Professor Robert Elahim’s unwavering mindset burst the large size of Oknodie’s honey caramel popcorn, but it simultaneously detonated the coldness of the other professors.
A child making a pout over lost snacks.
The sight of pure sorrow made Oknodie appear less as a puppet of the Foundation, the heir to the Director, or a diplomat of the Great Evil, and more like an ordinary child.
“Professor Robert. Isn’t it a bit too much to blow up the snacks for a kid?”
“No, it could’ve been a mana bomb hidden in that popcorn bag!”
“Mana bombs, my foot. How many professors are there here who can sense mana better than you?”
Professor Robert Elahim, who had committed this act to keep his guard up against Oknodie, found that, contrary to his intentions, sympathy for Oknodie was rising.
“Well, the kid has done nothing wrong.”
“Sadako Professor has a point. Oknodie is innocent.”
“Sure, the kid does have a bit of a bad attitude, but he didn’t fail the exam, did he? He’s not hopeless.”
The Dragon Principal felt the opinions of the professors gradually converging.
[Consider yourself lucky, you little troublemaker. The professors are sparing you.]
The Dragon Principal wanted to toss the little mischief-maker into the special research lab and feed him a truth serum to make him confess even the taste of the baby food he had eaten as a child, but seeing Sadako and the other professors defending Oknodie, he decided to step back for now.
[So, is the reason you suddenly returned after being timid for a while due to a mutiny after skipping out? According to Ishtar’s report from second year, you were supposed to have left as though you would never return?]
“Uh, well, you see…”
The Principal found Oknodie annoying.
His stammering was clearly the shape of a lie being spun.
So, instead of listening to the truth from his mouth, he decided to listen to the truth speaking from his soul.
<Soul Compulsory Testimony>
People love fair deals.
Especially if they can gain a big reward by presenting the truth they have, but find useless.
Omoshiroi developed a method of compulsory interrogation by leveraging this psychology, instilling a magical truth into people’s subconscious in exchange for hearing the truth.
<Dimensional Gateway Magic Coordinate Fixation Technique>
“That is, uh…”
Omoshiroi Principal squinted his eyes angrily.
“Oh, would you look at this? Not confessing right away, huh? Think you know everything already?”
Well then, try this on for size!
<Ethereal Blending Technique>
A high-level magic blending technique that distorts space and time to immediately pass through all kinds of barrier techniques.
A student mastering this kind of magic was rare even among fourth-years.
Yet Oknodie’s blabbering mouth showed no signs of opening.
<Artificial Resonator Awakening Technique>
A technique to forcibly give a self to substance or phenomenon lacking a self and control it.
It was a technique close to a secret used by associate professors, attempting to create a golem that could assist with lectures beyond the fourth year.
Even this failed to draw a meaningful answer from Oknodie’s small but heavy mouth.
<Higher Dimension Signal Conversion Technique>
A technique that injects commands into subjects under remote control, sending them to a relay installed in another dimension, compressing and decompressing them via the relay’s function, drastically increasing performance at desired timing.
Only professors like Professor Weird or Professor Plato, who dealt with minions, could handle such advanced techniques.
Surprisingly, Oknodie gave no confession even on such matters, as if he already knew them.
‘What kind of nonsense has the Director implanted in this kid’s head?’
The Principal couldn’t help but think that.
[Isn’t it quicker to just pop that kid’s head open and scan what’s inside?]
“… I can’t allow this.”
Seeing the unwilling expressions on the professors’ faces, not quite as intense as Sadako’s dark mana, the Dragon Principal abandoned his straightforward method.
With unknown dimensions emerging and the Foundation’s danger level and power rapidly rising, losing the professors’ goodwill would be a significant disadvantage in the impending war with the Foundation.
<The Scent of Baked Bread Taste Even Better Technique>
The last spell he threw was just a whim, a desperate hope that came out unconsciously.
Yet, Oknodie’s mouth, which had firmly withstood all kinds of advanced techniques like an impregnable fortress, opened wide as if it were a joke.
“The me back then and the me now are the same yet different… I’m repeating a past like Papa’s…”
[A past like First Wahyhiemhai…?]
Even the professors, sensing something unusual in the Principal’s serious expression, hardened their faces.
The amazing knowledge spilling out triggered Omoshiroi Principal’s curiosity more than the absurdity of the situation.
