Chapter 107 : Chapter 107
Volume 2
Chapter 31 : The Principal
“Name?”
“Muen Campbell.”
“Age?”
“Eighteen.”
“Gender?”
“...You have to ask that too?”
In the white hospital room, Muen looked at the mature woman before him, dressed in a business suit and sexy black stockings, and could not help complaining,
“Can you not tell just by looking?”
“Of course I can.”
The mature woman, who had been writing things down, raised her head, pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, and gave Muen an expressionless glance.
“But as a psychological evaluator, my task is to assess your mental state through questions like these, so please cooperate and answer properly. Thank you.”
“...Male.”
“Very good. Your basic self-recognition appears intact for the time being. Then...”
The mature woman pulled a pair of men’s boxer briefs out of a sealed bag and held them open in front of Muen.
“When you look at this, Student Muen, do you have any special thoughts?”
“...I hate it.” Muen twitched at the corner of his mouth.
“Is that so?”
The woman lowered her head and continued writing.
“The subject displays a clear aversion to male articles. There may be signs of a psychological inclination toward feminization...”
“Wait!”
Muen cut her off, staring at her in shock.
“I just hate underwear that some man has already worn. How did that turn into feminization?”
“Do ordinary men hate men’s underwear?”
A wise gleam that seemed capable of seeing through all things flashed in the woman’s glasses.
“Could it be that what you are wearing right now is women’s panties? If that is the case, then it may be even more serious. Perhaps...”
“I just hate things other people have already worn! Anyone would feel disgusted by that sort of thing, would they not?!” Muen roared.
“Is that so? My apologies. It seems I lack experience in that area.”
The woman came to a sudden realization, then lowered her head again and recorded:
“However, the subject displays obvious signs of irritability. It is unknown whether this is due to...”
“It is because of you! I am this angry because of you, you lunatic!”
“The subject displays obvious violent impulses toward the evaluator and is verbally abusive. It is recommended...” the woman continued writing.
“...”
Muen was numb.
Were all people who studied psychology this deranged now?
From this moment on, Muen decided to remain completely silent and give this woman no more chances to scribble down nonsense.
“The subject has fallen into prolonged silence, perhaps due to severe psychological trauma suffered during the previous incident. Electroshock therapy is recommended.”
“That is enough already!”
...
...
“How is he?”
Selicia looked at the mature woman who had just walked out of the room and asked,
“He is all right, is he not, Principal Hathaway?”
“Of course he is all right.”
Hathaway glanced at the paper in her hand, which she had filled with little red flowers, casually crumpled it up, and tossed it into the nearby trash bin.
“Although he suffered rather serious injuries, he has clearly received professional treatment. His spirits are full, his body is in excellent condition, and he looks perfectly capable of dating seven girls at once.”
“You know that is not what I meant,” Selicia said.
“Oh? Are you that worried about him? Is it because he is your fiancé?”
Seeing how serious Selicia looked, Hathaway teased her with great interest.
“But if I remember correctly, you used to dislike him quite a bit.”
“...”
“All right, all right, I am done joking. Staring at me like that is rather frightening, Your Highness.”
Hathaway removed her gold-rimmed glasses, revealing that beautiful face full of mature charm.
“His mind should be fine. There are no signs that he has been contaminated by an evil god.”
“You are certain?”
“Of course I am.”
Hathaway smiled.
“I spoke with him for less than ten minutes, and he glanced at my thighs at least twenty times. For an adult male, is that not a sign of extremely normal mental health?”
“...” Selicia’s gaze turned cold. “Principal Hathaway’s methods of assessing mental health are certainly... interesting.”
“All right, do not be angry. At the very least, I helped you test one thing, did I not? That boy especially likes black stockings.”
“I think you are mistaken, Principal.”
Selicia lowered her eyes.
“The only reason I am worried about him is out of my responsibility as the student council president. There are no other factors involved.”
“Oh ho, let us just say that is what you believe.”
“By the way, is your work all right, Principal Hathaway?” Selicia changed the subject.
“There is of course a problem.”
The moment work was mentioned, Hathaway’s head immediately began to ache again.
“There has been no progress at all on that side.”
“Is that difficult? I remember that your temporary reassignment was also related to an evil god, was it not?”
Selicia lifted a brow and asked,
“So can you tell me the specific situation?”
