RATH 99
TL: Eevee
11. Not a myth, but a legend (12)
I’m screwed. I’m screwed. I’m screwed!
“Uwiit, why’s owner’s disciple here? Reunion?”
“There’s no way that’s possible.”
In the video, two students in Marcis uniforms were fighting.
One is my ex-disciple from the Nermia family.
And the other was her fellow cohort disciple and the one I acknowledged as the survival king!
Sword ki went flying everywhere, Surtr died, magic was flung around everywhere, Surtr died in a flurry of exchanges, and No.17 won in the end but that wasn’t the important thing.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
In all honesty, the one I worried the least for out of my ex-disciples was that No.1000.
Her survivability that would let her live no matter where she was thrown into was one thing, but even her origins were that of a perfect orphan.
And moreover, even I couldn’t fathom the depths of her potential, to the point where if I starved her a few times she might actually break through to the realm of a swordsmaster, such was the girl named No.1000.
There was no way in hell that the imperial princess would leave her alone.
The other two were children of prestigious families that even Her Highness wouldn’t find it worth bothering them for, but in the case of No.1000 who was a perfect orphan, there’s no way that the princess, whose hobby was collecting talented people, would ever leave her alone?
And she’s the most cost-efficient talent that would swear undying loyalty just as long as you fed her, no less!
Add to that a personality that was impossible to predict, No.1000 was exactly the imperial princess’s type.
That girl who I didn’t worry about for those reasons, had suddenly shown up in the middle of the imperial festival.
Would she have enrolled in Marcis because the imperial princess didn’t hire her?
Never.
Firstly there’s the fact that she didn’t really show all that much potential for magic, but since Marcis requires all sorts of magic-related tools for their classes, until just last year they had the highest tuition fees among all the schools.
There was no way that No.1000 had the funds to pay that expensive tuition, and even if she did, she would be infinitely more likely to go on a foodie road trip.
Then would Her Highness send No.1000 to Marcis to learn magic?
That too, is outside the realm of possibility.
The imperial princess sees the academies as a playground for children.
Thanks to her innate talent which surpassed genius and reached the realm of monsters, the princess could exceed others in just about anything no matter how much she half-assed it, leaving her without much interest in education.
Although she showed great interest in education on how to screw over other people.
Anyways, there was no way that that imperial princess would send No.1000 to Marcis because she showed talent for magic.
She’d think something along the lines of ‘she’d make a pretty decent assassin as well,’ and throw her into her personal battlemage brigade.
Therefore, there was only one reason that No.1000 was participating in the imperial festival in a Marcis uniform.
“The imperial princess is nearby.”
A shudder tore through the entire length of my body.
In normal circumstances, the imperial princess present at the imperial festival should be perfectly normal.
Because of course the First Imperial Princess would be present on the anniversary of the day the empire was founded!
“But th’ fact that the imperial princess that went off to the edges of the continent to catch owner is here means that she came knowing owner’s here?”
“And if I get caught it will be extremely dangerous for me!”
“So, owner… we running again?”
“…Probably?”
Of course, maybe No.1000 could have just enrolled into Marcis.
Maybe the imperial princess might not have taken in No.1000 knowing that she could betray her if an enemy of the imperial princess found someone that could cook better than the palace chefs.
So the Nermia family took No.1000 in as an old companion.
Which would be why No.1000 enrolled in Marcis at a similar time to No.1000!
“But methinks that it’s probably th’ princess’s plan to locky locky owner up?”
“Of course it is, because there’s no way my life would ever go that well!”
But that situation is the absolute best case scenario.
How many times has the best-case scenario ever occurred in my life?
I could count those on one hand, but in contrast, the worst-case scenarios were very, very common.
So for now, I would run.
Even though all I’ve done is invest without a single return so I’d take massive losses if I ran away now…
But cutting your losses for the future instead of causing the downfall of the entire household is the path of the wise investor.
