Top Instructor of a Third-Rate Academy

183

"How is Teacher's body?"

"He is fine. Think about it. Hundreds of Holy Knights and the Saintess poured insane amounts of Holy Power into this one man to keep him alive."

"Shouldn't I go in again?"

"There is no need."

"......Is this some kind of cult? Huh?"

Rozalin glared at Sihan through narrowed eyes.

Sihan was exasperated.

"What do the savages of this primitive world know about anything? Every single indicator is normal! He is perfectly fine! So get lost!"

She got kicked out.

Rozalin spat puh onto the street.

It was a relief that he was fine, but the fact that she could not see Teacher's past again left her feeling a little wistful and disappointed.

'It is not as though I have to see it.'

Even so, she did not watch only because she wanted to — every time she did, it was as if Teacher grew stronger by connecting past and present, and in the process she could see young Teacher moments she would never otherwise know, which was kind of fun, and even if she went back in time again she could not see Teacher at those moments......

'Ugh.'

Rozalin shook her head and pulled herself together.

She knew it herself.

For some reason, whenever it came to matters concerning Teacher, she could not maintain her composure.

Especially anything related to Teacher's safety — her heart pounded so hard it was impossible to be calm.

'He must not disappear again.'

But there was a reason for it — because this was not the first time, but the second.

In this life he had nearly disappeared, but in the past life he truly had disappeared.

Ten years.

She had spent ten years without Teacher.

Even learning that Pan was her fellow disciple had come one day, nine years later.

She had barely been able to share memories of Teacher with anyone.

And now, just barely, she had come back and met him.

"You there."

"......?"

Someone called out to Rozalin, who had sunk into reverie.

Looking at his face, he appeared to be a young man in his twenties.

"I am looking for someone."

Rozalin sensed a familiar feeling from his manner of speaking.

The aura the people around her had emitted while she roamed the battlefield.

The military bearing.

"What, Imperial military?"

The man looked at the girl with a rather astonished expression.

A girl in an Academy uniform, after a mere exchange of a single line, had seen through his identity.

What kind of unreasonable intuition was that?

"That is right."

"Wow, you came at a pretty bad time."

Rozalin smiled brightly.

She was already sick to death of the Empire, and now of all places, the Imperial military had infiltrated this far in?

Rozalin slowly drew her sword.

She had already caught plenty of flak just for the Wolf King's clone having slipped in and out once — she was not about to let the Imperial military run wild too.

"Then you will just have to die."

At the clear hostility, the man's eyes also narrowed.

It was shocking enough that she had seen through his identity at a glance, but the bearing radiating from her the moment she drew her sword was no joke.

She was not someone who should be in a rural third-rate academy.

"Wait——!"

Before the man could finish his words, Rozalin's sword flew at him.

BOOM!

With an enormous impact, the man was sent flying backward.

He had barely managed to block Rozalin's attack with his sword, but the blade's condition was the worst.

Cracks ran across the entire edge, looking as though it would shatter into pieces at any moment.

"......Insane?"

The man's eyes trembled wildly.

But he was not the only one who was shocked.

Rozalin's eyes swept quickly over the man and his sword.

'I was trying to pulverize him.'

To be precise — not his sword, but the man himself.

But the sword had blocked her.

More precisely, a faint layer of Aura on his sword had blocked hers.

He was not just some random military grunt — he was a high-level swordsman at the Aura Runner level.

'Huh.'

She detected an anomaly.

With a tap, she stopped in place and let her sword hang low.

"Why have so many come?"

At least a hundred.

Giving a generous estimate...... five hundred? A thousand?

An absurd number of people were closing in fast.

The Empire had moved a force this large this quickly?

'Damn it, are they trying to exploit the moment Teacher Cassian is down?'

It was a very Imperial thing to do.

She had no intention of letting that go.

This was none other than Akarind Academy.

"Big Sister!"

At Hati's voice, people began pouring in from the opposite side of where the enemies were closing in.

At the center were the Firestorm Mercenary Guild.

Mercenaries led by Hati were heading here from Akarind Academy's main line positions.

Each was a key vantage point heading toward where Teacher Cassian was.

Around them, countless students came flooding in.

"Senior!"

"Guard Captain! We are here!"

