Chapter 56

After the meal was over.

Roan and his friends gathered again and walked to attend the new Monday class.

However, unlike his friends who were in a peaceful mood, Roan was slightly tense.

‘Will this professor really be okay?’

He worried about his identity being discovered every time he met a new professor, but that was especially true this time.

Fortunately, the only one who had seen through Roan’s False Divinity so far was Harden.

It seemed that seeing through the False Divinity was a matter of the level of existence rather than skill.

Since Kaina, the Inquisitor, was also infinitely lower in level than Harden, he must have passed safely.

But this time…

‘You cannot do anything about a natural-born race.’

It seemed he had to brace himself.

Although not as much as Harden, this professor had sufficient level and ability.

Meanwhile, the other friends now naturally looked at Roan with expectant eyes whenever they went to a new class.

“Roan.”

“What is it.”

“What should we be careful of with the next professor?”

As Demona asked as their representative, Rafia, Riel, and even his rival Hector focused their attention for no reason.

Rather than suffering a disaster when class came, it was much better to get information from Roan in advance to prepare.

The experience with Gulba was still vivid in everyone’s minds.

On the other hand, Sion, who hadn’t joined them long ago, tilted her head.

“Uh… why are you asking Darc that…?”

Sion, who had agreed to drop honorifics with Demona, still ended her sentences awkwardly due to the unfamiliarity.

But that question itself was valid.

How could a freshman know about a professor they had never seen in their life?

Even if Roan used untaught healing magic, suddenly made a super holy power source, transformed a Wind Terrier into a combat weapon, and chased away a medium-sized holy beast like chasing a bug…

‘…Could he know?’

Sion also pondered, suddenly feeling a doubt.

Anyway, Demona asked back as if it was absurd after hearing Sion.

“Hey Sion, do you know the guy who sneezed 150 years ago?”

“…Huh?”

Sion tilted her head.

A guy who sneezed 150 years ago?

Even at this very moment, there must be tens of thousands of people sneezing somewhere, so how could anyone know a guy from 150 years ago?

Of course, to Roan, it was an unbearable lore error, so just as his brow furrowed deeply,

Hector got angry instead.

“Heretic, how would she know if you put it like that! You should call it the Saint Gregory Festival, which started 1,500 years ago and ended 100 years ago! And the Saint Gregory Festival has nothing to do with sneezing…”

Hector kept rattling off the information he had heard from Roan as much as he could remember.

“?”

Sion, Rafia, and Riel, who did not understand this situation, stared at Hector in disbelief, and

“Are you Roan?”

Demona asked Hector with a slightly fed-up face.

Hector replied as if he was hurt.

“…You might as well ask if I’m Professor Timothy.”

“Why is this Roan?”

Rafia looked back and forth between Hector and Roan.

Just then, Roan said to Hector with a most kind expression.

“It is commendable that you remember the Saint Gregory Festival, but it’s 1,527 years and 102 years. As expected, Hector has a lot of interest in history.”

“S-So that was why…”

That was enough of an answer to Rafia’s question.

“N-No, it’s not.”

Meanwhile, Hector slightly avoided Roan’s burdensome gaze.

It was true he wanted to score points with Roan, but an impromptu history lesson was absolutely out of the question.

“???”

Naturally, the female students did not understand this situation.

How could a sixteen-year-old know such things?

It was the same for Sion, who prided herself on having a fairly deep knowledge of the Empire’s history.

‘There was such a holiday?!’

It was a situation where the words “How on earth do you know that?” almost slipped out, but she barely held it back with her dignity as a Saintess candidate.

If she had at least recalled it after hearing it, she wouldn’t have been this surprised.

However, judging by the fact that it was the first time she had ever heard of it, it seemed to be a minor holiday not even recorded in ordinary history books.

It was to the point of wondering why he even knew such a thing.

Just then, a guess flashed through Sion’s mind like lightning.

‘He goes to the library so often, is he trying to master even the history class?!’

There was a perception that theoretical lectures like history were not considered as important compared to other subjects.

‘Is Darc really impossible to beat…!’

To think a day would come when the Beatrice family, famous for intelligence work, would be defeated in the Empire’s intelligence and history!

Sion shook her head after misunderstanding so wildly on her own.

Meanwhile, Demona shrugged at Sion’s reaction and said,

“See, Roan knows everything.”

‘This is my friend!’

Her expression and posture were filled with such pride.

To someone who didn’t know, it also looked as if she knew it all herself.

“I see…”

And Sion nodded, deeply agreeing with Demona’s words.

“…?”

Of course, that sight was equally incomprehensible to other people.

‘Why is it that everyone next to Roan, except for me, is…?’

A beautiful friendship where each thought they were the only normal one!

There was no exception, even for a Saintess candidate.

“So Roan. Do you know what we should be careful of?”

Demona pestered Roan again.

Now, even Sion’s eyes held a slight expectation.

He even knew about the guy who sneezed 150 years ago, during the Saint Gregory festival or whatever.

She thought he would obviously know about the professor of the next class.

Of course, Roan did not like his friends’ expectations at all.

‘Even though I never answered properly whenever they asked anyway.’

