novelraw Chapter 65 : A Desolate World (2)
Chapter 65 : A Desolate World (2)
Chapter 65: A Desolate World (2)
“Well, it doesn’t matter. You know that Teacher Walfis resigned, right? Every branch’s teacher in charge of the Dark Element must be a member of the Draco Family.”
“……”
How could he not know?
It was a school regulation that Tyrant had established about a hundred years ago, intended to keep an eye on Etar.
That was around the time when the formation of Etar’s secret organization, the “Sculptor,” was becoming apparent, and the school’s security was relatively weak.
Sensing something suspicious, Tyrant had taken precautions.
He had placed people he could trust in each branch school to monitor them.
Etar was merely relieved that Tyrant hadn’t fully grasped the existence of the Sculptor itself.
If he had, Ignito would never have been able to continue his activities as a squad commander so freely.
“I agreed to it myself, so how could I not know?”
Etar replied flatly.
“But what can we do? According to the Full Moon, there’s currently no suitable teacher to replace him.”
‘Just as I thought.’
He didn’t even feel tense—he already knew exactly what Daemon was about to say next.
“You sound more like a member of the Draco Family than the commander of the Royal Guard. Listening to you defend them so earnestly, I mean.”
“Well, think what you like.”
Daemon, too, cut him off bluntly and without emotion.
“But it so happens that there’s one spare member of the Draco Family available.”
“And who might that be?”
Etar asked, though he already knew the answer.
Daemon’s gaze flicked sideways, landing on Ignito standing beside him.
Etar didn’t even bother to follow his gaze.
“Has the Royal Guard become so idle these days? You’re seriously planning to assign a squad commander as a mere 1st Class teacher? And you must know, right? That the teaching position is usually filled by students who failed to advance past Class 6…”
“You talk far too much. Just do as the Full Moon commands.”
Daemon’s words were unreasonable, but not entirely wrong.
The Dark Element course across all branch schools was, in a sense, Tyrant’s secondary asset—akin to his Royal Guard.
And since there had long been a rule that only members of the Draco Family could serve as instructors for the subject, not even Etar, the head of the school, could overturn it.
At last, Etar turned his gaze to Ignito and extended a hand toward him.
“Well, I’m not exactly thrilled about it, but let’s work well together. Teacher Ignito.”
Half truth, half lie.
He welcomed Ignito as a person—but not the rank of “squad commander” he carried.
“……”
Ignito silently grasped Etar’s hand and gave it a light shake.
“So, how long do you plan to suspend classes? I heard the reason—apparently, the 1st Class student evaluations were… unusual, and you wanted to give them time to rest.”
“I don’t see why you’re asking when you already know.”
“It’s strange, that’s why. If you wanted them to rest, you could’ve just canceled the lessons. But instead, you sent every one of them out.”
“The outside air—sometimes, when you let it touch you, it can be quite sweet. I simply wanted the students to experience that feeling.”
“Oh, really? Since when did you start liking the wind so much? You, Headmaster, who harbor open hostility toward the Families of Lamic, Mirne, and Draco.”
All three—families Etar had spent his entire life loathing.
No, calling it loathing would be kind.
Etar fully intended, one day, to erase those three families with his own hands.
“Do you really think the wind of magic and the wind of nature are the same?”
“They may differ in nature, but they’re still the same wind.”
“For the commander of the Royal Guard, your perspective seems pitifully narrow.”
“What was that?”
“I plan to end the class suspension within a few days. I’ll see you then.”
Etar turned his wheelchair decisively, cutting off the conversation.
“Fine then. I’ll be staying in Class 1 for the time being, together with Squad Commander Ignito, so keep that in mind.”
Daemon shot back, not missing a chance to throw a jab at Etar’s retreating back as he left the vice headmaster’s office.
“Suit yourself. Though I imagine it’ll be uncomfortable.”
“Since when did you care about my comfort?”
And with that, the nerve-wracking standoff between the two men—enough to make anyone watching tremble—came to an end.
Or rather, it was merely paused.
‘No helping it, then… I’ll have to use that method.’
As Etar made his way back to the seventh floor of the school, he swallowed the bitterness in his chest.
There was only one sure way to send those two Royal Guard members who had suddenly invaded the branch school back where they came from.
And that method was highly effective.
Five days had passed since Daemon and Ignito had descended to Class 1 and begun living there, waiting for the students.
Still, classes had not resumed.
Tomorrow, the school would go on break and the year would come to an end.
Current time: 3 p.m.
The official afternoon schedule for all branch schools ended at 6 p.m.
In three hours, the second semester would officially close.
“Ed Etar. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but the fact that classes still haven’t resumed must mean you’ve got something up your sleeve, right?”
Walking down the empty 1st Class hallway devoid of students, Daemon spoke to Ignito.
“Yes, I suppose so.”
Ignito answered expressionlessly, hiding his discomfort with meticulous control.
Even then, Daemon continued to hurl criticisms of Etar—harsh enough to border on abuse, then to outright insults against his character.
But when Ignito didn’t respond, Daemon eventually stopped and took out a potion from his coat—one that Tyrant had given him.
“Will I ever even have a reason to drink this? And honestly, why did the Full Moon insist that I drink it before meeting that Artel guy? I can’t make sense of it.”
“I’m quite curious about that myself.”
That part was genuine.
