Ch.3838. Distrust, and Hatred (1)

Inevitably, Professor Muniher had to take a step back for this semester’s initial evaluation.

But after seeing the resistance from those rabble and Professor Nebel’s dark intentions, retreating doesn’t feel particularly regrettable.

Those frauds in their flowing disguises will finally be completely exposed this time.

Professor Muniher still can’t take his eyes off one exam paper, lingering in the afterglow with one corner of his mouth turned up.

‘Especially, it wouldn’t be good if this one gets harmed.’

Whether in the Empire or the Principality, it’s the same. Not a single person had satisfied him.

Even with Goden, who was said to have a promising future, Professor Muniher firmly turned away, and he showed no interest even in Renias or Lonelion of the Arkab Party, called the divinity of Lebrant.

Why? Despite them being talents too excellent to ignore, his eyes never turn in their direction.

If it were simply compassion, he could say so, but it’s not that either.

Always strict, clearly pointing out the flaws of approaching students—he’s definitely not someone who acts out of pity for the weak.

Yet, only one person has satisfied that strict character.

Junon, the protagonist of this exam paper.

As Professor Muniher gazes at the exam paper, two visitors arrive.

-Clunk.

“Hmm?”

“Sister, walk properly. We’re almost there!”

“Ugh… I feel sick…”

“Oh my, seasickness, I see. I’ll support you, so rest on the sofa.”

“To think I’d end up carrying my older sister at this age.”

“Nnngh… I said I’m sorry…”

They entered without knocking, and someone as strict as him might normally get angry, but these two are people who arrived after receiving a recruitment request from the Artena Empire.

Denis Flobel Beryl, who pursues scholarship based on the essence of unique magic and magical power.

Dalia Maybel Emerald, who has devoted herself to the fields of medicine and alchemy—human domains that can never be resolved by magic alone.

Any student would easily gasp in admiration just hearing these names.

These are people who don’t move for trivial matters and have enough standing to arbitrarily refuse recruitment requests.

The reason Denis and Dalia set foot in the Principality was essentially because one is Muniher’s wife and the other his sister-in-law.

In short, while the other side used influence, what Muniher used was connections.

“How did your sister-in-law end up like this?”

“As you can see, Denis refused to take medicine no matter what, so this happened.”

“It’s fine… I feel like I’m dying… I’m never getting on a ship again…”

“You must be very stiff. Stay there. Let me loosen you up a bit more.”

“Oh my, how kind.”

As the younger sister, who was visibly exhausted from carrying her sister, tapped her tense shoulders, Muniher approached and massaged them.

Denis, lying on the large three-person sofa watching this, responded with dissatisfaction.

“Brother-in-law. Even at times like this, you only care for your wife? Am I invisible?”

“Should I call your husband Jake right away?”

“Ugh… no thanks.”

“It’s your own doing. If you had just taken the motion sickness medicine properly, you’d be fine like me.”

“Ugh. Stop nagging, Dalia, my head feels like it’s ringing.”

Despite having rare visitors, the conversation isn’t progressing due to motion sickness.

Dalia chuckles as she watches her sister whining from seasickness.

As time passes and Denis’s symptoms subside, they can finally get to the main point.

“By the way, Muniher. How did you end up calling for me too? I heard you specifically asked me to come.”

“That’s right. I understand calling just me, but why did you call my sister too?”

It was indeed Muniher’s intention to fill the vacant professor positions with people from the Empire.

However, while Dalia could fulfill her duties as a professor, Denis could not.

“There’s someone I’d like you to teach.”

“What? There’s no way I could teach anyone! I’ve devoted my entire life to magic research.”

“Exactly. You know our sister’s personality, don’t you? She’ll get heated and give up halfway.”

“That…”

As Dalia said, Denis has a somewhat hot-tempered and sharp personality, making her unsuitable for teaching students.

Denis glared at Dalia for a moment with tension around her eyes, but even she couldn’t refute the truth.

“Even Dalia says so, you see. It’s not just that I have high standards like you; I can’t teach because of my personality.”

“Jake was like that at first too. But now, he’s surrounded by students. It’s entirely possible.”

“After knowing me for 20 years, you still don’t get it? Jake might have softened after marrying me and having children, but I haven’t.”

“I agree with my sister. She was so frustrated that she even conducted research herself because she didn’t like the researchers.”

They were adamant that they could not take on the task of teaching students.

‘No choice then.’

Faced with the sisters’ stubborn opposition, Professor Muniher pulls out his final card.

“Would you still say that if it’s someone I’m teaching?”

“Eh? Darling? You…”

“Teaching someone…?”

