novelraw Chapter 150 : Chapter 150
Chapter 150 : Chapter 150
Chapter 150: Blossoms, Bouquets, and a Storm of Flowers (2)
What, then, is a true teacher?
Abel considered the question for a very brief moment.
Five children stood with their backs to the bonfire. Monika, Demian, Ernst, Roberta, and Lizer. Abel examined each of them in turn. While the townspeople watched from a safe distance, the children—who had loosely assumed a combat stance—lacked seriousness. Rather than a sparring match, it looked more like they were about to play a game.
“I believe I already said it.”
Once again, what is a true teacher?
Abel pondered, facing the children with an indifferent expression.
“Aim for my back with everything you have. Being stabbed by a sword will not kill me.”
“It does look fun, which is why I am joining, but…….”
Hah hah.
Lizer laughed lightly as he spoke.
“This is the most brutish semester assignment I have ever seen. You are serious, right, Professor?”
“I am always serious.”
“I see.”
Lizer shrugged.
Through the unruly strands of red hair, a glint passed through his eyes. He had drunk a fair amount of wine, but his mind was clear. He had merely pretended to be drunk to tease Ernst. Although Lizer did not belong to Abel’s class, among the five students he knew Abel the best.
“Then please answer seriously.”
For example, Abel’s duty.
Lizer knew the role assigned to the one called “The Mother God’s Left Hand.”
“What did you see in the very center of the Black Sea? I do not think you need to explain it in detail, but it seems the others are curious as well.”
“What else would I have seen.”
Countless Banshees.
A single Intelligent Species.
And lastly, the progenitor.
“That is all. The sea will be purified before long.”
“If that is true, then that is a relief. Still, it is hard to believe.”
At that moment, Ernst spoke up.
Behind the thick lenses of his glasses, Ernst’s gaze was clouded with doubt. The abnormal reaction detected by the Tactical Controller—he could not forget it. If he were to bring it up openly in the middle of the village, it would ruin the festive mood. That was why Ernst phrased his question in the vaguest possible way.
“Professor, if you do not mind…….”
From the start, that was not all.
Ernst also found Abel’s past suspicious.
“……Is there not something you are hiding? I am not talking only about what happened when you went to subjugate the Intelligent Species. Frankly, everything about you feels suspicious to me.”
“I am not sure what you mean.”
Abel tilted his head conspicuously.
“What are you trying to say?”
“Professor Argento, I, Demian Fernando von Farenheit, have awakened Aura!”
At that instant, Demian stepped forward.
Of course you have, Abel thought as he looked at him.
He had already received reports on the battle. Demian must have awakened Aura while defending the coast. As Abel studied the long vertical scar by Demian’s eye, he could feel it. He could feel what kind of conviction Demian had honed to achieve this.
“You may wish to refute me, Professor, but…… I believe the chivalric code is also necessary in this world. Even if it contains ideals that may seem excessively unrealistic…….”
“I have no intention of denying it.”
Abel wore a faint smile, avoiding Demian’s gaze, which burned with fervor.
“There is a difference between blindly believing in a certain code from the moment of birth because of one’s status, family, or talent, and coming to understand it only after ignorance, then choosing to uphold it again. You will remain ignorant of many things, and you will come to understand them again.”
That was enough.
You have forged a fine conviction.
As Abel murmured that—
“Professor Argento, I have a question!”
Roberta shot her hand into the air.
Abel nodded once. Roberta, who had been glaring at him with pursed lips, soon sighed and clapped her hands. A signal to open a Pocket Plain. Before long, Mechanical Slime No. 3 appeared—one of Roberta’s inventions.
“It is good that Portsmouth has become peaceful.”
CLICK.
Mechanical Slime No. 3 revealed its barrel.
It was preparing to fire at Abel.
“But if there are no weapons, does that mean there can be no peace either? Is it impossible to achieve peace without weapons? I know it sounds like a childish question, but still…….”
“That is a difficult matter.”
Abel answered readily.
Something like perfect peace likely did not exist. Abel thought that the meaning packed into the word “peace” was exaggerated. If true peace could ever be achieved, then the one who stood within that peaceful moment would have to be alone. Only after all other life, nations, and races had disappeared would peace be fulfilled.
“It is not impossible, though.”
Abel closed his eyes gently.
Then he told Roberta. Though it had occurred in another world, he spoke of a ruler who voluntarily relinquished power. Of a race that had come to understand one another in dramatic fashion. Of a civilization that had managed to eradicate all weapons.
“Roberta, if what you desire is a revolution without weapons…… then you will walk an exceedingly arduous path. One that even I cannot tread.”
And so—
just as Abel’s words began to trail off—
“Teacher Abel.”
Monika spoke.
She rested the guard of her Great Sword on her shoulder.
“You are especially talkative today.”
I see.
I have said too much.
Abel pressed his lips together as he thought. He had rambled as though pretending to know what he did not. Very well, then. There was no need to say more. Abel resolved himself. At last, he understood.
What is a true teacher?
