Chapter 31: Old friends and new rivals (3)

“What are you saying? Can you hear?”

Three members of the golden generation cautiously peeked out, observing the scene.
Marie von Ludenberg, who had finally overcome her drowsiness, asked carefully.

Then, Merlin Mc’Cool, who was using his unique, sensitive hearing, frowned and replied hesitantly.

“Well, um… for now, Professor Anastasia seems to be reprimanding the Saintess.”

“Heh, of all people?”

Marie smirked and rolled her eyes.
Her gaze landed on the back of none other than Assistant Professor Beruz, the root of the duel.

“The Saintess must feel wronged. One person caused all the trouble, and she just got caught up in it and took the blame.”

“Hehe, she also has a responsibility as an observer. Of course, I agree with your opinion, Miss Marie.”

For once, all three of them were in agreement.
Isaiah scoffed inwardly and crossed his arms.

Antiopea had tried to stop the duel from the beginning.
Didn’t she try to intervene by persuading Beruz even after the situation got out of hand?
The problem had only arisen because the assistant professor refused to admit his failure until the end.

‘Well, since he backed down, it should be resolved.’

He was a shameless, stubborn fool, but at least he seemed to have the sense to recognize a stronger opponent.

‘If he had acted like a fearless honey badger, that monster might have even committed murder.’

Isaiah, who was from the wilderness, had seen many honey badgers.

A pitiful creature that was not only violent but also fearless, and had no sense of its own limitations.
Didn’t they pick fights with much larger predators, refusing to back down, and end up shortening their own lives?

For a moment, he had worried that Assistant Professor Beruz might be of the honey badger variety, but fortunately, it seemed to be a groundless fear.

The monster’s anger had far exceeded its threshold.
He had no intention of directly witnessing it after disobeying her instructions.

It was then.

“Huh? Oh, oh? What?”

Merlin, who had been listening intently, was suddenly at a loss for words.
His usually sly, smiling face, which was always composed, was contorted in genuine shock for the first time.

‘What’s going on?’

“What is it, Merlin?”

Marie asked as soon as she sensed his confusion.

“Uh, uh.”

Instead of answering, Merlin began to sweat profusely.
Then, he whispered in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.

“Sh-shouldn’t we get out of here before we’re discovered? So we don’t get caught up in that?”

“Caught up?”

“What? Explain properly.”

“W-well… that is…”

Merlin forced a bitter smile at his two classmates’ interrogation.
Then, with a trembling arm, he pointed his index finger at the assistant professor in the distance.

“A-Assistant Professor Beruz… just talked back to Professor Anastasia.”

“Eh?”

“What?”

He wondered if he had mistaken it, but Merlin’s expression told the truth.
Isaiah, finally grasping the situation, looked at the assistant professor in astonishment.

Had he really lost his mind?
To think of rebelling even after feeling that killing intent?

At this point, Beruz was not just an ordinary honey badger.

‘He’s a king honey badger!’

A man who stood at the pinnacle of recklessness, worthy of being called the king of the honey badgers.

However, unlike the golden generation, who were horrified by the unexpected catastrophe.

‘Who does she think she is, acting so high and mighty?!’

Beruz, who had not yet grasped the atmosphere, was seething with anger, grinding his teeth.

He was already burning with inferiority and jealousy towards Anastasia.
And now, after being humiliated and receiving a scathing remark, he had finally snapped.

How many years had he spent cleaning up after the full professors just to get a foothold in the faculty?
And how much effort and patience had he put in to seize an opportunity as small as the eye of a needle?

‘Is having a lot of magic power everything? Who do you think you are to ignore me?!’

A greenhorn who has no experience or seniority, and is just young!
A barbarian from a backward, uncivilized country where even nobles live in huts!

“Honestly, it would have been fine if Professor Anastasia hadn’t come. There was no need to argue about some strange rule like Article 23.”

“Assistant Professor Beruz! What on earth are you saying!”

It was Saintess Antiopea who got angry on her behalf at the absurd nonsense.
Having been tormented by his stubbornness, she got angry as if it were her own business.

She glared with her blue eyes and shot back calmly.

“The students were almost injured because of your stubbornness! Professor Anastasia had to cancel her class even though it was class time! And you’re still making excuses?!”

“Hmph, excuses?”

Beruz snorted and glared back.
Then, he continued to speak in a voice that was almost a sneer.

