Episode 140. The Eve of the Storm (1)
There is not much time left until the election.
Despite such a momentous event being scheduled, the atmosphere at the Academy seemed far from cold.
The reason was because the cherry blossoms were starting to fully bloom.
Recently, the pink wind has started to blow. People are drawn to the hazy scenery and are giving up the fighting spirit they worked so hard to build up.
Although this is an unusual scene for this situation, there is no need to view it negatively. The students who were suffering from extreme tension naturally felt better.
But it couldn’t be all good for everyone, because ‘that sight’ that comes to mind first when thinking of spring was finally starting to unfold.
‘I’m already losing my appetite.’
Student cafeteria.
The cadets sitting at the table were busy doing something other than eating.
Most of them were sitting in pairs, one man and one woman, and they were showing affection by feeding each other food or wiping each other’s mouths with napkins.
‘If you’re at a restaurant, you should at least eat. Are you all in your right mind?’
I’m so shocked that I’m sticking my tongue out. I should just ignore those guys and eat.
Finally, my seat was incomparably more luxurious than theirs. It was an open-plan table with a gold border.
Since it was a high-class table that only Class A could use, the menu was also unparalleled.
-Fried croquettes with mozzarella cheese, available only in the western part of the continent, added to the dough.
-Golden fried rice, made by flipping a goose egg over and mixing it with the hands of a first-class craftsman.
-Finally, a drink made from the juice of peaches that only grow on cliff trees and carbonated drinks.
Anyone who saw this overwhelmingly delicious meal was sure to find it to be the food of a large academy’s elite students.
No need to turn a blind eye to the cringe-worthy antics taking place at the ubiquitous table across the street.
That was the same reaction from the women sitting at this table with me.
“I told you that it always happens at this time. All the classmates who used to gather around me left because of that.”
Jenny rests her elbows on the table and supports the ball in her hand, speaking boredly.
Until last year, it was difficult to look favorably on the reason why many of his fellow cadets had disappeared.
“It’s already April. Most animals also enter their breeding season around April. I guess humans are the same kind of animals. Yum yum…”
Ruska spoke calmly and took a bite of her food.
Considering what the spawning season is, I think that’s a pretty dangerous comparison.
“Hahahaha! It’s love! It’s romance! Pink light, swallow up the world!~”
Mary, no matter what I did, the girl never changed.
I guess people will still be this excited when the end of the world comes.
It’s been five days since I last saw them.
They had gone into the mountains to train, incited by the guards and to make up for their lack of strength.
Since the main character, Lyman, accompanied them, they were stronger than before.
I could tell because I was still looking at it with my own eyes.
‘I wonder who the main characters are.’
It can’t be helped that they grow so quickly.
In the first place, it would be strange not to become stronger when you have the chance to gain the power of a powerful person who has lived for 300 years.
And Lyman would not just teach them, but sometimes he would come down from the mountain himself, leaving behind clones.
The purpose is to investigate the suspicious Jason Barkel and his bodyguards.
No matter how much you keep the secret, it’s destined to come out in a mess when Lyman starts investigating.
-On election day, Jason and his guards will spread the carcinogenic rumors they have been building up in front of the entire school.
‘As expected, the Munchkin protagonist is on a different level. At that time, I can just sit and quietly watch.’
Plus, they’re scheduled to have a rematch with the Royal Guard that day.
There, you will be able to fully demonstrate the skills you have developed through training.
“Radon, was Instructor Jason harassing you while we were away?”
Jenny put down her food and said, “I can’t help but worry about other students like me since I’ve read most of the guy’s thoughts.
“Don’t worry. That’s never happened.”
“Really? Even on my days off, he’s the one who forces me to come and train me harshly.”
Only a crazy person could do something like that.
But Jason can do it. In the main story, he recruits all the second-year combat students during this holiday season and trains them again.
It’s just a waste of time and doesn’t help with training. He just enjoys seeing other people’s miserable expressions.
If a cadet does not show up, it will be considered as disobeying the order, and their reputation in the mountains will fall into the abyss.
Even if you want to inform the higher-ups, Jason has come by order of the Emperor. Touching him recklessly is an act of disobeying the Emperor’s order.
If necessary, it is also possible to silence the cadets.
But he didn’t have the luxury of managing his students right now.
“What Radon said is true. He was away from school the whole holiday.”
Angela, sitting next to me, twitched her beast ears as she spoke.
I almost forgot she was there too.
“Why?”
“I don’t know the exact reason, but they say he went to Mount Purgatory to pick flowers.”
I got the information through the priests who followed me around.
