[A Heart-Pounding Academy Tour with the Chancellor]
“What did you just say?”
There was an edge to Hans’s voice.
The Chancellor, too, suddenly looked at me with a grim expression.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I said I would keep quiet, but......”
“No, that is not it. The Eye of the Demonfolk? Did I hear you correctly?”
At the Chancellor’s question, I shook my head.
“No. Your hearing is still fine.”
“Huurgh......”
“Huh?! Are you all right?!”
The Chancellor made a sound like air leaking from a punctured bag and clutched the back of his neck.
“Hans! Don’t you have a potion? A potion?”
“Are you making him sick only to give him medicine?”
“What are you talking about? We need to give him a potion first and call someone!”
“Rather than a potion, it would be better to explain what this ‘Eye of the Demonfolk’ is.”
There was someone clutching the back of his neck right in front of us, and he thought information was more important!
Special Division 4 really had neither blood nor tears.
“I-I am all right, so please explain. An Eye of the Demonfolk in the academy...... How could this happen?”
Ah, it was not a health problem; he was worried about the academy?
He was a true educator.
“Has a demonfolk already infiltrated the academy?”
Hans seemed to have the same doubt as the Chancellor, and his expression was notably grave.
“It is an important matter. You must tell us the truth.”
“It’s not like that. If it were, I would’ve cut down the demonfolk before coming to the Chancellor’s office.”
“That is true, but......”
“The Eye of the Demonfolk is a gigantic mana stone. A gigantic mana stone the Underworld made to watch the surface.”
“Why would that be in the academy......?”
The Chancellor was horrified, but Hans tilted his head.
“A mana stone? A stone imbued with mana rather than demonic energy?”
“Yeah. There’s a tiny amount of demonic energy mixed in, but no one but Aleph or Nia would be able to sense it.”
That mana stone, the Eye of the Demonfolk, was what you destroyed in the final Main Quest of Chapter 1.
Teruna was determined to work me to the bone?
Then I would be determined to take the shortcut!
“Then where is the Eye of the Demonfolk?”
“Over there.”
I pointed to the immensely tall spire that was visible even from the Chancellor’s office.
The Eye of the Demonfolk was at the peak of the immense spire, which was practically the academy’s landmark.
“The enormous mana stone used in the spire’s magic formation is the Eye of the Demonfolk.”
“Ah...... Teruna......”
“Damn it.”
The Chancellor and Hans despaired at the same time.
It made sense.
‘Poor civil servants.’
It was fortunate they had found it before the students enrolled.
But they would not be able to avoid a reprimand.
They had failed to stop a demonfolk scheme from reaching the very heart of the academy.
The Chancellor would be fiercely criticized over the security issue.
And the Special Affairs Bureau would probably be turned completely upside down.
“We must restrict access around the spire and investigate every person involved, from the foundational construction to the supply of materials.”
“I will cooperate actively.”
Reprimands were reprimands, and responsibility was responsibility.
Hans and the Chancellor quickly regained their senses and discussed how to proceed.
‘There’s no need for that.’
No one had deliberately installed that Eye of the Demonfolk.
It was only one of the countless Eyes of the Demonfolk scattered across the continent that had wandered in by chance.
To ordinary people, it was merely a large mana stone.
The intelligence-gathering effect was not especially impressive either.
It could only roughly determine the population in the surrounding area through the mana it detected.
At least, that was what the original game’s setting had said.
There was a reason it was Chapter 1.
But I did not go out of my way to stop the two of them.
Since history had changed, there was a possibility that things differed from the original story.
And once follow-up measures were in motion, Hans and the Chancellor would have something to tell the Imperial Family as well.
“Ah, and.”
Hans’s gaze traveled between me and the map.
“You said ‘for now.’ Does that mean there are more things connected to the demonfolk in the academy?”
“Who knows? I think I need to look around myself and check.”
It would be great for me if Hans came out like this.
I could find everything I remembered and dump it all on him!
“Then please wait a moment.”
Hans rose from his seat and opened the Chancellor’s office window.
Then he leaped beyond it.
“What a short temper.”
Snowy mist scattered behind Hans as he landed on the ground in an instant and dashed away.
He would return after retrieving the Eye of the Demonfolk before long.
“Chancellor.”
“Yes, Lord Lewis.”
“Please speak comfortably. People will find it strange if you use honorifics with me.”
“V-Very well. Understood.”
The Chancellor reluctantly nodded.
“Anyway, could you show me around the academy?”
“Show you around? There is no reason not to, but is there a particular reason?”
“I might need to go to areas off-limits to unauthorized people.”
“Under the Inspector’s authority, you may enter all areas other than private quarters.”
Of course I knew that much.
With a pretext, you could even force your way into private quarters.
But I had a reason for wanting to walk around with the Chancellor.
“I’m a teaching assistant, you know? And the Chancellor should know too. What kind of place the academy is.”
“What kind of place it is?”
