The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 367

Although the title is grand, the Imperial Investigator is essentially a civil servant affiliated with the royal family.

The source of his strength lies in the robust authority of the royal family he’s backed by, and to properly leverage that, he must prove the legitimacy and necessity of his actions.

Suddenly, forces appeared that undermined the legitimacy of his mission, placing significant constraints on the Imperial Investigator’s actions.

If those workers were just a band of thieves, he could simply obliterate them all under the Imperial Orders.

However, the reason Albert was hesitant to act was the existence of the ‘Shadow’ behind them.

The emergence of the Shadow, who is known to only heed the Emperor’s direct commands and whose identity is known solely to the Emperor, suggests that there may have been some shift in the royal family’s stance since he received his mission.

Or perhaps the Shadow had already discussed matters with the Emperor separately?

If he moved incorrectly, it could go against the Emperor’s will, so all Albert could do for now was contact various people to assess the situation.

“Alright… first, let’s confirm the facts. But until that’s done, we shouldn’t provoke them either.”

Yet, it wouldn’t do to let them ruin the precious specimens carelessly.

Were the Shadows they mentioned real? And even if they were, had the royal family’s intentions truly changed?

No matter how much they claimed to have come on the Shadow’s request, if the royal family’s wishes remained unchanged, he couldn’t let them tamper with the site.

Let’s keep the situation frozen until answers come in.

With that thought, Albert stood up suddenly, while someone watching from a distance thought to themselves.

‘That guy’s really messed up.’

—————————-

As soon as day broke, Amy gathered people.

It wasn’t something she could keep to herself, and she thought it would be best if those who knew that Atlas was frequently killing demons were informed.

Since she had no clear grasp of how many such individuals had already entered the Academy, the more people who knew, the better.

In total, Amy summoned four people.

She called River, Gemma, Casey, and Lucia, but six had gathered in total.

Lucia had brought along Shaara, whom she had called separately.

“Me? Oh, don’t mind me. Just think of me as not here and feel free to talk.”

A woman with beautiful ebony hair, reminiscent of ebony wood, had arrived, who was unknown to most present.

Though they weren’t sure who she was, based on her attire, which was the uniform of the Royal Knight Order, they could only speculate that she was an acquaintance of Casey.

Why she was brought was a mystery.

It was not that she was brought; she had simply blended into the group quite naturally when they weren’t looking.

“Who is that…?”

“She’s my Master’s student.”

Though it was a very simple explanation, it was sufficient.

In truth, there were many more titles attached to her, but even without hearing them, knowing that Atlas had taken her as a student held tremendous significance.

However, Shaara wasn’t entirely satisfied even with that answer.

“Still, it feels odd to bring someone who most of us don’t know. You said we were going to discuss something important.”

“She’s someone dispatched to assist my uncle and one of the people he trusts most, so there’s no reason for her not to hear.”

Most were inclined to believe that if Casey vouched for her, it must be fine, but Shaara continued to wear a dissatisfied expression.

It seemed like she was uncomfortable with the arrival of deeper connections that had more ties to her than herself.

Regardless of Shaara’s feelings, Wendy smiled brightly and addressed the others gathered.

“Everyone who’s here is gathered for the sake of my insufficient disciple, right? I really appreciate it.”

Breaking the uneasy atmosphere, Amy continued with her original purpose.

“Things got a bit weird, but I’ll continue with what I was saying. Someone attempted to foul up the gates of the mansion Atlas built twice—once in the morning and once late at night yesterday.”

Upon hearing that Atlas’s mansion was attacked, the atmosphere grew quite tense.

Everyone was so focused on the sickness that they hadn’t realized the mansion was under threat.

“The first time they struck while everyone was gone, but we caught the culprit the second time… and it turned out he was possessed by a demon. Upon interrogation, he said someone in Hell had put a bounty on Atlas, and many demons know about it.”

“They’re targeting him, huh…?”

“The fact that he’s being targeted by Hell means he’s grown quite a bit.”