“I can tell you part of it.”
“Part of it?”
“I was transferred away for two matters. One of them is actually an imperial secret of the highest order. Everyone who knows about it must sign a silence pact, so even I cannot tell you about it, Selicia.”
“Pink Bear mentioned that to me.”
Selicia nodded. “What about the other matter?”
“The other matter...”
Hathaway thought for a moment, then said,
“This matter is not much of a secret among the Empire’s upper ranks, and it did not involve direct contact with an evil god, so it is fine to tell you.
“The situation is this: a small village by Lake Bepol was destroyed overnight.”
“Overnight?”
Selicia’s gaze tightened.
“What about the villagers?”
“They all disappeared.”
Hathaway said gravely,
“We searched the entire village from end to end. In the end, the only thing we found was a head that had only recently been buried beneath an unmarked gravestone.”
“A head?”
Selicia frowned.
Hundreds of people had vanished, yet only a single head had been left behind.
No matter how one thought about it, it was deeply strange.
“That is right. A head. A woman’s head. She was identified as a B-rank adventurer registered with the Adventurers’ Guild, though she had already filed to suspend her activities on the grounds of marriage. That village appears to have been her hometown. Later, we examined the head and confirmed that it had been contaminated by an evil god.”
“Which one?”
“Who else could it be? Naturally, it was that most active of all evil gods, the corrupting god.”
“That one again?”
Selicia’s gaze darkened.
That corrupting Love God had appeared in the academy not long ago.
“What a busy god, that corrupting god.”
“Who says otherwise? I truly do not know why an evil god has to be so diligent. It has dragged ordinary people like us into so much overtime that I am ready to cough up blood.”
Hathaway gnashed her teeth.
If she had been present at the academy when the Love God invaded, she would have carried the grand ritual on her back and torn it to pieces herself, if only to avenge the overtime it had cost her these past few days.
“But... something on this level should not have been enough to leave you so overwhelmed, Principal Hathaway.”
Selicia said in confusion,
“This may sound cold, but among the long list of major disasters caused by evil gods, the destruction of a single village would not even rank.”
“That is true. If it had merely been an ordinary case of contamination by an evil god, the higher-ups would never have sent me to deal with it. After all, the Empire does not keep those Silencers around for nothing.”
“But the problem is the contamination... was too clean.”
By the time she said this, Hathaway’s tone had already taken on a gravity even she herself had not noticed.
“The site was unnaturally clean. Apart from the contamination inside that head, we found nothing else. There were traces of battle at the scene, but we could not detect even the slightest trace of Mana. It was as though an invisible black hand had wiped everything away.”
“No Mana... then was it a warrior?”
“A mage, a warrior, even one of God's Chosen. We considered many possibilities. But with no traces and no clues, they can only remain possibilities.”
“What about investigating the identity of that adventurer whose head was found?”
“That is difficult. Adventurer is a profession with a great deal of freedom. But our investigation did reveal that her emotional relationship with the two adventurer companions she had been traveling with was somewhat complicated, and those two adventurers have also vanished completely.”
“So we suspect that those two companions may also have died in the incident, and that the complicated feelings among the three of them may have been the trigger that invited contamination from that corrupting god.
“But...”
Hathaway gave a bitter smile.
“Even knowing that is completely useless. As for the incident itself, we still know absolutely nothing.”
“No wonder...”
Selicia began to understand.
Compared with the large-scale contamination incidents of the past, which always left endless consequences behind, a strange event like this, one clearly related to an evil god yet leaving behind not the slightest trace, was even more unsettling.
It was all too easy to suspect that this was some new scheme of an evil god.
Not to mention that it had happened near Belland.
No wonder the people above had panicked enough to send Principal Hathaway to investigate.
After all, her field of study was contaminated by evil gods. In the entire Empire, there were very few whose authority on the matter could compare with hers.
“For this matter, we even paid a rather steep price to invite that Grand Astrologer from the holy city and see whether his Great Prophecy could give us even the slightest clue.”
Hathaway sighed. Although the cost had been reimbursed by the higher-ups, merely looking at that expense still made her heart ache.
If that money had gone through her hands, who knew how much she could have skimmed off the top.
“And so? What was the result?” Selicia asked curiously.
“Beware the blond.”
“Hm?”
For a moment, even the usually calm Selicia thought she had misheard.
