Chapter 36 - The Paladin Association
After lending Miss Fiona some money, I headed back to Redrick Academy of Magic for the first time in a while.
I shoved open the back door of the first-year honors class and strode inside, shoulders squared, making as much noise as possible.
After all, I was supposed to be a slothful, arrogant, villainous noble. It was important to maintain the proper air of haughtiness on a daily basis.
As I walked straight toward my seat, I overheard the cheerful voices of some girls.
“Wow, Ms. Nia, you’re amazing! You’re the head of the Ainsworth family, one of the Four Great Noble Houses!”
“Yeah, yeah. Guess we’ll have to start calling you ‘Lady Nia’ now!”
“Wait, shouldn’t it be ‘Duchess Ainsworth’ instead?”
“Come on, stop teasing me. Inside Redrick, titles don’t matter, right? Just call me Nia like always,” Nia said with a smile.
The three girls exchanged looks—then smirked mischievously.
“As you command, Lady Nia!”
“Everything shall be as Lady Nia decrees!”
“Duchess Ainsworth, may I give you a shoulder massage?”
“You’re all ridiculous!”
Nia laughed, joking along with her close friends.
That’s a relief. Looks like she’s bounced back quite a bit.
As I thought that, Nia caught sight of me. Making sure no one else noticed, she gave a small, secret wave of her right hand.
But Hollow’s character in the original story would never, under any circumstance, wave back.
I gave a small snort and continued straight to my seat.
This time, however, the battered protagonist called out to me.
“Ah—good morning, Hollow.”
“Yeah. ...Those are some nasty injuries. What happened to you?”
I asked with a feigned air of ignorance, even though I knew perfectly well they were wounds from his battle with Zova.
But in that place, it wasn’t Hollow who was there—it was Void.
That meant the best approach here was to act as though I knew nothing.
“Uh, well... I kinda... fell down the stairs or something...?”
Allen averted his eyes, forcing a clumsy smile.
Just like in the original—he’s a terrible liar.
Still, that told me what I needed to know.
Good, good. Nia must have silenced him properly.
Zova’s death was officially reported as a “magical experiment accident.”
The truth—that he had been erased by Void—was known only to three people: me, Nia, and Allen.
Since Nia and I were in a cooperative relationship, she wasn’t a concern. The real problem was Allen.
[This isn’t something I can step in on. You handle Allen and keep him quiet.]
[Got it. I’ll try.]
That was the instruction I had given Nia, and judging by the results, she had done her part well.
Still, he’s in pretty bad shape.
Allen’s body was wrapped in bandages from head to toe—a pitiful sight.
Heh... honestly, this is wonderful!
The protagonist’s body was a cheat: a fusion of Champion and Demon Lord Factors.
Monstrous strength, absurd durability, and inhuman recovery were supposed to be his trademarks.
If his “Champion’s Power” had truly awakened, these wounds should have healed completely after just one night’s rest.
And yet, the damage remained severe.
Which means... his growth—his leveling—is falling drastically behind schedule!
To be honest, I’d been worried.
During the “Protagonist vs. the Great Elder” fight, I feared Allen might have gained a hefty amount of EXP.
But it seemed my worries had been unfounded.
Excellent. If things keep going this way, I’ll be able to crush all of the protagonist’s power-up events in Chapter Two as well—hmm?
It was then that I noticed something off.
...Wait. Was there always such a prominent sword scar...?
A deep slash ran clean across Allen’s right cheek, as if he had been cut by a sharp blade.
I had seen him clearly inside the Chamber of Fusion.
Back then, he hadn’t had any scar that obvious.
Hmm…?
Looking closer, I noticed bruises and abrasions, the kind you’d get from being struck with a practice sword or from falling.
But there wasn’t a single trace of frostbite.
Zova’s Unique Magic was <Primordial Ice>—naturally, all his attacks were ice-based.
And yet, Allen bore no such wounds.
And honestly, even if his leveling has slowed down, for him to still be this injured after a whole week... isn’t that recovery rate far too slow?
As I puzzled over the strange inconsistency—
“Something wrong, Hollow?”
Allen tilted his head, watching me with a curious look.
Apparently, I had been staring too hard.
“...No, it’s nothing.”
I brushed it off casually, walked to my seat, and dropped my bag heavily onto the desk.
It bothered me, but... I was probably just overthinking things.
Still, Allen—you got lucky this time. But next time, you won’t.
Zova had been attempting to fuse <Primordial Flame> and <Primordial Ice> to recreate the ultimate Unique Magic: <Void>.
At that exact time and place, the best possible move just happened to be defeating the Great Elder—and as a side effect, Allen had been saved.
That was all.
It wasn’t because I felt pity. It wasn’t because of some sappy bond of friendship. Absolutely not.
The next chance I get to eliminate Allen... I’ll make sure it’s permanent.
Cruel as it may seem, that was simply who I was.
With that resolution firm in my heart, I sat down at my window-side seat.
One way or another, the original Ronzolkia had now moved on to “Chapter Two.”
If I had to grade my performance in Chapter One—it was a perfect 100 out of 100.
At this pace, I would conquer Chapter Two just as smoothly.
My core strategy remains the same: enforce the “Protagonist De-MC-ification Plan.” Keep wrecking his power-up events until he’s weakened all the way down to an ordinary background character!