The Chancellor wore an odd expression.
Karavan Glenwick.
This old man was such a passionate educator that he had been stationed here from the moment the academy’s first shovel broke ground.
Of course he must have prided himself on knowing the academy better than anyone else.
And it was not exactly wrong.
But he did not know much about the ecology of other races.
About what a headache those races could be.
I intended to show him that their way of thinking was fundamentally different from humans’.
“I’m back.”
Just then, Hans returned with a mana stone as large as his upper body slung over one shoulder.
“I will send this to the Mage Tower through the Special Affairs Bureau for analysis.”
“Handle that yourself. Let’s go out first.”
I stood, slipping a few cookies into my pocket.
When I went ahead, the Chancellor and Hans naturally followed me.
‘I should go over every Chapter quest I remember while I’m at it.’
That way, I could at least get a sense of how the atmosphere had changed.
***
Karavan Glenwick, a count.
He began his career as a professor at the Imperial Capital’s Administrative Academy and even served as Vice Minister of Education.
He had been due for promotion to minister, but he refused.
Then he volunteered to become the Chancellor of the new Gloria Academy.
Because he believed the future of the Teruna Continent rested on Gloria Academy.
And he had vowed to devote himself to Gloria Academy until the day he died.
But today, he faced an ordeal that shook that vow to its core.
‘This kind of place...... is the future of education?’
Naturally, an old man who had dedicated his life to education had not thought that from the beginning.
The first small doubt began three hours earlier, on the first floor of the faculty building annex where the Chancellor’s office was located.
“There is a secret passage here.”
Lewis pointed to a corner of the back gate leading into the garden.
The Chancellor shook his head at his words.
“It is true that this building has an underground shelter for emergencies, but there is nothing in that place—”
GRRRRRR—
Lewis touched something, and a door leading underground opened.
It was a secret passage absent even from the academy’s blueprints.
Hans’s expression grew grave when he saw it.
“Is this a tunnel the demonfolk dug for an invasion?”
“No? Spirits made it.”
“Does that mean there are traitors among the spirits......?!”
“What are you talking about? The earth spirits made it because they were too lazy to travel above ground, then abandoned it.”
Lewis bent down and picked up a pebble from the passage floor.
The pebble bore a faint trace of a spirit’s energy.
It was not enough to call it an elixir, but it seemed remarkably effective for improving one’s health.
“There’s no danger of it collapsing, but you can’t use it anyway. The end is blocked. Only spirits can pass through.”
After saying that, Lewis closed the passage.
The Chancellor wondered how Lewis knew about the passage.
Even Hans looked as though he had never seen it before.
Ignoring the Chancellor’s questioning gaze, Lewis headed for the next location.
It was a garden built in front of the residences for elf professors and staff.
“Is there a secret passage in this garden too?”
“No? Elves don’t make secret passages. That’s the problem.”
“......?”
“If they were even half as much like the World Tree’s roots, moles would be asking to be their friends. They’re truly such a complacent race.”
The Chancellor did not understand Lewis’s words.
He could only assume that something had happened during the Yggdrasil War.
“It should be somewhere around here...... Ah, found it.”
After searching through the garden for a while, Lewis removed a paving slab under a bench.
The Chancellor admired the intricate carving of a tree on the slab.
“Oh! Such a beautiful carved image. Why is something like this on a mere paving slab......?”
“It was deliberately hidden. If you leave it alone, the garden will turn into a forest.”
“......What?”
“It’s a carving that holds ritual significance to elves.”
Lewis stroked the image with his hand as he continued.
“Covering the world in forest is an elf’s instinct.”
“No. Surely not the academy garden......”
“You can’t let your guard down. Wherever an elf has touched, you’ll find World Tree carvings.”
The Chancellor pressed a hand to his temple as a headache swept over him.
“If vegetation seems strangely vibrant or grows quickly, take a close look around.”
Once elf students began residing there in earnest, such pictures would be found everywhere.
The Chancellor asked the speaking Lewis.
“There is a huge forest west of the city. Is that not enough?”
“It’s not a question of enough or not enough. To elves, there are only two kinds of terrain in this world.”
“Two kinds?”
“Places that are forests. And places that will become forests.”
“......”
“Well, their sense of time is different, so nothing will happen if you just keep an eye on them from time to time.”
Elves, a secluded race who loved forests and peace and quietly passed the years.
The Chancellor felt that illusion crack.
Beyond the broken illusion, he seemed to see smiling mad, pointy-eared people determined to cover the entire world in trees.
‘There was even a quest in the game to find a hundred of these carvings like treasure chests. If this happens, the Chancellor will take care of it himself, right?’
Naturally, the Chancellor did not know that Lewis was thinking this.
The Chancellor followed Lewis in a daze.
They found a tunnel made by spirits, an air passage that nearly blew off the Chancellor’s precious wig, and seven embers that would not go out.
They also found nine World Tree carvings made by elves, mana-infused soil, and seeds of unknown species.
