A woman with light green hair, who had collapsed to the ground, whining about how pointless the self-defense class was.
And another woman with brown hair who had slapped her across the face, disrupting the class.
Watching the collaborator finally start making moves, I quietly confird my suspicions.
‘I had a feeling sothing was off from the first day, and seeing her cause this kind of disturbance makes almost certain now.’
At first glance, it seed like she was participating in the dagger training, but her real goal was to create a bad atmosphere and prevent the won from learning any self-defense skills.
This was a classic sabotage event carried out by a bandit collaborator in the Luminar Academy's Humanities Exploration Class. At this point, it was almost certain that she was the collaborator, caught in the act.
‘I’d love to kick both of them out of the self-defense class right now.’
But if I did that, it would likely cause others to leave as well. I had a feeling that about half of the won here shared the sa doubts as the green-haired woman. If I kicked her out, it would create an atmosphere where people thought, ‘If I don’t want to do it, I don’t have to,’ and the other won who had so interest in learning self-defense would start dropping out.
"Teaching self-defense to the village won" was part of our graded assignnts, and if I didn’t complete it properly, the bandit fight would result in many casualties. That’s exactly what the collaborator wanted, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.
‘On the other hand, siding with the brown-haired woman and scolding the green-haired one wouldn’t work either.’
Roughly half the won here probably agreed with the brown-haired woman’s aggressive stance. If I backed her up, it might encourage them to adopt her harsh attitude—criticizing the won who were slower to learn or giving a hard ti to anyone who struggled.
That would also ruin the class atmosphere and stop from achieving my goal.
“What’s your problem?! And what did I say that was so wrong?! Why do we need to waste ti learning how to swing a pointless dagger?!”
“And what happens if the bandits attack again? Are we all going to get captured and killed together? Didn’t you hear what Ris said yesterday? You want to be taken and live the rest of your life as so filthy bandits' plaything?”
“Still, you didn’t have to hit ! What am I supposed to do? It’s exhausting as it is with all the village restoration work! Why waste our strength on sothing unnecessary?!”
“You’ll have to learn this eventually. Isn’t it better to learn while the academy instructors are still here? Once they leave, if the bandits co again, our village won’t stand a chance.”
“But did you really have to hit l?! There’s no need to make things this hostile…”
“I think Lisa did the right thing. Those bastards killed my father, trying to protect . If I’d known how to defend myself, that wouldn’t have happened…”
The won were already starting to divide into two camps, each siding with either Lisa or l.
No matter which side I supported, the class would fall apart. The best course of action in this case was to punish both Lisa and l.
“Enough! Stop this pointless argunt, both of you.”
“But she used violence first…!”
“She ruined the class atmosphere first…”
“The self-defense class will continue. But right now, both of you are preventing it from moving forward. So, I’m asking you to stop.”
“She started it…!”
“She’s the one…!”
Grab, grab.
“…Ugh, you bitches. Can you just shut up already?”
I couldn’t let this argunt go on forever, so I grabbed both of them by the neck in front of everyone.
Sotis you have to take a hard stance to restore order in a chaotic situation.
Choke, choke.
“Guh…!”
“Ugh…!”
“You dumb bitches. Can’t you understand what I’m saying unless I spell it out for you? Wouldn’t it be better if you just did what I told you before it ca to this?”
Choke.
“How many tis do I have to say it? You want to die when the bandits co back? Then go ahead and die on your own! Why drag others down with you? Should I just kill you here and now so you don’t have to sit through this damn class anymore, huh?”
Vigorous head shakes.
“And you, damn it. I get that you want revenge, but what does that have to do with my class? I’m here to teach you how to survive when the ti cos, not train you like so academy swordsmanship professor.”
Choke.
“If you’re so confident with a sword, you should’ve enrolled at the academy. If you’ve lived your whole life in this village, you should act your part. You think you can suddenly get stronger just because you’re mad? If you’re that confident, why don’t you fight right now? I’ll take you on without using any of my energy or magic. Let’s see if you can kill .”
Vigorous head shakes.
“…”
Thud!
Coughing, gagging.
“Ugh…!”
“Cough…!”
After choking both won and unleashing my harsh words, the atmosphere in the self-defense class chilled instantly.
The two won I had grabbed were obviously in no condition to speak, and the rest of the class was too stunned by the tension to make any noise.
If I showed any signs of wavering now, I risked losing control of not only today’s class but tomorrow’s as well. I had to make it clear to everyone what the consequences were for disrupting my class.
“Both of you, get down on the ground.”
“…”
Slight hesitation.
“...Get down on the ground? Here?”
Thud!
“Kyaa?!”
“When I tell you to get down, you get down. See? It’s easy when you listen right away.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am…!”
The brown-haired woman imdiately dropped to all fours, and only after I kicked her did the green-haired woman scramble to follow suit.
Now that I had dealt with the troublemakers—one of whom was clearly a collaborator—it was ti to refocus on the self-defense class.
“There was a bit of commotion, but we’ll continue the self-defense class. Does anyone else have anything they’d like to say?”
“…”
Silent head shakes.
“If you don’t like sothing about the class, feel free to speak up. I’m happy to offer special one-on-one training. If you can beat in a duel, I’ll listen to whatever you have to say.”
“N-No, nothing…”
“…”
With the class atmosphere finally restored, I continued the “Teach Self-Defense to the Village Won” assignnt.
The events of today’s class had confird it—there was almost a 99% chance that a bandit spy was hiding among the village won.
The pattern fit perfectly with one of the three collaborator scenarios I had encountered while playing Luminar Academy. Based on the “Village Won” pattern, the green-haired woman was almost certainly the collaborator.
But even knowing that, I couldn’t just kill her on the spot. If I did, without definitive proof that she was working with the bandits, I’d be branded a murderer.
So, all I could do was share my suspicions during tonight’s eting.
As everyone gathered in the n’s room after dinner, and I prepared to reveal the identity of the collaborator…
“It seems we’ve found soone who’s working with the bandits.”
Before I could say anything, Seraphine spoke up first about the search for the collaborator, forcing to hold back my own revelation.
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