The man muttered in disbelief and approached to make certain.
“I-It really is him. But how…?”
The sight of Maron teaching the children was shocking.
Maron’s Mana Sclerosis had already progressed completely, leaving him unable to handle even the smallest trace of Mana. How, then, could he operate a Magic Tool?
It was not a Magic Tool modified so that an ordinary person could use it. It was a teaching device created exclusively for Mages.
It could only be activated by someone capable of handling at least a minimal amount of Mana, yet Maron was operating it while teaching the children how it should be used.
“Has Maron’s… body recovered?”
The man stared blankly at him in astonishment.
When he finally came to his senses, he hurriedly left the street.
Kyle had been watching him from the Orphanage Director’s Office.
“This is going to become troublesome.”
Just as Maron had warned him, people might appear and try to cause unnecessary trouble.
However, Kyle was not particularly concerned.
The orphanage was not desperate for money, and Maron lived and ate there without often venturing outside. There were no obvious means by which anyone could threaten him.
In other words, they had none of the methods they had used to torment him elsewhere.
“Let them come.”
Kyle muttered before preparing for the afternoon lesson.
Although Maron had forced him to experience crushing defeat, Kyle had no intention of giving up.
“At least I refuse to lose when it comes to outdoor lessons.”
Kyle ground his teeth as he prepared the lesson, speaking as though he were making a solemn vow.
Of course, that vow was shattered by an indoor practical magic examination.
Children were naturally more interested in any lesson that was new to them.
After even his outdoor lesson was thoroughly defeated, Kyle returned with a dejected expression.
The following day, he used the previous day’s humiliation as motivation to treat Maron even more fiercely.
“Uuuugh….”
The former criminals shook their heads as they watched Maron lying on the ground, once again half unconscious.
However, some of them also looked envious.
Being pushed more harshly was frightening, but viewed differently, it also meant that Kyle was devoting more attention to him.
To an outsider, it might have looked as though Kyle were merely beating Maron.
However, a closer examination would have revealed that Kyle was controlling his Aura with extreme precision and driving it into Maron’s body.
It was a process akin to breaking apart solid stone.
If simply destroying the hardened Mana had been enough, Kyle could have crushed it with overwhelming force.
However, he needed to create small fissures and gradually break it apart without damaging Maron’s body.
That delicate work was why he took his time and carefully struck every part of Maron’s body.
Even considering that, the number of fissures forming inside Maron far exceeded Kyle’s expectations.
After only a few days, Kyle could already sense far more Mana than he had anticipated.
‘Has he been continuously circulating that minute amount of Mana?’
Whenever a fissure formed and Maron regained control over some of his Mana, he kept it moving constantly so that it could not settle back into the fissure and seal it.
For now, he possessed only a minute amount of Mana, so maintaining the fissures was the most he could do.
But what would happen once that amount increased?
‘He might recover quickly.’
Kyle was considering that possibility as he swung his cudgel once again.
“This….”
Kyle stared at Maron with a startled expression.
Perhaps Maron had decided that he could now circulate a certain amount of Mana.
He suddenly began amplifying the Mana inside his body beyond what was safe.
He individually rotated the Mana within the fissures throughout his body, amplifying it before using it to draw in the surrounding Mana and resist Kyle’s cudgel.
Kyle had already considered Maron’s talent monstrous when he saw him resonate his tiny amount of Mana with a Magic Tool and activate it.
However, that was not the only thing Maron possessed.
He also had the courage to charge headlong toward even the faintest possibility.
As if to prove it, a blue barrier appeared in front of Kyle’s cudgel.
BOOOOM!
A thunderous explosion erupted as the barrier formed from Maron’s concentrated Mana collided with Kyle’s cudgel.
Had Maron simply allowed himself to be struck, he would have escaped with nothing worse than a light bruise.
Instead, the collision inflicted an internal injury and hurled him backward.
“You insane bastard!”
