The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 153

It feels like I’m sinking into a deep, dark sea.

My body can’t move freely, so I’m just being dragged down.

Every time I plunge into the deep darkness, memories from the past come flooding back.

<You, with your declining physical ability, need to work twice as hard as others. Get up.>

Unpleasant memories I’d buried in the darkness resurfaced.

<Don't even dream about stepping outside the mansion. If you go out, everyone will just point fingers at you. I'm afraid of what others might whisper behind your back about being smaller than your younger sibling.>

I couldn’t get a proper look at my father’s face, which always loomed down from a much higher place.

I can’t recall any details of what his expression was.

Was he enjoying himself? Or did he find me pathetic? Was he angry? Or was he sad?

His voice was devoid of emotion, making it impossible for me to judge.

From that moment on, I could only think about wanting to break those towering legs of his and see eye-to-eye.

“Are you okay…?”

“… Yeah.”

When I opened my eyes, Amy was looking at me with a worried expression.

The dark sea I was submerged in, along with my father’s cold voice, was nowhere to be seen anymore.

I was still lying in the hospital room, suffering from a high fever.

I must have been sick again, leading to another strange fever dream.

“You said you were okay.”

“That’s about right, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not okay.”

“I just had some internal injuries while treating my external wounds.”

“That’s a huge deal…! Someone at Atlas’s level could easily die from a relapse if they’re not careful…”

Amy sat beside my bed, scolding me.

It felt like I’d flipped positions from when she was in the hospital before.

“Do you know how worried I was when you didn’t come out in the morning? That ‘I’m okay’ you said yesterday was a lie, right?!”

“No… I thought I’d be fine…”

To be honest, I had suspected this would happen from the start.

“Today, I’m in charge of your care, so just let me know if you need anything.”

Saying this, Amy wiped the sweat off my forehead with a towel.

A quick glance around showed that others were nowhere to be seen.

I remembered that Lucia had come in first, followed by Amy and River.

“Did everyone else leave?”

“I won at rock-paper-scissors.”

Amy’s answer sounded a bit absurd.

“Rock-paper-scissors?”

“It’s because only one person can stay in the hospital for caring purposes each day, so we decided the order by playing rock-paper-scissors.”

“Is that how it is?”

Now that I thought of it, only one person could stay in the hospital at a time.

“Looks like we said to go out and talk, but this is how it turned out… I haven’t told anyone about our fall into hell, right?”

“Not yet.”

“Good. Just leave it for now. If it gets out, they’ll start making a fuss about investigating that mansion again.”

“If they know, get better quickly.”

“Yeah… Once I recover, I’ll have to demolish the mansion where the traps are set.”

“Can’t you just take a break instead of thinking about work?”

“Work? Thinking about building a new house is basically playing.”

I remembered the other person who had escaped hell with me.

“What about Hulan?”

“The Master suddenly showing up has caused quite a stir at the Academy. He seems to just want to look around but is causing a ruckus everywhere.”

The Master that McKinto had longed for.

I wanted to keep him around until the summit meeting.

…

Even with dulled senses from the fever, I could feel a sharp presence.

I heard the cold sound of metal grinding in the quiet hospital hallway.

There were more than one of them.

“…Amy.”

“I hear it too. Who on earth is making a scene in the hospital…?”

– Bang bang bang!!

The door swung open violently, and holy knights rushed in.

Five fully armored holy knights barged into my hospital room and surrounded me in an instant.

“Atlas Nemea! We arrest you on the suspicion of heresy!!”

“What is the meaning of this?!”

As the knights stormed in, Amy stood in front of me to protect me, glaring at them.

I held her hand, ready for a fight.

“… Let’s hear what’s going on first.”

“But saying Atlas is heretic… that’s absurd!”

‘You had misunderstandings before too.’

I nearly blurted that out but held back.

In this situation, talking was meaningless.

The holy knights and Amy, in a way, were on the same side, and clashing needlessly would only escalate things.

They wouldn’t charge in here without thinking, so it seemed wise to hear them out first.

One of the holy knights stepped forward, approaching me while withdrawing a white bundle from his pocket.

He opened it, showing me its contents.

“You won’t claim you don’t know what this is, found in your room!!!”

In his hand was a horn belonging to Asmodeus, a trophy he brought back from hell.

The horn, separated from its owner, was still emitting a dreadful amount of magic energy.

