The two students who had tormented my nose with and were more helpful than I had expected.
Thanks to them, I learned that a duel was taking place between Emma Novician, who had appeared in the report, and her classmates in the Knight Department.
Of course, they knew nothing beyond who was dueling, but as students from the Magic Department, that could not be helped....
‘Since I only asked some questions and sent them away, no bad rumors will spread.’
...More than anything, I liked that the two students’ expressions were quite bright as they moved away from me.
They had surely expected to be punished, only to escape unharmed after giving a brief explanation.
The dark elf student’s face looked pale enough to seem white, so I could tell how happy they were without even seeing it.
However, the sight that greeted me when I arrived at the open lot next to the Knight Department dormitory was not particularly welcome.
The duels that had only just begun when I arrived had already continued more than five times.
The issue of five unauthorized duels taking place without academy approval was not important.
The real problem was that all five duels had been aimed at Emma Novician.
Surely, a duel was meant to be an honorable fight: two people standing at opposing points where neither could yield, determining whose will was right through skill.
That was why I could not help but look on with mixed feelings.
‘...Can I really call that a duel?’
The bastards who had gathered to become knights challenged her to duel one after another, then called for the next opponent as though nothing had happened even after being defeated.
Watching that spectacle, I could not tell whether it was a duel or bullying.
The words spoken by the sixth man to emerge, a bastard who could have been either a knight aspirant or an actor, were even more ridiculous.
“Emma Novician, your conduct is no different from betraying not only the Knight Department, but every senior knight who graduated from Calyps Academy.”
...Ahem.
I stifled the laugh that nearly burst out with a false cough.
The very professor who framed an innocent student under the Chairman’s orders was a retired knight. Betrayal, my ass....
That Gess Alep bastard was surely either a real actor or a greenhorn who did not know the average imperial knight, something even I, a possessor, knew.
“Therefore, I, Gess Alep, challenge you to a duel in order to restore the honor of the Knight Department!”
When the sixth duel finally began, I pulled my robe lower and slipped into the crowd of students watching the duel.
I did not want to reveal my identity and cause needless commotion in a situation like this.
Not that anyone was likely to pay attention to me while the Knight Department’s actor held such a noisy duel.
‘He looks quite tired after six duels, but he does not seem likely to lose.’
As I watched Emma’s duel, I quietly marveled.
Her smooth evasions, the counterattacks that flowed like water, her sharp eye for spotting her opponent’s weaknesses, and even the boldness to block attacks with her armor when necessary.
Even to me, who knew nothing about swordsmanship, it was obvious that her skills were not those of an ordinary second-year.
I pitied her for being framed and had planned to reveal my identity to forcibly end the duel if things became dangerous, but that would not be necessary—
[ Trait - Appraiser’s Eye reveals the opponent’s information. ]
[ Gess Alep ]
[ Traits / Weak Against the Strong, Strong Against the Weak; Born Actor ]
[ Special Note / He is using a sword containing . ]
—or so I thought.
A status window for Gess Alep, brought up by the trait that had suddenly activated.
I stared at it with furrowed brows, too dumbfounded to believe what I was seeing.
‘He is using a magical tool in a duel? That is nothing like the duels I know.’
Using a magical tool in a knight’s duel, which was meant to be fair and square, was even more insane than using one during a final examination.
Of course, if one wanted to pick at it, six consecutive duels were already far from normal.
Still, using a magical tool in a duel without mutual agreement could only be described as truly insane.
And those who did insane things generally wanted to do something even more insane.
I raised my guard as high as I could and watched the duel. At last, I realized what Gess’s ‘even more insane’ act would be.
“I’ll make sure you can never become a knight again!!”
CLANG—!
Emma’s sword lost its shape, becoming mere pieces of metal that scattered through the air.
Yet Gess’s sword did not stop. It continued toward Emma’s shoulder.
Having watched everything, I finally had to speak the word that had only circled inside my mouth.
“!”
The moment I uttered the activation words, a strange undulation spread from my heart to my fingertips.
A new sensation I had never felt in the modern world turned that undulation into wind.
CRACK—CRACK—
The frost-laden wind became a bitter cold at my command, freezing Gess’s sword and stopping it just before it could touch Emma’s shoulder.
