By Zephyria 
I arched one eyebrow. Did he hear it from Polargehen? His sudden remark was as annoying as a rock protruding from the ground, but I decided to put it aside for now.
“Yes. Thanks to that, I almost died.”
“…Almost died…. Is that so.”
Ardian narrowed his eyes thinly. For a moment, I felt a strangely eerie feeling, and I unknowingly swallowed hard.
It feels like a huge monster that I can’t handle with my current self is in front of me. A sense of oppression. It was a sense of oppression.
This guy… is dangerous.
Immediately after, Ardian, who was standing at a distance that was almost touching, taking a step forward, crossing the line.
He stretched out his hand slowly enough for every movement to be seen, but for some reason, I couldn’t avoid it.
Cold sweat flowed. Ardian’s hand then gently cupped my cheek.
“…….”
It’s a sensation that feels cool because it’s slightly lower than my body temperature.
Just as I, who barely blinked my eyes, frowned, he smiled kindly, bending his eyes as if all this taut tension was an illusion.
I don’t know what the identity of the emotion that permeated that gaze is, but it was so deep that I felt an unknown burden.
“I’m glad you’re safe. Really.”
“…….”
“You can’t die in a place where I’m not, Raymond.”
“……?”
“I was glad to see your face before I went back. I was waiting to see your face at least once. But now I’ll be able to see you often.”
“…….”
“I’m looking forward to it. Then, see you again tomorrow.”
The hand that had been stroking my cheek as if caressing precious pottery fell off smoothly.
I didn’t let go of the tension until Ardian passed by my side.
The students who had finished their meal and were coming up the stairs saw Ardian and let out a small exclamation. I heard a commotion, saying that he was handsome, or that he was a prince.
“Huh? It’s Raymond! Why are you standing there like that?”
Tom, who had poked his head out of the lecture hall at a good time, found me and shouted.
With the cheerful voice that refreshed my mind, I then glanced back at the back where Ardian had gone. His figure had already disappeared.
“Why are you spacing out? Let’s go eat lunch quickly too.”
It’s Herman, who came up to my side and touched my shoulder as if hitting it, and Tom, who is crying, saying that he’s hungry and about to collapse. Zeon, as always, was standing one step behind me and was appropriately accepting Tom’s complaints.
“…Okay. Let’s go.”
I followed Herman, who was taking the lead, and tried to calm down the nerves that had become sharp because I was on edge towards Ardian.
I felt incredibly tired for some reason.
☠
After having a satisfactory lunch, we went back to the lecture hall to attend the remaining classes in the afternoon.
It’s a class for the subject called
As you can guess from the name, it was a class that broadly covered overall content related to Fiends.
I had taken the class once on the afternoon of the day the Emperor’s death was announced, so I roughly knew what kind of class it was.
And personally, since it was a class that covered stories I already knew, my interest was somewhat diminished.
“Was what we learned last week about the types of Fiends?”
“Yeah! Today, he said we’d learn in detail about Ramble and Balkan. Oh, come to think of it, the one that attacked during the last practical exercise was Balkan, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, what was it like seeing it in person? Was it… really scary?”
“It was scary. Um. Well… at the time, I really thought I might die. They call Balkan a humanoid Fiend, right? But seeing it in person, it definitely didn’t seem human. Especially the eyes.”
“Ugh… if it were me, I would have fainted as soon as I saw it.”
I yawned, listening to the trivial conversation between Tom and Herman sitting behind me. It was around that time. The sound of the door opening tugged at my nerves, so I glanced over.
A man with messy greenish hair, glasses, and a scraggly, unshaven beard was just opening the door and coming in.
His world-weary expression didn’t seem like that of a teacher, but surprisingly, he was the professor in charge of
He scratched his curly hair as he came in, and as soon as he took out a book from inside his cape, he opened his mouth as if to start the class.
“I’ll continue right after what we did last week.”
“Everyone. Please be quiet.”
Ibelia quiets the children who are still chattering. It was noisy at first, but soon an atmosphere of concentration was created.
He, who didn’t seem to care whether the children were concentrating or not, swept his gaze across the room the moment it became quiet and continued.