In his mind, he had no memory of ever giving them proper information.

…Of course, it was because the level of information they expected and the level Roan thought of were different.

Roan pondered for a moment and decided to tell them only what he thought was fine to share in advance, as usual.

In fact, the next professor was dangerous enough not only for Roan himself but also for ordinary students.

“Do not make eye contact. …Even with the eyes on the wings.”

His friends tilted their heads.

Even though they had asked, it was natural for them to wonder, ‘How does he know this?’

Then they put their heads together and discussed seriously.

“He said eyes are on the wings?”

“W-What race is that?”

This was because eyes were normally on the head, not on the wings.

Just then, Demona clapped her hands and said,

“Aha, could it be a Gorgo half-blood?”

Gorgo, as one could guess from the name, was a humanoid magic beast, a monster, modeled after Medusa.

Even in Acherandir, which had many holy beast half-bloods and beastmen, almost no one would think a professor was a monster.

“Fool. Heretic, Gorgo has snakes for hair and no wings.”

But because the one who said it was Demona, everyone seemed to just let it pass.

‘Isn’t that not what’s important?’

Only Roan was dumbfounded.

Although monster half-bloods were not entirely unheard of, they usually took after the ferocious nature of monsters.

If one were appointed as a professor, it would be trouble in many ways.

‘…Though there is one.’

Should he be glad that he wouldn’t meet them for the time being?

Anyway, Demona asked Hector, who had dismissed her opinion.

“Then what is it?”

Naturally, Hector did not have a clear opinion either.

“Uh… a Thousand-Eye Winged Serpent?”

Hector mumbled, looking at Roan.

“There is no such thing.”

Roan shook his head coldly.

Even after that, his friends guessed various possibilities, but there was no correct answer.

Since it was quite fun to listen to such conversations, Roan did not bother to stop them.

Instead, he threatened the False Divinity.

‘If we get caught by this professor, it is entirely your fault.’

Hummmm—

The False Divinity instinctively tried to feel wronged, asking what that meant, but…

…Come to think of it, wasn’t it indeed its fault?

It suddenly felt a fundamental doubt.

Who told you to awaken black magic?

The problem was that Roan was a black mage; if he were just an ordinary mage, he could be living grandly by now as an authority holder.

But anyway, being ignored was being ignored.

The False Divinity vibrated firmly.

What do you take me for!

Roan also seemed surprised.

‘It does feel stronger than before?’

Was the Logifos Heresy Dictionary that he read here and there on Sunday really effective?

Hummmm——

The False Divinity affirmed.

What did I tell you!

Saying things like “If we get caught, I’ll say you made me do it,” and “Even a Holy Spirit would shake their head at this.”

It was because the way it acted now after not believing until now was quite unsightly.

***

The Monday class, which could not be held due to the entrance ceremony.

The first was indeed ‘Attribute Foundation Training’.

Just as there were various attributes in magic, in this class, one learned to identify the attribute that suited them using holy power and how to handle other attributes as well.

The place where the class was held was the Great Temple of Nerchiora.

Among them, it was the Great Prayer Hall.

The students buzzed at the grandeur and holiness, which was incomparable to the Small Prayer Hall where the prayer class had been held.

— Who on earth is the professor this time?

— I heard a rumor that it’s a Thousand-Eye Winged Serpent.

— No, I heard it’s a Gorgo half-blood.

— …Is that higher than the former Pope?

Wherever they had heard it, Hector and Demona’s nonsense had already spread widely among the freshmen.

Before they knew it, Roan’s party was recognized as a highly reliable source of information among the freshmen!

‘Even so, how did they pick only the nonsense to listen to?’

Of course, to Roan, it was a situation that naturally drew a click of the tongue.

“Wow… I heard the Great Prayer Hall isn’t opened just anytime.”

Rafia admired as she looked around the inside of the prayer hall.

It was as she said.

Officially, the Great Prayer Hall of the Great Temple of Nerchiora was where the spring prayer festival and the autumn harvest festival, the Empire’s largest holidays, were held twice a year.

It also meant that it was rarely opened otherwise.

Roan nodded.

“That’s correct. You know it well. However, it is opened specially for this professor’s class.”

“?”

Just who on earth was this professor?

Roan thought of something by himself and then said in a slightly dark voice,

“…Because they cannot accommodate them unless it is a place of this scale.”

“????”

At the words that fell deeper into mystery, Rafia’s expression became even more of a sight.

Soon, a group of priests rushed into the Great Prayer Hall.

— Everyone, sit down and prepare to pray!

— We will now welcome the professor!

— ???

The students reacted as if they had no idea what was going on, but they sat down according to the priests’ instructions.

The priests began to lay out all kinds of holy relics and silks they had brought, spreading them here and there across the altar.

“To look at them, one would think the professor is being summoned~”

Demona joked as she quietly watched the scene.

“…”

Roan did not reply.

‘Huh?’

Only Sion felt a strange suspiciousness from Roan’s reaction.

Soon, the priests finished the basic preparations.

And finally, a priest carefully opened a wooden chest cradled in his arms.

Whoosh—

— Ugh!

— Wh-What is it?