The magic I had used for the first time activated astonishingly smoothly, and Emma was safe without so much as a hair harmed.
The only problem left was my robe being thrown back by the fierce wind, and the face it revealed.
Emma, whose arm had been saved. Gess, whose scheme had been interrupted. And the students watching the duel.
All of them directed heated gazes at my face.
Their emotions differed, but the meaning within those looks appeared to be the same.
Why is the Chairman here?
Why had the wastrel Chairman helped Emma?
Everyone looked at me with that question in their eyes, but I did not feel any need to satisfy their curiosity.
What filled me now was anger toward an academy that could not protect its students, and anger toward Gess, who had stoked a classmate’s false accusation rather than clearing it up.
“Gess Alep, is it?”
“Y-Yes, that is correct.”
I coldly glared at Gess, who nodded with a stupid expression.
“Are you aware of the academy regulation that duels within the academy are not permitted under any circumstances, and that the moment they are discovered, they become subject to disciplinary action?”
“I... I am. B-But punishing a traitor—”
Perhaps thanks to his Born Actor trait, Gess Alep pleaded his innocence with an expression so wronged that one could not help but sympathize.
Still, I firmly shook my head.
“I will hear no rebuttals. Since you know the regulations, you must also know that you are subject to disciplinary action. Keep your mouth shut and follow me.”
I had not known those regulations until I heard them from the students in the corridor earlier.
But unlike me, a possessor, Gess was a student. He had no choice but to accept it.
Even aside from that, Gess Alep had been caught red-handed attempting aggravated assault, a crime beyond the academy regulations. There was no way he had the nerve to argue with me.
Now, all I had to do was bring him to the chairman’s office and find out what he had been thinking, why he targeted Emma Novician, and how he had obtained a magical tool with .
“...Understood.”
Fortunately, rather than making a further scene, Gess Alep lowered his head and accepted my command.
Now I only needed to silence the students who had been watching.... Just then, a group that could handle that task in my place rushed into the open lot.
“You lot! What in the world is going on here?!”
The professors seemed to understand the situation roughly, as they immediately began shouting.
The students who saw them, however, did not wait obediently for the professors like students of a prestigious academy should.
“Professors!! Run!”
“If we get caught, we are definitely getting disciplined!”
“Damn it... !”
“Where do you bastards think you are running?! You there! Pailey, I mean you! Do not run away. Wait!”
The students used magic and their superhuman bodies to flee with all their strength. The professors, using more refined magic and physical prowess, quickly subdued them one after another.
Satisfied as I watched the professors handle my work for me, I approached the female professor who, unlike the others, merely stood in place.
‘No idea who she is, but if she can stand around alone like that, she must be fairly high-ranking.... I can give her a rough explanation and get out of here.’
Standing before the woman, who appeared to be a teacher and had jet-black hair flowing down to her shoulders, I spoke first before she could open her mouth upon recognizing me—the Chairman.
“Six students, including Gess Alep, a second-year in the Knight Department, have challenged Emma Novician, their classmate, to a series of one-sided duels.”
I did not stop at informing her of the situation. I gave an order as well.
“I will take the ringleader, Gess Alep. Confine the remaining students to their dormitories until the Disciplinary Committee convenes, and take Emma Novician to the infirmary.”
If I remained here any longer, the professors would surely catch me and ask awkward questions about why I had been here or why I had not stopped the duels.
Having cleanly finished what I had to say, I left the open lot with Gess Alep.
“Chancellor, we caught as many as we could, but some of them got away. What should we do?”
A professor from the Knight Department addressed Pionia Ratio, the chancellor of Calyps Academy, with extreme caution.
The Chancellor was capable and kind, but that did not necessarily mean she had a gentle personality.
Failing to notice that unauthorized duels were taking place, as well as failing to capture every student who had been watching, was ultimately the faculty’s fault.
If things went wrong, he might find himself sent to the hospital directly by the hands of the Grade 7 knight known as a one-person army.
“What about the ringleader?”
“...Pardon? Ah, yes! The ringleader is presumed to be Gess Alep, a second-year student in the Knight Department.”
Recalling the information he had obtained from the students, the professor continued.