Even Kyle was alarmed.
He urgently ran toward Maron and examined his condition.
Fortunately, Maron had not possessed enough Mana for the internal injury to be severe.
“Phew… You bastard. If you ever do something like that again, I’ll throw you out!”
“I apologize.”
Maron was smiling despite his apology.
He could hardly help it.
The impact had created even more fissures throughout his body.
Why had Kyle suddenly remembered the saying that no scholar obsessed with research was ever entirely sane?
He had the distinct feeling that Maron possessed that same streak of madness.
“Your recovery is progressing better than I expected, so don’t push yourself. You’ll only end up causing another problem.”
“Yes! And may I take a moment to…?”
Kyle understood that Maron wanted to meditate and quietly nodded before rising.
Perhaps because Maron was a talented patient who made the treatment feel rewarding for the first time in a long while, a faint smile unconsciously appeared on Kyle’s lips.
He turned toward the Rehabilitation Center trainees.
“All right! Next!”
The trainees flinched.
Training had become even more hellish after Maron joined them.
There was a good reason for that.
The number of potential candidates for Mana Awakening had now risen to more than a dozen.
That was not all.
As Kyle drove increasing amounts of Aura into their bodies, the pain grew more intense. At the same time, the resistance from the Mana naturally contained within them became stronger, allowing more people to sense it.
With proper training, they too might become candidates for Mana Awakening.
That was why Kyle treated them even more harshly.
“Ghk!”
“Aaaaargh!”
“P-Please… take it easy….”
Screams rang out from every direction, but only for a short while.
The dreadful pain soon robbed them even of their voices, and they began losing consciousness one after another.
Only then did Kyle end the training and address those who remained conscious.
“Ten days from now, the people I select will attempt Mana Awakening. Prepare yourselves.”
The trainees’ expressions brightened instantly, and they erupted in cheers.
In contrast, dark clouds gathered over the faces of those who had not been selected.
“You can sense it as well if you continue working at it. I’ll say this again: most people can achieve Mana Awakening as long as they make a steady effort.”
Kyle told them not to give up and concluded the morning training.
Perhaps they could finally feel that their efforts had not been meaningless.
The Rehabilitation Center trainees gathered in small groups and laughed among themselves.
Kyle watched them from the Orphanage Director’s Office and quietly muttered.
“Is it about time I taught them practical combat?”
Kyle looked at the map hanging on one wall of the office.
The south was not threatened by monsters to the same extent as the north, but there were still many dangerous regions scattered throughout it.
That was not all.
Any region containing a Labyrinth had been completely sealed off.
A troublesome Labyrinth created by an eccentric Archmage was dangerous enough, but one formed naturally after Mana accumulated for many years could be just as difficult to handle.
Mercenaries and Hunters existed to resolve such problems.
However, in Weiden, their primary duties had long since become protecting merchants.
Mercenaries escorted Trading Companies.
Hunters scouted the surrounding regions.
Their work had been divided in that fashion, and those were nearly the only missions they accepted.
As a result, the number of monsters continued to rise, while the Labyrinths either expanded or became increasingly dangerous.
In other words, the entire situation was a disaster.
Weiden had become a nation serving merchants and the wealthy, so even the most basic responsibilities were neglected.
Kyle intended to conduct the trainees’ practical combat training in those regions.
“Perhaps even Herse is better than this place.”
Kyle clicked his tongue as he looked out over the port, which was rotten to its core.
No matter how corrupt the nobles of Herse were, they at least attempted to maintain their territories at a minimum level.
There was not even that much here.
The merchants earned their money through trade and selfishly believed that keeping only the roads they used clean was enough.
As a result, the number of dangerous regions continued to increase every day.
The plan would allow the trainees to gain practical experience and stabilize the region. If a paid request existed for the area, they could even earn money.
It offered three benefits at once.
It was an excellent plan, but Kyle still felt slightly uneasy.
