All-Master Player Of The Academy [EN]: Chapter 33

17. The Price of Truth – 1

The paladins returned before long.

Testimonies from those they brought, and from those receiving treatment, followed.

Once everything was revealed, Willis spoke to Karzid with a serious expression.

“I will leave the judgment of the students to the Dean.”

How could they simply overlook those who had done such a thing, just because they were students of the Academy?

Karzid closed his eyes, groaned, and then nodded.

“Then, we will continue with the judgment for Saint Rakid. For the next three years, Saint, you must not wield a weapon as payment for your sins.”

“Priest Willis!! That is too harsh a punishment!”

To tell a master swordsman not to hold a sword…

A swordsman’s body rusts and their skills weaken if they don’t practice, even for a day.

As such, the punishment Willis handed down was quite severe.

Hastings protested roughly, but Willis continued to deliver the sentence.

“Also, for the next three years, you will become a trainee priest of the Sun Order as atonement and purification, to cleanse the body that was possessed by a demon.”

“Understood.”

“In addition to that……”

The sentencing continued.

However, unlike the senior instructors who protested, Rakid accepted the punishment without complaint.

The subsequent punishments were not so harsh.

Fortunately, there were not many victims, and those victims were also revealed to be, according to testimonies, individuals who had harmed others in the past.

Thanks to this, there was some leniency.

Moreover, considering Rakid’s past actions, some of the punishments were canceled or reduced.

However, the major punishments remained.

Deprivation of the student council presidency, suspension, and the inability to wield a weapon.

And serving as a trainee priest during that period remained unchanged.

With the judgment concluded, the verification that had started at night and continued until sunrise ended, and the senior instructors, Karzid, and Ian emerged from the Hwuisung Order.

Arence and Haryun, who had been anxiously waiting, quickly ran to Ian.

“How did it go?”

Just as he was about to explain, Karzid approached.

As the two bowed, he lightly acknowledged their greetings and said to Ian.

“Good work. I heard you defeated Voladi?”

“To be precise, it was a joint effort by some members of our Class B and Class C.”

“But I heard you made the final attack. You seem to be quite skilled with a sword.”

“It’s all thanks to Instructor Arence’s excellent guidance.”

‘Huh?’

Arence tilted his head.

What was he going to say this time?

“And thanks to the excellent teamwork of our Class B. And I can also mention that Class C helped a little.”

‘Huh?!’

Haryun was taken aback.

Teamwork was the last thing he would associate with Class B.

Despite making them feel embarrassed, Ian’s expression did not change.

“Excellent. Then, as the Dean, I cannot simply stand by.”

He looked at Arence and smiled gently.

“Voladi is a powerful demon. I believe defeating such a demon is clearly a heroic achievement. Therefore, I will award the Heroic Badge to Class B.”

“Are you serious?!”

Heroic Badge.

A badge that could only be received by winning the Heroic Festival [a school-wide competition].

If you collect three of these badges, the entire class can take a test to advance to the upper grades.

It was a step closer to what Arence had been so desperately hoping for.

He clenched his fist, overwhelmed with emotion.

“Then, if we win the Heroic Festival just two more times!”

“And I will also send a bonus to those who contributed to defeating the demon. Or, if there are any necessary materials or items, I will provide them.”

“Thank you.”

After briefly praising them, he left, and the senior instructors approached Ian.

Hastings took him to a secluded place and growled coldly.

“Are you clueless? Or are you challenging me?”

“Let’s say both.”

As Ian smirked, Hastings glared with terrifyingly cold eyes.

“Let’s see how long that arrogance lasts.”

“I’m also looking forward to seeing how far you can go, Instructor. Also……”

He grinned at Hastings.

“I wonder if you were really trying to protect the Academy when you tried to protect Chairman Rakid.”

Ian paused for a moment and erased the smile from his face.

“Or if you were trying to protect yourself. I’ll be watching.”

The senior instructors were puzzled by the somewhat pointed words, but only Hastings gritted his teeth.

Regardless, Ian shrugged and turned around.

As he walked towards Arence and Haryun, who were waiting, he gave an order to Circe.

‘Monitor Hastings. There weren’t many among those kinds of people who purely acted for others.’

Ian smiled as he watched Hastings walk away.

“He’s acting all high and mighty up there. As expected, the best taste is to drag such a guy down to the bottom and trample on him as he cries miserably.”

* * *

Although they stayed up all night, they had to attend class.

While Ian, who had roughly washed up and attended class, was receiving the energy of the sun by the window.

Arence came into the classroom, looking pleased.

“Everyone worked hard yesterday.”

“Instructor! What will happen to the Chairman?”

“Is he being expelled?”

“Or…….”

“There is no official disposition yet. But the approximate results are out.”

What he said was no different from what Ian had heard.

Some were relieved, some were bitter, and some were disappointed.

“But what is that?”

“Ah. This? How did you see it?”

As if showing off, Arence shouted as he placed it on the desk.

“No?! After bringing it in so openly?!”

“You shouldn’t act so excited, Instructor.”

As the students teased him, he scratched his head and unwrapped the package.

“Oh?! That’s!”

“Yes! It’s the Heroic Badge!”

A smile bloomed on Arence’s face.