“Didn’t I tell you repeatedly? That I would take care of everything as the referee. How can you say it’s an excuse when you didn’t even watch until the end?”

“What did you say?!”

“And class cancellation? I didn’t ask the professor to stop her class and come, did I? It was you, Saintess, who ignored my words and called the professor. It’s not right to blame me for that.”

“Ha!”

Antiopea, unable to reason with him, pinched the bridge of her nose.

She was aware that Beruz and the other assistant professors held a grudge against Anastasia.
But she had expected them to at least vent their anger within the bounds of common sense.

‘This is so tiresome.’

At this point, it felt like she was trying to reason with a chimpanzee or an orangutan, not a human.
It was more of a mystery how such a person had become an assistant professor.

Even she was about to explode with anger, so she couldn’t even imagine how Anastasia herself was feeling.

‘…But.’

Why has the professor been so quiet since earlier?

Even though she was the one who should be the most angry, she remained silent and did not intervene.
She was just standing there calmly, listening to the assistant professor’s sophistry.

“Above all, I was going to make a clear judgment within a few minutes.”

Perhaps taking her silence as a declaration of surrender, Beruz began to speak with an even more blatant attitude.

“Whether it’s the Saintess or the professor, since you’re outsiders, you probably don’t know the ways of the academy. Originally, a duel is not something you stop just because it gets a little rough. If you do that, there’s no point in having a duel, is there?”

“Huh? Is that so?”

“Of course, student Alber. If you stop the fight just because it gets heated, wouldn’t it be difficult for the students to show off their skills? This is all a consideration from the academy.”

“Oh, I see! I didn’t know that! I just thought you were watching in awe of my martial prowess, human!”

Alber, the only one who had been fooled amidst those who were not convinced.
At her extreme simplicity, Princess Kriemhild, who was standing next to her, frowned slightly.

‘…To be on the same level as such a fool.’

Suddenly, she felt a sense of self-deprecation, as if the prestige of the 3rd rank was fading.
Of course, Beruz’s nonsense did not stop even then.

“I had a plan and a thought. But you interfered and said I couldn’t control it, that I was being reckless… Your judgment is too hasty. Isn’t this an abuse of power, Professor?”

‘Disgusting.’

Kriemhild’s impression of the assistant professor who was bluffing.
Although she didn’t show it, she found it hard to endure the nausea rising from within.

She had encountered such petty people many times in the court.
Incompetent, inferior, and worthless, but with all sorts of excuses on their tongues.
Weren’t the scoundrels who had driven her eldest brother Maximilian to ruin, and the flatterers who swarmed around the fool Ferdinand, exactly that type?

‘When he volunteered to be the referee, I thought he might be a useful talent, but…’

As expected, he was an empty shell with no substance.
He couldn’t even be compared to Anastasia, who had won her heart with the same bravado.
It seemed he was not a person she needed to be close to in the future.

‘Well, he’ll probably get another scolding and shrink away.’

As she was thinking that and trying to maintain a neutral expression.

“Is that so?”

The voice of Anastasia, who had finally spoken, was heard.

But compared to before, it was strangely devoid of any inflection.
As if all emotion had died, and she had become a stone on a mountain ridge.

Then, an apology that no one had expected came out of her mouth.

“I apologize for my hasty judgment, Assistant Professor. If you really could have handled it on your own, then it would certainly be my abuse of power.”

“Pardon?”

Beruz, startled by her unexpectedly meek acknowledgment.
But not wanting to miss this opportunity, he deliberately acted confident and began to boast.

“Y-yes. I could have controlled it with my own abilities. Even without the professor’s intervention…”

“Then show me your ability.”

“Pardon?”

Beruz’s mouth, which had been chattering away, closed.

The moment he saw the expression on Anastasia’s face.

“Heuk?!”

He gasped and stiffened.

A cold face showing an extreme lack of expression, literally devoid of any emotion.
But the aura that enveloped her was by no means of an insensitive kind.

A terrifying wrath comparable to the dignity of a grim reaper who had descended upon the world.
It was swirling around Anastasia like a fog.

As he was stepping back at the eerie sight.

“What are you doing, Assistant Professor Beruz?”

Anastasia flicked away the finished lollipop stick and asked.

“I told you to show me. The proof that you really could have handled it on your own.”

