The Academy is Doomed

Chapter 76

In response to that sharp gaze, Phais felt as if he had been drenched in cold water—or rather, scalded by a fiery storm.

‘Why on earth is the “Devil of Crimson Flame” working as a teacher?’

The “Devil of Crimson Flame,” Marion Rumdom, was a Class-1 danger.

The story of him single-handedly annihilating an enemy knight order during the Great War was widely known.

Faced with such a war hero glaring directly at him, Phais instinctively gulped down dryly.

‘Danger…No, wait. Don’t tell me!?’

Could Amon have suspected him as a “spy” and arranged for him to face the “Devil of Crimson Flame”?

That thought sent shivers down Phais’ spine.

‘Damn it, pretending to be drunk just to pull this kind of trick! What a despicable bastard!’

Still glaring resentfully at Amon, who kept pounding on the table and shouting, ‘Kai is the spy, that bastard! Let’s kill him on the spot!’ Phais bit his lips tightly.

‘Since things have come to this, there’s no other way.’

It was truly a last resort.

Hurriedly folding his hands together, Phais gritted his teeth.

Then, he began rubbing them together at an incredible speed.

Sasasasasasak-!

Simultaneously, Phais spoke in a coquettish voice.

“Ah-ha! How could I not recognize the great Marion Rumdom, the war hero of the Grand Amonis Empire? If I didn’t recognize him, I’d have to gouge out my own eyes and throw them away! Marion Rumdom achieved countless feats during the Great War! Even a backwater native of the Osran Kingdom like myself is well-acquainted with his illustrious deeds! Ah-ha!”

A level of flattery that seemed to melt brains!

Moreover, Marion, whose brain was already half-melted by the alcohol, immediately burst into a wide grin at the desperate flattery.

“Isn’t that so?”

“Absolutely! To think I would meet you in person—it’s an honor that spans three generations!”

“Gahahaha! Let’s just keep it at two generations of honor, shall we?”

Watching Phais lower himself so obsequiously, as if ready to lick Marion’s shoes, Amon pouted his lips.

‘So jealous!’

Amon, who could never hope to rise in rank due to offending the imperial bloodline, was consumed with envy!

Noticing Amon’s envious gaze, Phais kept rubbing his hands together with a triumphant smile.

‘Hehehe, how does it feel? Bet you never thought I’d get away with it this easily.’

‘If I achieve great feats, I’ll have people flattering me like that too, won’t I?’

‘Not just anyone can be a spy, you know!’

While Phais smirked slyly, Marion, in his good mood, put an arm around his shoulders and handed him a drink.

“Gahahaha! I like you, lad! Here, drink up! It’s on me!”

“……!”

Drink more? For a moment, Phais felt a wave of nausea rising.

The shock of the drink prices had sobered him up once, and facing the Devil of Crimson Flame had completely dissipated his buzz—but that was just his feeling. The total amount of alcohol in his body hadn’t changed at all.

‘But now he wants me to drink more? Just one more sip and I feel like I’ll throw up…’

Whether he knew this or not, Marion grinned and brought the drink to Phais’ lips himself, as if intending to personally feed him.

“Glug-glug-glug! Drink up! Come on now!”

It was Marion’s way of showing friendliness, but inwardly, Phais thought:

‘Are these bastards doing this on purpose because they suspect I’m a spy?’

No! As mentioned, it was just friendliness!

And to raise the atmosphere, the youngest of the trio, Amon, clapped his hands and shouted:

“Aha-! If you can’t drink it in one shot, you won’t be able to marry~!”

‘I’m already married, you idiot! I’ve got two kids back home!’

“Who’s the one who can’t↘drink↗properly→!”

Mixing in the Empire’s local dialect, Amon tried to make Phais drink, his antics lighting a fire in Phais’ eyes.

‘I swear, I’ll kill that bastard when I get back.’

Secretly sharpening a knife for Amon in his mind, Phais brought the glass to his lips.

‘Well, for the sake of appearances, I can at least take one sip…’

The moment he swallowed one sip.

The potent liquor, with its signature scent of pure alcohol, stung his nasal cavity and triggered a natural bodily reaction.

“Puhgueeeeeet!”

“Uwaaah!”

Amon and Marion jumped back in shock.

Practically thrown out of the bar, Amon and Marion supported a wobbly Phais between them.

“You should’ve said something earlier, man.”

Amon chimed in awkwardly.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to force you to drink—I just got carried away with the mood…”

“Right. Truly, I apologize.”

As Amon and Marion apologized in turn, Phais, struggling to calm his queasy stomach, muttered:

“It’s fine…It’s been so long since I drank that I made a grave mistake. I feel like I’ve ruined the mood instead. My apologies.”

Of course, it wasn’t fine.

Phais said that only to maintain their camaraderie.

‘I can’t afford to sour our relationship here. In times like these, I just need to accept their apology gracefully.’

Though he wanted nothing more than to rip them apart, years of being a spy had taught him to wear many faces.

And Amon and Marion took his words of humility at face value!

“Right, right. Just make sure to let us know next time.”

“You gave us quite the scare with the sudden vomiting.”

“Sigh, cleaning up after that ruined all the expensive drinks we had.”

“Tell me about it! That bar’s owner gave us such dirty looks we had to clean it up ourselves!”

As they grumbled, Phais ground his teeth.

“Haha, I’ll make sure to be careful next time.”

