RATH 76
TL: Eevee

10. We came, we saw, we won (1)

Yugrasia’s main auditorium.

Inside, Nerkia was passionately shouting.

“Everyone aside from the first years should know. The day the imperial festival begins, the headmaster and the other teachers would encourage us.”

Sure it was called encouragement, but in reality it was just a boring ceremony which dragged down students’ morale with torturously boring speeches.

“But this year, the teachers have chosen me to convey their words for them.”

And thus, Nerkia compressed all the teachers words as thus.

“Before the imperial festival begins, what the teachers want to say is this. We are all thinking of how to congratulate you all, so wait just a bit longer!”

Not even the teachers believed that the students of Yugrasia would ever lose to the other academies’ students.

Would the students that even defeated them, the teachers, ever have a chance of losing to their fellow students.

To the teachers, there would be no greater disgrace than that.

“And so I told them, if you think for too long, then you might not be able to congratulate us when we win!”

People in the positions of a leader all have their own unique talents.

People who lead from the front, who lead the way for others to follow behind them naturally.

People who managed to control everyone despite seemingly never doing anything.

Or people who hid in the shadows, pushing others in front so the person themselves might not be revealed.

And then there were those who grasped the hearts of people with overwhelming charisma.

But Nerkia’s leadership adhered to none of these types.

He was the first to run from night study despite being the student council president, when the offer of exemption of night study came he desperately requested to become a traitor despite being student council president, and when the other students came to school during the holidays, he was the one who came up with the truancy plan despite being the student council president, that was the existence named Nerkia.

Meaning, this boy was the type of leader that was extremely gifted at dragging on all the aggro onto himself.

And he also had a tongue that could deceive people even amidst all the heat on him.

“Now with that, both the teachers and I have said everything we need to say. Need I say more? Ah, but just in case, I’ll ask anyway.”

Nerkia made a disgustingly irritating face that you might see on one of those old variety programmes as he said.

“If there is still anyone who believes we cannot win, raise your hand and ask. Whether it is possible for us to win or not.”

At those words, a deathly silence fell around the auditorium.

Nerkia looked down at the silence with a satisfied smile, before he nodded and continued.

“Alright, it doesn’t look like there are any idiots here who’s thinking that. Then, let’s go.”

With those words, Nerkia strode over to the auditorium’s main doors with light steps, opened them, and moved onwards.

And following behind him were standard-bearers holding the flag of Yugrasia.

And behind them, followed the rest of Yugrasia’s students.

“That actually looks quite impressive.”
“Owner? Don’t ya have ta go?”
“I need to leave last. If I meet someone I know in the middle of the streets of the capital then I’m getting dragged away then and there.”

Even if the princess has left the empire, if one of her subordinates remained in the capital then they could recognise me.

Although of course my face is a highly common type in the continent, but better safe than sorry.

The enemy is the Karuan Empire.

Unlike most countries which began as a revolution from a single nation, even from their very beginning they swept up their surrounding nations and began as an empire, it was a nation that was different from its very roots!

A fighting race almost akin to the Super Sai*ans(1), they had never lost in a war since their founding!

And especially that bloodline where beginning with the emperor, not a single normal or rational person were to be found in that insane imperial family, a veritable den of monsters!

And if I get caught then I forcibly become one of those monsters.

What the heck, no matter what I choose it ends in a freaky dead end route?

“Owner, owner, ya shiverin’? The floor’s all shaking?”
“Mm. I need to calm down.”

Just imagining the horrifying ending made my foot shiver without me knowing.

Relax, relax. Calm down.

I’ll be alright just as long as I survive this year. People are only ever suspicious at first.

Even if they could suspect me this year, come next year, or the year after, all they will think of me is as a teacher of Yugrasia.

As long as I manage to hold out until then, Plan Darkest Under the Lamppost is a success!

And since the princess wasn’t even around, these were the greatest conditions.

“Now let’s get ready for us to head out as well.”
“Us, I dun even have anyfin’ to pack?”
“Take your lunchbox then.”
“Uwit? Even if you talk about my lunch, there’s nuffin in it aside from magic stone fragments? I wanna eat tasty things too!”
“Shut up, and keep gathering mana.”

