episode_0088

“Aiden, what do you think? What are the students’ reactions?”

“You call that a statement? Of course.. very negative.”

Aiden barely managed to hold back the words that were not appropriate for his appearance, such as “a mess.” He muttered, “The author, the Dean who made me like that, Windelf, must be like that.” He simply laid back in his chair.

‘Is this really dementia?’

Aiden thought that Windelf was not much older than him, and if the ridiculous rumors were true, he should be quite careful. However, Windelf’s eyes looked far from crazy.

“As you probably know, there is definitely a cult somewhere in this academy.”

“..Please lower your voice a little.”

Aiden frowned and activated the magic installed in the Dean’s Office to block out external sounds. If a student who knew even a little about magic saw this, they would be furious and ask how much money he had put into the Dean’s Office.

Windelf gestured and Aiden followed suit, sitting down on a nearby sofa. The sofa was soft and supple, accommodating his frame. Windelf continued.

“Rumors are going around among the students. Rumors that are called truth can never be stopped. They are already hiding in this academy, and we just don’t notice it.”

“If you’re telling me this story… does that mean the Dean at least believes me?”

“If even you, Aiden, have fallen to the Sashin Church…then what can we do? Even the Vice Dean has fallen, so isn’t it strange that the Academy is still intact?”

Windelf chuckled. Well, it was a reasonable argument. The fact that he had even recruited the second-in-command of a group meant that the group was very unlikely to function properly. Of course, there were many students who would argue that the academy had not been functioning properly to begin with.

“The commotion last year. We can’t assume that all the students who caused the commotion were members of the Sashin Cult. It’s clear that some of the wind catchers were causing confusion by sharing the power of the Sashin Cult while stirring things up, but we couldn’t even catch their tails, right? ”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. The Academy doesn’t have a professional intelligence unit. If we could have caught them all, Kirch wouldn’t have been destroyed.”

“Yeah.. that’s right. That’s true.”

Kirch, the name of a kingdom that no longer exists. It was the country most closely related to the bloodshed that the previous Shinigami cult brought to the continent. It was also in Kirch that the Shinigami cult was founded, and the Kirch royal family suffered damage that was close to destruction due to the Shinigami cult that ate away at them from within. After all the Shinigami cult members were dealt with, the lineage as a royal family was completely cut off.

The fact that the lineage of the four great families that had continued for hundreds of years had been cut off was truly a great calamity for the continent. It was also the most sensitive subject for Windelf and Aiden, the generations who had directly experienced the incident. Windelf took a cigarette out of his pocket, put it in his mouth, and lit it.

“Times have really improved, in the past we used to roll them up one by one and smoke them.”

The cigarette smoke that Windelf exhaled slowly filled the empty air of the Dean’s office and disappeared. Windelf slowly watched it. What was he seeing in the fleeting cigarette smoke? Aiden was curious, but he was not so tactless as to ask that question.

“Not all students are believers, but it is true that they used the power of the believers. It is certain based on eyewitness accounts.”

“Looking at the many testimonies of using force that was not proportional to the position and making incomprehensible attacks, it is true.”

“Huh.. If that’s true, then if there was a student who killed those students without hesitation.. Is that student white or black?”

The documents that Windelf threw slowly flew to Aiden as he exhaled cigarette smoke. Aiden took the documents and looked through them. There were a few names that were quite familiar. The most familiar name was… Leah Baker. She was a girl who had never missed the top spot in her class since the entrance exam. In addition, most of the students were excellent students, which was actually quite natural.

In order to stop those students who were stronger than normal, they had to have overwhelming power, so naturally they had to be top-tier students. What’s the problem with that? Aiden glanced at Windelf.

“If you tried to deal with the root of the problem from the beginning… wouldn’t it be a hundred?”

“Well.. That’s a natural thought. But looking at some of the students in the documents, it seems like he handled quite a few on his own. How on earth did he do that? Like, let’s say he went to a place where there was a lot of noise, and he figured out which students were normal and which were abnormal at a glance and decided whether to kill or subdue them? What if he knew about it from the beginning? He just didn’t participate in the plan, but he knew the details…”

“Isn’t that too much thinking? I know it’s a bit odd to say this, but don’t you know, Dean, that the top students are indifferent to murder?”

“That’s true. But… something is different. Those students must be observed properly. And what I was about to say earlier was that they must not be thought of as ordinary.”

Don’t think of it as ordinary? As Aiden pondered the meaning, Windelf exhaled smoke from his cigarette again.

“Even Kirch’s intelligence department couldn’t find them anyway. If that’s the case, then common sense and ordinary judgment will fail anyway. What if they do something ridiculous and strange so they won’t panic and show their tails?”

