8
Perhaps because they resented that their group had been ambushed by an unexpected attack.
The remaining guys immediately pointed their fingers at me and shouted.
“Hey, you bastard!”
“…….”
“Who the hell do you think you are, butting into another department’s business and causing a scene….”
“You’ve got a lot of damn nerve….”
For starters, I bound the necks of the two loudest-looking guys with rings of light.
Because there was no better means of subduing them without endangering their lives.
“Kek, kehek…!”
“Krhk, kuk… kuk…!”
The two suffocating guys clutched at their throats and crawled across the ground for a while.
Then they foamed at the mouth and suffocated right there on the floor.
Now there were three left.
“Damn it, kill that bastard!”
I only had one light-attribute spell remaining, so I needed to save it as a precaution.
Which meant I’d have to subdue the remaining ones in a slightly more bothersome manner.
First, before they could close in on me.
I fired off one mana bullet, which needed a bit of time to load.
“Kuhuk!”
Since the blow landed squarely on his jaw, he probably wouldn’t be getting up right away.
There were only two left now, but they were so close that I lacked the time to load another mana bullet.
“You son of a bitch!”
“You show up out of nowhere and act like a damn dog!”
Sorry, but just accept it as your lot in life.
“Huh?”
“What the hell is….”
I couldn’t afford to take the attacks of guys charging at me with real killing intent head-on.
So I raised a flame rampart right at the feet of those approaching me.
Unable to react to the flames suddenly surging up from below, they passed straight through the wall of fire.
“Kuaaack! You fucking…!”
“Hot! Fucking hot!”
I’d wanted to avoid burns if possible since they take a long time to heal.
But come to think of it, there was no need to concern myself with the well-being of scum like these.
As I watched the guys writhing on the ground, scorched by the flames and thrashing like mad.
“Sir Mage! Behind you!”
Stella suddenly shouted loudly at me.
“……?”
The moment I hurriedly turned my body at Stella’s cry and looked back.
At the end of my shifted gaze, a guy I hadn’t noticed until now had come right up to my face and was bringing his sword down at me.
He had closed to a distance far too near to subdue with magic.
“Die!”
Using the staff in my hand as a support, I quickly leaned my body.
“Huh?”
After the sound of slicing through empty air rang out once.
The body of the guy who had swung his sword was exposed defenselessly before me.
“Kuhuk!”
Immediately, along with a dull thud, the head of my staff struck the back of his head.
“Kkuk, kuk, kkeuk….”
When I stepped on the nape of the guy collapsed on the ground from the impact with my shoe.
He writhed on the floor in agony, squirming like an earthworm.
“……Kkik.”
Before long, his strength drained away and he sprawled limply on the dirt floor.
“…….”
“Kkeuk….”
“…Kek, kku….”
“…….”
“…Uuek.”
“Hu….”
“…….”
After dealing with the Swordsmanship Department guys sprawled out in various states just enough that they wouldn’t die.
I moved my steps toward Stella, who had been blankly watching my fight with them.
“This place is chaotic, so let’s get out quickly.”
“Is it alright? If you leave them like this, I feel like you will definitely be held responsible later.”
“The Church side has already grasped the situation, so it’s fine. If we leave them like this, the Church will come and collect them on its own.”
“Is that so?”
“If we stay at the scene too late, the Church side will probably come asking bothersome questions. Let’s get away from this place first.”
“Understood.”
Leaving the guys groaning face-down on the ground, I hurriedly escaped the alley with Stella.
Before long, the sound of a Church transport carriage approaching could be heard from behind.
? ? ?
Right after the battle that started abruptly was finished in a few minutes.
To put enough distance that no troublesome matters would arise.
I deliberately moved toward the crowded square with Stella.
She, having been semi-forcibly led here by my hand, looked around at my face and surroundings, carefully darting her eyes.
Then, as if she had barely organized what to say to me, she cautiously opened her mouth toward me.
“Thank you for saving me.”
Regardless of whether my actions had been right or an excessive response, the fact that he had saved her from crisis was the truth.
So she conveyed her words of thanks first.
“Be careful from now on. Inside the Academy, power is closer than law.”
It might not be something a student attending the Academy should say.
But judging from my experience of having been enrolled in this educational institution for the past 4 years.
This Academy was a facility that expressed the logic of power and authority better than anywhere else in the world.
There were high-ranking nobles such as Dukes or Marquises, and occasionally even people of the lowest status among commoners enrolled.
There were students raised without want in wealthy families, and students in such dire straits that they could not pay tuition unless they worked themselves.
