The Academy is Doomed

Chapter 19

[One Year of Unified Imperial Power]

[An Interview with Grand Duke Gremory Ariat Drake]

Amon’s eyes widened.

‘Archduke Drake? My family used to be an archduke?’

Then why are we a baronial family now?

He quickly read the next line.

[The officer recorded, “The emperor said: ”Drake, that dog XX stole my saved smoked meat. I will beat that XX to death today.”]

[The emperor said, “Dog XX, don’t write this down.”]

“……?”

Amon shook his head and continued reading.

[Third year of the Unified Empire]

[The Emperor lay ill after being beaten in a dog fight with Archduke Drake.]

“……?”

[Sixth Year of the Unified Empire.]

[The Emperor said, “At least my son has a good heart,” but when Archduke Drake said, “And his magic grades?” the Emperor spilled his drink.]

“…….”

[The Emperor slapped Belmont and said, “Did I tell you not to use it or not?” and dozens of officers gathered in the imperial palace to ask for an explanation.]

Amon’s face went blank as he read.

‘……Are these the historical records?’

What kind of historical records are such a mess?

After that, similar content continued, but little by little, the ‘big picture’ began to change.

‘Amonis II, III, IV…….’

The historical records were quite thick, and the writing was like a grain of sand.

Amon had to squeeze his eyes shut to read it.

It wasn’t that his eyes were glazed over, but that he was getting a headache from the content.

[When King Amonis VI said, “I am XX, the one who spoke with Duke Drake, XX.” Duke Drake said, “Yes, may Your Majesty live long.” The Emperor grabbed the back of his neck.]

“……?”

Suddenly, Archduke Drake was a ‘duke’.

‘Has he been stripped of his dukedom……?’

And with each successive generation, the Drake family was on a downward spiral.

[Amonis VIII said that the Marquis of Drake was an unworthy son…….]

[King Amonis XI slapped the Earl of Drake, and he was fiercely repulsed…….]

And when he came to the end of the thick records.

[Crown Prince Sandrio…….]

“Sandrio? Isn’t that the name of the current emperor, Amonis XVIII?

And what followed was shocking.

[……At a palace dinner, Viscount Drake’s heir, Belial Drake, snatched a sausage from Prince Sandrio’s plate and ate it].

[The crown prince wept bitterly, much to the chagrin of the nobles present.]

“……?”

And the next thing you know, the crown prince was crying, and the former emperor was furious, and he rebuked Viscount Drake, but he wouldn’t listen.

Eventually, the child quarrel turned into a parent quarrel, and the enraged emperor confiscated the grandfather’s viscountcy and demoted him to baronetcy!

‘After that, the crown prince ascended to the throne and they met several times, but each time he fought with my grandfather……The emotional rift deepened……’

That was the end of the records.

When I closed the book, my father said,

“……have you read it all?”

“……Yes.”

He turned away, his face flushed red.

“I’m ashamed to say,” he said, ”but that’s the whole story of the downfall of the Drake family to baronetcy.”

Amon blushed, too, and dropped his head.

“It’s not like we committed some sort of treason, but a series of trivial events overlapped and overlapped and overlapped and overlapped until we were reduced to a baronet?”

“……Yes.”

“What kind of a bullshit case…….”

I might as well have committed treason!

Anyway, looking at the records, it turns out that the current emperor had quite a few things done to him by my grandfather when he was a crown prince.

In addition to being robbed of his sausages, grandfather pulled out the tail hairs of his favorite horse, and shaved off the hairs of his favorite puppy like the hair of a horseback rider…….

‘Is that why the emperor’s face was full of rage when he saw me?’

But Amon was indignant.

‘That was my grandfather’s fault, why should I be blamed? Who else is as innocent as I am…….?’

Amon’s eyes filled with tears of sorrow.

“Did grandfather have any trouble with the current emperor?”

“My father is completely at odds with the current Emperor, and it was only a few years ago that the Great War was settled, and I haven’t even seen his face.”

“Ah…….”

The Great War was a decade-long period of warfare that spanned the entire continent.

One of the reasons the current Emperor was considered a saint was that he brought the Great War to a brilliant end and quickly cleaned up the aftermath.

“It may be that our territory was not drafted during the great war because we had a connection, even if it was bad.”

“……Maybe they just forgot about it because it was so remote and rugged?”

“……Is that so?”