“”WHAAAAT????””

The fact that someone who had never tried to teach anyone before had taken on a disciple made them doubt their ears.

Denis, who had been groaning from motion sickness, sat up abruptly, and Dalia looked at her husband as if seeing a stranger.

“Si-Sister… I must have misheard, right?”

“Yes, Dalia. We must be dreaming. This can’t be reality.”

“Mmm. Sister. But why does my cheek hurt? It’s strange…”

“Does it hurt? Really? Even like this?”

“Aaah, Sister! I said it hurts!!”

“It’s not a dream…? Really…?”

“…Stop it. You’re not children.”

How shocking this statement is.

It shows how groundbreaking it is that Muniher, who seemed like he would never take a disciple in his lifetime, has done so.

“Well, that aside. If Muniher is teaching directly, why do you need me?”

Rubbing her swollen cheek, Dalia also agreed, saying, “That’s a good point.”

“First, I’d like you to look at this.”

The sisters’ wide-eyed gazes fell upon two sheets of paper.

“An exam using the Talbert Arc… a common evaluation method in Hardia too.”

“There’s no theme for the exam, so it seems like students should approach it with suspicion? By your standards, you set it quite normally. I don’t see anything else to criticize.”

“Still… you probably weren’t satisfied with this and gave a stingy score.”

Having known each other for 20 years, the Denis-Dalia sisters knew Muniher inside out.

“Since you seem to understand well, I’d like you to look at this.”

Muniher nods affirmatively, as if he had expected this, and shows them a grade sheet.

“…”

“…”

The two fall silent as if frozen solid.

Gone is their earlier chatter about Muniher’s disciple or predicting his evaluation based on his fastidious personality.

As if they couldn’t believe their eyes, the sisters’ now-serious faces showed no sign of looking away from the exam paper.

“Did this boy really… get such a grade from you?”

“Impossible… A student who received an A+ overall by your standards…”

Professor Muniher, who had brewed some tea, sat on the sofa and handed the student’s personal information to the stunned pair.

“His name is Junon. He’s average in physical skills but growing well.”

“Numerically, he’s weak, but there’s nothing unusual. Besides…”

“Wait a moment. Please be quiet for a bit so I can concentrate.”

Seeing her sister focusing, Dalia nodded and kept her mouth shut.

Denis had interrupted Dalia because her gaze was fixed on one part of Junon’s personal information.

After finishing her calculations, Denis pointed to a part of Junon’s magical metrics and spoke with an uncharacteristically serious face.

“This figure… is it accurate?”

“Yes. The student himself confirmed it recently.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Such a meager amount means that hidden inside is…”

“Unfortunately, there was nothing. I confirmed that with my own eyes.”

He was a student without any talent.

He didn’t seem blessed in any way, and all he had was a unique defensive magic that was useless for exams.

It means he earned all his points with nothing but his bare abilities despite having that capability.

“After the end-of-semester evaluation, he came to me asking for guidance. And then something interesting happened.”

“”Something interesting?””

This wasn’t just something that piqued Muniher’s interest; it had truly captured his attention.

The sisters could clearly see his lips curling upward, something that rarely happened due to his personality.

After a sip of tea and the clinking of a teacup, Professor Muniher finally spoke.

“He demonstrated an attack that suppresses the opponent’s magic by placing his hand on a magic circle and flowing magical power in the reverse direction. What do you think, Denis?”

Anti-cast.

That’s what it was about.

***

[Notice Regarding Initial Semester Evaluation]

[A giant Kud Rat invaded the joint training at Tbeshar Lowlands, which was held for class placement.]

[While Kud Rats do inhabit the area, this one had an abnormal size, and unforeseen events occurred during the training.]

[We could complete class assignments by excluding the initial semester evaluation scores, but most academy students have not agreed to this.]

[Additionally, there are suspicions and doubts about the end-of-semester evaluation, making it difficult to assign classes as is.]

[The faculty has determined that this could adversely affect students’ grades, so the initial semester evaluation scores are temporarily suspended.]

[Finally, we need to add additional criteria to consider for the important matter of class assignment.]

[Therefore, we will employ duels, which we have frequently used before, to verify additional criteria.]

[Students in years 1-3 who took the initial semester evaluation test at Tbeshar Lowlands should gather at the dueling room in Mizar Hall on the designated date.]

[Detailed information will be announced again at the test site on the day.]

…

…

[From the Faculty]

“So it’s come to this.”

As I dried my wet hair with a towel and came out of the bathroom, I found an urgent notice had arrived.

Presumably, it was delivered to all students from freshmen to third-year students.

