The Retired Supporting Character Wants to Live Quietly

Chapter 135 - The Academy Visit of Lormane (1)

"I’ll keep it a secret for now."

As soon as we returned to the Academy, Orendi spoke up.

"Such a significant figure, and yet no one knows their past—there must be a reason for keeping it hidden. So, I’ll be the only one to know."

"Yeah, sure. Do that."

"And the same goes for Student Sophie."

Orendi looked over at Hindrasta.

"Me? Everyone already knows I’m from the Reblanc Mercenary Group."

"Not that. The fact that you pissed yourself when you saw the dragon, let’s keep that—oof!"

Before he could finish, Orendi barely avoided Hindrasta grabbing him by the collar, fleeing at lightning speed toward the dorms.

"What the hell is that crazy mage rambling about?!"

"Watch your mouth! He’s a professor!"

"Professor my ass. And hey, you!"

"What now?"

Hindrasta seemed ready to say something as she fumed, but then she shook her head.

"Never mind. Forget it for today. I’m leaving."

With that, she turned around and walked off toward the student dormitories.

Crazy dragon, tch.

When I got home, Olysia greeted me.

"I heard from the Vice-Headmaster! You went to the Reblanc Mercenary Group? Did everything go well?"

"Yeah, it all went smoothly."

I told Olysia about what had happened in Reblanc.

"Eek?! A d-dragon?! Why?!"

"Sometimes dragons live in human form for various reasons."

"Ugh, that’s terrifying… But you chased off the dragon, didn’t you? And even got compensation. That’s incredible. But there’s one problem."

With a stern expression, Olysia raised a finger.

"That was way too dangerous! It’s a good thing everything turned out fine, but what if you’d gotten seriously hurt fighting a dragon?!"

"What else could I do? If I’d left things as they were, everyone would’ve died."

"You could’ve just run outside the castle and opened a dimensional gate to escape! Dealing with dragons isn’t the job of an Academy professor—it’s for the military!"

"Do you really think you can outrun an angry dragon?"

"Even so! Please, never do something so reckless again. Promise me!"

"Alright, alright. I won’t. And even if I do get hurt, I’m not going back to Brunswell."

"That’s not what I meant!"

Olysia shrieked.

"I don’t care about Brunswell! I don’t want you to get hurt!"

"Is that so?"

"Of course it is! You’re my only family! If something happens to you…."

Olysia trailed off, biting her lip as she cupped her face in her hands.

"If I end up alone again… what will I do…."

She let out a trembling sigh before roughly wiping at her eyes and looking straight at me.

"I’ve made up my mind."

"Made up your mind about what?"

"Invite the higher-ups over for dinner tonight."

Confused, I stared at her blankly, and Olysia frowned, as if she couldn’t believe I didn’t understand.

"The Headmaster and the Vice-Headmaster! We’ll prepare a great meal and ask them for a favor."

"What favor?"

"To make sure you don’t do anything foolish again!"

"There’s no need to go that far—"

"Yes, there is!"

Olysia cut me off firmly.

"I was already planning to throw a small dinner to congratulate Vice-Headmaster Ismera on her promotion, so this works out perfectly. Invite both of them. I’ll take care of the rest."

A dinner to entertain Kirrin and Ismera, huh…. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad idea.

We hadn’t really celebrated Ismera’s promotion to Vice-Headmaster properly yet, after all.

It made sense for the Academy’s leadership to have a quiet dinner together.

And the leadership of the Academy was just Kirrin, Ismera, and myself as the Head Combat Professor. We had no idea when Kaiden would show up, so waiting for him would be pointless.

"Alright. Let’s do it."

At that, Olysia’s expression finally relaxed.

"Great! I’ll need to head out right away. There’s a lot to prepare."

After Olysia bustled off to get ready, I took the reins of the carriage and drove us into town.

On the way, I stopped by the faculty dormitory to invite Kirrin and Ismera for dinner that evening.

"Really? I’m all for it!"

Kirrin was thrilled, of course.

"Are you okay? I was so worried about you!"

Ismera threw her arms around me the moment she opened the door.

"Dinner with the Headmaster? Hmm... sure, why not."

