034

He was a man with an awkward mustache.

His frame was overall straight and delicate, with almost no muscle.

He was less slender and more gaunt, with a lean face, and he barely covered his emaciated body with loose-fitting clothes.

Perhaps because of his overall impression, the mustache under his nose seemed to be floating.

Excluding the mustache, he looked to be in his mid-20s.

Even with the mustache, he didn't look like he would be over 30.

‘It's too much.’

The mustache wasn't just a little bit under his nose; it curved up into the air, extending past his cheeks.

It seemed like it would take more time to groom the mustache than his hair.

“I am Trweswan Qantaii!”

“……Pardon?”

“It will be difficult to pronounce in the language you primarily use! Just call me Qantaii! I grant you the permission to use a familiar name for me! Muahahaha!”

“Ah, yes……”

I used my eyes to observe him as much as possible.

His excessively puffed-up shoulders.

His tensed back muscles and his pupils that couldn't properly look at me, constantly averting their gaze.

The slight accents mixed in his speech.

I extended my hand to him.

“Trweswan Qantaii. The Leopard Tribe of the Western Desert used that kind of name. Are you from the desert region?”

“Ugh?! To think you’d recognize that! I heard that your divine strategy reaches the heavens, and indeed!”

He didn't even shake my hand; instead, he was startled and wary of me.

Seeing him take a couple of steps back and give me a suspicious look, I was certain.

Ah.

This person is an escaped criminal.

It seemed Avril had brought another strange person this time.

“A-ahem. Right. A pleasure to work with you! While you were away, Instructor Gwen and I were teaching the students! From today, we’ll be teaching together!”

“That’s great. As it happens, I have something to discuss with you starting today, Instructor Qantaii.”

“Hmm?”

“Weren't you teaching the students tactics and manuals, Instructor Qantaii? I think there will be some things to discuss regarding the students’ upcoming field trip.”

Qantaii’s jaw dropped.

His mustache trembled.

“D-do you, by any chance, kn-know me?”

“No.”

I just saw it.

“I’ll see you after class.”

I left Qantaii behind and walked towards the new building.

It was to find Avril.

I entered the new building and passed by the faculty office.

Avril, who was no longer the instructor of Class A, was no longer in the faculty office.

Instead, he was sitting in a corner of the administration office, which was in charge of the academy’s administration, with a nameplate that read ‘Administrative Advisor.’

“Jane.”

“Hiiiik! Yes, yessir, Advisor!”

“The figures on this document are strange.”

“Wh-wh-why? I-I checked it over ten times……”

“I wasn't checking simple addition and subtraction. Why did you buy this item for this purpose at this price? If you had used the merchant guild that comes to the village once a month, you could have handled all the items at 2/3 of this price. Did you want to squander my money?”

“Please spare me!”

Somehow, the administration office seemed to have transformed into a place radiating a very sinister aura.

I approached Avril, partly to save the employee named Jane.

“Avril.”

“Write an apology for this by this afternoon, and come up with a conservation strategy for the lost amount.”

“B-but I’m an academy employee, not a merchant guild member……”

“Does the academy keep fools who spend money as they please?”

“I’ll get it done……!”

As Jane retreated, Avril’s eyes turned to the documents.

A pile of documents was stacked beside him, and at a glance, it looked like there were well over a hundred pages.

“You have a lot of work.”

“This is the work of building a defensive barrier that connects not only Akarind Academy but also the nearby territories.”

“Is there a need to go that far?”

“There is no record of when or how the demon that appeared here came. It is important to build it as safely as possible.”

He wasn't wrong.

Except, if the opponent wasn't Avril.

“You have something to gain in the process.”

“Are you curious?”

“A little.”

As if my question was unexpected, Avril’s hand stopped.

“I thought you only cared about swordsmanship.”

“For what it's worth, I’m a graduate of the Empire’s Royal Academy.”

“True.”

Avril took out a document from his desk drawer.

It must have been made recently, but it was a document covered in fingerprints, as if it had been read over and over again.

[Akarind Academy Development Plan]

—The Belmein Kingdom is a relatively clean area where only about 10 demons appeared until the very end.

—There is a lot of flat land and the quality of the grain is good, so if it is made into a large-scale granary and logistics hub, it will be possible to preserve goods during a demon invasion even after the Empire’s invasion.

—Akarind Academy has an old building as well as a new one, and the basement of the old building seems usable after renovation.

—After creating an underground warehouse and bunker, if a defense system consisting of mercenaries, students, and instructors is established…….

I placed the document on Avril’s desk with a thud.

“Are you planning to use the students as the Goldline Merchant Guild’s private mercenaries?”

“The weapons, food, and all other capital we have will be preempted by the students. It is merely a duty for prosperity.”

Avril’s gaze slowly rose.

His deep gray eyes scanned me as if to figure me out.

“Are you dissatisfied with this as well?”

I shook my head.

“No.”

In the past, I would have argued with Avril that students should be purely students.

But my thoughts had changed a little after this orc subjugation.

Let’s think more flexibly and accept it if it’s ultimately for the students.

I’ll accept the Goldline’s business strategy as a form of sponsorship.

Merchant guilds, magic towers, and various other workshops sometimes provide material support, including scholarships, for talented students.