Should the Dean really be isolated in the infirmary? Aiden seriously considered whether the middle-aged man in front of him was really crazy. Windelf’s eyebrows furrowed as if he had read the hint.

“Do you think they don’t know that this is crazy? Since nothing will change if they just sit still, aren’t they trying to do anything?”

” It’s okay to do it, but… I think it will end up killing a living person.”

“Just observing, just observing. And who is that? That silver-haired, handsome guy. Anyway, guys like that guy with extraordinary magical powers, isn’t there a chance that they could be survivors of Kirch?”

“Of course not. If he was a survivor of Kirch, he would be over twenty years old, so he wouldn’t be in the Academy.”

“Well, maybe she ran away from the royal family and had a baby. Anyway, let’s just keep that in mind. This year, I’ll have to take the initiative and host some weird events for each grade level where those students are.”

Aiden was troubled again as he watched Windelf mutter, “What if we rent an island and put all the students there and let them live on their own?” He wondered if he really had dementia.

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.

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“I heard there aren’t as many people dropping out as you’d think?”

“Well… wouldn’t that be true?”

We gathered in the training yard as usual, sitting around tables. Today, we had no particular intention of training, and we were just here to talk, so everyone was in a good mood. The topic of conversation was, of course, the hottest topic in the academy at the moment: dropping out.

“Actually, there’s no reason to drop out except for the first year. If you’ve only studied halfway, it’ll be hard to go to another academy even if you quit anyway.. It’s a bit weird to just quit and go back to your hometown..”

What Mathias muttered was probably correct. It’s the first year, and the semester hasn’t even started yet, so it would be better to just ask for a refund of the tuition and somehow get into another academy.

For kids who are in their second or third year and are not doing well, if they quit now, they won’t have learned much, so what will they do with it, and it will be quite difficult to get into another academy.

“Most of the kids who packed their bags and went home seem to be kids who didn’t go to class properly and just played around. I thought it was dangerous, but since the academy gave them money, they probably just went back.”

“Those who don’t have it will never run away because they feel sorry for the time they’ve invested so far.. Me too.”

If it’s a commoner, most of it would be like that since it’s directly connected to the future. Agnes muttered something like that and moved his piece. After much thought, I wondered if this was the kind of situation where a handshake would be used. After seven moves, my victory was confirmed by the move Agnes had just chosen. I looked at Agnes with pitiful eyes.

“I won again this time, Anies.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? I know everything the princess wants, right? ”

“Okay.. there are 6 more to come.”

Agnes nervously stuffed the cake into her mouth and stared at the plate with various objects on it. But just looking at it like that wouldn’t create a new move. Agnes, who was pondering, chose the move I had already predicted, and I moved my objects without a moment’s hesitation.

After repeating that several times… I moved my piece one last time, enjoying the look of despair on Agnes’ face. In chess terms, I achieved checkmate, and then leisurely drank my tea.

“I told you. You already won.”

“Ma… That’s ridiculous.”

Agnes lowered his head and fell into despair, but in fact, it was a natural result. I had studied the records by heart, containing the efforts of countless rascals who enjoyed this game under the pretext of education and politics, so it was more strange for me to lose to Agnes.

If Agnes really wanted to beat me, he would create his own records and study the patterns and rules of the moves I choose, and he would catch up to my skills in no time. But would he really be able to do that? With over 300 losses already, it was highly unlikely.

“Anyway.. Have you heard any rumors or any events this school year?”

“Would you believe it? Wherever you go, it’s all about dropouts, dropouts… That’s all. And look at the streets these days. You can hardly see the 5th graders who used to run around the streets when we were in elementary school. That’s proof that the academy isn’t running properly. ”

Ayla shrugged, put the cake in her mouth, and grimaced. She was seen gulping down her tea right away.

“..What the heck does this taste like? It’s not like the cake is sweet.. No, I don’t really like sweet things.. Anyway, this.. It tastes like herbs were put in my mouth.”

“Isn’t that the flavor that Ayla likes? It’s literally a cake flavored with herbs. Isn’t it easy to eat because it’s not too sweet?”

“No, I like using herbs in cooking, what the heck is this? This… This is not it!”

“After all, cake is bread, so isn’t it not that different from bread seasoned with herbs? ”

Ayla grumbled and handed me the cake, which was barely touched. I kept moving the cake and putting it in my mouth. It was delicious. If the cake I usually ate was too sweet and sticky and had a strong greasy taste, this one had a strong, refreshing scent that washed my mouth.

It tastes good.. I think it’s because Aila is young, but she can’t eat anything that doesn’t suit her taste.