Perhaps they felt wronged that their group had been attacked without warning.
The remaining bastards immediately jabbed their fingers at me and shouted.
“Hey, you bastard!”
“......”
“Who the hell are you to interfere in another department’s business...?”
“Your guts must’ve spilled clear out of your belly....”
First, I bound the necks of the two loudest bastards with Rings of Light.
There was no better way to subdue them without endangering their lives.
“Ghk, khh...!”
“Khh, cough.... Cough...!”
The two bastards clutched their throats and crawled across the ground for a while, unable to breathe.
Before long, they foamed at the mouth and passed out from asphyxiation.
That left three.
“Damn it! Kill that bastard!”
I could only cast light-attribute magic one more time, so I needed to save it in case something happened.
That meant I would have to subdue the remaining men in a slightly more troublesome manner.
First, before they could close the distance between us, I fired a Mana Bullet, since it required some time to load.
“Guhk!”
The blow landed squarely on his jaw, so he probably would not be getting back up immediately.
Only two remained now, but they were already close enough that I would not have time to load another Mana Bullet.
“You son of a bitch!”
“You show up out of nowhere and pull this bullshit?!”
Sorry, but chalk it up to bad luck.
“Huh?”
“What the...?”
I could not allow myself to take the attacks of men charging at me with swords as though they truly intended to kill me.
I raised Flame Fortress directly in front of their feet.
Unable to react to the flames suddenly surging up from below, the two men ran straight through the wall of fire.
“AAAAAGH! Fuck...!”
“It’s hot! It’s fucking hot!”
Burns took a long time to heal, so I had wanted to avoid using fire if possible.
Then again, there was no need for me to worry about the well-being of bastards like these.
I watched them roll madly across the ground, their bodies scorched by the flames.
“Mr. Mage! Behind you!”
Stella suddenly shouted loudly toward me.
“......?”
At Stella’s warning, I hurriedly turned around.
At the end of my shifted gaze, a man I had not noticed until now had already closed in and was bringing his sword down toward me.
He was already too close for me to subdue him with magic.
“Die!”
Using the staff in my hand as support, I quickly leaned my body aside.
“Huh?”
The sword cut uselessly through the air.
The man who had swung it was left completely exposed before me.
“Guhk!”
With a dull impact, the head of my staff struck the back of his skull.
“Ghhk, ngh, ghk....”
I planted the sole of my boot against the back of the man’s neck after he collapsed from the impact.
He twisted painfully across the ground, writhing like a worm.
“......Ghk.”
Before long, the strength left his body, and he went limp against the dirt.
“......”
“Ghk....”
“...Keh, ngh....”
“......”
“...Ugh.”
“Hh....”
“......”
After administering just enough treatment to keep the Department of Swordsmanship students sprawled around in various states from dying,
I walked toward Stella, who had been staring blankly at the battle between us.
“It’s a mess here, so let’s get out quickly.”
“Will this be all right? If you leave them like this, I believe you will certainly be held responsible later.”
“The Holy Church already knows about the dispute, so it’ll be fine. If we leave them here, the Holy Church will come and haul them away.”
“Is that so?”
“If we remain at the scene too long, the Holy Church will probably bother us with questions. Let’s leave this place first.”
“Understood.”
Leaving the men groaning facedown on the ground, Stella and I hurried out of the alley.
Soon afterward, I heard the sound of a Holy Church transport carriage approaching behind us.
***
The battle that had begun so suddenly ended within a few minutes.
To put enough distance between ourselves and the scene to avoid any troublesome complications, Stella and I deliberately headed toward a crowded plaza.
Having been practically dragged along by me, she cautiously glanced between my face and our surroundings.
Then, as though she had finally organized what she wanted to say, she carefully spoke to me.
“Thank you for saving me.”
Regardless of whether my actions had been justified or whether my response had been excessive, it was still true that I had saved her from danger.
That was why she offered me her gratitude first.
“Be careful from now on. The Academy is a place where strength is closer at hand than the law.”
Perhaps that was not something an Academy student should say.
However, judging from my four years of experience attending this educational institution,
The Academy was the place in the world that best embodied the logic of power and strength.
There were high-ranking nobles of ducal or margravial status and above, while even commoners of the lowest standing occasionally enrolled.
Some students had grown up in wealthy families without ever lacking anything, while others were in such difficult circumstances that they could not afford tuition unless they worked themselves.
There were also ten different major departments.
Naturally, every imaginable kind of person gathered here.
