章 298: The Age of the Warmonger (2)
…pusyug!
A single 'whip' pierced Principal Winston's heart.
Giggle-!
At the same time, a burst of laughter loud enough to fill the great hall erupted.
A woman in glossy black tights and high heels walked through the curtain behind the stage.
Ms. Uroboros.
It goes without saying that the whip that ended Winston's life in an instant was hers.
Her appearance caused a momentary pause in the hall.
It was the first time she had ever appeared in public.
But Miss Uroboros didn't give them time to adjust to reality.
"Ugh... uh, ughhhh!"
Winston. He collapsed on the stage and waved his arms.
Who would have thought that an outstanding swordsman, as much as a swordmaster, would become like this in an instant, in front of everyone.
And then.
…Quack!
Miss Uroboros crushed Winston's body once more with the heel of her long killer heel.
A perfect confirmation kill. Winston's heart exploded, and he died on the spot.
ttang-geulang!
His sword of winter, Orwell, a sword that looked like the horns of a unicorn, fell to the ground and rolled.
"Ah, I finally got it. The 'key'."
The silence was broken by Miss Uroboros picking up Orwell.
Aaahhhhh-
And then the screams. Students, parents, and professors in the audience screamed in unison.
And in the face of all this chaos, Miss Uroboros removed the mask that covered her face.
Professor Banshee, who had come down from the front row after his speech, his eyes widened to tears.
"Sa, Professor Sady!"
Yes, the famous villain who had been causing a stir throughout the Imperial Capital. The criminal mastermind responsible for countless crimes.
It was none other than Professor Donatien Alphonse François Sady de Sade, the Academy's troublemaker!
"Hohohoho- Ah, I would kill for this flavor."
Sady chuckled at the commotion around her.
Then Professor Banshee exclaimed in disbelief.
"You've finally gone mad, stabbing your benefactor in the back for saving your life."
Principal Winston, who had nurtured and supported Sady all these years. But now she had killed him. A favor repaid with an enmity.
The professors, rarely siding with Banshee, began to rage.
"How could you do that to Mr. Winston, who raised you from a mere baby with nowhere to go for so many years, you beast!"
"If it weren't for Mr. Winston, you would have been a dead wretch long ago!"
"Ungrateful bitch, what a devil you are!"
"You're doing the same thing you did with your grandmother; you can't fake blood after all!"
But.
"Ah- quacking. It's not like we're at a duck farm."
Professor Sady rubbed her ears with one hand. With her other hand, she moved the whip ever so slightly.
However, that slight amount of kinetic power is amplified to a tremendous amount by the time it reaches the tip of the whip.
The physical force delivered by the tip of the whip devastated the ground near where the professors were standing under the podium.
"Kuhagh!"
Swordsmen and mages of high rank are thrown to the floor.
All eyes turned to the aura at the end of Professor Sady's whip.
"Liquid aura!"
"Mmm, judging by the density, it's Graduator superlative!"
"Good thing that bitch hasn't reached Master yet!"
"But isn't that bitch's weapon a whip...."
Everyone stops when they see the whip in Sady's hand.
In fact, whips, bows, and chains, among other cold weapons, are considered quite irregular.
In the right hands, these types of weapons can take your fighting to the next level.
A whip, for example, is a misshapen weapon that requires only a small amount of force to be applied to the handle, and that force multiplies as it travels down the length of the shaft, ultimately generating immense destructive force at the tip.
The Graduator's superlative aura begins at the handle of the whip and explodes toward the tip, creating a power that nearly rivals that of a Swordmaster.
Of course, with great power comes great risk. The whip can easily lose control at the slightest fluctuation, and has been known to attack its owner's body....
"Wasn't Professor Sa, Sady a natural whip master?"
"Hmmm. I don't actually have any experience with whips."
"The whip's bizarre aura explosion structure, plus the unexpectedness for such a unique weapon...."
"Perhaps, regardless of her rank, her danger level should be raised to Swordmaster."
The surrounding professors murmur.
Then. Professor Banshee stepped forward.
"Are you insane, Sady? There are tons of professors, students, and parents here. I can only assume that you did this because you wanted to die...."
"Write it off, old man. I told you not to say my name."
