Chapter 138
***
Beneath the Academy territory's cemetery.
The farthest place from the dormitory where the fresh-faced cadets lived.
An underground resting place for the dead.
Inside that ossuary, which had been expanded again and again until it had become a maze, two shadows flickered.
“There was definitely witness testimony...”
A corridor where broken coffins gaped from every niche, with a single mana lamp flickering coldly above those gaping mouths.
The soldier with the torch carefully scanned the corridor and said to the comrade who had come with him,
“Did you check over there?”
“No, I think the pilgrim must have heard wrong.”
“Is that so?”
The torch-bearing soldier tilted his head and looked over the coffins.
The reason these men had come to the columbarium was an anonymous report.
It said that a mourner who had visited the underground columbarium alone had heard people speaking there.
“Could there be ghouls?”
“No. There are broken coffins, but it looks like some cash-strapped mercenaries dug them up. The bodies inside are still there.”
“Make a note of which coffins they were in. We need to inform the families.”
“Tsk. Mercenaries. No matter how hard up they are, would they really want to steal something like this?”
Another soldier clicked his tongue as he looked at the coffin with the corpse exposed.
Perhaps because the underground was stifling, he had tucked his helmet under his arm.
The torch-bearing soldier said to that soldier,
“It might not even be mercenaries. There was even that incident where Hero Department students raided a place because they were short on pocket money.”
“Come on, even so, there are more grave-robbing cases done by mercenaries than by Hero Department students.”
“True enough.”
The torch-bearing soldier nodded.
“Then let’s treat that report as a mistake.”
“After finding only this much?”
“Then what more are we supposed to do? Dig up the ground? Or open the coffins?”
At the torch-bearing soldier’s words, the soldier with the helmet under his arm fell into thought for a moment.
“Open the coffin → the family is notified, and you end up writing a report.”
“Dig the ground or wall → later, you write another report about it.”
“...No, let’s just go.”
No matter how he thought about it, that was beyond their authority.
The soldier put on the helmet he had tucked under his arm and turned toward the exit leading to the surface.
On the way out, the torch-bearing soldier said,
“By the way, don’t you feel like a lot of black mages have been getting arrested in the Academy territory lately?”
“Oh, that? They say black-magic specialists have been set up.”
“Speciali... what? Like experts or something?”
“Yeah.”
The helmeted soldier nodded.
“I heard that since last year, the students taught by the black-magic defense professor started tracking black mages. Supposedly, the Hero Department students have been uncovering black mages even the Public Security Bureau never noticed.”
“Well, isn’t that something. So all this time we didn’t even know those cockroaches were under our feet?”
“Right.”
“Creepy.”
“Yeah.”
The two soldiers went on chatting like that and disappeared into the night fog.
And inside the columbarium after the soldiers had gone.
On the other side of the wall they had passed.
One of the group members, who had been holding his breath, let it out and said,
“Phew... thank goodness.”
It was a sigh that only burst out once the torch on the other side of the wall had completely faded into the distance.
If even one of the soldiers had had any grounding in earth magic, he might have spotted the unnatural pattern on the wall and noticed the existence of this hidden space.
That thought crossed the minds of the people in the room.
But those present did not bother to bring it up.
Instead, they were only busy barely gathering up the scraps of their remaining pride.
“...To think we ended up in this state because of some brat who only handles chalk in a classroom.”
A man with dark circles beneath his eyes like a shadow spoke up.
As he pulled his back away from the wall he had been leaning against, a dark blue-black mold stain spread over the bricks it had touched.
“If only the elders hadn’t left their posts...”
At the dark-circled man’s words, the woman with red lips let out a sneer.
“You’re still using those terms as if you respect those bastards? You need to admit it now, darling. The elders used us as bait and ran off. You know that.”
“...”
“Or are you just pretending to respect them, hoping you’ll get out of here someday and be rewarded for your loyalty? Surely you don’t really think those people will thank you for your sacrifice and teach you more spells?”
“Watch your mouth, Rodeny. Insult those men one more time and I’ll turn you into fertilizer.”
“Hmm... Looks like you really mean that.”
Rodeny, the woman with red lips, took a step back.
“Otmar, you’re so scary, Baltazan, darling.”
Then she clung to the wolf beastman beside her.
But the wolf beastman’s reaction was just as cold.
“Get lost, bat woman. Your blood stench is disgusting.”
The wolf beastman sniffed and glared at her.
His head was that of a wolf, but his left arm was as thick as a bear’s.
At the cold reactions from the two of them, the woman with red lips turned her gaze to the last person.
“Lord Belgian, the kids are being so cold to me.”
Belgian.
He was once a tier-two black mage active in the imperial capital, and a mage who had been fairly well known even within the Thirteen Round Table.
That was because, unlike ordinary mages who could barely master a single spell, Belgian had learned on his own and achieved mastery in both necromancy and plague magic.
But now, due to a certain incident, his fame was no longer what it used to be.
“Rodeny.”
“Yes, Lord Belgian.”
“You slut. Know your place.”
“...”
Belgian’s rebuke turned Rodeny’s face ashen.
Immediately after, the woman’s expression twisted.
“What did you just say?”
“I’m saying that, as the one with the lowest rank here, you shouldn’t dare act all chummy, whore.”
“...”
A vein bulged on the woman’s forehead.