I could just consider the Goldline’s actions in the same way.

Avril’s gray eyes sparkled slightly as he looked at me.

“So, what is your business?”

“Qantaii. Isn’t he a war criminal? To bring such a person into an educational space.”

“It’s unlikely he blabbed about his situation himself. An inference?”

“Observation.”

He continued to watch me nervously.

People who are naturally timid don't make eye contact well.

Trained people force themselves to look at a person’s forehead or philtrum instead of their eyes, or they look at their mouth or slightly to the side.

But Qantaii kept looking at my eyes and then averting his gaze.

‘He’s hiding something.’

Judging by his speech, he was a graduate of a military academy.

Considering his age, he was old enough to have been commissioned and deployed in real combat.

The excessive mustache seemed to be a means to hide his image and change the shape of his face.

‘That body, he lost that weight forcibly.’

It didn't look like a body built through exercise, but rather a result of anorexia due to a nervous breakdown, or rapid weight loss due to a failure in diet control.

What if he was in a situation where he couldn't eat properly?

For example, on the run.

“An interesting observation. No, should I say it’s scary?”

Avril’s lips curved very slightly.

It was a smile as if he had seen something interesting.

“He killed his superior during the war. He went into his drunk superior’s room and struck his head multiple times with a rock.”

“……”

Killing a superior during wartime.

It was a more serious crime than I had imagined.

To the extent that, if the royal family found out, he could be executed on the spot?

‘So.’

He must have heard about my background when he came here.

A member of the Empire’s Royal Academy.

And this academy was mostly open only to the nobles of the Empire or to meritorious families who had distinguished themselves in the Empire’s wars of conquest among the external kingdoms.

So he must have been worried that his identity might be discovered.

He should be more careful of Sordian.

That man is from the Empire’s Knights Order.

“He wasn't the personnel I wanted either. In fact, I suffered a loss. I had to suddenly change the instructor I had brought in by paying a large sum of money.”

“Thanks to me?”

“As soon as the talk of the field trip came up, you led all the guards, and even took Pan with you on a business trip. The reason you reported to your superiors was for a preliminary survey.”

Avril’s gaze returned to the documents.

“Don't you need someone who knows about tactics?”

“……How did you know?”

“If you have observation, I have inference.”

He signed a document.

The sound of a pen rolling over the paper was heard.

“You’re not a fool, so you must have learned something there. Practical experience is necessary. But the students must be protected. You must find what education can do……”

Tsk, tsk, the pen tapped the desk as he reviewed the document.

And then a signature.

“So what’s needed is the development of a curriculum for practical lessons. And what’s needed for that is not the teacher’s strong point, swordsmanship theory, but someone who knows both practical experience and formality well.”

“There’s Rozalin.”

“She is only a guard captain. She has a lot of outside work and is unpredictable. She would be a help, but she doesn't fit the formality.”

I clicked my tongue.

He said my observation skills were great, but didn't this person just infer everything with data while sitting here?

This seems more amazing.

“Just because I got him in a hurry doesn't mean he's a mess. I guarantee it. If he were a useless person, it would have been much more profitable to hand him over to the Empire. Ah, come to think of it, it might be a bit interesting.”

“……Pardon?”

“That man, he’s a graduate of the Royal Academy. I think he said he was the 64th class.”

Ah.

If he’s the 64th class, he’s five classes my junior.

The Royal Academy is a 9-year academy, so we might have crossed paths once or twice at school.

Perhaps that’s why Instructor Qantaii was nervous.

I didn’t recognize him, but he recognized me.

“I heard the discipline between classes at the Royal Academy is quite strict. I’ve brought you a junior on purpose, so try to coax him well.”

Just how far had he planned?

“If he’s useless, you can easily get rid of him, so feel free to use him as you wish.”

“That won’t happen.”

I left the administration office, leaving his somewhat chilling words behind.

When I talk to Avril, it feels like he lays out a lot of possibilities and makes plans B, C, D, and so on.

He plans very meticulously.

Doesn't he even include his own failures in those plans?

He leaves a way to extract and pull out as much money as possible even in a situation of failure.

He’s a reassuring ally, but as an enemy.

‘For now, he’s helpful.’

I thought as I crossed over to the old building.

And just then, I spotted Qantaii, who seemed to be heading to class.

“Instructor Qantaii.”

I called him in a loud voice and approached him.

Qantaii began to straighten his posture with a nervous expression.

With one hand, he began to straighten his twisted mustache, and he looked like a herbivore puffing up its body when it meets a predator.

“Oh, Teacher Cassian. Are you heading to class?”

There were only one or two weeks left until the field trip.

Whether I liked it or not, I had to do my best to create a field trip system to satisfy the Chairman.

‘The Chairman is a madman who is only generous when it comes to education; he is not incompetent or benevolent.’

I had been away from the academy for four days without permission.

If I used education as an excuse, I had to prove that effective education was taking place.

To do that, whether I liked it or not, I had to use this Qantaii.

“I just met with Avril, and he said you’re from the Royal Academy.”

“Oh, ooh, th-that’s right?”

“You, what class are you?”

So, for the sake of efficiency, I have to establish the hierarchy first.

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