Ch.48Chapter 48. Taking Care of Business in One Go (1)

‘What on earth is this kid?’

Amillion was genuinely pondering.

Whoosh-

“Is it like this?”

“… Yes.”

Ten years into her teaching career.

Amillion had thought she’d experienced everything possible at the academy.

Until Ryuyeong enrolled.

Since Ryuyeong’s enrollment, Amillion had been experiencing things in a short period that rivaled everything she’d gone through in the past decade.

Starting with a commoner’s top-ranked admission, there had even been external interference in the Crescen Empire Academy’s internal events.

The Undead that appeared during that chaos had thrown the academy professors into panic.

What was just as surprising as the appearance of the Undead was that Ryuyeong had handled alone an Undead that even third-year students struggled with.

On top of that, he set a record of “first-year ranked first” which had never happened in academy history.

And now, Ryuyeong was continuing to surprise her.

Until the inter-grade competition, Ryuyeong couldn’t even properly cast simple protection magic.

But in just a few days, he had completely transformed.

She didn’t know how he’d done it, but now Ryuyeong was controlling magic freely.

And not just any magic, but wind magic.

Wind magic, which wasn’t mainstream like fire or ice magic.

There would hardly be anyone to teach him separately, yet Ryuyeong was manipulating wind as freely as if he had learned from someone.

‘Does this make any sense?’

As a magician before being a professor, Amillion couldn’t believe Ryuyeong’s progress.

She had been surprised when Cain, another S-class student, showed remarkable improvement recently, but Ryuyeong was incomparable to Cain.

If Cain had gone from basic arithmetic to suddenly moving to equations, Ryuyeong had jumped from barely counting numbers straight to equations.

‘No, perhaps beyond equations…’

Amillion thought as she watched Ryuyeong controlling wind in multiple places simultaneously.

Though she was seeing it with her own eyes, it was hard to believe.

He definitely couldn’t even do simple calculations before, yet now he was managing such simultaneous control.

‘Was it all an act?’

“Hehehe.”

But to call it an act—he had genuinely been frustratingly weak at calculations.

Amillion shifted her gaze from Ryuyeong, who was chuckling to himself about something, to the other students.

While everyone was focused on magic in their own way, Cain stood out.

Cain sat with a stiff expression, not even attempting to gather mana.

Just a few days ago, he had been full of confidence, but something seemed off.

Cain wasn’t the only one not properly focusing on class.

Cynthia, who had seemed oddly distant from the class since the competition ended, was similar to Cain.

At first, she seemed to concentrate on the lesson, but soon she sat quietly with a serious expression, lost in thought.

‘Hmm.’

Though she thought kids this age were completely unpredictable, they really changed too much day by day.

It seemed like she would need to refresh the class atmosphere soon.

**

The saying that time heals all wounds was indeed true.

The awkward relationship with Cynthia after the competition gradually returned to normal as time passed.

Cynthia, who had been depressed and barely speaking, suddenly perked up one day and finally initiated conversation with me, Elaine, and Emily.

It wasn’t anything special.

She just felt bad about not fulfilling her role in the competition and was sorry about that.

She promised that next time something similar happened, she would step up and do her part.

Her expression was filled with confidence as she said this.

I, along with Elaine and Emily, who never cared about such things in the first place, gladly accepted Cynthia’s apology that wasn’t really an apology.

Cynthia was now more energetic and confident than before.

At first, I worried she had a weak mentality, but it seems she just needed more time to recover.

As Cynthia regained her spirit, the four of us naturally started hanging out together again.

With Cynthia back in our group, there was more conversation and the atmosphere improved.

It was a positive change in many ways.

“Since Cynthia couldn’t come last time, how about visiting our house again…”

“Ah. I don’t want to go to the Sinclair family for a while.”

“Father also said he wants to see you, Ryuyeong. He said he’ll properly teach you a lesson next time…”

“…Hmm? He said he’ll teach me a proper lesson?”

“Yes. That’s why he asked you to come.”

“…Let’s wait for now. I’ll visit someday.”

Hearing Elaine’s words, Lois’s intentions were obvious, but I didn’t have time for that right now.

I’ve been quite busy lately.

First, I needed to practice magic.

I never thought the words “magic practice” would come from my mouth, but I had to do it.

The “Wind” magic I finally learned after completing the inter-grade competition quest.

