Our battle against the demon was over.

I headed for the academy with a passed out Epona on my back.

But I had to say, this looked terrible.

The Divine Spears【Gungnir】that I launched had altered the topography of the area.

This was the first time a demon appeared in this era, and the academy suffered a tremendous amount of damage as a result.

All this was caused by the appearance of a single demon.

The Goddess said that the hero was outside the norm, but demons were creatures that were just as abnormal, and I now realized that those who were within the norm couldn’t hope to win against them no matter how much they struggled.

It could’ve been that only that demon was a particularly strong individual, but this was merely wishful thinking on my part.

[Would even such a demon get crushed so easily because the hero got serious?] (Lugh)

Epona insta-killed a demon I couldn’t kill even after nearly exhausting all my fighting tactics.

From the beginning, I knew she was extraordinarily powerful, but what she did exceeded my imagination.

The hero didn’t need a party or anything like that.

All she needed was personnel who would gather information about the appearances of demons and hold them up when one of them was found.

If demons ever appeared, those people could only devote themselves to defensive warfare and wait for the hero to come to the scene. …For instance, no matter how far the hero was or how long it took, they would have to bear with it all.

As a nobleman with a fiefdom, that sounded terribly vexing.

Because it would be like leaving the fate of your territory in the hands of strangers.

[But I got a good harvest.] (Lugh)

Now I knew how much power I needed to kill Epona.

I could at least knock her unconscious after she had executed a full-scale attack.

…But above all, after seeing the hero kill the demon, I built up my hypothesis on a demon-slaying method.

I could verify said hypothesis right away.

The academy came into sight.

The people ran toward us to welcome us back.

Now the question was, how should I explain it all to them?

_______________________________________

They let me go after I spent an entire hour explaining the situation to them.

Because I was the only one who could tell them what happened since Epona was sound asleep.

I gave all the credit for my actions back there to Epona.

Otherwise, it was plain to see that I would’ve had a hard time taking action in the future.

Although, even if I told them the whole truth, they wouldn’t have believed me anyway.

As a result, Epona obliterated the orc army, then she dropped with exhaustion after fighting a series of battles against the demon. That was the scenario I went with.

As soon as they left the conference room, Talt and Dia came in my direction.

It appeared that they were waiting for me.

I was relieved to see the two of them safe and sound.

[Thank you for your hard work, Lugh-sama.] (Talt)

[You really went at it with a bang this time.] (Dia)

I guess they figured I was the one who did all that.

[It was refreshing to see you going all out after such a long time.] (Dia)

[But was it really alright for you to fight seriously in front of the hero?] (Talt)

[Of course it wasn’t.] (Lugh)

[Yes, I thought so.] (Talt)

Among all the skills Epona possessed, there were those used for analyzing.

This allowed her to counter any technique she had seen once.

And I revealed nearly every fighting moves I had at my disposal in the process of trying to kill the Orc General.

The fact that all those attacks would now be ineffective against her was a huge loss.

[But you have no regret, right?] (Dia)

[Yeah, because I wanted to protect you both and the academy. That was my top priority. Besides, I can always come up with even more impressive trump cards.] (Lugh)

I patted their heads.

When I did that, they grinned and leaned against me.

[Lugh, what do you think will happen to the academy?] (Dia)

[I think they’re going to close it for a while.] (Lugh)

The outer wall was crumbling, and the facility couldn’t serve as a fort anymore.

Many people were injured. Some had even died.

Forget about temporary closure, this could actually be definitive.

[Such a shame. I really enjoyed this school.] (Dia)

[…So did I.] (Lugh)

However, this was something we couldn’t do anything about.

Except leaving it to the adults.

[For now, enough talking while standing here. Let’s go back. I’m starving. It would be nice if they distributed meals here.] (Lugh)

This Academy Building also served as a fort.

So there had to be at least some food supply around.

[In case they don’t, please let me take care of it. I have been regularly processing leftover ingredients into preserved food and stashing them.] (Talt)

[Eh? Talt, you’ve been doing that? I had no idea.] (Dia)

[Fufufu…! I come from a poverty-stricken village, after all. I know fully well the pain of hunger.] (Talt)

Talt was most likely the only nobleman’s servant who did this. How appealing.

We arrived at the dormitory. Lucky for us, it was intact.

Today, I was going to enjoy a good meal and relax.

_______________________________________

The next day, after all the students had gathered, the academy’s temporary closure was officially announced.

It appeared that it would take two months for the buildings to be repaired, so until then, each one of us had to go back home.

Originally, we were supposed to have two months of summer vacation, so this was a formality to bring them forward.

It was a good thing that the closure wasn’t made definitive.

I thought there would’ve been complaints from across the continent for endangering the children of nobility, but on the contrary, it seemed that the academy was praised as the main actor in repelling the demon army during the early stage.

Fighting monsters was the duty of those who possessed mana, so it made perfect sense.

[We are now on a two-month vacation, aren’t we? We suddenly got a lot of free time in our hands.] (Talt)

[Perfect. It just so happens there are various things I wanted to do, so this is convenient.] (Lugh)

I wanted to experiment my demon-slaying method, and I needed to replenish my list of attacks with new ones.

I would do all that during those two months before going back to school.

Epona came in our direction.

She was timidly trying to apologize.

However, I got the feeling that she was a little more positive about it.

[Lugh, I’m sorry for not thanking you yet… So, thank you for stopping me.] (Epona)

[I promised, after all.] (Lugh)

[If that happens again, please stop me.] (Epona)

[If it does, I’ll stop you even if it means I’ll have to kill you.] (Lugh)

That is to say, I was here because I made such a promise.

If Epona ever became the enemy of this world, then I would assassinate her.

But after spending time with her at school, I knew that she wasn’t evil.

I planned to help in preventing her from going berserk.

[Then, I’ll be on my way.] (Epona)

[Are you going back to your hometown?] (Lugh)

[Oh no, I’ll be staying at the chivalric order’s home base.] (Epona)

Surely it was so they could dispatch the hero in case demons reappeared.

[Guess we won’t see each other for a while.] (Lugh)

[I’m going to miss you guys. See you next time.] (Epona)

[Yeah, see you.] (Lugh)

We saw her off.

…In reality, I was individually summoned by the headmaster to receive a mission.

Because of that, she and I would meet again in the near future, but saying that now would’ve been tactless.

[Talt, Dia. Shall we go home as well?] (Lugh)

After a delay, the knights who came to the academy’s rescue were tasked with taking the students to the nearest city.

And we would take advantage of that.

[Yes, Lugh-sama. Once we return, I shall cook you a feast with Tuatha Dé’s local ingredients.] (Talt)

[I’d like to review the research materials I couldn’t bring here.] (Dia)

Once again, I needed to build up power.

So I would become stronger.

…And I had to perfect my demon-slaying method as well.

I didn’t just want to help Epona.

If I couldn’t defeat the demons, I would lose something important to me. I didn’t want to be guilt-ridden because of such circumstances.

And my pride wouldn’t allow me to rely on the hero’s power to protect those important to me.

A carriage arrived, we embarked on it, and it started running.

I opened the window and looked back at the school gates.

[We’ll be back.] (Lugh)

The academy looked smaller and smaller.

The time I spent there was short, but it was pretty fun.

Once I had gotten stronger, I would come back.