Chapter 342

Chapter 342

“Thank you, Professor.”

“T-Thank you!”

Roan and Sion, on the other hand, did not say a word, but rather packed them into their lucky pouch and bag respectively before Diar could say he was taking them back.

Although it looked like ordinary old paper on the outside, the grade of the paper was clearly different.

It was none other than Hiloa’s diary, after all.

‘Powerful destruction resistance, top-tier holy responsiveness, and if using holy painting-type holy magic, the possibilities are endless.’

Even in “God & Devil,” Diar’s pages, which were classified as ‘Fragments of the Holy Diary,’ were top-tier items that were highly sought after.

Normally, one had to solve several of Diar’s eccentric quests to barely get a single page after listening to all kinds of patronizing.

Since they obtained it with just a single pop quiz, it seemed Roan’s speech earlier had been quite impressive.

[So, you’ve definitely taken it, haven’t you?]

‘…I fell for it.’

Roan instinctively felt that he had been tricked again.

When a professor suddenly handed over such a valuable item, he should have tapped the stone bridge three hundred times, no matter how safe it seemed.

Roan asked with an extremely suspicious expression.

“Do you have some request for me?”

[It is not a request, but a task I will assign you.]

“Ah, you have a task for me.”

[Yes.]

Still, since he had received a valuable item for now, he intended to comply without complaint if it was a reasonable task.

Diar flapped his cover and pages for a moment, then said,

[Be the class representative for my class.]

“……That’s a bit.”

But being a class representative was not a minor matter.

Although the class representative of Diar’s class didn’t have many annoying tasks, that was strictly compared to other class representatives.

‘Even if it’s Diar, I must avoid getting involved with the professors at all costs.’

Roan was already seriously contemplating how to escape this crisis.

“Hieeeeeeek—!!!! Roan, absolutely not that!!!!”

…And for some reason, Demona opposed it even more vehemently than Roan, as if she were having a fit.

[Why are you acting like that?]

“Ah, Wicronon is the class representative for Professor Uli’s class.”

[Aha. At such a young age… tsk.]

At Roan’s explanation, Diar clicked his tongue as if he felt sorry for Demona.

‘Aren’t all class representatives at a young age anyway?’

Roan wondered if Diar was in a position to talk, but that was not important right now.

Roan, thinking deeply, called out to Diar.

“Professor.”

[You will do it, right?]

“Me?”

[Yes.]

“The class representative?”

[……Yes, class representative.]

“Why?”

[This punk.]

Back when he worked at a game company, a rookie had asked a question like this, and Roan had been left speechless at the time.

The magical three-step question that forces the assigner to re-examine the necessity of the task.

[You’re doing it because I told you to, do you need more of a reason?]

But Diar was a professor, not a boss at work.

“A-Ah, no.”

[Impudent fellow, consider it the punishment for using Divine Words so well.]

“Of course. Rather, it is an honor.”

Roan nodded as a survival instinct, thinking that if he spoke any further, he might really end up having to clean up a corpse.

…If it was Diar, he might genuinely kill Roan and then summon him back to make him clean up his own corpse.

‘That’s what a black mage is; what else is a black mage…’

It was a point that reminded him once again of the unfairness regarding the treatment of black mages.

“Roan, have you lost your mind?! How can you agree to become the class representative so easily!”

Meanwhile, Demona was horrified that Roan had accepted the position and tried to dissuade him.

“…Why are you making such a fuss?”

“Well, from now on, you’ll also have to go to the bookshelves with bizarre books on weekends too, right?! And you’ll have to make a lot of money instead of the professor!”

Perhaps because she had built up a lot of grievances, Demona poured out the reasons why he shouldn’t be the class representative.

Hearing it like that, being the class representative for Uli’s class was definitely not something a human should do.

“Professor Diar doesn’t make me do things like that.”

[Indeed, that green horn Uli is only blinded by money. Tsk, tsk.]

“Ah, really? Then it seems worth doing?”

Demona quickly accepted the words of the two and nodded.

[And it probably won’t be a losing deal for you either, Darc.]

“Why is that?”

[I have no intention of keeping an assistant, and if you are my class representative, other professors won’t bother you anymore.]

“!!!!!!!”

For once, even Roan could not help but be startled.

To think such an advantage was hidden in being a class representative!

“As expected, it is a decision worthy of the Book of Books and the Watchman of History.”

Roan bowed in loyalty and expressed his respect to Diar.

…If he didn’t have to work as an assistant and could block other professors’ approaches, it was well worth swearing loyalty.

Certainly, under Diar’s name, no professor in Akerandir would dare to raise an objection.

This was something that could be easily seen just by looking at the madman—no, Timothy—who barged in before the class.

And that was not all.

[There isn’t much to do, but if you come to my laboratory once a week and do simple errands, I will give you a thousand dalants. Now, does that tempt you a bit?]

“I’ll, I’ll do it, Professor!!!!!!”

Dalants were not particularly necessary for Roan, but Demona looked ready to roll her eyes back and pounce.

[Didn’t you say you are already Uli’s class representative?]

“But you pay way more than Professor Uli?! And you said if I’m the professor’s class representative, other professors won’t be able to say anything!”

[……What a fellow who is even greedier for money than Uli.]

Diar spat out a voice full of contempt.