“Ha… Is this becoming too large?”
Kyle realized that what he was planning was practically no different from founding a large Mercenary Company.
However, his personality would not allow him to merely repeat moderate training sessions and leave it at that.
Training without practical experience was hollow.
A first-rate instructor should observe a person through repeated real battles, identify the individual traits that basic training alone could not address, and then show that person the proper path forward.
Kyle resolved to teach them properly before sending them into the world.
Then he thought of Maron.
The man possessed the tenacity to endure despite his suffering.
More importantly, he was exceptionally capable.
‘He is undoubtedly a first-rate instructor.’
Kyle knew little about academic disciplines, so he could not determine whether Maron was qualified to teach at an academy.
However, when it came to teaching children, Maron was a first-rate instructor.
Kyle had reached that conclusion after spending the past several days visiting other places and secretly observing how their teachers conducted lessons.
‘I am not bad at teaching. Maron is simply exceptionally good.’
Kyle nodded to himself at that thought.
Where else could he find a teacher capable of teaching both basic studies and magic so effectively?
For that reason, he intended to keep Maron at the orphanage until it became stable.
At the very least, he should be able to retain him until the Mana Sclerosis was completely treated.
While Kyle was making that resolution, people elsewhere were also discussing Maron.
“Maron… used magic?”
“He received help from a Magic Tool, but I definitely saw it.”
The people listening became visibly agitated.
Even after his Mana Sclerosis had completely progressed, Maron had possessed a greater presence at the academy than many Mages through theory alone.
“If that man returns….”
A Magic Instructor trembled as though he could not bear to imagine it.
Was there anyone present who had not envied Maron’s brilliant talent and committed some cruel act against him?
There were even countless people who had stolen credit for his accomplishments.
If Maron made a return, all of those matters would rise to the surface as well.
“We have to stop him.”
“Let’s inform the higher-ups first.”
They were not the only people who had exploited Maron.
Countless Mages at various academies had stolen his accomplishments, and none of them would welcome this development.
The moment news of Maron spread, the upper ranks began moving as though their feet were on fire.
They began with the simplest method.
Persuasion.
“Tsk. What a foul-smelling neighborhood.”
A man covered his nose as he walked all the way to the street containing Haynes Orphanage.
The moment Kyle appeared, the man changed his expression and greeted him politely.
“Good day.”
“Who are you?”
“I came from this institution.”
The man, who appeared to be on the younger side of middle age, handed Kyle a business card.
It bore the title of Academy Professor.
The moment he saw it, Kyle understood why the man had come all the way to the old district.
“Leave.”
“Pardon?”
“If you came because of Maron, I said you should leave.”
Kyle issued the order without even pretending to hear the man out.
The professor spoke in a warning tone.
“I don’t know what he told you, but you have misunderstood the situation. Furthermore… nothing good will come from making enemies of us.”
“Is it normal to torment someone to the bitter end when he has only just found the strength to stand again?”
The professor bit his lip at Kyle’s words.
“There is no point in having a lengthy discussion. Let us each go our separate ways.”
The professor turned away with a furious expression.
He had confirmed that there was no possibility of persuading Kyle, so their conversation was over.
In that case, it was time to bring down the hammer.
There were likely many people connected to Maron. All they needed to do was gather those people and apply pressure as they always had.
However, they encountered a problem.
“That bastard is well funded.”
“What about the criminal organizations around him…?”
“You already know. He unified them.”
There was no obvious solution.
“Ha… Who would have thought this would become a problem now?”
“I told you we should have killed him cleanly.”
Everyone clicked their tongues at those words.
How many Assistant Professors had they used and discarded over the years?
Furthermore, Maron had suffered from Mana Sclerosis and should have been incapable of ever recovering.
They had heard that he had crawled into the old district, where he lived like a beggar in a broken state, so they had stopped paying attention to him.
Who could have known that this problem would arise?
“Should we send an assassin?”
