Chapter 171: The Anti-Columnist (2)
[Exclusive] Evil beyond measure, 'Night Hound' / Views: 3,872
-The Hound of the Night has crossed the line. The crimes against the imperial family and the Seven Houses have reached the heavens... Turning yourself in right now and waiting to be hanged may be your last chance for a peaceful end!
?(Hot Class 1st year student): The country is going well....
??(Cold Class 1st year student): ?? I think we need to arrest the night hound quickly? What is the imperial family doing?
??(Cold Class 2nd year student): How busy must you be in this time? What is the imperial family? Is it your friend's house? These days, things are getting out of hand.
??(Hot Class 4th year student): Both,, my,, classmates,,, hate,, the,, night,, hound,, this,,!
??(Cold Class 4th year student): That's right~~^^*
??(Hot Class 1st year student): Ugh, the comment box smells like an old man;;;
??(Cold Class 3rd year student): Good article,, spreads~~^^ always~~happy~~?
??(Hot Class 1st year student): By the way, who wrote this column, did you see the night hound yourself?
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Vikir was a little surprised when he saw the newspaper this morning.
'I can't believe they actually published that column.'
Vikir was a little surprised to see the column in the paper this morning.
I was surprised that it got a lot of views and comments.
'...The fear of the night hound is spreading, isn't it?'
I've heard that in the Imperial Capital these days, many parents say, "If you keep crying, the Night Hound will bite you!" when soothing their crying children.
Apparently, he's established himself as a villain who terrorizes the empire.
'I'll have to be more careful when I go demon hunting in the future.'
It would be troublesome to run into the Imperial Knights while wandering outside the Academy.
Vikir was thinking about his future plans.
"Vikir."
A cold voice called out.
Vikir looks up, and Professor Morg Banshee's dark-circled gaze follows him.
"Did you close your eyes again today, lost in thought, and not just focus?"
"Yes. Yes."
"Still brazen, I see. I'll have to see if you have what it takes."
Professor Banshee, as always, did not like Vikir.
So he threw in a few petty offenses, like giving him a pun question that he purposely twisted so that he couldn't solve it, or a super-difficult question that was beyond the grasp of an undergraduate.
"The Imperial Army has been plagued by a massive outbreak of super-sized pinworms during the rainy season on the Western Front. Tell me how to deal with the smaller ones, which are less than a meter long, and the larger ones, which are more than 10 meters long."
"Travelers are being attacked by goblins. Goblins are small, weak creatures, but their swarming behavior makes them a threat to those without access to mana. Discuss a realistic plan to prevent travelers from being attacked by goblins at the gates of the Imperial Capital."
The monster that currently causes the most damage to the knights and mages guarding the highland fortress is the wyvern, but it is also quite true that it is the opposite of impossible to say that it is not.What do you think?"
...The problem is that Vikir has never been wrong about such things.
"Smaller species, less than a meter long, can be mortally wounded by a sprinkling of salt, sugar, or carbonic acid, while larger ones can be easily repelled by shooting copper arrows."
"Goblins have a sensitive sense of smell and are weak to bad smells. If a ginkgo tree planted as a street tree drops fruit, rather than throwing it away, it would be a good idea to collect it and provide a bag each to travelers leaving the Imperial Capital. If you throw ginkgo nuts at a goblin, most of them will lose their will to fight and run away due to the bad smell."
"Yes."
Vikir answered, always nonchalant in the face of Professor Banshee's aggressive barrage of questions.
There were two reasons for this. The first was that Professor Banshee's major classes were always related to actual monster strategy. This was Vikir's specialty for the past several decades, so he couldn't be wrong.
Therefore, it is possible that he could come up with groundbreaking strategies that would complement or even replace decades of outdated research.
The second was Prof. Banshee's questioning style.
While Vikir's attention-seeking personality would allow him to get away with whatever he wanted, Professor Banshee would deduct the entire department's attitude points for students who failed to answer his questions or got them wrong.
In other words, since Vikir was targeted by Professor Banshee, he had to keep fending off his attacks for the sake of the attitude score of the entire Cold Class.
Vikir decided that solving the problem well and earning extra points toward his overall attitude score would make him less noticeable to other students, because people remember grudges long and forget favors quickly.
This is because people remember the punishment they receive from others for a long time, but the reward they receive from others is quickly forgotten.
Meanwhile.
"...."
Prof. Banshee couldn't help but feel angry that his questioning attack had been cut short.
Vikir's answers were the sort of thing that only a war veteran who had spent decades on the battlefield could give, so he couldn't be too quick to point them out.
How could a mere 18-year-old freshman know things that even he, a professor at the academy, could only theoretically understand from his desk in the lab?
And not just like that.
Professor Banshee couldn't help but frown even more as some of the answers Vikir had just given included strategies and theories that had never been discovered before.
'Keu... ... It was like that in the past during the Venompion incident.'
A giant scorpion-like demon living in the desert.
Who knew it had a second, hidden stinger.
Professor Banshee had once sent a sample of the Venompion to the Royal Institute of Magical Creatures to determine whether or not Vikir's claims were true, and it had all turned out to be true.
He waved off the flood of interview requests.
'It wasn't my research, it was my student's research. Phew!'
Ever since then, Prof. Banshee has been watching Vikir with interest.
In the end, Professor Banshee had no choice but to recognize Vikir's intelligence.
"You're so good, you're so good, you know enough theory that you could stand here and teach your classmates, your seniors, ... maybe even me."
