The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 5

In the upper VIP Room of the arena that resembled a coliseum, the faculty members gathered to grade the students.

Even though it was a grading session, it wasn’t as tense as last year’s entrance exam.

There was no way someone would be denied admission at this point after receiving a recommendation letter to come to the academy.

They were merely there, watching the students put on a show against the golems, feeling like they were attending a festive gathering.

Seeing the maids serving drinks around, it felt almost like a standing party.

“Haha, breaking golems is quite something! It seems we have many excellent students this year.”

An old man among the faculty chuckled, stroking his long beard as he watched Lucia Russell destroy a training golem in a single blow.

He wore a cloak that was painfully vibrant and colorful, but no one frowned at his poor taste in fashion.

“This all comes down to the Principal’s keen eye, doesn’t it?”

“Wow, even the students who come with a recommendation are fierce. That golem just got smashed by Russell’s heir, right? That Count has been grumbling all the time but seems to be raising them well.”

“The recommendations are only given to those who have been vetted by the Principal’s standards. Though low-tier folks see it as favoritism, most of the children of prestigious families manage to pass without much trouble.”

On the contrary, the professors, who were top-tier experts in the Empire, were busy flattering the old man to keep on his good side.

That old man was Morgan, the Principal of the academy.

Amidst the laughter of the relaxed faculty, one person was sweating bullets.

“Urgh… I hope nothing goes wrong…”

Andy Robinson, a tall man with a proud blonde hair, wiped the sweat beads off his forehead with a handkerchief. Despite being quite the handsome guy, his posture gave off a vibe of uncertainty.

Andy was a new instructor who had retired from the Royal Knight Order and was starting his first semester at the academy.

“Instructor?”

“Y-yes!!”

“Haha, this isn’t the knight order. I can see you’re a bit tense since it’s your first year. Just relax. Here you go.”

A professor with deep lines on his face approached Andy, handing him a drink in a pewter cup.

“You were part of the Royal Knight Order, right? It must be quite nerve-wracking in this new environment. I was worried too because I heard everyone from the Royal Knight Order is tough as nails!”

“Haha… Thank you.”

In stark contrast to Andy’s nervousness, everyone was treating him well because he was the first knight to join the academy from the Empire’s best military group.

Having a knight from the Royal Knight Order as an instructor meant another shiny add-on for the academy; for the professors and the Principal, Andy was a glittering signboard.

“Ah… Oh no! This is bad, Principal!!”

“What’s wrong?”

A woman entered the VIP Room, her face smudged with soot and wearing a shabby but sturdy gray robe. It was Professor Lena from the Department of Magical Engineering, who was controlling the golems for the exam.

“One of the golems I was controlling seems to have been taken along with the training golems!”

“Geez… Handle the golems better; how did you manage to cause such a ruckus?”

The Principal scolded her with a lackadaisical expression, but he had a hunch that something had indeed gone wrong since she dashed in this flustered state.

“It was a golem I was inputting real-world data into for my thesis… If it breaks, my three-year thesis goes up in smoke!!!”

“Let’s find it quickly; your thesis can wait. If the students get hurt, it’ll be a serious problem. Luckily, there doesn’t seem to be any signs of that yet…”

“Excuse me, Principal, why is my thesis secondary?!”

“Tsk tsk, if it’s that important, you should have been more careful…”

After hearing their exchange, Andy was taken aback as well.

The fact that the golem was intended for live combat meant it had the same power as one actually engaged in battle.

While he couldn’t tell how powerful it was supposed to be, a well-made golem boasted at least sword expert-level combat prowess. Leaving one among these rookies would surely lead to a disastrous accident.

“Should we halt the exam?”

“Haha… Even if it’s just a façade of an exam, we can’t stall. Fortunately, I don’t think any of the currently used training golems are missing, so get moving and find it instead of wasting time.”

“But one just got broken and we switched it out—will that be okay?”

“I prepared 100 backup golems, so don’t tell me the one you switched it with is one of those. Hey, Albert, does it have distinguishing features you can identify?”

