My Students Regret It After I Retired

60 – Celestial Master, Velin’s Regret

Celestial Assembly Headquarters.

In a stark, empty space, thick smoke swirled, filling the void. Within it, only the Heavenly Assembly’s Pale Mistress, eyes closed, sat cross-legged and unmoving, softly exhaling.

“Pale Mistress. A fellow seeking to join the Heavenly Assembly has arrived. Upon assessment, his martial prowess is excellent, and his powers have also manifested.”

“Bring him in.”

As the Pale Mistress spoke, a hulking man stepped forward, chuckling darkly.

“You’re the Pale Mistress, eh? This guy beside me said if I join the Heavenly Assembly, I can have anything I want, so I came out of curiosity. Is that really true?”

“It is. If there is something you desire, you can have it. We possess the power to make it so.”

The hulking man, Jeryuta, stroked his beard, muttering in a dubious tone.

“Hmm… I imagined some grand figure to be the Pale Mistress, but it’s just a slender woman. Doesn’t feel very trustworthy…”

At this, Ritan beside him urgently cried out at him.

“You insolent fool! How dare you speak such things in this place!”

“Ritan, be still.”

At the Pale Mistress’s words, Ritan fell silent, frozen in place. As though even his breathing needed caution, he released all tension from his body.

The Pale Mistress slowly rose from her seat and began to walk, her footsteps echoing softly. She looked down upon Jeryuta and said,

“Jeryuta.”

“Oh ho… I don’t think I ever mentioned my name. How did you know? Looks like you’re not just an ordinary person.”

Jeryuta’s eyes finally sparkled with interest. The Pale Mistress, seemingly uninterested, whispered.

“What is your reason for wanting to join the Heavenly Assembly?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Money! They say you can make loads of money, who’s dumb enough to pass that up? Stop the empty talk, if there’s some kind of entrance test, let’s get to it. You owe me pay for the work I did today too.”

Jeryuta added, crossing the line.

“Ah… Just so you know, even if I cripple you, don’t hold it against me. There’s a mountain of guys I’ve done that to already.”

“…!”

Litan, who had been listening from the side, tried to shout something, but he was stubbornly clamping his mouth shut, desperately obeying the Heavenly Lord’s order to remain silent.

The Heavenly Lord grinned and replied,

“Endure just one exchange. That is the only condition for joining. Succeed, and I’ll give you everything here.”

The Heavenly Lord pulled out gold ingot after gold ingot from his inventory artifact. Then, hundreds of gold bars began to tumble and spill haphazardly onto the ground.

Jeruta muttered with greedy eyes,

“Shit… This is enough money to live on for life, isn’t it? My mind’s changed. I’d rather kill you all and take these for myself.”

The Heavenly Lord whispered with his eyes closed,

“To possess a middling strength, yet crave what’s beyond your reach…how could that not be a sin?”

“What the hell…!”

Jeruta was about to swing his sword, but at that moment, a line was drawn through the man’s head.

– *Pshhht!*

In a fleeting moment, the Heavenly Lord’s sword, which had been drawn and sheathed, grazed past Jeruta’s body, and the man was split in half without even realizing he had died.

The man’s corpse was once again divided into hundreds of pieces. The Heavenly Lord turned back around, sat back down on the ground, and spoke,

“Clean it up.”

“Understood.”

Only then did Litan move, slowly cleaning up the corpse as he asked,

“What was his ability level?”

“Trash. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“…But, he was the most famous mercenary in the Balud Empire.”

“You saw it, didn’t you? Dying in a single exchange.”

“There is no one in this world who could withstand a single strike from you, Master, when you wield it with true intent. Isn’t that too harsh a standard…”

“That is not wrong either. All I have ever intended to cut down has fallen in one exchange. Of course, his martial prowess itself was not bad. I can see why he was called the foremost mercenary, but he has no goal. A man without a goal is as good as dead, and even with strength, if he cannot find a direction, he is no different from a blind man. Because he has no clear goal, he is alive yet not alive, and since he cannot even find the right path, he is nothing more than a corpse wandering around. Utter trash, as it were.”

“…My apologies. Next time, I will bring someone who meets your standards.”

“I await it.”

Having said that, the Heavenly Lord returned to his cross-legged position and closed his eyes. Ritan, who was next to him, carefully asked,

“Are you observing Leos, that one, again today?”

As the Heavenly Lord’s face contorted, Ritan corrected himself.

“Are you observing Lord Leos?”

When the Heavenly Lord placed his hand on an artifact shaped like a large bead, mana began to be drawn into it, and afterimages started to form there. Soon, the figure of Leos facing Belin came into view.

