Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Back at Hetrona Hall after resolving lunch simply in the commercial district.

In the classroom, which was fully packed with bookshelves and maps, Demona was lying down, clutching his stomach.

“I’m hungry…….”

“That’s why I told you to buy something and eat.”

Rafia scolded Demona with a pathetic look.

Setting aside that he had no Talents yesterday, hadn’t he obtained some during class today?

Demona replied desolately.

“I can’t spend the Talents I earned with my own hands on something like lunch.”

‘Then are you going to starve for the rest of your life?’

Roan felt a small question and pulled out a book from his bag.

It was the textbook for the Imperial History class pre-placed in his private room, ‘Biography of Harden, Volume 1.’

The setting that Harden himself was the history of the Empire.

‘It’s even more absurd that it isn’t exactly wrong.’

For a personal biography, it didn’t omit important events from before the founding of the Holy Empire until recently.

It was perfectly fine to use as a textbook.

However, seeing that, Demona asked in wonder.

“A book? Why did you bring such a heavy thing?”

“……Because class is starting soon?”

Not only was the Imperial History class a theoretical one, but Roan also knew what would happen in this class.

Naturally, he had to bring the textbook.

However, Demona laughed heartily, forgetting his hunger, and spoke.

“Hey, Roan! Aren’t you being quite funny? Even Professor Beleck didn’t conduct a class, so of course it won’t be conducted this time either!”

‘Why on earth did this fellow even enter the school?’

Roan decided to ignore him altogether.

It was clear that dealing with him would only give him a headache for nothing.

‘No, more importantly, Professor Beleck’s class was this morning.’

Still, the more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got.

If Beleck had conducted class, was he planning to go back to the dormitory?

Naturally, there was no way.

As Roan glared, Demona flinched and spoke.

“Ahem. I will respect your wishes, Roan.”

“……Tsk.”

Well, he would do as he pleased.

Roan clicked his tongue and checked the time.

It happened to be the start time of the class.

Creak—

A woman who was young to be called a professor, but looked several years older instead thanks to her fatigued impression, walked onto the podium step by step.

─ This professor is very young?

─ Yeah, I heard the history professor was old.

The students spoke, looking slightly surprised.

They were not wrong.

‘Since that person is the assistant.’

Roan had already guessed it too.

That woman was Joy Days.

She was the assistant of Timothy Harbor, the history professor.

As soon as Joy stood in her position, she spoke in a voice dripping with fatigue.

“Gaston Devan.”

“????”

As all the students were bewildered by the sudden calling.

“Gaston Devan, is he not here.”

Joy called once more.

“Ah, here!”

“Answer quickly. Gerff Judry.”

“? Oh, yes.”

Only after that calling was repeated a few times did the students finally realize that Joy was taking attendance.

‘It is a bit awkward.’

Although it was a completely normal situation, considering the preceding classes, attendance check itself was bound to feel unfamiliar.

─ This professor seems a bit strict.

─ Don’t tell me we are actually having a class?

Anxiety quietly blooming among the students.

“Everyone open to Chapter 1 of the textbook.”

Joy responded to the students’ anxiety by immediately starting the class.

A student bravely raised their hand.

─ Excuse me, Professor!

“As everyone knows, the Holy Empire was founded 5,318 years ago by the late Emperor Harden, who is currently serving as the Headmaster, and the period since then is called the Imperial era. However, the start of history goes back to the distant past Age of Gods and Men……”

─ ……Professor?

Joy responded to the student’s calling a beat late.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Since I am not the professor. Why did you call?”

At Joy’s shocking confession, the students began to murmur.

Not the professor, what did that mean.

“……Since there is no time, if there are no questions, I will resume class.”

Hand raised!

Just then, Demona bravely raised his hand.

An exclamation of ‘oh’ leaked from among the students.

─ Wycronon speaks up!

─ As expected of Wycronon!

‘……It seems the evaluation of Wycronon has become strange.’

The talk about the three major families of the Empire shouldn’t have originated from that.

However, Demona did not care about the students’ gazes at all.

“Why did you enter if you are not the professor?”

Joy stared at Demona for a moment, then tilted her head and replied.

“……Because Professor Timothy Harbor is a historian?”

“???”

At the attitude of asking why he asked something so obvious, even Demona was lost for words.

Joy naturally continued the class.

“The Age of Gods and Men is also called the Pre-Saint Age in other words……”

Creak—

“Ah, I’m sorry, sorry, sorry!”

Just then, a dwarf professor with a balding crown entered hurriedly and apologized.

He was the original professor of this class, Timothy Harbor.

“Joy, to conduct a class immediately when it’s the first class. I am Timothy Harbor, the professor of the history class.”

Timothy wiped his face, which was covered in dirt and sweat, with a handkerchief and stood in the position where Joy had been standing.

Since the dwarf was shorter than the podium, he had to bring a footstool from the corner.

