102 The World Is Changing

"Can we talk about serious matters now?" I asked glaring at her as I stood back on my feet. 

"Well, the person who tried to temper with the artifact was from one of those factions—you know, the ones worried about humanity advancing further and possibly exerting their dominance over other species"

Ah, it's them.

I would take the task of fighting a criminal organization over those guys any day. Those people were so driven by their desire and belief that it was ridiculous to me.

There's no talking them out. They are an insane bunch, at least the ones I have met so far.

But they weren't wrong, if humanity did advance further than them then as much as I hated to say it, it was true. We would try to dominate them, well the government will.

"And how did they manage to-" Before I could finish my sentence Jane responded to me already anticipating my question.

"Are you dumb? There's only one way, he entered the academy for a job, for how big this academy and advanced this academy is, there are a bunch of things that still require manual labor. Besides, while the other countries government may refuse any sort of affiliation with them, they are fucking helping them most of the time to get their way around. He has been employed for the past six months and yesterday, he found the best opportunity to off some potential future representative of humanity" Jane shrugged

"I am sure there are still a lot of them inside the academy" I voiced my opinion, it wasn't the end, they would strike again that much I was sure of.

"They won't try again, they can't."

I raised my eyebrow at her unable to understand as she spoke further

"It's simple. There were a total of 7 corpses found last night. Some of those belonged to them and some to another group entirely. The academy had tightened the security and has been re-checking everyone and their past details." She said as she threw her phone towards me, I caught and and looked at the screen.

It contained the information of the 7 people who had died last night.

"It only works for students from other classes. I think they might try to pull something during our dungeon expedition, that would be the best time for them to act, don't you think?"

"I won't deny that. It's the first time that that academy is going to let a bunch of first-years who are only in their 2nd month inside the dungeon. The dungeon itself is a dangerous place where you have to be alert at all times, in that sense, even if those guys tried something, what's one more problem, right? Besides, it would help your class grow up ...if you survive that is."

....

"Are you serious?"

She waved her hand dismissively as I let out a frustrated sigh.

Right, this was Jane we were talking about—the crazy bitch who wouldn't blink an eye throwing a 10-year-old child in the face of a monster.

"So, who was the one who killed them? From the way you phrased your words, it doesn't seem like it was the work of the academy" 

"Well, it's a third party we don't know about. There were no traces left behind, no fingerprints, no footprints, no mana signatures, no use of artifact to find—they probably killed without the use of mana or aura. Just simple, slicing their throats up using a knife." Her thumb moved across her throat in a slicing motion.

Just a simple, pure raw kill where one didn't use mana or aura, or any sort of artifact.

Such an act would require the person to be higher ranked than their opponents. That would mean... someone who was at least an A-ranker.

I threw the phone back to her, done reading about their details as I asked her another question.

"What about video footage or asking the AI for possible traces?"

"None to be found. Someone hacked into the system. The possibility of it being only a single person or two doesn't seem reasonable, so in the end, we have decided to assume it's the work of an organization. It could be one of those dumbasses that deliver their own form of punishment in the name of justice or ...it might be a new group entirely, can't say for sure."

I rubbed my temple feeling a headache coming my way.

"At any rate, I am sure they understand that it's in their best interest right now to lay low instead of trying something stupid."

I couldn't deny that, with the academy turning its regulations stricter and with the unknown third party in the picture it was better to simply observe the situation instead of trying anything.

"Besides, there's also the announcement made by the system last night. That announcement has changed the entire scenario for everyone." 

Ah...

Right.

Last night, when our duel had ended and the medics were all helping us, the system had announced the Demon Lord had entered the hidden dungeon.

No one in our class was talking about it but that was most likely because they had missed the announcement last night, it was only natural for them to do so, no one was in a situation to concern themselves with other things.

Many of them still hadn't recovered mentally, the fact that they were somehow able to come to class today was amazing in its own right.

But I was sure, it was just a matter of time before they would learn about the news and just like how the other students in the academy are talking about the issue and the world is currently talking about it, they too would be talking about the current situation.

Vivian hadn't brought up the issue in the morning. Was she being considerate of Emma, or did she simply have no thoughts about the matter?

Knowing her it might be the latter.

"How is the situation outside." 

"It's kinda troublesome..." Jane looked troubled as she bit on her lip "It happened so suddenly, it was kind of a shock for everyone. The situation related to him is still not clear. The international authorities have addressed and sent the demons a message and now they are waiting for a reply"

Waiting for a reply, huh?

