On her way back to the dormitory, leaving the office with a gloomy face, Arcadia sensed a suspicious presence.
“I’m not joining any clubs.”
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
“I’m not even getting any points.”
“I have plenty of points too.”
“I’m not accepting proposals to ambush the professor and make all assignments disappear.”
“…Are there really idiots who do such things?”
Only then did Arcadia stop treating the situation like a peddler she wanted to chase away and looked straight at the other person’s face.
A student wearing a robe pulled down suspiciously spoke.
“If you want to save Oknodie, follow me.”
“!”
She turned to follow the beastman student who had given a remark that she couldn’t simply ignore.
The beastman student led her to a secluded and quiet storage area that felt like an unusually remote place within the academy.
“Who are you? How do you know a way to save Oknodie?”
“I’ll answer your questions all at once. Just wait.”
Arcadia realized that not only she but also other familiar-faced students had been called to the storage area.
“It’s been a while since the cruise ship.”
“Who gathered this group?”
“Could it be Oknodie?”
However, surprisingly, students with strong combat abilities were oddly not visible.
Hestia, Irene, Jiang, Jigoku, Ishtar, and Titosso — all the reliable powerhouses were absent from this place.
She thought maybe she was randomly called among the upper-class students, but the situation was different.
Even strong combat-capable students from the lower class, like Rosgini or Sandkooker, were not called here.
Only weak students were gathered on purpose. Or perhaps, those perceived as weak were brought together.
…She felt a sinister intent.
“I have a bad feeling about this. Everyone should leave this place…”
“It’s already too late.”
As the students hesitated to exit the storage, a group of robed students rushed in.
The animal ears sticking out from behind the hoods and the tails peeking out beneath their skirts or pants revealed their identities without needing to be stated.
“Beastmen…?”
“Correct. We are beastmen. Very regretful beastmen towards you humans.”
“We don’t think of beastmen as particularly bad.”
“We didn’t think of you humans as particularly bad either. But you humans were the first to betray.”
The beastman boy stepped forward and pointed angrily at Arcadia.
“You shall be the scapegoat for our Beastman Resurgence Society’s crime declaration. You must pay for daring to raise an army and invade the Great Forest beyond the human border.”
“Wait a minute. I seriously don’t understand what you mean. An invasion of the Great Forest? Such a thing can’t possibly happen in this day and age. And it has nothing to do with us.”
“Our hometown almost got invaded without provocation. If there’s any resentment, it’s towards your kin…”
The boy’s speech could not continue.
One person, who was behind the hooded figures, jabbed a syringe into his neck.
“Wh-who betrayed… why, among kin…?”
“Kin? What a ridiculous thing to say.”
The boy who had removed his animal ear headband spoke.
“It’s the Foundation’s order. Die peacefully, Mordor.”
Entering students from the Beastman Resurgence Society, Mordor.
His true identity was an animal-type scholarship student from the Foundation.
Mordor couldn’t hide his feelings of betrayal.
“I’m also… a scholarship student… why…?”
“Oknodie has requested an attack on the Beastman Resurgence Society, it is quite a coincidence, isn’t it?”
The secretary office head, who had no desire to agree with the chairman’s questionable intentions, couldn’t help but align with him this time.
“It is coincidental indeed. Hehehe, I’m even starting to suspect I gave birth to a child I didn’t even know.”
The secretary office head asked.
“Perhaps Oknodie was aware that it was a subordinate organization of the Foundation and was testing?”
“What do you think, Secretary? Ignoring that child’s invitation and leaving the Beastman Resurgence Society?”
“If it’s an organization that’s already discovered, it would be uncomfortable to leave it be. Moreover, if plans that were truly intended to be launched have been leaked, it would be even more dangerous.”
The plan to eliminate Oknodie was intended to annihilate the scholarship students from the academy and to give a mass destruction order aimed at the regular students.
If that were to be discovered, Oknodie would not remain untouched, and the professors who valued her would not overlook the tip-off.
The connection between the Beastman Resurgence Society and the Foundation would be discovered anyway, and the Foundation’s sub-organizations would be cut off.
“You’re wise. There’s a saying in the eastern game of Go known as chess: Don’t have lingering regrets over already dead stones.”
