While someone at the academy groaned over a disaster that would not go away, Professor Giltier of the Knight Department, who prided himself on being the chairman’s most loyal lackey, was groaning as well.
“Umm....”
After agonizing for quite some time in his office, Professor Giltier asked Professor Fraus, who had taken over his sofa, with a grave expression.
“Professor Fraus. Does something not feel strange?”
“Hm? What do you mean, strange?”
Fraus’s nonchalant answer, given while he half reclined on the sofa and enjoyed refreshments, churned Giltier’s insides. However, there was no one else worth discussing this with but that man.
Professor Giltier forced himself to suppress his anger and spoke again.
“No, it has been a long time since the Disciplinary Committee ended, yet the chairman has not contacted us even now.”
“If he is busy, that could happen.”
“Busy? The chairman?”
“......”
Apparently, Professor Fraus found it absurd even after saying it himself, because he fell silent. Leaving him behind, Professor Giltier shook his legs as he sank into thought.
‘At the last Disciplinary Committee, we misread the chairman’s intentions. We clearly thought he attended to target Emma Novician... I never imagined he had another purpose.’
He had a sense for reading the room that the other lackeys lacked.
He understood that the chairman had turned the Disciplinary Committee into a mess in order to soften Emma Novician’s punishment, and that they had interfered with that goal.
Naturally, Giltier had prepared himself for the scoundrel chairman’s approaching retaliation, but even after three days had passed, the chairman had not contacted him at all.
“Come now, Professor Giltier. Are you not worrying too much?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Even if he is not busy, all sorts of circumstances can overlap and delay contact. Besides, why would the chairman contact us? What did we do wrong? It would be better to put your mind at ease and get on with your work.”
The easygoing words of Professor Fraus, whom he often spent time with, were no help whatsoever.
That fool who knew nothing but fighting apparently did not even know the phrase calm before the storm.
If he had even a little sense, he would have noticed the subtle atmosphere hanging over Calyps Academy.
‘No, the more that bastard acts like that, the better it is for me. If I leave him alone, he will ask for a beating himself. Then I need to do something worthy of a reward in advance, so I stand apart from him....’
Surprisingly, Professor Giltier had no intention of completely betraying the chairman.
It was not merely because the chairman was his superior. He could not overcome his greed for the mountain of gold that must have been piled up behind the chairman’s back.
The chairman might seem petty, but if one roughly catered to his moods and carried out the occasional order that came down, such as tormenting students, he threw generous rewards without hesitation.
‘Damn it, I need to repay the thirty million gold I borrowed from those guild bastards first.’
His betting luck had not been good lately, so he had borrowed money from various places.
He could not afford to miss the chairman’s irresistibly sweet rewards.
Thus, Professor Giltier decided to do something praiseworthy before the chairman’s punishment came down.
“You want to take charge of the Special Department’s knight instruction, is that it?”
“Hehe, that is correct. Just as a horse accompanies a knight, should not this Giltier follow wherever the chairman goes!”
“Your manner of speech seems to have changed.”
“How could I use a presumptuous old-style formal register when speaking to a chairman as lofty as the heavens!”
The moment he heard the perfect news that the chairman was troubled because the Special Department had no knight instructor, he ran to the chairman’s office.
I looked at Giltier’s grinning face with displeasure.
This time, it was not an act. Those bastards had made me clash with President Pionia before slipping away themselves, so why should I greet them warmly while putting on an act?
However, perhaps because Giltier knew full well that I disliked him, he thoroughly maintained the position of the weak and apologized first.
“I sincerely apologize for what happened at the last Disciplinary Committee! I dared fail to discern your intentions, Chairman, and committed a foolish act. If you give me just one more chance, I will certainly make up for my disgrace from before!”
“Ha. You think one apology will settle something that nearly damaged my reputation?”
“How could that be?!”
As my face crumpled with fury, Giltier rubbed his hands together and bowed his head.
Then, with a sly smile, he presented a small notebook.
“As an expression of apology, I have brought a list of the students under my charge. It includes students who have begun to stand out recently, so you will surely be satisfied.”
For a brief moment, I had to wonder whether I had dyslexia.
He brought a list of his students as an apology? It included students who had recently begun to stand out, so I would be satisfied? He was not a slave trader peddling students, so why in the world would I?
Questions spawned more questions.
Like a snake circling to devour its own tail, they continued in an eternal circle.
However, once my mind returned from its brief escape, every question was perfectly resolved.
Ah—
‘I was a villain.’
I had forgotten for a moment.
The chairman was a perverted piece of trash who enjoyed choosing only talented students to torment.
That was why I had failed to understand the reward Giltier handed me as a reward.
Even after understanding its meaning, though, rather than pride, a raw sense of disgust swept over my entire body as though I had been thrown into the blazing midsummer sun.
That was likely because I hated Giltier for throwing the past I wanted to forget right in front of me.
“I sincerely hope that my apology has been sufficiently conveyed.”
I felt deep contempt for Giltier, who was bending at the waist at a ninety-degree angle while gauging my reaction, but I did not cast him out immediately.