Tyrant had never kept a secret this tightly before.
“So where’s your potion?”
“…What?”
“The potion. Where is it?”
“……”
‘Damn it.’
He’d already secretly handed it over to Former.
And since they hadn’t met since then, he hadn’t gotten it back.
“I left it in the teachers’ room for now. Since there aren’t any classes.”
Ignito was impressed with himself the moment the words left his mouth.
Usually, panic made people freeze up—but somehow, even in this situation, he managed to come up with the most reasonable, believable excuse without even thinking.
“Even so, you should keep it on you. You never know when you might need to drink it.”
“My apologies.”
At that moment, Daemon’s mob chimed.
It was a mob used exclusively by the Royal Guard—one that only Tyrant or the Gatekeeper at the top could contact.
In an instant, tension filled both men’s faces.
“What’s going on?”
The fact that this mob had rung meant there was a high chance another order was about to come down.
“Go get your potion first. I’ll take this call.”
“Understood.”
With that, Daemon briefly left the room.
“Damn it… what should I do?”
It wasn’t as if he could contact Former now.
The crucial problem was that, as long as they were inside this school, there was no way for him to reach out to him at all.
Former was in Class 6, while he himself was currently in Class 1.
He could only meet him if Former came down in person.
But since both of them had official identities to protect, they avoided direct contact as much as possible and kept up the act of being complete strangers.
Even if they were from the same family, staying close too often could cause a serious breach in security.
‘Think. That potion didn’t seem any different from plain water anyway.’
Ignito hurried back to the teachers’ room and pulled out one of the potion bottles he had.
It was the potion containing transcendental water—one he hadn’t yet drunk.
“A shame, but…”
Creating this potion had taken an enormous amount of time, but security came first.
He poured out all the transcendental water inside and replaced it entirely with ordinary water.
At a glance, there was no difference between this bottle and the one Tyrant had given him.
Just then, the teachers’ room door burst open as Daemon shouted,
“Ignito!”
“Yes, Captain.”
Ignito kept his startled heart perfectly hidden, responding naturally.
“Prepare to head to the Underworld immediately. The Full Moon has given us a new order.”
“…What? What order?”
“A Flewd Elementalist has appeared in the Underworld. Three of them, in fact.”
“You mean…?”
“Yeah. Looks like the fallen Emmet Family members are starting a full-scale rebellion. Our new mission is to suppress and eliminate them.”
Both Tyrant and the Royal Guard had long suspected that, though the Emmet Family had fallen, its remaining members were still hiding somewhere, and they’d kept them under intense surveillance.
And now, after nearly 250 years of silence, those survivors had suddenly appeared and declared war on the Royal Guard.
“A new mission? For us to be dispatched too… that means the situation must be serious, doesn’t it?”
“Most of the 3rd Unit has been injured, and the 3rd Unit Commander is dead. The order is to root them out before the casualties grow any worse.”
“My god…”
The Royal Guard operated in three divisions—1st, 2nd, and 3rd Units.
The 3rd was the weakest, yes—but even so, their commander wasn’t someone who could be taken down easily.
He knew that well, since the man had also been a member of the Draco Family—pure-blooded, at that.
‘Lord Tyrant… did you do this on purpose?’
Ignito had a strong feeling he knew why this was happening.
For the once-silent Emmet Family to suddenly launch an open war… the cause had to be Etar.
“What are you waiting for? We have to go now.”
“What about my position as a 1st Class teacher? Shouldn’t we abandon our current assignment before taking on a new one?”
“Don’t concern yourself with trivial things. We simply follow orders.”
“Understood.”
And so, the two men hastily departed for the Underworld.
“Once today’s over, the second semester’s done…”
“Yeah. The Vice Headmaster did say it would end within five days.”
It had already been five days since we began living together in the Banshi’s cave.
As Hei said, the second semester would end tomorrow.
Today was the final day of the semester.
The time was around 3:30 p.m.
I sat quietly, lost in thought.
‘The school rules clearly stated that rankings are determined by grades up until 17:59:59 on the final day of the semester.’
Hei’s rank was sixth.
Just as I’d feared, it had happened.
Still, I wasn’t all that despondent. I had expected this and already thought up a few countermeasures on my own.
But Kiena seemed a bit different.
Until two days ago, she had cut off all conversation with us and buried herself in her books. But since yesterday, she hadn’t even glanced at them—too worried about Hei to focus on anything else.
Thirty minutes later, it happened.
All four of our mobs in the cave rang at the same time.
[Announcement]
– The special suspension for Class 1 is now over. All students are to gather at the Waypoint by 18:00.
Author: Nide
“……”
The suspension did end today—but with the gathering time set at 18:00, grades were already locked in by the time of assembly.
Once we returned to school, my role would become crucial.
“Let’s get ready.”
At my words, everyone gave a small nod and prepared to head back.
When we arrived at the Waypoint right on time, all the students were already gathered.
All except for one.
His expression looked as though he were desperately holding in an urgent need to relieve himself.
Nohill Hapert was gnawing at his fingers nervously, as if trying to bite away his anxiety.
‘Yeah, your feet really are on fire now. Grades are already finalized, after all.’
No—at this point, it wasn’t just his feet burning; they might as well have melted away.
Strangely enough, I felt a sense of satisfaction.
So this is what it felt like to finally cut away a tumor.