***

Eran Bytros—the 9th son of Duchess Bytros, the beastkin Duchess—was lying in his bed when he saw Goddess Lumaria's announcement.

|—Theodore Gray, Saint of Storms, and rival of the Hero of Light.|

"T-Theodore Gray?" Eran stuttered, not at all expecting the name he had been so obsessed with for the past month to come up. During the summer vacation, his mother had finally let him out of the mansion. However, he returned to Avaron only to find out that his reserved spot in 1-1 was stolen by someone.

Of course, his pride as a noble didn't allow him to just stand by! As such, he dug for information about the filthy thief that stole his spot. The name that came up was... Theodore Gray.

"A scoundrel," the girls of the academy would say; along with, "he's the one who committed hate crimes against our beloved Arthur!"

"Actually, he's not all that bad," the boys would tell him. But as soon as they noticed the glares from the female students, Theodore somehow became some sort of wicked person who abused money and connections to get into Avaron.

Of course, Eran gobbled up information that painted Theodore in a bad light just like how Sylvia would when presented with a plate full of delicious food. However, he began to reconsider his opinion of Theodore when he saw the Goddess.

"Saint? Why didn't that come up in my investigation?" He muttered. "I can kind of see that part where he's the Hero's rival, but to kill two Void lords?"

It was simply impossible. Void lords were being that adults often use to scare children into not doing bad things. However, unlike most tales, they were very real.

Countless of cities had fallen because of them, and if it wasn't for the conjoined efforts of all the Churches, the Empire would have looked like a very different place now.

So, the notion that someone of the same age as him—someone who wasn't even a Hero—killing not one, but two Void lords, was utterly implausible.

Then, to Eran, there was only one possible conclusion.

"That bastard... he's so good at tricking people that he even fooled a Goddess!"

Of course, Eran knew better than to run around the academy and sprout that to everyone. He knew that the very thought of Goddess Lumaria being deceived could be grounds for heresy charges against him, and he knew better than anyone else how... enthusiastic Inquisitors could get when they were on official business.

Thus, he decided to prove it with actions, not words.

"If I can defeat him, not only will I regain my spot in 1-1, I can also prove that he's a fraud!"

Several scenarios were forming inside Eran's head at this very moment. He thought of a future where he cut down the one who fooled the Gods, and everyone praised him as a Saint who rescued them from the lies; then, even the Church of Light couldn't touch him! And maybe, just maybe, the Hero of Light would pick him as his sidekick!

Eran was so convinced that all of these would happen that he immediately prepared for the duel.

***

A young human male with brown hair and red eyes kneeled in a dark room. He had the name "Gary," but he was sure that no one in this room was interested in something as lowly as his name right now.

He glanced to his right, spotting a scary-looking orc sitting in a chair with a disproportionately beautiful dark Elf sitting in his lap.

To his right stood a relatively handsome young man with red hair and green eyes. He stared at Gary coolly; his bright green eyes seemingly shone in the dark.

And, directly in front of him was a woman with black hair and eyes, wearing a half-mask that covered the left side of her face. She sat in a wooden chair, her legs crossed, her eyes gazed coldly at him. Gary could see that there was a little bit of black in her right sclera, but he didn't dare to point that out.

Perhaps comically, in this room full of imposing and intimidating people, there was a man with brown hair and blue eyes fanning the aforementioned woman. He looked so exhausted that Gary wouldn't even have been surprised if he fell unconscious right then and there.

As the silence was about to become more uncomfortable, something strange happened.

|Be not afraid, believers and sinners.|

Gary was afraid.

Reflexively, he fell to the floor on his butt from his kneeling position. He pointed his shaking index finger toward the Goddess that had just manifested and stuttered, "t-that's G—"

"We know, shut up," the half-mask woman spoke up for the first time.

Upon hearing the authoritative voice, Gary could only clamp his mouth shut and pay attention to what the Goddess said.

The information could be summarized as follow: Two Void lords were killed, which was a good thing. However, the Goddess still had some suspicions, which she decided to let go, for now. And, the identity of the one who slayed the Void lords was—

"Theodore..." The same woman muttered with a tinge of nostalgia in her voice.

"Kurghhh..." The orc nodded and spoke with a voice full of respect, "I remember him. He was at the auction, wasn't he? As expected of Saintess Aryl's acquaintance, he's not someone to be trifled with."

"Isn't he the one that Araceli insisted that she nurse back to health herself?" The red-haired man added.

"Yeah, what happened to that, Araceli? You made us leave before we could even say hi to him," the dark Elf that was sitting on the orc's lap interjected.

In response to her companions' questioning gazes, the woman—Araceli—merely shrugged her shoulder and changed the subject.

"Shouldn't we start the interrogation now?"

Immediately, everyone's gazes were on Gary again.

Gary shrunk back from the stares, unable to form any meaningful word. Luckily for him, he didn't need to be the one to initiate the conversation.

"Let's start with the questioning," Araceli said while motioning for the man behind her to quicken his fanning, "why did you sneak into my room? Answer truthfully; you'll regret it if you lie. Trust me, I learned how to punish liars from the best."

