Chapter 170 : Confusion

Luslo - Professor Chaser, you were actually at the scene, weren't you?

Chaser - Yes. I was.

Luslo - Then did you actually come face to face with the thieves of Shadow?

Chaser - I saw them.

Luslo - I see. As you know, Professor, public interest in Shadow has been growing day by day since the War of Villains. As a result, the evaluations of them are varied. Some denounce them as villains, while others praise them as heroes who protected the citizens. What are your thoughts, as someone who saw them in person? Were they truly villains? Or heroes?

Chaser - Hmmm. The way I saw them at the Ladrier Hotel, they were far from villains. Villains don't perform altruistic acts like saving lives and evacuating people at the cost of their own lives.

Luslo - Oh. Then does that mean, Professor, that you consider them heroes…….

Chaser - However. It's also difficult to definitively call them heroes. If we do, it becomes hard to explain the various acts of terror they've committed at the Academy in the past. It doesn't make sense for their past evil deeds to disappear just because they did one good deed, right?

Luslo - That's true.

Chaser - So the important thing isn't this dichotomous way of thinking of whether they are villains or heroes, but what path they will take from now on. If we focus on that, I believe we will naturally come to understand their tendencies, what their purpose is, and whether they are good or evil.

I raised the corners of my mouth.

Chaser might hold the title of supervising professor right now, but his main affiliation was still with the Central Knights.

It seemed he had answered as objectively as possible while trying to maintain his convictions, but after saying something like this, he was bound to be called into the Central Knights Headquarters and get an earful.

“It must mean our image isn't the absolute worst.”

Not only Chaser Idna, but some citizens also seemed to view us favorably.

Perhaps many of them were people who had been staying at the Ladrier Hotel or those who had witnessed my final battle with Clatter with their own eyes.

“Nothing more to see.”

Aside from the interview, it was all news I had already heard from Luis, so I folded the Royal Dream and tossed it roughly onto the desk.

I washed off the sweat with cold water and had the leftover sandwich from yesterday for a meal.

It was vacation, so there were no lectures, and it was a day with no particular appointments.

Ah. There is one.

I was scheduled to meet Rachel later this evening to receive a report.

The Beltus Cult had lost to the all-but-destroyed Shadow, not even the Academy, and was chased out of their secret base in the sewer aqueduct, and even lost their forward base, the Ladrier Hotel.

Having completely lost their footing in Icata, no one knew what kind of impulsive action those bastards might take.

Of course, I couldn't predict it either.

As I've said, the flow of this world's fate had long since deviated from 'Heroes of Frey's' mainstream.

That's why I needed Rachel.

Rachel was currently the only member of the Beltus Cult remaining active in Icata.

In fact, she was still maintaining contact with the cult, and she was periodically informing me of what schemes they were plotting.

Well, that absolutely doesn't mean she has become a member of our Shadow or that I have any plans to accept her.

I couldn't rule out the possibility that the fact she was betraying the cult to help me could be exposed.

Also, the most important problem was that the ‘Seed of Lilith’ was planted in her body.

As long as I didn't know when it would sprout, it was wise to keep a moderate distance for now.

‘Considering the main story, it should be about time for it to sprout…….’

This too, I couldn't be sure of, since the future had become unknown.

So we were in a clear transactional relationship, maintained by our mutual interests.

In any case, she wanted to borrow my hand to kill Bishop Lutus and for now, she was useful to me.

The best way to end this was for me to kill Bishop Lutus before the Seed of Lilith sprouted, and tie up this ambiguous relationship first.

‘Come to think of it, when on earth is she going to give us the request? I can’t deal with the bishop unless she makes the request, can I?’

It had been a while since she said she would make the request when she had confirmed my skills and was confident in us, but there was still no answer from Rachel.

There's no way she's still not confident in my skills by now.

‘After I’ve shown her so much.’

I've already caught two bishops.

Isn't that more than enough verification?

‘I should ask her when we meet later.’

There was still a lot of time until then, so I sat at my desk, opened a notebook and began to organize my goals and future plans as I remembered them.

“First, Shadow's financial problem is solved, so……”

In fact, now that the contract with the cult is gone, there's no reason for me to remain at the Academy.

But the reason I insist on this double life is largely twofold.

The first is to support the growth of the kids, including the protagonist Ivan, while fending off the threat of the cult.

The second is to scout for talent to bring into our Shadow from within this Academy.

‘There's no place easier to find useful kids than here.’

Countless talented individuals gathered from all regions of the nation.

My radar is constantly active, aimed at them.

The target is someone who doesn't carry the fate of their family or have a grand goal of achieving something in life, but has a decent amount of talent.

One person has already decided.

Yuria, of course.

Raised by my own hand since the beginning of the school year, she is already considered my right-hand woman and a member of Shadow.

And the next one, there's a kid I've been keeping an eye on recently, but.

‘I need to watch that one a little longer.’

I've never even had a proper conversation with them, so I plan to approach them during the vacation period to find out more.

Also, since the main stage of 'Heroes of Frey' is, without a doubt, Frey Academy, it's not bad to remain here and keep the cult in check.

There are various other reasons, and if I were to list them one by one, it would be endless, but.

To be honest, it's because of affection.

The two reasons I wrote above are, in a way, excuses for this.

That's how precious these relationships I've made here are to me.

You might think, what an unfitting thing for a thief to say, who must be cool-headed and rational at every moment, not knowing when his identity as a thief will be discovered and his life threatened.

But, I'm not a real thief.

