Chapter 268

Chapter 268

Students pulling out Roan’s fingernails and whipping him?

It was truly belling the cat!

At any rate, Demona returned to her usual self and said proudly.

“What~ Demona only speaks the truth~”

For once, Roan had no intention of scolding Demona.

‘Certainly, if everyone in the Empire were like Demona, there would be nothing to worry about.’

Setting aside the difference between torture and interrogation.

Since everyone would be anxious to learn black magic, what a wonderful world it would be for black mages to live in!

In that sense, Roan informed them of one thing.

“This exam is not about stabbing arms. Of course, it’s not fingernails or whipping either, Hector.”

When Roan spoke while glaring specifically at Hector, he flinched and shrunk back.

“Ro-Roan, aren’t you favoring that heretic fellow too much……?”

Surge─!

“That bastard……!”

At those words, Roan almost unleashed his dark mana without realizing it.

“Ro-Roan, stop!”

“That’s right, I told you earlier, Roan, you’re the only one losing out!”

“Murder……”

Although Rafia, Zion, and Riel all rushed in and barely managed to hold him back.

At any rate, realizing that Roan might actually explode if provoked further, Hector retreated all the way to the back.

‘‘‘If you have any tact, go to the back, tactless Hector!’’’

‘He is tactless Hector, so how could he have any tact……!’

To more precise, it should be seen that he was forced to do so by the fierce glares of the other friends.

Meanwhile, Demona asked Roan as if surprised.

“Eh, Roan. Then I don’t have to stab my arm?”

“Yeah. Because we did that in the first week.”

When Roan answered as if it were obvious, Demona’s eyes welled up with tears, seemingly shocked.

“Th-then, do we have to cut off our arms this time?!”

[C-cut off our arms?!]

A cruel imagination that even startled Bell, who was listening quietly!

The female students scolded Demona, as if that was too much regardless.

“Demona, that doesn’t make sense~ Would Professor Atoga really ask us to cut off our own arms?”

“Right, even if it’s Professor Atoga, that’s not it.”

“Cruel……”

However, there was something the female students had not considered.

In Acherandir, words like ‘surely’ or ‘even if’ were like magic spells.

……Because if you attached those words in front, that event would actually happen.

“…….”

When Roan remained silent, the female students wore expressions of disbelief.

Rafia gently shook Roan’s shoulder.

“Ro-Roan, say something. Staying like that makes Demona misunderstand.”

Zion also spoke like a monologue, her large pink pupils trembling anxiously.

“That’s right, there’s no way. ……Is there?”

Roan nodded with a serious face.

“Of course, he won’t make us do such a thing in this pop quiz.”

“Phew……”

The friends sighed in relief.

“He will probably do it around the second or third year.”

“““??!?!?!!”””

However, before they could even fully release their sighs, a bombshell statement was dropped.

The friends felt as if their souls were literally leaving their bodies.

Surely we don’t really have to cut off our own arms and attach them back as an exam?

Zion, trembling like a puppy caught in the rain, asked Roan.

“Uh…… Roan, what if we can’t attach it…… what if we fail to attach it, what happens?”

Even yielding a hundred times to accept taking such an exam.

Did that mean those who couldn’t attach it would have to live as one-armed persons for the rest of their lives?

However, she had seen numerous clergymen from Acherandir at the Holy See, and they all had two perfectly fine arms.

Well, occasionally there were paladins with only one arm, but those were all injuries sustained in battle.

Roan chuckled, knowing what his friends were worried about.

“What on earth are you worrying about? Regardless, this place is a school.”

“Ahaha, right?”

“Indeed, it’s a school~”

The friends, not knowing why, just laughed along for now!

“Of course, if you fail to attach it, the professor will attach it for you. Though you would have to take the class again next semester.”

“Ahahaha~ See~”

“As expected of the professor!”

Still, it was better than not attaching it!

Even though they were laughing on the outside, it was truly a tearful future.

At least only Demona tilted her head and asked.

“I-is this something to laugh about?”

Poke─

Just then, Rafia, who had been laughing, poked Demona hard in the side.

Demona cried out in pain.

“Ow! Why did you poke me, Rafia!”

“Just laugh……”

When Demona looked closely, although Rafia’s mouth corners were turned up, it was by no means a laughing expression.

Demona stepped back slightly from Rafia and muttered.

“Hieek. Everyone has gone strange……”

The friends smiled at Roan, each thinking to themselves.

‘‘‘I want to drop out…….’’’

Roan also knew that feeling very well.

‘But that’s out of the question.’

As he had thought several times, he didn’t know whether this was inside God & Devil or a world identical to it.

At any rate, unless it was a very special event, dropping out was never permitted for students who had already enrolled.

……Of course, transferring or enrolling as an external student was always possible.

And just then, Atoga, who happened to pass by and saw Roan and the friends.

“Hm? It’s Student Darc and his friends.”

Atoga was about to greet them gladly, but stopped in his tracks upon hearing their bright(?) laughter.

“Heh, what a good time of life.”

A scene of youth that brought back vivid memories of when he had attended Acherandir!

Conveniently, the fact that there were exactly three male students and three female students was truly fresh.

Atoga began to walk away alone, feeling extremely rewarded.

‘I must do even better on today’s pop quiz! Darc will surely love it too!’

……It was a sentiment that the students wouldn’t be very pleased to hear.

Roan and the friends walked down the path, laughing for a long time.