Even now, her magic power was starting to run low because I’ve used her this way and that since the beginning of the school year.

Even if I told her to go back to her bat form and recharge, she’s telling me to not break her promise of letting her stay in that form and is still burning mana.

At this rate, if enemies come in with ranged attacks or a human-wave tactics like that time with Sia then that’s it for me.

“You need to eat magic stones every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since I’m not a devil I’ll allow you to eat magic stones as a snack.”
“Owner, I look like an idiot ta ya? Whatcha pretending to be nice, and telling me to eat more magic stones? Owner doesn’t know how awful magic stones taste like!”
“Well, of course! I don’t eat magic stones after all!”
“Uwiiiiiiiit! If it wasn’t for next year I’d just throw it all away, but I have ta store plenty of mana so I can play for next year!”

She’s saying “hmph this isn’t for owner, but for me!” like some standard tsundere, but she doesn’t look at all like a tsundere.

“Professor Nicerwin, it’s Professor Aruhan.”
“Ah, yes, come in.”
“Mmm… good work, Professor Nicerwin. With Professor Muam at the lead, half of the teachers have already left.”

Professor Aruhan momentarily flinched on seeing the metal bat swinging her legs around as she grumbled, but he soon came to me with a sheepish look on his face and gave me the list of teachers that had left in advance.

“Will you be the one leading the teachers that leave this afternoon, Professor Nicerwin?”

Hell no, do I look crazy to you.

All that was on today in terms of the imperial festival was the declaration of the opening of the imperial festival, and then the party that only the teachers, the students and their parents attend in the afternoon.

And if you were to talk about the parents of the students of the Four Great Academies, then that would mean that they were all important people within the empire, which in turn meant that it was a party that the people high up in the imperial court would attend, that is to say, a party that would be just right for me to get caught in.

So why would I go?

“No, I still have some duties left over, so I will be leaving tomorrow at dawn. I will leave you in charge of leading the teachers this afternoon, Professor Aruhan.”
“I understand.”

Thanks to Professor Aruhan who just bowed his head and made his way out of my office, I got to skip out on this afternoon’s party.

And so one of the most dangerous days, the first day was done!

Now if I just leave first on the last day then there’s no more risk to me!

#1 Their story: A certain crown prince’s story.

“There’s too many risk factors to this.”

I clutched my aching head and diligently flipped through the reports that were coming in.

But, there was still no hope.

“Risk factors, are there any problems with the guard detail in the upcoming imperial festival?”

My right hand man that had been with me for a long time asked, but I don’t think he quite understood what I meant.

“No, even if the imperial festival is the best environment for a terrorist attack, there’s no way His Imperial Majesty would be harmed?”

Even if all his bodyguards disappeared, His Majesty could beat up as many ordinary assassins as he wanted on his own.

But right now, I had to focus more on my life rather than petty things like that.

“I got a letter from big sister. She says she’s coming back before the imperial festival ends. We still haven’t found Ast, have we?”

At my words, as if to prove the long years we spent together, my retainer’s eyes widened as he nodded.

“So that was it… Your Highness, no, milord whom I have dedicated my service to… where should I mark your grave?”

And as expected of my right-hand man that had served me long enough to know exactly what elder sister was like, he confirmed my death.

“That’s it, isn’t it? I’m gonna die?”
“Yes, it’s confirmed. Might the reason she’s arriving before the end of the imperial festival just to match the timing?”
“Timing? What timing?”
“She’d declare that Your Highness has died during the closing ceremony of the imperial festival. If it’s Her Highness, she could easily claim Your Highness’s death was due to the remnants of Howling or the anti-empire forces.”
“No, if it’s my elder sister, she might not even bother to bring up leftover Howling or the anti-empire forces.”

To begin with, due to the flawless encirclement, Howling didn’t even have any leftover forces anymore.

Because everyone was caught in it aside from the one person who that perfect plan was initiated for!

“It won’t be so. As you know, the amount of internal documents that pass through Her Highness’s hands is almost as great as that handled by Marquis Arten. If Your Highness died the moment she returned, then Her Highness would find it difficult to immediately leave to search for the man named Ast.”

That’s true.