I'm a transmigrator who happened to be possessed by a thief and struggled to survive, and before that, I was just an ordinary young man, a single human being.

Just as the members of Shadow are important to me, the connections I've made here are also important.

Starting with Section Chief Baron and Professor Ilai, to Chaser Idna and Ronica Jasmine.

Yuria and Ivan.

Gwyn Gaiard. And, though I hate to admit it, Karina Zain, for whom I seem to have developed a fond annoyance.

And the other first-year juniors, the student affairs staff, and so on.

Of course, I know that the moment my identity as a thief is revealed, these relationships will be severed, and I know that I won't be able to hide this secret until I die, that it will be discovered someday.

‘It's just my greed, I guess.’

Still, compared to when I was taking requests from the cult, life is much more livable now.

……is how I console myself, but it seems this bastard named me still hasn't had his head screwed on right.

***

Two more days passed since then.

My life doesn't change much.

During the day, I look after the kids at the Academy and at night, I train alone or occasionally come down to Lunatic to handle Shadow's affairs directly.

Carl left for Karagas yesterday.

I didn't try to hold him back.

It would be a lie to say I didn't feel the desire to recruit him at all, but the place Carl needs to be right now is Karagas, not here.

Blood.

Carl and his brothers were the only ones in Karagas who could keep those bastards, a subordinate organization of the Darkness Council, in check.

Just by keeping Blood in check, it would be as if one of the Darkness Council's arms was tied, so they wouldn't be able to run rampant as much as in 'Heroes of Frey'.

That alone was enough help from him.

“Call me anytime you need my help, Gerard.”

Also, even without being bound by a sense of belonging to a guild, Carl was the type of guy who would come running if I called.

I thought this kind of relationship was good for now and that it was the right one.

The cult side was still silent.

According to Rachel, they are undergoing a major internal reorganization and the only order she received was to wait quietly and monitor the situation at the Academy.

From that, it didn't seem like they were preparing any additional terror attacks.

Oh, so I asked her when she was going to request the assassination of Bishop Lutus and she said ‘a little later’.

But the way she answered seemed evasive, which was strange, but I let it go.

It's not like I have anything to lose anyway.

And for Rachel to have a change of heart now, she's already crossed too many rivers to turn back.

Anyway, the cult suffered quite a lot of losses after being defeated in this War of Villains.

Not only did they lose a forward base necessary for operations, but they also lost two bishop-level assets.

But it wasn't all just losses for them, because the nation was still in an uproar from the aftermath of the War of Villains.

Right. It's been a week, and it's still going on.

The embers of the War of Villains are still burning brightly.

The funny thing is, those flames have grown even bigger than before.

It’s true, on the day of the War of Villains, a secret banquet was held to welcome the safe return of the 2nd Prince and the fact that half of the forces that should have been protecting the capital were used to guard that banquet hall was exposed in detail by an anonymous source.

The content was as follows.

The response of the royal family and the nobles after the report that the Ladrier Hotel was being attacked by a pseudo-religious cult came in.

And how, when they should have been quickly dispatching troops to swiftly suppress the crisis, they were busy ensuring their own safety first, and the various gaps and delays that resulted from it.

The various irresponsible statements, unbecoming of nobles, that were made at the time of the incident.

When these things came to light, the citizens were enraged, the voices criticizing the royal family and nobles grew louder, and protests broke out, centered around the victims of that day.

From the cult's perspective, this was an entirely unintentional ‘thank you’.

The nation was walking into turmoil on its own.

The internal reorganization might just be an excuse and they could be waiting for that turmoil to grow even bigger.

‘Then the anonymous person who exposed the secret banquet could be someone from the cult's side?’

I was analyzing the current situation from various angles when I checked the time and shot up.

“Oops. I’m late.”

She must be waiting again.

I quickly left the dormitory, and it was just as I thought.

In front of the main gate, Yuria was standing demurely, looking at me.

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

“I made you wait again.”

Yuria took out her watch and checked it.

Then she showed me the time.

“You came out at exactly 10 o'clock, senior. Here, look. You’re not late.”

I scratched under my chin and smiled awkwardly.

“That’s not it, I was planning to go to the girls' dormitory and wait for you first this time.”

“Does it matter who waits? The important thing is that we met.”

It could sound like a meaningful statement with many implications, but since it was Yuria who said it, I decided not to read too much into it.

“By the way, did you hear the news?”

“About what?”

And so, we were walking and talking about the behind-the-scenes story of the ‘secret banquet’ that the Royal Dream had focused on today, which I had just been thinking about.

“It's kind of strange that it's so quiet here when the outside world is in an uproar…… huh?”

I saw quite a few cadets gathered in front of the Central Fountain bulletin board.

“What is it? Did something happen?”

“I don't know.”

“Let's go see. I was just talking about how quiet the Academy was. I must have jinxed it.”

“Pfft.”

Yuria, who let out a small laugh, shook her head.

“It's probably nothing.”

I thought so too, so honestly, I didn't think much of it until then.

However.

The moment I started walking towards the bulletin board and the kids who noticed my presence turned to look at me, I realized something was wrong.

The pupils of the kids staring at me were wide.

And the emotions contained within them were shock and disbelief.

The crowd parted.

Walking through the gap, I was finally able to see it.

A single, large photograph posted on the bulletin board.

And the moment I saw it, I could understand their reaction.

“……”

“W-what…… is this, senior……?”

Yuria, who saw the picture, called out to me, stuttering, which was unlike her.

But, I couldn't answer.

Because──,

In that photograph, was a picture of me, standing and holding the Skull Mask.