The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 109

The trained assassins seldom opened their mouths.

They desperately resisted, but when they finally spoke, their bodies were still bound by additional constraints, and the moment they uttered a fragment of the truth, their brains exploded.

“I couldn’t find out in the end…”

I hadn’t managed to uncover the truth.

I thought about dragging the corpses to the necromancer now, but I figured they would probably demand some annoying price in return, so I decided against it.

As long as I couldn’t reveal the mastermind behind this, the likelihood of raiding the academy would only increase.

I needed to be more cautious.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Yesterday, nine lives were snuffed out inside the academy building, but only three people knew about it at the academy.

Me, who did the killing, Buckingham, who witnessed it, and the headmaster, who vowed to continue the hunting festival even after hearing this. Just the three of us.

Gordon was somewhat right when he said that stopping the hunting festival would only tighten their defenses as they wanted.

That old man seems to think he can act tough just because I’m here…?

But now that we’re at this point, I didn’t want the festival to be stopped either.

Woodville and a few students entered training to bake dough into proper bread.

They were among the few people capable of baking at the academy… They went to ask the cafeteria’s chef and the cafe’s barista for help and decided to learn enough theory and practice to put it to use quickly.

River joined a team with Amy.

Amy’s team, already paired with a senior named Rio who could use earth-element magic, turned out to be quite a strong team with an offensive duo and a magician in the back.

They said it was hard to find a fourth team member.

I suggested Lucia, but she said she would do it alone, and Casey also wanted to go solo… Among the remaining students, most had skills that would only drag the team down, so I didn’t even bother asking.

Three nearby teams left with meaningless vacancies…

Was this some kind of silent protest?

I had to acknowledge everyone’s stubbornness.

——————————————————-

A few students from Class 2 of the third year walked in, spotting Rio trudging along with a shabby bundle of cloth.

“Hey, there’s that beggar passing by.”

“Oh, don’t! The other beggars will think they’re being called.”

At that, a few test students in the same class flinched.

However, Rio, whom they were pointing at, walked past without any reaction.

The students giggling at this reaction were the influential high-tier students of the third year.

They were the unassailable beasts ruling the jungle that was the academy, blessed with good backgrounds and high grades, garnering the professors’ favor.

“So… did she form a team?”

“I guess nobody in the same grade would join her, so they must have grabbed some clueless new student.”

“What a pathetic struggle… so ugly.”

“Why bother? It’s not like leaving the academy means the end of the world.”

Rio was fairly well-known among the third-year students.

But not for good reasons.

A stubborn girl who, despite being a commoner, refused to bow her head easily,

Wandering around in her tattered clothes, always wearing the same worn-out outfit,

Always taking scholarships while eating the worst meals,

All these behaviors were incredibly irksome to the nobles, yet not many students directly bullied her.

This was because she had worked hard on her skills, earning recognition that allowed her to be of use during group projects.

Rio’s existence, deemed a useful tool by the high-performing recommended students, began to deviate from its original path this semester.

This was because Rio had seriously started wanting to aim for first place, not just the top ten.

As the new semester began, she drastically improved her scores in assignments, causing the high-tier students who had previously protected her to turn against her.

“So… do you know who the new students she’s teamed up with are?”

“I’m not some insider; isn’t it enough to just not be one of the five pillars?”

“True… I heard that there are five pillars among the new students participating in this hunting festival? Winning seems unlikely.”

They seemed to comprehend that the five pillars wouldn’t forgive anyone who blocked their path, just as they did towards Rio, who aimed for the best.

Being out of favor with the five pillars made graduation frightening.

“Still, you’ll participate, right?”

“Of course… But if I can’t aim for the win anyway, should I just have some fun?”

————————————

Rio had known since she came of age that the world was unfair, but back then, she believed that if she raised her own value, she could overcome it.

Recently, it seemed like difficulties piled up, leaving her increasingly worn down.

‘So… there are people living like this…’

While barely scraping by on academy scholarships, Rio felt more and more how unreasonable life was.