She agreed to join us as well.

With everyone on board, we headed out to shop for supplies.

Olysia was humming with excitement the entire time.

Watching her, I found myself thinking back on what had happened earlier.

Olysia had become a war orphan at a very young age.

She didn’t even know where she was originally from.

I’d been curious about it, but when I bought her from the slave trader, she was only about six years old—too young to remember the name of the place she’d been born.

Her memory of her parents was mostly of them working in the fields from morning until night but still always being poor. Most likely, she had been the daughter of a serf in some lord’s domain.

This is a medieval-style fantasy world, after all, where many serfs live their entire lives without ever setting foot outside their own fief.

So, there’d be no need to know the name of their domain or where it was located.

Even if she did know, it was probably in ruins by now.

Olysia had become a refugee when the Demon King’s army attacked her village.

She lost her parents in the chaos of the refugee march, and in the midst of it all, a battle between the Demon King’s forces and the Human Alliance broke out, throwing everything into disarray.

She somehow made it to a port with a group of strangers, where she boarded a ship headed to the Empire’s mainland. But that ship’s captain turned out to be a slave trader in disguise.

The slave trader intended to sell the refugees, but they made a stop in Brunswell, where I was living in seclusion at the time.

Olysia had managed to escape through a tiny window, but before she could even get off the dock, the slave trader found her and started beating her—right when I happened to come across the scene.

It was so absurd that I paid the slave trade off and bought Olysia on the spot.

Initially, the slave trader had asked for fifty gold coins, but after some \'negotiating,\' we settled for a single silver coin.

And that’s how Olysia became my maid—and my family.

She’s my only family, and I’m hers.

That’s why she was so angry earlier when she found out I’d fought a dragon.

Such a sweet kid.

Still, Olysia’s a teenager now. Maybe it’s time to think about sending her to school.

She spends all her time doing housework with no friends—that’s no way to live.

Since both the Headmaster and Vice-Headmaster will be at dinner tonight, maybe I should start laying the groundwork for enrolling her.

Even though it\'s called the Special Mission Academy, the theory classes aren’t that different from other academies. With the right adjustments, the curriculum could work for her.

Just like she’ll asking them to take care of me, I’ll ask them to look after Olysia.

# # # # #

The afternoon was incredibly busy.

Since the Headmaster and Vice-Headmaster were coming, we had to clean the house and prepare the meal—lots to do.

Olysia usually worked like an ant, so there wasn’t much to clean indoors. I headed outside to tidy up the garden instead.

I pruned the overgrown trees and swept the area in front of the house.

While sweeping along the wall, I noticed something odd.

Two rectangular stones were propped up against the back wall of our house at an angle.

What’s this? Leftover construction materials?

But they didn’t seem like building supplies based on their shape.

We didn’t have any stones like this anywhere else around the house.

Hmmmm….

"Olysia!"

"What is it!?"

"Did you put these stones here?"

Olysia came running out of the kitchen and tilted her head when she saw the stones.

"Huh? Why are these here?"

"Do you know what they are?"

"These were originally stacked over there. I moved them because they were an eyesore, thinking we might use them later. But…."

She tilted her head again.

"I definitely didn’t leave them here. I put them over there."

She pointed to a spot a few meters away.

Olysia has an excellent memory, so there’s no way she’d be mistaken.

"Really? So someone must’ve moved them here…."

"Who would go out of their way to do that?"

"Good point."

After mulling it over, I decided to get rid of the stones altogether.

Judging by their size, someone could use them to climb over the wall.

I tossed them into the nearby overgrown lot and returned to finish tidying up around the house.

# # # # #

As the late summer sun dipped below the horizon and dusk settled in, someone was lurking around Dian’s house.

It was Maya, the Priestess from the clinic.

At the moment, Maya was flustered because something she had always relied on was missing.

The two stone slabs she had hidden out of sight behind the house had completely disappeared.

She walked around the property several times but couldn’t find the slabs anywhere.

Without them, short-statured Maya couldn’t see over the wall.

While she pondered what to do, she sensed people approaching and quickly pressed herself against the wall.

It was Headmaster Kirrin and Vice-Headmaster Ismera heading her way.