PTSD Military Chaplain of the Academy

The Caldera Imperial Academy has a tradition of 90 years this year.

In fact, it is rare to find any place in the Empire with a 90-year history, and given that it is firmly established in the prime land of the City, the quality of education is on a different level.

While it is considered extremely rude to mention differences in levels among academies, the reality is that at least the Caldera Imperial Academy has a reputation that is hard to match.

The royal family openly speaks of equalizing the standards among academies, but the status of directly providing a budget from the royal family serves as a guarantee that cannot easily be shaken.

On top of that, there is a deep tradition. The Caldera Imperial Academy, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, has its roots in the Caldera Private Academy.

When considering the operational period of the academy, it has a legitimacy that surpasses an impressive 500 years.

With five centuries of accumulated knowledge, royal backing, and naturally increased quality and quantity of professors.

Within this 500-year tradition, there exist clubs that have endured from the early years of its establishment.

The Caldera Imperial Academy, or rather, the Caldera Private Academy, was the first academy in the Empire to encourage club activities.

This was at a time when other academies prohibited club activities, thinking that students grouped together for academic negligence and impure intentions.

Amidst such innovative steps taken by the academy, twelve clubs were formed.

Among those twelve historic clubs, students who found it hard to hide their interest in specific fields voluntarily gathered to establish a club, leading to the formation of a club with religious connotations influenced by the then-authoritative Holy Empire.

That club is the predecessor of the current Occult Research Club, known as the Holy Relic Research Society.

During that time, when the Church’s influence was powerful, various holy relics brought by the knights and priests of the Holy Empire dispatched all around the world were present.

The Holy Empire needed a group that could inexpensively research the less important holy relics among them, and deemed it necessary to build a church in the academy, which was situated in the heart of the City, to demonstrate the Church’s powerful authority to the Empire.

Some students of the Caldera Private Academy at that time were also very curious about this field, creating a favorable situation for all.

Using the extensive support for this club, the Holy Empire built a church in the academy, and the academy adopted theology as a required subject to appease the Holy Empire.

As a result, the Holy Relic Research Society temporarily rose to prominence as the top club of the Caldera Private Academy.

With the overwhelming authority of the Holy Empire, the academy’s comprehensive support, and the cooperation of upper-class nobles who kept a watchful eye on the Holy Empire, the Holy Relic Research Society persisted for a long time.

Of course, it wasn’t an easy journey up to this point. It experienced the bloody era of the Holy Empire’s indiscriminate witch hunts and purges of heretics, leading to strict management and intermediate crises, but ultimately, the Holy Relic Research Society, which many students passed through, survived until the end.

However, after three hundred or four hundred years, it would inevitably reach its limits.

Four centuries after the establishment of the academy. In other words, around the time of the fourth century since the founding of the Holy Relic Research Society.

The slowly declining authority of the Holy Empire ultimately reached a point where it could do nothing about the emperor’s intention to establish a single empire of humankind.

As they continued to conflict and split apart, the Holy Empire, which had affirmed its authority by mediating among them, lost power and fell into a small city-state.

It was the birth of a Holy Empire centered around Saint Cities, claiming only Saint Cities as its territory.

The aspiration for humankind’s first singular state, humankind’s first singular empire, was fulfilled.

The Caldera Private Academy was the first reform project implemented by the royal family to erase the authority of the Holy Empire.

The subject of theology was neither excluded from the common subjects nor was the academy’s church destroyed.

It was simply renamed the Caldera Imperial Academy, and the budget previously provided by the Holy Empire was entirely replaced by that of the royal family.

Moreover, if one were to name another change…

“The Holy Relic Research Society was disbanded and a new club was established based on it… Is that correct?”

“And the club that followed it is… our Occult Research Club.”

A brief silence ensued. Everyone seemed at a loss for words after unexpectedly hearing about the five hundred years of history.

Perhaps a vague sense of pride had taken root from the fact that a club had existed for five centuries, or maybe there was an unsettling feeling that the Holy Relic Research Society, the predecessor of the Occult Research Club, might have participated in the witch hunts under the wishes of the Holy Empire, but it was hard to tell.

“That’s because there are hardly any records left from that time.”

“Why is that?”

“When the Holy Relic Research Society was disbanded, all the research materials that had been gathered were lost. Officially, that’s the case.”

“Officially, you say…”

“Right. It was probably as close as a final struggle for the Holy Empire, which had lost its hegemony over humanity.”

I couldn’t shake the thought that it was a rather foolish method. After all, holy relics were the exclusive property of the holy priests, so there was no need to rush.

Was it the strengthening of the Empire, this new hegemonic nation of humanity, that they feared so much?

“Anyway… since it has such a long history, you all should act with pride in being part of the Occult Research Club! That’s all!”

– Clap clap clap—!

As Daniel ended his hopeful speech, applause erupted from the cramped room of the Occult Research Club. The sound of clapping was so quiet that it seemed only we could barely hear it, seemingly in consideration for me.

“Thank you. Thank you.”

Daniel repeatedly bowed in gratitude. It was a gesture akin to an actor finishing a performance.

“Thank you for taking the time, Daniel. You must be quite busy as a third-year student.”

“No, I can’t just sit back when the Occult Research Club is facing disbandment.”

True to his words, Daniel played a significant role.

According to the club regulations of the Caldera Imperial Academy, if the number of active members drops below four, the club will be disbanded.

