After overcoming the obstacle called the lion, the first thing I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
And when I threw the curtains open, what I found there was the academy’s so-called big three.
At the sight of them, my jaw dropped.
One was the academy headmaster, a five-hundred-year-old coop-dwelling bird who was said to be the strongest mage on the continent.
Another was a skeleton, but in terms of level, a monster on par with the headmaster standing beside him.
And the last one, at least compared to those two, was relatively lower.
[Silves Fraxinus]
◈ Level: 68
◈ The target currently has a stomachache.
Even if he lagged behind those two in pure level, he was still undeniably one of the male leads of Dawnstar Academia, a powerhouse who could wrap someone like me up with one finger.
In other words, each one of them stood at the pinnacle of their field, the kind of figures people admired and looked up to.
But that was not why my mouth had fallen open.
This is what passes for academy professors?
What I had before my eyes was a drugged-up elf with a twisted face, pulling out a pill bottle from his robes and dumping the whole thing into his mouth, a skeleton watching him, splitting his jaw wide in laughter until the jawbone popped right off—
and a dragonkin who, as if he could not give less of a damn, sat there expressionless, wholly absorbed in one thing and one thing only: peeling an apple.
Anyway, the very people who were surely the object of someone’s admiration were currently putting on a skit that was not a skit right in front of me.
Even so, no matter what kind of comedy act these professor bastards were performing in front of me, I could not laugh at all.
Because I was definitely fucked.
In the game, no matter what route you took, you got caught by the professor on duty, but maybe because your achievement in killing or capturing the wolf was taken into account, you never got demerits.
If you cleared the hidden dungeon, I even remembered you getting a reward instead.
But the headmaster had come in person.
There was no event in any route where the headmaster personally came.
Especially not with two professors in tow.
No matter how you looked at it, this was not just a case of "forget a reward"; it looked like they had no intention of ending things with mere demerits.
Don’t tell me this is disciplinary action?
At Dawnstar Academia, disciplinary action was a massive penalty.
I’m screwed.
As if she knew exactly what was going through my mind, the headmaster finished peeling the apple into the shape of a rabbit, then handed it to me with a rather pleased look on her face.
"How does it feel to have been bedridden for three days, Cadet Ian?"
"Three days?"
I’d been lying here that long?
It hadn’t felt like that much time had passed.
Well, I had wrecked my organs and shattered my bones, so maybe that was only natural.
Then again... maybe the strange thing was that my body had gotten up after only three days despite taking all that damage...
Still... something felt off.
Wasn’t the timing a little too perfect?
I wake up, and the professors are all gathered right in front of me waiting?
Normally, wouldn’t they come by after the patient woke up first?
How did they know? It was almost like they knew I was going to wake up right now.
It’s not like they could have been coming back over and over until I woke.
They were even peeling apples.
"But how did you know to come?"
"I told them."
At that moment, someone beside me reached out and picked up a slice of apple from the plate.
Startled by the familiar voice, I hurriedly turned my head and found Kafka standing there in an academy uniform.
Why this one was wearing a uniform was a question for later.
"You didn’t get dissected?"
"What are you talking about? Why would I get dissected?"
Bringing the apple she’d picked up to her mouth, Kafka shrugged with a look that said, "What nonsense are you spouting?"
"If you were right next to me, you could’ve at least used telepathy. I worried for nothing."
Relieved that she had not been dissected after all, I found myself grumbling at her without thinking.
"I was right beside you. The weird one is you, Ian, for not noticing."
Chewing her apple, Kafka shot back at my complaint.
As a bonus, her narrowed eyes curved down just a little more.
Well, even if I’d wanted to notice—
how was I supposed to pay attention to what was beside me when the professor bastards in front of me were putting on a whole comedy routine?
More importantly, why had they all come crowding in like this?
Haah...
So it really is disciplinary action.
Just then, as if he had seen straight through my thoughts—
"You seem very tense because the headmaster herself came to see you. But there is no need to worry. That is not why we are here."
With a click, Professor Luke fitted his jawbone back into place, blue fire glowing in his eye sockets as he spoke in a reassuring tone.
They were not here because of discipline?
