Chapter 40

Chapter : 40

Franz, the Headmaster of the Academy, sat with one leg crossed over the other in his office, reading the newspaper. His eyes moved along the lines, taking in the printed letters.

In a small voice, he read the article’s headline aloud.

“A New Star Is Born.”

By some twist of fate, one of his own students had become a Sword Expert.

And a first-year had done it, at that.

“Haa…”

Ordinarily, this would have been something to clap over and celebrate. It was splendid news, worthy of hanging banners and speaking with various knight orders.

It was the sort of event that ought to have helped him squeeze even more funding out of the imperial household.

He should have welcomed it with open arms.

And yet Franz sighed.

“Another one.”

As Headmaster, Franz was responsible not only for helping the Academy’s students grow, but also for keeping the Academy safe.

Above all, his first duty was to keep the students under control so that no trouble arose within the Academy.

But lately, the number of students demanding close attention had grown at an absurd rate.

“Why did it have to happen during my tenure…”

He had heard from his predecessor that, from time to time, some precious descendant of the imperial bloodline enrolled.

In such cases, one had to be careful that they did not clash with the other students.

That applied to the Crown Prince, Kartea.

He had also heard that, from time to time, great nobles possessing vast territories enrolled.

That applied to Agares, the Grand Duke of the North.

Even knowing that the bloody rumors surrounding him were false, Franz still couldn’t help finding him unsettling.

Those two alone were enough to give him a headache, and then there was that mage he had seen at the entrance ceremony.

Though he was young and had less total mana than Franz himself, judging only by skill, he was already fit to serve as a professor.

And from the look in his eyes, he seemed to have an utterly vile temperament.

Now the boy had started skipping class without permission. If he went out and caused trouble somewhere, the label of Academy student would follow behind him.

There was no knowing what he might do or where.

And then there was the matter of the Alchemy Department, which had recently been sending in report after report every single day. Franz had been too annoyed to deal with them and had postponed them for weeks. Now dozens of pages had piled up, enough to make touching them feel like a chore.

When he met and spoke with Professor Gilbert of the Alchemy Department, the man had said that one of the new students was a genius.

He had urged Franz to verify for himself that this boy had been producing all sorts of techniques and products from the moment he enrolled, and making an income through them.

Franz would look through it all eventually.

But not now.

His head already throbbed with stress, and he had no wish to add work on top of it.

And in truth, even beyond them, there were many others.

The lord of House Isaac, the young lady of House Loveone, and even the young lady of House Puremoon, a ducal house in decline.

Under ordinary circumstances, the number of students who deserved special attention was already excessive.

“Why did it have to happen during my tenure…”

For the moment, Franz decided he would meet Raphael Isaac.

Muttering the name on his tongue as though it sounded strangely familiar, he sent for him.

---

There was a saying that if you wanted to catch a tiger, you had to enter the tiger’s den.

It meant that if you wanted results, if you wanted to solve a problem, you had to throw yourself directly into danger.

I had entered the Academy to catch a tiger.

As I stepped into an Academy crawling with tigers, I had resolved to accept a certain amount of risk.

A certain amount.

Lately, though, it felt as though there was far too much danger.

Day after day, I became entangled with dangerous people.

Even Navier—when I first met her, I avoided her because I foresaw a future in which getting involved with her would only end with the Crown Prince beating me to death. And now I was training with her at dawn every morning.

I attended the same class as Agares, and every now and then, I even met him separately and drank with him.

It would have been a stretch to call us friends, but at the very least, we were the sort of acquaintances who knew one another.

And besides them, I was dealing every day with people who were tied to whether I lived or died. Sometimes I found myself wondering just how things had ended up like this.

In that sense, the Headmaster I was going to meet now, Franz, was somewhat better.

There had been no description in the Original Work of him beating me or especially hating Raphael, so perhaps I could relax at least a little.

“I am Raphael Isaac.”

“Yes, come in. Have a seat.”

Franz repeated my name, Raphael Isaac, under his breath, then let out a sigh as though he had just realized something.

He clicked his tongue and said,

“So you were that Raphael.”

“Pardon?”

He muttered something incomprehensible, then rose from his chair and brought over one of the documents piled on his desk.

Keeping his eyes on the paper, he let out a deep breath. The wind from his mouth made the pages flutter.

“Raphael, I heard that you recently became a Sword Expert. My apologies for only learning of it through the newspapers. I ought to have taken notice of you sooner, but I was careless.”

“It’s all right.”

“The reason I called you here today is to express my thanks for elevating the Academy’s reputation, and to encourage you so that you may strive even harder.”

Franz mentioned benefits such as exemption from tuition and dormitory fees for the remainder of my time at the Academy, then held out the document in his hand toward me.

“But tell me. What is this?”

It was the report Gilbert had submitted to Franz.

It was mostly a record of my activities related to alchemy.

It described in detail the patents I had filed and the means by which they would generate income.

“It’s a report Professor Gilbert wrote.”

“I’m not calling you here to scold you, so listen without worry. I’ve been Headmaster for quite a long time now, and I’ve seen many students, but this is the first time I’ve encountered a case like this. How have you managed to distinguish yourself in two different fields at once?”

As he spoke, Franz’s eyes began to emit a blue glow.

His brows drew inward toward the bridge of his nose, and the flesh beneath his eyes trembled faintly.