It was great that I could use magic with just a “click,” but what was even better was seeing my growth.

I recently discovered that skills had a kind of level system.

I had been wondering why there was a Status Window but no basic level system, but it turned out to be applied in this way.

The more I used magic, the higher my proficiency rose, and when proficiency reached a certain level, I could learn new magic—new skills.

Because of this, I stayed at the academy after classes almost every day to practice magic alone.

If the simple wind-raising magic I learned now was this useful, I couldn’t wait for new magic.

The thought alone made my heart race.

The reason I stayed at the academy to practice magic instead of returning to the Black Shadow Corps was simple.

Because I was an “Academy Novice Magician.”

With a title that increased growth speed by 30%, I had to milk it for all it was worth.

I gave up romance for practicality, so I had to at least do this much.

“Are you busy today as well?”

“If you’re practicing, would you like to do it together?”

“Ah. I have other business today.”

Unfortunately, today wasn’t just for magic practice.

If it were, I would have joined Cynthia or Elaine, but today I had personal matters to attend to.

The second reason I was busy was that I had work to do as the leader of the Black Shadow Corps, not just as an academy student.

Yuria had asked me to investigate suspicious individuals within the academy.

Two days ago, Yuria passed information to me, saying one of three people was suspicious.

The individuals Yuria pointed out were all formidable.

I had thought if someone had infiltrated from outside, they would be a student like me or one of the many staff members, but that wasn’t the case.

The suspicious individuals Yuria identified all held positions of professor or higher.

The first person was unexpected.

Kassis Sinclair, the homeroom professor of the third-year S class.

According to Yuria, his direct appointment from the battlefield to academy professor was suspicious, among other things.

She said that being from the Sinclair family, one of the six major families, lent him some credibility, but an investigation was still necessary.

Next was Lockert Erfen, a second-year A class homeroom professor I didn’t know.

I didn’t know this person, but according to Yuria, there was a high probability he was taking money from the underworld.

And finally, Landgar Bayer, the vice-chancellor of Crescen Academy.

As the academy’s vice-chancellor, he had considerable power and many connections in the government, so he could do anything if he wanted to, she said.

I asked several times if the vice-chancellor would really be leading suspicious activities at the academy, but Yuria was confident in her assessment.

She even said that if the vice-chancellor was behind it, everything that had happened so far would make perfect sense.

With such high-profile individuals to investigate, I needed to approach this seriously.

“Then how about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes. Professor Amillion said classes might end early tomorrow because of the S class event she mentioned.”

“Ah. Classes end early, but I don’t particularly want to go see that man.”

“T-then even if not my house, we could all go somewhere…”

Come to think of it, classes would end early tomorrow.

Professor Amillion recently said everyone seemed tired, so she would hold an event to give us a break.

She said she had arranged time for S class members to build friendships outside of regular classes.

‘I think everyone in our class would get along well if only Cain wasn’t there.’

The biggest troublemaker in S class was definitely Cain Hover.

Last time he suddenly approached me with confidence, but was cleanly defeated.

I thought he would come at me again afterward, but surprisingly, Cain had been behaving.

I thought he might have finally come to his senses, but judging by the hostile looks he gave me whenever we met, that wasn’t the case.

Building friendships with someone like that—wouldn’t it be a waste of time?

“Tomorrow… let’s see how it goes?”

“Sounds good!”

“Um, then perhaps tomorrow…”

“Yes?”

Emily, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, adjusted her glasses and spoke up.

Emily had improved to the point where she could continue speaking without getting flustered when our attention focused on her.

“Could you help me test something…? There’s something I’ve wanted to try for a while, but I couldn’t because I’m not good with wind magic.”

“Ah, I see.”

That was typical of Emily.

When I nodded to Emily, who was cautiously asking me, the corners of her mouth turned up greatly.

“I’ll see you all tomorrow then?”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow!”

“Take care.”

After saying goodbye to the kids, I quickly headed to the dormitory.

To spend time comfortably with them tomorrow, I needed to finish today’s work.

‘I should get it all done at once.’

The individuals I needed to investigate weren’t easy targets, but I didn’t plan to drag it out.

I needed to uncover the mastermind as soon as possible.

Woong-

After confirming no one was around, I teleported directly to the office.

First, I needed to gather some clothes.