Chapter 234

“It’s nothing… It’s just that lately, Roan has been acting like a professor, so I raised my hand without realizing it.”

“What do you mean by that, heretic? We are friends.”

“Hehe, is that so?”

‘Who’s your friend?’

As Demona spoke awkwardly, Hector encouraged her.

In any case, Demona’s question was simple.

“But haven’t we learned nothing all this time?”

“Gasp!”

However, it was also a question that struck a painful weak point.

The freshmen really hadn’t learned much of anything!

Roan nodded and answered as if he had expected at least that much.

“That’s why ours is in the third week. The other students already took theirs in the second week.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Demona followed up with another question.

“But isn’t it the same that we learned nothing last week or this week?”

“Gasp, Demona. You shouldn’t say things like that so easily.”

“What did we learn, Rafia?”

“Um…”

Rafia was at a loss for words.

She had certainly done a lot of things.

“Part-time jobs… and gathering?”

But nothing in particular came to mind.

Sion spoke firmly, as if that shouldn’t be the case.

“We learned a lot, Rippi, Demona. Did you forget taking notes so diligently in the Oath class? And we even obtained spiritual beasts in Professor Vulcan’s Sacred Combat class.”

“Ah, that’s right!”

Rafia chimed in, brightening up.

Thinking about it, it had been a very fruitful week!

Roan pointed out with a displeased face.

“It wasn’t a Sacred Combat class.”

“Yes?”

“It was the Divine and Spiritual Beasts class.”

“Ah!”

Only then did Sion realize her mistake and blush.

Even Sion shouldn’t be confusing the two.

“Roan, aren’t they basically the same thing?”

—Isn’t it the same class?

—Does he mean one is different from the other, in some philosophical sense?

—If it’s an annoying guy like Darc, he might think so.

…Since guys like them were dime a dozen anyway.

‘Besides, isn’t obtaining a spiritual beast not really learning anything?’

Roan had one more question, but decided not to voice it out of consideration for her face as a Saintess candidate.

“Anyway, that’s why the first-year pop quizzes are either passed over simply or conducted alongside classes.”

“Ah, I see~”

Only then did the friends nod, seemingly convinced.

Demona spoke as if it didn’t matter either way, clasping her hands behind her head.

“By the way, I envy Roan~”

“……Why.”

Roan had a strange experience of feeling annoyed just by hearing that tone of voice.

It was as if he were part of a conditioned reflex experiment.

“You were expelled, so you don’t have to take the pop quiz~”

And Demona did not disappoint, speaking in a sly manner.

—Ah, that’s right. I heard Darc got expelled?

—Wow, how thick-skinned. He’s still coming to school even after being expelled?

—I heard there’s a secret school of the Darc family, is this it?

—…Why would Acherandir be a secret school?

—Eh?

As typical of a hotbed of all kinds of wild rumors, Demona’s words spread like wildfire among the students.

Roan let out a smirk.

Not only the friends around him but also the other students were startled.

“”R-Roan smiled!””

—I-Is he really going to kill Wicronon now?

—Hieek! This is all because you said it was a secret school!

Roan’s face looked as if he could easily murder someone in broad daylight!

However, Roan said something quite unexpected.

“Demona, I envy you too.”

“Huh? Why me?”

Demona tilted her head.

No matter how she thought about it, unlike the expelled(?) Roan, there was nothing good for her since she had to take the pop quiz.

Roan kindly explained the reason.

“Because you might be carried off to the infirmary and get to skip the pop quiz.”

“???”

Before Demona could even tilt her head again, she understood the meaning of Roan’s words.

*Grab—!*

“Arghhh! Wh-What is this? An arm ghost, argh!”

It wasn’t the simple paralysis spell he usually used on Demona and Hector, but the Rotten Hand of the Dead!

Recognizing the spell, Sion and the students were shocked.

“Th-That’s the spell you used on Professor Vulcan!”

—And on Pierbo!

—And on Professor Pluvang!

‘Now that I think about it, I did use it quite a lot…’

Unlike paralysis, it was a curse magic that dealt direct damage, so Demona literally rolled around the floor.

“Aigo, I’m dying! Aigo, Demona is really dying!”

If it went on any longer, she felt like she might really be carried off to the hospital just as Roan had said.

‘Though for Demona, taking the pop quiz would be a harsher punishment than going to the hospital.’

Roan hadn’t actually wanted it to go that far, so just as he was about to cancel the magic.

*Dissolved—*

The Rotten Hand of the Dead turned into particles of light and vanished.

“Hm?”

Roan scanned the surroundings.

Since there was no way the freshmen could do anything about his magic, perhaps…

“Wh-What is going on?!”

Incarnation Anne was approaching in a hurry, looking surprised at the entrance.

Circumstantially, it seemed she was the one who had canceled Roan’s magic.

“Darc, did student Darc use a punitive holy art?”

Anne reacted sensitively to the punitive holy art, as was typical of her kind nature.

If she could think ‘even if it’s Demona, a punitive holy art is too much,’ she was indeed kind enough.

The students seized the opportunity to make a fuss.

—Assistant Anne, they say Darc got expelled!

—Wicronon expelled him!

“…Yes?”

Anne was bewildered, wondering what on earth they were talking about.

What did they mean by Roan being expelled, and why would Demona be the one to expel him?

After pondering for a while, Anne, true to her nature as an angel’s incarnation, soon formulated a plausible hypothesis.

“Ah, do you mean student Darc will be expelled for using a punitive holy art on student Wicronon?”

