Chapter 51 : Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Strange Guy

"Let's head out for now."

The three professors followed the head of the security team outside.

Behind them, cadets who had already prepared for battle hurriedly followed.

Though they were told to evacuate, in reality, everyone here was confident in their own abilities.

The head of the security team, knowing this, led them without saying much.

Soon, the only ones left in the café were me, Karina, and a few cadets from the 890th class who couldn’t use magic due to mana freeze.

"We’ll finish our talk later."

I gave a wry smile as Karina quickly dashed outside.

I had planned to completely clear any suspicions today, but this unexpected situation was quite a disappointing turn of events for me.

She should be grateful to that unidentified thief who caused this chaos at such a perfect moment.

"By the way, what the hell is this guy?"

As I stepped out of the café, the sound of alarms was pierced by various shouts and explosions.

Cutting through the forest, I knocked aside a few branches.

Soon, the ruined rest area appeared before my eyes.

Cratered pathways, shattered statues.

Beneath scorched ground and the crumbled walls of a building, the corpses of magical beasts were crackling as they burned.

Around them were bodies so mangled and torn that they were unrecognizable.

Most were low-grade magical beasts.

Among them, I spotted a few large, high-grade ones like golems clad in steel or minotaurs, but they were melting under the professors’ might.

Nearby, Chaser Idna was cutting down a group of lizardmen with two swords.

His graceful, precise movements, devoid of any wasted effort, showed why he was nicknamed the Knight of Flowers.

I approached him.

"Professor."

"Oh, Gerard?"

"What’s going on?"

"A thief, they say. A thief."

Chaser Idna answered lightly, as if it were someone else’s problem, and flashed a smile.

"These are all magical beasts summoned by that guy."

I asked with a look of confusion.

"Then shouldn’t you be chasing the thief, Professor? Leave this to the security team and the cadets."

"I’d like to, but it’s the department head’s orders. He told us to incinerate all the magical beasts before they spread across the campus."

Chaser gestured with his chin.

There, Department Head Pirion was soaring through the air.

With a single leap, he landed on a minotaur’s shoulder and lightly stabbed its neck with his sword.

Just before the minotaur collapsed, he leaped to another minotaur’s shoulder and repeated the same action.

His leisurely movements were like a sage strolling through the sky.

"Truly a monster."

I nodded, agreeing with Chaser’s words.

"It looks like things are mostly under control over there, so I should get going. See you later, Gerard."

In the end, the magical beast terror was over in less than ten minutes.

No, was this even a proper terror attack?

Anyway, after the situation ended, I helped the security team clean up while pretending to assist, and I gathered that the thief still hadn’t been caught.

Then I returned to the dormitory.

Ssssshh──

I let the hot water wash away the blood and dust of the magical beasts from my body.

Steam slowly clouded the mirror.

As I stared blankly at it, a report I’d heard from Luis previously floated into my mind.

‘One prisoner escaped and they say he took some pretty important classified information with him.’

A hollow laugh escaped me.

"Seriously. He escaped from the cult and chose here to hide?"

Yeah.

The artifact thief.

The culprit behind today’s commotion is that guy.

At first, I was skeptical.

But seeing the mana freeze and the mutated magical beasts, I was certain.

No one else could have caused this chaos.

The ‘important classified information’ he took is undoubtedly the Beast Pouch.

The Beast Pouch is still a secret terror weapon of the cult, after all.

So I could roughly guess how he managed to escape from the cult.

"He used the Beast Pouch to shake off the security team and professors’ pursuit, just like he did now."

Excluding that mysterious vision, he didn’t seem skilled enough to escape a cult branch, which had puzzled me.

But now, all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

"How could this happen? Is this what they mean when they say heaven helps those who help themselves?"

A smile crept onto my face.

"I was looking for him, and he walked right into my hands."

He still hasn’t been caught by the security team.

So, my task is clear.

I need to secure him before anyone else and uncover the origin of his vision.

"If this is true, his escape from the cult branch was a golden opportunity for me."

Opportunities are meant to be seized.

Having made my decision, I stepped out of the bathroom.

As I turned my head toward a gaze I felt from outside the window, I saw a black bird with glowing red eyes perched there.

A night raven.

It tapped the window with its beak, then spread its wings and flew off, as if it had completed its task.

A note was left beneath its dark feathers.

* * *

"You’ve arrived."

The cult’s messenger, Guartes, stood up with a servile smile.

I glanced at him briefly and sat down.

"I’m relieved to see you unharmed. The bishop was worried that something might have happened during the last mission to rescue Ged…"

"Does the bishop still not know who I am? Tell him nothing happened to me, so he needn’t worry."

Guartes stared at me silently, then grinned and nodded.

"Yes. I’ll do that."

"So, why did you call me all the way here?"

Guartes’ laboratory in the Sewer District.

Luis’ note had said that Guartes requested a meeting, and I came here as soon as I saw it.

What would come out of that foul-smelling mouth of his?

"First, I must offer my apologies."

"So, the magical beast terror at the Academy today wasn’t the cult’s doing, was it?"

"Yes. That’s correct."

Guartes explained the situation regarding the artifact thief.

They had captured and imprisoned the thief, but he escaped from the prison, and in the process, the Beast Pouch was leaked.

It matched exactly with the report I’d heard from Luis.

I smirked.