So much that even thick makeup couldn’t hide it.
But she did not dare to contradict Belgian.
The space they were talking in was a cemetery.
For a mage who was heavily affected by his environment, there was no place more favorable to Belgian than this.
She knew full well that the moment she bared her teeth even a little here, the corpses would all rise at once and separate her head from her body.
Since she was a black mage who put her own survival first, that was an ending she absolutely wanted to avoid, so she forced an unnatural smile and agreed with Belgian.
Only after the four people in the room had finished a round of open bickering did Belgian, the room’s sole tier-two mage, speak.
“It seems the soundproofing barrier was lacking. Reinforce the barrier a bit more, and from now on, if there are any pilgrims, let’s stop talking for a moment.”
“If you had only been properly on guard, this crisis wouldn’t have happened.”
The wolf beastman sneered.
Before Belgian could even get angry at that, someone else moved first.
“Baltazan. Comply with the rules of the Thirteen Round Table. Show proper respect to your superiors.”
“Hmph. Do we really have to treat a human who got hit by a divine-force bullet and is practically no different from a tier-one as a superior?”
“Even if his magical skill is only at tier one, his enlightenment has not disappeared.”
“Otmar, do you think that sucking up like that will make that petty Belgian teach you magic or something?”
At those words, Otmar looked at Belgian for a moment.
But only for a moment.
He looked back at the wolf beastman.
“Respect should follow a genius as befits a genius, and respect should follow one who has achieved great deeds as befits that as well.”
“Hmph. So even a fallen genius still gets treated like a genius, huh.”
Belgian.
There was only one reason he had fallen this far.
It was because of the silver bullet embedded in his body years ago.
Removing the silver bullet itself had been successful.
But the divine power that had seeped in through that silver bullet interfered with his ability to form spells.
As a result, his once-rising career came to a halt, and even as a tier-two, he was in the position of being ignored by tier-ones.
The only consolation was that the Thirteen Round Table, which dreamed of reviving the Mage Tower of the Thirteenth Month, still treated him as being on par with a tier-two mage.
In the knowledge they pursued, combat strength was a separate matter.
The dark-circled black mage Otmar was simply following that rule to the letter as well.
“Hmph.”
The wolf beastman snorted at Otmar’s rebuke and fell silent again.
In the old days, he would have killed that wolf beastman and turned him into an undead.
But now, Belgian’s skill was hanging by a thread.
He wouldn’t lose, but if he killed the wolf beastman and exhausted himself, Otmar would surely attack him.
Because even if he acted respectful on the surface, Belgian knew Otmar’s true nature well.
Given that he was a black mage who had already humbled seniors more than once, it was certain.
Belgian let out a long sigh and swallowed his frustration.
Then he spoke again.
“We have to get out of here somehow. To do that, we need to wait for the right time.”
“Lord Belgian. Excuse me, but when will that time be?”
“Right before the Academy graduation exam.”
During the graduation exam period, the Hero Department students and the professors are both busy.
That was when surveillance was at its weakest, so in Belgian’s view, it was the best timing for escape.
“When that happens, the inspections at the exits will loosen a little too. We’ll escape the Academy then.”
“Tsk. If only Marquis Barlot hadn’t been released, we wouldn’t have needed to do this.”
At the wolf beastman’s muttering, Belgian’s eyebrows twitched again.
This time, it wasn’t because he had been rubbed the wrong way.
Rather, it was because he agreed with the wolf beastman’s words.
But he did not show that on his face.
“Do not dwell on the past. The opportunity will surely come someday.”
Born a bastard, he had waited only for the day he could take revenge on the nobles who had abandoned him.
He had endured that humiliation for more than a decade.
Could he not endure just a few more years?
“Humiliation is temporary. In order to achieve the greater cause, one must be able to endure any insult...”
Just as Belgian was admonishing the group like that.
Knock, knock.
A light knocking sound came from the wall of the room they were in.
At that sound, the group all held their breath at once.
Just in case, they even turned off the mana lamp that had been faintly lighting the room.
Knock, knock, knock.
At the continued knocking, the black mage with the dark circles gave Belgian a glance.
As if asking whether he had made the wall too thin.
Belgian understood the meaning and shook his head.
The wall was not so thin that it could be exposed by sound alone.
Unless it was someone with hearing developed to an abnormal degree, finding this hidden place was practically impossible...
Just as he was thinking that.
“Unnie, I think this wall sounds different.”
“Okay.”
Through the sensations relayed by the ghoul placed inside the coffin outside,
a foul-sounding conversation could be heard.
“Looks like the tip was right.”
“Senior Jenny, buff me before we go in.”
“Well, it’s a blessing, not a buff...”
Along with a sigh, an ominous presence could be felt beyond the wall.
Belgian immediately drew up his mana and said,
“Everyone. Combat pre—”
But before he could finish speaking,
Crunch!
An axe burst through the wall and flew into the room.
The flying axe dug into the wolf beastman’s shoulder blade before he could even process the situation.
“Kraaaagh!!”
Beyond the shattered wall.
Beyond the shattered wall. Through the gap, red eyes could be seen.
The owner of those eyes—Erica—said,
“Ta-da! The Sisters have arrived!”
“Unnie... please, that’s so embarrassing...”
“No, are you seriously going to name the party that, junior? Seriously?”
Freya and Jenny’s protests followed.