The entire population of the estate, all together, is just over fifty.

Even a flea’s liver is worth its weight in gold.

“Anyway, this is a top secret, top secret, top secret that only the Emperor’s closest confidants and those of us in House Drake should know. You are not to divulge it either.”

“I’m not going to tell……any of this. Why did you tell me this just now, anyway?”

Dad said.

“If you knew this, would you stay still considering your personality?”

“……What’s wrong with my personality?”

“You may resemble me in appearance, but you are more like your mother in character.”

I couldn’t argue back because I’d been hearing it since I was a kid.

“Ah, yes. But what about mother, brother and sister?”

“Your brother and sister have gone to the city ahead to attend to business, and Yulia should be back soon…….”

At that moment the door opened and mother came in, dragging someone with her.

“Kaim, what is this dark elf?”

“Oh, Yulia, you’re back…….”

Amon and his father were stunned.

Mother was clutching the back of a stunned Brestle, her eyes rolling back in her head.

“Uh, Mother!?”

“Oh, my God, Amon, you’re home.”

“Yes, it’s been a while……That’s not it. That, no. Why her……?”

“Huh? This?”

My mother said, holding up a sagging Brestle.

“This one was digging up our potato patch, so I knocked her out.”

Amon didn’t take on his mother’s personality for nothing.

“……Digging our potato field?”

Brestle had fallen that low.

“Yeah, I heard she was digging for some mana or something. Is she a dark elf you know?”

“……the vice-principal of our academy.”

“Vice Headmaster? Why would a vice headmaster be digging in a potato field?”

Amon asked, looking up at the ceiling.

“That’s something I’d like to know…….”

* * *

Boris was shaking with fear.

‘What the hell is this?’

Suddenly, she remembered when she first arrived here.

When she had just arrived via warp magic, the estate had been deserted with no sign of life.

‘What, did everyone go hunting as a group?’

Marion asked with a shudder at Amon’s words.

‘Hunting? In a group?’

‘Yeah. The monsters here aren’t easy, so we go in groups and beat them up.’

‘But……doesn’t have kids?’

‘Well, we don’t have a lot of kids, and we need workers, so we need kids. Kids can kill orcs and trolls, right?’

‘Yeah……what?’

Eventually, the group headed straight to Amon’s house.

After greeting Amon’s father, there was a pause as Amon and his father stepped away to talk.

‘Shall we take a look around the estate?’

‘Sure.’

‘Hmm, not much to see.’

‘It doesn’t look like a very rich place, as Amon said.’

Marion and Sloth muttered something rude, but Boris found the scenery poignant.

‘It looks like the village I used to live in.’

And what a nostalgic view of the sprawling potato fields!

However, there was a rogue who ruined the scene.

Brestle looked around the potato fields in disbelief!

‘What happened to these potatoes? What kind of potatoes have so much mana?’

Anar’el was also surprised.

‘Well, really? What kind of potato…….’

‘Go, potato! It’s all mine! It’s all mine!’

Brestle ran to the potato patch and began frantically digging.

‘How could you do that…….?’

‘Mmm, shame on you.’

Everyone stayed away from Brestle for fear of being mistaken for one of the group.

But Brestle’s potato harvest didn’t last long.

Suddenly, a shadow flew through the air!

Kwajik-!

“Kiaaah!”

Brestle collapses with a scream like an elk!

The stout woman who had caught her by the back of the head as she collapsed muttered.

‘What is it, this dark elf?’

The next thing you know, the woman is dragging Brestle back to Amon’s house!

And that wasn’t the end of it.

Dozens of men, women, and children, all covered in blood, appeared, each carrying a monster corpse!

Tsk-!

Anar’el’s ears dropped and she froze.

Her legs went limp at the sight of the men surrounding her.

“Guests of my lord?”

“Guests on my estate? Have you been drinking poison mushroom spores?”

“I have. My head is spinning.”

Though they didn’t seem malicious, the sight of them in their blood-red armor made Marion and Sloth brace for battle.

Boris swallowed hard when he realized what they were about to do.

“Long time no see!”

The sudden voice turned everyone’s heads.

“Whoa, Master Amon!”

“When did you come back?”

“Haha, I just got back earlier, but…….”

Amon swept his gaze across the welcoming villagers.

“The harvest isn’t so good today, is it?”