‘It is true that I need a knight instructor. Without Giltier, I cannot guarantee the Quest’s success.’
If I let my emotions sweep me away, the Quest would fail. If I wanted the Quest to succeed, I had to restrain my emotions.
The original me would have known nothing and been swept away by emotion, but that was not the case now.
[ Trait - Possessor’s Composure activates. ]
The sensation of having my mind forcibly controlled was not pleasant, but I could not deny that it was an extremely helpful Trait.
Looking down at the back of Giltier’s head with calm, settled eyes, I spoke.
“I will accept your gift of apology. I will also approve your transfer as the Special Department’s knight instructor.”
The student list, especially its list of talented students, was necessary for me as well.
It was a chance to select unpolished gems who had not appeared in the original work.
However, I did not like Giltier’s broad smile, as though his plan had succeeded.
“However, I cannot simply trust a traitor. If you truly want to apologize to me... Yes.”
At that moment, an appropriate test for a traitor came to mind.
“Find secrets that could bring down Professor Fraus and Assistant Professor Pachi, then expose them yourself.”
Throw away both loyalty to your colleagues and a knight’s honor.
If he destroyed his own path back, then I would trust him.
Understanding what I meant, Giltier’s face turned as white as though he had faced the Demon King.
I looked once at the two students glaring at one another as though they were about to draw swords.
“......”
Then I looked again at the two professors, who were so absorbed in their own worlds that they had no interest in anything else.
“......”
As I took in the members of the Special Department gathered in the chairman’s office, I smiled with satisfaction.
They were the barrier that would protect me from Medio, who would enroll in three months.
Naturally, my greeting contained an even blend of welcome and joy.
“First, I should welcome you. Officially, the Special Department is part of a disciplinary measure, but that does not mean you will leave the Special Department without learning anything.”
Nia Filoni had huddled herself into a corner and was looking around with a frightened expression. Giltier, who had sold out his colleagues a few days ago and become Calyps Academy’s greatest traitor, still looked half dead.
The only ones who reacted at all were Gess and Emma.
“Thank you for welcoming us!!”
“Yes.”
Well, it would have been even better if the professors and students had been evenly divided in their reactions, but I decided to be satisfied with this much.
I decided to overlook Emma glaring at me with defiant eyes as well.
“As I said before, the Special Department is part of a disciplinary measure. However, I do not intend to make the Special Department merely a place for reformation. Any sensible person should be able to obtain several results from a single method.”
In truth, I did not particularly care about guiding students.
If they were truly problematic, I would simply expel them according to Imperial law and send them to prison. Would I be insane enough to admit them into the Special Department, which would become my private army?
I met the two students’ eyes directly and declared with sincerity.
“Emma Novician, Gess Alep. My goal is to make you both superhumans of at least Platinum.”
Platinum, which meant a Grade 7 superhuman.
It was also the proper stage at which someone began to be called a one-person army. Even at Calyps Academy, the Empire’s most prestigious academy, not many had reached Grade 7.
Except for Nia Filoni in limited circumstances, only President Pionia had barely reached that realm.
That was likely why Gess and Emma did not take my words seriously at all.
“Haha, thank you for the encouragement!”
“...Understood.”
Their faces, nodding readily, showed not the slightest burden or pressure at the thought that they had to become Grade 7 superhumans.
Of course, I did not warn them or offer any further explanation that my words were true.
‘It will take several years, and they will understand once they go through it.’
“You already know this, but I should introduce the professors as well. Professor Nia?”
“H-hello, everyone....”
It was an extremely timid and short greeting.
Nia Filoni, who had been sitting in a corner, briefly raised her head to greet them before shrinking back down. I wondered whether she truly was the president’s confidante, but passed on to the next person.
It was not as though I could correct her timid nature, and as long as she taught well, that was enough.
“Next is Professor Giltier. He will likely spend the most time with you two.”
Emma and Gess nodded at the same time.
They, too, likely knew that as students from the Knight Department, they had more to learn from Professor Giltier, a knight, than from Nia Filoni, a mage.
Of course, they did not seem pleased to be studying with Calyps Academy’s greatest traitor, but that was not something I could do anything about.
“Professor Giltier, would you at least greet them?”
“I am ruined... Ruined....”
Um.
“He does not seem to be in any condition to greet you. That concludes the introductions.”
After roughly passing over Giltier, who was even more of a mess than Nia Filoni, I looked back at the students.
“Unlike today, beginning with the next class, lessons will be held in the annex newly established for the Special Department. Naturally, after today, I will not have much reason to seek you out either.”
As chairman, I could not remain attached to the Special Department’s side.
The longer I stayed near the Special Department, the farther the reputations of its students would fall alongside mine, since my reputation was even worse than Giltier’s.
Therefore, this was all I could do for them.
[ Use Trait Enhancement Ticket. ]
[ Do you really wish to enhance Trait - Appraiser’s Eye? ]
[ Yes / No ]
The status window kindly asked me once more, and I answered without hesitation by pressing [Yes].
[ Trait - Appraiser’s Eye is enhanced. ]
FLASH—!
A light that no one else could see, yet which shone more brightly to me than anything in the world, filled the chairman’s office.