Why does Oknodie think of the Warrior as someone who could substitute for death?
“Isn’t that actually the case?”
“Tell me more.”
“You remember Professor Destroyer, right?”
“Of course.”
“The professor killed many demons and demon clan members at his peak. So, the dark mana from the entities he killed started accumulating in his body bit by bit.”
━━━
[Retired Hero and the World’s Evils]
-Tuesday and Thursday, 4th Period, 16:00-18:00
-Professor: Destroyer
-Adventure Department, Major
━━━
It was last year’s second semester lecture by Professor Destroyer.
Ishtar remembered this and realized what Oknodie was trying to say.
“Activity Limit Mana…”
“That’s right. Without the support of the Saintess, a Warrior cannot purify dark mana, and to suppress the overflow of dark mana in their body, their mana allocation gradually increases.”
“As the activity limit mana decreases, one becomes prepared for physical mutation, engaging in short-range battles while risking contamination by dark mana, ultimately becoming destined to possess so much dark mana that everyday life becomes difficult or even impossible…”
Indeed.
Every Warrior is eventually exposed to the risk of being consumed by dark mana and losing their humanity.
That’s why a Warrior is someone who dies in place of others.
The reason Professor Destroyer retired was also due to dark mana.
And the reason they can’t return to the Academy is also because of dark mana.
“The Emperor had no dark mana.”
“Well, I was talking about someone else!”
“You’re not implying the previous emperor, are you…?”
Oknodie’s awkward whistling made Ishtar realize.
“Oh, so that’s it? Now I understand.”
“Ugh.”
“Your goal was not the previous emperor, but the Demon King!”
“Ehe?”
“The one who possesses dark mana and whose activity limit mana is at risk, to the point where the Warrior has to be prepared for death. That can only be the Demon King!”
“…Right!”
“Though I still feel you’re mumbling something, if you hadn’t listened to me and taken action, the Empire would have turned into a magical territory filled with puppets stripped of their personalities by forbidden books by now. I can’t deny that’s helpful.”
“Hehe. There are a few more instances like that to come!”
“How do you know all that?”
“Oh, um, that’s…”
“Don’t know.”
“!”
“You’re going to say that again, aren’t you?”
“N-no? I… don’t know…”
“Even not knowing is fine.”
Somehow, Ishtar felt her previously heavy heart lighten.
She felt like she understood Oknodie a bit more.
“In the end, there’s nowhere but the Foundation. If you’ve obtained information, you can only get it from the Foundation.”
“Usually, that’s true, right?”
“You wanted to resist the Foundation, didn’t you?”
“Y-yes?”
“No use pretending. Don’t you know my holy sword can distinguish truth from lies?”
Oknodie’s small shoulders flinched.
Ishtar could easily imagine the clumsy movements of her blanket as if struggling with how to respond.
“The Foundation is a bad and scary place. But the things you’ve done have been good and kind. Enough to follow the path of a Warrior. Enough to recognize your insufficiencies as a Warrior and grow stronger.”
Now, she could see it.
This child is not her enemy.
“You also secretly wanted to ask someone for help. Someone like a Warrior.”
“Me?”
“A response that can’t be read as truth or lies… So you’re not sure about it yourself? Then fine. This time I’ll help you understand.”
Ishtar tilted her head toward Oknodie, looking her straight in the eye.
Oknodie fidgeted in front of her strong gaze and carefully raised her blanket to the top of her head.
“…”
After a moment, she cautiously lowered the blanket to her eye level and peeked over.
Ishtar couldn’t hold back her laughter.
The true nature of the child she had promised herself to surpass last year was this shy one.
Her beating such a child?
Swearing to kill?
No wonder she earned the Warrior disqualification!
Even if she received a resignation letter bomb, it’s all cause and effect!
“You can leave it all to me. If there’s something I need to do, you don’t have to be so anxious.”
Keeping suspicion in her eyes, half-covered by her blanket.
Ishtar felt a bit lonely.
“I’ve lost enough people today. I don’t want to be alone even when I get to the dormitory.”
Realizing she acted childish for a Warrior, she was taken aback, but it seemed those words moved Oknodie to pull off her blanket and show her face, asking,
“Ishtar, have you lost friends?”
“I don’t know if they’re friends, subordinates, or comrades, but my trust in people has lessened.”
“Then shall I introduce you to a few new friends brought from the Empire?”
“Hehe. That would be nice.”
Oknodie’s friends.
What kind of peculiar beings are they?
She couldn’t help but smile at the thought before getting to see their faces.
Before she knew it, sleep, which seemed impossible to achieve, naturally approached.
“I’m Oknodie’s ‘friend.’”
“Eungchilgeom?!”
“‘Friend,’ I said.”
The very next day, she would face a monster she had no confidence in facing even in a one-on-one duel.
*
When the director of the Wahyhiemhai Foundation appeared at the Transfer Station branch of the Cheonryeong Mountain Range, Hiscliff gasped and followed Oknodie.
He had no intention of going to the Gift Academy, but if he backed down here, wouldn’t he be left alone where the Foundation’s great evil appeared?