Demona suddenly brought up the main point that everyone had completely forgotten.

“But if it’s not cutting off arms, what is today’s pop quiz?”

“Yeah, indeed?”

“We couldn’t ask the actual important thing.”

Before they knew it, the friends were thinking, ‘If it’s a pop quiz, we can at least cut off an arm’!

Roan also thought that keeping the worst-case scenario in mind was a good attitude.

‘I’m always worrying about when and how my head will get smashed, so they should at least worry to that extent.’

Hum─ Thump─

What a narrow-minded fellow……

It would have been nice if his heart were even half as broad as his talent.

The Authorities sighed, expressing their pity from their respective positions.

‘Where else is there someone as generous as me!’

Roan felt slightly aggrieved, but at any rate, he tried to answer his friends.

“Today’s exam is……”

Pause─

Then, his voice trailed off.

“Why?”

The friends tilted their heads.

Roan explained the reason with a serious expression.

“Disclosing that would be leaking exam questions, which is a violation of school rules. A very heavy fine is imposed. If things go wrong, one might be held back and end up attending school longer, and in the worst-case scenario, expulsion is possible under the school rules.”

Of course, to Roan, that was the best-case scenario, not the worst.

‘……Should I just leak all subjects of the final exams and get it over with?’

He contemplated that for a moment, but it was truly just a brief moment.

In Roan’s case, it was clear that Harden would personally end his life instead of letting him be expelled.

“Hieek, a fine!”

At any rate, Demona, who trembled at the mention of a fine, reacted most intensely.

“L-longer?! Or expulsion?”

The other friends were equally startled.

‘‘‘Then how does Roan know?’’’

Although Roan knowing everything wasn’t anything new, if it was really that serious of a problem, wasn’t it bad for him to know it?

While the friends were all having such thoughts but hesitated to say them out loud.

“Th-then how on earth do you know, Roan?!”

Hector, lacking any tact, cut in.

“Hmm.”

Roan pondered the answer for a moment.

At that, Demona looked at Hector as if he were pathetic and answered instead.

“What a fanatic with no capacity to learn. Obviously his parents told him~”

“Aha! Now that I think about it, indeed. Sorry, Roan.”

“……It’s fine.”

Roan wondered whether it was stranger that they let it slide so easily every time he blamed his parents, or if it was more bizarre that they forgot the same reason and asked again each time.

Demona hummed proudly and added one more thing.

“And they wouldn’t expel you from the school anyway, right?”

Roan tilted his head and asked.

“Why?”

“Well, if they keep you here, they can make you cut off your own arm and give you all kinds of punishments, so why would they comfortably expel you~”

Demona answered casually, as if asking why he was questioning something so obvious.

“Oh.”

Roan was slightly impressed.

‘It’s a thought that crosses my mind occasionally, but she really does have a smart side very rarely.’

In fact, that might be the most fundamental reason why students couldn’t drop out of Acherandir.

Since there had to be people to suffer along with the player!

If everyone just dropped out as they pleased, there would be more professors than students in the school.

Just then, Zion called out to Roan in a bewildered voice.

“Excuse me, Roan.”

“What is it?”

Zion hesitated, twiddling her fingers for a long time, as if it were an extremely difficult, awkward, and embarrassing question.

‘……If it’s such a question, shouldn’t you just not ask it?’

Roan was slightly curious, but for Zion, she seemed unable to bear not asking.

Zion eventually brought her mouth close to Roan’s ear, almost whispering, and asked.

“Then, did your…… did your parents perhaps pay a fine……?”

“……?”

Roan stared at Zion with an utterly dumbfounded expression.

Zion’s face had turned completely red like a carrot, on the verge of exploding.

“Y-you don’t have to answer!”

Zion turned her back, unable to even meet Roan’s eyes properly, waving her arms wildly.

And Demona, who hadn’t heard their conversation, also spoke nonchalantly.

“Roan, thank you for always letting us know, but shouldn’t you still be careful?”

“Why?”

“What if your parents get fined~”

“…….”

Hearing Demona’s words, Roan glanced at Zion for no reason.

Pop─!

Zion could no longer hold it in and exploded.

“Kyaaaak──!!!”

‘T-to think I’m at the same level as Demona! I’m disqualified as a Saintess Candidate!’

Zion ran away, her retreating figure clearly conveying that she was having such thoughts.

‘If you’re at the same level as Demona, then you are indeed disqualified.’

Roan began to feel a bit worried about Zion’s future.

Considering the insurance he had invested in Zion so far, she absolutely had to rise to become the Holy Emperor.

Meanwhile, the friends, having no way of knowing the circumstances, could not understand the reason as they watched Zion bolt away.

“Why is Zion like that?”

“Strange.”

“Leave her alone~ It’s not just once or twice that she’s been strange~”

Demona said, shrugging her shoulders.

Stare─

The friends stared at Demona as if she were even stranger than Zion.

“Why?”

Demona tilted her head and asked, but no answer came.

‘Because you are the strangest one.’

While it was only this once for Zion, it wasn’t something Demona, who was always strange, should say.

Thus, they arrived at the classroom.

Zion, who had run ahead, didn’t even make eye contact properly due to embarrassment and self-deprecation, even though she knew full well that Roan and the friends were entering.

“Hmm.”

Roan decided to show some consideration for once.

“Zion.”

“Y-yes? Ye-es? Why?!”