The intentions of the chairman and the secretary office head aligned.
“Proceed with the disposal. Since the semester has started, let the academy’s students watch closely.”
Mainstream Chapter 2 – Incident of Attack by Criminal Organization.
At the moment when the victims were no longer regular students but spies of the criminal organization.
Foundation scholarship student Primer shamelessly retorted even in front of the professor who came to investigate.
“Those beastmen are saying their eyes are turning red and that all normal students will be killed — what would’ve happened if I hadn’t stopped them? I did nothing wrong.”
“…There is some room for consideration. However, killing classmates and being released without any punishment may make the academy’s regulations seem laughable. Please understand that the detention will continue until it is confirmed that Primer’s testimony is true.”
Primer thought that this level of punishment was nothing and willingly accepted it.
When he first received an order from the Foundation, he was honestly dizzy.
The faction in the Foundation wanting to eliminate Oknodie had great disappointment in Primer’s inability to fully succeed in his mission.
He thought an unreasonable order had been given to dispose of him, but as events unfolded, it became clear that the target set by the Foundation was not ordinary.
The master of betrayal, Primer quickly grasped the situation.
‘Is the Foundation planning to cut ties with the Beastman Resurgence Society?’
While contemplating what Professor Raeb’s motive for the attack might be, Primer enlightened himself.
Even Oknodie had only aimed to injure the Imperial students who had fallen out with him rather than killing them as a form of warning.
The ones trying to cross the line that even the chief scholarship student hadn’t crossed were simply fools blinded by revenge.
━━━
Just before the beastman resurgence-affiliated scholarship student Mordor executed his plan to kill other students, eliminate him.
━━━
The Foundation’s order clearly stated conditions.
Dispose of him before he crosses the line.
Mordor might have had a chance to survive.
If he had suppressed the feeling of revenge.
If he attempted to rationally understand the situation.
All possibilities that could not be realized.
‘Don’t think too badly of it, friend.’
It’s not my fault you died because you’re a fool, right?
Arcadia sought someone who could clarify the incident from the previous night.
“Jaku. Since you’re a Foundation scholarship student, you should know the details, right? Is it true that both the perpetrator and victim students were officially declared to belong to the Foundation?”
“It’s true. I have a rough guess about the cause. It resulted in Primer successfully
The Foundation’s orders become more difficult and dangerous the more failures accumulate.
To reach the point of murder within the academy implies that considerable important orders had been badly handled.
“What’s the advantage for the Foundation in doing such a thing? It only revealed their scholarship student’s identity. They also caught six beastmen spies.”
“The students that were attempting to cause a massacre along with Mordor were linked to a different tail than mine.”
“A different tail… you mean someone close to the Foundation?”
“Right. You’ve been studying hard about the Foundation.”
“If you have an info-savvy business partner by your side, you inevitably learn a lot of information.”
Though it felt uncomfortable, the incident has already passed.
As Arcadia was trying to forget the matter as something that had passed, the following day, she heard the truth about the Foundation’s ploy from Oknodie, who returned to the academy.
“Di! You’re back. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine! But Arcadia, did you receive the gift?”
“Gift?”
“You gave the order to kill those nasty beastmen who were trying to harass everyone!”
“…!”
The peculiar command to have members of the Foundation’s faction kill others from within its ranks.
The source of that bizarre order was only now revealed.
“Are you saying it was an order from Di!?”
Di is a good child.
Not a bad child.
If she issued a killing order to save us, should she be considered a good child or a bad child?
I don’t know.
I can’t grasp it at all.
Plunged into confusion, she spotted Sing snickering behind Oknodie.
“Think simply. You owe your life. What more do you need?”
“…That’s true. Di has helped me again this time.”
To even suspect that such a child could be bad for just a moment.
Arcadia felt a strong sense of self-hatred.
“Di, I won’t suspect you anymore. No matter what happens.”
Oknodie, nestled in Arcadia’s embrace, smiled brightly.
“Really?”
“Of course.”
“Liar.”
That one word of distrust came out so firmly.
Arcadia was taken aback.
“W-why are you saying that?”
“Because Arcadia hasn’t achieved 100 favorability yet.”
