Chapter 99: Carlos’s Teacher

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“But…”

“No buts.” Grandma Bertha’s brows were tightly furrowed, and after speaking this sentence with considerable impatience, she no longer paid me any attention. Instead, she turned her gaze to Carlos, “As for the rest, Melville, you handle the arrangements.”

Melville on the other side smiled bitterly as he stroked his beard.

“Principal Bertha, I’m here.”

“Oh.” Grandma Bertha’s gaze followed the direction of the voice, then she nodded, “Just take her to… Ceylon Lakeside Lodge.”

After speaking, she supported herself with one hand on the edge of the table, stood up shakily, and walked toward the door, clearly preparing to leave. But after taking just two steps, she suddenly turned her gaze back to Carlos, her eyes narrowed to thin slits filled with confusion.

“Who are you again?”

“This is…” Melville was about to introduce him again when Carlos’s words interrupted him.

“Madam Bertha, you’ve finally noticed me.” He shrugged his shoulders and bowed to Grandma Bertha with a solemn aristocratic bow, “It’s been a long time. I’m Carlos.”

I was immediately surprised.

It felt like I hadn’t seen Carlos this proper in ages. The last time I saw him perform such a dignified bow was back in the small village, when I had just awakened after killing the Endless Abyss. Even later, when facing Engel who was the Pope, Carlos’s behavior was very casual.

I also noticed that he didn’t call Grandma Bertha ‘Principal,’ but ‘Madam’… Did he know Grandma’s husband?

It felt like this guy had acquaintances everywhere he went.

“Carlos…?” Grandma Bertha frowned and pondered for a moment, then showed a look of realization, “Oh, you’re the old man’s disciple. I remember you. How have you been these past few years?”

…Old man? Disciple?

Eh, so Carlos actually had a master?

And from the current situation, it seemed like Grandma Bertha was his… master’s wife?!

At this moment, I suddenly realized that despite knowing him for so long, I seemed to know nothing about him at all…

“Thank you for your concern, I’ve been well.” Facing Grandma Bertha, Carlos had long since lost his usual cynical demeanor, adopting the somewhat restrained posture of a junior, “How is Master? Is his health still good?”

“Him? His body is quite robust, but he’s still the same old way, likes to wander around everywhere. I barely see him a few times throughout the year.”

Grandma Bertha spoke with a sigh, her tone like she was talking about a mischievous young child in her own family. Carlos smiled upon hearing this.

“Master still has his heart with the people.”

“Come on. At his age, with half his head nearly buried in the ground, he still doesn’t know when to stop and rest… He sent a letter some time ago saying he went to the Eastern Continent again.” Grandma Bertha shook her head repeatedly.

“The Eastern Continent?”

“Yes. These past two years, the situation there has been getting more and more chaotic, and the momentum doesn’t look good… Let’s not talk about this. You came with Miss Peylo, right? Go handle your business first.”

“Alright.” Carlos responded, “Madam Bertha, I’ll come pay you a proper visit later.”

Grandma Bertha nodded slightly.

“That’s fine.” Then she looked at me again, “Ah, speaking of which, you’re Scalliger’s child, right?”

She knew my father too?

“Yes, Grandma.”

After I obediently said this, Grandma Bertha examined me from top to bottom with her cloudy eyes and smiled.

She extended her bony hand and gently patted my shoulder.

“Mm, not bad. You have a bit of your father’s look when he was young… Go on.”

She turned and left the principal’s office.

…What a strange grandma.

After leaving the tower, Teacher Melville led Carlos and me toward the dormitory area. Along the way, I still couldn’t resist my curiosity and asked about my doubts.

“Carlos, you have a teacher?”

Carlos, walking to my right, glanced at me sideways.

“What else? Did you think I was born knowing how to use a sword?”

I tilted my head.

“Who is it…”

“You want to know?”

“Mm.”

“But I don’t want to tell you.” Carlos said indifferently.

Then he immediately sidestepped and nimbly dodged my swift flying kick.

“You two really have a good relationship.” Teacher Melville, walking ahead, turned back and teased.

I heard this and pouted unhappily.

“Who has a good relationship with him…”

But then I heard Teacher Melville say: “Principal Bertha and Sword Saint Ryan have been married for decades. Didn’t Miss Peylo know?”

“I didn’t know…”

I was stunned, my little head taking quite a while to process that name.

…Sword Saint Ryan.

On the bookshelf in my bedroom at Shanter Castle, most of the books were about his legendary stories. In the books, the Sword Saint wielded a gem-embedded longsword, could split mountains and rivers with a single strike, and any evil demons were as fragile as paper before him. He was the person I most admired before I went missing.

So Carlos’s teacher was actually that legendary strongest Pontifical Knight, Sword Saint Ryan?!

After the shock, I glared at him fiercely, “Your teacher is the Sword Saint?!”

“Yeah.”

“I never heard you mention it!”

Carlos spread his hands: “You never asked me.”

“I just asked you!”

“But I didn’t want to tell you.”

“…You jerk.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

The two human heroes, the Pontifical Knights, walked along the academy’s path, bickering childishly like this. Fortunately, the students were still taking tests outside the main gate, so there weren’t many people in the academy at this time.

The three of us finally stopped in front of another tower.

“This is Ceylon Lakeside Lodge. Miss Peylo, you’ll be living here from now on.”

I raised my head and looked up at this massive tower made of blue brick and stone, several tens of meters high.

Standing at its base, I couldn’t even see the tower’s peak. All I could see were the huge wooden doors and windows covering the tower’s surface. The door plaque read ‘Ceylon Lakeside.’

“This is the academy’s… girls’ dormitory?”

“Girls’ dormitory?” Teacher Melville was stunned upon hearing this, then immediately understood what I meant. He shook his head, “No, no, no. The academy’s dormitories aren’t divided by gender.”

“…What?!”

I immediately widened my eyes.

What kind of international joke was this?

Did the Royal Academy actually have co-ed housing?!

This was way too… inappropriate! The moral decay of society! What if someone accidentally saw me undressed!

“Miss Peylo, you might have misunderstood what I meant.” Seeing my expression, Teacher Melville immediately laughed, “It’s actually just an apartment. There are 4 towers like this for student housing at the Royal Academy: Yahama Mountain, Ceylon Lakeside, Emi Plains, and Tristre Canyon. Each tower has 19 floors, and each floor has iron bars separating the male and female rooms down the middle. At night, staff members lock the iron bars, so please don’t worry, Miss.”

…You should have said so earlier, you scared me.

So I stepped toward the interior of the tower.

“Why use place names?”

“For the tower names? They’re all named after the most famous battles in the royal city’s history, to commemorate those heroes who shed their blood for honor.”

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