The Master of the Villains Has Disappeared

Primus Academy.

The continent's premier academy, whose reputation and prestige are incomparably higher than other academies.

Primus's position is so firm that it's hard to find a key figure in the empire who isn't a Primus graduate.

It's a treasure trove of connections where all forms of regional and blood ties are bound in the form of school ties called Primus.

Because of this, even the faculty is required to have higher qualifications.

After all, nurturing talents worthy of the Primus name was impossible with just an ordinary level of skill.

Perhaps that's why.

When Isabel heard the news that Orphion had recommended me as a professor at Primus, she asked various questions with sparkling eyes.

"You said you studied under Lord Patron before coming to our house, right?"

"Y-Yes."

"Then, how much did you study? 50 books? 100 books?"

"...I didn't count, so I'm not sure."

"Wow..."

Then came the look of admiration.

Isabel, who believed my words literally, added that it was amazing.

Well, at her age of innocence, such a reaction is understandable.

She probably doesn't know yet that a girl who hasn't even published a proper thesis getting a professor candidate position is pure nepotism.

Of course, if you think about it, there is the undeniable basis of Orphion's letter of recommendation.

Surely, a figure as grand as an ancient dragon wouldn't recommend just anyone.

'Still, they'll probably have to interview me at least...'

I wasn't particularly worried about the process or test to become a professor at Primus.

One way or another, I seemed to be at a level where I could teach students.

After all, I've devoted most of my life to teaching.

For me, teaching someone else isn't such an unfamiliar task.

However, the result of my teaching someone else.

'I just cut their tendons because they were trying to overcharge the children─'

'I broke my back wrestling with the Orc King─'

'My brother's spy kept watching my room, so I just used a sight-stealing magic─'

'It's an elixir that explodes 10 seconds after drinking! If you mix this with wine, anyone can go boom cleanly without evidence─'

To put it bluntly, it's disastrous.

Perhaps my talent for teaching is not just zero, but close to negative.

'At least all four of them became capable enough not to get beaten up everywhere they go...'

At this point, I have a reasonable suspicion that the problem might have been with me, not the disciples.

It's a shame that the only way to confirm this now is to take on new disciples at Primus, as Orphion said...

"What are you thinking about?"

"Hmm, just. Thoughts of the past."

Anyway, tomorrow I'll have to leave this mansion and take the train to Primus with Orphion.

I said goodbye to Isabel, with whom I had spent enough time to speak comfortably.

"I'll write letters often even when I'm at Primus."

"Huh? Letters? Why?"

"Um, because we won't be able to see each other often from now on?"

My connection with Isabel probably won't be completely cut off.

Unlike the past days when we were together almost every moment, from now on we'll only be able to see each other during academy breaks.

So I gently explained that when I become a professor at Primus, I'll be staying at Primus all day, but.

-Squeeze.

"...I want to go too."

"Where?"

"Primus."

"Ah..."

Isabel, in her pajamas, buried her face in my chest and started whining.

It seems she doesn't want to be separated from me.

Still, until then, I thought I could soothe her gently as I had done with my disciples from long ago.

Even when the maid tried to take Isabel to her room, saying it was time to sleep, I comforted the sniffling Isabel who said she wanted to sleep together just for tonight.

However, a few hours after Isabel fell asleep quietly in my arms with slightly puffy eyes.

At the moment when Orphion came to pick me up as promised yesterday.

"L-Lord, Lord Patron...!"

"What's wrong?"

Isabel, who couldn't even look Orphion in the eye properly, grabbed the cuff of Orphion's sleeve with trembling hands.

And then, slightly turning her gaze towards me.

"P-Please send me to the academy too!"

She expressed that she had no intention of parting with me, not even a speck.

By the way, to throw a tantrum at Orphion. What great courage. Has she grown so attached to me?

As I was thinking this and wondering how Orphion would reject Isabel's request.

The answer that came from Orphion was affirmative, not negative.

"Well, alright. If you want to go, you should go."

"?"

Naturally confused by the answer opposite to my expectation, I asked Orphion what he was thinking.

I had to use polite speech in front of Isabel, but right now, stopping Orphion's strange actions was more important.

"L-Lord Patron. Isabel is not enough to become a professor─"

"She's lacking. Needless to say."

"...? Then why?"

"There's no problem if she goes as a student, right?"

Oh, this crazy lizard. The words rose to the tip of my tongue, but I barely swallowed them.

Eventually, I forced a smile and said we needed to talk for a moment, taking Orphion to the empty room next door to question him.