“You heard correctly. That was the result the Grand Astrologer gave us... that we should beware the blond.”
Hathaway covered her face.
“According to him, because the incident had been influenced by an evil god, even using that head as a medium, the vision he saw was extremely blurred. But within that blurry scene, he was still able to tell that one important figure in this matter had conspicuous blond hair.”
“So he told us to beware the blond.”
“Blond hair... That seems like an extremely broad range.”
“Exactly!”
Hathaway looked as though she were about to burst into tears.
“What sort of blond was it? Was it that washed-out sickly kind, or the bright golden kind? Was the blond hair long or short? He should have been more specific.”
“...”
“But even if he had been more specific, I would still be helpless. Just how many blonds are there in Belland? Has anyone ever counted them? With nothing but that one trait, how am I supposed to continue the investigation?”
Hathaway pointed indignantly at the room behind them.
“Even your fiancé counts as a blond, Selicia. Shall we arrest him first and interrogate him? Perhaps we might get some clue out of it.”
“...In any case, do your best.”
Selicia did not know what else to say, so in the end she could only offer that dry little encouragement.
“Lately there has truly been an endless pile of troubles. I have no idea what madness seized those evil gods all of a sudden.”
Hathaway rubbed at her temples in misery.
In truth, compared with the fishing village incident at Lake Bepol, the other matter that could not be discussed was even more troubling.
After all, the effects of a divine war were far too difficult to predict. The entire upper echelon of Belland had already grown tense because of it.
And on top of that... the academy had suddenly been invaded by two evil gods at once.
Hathaway was beginning to suspect that those evil gods had just held some sort of gathering and then decided to cause trouble all together.
“Still, it really is impressive that you managed to make time to come back to the academy under these circumstances.”
Selicia said,
“A round trip like this must delay a great many things.”
“Well, there is nothing to be done. This is my beloved academy. After something so serious happened, I had to come back and see it for myself.”
Hathaway looked out the window at the scenery that remained unchanged despite everything that had happened, and at last a faint smile rose to her lips.
“Though I have no intention whatsoever of involving myself in academy affairs for the time being.”
At this point, there was a trace of schadenfreude in Hathaway’s voice.
It was as though she could see through the walls to Pink Bear and the professors, all driven nearly frantic by the constant stream of people from every side who had come asking questions because of the incidents with the Love God and the Silent Moon.
“Being temporarily relieved of the principal’s duties... does not seem so bad after all.”
...
...
“The Holy Sword? What Holy Sword?”
Pink Bear slammed his furry paw onto the office desk and roared at the man in silver knightly armor standing before him,
“You need evidence when you make accusations like that. The Life Church lost its Holy Sword. What does that have to do with Saint Maria Academy?”
“But...”
The Templar Knight sent by the Life Church ground his teeth and said,
“According to our intelligence, when the Love God controlled the Saintess of Purification during the invasion, it truly was using that Holy Sword, was it not?”
“Intelligence?”
Pink Bear exaggeratedly widened his round bear eyes.
“Saint Maria Academy has always been under closed management. Where exactly did your intelligence come from?”
“I...”
The expression on the Templar Knight’s face stiffened.
“Could it be...”
Pink Bear leaned his face closer, wearing a meaningful look.
“That some unscrupulous information broker swindled you?”
“...You!”
The Templar Knight flew into a rage.
“You had better think carefully about the consequences. That was the Life Church’s Holy Sword!”
“Even the Life Church must obey basic principles when conducting itself.”
Pink Bear spread his hands and said,
“Today you say you lost your Holy Sword. Tomorrow you say you lost your saintess. So what, if one day His Holiness the Pontiff loses his underwear, will you come looking for it at Saint Maria Academy too?”
“You! You scoundrel! How dare you blaspheme His Holiness the Pontiff!”
“Do not slander me. When exactly did I blaspheme him? Does His Holiness the Pontiff not wear underwear, then?”
“You court death!”
The Templar Knight flew into a fury and suddenly drew the longsword at his waist, slashing downward.
Fortunately, some measure of reason still remained in him, so the blade did not strike Pink Bear.
It merely split the desk in front of him in two, intending to teach him a lesson.
Yet though it was clearly the desk that had been cut, Pink Bear let out a shrill scream instead.
“Ah, my desk!”
“What? What happened?”
