Chapter 167

I was escorting Sererassie to the Imperial Magic Guild when I headed back to the main gate to go to the Street of Learning.

“Your Highness, I have good news,” a servant approached me discreetly.

Seeing his uniform and badge, it was clear he was from the main palace, and he was one of the servants who directly met Jeilliris.

“What is it?”

“The Emperor has sent word; he mentioned ‘Purioaito.’ He says he will send you 60% of it.”

It seemed that the 10,000 gold coins the youngest daughter of the previous Purioaito was supposed to send had arrived.

Sixty percent… that means it’s 6,000 gold coins.

That was enough money to build about ten substantial fortresses.

“… Convey my thanks for the Emperor’s grace.”

I smiled contentedly and handed the servant a small pouch filled with silver and gold coins as a token of my appreciation.

Bestowing small kindnesses multiple times was how one earned loyalty.

The servant looked startled and bowed his head as he left.

I gazed up at the summer sky, feeling thoughtful.

“Hehe.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

What a good day.

* * *

“Your Highness, I’m sorry, but it seems impossible for the student council to meet your request with its current manpower.”

At those words, I narrowed my eyes.

The blue-eyed, elite president of the student council, Jin, was bowing his head in front of me, with his elegantly trimmed gray hair.

“I need to submit this document to the president… is there someone inside?”

“Shh. Duke Valencius has entered.”

“Come on, don’t joke. Even if our president is an elite, there’s no way a duke would visit us. It must be someone well-dressed.”

“But he was wearing the Double-Headed Eagle medal on his left chest! It’s something only a few are allowed to wear.”

“Then it’s true… this is serious. I need to report all this.”

Straining to listen, I could hear several voices from the student council room.

It sounded like members of the student council that Jin had assembled.

Even though it was vacation, they all came out to work, so it seemed they were busy indeed.

I spoke softly, lowering my voice.

“From the sounds of it, it seems you are indeed busy. But the activity budget I provide isn’t small… do you need more funding?”

This statement carried a double meaning.

It was a question of whether they genuinely needed more funding, and perhaps I was also implying that they should not be considering other thoughts in the meantime.

Being the astute elite he was, Jin understood the implication and paled even further.

However, he was the president of a massive organization that governed thousands of students.

Like the collaborator I had chosen, he quickly softened his expression and began to explain.

“How could I possibly do that? If you have some time, may I request your understanding?”

I nodded, of course.

It was necessary to recruit local collaborators to hear the unvarnished voices from the region.

“Very well. I grant you permission.”

Jin pulled out a bundle of documents from his desk and attached three large maps to the blackboard.

The map indicating the Street of Learning was color-coded for each street.

“First, these documents relate to the brawls that occurred around the Street of Learning over the past week.”

“What constitutes a brawl?” I asked.

“We classify it as a brawl only when both sides have over 100 participants.”

Even though fights were common in the Street of Learning, brawls involving over 100 people wouldn’t happen frequently.

However, the stack of documents in front of me seemed to be as thick as two of my fingers.

… For someone like me, who was a mixed-blood of heterogeneous races, my fingers were typically long and slender.

“It’s only the ringleaders that were investigated, and this is what we found.”

“Troubles seem inevitable.”

I bit my chapped lips in frustration.

If such an incident occurred during a visit from the great lords, it would truly smear the royal family’s reputation.

“Due to injuries incurred while trying to stop and disperse these fights, much of the activity funds the Emperor granted are being spent on healing prayers and potion costs.”

“Have you investigated the reasons behind this?”

Each one was tied to another problem.

In the end, the root cause needed to be eliminated, and Jin probably knew that.

Upon hearing my words, Jin slouched his sturdy shoulders and let out a deep sigh.

His elegantly tailored uniform and golden trim seemed to sag as well.

“I will detail it. Due to the nature of the Academy and its members, I must apologize in advance for the somewhat coarse language that may arise while speaking in the presence of a duke.”

“I’m all ears.”

* * *

The reasons for the disputes that Jin read out totaled five pages.

Lease disputes, bumping shoulders in the street, post-final exam gatherings, noise complaints, personal space issues, escalating fights after making eye contact with students from a neighboring school, classroom eviction time violations, larger sausages served to students from a neighboring school in the cafeteria, café seating struggles, cutting in line to buy textbooks, public restroom squabbles, disputes over waste disposal…

“What do you think?”

“It sounds chaotic, but no…”

I sighed deeply after hearing that string of reasons.

I now seemed to understand what those maps attached to the blackboard indicated.

“Those maps… do they show population density and flow?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“The frequency of brawls matches perfectly with the population density.”

“Indeed, Your Highness.”

The land price in the capital is high, the academies are densely packed together, and most students are impoverished.

It is not uncommon for academies to share classrooms in the same building, restaurants and cafés are always crowded, and finding a rental room or registering for classes is as difficult as plucking stars from the sky.

It didn’t seem this problematic before my return.

… Because Helena had conscripted everyone.

… The academy historically provided a setting for the high-born children of provincial lords to mix and serve as hostages, where judicial authority lay with the dean.

This system allowed situations involving the children of high nobles not to be publicly exposed while allowing appropriate punishment to be administered.

Although the capital guards, constables, and high courts trembled before the children of high nobles accompanied by about ten Sword Experts, the highly esteemed old noble scholars could manage to guide these noble children effectively and could sometimes impose punishment.

However, the world has changed, and nowadays, even deans of academies are often inundated with obligations.

If students at our academy get into fights with students from other academies and come back injured, we might request professors from the swordsmanship department to create courses in swordsmanship and fighting as compulsory knowledge for graduation, yet no punishment would be enforced.