“Well, that’s kind of easy to misunderstand.”

I must have forgot to seal that after collapsing right upon entering the dormitory.

—————————

After Atlas was taken away, the male dormitory was turned upside down.

The holy knights began searching a student’s room.

Every now and then, they felt suspicious auras from students and checked their possessions, but this was the first time they rummaged through the dormitory rooms.

Three holy knights didn’t search the room meticulously.

That was because they immediately found something very suspicious on the floor.

It was an object presumed to be a devil’s horn.

The location of the discovery was the issue.

The horn, saturated with dense magic energy, was discovered right in Atlas’s room, the new student in the fire department.

“I knew it! That guy doesn’t make sense!!”

The student who had previously lost a leg to Atlas trembled as he spoke.

“What does this mean? Was everything a result of the devil’s power?”

“It seemed like his character was too cruel, but if he was a devil…”

Coincidentally, he was hospitalized and couldn’t react at all.

It wasn’t clear whether he was genuinely worshipping a devil or had made a contract, but the rumors of the demonic horn found in his room spread from person to person, growing larger…

“What? A new student is a devil?”

By the end, the story had taken an entirely different turn.

It wasn’t surprising that everyone was confused.

The newspaper club, which should have sorted out matters like these, had completely stepped back from anything related to Atlas.

Word may not travel far, but his body had turned out like a chimera.

—————————

The holy knights brought a stretcher for me, who had agreed to undergo the investigation.

It was said that I could move now after treatment, but taking even a single step was still quite the trial, so I couldn’t help it.

I should just be thankful they weren’t dragging me away.

As the holy knights tried to take me away, Professor Praha burst out of the laboratory and blocked the knights’ path.

“What kind of rudeness is this towards my patient? Is it acceptable for holy knights to treat a patient this way?? You can’t discharge him before he’s even recovered.”

“We’ll send him back after a brief investigation. Please cooperate.”

“Cooperate? What guts do you have to do this in a hospital? I’ll formally protest to the Church Country if you don’t return my patient to the hospital.”

Though they insisted it was a vital matter that needed to be done quickly, Professor Praha didn’t seem to trust them.

As the professor threatened, the surrounding mana resonated.

The mana began to harmonize in response to the elf’s anger, who held a strong affinity for mana.

Nico Praha might be easy to confuse since she spends all her time in the lab, but she is an elf with physical specs several times stronger than the average human.

“… Professor, just let me go and come back quickly.”

“Are you sure it’s okay??”

“What could they possibly do…?”

I told Professor Praha to stop.

I didn’t want to create a ruckus since I was in poor health, and I was standing firm without anything to feel guilty about.

The devil’s horn was evidence of defeating Asmodeus, not proof of devil worship.

“Still no. The patient isn’t in a state to be investigated yet, so at least wait until he’s recovered before coming back.”

“That’s right! How can you investigate when he can’t even awaken properly and suddenly loses consciousness…!! Absolutely not!”

But Professor Praha said it boldly without a hint of hesitation, and Amy joined in as well.

Regardless of my statements that I was okay, Amy was visibly upset about them taking me away, looking like she might cry at any moment.

“If this keeps up, we’ll really start fighting… Both of you stop. I’ll be back soon.”

With that, I was taken away by the holy knights.

…

I was carried on a stretcher to the Church.

It wasn’t surprising, but the basement of the academy church had an interrogation room dedicated to the Inquisition.

I must have looked really bad.

At least I could lay on a folding bed in the investigation room.

The fever still hadn’t subsided.

The headache and fever were obstructing rational thought.

I had to regulate the internal state to recover quickly, but things weren’t going as well as I hoped.

Though not as comfortable as the hospital, it felt decently alright to rest on the folding bed while I slowly breathed and tried to regulate myself when the door opened.

A man who looked like a holy knight walked in.

He was clad in heavy armor, but I could tell he was rather thin for a knight just by the shape of his face and hands.

Puffed up by his authoritative armor, he sat in front of me.

“I’m Holy Knight Hem, in charge of the investigation. You don’t want to be here long, right? So let’s wrap this up quickly.”

Holy Knight Hem grinned.

He seemed eager to finish quickly, but my resolve was solid.

“I don’t have anything to say to you, so please call the Saintess.”

I had no remarks for a lowly holy knight.

I would undergo the investigation but only if they brought their highest authority.