"Here I thought the cult had made a double contract behind my back when I heard about the magical beast terror at the Academy."

Guartes, startled, waved his hands.

"No way! That would never happen."

"You never know."

"I swear, Master. Please believe me."

"So, what’s the deal? You want me to catch that thief?"

Guartes nodded.

"Exactly. As you likely already know, Master, a significant portion of the cult’s personnel in Icata is being used to hunt him down. But he’s nowhere to be found in Icata. After causing that chaos at the Academy, he vanished again."

"And the cult believes he’s still hiding somewhere in the Academy?"

"Talking to you is always so easy, Master. That’s exactly it. In fact, we’re almost certain."

Guartes grinned and continued.

"Now, he’s deeply tied to the Academy. This isn’t a breach of contract like last time. His reckless overuse of the Beast Pouch could not only disrupt the cult’s future plans but also cause massive losses if it leaks to the Empire."

"…"

"So, Master, we need you to capture him alive and bring him to us, or at least find out where he’s hiding and let us know. Our people planted in the Academy will take care of the rest."

"Killing him?"

"No. Someone wants to meet him."

I could easily guess who that someone was.

The master of Bandarok, Narsi.

The mastermind behind all this.

Guartes then added that he hoped for the job to be done as quickly as possible.

The reward was a whopping 200 gold, one of the highest I’d ever been offered.

There was no reason to refuse, and I had no intention of doing so.

I’d capture him, uncover the secret of his rising vision, and then hand him over to Guartes for the reward.

Killing two birds with one stone.

That was the plan I made as I left the Sewer District after accepting the request──

Little did I know at the time that this plan would fall apart in just a day.

* * *

The next day, the Academy was in disarray due to the successive magical beast terrors.

The security team, which had previously only patrolled designated areas, began scouring every corner of the campus.

Even the professors, who had been half-hearted in their patrols, were now on high alert, searching for any potential threats.

It was a period of heightened security.

During this time, all outdoor activities, training, physical conditioning, and late-night practice were completely banned.

Interactions with the outside world were also blocked, and leaving the campus was, of course, prohibited.

All the magical beasts had been exterminated, but the Vice-Dean issued a special order to extend these measures in case any had slipped away and were hiding.

In fact, that morning, a magical beast hiding in a warehouse was caught by a martial arts professor, extending the lockdown by two more days.

The cadets’ frustrations were reaching a boiling point.

"Ugh! What the hell is this? I can’t even go to the bathroom in peace. We have to live like this for a whole week?"

"Exactly. It’s all because of that damn thief!"

Naturally, their anger was directed at the thief, the root cause of this mess.

Professors and cadets alike—everyone in the Academy gritted their teeth at the mere mention of the word ‘thief.’

Yet, with no trace of the thief found, the stress was at its peak.

"Where could he be?"

"What?"

Lunchtime.

As I muttered to myself while eating dessert at the Lodge Café, Yuria, sitting across from me, tilted her head.

"Oh, the thief."

"The thief from before? Are you trying to catch him?"

"Of course. He’s a villain."

"But it’s the lockdown period."

Yuria mumbled with a fork in her mouth.

It was a natural reaction.

She didn’t yet know that the artifact thief was hiding somewhere on campus.

Who would imagine that a villain was hiding inside the Academy, of all places?

It’s like a criminal hiding in a military training camp or a police university.

But he couldn’t escape outside either.

Out there, his creditors were waiting with knives in hand, ready to pounce. Ironically, this police university was the safest place for him.

Hmm.

Thinking about it like that, this guy’s in a pretty pathetic situation.

Poor bastard.

"…"

But why?

Why do I feel a strange sense of kinship?

"Senior? You suddenly look pale."

"…It’s nothing. Eat."

"Alright."

Anyway, as Guartes said, it’s almost certain he’s hiding on campus.

But the Academy’s grounds are vast.

There are just too many places to hide.

Since the Academy was built by carving out an entire mountain in Icata, including the outer forest and the western canyon, the difficulty of finding him is honestly akin to finding a needle in a desert.

I’ve received a lot of help in this regard, and I’m still getting it.

Still, if he’s hiding, I think he’s more likely to be in the densely packed academic buildings than in the inconvenient mountain interior.

I asked Yuria, who was eagerly devouring a strawberry cake.

"Hey, Yuria."

"Yes?"

"If that thief is still hiding on campus, where do you think he’d be?"

"Here."

"Here, as in the café?"

"Yes."

Her answer was immediate, and its content was unexpected.

"Why?"

"Because there’s lots of delicious food."

Yuria replied, slicing a piece of cake with her fork and taking a big bite.

I’m an idiot for expecting anything…

Wait a second.

A sudden spark of insight flashed through my mind.

Before it faded, I grabbed hold of it and focused deeply.

This was a pretty plausible theory.

Let’s think about it.

What are the three basic necessities for human survival?

Clothing, food, and shelter.

Clothing and shelter are easy to come by on campus, so let’s rule those out.

What about food?

Can he fully secure that?

While staying hidden?

Fleeing is an act that consumes a lot of mental and physical energy.

As such, fugitives are always in a state of hunger.

But are there many places in the Academy where he could satisfy that hunger?

The student cafeteria, the faculty cafeteria, the convenience store, and the food street with all its snacks.

But all of them are limited and open spaces where he’d inevitably run into cadets or staff.

Except for one place.

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