RATH 64

TL: Eevee

8. If you do it, it works. (3)

#3 Their story: A certain student’s story.

“Hwaaaahm..”

A yawning second year student of Yugrasia dragged her feet from the dormitories.

Thinking it was probably due to her partying with her friends from other academies until the crack of dawn, she headed to school nursing her weak but persistent hangover.

Despite there being in a state of competition between the four academies, that was only really relevant within the empire.

Excluding Mercaria and a few commoner students, the majority of the students of the four academies had all met each other at social events at least once.

Although there were cases of friendships being broken off due to fighting between academies, even so, the majority of the students also thought of life after school and tried to remain on good terms with each other!

Especially since Yugrasia had taken a nosedive for the bizarre this year, the number of times she met with her friends from other schools had definitely diminished.

But that was all a thing of the past!

With the appearance of a whopping swordsmaster of all things, she and the others could finally leave school freely during the holidays.

At this rate, they could all hope for even greater things after the holidays ended!

Just how much did her mouth twitch when her friend from Arucia boasted of having sparred with the strongest swordsman in their school!

A rising star touted to become the empire’s next swordsmaster?

Our academy has an outright swordsmaster!

How she wanted to shout that out at the top of her lungs, but wanting to keep that information until the imperial festival, she said nothing.

And so after they talked all night long over a bit of wine.

Perhaps due to the alcohol, even if it was weak, she was late.

Well, even so, the students from other schools were probably in dreamland right now, either that or they’d just gotten up.

“Hnng.. I’m gonna be late.”

Although classes began at nine, they were expected to arrive by eight.

Since she was going to be late no matter how hard she ran right now she decided to just take it easy.

But this student didn’t know.

That from today, the state of the academy had changed.

And the moment she came to realise it, she would curse her sluggish self of this moment.

To be accurate, it was five minutes later.

“Huh?”

The front gates that were normally wide open were tightly shut, and only the small door that let the night watch teachers in and out was open. Despite seeing this, this student did not think anything was out of the ordinary.

And the price for that came the moment she went in through the small door.

“Uwiiit, it’s a tardy kiddie!”

“Uwaaaaahkk!”

At that moment, the student lost all strength in her legs and fell down hard on her butt.

Because the one who was greeting her so enthusiastically was none other than the silver devil!

“Wha, what happens to be the problem..”

An overwhelming presence.

A pressure that forced one to speak formally!

That fear was so great that the students of Yugrasia would curse their teachers outside school, but they would never, ever say a word against the silver devil.

And the one with that presence, the silver devil looked at the student that looked at her with eyes full of fear and smiled.

“Well, course that’s cuz ya wus late?”

A smile that booked a ticket for the express train to hell.

#4 Their story: Aris ril Letia’s story

“Guuuwwuhhhk!”

“Sa, saved..”

I heard screaming coming from behind my back.

If I’d been just a hair later that would also have been my fate.

The moment I realised that, rivulets of cold sweat ran down my back.

Good job, me of the past!

To be exact, me of ten minutes ago, that started to run to not be late!

No wonder I had a bad feeling when it seemed I was going to be late this morning!

What if, I’d felt that it would be alright to be a tiny bit late just like it had always been?

-Aw.. what a pity.. what a pity..

How horrified had I been to see the silver devil muttering that, while watching the clock outside the door!

Even then I hadn’t realised what that pity had been!

When 8 o’clock came exactly one minute later and the main gates started to close, I realised the instant I saw the silver devil break out into a grin!

If I’d been late, I would have been killed on the spot!

-Aris, from tomorrow, I’ll do whatever it takes to wake you up.

-Yes, please wake me up! No matter what you do! You can Descend into my body whenever you want!

Normally the ones who say this are the people who have contracted with particularly strong high-ranked summons.

And among them, it was something that those that had contracted the strongest summons of them all, the god-class summons, should never ever say.

Allowing a being with a powerful will to enter your body and act as it wanted whenever it liked was very dangerous.

But getting hit by that devil was even more dangerous.

Although there’s no danger to my life, that’s dangerous to my sanity.

Because every now and then when I got hit by that thing, I started to seriously wonder just how easy it would be if I could just die.

And so, to avoid that silver devil I could hand over control of my body anytime.

“Kuwuuuhhghhh!”

“Let’s head in.”

As the screams of pain echoed out once again I hurried my footsteps.

But.

“Arrrrrghhhh!”

“Again?”

When break was about to end, a familiar scream rang out from a corner of the corridor.

Of course people can scream if they’re in pain.

But this scream that sounded like someone’s soul was being dragged out of their body was only reserved for when one was hit by that devil.

Meaning.

“Why is the devil moving on our break?”

Although I was fearful, my feet automatically moved themselves to the source of the screams.

Knowledge is power.

And to survive in Yugrasia where that devil lived, there was a need to know the standards the devil would hit us by.

“Guwuhhhg..”

“No wunnin’ in th’ hallways?”

The devil wagged her finger at the first year student who was dribbling drool and tears everywhere.

Did that mean that that student got beaten because he was running in the hallways?

And so after a day, then two passed.

As casualties grew by the day, a student in my class came running towards me with a notebook in her hand.

“M, milady!”

“Since we’re all the same year students in the academy, just call me Aris.”

“Lady Aris! It’s this!”

A small notebook.

‘Student Handbook’ was written on the cover, and Yugrasia’s emblem was stamped on it.

“Student handbook?”

