Chapter 511: Episode 511
The morning of the third day of the mission evaluation dawned. With Nirti’s death, the war with the ’Order’ was over. Simon had seized control of the Gold Mine Dungeon and safely evacuated the people inside. He had captured some members of the Order for information, but all of them died when internal devices activated and blew their heads off. One of the conditions for joining the Order, it seemed, was to have such a device implanted.
’What do they think of human life?’ Seeing them go to such lengths to silence their own only soured his victory. He was genuinely curious about the identity of the ’Elder’ Nirti had mentioned.
Lorraine contacted trustworthy agents from Kizen headquarters, and the post-incident cleanup would begin as soon as they arrived. Before they did, Simon completely looted Nirti’s lab, securing all of her classified data. As expected, it was written in a strange, indecipherable language. He had his legion take half of the materials and handed the other half to Lorraine and the incoming Kizen team.
There was a limit to what he could do with his own information network, and Kizen would undoubtedly be gathering every scrap of data they could to decipher it. Lorraine promised to share any breakthroughs with him.
Afterward, the Gold Mine Dungeon was sealed. It felt like a waste, but it was a place where terrible things had happened, and he had no desire for Kizen to learn about the 7th Legion. It was the right decision.
The next problem was the matter of Tarados’s new lord. The residents acclaimed General Armin for the position, and Lorraine even offered to personally secure permission from the Dark Alliance.
But Armin shook his head.
"I am a sinner. Even though I helped the residents from behind the scenes, the fact that I was manipulated as the lord’s puppet does not change."
To that, Lorraine coolly shook her head.
"If you truly consider yourself a sinner, General, shouldn’t you be the one to take responsibility for this land of Tarados that no one else wants to rule?"
She was right. What noble from the Alliance would truly work for the sake of this place? The downfall of Tarados had begun, after all, when an outsider lord had colluded with an outside force.
"For the sake of the people of Tarados, to take responsibility from the highest position and work yourself to death—I believe that is the greatest form of atonement," she finished.
General Armin bowed his head deeply. Persuaded by her words, he finally agreed to accept the position of lord.
"Lorraine," Simon said quietly.
"What?"
"You sounded just like the head of the Dark Alliance back there."
"Don’t tease me." She turned her head, embarrassed by his joke, but a small smile touched her lips.
As for the Ganes Guild, with the death of their leader, the thieves completely disbanded and scattered. Amidst the chaos, the thief captain ’Karak’ and his men, who proclaimed themselves to be part of the pro-Serne faction, caused a ruckus.
"We will follow our queen to the ends of the continent!" Karak declared.
"Ooooh!" his men roared.
At that, Serne raised the corners of her lips into a smirk.
"I don’t need you anymore, so get lost," she cooed.
Karak wailed like a man who had just been dumped. The Karak Family, thus abandoned, apparently gave up thievery to work as freelance mercenaries.
Finally, Simon wrote a letter.
"Lorraine, is there any way to contact the Dresden Kingdom?"
"It’s no problem if we use the headquarters’ communication network," she replied. "Why?"
"There’s something I need to deliver urgently."
---
In the Dresden Royal Palace, the Minister of State, Duke Perutz, was frantically packing his belongings. After grabbing documents and haphazardly stuffing them into a bag, he hurriedly put on his overcoat.
"Gasp! Hah!"
"Damn it! Damn it!"
A new message had just arrived. Kizen had made its move, Nirti had been defeated, and Tarados had been liberated. And the one who had been in closest contact with the Tarados branch was none other than himself. If even a single piece of evidence pointing to him fell into Kizen’s hands, his life was over.
’That Nirti woman! She was acting anxious the whole time, and in the end, she failed!’
There was a meeting at the palace in two hours, but he had to get out of the country first. He grabbed his hat and was about to leave his office when—
’Bang!’
The door was kicked open, and the palace guards swarmed in, pointing their spears at him.
Perutz’s mind went blank, but he forced himself to pull it together and raised his voice.
"Wh-Where do you think you are, barging in like this! Who sent you!"
"I sent them, Duke Perutz."
A girl in a gray school uniform skirt entered the room, her skirt fluttering. The moment he saw her, Perutz let out a choked gasp.
"Pr-Princess Molly...!"
It was the kingdom’s youngest princess, Molly Dresden, who had recently entered Kizen as a special admission student.
"I was in the middle of a mission evaluation with my new friends, but I rushed right over when I heard the news," she said, sweeping her hair back, her face genuinely enraged. "I heard everything from the Student Council President. A public official colluded with a group called the Order in Tarados, ignored the suffering of the residents, and used his authority to block all news from reaching the kingdom. Is that right?"
Duke Perutz’s lips trembled as he shook his head.
"Th-This is a conspiracy! It’s nothing but slander from opposing nobles who want to remove me!"
Molly gave a cold smile and waved a piece of evidence in front of his face.
"You burned all the documents from Tarados, didn’t you? I managed to salvage a few pages from the incinerator at your residence before they were destroyed. To ignore the voices of the people like this!"
"Y-You...!"
The duke, trembling with fury, turned and tried to throw himself out the window. Molly swiftly raised her index finger. It was a new technique she had secretly learned from a school senior.
<’Leg Down’>
A curse latched onto the duke’s legs as he ran, and he lost his balance, falling with a crash. The guards immediately rushed over, pinned him down with their knees, and tied his hands.
"Oh..." the necromancer who had come with Molly muttered in admiration, canceling the binding spell he had been preparing. "A-Amazing, Your Highness! You’re starting to look like a proper Kizen student—"
"Be quiet," Molly snapped.
