I Became the Savior of the Academy’s Villains

Chapter 139

The student representative of the department could practically be considered the dean's assistant.

It was a position responsible for carrying out the dean's directives, sometimes even exercising a portion of his authority.

Since Zeritz, the former head of the swordsmanship faculty, didn't appoint a representative student, the position had been vacant.

― From this point on, I will be taking on the S-class course. I would appreciate it if Luca, who had previously been my assistant for the SA-class course, could now take over that class in my place.

― Excuse me? But...

― Of course, it may appear somewhat irresponsible to entrust a class to a regular student. Therefore, I will appoint Luca as the representative student of the swordsmanship faculty and officially announce him as my formal disciple. Would that suffice?

It was Kryphi's request to have Luca teach his class instead.

In truth, that part didn't matter much.

He already had some experience as a teaching assistant, running classes together with Isella.

The real issue was becoming both the swordsmanship faculty representative and Kryphi's formal disciple.

Either of the two would be fine.

But both at the same time? That was a bit problematic.

'This is crazy. Am I even taking away this part of the story?'

The problem was that the appointment as swordsmanship faculty representative and formal disciple had been an actual story beat in the original work.

At a dangerous moment when the protagonist had seized Demonz's puppet but lacked evidence, Zeritz had saved him by appointing him the swordsmanship faculty representative and his formal disciple, helping the protagonist overcome the crisis.

'I don't mind taking over the "suffering because of villains" narrative, but stealing the happy and heartwarming parts? That kind of bothers me.'

Luca had genuinely liked the protagonist.

That must have been why he had been so devoted to reading "I Became the Savior of the Academy".

It didn't sit well with him that he kept taking away the happiness meant for the protagonist he had once liked.

'And even the formal disciple appointment feels a bit much.'

A "formal disciple" announcement.

This wasn't limited to martial arts—it was something done even in magic circles.

It was a public declaration that someone was officially one's disciple.

In essence, it was a guarantee.

If this disciple ever caused trouble, the master would be held responsible.

It also meant that if anyone touched this disciple, the master would seek revenge by any means necessary.

'It's a good thing. But...'

It was that feeling of "it's good, but it doesn't quite feel good".

Honestly, it felt like a burden.

Declaring someone a formal disciple was already rare.

After all, who would publicly declare someone their disciple, knowing the risks if the disciple messed up?

Unless you truly trusted the person, you'd never choose them as a formal disciple.

Luca felt a mixture of happiness that Kryphi trusted him this much, and complicated emotions as he looked at the students in front of him.

"......."

"......."

"......"

They, too, were looking at Luca with conflicted expressions.

Most likely, they felt similar to Luca.

They were well aware of his exceptional swordsmanship. In fact, up until now, they had virtually been taught by him, so they didn't particularly dislike the idea of him taking over the class.

They were just envious.

'That guy is now the formal disciple of the new grandmaster.'

'Damn! I should've listened to Teacher Kryphi more!'

'If I'd trained harder at swordsmanship... I could have been in that spot...!'

Unless you were the direct descendant of a great family, ascending to such a high position through swordsmanship alone was impossible.

Of course, if you worked hard, you could reach a respectable position, but the limits were clear.

Everything changed at the grandmaster level.

A grandmaster in martial arts was a transcendent, comparable to a 10th-tier mage or a sage in alchemy.

Only those of the same caliber could stop such beings—having many transcendents was the true measure of national power.

'To be the formal disciple of a grandmaster, a true asymmetric force that every country desperately wants to recruit!'

Asymmetric force, in every sense of the word.

Becoming the formal disciple of such a figure was everyone's dream.

Now, Luca had taken that seat.

'I can read their thoughts like a book.'

Luca looked at the faces of the students, stained with jealousy, and sighed inwardly.

Now that he was a formal disciple, defying him would mean defying Kryphi as well—they couldn't do that.

They'd simply envy him, doing their best to get under his skin in small ways.

That was the extent of what they could do.

The result: Luca would just become more exhausted as a consequence.

'On balance, there are more gains than losses. It's just complicated.'

Luca sighed inwardly again and spoke to Isella, the only one in the room still looking impassively at him.

"Isella. I'd like it if you could continue to assist me in class as before."

"... Sure."

Without another word, Isella stepped forward to stand at Luca's side.

Feeling ever so slightly at ease, Luca spoke.

"Then, let's begin the lesson."

* * *

Class was as usual.

The students paired up to practice swordsmanship while Luca and Isella offered guidance.

The only difference was that, since Luca had to wrap up the class alone, Isella left early, causing Luca to arrive at the student cafeteria later than everyone else.

"Luca! Is it true? That you've been appointed as a formal disciple?"

Naturally, Isella arrived first and told Milia about Luca.

And, equally naturally, as soon as Luca entered, Milia brought up his appointment as a formal disciple.

Her face was brimming with excitement.

"Regrettably, yes."

Luca answered with a flat expression.

But Milia was already delighted.

"That's incredible! Has it really only been that short since I asked, and you've already raised your value this high?"

Milia's request—

She'd asked Luca to raise his value, so it could serve as a useful bargaining chip in negotiations.

Originally, she'd intended to do this through Archiond, but ended up achieving it by an even better method.

"Tsk. I never planned to raise my value with something like this."