Meanwhile, Joy sat in an empty seat next to the students.

“Joy, great work. You can go now instead of staying here. Since I have finished the preliminary investigation. Students, you may put away your textbooks. What is the point of being stiff when it’s the first class?”

Timothy waved his hand, laughing heartily like a good-natured uncle.

Demona smirked and looked at Roan.

“What did I tell you? I said the textbook wasn’t needed, right?”

Roan replied indifferently.

“Wait still.”

Actually, all of this was a fixed event in “God & Devil.”

Once Timothy let the students relax like this, outside the window.

Whoosh—!

A bright light seemed to fill the sky, and then a rumbling sound was heard from the direction of the dormitory.

Timothy was startled and observed the outside, almost sticking to the window.

“Oh, this is! It is the miracle of the Holy Spirit, Lord Harden!”

Crash—!

Then he immediately broke the window glass and jumped out.

Joy, as if not even surprised, went up to the podium again and opened the textbook.

“Therefore, the Age of Gods and Men is also called the Pre-Saint Age, and in this age, various gods including Lord Hiloa were on the earth……”

Only then did the students completely give up and pull out their textbooks one by one.

“This is a complete scam……”

Excluding Demona, who was devastated because he had no book to pull out.

***

Joy didn’t seem to care much about the students who were in trouble because they had no books.

She was strictly faithful to her role as Professor Timothy’s substitute.

Even though it was the first class.

“It is the four families that appeared after ending the Kingdom era, which was a period of division of the continent. They are Quilior, Wycronon, Richmond, and Darc respectively, and currently, the Darc family is officially destroyed, and the other three families remain as the three major families.”

This was information Roan also knew to some extent.

But at Joy’s words, the students began to murmur.

─ Darc is right there?

─ Yeah?

─ Is he perhaps a ghost?

─ I knew it from his looks…….

Roan was dumbfounded as he heard the students’ words.

‘No, a descendant of a destroyed family can remain!’

What did that matter.

And does it make sense that the Holy Spirit who founded the Empire 5,000 years ago is still the headmaster of this school?

“?”

Meanwhile, Joy looked up as a commotion arose among the students.

And realizing where the students’ gazes were directed, she corrected the content.

Since she had personally called the name Roan Darc during attendance earlier.

“Ah, I’m sorry. The Darc family also remains currently. Strictly speaking, officially……. At any rate, I am sorry, student Darc.”

“It is fine. Even though there is no family, I did not grow up that childishly.”

At Roan’s calm response, Joy bowed her head and continued the class.

On the other hand, the back of the hippo’s head sitting far ahead flinched.

Because Roan’s words sounded exactly as if targeting someone.

‘Because Demona brought up my family so much, it feels like a daily greeting now.’

Surprisingly, Demona was helpful in various ways.

“Hey, Roan.”

“What is it?”

Just then, Demona cautiously touched Roan’s arm and spoke.

“That…… are you going to have Hector stomp on Assistant Joy too?”

“…….”

Roan was lost for words.

Did Demona currently think of him as a madman who took revenge whenever his family was mentioned?

In the first place, he had never even ordered it!

***

On the way back after buying some dinner in the commercial district.

“Today was peaceful for some reason, right guys?”

Rafia spoke, stretching after climbing all the way up the cliff.

Now she was also quite adapted to climbing the cliff.

Her friends’ talents were quite outstanding as well.

Roan’s teaching of the knack of strengthening physical strength using holy power to some extent played a large part.

‘Although I can’t use it.’

The usage of mana and holy power was quite different, but with Beleck also becoming a holy magic professor, there was nothing Roan couldn’t do.

If it was the theoretical part, Roan had also long since far surpassed the level of a freshman.

“Peaceful? After stomping on me like that.”

Demona asked, glaring at Rafia.

Rafia replied, avoiding his gaze.

“Well…… we healed you cleanly. Didn’t you also say it was fine?”

“That’s true, but…… it feels somewhat uncomfortable.”

‘For some reason, Rafia also seems to be getting influenced by bad habits…….’

Listening to their conversation, Roan was inwardly feeling a sense of incompatibility.

Rafia was strictly a character like an extremely kind, simple country girl.

But as she hung out with friends like Demona and Hector, she was becoming a bit thick-skinned.

‘If there is an opportunity, I should send her to other good friends.’

As the saying goes, one takes on the color of one’s company; if she stayed close to black mages, wouldn’t the pure Rafia also turn black.

He could absolutely not bear to see Rafia fully blending in with Demona and talking about black magic.

However, the atmosphere of the dormitory was strangely unsettled.

Normally, it should be quiet as there were only students who had returned after taking all classes…….

“Huh? Isn’t a fence set up behind there?”

Hector checked the back of Panroa Hall, stretching his neck.

Just as he said, a white cloth was wrapped around the back of the building, near the mountain behind where Roan had practiced Blood Fragment.