“That’s what ya say owner, but ya body’s honest! Your entire body’s shivering?!”
“Ggghhh… so close… so close!”
Just as I’d paid off my debt to Black Anvil, I took on new debt to renovate the academy!
The school’s finances were so disgustingly shit, I still hadn’t managed to embezzle a single copper!
To think I’d have to abandon the goose that would only lay golden eggs from now on!
“Ee, owner. I wanna spend happy days of school violence with owner, but for now we gotta run!”
“Kgggghhh… damn it!”
For the first time in a while, I put on an inconspicuous brown robe, and put on my emergency wig.
-Where ya going?
Instead of her eye-catching metal bat form, I had her transform into two bracelets, one on each arm.
“Firstly, go around the castle gates… and see what’s happening.”
Since I could be making a fuss over nothing and do something stupid like run away for nothing, I need to collect information.
So I went out, and scouted…
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, they said that they were blocking all doors in the capital temporarily? The people that had come to watch the imperial festival were complaining outside the castle walls.”
“But since it’s an imperial order, it can’t be helped.”
-Don’t think we need ta check?
-Probably?
Damn it, look how disgustingly this imperial princess works.
She sealed off the exits from the beginning.
There’s no way this was a coincidence.
-But even if she did, I already made an escape route!
-That’s an experienced runaway for ya!
I slowly, and very casually walked in a way that wouldn’t draw any attention.
The first step to running away.
Don’t make it too obvious that you’re trying to run away, and act like a normal citizen.
If you’re looking around here and there, looking unsettled, then anyone would think you’re a suspicious person.
Those idiots usually get hauled away thanks to the empire’s civilians who have a heart for reporting suspicious activity as large as the purses of the empire’s bounty system.
So I walk normally.
I don’t cover my face suspiciously with a robe, but just a few strands of a fake moustache and an aggressive scowl on my face.
The reason for the scowl and the moustache is to give off a ‘I’m an asshole so don’t get close to me!’ aura.
Because no one would come ask someone with an ugly scowl for directions!
And it didn’t take very long for us to arrive to a location where we could see Yugrasia.
-Someone’s going to pop out if we enter through the front door, won’t they?
-Won’t about ten swordsmasters show up?
-As long as they don’t summon every single swordsmaster in the empire, that’s not going to happen… right?
-Nup, it’s possible if it’s owner. Believe in owner’s crappy luck a little more!
I didn’t want to believe in it at all, but for some reason I felt it could very well be possible.
“And so, a hidden tunnel!”
-Finally, the secret hole the students wanted ever so much to discover has been found!
Among the outer walls of the academy, I snuck over to a place I’d marked in secret.
Of course I didn’t do something as stupid as making a hole in the wall.
The students who were escaping with their lives on the line could very well have checked the wall out of desperation.
“The secret is in the ground.”
And so I didn’t make a hole in the wall.
The hole was in the ground underneath.
I changed the shape of one of bracelets that were the metal bat into a thin blade, pushed it into the gap of the hidden tunnel and pulled.
And with a creak, what appeared in front of our eyes was a hidden tunnel that passed through the outer wall!
“A hidden tunnel like this is a man’s romance.”
-I reckon it’d be more ‘a th’ students’ romance rather than a man’s tho?
Of course. If I told them, the moment class ended each and every one of them would run here to try to escape.
But since this is my escape route, I cannot share this with anyone!
“Pwuha… it hasn’t even been all that long, but it’s so dusty already…”
I covered my mouth with my sleeve and headed underground.
Although I closed the door behind me, it would almost certainly leave traces.
Since someone could open the door out of curiosity, I needed to move as quickly as possible.
“There’s… no one outside.”
Although I call it a hidden tunnel, it’s a hidden tunnel designed to pass through the outer walls.
