Academy’s New Guard is Unusual - Chapter 41
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 41
I’d attempted to beat the game countless times, only to fail each time.
The reason was simple.
‘Evangeline is a washout.’
Evangeline was a scatterbrained mess. The slightest thing going wrong would set her off like a firecracker.
Once, she’d taken the role of team lead on a group project, and the pressure got to her so badly she simply vanished.
She was eventually expelled, and it was game over.
Of course, having been through university myself, I understood how she might have felt. But still—disappearing just because she was made team lead?
It was absurd, yet it could happen again. I needed to prepare in advance.
‘I should build rapport with the Teaching Assistants.’
The fate of the world hung in the balance. This wasn’t the time to be picky about methods.
Just then, three men in neat Teaching Assistant uniforms blocked my path.
Their uniforms screamed Teaching Assistant, but their demeanor reeked of back-alley thugs. These must be the ones Nora had warned me about.
“Oh, a Hazing Ritual?”
“Ugh. Bad memories…….”
Milo squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
One of the men stepped forward.
“I’m Teaching Assistant Belmen. You’re Grave, right?”
“That’s right. Let me pass.”
“Wait and follow—what?”
“Let’s just go.”
When I moved forward without hesitation, the man who’d introduced himself as Belmen looked taken aback. He quickly hardened his expression and spoke again.
“Follow me.”
“I said I got it. Let’s hurry. I’m busy.”
“What……. Just follow!”
Belmen, who’d hesitated for a moment, turned on his heel and walked with exaggerated purpose.
The other men surrounded us on all sides.
“How gracious. Getting an escort and everything.”
I threw out a joke, but the tense atmosphere didn’t ease.
Belmen led us underground. There were a few Security Guard Corps members along the way, and Belmen warned them in a low voice.
“Don’t pull any funny business. Unless you want to keep your job as a guard.”
Ironic. That’s what I wanted to say to them.
The basement of the Main Building housed an indoor training hall. Magic and Dark Magic were loud, so the space was soundproofed without compromise.
Perfect for a Hazing Ritual.
Belmen led us to the training hall at the far end. Normally, Security Guard Corps members should have been stationed there, but none were visible—apparently cleared out ahead of time.
“Thorough preparation. Impressive.”
“What? Quit yapping and get in!”
Belmen shoved me inside.
Inside was a sprawling training hall, as expected.
Four more men were there. All of them had a sinister air about them.
My eyes narrowed slightly.
“That’s all of you? Seven total?”
“……What?”
“Just seven? That’s it? Nothing more?”
“What the hell are you saying! Shut up and get to the center!”
“Disappointing though. Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and headed toward the center. Milo took a position beside me with an odd expression.
“Looks like this is the Teaching Assistant Hazing Ritual.”
“Seems that way.”
“Stupid bastards. They should at least size up their target first.”
“Right? That’s what I’m saying.”
When I stared at them, Milo gave a small cough and looked away.
Then a man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward. His face was familiar.
“I’m Hans, Teaching Assistant to the Knight of Radiance, Professor Rocksveil.”
Hans was a fairly significant figure for a Teaching Assistant—precisely because he was an instructor to the Knight of Radiance.
In the game, he’d had a good image. I hadn’t expected him to be involved in something so sordid.
“Nice to meet you, then.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Carry on.”
Hans looked at Belmen beside me with disbelief written across his face.
Belmen pointed his finger at his temple and made a spinning motion. Hans burst out laughing.
“So the Security Guard Corps thinks it can act high and mighty as Teaching Assistants. Who knew the guy was this crazy.”
“Security Guard Corps?! What’s wrong with the Security Guard Corps?!”
Milo shouted loudly. Hans squinted at him.
“Who’s this?”
“It’s Milo from Group 42!”
“Why’d you bring him along?”
“Well…… he just followed us?”
Belmen scratched his head as he answered.
I raised my hand slightly.
“Continue. You got up to ‘Security Guard Corps.'”
“You bastard!!”
Hans couldn’t help but shout. In the game, he was always chuckling away, so I hadn’t known he had a temper. This was probably his true nature.
Likely the real him.
“Teaching Assistants require at least graduation from the Academy. How can a mere guard even think of becoming a Teaching Assistant! It’s a disgrace to the values of Elysium Academy, which strives for excellence in education!”
Exactly! The other men voiced support for Hans’s words. They looked like they were staging a protest.
I raised my hand slightly again. Hans glared at me and asked.
“What?”
“The preamble’s long. Get to the point.”
“……What?”
“Just state your main point.”
“What kind of lunatic—fine, I’ll spell it out for you. Give up being a Teaching Assistant. Do that, and we’ll let you live.”
“I refuse.”
“Ha, you think we’re joking? Lock the door.”
Thud! The door locked with a heavy sound.
“So it was a Hazing Ritual after all.”
“Seems like it. Tsk tsk, stupid fools.”
“This isn’t a hazing—nobody recognizes you as a Teaching Assistant! This is your funeral!”
“Oh, a funeral then. My condolences.”
I made the sign of the cross, and Milo followed clumsily behind me.
Hans scoffed in exasperation.