“As I said in the last class, Fiends are largely divided into two types. Humanoid Fiends, Balkan, and Amorphous monster, Ramble. And I also explained that they are further divided into six levels according to the difficulty of handling them. From the lowest-level Ramble to the highest-level Balkan. I hope you all have that in your heads? Then, a question.”
Mikael suddenly turns this way. Or rather, it seems to be behind me. Because I heard Tom’s small scream. Even though I can’t see him because he’s behind me, it was as if I could already see what kind of face Tom was making.
“Tom Simyurel. Do you know where Fiends ‘started’?”
When I glanced back, sure enough, Tom was completely pale. Moreover, he clearly had no idea. Eventually, Tom hesitated for a long time, made a tearful face, and answered.
“I don’t know….”
Mikael’s reaction to that was quite a sight.
“I suppose not. I haven’t taught you yet. I wasn’t asking for an answer. It was a story I was going to tell from now on. Well, it wouldn’t be fun if you already knew.”
Whether you should call him unique. It was clear that he was a somewhat strange teacher. Just as Tom was about to sigh, Mikael began to write something on the blackboard and continued.
“The story I’m about to tell… is more of a myth than history. A story called the Genesis Era myth. There’s not enough data to definitively confirm whether it actually happened.”
What he wrote on the blackboard was the word ‘Lafmag’. It was written not in Fusark Language, the common language of the Valhalla Empire, but in runes that humans used hundreds of years ago.
“In the Genesis Era, a mysterious Mana Stone called Lafmag fell to this land from outer space along with ore. The location where the ore fell is the remote island we now call ‘Niflheim’. Ah… and this is a different story, but the Niflheim War was also named after the Fiends inhabiting Niflheim attacked first.”
Mikael drew the land of the Valhalla Empire on the blackboard and a small island below. His drawing skills were quite good, so I could easily understand it without looking at a map.
“Going back. Not long after it fell on the remote island, an evil god called ‘Chaos’ was born from Lafmag… and living things were said to fear it. Some say that Chaos wasn’t originally an evil god, but became an evil god by feeding on the fears of living things.”
I listened attentively to Mikael’s explanation. I was quite knowledgeable about Fiends, but I was interested because I had never heard the story of the Genesis Era myth before.
“Anyway… Chaos disturbed the world, so it was sealed by a human hero who appeared later. As a result, the vast energy that Chaos possessed was scattered into the world, and it is said that this later became the Mana we have today. And at the time of the sealing, darkness fell from Chaos as it resisted and struggled… and the full story of the Genesis Era myth is that this is where Fiends were born.”
Mikael, having finished speaking, took out a Video Orb. When he put his hand on it, a Magic Circle formed and light was emitted from the Video Orb. Soon, a moving hologram video appeared.
“This is a video created by imagining ‘what it would have been like’ based on actual materials.”
In the video that began to play, a black human who appeared to be a hero was fighting a giant darkness presumed to be Chaos with a sword, and a series of scenes of sealing Chaos passed by.
At that time, Mikael, who had been watching the video in silence for a while, added.
“It is said that the human hero used Mana freely. But it was said to have been black. So some say that Gilbert was a ‘descendant of the human hero’ who sealed Chaos. Of course, because Mephisto, who used Black Mana in the same era, also exists, the credibility is low… but it’s an interesting speculation.”
It was another story related to Gilbert.
I slightly twisted my lips.
The guy’s name, which is mentioned at every opportunity, makes me feel uncomfortable. But that also means that the fame of the guy who killed me still has a big impact among humans….
Well. He won against this body, no one else. It’s natural respect. Thinking about that, I could somewhat accept it.
A little later, the class ended.
As Mikael left without any regrets, Tom, who had regained his energy, suggested that I go play with my servants.
But I refused the offer and got up.
“I have something to do.”
“Huh? What do you have to do?”
“It’s about accumulating achievements.”
The next achievement is right around the corner, how can I play?
“Ugh… that’s the same as saying ‘I have to study’.”
Tom grumbles with a very sulky face. Whether he does or not, Zeon got up, saying he wanted to be with me, and Herman, who was watching, also got up and followed.
“Raymond. Wouldn’t you like to go to the quiet Maze Garden? You’ll be able to accumulate achievements without being disturbed.”
“Should I?”
Tom, who was suddenly in danger of being left alone, belatedly whimpered and hurriedly chased after us.
“I, I want to do it together too! Don’t leave me out!”