Gary was in no position to lie, and he was also no in position to question what would happen to him. "I-I wanted to talk to you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you, Araceli the gravedigger, leader of the Dusty wyverns."

Coughs of embarrassment simultaneously left the mouths of everyone in the room as soon as Gary mentioned "Dusty wyverns."

"I knew that we shouldn't have picked that name," the Elf woman sighed.

"Kurghhh... what can we do? It's not like we have a Platinum to change our party's name now..."

Ignoring the chatter between the orc and the elf, Araceli addressed Gary again.

"Why did you want to talk to me?"

As if he had been waiting for this question all along, Gary straightened his back and spoke resolutely.

"I want to join you!"

"Hmmm..." Araceli hummed, amused. "...And why would you want to join our band of... diverse individuals?"

Gary froze on the spot. He hadn't expected her to ask him that question. The real reason why he wanted to join the Dusty wyverns was because he couldn't join any other silver-ranked adventurers party, so this was his only option left.

'I can't tell them that! Looks like I'll have to give a non-answer.'

"I-I wanted to become famous," Gary confessed, "so famous that my childhood friend, who is at the Hero of Light's side right now, would hear of me. Currently, I'm a nobody that can't even get near the Hero. This is the only way for me to meet her again!"

Araceli nodded upon hearing Gary's answered.

"A motivation full of love and jealousy, how intriguing. But why us specifically?"

'Crap!'

His plan had failed!

Noticing Gary getting increasingly flustered, Araceli broke into laughter.

"Let me guess, you got rejected by every other parties?"

Seeing Gary's face reddening even further in embarrassment, her laughter intensified.

"Pfffft! Hahahah! You're funny!" Wiping the tear in the corner of her eye, she continued. "Okay then, you're in."

"H-huh?" Gary wasn't expecting this at all. "Why would you—"

"Does it matter?" Araceli interrupted him curtly. "You're in, and that's what important. Now, get out of my room and get some sleep. You'll need it."

In a daze at the speed that things happened, Gary blankly nodded and made his way toward the door. He exited the room, but not before he managed to hear Araceli's ominous words.

"Luckily you, Reiner, you're relieved of your fanning duties."

***

As I exited the abandoned church, I was met with gazes of both respect and fear coming from Adel's soldiers. I was sure that the gazes would get even worse if the church officials caught wind of my current location.

Thus, after saying a brief goodbye to Adel, Primel, and Evelyn, I returned to Avaron.

As soon as I entered the academy, I could feel countless stares directed toward me.

-"Is that him?"

-"Black hair, gray eyes, it must be."

-"I can never forget the face of the bastard who hurt Arthur!"

Apart from Arthur's fangirls, I was surprised at the reaction of the other students. They were looking at me with either respect or fear, not—

"Look who it is, 'the Void slayer.' I don't know how, but you must've taken someone else's credits and fooled the Goddess."

'Ah, here it fucking is.'

It was nice knowing that some things wouldn't change no matter what. It was less nice, however, to know that said things were the haughtiness and arrogance of people.

I stared blankly at the students before me. In the lead was a girl with no notable features, and on both of her sides were her henchmen, who also had no notable features. They were extras... of course they fucking were.

Looking at the two students who were praising her unconditionally, I sighed.

'How nice must it be to have someone who can boost your ego like that...'

I was genuinely jealous this time. With everything that happened lately, I desperately needed an ego boost to feel better about myself.

'Maybe I should start looking for a lackey...'

It seemed that me being in thoughts offended her, as the student soon grabbed my collar with a frown on her face.

"Are you ignoring me, dipshit?"

Staring coldly at her filthy hand, which was creasing the shirt that I had just fucking ironed this morning, I said, "let go. You'll regret it."

"Will I?" The student responded with a smirk. "You're a shameless fraud. It's you who should be regretting living at all. You're better off dead."

'Really? That's the best insult she can come up with?'

Sighing, I grabbed her hand and forcibly made her let me go. Reached into [Alternate storage] to take out a gun, I pointed it right at my own head.

"Now that I think about it," I gave her a dangerous smile, "you're right. I should just die after all."

Then, I pulled the trigger.

With a loud bang, a bullet shot through "my" head. Blood and brain matter sprayed everywhere, staining the student's face. As "my" body fell to the ground lifelessly, the student pulled herself together and screamed.

"KYAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Then, perhaps from shock, she fell unconscious on the spot.

I witnessed all of this from a corner, not as a ghost since I was as alive as I could ever be. As soon as I pointed the gun toward my head, I activated [B - Ash veil] and the grimoire, tricking everyone into thinking that I had just killed myself.

As to why I did that? Well, just because. I was bored anyway, and seeing someone like her reacting like that put a faint smile on my face.

Shaking my head to rid myself of the sadistic urge to sow more chaos here, I quickly left the scene and made my way toward my dorm room.

...

It seemed that I had to run into one trouble after another today. As soon as I arrived at my dorm room, I saw Sylvia standing in front of it as if she was waiting for me.

Holding her hand was Glacia, who was staring at me excitedly.

Before I could say anything, Sylvia lightly nudged Glacia toward me and parted her lips to speak.

"You won the child custody."