Chapter 57

RATH 57

TL: Eevee

7. Is your backside safe? (9)

“As expected of the student council.”

“No, we were simply lucky.”

The stuco pres nodded affirmatively with a few others following suit.

No seriously, there’s no need to be so stiff here?

Their bodies were all rigid exactly like people lining up for a job interview.

Anyone would think I was about to eat you kids. Loosen up a bit!

“Are the others not coming yet?”

“Yes, we were going to be the first scouts, followed by everyone else but…”

What’s with the ‘but’? Surely you weren’t going to say that the reason that the others aren’t coming down isn’t me, were you?

I put in looooooootts of effort to personally look after the students who were playing hooky as a group!

So what’s with this treatment?

Isn’t this too much? When this happens the majority of the teachers would simply ignore it.

But I personally moved to bring the students to school, and teach the importance of being able to come to school.

Where else would you find a teacher like me?

Although of course I didn’t say that out loud. Because I didn’t want to get stabbed!

“In that case, it would be better to get everyone together as quickly as possible.”

“Eh? Could you please tell us why?”

Although I didn’t mean anything much when I said that, just what are the student council thinking of me when they tense up like that.

No, even before that, the other members that are taking up combat positions are looking at me like I’m some arch-demon king of the century’s end?

Seriously, how cruel.

“Because the time is past 1PM right now.”

I need to endure it as I am a kind person.

As my gaze turns to the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, the faces of everyone else present in the room follow it.

Current time 1:02 PM.

Even if I’ve been telling the metal bat to walk more slowly lately for the sake of the students’ motivation, she should still have gotten to the seventh floor by now, easy.

“1PM? Why… hang on!”

The stuco president mulled over my words for a bit before his eyes shot wide open in horror.

“P, pres?”

“What is it!”

The others who hadn’t yet caught on grabbed onto the pres, who was visibly shaking either in horror or range, but the pres did not answer.

“Is what I’m thinking… correct?”

As he asked me with the face of someone who was just told of the end of the world, I smiled back.

“Yes, it is.”

“Run!”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean, pres?”

“Explain, pres!”

“Morons! What else is there at 1PM? We need to meet up with the other students and run before we get beaten by the silver devil!”

Indeed.

I took the ‘right to go to school’ from these kids.

And so if they want to go to school again?

They need to leave school first.

If the moment when they heard my video say [let the game begin] was the prologue, the room escape part wouldn’t even be a 100 pages out of a 300 page novel!

If they want to see the epilogue of safely returning to their dorms, they need to break through the metal bat and escape from the academy!

“Wha, what about everyone still up there?”

“We don’t have time for that right now! Now’s our chance! If we give up now we might never be able to go back!”

Although some people tried to take care of the people still in the rooftop as well, one by one they also began to agree with the president, and the moment he barged out the door, everyone else followed behind.

“Just why does one of the long-esteemed Four Great Academies carry the scent of the evil organization to it.”

If the metal bat was here she’d probably yell “cuz it’s all owner’s fault!”

Of course there’s nothing for me to feel guilty about. Since it’s an evil organization with a long and distinguished history, perhaps things with deep histories share similarities with each other.

I wondered if I should close the open ceiling, but since the others had to come down anyway I decided to leave it alone.

And exactly 1 hour later.

“Re, really?”

“Indeed.”

The one who poked her head through the gap in the door was the female vice-president, Karen, as her face twisted in betrayal.

“Idiot, think for a second.”

The one who calmed her down was her fellow vice-president, and the one who came up with the moronically insane idea of playing truant.

Risen smiled brightly as he consoled her.

“Those idiots, I think they’re flustered enough that they forgot something.”

“Mm?”

“Even with thirty minutes in advance, even with every available man backing them we still couldn’t beat the silver devil, and yet they’re trying to run even later than her? Do you think that’s possible?”

“Th, that’s true?”

“Yep. So all we need to do now is wait for the corpses of the idiot pres and his lackeys to come back and kick them once they’re back.”

As far as I knew, this kid was the first one to break through the walls and run away by himself, but since that was a matter to be discussed with the student council I decided to overlook it for now.

And shortly afterwards.

As Risen had predicted, the other teachers and their smaller summons came in with the pres and the other runners over their shoulders, dumped them in front of us and left wordlessly.

“Well, since more or less all the relevant people have all gathered, I will now tell you the escape conditions.”

“This wasn’t the escape?”

“Yes, of course. If you wish to go to school, you must leave school first.”

At my words Karen made a blatantly despairing expression, and Risen bowed his head.

He might actually charge and try to knife me or…

“Fu… fufufu…”

Yep he’s insane. I need to prepare to call the metal bat…

“Wahahahaha! We were already anticipating that much!”

Eh?

“If you’d told us to just go on our way, I would have been so anxious I wouldn’t even be able to sleep properly, but since this was exactly what I expected, we can just escape with an easy mind!”

“Wh, what the… Risen, are you mad?”

On the contrary, a surprised Karen was the one grabbing onto Risen.

“Mad, no I’m perfectly normal! The mad one is this world, not me!”

“Wiing, it’s the reality denial that owner’s so good at!”

At some point the metal bat had returned and nodded her head at Risen.

Me? That?

“Yep. Owner doezzat a lot. Ya pretend to be all serious and solemn and whatnot when there are other people around, when no one’s here, or just with me ya become a lunatic like dat.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Even if I do lose myself more than normal when I’m alone, surely I wouldn’t look as insane as that.

“See, denying reality already. I’m telling ya owner’s similar ta him, y’know?”

“Kwahahahahahaha!”

“Ri, Risen! Hey you guys, come help and get this lunatic under control!”

Karen restrained his arms and requested help from the other members but they did not approach.