And inside it, quite a lot of people were moving busily.

Hector’s expression stiffened.

“No way…… did a crime occur?”

Heretic inquisitors were inseparable from criminal investigations due to the nature of their occupation.

That Hector went to the courthouse frequently since he was a child also meant that.

Therefore, it was also natural to think of it as a crime scene upon seeing such a white cloth.

However, Roan shook his head.

“No, look closely at the cloth. If it were a crime, the investigator’s emblem would have been stamped. That is just a cloth.”

“Oho, right…… no, how do you know that, Roan?”

Hector, who readily agreed, suddenly felt a question, but Roan did not answer.

‘Because of the miracle earlier? No, there shouldn’t be a reason for that.’

That white cloth was used by historians or archaeologists when preserving a site.

If one looked closely, it could be seen that the cloth was worn out and dusty here and there.

In “God & Devil,” they were expressed as people who couldn’t get enough of miracles, and they usually blocked access to valuable phenomena like that and conducted research.

‘That miracle was at most a level where lightning struck a tree and a holy fire blazed.’

However, they wouldn’t make such a fuss over a minor miracle like the event where Timothy exited somewhat violently earlier.

Since the dormitory was a place Harden paid attention to, such half-crazy scholars couldn’t freely enter and exit either.

─ Ohhhhh!

─ It’s a miracle!

But hearing shouts coming out in the middle, it was somehow unusual.

“What is it? Aren’t you curious?”

“……Shall we go?”

Rafia kept heading toward it as she was quite curious.

Roan also approached with his friends to find out exactly what was going on.

Since the dungeon where the target Choir lay was near the mountain behind the dormitory, there was no benefit in having people’s attention concentrated like this.

‘In the worst case, should I push back the priority a bit…… it would be good to get it within this week.’

Just then, Beanin, who had been watching from outside the fence first, acknowledged them.

“Ah, did you all just come back after class ended?”

‘Does this fellow not study, more than I thought?’

How does a second-year always return to the dormitory earlier than first-years?

Although he was a bit curious, Roan went to the main point first.

“Yes. Did a miracle occur by any chance?”

“Oh, how did you know? I thought it was a normal miracle because lightning struck, but it seems the matter grew a bit.”

The matter grew a bit?

Roan tilted his head.

First, the basic situation wasn’t much different from what he knew, but it seemed a variable had occurred.

Just then, Roan felt an instinctive anxiety.

‘Wait, if it’s the mountain behind……?’

Coincidentally, wasn’t that the place where he used Blood Fragment at dawn today.

Coincidentally, with a feeling similar to the fragment of the Holy Blood lost in ancient times.

Just then, a familiar voice was heard from up the mountain.

“I found it! I found it!”

It was Professor Timothy, who had disappeared leaving only the students and the assistant behind.

He had rolled on the mountain so much that it was harder to find a spot not covered in dirt from head to toe.

Nevertheless, he had a triumphant expression, holding a large lump of stone in both hands.

─ Ohhh!

─ Please show us quickly, Professor!

The people waiting cheered.

Timothy held the stone high like a victorious general.

It wasn’t a normal stone.

A holy stone emitting a halo while fully holding sacred light.

“This is exactly the holy stone where the miracle is embedded!”

A cheer that burst enough to tear the eardrums.

Roan stared at that stone quietly, frowning.

Of course, no matter how it was Roan, he couldn’t know just from that that it was the rock he had smashed with Blood Fragment.

Since it didn’t emit light like that at the time.

“I found it at the cliff on the mountainside, backing the school! Next to it is a tree burning in holy fire! Moreover, the energy of ancient holy power!”

‘Now I understand.’

Listening to Timothy’s additional explanation, it became somewhat certain.

First of all, although he didn’t know how it happened, the rock he had smashed seemed certain.

“A holy stone, it is anew surprising that this is a sacred land.”

Meanwhile, Hector and other freshmen, who had no idea of such circumstances, were nodding with moved expressions.

Actually, the value of a holy stone outside was truly great.

If it was excavated by chance, a temple would be built on the spot immediately and the holy stone would be dedicated directly.

─ El, a holy stone?

─ What, it was just a normal holy stone.

─ I thought they discovered a spring where honey flowed or something.

And the students gathered outside the fence began to disperse with disappointed expressions.

In Acherandir, a holy stone was a level of a slightly pretty stone, nothing particularly surprising.

However, Roan.

‘……What if those people research and find out that black magic is mixed in?’

Was shedding a drop of cold sweat, unable to turn his steps easily.

Although they looked like fanatics, they were all renowned scholars.

Especially Professor Timothy was a person crazy about miracles and relics to the extent that he accepted the Acherandir professor appointment just to research Harden’s miracles.

Slither—

Just then, Harden revealed himself in front of Roan like a ghost.

“Yikes! A ghost!”

Demona fell backward in shock.

“……What is she?”

Harden looked down at her with a bewildered look.