Sady cut off Professor Banshee's words.
Certainly, the Academy has its share of elite students who are stronger than most adult knights and mages, and its share of brilliant professors and parents who have taught and nurtured those elite students.
Although it is called a school, it is actually an institution that reveres the extreme spirit of combat.
There is a solid bureaucratic structure that is divided into grades and classes.
In terms of power and organization, it's like a hardened military group.
But Professor Sady was still laughing leisurely.
"Hohoho – when did I ever say I came alone?"
Doubt and anxiety flashed across the faces of everyone who heard it.
At that very moment.
Boom!
A tremendous boom echoed throughout the auditorium.
It was an impact from the magic wall in the distance.
Next, several frightening faces began to appear through the windows of the auditorium.
A hulking figure with a rugged appearance, a beauty radiating decadence, a grizzled old man, and a child with an evil grin on his face. ....
They were all different ages, genders, and physiques, but they had two things in common.
First, they were all heinous criminals hunted by the Empire.
Second, they had all managed to escape capture and disappear into obscurity.
Suddenly, a chill ran down Professor Banshee's spine.
'I heard that the rate of criminal arrests in the Imperial Capital has dropped significantly recently. Could it be that the reason is…..?'
The faces of the criminals in the auditorium were all those whose investigations had been closed due to their disappearance.
'Jack the Ripper', 'The Wolf of Gévaudan', 'Tiger Champawat', 'The Bachelor of Powell Street', 'Son of Sam', 'Serial Killer Clown', 'Fashionista', 'Devil of Lorelei', 'Dissection of a Frog' 'The Strangler of Hillside', 'The Killer on Green River', 'Bloody Mary', etc.....
Here are all the vicious villains that the Imperial Guard could never catch and let slip through their fingers.
And, shockingly, they're all looking at Sady, at the center of the stage, with respect, affection, and fear.
"Alas, my queen. I broke the magic wall as you asked."
"Now please torment me some more."
"Hit me with your whip, stomp on me with your heels, sister-"
Young and old alike, their eyes are filled with sticky hearts.
Apparently, they've been brainwashed and manipulated by Sady, both mentally and physically.
To these villains, Sady smirked and barked out orders.
"All of you. Explode."
The villains responded in unison.
"Yes, Queen!"
At the same time, all of them began to hold their breath.
They let the magic in their bodies explode all at once, and the result was a power surge and a huge explosion.
Boom, boom, boom!
With a huge explosion, the auditorium collapsed.
In the shower of falling rebar and debris, Sady chuckled.
Banshee deployed his magic shield to deflect the falling debris.
Then, still dumbfounded, he asked.
"Why are you doing this, have you really lost your mind?"
The question was meant to get to the heart of the criminal, Sady, as well as to buy time for reinforcements to arrive.
Of course, Sady knew Professor Banshee's intentions, but she was generally pleasant enough to play along.
"It's not me that's crazy, it's the world."
"...What?"
"I've been waiting all this time to sound the alarm on this crazy world."
"Waiting for what?"
"For this moment. For the principal to return, to be precise, and for the principal to bring the parents together. Wouldn't that help my message be conveyed a little better?"
Then Professor Banshee's eyes narrowed.
He spoke in a cold voice.
" ...is this also because of the '47 People's Riot'?"
At that, Sady smirked and nodded.
"Did you know that? You're very well informed, old man."
Professor Sady spoke again. Her eyes flicked to the students behind her.
"I'm sure the idiots at your academy understand the incident as nothing more than a coup by power-hungry fools, but the reality is much different."
At her words, the students briefly recalled an honors student's presentation in a previous class.
-The '47 People Riot' was an unprecedented event that occurred 35 years ago, when the Empire had just been unified.
-It was led by 47 people, but each of them was the patriarch of a single family, hence the name '47 Families Riot'.
-A treason incident in which 47 people staged a coup, massacred numerous people, and even invaded the imperial palace.
-Ultimately, 46 of the 47 were summarily executed on the spot, with the one survivor now imprisoned in the Nouvelle Vague, a prison in the remote reaches of the continent.
-The purpose of the coup is still unknown, but it is generally believed to have been to seize the throne.
But Sady shakes her index finger.
