Academy’s Barbarian

There’s a saying that parents can’t beat their children, but that depends on how the child behaves.

If you’re a parent staring at a child over twenty years old, holed up in their room, obsessing over gloomy hobbies, you’d probably grow strong enough to punch Satan in the face at the bottom of hell.

Even Freide, who stubbornly refused to go anywhere, couldn’t defy the Grand Duke’s lament that a twenty-year-old acting like that was a disgrace to the family and begged her to just go out already.

And so, we left Pailoon Castle. Riding the carriage the Grand Duke had specially prepared for us.

—

The journey back to the City of Exra-shapel was uneventful.

The bandits that used to pop up every other day had been wiped out like small shops next to a giant supermarket, pushed out by monsters. And the monsters themselves were handled by Freide and Damien before I even needed to step in.

Damien, in particular, was having the time of his life slicing through monsters. Maybe he was just that thrilled with his new sword, acting like a kid with a new toy.

He’d stand there with his arms crossed, watching the monsters approach, then summon the Holy Sword a few steps ahead in midair, letting gravity do the work of skewering them. Then he’d pull the sword out of the corpse like it was some kind of performance.

It was so ridiculous it made me want to laugh.

I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Rana would gag every time she saw it, and Freide asked if he’d hit his head or something, saying his personality had gotten weird.

“…I guess that’s just how you’re supposed to summon that sword?”

I tried to defend Damien’s honor… or whatever you’d call it. As an adult, I had to understand. How could a seventeen-year-old boy resist showing off a sword summoned from thin air? I’d been a boy once too, so I got where he was coming from.

“Pfft.”

…But it was still hilarious.

Honestly, how could I not laugh? The kid even mutters prayers every time he uses the Holy Sword’s power to perform miracles.

The divine runes on the blade complete the magical formula on their own, so there’s no need for him to recite prayers, but he does it anyway.

From his obsession with leap attacks to this, his commitment to the bit was practically an art form.

Next thing you know, he’ll be singing Latin hymns during boss fights, like some epic orchestral BGM.

—

“What are you looking at?”

Maybe the leisurely journey was starting to bore her.

Freide poked my side as I was flipping through some documents, careful not to let the ash from her cigarette fall.

She didn’t look particularly curious, just bored and looking for something to do.

If she’s that bored, why not go train outside like Damien? You’re the weakest of the three of us. What’s a novice doing talking to a hero?

—I didn’t say that, of course, because I knew she’d throw a tantrum and flip the carriage. Instead, I graciously answered the novice’s question.

“Just some interrogation reports. Your father handed them over.”

What I was reading were the interrogation reports of the two prisoners we’d left at Pailoon Castle: Macaoros and Ereneisia.

Right before we left the castle with Freide, Valdemar handed them to me, asking if I’d forgotten something.

Of course, I hadn’t completely forgotten about the interrogations; I just didn’t expect the results to come in so soon, so I hadn’t brought it up.

So, it’s not that I forgot, you see? You get it, right? I’m not that much of an idiot.

It’s just that so much had happened in such a short time that it didn’t immediately come to mind. If we’d stayed at Pailoon Castle for a couple of days to rest, I’m sure I would’ve remembered.

In short, it wasn’t forgotten; it was just buried deep in my memory.

Anyway, the interrogation results were quite impressive.

First, Macaoros was deemed too dangerous to control with just restraints, so as soon as he was imprisoned, he was “neutralized.”

His limbs, wings, and tail were cut off, and the ignition organ behind his throat was removed. The mana-sealing formula Ophelia had placed on him was also maintained by the castle’s magicians.

The formula was so complex that the magicians could only supply the mana to keep it active, not fully understand it.

In any case, once Macaoros was completely neutralized, they bombarded him with questions.

Including the information I wanted.

Macaoros didn’t trust that human woman—meaning me—and called me a disgusting fraud, refusing to cooperate…

But what’s the point of resisting when you’re just a head and torso?

With drugs to weaken his mind, torture to peel off his scales one by one, and nerve-stimulation torture inspired by my interrogation methods, he eventually broke.

After that, he became a vending machine of answers, spilling everything they asked.

As one of the Omaryongin, he knew a lot.

The name and combat power of the Heavenly Demon, the self-proclaimed Dragonkin leader of the Heavenly Demon Palace.

The secret that the Dragon King was backing the Heavenly Demon Palace and why the Dragon King supported the self-proclaimed Heavenly Demon.

Information about Gwonma, the only human in the Heavenly Demon Palace, who I suspected was an apostle.

Even the ultimate goal of the Heavenly Demon Palace.

It was all quite interesting.

—

Dragon Kingdom, Jin.

A kingdom in the northwest of the continent, founded on the myth that the ancient sea dragon Tiamat appointed one of her dragonkin servants as king to manage the others.

Though it’s called a kingdom, its culture is entirely different from human kingdoms, largely due to the existence of “practitioners.”

Dragonkin who strive to become more dragon-like, training themselves to achieve this ideal.

They’re similar to human lords or nobles, but unlike humans, practitioners aren’t bound by bloodlines. Instead, they gather based on shared ideals and philosophies.

They don’t involve themselves in politics, focusing solely on training and self-cultivation.

That’s why their organizations are called “sects” rather than families.

Whether they grow stronger by becoming more dragon-like or become more dragon-like by growing stronger is unclear, but they’ve gained power far beyond that of ordinary dragonkin.

The Dragon King saw their rise as a threat, considering whether to wipe them out before they became too powerful.

Knowing this, the practitioners preemptively submitted to the Dragon King, swearing they had no interest in power or politics and only sought to cultivate the path to becoming dragons.

It was a strict separation of secular power and religious groups.

The conflict between the Dragon King and the sects, which could have led to massive bloodshed, was resolved, and peace came to the Dragon Kingdom.

For the past few hundred years, at least.

The problem is… that the sealed conflict has reached its limit.

—

Time changes everything.

The oaths of the old Dragon King and the sect leaders, the noble ideals of the practitioners of that era, have long faded with time.

The first sect, “Little Forest,” which sought to cut off temptation, suppress violence, and train both body and spirit, grew stronger over time, now surpassing even the royal family.

Just as light casts shadows, sects that emphasized spiritual cultivation grew powerful, while others that embraced the destructive impulses of dragonkin also became stronger than ever.

With things as they are, the oath to stay out of politics has become meaningless.

The sects now ignore the Dragon King’s commands, ruling their territories as they please, becoming unchecked power groups.

The Dragon King’s authority has hit rock bottom. The sects, ruling their domains as they wish, are in constant conflict, resembling a civil war. That’s the current state of the Dragon Kingdom.

And so—

The current Dragon King, Shilud, made a decision.

To forcibly unite the criminal-like Evil Faction and restore order, then use their power to crush the Righteous Faction, which has thrown the old oaths into the trash, and return the Dragon Kingdom to its former state.

To that end, he spent all the royal treasures to create a being who could unite the Evil Faction by force.

That being was the Heavenly Demon of the Dragonkin, Persciella.

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