“Yes, the student handbook we got during our enrolment ceremony! And..”

The section that she hurriedly showed me.

That section was the school rules.

“All the victims of the silver devil were listed here, milady!”

“What the..”

One page, then the next.

The student handbook that I’d chucked away the moment I received it, that was probably lying around somewhere in my dorm.

I stared at the contents named the school rules.

Hm. So it is. The people that were done in by the devil had all broken these rules.

“Alright, let’s go back and find my student handbook the moment I get home today!”

Thank goodness I kept my mouth shut against the silver devil’s actions.

If I had said something carelessly I might have been sanctioned as well for being a bad student in not adhering to the rules of the academy.

It’s not bad to just stick to the rules and live a chill life.

Yes, keeping to the rules is very important.

Because laws are there to be obeyed!

-Aris, you’re brainwashing yourself right now!

-I don’t have a choice in order to survive! Even if I deny reality nothing will change! So I need to change myself!

-Aris.. sob..

The goddess is weeping. Am I really that pitiful?

No. I am not pitiful.

At the very least if I obey the school rules, I have no reason to be hit by that devil!

-Your self-brainwashing is way too natural now!

And so, after searching my room I thankfully found my student handbook, and I flicked back and forth through the pages to see if there were any rules that might catch me out.

“Skirt length? There were rules around skirt lengths as well?”

“Hang on, there’s also rules around hair length as well? Ah, I’ve got short hair so I’m alright.”

I controlled everything I could so that I could not be blamed for anything.

The person that feels delicious to hit, guaranteed by the silver devil herself, was none other than me.

The moment I let my guard down I will get hit.

I even became a swordsmaster in order to not get hit by that thing!

I can’t get hit now just because I didn’t follow the school rules!

-Aris, now that you’ve become a swordsmaster, haven’t you thought of taking a crack at that devil?

-But I’m screwed if I lose!

-That’s my contractor! How wise!

Even after I became a swordsmaster I still had zero thoughts about fighting the devil.

No, on the contrary if I attacked she’d smile and say “swordsmasters are sturdier, right?” and beat the crap out of me?

I’d have to become something like a legendary grand swordsmaster to be ready to fight against that.

And so after I did my best to follow all the rules.

“How could it be so perfect.. not even a well-disciplined army would be able to maintain such order..”

For some reason or another, Father looked at the scene with surprise.

“Father?”

“You have a splendid teacher.”

As I looked at my father who had a look on his face that said he was truly satisfied, I wanted to scream that this was all the results of indiscriminate violence, but as I saw the silver devil beside Professor Nicerwin grin widely, I kept my mouth shut.

And so, our parents’ belief in Yugrasia’s system and trust in Professor Nicerwin grew ever greater.

***

“Now I never saw this coming..”

At Marquis Letia’s surprise visit I was a bit, no, very surprised but I gained better results than I could have hoped for.

When I changed the school rules with the new timetable, I simply added in a few school rules I remembered from middle and high school.

And as the metal bat went to punish the ones who didn’t adhere to those rules those rules that I’d just half-assed were kept absolutely perfectly.

And Marquis Letia who saw the results of that returned to his territory very pleased with what he saw, and praise for Yugrasia would echo through high society once again.

“This is all the venerable me’s power!”

“Yes, you’re the best!”

“Hahhn, more, praise me more! Build an Arcadia statue in the middle a’ th’ academy!”

If the students heard what she said they’d turn back and run even before they come into school.

“Eat up the magic stones.”

“Hiing, these taste bad.”

As if her desire to have fun outweighed her tears, she crunched on the magic stones I’d secretly snuck out from class.

If you were to simply listen to her you’d think she was munching on beef cartilage, but they were actually just rocks filled with magic power!

So of course they’d taste bad!

“Uwiiht, ya feed me these disgusting rocks even though you know they taste bad! At least give me some sauce!”

“Sauce for rocks? Want some butter and honey then?”

There was a time in the past where honey butter was trending, what would you call a rock with honey butter added to it?

Honey Butter Stone? Wait a second, that actually sounds quite catchy? I feel like I actually could sell it right now!

“Tho’ that sounds like it might be a pretty sweet rock. Don’t think it’ll be all that tasty tho.”

She’s talking pretty well despite crunching away.

“If I keep chewing on it it kinda tastes like walnuts.”

So she’s feeling the savoury taste of walnuts while chewing on rocks.

“I said it feels like I’m chewing on walnuts, I never said it had the crisp taste of ’em. But that reminds me owner, dontcha have to prep for the imperial festival since the letter’s arrived and all?”

“I do.”

The letter I got this morning was for the representatives of the Four Great Academies to gather for a preparatory meeting.

For Yugrasia’s representative I can just send the stuco pres Nerkia as the students’ representative..

“Owner going as th’ teacher’s rep?”

“That’s the problem.”

So I wanted to avoid going outside the academy as much as possible but..

“It’d be alright to trust the stuco pres, wouldn’t it?”

“What was my favourite phrase again?”

“Cut in ya foot by ya trusted axe! But owner doesn’t trust the stuco pres, don’t ya? So it doesn’t matter even if ya do get cut!”

Not even not getting cut, but doesn’t matter if you get cut or not..

“Alright then, I’ll trust him this time.”

And indeed our student council president Nerkia, responded very well to our faith.

“So cool! That’s our stuco pres for ya! He went and declared victory over all the other academies! So awesome!”

My faith that my trusted axe would cut deep, deep into my foot.