My Students Regret It After I Retired

25 – Killed Them All. Enas’s Contact.

The Empire’s Exploration Captain, Zareid, upon seeing the mana bombs raining down from the sky, immediately commanded his comrades.

“Everyone, evacuate!”

In an instant, all the explorers began running at incredible speeds, using their advanced footwork techniques. But, having not even anticipated mana bombs falling, they had already allowed too much distance. Only those who were lucky enough to be outside the attack range could escape.

-BOOM!

Several explorers were instantly turned to ash by one massive bomb. Zareid, having moved out of the blast radius, wasn’t killed but, watching his dead comrades, he spat out a curse.

“You goddamn b*stards…”

But as if it wasn’t a time for him to be leisurely cursing, the bombs continued to fall from the sky.

-BOOM!

-KABOOM!

An advanced artifact, Spyrell, moved with incredible speed. Its fluid movements, like those of a drone, were truly astonishing.

‘To control the Spyrell that well? Even if it’s being moved by mana…’

It was incomprehensible. To control an object moving in the air requires incredible sensory perception. For an average person, even using an advanced artifact would be unheard of, so even having a Spyrell, they would struggle to control it.

‘Damn it.’

How they could move the Spyrell, with its near-impossible difficulty level to control, like a human hand, wasn’t the important thing. Right now, their position had been completely exposed, and escaping was the most pressing issue.

“Monsters are swarming near the captain!”

As they began to move to avoid the Spyrell, monsters that were in the surrounding area began to gather.

“We cleared the surrounding monsters beforehand, surely…!”

“I-It seems the… Spyrell has led them here.”

– *Crack*…

The Spirel hovered in the air as if daring them to try and escape. No longer dropping mana bombs, it simply stared, blankly, at the search party. As if it were…guarding them.

“Captain! The enemy’s attacks have paused for a moment; we need to deal with the monsters first. If they start swarming, escape will be impossible!”

“…Kill them for now. We’ll deal with the Spirel later.”

The moment the search party charged towards the gathering monsters, the Spirel, hovering in the air, spun around several times and then unleashed a barrage of mana bombs in a single instant.

Monsters and mana bombs falling from the sky. The combined assault annihilated half of the search party.

“Don’t…don’t hide, show yourselves! You cowardly b*stards…!”

Jareid, unable to hold back any longer, shouted. In response, the Spirel abruptly ascended high into the air. Jareid and Karek remained on guard in case the Spirel returned, but what came for them were not the Spirel, but other monsters.

“A Dibringer…”

A bizarre monster, with the ability to detect humans, and that released pheromones that drew monsters to its location. Jareid desperately tried to kill it. But then, he dropped his sword to the ground.

“Shit…since when…?”

Surrounding the Dibringer were hundreds of monsters, and they all turned to stare at the search party.

Only then did the man realize. By detonating countless mana bombs, the man named LEO had used the Spirel to lure the search party to this place where the Dibringer and other monsters were gathered.

An enemy who was thinking not one, but two moves ahead. Overwhelmed by the first true feeling of utter powerlessness, Jareid chuckled weakly and muttered.

“To be able to wipe us out like this without even showing his face…is it possible…?”

His question went unanswered.

-*Crunch*

-*Crrruuunch*

Hundreds of monsters swarmed and began tearing apart the search party. Some tried to escape using their agility techniques, but even they could not evade the countless monsters.

For a long time, the monsters’ feeding frenzy continued, and when it ended, nothing remained.

The Spyrel lingered around the area, then slowly drifted away.

*

Inside the bunker, Herricia, who had been watching the entire battle unfold on screen, stared at Leos with bewildered eyes.

“No… how are you so good at controlling it? Even the Empire’s experts can’t handle it like that.”

It wasn’t controlled with a remote, but rather through the user’s mana, making the Spyrel even more difficult to maneuver than with a remote. Because everything, from levitating in the air to changing direction and accounting for wind resistance, had to be considered by the user.

“I used to operate drones during a war. It’s not that different, so of course, I can handle it well.”

“Drones…?”

“A combat weapon similar to Spyrels in my homeland.”

Herricia wore an expression that suggested she was hearing this for the first time, but she didn’t press for more. Leos seemed like he didn’t want to delve any deeper into it.

As Leos remained quiet, Bendict approached and began clapping enthusiastically.

“Brother! You’ve once again eradicated those Imperial b*stards brilliantly! How can you deal with those Imperial scum from such a distance without even showing your face? It’s like a weight has been lifted from my chest!”

It seemed Bendict had a lot of pent-up resentment toward the Empire, because his face brightened every time he saw the Imperial trash taken out.

‘Well, no wonder. Bendict’s father died because the Empire sided with a con man.’

Then, Leos closely observed Herricia’s expression. He was worried that she might be averse to such acts of killing.

“You did well, Leos.”

“What?”

“You dealt with the bad guys. Those people were uploading pictures of them killing innocent people on the interrunner, and they probably would have continued if you hadn’t stopped them. You did good.”

Leos didn’t respond further and went to the corner, lying down to look at the sky. He felt a sense of relief for some reason.

The man simply lay there, staring at the sky. He didn’t feel any particular guilt despite having killed someone. It felt like he had just taken down a monster.

‘I need to be careful. If I start killing indiscriminately without a standard, then I’ll become a monster.’

Leo was always wary. In war, and in the situation now, not killing those who needed to die was something for vermin. But conversely, killing even those who didn’t need to be killed was something for monsters. Leo wanted revenge, not meaningless slaughter.

‘Of course, the ones from just now were all trash who didn’t deserve to live.’

With that thought, Leo logged into the Interrunner. He’d been killing so much, he figured people might be turning against him. But the community’s reaction was completely different from what he expected.

[Title: I think I just saw that TAZ group]

[Body: Something fell from the sky, then they ran and got surrounded and killed by monsters? That was LEO, right?]

[Holy shit! LEO killed those bad b*stards again? Fucking awesome]

[Can we finally stop worrying now? Word spread that TAZ was a madman killing everyone.]

[Isn’t LEO basically the Interrunner’s guardian? Unlike other lunatics, he only kills those who threaten us.]

[lol is this not a hero?]

[Still, isn’t LEO a killer?]

[Shut your mouth, what killer? Are you crazy? If it wasn’t for LEO, how many more people would have died on the Interrunner, you b*stard.]

There were some who were uncomfortable with Leo’s blatant killing spree, but because all his actions had ‘justification,’ there were more people defending him. Some even started openly worshipping LEO.

‘This is… an unexpected reaction.’

[LEO-nim, I want to give you support supplies, is there any way to meet?]

[If I’m nearby, I want to give you food.]

[Thanks to you, the b*stards who killed my colleague are dead. Thank you so much. The trash you first put up in the certification was one of the guys who killed my friend.]

He’d been killing at will to earn points, and suddenly, he’d become a hero of the Interrunner. Even when he was a Gatekeeper, people hadn’t been this enthusiastic, so Leo felt awkward as he started to read the comments one by one. Everyone was being friendly.

‘…’

Leo stared at the Distance for a long while, then he found a strange comment. A comment that had just been left on a post he’d made a while back.

[ENA: LEO-nim…by any chance…are you Leo-s-s-s?]

Leo’s face twisted as he left a comment.

[LEO: Leos? Who’s that? And before you ask about me, shouldn’t you reveal your identity?]

[ENA: I couldn’t reach you… If you are Leos, please tell me… I’m… I’m Enas.]

Leo stared blankly at the distance for a moment.

His most cherished disciple from his days as a gatekeeper.

That disciple had, commented.