With as many as ten major departments, it was a place where all sorts of human types gathered.
If I were to compare the Academy to a single object.
I could express it as a large salad plate filled to the brim with various kinds of fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
At a glance, they seemed to harmonize with one another while contained in one bowl.
But in reality, they could not mix together and merely coexisted.
When all kinds of humans like these rubbed shoulders for four years in a narrow space.
The aforementioned causes for disputes were a given, and it was commonplace for differences in disposition or even simple personality issues to lead to conflicts both large and small.
Since more than half of the students were learning combat techniques, it was not rare for quarrels to immediately escalate into actual combat.
It was far from a rare occurrence for students to collapse in fights with one another nearly every other day.
So naturally, the Church personnel who cleaned up disputes happening in back alleys like this could not possibly keep up with everything.
Watching the transport carriage moving away toward the Church, I thought as much.
“By any chance, what is your name?”
“Conrad Perdallos. I’m an Academy student moving up to Magic Department Year 2 next year.”
“So you are Conrad Perdallos, my senior.
I am Stella Arwen, who will be entering the Swordsmanship Department as a freshman this year.”
“I roughly overheard the conversation earlier, so I know. You’re Professor MacDowell’s daughter from the Swordsmanship Department, right?”
“……That is correct.”
Perhaps because she was thinking that I, too, might harbor ill feelings toward Professor MacDowell just like them.
She showed a careful demeanor, gauging my reaction as she answered.
“That professor’s classes are famous for being extremely strict.
Just because you’re that professor’s daughter, there will occasionally be guys who act scornful toward you like just now.”
“…I see.”
It was advice filled with sincere concern for Stella’s life moving forward.
But having heard a harsh evaluation of the teacher she respected, her mood visibly darkened to a degree obvious at a glance.
“Of course, there are just as many people who respect MacDowell.
Although our departments are different, I, too, think Professor MacDowell is a person of great pride.”
“Right?! My teacher… no, my father is indeed a wonderful person, isn’t he?!”
“Yes, of course.”
These were not empty words taken out to comfort Stella.
I said them because I truly respected Professor MacDowell.
On a certain day in my past life when the Dark Cult raided the Academy.
Professor MacDowell, wielding only his single sword.
Had bought two hours against the High Priest of the Dark Cult.
Thanks to that, other students and school officials were able to escape and secure time to call for reinforcements.
I recalled how, thanks to his sacrifice, Alexandros Academy had been defended with minimal casualties.
Of course, in my present reality, it was something that had not happened yet.
But even if such an event happened tomorrow, Professor MacDowell would surely act the same.
“You, you’re a Magic Department student, right?”
Of course, not all professors at the Academy were like Professor MacDowell—not all of them were people of pride and competence.
A professor displaying an openly unpleasant demeanor looked down at me.
“Yes, I am.”
“Let’s have a little talk.”
It was a summons from Professor Oliver Finn of the Swordsmanship Department.
* * *
“Sit anywhere around there.”
Just how secretive a talk did he want to have with me that no one else should overhear.
Professor Oliver, who had brought me all the way to his office, spoke gruffly.
After confirming that Professor Oliver sat first at one side of the table.
I deliberately pulled out the chair farthest from the professor.
“Why don’t you come a little closer?”
“I would rather not.”
“Talking back so impudently….”
I already knew well of Professor Oliver’s fiery temperament.
Just in case, I had secured a safe distance.
At this distance, at least his fist would not reach me immediately if he got worked up.
“I heard through a report from the Church officials about what you just did.”
“Is that so.”
“They say you dared lay hands on my disciples in the Swordsmanship Department. And not just one, but seven of them.”
“That is correct.”
“Have you no awareness that you did wrong?”
Wrong.
If I had to name a wrong I committed against those guys.
My greatest wrong was that in my previous life, I had not even known of their existence and thus could not give them the same treatment.
Since I had committed no particular sin against him, who was making an unpleasant expression at me.
I responded with a confident answer, as if I had simply done what needed to be done.
“Then should I have stood idly by?”
“What?”
“With five or six upperclassmen surrounding a freshman girl and creating a threatening atmosphere.
If you were the professor, would you have watched quietly?”
“…I mean that a Magic Department student shouldn’t interfere in matters happening inside the Swordsmanship Department.”
No matter that the attack started by ambush.
It seemed his pride was wounded that seven Swordsmanship Department students had been taken down by a single Magic Department student.
Especially since all those disciples were students under Professor Oliver’s charge.
