Hearing my words, Juniang asked, “...Are you suspicious of the Instructor of Martial Arts?”
“For now.”
Juniang looked surprised for some reason.
“His image doesn’t fit. Maybe it was another grand master...?”
“Like who?”
“...Instructor Tanko?”
This woman has no ability to read people.
I couldn’t tell why she was saying it was unexpected or impossible when it was obviously him.
“...Well, fine. The Instructor of Martial Arts’s room is the room on the right at the very end of the third floor. There’s no communication crystal there, but another instructor may be present, so if you meet someone else, just tell them you’re running an errand for me.”
“Yes.”“And since you’re going that way, get me a cigarette from my room as well.”
“...”
Then... aren’t I actually running an errand for her?
After giving a slow nod, I made my way toward Juan’s room.
Thankfully, I didn’t meet any instructors on my way there.
The door opened without issue.
It seemed that—just like the rooms in the young heroes’ lodge—the rooms in the instructor’s lodge didn’t have locks.
Clack.
After entering Juan’s room without issue, I closed the door.
I had visited an instructor’s room once before regressing.
It was when I’d had the conversation with Juniang.
Back then, due to the situation, I hadn’t been able to take a proper look at the room...
The first thing I noticed was that it seemed a little larger than our rooms.
But that didn’t mean that there was a lot of room. Rather, the room looked like it only had the bare minimum of furniture.
I slowly looked around.
I didn’t expect the man who’d stayed hidden even from Bednicker to have left any clues here...
But since I was sure that Juan was the high priest, I might notice something that others would overlook.
First, I checked his desk.
There were a few books on the table, but they were all related to martial arts.
Seeing how worn the corners were, he must have read them quite frequently.
Flap.
I opened a book to look through it. The pages were fading from the light, and there were a lot of notes written here and there.
I didn’t know if this was Instructor Juan’s handwriting, but it did seem like he’d written these himself.
Was this acting as well?
For some reason, that didn’t feel right.
I put the book down and went through the drawers.
There wasn’t anything special there either.
Stationery, a mirror, accessories, cologne, even makeup...
Every time I’d looked at him, I’d felt that something was off about him, but it seemed that he did take a lot of care of his appearance in his daily life. Ȓ
It was unexpected, but I found a cigarette as well.
It had been stuck in the corner, and the paper was a little crushed.
I found a notebook as well, but there wasn’t anything special written in it.
It contained preparations and summaries for his lessons and even thoughts about each young hero.
[Charon Woodjack.]
[Excellent in all aspects. Too perfect, so much so that I wonder if the curriculum means anything to him. He seems to be the type who becomes stronger faster if he has someone to compete with...]
[Hector Bednicker.]
[Better-than-average talent, but if asked if he’s a genius... In my eyes, he is a product of his efforts. But he shows excellent leadership for his age, so I’m looking forward to his future.]
[Sellen Goodspring.]
[Generally excellent but seems to avoid getting along with others. Maybe she is hiding herself because this is Bednicker territory.]
Something was written for all 39 young heroes.
Ah. Except one.
[Evan Helvin.]
[Do ■■
Only one word was written about Evan, but I could see traces of something else Juan had written and then erased it.
I was curious, so I looked for mine as well.
[Luan Bednicker.]
[Not as much of a troublemaker as the rumors suggested, but pays poor attention during lessons. Doesn’t have any desire for growth and seems to only be doing the bare minimum.]
[Unexpectedly, he is decent at socializing.]
“Hmm.”
From what I remembered, I thought I’d been pretty active in lessons... Was that not the case?
In any case, after closing the notebook, complicated thoughts swirled through my mind.
If I had seen this without knowing he was a cultist, I wouldn’t have felt even a little bit suspicious.
Rather, he looked like the most model instructor.
The descriptions he wrote in his notebook were too detailed to just be for his cover.
I couldn’t learn anything else. It seemed that until he revealed his true allegiance, the Instructor of Martial Arts would be diligent in his role as an instructor.
I dropped the notebook into the drawer, feeling like I’d wasted my time.
Clack.
“...Hm?”
But the drawer made an odd sound.
Was there... empty space underneath it?
After messing around with the drawer a little, I realized that my suspicion was correct.
I revealed the false bottom of the drawer to find a hidden area.
There, a precious piece of paper was found.
It wasn’t an ordinary piece of paper.
“This...”
It was a photograph.
I’d heard that a “photographer” was in Ulca, the holy land of alchemists.
I’d heard that if you used that thing, you could capture a moment of scenery or people on paper... I had only seen it once, during my time as a mercenary.
In any case, whenever I saw a photograph, I was amazed.
Not even the greatest artist of The Empire could draw something so realistic.
That was why I’d heard that some artists had gone mad when they’d heard that the photographer had been invented...
But that wasn’t important right now.
In the photograph, two young men had their arms around each other’s shoulders, and a woman was smiling brightly while standing between them.
I recognized one of them.
It was the young man I had been with not long ago, Calzark.
Was this back when he’d been a mercenary?
He did look as handsome as he had boasted. However, there were a lot of scars on his face.
Next to him was a man who looked a little gloomy, and he was wearing some knight order’s armor.
