I Became the Academy Chapter 159

Chapter 159

“What a gloomy place you’ve called

out to.”

Late at night.

I ca to the location Serma had written on the note.

“Are we doing sothing illegal or… hmm, wait. It is illegal, right?”

“Yes. Technically, it is. Did you forget that our black market—Tazera—is an illegal organization?”

“Ah, yes. Must’ve slipped my mind for a mont.”

I chuckled lightly and glanced around.

It was a rather secluded alley in one of the far corners of Lysquare, quite a distance away from the Benetic Stadium.

Dark, damp, and deserted enough that even vagrants wouldn’t co here.

Aside from the rats, nothing else moved. It was a perfect spot for a secret exchange.

“So then, what exactly did you want to give

that you called

out here?”

“I wrote it in the note, didn’t I? It’s sothing my father sent.”

As she spoke, Serma pointed to a small wooden box placed beside her.

“I haven’t checked the contents myself yet. You can open it here if you’d like, or take it with you and look later.”

“I’ll check it later.”

Smiling, I picked up the small wooden box.

At the sa ti, I handed Serma five silver coins.

“This is for your trouble. Don’t bother refusing—”

“Do I look like the kind of person who would refuse money?”

“Heh, right. I keep forgetting. You’re not the type to turn down silver.”

With a grin, I handed her the coins and turned to leave.

But then, Serma spoke up.

“By the way… honestly, I’m surprised.”

“Hmm? About what?”

“According to Father’s informants, the Hawkbat Family has recently taken an interest in you, Sir Gideon. So I assud you’d have soone tailing you tonight… but when we checked, there was no sign of it.”

“And when exactly did you check?”

“Father has quite a few people stationed around this area,” she explained with a dry laugh.

“If there had been a tail from the Hawkbat Family, Father would’ve told

to postpone this eting. Because if I ever drew their attention, well… things would get complicated. Especially for Tazera.”

“True enough. If the Hawkbat Family’s tracking , they’d probably start investigating you too—and then… things would get ssy.”

I nodded, then asked the question that had been nagging .

“But can you be sure there really isn’t anyone tailing ? We’re talking about the Hawkbat Family. They’re experts at surveillance. If they wanted to, they could tail soone without that person—or anyone else—ever knowing.”

“Don’t worry. Our people aren’t exactly pushovers either. As a little tip, we actually have a few forr mbers of the Hawkbat Family working with us.”

“I see.”

“…You’re not very surprised. That’s actually a pretty big secret.”

“Well, I kind of expected as much.”

After all, I used to study every bit of in-ga lore and even posted summaries online.

And Tazera was once the organization I’d led to the top with my character.

It would take far more than that to surprise .

“So, to confirm—there really wasn’t anyone tailing ?”

“Right. If there had been, I wouldn’t have shown up tonight.”

“Got it. Thanks for letting

know. Anything else you wanted to say?”

“Be careful.”

Her sudden tone made

glance at her.

She looked… genuinely concerned for .

“I don’t know why the Hawkbat Family has taken an interest in you, but trust —nothing good cos from drawing their attention. Even if you’ve got the Balmuth Family behind you, the Hawkbats are far more persistent than you think.”

“You’re absolutely right. I’ll be careful. I have no intention of getting kidnapped and tortured by them, after all.”

I nodded, chuckling.

“But still, it’s nice to know you care about

this much. Glad to see you’re warming up to , Serma.”

“I—I’m not! It’s just that it’d be a sha to lose soone who occasionally gives

spending money, that’s all.”

“Heh, sure, sure. Whatever you say.”

“What’s with that reaction? I’m not—”

“Here.”

“…Thank you. Sir Gideon is always right.”

The mont I handed her a gold coin, Serma imdiately bowed her head.

I couldn’t help but smile faintly at the sight before turning to leave for real this ti.

“Take care on your way back. If I ever need Tazera’s help again, I’ll be in touch.”

“Got it. Oh—one last thing.”

“What is it?”

“Tomorrow’s tournant. I hope you win.”

“Yeah, well… I have to win.”

I replied with a wry smile.

Back at my lodging—

“Siri, co out for a sec.”

“Woof!”

I imdiately called Siri out from my shadow.

“So, was anyone secretly following ?”

“Woof? Woof!”

“aning no, right?”

“Woof!”

“Hmm, I see.”

Honestly, even if Serma hadn’t ntioned it, I’d already considered the possibility of a tail from the Hawkbat Family.

That’s why I’d asked Siri, before eting Serma, to move through the shadows and check if anyone was trailing .

If there was, she was to notify

imdiately.

If soone really was tailing , I would’ve postponed eting Serma.

Just as she’d said, if the Hawkbat Family started looking into her, things would beco troubleso.

With soone like the Hawkbat Family, even one clue like “Serma” could lead them to uproot all of Tazera.

Still, this is unexpected. I was sure they’d tail .

Both Serma’s people and Siri had confird there was no one.

That ant the Hawkbat Family probably hadn’t placed a tail on

at all.

Considering Andrew’s personality, I thought he’d have soone following . If he doesn’t… then maybe his focus really is on the Isrinbloom side.

Thinking back to how Eisen had behaved today…

If Andrew was as sharp as Jason claid, he would’ve imdiately noticed that sothing was off with Dilug.