That information left everyone present dumbfounded.
“Flowers? Could it be that that human is also intoxicated by the spring breeze?”
Ruska said, looking at the cadets grumbling on the other side.
Was that person someone close to flowers? No matter how much I thought about it, it didn’t fit.
“And I think I’ve been going to the infirmary often since I took over.”
“Good room?”
After hearing Angela’s words, they thought, ‘No way…’
If it really is ‘that professor’, there will be someone who will explode.
“You really can’t?”
“How could that be?”
“Hahahaha! It’s a battle of love! From now on, let’s kill each other!”
Mary, please stay still.
At that moment, a mysterious shadow appeared in front of our table.
“….”
They collectively stopped as the green hair brushed past the table.
Because she is known to be the one controlling the infamous Jason.
“Excuse me.”
Nevia Cromag spoke sheepishly and tried to pass by.
The moment you break through that gap…
“Don’t you have anything to say to us?”
My feet stopped at the words Ruska fired.
Even though we didn’t see each other’s faces, an atmosphere of chills began to flow.
It was Ruska who broke the silence.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
“….”
It was when I stopped by Kreuz while on an external mission.
Even with Angela’s warning, communication wasn’t completely broken.
However, as the warning was not in vain, his temper was no joke.
“At that time, I felt so uncomfortable that I wondered if I was really a saint. Unlike Angela, you were a saint born from a pure human being.”
“….”
“It’s not that I don’t understand. There was a time when I didn’t know the ways of the world.”
There is a reason for becoming bad. Ruska said that because he knows it well.
“What’s the point?”
At Nebia’s soft question… Ruska shot back even more sharply.
“You’d better stop talking nonsense. The Royal Guard you trust in will be finished soon.”
Ruska warns, dropping the honorifics.
The moment I heard those words, a scene flashed through my mind.
In this equally threatening scene, we can see Nebia’s playful smile, along with her arrogant reply, “Do whatever you want.”
“Do whatever you want.”
An answer that doesn’t seem to be much different from the main story.
But the big difference was that he answered with a completely composed look, rather than one that looked down on people.
It was a stark contrast to the main story, where he harbored ambitions to rule over everything.
“I guess you plan on being like that until the end.”
Ruska took it as a provocation after hearing only the words.
The rest were the same, but Angela looked at Nebia intently as if something was strange.
Unlike her sisters, she seemed to know another side of Nebia.
* * * * *
There were very few professors stationed on campus during this holiday season.
Professor Stella, as a medical officer, is stationed in the infirmary for a long time.
There are also many professors who are stationed due to personal reasons or ambitions, Jason Barkel being a notable example.
“What brings you to a place like this, Professor Radian?”
Jason came to the middle of the forest at the request of Professor Radian.
The sound of laughter is faintly heard, not far away. In that quiet place, one overflowing with human malice speaks.
“You’re not trying to interfere with my work again, are you?”
“What are you doing? Are you trying to talk nonsense to my assistant, Adela?”
“Haha! You must have had delusions while I wasn’t looking.”
He was trying to meet and talk to Adela, but he was caught by Radian and dragged away.
At that time, I was just telling her about my past.
“I told Adela not to talk nonsense.”
“I haven’t done anything in particular. Do you think… I look like an idiot who would carelessly reveal things about my time in the Black Squad?”
No matter how much you want to tell the past, a secret is a secret.
Since I am the one who carries the Emperor’s orders, I cannot let a simple mistake ruin my success.
“I want to drink with that assistant and reminisce about the past, but I really feel regretful.”
“You’re saying that now…!”
Radian frowned and shouted at Jason, who was so proud of the subject of killing her parents.
He even says that with a smile.
He is a guy who makes you question whether he is human or not, then or now.
“Honestly, it’s you, Professor, who I don’t understand. Don’t you think it’s absurd for someone like you, who has no blood or tears, to be a professor in a place like this?”
Just as Radian remembers Jason, Jason also remembers Radian.
The image of him always having bloody hands is engraved in my mind in a positive way.
Radian was a very impressive being.
“The one who has killed more people than me is none other than the professor… no, the director.”
That’s why I once admired Radian.
How can they be so good at killing bugs (humans)?
He was a walking insecticide, and he was really charming. Until I discovered his kind heart.
“You killed a lot back then, didn’t you? Do you remember when you were subduing bandits stationed in a slum?”
“…!”
The moment he heard that sound, Radian’s eyes shook greatly.
“Since they were known to the world as thieves, they were naturally targets of subjugation. At first, the leader didn’t suspect much.”
“stop.”
