'.....What the fuck.'
Some demon bitch jumped me and threatened to kill me.
I had successfully managed to talk my way out of it, barely.
I thanked my past self for taking the [Sly] trait.
But now... My situation wasn't great.
The camp was destroyed, the knights dead.
'Oh shit!'
I looked over to see Evelyn's tent.
She was.... sleeping soundly?
Even after all that?
Since she was safe, I gave myself some time to gather my thoughts.
The demon from earlier would see through my bullshit as soon as she went back to her superiors.
'Speaking of which, how the hell did she find me?'
Right now, the intelligence forces of the demons inside the empire were not very developed.
Sure, getting information such as the day when academy students would leave was simple, but figuring out which student was going where?
I quickly came to the conclusion that the vice principal was behind it.
'As soon as I get back to the Academy... I'll have to start dealing with him.'
If I used my family's influence, with the justification that several family knights died, it would be possible to launch a private investigation in the school.
But I needed to be delicate about how I did things.
If I made my actions too obvious, making Ataraxis panic, he could go on a rampage.
His strength was underestimated as he was publicly known to have two magics, without a mutated magic, whilst in reality he had awakened three magics, and possessed death magic.
If I dealt with him haphazardly the school could turn into a graveyard, which was something I had to avoid at all costs.
'...Pain in my ass.'
It would be much easier if I could just lure him out and kill him silently, but he was a paranoid old man.
His paranoia was not surprising, considering he was constantly surrounded by his own enemies.
To soothe him, the demons had given him many cloaking artifacts to mask his true self.
The demons did not do this out of kindness, but they genuinely placed value upon Ataraxis.
He was one of their most important spies in the empire, and they could not risk his discovery before the full demonic invasion began.
If he was discovered, the entire intelligence system of the demons could be in jeopardy.
'Hah... I'll take care of him, definitely, and that god damn ice bitch too.'
I had calmed down from the earlier situation, swearing vengeance against the vice principal, and hopefully one day the demon who attacked me.
I walked over to Evelyn's broken tent and shook her, waking her up.
Surprisingly, one shake was enough to wake her up, and she already seemed wide awake.
I explained the situation to her, cutting some parts out, and told her we had to leave.
Understanding the danger of staying here, she quickly agreed.
We no longer had a coachman to drive the carriage, and neither of us knew how to handle the horses, yet we had no choice but to try.
The horses were well trained, and thus we were lucky in the fact that we did not need any riding skills to handle them.
My first thought was to abandon the carriage and just go by horseback, but that would not be great for my investigation plan.
We had to load the corpses of the knights into the carriage, as they would serve as vital evidence.
There were a few extra horses which the deceased knights had originally been riding.
I expected we would have to abandon them, but without any prodding, they followed us along.
--------------
Evelyn was extremely scared.
For the past day, she had been acting normal towards Ares, but she was unsure as to how long she could last.
She had awoken that night, and she had overheard everything Ares had told the demon.
Right now, the most shocking part was not the revelation of a demon in the central continent.
But Ares apparently being a part of the demonic army.
At first, she rationalized it as Ares making up lies to convince the demon to not kill him, which would make sense if not for the fact that he had so much information that even the suspicious demon was convinced.
How did he know the demon king's name? Why did his explanation make sense?
It would explain the sudden change in his behavior after joining the academy.
...Maybe, after joining the academy, he had fallen under the control of demons?
She was unsure what to do, questioning many things.
Who should she tell? If she told the lord, she might be killed for simply accusing the son of a duke for being a demon.
For now, she decided to just keep the thoughts at the back of her mind, and instead observe Ares more intently from now on.
Up until now, the things he had done and the kindness he had shown her could easily have been an act.
The new person he had begun could be a lie, and he may be committing all sorts of atrocities in the background.
For one, what did he do on the night in which he received permission to leave school? She had heard him return in the early hours of the morning.
It was all too suspicious.
---------------------
We had finally reached the Castellan Duchy.
Immediately, we were escorted to the family estate, and I had the knights handle the corpses of the knights that had fallen against the ice demon lady.
Their faces were in disbelief upon hearing that it was a demon behind the attack.
Originally, I had thought about how the family and estate knights would treat me coldly, but considering that there had just been an assassination attempt on my life, they treated me rather well.
The knights told me they would inspect and then later bury the bodies of the deceased ones.
Evelyn and I were immediately taken in for a medical examination before entering the estate manor.
There was quite a long process, but eventually, I entered the manor.
It was a familiar, yet unfamiliar place.
I was unable to take the grandeur of the manor in immediately, as it seemed that my father had been waiting for me.
Isaac von Castellan.