"The reason we came is the dungeon you conquered, Cadet Ian."
The headmaster speared a piece of apple with her fork, brought it to her mouth, and then spoke while looking at me.
"Based on what Cadet Dante said, and what that spirit said as well, it seems that dungeon was not one that formed naturally."
As she said that, the headmaster held out her palm as if asking me to hand something over.
"Miss Kafka told us that Cadet Ian might have an item that could be of help. Would you be willing to show it to me?"
An item?
"You know, that choker Ian took."
"Ah."
I pulled the choker out of my inventory and handed it to the headmaster.
I had picked it up just in case.
The choker had returned to being an ordinary choker after Carnwennan erased the magic on it.
Still, I had no idea what they could learn from just that.
But apparently, that worry had been unnecessary.
The headmaster took the choker and examined it closely.
"As I thought. Judging by the lingering traces, and considering who would pull this sort of stunt, there is probably only one man it could be."
As if she had realized something, she nodded to herself.
Then, after turning the choker over in her hands a few more times, the headmaster looked at Professor Luke.
"It appears a rather complex spell structure had been built into this. Mental-type magic... and it seems there was a self-destruct spell on it as well."
Watching her, I got chills in my own way.
All the magic on that choker had already been erased by Carnwennan.
And she figured that out with one look.
So level 90 was not something she had won in a card game after all.
"But how was this undone? Since the object still has form, it does not seem the self-destruct was triggered to release it..."
The headmaster’s gaze moved back and forth between Kafka and the choker.
At that moment—
Clatter!
"That was undone by my student, Cadet Ian."
Professor Luke opened his jaw as he set a bony hand on my shoulder.
No, he had been standing in front of me just a second ago. When did he move to my side?
And what did he just say?
"I saw it clearly with my own eyes. He held a dagger to the choker around Miss Kafka’s neck, and that was enough to undo it."
No, he saw that personally too?
"Is that so? To dismantle a magical tool woven from multiple spells and so complex, with nothing but a single dagger..."
That was the moment.
The headmaster’s eyes changed as she looked at me.
How should I put it?
It felt similar to the moment our eyes had met at the entrance ceremony.
A chill ran down my spine.
"Ahem. That is not what matters at the moment, is it, Headmaster?"
At Professor Silves’s dry cough, the headmaster’s gaze returned to normal.
She looked at the choker once more, then turned her eyes back to me.
"I will be direct, Cadet Ian. Have you ever heard of the Dawn Troupe?"
Holy shit, I almost bit my tongue.
I had not expected those words to come out of the headmaster’s mouth.
The Dawn Troupe.
A secret society to which Dotore belonged as an executive, and along with the Abyssal Mother Cult, one of the main villain organizations of Dawnstar Academia.
One notable trait was that every executive, including the leader, wore a mask, making them a group that cared an awful lot about privacy.
"Judging by your reaction, it seems this is not the first time you have heard the name."
"Well, I assume Miss Kafka told you."
But was it really okay to tell this to me, just some cadet?
Or were they testing me?
"But is it really all right to tell me this?"
"Given that you have already entered into a contract with Miss Kafka, who was once involved with that organization, we judged that trying to hide it would be pointless."
Spearing another piece of apple with her fork, the headmaster answered like that.
"What would you have done if I were a member of that organization myself?"
"We had considered that possibility to some extent. However, we do have witnesses."
"Witnesses?"
"The people who entered the dungeon with you."
The headmaster took a bite of apple and continued.
"At first, when we learned of the dungeon’s existence from a few clues, and heard that you were the one who proposed conquering it, we were not entirely convinced ourselves."
Yeah, that part probably did look bad.
I had only gone in without leaving it to the professors because I wanted the hidden piece for myself.
Still, clearing a dungeon on my own without reporting it to the faculty could certainly make it look like I was trying to erase evidence.
"But I hear you fought quite fiercely. Cadet Dante testified to that. If you had belonged to the same organization, there would have been no need to fight so violently."
Looks like that got me out of being misunderstood.
"In any case, this dungeon incident appears to be deeply connected to that Dawn Troupe. However, there is one part that does not sit right with us."
