RATH 66

TL: Eevee

TN: This is probably my favourite chapter of this arc.

8. If you do it, it works.

#6 Their story: A certain teachers’ story.

“Muaaaaaaaaahhhmm!”

“Let go of me, Professor Harian!”

“Muam, Muaahhm! This noona, is so exhausted! The kids’re scary! I honestly want to quit this job!”

“Right now I want to quit you so please move!”

Muam’s turned cold. Was it because he was contracted to the spirit king of water?

Of course not. In that case since I contracted with the god of wind I’d have to be a temptress!

-That wind and this wind are two different things!(1) You dare make me, a great god of the wind into someone like Zeus!

To think he can’t appreciate this great sense of humour.

“Lil’ Muam, the holidays are ending soon so we need to combine our strength!”

“So didn’t I tell you to be careful.”

“Then at least you should’ve told me about the swordsmaster! Is Aris going to become a hero of legend or something? And I’ll become the master of the hero that will slay the demon king!”

“Hahahahaha.”

As Muam laughed like he was enjoying this, I grabbed him by the lapels and shook him back and forth.

Although he didn’t stop laughing.

“It was hard, it was so hard!”

The holidays were too difficult.

At first I’d thought that the students would have a hard time, but after experiencing it firsthand I realised that we were the one who were going to have it hard.

We were not stopping the students from leaving the academy.

We were stopping warriors who overcame despair and tribulations, all for the sake of marching to their Avalon (outside the academy)!

The difference in resolve is a massive difference no matter what race you were!

And moreover, for the sake of avoiding Professor Nicerwin’s summon, aka the silver devil, they would do anything and everything.

Last time when I was holding Aris off with all I had, Professor Nicerwin’s summon appeared at the end of the first floor corridor, and the student council president pushed me down.

No other meanings, he literally pushed me down with his body.

But I’m still their teacher! I’m a woman! Even if I am the problem child of the elves I’m still one of the race that symbolized purity, an elf!

Isn’t it normal that something like this shouldn’t happen in more ways than one?

But that actually happened!

To think the first time in my life that I’d be pushed down by a man would be by my own student!

E, electrifying!

“..I don’t know what you’re thinking but I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t embrace me while thinking of something obscene!”

In the end, Muam went as far as summoning his Spirit King to push me away my complaints also had to end there.

“And that stuco pres also went and said to the other academies that they’d get total victory in the imperial festival? My junior at Marcis was asking me if we had some secret weapon or something!”

“Yes yes, if you were to ask for a secret method then we have one of those. One that none of the other academies could dare to follow.”

“Professor Nicerwin is really a weird person? When I heard of the stories of him back in the Elven Forest I never imagined he’d be someone like this.”

“What did you hear of him?”

“Hm? How did it go now.. he was a gentle, kindly person?”

“What lies, that’s the elves for you.”

“I get it that they’re lies, but what do you mean when you say that that’s elves for you, Muaaam?”

Muam was looking at me as if to say don’t you know already.

Wh, what? Elves don’t lie!

.. th, the majority of us!

“Since you look like you know already, I won’t say anymore.”

“Hiing.. Lil’ Muam’s gotten cold! Like a contractor of the Spirit King of Water, he’s gotten cold like water!”

“There’s hot water too.”

“And his sense of humour’s gotten cold as well!”

“I wasn’t specifically trying to make a joke?”

“But you have to admit it that it was freezing! That was way too cold!”

And as I was about to scold Muam for not acknowledging his frosty sense of humour!

“How were your holidays?”

“Professor Nicerwin!”

“Yes, although it was the home I’d lived in for my entire life, there was quite a lot that had happened in the few months I’d been absent.”

The person that came in was none other than the mutual enemy of the students and the enemy of the teachers, Professor Nicerwin!

“Why is Professor Nicerwin coming to lil’ Muam’s office!”