Luca clicked his tongue in displeasure.

It wasn't that this situation was a bad thing, but he would have preferred to be valued for his own abilities, not simply as Kryphi's disciple.

'Luca Traverse would have thought that way, too.'

Things had been quiet lately, but if this were the old, rowdy Luca Traverse, he definitely would have preferred things that way.

"Heh, but so what? At least now it's a much more valuable title than being Archiond's friend."

Regardless of how Luca felt, Milia looked quite pleased.

Which was only natural.

'Now the chances of success have increased significantly!'

Frankly, being "Archiond's friend" was a rather weak title.

She had a few other cards up her sleeve, but among the political elite, just being "close to the eldest son of House Robette" wasn't especially effective.

Then, suddenly—a jackpot.

'A new grandmaster has appeared, and he's his formal disciple! I don't even need to care about Archiond anymore!'

Now, even if Luca opposed Archiond, it wouldn't be a problem.

In fact, Luca could now be compared to Wylde with no sense of inferiority.

'This is great! Did I really bet on the right horse after all?'

Her status had skyrocketed so much, she found herself thinking such thoughts.

Clicking his tongue at the contrast between Milia's reactions now and the previous day, Luca looked at Ottbo.

"Tsk, anyway, how about you, Ottbo?"

"Me?"

Ottbo looked a little uncomfortable at Luca's abrupt question.

He seemed flustered by the sudden change of topic. Luca spoke in his usual unruffled way.

"I'm asking how your first class after your restrictions were lifted went."

"Oh... well..."

Ottbo scratched his cheek.

"It wasn't much of a class, honestly—the energy just wasn't there. So I didn't really feel much change."

"I see. That's unfortunate."

"But, in preparation for next week's test, they did give a summary of all the lessons so far, and I was able to understand everything."

He puffed out his chest, evidently proud.

Luca gave a small chuckle.

"That's quite a relief."

"Hey~ Luca! I heard the news!"

"?"

Just then, a cheerful voice rang out.

Luca frowned slightly and turned to see who it was.

"You again."

"What do you mean, again?"

"I saw you yesterday, so it's 'again'."

It was Archiond.

Luca hardly concealed his annoyance, but Archiond simply beamed.

"A friend's got good news—it's only natural I show up!"

"Huh..."

Luca sighed and glanced to his side.

He saw it wasn't just Archiond—the usual group had all arrived.

It didn't look like they were here purely to celebrate.

'That's Igar Hetoph and Brace Avint.'

He didn't know much about the others, but those two at least were familiar.

In the original story, they were only briefly mentioned and weren't particularly important characters.

'But for Luca Traverse and Ottbo Gress, they were quite significant.'

Igar Hetoph, the eldest son of Marquis Hetoph, was the one who bullied Ottbo.

Brace Avint, the eldest son of Count Avint, had scored first among swordsmanship entrants during the academy entrance exams.

Luca couldn't recall exactly what roles they'd played in the original, but they were definitely characters he and Ottbo would dislike.

"Rumors certainly travel fast. The announcement hasn't even been made public yet, as far as I know."

Luca replied with indifference, while Archiond burst out laughing.

"You know how it is—I have lots of friends!"

"Impressive. So why are you really here?"

"Just wanted to congratulate my friend."

At that word—"friend"—Luca smirked and shook his head.

"Fine. Thanks. Any gift?"

"Oops, forgot that. Do you want something?"

"For you to walk out of here."

At that, Archiond broke into another burst of laughter.

"You're so cold. I'm a student too—I can eat here if I want!"

"Strange. I don't recall ever seeing you here before the break."

"True."

Seemingly eager to move things along, Brace Avint interjected.

"Archiond. Can we get to the point?"

"Hm? Ah, right."

"?"

Luca looked confused at the mention of "the point," and Archiond cleared his throat and continued.

"Luca. For the 100th term at Hernan Academy, I've been chosen as class president, and I have to appoint a vice president and an aide with me."

"No, I refuse."

Luca rejected it flatly.

Archiond just laughed, as if he'd expected it.

"Haha! I figured that's what you'd say. But that's not actually why I came."

He glanced at his friends before speaking.

"I want to appoint these guys as my vice president and aide."

"Then just do it."

"It's not that simple."

Luca raised an eyebrow, puzzled. Archiond let out a light sigh.

"There's a lot of opposition. Some people are saying, 'Why would you pick Brace over Luca, when Luca has just become the official disciple of the new grandmaster, head Kryphi Mosto?'"

"......"

Brace's eyes clouded a bit.

"Igar's... not very popular, for various reasons..."

"......"

Igar glanced nervously at Ottbo.

Ottbo looked annoyed at being watched.

Of course, Luca understood immediately.

'So bullying Ottbo ended up biting him.'

It wasn't just that Igar had bullied Ottbo.

Apparently, the real problem was that he had messed with "Luca's friend", Ottbo.

As soon as Luca realized this, Archiond flashed him a grin and spoke again.

"Anyway, I want to pick them, but there's a lot of debate. I need your help to quiet things down."

"Is that so."

"You don't have to do anything major. Just say you support it or, if you're too busy, just let Teacher Kirius, the faculty supervisor, know."

Luca replied with his usual dispassion.

"And why would I?"

"......"

The atmosphere abruptly turned icy.