"A part that does not sit right?"
There was?
"The reason I can say with certainty that the dungeon you conquered could not have formed naturally is because it contained things connected to Dotore, an executive of the Dawn Troupe. Miss Kafka, who contracted with you, is one such example."
"No matter how exceptional the man may be, creating a dungeon is another matter entirely."
At Professor Silves’s words, Professor Luke added his own.
"Cadet Dante said he believes there must have been an accomplice within the academy who helped Dotore."
"So for the past three days, I set the spirits loose to search, but there was no one who appeared to be such an accomplice."
That had been the case in the game too.
Even when you cleared the hidden dungeon, the attack incident still happened exactly the same, despite the professor on duty clearly taking Kafka away.
Since they already knew full well there was a mastermind behind the dungeon’s creation, there was no way they had failed to prepare.
Which meant, in the end, they had failed to catch the mole.
And since neither the game nor the art book ever revealed who that mole was, it only made this more frustrating.
"What do you think, Cadet Ian?"
Who knows.
If I knew that, I’d be a detective.
"Did Dotore happen to say anything?"
Just in case, I asked Kafka.
"He never said anything like that."
Kafka shook her head.
"Does anyone know this besides you, Headmaster, Professor Luke, and Professor Silves?"
"No, no one else."
Then that only made the case sink deeper into the dark.
If there were someone else, I could just beat the bastard to death...
There was no way the headmaster was the culprit.
What would she even be lacking, that she would collude with a secret society?
Besides, if it were her, she would not use such petty methods. She would either erase the barrier for a moment or simply turn the academy upside down herself.
The same went for Professor Luke.
If he were the culprit, he would move personally.
If he tore through the academy while the headmaster was away, there would be no one who could stop him.
That left Professor Silves...
He was the one who had conducted the search for the accomplice, so you could say he was actually the most likely suspect.
But this guy was a protagonist.
One of Dawnstar Academia’s male leads.
Would a male lead really collude with villains?
So naturally, Silves was not the culprit either.
Then what the hell was it?
"Then I do not know either."
"I see..."
The headmaster nodded as if she understood, then speared another piece of apple with her fork.
"Then may I ask one personal question now?"
As soon as the exchange with the headmaster ended, Professor Silves spoke up with a question of his own.
"I do not mind."
"I would like to ask how you formed a contract with Miss Kafka."
Why that?
"Because I cannot sense any spirit power from you."
"Well, maybe because Kafka used to be human..."
But Professor Silves shook his head.
"Even if Miss Kafka possesses the unusual trait of being a hybrid of human and spirit, that is a separate matter from a spirit contract. Even if her essence is human, if her power comes from a spirit, then she too cannot help but follow the laws of spirits."
The reason I had formed a spirit contract despite having no spirit power was probably related to the squire system.
But there was no way I could explain that.
"I do not know either. It just somehow happened."
"Are you trying to call it coincidence?"
I nodded at Professor Silves’s question.
I had no choice but to call it coincidence.
I could not explain the squire contract.
"Coincidence, coincidence... Can that truly be explained away as coincidence?"
Professor Silves kept rolling the word around in his mouth.
"A spirit contract can only be brought about by one who possesses spirit power, yet you did not do so. Do you really not understand what that means?"
The more he listened to my answer, the more agitated Professor Silves became.
Seeing Professor Silves, who had shown nothing but dissatisfaction with everything, act like this made cold sweat break out on me before I knew it.
Why is this old man so excited? This is making me nervous.
"You broke the rules."
Silves looked at me with satisfaction and stroked his chin.
"I thought you were just like your professor, but I was wrong. To think I would find an antacid here."
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
"You..."
"Cadet Ian, would you have any interest in learning magic from me?"
Cutting right across Professor Silves’s words, the headmaster suddenly inserted herself into the conversation.
.........What?
At her words, the atmosphere turned icy in an instant.
And the headmaster, the very one who had wrecked the mood, went on speaking as if nothing had happened.
"To dismantle such complex magic with nothing more than a single dagger... that talent for interpreting and deconstructing magic is far too precious to waste in the Department of Swordsmanship."
Come again?
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