Their faces were saying it was useless to approach a rabid dog.

I do have a lot of people around me, you know? I don’t go that far?

-And those peeps around ya are that princess or ya disciples?

-Wait, what the heck is this oddly convincing feeling!

Ah, now that disciples were mentioned I remembered.

One of those monstrous disciples was currently at Marcis.

The opponent was the master of the archdevil Surtr, a daughter of the Nermia family, one of the esteemed magician clans.

Normally one of Marcis’ weaknesses would be that their talents are caught in between the faction wars of the imperial family and the Magic Tower.

Her family is a giant among giants in the imperial court.

Her grandfather is one of the current heads of the Magic Tower.

She is in a position where she simply cannot be touched, where no one in Marcis could dare to pull rank on her.

And so she’d probably get a ridiculous amount of resources as well.

Unlike us at Yugrasia who had to all in on pretty much non-existent funds!

Could the strongest of the current members, the stuco president and vice-president, be able to defeat her in a one on one?

-Alright, time to raise the difficulty!

-Tho’ dat’s the devil talking, if it means I get more time ta shine I’m A-OK with that! So whatcha gonna do?

To fight against someone who has been trained in an evil organization, we just need to throw them into identical conditions.

-We just have to do exactly what we did in the evil organization!

-Ta think an evil organization would be so useful for school life! Sho amazing!

The effectiveness of an evil organization that even the metal bat approves of!

Everyone, as long as an evil organization doesn’t fall, it’s really great!

“It makes me pleased to see how positively you are accepting this.”

“Uwuuuu… uwahhh…”

Karen, who had been trying to pacify Risen made a resentful face as her mouth twitched but let’s ignore that.

We’re going old school version. Back to the evil organization style!

“In that case, as a suitable reward I will give you a hint.”

“Hint?”

“Yes, a hint. Everyone here needs to leave school. And right now, it’s the holidays.”

“What’s that…”

“It means that there is no particular set time where you can leave school.”

“Ah…”

As if she understood, Karen’s eyes opened widely before they went back to normal.

Now, with this I even allowed night escapes. With this much this should be a splendid carrot!

And naturally, the stick must follow the carrot!

And, that stick would be a very effective stick that gave me extremely brilliant results back in the evil organization.

“However, regarding meals. Only ten people will receive food per meal.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

For the record, although humans are very responsive to the sound of carrots, they are very bad at listening for the whip.

There’s a reason why the army is the place where you hear the words “I couldn’t quite hear that?”

Because since it’s the place with the most whippings, of course you’d pretend to not have heard it!

“It is as I have said. Since the student cafeteria does not operate during the holidays, supplies can only be limited.”

“W, wait a second Professor! Supplies? Not even meals but supplies?!”

Ohh, as you’d expect from the student council’s vice-president, she’s quick to catch on.

Yes, I said supplies, not meals. Because this is war!

This is a crusade for Yugrasia to regain its superiority as the greatest of the Four Great Academies of the empire!

And in order to strengthen the soldiers for the holy war, I will be giving out supplies, not meals!

“That is because I have no reason to provide food for everyone.”

“Professor!”

“Every day at 7AM, 1PM, and 5:30PM various supply drops will appear throughout the academy. Your task is to find them and dispose of them.”

“Uuuughhhh…”

As I ignored her desperate pleas and finished what I had to say, all Karen could do was bite down on her lips and glare at me, shivering.

-And with this, dat’s another person what might slit owner’s throat while ya sleep!

Meh, big deal.

Since I don’t think adding one or two more at this point won’t make that big a difference to the safety of my neck, proceed the plan as is.

“Wait, Professor!”

“Is there something you wish to say, Risen?”

The boy who had only just been laughing like a maniac made a serious face all of a sudden.

And, that boy understood the key point perfectly.

“So. All. We. Have. To. Do. Is. Find. Them. And. Dispose. Of. Them?”

“Yes. Find. Them. And. Dispose. Of. Them.”

To the boy who said that with short, sharp words I replied likewise.

“I understand.”

At Risen’s words, in my mind’s eye his image overlapped with No.1000’s for a second.

-Owner, ya putting on some real airs talking t’ him, whazzup?

-Not much. Like I said, if he comes into the supplies on his own he can dispose of them as he likes.

-Whazzat mean?

-Now, think. There are ten prepared supply caches. In comparison, the number of students is 20. Now, what would be the most effective way to distribute these?

-Eat ’em together?

-Indeed. The plan was to put in slightly more than 1 person’s worth. Even if you were hungry, there is always people that eat less than others.

-So whazzat got ta do with what ya said to him?

-He more or less asked me outright if he could eat them by himself.

Those who will survive will survive.

To think he’d piece together the hints I’d simply tossed out to come up with that conclusion.

Their battle from here on out will be an endurance game.

In that case, the most important thing could very well be those lunchboxes.

You can only starve for a couple of days at most, if that were to eat away at your stamina over a prolonged period of time then that could have a very big effect on your ability to escape.

-Ta think th’ most effective training method at th’ evil organization was not feeding ’em… I think a lotta masters in this world’d deny dat tho?

-The best training methods are the most effective ones after all.

No seriously, I had a pretty well-balanced training regime written up myself, but the moment I didn’t feed them these kids just fought among themselves and got stronger.

Then there’s no need for me to use any other training methods is there?

Even now I simply tossed the idea out, and someone’s responding to it already.

And so, it can’t be helped.

“Ah, and there’s something else I forgot to mention. Every time someone escapes, the number of supply caches will decrease by one with it.”

-Owner’z a devil!

Yes, for the sake of Yugrasia’s victory, I will become a devil!

That day, the ultimate training method of the (former) greatest evil organization in the empire, was initiated in one of the empire’s greatest academies.