As I was mentally rehearsing this “Chapter Two Strategy,” the classroom’s front door slid open with a clatter. Miss Fiona, the homeroom teacher of the Special Advancement Class, stepped inside.
Having borrowed a massive 3 million gold, she looked positively radiant with good cheer as she began homeroom.
“Good morning, everyone. Today I have some important announcements, so please listen carefully.”
She cleared her throat with a small cough.
“In recent days, reports had come in of sightings around the kingdom of a mysterious group known as Nihil. Their purpose remained unclear... but it seemed they operated under the cover of night, abducting young girls. Every member wore black garments and was said to possess frighteningly high combat ability. Especially their founder and ruler, ‘Void,’ who supposedly boasted otherworldly strength. At present, the Paladin Association was mobilizing all its forces in an attempt to arrest Void and his followers.”
Her voice rang out beautifully, like the tinkling of a bell.
How could such a lovely sound come from such a wretched human being?
The human body really was strange.
As those pointless musings drifted through my mind, I let the homeroom announcements wash in one ear and out the other.
“Hey, Hollow... are you alright?”
Nia, sitting beside me, leaned over with a worried look and whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you know... that whole ‘Void’ thing...”
“Oh? Are you worried about me?”
“N-no, that’s not it! I just thought, you know... maybe it’s fine, maybe it’s not, I dunno...”
Her cheeks flushed red as she looked away, flustered.
At that moment, a shock hit me like a thunderbolt.
Oh, come on—that’s way too fast...!
It had barely been a month since I first met Nia.
And yet, already... she had evolved from ‘Tsuntsun Nia’ to ‘Tsundere Nia.’
...Ahh, what a tragedy...!
I would be honest: as a fan of the original Ronzolkia, I had wanted to see more of her pure, untamed tsun phase.
But now, that earliest version of her... is already gone.
This was simply too quick.
At this rate, if her affection kept climbing, she would soon reach the stage of full-blown ‘Deredere Nia.’
And that would be a terrible waste. Personally, I wanted to prevent it somehow.
Maybe I should I act a little cold to her...?
In that case, she might go back to being tsun again... No, bad idea.
Handle it wrong, and she might evolve into Yandere Nia.
Sorry, but one “emotionally heavy heroine”—Dia—is already more than enough...
If another with the same trait piled on, even I would get stomach ulcers.
As those thoughts whirled through my head—
“You are all skilled mages, but at the same time, you are still students who need protection. The capital and its surroundings are designated ‘Enhanced Patrol Zones’ under the Paladin Association, but do not be careless. Each of you must be mindful of your own safety. Listen well: don’t wander dark streets at night, don’t roam the city alone, don’t go into deserted areas. The best self-defense is simply keeping yourself far away from danger—remember that.”
Miss Fiona, sounding for once like a proper teacher, wrapped up homeroom.
The Paladin Association, huh... What a nuisance.
The Association was essentially an international peacekeeping organization in Ronzolkia—like a world-scale police force.
Many of the knights on the ground did their duties earnestly, but the higher-ups? Utterly rotten.
Bribes, embezzlement, covering up crimes—you name it.
Most of them had ties to nobles or business magnates; in the worst cases, they were practically kept hounds.
I wasn’t about to launch into some embarrassing speech about “what is justice,” but honestly... they could stand to clean up their act at least a little.
The real problem is... the Paladin Association was the trigger point for an absurd number of Bad Endings.
Paladin Association + Death Flag A = Bad Ending “A.”
Paladin Association + Death Flag B = Bad Ending “B.”
Paladin Association + Death Flag C = Bad Ending “C.”
That was their role in the story—an annoying mechanism that tied the villainous noble (me) directly to death flags.
Right now I’m walking the ‘Humble and Steady Route,’ not the ‘Lazy and Arrogant Route,’ so I figured I could crush most Bad Endings before they bloomed... but still...
The real problem was if the Sword Saints got involved.
Those people were terrifyingly strong.
After all, they were the Paladin Association’s proudest, most powerful assets.
Not that I couldn’t beat them.
Head-to-head, I could probably overpower them.
But that... would be nonsense.
I wasn’t trying to flaunt my strength, nor did I care about conquering the world.
All I wanted was simple: to survive.
And if I fought against enemies like the Sword Saints, who knew what kind of interference the “world’s corrective force” might exert...
So avoiding battles with such powerful foes was the wisest move.
If only I could somehow reel the Paladin Association into my side, I could crush a whole heap of death flags at once. That would make things so much easier...
Unfortunately, the Heisenberg family had almost no ties to the Association.
Because of our reputation as “villainous nobles,” they had always avoided associating with us.
After all, they did still have to maintain the pretense of being a “righteous organization.”
It would look bad for them to openly connect with a family drenched in “darkness” like ours.
Which meant, this time, I couldn’t rely on the family’s power.
One way or another, the Paladin Association is the root of countless death flags... In tackling the main route, they are an incredibly troublesome factor.
I needed to decide quickly—whether to threaten them with force, lure them with bait, or place a collaborator inside.
But... if that ended up derailing the “Chapter Two” main route, it would be completely backwards...
What I needed was a way to tame the Paladin Association while still following the main flow of Chapter Two.
Siiigh... this is ridiculous.
Even as I thought it, I felt stupid.
I mean, come on—common sense said there was no way such a conveniently perfect event would exist......No. Wait. There was!
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