“But when you actually kill them all, you realize that they were just thieves on the outside. In reality, they were just a civic group formed out of anger at the royal family’s atrocities.”
“Stop it.”
In reality, those who died were not at fault. They were known as a criminal group because of fabricated rumors.
That wasn’t the end of it. He even gave orders to massacre the entire slum under the pretext of eliminating the seeds of retaliation.
“Until then, the captain was charming. Until he stopped the slum massacre with all his might.”
“….”
Radian’s expression darkened even further. The events of the slums were a past he did not want to recall.
The Black Squad, a slaughter unit. Radian was able to be there because he believed that only evildoers could be killed.
He himself was once falsely accused of being a criminal because of a villain. If only there weren’t such guys, wouldn’t there be people like him?
He believed in the royal family with that one heart. However, after the slum incident, that belief began to crack.
“It’s really a shame, Captain. If you hadn’t stopped me then, I wouldn’t have been demoted to the lowest rank.”
Thanks to this, the slums were spared. In return, Radian was stripped naked and almost executed.
His achievements were so great that he could have been demoted.
“There is nothing to regret.”
“yes?”
Radian finally got around to saying the right thing.
“What do you think are the qualities of the Black Squad?”
“Isn’t that slaughter? No, should I call it extermination of pests?”
Even as Jason grumbled, Radian calmed himself down and said.
“Yes, your attitude is the very quality of the Black Squad. Then you must know the basics well.”
Basic stuff?
As Jason tilted his head, the answer came.
“It is unacceptable for someone without qualifications to sit in the top position. I am not qualified to be part of the Black Squad. That is why I came out.”
“….”
“The world has become so convenient. Who would have thought that someone so incompetent would be in the position of a knight commander?”
Radian’s magical power was released.
It was undoubtedly the spirit of the strong that made even the quiet atmosphere cold.
“It is not I who judges your qualities… it is the world!”
Jason responded with the same burst of magical power.
Even the sound of the waterfall was blocked by the sensation of something transparent colliding with it.
And the first one to click his tongue was Radian. This was because while this one was just pure magic, the other one was receiving some kind of support.
‘Is it a holy sword?’
Radian could see the cause.
He’s already a talented guy, so it’ll be a hassle for him to get a weapon like that.
“Oh, this is not the time to be doing this.”
Jason suddenly stopped fighting. He had forgotten something important as he was thinking about talking to Radian for the first time in a while.
“Can we go down now? There’s no point in fighting each other now.”
“….”
“Oh, and lastly, I’d like to make a suggestion…”
“What is it?”
Jason said, holding out his hand neatly.
“How about you join me again, Captain?”
“You’re talking nonsense again.”
“It may sound like that now, but you will regret it soon.”
If you talk like that, you must be plotting something.
Then Radian flatly refused.
“Do you still think I’m the same as before?”
“Even though things have changed since then, the past never disappears. There’s no way that a chief who’s covered in blood will ever be loved by anyone.”
“….”
“Then I’ll be going now. I have something important to do tonight.”
Jason left his former boss with questions left to be answered.
Because before you can accomplish your plan, there is a destiny that you must fulfill.
“What a coincidence. I also have an important engagement with someone tonight.”
Radian said, looking at his back.
The sound of the waterfall returned occasionally and began to reach Radian’s ears.
Jason, who was getting further and further away, could not hear this sweet sound.
* * * * *
That night.
Jason was hiding against the wall in his stripped-down suit.
In his hands he held a pot of recently picked magic flowers, carefully arranged in a vase.
To anyone who sees it, it looks like he’s about to propose, and he’s right.
‘The moment of final battle has finally arrived.’
When I met Radian this afternoon, he wasn’t even nervous, but now he was unusually trembling.
Right in front of the infirmary building, in the middle of the night and with no one there.
He was very restless because he was waiting for his first love, Professor Stella, next to him.
This time, I am neither a swordsman nor a knight.
Today, I will be reborn as my true self and be recognized for my existence.
As I waited with that thought in my mind… she finally came out.
The time has finally come…
‘Huh?’
Professor Stella wasn’t the only one who came out of the infirmary.
Radian, who always makes my balls twist, came out with her.
You might be wondering, ‘Why is that person there?’ but it’s possible that he’s just a patient.
But why did they both come out at the same time in the middle of the night?
And why are the two of them laughing at each other?
‘what…?’
So Jason followed them, hiding his body in the darkness.
I was confident I wouldn’t get caught, having carried out assassinations so many times in the Black Squad.
No, we have to follow them even if we get caught.
Because my manly intuition told me so.
Surviving as an Academy Fraudster
