The mission Elijah and the others were on was not one that took days to complete. They even left and returned using teleportation magic. But when Elijah and the others breathed in the scent of the academy and saw the students in their distinctive uniforms, the group involuntarily began to sigh in relief while feeling half moved.
"Huh... I want to go to my room right away...."
Henrik involuntarily muttered, especially when he realized that his time on the mission did not allow him to clean up in the slightest.
"I want to sleep and recharge my energy...."
Damian also looked at the dormitory building visible in the distance and began to say what he wanted tiredly. Only Quirin and Elijah did not say anything about it. That was because both of them knew they still had to report to the headmaster about what happened during the mission.
"Alright. Then, we will leave first."
"What do you want to do?"
Elijah caught Henrik and Damian wanting to leave first and asked them flatly. The two exhausted men raised their eyebrows in confusion. "We'll be back to our room. What else do we have to do?" they asked almost simultaneously.
"Oh my. We still have to go to the academy head's room after this. Once the academy head has declared that we have been relieved of the mission, only then will the mission assigned to us truly be considered complete by the academy."
"Ugh!"
Both Henrik and Damian already knew that, as the procedures regarding missions had been explained to them since they became academy students. However, the fatigue after facing such a dangerous situation made them momentarily forget about such arrangements. In the end, everyone was still forced to report to the academy head first. The group walked through the large academy building without stopping until they finally arrived in front of the academy head's room.
KNOCK KNOCK!
"Sir, we from the team sent to investigate the Latham Ruins have returned and are ready to report."
Representing the others, Quirin knocked on the door and introduced their team to the academy head. They all waited for a while until someone's voice came from inside.
"Come in."
"Thank you, Sir!"
Only when given permission did Quirin and the others dare to enter the room of the person in charge of everything that happened at the academy. The head of the academy was usually too busy to handle the various things that happened in the academy. Therefore, this meeting was something rare for them.
The meeting with the head of the academy would probably be the first for the first-year student. Elijah himself was curious about the person who was considered the most powerful in the academy, so he could rise to the position of academy head and keep it for decades.
"Welcome back. You must be tired after doing that mission."
Sitting on the head of the academy's bench was an old man with a gentle smile on his face. Elijah stared at the figure for a few seconds until his status information appeared in front of Elijah.
[Name] Griffin (80 years old)
[Level 90]
[HP] 3500/3500
[MP] 3000/3000
[Stamina] 2500/2500
[Physical Skills] One-handed level 45, Body enchantment level 41, Block level 32, Light step level 28
[Magic Skills] Fire level 50, Earth level 50, Magic shield level 50, Teleportation level 42, Six sense level 40, Healing level 35
This was the first time Elijah had ever seen an NPC reach level 90 and possess almost equal physical and magical abilities. Elijah almost assumed that the head of the academy was an 'outsider' like him. However, the system had said that there was only one 'outsider' on the Rhodes Continent, which was him. So, in the end, Elijah only concluded that Griffin was an anomaly among the NPCs.
"You are the first-year students sent to accompany Quirin, right? I've heard everything from Gazel. You guys did a great job defeating that giant knight with great cooperation."
Elijah's attention returned as Griffin's attention was drawn to the first-year students. Or, more specifically, on Elijah. Griffin's smile gave Elijah a strange feeling. However, unlike Quirin, who made him automatically alert on their first meeting, Griffin's smile made Elijah feel like he had just been praised by his parents.
Elijah subconsciously looked away. In this strange world, Elijah didn't want anything to replace the feeling he could only get from his parents.
"Sir, no matter what you hear from that human, you should at least know that he is the most useless human in our team. He even almost killed three of us. Now that we have returned to the academy, I hope you give him the appropriate punishment for his actions."
Fortunately, Griffin's attention was soon drawn to Damian, who felt that Gazel wasn't telling Griffin the truth. Gazel managed to survive and complete the mission without doing anything significant. After Damian and the others almost died because of his actions, Damian felt it was unfair if Gazel got the same grades as them after returning to the academy.
"Damian, hold your temper for a moment. We are here to set things straight."
Griffin watched Quirin try to calm the upset Damian, then gave a brief nod. "All right. Let me hear what really happened in there," he informed him.
After that, Quirin explained everything without adding or subtracting anything. The only thing that left Elijah dissatisfied was probably the fact that Quirin did not mention how he chose to do nothing when Gazel intended to leave the others by closing the door. Griffin listened to Quirin's explanation seriously. Then, after Quirin finished speaking, Griffin finally let out a long breath.
"First of all, let me apologize to all of you."
Griffin's words surprised everyone. Even so, none of them spoke until Griffin continued.
"So far, the ruins we found have never posed a great danger, so we concluded that sending three first-year students and one third-year student was enough to explore the place. Our mistake made you face more danger than you could bear. Gazel seems to know that the academy cannot punish students who break the law due to the academy's mistake. Therefore, he might not be afraid to harm any of you."
"If I'm not mistaken... that kind of law is written in the academy's handbook."
Quirin added as he saw that the others did not believe that there was indeed such an arrangement in the academy. The academy did not support those who acted maliciously toward their comrades. However, if they did so because they were in a situation where the level of danger was greater than they could bear, any death that occurred at that time would not be considered part of the student's fault.
The students tried their best, but the enemy was too strong. Such a sentence is something that is used in the case of students being killed in a dangerous place, whether they are killed by friends or foes.