The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

I stepped into the Adventurer’s Guild and was greeted by an unexpected extravagant welcome party.

“Ughhh!!”

Wrapped in a mat and getting a thorough beating was none other than me, Atlas Titan, an officer of the Empire’s pride, the Royal Knight Order, the Master of Shadows, and the proud holder of the legendary Mithril Plate that would go down in the history of the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Kill him!”

“You just ran off leaving us to clean up your mess!!”

The ones laying into me were my best buddies from the Snow Country Exploration Team. Each of them was a handpicked elite, and for some reason, they were all furious, taking their anger out on their captain—me.

“What kind of captain are you! You disbanded us, so I’m the former captain now!!”

Ah, right. I guess that makes sense.

I had mostly recruited folks who were at least Gold Plate level, meaning they were experienced and significantly skilled. Their hits were particularly fierce.

It was quite a rough welcome party, but I just took it, thinking it would end soon.

“How did you know I was coming??”

“We heard someone was riding a Dragon Wagon in broad daylight!! How many people can borrow one of those?!”

That’s a point.

“You ungrateful fools, I gave you all that treasure!!”

“Run away!!”

“There were twelve of us beating him, and he just slipped away!!”

Feeling that this was getting out of hand, I toppled the mat and sprung to my feet, causing my comrades to scatter in disarray.

I thought they were just kicking me, but it turned out one of them had a club in hand.

That guy is dead meat today.

“Hans, you ungrateful bastard! I saved you from that orc lady, and this is how you repay me!”

“L-Let me go, Captain!! I’ll die if I get hit with that!”

“What about me?? Let me just take three good whacks with that club, alright?!”

New sounds of brawling and new screams filled the Adventurer’s Guild, and the adventurers who were drinking in the hall turned our scuffle into a reason to drink even more.

Before long, one of my team was caught and beaten, prompting the others to scramble for the door.

Not that they could escape, anyway.

They greet our noble captain like this after such a long time?

“Hey, where do you think you’re all running off to??”

“Ah! Aahhh!! Captain, wait…!! You’re at fault too!!”

“What I did wrong is on me, but you getting beaten is a whole different matter!”

“Ughhhh!!!”

They were all tough as nails, so despite the beating, none of them had broken a bone or anything.

After a few minutes of chase, only I and one other stood tall.

“It’s been a while, Atlas.”

“Yeah, it really has, Bella.”

Her pillars of brown hair woven into braids framed intense eyes that captured me.

Dressed in a navy uniform with a reddish-brown coat, she had three medals pinned to her chest.

One signified the Snow Country Exploration Team, another represented the Empire Archaeology Society, and the third indicated her formal membership in the Magic Tower.

Her name was Bella, a competent magician and archaeologist, and my companion from the Snow Country Exploration Team.

“What a coincidence. I never imagined we’d meet again like this.”

“Yeah, Atlas… Can we talk for a bit?”

Bella, the long-lost comrade, didn’t seem particularly happy to see me.

…

Me and Bella moved to a corner of the hall with the other members.

“Bella, why the long face?”

She called me over to talk but remained quiet, seemingly collecting her thoughts as she stared at me.

I felt something was off.

The Bella I knew was always laughing, but right now, she looked as icy as a winter’s day.

“First… long time no see. Have you all been well?”

“I’ll say it’s been half and half.”

Saying it was half and half meant they had been alright but also struggled, didn’t it?

A rather ambiguous response.

“By the way, Captain, it looks like you’re still alive. We were all wondering if something had happened to you.”

“Hmm?”

The only dwarf in our group chuckled and interjected.

“About two months ago, there was a kid who came to say he’d kill the Captain, you know?”

Thinking back, only one person sprang to mind as the little brat who seemed eager to take me out.

She must have been referring to Casey when she visited.

“Ah, yeah, I did get stabbed then.”

“Wow, but you’re still alive and kicking, huh?”

“Am I losing my marbles?”

As he chimed in, I threw a tin cup at him, landing a solid hit on his head.

“That mess with our hideout was absolute chaos! Thinking back, it seems pretty cute compared to what’s happening now.”

Finally, Bella mustered up the courage to speak.

