Chapter 288
This woman, if I was not wrong, was one of the research instructors from the NNU Magic and Science Investigation Academy. I think her name was Irina.
Her silver-rimmed glasses shined coldly as she continued.
“You can obey us and cooperate. Or you can continue to live here freely.”
Irina paused here and made sure that the students had understood her meaning.
Once she saw that they had been listening to her carefully, she continued.
“Now, we will request help from the mainland. We can go and defeat the Greed Circus if we want, but those people will likely be able to serve a different purpose. In any case, about all of you. We will take you with us if you agree to cooperate. Your safety will be assured and you will have a degree of freedom. Of course, you are also free to return to your own countries. However, you will have to undergo certain ‘restrictions’ and there will be ‘oaths’ to be made first. If you do not want to cooperate with us, that is your choice. You can just stay here and live freely…”
So saying, her eyes moved through the group as if she were looking into the eyes of each student.
“Now, what will you do?”
She said.
◇◇◇
The students were thrust into the worst kind of chaos.
Of course, part of the reason was that they were assuming that all of the teachers and Julius and the others, whom they had depended on, were dead.
“Wait! Who are you people?”
I was Master Pury who asked the question as she came out of a tent, her expression was severe.
Her exhaustion nearly ruined what was a pretty face.
It showed how long and how desperately she had continued to treat the wounded.
“Yes, Miss Irina. What exactly do you think you are…”
After Pury, it was Heinrich who came out next, as if to protect the students and find out what Irina’s true motivation was.
These two were the only teachers who were unharmed.
Neither of them liked to fight much, and so they would not have been useful in combat. Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, with the strength of these white-robed people in front of them.
“Yes, I suppose we have not introduced ourselves yet. We are the ‘Humanity Emancipation Alliance.’ Our purpose is the end of the domination of the evil Demon Lords and to win back a future for ourselves. This plan was built with very long-term goals, so all of you will be useful in it as well.”
Here we go. A weird organization.
The ‘Humanity Emancipation Alliance’? What is that?
All I selfishly wanted was to enjoy a little vacation…
Really? Where did I go wrong?
No, now that I think of it, perhaps I had gone wrong the moment I decided to ride that airship?
<<I am saying this just as a precaution, but please do not cast doubt on me.>>
No, no, I would never…
No matter how I look at it, there is guilt. How could I merely doubt?
I’ve been used. There is a mysterious organization… I’m not even sure if they are real…and someone wanted to crush them.
The real culprit behind this is surely…
<<You suspect me! You are horrible. Hmph. Hmph.>>
No, I don’t suspect you at all.
I am sure of it.
Nevermind.
If it comes to this, I will see it through.
<<That’s the master I know!>>
So it is according to your calculations, after all, Ciel! I thought this, but decided to not let it appear on the surface layer of my consciousness.
It was a little late, and there were some things that I thought were strange.
While I reeducate the students, I will have to do something about this Humanity Emancipation Alliance as well.
These organizations tended to be dangerous while they hide in the shadows, but are surprisingly easy to crush once they are exposed.
Thinking of it like that, Ciel’s plan was perfect.
The Humanity Emancipation Alliance was over the moment that I knew about them.
Well, even if that hadn’t happened, I am sure that Diablo or Souei would have caught them eventually.
“And I am a member of the Glory Knights, one of the factions within the Humanity Emancipation Alliance. I was pretending to be a student in order to investigate from the inside.”
Magnus said this, just as I had decided to crush the Humanity Emancipation Alliance.
I see, since just about anyone could become a student, it was easy to sneak in.
But using the school for such a purpose seemed like nothing short of a declaration of war to me.
I mean, I could see why Ciel would not ignore such a foolish organization existing here.
She had looked for the perfect timing to get evidence and then had me move.
I was perhaps not the smartest, for being so easily lured by the word ‘vacation,’ but the people who were unlucky in this situation were those of the Humanity Emancipation Alliance.
Ciel was even more frightening than any Demon Lord once you made an enemy of her.
Irina and Magnus appeared to be in high positions within the organization.
They talked on of how wonderful it was, and of how horrible the Demon Lords who ruled…in other words, me and the other Demon Lords, were. They insisted on the validity of the right of humans.
After that, they went about trying to persuade the students.
This was so that they would testify that the students that they had abandoned had just been killed by the monsters.
Also, they wanted to place all of the students in important positions in the country once they had become older, therefore extending the power of the Humanity Emancipation Alliance.
Perhaps Julius and the others had denied their invitation to join.
And so they had become a nuisance to be rid of, once the opportunity presented itself.
And such an opportunity had arrived, and so it had now come to this.
“I suppose it will be too difficult to give us an answer this instant. We will return again once we finish going to the shore and requesting help from the mainland. I hope that you all would have come to a conclusion by then. It would not be a good thing for us, to have colleagues and fellow students die. And so I pray that you make the right decision.”
Irina said and ended her speech.
Magnus had created a barrier around the area to keep out monsters, ensuring the safety of this place.
This was likely done to calm us and minimize the amount of hostility we might feel.
“Magnus. So, you were tricking everyone?”
“Ah, Satoru. Sorry to involve you in all of this, when you aren’t even a student.”
“You, are you really fine with having allowed Julius, Karma and the others to be killed?”
“…I am not fine with it. But…those who think differently than you are only in the way.”
Magnus muttered in a slightly saddened voice.
However, he seemed very convinced that he was in the right.
This idiot was a student at the school.
“Hey, Magnus. You made me very angry. You better remember that, the next time we meet.”
Magnus did not understand what I meant, and he could only shrug.
And once he had finished setting up the barrier, he reunited with Irina and the others, and they left us.
And that was how the long night ended.