“It has an added component on its head that forms a conical shape; you should be able to spot it easily by looking at its head.”

“I’ll help too; we can use the data from the golems for grading.”

“The… Principal doesn’t need to—ah… Thank you!! Let’s hurry and find it!!”

As everyone rushed out to look for the golem, a new student entered the testing area alongside a fresh training golem.

Andy needed to get out and look for the mingled golems, but the appearance of the new student caught his eye.

“Who’s that student?”

It was a male student with blonde hair wielding a longsword.

The biggest difference was that his longsword was about the same height as his smaller frame, right?

Yet, due to his proportional physique, he looked no different from afar unless there was something to compare him to.

He seemed oddly familiar.

It was like someone he had seen often in the past.

Upon closer inspection, not only was the student peculiar, but the golem was also unusual.

‘Is that golem’s head conical?’

Could it be that the newly switched golem was the one set for live training…?

“Huh?”

Suddenly, the testing area blazed with light, and the newly replaced training golem shattered into pieces.

“Ugh… What just happened…?”

It transpired in an instant.

With a clean strike and no loud noise, the golem lay on the ground like it was cut in two from the very start.

Just like how Lucia Russell had destroyed a golem, another was wrecked, but this time, no one seemed to react.

It seemed everyone had rushed outside and missed the spectacle.

But I saw it.

A level six attack magic was fired from the golem’s head, and I witnessed the student simultaneously split both the magic and the golem in half.

That golem must have been the one Professor Lena was controlling for practical data; to slice through something like that in one go… that person must be at least an expert-level combatant.

As I stared blankly at that student, he looked up from the golem he was observing, and our eyes met.

A chill ran down my spine.

And from that gaze, the most unwanted ‘someone’ came to mind.

“Um… I just remembered something urgent, so I’ll be taking my leave for today.”

“Instructor?”

By the time I snapped back to reality, I was already dashing down the hallway away from the VIP Room.

‘Why… why is that person here at the academy?’

No, there’s no way that person could be at the academy.

After all, unlike me, who had retired from the Knight Order at a young age due to the horrors of the frontlines, that person was a genuine madman.

I must have seen wrong or mistakenly panicked; those possibilities seemed high.

Yet, no matter how much I tried to reason, Andy couldn’t stop running.

But what if it’s real?

I needed to escape this place quickly.

-Tap tap tap tap

I could hear rhythmic footsteps.

Someone was chasing after me.

That student, it must have been him chasing me for sure.

If that student wasn’t that person, then why were they following me?

Why was I even running in the first place?

If it wasn’t that person, couldn’t I just charge straight ahead?

The footsteps faded into the distance and then disappeared.

I had encountered this strange phenomenon once before.

‘Is it really that person…!!’

The thought that it might not be him vanished like smoke in my mind.

If I could no longer hear the footsteps, it meant they had ‘taken flight.’

I attempted to throw myself to the right to evade whatever was coming next, but—

“Cough..!!”

Before I could react, the moment the footsteps vanished, a powerful impact hit me from behind, and Andy tumbled down.

Though there was a carpet, my face slammed into the solid stone floor, and I tasted blood in my mouth.

In the midst of my confusion, I knew I had to regain my stance, but something pressed down on my head.

It couldn’t be him; it couldn’t be him; it couldn’t be him; it couldn’t be him; it couldn’t be him; it couldn’t be him.

It was just some student who was swinging a sword.

“W-ugh..!! Who are you?! Do you know who I am….!!!!!”

I couldn’t let a student look down on me as an instructor from the Royal Knight Order.

Reassuring myself, Andy raised his voice.

But what came back from the student pinned on him was nothing short of a nightmare.

“Shut it.”

-Crack!!!

“Eeeek?!!”

A longsword embedded itself right beside my face.

As I lifted my head, I barely caught a glimpse of his face.

“Hey, why are you running away? Did I do something wrong to you?”

“You… it’s you, Atlas…”

It really was that guy.

Why was he, someone who should have been in the Royal Knight Order, taking entrance exams among rookies like these? Is he being disgraced?