It is a teacher who has ceased to be true.
“Form up, all of you.”
It was not mere affirmation that he needed.
He wanted to be denied. He wanted everything about him to be denied.
“We will now begin the semester assignment.”
Drawing his beloved sword, Abel thought.
Teaching the children martial skill while forcing them to confront reality, drawing their ideals out from deep within—yet still hiding the truth as he turned them into adults—he himself was──
wrong. He had always been wrong. Though he had taught countless disciples, he was stubbornly inadequate. Insufficient, and contradictory. What Abel desired as a teacher was not the children’s affirmation. He wanted their rejection.
He had led children to the brink of death, and without their knowing, had killed other children.
It was not right. It was wrong. Perhaps there had been a better way. No matter how much martial might he possessed, no matter how much strategy forged through ages he wielded, no matter how many worlds he had protected, he always ended up being wrong in front of children.
“I am but a teacher──.”
That is why I want to be denied.
Someday, when those children learn the truth of the Black Sea, when those radiant children build their own convictions ever higher, if they can say with one voice that it was wrong, that you were mistaken, that there was surely a better way—
“With all my strength against you──.”
That would be good.
That would be better than anything.
Thinking so, Abel tightened his grip on the hilt, and—
“No, I will face you sincerely──.”
He soon stopped.
He sheathed his beloved sword and reached out.
A single flower swaying at his feet. He plucked it and pointed it at the children.
“……I must face you.”
With a faint smile.
-Look! He is hitting the kids with flowers!
-My eyes are not what they used to be. Are those really flowers? They are dropping like they have been clubbed.
-What a monster. Are all people from the Capital like that?
-Hahaha! This is incredible. I never knew human joints could bend that way.
-I do not think this is the time to admire that…….
And so, in the report submitted a few days later, it was written:
Students of Abel Argento’s class:
Demian Fernando von Farenheit, Ernst von Tresckow, Monika Lohengrin, Roberta Sinclair—four students in total.
All failed the semester assignment.
“Remedial lessons required during the vacation.”
***
Three days later, at noon, CIAR Academy.
As Monika walked across the grounds, she suddenly stopped.
‘It is bright.’
She thought as she looked up at the sky.
Filtered air drifted around the Floating Island. It was utterly different from the environment of Portsmouth. Only a few days ago she had been staying in a dilapidated fishing village, but the moment she returned to the Capital, profound calm enveloped her body. Because she was not used to it, everything felt faintly itchy.
‘This is not the time.’
Monika quickened her pace.
As soon as they returned to CIAR, the semester ended. The grades had not yet been announced, but from the beginning, Monika and the other students of Abel’s class could not enjoy their vacation. Because they had failed the semester assignment, remedial lessons awaited them.
‘This week is supposed to be rest…….’
And training starts next week, was it?
Truly merciless. Recalling Abel’s face, Monika sighed. She had expected to fail. Who could possibly stab the back of such a monster? That was why she and her classmates had not fought seriously.
At least, at the start of the fight.
‘But using flowers instead of a sword…….’
Who could have imagined someone beating people like that with flowers? By the end of the fight, they had surely poured out everything they had. Even so, it had been useless. Without using Aura, without employing any magic, Abel had subdued all of the students.
‘Well, anyway…….’
Monika scratched the back of her neck.
Then she looked ahead.
‘For now, I should rest.’
There were things she needed to do in the meantime.
Thinking so, Monika narrowed her eyes.
Nearby, technicians in work clothes were resting. They were workers maintaining the magitech systems that made up CIAR’s underground. Dressed in dust-covered work clothes, some napped while others chewed on pieces of bread.
“Louise.”
Among them, Monika spotted a conspicuously young girl.
She spoke her name.
“Louise Bourdieux.”
The girl who had once been employed by the Saint-Pierre Marquisate.
Louise’s ears perked up. With a cigarette in her mouth, she rose to her feet. Her rose-dark hair swayed in the breeze.
“Lady Monika Lohengrin.”
Louise flicked away the cigarette, then stood beside Monika.
“What brings you to me?”
“Well, it is not exactly that…….”
It is just that—
as Monika murmured—
“……You look terrible.”
Louise sighed.
Monika was clutching a bouquet of flowers and wrapping herself in a delicately decorated dress. It was an outfit Fleur had made while she was alive—Louise could tell at a glance. She was the one who had personally delivered it to Monika. The problem was Monika’s face.
“Did you roll around in the mud or something? There is a lot on your face.”
“I tried putting on makeup. Does it look strange?”
I was going to visit Fleur’s grave……
If you are all right with it, I thought maybe we could go together……
Monika whispered—
“I am not going.”
Louise answered flatly.
“I have already been several times.”
But still—
I thought so.
Louise spoke with a sigh mixed into her voice.
“You cannot go looking like that.”
GRAB.
Louise seized Monika’s arm.
“You need to wash your face first.”
“……Is my face really that bad?”
“Of course.”
It is unbearable to look at.
You look like a child who has been playing in the dirt.
Louise muttered so.