"Not quite."
Professor Banshee's expression twists once more at Vikir's short answer.
Finally, he growled.
"I hope you go to graduate school someday, and if you do, you'll come under my wing...."
For the first time, Vikir felt a chill at those words.
The Academy's graduate school had a reputation for being insanely rigorous.
There is even a rumor that prisoners of war from other countries who lost the war and became slaves feel sorry for the academy's graduate students.
The first-year students, however, don't know that yet, and their eyes widen as they look back at Vikir.
Not only was he recognized for his theory by Professor Banshee, but he was even recommended to go to graduate school!
That was harder than getting a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
"...."
Sinclair, the head of the Hot Class, who had been sitting in the front row, was now staring at Vikir openly, not even hiding.
His eyes glowed with curiosity.
* * *
After class.
Vikir joined the crowd of students grabbing their backpacks and heading to their next class or dorm.
But there was one person who stood in his way.
Professor Morg Banshee, the professor of Practical Monster Strategy.
"Vikir."
He called out to Vikir in a hard voice, with just the slightest hint of displeasure in his tone.
When Vikir turned his head, he strode over and spoke with a gnarled, twisted mouth.
"Your last column, I mean. In the newspaper."
Professor Banshee is an advisor to the newspaper.
He was the one who had published Vikir's commentary on The Night Hound in the paper.
Prof. Banshee asked, genuinely curious.
"Did you really see the Night Hound yourself during your volunteer work?"
"It's exactly as I told you last time. I was walking down the hallway at night, and I just happened to catch a glimpse, a quick glimpse."
"So you really don't know its face or voice or anything like that?" ...
"Yes."
"I see, then."
Professor Banshee frowned and quietly muttered, 'It's because things like flies keep sticking to me.'
Then he looked at Vikir and continued.
"If any of the outside reporters are bothering you with requests for interviews, tell them to tell me. I have a duty to protect the students of the Academy's newspaper."
"Yes."
Professor Banshee nodded at Vikir's short answer.
"...Ah, wait."
Just as he was about to turn away, Professor Banshee turned his head as if he'd just remembered something.
"Well, if you were doing community service, that would have been during sleeping hours and curfew, so why were you walking down the hallway at night, and that's not in the direction of the restrooms or water dispensers."
"I'm sorry."
"... sorry, is that it?"
"Yes."
Vikir replied, still keeping it short.
Professor Banshee frowned.
" ...Well, I do know that it's customary for boys and girls to get together for a drinking party on the last day of service."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. But it doesn't oblige me to condone such things, does it?"
"I see."
Professor Banshee held up the ledger with a stern gesture and deducted one point from Vikir's attitude score.
" ...From now on, do not roam at night."
No more roaming around at night for the Night Hound.
Vikir nodded half-heartedly, and Professor Banshee then snorted happily and turned and went on his way.
Only then did the friends who had been watching from afar approach.
Piggy was the first to approach.
"Vikir, did you just lose an attitude point? Why?"
"For breaking the night curfew on the last day of volunteering."
"Ugh! You're crazy! Did you really tell me that? You're lying! If you get another demerit here, you'll have to do community service again, but this time it'll be on campus...."
Nowadays, the academy's principal has decided not to send students to community service because of the current situation.
Instead, they would be put in the unfortunate position of having to do in-school service during the golden festival after the midterms.
That's what Piggy was feeling right now.
Tudor and Sancho came up behind him.
"Hey, Vikir, what did Professor Banshee say?"
"At least there would have been an argument."
They were on the same newspaper staff as Vikir, and they already knew that the column was written by Vikir.
Tudor opened his mouth.
"Hey, Vikir. Did you really see the Night Hound that time?"
"Yes."
"Dude, why didn't you tell me about it? You were so serious the whole way back that day."
Tudor stepped forward with a serious expression and patted Vikir on the shoulder.
"You must have been terrified to meet that vile villain, and I was hoping it was because you kept falling behind on your way back to the Academy on your last day of service, and you peed yourself because you were thinking too much."
"If that happens in the future, you should come to us with your problems."
Sancho nodded as he stood next to Vikir.
Meanwhile, his friends asked Vikir.
They wanted to know what the Night Hound looked like and how terrifying it was.
Vikir gave a quick answer.
"It's very tall and well-built. His face is masked and his entire body is covered in a black cloak. His voice was hoarse. It was hard to hear because he was so far away...."
At that, Tudor, Sancho, and Piggy brushed away the goosebumps on their arms.
"Wow, you must have seen it in real life, that must have been really scary!"
"I don't think I'd have been able to move from the spot, you've got a lot of nerve."
"The Night Hound is supposed to be at least a Graduator, so how strong is it? Does it outrank the professors, or is it not that strong?"
The day pups were still fluffing up their fur as they howled at each other that they were going to catch the Night Hound.
Vikir watched the scene with a certain amount of fondness.
Just then.
"Look who's here, aren't you the idiots from Cold Class?"
Another fluffy one-day puppy steps in front of Vikir.
A handsome man, with a cold face beneath his jet-black hair.
He wears a small snake-like badge on his chest patch.
Tudor, Sancho, and Piggy stiffen slightly at the sight of his face.
"...Grenouille."
Grenouille Des Leviathans.
A member of House Leviathan, one of the seven most powerful families in the Empire.
It was the appearance of the first-year vice head of the Hot Class and an extremely arrogant first-year student.
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