The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

“Duel… invalid… the ugly truth of the Dwarf Race?”

The Academy has once again dashed Lucia’s hopes.

Happy on her way to school, Lucia felt queasy upon seeing newspapers strewn everywhere.

Everywhere in the Academy, nonsensical slanders about yesterday’s duel filled the pages of the newspapers.

Listening intently, she realized everyone holding a paper was trash-talking Atlas.

“It’s all… all lies.”

Lucia, unable to bear it any longer, hurried away from the scene.

Even as she moved to a quieter place, the gossip about Atlas continued.

Was this the attack Atlas mentioned that wasn’t physical…?

‘I… said I would protect Atlas… What is happening!!’

The promise made yesterday was shattered.

She was one step too late.

The attack had already begun.

“Atlas didn’t cheat… he won, so why is no one acknowledging it? Everyone saw it!”

Feeling it personally, Lucia’s eyes began to water.

It made no sense for Atlas, who had legitimately won the duel, to be criticized.

“…I can’t forgive this.”

She needed to confront the Newspaper Club.

She would demand they retract this ridiculous article and apologize to Atlas.

But speaking up in an unknown place, to people she didn’t know… was terrifying.

Her legs froze in place.

Just imagining the pouring gazes made her hands tremble.

‘No… no, Atlas will have it worse…’

She thought about the pain Atlas was enduring today.

Just receiving gawks from random strangers made her stomach churn, and now they were berating Atlas from all directions.

Atlas must’ve felt the same way when he showed up to school.

She definitely promised to protect him from these things—so what was happening?

Now that she was late, she hesitated over such trivial matters…

‘Right… as Atlas said, I am… one of the five pillars..!!’

It was time to use her family’s authority.

————————————————-

Thus, Lucia Russell arrived at the Newspaper Club, witnessing a bizarre scene.

The Newspaper Club was a mess.

A shattered desk, papers scattered everywhere, and in between it all, people were entangled and sprawled on the floor while I grabbed the collar of the club president.

“Ah… Atlas?! What are you doing here??”

“I came to protest your strange articles.”

“I… I see!!”

Surprised to see me, Lucia nodded vigorously and then fixed her gaze on the club president again.

“…Atlas Nemea is under my protection as of yesterday. Atlas and I are one and the same… an attack on Atlas is an attack on me. So why did you write such an article about him?!”

As Lucia excitedly protested, Malcolm Dunmoore, the club president, began sweating profusely, feeling cornered.

What I intended to do in the Newspaper Club was related to this.

I was trying to quietly tell the president to quickly retract the misleading article, since it was just a discussion not agreed upon by the other five pillars.

I had brought my sword, ready to fight if necessary.

But then one of the club members suddenly shoved my head away?

I got angry?

And just like that, the situation spiraled into this chaos.

Of course, I had expected it to turn out this way from the start.

“Looks like I got myself in trouble… this could get complicated…”

“How complicated can it be? Is it worse than becoming a physical mess here? Your guard can get his arm fixed at the hospital with no aftereffects. Think it through.”

Certain people are already getting bashed just for walking down the hallway—I found it ridiculous to complain.

Now that this has been reported, all my plans from when I first came to the Academy are completely ruined.

I just wanted to get decent grades, help Amy and River, and kill demons, yet look at me now.

Demons? How many people have I already cut down in less than a week?

With this kind of coverage, it’ll be hard to find anyone in the Academy who doesn’t know my name.

The professors of the other grades would know as well, even the passersby.

And seeing how my image has become tarnished… every action I take in the Academy will come with an odd label.

Malcolm probably never thought all five pillars would share the same opinion.

He must’ve assumed it was just one less interested member acting upon an order, not realizing another pillar would oppose it.

Being sandwiched between two pillars is disadvantageous.

If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have accepted the situation in the first place.

“Alright… This may not be enough, but I’ll do what I can within reason… whether it be a correction or writing better articles for you in the future.”

As Lucia continued pressing the issue with me, the club president finally declared his surrender.

Ultimately, it was Malcolm’s defeat for failingly assessing the atmosphere between the five pillars and hastily acting on yesterday’s orders.

However, this correction of broadcasting false information was something he needed to do.

What became entangled between me and the Newspaper Club was just beginning.

Having swung about so recklessly, I tightened my grip on the bloodless longsword once more.

“You haven’t explained who issued the orders yet.”

“What’s it to you if I do… are they planning to make me like you?”

“Nothing’s impossible.”

Malcolm’s eyes shifted, showing his surprise as if he’d expect anything else.

“… You could really get hurt badly from this.”

“That’s not your concern. Have you forgotten what I just said?”

“True enough…”

It’s not Malcolm’s choice to decide whether I attack or just let it go.

When I mentioned the possibility of being injured, Lucia looked at me in surprise.

“What do you mean, get hurt?”

“I’m trying to find out who ordered this. I need to know who it is to plan my response.”

“That’s right..! Who could give such an order?”

As Lucia spoke, Malcolm’s face showed signs of discomfort.

Did he realize I was holding back from throwing a punch just because Lucia was here?

“See? She’s asking. If I know who it is, Lucia can tell them to stop, and that would be good for you too.”

I wished he wouldn’t say that here.

If that’s the case, I could proceed without hesitation into interrogations.

But the club president easily capitulated here.

“That’s true too… the order came from King Golden. He contacted me right after the duel ended.”

The meaning of the Golden pillar within the five pillars is only one thing.

Golden Prigia.

The mastermind behind this gossip is Shaara Prigia… that psycho.

Now knowing the identity of the culprit, the blood rushed to my head.

“Fine. Let’s go hunt down Prigia.”

“Eh… are we going to fight again like this?”

As much as I’d like to tie her up and beat her up, I kept my thoughts about it to myself.

—————————————————————

Unlike ordinary schools, the Academy had a fully-fledged hospital instead of a health room… because students were being carried in daily.

Students who tend to slice each other, those on dungeon explorations, and even those researching magic, all end up coming to the hospital after accidents.

Dueling was also one of the frequent causes for hospitalization.

Edgar Lemnos, admitted to the hospital room after losing a duel, regained consciousness after roughly half a day.

“Ugh… my whole body aches…”

As soon as he woke up, Edgar felt an intense pain.

It was a completely different kind of pain from muscle soreness.

He hadn’t noticed it the day before, thinking he was just tired, but it seemed he had taken quite a beating from that Dwarf during the duel.

“I’ll win next time…”

It was the first time he had lost to someone his own age.

After reaching the intermediate level of Sword Expert… he had never encountered anyone capable of defeating him of the same age after hitting a wall.

Even if he was of similar caliber, Lemnos’ Vision Swordsmanship, the Flame Sword, had elevated him to an unequivocally dominant position.

But this time, he lost.

He was beaten up without landing even a scratch.

“If only my body recovers……… no, first I need to improve my skills…”

Thinking that diving back into combat would only leave him with another thrashing, he resolved to focus on training instead.

His badly injured leg seemed to be perfectly fine.

Though the bruises weren’t healed completely, the critical wound on his leg had been thoroughly treated.

It appeared they prioritized healing this area.

As he was checking on his leg’s condition, something caught Lemnos’ eye.

It was a newspaper.

It seemed to be today’s issue published by the Newspaper Club, and it was distributed to each hospital room.

On the front page of the newspaper was an article about his duel.

“What’s this? The duel is invalid…?”

Lemnos crumpled the paper in his hand.

“Do they see me as a fool?!”