Chapter 41

The student dormitory of the Magic Department consisted of four buildings, with each grade assigned to a different one.

However, since there were students who hadn’t graduated even after more than four years of study, the dorms occasionally housed seniors who were four or even eight years older than the others.

These senior students were always assigned to the top floors of the dormitories.

This was the academy’s effort to prevent them from disturbing the younger students’ academic atmosphere.

Thus, Glenn’s room was located on the top floor of the Summer Building, one of the student dorms at the Magic Department.

His door was locked, and Professor Haynes went down to the supervisor’s office on the first floor to borrow a spare key.

While he panted from the effort of going up and down the stairs, I unlocked the door.

Click.

Turning the doorknob and entering, I was met with a dim room.

I approached the window first and drew the curtain.

Swish.

The morning light streamed in at a gentle angle, illuminating the dust floating in the air with a hazy glow.

Following behind me, Professor Haynes started to sneeze.

“S-Sorry. My lungs have been in bad shape lately…”

Glenn’s room was that of a typical student at the Magic Department.

A desk cluttered with various reference books and notes, an untidy bed, and some modest personal belongings.

However, there was one thing that wasn’t typical.

The traces of life in the room felt far too old.

The musty smell lingering in the air held only the faintest hint of human presence.

Just like the slim chances of Glenn still being alive.

“Is there something here? A clue to finding Glenn, maybe…”

“Shh.”

Silencing Professor Haynes, I slowly deployed a mana field.

There was no need to tear the room apart in search of caraphine.

Winter Winslet was a meticulous mage, and the object we sought was a crystallization of magical power. Something that naturally radiated its presence even at rest.

Just by lightly spreading a detection mana field, I could pinpoint its location.

A trash can carelessly tossed under the bed.

At first glance, it looked like something no one would pay attention to. But that’s where the magic was emanating from.

[Warning]

[Willpower and health have temporarily decreased.]

[Trait activated: Sense of Hygiene]

When I reached toward the trash can, my trait activated and a wave of nausea surged through me.

But this wasn’t the time to retreat.

Enduring the worsening condition, I sifted through the trash, focusing on the sensations at my fingertips.

Among discarded food scraps, random junk, and crumpled paper, my hand closed around something solid.

I pulled it out and confirmed with my own eyes what it was, letting out a brief sigh.

“Professor Colton Haynes.”

“Yes, please speak.”

“Glenn is not coming back.”

“…What?”

As he asked again, as if he hadn’t heard me properly, I showed him the object I had retrieved from the trash can.

Three rods wrapped in dark cloth, gleaming with an iridescent light.

They were the ultra-high-purity caraphine rods that Winter Winslet was supposed to deliver to Sakis Lubas.

***

Gulp.

After swallowing dryly several times, Professor Colton Haynes finally managed to ask in a choked voice,

“You said Glenn isn’t coming back?”

“That’s right.”

“Why… why is that?”

“Because he stole the goods.”

“That’s impossible!”

Shouting in denial, Professor Haynes glanced at my expression, then reverted to a more timid voice.

“Glenn isn’t that kind of person. I’m embarrassed to say it myself, but he treats me like a father. A kid like that would never do something that would betray my trust…”

“Then what is it you’re looking at right now?”

Professor Colton Haynes fell silent.

He recognized the caraphine rods…. he had personally finished processing them, after all.

“No, how… Is this really…? There’s no way Glenn would’ve done something like that… Then… then does that mean Glenn is no longer among the living?”

When I simply looked at him in silence instead of answering, Professor Haynes opened and closed his mouth, struggling to say something. But in the end, he simply lowered his head.

“Ah… ahh… It’s all my fault. I should’ve paid more attention… If only I hadn’t left the delivery to someone else…”

Wiping his face with both hands, Professor Colton Haynes let out a long sigh.

Glenn’s death wasn’t his fault.

He had simply been caught up in the evil scheme of some truly vile people.

But I couldn’t bring myself to console Professor Haynes—

because one of those vile people was none other than Winter Winslet.

“I’m sorry you had to see me like this, Professor. I’ll step outside for a moment to collect myself.”

Still blaming himself with a grief-stricken expression, Professor Haynes asked for a moment, and I told him to go ahead.

Left alone in Glenn’s room, I reached once more into the trash can.

[Warning]

[Willpower and Health have temporarily decreased.]

[Activated Trait: Sense of Hygiene]

[Repeated Penalty]

[Additional decrease in Willpower and Health.]