“Of course it’s to discuss things with teachers that returned from the holidays. But having said that, Professor Nicerwin, would you know why Professor Harian is so irritated right now?”

Well of course that’s because!

“I believe it was because I refused her when she suggested to simply let the students go home.”

“Of course it’s cause he refused to just let the students go home!”

For the sake of improving the students’ skills?

Fine. Because I don’t want the students I teach to be weak either!

But are the students of Yugrasia right now weak?

No. if a school with a student that was a god-class summoner and a swordsmaster was weak, then the humans would have already conquered the world.

The only race that could call swordsmasters weak were dragons.

No! Not even dragons could just ignore a swordsmaster unlesss you could be called an ancient dragon!

And even if you excluded Aris there are still five other god-class summoners!

What the hell is this fighting force?

Even among the elves that were more attuned to summoning than humans we barely have a two digit number of god-class summoners, and there are six in a single academy?

And putting aside the vice-president, the other five made their contracts after Professor Nicerwin came.

If Professor Nicerwin kept on increasing the number of god-class summoners like this, by the time Aris was a fourth year, just how many god-class summoners would there be at this academy?

The Karuan Empire’s already the strongest nation on the continent!

Was he going to lead an invasion of the demon country and go for world domination or something?

They’re already incredibly powerful, just how much stronger are you going to make them!

“..was what she said, as she shook me by my lapels.”

“Hm? Wait, what, I said that out loud?”

“You said that out loud, Professor Harian. But I agree with her opinion, Professor Nicerwin. Right now, the students have already surpassed the other academies.”

Surpass? That’s not just ‘surpassed.’

Not even the army teachers who had fought in the Great War could hold off Aris by herself.

No, lately Aris didn’t even need to fight them, the ordinary students were doing just fine against them.

The reason why they’re holding out at all is because Professors Maroon and Aruhan were tying down the student council.

Otherwise it would be a big problem!

Lately Aris was getting so good that even a 1:1 was hard as hell.

And if you added in the student council?

I’d become like Muam I saw at the end of my break, beaten to a pulp on the floor.

No matter how much of a weirdo the other elves saw me as, that didn’t mean I was a pervert that liked getting hit.

And therefore there was no further need for the students skills to grow any further like Muam said!

If they were then I’m the one that can’t hold out!

“I agree, agree and agree big time with what Muam said~! Fighting against the students alone is getting stupidly hard now as well!”

If they grew any further?

I don’t think I could hold them off even with Muam.

“But if we end the night study before the beginning of the imperial festival, the students may lose motivation.”

“They’re still not going to lose? There’s no way a swordsmaster could lose just because they lose a bit of motivation!”

Perhaps because the majority of his work was in handling documents, this human knew nothing about the standards of the students right now.

Right now, even if the other three academies came at them combined, Yugrasia’s students could defeat them all without breaking a sweat.

“Professor Nicerwin doesn’t know just because you haven’t taken part, you try to stop them by yourself! See if you can still say that afterwards!”

But I didn’t know then.

Just because of this one statement I said in a fit of emotion, how much the students would come to hate me.

Just what went wrong.

Was it because I said something I shouldn’t have?

“So do I just have to participate?”

“Huh, huhh?”

I’d just thrown it out there, so was it Professor Nicerwin’s fault for taking it seriously?

“Y, you’re really going to take part?”

“Yes, it’s a fellow teacher’s request, so I will take part this time.”

Or was it that I didn’t refuse him when I should have.

In that case.

“Guaaaahhk!”

“Run, whatever you can, run away!”

“What the hell, why is that human here!”

Might I not have heard the despairing screams of the students that had resolved themselves on the last day of the holidays?

“Why are you running? As long as you do not get past me, you should know that it is impossible to leave school!”

“Say something that makes sense, how the hell are we supposed to get through when both the pres and the swordsmaster’s fallen!”

Just what was the silver stick in his hand.

That a swordsmaster was defeated in a single strike, and the student council president collapse with the next?

