"Viktor, did you not go to the academy today?"

"What's the matter?"

Viktor sat at his desk, holding an advanced magic book for entertainment.

He flipped through it while responding to Lia's words.

"I've already handed over my affairs to my teaching assistant. She can handle it."

Seeing his relaxed attitude, Lia was incredibly frustrated. She held her forehead and sighed.

"See for yourself."

She took out a letter filled with writing from her pocket and tossed it on the desk in front of Viktor.

Viktor glanced at the somewhat exasperated Lia, slowly closed his book, and picked up the letter.

After reading it carefully, Viktor's brow furrowed.

—

"Professor Viktor, you have been absent from the academy for over seven days.

Have you encountered any difficulties?

Or do you find the work of teaching and nurturing students too tedious?

If you continue to be unable to return to the academy,

The academy will retain your professor title for you, and reassign it when you return to the academy."

— {'Royal Magic Academy'} Rachel Azure.

Rachel Azure was the name of the dean.

As the only fourth-tier saint mage in the 'Royal Capital'... well, now the second one.

In any case, the dean's energy was entirely focused on the construction and development of the academy.

This kind of official letter was automatically sent by the dean's ability.

[Natural Sparrow]

This was a magic created by the dean himself.

These natural sparrows were formed from elements in the air. They could be a leaf or a speck of dust in the air.

These natural objects, accompanied by the dean's will, were used as his tools.

The dean naturally didn't have much time or energy to understand the various things that had happened to Viktor recently.

He could only sense that — Viktor Kravina had not come back to the academy to teach for seven or eight days.

So, [Natural Sparrow] automatically activated, bringing him this official letter, which was clearly a reminder.

"Viktor, it's time for work."

Lia stood aside, looking at Viktor's poker face, which still showed no change.

Even with his professor title about to be removed, he was still so calm and unhurried.

She said from the side:

"Before I came back in the evening, this letter had already been delivered to the doorstep."

"Which means you attended the morning court session, and for the rest of the time you've been relaxing at home? You didn't even step out of the house once?"

"..."

Actually, he hadn't stayed at home the whole time, after all, he had gone to Gwen's house once.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Viktor was silent for a moment, then put the letter back on the table, arranging it neatly, aligned with the edge of the desk.

Seeing Viktor's leisurely manner, Lia became even more irritated. Was there no concept of work in this person's eyes at all?

She couldn't hold back anymore and started venting her emotions at Viktor again:

"Do you have any idea how much I've sacrificed for your professor title..."

"I've been away from home for too long. I wanted to stay at home a bit longer."

Before Lia could finish speaking, Viktor had already interrupted her.

"Although it's impolite to interrupt you, I think an explanation is necessary."

"By the way, I wanted to tell you something earlier."

"I've been gone for too long this time. Thank you for taking care of things at home."

"..."

This time it was Lia's turn to fall silent. It was as if half a sentence was stuck in her throat. She felt a bit embarrassed, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly, but it was clear she was trying hard to suppress it.

She simply turned her head away, pacing around the room while muttering:

"Ha... haha, what's going on..."

At least Viktor showed some self-awareness.

Viktor's disappearance these days had indeed made things difficult for the {'Kravina'} family.

But it was also an opportunity.

After all, Viktor had quite a few enemies. Although Lia had eliminated some of them, there were still many hiding, who had never shown their hand out of fear of Viktor.

When Viktor disappeared, and even news of his death spread, these people emerged one after another, all targeting the {'Kravina'} family.

Lia naturally understood that they had come to settle scores.

She had been worried about these people hiding in the shadows, who would inevitably become a hidden danger for the {'Kravina'} family in the future. This time, after Viktor left, she finally had the opportunity to deal with all of these people.

With Leon's help, they secretly destroyed countless shops one after another, and as a result, obtained quite a few valuable goods.

All in all, in recent days, the {'Kravina'} family had made a small profit, making up for the deficit.

Of course, there were still visible hardships.

After all, it was an undeniable fact that many businesses took this opportunity to attack the {'Kravina'} family's business.

And for this kind of open attack, Leon and the others couldn't easily take action, as it involved too much.

Especially the recently opened prop shop, which was already doing poorly, and after this incident, no one came to patronize it anymore.

Indeed, fantasy is beautiful, but reality is cruel.

Who was it that had confidently said they would definitely make money back then?

Lia glanced at Viktor, her eyes filled with obvious disdain.

"So? What's the result today? You're definitely fine, I'm asking about the duke."

Viktor looked at her calmly and said:

"He kept it."

Lia was very confused and asked with a frown:

"Wasn't there a long-standing grudge between the duke and you that was hard to resolve?"