It was an experience that shook the Chancellor’s image of spirits and elves to its foundations.
If it had ended there, the Chancellor would have decided simply to study other races more deeply.
It was troublesome, but nothing threatened to cause a fatal problem for the academy.
Yet the Chancellor’s ordeal did not end there.
“Th-This is......!”
The Chancellor’s eyes shook violently at the graffiti drawn on the dormitory’s shadowed wall.
A picture an educator would be too ashamed to say aloud.
Something that growing children had to be strictly forbidden from seeing.
Something a cultured noble should stay away from.
But at the same time, something an adult needed to know about, however embarrassing it was.
Put directly, it was lewd graffiti.
And it was not just in one place.
That kind of graffiti was found throughout all the academy buildings Lewis visited.
“W-What bastards secretly put this sort of thing all over the academy?! They must be determined to disgrace the academy’s honor......!”
The Chancellor raged as though he were about to breathe fire.
Hans’s expression grew grave too.
“Such obscene graffiti at an academy bearing the Imperial Family’s name so prominently.”
A chilling glint flashed beyond his narrow eyes.
But Lewis merely shrugged indifferently.
“It’s a joint effort by spirits and elves.”
“......?”
The Chancellor and Hans turned their gazes toward Lewis.
Their eyes asked what nonsense he was talking about, but.
“Spirits and elves reproduce differently from humans, right? It must have fascinated them.”
Spirits were born in the sanctuaries of Elesia.
Elves were born from the buds of the World Tree.
To those two races, birth was like a miracle performed by a great being.
From their perspective, it must have been fascinating that individual humans with no great power could achieve the marvelous feat of preserving their species.
“It would probably be better to create a sex education course to prevent strange misunderstandings.”
Otherwise, this kind of graffiti would keep appearing.
And if human students at just the age to be captivated by such things joined in?
The thought was so terrifying that the Chancellor shut his eyes tight.
A tunnel absent from the blueprints.
Carvings that could turn a flowerbed into a forest.
Embers and seeds appearing in unexpected places.
And lewd graffiti scattered everywhere!
This kind of place...... was the future of education?
As the Chancellor was overcome with grief.
“Lord Lewis.”
Hans called to Lewis.
“Is there nothing related to the demonfolk?”
There was a hint of dissatisfaction in his expression.
Seeing that, the Chancellor hurriedly regained his senses.
‘Right. This much is minor(?) stuff.’
They had begun touring the academy because of the Eye of the Demonfolk.
Yet all they had found were the strange actions of spirits and elves.
If anything, that was fortunate.
But whether or not Lewis understood his dissatisfaction.
He scratched his head sheepishly.
“I thought there would be one or two more, but there aren’t?”
It was not a lie.
Lewis had sincerely been walking around in search of demonfolk traces in the academy.
Was there any reason to wait for the quest to occur?
If he found them now, he could dump them all on Hans and the Chancellor!
But perhaps because history had changed?
Not a trace of demonfolk from the main story could be found.
“That’s a good thing. Every time I find one, you have another incident report to write.”
“I would welcome more incident reports. It is more important to prevent a possible danger.”
“That’s true. A possible danger......”
Lewis began pondering something.
And Hans prodded him.
“Do not try to solve it alone. Her Majesty has given you my support and all of Special Division 4. Use us as you wish.”
Still, Lewis’s furrowed brow remained.
“There is one thing, but you and Special Division 4 can’t handle it.”
“......?!”
At his words, not only Hans but also the Chancellor were shocked.
What sort of serious matter was it if even Special Division 4, acting under the Empress’s special orders, could not handle it?
“D-Don’t tell me a supreme demon has infiltrated the academy? Or a demonic sword or grimoire found its way in?”
Dazed, the Chancellor rattled off the worst situations he could imagine.
He was so distraught that he forgot that he was supposed to speak casually to Lewis.
Hans was just as flustered.
“If Special Division 4 is not enough, I will petition Her Majesty for the support of the entire Special Affairs Bureau.”
But Lewis remained negative.
“No. It would be difficult even if the entire Special Affairs Bureau acted.”
“?!”
What enormous evil could be lurking at the academy for even the Special Affairs Bureau to be insufficient?
The Chancellor and Hans’s expressions stiffened.
“It will be better if you see it for yourselves.”
When Lewis reached a decision, Hans said to the Chancellor.
“Chancellor, please wait here.”
The Chancellor had no combat ability whatsoever.
Hans thought it would be safer not to bring him along, but.
“No. If I do not take responsibility for the academy, who will?”
The Chancellor said he would follow them with eyes more resolute than any knight’s.
“......?”
Lewis tilted his head at Hans and the Chancellor, who exchanged solemn gazes, then started walking.
And where they arrived after following Lewis.
“This is......?”
“What is it......?”
In the flowerbed marked with a plaque that read [Elaine], five straight branches had been planted like a fence.