The Retired Supporting Character Wants to Live Quietly

Chapter 13 – It Doesn’t Matter if It’s Dian

Multiple carriages were traveling in a line down the road. Each one was a six-horse carriage with a luxurious appearance, bearing the emblem of the Duke Toulouse Family on its doors.

Upon hearing the news that her daughter Knightley had been assaulted by a professor at the academy she was attending, the Duke was enraged and was on his way to the academy for a “parent-teacher conference”.

To be precise, it should be described as “rejoicing” rather than enraged.

The Duke had been truly angry when Knightley had run away to the academy to escape an arranged marriage.

The Empire was currently divided into two major factions: one was the traditional House of Nobles that had long dominated the Empire, and the other consisted of military commanders and some minor nobles who had risen to prominence due to their distinguished service during the four-year war.

The former’s incompetence during the four-year war had become evident, causing their influence to wane significantly, and they were being increasingly overshadowed by the latter group.

In times like these, internal unity was crucial, so the Duke had carefully selected a family for Knightley to marry into, only for her to flee to the academy managed by the Second Princess, who was politically opposed to him.

At first, the Duke had tried to drag Knightley back, but he couldn’t. The academy’s response was that external interference couldn’t force a student to withdraw, and the Duke was convinced this was a ploy by the Second Princess.

The Second Princess was likely trying to weaken their power by holding noble children as hostages. Especially troublesome was that some nobles were even sending their children to the Special Mission Academy, showing signs of breaking away from the existing power structure.

But now the situation was different. With a case of a student being assaulted by a professor, he intended to make a strong protest as a parent and bring Knightley back. So, he was more rejoicing than enraged.

No matter how special the mission, if they refused to let him take Knightley now, the House of Nobles would definitely raise an uproar.

As the Duke stepped out of the carriage, he began to berate the dark-skinned Dark Elf headmaster standing precariously. Or rather, he was just about to begin berating her.

Suddenly, some guy interrupted, standing between him and the headmaster, addressing him as “Commander” in a familiar manner. Who the hell was this punk? Did he not know who he was dealing with?

But upon seeing the man’s face, the Duke was struck with a chill and couldn’t utter a word.

That some guy was… Lieutenant Dian?!

The Duke’s connection with Lieutenant Dian began in a desperate situation, during the noble coalition army’s disastrous retreat, led by Duke Toulouse.

The Duke remembered that time vividly.

The noble army’s front had collapsed due to the repeated blunders of incompetent noble commanders, and they were fleeing indiscriminately from the Demon King’s army, continuously losing troops.

In this dire situation, two young officers arrived at the nobles’ temporary camp on the edge of a cliff.

They introduced themselves as belonging to a certain unit of a certain department somewhere in the Empire and said they were here to carry out a special mission.

It was to track down the White Dragon, Hindrastar, which was a thorn in the front lines.

They had been wandering around since it went missing a month ago and had hurried over upon hearing that it had recently reappeared.

“What is the correlation between Hindrastar’s appearance and your presence here?”

“Hindrastar is lying in ambush along the noble army’s retreat route. So, you need to change your course.”

At first, the Duke and the commanders didn’t believe them. They even dismissed it as a scheme by the Imperial Palace to weaken the House of Nobles amidst the chaos.

“You can continue to think that way. If left alone, it would be a golden opportunity to annihilate the nobles’ private army, so why bother giving us this information?”

Lieutenant Dian shrugged.

“You can continue to lead your troops with arrogance and hubris straight into the dragon’s jaws, just as you have throughout the war. We don’t care.”

The commanders, who were already on edge, drew their swords in anger, but the young officers did not even flinch an eyebrow.

“Lieutenant Dian, was it?”

Duke Toulouse spoke up.

“Alright, let’s say Hindrastar is lying in ambush. But why is a special unit of the Empire helping us?”

“I was against it, but this guy here said it’s something a human being should do.”

Lieutenant Dian pointed to the tall, blonde, blue-eyed Lieutenant Linus standing next to him.

“A devotee of justice. You know the type? Stubbornly adheres to his beliefs, no matter what.”

Lieutenant Dian chuckled, while Lieutenant Linus stared at him with a stern, serious expression. What was with these guys?

“Anyway, change your course. We’ve made ourselves clear.”

After the two officers left, the commanders had a heated debate about the information. The conclusion was to change the course.

They had to retreat anyway, and the Duke, having seen the young officers’ eyes, decided to trust them.

The next day, their information proved accurate.

As the noble army was bypassing the valley where Hindrastar was supposedly lying in ambush, they heard a ground-shaking rumble and an indescribable horrific roar.

Looking back, they saw glimpses of huge wings and terrifying flames rising between the valleys. Boom, boom, roar!!

Everyone was so shocked that they fell flat on the ground, and shortly after, they saw the massive body of the White Dragon rapidly ascending above the valley. Its skin, originally white, was scorched and stained with blood.

