episode_0008

Unlike the current Emperor, the previous Emperor was incompetent. No one would say this directly, but it was an undeniable truth to all.

If he had merely been incompetent, it would have been fortunate. Not all emperors who had reigned until then could be called brilliant and clever. But they knew their shortcomings, so they listened to the loyal retainers around them and cared for their people.

However, the previous Emperor was different. He could not admit his own deficiencies.

His strong greed and vanity led him to use the Empire’s resources solely for himself, and he filled his surroundings with corrupt officials, ignoring the voices of his loyal retainers.

With an incompetent Emperor and an abundance of corrupt officials around him, it quickly led to widespread corruption.

High-ranking officials lined their pockets with bribes, and newly appointed officials also entered through bribery. In this way, fewer and fewer officials cared for the Empire.

It was the common people who suffered because of them. Due to the Emperor’s greed and the officials’ corruption, taxes soared, and the people starved. But there was nothing they could do.

To make matters worse, even the Crown Prince resembled the Emperor, being ignorant, incompetent, and excessively greedy.

“Why should I attend the same place as those lowly commoners?” After saying that, he didn’t even go to the Academy.

As the Empire’s future faded and only the common people suffered, he appeared.

Phantom Thief Cardinal.

Covered entirely in shadows as dark as pitch, he began stealing the assets of corrupt officials.

‘There are too many thieves in the Empire. I’ll show them who the real thief is.’

At first, the officials paid no mind. They thought he’d be caught quickly, but contrary to their expectations, Cardinal was never apprehended.

He always appeared and disappeared unpredictably, taking assets and vanishing like a shadow. He grew bolder and bolder. All corrupt officials had their wealth stolen by him, and when the Emperor tried to intervene, it was the Emperor himself who was robbed.

What Cardinal stole from the Emperor was the Empire’s national treasure: a sword used by the first Emperor of the Croa Empire. Enraged by the loss of the national treasure, the Emperor used all his forces to find it but could not.

However, one person, whom no one had expected, recovered the national treasure.

The one who recovered the national treasure was a prince who was merely a bastard son. Although he couldn’t catch the phantom thief, the prince brought back the national treasure. The first thing the prince did after obtaining the national treasure was launch a coup d’état.

There were two justifications: the Emperor’s incompetence and the loss of the national treasure.

Everyone said that a coup led by a prince who was merely a bastard son was impossible, but there were nobles who helped him: the Freya Marquisate, famous for its swordsmanship, and the Adelian Marquisate, famous for its magic.

The prince, supported by the two families, went to confront the Emperor, but the Imperial Knights had no choice but to stop him.

The prince pondered how to break through the Knights and reach the Emperor. But he wasn’t the only one pondering.

Gerda, who was then the Imperial Knight Commander, also pondered, looking at the prince before her.

Whether what she was doing now was right. She could no longer remember if what she wanted to protect as a knight commander in her youth was the Emperor or the Empire.

As she pondered, she made a decision.

‘All knights, clear the way!’

After that, Gerda resigned as Knight Commander and became an Academy professor so that no children would be like her, unsure of what they were doing or what they wanted to do.

The prince, having broken through the Knights, killed the Emperor and the Crown Prince and ascended to the throne. Upon becoming Emperor, he immediately purged corrupt officials and treacherous courtiers.

For a while, the smell of blood lingered in the Empire.

However, the prince—no, the Emperor—promoted the Adelian family and the Freya family to ducal status and distributed food to the common people for free. In this way, the Empire gradually regained stability.

And after that, Phantom Thief Cardinal never appeared again.

. . . .

[Your Majesty is busy, so I’ll get straight to the point. Is the child named Loki perhaps Your Majesty’s disciple?]

“Loki… that’s a name I’ve never heard before. Is there a reason you think that child is my disciple?”

[That child, Loki, moved similarly to Phantom Thief Cardinal.]

Phantom Thief Cardinal. The Emperor, listening to the principal’s words through the communication orb in the Imperial Palace, fell into old memories.

He didn’t question the reason given for thinking Loki was his disciple, which was that Loki’s movements were similar to Phantom Thief Cardinal’s.

After all, he himself had been Phantom Thief Cardinal.

And the principal was one of the few people who knew that.

“Could you please send me the test footage so I can confirm it first?”

[Of course.]

Even after the communication orb went dark, the Emperor remained lost in thought for a long time.

. . . .

The golem vanished without even leaving a core, and I flopped onto my back. Now I can finally rest.

Some who had been knocked out by the magic beast earlier and were only just waking up now rushed over to Lucas and Clara, beginning to flatter them. It was pathetic to see those who had been unconscious just moments ago acting like that.

“Your Royal Highness, the Crown Prince! That was amazing. To defeat that golem in a single blow!”

“It was a javelin throw like lightning.”

“It’s incredible that Your Royal Highness and Clara-nim managed to defeat that powerful golem yourselves!”

“Clara-nim, that was truly an amazing spell. It’s a great honor to be able to attend the Academy with you.”

Attend the Academy together? How foolish. Do they really think they’ll be able to attend the Academy?

Clara completely ignored those who spoke to her.

Lucas gave a brief reply to the flattering nobles and walked towards me.

Someone came to me even before Lucas did.

She bent down to talk to me, and her pink hair fell down, affected by gravity.

Pink hair—it seemed like something no one could pull off, but it perfectly suited the woman in front of me.

The person who spoke to me was Sepia Revyden.

“Ignore those idiots who are saying you two caught the golem or whatever.”

