EDPEN 43

Chapter 43.

 Misfortune vs. Fortune (1)

The professors could not hide their shock.

The Order of Radiant Glory. That seat was acknowledged as the greatest position among humanity by the strongest of humanity. And yet, to even bring up that seat…!

‘This has never happened even once before…!’

On the other hand, the president spoke as if something else concerned him even more.

“Is Professor Ruins all right? He wasn’t harmed while the theft was taking place, was he?”

At that terrifying gaze, the professors flinched and cried out.

“N-no! We swear, Professor Wayne did absolutely nothing…!”

The Hero also spoke.

“He’ll be fine, Charlotte.”

He recalled Ruins. In fact, he had sensed Ruins watching the scene of the incident.

‘It’s a mystery why he was there, but.’

Had he simply arrived and observed the situation? If so, that had been an extremely good judgment.

‘Even if manpower rushes in, all that happens is that more people get possessed.’

If he had moved with that in mind, then he was certainly a capable professor. And because of that, the Hero felt his heart race for the first time in a while. Just like back when Firefly had existed.

The Hero rose from his seat.

“You will all step down from your assigned classes. Your research funding will be reduced in proportion to the classes you missed.”

“…Chairman!”

He said coldly,

“Rather, I’m grateful to Professor Wayne. He allowed us to discover professors harboring such thoughts early.”

Grit…!

In the end, the professors who had lowered their heads ground their teeth. The Hero was the head of the Union Army and the idol of all heroes. They couldn’t say anything.

The professors who had tried to build achievements also ground their teeth.

‘My research funds, taken away because of Wayne, that brat.’

But research funds were tolerable enough….

At that moment, the president smiled a million-dollar smile and said,

“Ah, and this is the invoice for the damage to Haven’s property and compensation for losses. Please don’t forget to pay this as well.”

When the president flicked the invoice away and left, the professors gaped. The amount far exceeded common sense.

“Oh, and it also includes the cost of searching the senior professor’s office.”

That icy gaze was frightening. It was, in effect, a recommendation to resign.

Leaving the stunned professors behind, the professors who had come to visit smoked mana tobacco.

“Ruins Wayne. At this rate, he’ll really become the senior professor.”

“Shh. The chairman is still here.”

“…At the very least, if he’s the head professor of Healing, shouldn’t he step down from Demon Hunting Studies?”

“I heard the president say this: because of a VIP’s request, he can’t step down from the Demon Hunting Studies professor position, and moreover, the head professor of the Healing Department was appointed with the original head professor’s approval, so there’s nothing that can be done.”

“……”

President… aren’t you being way too openly biased toward Ruins?

“Hah, is there no way to chase that guy out for at least a year?”

“How can you touch someone under the president’s protection?”

Then, someone spoke up. A particularly young professor among the Healing faculty.

“With this method, even the president won’t be able to do anything.”

“A method, you say?”

“Espionage charges. If you’re suspected of being a demon-tribe spy, you never get off easy. You’re called in every day to prove yourself, so you can’t teach or do anything.”

The professors, chewing on their mana tobacco, smiled slyly.

“My, my. How could you say something like that? Let’s pretend we didn’t hear it.”

“Right. How could we frame an innocent colleague as a spy?”

Yet all of them grinned as though they had found their answer.

And someone was listening to that conversation through a wiretap.

‘Maybe I’ll use them as teaching materials next.’

It was Ruin, the real spy.

“What? A strange letter?”

Ruin looked at the assistant. The assistant handed him a letter.

“Actually, I went to Haven’s post office to send some mail, and I happened to find a letter addressed to you, Professor.”

He didn’t see what the problem was, but Lili spoke.

“The seal’s wax mark looked oddly different. And the handwriting was subtly different from yours too.”

Ruin examined the brown-toned envelope.

• [Sender] Ruins Wayne, Professor’s Office of Demon Hunting Studies, Haven

• [Recipient] Rolst Newspaper

“Did you really send this, Professor? If you did, I’m sorry—”

“I definitely don’t remember writing anything like this.”

“Ah, then…!”

“It’s a forged letter.”

“I knew it!”

Lili got angry, as if she had expected this.

The ginseng boss, who was guzzling flowerpot fertilizer like alcohol, asked:

「What’s going on?」

‘It’s nothing much.’

Ruin immediately guessed what the letter contained.

‘No doubt it contains Haven’s information.’

Leaking Haven’s information was a serious matter. In other words, it was practically the same as selling information to Pride.

As proof, the newspaper office was a regular facility used as a front by demon-tribe spies.

‘Right, that was the case “eighty years ago.”’

In other words, this letter was made to frame him as a spy.

“It looks like they planned to ‘accidentally’ discover it at the post office and report me as a spy.”

“What? Really? Who would do such a thing?”

Who else?

The professors.

Thanks to the wiretaps he had planted everywhere, he already knew about their schemes. And since he had deliberately caused incidents in related departments to keep them too busy to think of anything else…

‘Hmm. So someone among them actually went through with it. Who is it?’

In any case, a real spy wouldn’t fall for such a cheap trick.

If anything, what was scarier was the assistant, Lili.

‘She noticed the wax mark and the handwriting were different…’

Ruin stared hard at the letter.

‘It’s forged, but it’s done well enough that ordinary people would never be able to tell.’

Ruin asked,

“How was the wax mark different?”

“You always stamp it perfectly in the exact center, but this one is tilted about five degrees to the right.”

“……”

Is she a pervert?

“And how could you tell the handwriting was different?”

“Eh? It’s just… it’s subtly different from the handwriting I always see from you, Professor?”

That’s practically a stalker.

Honestly, even Firefly would find that creepy.

「That’s affection. It’s love.」

What are you talking about?

But Lili seemed genuinely angry that Ruins had almost fallen into a trap.

