Chapter 66
Yet another minor ruckus erupted in the Imperial Academy.
On the morning of the fifth day of class, the person who had been absent for three days appeared as if nothing happened on his first day of class.
"Please accept my apologies for being late."
"..."
When the cadets noticed a boy entering the classroom, they started whispering among themselves.
Kane stared at Joshua with deep sunken eyes before lifting his hand to point and isolate
him before saying, "Ash pen Frederick."
"Yes!"
"How gutsy of you. You skipped three days of classes after the first day of school."
"Please accept my apologies."
Joshua bowed his head with a clear look of repentance. He maintained that pose for a few more seconds before Kane shook his head and told Joshua to raise his head.
"There's no need for apologies… However, I expect that you are responsible enough to accept the consequences that will be thrown at you because of what you did."
"..."
"For example, failing and retention and such."
Kane's voice appeared intimidating at first, but Joshua noticed the tinge of sadness in it.
As if he was somehow happy yet sad that Joshua came back.
It seemed like he was asking Joshua why he didn't run away and hide because of what he had done. However, Kane didn’t really put those thoughts into words.
Despite his position, Kane had no choice but to look after these children like his own, even if he had to be tactful toward the nobilities of higher ranks than him. To him, everyone was his disciple, so he didn't want any beef forming between them.
He could use his authority as a professor to stop fights from happening, but it was only to a certain degree. After all, these children were more powerful than one could expect. And he couldn't exactly control them outside of class.
'It would be great if this thing can blow over just like this, but—"
Kane sighed as he looked at the corner of the classroom.
When Joshua arrived, Amaru was already glaring at the former with murderous intent.
Kane could only hope that everything would go smoothly from now on.
'I'll do my best to stop them from fighting to death.'
Kane soon revealed a determined expression.
He absolutely had to stop anything bad from happening in front of his eyes.
‘Aren't I successful in protecting the kids up until now?’
To completely resolve the academy's long-standing problem...
'I need to delay it for as long as I can… even if it's only sparring, we’re talking about Amaru here. I will be at a loss when both of them become raging bulls.'
Having made up his mind, Kane muttered, "Please take a seat. The lesson has to resume."
"Yes, Professor."
Kane watched as Joshua found his seat and sat quietly.
"Now that everyone is present, I'm going to continue the discussion. The theory I'm gonna talk about right now will surely show up in the upcoming exam, so I need all ears to listen and all eyes to focus. Please pay attention."
Kane resumed the lesson. Agareth had always been the type to pay attention to the people around him, and Joshua was no exception. He turned to look at Joshua sitting next to him and asked in a low voice, "Why did you come back?"
"What do you mean?"
"I heard that the Fredericks has fallen! And in this case, can you resolve this with your lone power?"
In contrast to the seemingly frustrated Agareth, Joshua seemed calm as he replied, "Oh… it seems that they did their research."
"Yes…Everyone in the academy already knows about it. You haven't shown up for days, so Amaru must have used his family's connection to find out where you live, and yes, Amarus is flaunting his power here, but he’s powerful enough to do that anyway."
"..."
"It's still not too late… Didn't you say that bending over would make everything easier right? Then do it! Living a life of inconvenience isn’t worth it, and sometimes, lowering yourself a bit is helpful."
Joshua was about to say something, but he stopped when he saw Agareth’s puppy eyes. Agareth was looking at him with this pleading look filled with pity. Icarus also met Joshua’s gaze at that exact moment.
"..."
Icarus' eyes reflected the same light as Agareth.
The two were both worried and anxious for him. It was apparent through their expressions.
There had to have been a huge fuss in the Imperial Academy while he was absent.
'As expected of children of nobility, their connections are astonishing.'
Joshua grumbled to himself and then burst out laughing.
It wasn’t that difficult to figure out what these kids were scared of right now, but for Joshua, there was an even greater issue to deal with.
"Don't worry, I'll still show you how to stick to your beliefs."
"You really…"
Agareth groaned from the side, but Joshua closed his eyes and recalled what happened earlier with a stiff look.
~
“Lugia—”
- I'm sure you're filled to the brim with questions for me.
"I wanna know how you found out about my revenge… and what are Bronto's other powers? Most importantly, did you really regress with me?"
- No, no, no… I did not regress with you. Who are you again? My body can't seem to remember.
"Stop joking—"
- What a lame guy… seriously?
"..."
For a brief moment, Joshua's lips were forced shut by the sound of a child's voice ringing in every corner of his skull. He wanted to complain but immediately stopped in fear of Lugia's mind-reading technique.
Joshua found it weird to be angry at the voice inside his head because he was afraid that the voice would end up as an illusion—he was afraid that it was indeed just a voice in his head.
- Consider your choices carefully. Since I have the upper hand here, I don't think that I'll be the one regretting it if you turn me down. Joshua, what if I decided to seal my mouth shut and fall asleep?
"..."
- Don't you need to go somewhere quick? Hmm? Hurry up, Joshua, time is ticking.
Joshua sighed. He knew that this was a battle he could never win. It was a pointless choice because they both knew that Joshua really had no choice, to begin with.
Joshua only wanted answers to his questions, yet the childish voice in his head suddenly slapped him with an obvious deal.
Joshua lightly sighed and asked, "What are your conditions?"
