A woman with light green hair, who had copsed to the ground, whining about how pointless the self-defense ss was.
And another woman with brown hair who had pped her across the face, disrupting the ss.
Watching the coborator finally start making moves, I quietly confirmed my suspicions.
‘I had a feeling something was off from the first day, and seeing her cause this kind of disturbance makes me almost certain now.’
At first nce, it seemed like she was participating in the dagger training, but her real goal was to create a bad atmosphere and prevent the women from learning any self-defense skills.
This was a ssic sabotage event carried out by a bandit coborator in the <em>Luminar Academy</em>''s Humanities Exploration ss. At this point, it was almost certain that she was the coborator, caught in the act.
‘I’d love to kick both of them out of the self-defense ss right now.’
But if I did that, it would likely cause others to leave as well. I had a feeling that about half of the women here shared the same doubts as the green-haired woman. If I kicked her out, it would create an atmosphere where people thought, ‘If I don’t want to do it, I don’t have to,’ and the other women who had some interest in learning self-defense would start dropping out.
"Teaching self-defense to the vige women" was part of our graded assignments, and if I didn’tplete it properly, the bandit fight would result in many casualties. That’s exactly what the coborator wanted, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.
‘On the other hand, siding with the brown-haired woman and scolding the green-haired one wouldn’t work either.’
Roughly half the women here probably agreed with the brown-haired woman’s aggressive stance. If I backed her up, it might encourage them to adopt her harsh attitude—criticizing the women who were slower to learn or giving a hard time to anyone who struggled.
That would also ruin the ss atmosphere and stop me from achieving my goal.
“What’s your problem?! And what did I say that was so wrong?! Why do we need to waste time learning how to swing a pointless dagger?!”
“And what happens if the bandits attack again? Are we all going to get captured and killed together? Didn’t you hear what Ris said yesterday? You want to be taken and live the rest of your life as some filthy bandits'' ything?”
“Still, you didn’t have to hit me! What am I supposed to do? It’s exhausting as it is with all the vige restoration work! Why waste our strength on something unnecessary?!”@@novelbin@@
“You’ll have to learn this eventually. Isn’t it better to learn while the academy instructors are still here? Once they leave, if the banditse again, our vige won’t stand a chance.”
“But did you really have to hit Mel?! There’s no need to make things this hostile…”
“I think Lisa did the right thing. Those bastards killed my father, trying to protect me. If I’d known how to defend myself, that wouldn’t have happened…”
The women were already starting to divide into two camps, each siding with either Lisa or Mel.
No matter which side I supported, the ss would fall apart. The best course of action in this case was to punish both Lisa and Mel.
“Enough! Stop this pointless argument, both of you.”
“But she used violence first…!”
“She ruined the ss atmosphere first…”
“The self-defense ss will continue. But right now, both of you are preventing it from moving forward. So, I’m asking you to stop.”
“She started it…!”
“She’s the one…!”
<em>Grab, grab.</em>
“…Ugh, you bitches. Can you just shut up already?”
I couldn’t let this argument go on forever, so I grabbed both of them by the neck in front of everyone.
Sometimes you have to take a hard stance to restore order in a chaotic situation.
<em>Choke, choke.</em>
“Guh…!”
“Ugh…!”
“You dumb bitches. Can’t you understand what I’m saying unless I spell it out for you? Wouldn’t it be better if you just did what I told you before it came to this?”
<em>Choke.</em>
“How many times do I have to say it? You want to die when the banditse back? Then go ahead and die on your own! Why drag others down with you? Should I just kill you here and now so you don’t have to sit through this damn ss anymore, huh?”
<em>Vigorous head shakes.</em>
“And you, damn it. I get that you want revenge, but what does that have to do with my ss? I’m here to teach you how to survive when the timees, not train you like some academy swordsmanship professor.”
<em>Choke.</em>
“If you’re so confident with a sword, you should’ve enrolled at the academy. If you’ve lived your whole life in this vige, you should act your part. You think you can suddenly get stronger just because you’re mad? If you’re that confident, why don’t you fight me right now? I’ll take you on without using any of my energy or magic. Let’s see if you can kill me.”
<em>Vigorous head shakes.</em>
“…”
<em>Thud!</em>
<em>Coughing, gagging.</em>
“Ugh…!”
“Cough…!”
After choking both women and unleashing my harsh words, the atmosphere in the self-defense ss chilled instantly.
The two women I had grabbed were obviously in no condition to speak, and the rest of the ss was too stunned by the tension to make any noise.
If I showed any signs of wavering now, I risked losing control of not only today’s ss but tomorrow’s as well. I had to make it clear to everyone what the consequences were for disrupting my ss.
“Both of you, get down on the ground.”
“…”
<em>Slight hesitation.</em>
“...Get down on the ground? Here?”
<em>Thud!</em>
“Kyaa?!”
“When I tell you to get down, you get down. See? It’s easy when you listen right away.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am…!”
The brown-haired woman immediately dropped to all fours, and only after I kicked her did the green-haired woman scramble to follow suit.
Now that I had dealt with the troublemakers—one of whom was clearly a coborator—it was time to refocus on the self-defense ss.
“There was a bit ofmotion, but we’ll continue the self-defense ss. Does anyone else have anything they’d like to say?”
“…”
<em>Silent head shakes.</em>
“If you don’t like something about the ss, feel free to speak up. I’m happy to offer special one-on-one training. If you can beat me in a duel, I’ll listen to whatever you have to say.”
“N-No, nothing…”
“…”
With the ss atmosphere finally restored, I continued the “Teach Self-Defense to the Vige Women” assignment.
The events of today’s ss had confirmed it—there was almost a 99% chance that a bandit spy was hiding among the vige women.
The pattern fit perfectly with one of the three coborator scenarios I had encountered while ying <em>Luminar Academy</em>. Based on the “Vige Women” pattern, the green-haired woman was almost certainly the coborator.
But even knowing that, I couldn’t just kill her on the spot. If I did, without definitive proof that she was working with the bandits, I’d be branded a murderer.
So, all I could do was share my suspicions during tonight’s meeting.
As everyone gathered in the men’s room after dinner, and I prepared to reveal the identity of the coborator…
“It seems we’ve found someone who’s working with the bandits.”
Before I could say anything, Seraphine spoke up first about the search for the coborator, forcing me to hold back my own revtion.