"LadyRozalinVürhelmyouarebeautifulasalwayspleasegivemeanopportunitytoevenlickyourshoetips!"

Akarind Academy students were used to war and mortal combat.

Students more accustomed to real combat than those anywhere else in the world.

And students whose average level was higher than that of any unit in the world.

They had deep affection for Akarind Academy, and stronger still, loyalty toward key figures like Cassian and Rozalin.

Which was why, at even a commotion this small, everyone had come pouring out.

They said the other side had hundreds?

'We have thousands.'

Teacher Cassian was not getting taken.

Just as she was thinking that —

Thud. Thud.

With footsteps, a single man came walking this way.

A man of overwhelming size.

Did he have Giant blood?

He looked around two meters fifty tall, clad in heavy black armor fitted perfectly to his frame.

He looked like an Ogre wearing a proper suit of armor.

Because he wore no helmet, his long black hair tied tightly behind him was visible.

The tips of his hair had faded to white — the hair losing its black color was strangely unreal.

Perhaps due to age, wrinkles creased the corners of his eyes, and below his chin and up to his cheekbone were countless long scars.

"......Crownhardt?"

A man whose appearance itself served as a calling card.

It was Duke Crownhardt.

Maintaining his upright stance, he lowered only his eyes to look down at Rozalin.

"The daughter of Vürhelm, I see."

"I am not! I have no father!"

"You do not? I believe he is still alive."

"I just have not killed him yet!"

"Well, the Marquis Vürhelm is impressive for being alive, given his personality."

Crownhardt too had recognized Rozalin.

"Damn it, that cursed Emperor. To send a hunter from the battlefield just to catch one Teacher!"

Rozalin gritted her teeth.

Her resolve, which had loosened because she thought she had the upper hand only moments ago, tightened again.

Unlike other Imperial troops, Crownhardt was the elite of the elite — forged through endless battles with savage outlanders in the harshest terrain.

Even Duke Crownhardt alone, standing right there before her, was not a lower-ranked swordsman than she was.

The fight looked as though it would be difficult.

"You are mistaken."

Duke Crownhardt raised a hand.

At that, the men of the military bearing, who had been emitting fighting spirit only moments before, all sheathed their swords and snapped to attention.

It was a display that they had no intention to fight.

"Huh?"

"Did your teacher tell you nothing? Did your teacher go to heaven following his father too?"

"N-no? He almost did, but no?"

"I see. So he failed to share the plan. Then let me report briefly. The Crownhardt Ducal Army. Three hundred seventy-four knights. Five thousand two hundred ten soldiers. And twenty-seven thousand retainers under my command. All of the above formally request asylum into Akarind Academy City, an autonomous city under the Belmein Kingdom."

Rozalin's eyes blinked.

Hati's eyes blinked too, and so did those of the students with them.

What...... huh?

In a way uncharacteristic of him, Crownhardt smiled with one corner of his mouth lifted, as if amused.

"So escort us to this man who almost went to heaven. We are allies."

***

Queen Charlotte (real), Lord Murray, Chairman Gwen, and Rozalin, Sihan, Berlith, and Abrahal gathered in one place.

These were the core members currently making decisions at Akarind Academy.

"What? Who did Teacher Cassian bring? How many? Thirty thousand?! Is there even a place for that many people to fit in Akarind Academy City?"

"A-an army just suddenly appeared? Knights too? And a Duke? W-wait a moment. Then how does this work? The other party is not just any duke but a duke of the Empire?"

"......Since I am the Guard Captain, would they not also be my subordinates? Then I can order them around freely, right?"

"Whoaaa...... If they are ex-military, there must be one or two people who did bad things, right~? Like criminals held as hostages~. One Bonnie is starting to feel a little rough for the teaching assistant workload~"

Not a single one of those core members had properly grasped the situation.

Which was only natural.

Cassian had quietly handled his meeting with Crownhardt via Goldline Scrolls.

The Crownhardt side was no less bewildered.

"Told me to come, and now he is fast asleep. Quite the princess."

Charlotte, who had been a princess until recently, flinched.

In her mind, a protest of "Not every princess is this idle!" rose up, but Duke Crownhardt's appearance was too intimidating to say that out loud.