“They say the Orphanage Director is no ordinary fighter. The number of organization members standing guard on that street has also increased recently.”
“Ha… Where did a bastard like that come from?”
If Maron became any more famous, the truth about the past might be revealed.
If that happened, they were finished.
“Let’s strike first.”
“You mean another public opinion campaign?”
“We have to. We might not be able to drive out the Orphanage Director, but we can use this opportunity to make that bastard Maron leave the city on his own.”
“I happen to know some people.”
One man immediately rose from his seat after saying that.
He filled a money pouch before leaving the others gathered at the pub and entering a secluded alley.
“An advance.”
“Whoa. Who are you trying to destroy this time, paying us this much?”
A thug-like man spoke with a grin, as though this was far from the first time they had conducted such business.
The man wearing a hat explained his request.
“Maron. And Haynes Orphanage as well.”
“That place….”
“I know. Several groups are already working on it, aren’t they?”
The thug’s expression twisted.
His own group was one of them.
When unidentified people first arrived on Black Street, throwing money around and asking them to ruin Haynes Orphanage, he had thought he was earning money for nothing.
Now, however, the job was driving him mad.
The request should have been completed long ago, yet they had been unable to finish it and continued dragging it out.
“Here. Use this as your weapon and destroy them.”
The man removed an envelope containing several pieces of information from inside his coat and handed it over.
“This is….”
“The reason that bastard Maron was expelled from the academy.”
“But this….”
“It was fabricated. Do you think ordinary people know that?”
The man grinned.
Whatever had truly happened in the past, the only records remaining at the academy were the pieces of evidence used to expel Maron.
The thug nodded in agreement, took the money pouch, and disappeared deeper into the alley.
Not long afterward, another series of articles about Haynes Orphanage erupted throughout the new district.
「The Magic Teacher at Haynes Orphanage Is Maron, Who Was Expelled After Causing an Incident.」
「Haynes Orphanage Took in a Criminal. Is It Truly a Den of Evil, Just as the Rumors Claim?」
Once the articles appeared, malicious rumors began spreading throughout the new district.
Leading scholars from the academies circulated strange stories about Maron, a man who had nearly been forgotten.
“You know the Magic Teacher at Haynes Orphanage? Apparently, he was a dangerous man in the past.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They say he had no talent, so he slandered others and coveted a Professor’s position until he was expelled.”
“I heard that he conducted forbidden experiments to compensate for his lack of ability.”
“Both stories are probably true. Maron was expelled from more than one academy.”
People spoke as though the rumors about Maron had already been proven true.
After talking for a while, they cautiously checked their surroundings, moved elsewhere, and began spreading the same stories again.
As though attempting to make up for the failure of their previous operations against Haynes Orphanage, they launched a massive campaign of malicious rumors against Maron.
Eventually, the rumors even reached Kyle, who had been entirely occupied with training.
“Did you actually do any of the things mentioned in those rumors?”
Maron shook his head.
Kyle frowned at him before asking with a frustrated expression.
“Don’t you know any corruption or dirty secrets involving those bastards?”
“It will be useless. The back alleys of the new district are connected to them.”
Maron had already attempted something similar in the past and spoke with a bitter smile.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“We don’t have anything that could serve as evidence.”
“That doesn’t matter either.”
Maron looked at Kyle in confusion.
Kyle gave him a broad smile.
“They’re attacking us with fabricated evidence. Why should we respond by presenting genuine evidence one piece at a time?”
“That is….”
“We can simply fight them with fabrications of our own.”
Maron stared blankly at Kyle before mentioning several things that came to mind.
“This is enough for now. Organize anything else you remember later and send it to me.”
After saying that, Kyle summoned the organization bosses for the first time in a while.
“Our Magic Teacher is in trouble. I think we should help him….”
The bosses smiled.
They knew Maron well.
At some point, the man had entered their street and spent his days sitting there blankly like a broken wreck.
