The Academy Patrol Headquarters.

The rule keeper—the one that is supposed to maintain rules among the academy students—doesn’t just stay in the student council building.

The Rule Keeper and their subordinates always had a separate building, also called the prison or cell by many. After all, unlike the other pillars of the student council, including the council heads and second seats, Rule Keeper had more physical work in their share.

The name given to the organization of the Rule Keeper and their subordinates is Academy Patrol. And right now, sitting on the seat of the head of the academy patrol was a boy with short-trimmed, jet-black hair and square glasses covering his black eyes.

He was relaxing on the seat, snoring even, sleeping without a care of the world. Right next to him was a cell filled with criminals. All of those guys were either people of the market who had tried to harm the students intentionally or some students who had committed some kind of crime.

In the room, or more like the hall, there was no one other than the guy sleeping on the comfortable seat and some empty wooden desks.

“When is their lunch break ending..?” The boy muttered, holding his growling stomach. He was hungry as well.

“Ahh… whatever.” In the end, he just threw his arms back, resting his back on the seat’s soft back.

This was the only time of the day when the academy patrol was ever empty, but being empty didn’t mean it was unguarded as well. There would always be two teachers guarding the gate of the academy patrol, not letting anyone escape in case someone tried.

Even if you luckily sneaked out, you’ll be caught because, no matter what, you can never leave one peak and go to another without facing an academy patrol member.

Creak

But just when the boy was thinking whether he should get a serious nap or not, the door of the room was pushed open, making him raise his brow in surprise.

‘It’s not the time yet, though?’ He was sure that there was still some time before others returned, but soon he noticed that instead of the patrol members, it was just a human kid.

“Excuse me.” The human boy voiced out as he stepped into the hall, his olive eyes looking for someone, brightening up as he found the glassed boy sitting on the chair, and with his blonde hair waving in the air, he stepped forward.

‘Who do we have here~,’ muttered the glassed boy with an intrigued expression the moment he took in the human’s features. ‘Isn’t it the talk of the town, Ben Dover?’

It was Ben Dover, the original protagonist of the story, and the moment he reached closer to the glassed boy, who, for some reason, wasn’t wearing the academy uniform and was instead wearing casual clothes, although a bit confused, still bowed his head, “Good afternoon, senior.”

The glassed boy, on the other hand, squinted his eyes, ignoring Ben’s words, and questioned, “Did you get mugged?”

“Huh?”

But Ben was left speechless by those words. Why would he get mugged?

“You didn’t?” The glassed boy, seeing that expression, raised a brow, a bit surprised as he questioned again, “So, you mugged someone?”

“Why would I mug someone?” Ben, not understanding the logic behind these questions, just frowned harder, his neck taunt.

‘Why is the head of the academy patrol so weird? And wasn’t it supposed to be a beautiful girl?’ Thought Ben inwardly, rubbing the back of his head in confusion, but by now, the boy in glasses had his brows creased as well.

“Boy, only three types of people come here, willingly or unwillingly.” With his hand going through his short trimmed hair, trying to make himself look cool, and leaning on the desk, he continued, “They are either mugged or they mugged someone; if not, then there are the patrol members—which you clearly aren’t.”

“Not everyone is like me, after all…” He added, muttering under his breath, which was definitely not heard by Ben.

Hearing the guy’s words, Ben was left at a loss of words. He could tell that this guy was someone with authority, so there was no way he would be lying, but… “B-But I’m neither mugged nor did I mug someone…”

“Hmm…” Ben’s words made the glassed boy give him a side eye before he smirked, “You know, no thief accepts their theft.”

Those words, blaming him for doing something he didn’t, made Ben finally snap, his voice raised as he growled, “I didn’t steal anything. Why are you so rude—”

His words, however, were cut short by a sharp shout from the door, which was pushed open at that exact moment.