I hadn’t taken it out in front of Professor Colton Haynes on purpose, but tucked in among the trash where the caraphine rods had been hidden, there was also a neatly folded handwritten note.

I unfolded it and began to read.

<I, Glenn Sherwood, leave behind this record in case something happens to me.

If anyone finds this note, please submit it along with the items beside it to the Royal Security Bureau of Laurencia.

I am a student of Laurencia Royal Academy, and I intend to expose the horrific acts committed at this academy by Winter Winslet, a professor at the Magic Department.

If I die before achieving this, let my death stand as one more piece of evidence of Winter Winslet’s crimes.>

“……”

As expected, Glenn was a traitor.

But the mystery still remained.

Winter Winslet had harmed more than just a few people at this academy.

And yet, the reason Winter Winslet had been able to continue his reign of tyranny until now was because his victims were too afraid of retaliation to even think about resisting him.

So how had someone like Glenn Sherwood, a mere assistant, dared to bare his hidden fangs at Winter Winslet?

Was it because he was braver than the rest?

Or was it an unshakable sense of justice?

Seeking that answer, I turned my eyes back to Glenn’s handwritten note.

<Winter Winslet has been bribing professors at the Magic Department to manufacture illegal substances within the academy.

The graduate researchers under their supervision are being exploited under brutal conditions, while completely unaware of what they’re actually involved in.

My academic advisor, Professor Colton Haynes, is also among those involved in Winter Winslet’s illegal operations. However, he has his reasons.

His wife suffers from a rare, incurable disease, and the treatment costs each month are far more than he can bear.

Winter Winslet is exploiting this situation to control Professor Haynes like a puppet.

But what’s even more horrifying is this: his wife’s illness began two years ago, right after Professor Haynes rejected a secret proposal from Professor Winslet.

A rare disease that appeared out of nowhere and a suspicious offer from Winter Winslet.

I believe there is an unspeakable, vile cause-and-effect relationship between those two events.>

Just as Glenn claimed, Winter Winslet was the kind of monster who would curse a man’s family with an incurable illness just to make him a puppet.

I recalled the strangely submissive loyalty Professor Haynes had shown me—

A loyalty devoid of pride, rooted in resignation.

That wasn’t real loyalty.

It was the surrender of a man whose loved one had been taken hostage.

<I raised suspicions to the academy, but they were either ignored or met with retaliation, both subtle and severe.

The academy is already rotten to its very core.

However, unlike the high-ranking members of the academy, a royal official who visited me one day told me that Winter Winslet’s misdeeds could be punished.

That is if I could obtain proof that he was manufacturing caraphine within the academy.>

Up to that point, Glenn’s accusations had carried no weight.

The royal family wished to keep a talent like Winter Winslet within the kingdom, and to that end, they had already turned a blind eye to the atrocities he had committed at the academy.

But the secret manufacturing of ultra-high concentration caraphine was a different matter entirely.

That crossed into the realm of treason. This was a threat to the kingdom itself.

<And so, I decided to risk my life to smuggle out the evidence of Winter Winslet’s crimes.

The caraphine that was being secretly produced within this academy.

I did it to save Professor Colton Haynes, my mentor and the man I respect like a father, from Winter Winslet’s evil clutches.

I hope that justice will return to this academy and that those who have suffered under Winter Winslet will finally know peace.

Wishing for the day that will come, I now write down all the evils of Winter Winslet that I have seen and heard.>

From there, Glenn’s testimony and accusations went on at great length, far too long to fit on a single page.

Professor Colton Haynes had once said that Glenn was like a son to him, someone who would never betray his expectations.

But it was precisely because that was true and because Glenn cared so deeply for Professor Haynes that he ended up betraying those expectations.

In order to save the professor he saw as a father, Glenn tried to expose Winter Winslet.

And in doing so, he stole the evidence, only to be discovered by the Second Point Sakis Lubas of the Heptangam Society and the recipient of the materials.

He was killed as a result.

This document was both Glenn’s accusation and his final will.

And this will never see the light of day.

I sparked a flame over the paper in my hand.

Crackle, crackle—

The will burned away in an instant.

It’s unfortunate for Glenn, who risked his life to protect his mentor, but this information must never be revealed.

Because I am Winter Winslet.

If Glenn’s accusations succeed, I become a traitor to the kingdom.

Forget losing my title…. every city would put out a warrant, and I’d be marked for execution the moment I showed my face.

Once again, I was reminded.

Winter Winslet is the irredeemable villain of Candela of Judgment.

And I was the one working to ensure that villain’s survival.