“Well. It’s not like I’d benefit from getting into Class A or something. This is better.”

I’d end up meeting Michelle, who was a permanent resident of Class A, as well as soon-to-be-promoted Senia, Charlotte, Goden, and Erika.

As I initially thought, it’s best not to encounter them. I don’t particularly care about grades either.

Nothing has really changed for me.

In academics, I’ll end up in a lower class anyway, and I won’t be able to take the courses I want.

It’s more beneficial for me to supplement my lacking knowledge at the library since I won’t have to face them.

“Though it’s a bit painful that I can’t visit Professor Muniher.”

With the dueling test coming up, contact between professors and students is prohibited during this period.

This is because Archduke Ardelion has vowed to strictly supervise against cheating, such as passing information about dueling opponents to examinees.

“I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing, what else can I do?”

The best choice available now is self-management—visiting the fitness room to train my body to be able to face magical beasts.

My feet naturally head towards Mizar Hall, where the fitness room is located.

I’m determined to train this weak body as much as possible today too.

“This is usually when he comes… Ah, there he is. Student Junon?”

The staff member handling administrative duties at the front desk suddenly called my name.

In front of the staff member who stood up calling my name was the little miss whom I last saw in the hospital room.

Normally, I would have avoided meeting her, but…

“I heard you always come to the fitness room, so I came looking for you. Are you feeling better?”

“Thanks to the baron right in front of me, who can easily cover hospital bills with an entire trading company, I enjoyed quite the luxury.”

“Eek! Oh, so you found out…”

It’s best to talk straightforwardly about what happened back then.

***

“Huff… hup!”

It’s been a month since Junon’s regression, and muscles have started to develop bit by bit all over his body.

While he’s following a rigorous training regimen to build his body, his mind is still full of thoughts.

-‘This should be enough interest. Here, take it.’

-‘I didn’t offer it expecting interest. I just…’

-‘I don’t really want to leave debts to others. Or is there something else bothering you about me?’

-‘Well… of course there is. I not only received help but even caused you injury.’

-‘I never asked for that. Like I said before, what’s past is past, so just let it go.’

At that, Charlotte’s small body trembled, and to Junon’s dismay, she burst into tears.

-‘Isn’t it too much not to let me repay even this much…? If anything, I’m frustrated that I can’t do more for you!’

Clang.

“Oh no…”

Recalling Charlotte’s last words, Junon unconsciously lost his form and dropped the exercise equipment.

The sound echoing in the middle of the fitness room made him lose the will to continue training.

“This is why I didn’t want to meet her.”

Muttering this, he sat back in a chair to rest and sort out his complicated thoughts.

Reflecting on his pre-regression self, Junon realized anew that he was too sentimental.

“She’s a completely different person now… but I should still be cautious.”

Yet, seeing that young child’s tears moves his heart.

Though it might just be childish whim, Charlotte’s desire to at least pay the hospital bills was probably sincere.

She even said it was frustrating not to be allowed to give even that much, making it not so easy to reject her.

Moreover, even if only he remembers, she was once a comrade with whom he shared life and death.

“Still… Charlotte won’t show malice towards me, so…”

So Junon thinks to himself.

Maybe this much is okay.

Originally, he had planned to repay the hospital bills and completely cut ties. After all, he might end up associated with the Tembris Party members.

But the future has changed multiple times, hasn’t it? Through various actions, the situation has subtly changed from before.

Indeed, the biggest change is not joining the Tembris Party.

As long as there’s no life-threatening situation, is maintaining this distance really bad?

‘Right. This much distance should be fine.’

Life as a Tembris Party member was perhaps the most important fragment of his life after falling to the Kempton continent.

It took effort just to openly push Charlotte away, leading to long contemplation.

Why? As long as Junon retains those memories, they are memories that can never be easily shaken off.

Perhaps, now that the future has changed to some extent, it might be okay.

‘I probably earned their resentment after joining the party…’

As long as he doesn’t join the Tembris Party, meeting as person to person shouldn’t be a problem.

Rationalizing this way, Junon began to wrap up his fitness room session. At that moment:

“There you are. Just for a moment… could you listen to me?”

The woman he had always tried to avoid appeared without fail.

“Regardless of what others might say about you… no, that’s not it. I’ll just get to the point. I’d like you to join our party.”

Along with an invitation to join the party.

And immediately, someone else cuts in.

“Wait, Michelle. I’d like to talk to him alone first.”

“…!”

The one who interrupted was someone with whom he had no connection yet, someone who shouldn’t be related to him at this point.

‘Why is she…!’

“Erika…?”