Hearing those words, Sion flinched and took a step back.

“Such harsh words…!”

She wondered if there could be an insult more severe than ‘one greedier for money than Uli.’

“Still, I—!”

“… …”

“Mmpf—!”

However, as Demona refused to give in, Diar simply blocked her mouth with a Divine Word.

Demona, feeling extremely frustrated by her suddenly unopenable mouth, fumbled at her lips with her hands, but there was no way a mouth blocked by a Divine Word would open from that.

[In any case, since he agreed, that’s enough. Now, everyone go eat.]

““Yes, Professor.””

At Diar’s declaration of class dismissal, Roan and Sion politely showed respect and began preparing to leave.

“Mmpf! Mmm-mmpf…”

Meanwhile, Demona, with a tearful face, tried to say something to Diar as he flew out of the classroom.

Judging roughly by her tone and past patterns, it seemed to be something like, ‘My mouth is blocked, how am I supposed to eat…?’

Roan spoke to Demona in a pathetic tone.

“Do not worry. He set it to release once you leave Cassius Hall.”

“Mmpf! Mmm-mmpf!”

This time it was roughly, ‘Wow, Roan, you even know that?’

* * *

“Wow~ My mouth really opened! Roan, you’re amazing~”

‘In times like this, isn’t it normal to say the professor is amazing?’

“Right? Isn’t that so? It would have been a real disaster if my mouth stayed blocked~”

As soon as they left Cassius Hall, Demona, whose mouth had opened just as Roan said, began to chatter incessantly again.

Sion sighed and shook her head.

If he was going to block it, why not block it a bit longer? Why make it so the holy spell would dissolve once they left Cassius Hall?

Rather, perhaps because it was temporarily blocked, words poured out like a broken dam.

“Sion, let’s go have dinner.”

“Yes, Roan.”

[Dinner! Dinner! Let’s go have dinner, Master!]

Chirp—!

At the mention of dinner, Bel and Charlotte were quite excited.

It seemed they reacted even more exaggeratedly because they hadn’t been with Roan for long today.

And only then did Demona, realizing the two of them hadn’t listened to her at all, become furious.

“What, are you two ignoring me?!”

“Did you just realize?”

“Did you just realize?”

“Ugh… Huh?”

However, the group, who had just left Cassius Hall and was about to head toward the commercial district for dinner, suddenly spotted someone and stopped.

A person they had never imagined seeing in such a place was waiting for them.

‘Why is that fellow here?’

Especially for Roan, who knew the other person’s true identity very well, he couldn’t help but feel guarded.

On the other hand, Demona.

“Soldera~ What brings you all the way here? Did you come to take a class too?”

“…Yes? I am not a student, Demona-oppa.”

“You can still take classes even if you’re not a student.”

“As expected…!”

‘What do you mean, ‘as expected’?’

Roan looked at Soldera, the apostle of Aurel Sol, the God of the Black Sun, who had become incredibly pathetic since they last met.

Demona had only said a foolish thing as usual, yet she had an expression as if she had heard some grand paradox about educational equality.

They say people get blinded when they fall in love; was that really the case?

No matter how much they were heretics secretly competing for survival (?), such a sight could not help but be truly sad.

“Anyway, how have you been, oppa?”

“Yeah. I’ve been well.”

Soldera exchanged greetings with Demona with an exceptionally bright expression.

“Ugh.”

“What is it, Sion?”

Sion quietly watched the scene, then turned her head away for a moment as if uncomfortable.

Sion said skeptically,

“No… Seeing Demona being called ‘oppa’ is a bit…”

“Mhm, I understand.”

Although Roan usually thought Sion was a bit dramatic, this time he deeply agreed.

Just then, Soldera also approached Sion and greeted her warmly.

“Hello, Saintess Candidate Beatrice.”

Although she called Demona ‘oppa,’ because she was a very cute and calm-looking girl, Sion also accepted the greeting with a smile.

“Yes, Miss Soldera? Nice to meet you.”

“It is truly an honor to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you from oppa. Please feel free to speak comfortably.”

“Y-Yes… But Demona talked about me?”

Sion could not even begin to guess what on earth Demona had said about her.

Soldera said with a soft smile,

“Yes. She said you always treat the people around you with benevolence and warmth, and that you possess a tremendous talent for holy magic, so you will definitely become a formal Saintess.”

“…”

Hearing Soldera’s praise, Roan and Sion were left speechless at the same time.

‘There is no way that fool Demona would say that.’

Sion simply wondered if Demona would ever praise her so elegantly.

“Eh? When did I?”

Demona’s reaction was similar.

‘W-What a sly fox…!’

Meanwhile, Roan was feeling an even more complex and profound anger.

It was an instinct he could recognize because he had also taken out plenty of insurance with Sion and other influential figures.

That was strictly insurance for her own safety.

She surely calculated that since they had established such a close relationship, they wouldn’t say, ‘What? You were a heretic? Arrest her immediately!’ later just because she was an apostle of Aurel Sol.

Although it had been like that since she started liking Demona, Roan found Soldera even more detestable.

‘Trying to get insurance with just that kind of formal greeting… she’s lacking a conscience. Typical of a heretic!’

Was she putting on airs because she was a heretic who could receive some leniency, while someone else was a black mage who would die instantly if caught?