“I’m sorry, Professor. I was too hasty and made a mistake. How embarrassing…….”

Smiling bashfully—still a gentle lamb in front of the master, I see.

With a single arrogant tilt of the chin, I signaled to let go of the neck I was holding.

“Cough, cough! I-I’m alive……!”

“Shall we hand them over to the local guard, then, Professor?”

“Hold on.”

There was something to do before that. I said with a relaxed expression.

“Scum like these, even if handed over to the guard, they’ll just pay bail and walk free. Then they’ll be right back at it.”

“Of course! As expected of you, Professor. Then what should we…….”

“Need to make sure they can’t easily get back on their feet. Hey, trash.”

“Y-yes?!”

Simple. Catch a monster and you get a Magic Stone. Catch a bandit?

“Hand over everything you’ve got.”

That’s how you get loot.

* * *

‘Chris’ was fundamentally someone without greed for material wealth.

Therefore, this was merely an act of thoroughly crushing the bandits so they couldn’t commit crimes again.

[Bead: Wipe your drool first before you speak, honestly.]

Oh please. I had long since reached the pinnacle of method acting where I could even control my salivary glands. Did you think that would work on me?

[Bead: You touched all that gold and lost your mind. How fleeting is human greed, yet how fiercely you cling to it.]

Leaving the Bead to its philosophical musings, I picked up one of the coin pouches.

‘Whoa, this is heavy.’

My heart felt fuller just holding it. For all their whining about how banditry was in a slump and how they were squeezing blood from stones, there was quite a haul.

‘This should be enough.’

I walked over to the Healer standing guard by the carriage. She’d said that even though we’d left the Land of Death, the security in nearby villages was a mess, so she couldn’t let her guard down. The bandits had also charged at them after spotting the expensive-looking carriage.

‘I’m telling you, she’s overly diligent. Or maybe she’s too tied up with money matters.’

Suffering that kind of pressure at such a young age would ruin a person—unfortunately.

“Bell.”

“Professor! You’re not asleep at this hour?”

“Take it.”

The Healer waved her hands in surprise at the coin pouch I held out.

“What? I-I already received mine. We divided everyone’s share earlier, didn’t we? This is yours, Professor…….”

“It’s for the herbs.”

“Ah, but even that’s too much. Even just a quarter of this would…….”

From her fidgeting, she clearly didn’t not need the money. Because—

“I met the man who calls himself your father.”

“……!”

At my casually dropped words, the Healer hung her head. But she didn’t seem particularly shocked—perhaps she had expected it.

“He told me to bring you back. Said it was time to return to the family’s embrace.”

“That man is not my family…….”

“I know.”

A firm affirmation.

The Healer blinked and raised her head again.

“He looks nothing like you.”

“What? ……Ahaha.”

The Healer laughed. Here, I should respond with a puzzled expression that says ‘I don’t know why you’re laughing.’ Because ‘Chris’ had said it in earnest, but to the Healer, it sounded like a playful joke.

‘This is exactly the kind of rare comedy scene given to characters as blunt as ‘Chris.’

“You don’t want to go back, do you.”

“Of course not. Though I’m not sure what will happen if they come looking for me.”

“Even if they do, it won’t matter. That man was nothing but a pathetic insect.”

That wasn’t just talk—he really was. Of course, he probably didn’t rank second among the executives for nothing, but even so, he was just the kind of guy who’d get his position taken by a new character in the middle of <Hero Rampage>.

The Protagonist’s party’s only all-rounder Healer was invincible.

All she needed was time to grow.

And time…….

‘Turns out you can buy it with money.’

“I’ll cover your tuition and living expenses, so from now on, you focus solely on training. Don’t go wandering around picking herbs for no reason.”

“T-Professor.”

“What, are you scared?”

“No! If I could just study without worrying about money, that would be…… wonderful!”

The Healer’s eyes sparkled.

That’s right. Your master will take responsibility from here on out, so don’t worry. Just grow up nice and strong.

‘And that’s why you’ll be doing all the supporting for the Protagonist.’

Not making this kind of investment in the party’s only Healer and supporter would be crazy.

Above all, the Healer would earn the Principal’s favor and receive a full scholarship once she reached her third year anyway.

In other words, I only needed to cover her costs through her second year!

[Bead: Acting generous on a budget.]

Shut up.

“Um, so…… you’re saying you’ll become my patron, Professor?”

The Healer asked cautiously.

Is that what this comes to? That sounds a bit grandiose. Let me just brush it off.

“Don’t get presumptuous.”

“Yes! Ah, but one more thing. Why are you giving me this opportunity…….”