“Th-that… Professor…”

Sensing the crisis belatedly, he quickly tried to defuse the situation.
However, before the words he hastily uttered could even end.

“Kuh?!”

He felt a suffocating pressure and collapsed.
It was a pressure so vicious that the strength in his legs gave out in an instant.

Above all, Beruz was not the only one feeling that pressure.

“Kuh?!”

“Th-this is…!”

Not only the unlucky women standing next to him.

“Kuh?!”

“M-my head hurts!”

“W-what on earth is this…!”

The golden generation, who had been secretly observing the situation, were also experiencing the same thing.
It was a mild experience compared to the direct target, Beruz, but it was still intense enough.

‘This is… not the same killing intent as before!’

Isaiah muttered, barely steadying his trembling shins.

Of course, it was a heavy pressure comparable to killing intent.
But Isaiah, with his developed senses, could grasp the subtle difference.

“Pure… mana weight…!”

A pressure given simply by releasing a transcendent amount of magic power, without using any magic or spells.

She was crushing everyone with just the pure difference in their skills, without even the slightest technique.

‘Damn it, this is impossible!’

Is it possible to have this much pressure just by releasing mana?
If they, the golden generation, could maintain their sanity, an ordinary person would have already lost their mind.

And that prediction was very accurate.

“Why are you just sitting there, Assistant Professor?”

“H-heuk…! Heo-euk…!”

Assistant Professor Beruz, who had fallen on his buttocks, his face pale.

Anastasia, who stood tall before him, asked coldly.
Her golden eyes gleamed sharply like those of a beast in the dark.

“Show me your ability. If you can’t even handle this, you won’t be able to stop the Hero and the next Sword Saint.”

“Ugh… heuk!!”

“What have you been doing since earlier?”

“Kuh, heuk… hieek!!”

The friction of the profound magic power felt on his skin.

And the extreme fear given by the woman standing before him.

“Show me that I didn’t have to come all this way for nothing.”

‘M-m-monster!’

Only then did he realize the true gap between himself and Anastasia.
The true value of the new professor he had been secretly looking down on out of inferiority and spite, even after being humiliated by Alber and Kriemhild.

If he were a shrimp, she was a blue whale roaming the ocean.
If he were a low hill, she was a towering mountain that reached the ceiling of the world.

The problem was that he had only realized this after committing an irreversible act.

And while the foolish Beruz was slowly being consumed by mana and twisting.

“Kuh, it feels bad! What is this!”

“Ahaha, this is crazy… Was something like this really possible?”

The three golden generation members who had been watching all this from hiding also trembled and couldn’t hide their astonishment.

Marie, complaining of a headache with her sleepy eyes narrowed.
And Merlin, muttering with a pale, bitter smile.

Seeing his two classmates who had already lost their will to fight, Isaiah silently gritted his teeth.

‘Damn it, is she really crazy?’

Even if she’s angry, to harm a faculty member within the academy?
He didn’t know if she intended to cause physical harm or to break him mentally, but it was clear that the situation was not going well.

‘…Should I stop her even now?’

A thought as he gripped the golden menorah brooch.

If he stood by, Anastasia might completely destroy Beruz.
He didn’t care if the idiot assistant professor became a cripple, but it would be troublesome if he were to be implicated as a bystander or an accomplice.

Whether he liked the place or not, hadn’t he promised his grandfather that he would graduate from the academy diligently?

“Tsk!”

Swish! He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the arm tattooed with incantations, and clicked his tongue.

Although it was a close call, he was the pride of the Midrash people, having achieved the 5th rank.
He might be able to hold her back and calm her down.

The important thing was whether this was a wise decision or not…

‘Damn it! Should I go in or not?’

He was in deep conflict, clenching and unclenching the fist tattooed with the symbol of truth(אֱמֶת).

And because of that urgent and cornered state of mind.

Rumble-!

“Ha, haha… hahaha…!”

Far away from the Peridot Hall where Anastasia was, in a corner of the academy.
A man leaning against a shaded building arch let out a crazed laugh.

The fake George Kapkhan, who had been spying on the entire situation through his clone.
A chilling smile appeared on his mouth, from which green ooze began to flow again.

An unknown warlock professor who had subdued an academy assistant professor with just the release of her mana.

“Al…tra…! Altra…!!”

A gurgling word flowed from beyond the tongue of George Kapkhan, who was staring at this with wide eyes.

“Found you!”