The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

Amy looked around at the black pearls.

The black sphere, hardly reflecting any light, exuded such an eerie atmosphere that it felt impossible for it to have been made by humans.

“What is this?”

“It seems everyone left it alone because they didn’t know what it was. This is the most important thing.”

I picked it up, familiar with its weight, and took out a small pocket knife from my pocket, scratching the flawless surface of the sphere until I jabbed it.

The sphere cracked open, revealing a complexly shaped cube inside.

“This is like an invitation from the heathens. It means they’re inviting us to their gathering. This cube has their address written on it.”

Using teleportation magic leaves a distinct trace of spatial distortion.

It was clear the residents had traveled by land.

But what still left me uncertain was whether the residents went willingly or were taken against their will.

Given that the household items were intact and there was no evidence of resistance, it seemed like they might have gone voluntarily.

However, I couldn’t be too sure, as the heathens could have used drugs or enchanting spells… It seems I’ll need to investigate further.

“What?! If they’re heathens… does that mean it’s the heathens, not the slave traders, who took the residents?!”

“It’s a common tactic of these guys to disguise themselves as slave traders. Or… they can make it look like a midnight escape.”

The Chief, who had come along, was shocked upon hearing that it was the heathens.

It seemed he never imagined such a web of involvement.

“If it’s heathens, does that mean the Demon Church is involved?”

“Rather than the Demon Church, it’s more likely a splinter sect of heathens.”

They’re not devil worshipers; they’re heathens.

In essence, it means the same, but these are people who idolize not gods but things that mimic gods—they have plenty of things among them that resemble gods.

“…Even if it’s only high-level demons, there are those who worship them.”

“Exactly.”

Among those, some heathens believed in demons that pretended to be gods.

Even a high-level demon would have enough clout to pose as a god among people with no reliable beliefs.

If someone really put their mind to it, even a regular magician could pull it off.

Add some charisma to mix, and you have the birth of what we call a cult.

In reality, there are also those who, even without such abilities, try to portray themselves as gods.

“Can we find the location with this?”

“Since it’s an invitation, it roughly states where to go. It’s encoded, but they’re using a fairly common method, so it’s easy to decipher.”

I should have brought Casey, who’s much better at this sort of thing.

If I interpret the code on the cube inside the black pearl, the coordinates will appear soon.

I began deciphering the code with a puzzle-solving mindset that I hadn’t used in a while.

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As soon as we discovered the trace of the heathens, a tracking team was formed.

It was a tracking team aiming to find their main base.

It wouldn’t be too far away.

The areas they frequently operated in were the Parker territory and the Blue Cat Tribe Village, so their base must be in one of those places.

The tracking team consisted of me, Amy, and Gemma, plus one more person.

That person was none other than the Chief’s daughter, Irina Panta.

“Why am I in this situation…?!”

“We’re trying to save your people, so cooperate, okay?”

“Wha—?!”

I kicked Irina, who was grumbling in front of me, right in the butt.

As she staggered, she tumbled forward.

It seemed that beastmen had senses several times sharper than ordinary humans, so I borrowed hers.

Though Irina herself wasn’t pleased about it.

“This area is always where we go hunting. There’s no way they’d be here.”

“Then where?”

“It’s likely concerning those filthy heathens, so it’d probably be in a place where humans reside.”

Irina had quite a strong hostility towards humans.

While it was understandable for a beastman to have a dislike for humans, it’s still childish to bare her teeth at people who mean no harm.

“…Why do you hate humans so much?”

“Why should I like them?”

When Amy asked Irina, who was growling at her, the question, Irina shot back.

She clearly hadn’t been around long enough to learn proper manners.

“Do you know how many dirty humans have targeted my blue fur? It was worse in the past; I got kidnapped once when I was little.”

“And it was a human who saved you.”

“You mean, my father saved me.”

It seemed Irina thought the Chief had rescued her when she was kidnapped.

She believed that wholeheartedly, but I had a different take.

“Did your father ever tell you that?”

“Yes. I distinctly remember being held in my father’s arms.”

“Then why don’t you ask him again? If you were kidnapped by slave traders, you would have entered the Empire’s territory. Do you really think beastmen could retrieve you from there?”

Once someone gets kidnapped and taken into the Empire’s borders, it’s incredibly challenging to rescue those captured by slave traders.

“Illegal slave traders operating in the plains are regularly clamped down on by the Empire’s soldiers, so that’s why. You were probably rescued by a human and handed over.”

Since it was hard for just beastmen, there were those who focused on cracking down on illegal slave traders along the borders.

At least every slave trader I saw while on a mission had terrible skills, so just beastmen gathering ambiguously wouldn’t have been enough to catch them.