This was a rule that the Occult Research Club, descended from the Holy Relic Research Society which has existed since the academy’s early days, couldn’t escape.

Currently, only two students, Chloe and Elin, remained in the Occult Research Club, both of whom were in a position to engage adequately this year.

While Daniel and Vivian might exist on paper, now that they were third-year students, they would no longer participate in club activities as leisurely as before. They were at an age where it was time to start planning for the future.

As evidence of this, unlike Daniel, who promptly rushed over upon hearing about the disbandment crisis, Vivian was unable to attend this meeting because she had secured the top spot among the third-years and had to take classes to become the heir of the House of Vallerge alongside her father.

“Vivian, you traitor… I still don’t know how I’m going to make a living, yet you get to enjoy the rights of nobility all by yourself…! Jealous brat…”

Daniel trembled with feelings of betrayal. Watching a guy tremble like that wasn’t a pleasant sight, so I subtly shifted my gaze away from him.

“Can’t you just take over the family business, Daniel?”

“Huh? How did you know?”

“Eh? Family business?”

Daniel looked visibly flustered at Chloe’s question, while Elin shot a perplexed look as if to say, “What are you talking about?” It was the first time I had heard of Daniel’s family situation as well.

“Isn’t your father a famous clothing designer, Daniel? I heard the clothing business is doing extremely well.”

So, he was the son of a luxury brand company chairman.

The way everyone looked at Daniel changed. As the gazes shifted toward him, Daniel waved his hands in alarm.

“No, no! That’s something my brother will inherit! They can’t expect me to design clothes… I couldn’t do that even if I died! If I could, I would have gone to the College of Arts instead!”

“Ah…”

“That’s true…”

Everyone seemed to wear a disappointed expression.

Perhaps sensing that, Daniel briefly rolled his eyes before letting out a sigh and eventually speaking.

“…I’ll give you a few clothes designed by my father later, so don’t be too upset.”

“Really?!”

“Oh… this is quite…”

Chloe instantly brightened up, and Elin began to blush and murmur in admiration. I tried to interject to keep the conversation from veering off course.

“Let’s wrap that up for now and focus on overcoming the disbandment crisis of the Occult Research Club.”

“Ah… right. That’s true…”

With Chloe’s slightly deflated comment, we resumed our previous thoughts.

Meanwhile, time ticked by, and we were unable to propose any suitable measures.

“The problem is, the new students.”

Sofia Sub-priest offered a fundamental solution to the problem. As she said, if we could attract more than two new students, it would certainly prevent disbandment…

“Last year, we barely managed to recruit anyone, you know, Sister Sofia…”

“Ah…”

Daniel weakly lamented, and Sofia Sub-priest nodded in agreement.

“Of course, I heard that there used to be an overwhelming number of members. I heard it exceeded thirty…”

“Thirty members…”

“That means a mere one and a half clubs were entirely made up of the Occult Research Club. It was a huge number.”

“Yes. But…”

While the number of members increased, the number of students genuinely interested in the occult and seriously studying it was quite low.

In the end, students who had become nothing more than ghost members were expelled from the club, while those who were left hid away in the gloomy room to research the occult.

After being transformed into the Imperial Academy, as time passed, numerous clubs were established at the academy, and the Occult Research Club, once the strongest, gradually began to lose its members.

The main reason was that students who were solely focused on the minor purpose of the club, dealing only with the occult, started to diminish, as it became too niche.

“Tch… It’s because everyone doesn’t know how fascinating the occult is. Just digging into it reveals such an interesting subject.”

“Well…”

“…It’s a bit niche, true. Honestly, it seems like only gloomy people would join just by hearing the name.”

“Hey, Elin!”

“Ugh…”

Daniel sunk at Elin’s blunt remark. Elin nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and continued.

“Honestly, for most newcomers who come for a trial experience in the club, they’d just see this rat hole of a room and run away without looking back. The only reason I joined was because you persuaded me to.”

“But it was fun! The club activities!”

“…Well, it was indeed more enjoyable than I expected. But for anyone other than someone as unique as me, most wouldn’t even glance at it.”

Elin’s comment rendered everyone speechless. I felt the same way.

To be honest, it was a refreshingly candid remark, but maybe it was too blunt and direct, so I wanted to give a warning.

Perhaps feeling that she had also been too harsh, Elin readily apologized.

However, that wouldn’t bring Daniel, who had turned white, back to life.

“…First, let’s think of ways to attract as many new students as possible.”

With that one remark from Sister Sofia, we regained our composure and looked at the clock.

“Ah… I’m sorry. I should be leaving now. I need to prepare for the written exam soon.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

In the end, even Daniel, who was like a pillar of the Occult Research Club, left the room, causing us to lose our direction and wander aimlessly.

Since we started gathering in the room around school dismissal time, it had become evening. Outside, the sky was painted a crimson color, and the cawing of crows echoed.

“…Shall we meet again tomorrow?”

“…That would be good.”

Ultimately, we had no choice but to disband without any results.

* * * * *

“This is… ”

Chloe’s somewhat sullen expression lingered in my mind even after we left the room.

Sofia Sub-priest and I continued pondering as we made our way to the staff dormitory.

Is it really that difficult to start something anew?

Feeling overwhelmed, I looked up at the sky. The red-tinged sky was graced by a blazing sunset.

A new year, a new beginning, the season of new lives awakening.

The spring sunlight was short-lived.

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