“You counting on the Security Guard Corps? Don’t bother calling. They won’t come. We cleared them out already.”
“Well done.”
“What?”
“Good work. Very well done indeed.”
I even applauded, and the Teaching Assistants laughed in disbelief.
Hans looked fed up.
“Words won’t work. Tsk.”
Hans gestured, and the remaining Teaching Assistants moved forward.
“Wait.”
I raised my hand again.
“So, we’re clear on the situation now?”
“Actually, I just need to confirm one thing. There are no Security Guard Corps members nearby, right?”
“None. Not just guards—nobody will be able to help you.”
“Excellent. But I do have one point to make.”
“……?”
“That door. Isn’t it locked? What if I just run at it and push my way out?”
“Hey! Lock that door!”
I spun around and made as if to run. Hans yelped in alarm and shouted. The Teaching Assistant by the door frantically wrapped it with an iron chain.
It was a bit sloppy, but it would hold.
“Anything else to say?”
Hans, composure regained, asked with a sneer.
“Nothing. Let’s begin.”
“Begin what?”
“Senior education.”
I picked up a Security Baton lightly as I spoke. “Oh no—” Milo grabbed his head, complaining of a headache.
“I’m counting to three. If you lie down flat before I finish, I’ll go easy on you. One.”
“What? You’re completely insane. You haven’t grasped the situation at all. Even if one security guard disappears, it won’t matter much at Elysium Academy.”
Hans smiled wickedly and continued his boasting.
I smiled back at him and said.
“Three.”
I hurled the Security Baton straight at him. Hans didn’t see it coming and couldn’t react.
The baton lodged itself in Hans’s face, and yellow teeth went flying through the air. Without any command, Milo bolted for the door.
He caught the baton mid-air and swung it down.
Whack! A satisfying sound rang out as the Teaching Assistant next to him had his arm bent at an unnatural angle.
Hans’s eyes trembled violently.
Only now realizing something was wrong, Hans shouted urgently.
“G-Guard!!”
I corrected my grip on the Security Baton and replied.
“Did you call?”
Hans looked between my uniform and my face, and despair bloomed across his features.
* * *
Teaching Assistants typically had three career paths.
The first was to accumulate experience and become a professor at Elysium Academy. But becoming a professor there required both immense talent and luck, making it difficult.
Teaching Assistants who failed to become Elysium Academy professors usually pursued the second option: becoming a professor at another academy.
Given Elysium Academy’s tremendous prestige, simply building Teaching Assistant credentials made it easy to land a professorship elsewhere.
But if that failed too, they typically resigned. Staying at the Academy afterward felt deeply awkward.
Edgar had failed to become an Elysium Academy professor and had also failed to become a professor elsewhere, yet he hadn’t resigned and had endured.
This earned him the mocking nickname “Head Instructor.” But Edgar actually spoke the name himself without shame.
As time passed and even the Teaching Assistants who once called him Head Instructor left, Edgar was finally able to become the real thing.
Of course, it wasn’t an official position.
Head Instructor Edgar didn’t like how things were going at the Academy lately.
‘They say the number of students has increased, but is it right to hire Teaching Assistants so carelessly? And the quality of the Teaching Assistants is declining—what are we supposed to do about that? Ugh, tsk.’
And now they were trying to make a Security Guard Corps member a Teaching Assistant.
Using those uneducated louts as Teaching Assistants—
It was absolutely unacceptable.
“How’s the education going?”
“Hans just took some of the stronger ones and left.”
At the mention of Hans’s name, the creases in Edgar’s brow relaxed slightly.
Hans was an Elysium Academy graduate and a Teaching Assistant to the Knight of Radiance. If he simply built up his Teaching Assistant credentials, he’d become a professor without issue—an elite among elites.
So Hans was making a move.
“Whoever this guy is, he’s going to get thoroughly beaten.”
Edgar smiled with satisfaction.
* * *
“So, Hans, was it?”
“Woof!”
“The Head Instructor sent you?”
“Woof woof!! Woof woof!!”
Hans barked very intensely. His barks were so plaintive you could feel the anguish.
“Can we get the Head Instructor to come here?”
“Arooooo!”
“You’re allowed to speak.”
“Woof! The H-Head Instructor is very cautious, so he won’t move recklessly!”
“Annoying. Tsk.”
When Grave clicked his tongue, all the Teaching Assistants shuddered in unison.
“We’re sorry!!”
Hans desperately bared his belly and whimpered frantically.
‘Is it okay to beat Teaching Assistants like this?’
Milo, who had been genuinely worried, suddenly realized something.
‘Well, they can’t report it.’
There weren’t even any injuries to show, so how could they report anything?
In fact, they probably wouldn’t even think of reporting.
How could they explain that they’d ganged up on a newcomer and gotten the stuffing beaten out of them instead?
Having experienced it himself, Milo was certain.
They were definitely hit, but there was no evidence and no way to report it.
That was the truly terrifying part about Grave.
“Tsk, report that the education was conducted properly.”
The education had certainly been conducted.
The problem was the direction it took—
“Woof woof woof! Woof woof!!”
“Grrrr! Bark bark!”
“Meow!!”
Which had gone considerably off track.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————