79 The Change

(Third Person Pov)

List of Potential Threats

Just as the words suggested, it was a list of potential threats, to be exact, a list of students who fell under the category of potential threats.

There was no telling what a child would grow up to be like in the future even if their upbringing, their environment has been carefully managed by the adults.

Like flowers, some could grow to be beautiful even in terrible conditions while some need absolutely ideal conditions with lots of troubleshooting and even then they might not grow.

Just like that, some would grow up to be heroes and some villains.

And you see, villains are not needed.

What was the point of making a villain powerful by your own hands?

So, academies all around the continent have one more job tasked by the government in secret.

It was to look after these potential threats.

Students with a character that fell under the mark of questionable.

Of course, they would try to look after the students at first and try to correct their behavior but if it doesn't work, they will take the necessary steps to stop a great villain from being born. 

As they say, nip it in the bud.

Regis looked at the boy currently standing in front of him as he considered his words.

"It's not like I can enter the dungeon. If I could, I would have simply gone there."

His expression hasn't changed once throughout their conversation, his black-colored, empty-looking eyes seemed to resemble a void, and his voice so completely devoid of any emotion.

Regis couldn't understand what in the world could have happened for him to change to such a degree.

It almost felt like he was talking to an entirely different person.

Anyway, it doesn't seem like he went to a hidden dungeon.

Regis concluded, that Noah's explanation as absurd as it sounded still made sense and explained his strength.

The rewards from hidden dungeons are unexplainable and incomprehensible.

To begin with, the very idea of thinking that Noah had entered a hidden dungeon and came out alive from it when he is just a low ranker was absurd to begin with.

Regis felt ridiculous to have entertained such a line of thought.

"Considering everything that you have shown us, maybe you should be allowed to go in the dungeon," Regis muttered under his breath.

Laura and Rindo simply looked at him from the corner of their eye, Regis ignored their looks.

To enter a dungeon, one needs to have at least an adventurer license and be of age 18.

Noah was disqualified in both those aspects and couldn't enter the dungeon.

"No matter how we try to cut it in the end it was you who saved the day and students or else something bad might have happened. For that, I am grateful to you and would like to express my gratitude. If you don't mind me asking, would you like to enter the dungeon?"

What Regis implied was simple, he would grant Noah permission to enter the dungeon as the reward.

"Do you think I am some sort of dumbass who doesn't understand that you need me to go to the dungeon instead of killing your artificial monsters, saving you the money? How the fuck is that my reward? It's not even you being a cheap stake, just a bruh moment."

"...I didn't mean that"

Regis muttered under his breath, he really didn't think about it when he offered Noah the reward but now that he thought about it, this is an issue too!

Noah needs to go to the fucking dungeon!

He had forgotten about all this.

Sure, the academy didn't face any losses but they definitely had spent a huge amount of sum in the last month than they usually do!

"We are overlooking you using sacrificial magic, think of that as the reward" 

It was Rindo who said it.

"This is why you are single, cheap stake"

Whistle~

Laura whistled, with a smile tugged on her lips.

"What did you just say?"

"Having hearing problems?" Noah asked and then looked towards Regis as he continued "You sure, he isn't a fraud...or he is a defective high-ranker"

"Brat, do you want to die?" Rindo said irritated and annoyed, what actually got on his nerves more was Noah's indifferent tone.

"Yeah, I do. Now what?"

"Enough. You two."

Regis said rubbing his temples and both of them went silent.

"What do you want as a reward?"

"My information. I want you to keep the matter that I can use mana and aura from even my teachers a secret."

Ah, he is bringing the matter himself.

Regis was going to talk to Noah about this as well.

After all, this wasn't some small issue.

It was unheard of for someone to be able to use both mana and aura.

Mana, aura, people were capable of only using either of the two.

As for demons, they can only use demonic energy.

At least, that's what Regis had always known but this common sense of his was shattered earlier this year by another student who could use two of these three energies known to everyone in the world.

And now, Noah had shown that he could use two of these too.

It was information that needed to be concealed.

Regis found it helpful that Noah seemed to share the same thoughts.

"I understand. We will do our best to keep your information under wraps."

Noah simply gave a nod.