“Further investigation is needed, but the students commonly claim that Gess Alep and his group bullied a student named Emma Novician.”
“Emma Novician?”
The Chancellor asked as though she had no idea who that was.
Even a chancellor could not know every one of the thousands of students, so not knowing an individual student’s name was not strange. If anything, it was only natural.... Yet the professor, who had something weighing on his conscience, subtly turned his head and spoke hesitantly.
“Th-That is the student who was caught cheating during the Knight Department’s final examination and failed.”
Cheating at Calyps Academy was by no means a common occurrence.
The House of the Marquess of Calyps and the House of Count Ratio upheld the academy’s authority.
Naturally, few students would dare to ignore the authority of two high-ranking noble houses and cause trouble. Such a matter should have been reported to the Chancellor without fail, but....
“Cheating? Why did I not know about this?”
“......”
Chancellor Pionia, who had never heard such news, asked with an incredulous look. The guilty professor had no words to offer and shut his mouth.
In a situation where everyone clearly knew of the conflict between the Chancellor and Chairman, saying, ‘In truth, the Chairman threatened the Knight Department professors into keeping quiet,’ would be like stepping into a quagmire.
The one fortunate thing was that the young Chancellor was wise enough to understand silence and merciful enough not to demand payment for it.
“I understand. Thank you for telling me now.”
Pionia gave brief thanks to the professor who answered with silence, then sighed for a moment before speaking again.
“Magic Department professors, please trace the students who fled. Knight Department professors instruct them to remain confined. They must be disciplined for watching the duel rather than reporting it.”
“““Understood.”””
The faculty who followed her answered in one voice.
The sight was truly dependable.... Yet a sigh naturally escaped her as she thought of the many professors who had not come here—professors who followed not the Chancellor, but the Chairman.
Chancellor Pionia suppressed her sigh and turned toward the professor with whom she had been speaking.
“And Professor... please take Miss Novician to the infirmary.”
“The infirmary?”
“I... I am fine.”
Emma Novician was both one of the parties involved in the unauthorized duel incident and a victim who had nearly had her arm cut off by Gess.
Aside from the dirt and dust she had picked up while rolling on the ground, she looked perfectly fine.
That was likely why neither the professor who had received the order nor Emma herself felt that the infirmary was necessary.
But to Chancellor Pionia, an outstanding knight, Emma’s condition was plain to see.
“Given what someone said as well... judging from the flow, it looks like your mana circuits have been damaged. If you do not treat them now, they will surely hold you back later.”
“Ah....”
Only then did the two understand and head for the infirmary.
Watching their backs in silence, Pionia recalled the memory that had troubled her heart since earlier.
Six students, including Gess Alep, a second-year in the Knight Department, have challenged Emma Novician, their classmate, to a series of one-sided duels.
I will take the ringleader, Gess Alep. Confine the remaining students to their dormitories until the Disciplinary Committee convenes, and take Emma Novician to the infirmary.
The Chairman’s orders, from a man who treated the academy as though it were his own pouch of gold coins.
The Chairman was someone who would never do anything for the students, someone for whom even calling him the worst wastrel since Calyps Academy’s founding would not be enough. Why had he given such orders?
He was the one who had silenced Emma Novician’s cheating allegation. So why had he saved her, ordered her treatment, and taken away Gess Alep, the perpetrator?
What was he thinking? Rather than looking at her with his usual contempt-filled gaze, why had his eyes looked as though he was focused solely on doing what had to be done?
‘Why....’
With that unanswerable question, Pionia twisted the black hair resting on her shoulder around a finger and sank into thought.
Before the Chairman damaged the academy any further, she had to uncover his true intentions.
Night came, and thick darkness settled over the chairman’s office.
Unaware that someone was desperately trying to uncover ulterior motives that did not even exist, I could not close my mouth at the truth unfolding before me.
“F-Forgive me, Chairman!”
“...What exactly are you apologizing for?”
“I failed to completely ruin Emma Novician, as you ordered. Please let me alone, not my house, be held responsible for this failure...!”
The harsh truth came flying at me the moment I leaned back in the leather chair prepared for the Chairman.
The mastermind behind the bullying disguised as duels, the bullying that had truly enraged me....
‘...That means it was me.’