The idea that demons had begun to set their sights on a person was extremely chilling.

Even a weak demon could easily possess a human body and manipulate their thoughts.

Being targeted by such demons meant that a person could suddenly find themselves betrayed by someone without any prior enmity.

“In fact, we’ve intercepted movements to take revenge on Atlas by individuals who were harmed by the fake Atlas incident. They say this is the perfect time to act since he’s too weak to receive visitors.”

“Is there a possibility on that front?”

“We’ll need to capture him to find out. Right now, things are just circling around; no one is actually acting.”

“Demons can stir up confusion; if the mood is brewing, it could easily turn into a mob.”

The fake Atlas had been moving around the Academy very actively in a short amount of time.

Alongside those from the Atlas victim alliance who’d come from outside, he had committed many acts of violence while fleeing.

Among them was a prince from the Five Kingdoms Alliance, who was beaten to the point of nearly losing his life and had one leg nearly crippled, and he couldn’t believe that the one who ambushed him was a fake.

The fake incident was supposedly a trick by Atlas, and everyone believed they had been deceived.

If everything had gone according to Atlas’s original plan, perhaps he thought they’d believe him if he brought back the fake’s head, but instead, he was captured by demons without showing his final moments, leaving the victims thinking that crazy guy was conning them.

“I’ll handle this. It’s only a matter of what the Kingdom Alliance is doing anyway. I can manage it alone.”

“No, it would be better if we participated as well. Once the assumption of demon possession is introduced, common sense doesn’t apply to the target.”

In normal circumstances, it would be something that the daughter of the Golden Ball could independently solve, possessing more power than the kingdoms in the Kingdom Alliance.

If she realized that she was being targeted by Shaara, the prince would also cease his plotting.

No, even if he continued to plot, they could forcefully make him stop.

As the heir of the Golden Ball, she possessed the power to obstruct the sources of means that a mere prince could have.

Generally, that would indeed be the case.

But if the other party was being manipulated by a demon, the narrative changed.

Demons could constantly whisper to him, and with just a slight push toward extremism, events impossibly occurring within the rational realm would unfold.

For instance… declaring war against the Empire because the Five Kingdoms Alliance interrupted an attack on Atlas or committing a large-scale act of terrorism in the heart of the Academy resulting in numerous casualties, such occurrences would happen.

Yeah, absurd events had already occurred numerous times.

During the swordsmanship exchange event at the beginning of the year, who would’ve expected that the seemingly fine students of Clover Kingdom were all transformed self-destructing terrorists.

Anyhow, the Sword Master did his best as directed by the demons.

In the end, all the students died, the Sword Master who initiated the event was also killed, and Clover Kingdom was merged into Clover Territory, resulting in a horrifying conclusion.

“… So what do you want me to do? Should I just kill him right away?”

“If he’s not possessed by a demon, Shaara should be able to handle it, so I’ll just see if he is or not.”

“Isn’t that something only the Inquisitioners can do?”

“If we really bring in the Inquisitioners, it’ll escalate things, so I should handle it.”

No matter how trivial it seemed, he was a prince of a nation.

If there were suspicions of demonic possession, bringing in the Inquisitioners would escalate into a diplomatic issue.

So it was also a diplomatic problem that Shaara wouldn’t allow him to properly operate within the Academy, so asking for help from the Inquisitioners would likely complicate things.

“I think I just heard something strange, like the fake Atlas incident? What’s that about?”

Upon hearing this new information, Wendy was surprised, and Casey briefly explained what sort of incident it was.

“So… someone who looked just like Atlas was rampaging all over the continent and even came to the Academy, and… demons took him away?”

While Wendy had been indifferent to the news that Atlas had defeated the Leviathan, she visibly reacted to the news that a fake Atlas had tricked everyone.

It wasn’t so shocking to hear that he had slain a Great Demon, but the fact that someone who looked just like Atlas had appeared was surely enough to pique Wendy’s interest.

“Hmm. So they didn’t tell us about this.”