CH 17

got a fake job at the academy C17: Doubt (2) ‘I can’t remember right now.’ Even when I thought about Aidan, nothing immediately came to mind, so I decided to move on. I put all the personal details of the rest of the students into my head. A total of 54 students in the first year and 26 students in 2nd year. The ratio of 1st and 2nd graders is roughly 2:1. I thought that the number of first graders was higher because of the color of the nameplate, but it was more than I thought. ‘Even among first-year students, there are some guys to be wary of, especially the newcomers promoted by Magic Tower and the Alchemy School.’ Even students with mediocre grades in Theon are called geniuses if they go outside and it is said that all geniuses are out of line somewhere. After checking the list of all the students, I put the papers on the desk and pressed my finger on my flaky forehead. ’I am tired in many ways.’ I reflected on the meeting and conversation with the president a while ago. When I think of the president coming to me, it means that I haven’t fully earned her trust yet. She’s not completely suspicious, it’s probably half and half. Depending on how I act in the future, there is a high possibility that her gaze towards me will be different. ‘I do not care.’ As long as I have already decided to take on the role I am assigned to, I have no intention of showing suspicious behavior. The president is a at the sixth rank, which is almost the highest among the eight existing ranks. I heard she’s very close to the 7th rank. Even 100 rank 4 wizards have no chance against her. ‘Even so, the biggest problem is the secret society.’ The secret society is quiet because it is the beginning of the current semester, but if time passes and there is a chance to move around, it will move right away. The question is why have they infiltrated Theon Academy? What are you trying to do by planting people here while dealing with some members of the academy? Are they hoping to overthrow Theon? Or is there something in Theon? ‘Maybe it’s some kind of action against the Empire.’ I took a piece of newspaper stuck between the papers and unfolded it. Newspaper articles written in black letters still talked about the last terrorist attack on the magic engineering train. [The magic engineering train terror incident was eventually revealed to be the work of the revolutionary army.] It seemed almost certain that the revolutionary army was behind the train attack. ‘To be honest, I am nothing more or less than a terrorist.’ If it was the original history of the earth, the politics at this time would have felt like a parliamentary system was added to the modern constitutional monarchy, but in this world where magic exists, the kings and nobles still had very strong authority. Still, seeing all kinds of various movements taking place in this world over the past 50 years, this world also tends to flow similarly to the trend on the Earth where I lived. Magic has stagnated and science has risen rapidly. At the same time, even magic engineering was born by combining science and magic. It is simply surprising that this drastic change took place less than a century ago. That was the reason the revolutionary army arose. ‘However, there is a high possibility that the secret association has nothing to do with the real revolutionaries.’ To put it bluntly, the death of the real First Order, Rudger Chelici, assured me of that. If they were in the same organization, why would he have died because of the train attack? His reaction then was from someone that had never expected the train he was riding on would be attacked.  It can be said that the train attack was not expected at all by the secret society. ‘It would be right to separate the secret society and the revolutionary army.’ And there is one more fact that can be guessed here. The First Order, Rudger Chelici, was not suitable for battle. He definitely had a talent for magic and pretty good judgment. He must have been highly trained. ‘When my subordinate saw my face, she just passed me on as the First Order. That means that even they don’t know the face of Rudger on the train.’ Why? They thought it was normal for Rudger to change his appearance? ‘If they thought it was natural for Rudger’s face to change, I can tell the character of the dead Rudger Chelici.’ In other words, the characteristics of the First Order are disguise and infiltration. That was rather fortunate for me. At least, there is no reason to doubt other members of the organization by their appearance It’d be nice to be at peace. ‘For now, I’m not going to do anything using my First Order identity in order to clear the Academy’s suspicions.’ The troublesome things can be done by my subordinates, so I only have to focus on solidifying my position as the First Order. I probably won’t have to worry about it for a while. However, when the secret society rises to the surface and becomes active the problems will arise in earnest. From planting an executive-level figure as a teacher, it was clear that they were planning to overthrow Theon in some way. ‘It’s complicated.’ It doesn’t look like Theon will be destroyed easily, but that doesn’t mean it’s an impenetrable fortress. No matter how powerful an empire is, it is bound to collapse, history has proven it. In particular, in an era of extreme transitional form like these days, the possibility becomes closer to reality even the slightest possibility that the secret society will overthrow Theon cannot be ignored. ‘In that case, it would be better to leave Theon and entrust myself to the secret society.’ No. That’s not okay. I have to do that to live, but I won’t last long. It shouldn’t be a problem if I’m pretending to be a teacher for now under the guise of Rudger Chelici but what if the other First Order notices Rudger’s subtle change? ‘They will definitely find out.’ I don’t know what I’m going to face when they discover that I’m a traitor. I’d rather have the best chance of surviving if I intentionally interfere with their plans while maintaining this teacher’s position. But again, if I openly stand on the side of Theon, the society will immediately notice my betrayal. ‘I’m walking on an extremely thin rope.’ Unless I know what the purpose of the secret society is, I can’t plan my course of action right now. I picked up a pen and wrote down on a blank piece of paper what I was planning for the future. -Be on the lookout for the First Order of the secret society. I need to quickly find out who it is. After that, avoid contact as much as possible. -Maintain your position as a teacher. Don’t neglect the class. – In order not to raise suspicions on the side of the academy, for now, focus on working as a teacher. Roughly speaking, it’s these three for now. I didn’t worry that anyone would ever see this post since I wrote it in Korean, so people in this world will not know what this means even when they read it. ‘Hmm. All I can do right now is do my best as a teacher.’ “Tock tock.” I tapped the wooden desk with my fingertips. If the secret society contacts me and asks why I’m not acting I can use my job as an excuse for now. I immediately pulled out a new piece of paper to write on and picked up my pen. I had an acquaintance who was originally supposed to meet somewhere else, but I had to tell him that I couldn’t go there. ‘I have a lot of work to do.’ Actually, I had to deal with it on the first day, but I forgot because there were so many things to take care of. Well, there’s nothing to regret about this, so the guy won’t say anything. I thought of the possibility that someone might open this letter, so I wrote it in a roundabout way as much as possible instead of speaking directly. Like Rudger Chelici’s letter, I also used a passphrase. Finally at the end of the letter I added one more phrase. [Don’t forget to bring my luggage.] * * * The reply to the letter I sent came the very next day. The promise written in the letter is to meet next weekend at the Leathervelk industrial park. As for me, I wanted to meet him a little earlier, but I agreed since I understand that we’re busy with work in our own way. After checking the letter, I immediately burned it in case something happened.  I immediately got out of the office and headed to the dormitory in light clothes. “Excuse me…!” Then someone hurriedly came up and called me. He seems to be a Theon employee, but seeing that his clothes are neater than other people’s, he seemed to be an errand man. “Are you Mr. Rudger Chelici?” “Yes. What do you want?” When I asked that, the messenger flinched and showed a slightly terrified expression. While I wondered if even the employees were avoiding me, the messenger handed me a document. “What is this?” “It’s a patrol watch ticket.” Wasn’t that usually done by the members or the guard? Why do teachers do that? As I stared at him with that kind of gaze, the messenger broke into a cold sweat and made excuses. “It seems that this time there was an instruction from the president. Now that the new students enter the school, it is the most lax period for the students of Theon, so this was done in order to prevent the students from causing any problems.” “Even teachers have to participate?” “The president said the teachers would be the most effective and in the contract, there is a clause that teachers must also step in to prevent problems that occur inside Theon.” Come to think of it, there was such a clause. However, I thought it was meant to be done in moderation at the discretion of the teachers. I didn’t know I would be so active. “Hmm.” Maybe it’s because I accepted my attributions differently? The messenger was sweating in a cold sweat and hastily added an ambiguous explanation. “You don’t have to stay up all night. You just need to check from time to time until the dorm curfew.” “And today is my turn?” “Yes” I got my watch ticket from the messenger without a word. It had the name Rudger Chelici written on it for today’s date. Since there are many other teachers besides me at Theon, I think they only do this kind of patrol once a week. It’s going to be a little annoying if I have to do it on the weekend. “Okay then.” The messenger, who had delivered everything he had to say, hurriedly left the place as if running away from me. I ignored the messenger and looked through the list. ‘Since Theon is so wide, every teacher moves around his designated area?’ Today, there were three more people on the watch besides me. Among them, I saw the name of Selina, the new Elemental teacher who was assigned with me this time. Well, since our areas are different, we won’t run into each other, but if we do, let’s say hello. ‘More than that, the fact that this was not the case in the first place, but suddenly implemented under the direction of the president, means that the president also suspects that there are spies among the teachers.’ Perhaps the reason teachers were called this way is to detect suspicious contact or movement. If you are a spy, you will not act hastily unless you are an idiot, but that does not mean that the president’s policy is meaningless. The fact that the president gave such an instruction is because it acts as a deterrent by itself to instill a sense of awareness so that the other party does not act recklessly. This is kind of a warning. From the president’s point of view, it is a policy where there is nothing to lose if a suspicious person is caught and a warning can be sent even if no one is caught. ‘Nominally, there is no objection to the fact that the excited students might cause problems at the start of the school year, so the teachers are taking steps to prevent the incident.’ They’re not ordinary students, they’re geniuses who use magic, but of course, the scale of thinking is different from the general ones. What new teacher would dare to reject the president’s order? Even in an academy, hierarchies exist. If it’s black, it should be black. For reference, the patrol area I was assigned to was . “…This is true.” The training ground was a place frequented by students to show off their magic skills, so it was difficult not to have any problems. Did she send me here on purpose? I hoped not as I was heading to the patrol area. * * * The magic training ground was not far from the main building. Close enough to reach in 10 minutes on a well-paved footpath. A large structure can be seen through the trees in the moderately manicured garden. The overall design is an exterior reminiscent of a super-large greenhouse. ‘It’s filthy big.’ Even on Earth, the size of the training ground is so large that it cannot be properly viewed. There are three such buildings. They are called Training Grounds 1, 2, and 3 respectively, and Training Ground 3, the largest of these, is also the main stage of Theon Academy’s Event, 「Magic Festival」. First, I looked at the nearest training ground 3, and there were no problems, so I passed. There were only a few people at the second training ground that I stopped by after that, and most of them went back to the dormitory after finishing their training. Now, I was just about to check the last remaining training ground No. 1. “How dare you, such a lowly commoner!” Along with the high-pitched voice that seemed to tear in octave units, I could feel the magical energy fluctuating inside the training ground. Sensing that my anxiety had become a reality, I immediately ran to the inside of the training ground. When I ran down the hallway and arrived at the handrail of the audience a girl was seen trying to shoot her magic at another girl. The magic she used was–Second-level spell [Burning Thunder]. Even if it is a second-level spell, it is a magic that can inflict fatal damage if the opponent is defenseless. ’I shouldn’t be late.’ I immediately activated a spell. Even though the magic that the student casted was almost complete, with the source code, my 3rd level and lower spells are faster than anyone else. The magic I used is a first-class release magic [Shining Stone]. Just before the student magic was completed by my [Shining Stone] pierced the center of the magic circle and smashed it. “Who is it!” The student whose spell was destroyed glared at me with an angry gaze.