“Espionage charges are the best way to get someone expelled from the Union. But with a forgery this good, it must be hard to find the culprit…”

Ruin brought the envelope to his nose and inhaled deeply. Then he analyzed the faint scent.

‘Herbs.’

That narrowed it down to a professor of herbal studies, but it wasn’t that professor.

They were common herbs, but among the scents, there was one—just one—that was completely different.

‘This is a special medicinal ingredient used only for treating internal injuries.’

Ruin immediately knew the culprit.

“The culprit is Professor Doman from Healing Studies.”

“What?! That fast?”

“The scent contains herbs mainly used for internal injuries. And peppermint. That’s the smell of mana tobacco—students are forbidden from using it, but staff smoke it often. In that sense, it could be assistants too, but the fact that there’s also the scent of expensive alcohol mixed in means it’s not the work of an assistant who has to watch a professor’s mood all day. They couldn’t assist while reeking of alcohol, right?”

Ruin flipped the envelope over.

“More importantly, there’s a trace of ink on this envelope. It’s ordinary blue ink, but when you shine light on it, gold shows through. It’s a luxury product that costs 100,000 quid per drop. And among Haven’s professors, only one person uses this. Professor Doman of Extremely Difficult Internal Injury Studies.”

As if finished with his analysis, Ruin tossed the envelope onto the desk.

Lili stared at him, mouth agape.

“A-amazing.”

“Close your mouth. You look poor.”

“Hk!”

Lili shut her mouth.

Ruin’s clasped eyes narrowed disdainfully.

‘They tried to report Firefly as a spy.’

How admirable.

‘I’ll squeeze you dry and use you as nutrients.’

Perfect timing, too—he had just received a reward from the Demon Lord for successfully completing a mission.

【Shadow Fate (Special Grade)】
A gemstone that governs fate within darkness.

It was a precious item that amplified magical power. For example, a spell with a 1-meter range would be extended to a 10-meter range.

‘It really is perfect for me.’

Normally, range is proportional to the amount of mana. But Ruin, being a monster, had innately low mana. That meant he was strong in close-range one-on-one fights but couldn’t develop wide-area magic.

‘At least it’s ten million times better than the academic-bragging staff Ruins used.’

Ruin sighed as he looked at the inscription on his staff.

• Haven 40th Class Alumni Association

‘Seriously, this is the first time I’ve seen a hero use a graduation staff as his personal weapon.’

It felt like someone who, even after graduating, still wears their prestigious university jacket and carries the school handkerchief everywhere.

‘Well, with Ruins’s level of magic skill, even this would have been more than sufficient…’

Anyway, with a gemstone of this grade, the power of his magic would be massively boosted.

‘Thanks to the Hero, I did get a good item.’

The problem was that the Hero himself was driving him insane.

Because ever since the commotion in Catalun, the Hero had been staying in the Healing classroom even more.

‘Why the hell are you living there, you bastard?’

Does he think it’s a campsite?

「He’s waiting for you. He wants to recruit you as talent.」

What are you talking about? Visiting three times is already the limit! Anything more than that is stalking! Even Liu Bei wouldn’t go that far!

That was why Ruin grew serious.

‘I can’t let him stay in Haven.’

So he diligently scattered bait that a ‘Hero’ would naturally respond to—outside of Haven. All to drive him away.

For example:

• The location of the Demon Lord’s treasure

• The Demon Lord’s hideout

• The place where the Demon Lord’s weakness is hidden

• The appearance of the Demon Lord’s familiars

• Information on the Demon Lord’s movements

• Demon Lord spies hidden within the Union

• Demon Lord traps set throughout the Union

They were the kind of information that even the Union—and even Pride—would find tempting.

But.

‘I scattered this much, so why won’t you move, you damn Hero!’

They were fake, but designed to look somewhat credible. If they were too absurd, he wouldn’t move.

And yet, do you know what he said when rejecting those reports?

“These seem like things the professors would handle well. Leave them to them.”

“Leave the Demon Lord’s treasure to the treasure team.”

“Have the military handle the hideout.”

“Aren’t the Demon Lord’s power and movements the responsibility of the inspection department?”

“Let the intelligence bureau handle Demon Lord information.”

“Anyway, anything related to the Demon Lord, send it all to the special-grade heroes.”

Why aren’t you going yourself?! Why?!

‘You’re the Hero who’s supposed to defeat the Demon Lord!’

Ruin, rarely, pounded his chest.

「Well, leaders usually just make their subordinates do the work.」

Damn it, if that’s the case, I’d rather not understand!

“Got it? Everything except Firefly is a waste of time. That means don’t bring me anything other than Firefly. Firefly takes priority over even the Demon Lord.”

You crazy bastard! The Demon Lord would be furious!

Does he think Ruin just scattered information carelessly? Even if it’s fake, do you know how hard it is to plant it so realistically, so it won’t be resolved too quickly, so that no trail can ever be traced back, and so that even the local people will believe it? Do you think manipulation work is easy?!

「At this point, aren’t you being treated as higher priority than the Demon Lord? That’s an honor. Other demons would cry tears of joy.」

Ugh! I don’t need the Hero’s attention!

「Why? The strongest of humanity is acknowledging you. That raises your value, you know.」

That’s nice and all, but let me retire!

Anyway, he needed a way to drive away the Hero. And if he could deal with the prank-playing professor at the same time, even better.

Then Lili’s eyes sparkled and she said,

“Professor, should I send a ‘Frix’ to the entire student body and crush Professor Doman?”

“No. I’ll handle it, so you…”

But something seemed to occur to him at Lili’s words, and Ruin clasped his hands.

…That Hero didn’t even blink at the Demon Lord… but still, surely something like that wouldn’t work on him, right?