He looked dissatisfied for some reason...
After looking at the second man for a while, I realized that it was Juan.
I couldn’t tell his exact age, but was he the same age as Calzark?
It seemed that this was before they had both become grand masters.
I didn’t realize that the two of them had been close in the past.
Wasn’t Juan a noble?
That... House Baskes or whatever.
Why would the son of such a noble house have been with Calzark during his mercenary period?
Had Juan also been a mercenary?
From my experience, for a noble to become a mercenary, their life needed to be pretty bad...
A lot of questions passed through my mind, but I stopped thinking about it.
It was time for me to leave.
I felt like I had gotten everything I could here, so I left the room.
* * * * *
* * * * *
Juniang wasn’t in the nurse’s office.
I left the cigarette on her table and left the instructor’s lodge.
I wasn’t planning on returning to the other young heroes right away. I had something I needed to check first.
The young heroes were gathered on the field, and Juan was standing on the platform.
“You should all know by now, so I will tell you: the rule added by Charon is ‘Young heroes can trade points among themselves’.”
So it’s this point.
It was when the points of the young heroes were publicized and when Charon’s new rule was revealed.
If that was the case, I needed to check something.
I went the long way around the field to avoid them and hid myself.
I then looked at the announcement board on the first floor of the young hero’s lodge.
1st: Charon Woodjack, 43 points.
2nd: Zeros Silver, 31 points.
3rd: Sinbar, 29 points.
4th: Hans Bender, 28 points.
5th: Hector Bednicker, 25 points.
The points of the high ranks looked the same as in my memories.
And my points...
19th: Luan Bednicker, 17 points.
I had one less point than I remembered.
Without that point, my rank had changed from 16th to 19th.
Although it was only a one-point difference, my rank had changed significantly.
Suddenly, I heard a loud cheer outside.
WOOOOOOOH!
I looked through the first-floor window and saw that Calzark had made his appearance.
“Hello. I am the Instructor of Swords and Blades, Calzark. I had some business, so I’m joining the training camp late, but I’ll be in your care going forward.”
The reaction to Calzark’s introduction was explosive among the young heroes.
“The Instructor of Swords and B-Blades...!”
“Doesn’t he... look younger than expected?”
“I don’t know anything about that, but he’s really handsome...”
Even Hector, who usually didn’t show much of a reaction, looked excited. I could see the emotion clearly on his face.
“So this is the subject selection, right? If you want to learn about the sword, come to me. It’s mostly practical lessons, so you won’t get bored.”
It’s time for subject selection.
It was a good chance for me to naturally introduce myself to Calzark in front of the others.
But as expected, the young heroes crowded around Calzark like a cloud.
As expected of the Instructor of Swords and Blades.
As expected of the most famous of the grand masters. And his younger face seemed to be putting in some work as well.
“No, wait. There are too many of you...”
Calzark looked overwhelmed.
I counted at least twenty people around him, more than all the other instructors had combined.
Juan was the one who had secured the most young heroes before I’d regressed...
Ah.
At this moment, I saw a man emitting a gloomy aura.
“...”
The Instructor of Martial Arts, who had smiled even until the moment of his death...
Juan was looking at Calzark with an emotionless face.
***
After subject selection ended, Calzark and Juan stood behind a building with their backs to each other.
“You look good. I nearly didn’t recognize you. Ah, but it does look like you’ve put on some weight.”
“...”
“Give me a cigarette if you have one on you.”
For the first time in a while, Juan spoke plainly.
“I stopped.”
His mouth felt odd for some reason.
“...You did?”
“Yeah. But more importantly, why are you here?”
“Shouldn’t I do my duty as a grand master?”
Although Bednicker was quite wealthy, they weren’t so wealthy as to give money to people who weren’t working.
However, Juan smirked.
“That’s funny coming from the guy who left his station for years to resolve some personal issue. I still can’t accept why the family head let you keep your position the entire time.”
“...Well, I am sorry about that. I’ll do my best from now, so overlook it a little. More importantly, it’s been a while since my last training camp, so I don’t remember much. Has anything changed since I left?”
Juan didn’t respond to that.
He finally spoke after erasing even the sneer from his face.
“Stop joking, Calzark. We’ve known each other for a while.”
“What do you—”
“You, did you hear something about me?”
Calzark’s breath hitched for just a moment.
Juan noticed and let out a bitter laugh.
“Don’t worry. It wasn’t obvious.”
“I don’t know what you are—”
“...I don’t know who or what you heard from them, but hear me out first. You can decide after that. I can explain everything.”
Calzark let out a sigh as he replied, “I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”
“It’s... difficult to tell you everything here. We don’t have time either, so let’s meet at midnight tonight. There should be a small open area west of the camp. I’ll wait there, so come alone.”
“...Really, are you making fun of me because I haven’t been doing anything? I’m asking you what you’re talking about.”
Juan looked at Calzark’s furrowed face.
He didn’t show any change, he just responded with a calm voice, “Barbara is dead.”
“...What?”
Clang!
A loud bell rang out.
Break time was over.
Juan looked at the speechless Calzark and said, “Remember what I said. Come alone.”