“Now, come. If you want to enjoy the last day of your holidays!”

“We don’t want to! We won’t enjoy it! So just let us stay in the academy!”

Just what was it.

That the students who were working so hard to leave the academy, were fervently wishing to remain at school?

Just what was that stick?

#7 Their story: a certain student council president’s story.

The last day of the holidays.

Well, it wasn’t much of a holiday to begin with, but we were happy enough that school was ending earlier than normal.

And that small reprieve would end today as well.

Because of that, we tried our hardest to break through as fast as we could and enjoy the last day of the holidays.

“Kwuuht?”

Just what was that silver stick?

When Professor Nicerwin appeared out of nowhere and smacked Lady Aris’s side with the stick.

Lady Aris collapsed with a whimper right then and there.

A swordsmaster in a single strike? Does that make any sense at all?

..Was it because it was silver?

Was silver the colour of the devil?

Was silver not normally a sacred colour that repelled devils!

No. Rather, devils hated silver because not even they wanted to be associated with that colour!

“Are you paying attention, student council president?”

“Guooohhhk!”

I immediately summoned a mid-rank earth elemental, but that was also desummoned in a single strike with the metal stick.

What’s more, the elemental that was said to speak only a few times in their entire lives was desummoned screaming in pain!

“What is that silver this time?!”

“The thing you are all familiar with.”

“You mean!”

Was that silver stick the silver devil transformed?

“Just what kind of summon is Professor Nicerwin’s summon?”

“A metal elemen...tal?”

“Why do you have no confidence in your answer? Isn’t it your contracted summon!”

And a metal elemental!

Sure that thing looks like metal on the surface, but what kind of metal exists that hurts that much when you’re hit by it!

“Yep, it’s a metal elemental. Probably.”

“So why is the probably stuck on at the.. uwuhh?”

I tried to buy time by talking, but Professor Nicerwin never stopped attacking even while talking.

As a man of reason, what I wanted was to resolve this with dialogue but if I couldn’t!

“I’m serious now!”

I drew up all my mana and summoned all the elementals I could manage right now.

“Are you serious now?”

“Yes, this is my greatest!”

Leaving only a trickle of mana left, I squeezed out all my magic power and exploded the elementals’ power!

Named, my ultimate!

“Elemental great escape!”

“So you were running away at max power was it!”

I heard Professor Nicerwin shout behind me, but that didn’t matter.

Fight head on with the silver devil?

That was the same thing as doing your best to kill yourself.

There was nothing as stupid as picking a fight you had no hope of even contesting.

And if you can’t win then you have to escape.

To begin with, even Lady Aris, who had defeated the contractors of a Spirit King and a god in Professors Muam and Harian respectively was defeated in a single strike.

There was no way in hell a small-time elementalist like me could win!

“..Was whatcha wuz thinking!”

“H, how!”

But as if I was simply amusing, the silver devil appeared in front of me.

“Haang, owner said this. If it’s the stuco pres then ya’d totes try to run! And so like this~”

The devil’s right hand turned liquid like a slime and began to dribble along the ground.

“Like this!”

“T, teleportation?”

And the silver liquid slid across the ground in front of me at a high speed, and all of a sudden the silver devil was in front of me again.

“Hm? Course it’s not teleportation! I just sent over a part of my body first and moved the rest a’ me there afterwards!”

“Where the hell did that come from!”

“Here!”

As if this bloody elemental was exactly the same as its master, it kept swinging her fists at me even while talking.

“This much is.. kuhhk!”

“My punch was a fake! The real attack was down low!”

All she did was kick me in the shin, but an indescribable pain flooded over me.

“Finisher!”

“N..”

The silver devil’s fist struck my face before I could even finish.

And the last thing I saw in my fading vision.

Walking amidst the collapsing summons, was Professor Nicerwin striding between them like the demon king of the end of the century.(2)