necessary.
“Still, this is impressive. They fixed it up so neatly.”
The floor that Shirley and I had collapsed while killing the chimera wolf during my blackout had been restored almost perfectly.
Thanks to permission to use magic, a few hired carpenters and some cadets from the Crown of Thorns Class had worked together to repair it to nearly its original state.
‘I offered to cover the repair costs, but Sir Reynolds refused.’
In a way, Sir Reynolds’s judgment was the natural one.
In a situation where an unmarked beast had rampaged at the academy, causing over ten injuries, it would be utterly undignified to charge a victim cadet for repairs.
Moreover, upon hearing that I had run out of ammunition in the fight, Sir Reynolds had personally supplied me with more.
That must be what they mean by the gravitas of an adult.
“Anyway, I wouldn’t have felt good if it had stayed in ruins. Glad it’s fixed.”
Seeing the neatly repaired departmental building with my own eyes eased some of the burden on my mind.
I’d had so many nagging worries lately that I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
I slowed my steps unnecessarily, looking around to check for any poorly repaired spots.
That’s when it happened.
Noisy voices came from the departmental building, which I thought would be empty.
“Hup— hup!”
“It looks like rain’s about to pour! Let’s stack the materials here for now and cover them with tarps.”
The sounds came from the back garden of the departmental building—the rearmost and most secluded area, which led to my shooting range.
‘What’s going on?’
The back garden was sparsely populated and had a very eerie atmosphere, with no facilities besides the shooting range, so it wasn’t a place for people.
“What the heck is this?”
The sky was overcast as if rain would pour any second, but the unnatural commotion bothered me, so I headed to the back garden.
Strangely, about a dozen cadets from the Crown of Thorns Class and the Black Lily Class had gathered there, acting suspiciously.
They all wore helmets, holding blueprints and saws, huddled together with serious expressions, discussing something.
“Don’t come closer—it’s dangerous.”
Curious, I approached the suspicious group, only for a helmeted hired worker to block me.
Through the gaps in his arms, I saw a fence marked “No Entry.”
“Ah, okay. But what are you doing here?”
“It was posted on the main building bulletin board, but I guess you didn’t see. We’re compacting the ground for the guardian statue.”
“Guardian statue? First I’ve heard of it.”
I’d been bedridden for days, and with the final exams canceled, I hadn’t gone to the main building, so I hadn’t checked the bulletin board.
When I replied with a puzzled look, the worker explained.
“Several beast rampages have been observed. We’re installing a holy power-based guardian statue to ward off unauthorized visitors with evil attributes and establish a new defense system.”
“Evil attributes only? What about just ‘unauthorized visitors’?”
“For civilians, we won’t attack immediately due to risk of friendly fire, but an alarm will sound.”
The worker finished explaining, bowed politely, and returned to the site.
Hearing that, I noticed the piled stones and tools were magical engineering items designed for magic-based construction.
As I mulled over his words, a sudden realization flashed through my mind.
‘Maybe the guardian angel too.’
If the defense system is set up, perhaps the guardian angel circling me would naturally be repelled?
The current guardian angel didn’t seem to match the level described in the original story.
Even though it had slain the chimera blessed by the demon in one blow—a chimera that neither my gun nor Shirley’s spear could pierce.
I thought of the guardian angel possibly hiding somewhere watching me, then quickened my pace.
Maybe I could accidentally drive it away. With that faint hope.
But it didn’t take long to realize how naive that thought was.
.
.
.
-Boom! Rumble!
“Eek, w-what?!”
“Michelle got struck by lightning! Get the insulated gloves!”
Screams rang out.
A lightning bolt accompanying the winter downpour that had just started struck one of the cadets gathered for the guardian statue installation.
“A-are you okay?!”
It had taken about 15 minutes from submitting the signed form to returning here.
In that short time, the construction site was devastated.
The first lightning hit the wet stones, causing the initial damage, and the next struck a nearby cadet, inflicting the second.
Pushing through the cold winter rain, I hurried over, only to see late-arriving workers hastily make a stretcher from tarps and planks to lay the electrocuted cadet on.
-Shoooaaa...
Two Black Lily Class cadets hurriedly carried the stretcher away.
The remaining cadets stared in stunned silence at the shattered stones and tools burned and snapped by the fire.
“The rain’s getting heavier, and the thunder seems like it’ll keep going! Let’s call it here for today!”
The workers quickly dispersed the cadets standing dazed in the rain.
I too was pushed away by one of the workers and had to leave the area.
In that brief moment of being shoved, the horrific state of the back garden came into view...
‘Damn. Damn. Damn!’
It was as if it had read my mind.
The chills weren’t just from the cold winter rain.
‘Because I hoped the guardian statue would take out the guardian angel?’
If not, what was this coincidence?
The thought filled me with an emotion—anger or fear, I couldn’t tell—making my whole body tremble.
Plunged into an inexplicable anxiety that I was being tamed by the guardian angel, I hurriedly turned toward the dormitory.
-Rumble! Boom!
The rain grew thicker, and with dark clouds rolling in just before dawn, the surroundings darkened again.
Gazing at the storm that seemed eternal, I belatedly recalled that the peculiar Neptune winter gale, [The Capricious Whims of the North Sea], had arrived.