“My friend got separated from his body and soul… or his soul was extracted and confined to another body… But Papa told me to keep it a secret because I might get in trouble if I told anyone…”
For a moment, his flowing words stopped, as if restrained, unable to finish the sentence.
The Principal realized that a spell Oknodie had neither learned nor even thought of acquiring, yet was considered very important by the gluttonous Oknodie, could prove helpful.
<Universal Jellybean Compression Technique>
A military spell developed a thousand years ago during a tumultuous era before the Empire’s birth, allowing any food to be compressed into the size of a jellybean while retaining its original taste and aroma.
“Agh… if I learned the highest grade Dragon Armor magic that bounces back all magical attacks below a certain level, I feel like I would spill everything…”
[?]
“I could really tell you everything… even how to turn Goo into the World Tree… how to upgrade my senior to a Number Artifact…”
The professors were shocked by the shocking confession of turning a newborn into a World Tree and upgrading his senior to a magical artifact, declaring that the Foundation’s inhuman human experiments had gone too far.
But the Principal, sneaking his eyes open while observing Oknodie’s sly behavior, realized.
[What the hell does this little rascal think he’s playing at? Pretending to reveal crucial information while making me give up even tastier spells!]
“Oops, you caught me?”
[Yeah, you got caught, you sly little rascal.]
“Hehe. But it was you who started testing me first, Principal!”
The Principal merely felt annoyed at being used, but the other professors were more interested in the information Oknodie had thrown.
“Is it true that the Foundation has secured a spell to turn a child into a World Tree?!”
“No, that’s only something special kids can do…”
“Tell us about that upgrading your senior into a Number Artifact, what in the world does the Foundation plan to do with the senior students at Gift Academy?!”
“No, that’s only something our senior is originally qualified to become…”
“Your senior? So, are you saying the Foundation intends to turn scholarship students with potential for betrayal into magical tools?”
Under the professors’ pressure, Oknodie, who inadvertently let slip a few words, was alarmed and quickly covered his mouth with both hands, realizing the situation was rapidly escalating.
The professors began discussing the urgent need to screen scholarship students affiliated with the Foundation or analyze the numerous crimes that could be committed by throwing children under 12 into the Spirit Realm to establish a spirit contract.
Since all the Foundation-related crimes Oknodie had unwittingly revealed were alarming, their focus was diverted.
[This arrogant little mischief-maker has clouded the professors’ judgment.]
“Ugh. I just said what I was asked!”
[Alright… I’ll let today’s interrogation end here.]
The Principal commanded.
To begin investigations into the information Oknodie had leaked.
*
The Dragon Principal and professors began their investigation not on Oknodie but on the information she had spilled. However, Sadako Professor was most worried about Oknodie.
“If that Principal is left unchecked, he’ll eventually get to Oknodie too…”
Even she, once a Great Evil of a bygone era, could not remain free in front of the Principal.
If no countermeasures were established, Oknodie would face the same fate.
Today, Sadako Professor recalled the Principal’s demeanor as he sought ‘cooperation’ from the professors.
The seemingly reckless Principal at least had some sense.
But would he only show that sense to the professors?
‘If the students staged a mass strike, even the Principal would have to pay attention, no matter how strong he is.’
If students were to skip classes, professors would be put in a tight spot, and the very existence of Gift Academy would be denied.
What was needed now was the support of Oknodie’s friends.
Support from the 981st class, who showed initiative and solidarity, breaking into the catacombs even on their rest day.
Fortunately, she had a resource.
A resource to gain the students’ support.
– The me back then and the me now are the same yet different… I’m repeating a past like Papa’s…
– My friend got separated from his body and soul… or his soul was extracted and confined to another body… But Papa told me to keep it a secret because I might get in trouble if I told anyone…
Sadako Professor perfectly understood Oknodie’s words.
It meant that.
“Oknodie has been punished by having his soul torn apart and separated, just like his plant friend. The Director’s heir training was being secretly carried out, and the weak appearance until recently was due to that influence.”
“Now that he’s regained his former self, the ‘soul that has recovered its humanity’ from years of academy life with friends has likely been re-sliced once again.”
“Moreover, after Oknodie’s disappearance, the world’s life force became disordered, almost giving birth to a new hyper-giant limit on par with the Northern Demon Realm. The Principal may be planning to kill Oknodie before he becomes a medium for the birth of the limit.”
Sadako Professor’s bombshell declaration was dropped onto the magic watch terminals of the 981st class.