Andrew had always been the intuitive type—he’d surely realized that sothing was happening within the Isrinbloom Family.

He was probably pouring all of the family’s resources into investigating them right now.

‘Well, there’s nothing bad about this from my point of view. But still… I should at least send Jason a ssage about it.’

As I roughly grasped the situation, I stroked Siri’s head.

Then, I took out a piece of dried jerky and tossed it to her.

“Good work. Take a rest now.”

“Woof!”

“Hey, if you get on the bed—ah, whatever. Fine, I’ll sleep on the sofa tonight. You take the bed.”

“Woof? Woof woof! Woof!”

“Whoa?”

Siri bit into my sleeve and tugged

onto the bed, pulling

down.

Then she started licking my face all over, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“So you’re saying we should just sleep together on the bed?”

“Woof!”

“Alright, alright, buddy. But just for tonight. Next ti, you’re either back on the floor or on the sofa. You’ve grown so much, there’s barely any space left.”

“Whine…”

“Here, eat this.”

“Woof! Woof woof woof!”

When I threw her a few more pieces of jerky, Siri happily caught and devoured them.

Smiling at the sight, I sat back up on the bed.

There was sothing I needed to check before sleeping.

“Now then, what did the master of Tazera send ?”

A few months ago, I had sent a large amount of Elixir to Clergy through Serma.

I’d asked him to investigate anything he could about the ancient Evil God that once dwelled in Muktaba— the one once worshipped by nomads.

‘But the box is small and light. Doesn’t seem like there’s anything special inside.’

With that thought, I opened the box to check.

As expected, there wasn’t much inside.

There was a letter, seemingly written by Clergy, and… a small stone tablet.

It was a round stone tablet, about the size of my palm, covered in letters and drawings.

They were so tangled and chaotic that I couldn’t make sense of them.

“…What is this supposed to be?”

After briefly examining the tablet, I picked up the letter inside the box.

[I looked into everything I could about the ancient being you requested—the Evil God that once resided in Muktaba and was worshipped by the nomads. Surprisingly, I found absolutely no records of it. There were said to be plenty of relics in the past, but it seems that, at so point, all of them vanished. The tablet I’ve sent you might very well be the only remaining relic in the entire Empire related to that Evil God.]

“So this is a relic related to Bedir, huh? Hmm…”

After studying the tablet for a mont, I continued reading the letter.

[It’s an artifact I found among my great-grandfather’s old junk. According to his notes, that tablet is said to be a key related to Muktaba’s Evil God. I’m not sure what kind of key it is, but it’s definitely connected to the god you asked

to research.]

“…A key, huh?”

I looked over the tablet again.

Honestly, there wasn’t anything about it that looked like a key.

[You also asked

to find out if there are any remaining Apostles of that god within the Empire, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything. Even after deploying every skilled informant in the organization, we ca up empty-handed. So this tablet is the only thing I can give you. I feel as though I didn’t quite repay the Elixirs you sent , but please believe —I did my best as a rchant to fulfill your request, and this is truly all that resulted from it.]

After finishing the letter, I nodded slowly.

Clergy wasn’t the type of man to make jokes about such things.

In other words, even he hadn’t been able to uncover anything about Bedir.

‘I was sure Clergy would find sothing. But if even Tazera’s network couldn’t discover a single clue… then just what kind of god is Bedir?’

I stared at the tablet, lost in thought.

A mysterious stone tablet… and a key.

A key.

What on earth could it open?

“…Hey, Siri.”

“Woof?”

“You got any idea what this is?”

“Woof? Woof, woof? Woof! Woof?”

“Yeah, didn’t think so.”

I let out a small laugh and placed the tablet back into the box.

It seed I wouldn’t be able to learn anything about it for now.

So I decided to focus on tomorrow’s important event first—

the Grand Representative Tournant.

The next morning.

Inside the Lysquare Academy waiting room at Benetic Stadium.

“The match starts in an hour. You’re all set? How’s your condition?”

“My condition’s perfect, and I’m fully prepared.”

“Good, very good.”

Luke smiled at .

But there was a hint of unease in his eyes.

I chuckled lightly and asked,

“Did you et Lord Dilug yesterday?”

“I did. I asked about Eisen, but… he didn’t say much—just that he was against disqualifying him.”

“What did you think of Lord Dilug?”

“…He seed strange. Not like the Dilug I know. Sure, it was definitely him, but… sohow, it felt like he was soone else.”

“I see.”

Luke’s words deepened my suspicions.

Almost everyone around had started noticing that sothing was off about Dilug.

If that was the case, then sooner or later, the real mastermind—Rage—would have his tail caught.

But whether he had already accounted for that possibility, or had so other plan in mind… I couldn’t tell.

“By the way, Instructor, the match brackets ca out this morning, right?”

“Ah, right. I almost forgot to show you. Here, take a look.”

Luke pulled out a folded sheet of paper from his inner pocket.

It was the official tournant bracket for the Grand Representative Tournant.

When I checked—

“I’ll be eting Sir Eisen… in the finals, it seems.”

“Yeah. They said the brackets were randomized, but it still turned out like this.”

Eisen and I were placed on opposite ends of the chart.

If I made it to the finals…

then the last match of the tournant would be between him and .