The Retired Supporting Character Wants to Live Quietly
Chapter 226

Chapter 226 – Side Story, Or (6)

Time is like a cart rolling over a hill.

Once it hits the final slope, it speeds up fast, and just like that, the final semester before graduation seemed to fly by faster than any term before.

The students were now in the midst of advanced combat training to enhance their survival skills, while also facing the time to decide their career paths.

As they submitted their desired placements, we professors reviewed their subject grades and observational evaluations, and then conducted interviews to determine the best possible direction for each of them.

Some hoped to join elite units like the Codebreaking Office, reserved for true geniuses. Others wanted to stake their lives in the field as members of the Special Mission Unit.

Then there were those who didn’t want either and preferred to work in support roles behind the front lines.

We tried to match each student to their desired position as much as possible, but depending on organizational vacancies and their actual abilities, some might end up somewhere else entirely.

Take Knightley, for example.

“You want me to go to the Ministry of State?! No way! I’m joining the Special Unit!!”

“Hey, you blockhead. You’re going to the Ministry of State.”

“If I wanted to go somewhere like that, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place!”

And she wasn’t wrong.

If it were just the Ministry of State, there were better places to study than here.

Still, I had seen Knightley’s grasp of political affairs the other day, and I had already decided: she belonged in the Ministry.

People need to be used where they fit. And Knightley isn’t cut out for fieldwork in the Special Unit.

Besides, she’s the daughter of Duke Toulouse, a senior member of the House of Nobles.

From the capital’s point of view, having someone like her in the Special Unit would be extremely inconvenient.

If, by some chance, she were deployed and died, no one knows what that would do to the fragile relationship we’ve just managed to rebuild with the noble houses.

“I’ll speak with the Minister myself. Just take it as settled.”

“Hmph. Fine, then do this instead, I’ll go to the Ministry like you want, but only if you marry me.”

“Oh, for the love of, what nonsense are you spewing now.”

“If not, I’m definitely joining the Special Unit.”

I considered giving her a flick to the forehead but waved it off instead.

“Get out. I’ve got another interview.”

After Knightley came Merilda.

She’d applied for the Codebreaking Office, and I agreed.

She’d already graduated top of her class at a public academy and had work experience as an acting administrator in her village. A seasoned recruit.

She’d definitely thrive in Codebreaking.

As the interview ended and she was about to leave the faculty office, Merilda handed me a folded note.

When I opened it, a series of irregular symbols and letters spilled out in disorder.

“What is this? A cipher?”

“Try solving it later.”

She said with a smile and walked out.

Next came Hindrasta.

“After graduation, I want to…”

“Special Unit.”

“Not that. I meant something else…”

“Special Unit.”

“Goddammit!”

“Special Unit.”

If a polymorphed dragon wants to work as a human, of course they’re going to the Special Unit.

Especially a dragon like Hindrasta, who isn’t sharp enough to consider other options.

There’s only one fit: Special Unit.

That made Hindrasta blow up.

“Hey, will you just listen to me for once?!”

“What?”

“I’m gonna be a Combat Instructor at the Academy!”

“Special Unit.”

“You bastard! Why not?!”

“To become an instructor, you need field experience. Your mercenary group doesn’t count.”

“Urgh…”

“Any other jobs in mind?”

“…No.”

“Then send in the next one.”

At a loss for words, Hindrasta trembled with clenched fists, sighed deeply, and walked out.

# # # #

The career path sorting was complete.

As Combat Head and Theory Head respectively, Kaiden and I took the placement results to the capital.

All graduates from our Special Mission Academy are required to enter public service first.

And public appointments are, of course, handled in the capital.

We submitted the placement results to the Imperial Human Resources Department and began final coordination for the students’ postings.

“The air’s already cooler.”

Kaiden said as we crossed the drawbridge.

Indeed, the sweltering summer winds had given way to something milder.

Time is like a cart rolling over a hill.

Now that summer had passed and we were heading downhill, winter would be here before we knew it.

Hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since I left Brunswell. Quite the feeling.

We arrived at the Human Resources Department and began the meeting.

It went smoother than expected.

That’s because our Academy had already done the grueling sorting work on our end.

In this meeting, we focused mainly on whether students’ desired departments had available positions, or would soon.

If not, we discussed which organizations they could be redirected to instead.