If I had to compare the Academy to a single object, It would be a massive salad plate filled with every variety of fruit, vegetable, and nut.
At first glance, everything appeared to mingle together inside the same bowl.
In reality, none of it truly mixed. The different pieces merely existed alongside one another.
When all those different kinds of people spent four years rubbing shoulders in such a confined space, Disputes like the one earlier were common, as were countless other conflicts caused by differences in disposition or even simple personality problems.
More than half the students studied combat techniques, so it was not uncommon for arguments to immediately turn into actual battles.
It was hardly unusual for one side to be beaten down in a fight between students on any given day.
Naturally, the Holy Church personnel responsible for resolving back-alley disputes like this had no choice but to become thoroughly efficient at their work.
That was what I thought as I watched the transport carriage disappear in the direction of the Holy Church.
“May I ask your name?”
“Conrad Ferdalos. I’m an Academy student entering my second year in the Department of Magic.”
“I see. You are my senior, Conrad Ferdalos.
My name is Stella Arwen, and I will be entering the Department of Swordsmanship as a freshman this year.”
“I already know. I overheard most of what they were saying earlier. You’re Professor McDowell’s daughter, right?”
“......That is correct.”
Perhaps she thought I might harbor the same resentment toward Professor McDowell as those men had.
She carefully watched my reaction as she answered.
“His classes are famous for being extremely harsh.
There will occasionally be bastards like those who resent you simply because you’re his daughter.”
“...I see.”
It had been sincere advice born from concern for Stella’s future life at the Academy.
However, hearing such a harsh assessment of the master she respected left her visibly dejected.
“Of course, there are also many people who respect Professor McDowell just as much.
We may belong to different departments, but I also believe Professor McDowell is a man of high principles.”
“That’s right! My master... no, my father truly is an admirable man, isn’t he?!”
“Yeah, of course.”
Those were not empty words spoken merely to comfort Stella.
I genuinely respected Professor McDowell.
One day in my previous life, when the Dark Cult attacked the Academy,
Professor McDowell had faced a High Priest of the Dark Cult with nothing but a single sword.
He held the High Priest back for two entire hours.
Thanks to him, the other students and Academy personnel had enough time to escape and secure reinforcements.
I remembered how his sacrifice had allowed Alexandros Academy to be defended with minimal losses.
Of course, none of that had happened yet in this reality.
But even if the same incident occurred tomorrow, Professor McDowell would undoubtedly act in exactly the same way.
“You are a student from the Department of Magic, are you not?”
Of course, not every Academy professor was as honorable and capable as Professor McDowell.
A professor who looked displeased at first glance stared down at me.
“That is correct.”
“Come speak with me for a moment.”
It was a summons from Professor Oliver Finn of the Department of Swordsmanship.
***
“Sit anywhere around there.”
Just how secretive was the conversation he wanted to have with me that no one else could be allowed to overhear?
After bringing me all the way to his office, Professor Oliver spoke curtly.
I watched Professor Oliver sit down on one side of the table.
Then I deliberately pulled out the chair farthest from him.
“Why do you not come a little closer?”
“I’d rather not.”
“You insolent brat, talking back....”
I was already well aware of Professor Oliver’s fiery temperament.
I kept a safe distance between us in case something happened.
From here, at least his fist would not immediately reach me if he lost his temper.
“I heard what you did earlier from a report submitted by an official of the Holy Church.”
“Is that so?”
“I was told you dared lay hands on my students from the Department of Swordsmanship. Seven of them, no less.”
“That is correct.”
“Are you not aware that you did something wrong?”
Something wrong?
If I had committed any wrong against those bastards,
It was that I had not even known they existed in my previous life and therefore had not left them in the same state back then.
I had done nothing wrong to the man glaring at me with displeasure.
So I confidently replied that I had merely done what needed to be done.
“Was I supposed to stand there and do nothing?”
“What?”
“Five or six upperclassmen were surrounding a freshman girl and creating a threatening atmosphere.
Would you have simply stood there and watched, Professor?”
“I am telling you that a mere student from the Department of Magic has no business interfering in matters within the Department of Swordsmanship.”
It seemed his pride had been wounded because seven students from the Department of Swordsmanship had fallen to a single student from the Department of Magic.
That was despite the fact that my attack had begun with an ambush.
All seven of them had also been students under Professor Oliver’s supervision, which must have made it even worse for him.
“Is that so? I had no idea it was an internal matter of the Department of Swordsmanship.”
