Chapter 46
Grandia Academy.
The faculty was in a state of emergency.
And with good reason—the apostle of an evil god had revealed himself.
And not somewhere else, but inside the academy while practical training was underway.
<The current situation must not be allowed to go unaddressed······.>
<A definite determination of the cause and an explanation of our position······.>
An unidentified barrier.
Some students had even been caught inside, and it had nearly led to a major disaster.
Fortunately, no one had been seriously injured, but the academy had been turned upside down.
All faculty members had been summoned to an emergency meeting.
<As Chief Investigator Javer has suggested, we are in a situation where an insider is suspected······.>
Discussions continued for several days afterward.
In the end, the professors could only leave work after staying up for three full days and nights.
Of course, nothing had been resolved.
Just as with the unauthorized conquest of Purgatory’s 70th floor, they had merely controlled the information to prevent unnecessary rumors from leaking.
The most plausible theory put forward was that an insider was colluding with hostile forces within the academy.
Of course, even that had not been discussed to any definitive conclusion.
<Then, let’s take a brief break.>
<Faculty members, please attend the meeting again in six hours.>
The long, long emergency meeting.
The faculty had been given a short break.
Even that meant sleeping for six hours, then attending the meeting again.
“Good grief···.”
The faculty were quite literally being ground down.
And among those swept up in the torrent, there was one elderly professor.
“Professor Glinbert, thank you for your hard work.”
“Ho ho··· At my age, even this is too much for me.”
Professor Glinbert.
He had taught at Grandia for no less than twenty years.
When it came to teaching, he was a veteran covered in calluses.
“Ngh···.”
The old man pressed firmly at the corners of his eyes, dark with bags.
Shadows flickered between his deep wrinkles.
“I’ve seen all sorts of things in my life.”
A habitually muttered monologue that came with age.
Professor Glinbert furrowed his brow, looking troubled.
He, too, had spent a long time at the academy, but he had never seen an atmosphere as chaotic as this.
“Strange things keep happening one after another···.”
The incident of the unauthorized conquest of Purgatory’s 70th floor.
A floor that had been left unconquered for a long time had been conquered overnight.
The dragon that had reigned as the master of the 70th floor had even been found as a grotesque corpse.
And yet, rather than find the culprit, the faculty had failed even to get a foothold in the investigation.
“And now, before even half a month has passed, this happens too···.”
It had only been a month.
Only a month since Grandia had welcomed its new students.
In that short time, two major incidents had already erupted.
A case the old man had never encountered once in his twenty years of teaching.
“Good grief··· what on earth is about to happen?”
The old professor let out a deep sigh.
Perhaps because he was an inherently anxious person, he could not shake the ominous feeling.
An old man’s needless worry.
Even after staying up for several nights over academy business, concern came before complaint.
Instead of heading to the faculty dormitory, Professor Glinbert headed to his own office.
He figured he might as well get some work done rather than sleep for six hours in a fitful doze.
‘I should at least prepare a simple assignment···.’
Because of the incident during practical training, the academy was currently on a weeklong break.
He intended to use whatever spare moments he had to prepare materials for the students.
If the students had seen him, they would have screamed, “What do you mean, assignments during a break?” But from an educator’s perspective, there could hardly be a more devoted person.
“Ahem, ahem··· I hope the students like them.”
The old professor spouted an utterly unrealistic wish.
Before he knew it, he had arrived in front of his office.
However, someone was waiting for the old man in the long hallway.
“Professor Glinbert.”
“······?”
The hallway lights were off.
Since it was still before dawn, no light came in through the windows either.
It was an hour when not only the students but even the assistants had gone home.
“Who···?”
The old professor slightly furrowed his brow.
In the darkness, only a pure-white mask was visible.
“Good evening.”
A mask with a strangely unsettling smile.
Its smiling eyes gazed at the old man.
***
“Who···?”
The old professor, whose kind features gave him a benevolent appearance, tilted his head in puzzlement.
I greeted him with a smile.
“Good evening.”
“You are···.”
He frowned for a moment, but soon his eyes seemed to recognize me.
Professor Glinbert asked as though he had no idea what was going on.
Struggling quietly as though trying to remember my name.
“So, you’re··· the student Victor?”
“You know me.”
“Of course I do. You showed quite an impressive performance both during the entrance exam and the freshman welcoming exam afterward, didn’t you? I imagine every faculty member checked your profile at least once.”
“Aha.”
“Besides, you were caught up in the barrier during this practical training too, weren’t you? You were also one of the three people said to have encountered the apostle of the evil god directly···. In fact, it would be stranger for a faculty member not to know the name Victor.”
“That’s certainly true. Especially right after a major incident like this.”
I did have a bit of a superstar streak.
