Maou Reijou no Kyouiku Gakari - Chapter 2 – The Ringleaders –

Chapter 2 – The Ringleaders –

I walk down the corridor of the academy with a tremendous sense of despair.

You can’t just fire me. I still have a lot of work to do.

The usually brilliant and gorgeous corridor looks strangely dull now, decorated with ornaments that don’t look like a school, perhaps reflecting my feelings.

I thought about stopping by the faculty office to collect my personal belongings, but I didn’t want to face the people who unanimously agreed to fire me.

I don’t have anything significant on the table anyway, and it would be refreshing to have it thrown away.

There are two guards right behind me, probably to keep an eye on me so I don’t get any strange ideas.

Yesterday i was a teacher and now i’m treated as a criminal.

No, maybe they just didn’t make the case public and i’m really just treated as a criminal in private.

As I walked out of the academy again in disappointment, I arrived at the one answer that I had managed to avoid thinking about until now.

Someone must have orchestrated this.

No matter how much I think about it, I can only conclude that I don’t remember doing anything myself.

In this academy that is ruled by the nobility, there are plenty of people who think I’m an eyesore, coming from a commoner’s background.

I’m not sure what they were thinking behind the scenes, as evidenced by the unanimous decision to expel me from the academy, but I don’t know what they were thinking behind the scenes.

But that’s all over now, and there’s no benefit in thinking about it any longer.

Even if I, a person of lowly origin from their view, got some kind of evidence and presented it to the board of directors, it would only be quickly buried and this decision would not be reversed.

As I shake off the unpleasant thoughts and move down the hallway, I feel the presence of people in the shadows at the end of the hallway.

One, or perhaps two, of those presence are looking in my direction without trying to hide their presence.

And as I get even closer, the identity of those two shadows is immediately revealed.

「Arius …」

One of the two men was a colleague. No, it was my former colleague, Arius Ford.

In this academy, he was the opposite of me, a sarcastic guy who came from a super prestigious family and snubbed it.

「Aha…….Frey. I’ve heard the stories. Even though you come from a commoner’s background, I respected you for rising to this position through hard work….I didn’t think you’d mess with a student….」

As he ruffled his golden hair in a rakish manner, completely unchanged from the usual, he said the words that will definitely not be in the slightest bit in his mind.

「Sensei. I’m afraid…. I never imagined that Frey-sensei was the kind of person who would do something like that.」

It was Maia, one of my former students, who said this.

The female student, who also comes from a prominent family and has always been irreverent to me, who comes from a commoner’s family, deliberately leans toward Arius with a trembling body.

And she’s looking at me like I’m a criminal.

But as her fingertips played with her long purple hair, I didn’t miss the slight twisting of her mouth in mockery despite her words.

「Don’t worry. As long as I’m around, he’s not going to lay a single finger you.」

「What are you guys doing at this time of the day on your day off…?」

It’s obviously unnatural for a student, let alone a teacher, to be in the academy at this time of day, and that’s when the sun is setting.

The thought of this is hovering in my mind.

「It has nothing to do with you an outsider… If you understand, then get out of here.」

「That’s right」

Maia giggles and sneers at me as she huddles up next to Arius, almost hugging him in a almost romantic manner, as he makes a shushing motion to shut her up.

「I see, you guys…」

My suspicions have almost been confirmed.

It’s so blatant, i’m beyond angry its even refreshing.

These guys don’t seem to have any intention of hiding it, as if they know that the decision won’t be reversed no matter what I say.

It’s not a coincidence that we met in a place like this.

I guess that means they were waiting here to see me despair here to make a name for himself.

「Oh, scary, scary.」

「Kya~, sensei I’m scared~」

Maia hugs Arius even tighter as she says this in a deliberate tone.

「I’m not going to let you intimidate my lovely student.」

「Kya~ do it~」

It’s a repulsive sight.

These guys reek of a much more inappropriate relationship.

「….pfft, hahahaha!」

However, when i sees Arius standing in front of me, white-faced and protective of Maia, I can’t help but blurt it out in a big way.

「Hey, what’s so funny!?」

Confused by my sudden burst of laughter, Arius bites at it, dismayed.

「Well I was just wondering, can you really protect her? I just didn’t want to end up looking crude in front of my adorable student like I did the last time.」
(いや……お前に守れるのかって思ってな。前みたいに“可愛い生徒”の前で無様な姿を晒すだけにならないかってな, if translation is wrong let me know)

It makes me laugh even more when I think back to that time.

「You…. You think you can fool me commoner?　I was just a little out of shape at the time, but–」

Arius glares at me with a frustrated look on his face as he bites his lower lip so hard it looks like it’s going to bleed.

Apparently, that event was a memorable one for this guy, too.

I’m sure it was when he and I conducted a mock battle as an example before the students started their practical training.

Normally we would be demonstrating to each other while cutting corners to make it easier for the students to understand, but whatever he was thinking, he came to beat me for real.

At the time, I was just baffled, but looking back now, I can see that despite being a commoner, I must have felt ignorant because I was in the same position.

But he hadn’t realized that there was a huge difference in their abilities until they were in the same position.

As a result, he was beaten to a pulp in front of the students, looking as hapless as a frog that had been run over by a carriage.

Looking at his reaction, maybe this is the result of bringing up this topic now.

「I see…. I should have lost to him then.」

If I had done that, maybe this wouldn’t be happening now.

No, considering the diminutive size of the man in front of me, I would have ended up with the same result sooner or later.

And now that this is happening in reality, it’s futile to say that I should have done that back then.

「Ha!　Your dry mouth ends today!　As of this moment, your back to being a commoner!　That means I won in the end!」

He doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he’s the one who set it up, but he declares it with a trembling voice.

「Yeah, well….」

This is all frustrating, but his right.

Everything I’ve built up so far was easily destroyed by these guys’ schemes.

Even if I had anticipated this, the result would have been the same, there is a huge difference in power between the nobility and the commoners in this country.

「If you understand, then you better get the hell out of here!　This is no place for someone lowborn like you!」

Arius said in a still trembling voice, waving his hands up in the air and then pointing in the direction of the exit.

「Yeah, having a poor smelly person like you wandering around makes us question our dignity. In the first place, it’s a mistake for a commoner to be in this academy, just like her.」

「That’s right!　Now get out!　You loser!」

I glared hard at Arius as he said that, and his body shook with a jolt.

Apparently the difference in ability that was carved into him at that time is still ingrained in him.

But beating him up will only make me feel better, and if I’m sent to jail, I’ll really be branded as a criminal.

「Yeah, I’ll do just that.」

With that, I walked slowly towards the exit again.

With Arius and Maia, and their victorious sneers at my back, I walked out of the Academy through the main gates, never to welcome me again.