"Y-Yes, ma’am."
Showing no joy from successfully casting her first curse in a real situation, Molly panted with rage and glared at the duke as he was arrested.
"How could you ruin the image of Dresden that we’ve worked so hard to build!"
She was ashamed. Ashamed that such a terrible thing had been happening within her kingdom’s territory and that she had known nothing about it. And the fact that the one who had uncovered the kingdom’s failure and saved its people was none other than the Student Council President, Simon Polentia—the very person she had been working so hard to recruit.
’What if Simon thinks badly of Dresden now?’
The thought made her mouth go dry. Seeing the duke struggling and shouting his innocence as he was dragged away, she roared, "You won’t die a peaceful death, Duke Perutz!"
---
The revelation that the Minister of State had been colluding with the ’Order’ caused a bloody storm to sweep through the Dresden Royal Palace. The kingdom tried to interrogate Perutz, but he too died when his head exploded. The palace’s elite ’Black Knights’ pieced together servants’ stories to investigate the duke’s movements and descended into the palace basement, which he had frequented.
In the deepest part of the sewers beneath the palace, the stench of rotting corpses was overwhelming. The bones of all sorts of monsters were scattered on the ground, and the Black Knights discovered traces of a Teleportation Magic Circle. It was likely that ’something horrible’ had been lurking in the sewers, feeding on monsters. Before the Black Knights arrived, the Order must have already moved it away.
The kingdom did not take this lightly. They decided to cooperate with Kizen and dispatch necromancers throughout the country to hunt down the members of the Order.
Meanwhile, after getting enough rest in the village of Tarados, Simon decided to return to Kizen early. Lorraine stayed behind to focus on the cleanup, and Serne headed to the Ivory Tower, saying she was going home for a bit.
"Thank you so much for saving Tarados."
"Thank you, Simon," Lisa said warmly, her brother standing beside her.
On his way to the teleportation circle, he was seen off by Lisa, her brother, the coachman who had driven him around, and the many people he had saved. Even General Armin canceled his lord appointment ceremony and rushed to see him off.
"You don’t have to bow so low," Simon said, waving his hand with a smile. "I came to Tarados for my own purposes, too. Our interests just happened to align."
"Haha! Such humble words!"
"You are the hero who saved hundreds of thousands of us!"
"We will never forget you!"
The residents were already preparing to erect a statue of Simon in Tarados. Simon, his face bright red, broke out in a sweat, insisting they absolutely must not.
"And General Armin... no, Lord Armin," he said, turning to the new leader.
"Yes, please speak."
"Nirti was a monster created by her grudge against Tarados."
"Yes, I heard..." the general replied somberly. "They said she was the daughter of the adventurers who were killed by the residents after conquering the Gold Mine Dungeon."
General Armin hadn’t been present for the Gold Mine Dungeon incident; he had been appointed after the new lord arrived, making him technically an outsider. However, he said that now that he was lord, he felt a sense of responsibility for what happened back then.
"This experience has taught me that terrible misfortune can turn people into monsters," Simon continued. "There’s no guarantee that a second Nirti won’t appear in Tarados." He held out his hand. "I hope that from now on, no one has to suffer so unjustly and senselessly. Please take good care of the territory."
General Armin clasped Simon’s hand and bowed his head.
"I will uphold your noble wishes with my life and soul!"
---
Simon returned safely to Kizen.
He released the Ancient Undead in Pier’s ruins and, as soon as he returned to the Summoning Department dormitory, dove into bed.
’Haaaah.’
He stared blankly at the ceiling. Sleep wouldn’t come, but his mind was numb, likely from everything he’d gone through during the mission.
"Toto isn’t back yet."
The mission evaluation was four days long, and today was only the third. That meant he had free time until tomorrow.
Simon’s arms trembled with sheer joy.
"I’ll rest well today, and starting tomorrow..."
A broadcast announcement crackled to life from the hallway.
"Student Council President, Simon Polentia. Student Council President, Simon Polentia. Please proceed to Professor Jane’s laboratory immediately. That is all."
But the Student Council President could afford no such leisure.
---
Simon retrieved his Student Council President’s coat from the student council room, slipped it on, and made his way to Jane’s laboratory. He cleared his throat, straightened his tie, and smoothed his shirt before knocking politely.
"Professor Jane. It’s Simon."
"Come in."
Simon eased the door open and stepped inside. Sunlight streamed into the room, illuminating Jane as she scribbled with a quill, her brow furrowed in concentration. As usual, she was battling a mountain of paperwork.
"Professor, you called for me?" he asked.
"Yes." Jane gestured toward the sofa. "Have a seat."
"Ah, of course."
Simon sat, instinctively straightening his back and placing his clenched fists on his knees as he waited in silence. The only sound was the dry scratch of her quill against parchment. An inexplicable tension began to coil in his gut.
’What did she call me here to talk about?’
He assumed she wanted a direct report on the Tarados incident. He mentally rehearsed his story one last time, carefully delineating what he could and could not say, checking for any inconsistencies or contradictions. A woman like Jane would see through a flimsy lie in an instant.
Nearly ten minutes passed in silence. Finally, Jane signed the last document, set down her quill, and looked up.
"Student Council President."
Simon stiffened. She had used his title, not his name. This was likely an official matter, completely unrelated to his classes.
"Yes, Professor!"
"I was considering taking another student, but I am glad you returned early. Prepare to leave." Jane rose from her seat and slipped on her overcoat. "There is a place the two of us must go."
"Wh-where?"
She tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable. "We are going to escort this year’s transfer students to Kizen."
Simon’s eyes widened.
’Transfer students?’