Even for an adopted daughter, her tone was tough, unlike that of a marquisate.

But mixed within it was a concern that I might have been hurt by their words.

“Haha, I’m satisfied just knowing that a beautiful and strong woman like Sepia-ssi recognizes it. And saying that the golem was caught by two people is definitely wrong.”

“Right. The golem was by the three of you—”

“Because we all caught it! We wouldn’t have been able to catch it without someone like Sepia-ssi handling the magic beast.”

Sepia seemed dumbfounded by my words and stared blankly at me for a moment.

“…Idiot. If you act that kind, it’ll be hard to survive in this Academy.”

The whooshing sound of wind moving was heard. A wind spirit, having flown over somehow, settled on Sepia’s hand.

“Here, I picked up some thread.”

In Sepia’s hand was the thread I had used to bind the golem. I thought it would all be gone after being hit by Lucas and Clara’s attacks, but some remained.

“I’ll give this to you to commemorate our friendship.”

“When did I ever become friends with you?”

“Huhu, if talking like this isn’t friendship, then what is it?”

“Now that I see it, you’re not an idiot, but a pushover. You must know how good this is.”

I had plenty of thread in my subspace anyway. Sepia would be able to handle the thread well using spirits.

“If it means becoming friends with someone as cool as Sepia-ssi, wouldn’t I be the one getting the better deal?”

Sepia, hearing my words, muttered in a very small voice and then left.

“Thank you.”

After she left, Lucas came over and spoke to me.

“You look like you’re having a tough time, lying down like that?”

“Haha, it’s not that I’m having a tough time; I just sometimes have a hobby of lying down like this and looking up at the sky.”

“There’s a ceiling, so you can’t even see the sky, what are you talking about?”

Creak.

Just as Lucas was about to burst into laughter at my words, the auditorium door creaked open, and professors entered. As dozens of professors entered at once, the chattering students fell silent.

“From now on, I will announce each of your assigned classes. And this year, a special class will be created separately.”

At the same time, a woman with ash-gray hair entered the auditorium.

“This is someone we specially brought in for this special class.”

The person who entered was someone I knew. She was famous in Croaca for pushing students hard, but because their abilities increased just as much, she was called the ‘Demon Instructor’.

She was walking, gripping the nape of Professor Idra, known as the ‘Crazy Professor’, with one hand.

“I’ll call the special class students first! Lucas Leonhart, Clara Adelian, Sepia Revyden, Kuran Isar… Loki, you are all part of the special class from now on.”

The ones the professor called were those who were considered main characters in Croaca. The reason I worked so hard at the entrance ceremony was to be assigned to this special class.

“Next are the students assigned to Class 1…”

The professor then called the students for Class 1 and Class 2.

“Students who haven’t been called yet, raise your hands.”

Quite a few students raised their hands.

“All of you are expelled. Leave the Academy immediately.”

“What? What do you mean by that?!”

“How could we be expelled after passing?!”

Both the students being expelled and those who weren’t were surprised by the professor’s words of expulsion. Indeed, who would have thought that students would be expelled at the entrance ceremony?

“That guy over there got into the special class, so why did I fail?!”

A student pointed at me and said. In this situation, they’re trying to drag me down? Did they not see me fight?

“Haa… Afro Ganis, you clearly panicked when the magic beast appeared, got hit by it, and fainted, didn’t you?”

The professor sighed as if accustomed to it, saying. Indeed, after a few years of teaching, it was natural to get used to such types.

“Th-that’s because the magic beast suddenly appeared and I panicked!”

“Let me tell you in more detail.”

The one who spoke was the Demon Instructor with ash-gray hair. After setting Professor Idra down on the floor, she stood in front of Afro Ganis. Standing before her, Afro Ganis was trembling.

“My name is Alicia. From now on, I will tell you why you are being expelled.”

Immediately after she spoke, she vanished in an instant from in front of Afro Ganis. Feeling a sense of danger, I instinctively ducked backwards.

Where my face had been, the Demon Instructor’s hand blade had appeared.

“Did you see that?”

“Huh? What?”

This time, the Demon Instructor rushed at Afro Ganis. It was a very slow speed compared to when she attacked me. However, Afro Ganis couldn’t block it and was sent flying far away.

“This is why you are being expelled. Even though this student was caught off guard, they dodged it, but you knew it was coming and still couldn’t dodge.”

In this absurd situation, it was Professor Idra who hugged me and comforted me. What’s gotten into this crazy professor?

“Commander-nim, what are you doing?! It was suspicious from the moment you suddenly came to take charge of the special class! Loki, you must be very surprised, aren’t you?”

“Yes! I was really surprised! My fragile heart almost burst with a pop!”

“Aw, aw. Was our Loki very surprised?”

Come to think of it, was the Demon Instructor the commander of the place Idra was at back when Idra was an adventurer?

“Hmm…”

The Demon Instructor, scratching her head, handed me a pouch. What is this?

“I’m sorry, this is my first time doing something like this. This is a small token of compensation.”

I opened the pouch the Demon Instructor handed me.

Inside were countless gold coins. Gasp! How much is this?

I immediately pulled away from Professor Idra.

“Please let go, Professor Idra. Professor Alicia can be like that!”

“Loki?”

Ignoring Professor Idra, I went to the Demon Instructor and bowed 90 degrees.

“It was an honor to be of help to Professor Alicia!”

Hehe, gold coins! Gold coins!

From now on, she’s not the Demon Instructor, but the Goddess Instructor.