Chapter 350

However, the learning effect of humans was truly a frightening thing.

─ Oh, what? Why are there two zombies collapsed here?

─ Shh, it’s Wicronon and Pabilto!

─ Ah, did Wicronon and Pabilto become zombies?

─ …No, they said Darc blasted both of them with a punishment holy spell again.

─ Aha, so it’s no big deal?

Because even the students who initially flinched in surprise at the sight of the two splayed out in the hallway would say this and pass by as if it were no big deal.

In the end, Demona and Hector stumbled back onto their feet a moment later, and with expressions and gestures that looked even more zombie-like, they quietly followed Roan to the cafeteria.

When they arrived at the cafeteria, the female students were already having their meal, fully prepared to head to class.

“Roan, you are late today?”

“It just happened.”

“The male dormitory wing was rather noisy… Was it perhaps because of that?”

At Sion’s question, Roan recalled what had happened earlier.

It was not a particularly pleasant memory, so his face scrunched up heavily.

When Rafia saw that and tapped Sion’s arm in surprise,

“I-I am sorry…”

Sion apologized without even realizing it.

“Hmm? No, it could happen. In any case, it is true that I was delayed because of that commotion.”

Roan waved his hand as if it was fine.

““Whew…””

For some reason, the female students sighed in relief.

Anyway, behind Roan, Demona and Hector made their appearance in a wretched state.

Thud─

─ Kyaah! Riel dropped her bread!

─ What? What on earth happened?

Because Riel had dropped the bread she was holding out of sheer shock, the surrounding female students shrieked in even greater surprise.

However, they too quickly understood upon seeing Demona and Hector’s appearance.

And at the same time, they could tell.

‘It’s because of them again, isn’t it?’

Both the commotion from earlier and Roan looking extremely displeased just now.

It was indeed because Demona and Hector were involved.

Rafia narrowed her eyes and asked Demona,

“What did you guys do last night?”

At that, Demona and Hector gasped in surprise.

“H-How did you know?!”

“H-How did you know?!”

Their tone was the only thing different while everything else was identical, causing the female students to wear matching expressions of pity.

Riel scolded them with a stern expression—which, to others, looked about the same as usual.

“…Don’tbotherRoan.”

It meant that if they had any decency, they should stay quiet and stop bothering Roan, who helped them every time.

Hearing those words, Demona’s eyes welled with tears.

“Riel, we did make a mistake, but you didn’t have to go that far…”

“What…?!”

Riel, wondering if she had said something that harsh, panicked completely.

“Riel just meant that you shouldn’t trouble Roan since he helps you guys so much.”

When Rafia stepped in to explain, Demona asked with wide eyes,

“Yeah, I understood it that way too?”

‘‘‘…She knew?’’’

The friends simultaneously thought, ‘Was that really something to get so shocked about?’

In any case, since she was dealing with Demona, Rafia decided to move on to another topic.

“By the way, what on earth did you two do last night to make your faces look like that?”

“Heavens! Rafia, even so, I would appreciate it if you refrained from pointing out our appearances.”

“…”

However, this time, even the kind Rafia momentarily felt like giving up on the conversation.

The other person she was dealing with was Hector…

On the other hand, Demona spoke with confidence.

“Yesterday, you see, Roan did!”

Demona was about to honestly recount all the grand spectacles she had witnessed yesterday!

But Roan shut Demona’s mouth.

“Stop it.”

“Why?”

Glare─

“A-Alright. I’ll stop…”

The reason was more than sufficient with just Roan’s sharp gaze.

There was no benefit in detailing what happened last night, and if the fact that they had snuck out in the middle of the night got out, they would inevitably be fined.

In other words, it was better for Demona not to voice it either.

Although he had managed to shut Demona’s mouth for now, everyone was quick-witted enough to realize that Roan had also gone out with Demona and Hector.

[Master, did you go out all by yourself yesterday without me?]

Bel spoke in a hurt tone as if asking how he could do such a thing.

‘I would have taken you along if you could sleep for only two hours a day.’

[Heke… That is impossible.]

Spending time with Roan was enjoyable, but sleep was still precious to Bel.

Meanwhile, seeing Roan shut Demona’s mouth, Hector laughed heartily and said,

“Hahaha! Roan, I understand your heart completely.”

“Stop understanding, please.”

“W-What?!”

At Roan’s cold reaction, Hector flinched and drew back.

Roan said calmly,

“Ah, I misspoke.”

“Aha, as expected!”

“I should have said to stop pretending you know when you don’t know anything.”

“How could you…”

Hector wore an expression like wet granite at Roan’s coldness, which had only grown harsher.

Roan sighed and gestured.

“Say it anyway.”

“I-I was just going to say… did you do that because you didn’t want to share our memories from last night with others.”

Roan seriously contemplated whether he should cast a curse spell one more time.

Memories?

When they were the ones who had rummaged through the entire mountain by themselves…

Meanwhile, the female students, who had misunderstood Hector’s words, narrowed their eyes and looked at Roan.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Roan… Were you that kind of person too?”

The innocent female students took Hector’s words at face value!

Roan tried to deny it as usual, but someone reacted even faster than him.

“How can you say something so harsh, Rafia?!”

It was none other than Demona.

The female students turned their heads with bewildered expressions.

‘‘‘Does someone usually say that about themselves?’’’

