Episode 106
The long, long vacation finally ended, and the day of the Academy's opening arrived.
"This feels strangely nostalgic."
"About what?"
Leaning against the carriage heading to the Academy, I murmured in a low voice, and Kania, sitting beside me, asked with a puzzled expression.
"A few months ago, when we were going to the Academy, we took this carriage, didn't we?"
"Now that you mention it, that's true."
"Back then, you were looking at me like you wanted to kill me."
As I said that with a smile, Kania quietly bit her lip.
"I'm sorry."
"It's a joke, a joke. By the way, how are those kids doing?"
"You mean Lulu and her group?"
Turning around with Kania at her words, I saw a smaller but quite ornate carriage rattling along behind ours.
"They're still showing signs of anxiety."
"Well, they spent years in despair, living helplessly, so it would be hard for them to improve overnight."
I said gloomily in response to Kania's answer, and she added with a smile.
"But, there are changes."
"Changes?"
"Yes, faint as it is, they've started to hold hope."
Hearing that, I finally let out a relieved expression.
"That's good. At least they have enough strength left to hold onto some hope."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, to keep from breaking, holding onto even a little hope is most important. I know from experience."
As I smiled contentedly at my words, Kania stared at me and asked.
"Until everything ends, they'll hate you without knowing your arrangements. Yet you're happy enough to smile like that?"
"I am happy. I gave hope to people who had nothing but despair. And I'll make that hope into reality."
"You're truly amazing."
Saying that, Kania pouted her lips and started grumbling.
A few months ago, she would lock away her feelings even when asked, but lately she's been showing these cute sides quite often.
Of course, I prefer this side of her more too. She's good as a butler, but she's also good as a friend.
"By the way, Young Master, is it really true that you purchased the market alley under a disguised identity?"
"Yeah, I had to take the first step boldly to make things easier going forward."
"But... will you be able to handle it?"
When I tilted my head at her words, Kania said with an anxious expression.
"You know well what it means to dominate the market alley."
"That's right, dominating the market alley means... exerting significant influence on the 'back alleys.' Those two alleys have an inseparable relationship."
Hearing that, Kania sighed and spoke.
"I'll help."
"No, I'll handle this myself."
"But..."
"You're going to work yourself to death."
I said with a worried expression as I touched the dark circles under her eyes, and Kania started to look dazed.
"How many duties are you handling? I'll handle this myself, so you don't need to help."
"I am the Young Master's confidant..."
"And, I want to handle the work myself and do some healing."
"...Healing?"
"Yeah, I can't just live doing evil deeds forever."
Hearing that, Kania, who had an incredulous expression, finally sighed and answered.
"I understand."
And for a while, only silence flowed inside the carriage.
"Oh, looks like we're already here. Seeing the Academy."
Breaking the silence, I looked out the window, scratching my head as I gazed at the faintly visible Sunrise Academy.
"Then, let's have a good semester..."
"Young Master, it seems we need to execute the operation we planned in advance."
"...Ah."
Just as I was about to shake hands with Kania with a smile, she mentioned the 'operation' with a serious expression.
"Are you sure you'll be okay? It must hurt..."
"If it's to hide the Young Master's identity, a moment of pain is nothing."
Reaching out to her with a guilty expression, Kania quietly began to undo her formal suit.
"Then, please take care of me today... Hah!"
"...Just endure a little, Kania."
Kania is truly loyal. To ask me to leave my marks on her body while enduring pain for my sake.
"Haaaaah..."
I really need to treat Kania well.
.
"Hey, your complexion has improved a lot?"
"Yeah... I received treatment during the vacation."
"Really? That's great!"
The commoner students of Class A were sharing stories about each other's circumstances with bright expressions in the classroom.
"I spent everything but living expenses after treating my parents and younger sibling."
"Still, that's something. I used it all to pay off debts."
"You too? Me too..."
Most of the commoners, while talking with bright expressions, had somewhat regretful looks.
They had touched a lump sum of money they had never experienced in their lives, but most of them had spent nearly all of it treating family and paying off debts.
As a result, although the shackles and reasons they had desperately saved money had fallen away, the commoner students still remained in poverty.
"Still, it feels good. Right?"
"Of course. My bratty younger brother actually called me 'oppa'! I guess money really is the best."
"No debt collectors to worry about, no sick family members... Now I can work part-time freely. Thank goodness."
But they decided to think positively.
Just having the shackles that bound them broken made them feel like they could breathe freely.
And because they now had hope for a better life.
- Creak...