Fair question. For ‘Chris,’ this was undeniably a generous act.

I slowly turned my back and continued.

“Because I want to screw someone over.”

“What?”

“That wolf.”

Not for the Healer’s sake, but merely to punish the one who had inconvenienced me.

For a moment, I thought I heard laughter, then a spirited reply came back.

“Yes! I’ll become a very big screw-up for you, Professor!”

Uh, that word choice is my fault too?

* * *

After running nonstop for several days—

‘To think there’d come a day when I’d be glad to see this gatekeeper gargoyle.’

I had finally returned. To Bedallua Academy.

“Well! If it isn’t Chris? You actually brought them back? What’s with all these kids?”

To think the Principal had been waiting. Then again, with the Protagonist and heirs of prominent families having collectively run away, she must have been sweating bullets.

I pointed at the Protagonist, who was standing with his chin held high, and said:

“Did you send these brats?”

“What? Don’t give me that crap! I told them not to, but the ones who crawled out on their own were your disciples. How exactly did you educate them?”

“Shut up. It’s your fault for entrusting a teaching position to someone like me.”

“You never back down from a single word, you insufferable bastard……. Well, enough of this pointless chatter. Shall we have a proper talk?”

The Principal’s gaze shifted. Time to prepare for a grilling about what happened with the Demon Lord, it seemed.

She wouldn’t do something gruesome like torture, right? Ah, why did I have to imagine that—now I’m getting nervous.

“The kids can follow my aide. Chris, you come this way.”

“Why are you taking the Professor separately? We should go together…….”

“Tch! Know your place, students. You’ve already defied my orders and left the Academy without permission. That alone is grounds for expulsion, and the only reason you’re still here is because I’m showing mercy. Understood?”

The Principal said this with a chillingly low voice.

Truthfully, the Principal wasn’t wrong.

But then, they’d already paid the price for their unauthorized actions by running through the Land of Death on foot.

Even as ‘Chris,’ my disciples should be more precious to me than the Principal, so maybe I should shield them a bit.

“Lily Bedallua. Do you have time to waste on idle chatter? How long exactly am I expected to wait?”

“Well, they say blood is thicker than water, you bastard……. Fine! I have classes today, so know that this is where it ends!”

“Professor…….”

These brats, getting all emotional.

“Wait for me.”

True to ‘Chris’s’ style, I dropped that one line and followed the Principal without looking back at my disciples.

Don’t look at me like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse. I’ll be back safe and sound.

……Right?

[Bead: The gap between that trustworthy back and your inner thoughts is staggering.]

Thank goodness it at least looks that way on the outside. Seriously.

But what I didn’t know then was that one disciple’s face was particularly dark.

* * *

“……The resurrection of the Demon Lord’s army, huh. So it’s come to that. Understood. I shall report to His Holiness the Holy Emperor.”

The conversation with the Principal went more smoothly than expected. As if she had anticipated the current situation.

‘Then again, even the Demon Lord sends spies, so there’s no reason the Holy Emperor wouldn’t be watching the Demon Realm.’

“Until then, you focus on managing your students. Especially the one who’s lost his mind! When someone changes that suddenly, they’re bound to attract attention. The way people look at him will change too. I can understand it somewhat since His Holiness the Holy Emperor briefed me, but—”

The Holy Emperor—how much did that bastard know, and how far did it go? At this rate, even the neighborhood kids would know the Protagonist’s secret birth.

‘In <Hero Rampage>, I think they glossed over it by saying he fell ill and woke up that way…….’

After all, the Awakening had fully completed before the new semester started. But right now, it was mid-semester, and the situation had already drawn massive unwanted attention due to the escape incident.

‘No matter how hard the Principal tries to downplay the rumors, there’s a limit.’

In other words, more people would approach the Protagonist with interest. And some of them would inevitably become fodder for the rampage.

If this were the original story, I’d be cheering, ‘Oh hell yeah, so satisfying! Destroy everything, Protagonist!’

‘But unfortunately, my character roleplay happens to be someone who doesn’t sit idly by when a disciple goes astray.’

Character education was definitely needed. And for that, first and foremost—

‘I need to create a helper.’

‘Chris’ couldn’t stick by the Protagonist’s side all day, could she? Someone who spent a lot of time with him needed to provide continuous care.

As luck would have it, there was a character in the same class who could fill that role.

So I figured all I needed to do was give that person a little push in the right direction, and went to find him…….

‘Why does he look like this?’

Dark eyes, disheveled hair, rumpled clothes, a hunched back. A sight that would have been unimaginable under normal circumstances.

After all, this kid was the Model Student!