In short, they can’t be expected to regulate themselves.

However, since judicial authority lies with each academy, we cannot deploy guards or constables either.

So, I had Jin establish a student council to use them as a sort of private army, but even the best fighters cannot effectively intervene in a chaotic scene involving hundreds of people.

I looked into Jin’s blue eyes and said, “I understand your plight. However, provincial high nobles will soon come. We cannot allow this to happen then.”

Jin nodded.

“I agree.”

“I can only tell you to do your best…”

At that moment, the student council room door burst open.

A voice cried out, “No other students are allowed in!”

A student, as big as a bear, shouted with blood dripping from his head.

“President! The students from Saint Margarita Academy and ours just clashed in the west!”

Jin squinted his eyes and stood up.

“What’s the scale?”

“Over 1,800 from both sides combined.”

I gaped in disbelief.

1,800 meant a minimum of two battalions and possibly as many as four.

Moreover, since all of them were academy students, they’d be in much better shape than average peasant soldiers or impoverished recruits.

Students from the magic, theology, and swordsmanship departments would display literal superhuman prowess.

Jin donned armor hanging against one wall and addressed the big student.

“How many can gather right now?”

“About 30, including me and the president…”

Jin squeezed his eyes shut and stepped out of the student council room.

“Your Highness, excuse me.”

Only then did the bear-like student realize my presence and hurriedly bow his head.

I chuckled as I stood.

“Jin, you might die.”

The student council members collectively gasped in shock, their expressions filled with disbelief.

Is it real? How could they do this? voices whispered in confusion.

Jin answered while holding a club-like weapon the length of a sword.

“I am the president. Your Highness. I have a duty to protect the academy students while enforcing the rules strictly.”

“Holy knights and purifiers don’t retreat until the enemy outnumbers them three to one. When Solletarass led 500 knights against a highly elite force of 20,000, he etched his name in history. Yet you’re trying to charge against an army 60 times larger. It’s reckless.”

Jin took out a potion that altered his eye color and drank it.

It seemed to indicate that he was determined to justify the use of the activity funds.

I felt a rush inside me.

“Goodness, I was feeling a little suffocated in my chest; this is just what I needed.”

“What?”

“I’ll help you. You don’t need to thank me. There’s no need to acknowledge me either. Just act like you’re going to follow me while keeping your distance, and earn your reputation that way.”

It seemed like I would get a chance to really stretch my legs again after a long time.

* * *

“Fire!”

“Wave of flames!”

They say that when some mages and alchemists classify flame temperatures, red flames are about 800 degrees, yellow flames about 1,200 degrees, white flames around 1,500 degrees, and blue flames exceed 1,650 degrees.

In other words, flames in their natural state, no matter how low their temperature, can cause significant damage to humans.

Yet magical fire is different.

“How dare you cause such a ruckus in front of me, the duke of the empire! Get back to your stinky rooms and wipe your feet before you sleep!”

Valenciaunos ignited flames at a temperature akin to that of hot coffee, sweeping across the entire street.

This flame was fueled purely by mana, and since the temperature was so low, it wouldn’t catch fire anywhere.

However, it reached a height of 6 meters, which was more than sufficient to instill fear even in the fiercest of students.

Shouts such as “Shut up! You wouldn’t have come out for a room!” rang out here and there, but stopping a member of the royal family inherited from various races was impossible.

Especially when that royal was on the verge of going mad from the stress and pressure of the last few days.

“Ha!”

Students belonging to the swordsmanship or magic departments managed to weave through or withstand the low-temperature flames.

And amidst that chaos, Valenciaunos taught them the lessons of battle.

“Get out of my way!”

“I’m through! It’s my turn to hit, so prepare to be hit!”

After dodging a sword from a student of the swordsmanship department, he kicked them in the groin and shin with the tip of his shoe, then delivered a series of slaps to knock them out.

“Enemy of the Saint!”

“Ha! Do you want to be fed to a wyvern?”

After dodging the purifying flames from a theology student, he snatched the rosary and choked the student unconscious with it.

“Winds!”

“What a waste of tuition!”

He endured a magic spell from a mage with enhanced resistance thanks to a ceremonial sword, seized the staff, and brought it down on the mage’s head.

“A mage dropping their staff! Disqualified!”

“You took it from me…!”

“How dare you call me ‘you’? Let’s go, Wyvernfit!”

In no time, dozens were rolling on the ground. Even the most enraged university students couldn’t help but regain their senses and fear.

“Ahhhh!”

“Run!”

“It’s Valenciaunos!”

“That bandit duke is trying to burn us all alive!”

“He killed two dukes and assaulted their daughters! We’ll be eaten alive!”

“Run! Not that way!”

One student fell on the ground while running with their partner.

“Ah!”

“Ugh!”

The waves of flames roared all around as, in the distance, a duke with silver hair and golden eyes marched forward.

He looked far more handsome than the rumors suggested and much more dangerous, emanating an air of arrogance and cruelty.

“President, save us!”

At the voice that cried out reflexively, Jin responded.

With gray hair and blue eyes flashing, Jin rushed out.

“The president has arrived!”

“He’s alive!”

Having clashed a few times with swords and retreating sufficiently, Valenciaunos thought, ‘I absolutely cannot show this to the great lords. I need to devise some kind of countermeasures, institutionally.’

He recalled one name.

“Hadrian. It feels like the time has come to use you.”

* * *

“Valenciaunos?”

The youth of royal blood, with silver hair and blue eyes, sprang up from his seat abruptly.

He appeared oddly terrified.