“And, if she cited revenge for Your Highness’s death she could would have justification to roam around the empire, and if needed even seek permission to search other nations.”
“True, since there are traces that they had fled to another nation, cooperate with the search…”
“And she could even involve other countries in the search for Ast.”
“And the foundation for all this would be my death.”
“Yes, that is the case.”

As I looked at my retainer nodding his head as if it was obvious I wondered whether he really was my right-hand man, but soon I came to realise that if I was a third party in this then I could have come up with the exact same conclusion as he would.

Meaning, my death was already set in…

“I don’t wanna dieeeeee!”
“It’s already too late.”
“Oi, I spent all my life trying to become Crown Prince, how long has it been since I became Crown Prince, that I’m already gonna die?”
“At least you fulfilled your dream. I still haven’t realised my childhood dream.”
“What was it?”
“To become a dragon slayer.”
“I reckon you could call yourself that if you fought elder sister and won.”
“Nahh, I’d rather go fight an actual dragon, would I fight Her Highness?”

That’s true. Even I’d rather choose to fight a dragon.

No, I’m not joking. Fighting elder sister is exactly the same as fighting a dragon.

“What about throwing away your position as Crown Prince and running away?”
“I thought about that, but when I checked I found elder sister had people watching me.”
“How skilled were they?”
“Dunno, I felt them out but you know what? I heard that elder sister had a swordsmaster brigade, that might actually be true.”
“Ah, that rumour from the Great War? To be honest, if Her Highness’s name is attached to the rumours then it honestly so much like the truth that it’s no longer scary.”
“I know right? Even elder sister has more swordsmasters officially under her command after all.”
“Yes, even though we did our best to spread rumours during the Great War about the number of swordsmasters under our command, but the numbers themselves are on a different scale altogether.”

True. We spread lies that we had one more swordsmaster, but elder sister had rumours that she had an entire swordsmaster brigade.

Although it seemed like wild exaggerations at the time, when you thought of the situation back then during the Great War, even those bizarre statements sound oddly convincing.

Even if it was an army trained by one of empire’s greatest generals, elder sister took an army that whose morale was shattered by his death and retreating on all fronts with defeat after defeat, and took that army as well as her own to go undefeated during the Great War.

And especially, the way she led the elite forces of the Merdeia kingdom whose military was on par with the empire’s, and completely and utterly annihilated them despite a tenfold numerical inferiority went unexplained by the imperial tacticians to this day!

And that was against Merdeia’s supreme general that even forced elder sister into retreat a number of times.

“Can’t you sneak me out at night and run away?”

Therefore, I couldn’t ignore the rumours that elder sister had a swordsmaster brigade.

Because if I really did have a swordsmaster watching me, the moment I tried to run would be the moment I would be dragged in front of elder sister’s feet in chains.

“Your Highness, I do not wish to die yet.”
“You said your sword was dedicated to me.”
“Even so, I would rather die cleanly on my own sword rather than make enemies of Her Highness.”
“Oi, so you’re just dying happily on your own? What about me?”
“Your Highness, accept your fate. Even if you kill yourself, knowing Her Highness she’ll just revive you with some forbidden ritual and keep you going with some sort of arcane art until Ast is found.”
“Hey, hey, don’t say things like that. Elder sister’s actually studied ritual magic, you know?!”

No kidding, she actually did learn ancient ritual spells for fun, just because she was bored.

Ah, and she’s also good with a sword, and good at magic too, elder sister is.

“So, I’m’ going to die?”
“Yes, Your Highness. It’s time to face reality. Your Highness that’s already fated to death, will have gone over whether will you die or not die for around ten pages if we go by page count.”(1)
“Damn it, what’s that disgustingly concrete number of pages!”

And as I continued arguing with my right-hand man that I wondered if he really was my right-hand man, the beginning of the imperial festival had already drawn near.

“Damn it, the imperial festival’s started, elder sister said she’d return before the imperial festival ended, it’s starting already!”
“Your Highness, it’s time to give up and just go. His Majesty the Emperor’s congratulatory speech is about to begin!”

I didn’t know then.

That my sole hope for living was right here.

Despite the fact that the students that the man named Ast had raised, over a thousand of them were right in front of my eyes.