And he opened the envelope he had brought and handed out the request forms inside.

“Tell me if there is anything you want to request from the Academy. It’s a reward for defeating the demon.”

Request forms were handed out one by one.

As everyone excitedly wrote down their requests, Ian quickly scribbled on the request form that was handed to him.

His request form contained only one line: Hero’s Sword.

‘Still, I’m not getting it outright.’

When Ian replied to Circe, Arence tapped the blackboard.

“Okay. Before we start the squad combat class. Valla, Blanche, Ian.”

“Yes?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Is there something wrong?”

As the three asked, he recalled what happened yesterday.

Clearly, the three of them had combined their strength to attack at the end.

“Did you guys practice teamwork?”

“Ah. That. Yes.”

Blanche explained as if there was nothing to hide.

It wasn’t anything grand; they just practiced one technique whenever they had time.

“Valla and I are confident in our strength. We practiced to further enhance Ian’s rushing power.”

“Hmm. That’s good then. I haven’t been able to give a proper tactical lecture on teamwork until now.”

Because they didn’t listen, he just roughly taught them the theory and moved on.

But yesterday, when fighting the demon, those three inflicted significant damage with their teamwork.

Of course, it was largely because Ian was strong.

Anyway, now that they’ve seen the power of teamwork, Class B students will now learn properly.

“First of all, the basics of teamwork are to match your rhythms. Especially like Ian’s gang yesterday……”

“What do you mean gang? Gang.”

“Just say they’re like-minded brothers.”

Blanche and Valla grumbled, but Arence ignored them.

“You can concentrate power on one person, but you can also create a series of attacks and defenses. In fact, this is the core of teamwork.”

When the Class B students rushed at the demon yesterday, it was difficult to see it as teamwork.

It was just a bunch of people running up and beating him up.

“For example, Wilbal.”

“Yes?”

“When you shot an arrow, Voladi’s tail was aiming at you. That’s why you couldn’t continue attacking.”

“Yes.”

“But what if Widia next to you had helped you?”

At that time, Widia was busy attacking.

“You should be able to avoid attacks coming at you on your own.”

As she said that, the other students agreed.

Arence sighed at them.

“If you had picked up Wilbal and dodged, and Wilbal had continued to attack, you would have inflicted more damage. Your sword was not blessed, but Wilbal’s arrows were blessed.”

There were many problems besides them.

Why not have the skilled ones help each other a little?

In his opinion, there were too many missed opportunities in yesterday’s battle.

“Now that we have the Heroic Badge, there is a good chance of an overall promotion. Some people, including Ian, will be able to advance right away.”

Everyone agreed with that.

Arence tapped the desk.

“To become a truly strong person, you must have the余裕 [yoyuu – composure; room; space] to see your surroundings. In that sense, the most outstanding person yesterday was Ian.”

“Well, Ian got the last hit……”

As the students muttered in agreement, Arence shook his head.

“He fought while watching his surroundings. If Ian had fought like you, only looking at the enemy, you would have suffered quite a bit of damage.”

“Oh? Really?”

As everyone was surprised, Arence glanced at Ian.

“Ian. You blocked several attacks yesterday. Why did you do that?”

“If I had dodged, Tiana, Parkbare, and Malin would have been hit.”

Voladi had been constantly attacking Ian.

He had dodged most of those attacks, but he had blocked or neutralized some of them.

The reason, as he told Arence, was because of the people behind him.

“They could have dodged it?”

“They couldn’t have. It was a blind spot, and they were frozen in place by the impact of the attack.”

“Ohh~.”

“As expected, Representative.”

“Wow. You saw that in that situation?”

As praises came from all directions, Ian nodded indifferently.

“Wow~ I didn’t know that. Thank you, Ian. I’ll give you a gift next time.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Bring some specialties from our territory after the vacation.”

“How about a sacred object? Sacred object. I have a sacred object from the Moon Order at home, so I’ll give you that.”

As those who didn’t know learned and expressed their gratitude, Arence hit the desk hard.

“Enough with the chatter! Anyway, Ian wasn’t just looking at the enemy like you guys, but was looking at the situation as a whole.”

That meant that Ian also had the qualities of a commander.

As Arence added, everyone was surprised.

“Have you ever done this before?”

“Guys. It’s in the squad combat class of the main curriculum. Even if it’s not detailed, you can do it according to the content there.”

Why don’t you use what you’ve learned?

As Ian was dumbfounded, everyone smiled awkwardly.

“Haha. I learned it, but…….”

“It’s a bit difficult to use…….”

Instead of them, who were feeling embarrassed, Arence said.

“It wouldn’t have been easy. You have to be able to grasp the overall skills and predict the movements. This is something you can only learn in the upper grades.”

Arence looked straight at Ian.

“Where did you learn it?”

“It’s not that difficult.”

Among his many lives, he had quite a bit of experience leading squad members in battle as a squad leader.

Of course, it was easy to look after the students in this kind of battle.

“From now on, you will also command. The representative has that authority.”

Haryun hadn’t been able to do it until now.

What good is it to have authority?

They don’t follow him.

But the Class B students follow Ian as their representative, so he can give instructions as much as he wants.

Class B’s motto is to only receive orders from those who are stronger than themselves.

Doesn’t Ian fully meet that?