Kaiden and I passionately argued our case to the capital’s bureaucrats.

“No, no! This student absolutely must be sent here. No exceptions!”

“I see. In that case, increasing the personnel cap by one or two shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“What?! Absolutely not! What are you saying right now?!”

“I do understand your concerns, but in that case, perhaps you could also consider our Academy’s position on this matter.”

“If you keep yanking students around like this, we just won’t graduate them, alright?!”

“Since I’m a mage, I must admit administrative matters don’t resonate with me that strongly. But I do worry the students might be disappointed.”

“Oh, come on! Why did we even make a Special Mission Academy if it’s gonna be like this?! I quit!”

After a lengthy discussion, the capital finally agreed to accept our placements without alteration.

Feeling quite refreshed, we left the conference room, only to hear cursing behind us.

High praise, if you ask me.

“Shall we return, then? What about lunch?”

“Shall we eat at the Academy, or go into the city?”

“Let’s head into the city. To that place we went last time.”

“Understood.”

Just as Kaiden and I were crossing the drawbridge, something odd caught my eye.

It was on the shoulder of the road that stretched from the end of the bridge.

A young man was sitting with a blanket wrapped around him, leaning against a tree.

He looked like a vagrant, scruffy and worn.

Probably begging from passersby to survive.

Honestly, not a bad idea. This area saw plenty of wealthy foot traffic.

As long as the guards didn’t chase him off, that is.

“That bastard’s back again,”

A guard muttered, passing us.

Right on cue, the guards moved toward the man.

“Get lost, you scum!”

“There’s someone I’m waiting for!”

The vagrant cried as they dragged him up.

“I won’t cause trouble, just let me stay! I have to meet them!”

“When exactly is this person supposed to show up?! You’ve been here over a month!”

“It’s something really important!!”

What a racket.

We got into our carriage and headed into town.

# # # #

Meanwhile, in a secret chamber beneath the Imperial Palace.

Empress Mirelis sat with her chin resting on her hand, silently listening to a report.

Reporting to her was Nemara, the dark elf.

He had just returned from a long expedition into the uncharted depths of the continent, seeking out the vanished dark elf clans.

But the expressions of the senior officials listening alongside her grew darker by the minute.

Because Nemara’s report wasn’t about the dark elves at all.

“That’s the full report.”

“I see.”

Even after he finished, Mirelis stared wordlessly at the map spread on the table.

Unlike the rest of the map, which was finely detailed, this section had almost no contour lines or rivers marked, nearly a blank page.

And there, a single dot had been marked.

“You’re saying demons were discovered here… conducting some sort of ritual, possibly shamanic in nature…”

Her gaze shifted to the ministers.

“What do you all think? Speak.”

No one answered immediately. The report had been too shocking.

“Could it be… the Demon King’s resurrection?”

As the silence stretched on, Nemara offered a reply.

“Resurrection, hmm. That could mean two things, the old one coming back, or a new one rising.”

“We can’t say for sure. But either way, the result would be the same.”

“Indeed.”

Since the war’s end, the demon race had been nearly eradicated.

Like the dark elves, they scattered across the continent to avoid retribution.

In the ten years since, not a single demon had been seen.

And now, were they already living in this unexplored land?

Or had they only recently gathered there?

Either way, it couldn’t be ignored.

The Four-Year War, why did it happen?

Because the former emperor ignored intelligence that a young demon calling himself the Demon King was amassing power.

That neglect led to tragedy.

You have to stamp out embers before they become a wildfire.

Everyone agreed with Mirelis’s reasoning.

“Form an extermination squad. Deploy an elite unit of Imperial knights, mages, and clerics immediately to the site.”

“Your Majesty… what about Sir Linus…?”

Mirelis shook her head.

“Sir Linus will not be involved. He’s currently on paternity leave.”

“But this is urgent. Even a brief contribution”

“I made a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

That was the promise she had made with Dian, not to touch Linus while he was on leave.

Mirelis would uphold that promise to the man who had made her emperor.

Besides, this was still pre-resurrection, they could wipe out the demons with a swift strike.

Following the empress’s order, the extermination force deployed through a dimensional gate.

But when they arrived, there was nothing.

Only traces of powerful energy that had altered the terrain.

As if a meteor had fallen from the sky.