“Hah. I can hardly believe it. Looking more closely, you’ve learned magic as well. And at a decent level, too. Judging by the quality and quantity of your mana alone, you’d rank near the top even in the Magic Department.”

“I’m rather versatile.”

“I’ve seen a few people like that, but you aren’t one of them.”

At Franz’s firm tone, I searched my memory, wondering whether I had made some sort of mistake.

Had I done something wrong?

I didn’t think so.

“You’re still young, aren’t you? Even if someone were born with many talents, time is still required to learn and refine them. Which means I can’t help but be suspicious. Tell me honestly.”

Franz wore a grave expression, then deliberately paused.

What is it?

Is he about to ask whether I’m a dragon amusing itself in human form?

Well, I am impressive.

Then how should I answer?

Even before he asked the question, I was already trying to think of excuses, when Franz finally opened his mouth.

“Have you, by any chance, made a contract with a demon? Becoming a mere Dark Mage wouldn’t be enough to gain power like this. You must have offered sacrifices and learned a demon’s true name. Am I wrong?”

“Uh… yes. You’re wrong.”

At my incredulous reaction, Franz scratched his head and said that was a relief.

Since he looked as though he wanted further explanation, I told him the details one by one. I said I had always been good at swordsmanship, that I had always been interested in alchemy, and that I had learned magic from Ian.

The moment Ian’s name came out of my mouth, Franz seemed inclined to believe the rest of the story.

“Ahem. In that case, I suppose it does make sense.”

“Right?”

---

Over the past few days, I had grown tired from the concentrated attention of the people around me.

No matter who said otherwise, the cause of it all was Katarina.

She had a habit of saying absurd things.

Every now and then, she would spew nonsense and then strut about as though she had come up with some brilliant idea, and this time was exactly the same.

“You need to prove in an official setting that you can use Sword Aura.”

“Why do I?”

“Listen. People believe that you’ve become a Sword Expert. Why do you think that is? Anyone can claim to be an Expert. So why do they believe your claim?”

She was distorting even the memory of what had happened now. I corrected her.

“They don’t believe my claim. They believe what you had printed in the paper, Lady Katarina.”

“Anyway! It’s possible not everyone believes us. There are bound to be people who doubt it. So! We need to set up a proper occasion and show them your skill.”

“Why?”

Katarina slapped at her knee as though frustrated and replied,

“So that it gets recorded, obviously. Isn’t that reason enough? Hm?”

“You’re saying I should demonstrate Sword Aura in front of people just for that?”

“Just for that? You only say that because you don’t know how important this is. Do you know how important it is?”

“For the sake of reputation?”

“Exactly.”

There was a wall between me and Katarina.

There was no way the two of us could think alike.

And when I considered Katarina’s childhood—when she had wanted to learn swordsmanship but couldn’t even get hold of a proper wooden sword and had been forced to swing tree branches instead—it wasn’t difficult to understand why she clung to things like this.

Feeling a little sorry for that past of hers, I said,

“All right. Then let’s do it.”

Katarina broke into a grin.

It was the grin of a mischievous child just before doing something outrageous.

“There’s no taking it back now.”

The moment she said that, Katarina moved.

She had the momentum of a time bomb the instant it went off.

The very second she heard my answer, she threw together the whole event. She immediately chose a date for the Sword Aura demonstration, booked one of the department buildings, and said,

“It would be boring if all we did was show your Sword Aura, wouldn’t it? Let’s do something fun with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and I will have a match.”

“A spar?”

“Yes. We’ve done it before, haven’t we? Only this time we’ll use Sword Aura. In front of people.”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

“It’ll be fine. Hey, I’m the one doing it. Do I really look like someone who would make a mistake over something like this? Me?”

Katarina straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin, looking as smug as could be.

“Hey. What’s my title again? Sword Saint. It’s because my skill with the sword reaches the heavens. Do you really think I can’t adjust to your level?”

“Even so…”

“Don’t worry.”

A real spar, with Sword Aura on the blades and steel striking steel.

Katarina said she would control her strength herself and match everything to me.

So she told me not to worry, and then kept making the whole thing bigger and bigger.

---

And that was how the public spar between Katarina and me was arranged.

Far more people gathered at the training hall than I had expected, and the moment I saw them, I felt uneasy.

“What if they find out it isn’t real Sword Aura?”

“Even I thought it looked convincing. Who here could possibly see through it? Even if the Headmaster comes, he won’t know the difference, so don’t worry.”

“But there’s always the possibility—”

“Hey, enough. It isn’t as though it’s completely unrelated to Sword Aura. Did we lie? No, we didn’t.”

As I said before, a large crowd had gathered in the hall.

There were, of course, students from the Swordsmanship Department, but there were also many others who had come simply because they thought it would be an entertaining event.

Among them sat Agares, with whom I could now be said to have built some acquaintance, quiet in his place, while Navier waved at me the moment our eyes met.

Headmaster Franz was there as well. Those two, at least, I could more or less guess the reason for.

The surprising one was the Crown Prince.

Kartea, who was terrifyingly indifferent to the affairs of others, was sitting there yawning openly and looking this way.

What breeze had blown him into a place like this?

“Ugh…”

I walked toward the training hall together with Katarina, who had stars in her eyes.

At my side, she whispered softly,

“Come at me with everything you’ve got. I’ll take it all.”