93. Golden Apple
Late at night, a faint candle was lit in an empty meeting room at the academy.
No one lit the lights, but the number of candles that lit spontaneously increased gradually and the whole room was lit up.
People entered the brightly lit room one after another.
All of them were faculty members working at the academy.
The staff gathered in a pile naturally found their seats and sat down.
And one last person… Professor Buckingham stepped in and took the first seat.
“Now, everyone must be busy, but thank you for gathering today.”
Academy also has a meeting of faculty members.
The most famous among them is the ‘Golden Apple’ led by Buckingham Houston, who is in charge of introducing combat magic.
The Golden Apple is a small group where only the lineage of the famous family selected among the academy faculty members can enter.
On the surface, it was a small group gathering for the education of students like other faculty members, but in reality it was completely different.
It was a gathering of small people who slandered faculty members who could not enter the golden apple or discussed how to ostracize them, and talked about the students of interest and discussed what kind of disadvantages they would give them.
Though Buckingham, the person concerned, doesn’t feel it at all.
“The first topic I want to raise is this.”
“Should we watch Atlas Nemea as it is… ?”
Buckingham was the first to raise the issue.
Bucking had the second highest salary next to the principal, but here he was treated with respect.
Most of the staff in this place were under Buckingham, but some were from families far more powerful than Buckingham’s background.
“Yes, it is. This freshman named Atlas Nemea is making a mess of the academy…!
Think of what happens at the academy after that guy enters the school! It’s been a while since the new semester started, and she’s already been attacked by demons twice.
Students who were assaulted by him are looking at triple digits beyond double digits… The principal has practically got his hands off the student, so we have to step in.”
Atlas is a thorn in Buckingham’s eye.
Apart from the first time he had half of Buckingham’s class assigned to the hospital, nothing was involved, but from that day onwards, Atlas has been an annoyance to Buckingham.
After the first duel, Phrygia took a move to bury Atlas through the newspaper department and wanted to finally solve it, but it was withdrawn overnight and rather the two took a friendly stance toward Atlas.
“… But aren’t those incidents the problem of individual students?”
Unlike Buckingham, who wears a monocle, a monocle, a middle-aged man wearing both glasses said.
“..!!”
Buckingham managed to hold back the almost rotten expression on his face.
It was unpleasant that his words were denied, but he brought up his words because Professor Buckingham was not one to be tampered with.
William Stanhope, professor of magical humanities, is the younger brother of Count Stanhope.
He is younger than Buckingham, but because of his background as Stanhope, Buckingham couldn’t take care of him.
For locations inside the academy, the outside background must be applied as well.
Even if he couldn’t forget the Stanhope family, it was dangerous to lose Chuck to William, who was still close with the current head of the family, by taking up a professorship without being greedy for the position of the head of the family.
“The accident that happened in the dungeon was also his class. It’s hard to say it’s completely irrelevant.”
Buckingham had to make his side somehow.
I don’t know why, but the principal is very lenient towards Atlas.
You can’t pressure them with ‘scholarships’ like test-entry students, and it’s hard to do anything with force.
It has already been proven time and time again that there is no one among the students who can compete with Atlas.
How would the students cope with a guy who defeated even the captain of the Clover Academy, who had advanced level skills, with one finger?
However, things get bigger when professors step forward.
If the professor directly uses force, it may seem like it’s solved, but the latter becomes complicated.
And the biggest problem….
‘I’m not sure if I can win even if I fight… ‘
Professor Buckingham thought that Atlas would be stronger than he was, enough to destroy an expert senior.
So I came up with a way to induce Atlas to drop out of school by harassing the professors.
“I will fall.”
“What??”
But Professor William refused at once.
“That student… It is true that accidents happen a lot. But I don’t want to fall out of sight of Russell. Lemnos also dueled twice, and they don’t get along well. “
“Wow..!!”
When Russell’s story came out, I was at a loss for words.
She once declared that Lucia Russell, one of her successors to the Five Pillars, who entered as a freshman this year, would place her Atlas in her protection.
She attacked in a shady way, and when Russell’s discord fell, the only thing she couldn’t handle was Buckingham, and nothing else.
She must have been crazy to say that Buckingham, who at best even notices Stanhope, would attack someone under Russell’s protection.
“Professor, being enthusiastic is good, but being an educator and gossiping about a student who has received a ‘letter of recommendation’ doesn’t look so good.
I don’t think there’s anything more to say, so let’s end this story… Then, do you have someone to say next?”
William took his voice away from Buckingham with a fluid flow.
He seemed to be reluctant to let Atlas get into the spotlight.
“Do you know Rio, a test taker who doesn’t even know the subject and is arrogantly trying to get the top spot?”
“Uh huh… To be satisfied with just attending as a scholarship student… How could that be?”
“That’s right. I did a little good because I was good at it, but I didn’t know the subject and tried to go to the top of my head.. I want everyone to join the penalty for this.”