"So, thirty thousand, you said? That is a lot. Well, we can accommodate thirty thousand easily."

Only Sihan could lead the atmosphere without any agitation.

Thirty thousand was indeed a large number.

But he had come from a world where roughly ten million people lived packed into a single city.

Approximately six hundred fifty thousand people lived in the Songpa district alone.

At a subway transfer station, an average of one hundred fifty thousand people passed through per day.

Thirty thousand?

In the Academy City he had designed, that was a population it could easily accommodate.

No — rather, the more people, the better.

Throughout history, as machines and technology advanced, they needed more human components.

"You managed to leave the Empire somehow. And the military stationed at the border at that. Is the Empire's situation that bad?"

At Sihan's question, an adjutant next to Duke Crownhardt stepped forward.

She was a woman with a short, jaw-length bob cut and round glasses.

A sharp-eyed impression, in a well-tailored uniform — someone who looked meticulous.

"I will begin the briefing. Currently, the Empire has split into five factions."

"Five?"

"First, the factions of the imperial grandchildren. The faction led by the eldest prince and Crown Prince, Britora Lionheart. The faction led by the fourth princess, Sheina Lionheart. And a third faction led by Colleo Lionheart — son of the second prince, and grandson of the Emperor."

The Akarind-side people nodded.

These were names one heard at least once when discussing the Empire's power succession.

In particular, Sheina Lionheart was the one who had cleaned up Leferil's affair.

Which meant Sheina's faction included the Magic Tower.

"The other two?"

"One is the resistance forces within the Empire. The Wolf King is expanding his influence and rallying people who had been living in silence under Imperial rule."

The Wolf King was steadily fragmenting the Empire from within.

It was not as though he had an exact territory of his own, but wherever he swept through, there were no longer any Imperial territories either.

"And the final one is the Emperor."

The Emperor.

At that name, the weight on the gathered people grew a little heavier.

"The Captain of the Lionheart Knights, Perdius de Lionheart. And the Emperor. The elders of the Empire led by these two are sweeping through the Empire."

"Sweeping through, you say?"

"They are crossing the Empire without any particular destination, subjugating all they encounter."

It was a natural disaster like a tornado.

Men who should have been dying in the Imperial palace were crossing the Empire and annihilating all they met.

At the adjutant's signal, several soldiers unfurled a massive map.

A strategic map depicting the entire Empire in simplified form.

The adjutant picked up several pins and marked the Emperor's path.

"......Hmm."

Rozalin's eyes traced the map with serious focus.

"Northwest."

"You know how to read a map? Vürhelm teaches strange things. Or is this what they teach at Akarind?"

She had climbed to Grand General of the Empire in her past life.

Of course she could read a map.

"You must have destroyed about two factions on the way there."

"Part of the resistance, and Colleo Lionheart's faction, have been annihilated."

Rozalin recalled Perdius's image once more.

If that old man swung his sword, annihilation was the obvious outcome.

Since they were going to fight anyway, it would have been nice if he had gone and exchanged mutually destructive blows with the Wolf King.

As she was thinking that, she recalled the final memory from that moment.

"There."

Sihan seemed to have had a similar thought and nodded.

"There. That is where the aura of the demon summoner was felt. Those two are pursuing the demon summoner."

"Just the two of them?"

Even as she said it, her heart was uneasy.

If it was that old man Perdius, surely he could take down the demon summoner.

"But — do we actually need to catch them?"

Just then, Sihan scratched his chin and asked.

"That is the one who summons demons, right? Why not subdue him, make him summon the demons I want, kill them, and extract only the Fantasies?"

In the world Sihan had come from, there was a web novel genre called "hunter stories."

In that genre, even for a gate that had produced thousands or tens of thousands of victims, if the byproducts excavated there were valuable, the clearing would be delayed.

They regarded monsters as magical wands that produced byproducts without any resource cost, and bourgeois hunters who exploited proletariat monsters amassed fortunes worth tens of billions.

So the idea of "using" a demon summoner was not particularly new.

Of course, everyone looked at Sihan as though to ask what kind of demonic thinking this was.

"How could you come up with such a demonic idea, worthy only of Teacher Cassian......"

Sihan was a little miffed.