She had already known that they all stood at different starting points from birth.

The first trigger was when she met Atlas Nemea, the topic of conversation, after teaming up with Amy.

At first, she was terrified to meet him.

He looked cute and handsome on the outside, but she’d already heard so much about him.

She knew Amy was close to him, but preparing herself to meet him required some mental fortitude.

“You’re aiming for victory with Amy, right? I’ll be rooting for you.”

He wasn’t as scary as the rumors suggested.

He smiled often and seemed to get along very well with Amy.

Among the test students, there were even whispers calling Amy the noble’s lapdog, but they genuinely felt like equals… real friends.

Atlas, who wasn’t participating in the hunting festival, seemed to care about Amy a lot, providing her with numerous conveniences.

When it became tough to use even a single practice golem, he just suddenly disappeared and returned with one, saying to use it until the hunting festival…

When they were busy trying to sync up, he would bring a basket full of snacks and drinks for them to take a break.

A training golem was not something students could just take or use freely.

Having participated in the hunting festival multiple times, Rio remembered how last year, the practice area was so crowded that she couldn’t even train properly.

What Atlas casually brought along, the snacks and drinks, were not exactly cheap either.

At least in the three years she’d been at the academy, she had tasted such indulgences fewer than ten times.

And the only time she bought them herself was that one single time… everything else had just been what others had shared with her.

To the nobles, these luxuries might be trivial, but for a commoner like her, saving that money could cover several hearty meals for a family of four.

This time, however… he returned from an outing with a bundle of gifts.

When Atlas revealed a sword, Amy gasped at the blade’s unnaturally white color.

‘R-rare metal alloy…?’

Not just any sword, but one mixed with rare metal.

Given how white the blade looked, the proportion of rare metal… likely mithril, must be quite high.

Seeing someone right in front of her using a weapon made from rare metal, which was worth much more than gold of the same weight, Rio swallowed nervously.

“I thought your equipment looked quite worn out, so I brought some items that might help during the hunting festival. I hope you like them, though I just bought them on a whim.”

As she watched what he pulled out, her eyes widened in disbelief.

He withdrew a short wand and a brooch from his backpack.

The wand, made of sturdy wood, seemed about 30cm long and was slightly twisted in a streamlined design with thin leather wrapped around the handle for better grip.

The silvery brooch, shaped like a monster’s head, had colored stones embedded in the spots of its eyes, and on the back, it had a simple engraved initial.

Rio recognized it immediately.

It was the most expensive “Crescent Wand” she had only ever gazed at from a distance in the store and the “Manticore Brooch,” crafted by the artifact master Deli Premium, designed to amplify magic.

Having seen these items repeatedly over her three-year stay, she could recall what they were made of and their abilities perfectly.

Each one was an artifact that she couldn’t buy even if she saved her entire scholarship until she graduated.

“B-but I can’t pay for such expensive items…”

“Pay for them? I’m just giving them to you as a gift. Come on!”

Atlas smiled as he pushed the wand and brooch into her hands.

“Huh?!”

Holding the wand, she involuntarily let out a breath when a refreshing sensation washed over her.

These artifacts held power that was incomparable to the cheapest wand she had used from the academy’s general store.

Was it really just because she was on the same team as Amy that he was giving away such great items for free…?

“I have more people to give gifts to, so I’ll take my leave now. See you tomorrow.”

“Y-yes! I’ll definitely aim for victory…!!”

With that, Atlas left after handing over the gifts.

Amy was a good kid.

She was kind, obedient, skillful, and even cute.

She respected my words as a poor commoner child.

So that’s how I ended up becoming friends with such a strong person?

Even though Amy was just from the same entrance exam class, why were our circumstances so different?

Was it because, despite her small stature, she was still a noble’s daughter?

From the moment she enrolled at the academy, every day had felt desperate for Rio, and the kindness showered upon her felt overwhelmingly painful.

‘If only… I had friends like that…’

Knowing full well how ugly these thoughts about a teammate were, Rio struggled to suppress the rising feelings of inferiority.