- I'm glad you finally came to your senses.
Lugia turned as though swimming in the air, pleased with Joshua's response.
- No biggie… it's just…
Lugia came to a complete stop in front of Joshua before continuing.
- First, I want you to find your past connections from your past life. Then, I want you to take care of yourself a bit more. Nothing bad will come out if you value yourself a bit higher, after all.
"What?"?
Joshua was taken aback.
Joshua was afraid about what pompous remarks could come out of Lugia. After all, it labeled itself a Demonic Weapon, but—
"I need to value myself more."
Joshua believed that the former condition would be useful, but the latter condition bugged him. Wasn’t it pretty absurd for Lugia to spit such nonsense?
'I would much believe it if Lugia told me to go to the Demon Realm and defeat the Demon King, but this… this is just absurd!'
- Are you going to do it or not? Respond as soon as possible because I'm tired! You’re tired, too, right? You're busy, too, right?
"You? Tired?"
- Answer me!
"..."
Joshua sat in silence for a while before nodding. In the meantime, there was nothing for Joshua to be concerned about. After all, everything was going according to his plans, and that was fine with him.
"Deal."
- Great.
Lugia vibrated in response to Joshua's reaction.
- A vow made to a deity like me is a great responsibility to keep. Please don't forget that.
"..."
- Do you really believe that Bronto's power is 'premonition'?
Joshua's face lit up wonderfully in response to Lugia's following words.
Well, of course, it was similar to a previous dream Joshua had. He considered it to be a precognitive dream of some sort.
While the entire Duke Agnus was on fire, two men and women emerged.
Joshua assumed that he saw that because of Bronto's magnificent power.
- Sorry… but you’re obviously wrong. It wasn't because of Bronto.
"What do you mean?"
Joshua scowled with a grim look.
The sensation Joshua felt back then seemed real. It was why he couldn't believe that it wasn’t because of Bronto.
"I have a good memory… the demise of the Agnus Estate will surely take place in the future… It was a foreshadowing, not a dream."
- I didn't say that was not a precognitive dream.
"...!"
- I said… it wasn't Bronto's power… but I didn't say that it wasn't a precognitive dream.
"Then, why Duke Agnus…"
Joshua felt like he had heard something incredulous.
- That isn’t the point right now.
"..."
- It was said that when you think about something or someone hard enough, it will manifest itself in one form or another in one's dream. In your case, you kept thinking about 'him' being the subject of your revenge, and that's why he was there.
Lugia continued speaking while looking at Joshua, who was staring blankly.
- To put it another way, the precognitive dream you had was the result of one of the two great energies sleeping in your body, divine power.
"The divine power?"?
- Some idiots believe that divine powers are exclusive to healing others or attempting to revive the dead, but they couldn't be more wrong.
"You mean—"
- Literally, God's divine might. Have you ever heard of a high priest receiving divine warnings about impending dangers?
Lugia's question elicited a modest nod from Joshua.
- Your precognitive dream is on the same track as that. The existence of God has far greater power than that of people.
"..."
- If you can fully absorb those two energies running amok within you…
Lugia then spat the words from the tip of her tongue and manifested an electric current.
- Then, no human being will be able to stand in your way.
"Ah… that…"
Joshua let out a sigh.
He had noticed a reluctance in Lugia's words.
However, this wasn’t the time to nitpick.
"Thank you for the story… Now tell me more about Bronto's true power."
- ...
Lugia slowly landed on the floor as if she was trying to take a deep breath in response to Joshua's words.
- The Primordial Stone—the Gem of Gods. Among them, Bronto has the power of lightning, and it is the fastest and most destructive among the Primordial Stones.
"..."
- Its true power is—"
Lugia encased in dirt after going back to its real form finally concluded.
- It's called 'expansion.'
~
"Professor!"
Joshua’s train of thought was interrupted by a loud voice from the corner of the classroom.
"Are you really going to end the class this way?"
Kane was perplexed as he looked at Amaru, the child who raised his hand and spoke.
"What?"
"Please allow us to carry on with the sparring. It's not a simple sparring. It’s for the noble's dignity. The dignity of my family and what's left of his crumpled dignity."
"..."
"If you changed your mind now, I will have no choice but to believe that you're letting our entire family stew in shame."
Kane kept his mouth shut upon seeing Amaru’s gloomy expression.
This was the exact opposite of what the school aimed for.
On the surface, it seemed like there was a hierarchy between students and teachers, but this wasn’t the case.
The Imperial family was unconcerned about the Imperial Academy's exterior elements because of its strong ‘hostage’ character. In addition, they only really cared about the nobles.
After all, the unspoken rule about 'family power' was the main driver of the current imperial family. Nobles with strong family ties were often called the strongest among their own pack.
"I'm not sure what you came up with, but if you think I'm just gonna stand idly by and do nothing about the shame he had brought upon us, you're wrong. After all, I once said that sticks are medicine for mad dogs."
Kane wanted to retort, but he couldn’t do so in the end.
From the other side of the classroom, a voice echoed.
"I think you are absolutely correct. I really wasn't planning on just standing by."
"What did you—"
Joshua burst into laughter, interrupting Amaru’s sentence.
"Also, by the way.... Sticks are truly the best medicine for mad dogs."
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