"Alright then. You can leave for your class now"

Without saying another word Noah turned around and started walking away.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Yesterday, we found around 7 corpses, some belonged to the teachers, some to the workers but what we found next was more shocking, they all seemed to be spies from other continents or people from evil organizations meant to harm the students."

It was Rindo who had said it as he placed the cup of his coffee on the table.

Noah tilted his head to the side as he began to speak

"I have no fucking idea why you think telling me something like this is a good thing but the actual hell is wrong with your security?"

"Right, it's funny. We also thought we had our students protected but who could have thought we have so many enemies on the inside? Don't worry though, we will work on getting rid of them. I just wanted to ask, where were you at last night?"

Noah did what any Gen Z kid would.

"With your mom" An insult as old as time.

A beep sound resounded in the room, where it came from wasn't something Noah was interested in.

Rindo glared at Noah with scorn in his eyes.

"I am not joking, answer"

Noah simply shook his head

"I was sleeping and stop telling me spooky shit, I don't wanna be stressed about crap I shouldn't be about." 

Rindo didn't say a single thing for a second and then with a nod spoke.

"You can fuck off."

"Yeah, I will fuck off your ..." Noah didn't complete the sentence as he left the room leaving Rindo angered.

Once Noah left, leaning back on his chair, Regis opened his mouth while Laura stifled her laugh

"What do you think?"

"Well, you heard the beep. Seems like Noah wasn't with Rindo's mom, after all. Good for you, Rindo."

Laura scoffed.

"One of these you are gonna get your ass handed." Rindo glared at her as he said it and then lightly shook his head as he continued "There's nothing to think about. It didn't beep when it mattered."

Saying so he pulled out a small cubical-shaped crystal object, it was an artifact.

An artifact to determine truth from lies.

Whenever someone lied the cube would turn red colored and then would beep.

During their entire conversation, the cube hadn't beeped even once.

"It's an A-grade artifact. There's no going around your way with this." Rindo said implying that Noah had indeed said only the truth.

What he didn't know was that Noah had learned to lie without getting caught by an SSS+ ranker and not by some no-name.

"Haa~ I get it. So, what should we make of the situation related to them?" Regis asked, bored.

By them, Regis referred to the people Rindo had assigned to keep a watch on Noah during the one month before Noah had joined the academy.

In simple words, they were the people whom Noah had found to be stalking him when he had arrived in this world.

...And out of all the people, only a single person was alive.

It had happened back when Noah had decided to go to Veil Groove.

The thing was, what happened back there wasn't something anyone knew or understood and would never know about either.

Noah had simply used the knowledge of the surrounding area and intentionally led all of them towards the wild beasts and left the rest of the work to the beasts

The results were simple. Only one returned alive.

Well, it was a matter that Noah had completely forgotten about. It was only natural since this was something that had happened almost a year back for Noah and stalking was far too trivial for Noah to register it as a threat.

He is so used to being under scrutiny that Noah had forgotten to bother with even trying to learn about who and where the stalkers came from.

...Noah has his issues.

Since the supervision was supposed to be on a kid with G+rank, Rindo hadn't assigned any high ranker to the team.

Until now, Rindo was suspicious about whether Noah had led them all to their deaths which Noah did but since Rindo didn't know, he wanted to know it.

And now he knew the reason for why Noah went to the Veil Groove.

There was no reason to think about it anymore.

"It was just an unfortunate accident" Rindo's voice was soft, he closed his eyes as if mourning for them.

"Hm"

That was all Regis said.

"Well, I will get going too. I am their homeroom teacher, after all"

Saying so, Laura started walking away.

Regis sitting still on his chair wondered about the difference between the person he had seen in the practical exam and the person he saw today.

Noah had saved their classmate at the risk of showing his ability to be able to use mana and aura.

For someone on the top of the list of potential threats, that was definitely an act that earned praise.

Regis hoped that Noah would continue to show positive changes. Nothing would make Regis more happy than a student leaving the list of potential threats.

And Regis believed that the Noah he had seen today would be able to do so.

It's just...

If before Regis had felt Noah to be brutal, cruel, and ruthless, the Noah he met today, simply felt ...creepy and inhumane.