“So… what are you trying to say?”

With her words continuously dismissed, Irina frowned.

“There are plenty of good people even among the trashy humans. If you want to be the chief, you should first learn how to communicate with those you think are garbage. If you just carry on like this, your tribe will go under in less than a year.”

“What?!”

-Whack!!

I struck Irina’s head as she lunged at me, her emotions running high.

Though she seemed to be thinking of a rebuttal, it was clearly futile, so Irina clenched her teeth in frustration.

“You’re being a bit harsh today, aren’t you?”

“Being above others means you have to take responsibility for their lives too. If their father bends but knows how to bend, then if the successor is like this, the Blue Cat Tribe will only suffer.”

“…I’ll be careful.”

While I glared at Irina, even Gemma, the heir of the Dragon Lord, seemed a bit pricked, lowering her head.

After walking for a while, I began to see artificial structures near the coordinates I had deciphered.

At first glance, it looked like a shabby farm.

“…Is that it?”

“Is the coordinate there?”

“Yeah.”

No matter how I looked at it, that was it.

“Hey, what do you think?”

Curious about the opinion of Irina, the cat beastwoman, I asked, but her fur was already standing on end.

Her pupils had constricted, and her claws were extended.

She looked like she would pounce any moment.

“Strange… This place is a farm…? I’ve never seen one like this.”

“You’ve never seen it…?”

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We decided to inspect the area around the farm together.

On the surface, the farm appeared like any other typical farm in the region.

It raised various livestock, including cows, pigs, and chickens, and aside from appearing somewhat worn, it looked intact.

But that was the most suspicious part.

A farm in a plain where vicious monsters wander around—it was practically a restaurant designed for monsters.

Of course, if it was a specialist farm set up by alert beastmen, it could be feasible, but that wasn’t the case either.

This meant that such a farm shouldn’t exist.

“Everyone, stay alert.”

“Yes!”

With suspicious signs visible, everyone was on high alert and ready to spring into action.

I approached what looked like a private residence and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?”

“Excuse me, are you the owner of this farm?”

“That’s right.”

He appeared to be an ordinary man.

In worn clothes with arms thick enough to imply he did some farm work—he was a typical farmer.

“Have you seen any suspicious individuals in the area? Or any beastmen?”

“Suspicious people, you say?”

Upon hearing my question, the man stared blankly at me, then muttered without any concern.

“Hmm. I didn’t expect you to catch on so quickly.”

Before he could move, Squirette sprang into action.

The moment he showed any sign of suspicion, the man’s body was cleaved in two.

As his body split apart, he continued speaking even as he fell.

“Maybe a bit early, but let’s proceed according to plan.”

Immediately, black darkness surged from the man’s body, enveloping everything around us.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?!”

I quickly surrounded Squirette with an aura, trying to cut through the darkness.

But the darkness lacked physical energy and couldn’t be cut.

That thick darkness engulfed me and my party completely.

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When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a familiar place.

While it was familiar, as I tried to recall where it was, I heard a thunderous roar akin to a heavy reprimand.

“What the hell are you doing spacing out?”

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my wrist.

“Ugh?!”

I flinched at the intense pain.

But it was a familiar pain.

The pain of being struck by a solid wooden sword.

“I’ll commend you for not dropping the wooden sword, but are you trying to get yourself killed by being distracted in front of it?!”

‘Am I dreaming?’

The last memory left… was when I checked the suspicious man’s house right in the middle of the plains, and that he had uttered something bizarre and released black darkness.

Is this an illusion he’s showing me?

Or have I been sent to some other space?

“Didn’t I tell you not to get distracted?!”

The thunderous voice of Cronos accompanied a swift strike of the wooden sword.

Since he first struck my wrist, this time, I guessed he was aiming for my shoulder.

I thought it was pretty harsh for a kid, but he was never sane to begin with.

If I were the me from that time, I would have taken it, but I wasn’t that person anymore.

-Whack!!

Despite having just been hit on the wrist, I lifted the wooden sword to block Cronos’s attack.

Cronos was in shock that his attack had been deflected.

“You blocked it?!”

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be able to block him.

The ‘me’ back then was only at best beginner level among experts.

There was no way I could block Cronos’s attack, but… something had changed.

It wasn’t just my physical ability at play; it was the content that had shifted.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

Something that once seemed so massive now didn’t appear so.

“Be quiet for a second while I think.”

-Whack!!!

“Ugh?!”

Not stopping there, I stepped forward and threw a punch at Cronos’s face, causing him to stagger and fall.

“Ugh… what the hell happened.”

I truly couldn’t think of what I had gotten embroiled in.

First and foremost… let’s think positively.

Even if it was just an illusion, I was still able to land a punch on that damn face.