She was referring to the incident where Viktor confessed to "Erika".

"How could the duke, being such a daughter-doting father, possibly get along well with you?"

Lia couldn't understand. Had Viktor used some means to coerce the duke?

It wouldn't be out of character for him.

"For certain reasons, I need to do this."

"Anyway, you don't need to worry about the shop for now."

Hearing Viktor say this, Lia had some guesses and asked:

"Are you planning to use the duke's influence to make our products famous?"

Viktor tapped the table.

"I did have that idea at first, but I don't intend to use the duke."

"After all, he doesn't have much of a good reputation now."

Even though the duke's charges had been cleared, his actions in front of everyone were an indisputable fact.

Under these conditions, the good reputation the duke had accumulated over the years was ruined by half in an instant within the mage circle.

And magic potions were mainly targeted at mages as users.

If they used the duke's reputation, they might as well close the shop now.

"It's better to use his daughter."

"What are you planning now?"

Lia became confused again. She really couldn't understand Viktor's actions. She shrugged, not caring too much.

After all, she only cared about results.

As if remembering something, she said again:

"Oh, right, Gwen contacted me today, asking me to pass on some information to you."

"Hmm?"

Viktor was a bit puzzled, and then heard Lia say with some confusion:

"She said her sister told you to pay attention to the filthy things that have infiltrated the 'Royal Capital'."

"Her sister? Filthy things? That's all she said?"

"Yeah, nothing else."

Lia looked at Viktor's expression, which had become somewhat complex, and rolled her eyes at him.

"Alright, just continue reading your book. I won't disturb you anymore."

With that, she swayed her hips as she left the study.

Viktor didn't even raise his head, lost in deep thought.

"Gwen's sister..."

In his memory, there was only one — her eldest sister — Kayfra Delin.

However, this character had never appeared in the main storyline.

Because before the main storyline, that is, in the prologue, she was already dead.

Died from...

"Demon invasion."

Viktor closed his eyes.

In the first chapter of the game's storyline, the {'Carensia Empire'} was invaded by demons.

A large number of residents turned into mindless zombies, all controlled by demons.

There were also countless small demons roaming the streets.

They were distributed throughout the {'Carensia Empire'}.

In the early stages of the game, the monsters that players needed to kill were not slimes, but these small demons.

For players, those small demons were just ordinary experience fodder.

It wasn't until the middle stage, when players defeated the mid-term demon boss of the first chapter, that the {'Carensia Empire'} returned to normal.

What was that demon boss called again?

"Let me think..."

"Demon of Greed — Yem."

"Hey! Kid, you've inadvertently mentioned something not very friendly."

Vega suddenly started chirping on his shoulder. Just hearing the true name of this thing made it, as an evil god, get goosebumps all over.

"So? A demon? How do you know the name of this thing?"

Vega's single eye stared fixedly at Viktor, asking.

"Just mentioned it casually."

"I don't believe you."

Vega didn't believe his lie at all. Casually mentioning something so disgusting?

Yes, disgusting, extremely disgusting.

As a god in the strict sense, what Vega hated most were those demons full of filth.

Viktor looked at Vega curiously. That thing was indeed disgusting, but it was beyond his expectation that it could make even an evil god feel nauseous.

"Aren't you an evil god? I thought you would have a lot in common with other demons."

"Why would you associate gods with demons?"

Vega raised its head proudly, as if declaring its noble status.

I, god, pay up!

"So, the filthy thing that little girl mentioned, is it this thing?"

Vega said with some disgust: "Why don't you put me in a cage, deal with it, and then let me out?"

Viktor shook his head at it.

In Vega's eyes, since Viktor had uttered the name of that thing, it meant he knew something about it.

"I'm not sure yet."

To be honest, Viktor also hated this kind of thing.

Different demons had different methods, but without exception, they would rely on various human emotions to satisfy themselves.

The Demon of Greed, Yem, its method was...

"Using others' greed, giving them what they need again and again."

"Until the person can't repay, it would make the greedy person fall completely into an endless abyss, repaying a myriad times over."

Viktor opened his eyes.

"How disgusting."

........

"Henie" was in Viktor's office, sorting out her belongings.

She was preparing to leave.

Leave this academy and go somewhere else.

The only person who cared about her was no longer here.

Her dream had also been burned to ashes.

"Henie" had no attachments left.

"Little girl, you look very unhappy."

A deep, magnetic voice sounded in the darkness. "Henie" suddenly turned to look.

There was nothing there.

"Another prank?"

"Henie" thought, at this time someone still had the mood to play pranks, how boring.

"Oh~ I'm sorry, little beauty, you don't look so good."

"Is there anything I can help you with?"