“Yes. He’s a very interesting fellow. Using his strength without expecting anything in return, for the Empire and his companions, only to be betrayed by them. By both the Empire and his companions. If they were ordinary people, they would surely have fallen to corruption. But have you seen what that one is like?”

“I have. He used his knowledge on the Interloper to warn many people of the threat and informed them of how to deal with monsters.”

“That’s right. Leos might not be aware of it, but as a result of what I have watched, hundreds of people who would have died were saved thanks to his advice. Tell me the next one.”

“He created a safe zone to aid the weak.”

“That is also correct. He saved the weak, those even the Emperor of the Empire had cast away. Creating a safe zone alone, without receiving anything in return. What’s next?”

“He does not seek the spoils, only the objective.”

“That is correct. Even though he could have plundered the coffers of Duke Diascota, he seemed to think that was unnecessary and handed over the secret vault to the knight Renkatio and his party. By the way, there were enough riches there to keep one knight working for over 1650 years to earn. The knights were corrupted by money and food, abandoning the Empire to side with Duke Diascota, but now they have enough supplies for their families, changing the situation.”

“…Did Duke Diascota accumulate that much wealth?”

“Yes. You didn’t know, as he wasn’t a person of interest, but he accumulated wealth by sucking the marrow of countless people within his territory. Squeezing them to an astonishing degree. That was all correct. Now tell me the most important thing. What is Leos doing?”

“He is trying to correct the distorted Empire.”

“That’s right. Even though Leos possesses innate power, he doesn’t use it for himself. When he worked at the Gate Management Headquarters, he used his strength for the Empire and his comrades, and even now, abandoned by everyone, his sword is always swung to protect someone. He has a clear goal, and wealth, riches, and power are just paths he passes through, stepping over them as if they’re nothing.”

“…”

“Even if fate was forcibly crafted, all the conditions couldn’t align this perfectly. Leos is one born with a hero’s fate. That’s why I’ve become curious. Just how far, how endlessly can he grow? And exactly what situation wouldn’t break him, allowing him to move forward?”

The Heavenly Assembly Master clicked her tongue in a way that suggested she was disappointed.

“It would be better if I could keep him by my side and watch over him.”

“I will go find Leos and suggest he join the Heavenly Assembly again.”

The Heavenly Assembly Master swept her long hair back, whispering.

“No. If you covet someone, it’s right to work to obtain them yourself. This time, I’ll go myself.”

“…P-Please don’t, Heavenly Assembly Master. Let me…”

“Ritan. Didn’t I say I’m going myself?”

“I apologize.”

“How long would it take to travel from here to the Peren Empire, moving as fast as possible?”

“Three days… using an artifact, it would take about three days.”

“Reduce it to two days.”

The Heavenly Assembly Master whispered, gazing at Leos’ afterimage trapped within a bead. Leos was indiscriminately slashing down knights, walking towards Belin.

“Betraying her master and saving her younger sibling’s life, yet she herself wasn’t saved by anyone.”

She chuckled, muttering to herself.

“I wonder what kind of expression Leos will make when he learns the identity of the sibling Belin was trying to protect.”

*

Leos, drenched in blood, had butchered dozens of knights in under ten minutes. Yet, the forces remaining outnumbered the slain by tenfold. To make matters worse, long-range, interceptor-type artifacts began indiscriminately bombarding Leos.

– *BOOM BOOM BOOM!*

Mana-projectile attacks rained down every second, alongside the relentless surge of knights.

Racard and Pharon fought alongside Leos, cutting down knights as well, but they were now completely overwhelmed. Leos’s group, having moved quickly with minimal forces, paled in comparison to the enemy, who had come from the palace fully prepared, and with a vastly superior number.

Drezar joined the fray, but it was woefully inadequate.

“Commander Drezar… why are you siding with them…”

“I’ll explain everything later. Don’t stand in our way now!”

Drezar avoided killing knights, only trying to incapacitate them. This only caused him to suffer several blows. Seeing Drezar’s condition, Racard shouted frantically.

“Leos! We need to fall back! If reinforcements arrive here, we can’t handle it! Drezar is critically wounded, he’ll die if we leave him like this.”

“…”

Leos stopped his sword strokes, cutting down the knights, and looked to Belin and Kozaric.

“Imperial Dark Shadows… Imperial scum. Before we go, I’ll take as many of you as I can.”

Then, he sheathed the Bloodforged Blade and swiftly spun the chainsword around his body.

The momentum sent the chainsword hurtling forth at a crazed speed.

The chainsword’s destination was Belin.

“Ah…”

Belin saw the chainsword coming for her and sighed.

“Where did it… where did it all go wrong… this isn’t… this isn’t what I wanted…”

As Belin slowly closed her eyes,

only the sound of Leos’s chainsword tearing through the air echoed in her ears.