As Hindrastar flew over the noble army as if fleeing, blood rained down like a shower.

Duke Toulouse never forgot that moment.

He later discovered, after much inquiry, that one of those officers had become the continent’s hero, the one who killed the Demon King, Linus. He tried to reward him greatly, but Linus refused.

So he tried to find the other officer, Dian, but his whereabouts were unknown. Not a single soul knew where he had gone.

If he were to ever meet him, he wanted to repay the debt of saving his life, but he never imagined he would meet him here at the academy.

# # # # #

“Why are you here, Dian?”

“Well, it’s a long story. Let’s just go inside for now. The other professors are busy.”

“What? Haha, alright then! Let’s go!”

Duke Toulouse, the headmaster, and the Head Theoretical Professor, Elf Ismera, entered the headmaster’s office together.

Even as they waited for tea, the Duke continued to converse with Dian, paying no attention to the headmaster. It seemed he had even forgotten Knightley’s name.

“Head Combat Professor? That’s amazing! That’s right, it’s a perfect position for someone like you.”

“Thank you, Your Grace. Actually, I didn’t come here willingly; I was dragged here.”

Seeing our jovial atmosphere, Kirrin couldn’t understand a word and just chuckled nervously, while Ismera quietly bit her lip. I didn’t miss that.

After a moment of silence, Ismera changed her expression, smiled, and spoke.

“It’s really heartwarming to see you both happy to reunite after so long. I suppose it would be even more so if you saw your daughter.”

“Huh? My daughter? Oh, right. That’s why I’m here.”

Only then did the Duke recall that he had come here because of Knightley and coughed awkwardly.

“Headmaster Kirrin.”

“Eek?! Y-Yes, sir!”

With a gasp, Headmaster Kirrin stiffened her back.

“I heard some lunatic recently beat up my daughter.”

“Oh, uh, well…”

“No matter how short its history may be, this is an imperial-accredited academy. How could such an outrageous incident occur?”

Kirrin almost seemed like she would cry, while Ismera comforted her. But there was a smile on Ismera’s lips that could only be noticed if you looked closely.

“I’ll explain about that, Your Grace.”

Ismera said, soothing Kirrin’s trembling.

“Recently, the academy has undergone major reforms in the Combat Department’s training methods. With the aim of providing more practical training, Headmaster Kirrin approved it. It seems there was some noise during the process.”

Oh, look at that. Instead of a mother-in-law scolding, it’s more like a sister-in-law comforting. She’s completely pinning the blame on Kirrin for this incident.

“So, who’s the damn bastard who dared to lay a hand on my daughter? A professor? An assistant? Or a fellow student? I don’t know who he is, but how dare he lay a hand on a member of the Toulouse Family…”

“Ah, that? It was me.”

Laughing, I spoke up, and the Duke glanced at me as if he had already forgotten that I was there.

“Dian, you hit my daughter?”

“Yes, Your Grace. It was decided that through sparring, the top-performing student would spar directly with the professor and receive appropriate bonus points. Naturally, your daughter came in first place. But she suddenly singled me out instead of the professor. And since there were others watching, I had no choice but to intervene, otherwise it would seem as if I was picking favorites… ”

“Even if it’s true, you shouldn’t have fought!”

The Duke, who had been listening to me in silence, suddenly shouted, startling Kirrin, and even Ismera flinched.

“Well done, Dian! Exactly! If we treat nobles with leniency, how can they learn properly? This might actually be a good thing!”

Laughing heartily, the Duke slapped his knee.

“If you were some incompetent wimp, I would have punished you severely, but to think you were teaching Knightley. In fact, I think it’d be better to have her continue attending this academy.”

“Thank you for your kind words, Your Grace. However, since I’m the Head Professor, I’m not teaching her directly…”

“Please take good care of Knightley in the future, Dian.”

The Duke shook my hand vigorously. Haa, I realized I was being mistaken for a homeroom teacher.

But seeing Kirrin sweating and sighing while wiping the sweat, it wasn’t easy to say that I wasn’t that kind of teacher right away, so I just smiled and nodded.

# # # # #

“Goodbye, Your Grace.”

“Farewell, Dian. I’ll come back soon. Let’s have a proper chat next time.”

As the Duke waved his hand out of the carriage window and moved away, the Head Combat Professor Dian, waved back.

Watching this, Ismera bit her lip.

This wasn’t the expected scenario. The Duke’s visit to the academy didn’t flip everything upside down, ousting Kirrin and promoting Ismera to the headmaster’s position; it wasn’t the typical development.

“What’s wrong, Professor Ismera?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

Suddenly, when Dian spoke, Ismera quickly changed her expression, hurriedly putting on a smile.

“Oh, no. You just seem a little unwell. Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”

“That’s not it. I’m human too, so I was a little nervous when I heard that Duke Toulouse was coming.”

“Really? Wait, headmaster!”

Supporting Kirrin, who was collapsing, Dian didn’t move, and Ismera quietly turned away and walked off.