Chapter 271

Chapter 271

Pull─

— ?!?!?!?!?!?

— Kyaaaak!!!!!

— Th-that professor just pulled out the dagger, didn’t he?

— To think he pulled it out right in front of us!

‘Then where else would he pull it…….’

Without even debating, he just pulled Mosquito out of Roan’s thigh like pulling a mushroom.

Roan regretted his complacency in looking down too much on the professors of Acherandir.

Although he had stabbed it on the outside without batting an eye, Roan was human after all.

It hurt immensely when a blade nearly a span long was plunged into or pulled out of his thigh.

“You are truly splendid. First, I will give you the score for the stabbing.”

Flash─!

Atoga healed the wound on his thigh in an instant, speaking as if teasing him.

Worthy of a healing professor, he didn’t even make a show of using any particular holy magic, ending it simply by covering the wound with his palm.

“Groan─”

However, although healing holy magic cured the body of a black mage, it inflicted considerable pain, so a small groan escaping from him was unavoidable.

Even though the False Divinity exerted some power, it felt even more painful than when the knife was plunged in.

Meanwhile, Atoga, having fully healed the wound, returned Mosquito to Roan.

‘Still, seeing that even Atoga didn’t notice anything at all, it seems to be certain.’

Roan could find some positive side even in the midst of this.

At any rate, Atoga tilted his head and asked.

“By the way, why did you come forward to stab it? It would have been better if you had waited just a bit.”

Even if he were to die, Roan could not answer, ‘Because I didn’t want to take a different exam alone.’

Instead, he sat down, looked around at the students trembling in fear, and said.

“I thought it was the duty of a noble to experience the same pain that other friends would experience, and to lead by example……”

Since the effort was already in vain, he might as well gain some points.

Roan trailed off, frowning slightly due to the pain that wouldn’t easily fade.

However, it seemed that scene was interpreted slightly differently by the students.

—Darc, that fellow……

—Does he think we’ll be moved if he does that?

—Still, he is a bit cool this time. It reminds me of when he didn’t hand over Yong-yong even for 1,000 Talents.

Though they tried to ignore Roan with their words, their eyes were already welling up with tears, and the tips of their noses were tingling.

The classroom was swept up in a crucible of emotion.

……It seemed to be much more effective than Roan had expected.

If the students who usually disliked Roan were like that, how would his friends be?

“Roaaaaan!!!”

“As expected, you are my best friend!!!”

“What? Go away, fanatic! Roan is my best friend!”

“Both of you stop, you shameless Hector and Demona!”

“That’s right!”

They were already causing a fuss, pulling out handkerchiefs from their pockets one by one to wipe their dripping tears.

‘O Hiloa, please look upon Darc, the pitiful shepherd who guides us foolish ones!’

Flash─!

In the midst of that, Zion was moved and offered a prayer, invoking a blessing.

With the bright light emanating from her body added to it, it was absolute chaos.

Even named figures like Trian, Jennifer, and El were slightly changing their thoughts about Roan.

‘Darc told us to bring herbs, while he himself made no preparation.’

‘At first, I thought he meant for us to offer them up to him, but to think he planned to make such a noble sacrifice…….’

Roan’s sudden thigh stabbing, driven by his reluctance to take a different exam alone, served as a great exemplar to the Acherandir students who usually cared only for themselves.

Clap, clap, clap──!!!

Atoga clapped standing up, tears streaming from his refreshingly handsome eyes.

“Truly splendid, Darc! Truly splendid! You really surprise me every week!”

Then, he rummaged through his wallet, pulled out a few bills, and pressed them into Roan’s hand.

“It is such a wonderful attitude that I feel guilty that all I can offer you is these Talents!”

When Roan counted roughly, it was slightly over 30 Talents.

Though he felt it was a slightly stingy reward for stabbing his thigh to lead by example, obtaining 30 Talents from Atoga was quite a feat.

Roan casually tested the waters with Atoga, harboring the expectation of ‘With this much?’

“Then, the pop quiz……?”

An expectation that since his healing skills had already been verified multiple times, he might let it slide at this level!

Atoga laughed loudly with his wolf mouth and nodded.

“Ah, of course, Student Darc!”

“Hahaha, thank you very much. I didn’t stab it expecting such a thing, though.”

Roan also nodded back, highly satisfied.

Just as he was about to return to his seat.

“As Student Darc is someone who even endures the penance of stabbing his thigh for his classmates, you wouldn’t wish for the privilege of being solely exempted from the pop quiz, right? Honoring that spirit, I will have you take a specially prepared pop quiz.”

“?”

Roan stared up at Atoga with a cold, expressionless face.

‘What an absurd……!’

He acted affectionately as if he would exempt him even from the midterm exam, but wasn’t this just saying he would do everything anyway?

However, Atoga, who was already deeply moved by Roan’s spirit of sacrifice (?), grabbed Roan’s hand and said, nodding continuously.

“Actually, in relation to the last kidnapping case, I had a separate conversation with Professor Kaina. Student Darc will take a special emergency preparedness exam.”

‘Why are you discussing my exam with Kaina…….’

Roan was utterly dumbfounded.

And in truth, the kidnapping incident could hardly even be called an emergency.

“Th-there seems to be a slight misunderstanding. Actually, the black mages who kidnapped me are not such bad guys……”

Roan tried to explain, not wanting to make things unnecessarily troublesome, but Atoga suddenly flared up.

“Student Darc, please stop acting so kind!”

Flinch─!!!

Those who were startled by Atoga’s words were not just one or two.