"If you have a child to look after, you won't do anything stupid, right?"

"Stupid things?"

"I mean stay at Primus. Don't think about going to find those brats."

The answer I heard was that he granted Isabel's request to keep me tied to Primus.

Feeling a bit guilty, I averted my gaze slightly and denied Orphion's words, but.

"...I wasn't thinking of doing that."

"You're lying. Your mana is trembling."

"D-Don't use your red eyes for things like this!"

"Why are you interfering with how I use my own eyes?"

"...Damn lizard..."

In the end, I was caught up in Orphion's words again.

I couldn't deny that my future self would eventually reveal myself to my disciples. Not at all.

And so, Isabel's luggage ended up being loaded onto the carriage as well.

My adoptive father and Isabel's biological father, Dven Yurt, didn't raise any particular questions this time either.

Thanks to that, after Isabel and Dven's farewell, when I finally boarded the carriage 'with' Isabel, I couldn't help but sigh.

No matter what Orphion says, isn't he worried about Isabel? He's completely someone who would die if Orphion told him to die.

"Haa..."

"...Leta, do you dislike being with me?"

"Ah, no. I'm worried about you. Isabel, you get severe motion sickness, don't you?"

Seeing Isabel's slightly disappointed expression, I squeezed out every excuse I could think of.

One way or another, it's about half confirmed that this child will become an academy student.

And, the ill-natured patron who was staring at me intently from the opposite seat.

-Squeeze.

"This is why I brought Isabel. Really, you're such a softie."

He pinched my cheeks like rice cakes while pretending to worry about me.

I barely resisted the urge to stab an ice spear into Orphion's face, who was running to the extreme of shamelessness.

By the time we had traveled about halfway to the station where the train to Primus runs.

As I was thinking about 'Mana Design', the subject I would have to teach, I noticed that Isabel's speech had drastically decreased.

Eventually, I checked Isabel's complexion, thinking 'surely not'.

"...Urp."

"...Are you very dizzy?"

"I-I can endure it...!"

She was clearly in a state of motion sickness.

Exactly as I had worried about earlier.

We couldn't use teleportation magic because the coordinates of the academy were protected to prevent external attacks.

In other words, it means Isabel will have to continue to suffer from motion sickness both now in the carriage and when she boards the train to Primus.

Therefore, I eventually asked Isabel to lie down slowly on my lap.

Then, gently drawing up mana.

"『Sleep』"

I forcibly put the child with a pale blue complexion to sleep.

At least while she's sleeping on my lap, she won't feel dizzy.

But because Orphion was silently watching me do this once again.

"What now."

I spoke in a slightly gruff tone.

But this lizard, I don't know what he ate wrong.

"You really look like sisters. My sisters were like that too."

He played the family card with family members who died long ago.

And so, I ended up just silently stroking the sleeping Isabel until we arrived at the station.

...Using family talk is cowardly.

○

How unlike her to be so cautious.

This was roughly what the ancient dragon was thinking as he looked at the girl keeping her mouth shut.

Asher Astoria.

No, Leta Yurt, despite the current Orphion being quite a mischievous existence to her, she never tries to cross the line.

This is common among those who have met the sage so far.

As long as they don't antagonize the sage, she doesn't show hostility or distance herself first.

This nature of the sage is something that belongs to the quite frustrating category for Orphion.

Her excessively altruistic appearance seemed foolish, and also pitiable.

Only because such a foolish appearance is precisely the sage Orphion knows.

"Lord Patron. Quickly."

Not long after boarding the train to the academy, when the train was suddenly attacked.

He pretended to give in to the young eyes that stared at him intently, using polite speech unlike her usual self.

"Huh..."

Soon, the dragon's thick aura began to spread in the noisy interior of the train where passengers and attackers were clashing.

The heavy presence that made anyone who felt it get goosebumps immediately.

｢■─!──!!!｣

-Crack.

Transforming into his true dragon form, he made cracks appear everywhere while making not only the attackers but also the passengers kneel.

The mana that began to envelop the exterior of the train, not missing the moment when the commotion subsided.

"『Gravity』"

"『Reverse』"

Along with two spells chanted from the young girl's mouth, the vast mana lit up at once.

Eventually, the long body of the train began to gradually rise into the air.

The train, which had left the tracks due to an attack of unknown purpose a few minutes ago, began to swim through the air like that.

Instead of the tracks that had already lost their role, a sky path opened up to guide the train to the academy.

"...I'll have to explain first when I meet the dean."

"You'll certainly make a strong first impression."