I am sure the people with higher authorities must have moved with haste when they received the news that the Demon Lord had entered the hidden dungeon last night.

Even if we take into account that it hasn't been even a day since the people in the world received the news about Demon Lord and the time it must have taken for the higher-ups to gather... it still wouldn't explain why we haven't received a reply yet.

The Demon Lord has broken the treaty, instead of informing about the hidden dungeon's existence he had decided to enter it with no explanation whatsoever.

In a situation like this, I don't think it was too much to ask for a swift reply and cooperation from the demons.

"...Wasn't the estimated time around 10 years?"

I asked hesitating.

"No one could have expected that the Demon lord would make a move. Regardless, there's no denying it, the peaceful days are coming to an end. The war will once again descend upon us and this time it will be more brutal than it was before. "

I bit my lip unable to contain my frustration.

The Great Cataclysmic Event, commonly referred to as The Great Disaster occurred around 300 years ago and left the world with only 200 million lives—including the lives of all the new species that had emerged at that time. Six decades later, tensions between various species escalated into a cold war and later developed into a full-scale conflict lasting 3 years.

It was then that Lazarus Bloodfang, an SS ranked vampire, revealed the existence of Demons and their malicious acts.

The species ceased the war among themselves and joined hands to defeat the Demons and then... the world went to war with demons, a war that lasted a decade in which a total of 400 million lives were lost leaving the world with 250 million, a baffling number never seen before since the Great Cataclysmic Event itself.

In the end, the Demon Lord himself was the one who had asked for the peace treaty, for help.

While he was the cause of all the destruction, he was also the one who asked for the peace treaty, at first people had felt anger, people had felt frustration, they had felt rage at him for having the audacity to ask for such a thing, more so when we were reaching the conclusion of the long-winded war.

When he revealed why the demons needed to consume other species, people calmed down a little, enough to make rational decisions. Still peace treaty was out of question since now the Demon Lord had simply revealed that we cannot co-exist.

It was in the year 075 CI (Cataclysmic Event), when Professor Charlotte Evergreen, the great-grandmother of Vivian Evergreen, had found the cure for the demons.

It was then that the peace treaty was successfully formed.

Once the war ended, the threat was gone, and the people in it lived peacefully.

...Well, not really.

The threat ...was never gone.

Why did the Demon Lord ask for a peace treaty? Why was the war dragged on for a decade? The demon lord is an SSS+ ranker, a rank completely unheard of before, so then what compelled him to ask for such a thing?

I don't know, no one knows. What were his intentions, what was he trying to do the entire time? 

Countless questions remained unresolved.

And then, in the last 50 years, the beasts started moving toward The Dark Land.

These questions are what led to our current structure of society. A world where combat-oriented people were at the top while the other fields were below it.

A society where teenagers are being trained by academies to be soldiers in the name of being a hero.

All because those at the very top of the world had feared that a war would come our way, they had been using all this time to prepare for it, so that it wouldn't end like last time.

The facility that I joined at the age of nine, is an organization named Pyrrhic that violates various human rights, pushing kids to their absolute limits by placing them in harsh conditions and making them go through training akin to torture, which is under the direct control of the Central Government.

Until now there was no concrete evidence to prove that Demon lord is planning something, that we need to be prepared for the war, the beasts that were slowly moving towards The Dark Land could be simply acquainted to them migrating.

There are still a lot of things we have yet to discover about the beasts and because of that there was no gurantee's but with the last night's system's announcement things have changed.

It's just a matter of time but the world we know of until now will be completely changed.

"You should enjoy your time with everyone in the academy while you can. Soon enough the regulations would change and it will turn into more militaristic, like back in those days"

I bit my lip as I hesitatingly asked.

"...That's why I am not being asked to come back? This academy will soon apply changes and make it similar to how I—we were trained, is that it?"

Jane simply smiled.

I hated her smile.

The world ...is changing.

"At any rate, you get it, don't you? As things stand, it would be stupid to fight among ourselves, it's time for all the species to cooperate with each other, just like they did back then"

And that was why it was most likely that each country would take care of the problematic organizations of their species. As the things stand, no one would want to lose potential... soldiers.

"...Is that the real reason why you came here? To weed out the pests."

Her lips curled up.

"Well then, shall we began our training" She asked cracking her knuckles and in reply I simply took out my sword.