The tunnel wasn’t even five metres long, so it didn’t take long for me to infiltrate into Yugrasia, and at the exit, I cracked open the trapdoor a peek, checked whether there was anyone around, and hurriedly came up and swept away any traces with my foot.
And with this, there was no longer any trace of the escape route on Yugrasia’s side!
Now all I had to do was enter the academy, and finally give up on everything to enjoy a normal farming life!
Creak.
“Just a moment, please.”
The moment I opened the door to the school’s main building, I heard a familiar voice from behind me.
I didn’t dare to turn my head to face it, nor could I ignore it and keep walking.
Because the owner of that voice, was the strongest female knight along with the Sword Star.
No, a person whose name would come up even when discussing the strongest swordsmen.
“My name is Reia, a knight serving the First Imperial Princess. I wish to ask you for directions, are you an administrator of Yugrasia?”
She was the Sword Princess, one of my old workplace colleagues.
#16 Their story: A certain villains’ story.
“Damn empire!”
A man swore in the shadows of a dark alley.
Once, just once.
Having realised that the anti-empire army was active in the imperial festival by a stroke of dumb luck, the empire’s response was much too swift.
“Damn it, they blocked off the exits already.”
They were in the middle of the imperial festival, which could be said to be one of the biggest processions in the empire.
Even if it was drawing to an end, there were still many merchants and nobles that sought to enter the capital.
And yet they closed the doors on them without a single word of explanation, except that they couldn’t tell them right now?
If this had happened in any other kingdom, the backlash from the merchants or the nobles would have been fierce, but this Karuan Empire was different.
With just a single sentence that ‘it was an imperial order,’ everyone was reduced to sitting outside the city gates with their mouths clammed shut.
“Damn it…”
He hadn’t expected a tidal wave of all things in a match between students, and in the labyrinth at that, would lead to the current situation, but the anti-empire army’s forces were still powerful.
But even that mighty power could only be used in unison with each other.
Right now, when everyone was getting picked off one by one, even that almighty strength was useless.
“Are there still no orders?”
He’d already been circling around for three hours, yet there were no signs of the anti-empire army’s codes.
“Damn it, shit. At this rate… this is?”
In the eyes of the sighing man, he sighted a familiar scrawl.
The anti-empire’s code.
It might be a simple scribble that could be found in any common alley, but it was in reality a code that any member of the anti-empire army could read.
“Where everything became twisted, everything will be righted.”
The man ruminated over those words.
Where everything became twisted.
That was almost certainly the imperial festival where the students had been.
In that case, did that mean that everything would be righted there as well?
What event were the students in the middle of right now?
“Siege…”
It wasn’t a bad choice. As long as we could secure the students as hostages, we could stage a hostage situation in the middle of the imperial capital behind castle walls, albeit weak and low ones.
Although we couldn’t run away, the exits had already been sealed anyway.
No, even without taking that factor into account, the anti-empire army had resolved themselves to end it here at this very imperial festival.
And so they gathered.
They infiltrated in secret, for the sake of capturing the students as hostages, to tell the emperor that only ever treated them like insects of their existence!
That was how it should have, how it should have gone!
“Die, Nerkiaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
“Block it, block it!”
The expensive magic shield that was supposed to be a precaution against the empire’s magic bombardment was shredded like paper by a single small wooden branch.
“Kgghhh… screw the anti-empire army! Damn it all, give me my life back!”
“Gaagh! You, you little!”
Suddenly some of our allies screamed and began to attack each other.
“How… how is this happening?”
A scene played itself in front of his eyes that failed to comprehend what was happening.
Even his head couldn’t understand the events in front of him now.
As he stood there blankly staring at what was happening before him, where the sword aura of a swordsmaster that not even the anti-empire army had was flying around every which way, and a giant of fire danced around the battlefield, the man couldn’t help but laugh dejectedly.
“What the heck just happened?”
And the moment the man lifted his head.
-Elemental Roar.
A bombardment recreated from the age of myths fell squarely onto his head.
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