The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 215

“Th-then what kind of weapon is this?”

“That’s a fork for a meat restaurant. It looks scary, but it’s not a weapon.”

“So humans use this to pick up meat…”

“Dragons too… oh wait, no, that’s something used in the kitchen, so you wouldn’t have seen it.”

Gemma continued to stick close to Atlas like a baby bird following its mother.

Whenever she had a question, Atlas answered her.

Despite being clumsy, Gemma was diligently learning about the human world.

The sight of the only daughter of the Dragon Lord being friendly to humans was quite a positive one.

It meant that the future relationship between humans and dragons could improve as well.

However, there were two people who couldn’t just laugh at that.

“….”

“….”

It was Casey and Shaara.

Both pouted in some way and glared at Gemma, who was tightly sticking to Atlas.

It was a wonder that even though Gemma was more than a head taller than Atlas, she was clinging to someone smaller than herself.

She felt bothered by Gemma sticking close while thinking it was none of her business.

“Are you jealous?”

“… No. Not at all.”

“You’re not being honest. I’m jealous.”

Casey, pretending to be uninterested, seemed intrigued by Shaara, who was trying hard not to stray too far from Atlas, and glanced at her openly.

“… What? I’m really not jealous.”

“What a liar. When you’re jealous, this is how you act. It’s a piece of advice from someone who’s watched the longest, so you better pay attention and learn.”

Casey walked in front of Atlas and grabbed him by the opposite arm.

“Uncle. I’m going to clean my weapon, want to join?”

“Right now?”

“Aren’t we leaving soon? So we should do it now. You said there’s no harm in maintaining our gear too much.”

“Yeah. If you say we should, then we should.”

Casey sat down beside Atlas and turned her head back.

Then she stuck out her tongue and moved her mouth in a way that only Shaara could see.

‘You should be honest too.’

While watching the two engage in conversation as they maintained their weapons, Shaara kept her mouth firmly shut.

———————–

The guild quickly prepared the carriage.

“Wow… is this the carriage you mentioned? No, it’s a dragon wagon, right?”

“If we had to classify it, we could say it’s a dragon wagon.”

The carriage wasn’t being pulled by a horse but rather a monster that looked like a large four-legged lizard.

The Drake, nicknamed a dragon that crawls on the ground, looked like a small dragon without wings and flicked its tongue.

It was a pretty large carriage, capable of holding all ten of us, with two Drakes pulling it.

I could really imagine it running at an amazing speed.

“Shhiiik!!”

“Shiiik!!”

As I approached to take the reins, the Drakes threatened me with a hiss.

I raised my aura high and shouted back.

“Craaaack!!”

Startled by my shout, a Drake retreated in surprise.

It turned out showing strength was the easiest way to establish rank among beasts.

“Where do you think you’re showing that attitude? Everyone, get on, we’re leaving.”

“Wow… you’re having a qi conflict with the Drakes.”

“Even a foul-mouthed horse responds well to that. Haven’t you ever tried?”

“I’ve never seen a horse like that…”

“Must have been raised in luxury.”

Cindy said, laughing, as she spoke to Albion.

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The ride in the dragon wagon wasn’t very comfortable.

It rattled and shook, but one thing was sure— it was fast.

Because of that, people like Shaara, who weren’t used to the shaking, were close to passing out, but I helped her get through it, and her complexion got a bit better.

Still, she looked less than great, so she sat next to me on the driver’s seat.

“Hey, get up if you’re feeling better.”

“I don’t know what you mean?”

While watching Shaara sitting on the driver’s seat, Casey peeked her head out from behind and poked Shaara’s head with her finger.

But Shaara acted oblivious, leaning against my arm as if she were dizzy.

“What a fox… I shouldn’t have told you.”

“Hey, it’s dangerous to be hanging out like that.”

The dragon wagon shook with each movement, so it was dangerous to lean out like that.

As Casey grumbled and went back in, I felt Lucia looking at us with envy from beyond the window.

‘We should hurry to the capital.’

After quite some time of travel, I spotted a completely burned village in the distance.

‘Could it be the place the branch manager mentioned?’

My curiosity piqued a bit.

As I contemplated whether to just pass by or take a closer look, someone suddenly popped their face up behind me.

“Atlas..! Can we go there just for a moment?”

It was Amy, who knew demons the best amongst us.

“You’re talking about that charred village, right?”

“Yes..!”

I didn’t know the reason, but for her to say that meant it was definitely something significant.

Still, she was born with the fate of the protagonist after all.

‘It’s better than letting it blow up into something bigger… alright!’

Anything else could be trivial, but if the protagonist suspected something, there must be a reason.

In truth, I think I just wanted someone to back me up on my gut feeling.

“Okay. Then let’s stop by for a bit. Everyone, please understand we’re making a quick stop at that suspicious village.”

“What? We’re going to such a dangerous-looking place?”

“I’m the one holding the reins, so even if you don’t want to go, we’re still going.”

That wasn’t asking for permission but rather notification.

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The burned village was in a state that could only be expressed by that one word.

I didn’t know what caused it, but the entire village was burned uniformly into a pile of ash.

Both the mud-brick houses and the brick buildings were equally turned to cinders.

“This is… what on earth happened here…?”