“Thorin, you bastard!” A male voice, sounding frustrated and annoyed, reached both the glassed guy and Ben, making both of them flinch before they turned to look at the source of the voice.

“Here we go again…” The glassed boy, unlike Ben, who finally sighed in relief when he saw people wearing academy patrol clothes, which were just like the student council clothes, with nothing written on their backs, sighed in resignation.

It was as if he had seen the same thing happen many times.

“Just what the hell did you do this time?” A boy with dark brown hair, black eyes, and a medium build growled as he moved toward the glassed boy, who turned out to be Thorin Anvilbrow. “And why the fuck are you sitting in on our leader’s seat?!”

Boom

The boy slammed his palm on the desk in front of Thorin as he barked, “Why are you still not getting up?!”

The brown-haired boy had three stripes on his shoulder, which worked to show his rank in the academy patrol. He was a captain—someone pretty high up in the patrol.

One strip—Cadate, two strips—Group Leader, three strips—Captain, four strips—Commander, and finally, a single, gold strip along with the student council written on their back—Leader. This was how they were ranked.

“Alright, alright. I’m getting up.” Thorin, on the other hand, just raised his hands in surrender and sighed lightly. “No need to get violent.”

Ben, looking at all of this, was just left stunned in his spot. ‘This guy’s not the leader of the academy patrol…?’

Poor guy had thought that Thorin was the leader just because he sat on the seat.

“Can’t you all cut me some slack, hah…” Thorin, sighing again, oblivious to Ben’s thoughts, continued, “Can’t I be treated as a regular by now?”

“Yeah, sure.” One of the cadets following the captain, red-haired and sleazy gray-eyed, pointing at the cells, sneered, “We’ll prepare a special seat for you in there, next time.”

“Oh!” Those words made Thorin, who had just walked away from the leader’s seat, smile brightly as he bowed his head like a noble. “Why, thank you.”

“You!” Those words, however, made the cadet grit his teeth, as those words were supposed to get Thorin angry or embarrassed, but now he was embarrassed.

“Enough,” growled the captain, who seemed to be in a bad mood from the start. “What did this guy do this time? Check the logs.”

“Yes, sir!” The same cadet, after being called out, just glared at Thorin for since before he rushed toward the log file, looking through them.

Ben, looking at all of this, wasn’t able to hold it inside and questioned, “What’s going on here?”

The captain, however, knowing full well who Ben was, frowned. “Let me do you one better: what are you doing here?”

Hearing that question somehow reminded him of Thorin’s words from before: “Boy, only three types of people come here.” Recalling those, he hesitated on what to say, and in that moment of hesitation, the cadet who was looking into the logs spoke up.

“Sir, he seemed to be selling some forged documents.” With a condescending light shining in his eyes, he added, “One of us caught him trying to get into the building of the merchant’s association to sell this document—which is supposedly signed by Alex Drakathor.”

“”HAHAHAHAHA.””

The moment those words were heard, the people in the hall, including the ones in the cells, burst into full-blown laughter.

“Damn, Thorin,” the captain, taking the so-called forged documents from the cadet’s hand, glanced at Thorin with surprise in his eyes as he spoke between his laughs. “You only got that name to use? The least you could’ve done was use the name of someone not that famous.”

His mood seemed to have been elevated as he looked through the document with a shake of his head.

‘It’s not fake, dammit!’ Thorin, on the other hand, could just stomp his feet in frustration. ‘It is a contract signed by Alex Drakathor!’

‘Why does no one believe me?!’ He roared inwardly as he huffed in annoyance.

“Hey,” the captain, with a frown, waved his hands, making the laughter stop as he looked through the document, “Why does this not look like a forged contract to me—”

The captain had some experience in this field due to his noble lineage, so he could somewhat tell forged and original apart, but before the guy could complete his words…

Creak

The sound of the door being opened was heard once again, followed by a voice that no one in the academy wouldn’t be able to recognize.

“What’s going on here?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep