The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 79

Morgan quickly completed the coordinate calculations but didn’t teleport directly to that location.

“Isn’t it suspicious that such a big commotion is being handled so carelessly? This must be a trap!!”

It made sense.

In fact, it was a commonly used method.

But I was in too much of a hurry to waste time pondering that, so I memorized the location and used the space jump continuously.

The scenery whirled by like a fast-forward tape, and the place I arrived at was a desolate wasteland.

It wasn’t a trap, but the traces ended there.

“If I had known it would be like this, I should have just brought the Principal along.”

Had they flown from this point, or had they used continuous teleportation? There were no signs of travel on foot.

While I contemplated whether to use tracking magic, I felt a strong pulsation of power deep within me.

Focusing on the pulsing power, I could sense another pulse emanating from a different location.

The hot, golden energy… it wasn’t familiar, but I could guess its source.

“… There you are.”

Upon arrival, the first thing I saw was undoubtedly an altar created by the Demon Church and a man wearing a thick robe who appeared to be a member of the Demon Church.

“Who are you… huff?!”

The robed man tried to speak as I suddenly appeared right in front of him, but as soon as I laid eyes on him, I could tell he was from the Demon Church, so I quickly cut off his head.

The thick robe was cut, and blood was supposed to splash everywhere, but only dark magic energy sprayed out.

As expected, he was from the Demon Church.

Feeling the presence of River, I rushed towards the location, so there had to be at least some traces nearby.

Looking around, I spotted a Sword Master raising his sword toward River.

I grabbed the Squirette from my back and blocked the attack.

“Oh… who are you?”

The Sword Master, seeing me parry his blade, sneered.

I could feel the energy pouring into his sword intensifying.

It seemed he was intending to crush me with pure strength, but I managed to hold my ground, bracing with one hand.

“?!”

His face began to harden as he realized I wasn’t going down despite his onslaught.

Nevertheless, I didn’t pay him any mind and shifted my gaze toward River.

“Atlas?”

River’s expression was one of disbelief, as if she had seen a ghost.

It was no wonder; I had just appeared in front of her without warning.

Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and blood was flowing from a gash on her forehead.

Aside from that, she had no other visible injuries, but it was clear her heart was hurt.

In that moment, River looked more pitiable than I had ever seen her before.

Seeing her in such a pitiful state caused me to instinctively stroke her hair.

“Let’s go back.”

“How… No, why are you here…?”

With the realization that I was indeed real, River wore a despairing expression.

I couldn’t understand what had transpired between them.

At first, she had refused my involvement, claiming it was simply a matter of her family.

She believed it would be better for everyone to let it flow as it was.

To someone like me, who had abandoned all ties to my family, I had no words for River, who was trying to uphold her responsibilities.

But not anymore.

Even though I didn’t know the full circumstances between them, one thing was certain.

The Sword Master had threatened River and resorted to violence.

He had attacked others, and those close to me had suffered because of it.

No matter the circumstances, nothing was more important than that.

With a face that looked like she might burst into tears at any moment, River grasped my hand.

“Don’t, Atlas… You’re strong, but the opponent is different! They aren’t the Academy students you could easily take down… They’re a Master! Why are you here?”

“I said I would take responsibility. Do you think I took that lightly?”

The pressure exerted by the Sword Master loosened.

– Clap, clap, clap!

The Sword Master, who had been trying to kill me with sheer force, gave up and began clapping.

“Impressive… Are you trying to imitate a knight who has come to rescue a captured princess? What a delightful age to indulge in such fantasies, young people are lucky.”

After clapping heartily, the Sword Master shifted to a serious tone.

“From the atmosphere, it seems you’ve taken my fiancée’s purity… And in just one night! I was about to deal with you anyway, and here you are, saving me the trouble.”

“How did you find out? Are you really out here judging people’s virginity while wandering around with a unicorn horn or something??

At your age, if you got engaged to someone more than 60 years younger than you, you should just be thankful instead of fixating on virginity.”

What his plans were, I didn’t know, but he was sickening me with his obsession over a young girl’s virginity at his age.

The Sword Master smiled with a stiff face and raised his sword again.

He was trying hard to act calm, but it was obvious he was on the verge of exploding with anger.

“You’ve ruined my plans that I’ve waited decades for… So, this is it.”

“Yeah, it’s me. Your fiancée was amazing.”

“You… what are you talking about!!”

At my words, River’s face flushed red.

But her color was nothing compared to the horrifying expression on the Sword Master’s face.

I swung the Squirette and severed the chains binding River’s hands, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her close.

She buried her face in my chest and glared at the Sword Master.

“She’s too precious a girl for an old man like you.”

“Uh… huh??”

As I tightened my grip around her waist, River’s face turned red, quite a change from moments ago when she had been on the verge of tears.

If I were taller, she would fit snugly against my chest, making for a better picture, but at the very least, I succeeded in provoking the Sword Master.

It seemed that rage surged all the way to the top of his head.

“… You seem eager to die.”

The Sword Master drew his sword again.

He walked toward me without using any aura, similar to the demeanor I had seen in duels at the Academy.

He seemed to be saying he didn’t need to unleash his aura against someone like me.

But more than that, the bigger issue was that using his aura would make it harder to hit me due to the increased distance.

“Given this issue, you’ve clearly found me untrustworthy.”

At this point, River had accepted the fact that we were past the point of no return and lowered her head.

Perhaps believing that I was dragging them both into a dead end, she sighed in resignation.

“Yesterday, I said I would return right away after finishing my work… That man is terrifying, but if I mention it, you would get angry and fight again… it’s like telling you to go die… How do I say it…”

“Yeah, I brought this upon myself… So I’ll prove it to you from now on.”

A brutal smile spread across the Sword Master’s face, who had initially considered slowly killing me with his sword.

He seemed to invite me to try my luck against him, so I simply re-strapped the Squirette to my back and raised my fists.

Seeing my tightly clenched fists, the Sword Master laughed.

The fact that I was unarmed and had closed the distance meant I was practically begging for death.

“From now on, I’m going to smash that old coot. Then, you’ll trust me.”

“Wha?!”

River was startled by my bare-handed charge, but my body was already in motion.

I lunged, throwing a punch, and the Sword Master reacted by swinging his sword.

My punch was set to slice right through before it ever hit his body.

– Space Jump!

But with just one step forward, I found myself right in front of the Sword Master.

My punch was already on a trajectory toward his face.

“??”

The Sword Master’s expression showed disbelief, unable to comprehend what he was witnessing.

But by the time he realized it, it was already too late.

– Thwack!!!

My right fist smashed into Sword Master Adolf Roang’s nose.

“Gah?!”

His head snapped back violently.

While my demeanor during duels was similar to the Sword Master’s current posture, there was a colossal difference between us.

It was the matter of whether or not the opponent could accurately gauge the skill of the person before them.

I knew full well that my opponents only had ‘Expert’ level skills and adapted my strength accordingly, but the Sword Master had treated me with utter disdain, not even recognizing I was a Master right in front of him.

Now I understood why the Commander had been crushed.

Even set aside the fact he was angry and couldn’t analyze his opponent properly, I was equally as furious—but when I saw the traces left on River’s body, it was hard to maintain my composure.

The moment I saw the blood trickling from her forehead, it felt as if my own blood boiled.

I was furious.

I felt like beheading him right then and there, but that wouldn’t be enough to cool my anger.

At the very least, I needed to pound his face in until it looked completely mangled for my anger to begin to subside.

“…!!!”

The Sword Master, whose head had been jerked back, regained his stance quickly due to his experience, but my next punch was faster than he could correct himself.

– Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

My fists relentlessly targeted his face repeatedly.

The Sword Master struggled to escape but no matter how he adjusted his posture, the teleportation kept my distance from expanding, causing his face to be bombarded by my fists.

“This… is so cocky!!”

“?!”

When the Sword Master yelled, veins bulging at his neck, I suddenly felt an overwhelming weight pressing down on me.

It felt like five boulders were placed on my shoulders.

It wasn’t crushing, but the relentless barrage had granted him sufficient opportunity to regain his footing.

“Ugh!!”

In that brief moment, the Sword Master recovered and swung his sword again.

I dodged back, narrowly escaping as his sword grazed under my chin.

“You… who exactly are you?”

The heaviness that had weighed down on me kept intensifying, but it was within my capacity to endure.

The pressure had become so strong that the ground was start to crack, yet I remained steadfast.

Was this the power he had mastered as his own law?

‘… Something feels off…?’

Though it was a formidable power, for a Master, something just didn’t add up.

With a suspicious look, I stared him down.

After taking several hits, the Sword Master’s eyes no longer held a condescending gaze directed at me.

His neatly groomed mustache and hair were in disarray, and his nose was broken, blood flowing freely, while the inside of his mouth was also torn, making blood ooze out.

Fortunately, he hadn’t sustained any bruises around his eyes, leaving him with a somewhat funny appearance.

His demeanor was now entirely different from before.

Seeing the once terrifying Sword Master in such a disheveled state caused River to look at me in astonishment.

Her reaction was so cute that it made me chuckle.

“You can’t still not realize it… what do you want me to say?”