"The reason why my grandfather and 47 others staged the coup was because they were nostalgic for the old days."
"Nostalgia?"
"Yes. A time when strength was truth, when only the strongest survived."
Sady's eyes began to glow with madness.
"The Warring States Period."
Everyone, including Professor Banshee, swallowed hard at her words.
Before the unification of the Empire, not a day went by that the continent was not noisy due to wars between countless countries.
There were hundreds of men claiming to be kings.
It was a time of constant change, with nations rising and falling every day.
It was the logic of the Warring States Period that the weak would fall and the strong would rise.
At that time, the strongest was the law and justice.
It was a virtue, and it was an honor, to develop strength and repay something that had been done to you.
Vengeance. Private sanctions. A world where all of these things were driven by the logic of strength.
... But since the unification of the continent, this has changed.
In times of peace, there is no need for strength.
In its place, laws were rewritten and institutions were created.
If you were weak but smart enough, you could pass exams and rise to high government positions and stand over the heads of those stronger than you.
Large-scale warfare disappeared, and revenge and private sanctions were considered dangerous.
For a time, even the "abolition of the sword" or "abolition of magic" was seriously considered.
"Peace turns men into pigs. A being no different from livestock. Aren't humans the lord of all things created to become strong and fight and win? However, in this world, there are many cases where things that do not deserve to be human dare to wear human masks."
Professor Sady exclaimed, her eyes shining.
In response, Professor Banshee asked in a calm voice.
" ... I understand, but why did you kill Principal Winston?"
Principal Winston was a tall man who had sponsored Sady since she was a child.
It was he who had defended Sady's grandfather, the Marquis de Sade, when he was imprisoned in Nouvelle Vague for the crimes of the 47 riots, he was the one who prevented his granddaughter from being punished by association, saying it was unfair.
Professor Banshee sharply criticized.
"Is this what you get for taking pity on a girl who lost her entire family in one day and was left all alone?"
But Sady snorted.
"It was you, Winston, who captured and imprisoned my grandfather, and it was in battle with him that you suffered internal injuries due to a mana surge. Did you think I didn't know that?"
"...!"
"He's disgusting, and he's a symbol of the academy, so I had to kill him anyway."
Sady shrugged.
The Academy is a means of integrating the warrior into the system. It is a tactic of those in power to suppress and subjugate the power of warriors by cleverly packaging it with words of achievement.
It is literally a symbol of oppression.
"Those who wield swords and use magic should be able to roll around on the battlefield, grow in power, build their families, and build their nations. All they can do here is wait for fleshy bones to be thrown at them."
"So private revenge is honored, and we must risk our lives at the point of a sword for the slightest conflict? How are the powerless common folk supposed to live? This isn't some barbaric society."
"What do you know? Why should the powerful take into account the circumstances of the powerless? Why do powerless people always whine because they want to get something for free? If you think about it that way, why don't you whine about monsters or natural disasters? Simply because we are the same human beings, of the same race? Through words and conversation? Are you being rude to strangers just for that reason? Do you whine to people you can communicate with, and lie down on people you can't communicate with? What kind of cowardly, sloppy logic is that?"
Sady gritted her teeth and growled.
"Then I will be your natural disaster! Don't you dare even think of whining, just accept it, pigs!"
Sady swung her whip, and another gust of aura rushed in.
And the number of criminals pouring through the cracks in the auditorium was growing.
"Sis! I love you! Look at me!"
"Queen Sady, I would gladly sacrifice this body for you!"
"Kehehe- Kehehehehehehe!"
Judging from how many criminals she had secretly captured and set aside so far, and how perfectly she had enslaved them, Sady's abilities were definitely real.
Just then.
… Thud!
The head of one of the famous criminals who had rushed forward instantly fell off and rolled on the ground.
…Thud, thud, thud, thud!
And one after another, head after head fleeing. A crumbling mass of criminals.
Nightmares that once terrorized the entire empire, dying so easily.
It was a sight that even the mighty Sady could not help but stiffen.
And then.
Flutter.
Black blood is fluttering in the blood.
Dark black hair, eyes as bright as blood.
A man with a dark red aura rising from the tip of his sword was blocking numerous warmongers.
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