I Stayed Loyal When My Teacher Was Betrayed

25 – Teacher’s Heart 5

Adventurers’ Guild Valkyrie.

Inside the guild’s meeting room, discussions were in full swing today to determine Valkyrie’s policies.

The Grandmaster-level adventurers, their advisors, the surrounding lords who offered support,

and Ovelin, the Guild Master.

However, unlike before, where voices would rise here and there, the room was now almost silent with only one person speaking.

“To be honest, there have been many unnecessary expenses in the name of business all this time, right? This is an opportunity to get rid of such things! We will strengthen the criteria and conduct regular inspections. If things go awry, we will immediately withdraw resources and repay everything with interest.”

“But… But that’s too…”

“Why? This is also spending money made from the blood and sweat of citizens, so it should be thoroughly done. Surely you wouldn’t support such shoddy work that even a lord couldn’t get right, right?”

“That… I mean…”

“As I expected. There’s no way capable people like you, my Lord, can’t distinguish such things. There have been quite a number of those kinds of people until now, but from now on, we will decisively deal with them, so everyone, please do your work smartly~!”

“…Fine…”

“Ah… understood… Master.”

Like water flowing, Ovelin handled tasks through a process that could be called persuasion or coercion.

In this absurd situation, her rise to the position of Grand Master clearly revealed how she managed to climb up despite everything.

“Alright, then, let’s make a decision about this matter! Are there any objections?”

“…No. There are none.”

People nodded their heads with dying voices.

Of course, even without paying much attention, I could tell that there were many opponents among them.

However, none of them could stop Ovelin from pushing ahead with her plans at this moment.

One of the four major families, which had been one of the greatest forces within the adventurer guild, had descended into internal conflict due to the sudden deaths of its leaders. Neglected by Ovelin, they couldn’t even properly stand their ground, along with their followers.

As a result, the former opposition to Ovelin was just serving as placeholders here, unable to do anything meaningful. Seizing this opportunity, Ovelin was boldly pushing forward with what she had in mind.

Of course, once things calmed down later, they would likely manage to put some brake on her actions and oppose her collectively.

But that was something for later.

Rather, Ovelin’s aim was to finish dealing with all important matters before such a time.

“Well, next, we’ll talk about the adventurers’ behavior related to excessive drinking! Lately, there has been an increase in adventurers drinking and brawling, and as the head of the Adventurer Guild, we cannot overlook this! We must set proper penalties and regulate this, shouldn’t we?”

“Um… but isn’t it inevitable for adventurers to drink to relieve fatigue?”

“That’s right. Excessive punishment could actually undermine morale.”

“Now, the issue here is: who within the Adventurer Guild drinks the most while never receiving a single complaint, remaining calm and beautiful? Who might that be?”

“…”

“Yes! It’s me! Everyone, please use me as an example to moderate your drinking habits! Honestly, are these strapping men incapable of even doing what women can do? In that sense, we will thoroughly crack down on those who are weak and provide unwarranted leniency, so everyone, please cooperate~”

“Um…”

In this manner, Ovelin forcefully pushed through another matter while holding forth her arguments.

Meanwhile, observing her in this demeanor, I realized another fact.

“Master? Are you okay right now?”

“Oh… No. It’s nothing. Just… some dust got in my eye…”

A lively and energetic depiction of Obelin in many ways, watching her, the teacher was shedding a few tears.

Objectively, it was not easy to understand.

However, based on the stories heard roughly from the teacher, that appearance was somewhat understandable.

‘You said it was really hard before… Teacher, and that person Obelin…’

Both the teacher and Obelin claimed to have had many experiences within the adventure guild.

From my perspective, there was no reason to dig up past painful memories, so I decided not to pay much attention to this issue for now.

Just focusing on the fact that the teacher seemed very happy at this moment, I carefully handed her a handkerchief.

The time for the meeting, which had continued until late in the evening, was over. However, instead of going home, the teacher and I spent some time in Obelin’s office.

“Great! Come on, teacher, have a drink too!”

“Thank you. And good job, Obelin. You had a lot to do today, but you managed to handle it all in the end.”

“Haha~ There are things we can’t handle unless it’s now, you know. It’s all thanks to the teacher and the students! You all passed the exams and also organized the Four Major Houses…”

“Obelin, we agreed not to talk about it, didn’t we?”

“Ah~ I apologize. Anyway, thanks to you, we were able to fill in all the gaps that came up due to such a large number of items.”

“It’s definitely not easy to just easily sweep away all those things… But still, if the law is properly enforced, things can improve little by little.”

Various disabilities and malpractices that were impossible to punish due to regulation-related issues.

In many ways, Obelin’s progress in binding them one by one with the law could be considered challenging and important.

In the yard where there were various excuses to escape by using loophole after loophole despite the fact that there were regulations that could be immediately enforced, it was obvious how much of a mess the situation had been until now.

“This is just the beginning~! We’ve established the law so the next step is to implement it. Everyone will have to work together to change the overall flow.”

“Yeah, we all have to be especially careful in our actions. After all, the most important justification comes from the everyday actions.”

“Yes, especially in the teacher’s case, as you have many watchful eyes on you. And since you’ve quickly risen to the rank of Grand Master, there are quite a few people who are paying attention to you.”

“Thank you for the advice. I will be cautious.”

“Well, then, in that sense, let’s have another drink…”

At that moment.

-Bang!

“…What?”

“What was that?”

In the next moment, a single official document suddenly appeared in the air with a bang.

Documents like this were usually delivered only in urgent situations,

So, with a hint of doubt and concern, Ovelin accepted it while wearing a slightly worried expression.

“What could be so… urgently important at this hour…”

Ovelin mumbled softly as she tore open the letter as it was.

Immediately after, her face turned cold.

“…What… what is this?”

“Why are you like that? What’s wrong?”

“Well… this… hey! It would be better for you to see it directly.”

It was a piece of information marked with security indicators that seemed not to be exposed to the outside world yet.

But Ovelin disregarded it and showed it to us as it was right in front of her eyes.

And its contents were…

“!…”

“Mas… Master…. Is this real?”

For a moment, the stern face of our teacher froze.

However, it was not only the teacher who reacted this way.

The content contained within had enough power to confuse even me.

“The Alliance Army against the Demon Clan?”

The Alliance Army, which we joined forces with around the same time we arrived here in Valkhalla.

With one of the three Great Demon Kings, Ordein, having been killed, they saw this as an opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the remaining Demon Kings and Demons.

In a way, it was an undeniable fact, not unrelated to our teacher, who actually killed Ordein.

However, we had been living our lives without paying much attention to this issue until now.

We were busy with the adventurer’s journey at the moment,

And the teacher had decided to put off any interest in matters concerning the Demon Clan until a suitable time for revenge approached.

Furthermore, since the adventurers had long decided not to intervene in this expedition, even the expeditionary forces hardly had any influence on us.

So, regardless of whether the expeditionary forces were leaving or not, we were solely focused on the adventurer’s affairs.

Thus, the part regarding the expedition had started to fade away from our memories.

But…

“But… they were defeated… is what you’re saying? They were?”

The news of their defeat reached us unexpectedly.

And one more thing that surprised us.

The commanding unit that led the expeditionary force.

It was a story about the heroes who defeated the so-called Demon Lord.

“Yeah… The news is that the expeditionary force, led by the wizards who brought down Ordin this time, suffered a major defeat and was completely wiped out.”

“!!”