After meeting Kyle, however, a smile had gradually returned to his face.
Even if it was troublesome, people naturally wanted to make an effort at least once for someone like that.
“What would you like us to do?”
“They’re waging a filthy public opinion campaign against us, so we should respond in kind.”
Kyle told them what Maron had revealed.
“Will people believe it?”
“They don’t need to believe all of it. We only have to quietly spread the idea that such things might have happened.”
The city’s residents knew better than anyone how corrupt the city was.
If rumors spread that the corrupt academies had exploited Maron and discarded him, the people would fill in the rest with their own imaginations.
And if they gave them a few plausible details?
The reporters who were not satisfied with merely attacking the orphanage would seize upon them and begin investigating on their own.
“Begin!”
“Yes!”
The organization members started moving the moment Kyle gave the command.
They did not need to do anything elaborate, such as recruiting journalists.
All they had to do was mix some truth into the rumors the enemy had already spread.
“The truth is that the higher-ups did it and made Teacher Maron their scapegoat.”
“Oh, come on.”
“It’s true. Teacher Maron was born a slave and had no connections, so he was the perfect scapegoat.”
“Do you think so?”
“Of course. He was practically driven out of the south, and he had neither connections nor patrons. How easy do you think it was to exploit him?”
“If that’s true, it’s far too cruel.”
Once the truth of Maron’s unfortunate circumstances was mixed into the story, it sounded plausible.
The rumor rapidly spread from the old district to the new district.
The upper ranks reacted in alarm, as though the rumors had uncovered some grand secret hidden behind the incident.
Some of them immediately attempted to cut off their own subordinates and abandon them.
It was a catastrophe brought about by the complacent assumption, ‘Surely he won’t fight back.’
It would be difficult to strike at the very top because they were connected to the vested interests that practically controlled the city.
However, although it would take time, at least several of the people who had directly harmed Maron would undoubtedly be discarded.
The fact that the people who had targeted Maron would be ruined meant that they had achieved a form of revenge.
From Kyle’s perspective, however, it was still somewhat unsatisfying.
“It would be nice if we could land one decisive blow here….”
They had no evidence.
Kyle was frustrated that there was nothing more he could do.
‘Should I move personally?’
Just as the thought occurred to him, Maron, the target of the malicious rumors, spoke with a relieved smile.
“This is enough. All of you have already suffered greatly because of me.”
Maron bowed deeply.
The organization members and Rehabilitation Center trainees smiled at him.
Perhaps because they had joined forces and worked tirelessly for the Magic Teacher for the first time in a long while, their faces were filled with pride.
It would be cruel to continue when the person involved had asked them to stop.
Kyle sighed, patted Maron on the shoulder, and spoke.
“You’ve suffered a great deal as well.”
Maron’s eyes widened at Kyle’s words.
A single tear fell before the sorrow he had endured for so long suddenly burst free.
As Maron began to sob, Kyle quietly patted his shoulder.
The Rehabilitation Center trainees and organization members approached and offered him words of comfort.
Even the people from the surrounding neighborhood arrived one after another, telling him to remain strong and leaving small gifts behind.
The young Magic Teacher had unknowingly become a member of the street.
While he received the residents’ comfort, several mysterious men watched from a distance.
“It appears that the plan has failed.”
Their attempt to portray Haynes Orphanage as a den of evil had ended in miserable failure.
If anything, it seemed they had only increased the orphanage’s influence.
However, that was not what they needed to worry about at the moment.
“That isn’t the problem right now.”
The man spoke while staring at a new notice attached to the door of Haynes Orphanage.
Kyle had posted it on the very day he decided that the trainees needed practical experience.
「Practical Lesson Plan — Old District Mutual Prosperity Plan」
―Several low-risk areas will be subjugated to provide practical lessons for the Rehabilitation Center trainees.―
The man’s expression twisted the moment he saw it.
“If this goes wrong, we could be completely fucked.”