At this point, claiming not to know me within Grandia Academy was practically the same as admitting to being a spy.
‘I was definitely supposed to keep a low profile···.’
After getting caught up in several incidents, that plan had become utterly unrealistic.
Since I would be involved in incidents steadily from here on anyway, I decided not to worry about it.
If I held back just because I did not want to draw attention, nothing would get done.
“But··· what brings you to the research lab? If it’s the dormitory curfew, it passed quite some time ago. Did you get permission from your supervising professor?”
“There’s something I’d like to discuss with Professor Glinbert.”
“Hmm···? With me? At this late hour, no less?”
“Because it’s important enough for me to come at this late hour.”
“······?”
The old professor furrowed his brow at my bizarre answer.
Well, it was understandable.
We were not acquainted.
He said he knew my name, but that was only from written records.
We had not even met face-to-face since entering the academy.
‘Professor Glinbert is in charge of the third years, after all.’
There had simply been no occasion for us to cross paths.
From the old professor’s perspective, it was only natural to be suspicious.
Before he could react, I plunged straight into the main point.
“I’ll get straight to the point.”
“What are you suddenly···.”
“Would you take a look at this?”
I rummaged inside my robe and pulled out a crystal orb.
Its surface was blue. It was an utterly unremarkable crystal orb.
Of course, what mattered came next.
“A few days ago··· that is, before the practical training began. I saw a notice that the students’ hunting grounds would be closed for several days. So I visited the hunting grounds to stock up in advance on food for my magical beast. The magical beast I’m taming takes the blood of fresh monsters as its staple food, since it has the form of a bat.”
“Hmm···.”
“But, alas. Perhaps because I was in too much of a hurry, I dropped the crystal orb I always carry for recording. I didn’t realize it until the next morning, by which time the students’ hunting grounds had already been closed. With no other choice, I trudged away, thinking I would retrieve it during practical training.”
It was a lie.
I had left the crystal orb there after the students’ hunting grounds had been closed.
I had slipped through the wall using the wall-clipping bug and hidden it somewhere no one would notice.
I had not dropped it by accident; I had deliberately placed it there.
“I must have been so distracted that the recording function was still on.”
But I said it as though it had been an accident.
As if I were telling the story to someone else.
“The recording kept running all the way until the day of the practical training.”
“······.”
The old professor listened to me in silence.
Perhaps because it had seized his interest completely.
I quietly manipulated the screen.
“But··· it recorded something interesting.”
Ding-.
The crystal orb’s screen was projected like a hologram.
Through the wavering image, a scene in the forest had been recorded.
Students’ Hunting Grounds, Area A.
“Would you take a good look?”
“······.”
I clicked the exact spot and played the video.
The footage was from the day before the practical training.
Someone approached through the dim undergrowth.
It was a suspicious figure with a dark-red robe pulled all the way over their head.
The robe seemed to have an anti-recognition option attached, because nothing inside it could be seen clearly.
[Rustle, rustle-.]
The suspicious figure pulled a thick bottle from inside their robe.
Then they twisted off the lid and poured its contents onto the ground.
A viscous liquid seeped out, pitch-black in color.
It was not a particularly pleasant-looking substance.
[Rustle, rustle-.]
After emptying one bottle, they immediately took out the next.
They emptied exactly sixteen bottles in succession.
The suspicious figure’s actions were utterly calm.
[Whoooosh-!]
And yet, who could have expected such a coincidence?
A sudden gust of wind blew.
The suspicious figure’s deeply hooded robe fluttered for a moment.
And for just an instant, the figure’s face was caught on screen.
“Amazing, isn’t it?”
It was an incredible coincidence.
The robe had fluttered for only the briefest moment.
Moreover, the area was obscured by dense undergrowth.
The fact that it was nighttime further prevented a clear view.
The sudden wind, the angle of the undergrowth, the spot where the moonlight happened to shine.
Unless all those elements had been taken into account, there was no way the suspicious figure’s face could have been captured.
“And yet Professor Glinbert’s face was captured this clearly.”
“······.”
And.
I had placed my crystal orb in just such a spot.
“Quite a coincidence, isn’t it?”
By coincidence.
A complete coincidence.
“So it was you. The insider colluding with the cultists.”
The crystal orb contained irrefutable evidence.
Professor Glinbert remained silent for some time.
His gaze had gone cold.
The kindly expression died, leaving only a poisonous, murderous intent roiling beneath it.
“Ho ho··· Did you show this video to the other professors as well?”
“Not yet. I wanted to confirm it with the person concerned first.”
“I see, is that so···.”
Rattle-rumble-!
Immediately afterward, iron bars dropped around the hallway where we stood.
They enclosed the old professor and me, cutting off our escape route.
When I turned my head, Glinbert was operating the security system with the crystal orb in his hand.