At that, a man with a scarred face kicked the ogre in the side.

“Tsk, the monsters have been acting weird lately.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, I caught a few for a feast before you left.”

“Did you catch so many that the seeds dried up…….?”

Shaking his head, Amon clapped his hands.

“Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you all. This is the headmaster of the academy, my seniors, and the students I teach.”

“Ohhh! These are…….”

“Guests on our estate…….”

They exclaimed in excitement.

“You’ve really become a teacher, Master!”

“Yay! Then if you work steadily, you’ll be the head of the school one day!”

What a terrible thing to say when I’m planning to run away after the three years of my contract.

A village woman, seeing Amon’s expression decaying, stabbed her husband in the ribs.

“Honey, why did you say that?”

“Huh? Like what?”

“You have to be vice principal first!”

“Aha! I see!”

Amon grinned rottenly at the villager who burst out laughing.

“Ha, ha, ha. Anyway, everyone, you look like shit right now, go wash up.”

“Yes, we have guests, and we need to wash up, so let’s go!”

Amon sighed as the villagers rushed away and finally quieted down.

“Well, it’s good to see you, but there’s a lot of noise…….”

Clearing his throat, Amon looked around the group.

“But why are you all out here……What’s going on? What’s everyone doing?”

The group stood still, heads dropping helplessly.

Only when the villagers retreated, carrying the carcasses of the hideous-looking and sizable monsters, did they relax.

* * *

Amon returns to the manor!

At the urging of the manor residents, a banquet was held that night.

And with a banquet comes alcohol, and with alcohol comes Marion!

‘Good, but what’s for the banquet?’

‘We brought a lot of meat today.’

‘Meat? What kind of meat……monster meat?’

Anar’el was horrified.

‘How can you eat that?’

Amon thought to himself, “Maybe other people don’t eat monster meat, or maybe my common sense is wrong again,” but fortunately, he was wrong.

‘Hehe, the principal can have potatoes.’

‘Oh, I guess that’ll do.’

‘The mountain bore is pretty sturdy, are you sure you don’t want some?’

‘No matter how long I’ve lived in the human world, I’ve never found meat to be palatable.’

Marion was the most excited when the feast began, and he was now standing shoulder to shoulder with father, telling him to pour and drink.

“What a joke Kaim is, too!”

“Uh-oh, Viscount Rumdom. I’m not kidding.”

And on the other hand.

“I’ll pack you some potatoes on the way back, so why are you digging in the fields?”

“Pfft…….”

Mother and Brestle reconciled!

‘Mmm, peaceful.’

Sloth is dozing off in front of the campfire, and Chloe and Boris are gulping down their appetizers as the village elders invite them to try the ‘orc pork belly’ since they’ve never had monster meat before.

“Gulp! Yum!”

It couldn’t be better to have a drink with such scenery as an appetizer.

‘Besides, the monsters have been quiet lately, so it’s safe to drink, right?’

A smiling Amon tipped the bottle into the cup.

Kurrrrrr-!

The sound of rolling stones suddenly echoed outside.

The moment the sound was heard, the villagers, who had been craving alcohol and meat, turned their heads in unison.

“Ah, Mr……..”

“Ah, the good times were just beginning.”

In contrast to the grumbling villagers, Marion’s face was wide open as if he didn’t understand the situation.

“What? What is it? What’s going on?”

Amon’s father sighed in response.

“A monster must have gotten into the village.”

“……Eh? Mo, a monster?”

“Yes. That rolling sound you heard earlier was the rocks we put at the entrance to the village as an alarm.”

“……There are rocks at the entrance to the village?”

“That’s enough to buy us time.”

“……What the hell was rolling in?”

Father shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know, and Marion sobered up.

Meanwhile Amon grumbled in annoyance.

“Uncle Jackson, I heard there aren’t many monsters these days?”

The man Amon had been talking to earlier scratched his head thoughtfully.

“Well, yeah, it’s been really quiet for a while…….”

“Phew……Well, that’s right, my life can’t be going well.”

Pouting, Amon stomped off.

He pulled on the ‘giant lump of iron’ that was standing next to his house.

Grrrrrrr-!

A man-sized plate of iron. No, an axe.

Hefting it over his shoulder, Amon yawned and started walking.

“Come on, guys, let’s get this done and finish eating!”

“Yes, Master!”

The monsters of the Drake estate began to move.