I Got a Fake Job at the Academy
Chapter 443: Intensity (2)

A heavy silence descended in the greenhouse.

No one could carelessly open their mouths, even Bellaruna, who was usually insensitive, instinctively knew not to say anything in the current situation.

That was because Rudger was angry right now.

It wasn't just people who knew Rudger superficially, even those who prided themselves on knowing Rudger better than anyone else would have been shocked by this scene.

However, both the one who was angry and the target of that anger only stared at each other silently.

Rudger frowned at Walter's appearance.

Though he seemed to show no emotional fluctuation at first glance, this man had already given up and abandoned many things.

Rudger clicked his tongue and released his grip on Walter's collar.

"...If you want to get hit by someone to ease your mind, go wander around in dark alleys."

"Surprising. Others would have said I had no blood or tears."

"Your actions until now are enough to prove that."

Even if he regretted committing such acts and felt guilty, he couldn't deny that he had still done those things.

Walter had resolved himself to take a beating from Rudger to slightly ease this self-hatred, but even that resolution was coldly rejected by Rudger.

‘Perhaps this is the most fitting treatment for someone like me.’

Walter swallowed bitter self-hatred inside.

Rudger glared at Walter before turning his back.

"If you have nothing to say, I'll be going now."

"Are you going to rescue her?"

Rudger snorted at Walter's question.

"If someone hadn't called, I would have left long ago."

"I'll help."

Rudger turned back to look at Walter with a surprised expression.

Walter's face still showed no emotion, but he seemed to wear a strangely weak smile.

"I don't care how much it costs. I'll support everything possible with the Roschen family's money. No, if that's not enough, I'll sell shares to provide it."

"..."

"It doesn't matter if you find me disagreeable. I'll do what I can in my own way."

‘If you were going to say that, why did you let go until now.’

Rudger couldn't question Walter about that.

Walter probably didn't think his daughter would be kidnapped like this either.

He deliberately distanced himself and treated her like an abandonment to prevent this.

Saying this child has nothing to do with me.

Saying she's not the kind of child you all think she is.

Like that, he tried to deceive everyone's eyes but in the end, what he worried about happened.

Though it was Rudger who got angry at Walter, probably the one who regrets his past self more than anyone else in this place is Walter.

‘If I had known this would happen, I should have treated her well instead.’

The end is always just irreversible regret.

That's how regret is, like fine grains of sand flowing through the gaps between fingers.

No matter how much you try to hold on, it slips away.

That's why Walter didn't get angry or sad.

He knew that showing emotional turmoil would only paralyze reason and waste time.

That's why Walter suppressed all emotions and made a proposal to Rudger, saying he would support him with the Roschen family's wealth.

"You're also a rational person like me, so you must know well that this matter cannot be resolved with just courage."

Rudger silently stared at Walter.

Anyone who met that gaze would turn their eyes away or bow their head but Walter neither avoided nor ran away.

He had already made up his mind and it doesn't matter if he receives unfair evaluation.

It's fine to take any amount of criticism.

"Just promise me one thing. Please, bring that child back safely."

"You speak too easily about providing any support. What if I tell you to hand over the entire Roschen family, would you still accept that proposal?"

"Yes."

Walter answered without hesitation.

"If you bring that child back, I'll give you everything."

Everything.

No one in this place would not know how enormous the weight of that short word is.

"I'll remember those words."

Rudger left those words and went straight out of the greenhouse.

Alex and Bellaruna quickly followed Rudger as well.

Only Vierano was left watching the situation between the two.

"Professor Vierano. Would you follow them? We shouldn't let them get lost in the mansion."

"Walter."

"I'll soon send someone to open the warehouse. Until then, I...would like to rest, even if just for a moment."

Walter's voice was full of fatigue.

He was someone who never showed signs of staying up for days and nights.

That's how much he was shocked by Sedina's kidnapping.

"...Understood."

Only after Vierano left could Walter finally take off the mask he had been wearing on his face.

He sighed and approached the white chair placed in the center of the greenhouse.

Sitting there, Walter closed his eyes and felt the sunlight filtering through the glass.

The greenhouse was warm, but Walter couldn't shake off the feeling that it was somehow chilly.

* * *

Rudger, Alex, Bellaruna, and Vierano were guided to a location by the mansion's butler.

It was a warehouse so vast it couldn't be taken in at a single glance.

The stadium-sized space was filled with all kinds of artifacts they had never seen before.

"This is..."

"A warehouse. No, more accurately, should I say an exhibition hall?"

Rudger looked around the interior.

Though its scale might seem humble compared to the Imperial vault, the items placed here were no less impressive.

Alex picked up a nearby sword and examined it carefully.

Though subtle, magical power flowed through the well-finished blade.

He could feel it with his uniquely sharp senses.

"It's real. Then all these things here..."

"Are artifacts."

The one who answered that was Walter.

Everyone turned around as Walter was entering through the open entrance.

"At our Roschen, we deal with all kinds of artifacts related to magic."

Roschen was famous for almost monopolizing the magic business.

From magic liquid mining rights, magic stone business, to artifacts processed from those magic stones.

Compared to other major companies, Roschen's business scale wasn't large.

Nevertheless, it was called a major company thanks to this magic business.

Just taking 1/10th of the magic stones distributed in the Empire would bring in enormous money.

It wasn't for nothing that other companies coveted it.

Yet several companies failed to show clear results in the magic item business.

There was only one reason for this, because Roschen was still showing overwhelming results in the market.