The commoner students, who had been chatting with smiles on their faces for the first time in ages, inadvertently turned their gazes toward the door as it slowly opened, then started to show surprised expressions.
"Why is the professor like that?"
"I don't know, did someone make fun of her for being an old maid again?"
"Shh! You'll get beaten to death!"
Isollet entered the classroom with an angry expression, disheveled hair, and hollow eyes, and upon reaching the lectern, began to sigh deeply.
- Creak...
"There's something I need to tell you..."
"Shut up and sit down. Frey."
Isollet, who had been sighing for a while, suddenly released killing intent and gave an order as Frey entered with Kania, about to say something to the commoner students.
"...What?"
Frey, who had been about to signal Kania with an arrogant expression, started to hesitate with a flustered look.
"I told you to sit your ass down."
As Isollet looked at such Frey coldly while fiddling with her sword sheath, Frey, who frowned for a moment, eventually trudged to his seat.
"Young Master, why is Professor Isollet acting like that suddenly?"
"I don't know... Why is she being like that?"
Kania and Frey, who had sat down gloomily without being able to execute the operation they had prepared so carefully in the carriage, exchanged opinions in low voices, but ultimately couldn't figure out the reason for Isollet's anger.
"...There is one piece of bad news."
Just as the class was letting their imaginations run wild about the reason for Isollet's bad mood, she, who had been standing at the lectern with her head down, began to speak in a low voice.
"Starting this semester, the scholarship system is being abolished."
""What!?""
Hearing this, all the commoners stood up from their seats with horrified expressions, and Isollet continued with a somber expression.
"I received notice this morning. So I'm quite flustered myself, but it's an undeniable fact."
"W-why suddenly?"
"The scholarship system is a tradition that has continued for a thousand years! To abolish it..."
The commoners began to clamor at her.
There wasn't a single person among them who could afford to pay tuition.
"The reason is simple. The Imperial Family and the Order have cut their support and budget to the Academy by half."
But when Isollet grit her teeth and spoke, the classroom instantly fell silent.
The clamoring commoners fell silent under the authority of the Imperial Family and the Order, and the nobles, who were wealthy to begin with, were simply watching the burning house with calm expressions.
Only the princess Clana was quietly grinding her teeth with an angry expression.
"What kind of nonsense is that!"
However, a student shouted to break the suffocating silence.
"Sunrise Academy's Class A is one of the Empire's top elite forces, yet instead of supporting such a place, they're reducing the budget? That doesn't make sense!"
At the words of Aris, the commoner representative who shouted with a furrowed brow, most of the commoners, and even some nobles, nodded their heads.
"...Regarding that, I will now provide guidance."
Looking at such Aris, Isollet raised her hand with a hardened expression and signaled.
- Creak...
Then the classroom door opened, and people with smiles plastered on their faces began to enter.
"Who are those people...?"
Aris asked, looking uncomfortably at the people who were somehow looking at them with greedy eyes, and Isollet, who had been grinding her teeth, answered in a low voice.
"They are sponsors."
"What?"
"According to the official document sent, the newly introduced sponsor system will replace the existing scholarship system."
Saying that, Isollet glanced at the sponsors standing beside her with greedy expressions.
"Selected directly by the Imperial Family and the Order... they're said to be people of high reputation. Students are to freely contact these people, and if they prove their results and investment value... damn it."
Isollet, who had been struggling to continue speaking while suppressing her anger, finally couldn't hold back and cursed.
"...Frey, come to the faculty office."
In that cold atmosphere, Isollet, who had been chewing her lip, spoke to Frey who had been quietly watching the situation, then left the classroom emitting killing intent.
"Hmm..."
Receiving the children's gazes, Frey quietly rose from his seat and headed toward the exit.
"Ahem, it can't be helped. We'll have to introduce ourselves."
After Frey left the classroom, one noble with a greedy face approached the lectern and spoke in an oily voice.
"Nice to meet you, Class A students. We are the sponsors who will be 'responsible' for you starting today."
"......."
"...Aren't you going to applaud?"
At those words, intermittent applause erupted here and there, and the noble at the lectern licked his lips and continued.
"Then, shall we start the meeting?"
.
"So, why did you call me here in the middle of your explanation?"
Frey, who had been led to the faculty office by Isollet, asked her while sitting crookedly in a chair.
"Grr... grrrr..."
However, Isollet was just grinding her teeth in anger with Frey sitting in front of her.
"If you have nothing to say, I'm leaving?"