“The whole village…”

Everyone was horrified at the sight of the devastation.

A massive fire could occur, but this was on a different scale.

It felt like someone brought a huge fireball and evenly set everything ablaze.

“This isn’t that far from the capital; what kind of audacious fool…!”

Edgar was getting all worked up about the unknown criminal.

“This is strange. Very strange.”

“Why did only the buildings burn?”

“… Right. The livestock barns are there, but there are no animals inside.”

“If they burned down the buildings, wouldn’t the animal corpses be all reduced to ashes?”

“The walls are still standing. No matter how you look at it, there should at least be bones left.”

While everyone was seriously analyzing the situation, I quietly slipped away and moved next to Amy.

“Amy. Does your keen interest in this mean it’s related to that?”

“I’m not sure.”

Amy looked up at the metal cross that was on top of the church.

“But… the possibility is high.”

The fact that Amy was particularly attentive meant there was a good chance this incident was related to demons.

I decided to walk around the burned village to look for clues.

“…?”

I sensed something suspicious nearby.

“Where do you think you’re rushing off to!!”

I picked up a blackened stake that had fallen nearby and hurled it in the direction of the suspicious presence.

With the Master’s strength, the stake flew with a vengeful momentum and stuck into the ground.

-Bang!!!

Dust mixed with black ashes flew high into the air as if a cannonball had hit the ground.

The person who was generating that suspicious presence stumbled back in shock at the explosion that erupted in front of him.

“What… what are you doing this for!!!”

“Who are you to be wandering suspiciously in such a dangerous area?”

The man was not exactly pleasant to look at.

He had a severe case of balding, with a large hole from his crown to his forehead, protruding cheekbones, and a bucktooth that made his lower lip protrude even when his mouth was closed.

If you just saw his face at night, you’d think twice about brandishing your sword in fright.

But it was hard to just regard him as a common bandit; he was dressed fairly well.

He looked almost like an imperial official.

The balding man pulled out a royal seal from inside his clothing and shouted.

“How rude! I am Imperial Investigator Frenton…!! What business do you have in this dangerous area?”

Is he really an official?

This could get annoying.

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I realized he was an imperial investigator, but there was no reason for me to bow low to him, so I spoke as usual.

“I apologize for the rudeness just now, but what is an investigator like you doing alone? I nearly killed you thinking you were a bandit.”

“Investigators normally operate in small, elite groups!”

He showed me the seal, and even if he was an investigator from the royal court, I had nothing to be afraid of.

Though he spoke pompously about being an investigator, in reality, he was just a low-level official doing the investigation himself.

As a member of the knights who were also on the royal payroll, I didn’t feel inferior.

I didn’t say that, which must have seemed like some brat disrespecting him.

“What’s this all about?”

Seeing me just toss a stake, the others who had been looking around curiously came over.

Gemma had chased after me and pointed at the investigator, Frenton, as she said.

“Atlas, that person’s hair is weird.”

“That’s not making fun of him for his hair.”

“Atlas, that person’s face is weird.”

“That’s not making fun of him for his looks.”

“Atlas, that person…”

Gemma’s innocent remarks fell like nails into Frenton’s chest.

“Hey!!! How rude!! Who do you think you are to comment on someone else’s face!!!”

Hearing the noise, the rest of our group hurriedly gathered around.

“What’s going on? An imperial investigator?”

“I guess there already was an investigator here.”

“Well, considering there’s been an incident near the capital, the royal court must have sent someone to take action.”

As they saw the blustering investigator and figured there should be one, Frenton’s mood worsened even more because of Gemma’s remarks.

“You lot are suspicious for gathering like this!”

“Us?”

Albion looked astonished at the investigator pointing at him, but at that moment, Shaara stepped forward.

“Say that again. Who do you think is suspicious?”

Shaara glared at Frenton, who was accusing us, with intense eyes.

“Of course, it’s suspicious! What are you all doing wandering around in such a dangerous area? You didn’t miss the ‘No Entrance’ sign up front, did you?”

“Where exactly did you put it?”

“At the entrance of the village to the north!!”

But we came back from the south.

“What kind of grand title do you hold to speak to us like that in front of Prigia? Are you perhaps the Minister of Internal Affairs?”

“Prigia…?”

Frenton froze for a moment.

After a brief thought, he quickly bowed and shouted loudly.

“It turns out you are a child of the Golden Ball! No wonder you carry yourself with such grace! I, Frenton, eat the royal court’s food and will always be indebted to your esteemed family!!”

Though he wrapped it up in flowery language, it was a plea for forgiveness for his previous rude behavior.

But today, Shaara, who looked less than pleased, didn’t seem inclined to forgive him at all.

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“That’s enough, Shaara.”

“… You should count yourself lucky.”

Since I was curious about the investigation, I told her to stop, and reluctantly, Shaara did.

“Whoo… Whoo….”

Frenton’s already wide forehead from his balding had turned even darker with soot.

“Out of curiosity, how much of the investigation has been done here? Did you find any clues about who did this?”

He looked resolved to provide information on the investigation, furrowing his brows.

“The investigation details cannot be disclosed recklessly to outsiders…”

“Should I call Prigia?”

“I will share the details fully.”