They were deeply versed in creating magic artifacts and their high-quality artifacts showed superior performance even with identical products.

In fact, it needed no explanation since even the military and knights all used Roschen products for their protective artifacts.

"The items here go beyond those traded at high prices in the market, to things that haven't even had their information released to the outside yet."

"Crazy. You mean these are artifacts scheduled for release?"

Alex couldn't close his mouth that had fallen open in surprise.

Even new products were so scarce that people couldn't get them even with premium prices.

But these weren't just new products, but ones not even scheduled for release yet?

Just secretly taking and selling one item from this warehouse would give a commoner family enough money to live their whole life.

"You can take as many as you want."

Walter's statement made everyone's eyes except Rudger's grow wide.

Vierano stepped forward as representative and asked.

"Do you really mean that?"

"Didn't I say that I wouldn't spare any support? Where you must go is the Elven Kingdom. Not this city of steel, but a place where primitive forests prevail. So all I can do is provide this massive support."

"If we take them, how many would be appropriate?"

"That's not for me to suggest."

Walter only stuck to providing support.

He didn't give any other advice whatsoever because those on the field would know much better than him.

"Aren't they precious to you? The moment information about these artifacts leaks outside, Roschen will take a huge hit."

Vierano knew the value of the artifacts lined up here better than anyone.

It was a place overflowing with products so excellent that even he, who had lived for so long, trembled at them.

How much time, effort, and funds must have been invested to create just one artifact, yet he said he would gladly give them away.

"This is not a situation to be about that."

That single line contained many meanings.

Among them, what felt most desperate was Walter's determination.

Rudger looked around the warehouse interior.

Even just the displayed artifacts were things hard to see even in the Imperial vault.

Though Rudger had obtained quite good items from the vault, this place was different in class.

While the level of items was equal, here he could take as many as he wanted.

'It's also because this matter is that dangerous.'

It's a matter of going to rescue the kidnapped Sedina.

Those bastards have already kidnapped Sedina.

Moreover, since the Lumensis Order secretly helped them, it would be fair to assume they had already left Leathervelk.

'We have to go to the kingdom where the elves live to rescue Sedina.'

They didn't kill Sedina right away.

Then there was still time remaining.

"Professor Vierano. Let me ask one thing."

"Yes, please speak."

"Whose side are you on?"

Rudger thought this needed to be clearly decided here.

Vierano's expression hardened when he received that question.

It wasn't because Rudger's question was rude since he immediately understood why Rudger was asking him such a thing.

"From now on, we will be invading Renar-Tirone, the Elven Kingdom. Those who kidnapped Sedina are radical elves led by the Lifrey family but that doesn't mean the moderate elves have any reason to be favorable to us."

In fact, it would be fair to say Rudger's opponents would be the entire Elven Kingdom.

"This isn't an official matter. It's a rescue operation carried out in complete secrecy."

Though the elves' action of kidnapping an Imperial citizen deserved condemnation, it couldn't be officially challenged because it would consume too much time.

If the Lifrey family completely obtains the World Tree's authority using Sedina in that time then irreversible things would happen, so this operation had to be carried out in complete secrecy with minimal numbers.

They couldn't receive help on site, and support was even more out of the question.

In a place where they don't know how long it will take, where they must move thinking everyone is an enemy.

Could Vierano accept such an operation?

He is ultimately the master of one of the seven families that make up the Elven Kingdom.

For someone like him to participate in this matter was no different than raising a rebellion against his own kingdom.

"You can back out."

"Is it because I'm an elf?"

"Professor Vierano doesn't need to become a traitor. Though you unavoidably learned about this matter, who would blame you for stopping here?"

Anyone would be the same.

No matter how wrong and stained with sin it was, it was still their own race and homeland.

Asking Vierano, an elf, to be hostile to elves and help humans was too cruel a request.

Vierano was grateful for Rudger's proposal because he knew this.

"Still, I can't do that."

Vierano shook his head with a slight smile.

"Actually, I knew that we elves aren't just the mysterious and wise race known to the world. Our clan says humans are greedy and beastkin are barbaric. They say dwarves are simple because they handle iron. All while subtly showing that they themselves are the most noble. I often think that my clan might actually be the ugliest."

The elves' anger toward humans might be justified.

Considering the atrocities humans committed against elves during the Race War, their grudge would be deep enough to be carved in their bones.

But Vierano knew that unlike young elves, the anger held by aged elders and nobles was completely different from such things.

The real reason they were angry wasn't because humans touched innocent elves, it was closer to indignation that an inferior race dared to rebel against their superior selves.

"I found it disgusting. That's why I didn't strongly agree with their intentions. Under the excuse of harmony, I looked around outside the forest, wanting to face a wider world. Like that, I avoided and ran away from the truth. I shouldn't have done that."

Vierano muttered in a voice full of regret.

"In the end, all of this was self-satisfaction created by my selfishness. I didn't agree with their intentions. I'm different from them. Convincing myself like that while tacitly allowing all those actions. Like that...even now when a student has been kidnapped, I'm still hesitating. It's truly shameful."

"Anyone would be the same."

"I know anyone would be the same but Professor Rudger we are teachers who teach students."

Vierano looked at Rudger.

"At least those who teach, shouldn't be like that, right?"

You know that too, don't you, Professor?

Vierano's expression as he asked that somehow looked relieved.

"So I'll join too. Not as an elf of the Dentis family, but as Vierano, a teacher of Theon."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.