As though he had heard the disturbance, Professor Gran came hurrying in with a great crowd of teachers behind him.
His gaze swept quickly across the room.
Professor Gran’s expression changed in alarm, and he hurried over to Pink Bear’s side to help him up.
“Principal Pink Bear, are you all right? Did he lay hands on you?”
“He did not lay hands on me, but at my desk...”
“The desk...”
Only now did Professor Gran seem to notice the desk that had been cut in half.
He immediately cried out in “shock”:
“Could this be your desk, the one made from that ten-thousand-year something-or-other wood, the one worth as much as a Holy Sword...? How did it end up like this?”
“He cut it. My desk...”
Pink Bear clutched half the desk in “heartbroken” despair, wailing as though he wished to follow it into death.
“This is too much, truly too much!”
Professor Gran straightened up and looked at the Templar Knight, whose cheek was twitching.
“What exactly did our Principal Pink Bear do to deserve this sort of treatment? That desk was worth a fortune, and it was Principal Pink Bear’s most cherished possession. Even if you are from the Life Church, you must give an explanation!”
“What do you mean, worth a fortune? It is just a broken desk...”
“How outrageous. Must a desk stand up for itself before people show it any respect? Can a desk not be worth a fortune? You are discriminating against desks, do you understand? I am telling you, it was worth a fortune!”
Professor Gran puffed out his chest and advanced with imposing force.
“There are plenty of teachers here watching. Do not think you can refuse to pay!”
“You people!”
The knight’s face turned red as endless anger surged inside him.
As a Templar Knight of the Life Church, when had he ever been mocked like this?
What “desk worth a fortune”? They just wanted to refuse to return the Life Church’s Holy Sword!
“Just you wait. I will be back!”
Knowing that if he stayed here he would do nothing but be humiliated, the Templar Knight threw down one last threat, flung his sleeve, and turned to leave.
“Remember to bring the money for the desk next time,” Professor Gran called out cheerfully at his back.
“Or another Holy Sword would do as well.”
The Templar Knight stumbled outside the door, then quickly vanished from the sight of the gathered professors and teachers.
“When it comes to dealing with thickheaded church people, it still has to be the two of you.”
Accompanied by a sigh that seemed uncertain, half relief and half disgust, Professor Prang entered, leaning on his new cane.
“That is only because that lady took the Holy Sword away directly and never gave us a clear answer.”
Professor Gran said with a bitter face,
“Otherwise, who would want to get tangled up with those people from the Life Church? They are troublesome to death.”
“Hmph. I am the unluckiest one here, all right?”
Pink Bear stuck a furry paw out through the mouth of his costume, lit a cigar, and sighed.
“I am only an acting principal, and yet for the sake of the academy I have offended quite a few people these past few days. What if, from now on, none of them let their pretty little younger sisters come play with me anymore?”
“Who asked the academy to remain in the eye of the storm these past few days?”
Professor Gran sighed as well.
Although that lady had intervened and successfully resolved the evil god invasion, the academy had not had an easy time these past few days.
Because the Silent Moon’s final bout of madness had drawn far too much attention, every side was now staring at the academy.
People kept arriving under the pretext of concern, when in reality they were only there to pry out information.
The Life Church was not so bad. They merely wanted their Holy Sword back.
But the others truly wanted to pry some deeply buried secrets out of the academy.
“So for a while yet, Principal Pink Bear, we shall have to trouble you.”
Professor Prang raised his head and, rather rarely, revealed a “kind” smile.
“Hah?”
Pink Bear shuddered. The cigar fell from his hand as he stared blankly.
“It is not over yet?”
“What are you saying, Principal? There is still an important meeting waiting for you.”
“What meeting?”
“The safety inquiry conference initiated by Marquis Colbert, together with a large number of nobles, regarding our academy.”
“Is that meeting very important?”
“Of course. I imagine Principal Pink Bear understands perfectly well that a large portion of our academy’s funds comes from the school donations made by those nobles.”
“So if this meeting goes badly...”
Professor Prang looked at Pink Bear with a meaningful expression.
“Then the cigars and glamour photo books our principal enjoys so much...”
“I will not be able to buy them anymore?”
“No. We will begin investigating your misappropriation of public funds,” Professor Prang said with a cold laugh.
“After all, for the academy at that time, every single coin will be important.”
“...”