The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 370

I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.

After running around the continent all night trying to keep my head straight, I returned to focus on recovery, but there were interesting developments in between.

The fact that I was the only one here wasn’t because Master or Casey had let their guard down; it was merely my curiosity about what those sneaky kids were thinking that made me ask for some space.

“What are you doing? Not going to do it?”

The students, shocked to see me watching them, froze in place, clutching their artifacts.

Did they think they wouldn’t get caught?

Or did they assume that since I had been in such bad shape as I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t be in any condition to react?

“No! Don’t be scared, everyone! I just regained consciousness!!”

“Y-Yeah!! Attack!!!”

While I watched without doing anything, they concluded that I had regained my consciousness but was still unable to move.

They must have thought about pretending to have mistakenly broken in, but figured it’d be hard to talk their way out of it.

Anyway, the students threw artifacts at me all at once.

I knew very well what kind of artifacts they were.

Those cylindrical artifacts, used to capture monsters, deploy a strong net that ensnares the target when it splits open in the middle. That net has a special enchantment on it that, upon contact, relaxes the body and saps strength away.

It’s not something sold at the Academy; I wonder where they got it.

-Snap!!

“Got you!!”

“Thought you were something special, but you’re nothing!”

One student shouted as they saw the layers of nets tightly coiling around their target.

They must have felt joy at thinking it was game over the moment I was caught.

If I really had been captured, maybe I would’ve felt that way too.

“Did something good happen?”

“Huh?!”

“What… how are you??”

Popping up right behind them, they were all shocked to see that I was right there.

But there was no reason for me to correct their loud and incorrect assumptions.

What they had captured with their artifacts were actually a pillow and blanket.

The net was so tight that they just couldn’t see it clearly.

“I told you not to come in, so were you prepared to die?”

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A little while later, I was the only one in the hospital room standing on my own two feet.

Even if I was the only one who had two legs intact, that didn’t matter.

The others all had one limb broken or another, groaning in pain, unable to get up.

“So who ordered this?”

“Cough… it’s… your fault. We can’t have someone as dangerous as you at the Academy. We all decided to act on our own.”

“Without a central figure, a bunch of scrubs like you couldn’t have come up with a plan.”

“Tch… believe what you want. This isn’t the end… I will definitely…”

One student, struggling with their crushed neck, spat out mixed words of blood and fainted.

‘Me, a dangerous element.’

I guess that’s how it might look to a third party.

From the outside, I always seemed to be at the center of the chaos at the Academy.

In reality, it was just me rushing around to keep everything under control, but I suppose it could appear that way.

It seems like the appearance of the fake Atlas sparked quite the event.

“There’s no one who ordered it, but someone must have incited this.”

One thing’s for sure… someone gathered these kids and stirred their anger, making them believe their actions were justified and worth any sacrifice.

For now, these guys lost consciousness, but I’ll need to wake them up again soon to figure out who’s behind this.

They’ll probably deny it, but getting the truth out of them is my specialty, so it’ll be fine.

“The Academy hasn’t changed much, huh? A little scuffle like this is just typical. I used to fight a lot back in school too.”

“Do you know that the tales of what you and the others did back then are still being told?”

After a moment, Master opened the door and walked in.

Looks like he was waiting nearby and came back thinking the situation was under control.

“Wow, you’ve really calmed down. The seniors were quite ruthless, yet… they’d be upset to see you like this, wouldn’t they?”

“They were the ones at fault.”

Master suddenly brought up old stories about the students lying around broken on the floor, groaning.

The seniors from the knight order… thinking back, they only ever gave me a few good punches while we fought back then, compared to now.

Back then, we fought with swords.

But one difference is the seniors relentlessly teased me because of my height, while these kids were just having bad thoughts.

Though, bringing those dangerous artifacts here made their actions worse.

“Hey, is it over?”

“About half.”

After tidying up all the students who had ambushed us, Casey shuffled in.

There were some bloodstains on her fists, but other than that, she bore no other signs of the chaos that had unfolded downstairs.

It’s hard to imagine she just took out a dozen students and made them all useless.

“I’ve got a lot to do. I need to interrogate these guys and figure out who’s pulling the strings before putting a stop to them.”

I still don’t know who it is.

There are so many potential suspects that it’s overwhelming to think about.

Shaara usually knows this stuff. Should I go ask her?

“Hold on a second.”

“Me?”

As I sorted through the tasks at hand, Casey looked at me intensely, then walked up and hugged me.

What’s going on? Has she been lonely? Just when I had that thought, my feet suddenly left the ground.

“Uh… uh???”

Caught by surprise, Casey lifted me and plopped me back down on the bed.

I wondered if she was just fooling around, but she followed up with,

“… From here on, we’ll handle things. Why don’t you rest a bit? You’re not fully healed yet.”

Her voice was genuinely worried.

Though her tone sounded like she always did, the difference was palpable.

“Well, good job caring about me.”

Casey isn’t one for words, so she didn’t elaborate, but her feelings came through.

If I got up and moved around now, it would only make her worry more.

Deciding not to get up again, I lay back down.

Yeah, I should trust her.

“Okay, I’ll stay put until I’m all better.”

Since I said I would handle it, all I can do is trust her.

“… I’ll take care of it soon, so just wait a little. Don’t move around unnecessarily.”

“Got it.”

Come to think of it, didn’t she just say “we” a moment ago?

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It’s a pretty rare sight, Casey worrying like this.

If she’s the type who usually doesn’t even care about a slight injury, then speaking with such a shaky voice must mean my condition the night I was taken to the hospital shocked her a lot.

I don’t remember it well since I collapsed right after, but it seems everyone was really worried.

Though it’s currently restricted visitation, I might want to go out for a moment today to at least see everyone’s faces.

The investigators I was most wary of will also be leaving, so once I confirm that, there’s no need for continued restrictions.

As I sorted through those thoughts and lay quietly, staring at the ceiling, Master suddenly shot up from the chair beside my bed and laid down next to me.

“…What’s going on all of a sudden?”

“I was bored just sitting here