—What is this? Is it a dream?

—It must be. Hahaha, no wonder, I should have realized it from when he asked to stab thighs for a pop quiz. I should wake up now.

Stab─!

—Uaaak! It’s not a dream!

—Hey, hey, it’s actually better this way.

Setting aside the student who passed the first stage of the pop quiz in an unexpected way.

‘‘‘Regardless, isn’t it too much for Roan to hear such words?’’’

Even Roan’s friends had lukewarm expressions as they thought so.

‘I don’t think that’s quite right.’

Even Roan himself was extremely bewildered.

“Professor Kaina has already started investigating those guys called the Oslo gang! Smuggling, kidnapping, assault, intimidation, murder, illegal experimentation…… there is no need to defend even such rascals.”

“Heok─ did black mages really do such bad things?”

“……What?”

Setting aside Demona, who was suddenly shocked by the list of charges Atoga rattled off.

Roan also could not step forward any further in this situation.

To think those Oslo gang rascals, who had seemed relatively quiet, were vicious black mages on par with Pierrebo!

‘Moreover, defending the crimes of black mages for no reason might look suspicious.’

He would rather take a special pop quiz than suffer a severe loss by inviting unnecessary misunderstanding (?).

The students also bustled upon hearing the charges of the audacious criminals who had kidnapped Roan.

—Wow, Darc was captured by such guys and came back alive?

—Hey, look at Darc’s face. If it were you, could you easily kill him?

—That’s true……

Since the situation had turned out like this, Roan was forced into an atmosphere where he had to take that emergency preparedness exam or whatever it was.

Roan, who had resigned to everything, asked in a voice that had turned sulky without his realization.

“Then, what is the exam I have to take?”

—By the way, Darc has a special exam again.

—Well, since he is a guy who stabs his own thigh without batting an eye, it would be unfair to take the same exam.

—What an arrogant guy who will become big in the future……

The students whispered as they looked at Roan with envious eyes at the mention of a special exam.

‘Then they should take it themselves!’

To Roan’s ears, it was just easy talk.

Moreover, unfair?

‘Unfair indeed.’

If it were something unfair to Roan, it might be different.

“Professor, is there any emergency more urgent than in the last class?”

Actually, Roan had experience healing Pierrebo, who was carried in half-dead, in last week’s class.

In most emergencies, there were not many cases where one would be in a worse state than that.

……Unless Professor Kaina’s interrogation room was operated to the maximum.

Atoga nodded with a bright smile.

“We can just make an emergency!”

‘Is he really a lunatic?’

In the end, Roan could not hold back and stared up at him with his mouth wide open.

“What do you mean, make an emergency?”

Roan asked in a lukewarm voice.

That meant……

“E-everyone, run! It’s an emergency!”

Demona, who had been sitting quietly, jumped up and shouted to the students.

If the professor was making an emergency, wouldn’t the targets naturally be the students!

—W-Wycronon is telling us to run?

—What should we do?

—What if the professor stabs us with a knife?

—You fool, he did that the week before last too!

—Ah?

The students instantly became noisy.

Indeed, if Roan had been sitting there and heard such words, he would have been busy thinking of countermeasures.

While the students were debating whether they should escape from the classroom right now or not.

Atoga smiled and said.

“Student Darc will ‘specially’ take the exam to reattach a severed arm. Getting an amputation injury is a very common emergency, after all.”

— ?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!

The students could not even make a fuss now, their faces turning white as they gasped for breath.

No matter how Acherandir classes made them do what could and couldn’t be done.

There was an immense difference in weight between stabbing and fixing one’s arm or thigh, and completely cutting off an arm and attaching it back.

Hector, his face like white granite, gasped in shock.

“D-Demona was right, wasn’t she?!”

Demona had said exactly that before entering class.

But at that time, Roan had said it was an exam one could only think about after rising to at least the second year!

Demona agreed, teary-eyed.

“Of course! Have you ever seen me speak incorrectly?”

‘‘‘As for that……?’’’

The friends wore awkward expressions, not knowing whether to say something to Demona or just ignore her in this serious situation.

“What about Roan now, does he have to live with one arm for the rest of his life?”

However, hearing up to this point, they could no longer stay quiet.

“Demona, stop making such ominous remarks!”

“He said the professor would attach it for him instead!”

“Words are seeds!”

“Riel, no matter how angry you are, you shouldn’t use swear words starting with ‘s’.”

“……?!”

Regardless of what the friends were doing, Roan, the party concerned, bit his lower lip and asked.

Atoga had not yet told them whose arm would be cut off.

“By any chance…… whose arm is it?”

“Why, of course it is Student Roan’s arm.”

Although he hadn’t particularly expected otherwise.

—Is he r-really crazy—mmph!

—Hey, I told you this isn’t a dream!

This time, the reaction came from the normal students rather than Roan.

No matter how bad Roan’s reputation was, to the point of being close to the Great Demon King, the students’ hearts were not wicked enough to watch someone’s arm get cut off just for a pop quiz.

‘……It seems wicked enough to me, but at any rate.’

Atoga spoke, lightly lifting a book on the teacher’s desk.

“Instead, as Student Darc is taking a specially difficult exam, I will give you a copy of my unpublished book.”

—Oh?

At the unexpected reward, the students’ gazes shifted ever so slightly.

Of course, having an arm cut off once was terrible, but to the clergyman candidates, Professor Atoga’s book on healing holy magic was an extremely attractive reward.

‘I don’t even need it!’

However, that was not the case for Roan.