They knew she thought highly of Roan, but wasn’t that like spitting while lying down?

In truth, the female students had only wanted to provoke Roan slightly because they were curious about what happened last night.

Usually, when Roan got annoyed, he would smoothly tell them things he hadn’t intended to share.

But with Demona reacting like that, they were too flustered to say anything, when at that moment—

─ Hey, did you hear that?

─ What?

A conversation between a group of male students entering the cafeteria happened to drift over particularly loudly.

─ I heard Darc beat up all the zombies?

─ What? Zombies?! Where?

─ Where else? In the dormitory!

“““…”””

The female students stared blankly at Roan, wondering what on earth this was about.

If it had been anyone else’s story, they would have dismissed it as a ridiculous rumor, but since it was Roan, they felt a strange sense of belief.

Roan shook his head.

“It is a misunderstanding.”

─ Apparently, they were zombies of the Wicronon and Pabilto families.

─ Yeah, I heard something similar. And that’s why Wicronon and Pabilto shed tears while helping him?

─ Right? They said they beat them up all night long. They supposedly fought while retreating to the dormitory, and some people saw them in the morning.

─ I heard even Paladin Gawed came?

The rumors were wildly distorted, with keywords haphazardly patched together!

As the concern and worry of the female students deepened, Roan spoke again.

“Like I said, it is a misunderstanding. What actually happened was…”

However, the female students shook their heads.

“No, Roan. I don’t think we need to hear it… Though, of course, they probably weren’t zombies of the Wicronon and Pabilto families.”

“As expected, you are always working for the safety of the academy…”

“Zombies are bad.”

Roan wanted to ask right away, ‘Are you seriously believing such nonsense rumors?’

He turned to look at Demona and Hector, but the two who chattered constantly were somehow silent only at a time like this.

Receiving Roan’s murderous glare, Demona said with only her expression:

─ Y-You told me to keep quiet…!

Woong─

[Then, does it make sense that you beat up six black mages at school and captured a group of heretics and twenty black mages in two days and one night outside?]

And upon hearing the words of the False Divinity, who giggled and mocked him, he eventually gave up.

‘Right, it would actually be more believable if zombies had appeared.’

After all, it was a scenario highly likely to actually happen in the not-so-distant future anyway.

Woong─

[You bastard…?]

‘Ah, of course, I don’t mean that I will make them…’

Meanwhile, Rafia spoke to Sion to revive the awkward atmosphere.

She saw absolutely no hope in the male students.

“S-Sion. Did you do well on yesterday’s Ancient Hilonian pop quiz?”

At that, Sion’s expression darkened, as if the memory of Diar’s class had resurfaced.

She nodded since she had indeed done well, but…

“Well… more or less.”

“Huh? How many did you get wrong?”

“One.”

“…”

Rafia was left speechless.

Since she did not know the reason Sion was so gloomy, she wondered if she was this disheartened over missing just a single question.

‘Are all Saintess candidates that obnoxious… Ah!’

In that instant, Rafia hastily stopped herself from completing a disloyal thought unbecoming of an aspiring paladin.

She then turned her head in another direction.

Over there stood someone who could not be considered a ‘good conversationalist’ by any stretch of the imagination.

“…Something to say?”

Riel, with a suffocating expression, was quietly eating her bread.

Rafia exhaled a deep sigh.

There was just no hope!

* * *

The morning class was Professor Vulcan’s Introduction to Divine and Spiritual Beasts.

Despite it being a pop quiz period, the students entered Percival Hall filled with an abundance of energy.

─ Holy War! Holy War!

─ Vulcan, Vulcan!

Not only did they shout like this, as if spectating the finals of a major sporting event,

Boom, boom─ boom, boom, boom─

“Go foorth! And fight! Hoooly Waaar!!”

─ Shorts Girl Sherry!

─ Only victory lies on the path Sherry walks!

Sherry, who loved Holy Wars and shorts to a suspicious degree, brought along drum-beating followers she had obtained from somewhere, raising the excitement even further.

Roan found the sight a bit absurd.

‘To say there is only victory, hasn’t she lost every single time so far?’

Quite miserably, at that…

However, it seemed Roan was not the only one harboring such rational thoughts.

“Hey.”

─ Hm? It’s Wicronon.

“Sherry has lost continuously until now, so why is it only victory?”

─ …

The only problem was that the person asking was Demona, of all people.

Rafia tried to stop Demona, who had abruptly grabbed one of the drum-beating followers to ask such an impolite question.

“Demona, saying that is rude. Let’s just go attend class.”

“Huh? Why?”

Yet, the follower who received the question nodded with a firm expression.

─ No! That is not it! I will answer you. Wicronon, just as you said, Sherry has suffered unfortunate defeats until now, but…

‘Unfortunate??’

─ That is why we added the phrase ‘the path Sherry walks’. It means looking toward the future, not the past.

It was a more plausible reason than expected.

Demona seemed deeply impressed.

“Wow! You guys are really cool!”

─ Hehehe, it’s nothing. Thanks for the compliment. I’ll cheer for Wicronon too.

“Right~ It’s good to help each other out~”

The follower scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment and waved his hand.

Watching the heartwarming sight of them exchanging compliments and encouragement, Roan suddenly felt goosebumps.

‘Could those guys actually converse normally like that?’

Then why do they do that to me…?