—Uh… no.

—Wicronon did do something to deserve getting hit by a punitive holy art, but…

“????”

However, the students’ replies pushed Anne even further into a maze of confusion.

‘Then why would Darc be expelled?’

Hadn’t he just achieved the great feat of arresting five heretics and twenty black mages in his capacity as a freshman during the off-campus volunteer work?

If anything, he should be receiving a reward, and it was by no means an offense that would warrant a punishment like expulsion.

‘…And if he were really expelled, shouldn’t he not be here right now?’

If Roan had known Anne’s thoughts, he would have given her a standing ovation, calling her a truly intelligent person.

At that moment, Roan explained in a polite manner.

“Assistant, Wicronon kept spreading false rumors that I was expelled, so I lost my temper and used a punitive holy art.”

“Ah, so that’s what happened!”

Only then did Anne clap her hands in joy at the resolved question.

The students watched Anne with suspicious eyes and whispered.

—Even so, shouldn’t she not be so happy when someone got hit by a punitive holy art?

—I didn’t think Assistant Anne was like that, but she might be unexpectedly cruel…

“Ah, no! It’s not like that!”

Anne waved her hands at the students in denial, unable to bear the absurdity.

They shouldn’t have spoken so strangely in the first place!

“It’s fine, Assistant. This is something I go through all the time anyway.”

“Pardon?”

For some reason, the pure-hearted Anne felt like she was about to shed tears.

The freshmen this year are so strange!

Anne froze as she looked at the classroom—which was actually the waiting room—rapidly turning into chaos.

‘Wait, were they originally strange, or is this time particularly weirder?’

…Apparently, Anne seemed to have suffered(?) quite a lot in the meantime.

Of course, the pinnacle among them was Demona Wicronon, who was rolling around over there.

‘Ah, no, student Darc who made student Wicronon like that is also…’

The assistant Anne’s thoughts grew more and more complicated.

Still, as it was the class she was in charge of, she felt she had to say something before moving on.

“Hum hum, everyone quiet down. And student Darc, you must not use a punitive holy art on your friend. Since there are extenuating circumstances this time, I will let it slide.”

“Yes, I am sorry, Assistant.”

Roan politely nodded and accepted the reprimand.

—Woah, Assistant Anne scolded Darc!

—The strongest person in Acherandir has changed!

Seeing this, the students cheered loudly.

“”…””

Though Roan, the ‘former strongest,’ was looking at them pathologically.

—Hieek! Darc might use the Light Hand…

—What a terrifying guy…!

‘What on earth is the Light Hand?’

Under the circumstances, it seemed they were referring to the Rotten Hand of the Dead.

What was the ‘current strongest’ Anne doing?

‘How pathetic… Ah, I shouldn’t have such thoughts about the students…’

She was regretting that she couldn’t look at the students with the same eyes as Roan.

In any case, since groundless rumors were circulating among the students, Anne thought she should correct them as an educator.

Anne opened the attendance sheet and said.

“Now, look here, student Darc’s name is on the attendance sheet. He has not been expelled, so do not misunderstand. Lady Hiloa said not to be deceived by false rumors, did she not? She might punish you if you do.”

—Yes, Assistant!

The students answered in unison, like a choir.

It was as if they had never said Roan had been expelled.

—Darc expelled? No way. Of course not!

—Was it you? Did you say he got expelled?

—It was you! You’ll receive divine punishment!

…It was a rather excessive denial.

‘I guess divine punishment is quite scary.’

Roan, a black mage, wasn’t the only one afraid of Lady Hiloa’s divine punishment.

Just then, Demona, staggering as she sat back in her seat, mumbled.

“Even so… Roan was expelled…”

“Are you Galileo?”

Roan asked in disbelief.

It wasn’t even “And yet it moves.”

“Gali… Who is that anyway?”

Demona tilted her head.

Only then did Roan realize that Galileo Galilei was a person of Earth.

Of course, even in *God and Devil*, there were many people named Galileo.

“Do you not know Galileo Estroban? He was a figure who died 441 years ago…”

“Hieek! A-A history ghost!”

“If you don’t want to hear it, don’t ever bring up the topic of expulsion again. Since I wasn’t.”

“Mhm, Roan is indeed an Acherandir student.”

…Roan’s history lectures were scarier than the Inquisition!

Roan easily(?) laid to rest Demona’s expulsion rumor like that.

Only then could the freshmen’s first pop quiz begin.

Anne called the priest accompanying her and had him bring the items needed for the pop quiz.

“Everyone, as some of you might know, we will take a pop quiz today.”

The students gulped at the unavoidable pop quiz.

Since they shared dormitories with senior mentors, they had indirectly felt how terrifying pop quizzes could be.

However, Anne smiled faintly, trying to ease the students’ anxiety.

“Still, do not worry too much. We started classes in the second week, correct? So today, we will substitute the exam with exploring your secondary attribute alongside the class.”

Sighs of relief leaked out from here and there.

Secondary attribute exploration.

What Eucherim had found for them last time was their primary attribute, referring to the attribute that best matched their soul.

However, naturally, a person could not live with just one attribute.

As they went through the Acherandir curriculum, they would naturally use various attributes, and this could be considered an adaptability test.

—Assistant, I have brought them.

“Ah, thank you. Could you place them in front of me?”

The priest took something out of a small box and began to place them one by one on a long desk.

The object’s identity was visible to Roan’s eyes as well.

‘It’s an Attribute Stone.’