Working overtime unexpectedly vs. being left alone with the head of the three great evils and their minions.
In this morally nonsensical balance of choice, Hiscliff obviously chose the former, thus ending up following her to the Academy.
“Mr. Hiscliff! If you don’t get a position at the Gift Academy, outsiders can’t stay without at least a teaching position, so please apply as an instructor!”
“Can’t I just use the Academy’s transfer station to return to Jeido?”
“Um~ I wouldn’t do that if I were you. If the transfer station is compromised, it can interfere with the transfer magic circle, and if timed right, it could hijack the transfer magic signal and send users to a random place, right?”
“What?!”
“If you liked the air of the Cheonryeong Mountain Range, I wouldn’t stop you, but if even a 0.1% chance of a mess occurs, the Masugaki who sent you might get sad, so please refrain from using the transfer station for now!”
According to Oknodie, the Foundation had seized the opportunity of the Empire’s chaos to interfere with transfer stations around the world.
If they interfered with the branch in the Cheonryeong Mountain Range, the Foundation might have seized all transfer stations from anywhere else too.
Unless moving via non-fair flight, using the transfer station would mean entrusting one’s life to the Foundation.
“I understand… Then, in the meantime, I’ll apply as an instructor. Do you have any thoughts on which lecture would be good?”
“Um~ Please align it with Ishtar’s class! I have a lecture list Ishtar sent last night.”
“Warrior’s lecture? Why wouldn’t you align it with your class? I shouldn’t be the one saying this since I was just about to arbitrarily stop the escort, but you’re in a risky position too, aren’t you?”
“I can manage by myself without dying, but Ishtar might not? This is the first time the revolutionary and the Crown Prince are out to take her down, and the Warrior has been too heavily exposed to risks. Originally, the Empire Nobles and the previous Emperor should have been collaborating with the Revolutionary Army, but there are too many enemies left!”
“I can’t figure out your scheme no matter how I think… But I did find out one thing. You don’t actually hate the Warrior.”
There’s no way someone who hated someone would even escort them.
Oknodie smiled and agreed.
“Who would hate a player willing to die in place of them for a happy ending?”
“…What?”
“Ah, that just now is a secret, so it would be troublesome if you spoke of it anywhere else.”
“…”
The conversation with Oknodie had taken a heavily suspicious turn, but Hiscliff erased all complex circumstances and troublesome topics from his mind.
In an escort, one only needs to consider the safety of the person they’re meant to protect.
He judged that among the classes Ishtar was attending, the most dangerous one was also the one with the highest likelihood of accidents and the class where she had many enemies.
━━━
[Emergency Response Strategy for Level 5 Alerts]
-Wednesday, 2nd Period, 11:00-13:00
-Professor: Robert Elahim
-Administration Department, General Education
━━━
This lecture was extremely special.
First off, it was an unpopular class with less than 5 students enrolled each year.
The reason being the excessive difficulty and the occurrence of fatalities during the class.
There were almost no students willing to take a class with a risk of death within the Administration Department seeking sweeter rewards.
Yet still, there was one reason Ishtar was attending a general education lecture not even within her Adventure Department.
If they want to aim at me, then come and follow.
Enrolling in the class was a de facto declaration of war!
Though it was set up to make it easy to kill her while feigning an accident, the main goal was to gather students targeting her and deal with them all at once.
It was a bold plan fitting for a Warrior who had even defeated the Emperor, but because of that, Hiscliff volunteered for the instructor position in this class.
‘The combat power of the heirs of the activated noble family of the Empire can be compared to that of elite knights of the first-class knight order.’
If those guys were determined to bury Ishtar, someone would be needed on-site to help her.
‘My judgment was correct.’
As he headed to the special classroom of the Administration Department, instructors influenced by the Three Great Meritorious Families of the Empire stared at Hiscliff with sharp glares without hiding their hostility.
These guys were bound to cause trouble.
To do that, he had been assigned the instructor position in this classroom.
Other students also glared at Ishtar, leaning against the wall alone, activating their mana gear and assuming armed stances, all of which felt terribly menacing.
Not everyone was an enemy.
Some border nobles seemed not to have heard of her infamous reputation or mistakenly enrolled in her class.
Among the Empire Nobles enrolling, were some border nobles who followed suit without any care.
They lacked insight, but right now, there was no room to worry about them.
‘The only one I need to save is Ishtar.’
Even if other students were taken hostage, and even if Ishtar’s attention was drawn to them, Hiscliff needed to focus solely on Ishtar.
Even if Oknodie, who entrusted him with the escort duty, were munching on her lunchbox while happily wiggling her feet.
“…”
Wait, but why did Oknodie also enroll in this class?
Is she here to save the Warrior?
Looking more closely, the students around Oknodie were glaring at her while holding their own stomachs, displaying signs of irritation from watching her enjoy her lunch.
Indeed.
Was this a strategy to draw aggro away from Ishtar?
A remarkably effective plan.
From the next class onwards, he resolved to prepare a lunch box as well.
