The Supreme Hero’s Younger Brother

Rye hid his satisfied smile remembering the students struggling to answer his quiz. He admitted, it was a petty move, but it didn't harm anyone, right?

Godford saw Rye grading the quiz papers in the office and shook his head, "Not particularly mad, huh? You petty liar."

"If they listened to my class, this couldn't even be considered a punishment. Look," Rye showed him a paper, "This student got a full score since he always pays attention and takes notes."

"Yeah, there's always one or two guys like that in class. You would definitely be one too if we go to school in the past."

Rye continued grading them while chatting with Godford. Because his wallet was empty now, Godford tried to make him treat him to lunch until the next payday.

"Rye!" Their colleague called out from the door.

Rye turned around, "Yes?"

"Your schedule for today has finished, right? If I'm not wrong, you don't have any class after lunch today." She approached them.

"Yes, is there something you need my help with?"

"Can you help our guest here tour around the academy?" She whispered, "I think they're future sponsors for the academy. The principal didn't really say anything, but his attitude towards them was pretty suspicious."

"Huh? If they're future sponsors, shouldn't an executive be their tour guide?" Godford didn't believe it.

"I don't know. They and the principal were probably trying to hide it for some reason. Maybe they wanted to survey the school without any sugarcoating," She patted Rye, "Can you do it, please? I still have classes to teach today."

Rye stood up, "Sure."

"I'll go too! I can be your assistant!" Godford offered.

"You also have classes to teach. Don't you dare ditch them or I won't cover your lunch tomorrow." Rye threatened.

"You're a saint! I'll go to class right now!" Godford dashed out.

Rye palmed his face, "Is he really a teacher?"

His colleague giggled and picked up her books, "But that's why the students like him. Thanks for this, Rye. Good luck."

Rye nodded.

He tidied his robe and straightened his clothes before he walked to the entrance door. He saw the 4 guests waiting outside, 2 women and 2 men. From their clothes, 2 of them, one man and one woman, were nobles while the 2 others were their bodyguards.

"Good afternoon. I apologize for the change, my colleague still has a class to teach after this. If you do not mind, I will be your tour guide for today. My name is Rye, a history teacher in this academy."

He waited for a while, but the guests didn't respond to him. The man in front was staring at him. He wondered if he said something wrong. The other 3 people also seemed confused though.

"It is alright. Thank you in advance for your time, Mr. Rye. You can call me Rose," The female noble finally spoke up, "This is Riche, my brother. These two are our bodyguards, Dean and Lily."

Rye slightly bowed, "It is a pleasure to meet you. Which part of the academy would you like to see first?"

"We will leave it to you, Mr. Rye."

"Then, if you please follow me." Rye gestured towards a direction and walked ahead.

The route starting from the teacher's office wasn't really effective. But his colleague said that the principal has toured them the front half of the academy earlier, so he didn't need to cover that.

The timing was pretty good since lunch break has just finished. He showed them how the classes were conducted including practical classes such as combat and magic training. Because of his colleague's words, he didn't sugarcoat anything. The guests themselves didn't really ask anything and just listened.

He was bringing them to the back garden when a student called him and approached them with his friends.

"Teacher Rye, about that quiz–"

"Jack, I'm with a guest now. Can you ask about it after school later?" Rye stopped him.

"B-But, will it be counted into our report card? We couldn't answer any questions!" Jack nervously asked and his friends nodded desperately behind him.

"No, it was just to see who listened to yesterday's lecture. But next time all of you ignore me, I'll put it into your report."

"That's power abuse, Teacher Rye!" They cried.

"Then do your job as a student and study," Rye checked the time, "The last period is about to start. Go to your class or I'll give you an essay homework next week."

The students paled and immediately ran away to their next class.

Rye turned around and lowered his head, "Apologies for that, let us continue."

"Are you close with the students, Teacher Rye?" Rose asked.

"Just the average. Those are students from the class I am responsible for, so I am closer to them than all the other students."

"I see…Then, you don't happen to know a student named Elliot Dallross, do you?"

"I know of him. He is a diligent student in my class. He got a perfect score in today's surprise quiz. Are you his acquaintance?"

"He's a relative of our friend." Rose waved her hand.

"Oh…" Rye fixed his glasses.

She's lying.

"Well, you can tell your friend, Lady Rose, that their relative is a good student. Thanks to Elliot, my class's average score is higher than average. He is not very skilled in practical class, but he always practiced harder than anyone else."

"Do you notice anything strange about him lately?"

"Such as?"

"Turning violent, irritable, and all that."

"No, he is as well-mannered as usual. Oh, but…" Rye recalled the paper he graded earlier, "His writing is a bit strange today."

"Writing…?" Rose was confused.

"Elliot has a neatly curved writing that leans to the right. In today's quiz, his writing leaned more to the left."

"And what of it?" Dean also couldn't understand.

"A person's personality can be shown through the way they write," Rye explained, "Unless Elliot did it intentionally, then his personality has changed now. From people-oriented to self-oriented. But there was no reason for him to intentionally slant his writing to the opposite direction."

"How do you know that?" Lily didn't believe him.

Rye touched his glasses, "I read a lot of books," he shrugged, "I am not telling you to believe me. I am only answering your question seriously."

"Yes, we understand. Thank you very much, Teacher Rye. We can look around by ourselves now." Rose smiled.

Rye nodded, "If you need anything, you can drop by the office again. I will be there until school ends."

"We'll remember that."

Rye walked away but stopped after a few steps. He looked back at them, "If you want to check the clubs, they are on the third floor. But there are many empty rooms there, so I hope you will not get lost."

After informing them, he left.

Rose turned to Riche worriedly, "Are you alright? You haven't spoken at all."

"Yes…I'm fine," Riche looked away, "Change of personality is also one of the traits of demon possession. For it to be able to pose as its host almost flawlessly, it must be a high-ranking demon."

"You're believing his words?" Dean was slightly surprised.

"He's not…He didn't seem like the type to lie or joke around. It's worth considering."

"So, we're doing it?" Lily confirmed.

"If there's even one percent chance of a demon lurking among us, I won't take any risk. We've cleaned up the entire kingdom with many lives sacrificed. We can't let them die in vain."

The three others nodded.

"Let's go."

Once the classes are all over, Rye packed up his bag. Rose's group didn't come looking for him, so there should be no problem.

He wondered if his guess was right. Hopefully, it wasn't.

Rye walked to the corridor and saw Jack coming over again.

"Teacher Rye!"

"What's wrong?"

Jack gasped for breath and spoke, "The guests that you were with this afternoon, they took away Elliot."

"What do you mean they took him away?"

"We were asking for his notes after class when that 4 people entered and asked for Elliot. Elliot didn't know them and hesitated, but they dragged him out," Jack panicked, "They're not going to kidnap or kill him, right?"

"They're the principal's guests. I don't know if they intend any ill-will," Rye patted Jack's shoulder, "Don't worry, I'll go find him. You and the rest go home for now."

Jack nodded and left.

Rye looked at the third floor outside the window.

Are they actually a bunch of idiots? Even if they have the principal's permission, they couldn't just drag Elliot away under many students' eyes.

Rye went to the third floor of the building and checked the empty rooms. As expected, he found them in the far-most room, the furthest from the stairs. Elliot was chained inside a magic circle with the 4 people surrounding him, weapons aimed at him.

"Hm?" Rye squinted his eyes.

The sword in Riche's hand…why does it seem familiar?