“Is that so? I could not bring myself to realize it was a matter happening inside the Swordsmanship Department.”
“Don’t make me laugh! All the guys you took down were wearing the Swordsmanship Department insignia—how could you not know!”
“But the girl wasn’t wearing one.”
Although Stella was a freshman of the Academy’s Swordsmanship Department, there was still about a week left until classes started.
Stella had not yet received the red insignia symbolizing the Swordsmanship Department.
Thus, at the time I intervened, there was no clear evidence that she was from the Swordsmanship Department.
So Professor Oliver’s words about not interfering in Swordsmanship Department affairs could be sufficiently refuted.
“Yes, Stella Arwen wasn’t wearing the Swordsmanship Department insignia.
But seeing her armor and the sword at her waist, did you really think she wasn’t from the Swordsmanship Department?”
“Plate armor is used plenty in close combat departments other than the Swordsmanship Department. And the sword at her waist could have been a sidearm.
I know that among the Archery Department seniors who graduated last year, there was someone who used a hatchet as a sidearm in preparation for close combat.”
“Talking back again….”
“And hasn’t it happened several times until now that your disciples bullied students from other departments?
It happened many times while I was enrolled. I simply took action thinking it was one of those kinds of harassment.”
“…….”
“You turned a blind eye when your own students bullied other departments, yet now you appear with an attitude saying other departments shouldn’t interfere—may I ask why?”
Having heard my words, Professor Oliver’s face flushed red and blue.
He probably had an expression of searching for a retort.
But since it was his students who had committed such an obvious wrong that it couldn’t be excused by some mediocre excuse.
He bit his lower lip tightly and fixed his gaze on me as if glaring.
“Do you know that among the students you took down, there were upperclassmen?”
“Is that so? Their skills were all more or less the same, so I didn’t know who was an upperclassman.”
“There were also children of noble houses mixed in.”
“I am a noble too. And so is the one who was attacked today, Miss Stella Arwen.”
“And they were all my disciples.”
“You should have taught them properly in the first place.”
*Thud!*
Professor Oliver’s fist struck the desk, causing a dull bursting sound.
At the same time, along with the sound of tearing wood, I could see the desk split horizontally into two.
As expected, sitting far away was the right call.
“A student talking back to a professor so impudently at every turn!
Those children aren’t students you can just take down as you please!”
“You needn’t worry. I won’t go around the Academy bragging about something so trivial.”
“Something so trivial…?”
“Defeating a few motley fools is nothing to brag about. I’m sure it would be the same for anyone, not just me.
And for the sake of the junior I met today, wouldn’t it be better not to deliberately damage the Swordsmanship Department’s image?”
The moment he heard the words “motley fools,” Professor Oliver’s face contorted even further in rage.
“Also, summoning a single student like this to threaten them doesn’t look very good, Professor.”
“Are you giving me advice right now?”
“Matters between students should be resolved between students; even if a professor intervenes, in the end, it’s only the student on the receiving end who suffers further humiliation, isn’t it?”
“…….”
“Professor MacDowell wouldn’t have gone so far as to call someone out like this.”
MacDowell Arwen.
Stella’s adoptive father and teacher, a person standing at the opposite pole from Professor Oliver in many ways.
If Professor MacDowell was someone strict toward both his students and himself.
Professor Oliver was someone who showed excessive favoritism toward his own students.
As a result, in terms of popularity within the Swordsmanship Department, Professor Oliver was far more popular than Professor MacDowell.
But from the Academy as a whole, Professor Oliver was not very well-regarded.
Needless to say, regarding the level of his students.
Students flocking to a professor who only tells them what they want to hear will inevitably prove to be of a predictable level.
That was why Professor MacDowell’s name was more than enough material to trigger Professor Oliver’s inferiority complex.
“You, what’s your name?”
Perhaps because his anger had broken past its limits.
Professor Oliver’s voice turned cold in an instant.
“Well, why don’t you try guessing?”
“…You think I can’t find you? Finding your name among fewer than 300 students in the Magic Department isn’t very difficult.”
“Then please do so.”
“…Very well. Let’s see just how long you can act so arrogantly.”
He was uttering words that seemed like he was plotting something against me.
But since my opponent was none other than that Professor Oliver, it didn’t feel very threatening.
From the start, he wasn’t sharp enough to trap someone.
“I believe our conversation is finished, so I shall take my leave.”
After giving a formal bow, I immediately exited Professor Oliver’s office.
The moment the door closed, sounds of something breaking and shattering could be heard from inside.
He sure manages to function as a professor with that personality.