As Frey, who had been watching her, tried to rise from his seat, Isollet suddenly grabbed his arm.
- Thud
"What are you..."
Frey, who was displeased by Isollet's sudden action, started to show a flustered expression as she knelt while holding his arm.
"Please. I beg you, become the children's sponsor."
"What?"
Isollet began to plead with a desperate expression to Frey.
"If the sponsors support the children as is... you can clearly see what will happen..."
"Well, I don't really..."
"Women will be forced into sexual favors, and men will become slaves."
Hearing that, Frey frowned and asked.
"How can you assert that so definitively? Of course they don't look like good people, but they were carefully selected by the Imperial Family and the Order..."
"Class A students have become entangled in the power struggle between the Imperial Family and the Order."
Isollet continued with a pained expression.
"When the Demon King's existence was revealed to the public, the Imperial Family and the Order, who already had a bad relationship, became desperate to secure even one more talented person. You know this fact well too."
"And?"
"So the two powers set their sights on Sunrise Academy. Even though it's losing its past glory, it's a place where talented people with the ability to overwhelm ordinary soldiers gather, from Class A to even Class C."
Up to that point, Isollet began to clench her fist tightly.
"Of course, the Imperial Family and the Order compromised, but tried to bring more students to their side. So they sent their own people as sponsors to the Academy."
"Just for that reason?"
"It's also to check Headmaster Lionel. He's been abusing the headmaster's authority lately to increase his power, so the Imperial Family and the Order see him as a thorn in their side."
At the mention of the headmaster's corruption, Frey frowned, then asked with a calm expression.
"What's the basis for claiming the children will be treated harshly?"
"Are you really asking because you don't know? What kind of tendencies the high-ranking officials who influence the Imperial Family and the Order have? Just the female knights they've embraced while sponsoring the Imperial Knights would number in the dozens to hundreds."
"Even so, they're talents recognized by the Empire?"
"If they didn't touch talents, they wouldn't have touched knights either. Of course, they have baseless confidence that students will eventually follow their demands."
Having finished speaking, Isollet began to beg Frey with a trembling voice.
"The problem is that this baseless confidence could actually come true. Innocent young sprouts are about to be broken in adults' power struggles. I can't bear to watch that with my own two eyes."
"So what do you want me to do?"
"Please, become the children's sponsor."
"Ha, what's so good about those brats that I should do that?"
When Frey responded coldly, Isollet said with a trembling voice.
"I'll give you whatever you want."
"What?"
"So please, Frey. I'm asking you. Even thinking of our old friendship."
As Isollet prostrated herself before Frey...
"Professor Isollet? We need to see you for a moment."
"...Tch."
She started grinding her teeth when an official from the Imperial Family and a priest dispatched from the Order called her.
"Many nobles have raised objections regarding your position. We need to have a long conversation."
"Simply put, it's a personnel evaluation. You know the result, of course."
As they said that with smiles on their faces, gesturing with their hands, Isollet bowed her head deeply and left the faculty office pitifully.
"............."
Thus, silence began to flow in the faculty office.
"Huh?"
Frey, frozen in the position of looking down at Isollet who had even knelt before him, muttered in a low voice.
"This is pissing me off."
.
"Hmm... yes. That's the end of the conversation. How was it? Are you satisfied?"
'...Disgusting.'
That day at lunch, Aris, the commoner representative, was talking with a noble who had that oily voice from earlier at a restaurant near the Academy, along with some students.
"By the way, your hands are quite delicate..."
The noble, who had finished discussing sponsorship with the students and was about to rise from his seat, suddenly grabbed Aris's hand and started fondling it.
"Mmh."
Startled by the oily touch, Aris pulled her hand back, and the noble...
"Don't be like that..."
Rising from his seat, he concluded his words.
"...you'll get used to it eventually anyway."
After the noble disappeared from the seat, silence flowed for a while.
"Hello?"
"Now... I'm sick of this. If I don't do what they want. I won't get the money anyway. So I'd rather just leave the Academy."
When someone approached them, a student who was fed up with the nobles' continued behavior suddenly stood up.
"Let's at least hear what they have to say first."
"No need..."
When the person sitting in front of her tried to stop her, the female student tried to refuse with a cold voice, but...
"...Huh."
Seeing the numerous gold coin pouches placed on the desk by that person, she froze on the spot.
"This is an advance payment... May I have a conversation with you?"
When the person wearing a black robe spoke in a kind voice, the girl, who hesitated for a moment, quietly sat back down.
It was too much money to refuse.