“Good, good. As long as it doesn’t happen again.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

As they approached the academy building, Phais let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

‘Damn, this day feels endless. I need to rest soon.’

Just as he thought that and passed through the academy gates.

“Senior!”

A plump young man hurried over, catching Phais’ narrowed gaze.

‘That guy…?’

It was the young man who had been with Amon earlier.

‘Ah, right. They mentioned a new teacher who arrived a bit before me. His name was… Kai, wasn’t it?’

Yes, Kai.

He was definitely the one Amon had accused of being a “spy” at the bar earlier.

‘Hmm, a spy, huh… He doesn’t seem like one to me.’

Years of this line of work had sharpened Phais’ intuition.

To his eyes, Kai’s every action seemed refined and dignified, befitting someone of noble lineage—a “young scion of the upper class,” so to speak.

‘A marquis family? No, he’s probably the son of a duke at least…’

Smirking at the thought, Phais shook his head.

‘Well, Amon must’ve been joking earlier at the bar about him being a spy. I was hoping for some internal strife, but I’d better let go of that idea…’

Before he could finish his thought.

‘…Huh?’

A sudden tremor on both sides of his body!

Startled, Phais turned his head to see Amon and Marion trembling violently as they supported him.

‘What the hell is happening to these guys all of a sudden?’

Despite the earlier shock, the alcohol in their systems hadn’t dissipated.

At the peak of their drunken stupor, Marion suddenly shoved Phais aside, pointed at Kai, and bellowed:

“You scoundrel! Do you know your crime!?”

Kai froze mid-step, startled by the unexpected outburst.

“Huh? What?”

“You! Why did you come to this academy!?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden…?”

While it was unmistakably drunken nonsense, Kai, having grown up in the imperial palace surrounded by the finest, was baffled by Marion’s raw and unfiltered drunkenness.

Watching the scene, Phais narrowed his eyes.

‘Well, well…’

Could internal strife actually happen?

As he watched the situation unfold with keen interest, Amon, too, tried to point at Kai, pushing Phais aside in the process.

Realizing what was happening, Phais subtly tried to distance himself from Amon.

But then—

Bwoooong-!

The ground suddenly seemed to rush toward him, and Phais widened his eyes.

‘…What’s going on?’

That was the last thing Phais saw.

Thud! Splat-!

Unable to resist Amon’s push, Phais fell face-first to the ground like a corpse experiencing rigor mortis.

Amon, oblivious to his strength, stood frozen, pointing at Kai.

As silence stretched, Amon muttered with a pale face.

“Damn it…”

Phais snapped back to reality, startled, and quickly sat up.

“Heuk! The secret base is to the east…!”

Realizing what he had just blurted out, he clamped his mouth shut and scanned his surroundings frantically.

‘W-where am I?’

Soon, he noticed Amon dozing off at his bedside, head bobbing. Phais squinted at him suspiciously.

‘This guy…did he ambush me out of nowhere?’

Though the details were fuzzy, he clearly remembered Amon slamming him into the ground with full force.

(Of course, Amon had merely lost control of his strength while letting go of Phais, but from Phais’ perspective, the incident seemed intentional.)

‘So, he must have figured out my identity. If that’s the case, I have no choice.’

Crack.

As he flexed his knuckles, Phais’ hand crept toward Amon’s neck.

Using his technique, it would be a trivial matter to crush the carotid artery of the unsuspecting man who had dozed off while keeping watch.

‘Heheh, falling asleep on the job as a spy? Works for me. Well, farewell. This ends with you gone and me escaping this place immediately.’

But just as he sinisterly chuckled and touched Amon’s nape—

Snap!

A noise like brittle straw breaking echoed from his hand. Phais’ eyes widened.

‘…What?’

Somehow, Amon had grabbed his wrist in his sleep. The next thing he felt was a searing pain radiating up his arm.

“Gah—!”

“Huh?”

“Aaaargh!”

“Whoa!?”

Amon, jolted awake by Phais’ piercing scream, blinked to see the latter writhing on the bed, clutching his broken hand.

“What the heck is this!?”

“Argh, my hand! My haaaand!”

“W-wait right here!”

Panic-stricken, Amon scrambled out of the room.

Moments later, he returned, already assuming his signature apology pose: bowing with his head pressed firmly to the ground.

Meanwhile, a visibly fatigued Anar’el was tending to Phais’ hand with healing magic.

“Mr. Amon.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Did Mr. Phais do something wrong to you?”

“N-no, ma’am…”

“Then is it something I did wrong? You woke me up last night for healing magic, and now you’re doing this again this morning.”

“S-so sorry!”

“Ahh…”

Letting out a deep sigh, Anar’el removed her glowing hand. A master of warp magic who made even teleportation look easy, her healing magic had swiftly restored Phais’ mangled hand to perfect condition.

“Mr. Phais? Amon didn’t mean any harm.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Quiet, please!”

Chastising Amon sharply, Anar’el then gently held Phais’ hand.

“Anyway, I apologize on his behalf, Mr. Phais.”

“….”

“Please, don’t hold a grudge.”

Phais simply stared blankly at the ceiling.

‘…Looks like my identity hasn’t been exposed.’

That meant he could remain in this place and continue his mission.

After piecing his thoughts together, Phais let out a deep sigh and dropped his head.

“Phew, Headmistress.”

“Yes, Mr. Phais! I’ll make sure to reprimand Amon properly—”

“I resign.”

Anar’el’s perky ears drooped flat.