It looked like Casey didn’t just come empty-handed; she made a real mess.

I’d have to give her a good talking-to when I got back.

But that wasn’t the pressing issue at hand.

Rumor had it that an intruder had hit the office, injuring everyone involved—much more serious than that.

Bella finally willed herself to speak.

“…Atlas, someone is attacking us.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Her grave statement surprised me.

I had certainly made sure to establish my connections with powerful groups before I left, so who dared to mess with us now?

“After you left, we were going to keep only a few crucial artifacts and sell off most of the gold we found… but someone started applying pressure.”

“Pressure? What do you mean?”

“Yeah. Suddenly, the contacts we had cut off relations, and the auctions we were waiting for got canceled. Even my paper can’t get approved; they keep rejecting it, saying I lack materials.”

As she spoke, her emotions overwhelmed her, and tears began to spill from her eyes.

The treasures we had brought back from the Snow Country were made of precious metals; they could definitely have been worth more than gold if traded properly…

“… Tell me more.”

“Captain, we’re being pressured throughout the capital! The gold dealers are telling us they’ll buy everything we brought back for just one-tenth of the market price!”

It sounded like someone with significant power was targeting the entire Exploration Team.

And quite coincidentally, a face, the kind of character that could pull such a stunt, flashed across my mind.

“I’m sorry for what just happened. But…”

Bella wiped her tears with a handkerchief.

Ideally, the rest of our team would be drinking and having fun right now, but instead, they sat silently waiting for Bella to continue.

This level of seriousness made it clear we weren’t joking around.

“No… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said so much, but it’s really hard without you around…”

Seeing Bella, who fought to suppress her emotions, reminded me of the first time I met her.

She was laughed at by many while searching for ancient ruins in the Snow Country, relying solely on her grandfather’s diary.

Though she acted tough on the outside, she cried quietly in hidden places until we finally met.

This was a side of her she hadn’t shown when we embarked on our journey together to truly explore the Snow Country.

“Where on earth have you been all this time…”

Trying to keep it together, Bella finally broke down in tears.

“After you left, it was Bella who had to handle everything, and I’ve faced nothing but hell!”

In that solemn atmosphere, I felt like the biggest villain in the world.

‘I’ve been too complacent.’

The Snow Country Exploration Team had become a hot topic.

They had braved the once-thought unbeatable Magical Realm and returned laden with treasures, expecting a happy future after disposing of the loot, but reality was cruel.

Someone was after the treasures we collectively unearthed, and the team was under attack.

I had clearly left with a warning, intimidating everyone on my way out, yet I never thought someone would go as far as to disregard that.

“I’ll handle it.”

…

…

…

A while later, to shake off the ominous mood, I ordered the most expensive snacks and drinks from the guild and threw a rousing party.

“Hehe, our captain is just that big-hearted!”

“Shut it. I’m only being nice because I feel sorry for you all getting hit.”

“Sure, sure!”

Everyone filled their bellies with booze like they were going bottomless.

Having already plundered the Snow Country, we still hadn’t made the proper use of the treasures, leaving us all quite impoverished.

We may be gold-tier adventurers, but even so, we couldn’t focus on our tasks because we had to deal with treasure management.

“… We did receive a proposal to hand over some of the artifacts.”

“From the Magic Tower?”

“Yeah… you know about that?”

“I have someone in mind who looks suspicious.”

Even Bella, who usually didn’t drink, was joining in today.

It seemed that she was indeed facing some nasty pressure from the Magic Tower regarding the artifacts discovered in the Snow Country.

Since she was part of the tower, she might have considered handing some over, but when they pointed out the most critical artifacts, she insisted that joint research could happen, but transfer was out of the question, which likely led to this mess.

“Would it have been better to just hand them over? I feel like my ambition to restore my grandfather’s glory is putting everyone through hell. We might not even get to make the presentation at this rate.”

Bella took a swig from her rough tin mug filled with high-end whiskey.

The potent smell of alcohol wafted up, almost overwhelming.

-Slurrrp!

As we each raised our cups for another drink, the guild’s door swung open suddenly.

“Why did you take so long?”

“Atlas, who’s that person?”

Oh right… what time is it now?