“Thank goodness. You responded so stupidly···.”
“Oh dear, I’m trapped.”
A faint light shimmered from the bars.
It seemed those were not ordinary iron bars either.
A security system incorporating some kind of barrier technique, no doubt.
“Ahahaha! You should have told the other professors first!”
Had he relaxed?
The old man spread both hands wide and laughed refreshingly.
The hallway had already been sealed off, and there was no visible route of escape.
“Oh no···.”
“If I kill you here, everything will be solved! The only ones who know about this video are! You! And one! Fucking! Brat!”
The professor shouted hysterically, even abandoning his dignified manner of speech.
Sharp mana glinted at his fingertips.
Apparently, he intended to kill me and silence me.
My spine went cold at the unexpected turn of events.
“You fucking bastard! You shitty brat! You scared the hell out of me! Fuck, fuck, fuck! I thought I’d been found out! Luckily, all I have to do is tear you apart and kill you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
He was not someone with whom one could have a normal conversation.
As someone affiliated with the cultists, he was not mentally sound.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
“Huh··· this is a problem.”
I was serious.
My opponent was a veteran teacher who had held a teaching position at Grandia for twenty years.
We were not in the same weight class.
This was not an opponent I could deal with through chip damage as I had during the nightmare.
He was not a vampire either, so fragments of the stake would not work.
Besides, there were no bugs I could exploit in this research-wing hallway.
“Die! Dieeeeeee! You fucking brat!”
There was no hole I could use to escape through the wall, either.
Meanwhile, my opponent was steadily approaching.
“Damn, damn it···.”
I was in a truly desperate predicament.
On top of that, I was a glass cannon with an overall stat grade of E.
One spell from a veteran professor, and my insides would be scattered everywhere.
“All I have to do is kill you! Once I cover it up, it’s over! Things are chaotic anyway, so no one will care if some commoner half-breed, an inferior E-class student like you, disappears! No? And what are they going to do if they do care! Even if anyone finds it suspicious, I’ll never get caught! Do you think anyone will suspect that I did something to you, someone I’ve never even met, when I’m in charge of the third years! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! You came barging in here full of confidence! You little pup!”
“P-please, save me···.”
It was a miscalculation on my part.
Who would have thought Professor Glinbert would turn out so deranged?
My original plan had been to show him the evidence and have a calm conversation, but···.
“Hahaha! Are you crying? You’re crying? Cry more! Beg for your life while you cry! I’ll kill you anyway! I’ll smash that stupid crystal orb too! I’ll dissolve it in acid so no one can find it!”
“Ah··· I was so careless! I’m going to be murdered helplessly just like this! I’m so scared!”
I’m scared.
I’m scared.
“······is what you thought I would say?”
I shed the act I had put on my voice.
I was a possessor.
A person who prepared for the next, and the next, and the one after that.
This situation had been in the palm of my hand from the beginning.
“Professor Glinbert, you’ve just admitted that you’re the insider, haven’t you?”
“Yeah! So what! So what! I’m going to die right here anyway! Hahahahahahahahahaha!”
“Hmm··· is that so?”
I rested a hand on my chin as though lost in thought.
Then I slowly turned my head and looked outside the bars around the corner.
“That’s what he says, Professor Javer.”
“······What?”
Glinbert stood there dumbfounded.
It was only natural; he could not sense any other presence in the hallway.
‘But.’
I was certain.
If it were her, she would have been watching the situation from outside those bars.
More precisely, she had been following me from the moment I left the hospital room.
‘That was what this was for.’
The reason I had acted suspiciously in front of Javer for no reason.
The reason I had made her suspicious of me and induced her to watch me.
I had used the woman.
A field unfavorable to me.
[Glinbert’s Research Lab], where there were almost no bugs I could exploit.
‘Solely. From the beginning. All along. To conquer this place.’
Click-.
The sound of shoe heels striking the hallway.
By then, a red-haired woman stood behind the bars.
Since she had been hiding around the corner until just before, she had overheard our conversation from beginning to end.
“Professor Glinbert.”
“C-Chief Investigator Javer? How, how are you here···!”
A frigid gaze.
Her green eyes were fixed solely on the insider.
White, dazzling flashes shimmered at Javer’s fingertips.
“That was an interesting story. You said you would kill my student and cover up the incident···.”
Crack-crunch-.
The bars that had sealed off the hallway behind a barrier.
With a few gestures, the woman crumpled them.
Not only the bars but the barrier itself shattered into pieces.
“Would you tell me that again?”
Her characteristic emotionless gaze glared at the old professor.
Glinbert’s complexion turned white.
I smiled at the old man.
A twisted corner of my mouth, a sneer directed at yet another fool.
“Smile, Professor.”
Now.
“Have a taste of our Javer noona.”