“Do not make me laugh! Every man you defeated was wearing the insignia of the Department of Swordsmanship! How could you possibly not have known?!”
“But the female student wasn’t wearing one.”
Stella might have been an incoming student in the Academy’s Department of Swordsmanship, but there was still about a week remaining before the term began.
She had not yet received the red insignia symbolizing the Department of Swordsmanship.
Therefore, at the moment I intervened, there had been no clear evidence that Stella belonged to the Department of Swordsmanship.
That was more than enough to refute Professor Oliver’s claim that I should not interfere in the Department of Swordsmanship’s affairs.
“Yes, Stella Arwen was not wearing the Department of Swordsmanship insignia.
But you saw her armor and the sword at her waist. Are you claiming you did not think she belonged to the Department of Swordsmanship?”
“Plate armor is used by plenty of close-combat departments other than the Department of Swordsmanship. The sword at her waist could also have been a secondary weapon.
I know of a senior from the Department of Archery who graduated last year and used a hand axe as a secondary weapon in preparation for close combat.”
“More backtalk....”
“Besides, have your students not occasionally harassed students from other departments before?
It happened several times during the year I attended the Academy. Naturally, I assumed this was merely another instance of that kind of harassment and acted accordingly.”
“......”
“Why did you remain silent when your students harassed other departments, only to tell me now that students from other departments should not interfere?”
Professor Oliver’s face flushed red, then purple.
He appeared to be searching for something with which to refute me.
However, his students were clearly the ones who had done wrong, and their actions were too blatant for him to excuse with some half-hearted justification.
He bit his lower lip hard and fixed me with an enraged glare.
“Do you realize that some of the students you defeated were upperclassmen?”
“Is that so? Their abilities were all about the same, so I couldn’t tell which ones were upperclassmen.”
“Some of them were also children of noble families.”
“I’m a noble as well. So is Miss Stella Arwen, who was attacked today.”
“And every one of them was my student.”
“Then you should’ve taught them better.”
‘CRASH—!’
Professor Oliver’s fist slammed down on the desk with a dull explosive sound.
At the same time, the desk split horizontally into two pieces with the sound of tearing wood.
Good thing I sat far away.
“How dare a mere student answer a professor back so insolently!
Those are not students you may beat down whenever you please!”
“You do not need to worry. I will not go around the Academy boasting about something as trivial as this.”
“Something this trivial...?”
“Defeating a handful of rabble is hardly worth boasting about. That would probably be true for anyone, not only me.
Besides, for the sake of the junior I met today, there is no reason to deliberately damage the Department of Swordsmanship’s reputation.”
The moment he heard me call them rabble, Professor Oliver’s face twisted with even greater rage.
“Also, calling a single student into your office and threatening him like this does not look particularly good, Professor.”
“Are you giving me advice?”
“Matters between students should be resolved by students. If a professor interferes, it will only further humiliate the students who lost, will it not?”
“......”
“Professor McDowell would not have bothered calling me here like this.”
McDowell Arwen.
Stella’s adoptive father and master, and a man who stood in opposition to Professor Oliver in many ways.
Professor McDowell was strict not only with his students, but also with himself.
Professor Oliver, on the other hand, showed considerable favoritism toward his own students.
As a result, Professor Oliver was far more popular than Professor McDowell within the Department of Swordsmanship.
However, his reputation throughout the Academy was rather poor.
The level of his students went without saying.
The abilities of students who gathered under a professor who told them only what they wanted to hear were bound to be obvious.
Therefore, Professor McDowell’s name was more than enough to provoke Professor Oliver’s inferiority complex.
“What is your name?”
Perhaps his anger had surpassed its limit.
Professor Oliver’s voice suddenly turned cold.
“Who knows? Why don’t you guess?”
“...Do you believe I cannot find out? There are fewer than three hundred students in the Department of Magic. Finding your name will not be difficult.”
“Then I suppose you should do that.”
“...Very well. Let us see how long you can continue acting so insolently.”
His voice suggested that he was plotting something against me.
However, since the other party was Professor Oliver, it did not feel particularly threatening.
Professor Oliver was not intelligent enough to lure anyone into a trap in the first place.
“It appears our conversation is over, so I will be leaving now.”
I gave him a perfunctory bow and immediately walked out of Professor Oliver’s office.
The moment I closed the door, I heard something shattering and breaking inside.
It was a wonder he managed to work as a professor with that temperament.