“Leora… You are a student listening to my lecture. I will give it a C grade in the next evaluation.”
“I am a student who is very good at taking tests, so I will reduce my score with attitude points and group assignments.”
“hahahaha, let’s take this opportunity to not even get a scholarship, shall we? Only after getting burned once would you know what you did wrong.”
“If a commoner cannot get a scholarship, he or she cannot attend the academy.”
“If you’re that good, I’ll arrange it somehow. Wouldn’t that also be a social practice?”
“Come to think of it, there was a transfer student recently, right?”
“Yes.. I don’t think he had a family… It looks like you came in with a letter of recommendation.”
“Heh heh.. I don’t have a family, but a letter of recommendation… Where can I become an illegitimate child?”
“The principal said he gave permission right away… Well, this looks like a beehive too, so don’t bother poking around.”
“That’s right. Didn’t you mess with a student who entered the school with a letter of recommendation without a surname before, and because he was an illegitimate child of the imperial family?”
As soon as they decided not to touch the Atlas, they moved on.
I gave up on Atlas, who had a strong stomach, because it seemed like he would get an upset stomach after trying it, but the test takers were different.
I don’t know who the student named Rio was, but the faculty seemed to have a lot of fun ruining Rio’s life.
The reality of the Golden Apple gathering was that they didn’t feel guilty about ruining a person’s life just because they offended them.
They happily picked out a few students who would become their scapegoats, reached an agreement with each other, and dispersed.
Only Professor Buckingham was left in the conference room that rushed out.
– Boom!!
“I… guys… !!! Well, as an educator, the gossip of a student who received a letter of recommendation is not good… ??”
Buckingham, who had been sitting blankly, hit the desk hard.
“How come you don’t know! The fact that that guy will be useless to the academy!!”
I know with my head.
The fact that attacking Atlas would only damage him.
I know at least that the fact that he has been safe so far is purely because he did not attempt a direct attack on Atlas.
He always took revenge on the person who attacked him.
All Buckingham did was, at best, to tell Lemnos why Pleasure had dropped out and to give an interview.
From noble mtl dot com
It was Buckingham who said that Atlas had to be blown up, but actually did nothing to Atlas.
At that time, I felt someone’s presence in front of me.
“Right… I agree.”
“Who are you?!”
One professor remained.
I can’t remember who it was, he was in charge of Introduction to Public Administration, a liberal arts subject.
He is a person with a very vague impression that is just that much memorable.
‘Since when have you been sitting there…?’
The strange thing was that he had screamed after confirming that everyone had left, but why was there anyone left?
“I totally agree with Professor Buckingham. That student is too dangerous….”
“Yes!! That guy is a cancerous being!!”
But Buckingham was quickly forgotten.
It was more important that there were people who agreed with my opinion.
After hearing Professor Buckingham’s passionate performance, the professor pondered and said.
“But it’s hard to get rid of a student with that kind of background.. Yes, that’s right.”
“That’s right.. I wonder why you don’t understand that you have to get rid of them quickly..”
“Then.. How would you like to do it like this..?”
Buckingham listened to him.
———————————
After the Golden Apple’s regular meeting, there was one person in the women’s dormitory who couldn’t sleep late at night.
It was Shara Phrygia, sitting on the bed in thin pajamas, with her rich blonde hair hanging down on the bed like a golden waterfall.
The lovely face illuminated by a small candlelight, eyes as deep as the night sky, were staring at something.
It was a small sheet of parchment.
[… This concludes the report on the contents of the Golden Apple meeting.]
On the parchment, the writing was written on its own without Shaara’s touch.
The content was just from the ‘Golden Apple’, one of the former academy faculty meetings.
Char La Phrygia was sitting in her own room and she was getting to see everything they said.
She read everything, and Charra picked up her quill and wrote down on the parchment.
[Yes, block ‘Stanhope’ well like now.]
[I will follow your orders.]
The power of the five pillars extends throughout the empire.
Even the academy is no exception.
Even the golden apples, a secret gathering of faculty members, were in the hands of Phrygia, who controlled the flow of ‘gold’ throughout the empire.
After being bitten by Stan Hope, Charra went through the information written on her parchment and sorted them out one by one.
“Restrictions on recommended students… It’s not my part-time job, and I don’t care about transfer students… As for Atlas-sama…”
For a moment, Shaara’s hand stopped.
What Buckingham said about Atlas is nothing really.
She was dismissed by Stanhope before it was even a comment, and if Professor Buckingham alone would have attempted to harm him, he would have done it long ago.
“…It’s nothing special, but I have to say it separately.”
But we can use this as an excuse to have a separate meeting.
Imagining such a thing, Shara smiled a lovely smile that others couldn’t see.
“… Come to think of it, Russell returned early, did it go as planned?”
When Lucia Russell asked me to recommend a place to go on a date with Atlas, she was offended, so she only gave me a few odd places.
It was only later that we found out that Atlas was hospitalized.