Chapter 70

Chapter 70. First Day of Class (3)

As expected, I ended up eating lunch alone.

Perhaps because it was the first day, fortunately, I was not the only one eating alone. But judging from the situation, if I made one wrong move, I might end up eating alone the entire time.

That seemed like it would be troublesome in its own way, so I would probably have to coax a few people into joining me.

Fortunately, the meal was excellent. The food was not inferior to the meals I had eaten at home. Long live the Royal Academy.

After the meal, afternoon classes followed.

Unlike the morning classes, the afternoon classes were divided by department.

I had a class for the Knight Department.

We changed into the leather armor issued by the academy, strapped on swords, and went out to the drill ground.

It was one of the several drill grounds in the academy, and this place, too, was absurdly large compared to the number of people gathered there.

“Hurry up and assemble! Did all of you leave your minds behind?”

A voice rang out across the drill ground.

As I stood in line at that voice, I could not help but chuckle inwardly.

It was because of that sharp, ringing voice.

It had not even been that long since I heard it, but for some reason, it felt as if I were hearing a voice from my memories.

The voice I was hearing now was the voice I had heard in the marquess’s house and in the underground dungeon.

It was Katrine’s voice from her mercenary days. Not her voice as a member of the royal family or a teacher, but the raw voice she had used as a mercenary.

“I am Katrine de Ratenhamar, and I will be in charge of the first-year Knight Department. I do not possess a knighthood, but I am more than capable of training all of you, so do not worry!”

Katrine, who stood on the platform wearing leather armor like us, looked different yet again from the way she had appeared as a mercenary.

It was probably because of her status as a noble and her neat appearance.

In any case, no one would look down on her just because she did not possess a knighthood.

There was no one who did not know what House Ratenhamar was famous for.

On top of that, after learning that she would be in charge of the Knight Department, everyone had also learned who she was.

She was the Queen’s younger sister and the heir of House Ratenhamar.

Well, I was probably the only one who knew her true ability.

On the platform, knights in full armor stood with her.

She looked over us as we stood in formation and said,

“Since this is our first meeting, we should check your skills first, should we not?”

At her words, one student suddenly asked,

“Surely you are not telling us to fight those knights, are you?”

Who was it? Who had said something this pathetic?

I looked at the new student who had spoken such a strange remark.

He was a student who boasted a physique far larger than the others. He was nearly two meters tall, with a body packed full of muscle.

He was a typical physical enhancement-type ability user.

Huh. But not many students were looking at him in disbelief.

Rather, more students seemed to agree with him.

Do not tell me they are all stronger than I am?

There was no way. Aside from a few, all of them looked like weaklings.

“Haah, I knew this would happen.”

Looking at the students, Katrine let out a sigh.

“Today, I will properly fix all of your rotten attitudes. I will show all of you exactly how strong a knight is.”

She asked the knights,

“Please teach them a proper lesson.”

“Understood.”

The knights stepped forward.

They stood at the front of each line.

Oh, a spar against a royal knight. How much of my skill should I reveal? I really want to fight properly.

My heart pounded at the thought of sparring with a royal knight.

However, Katrine approached me.

“You are sparring with me.”

“Pardon?”

“I know your ability. Did you think I would pair you with the knights for a spar? I do not want you ruining the lesson, so come over here.”

At her words, I let out a deep sigh.

“There will be plenty of sparring from now on. You will have enough chances to fight, so today, try facing me.”

She was not the composed woman she had been until recently. The rough woman from her mercenary days was standing before me.

To be honest, I was curious too. I wanted to know both Katrine’s ability after growing through the legacy of her predecessor, and my own ability after my growth so far.

I left the line and walked in front of her.

The surprised gazes of the students followed behind me.

Now, how much ability should I show?

I stood before her and raised my sword.

---

Aaaagh!

A sword flew away, and a student rolled across the ground.

Screams rang out here and there.

“I surrender! I surrender!”

“Are you trying to kill me? Are you swinging seriously?”

Terrified voices kept shrieking.

Perhaps it could be called an assistant-instructor role. In the spars against the royal knights, the students were smashed down one after another.

Most of the male students, and even a few female students, rolled across the ground in turn.

The students, who had never experienced a proper spar in the past, felt terror at these serious spars that were close to real combat.

They shouted at the knights, but most of the students here were not children of great nobles, and there were hardly any heirs of houses among them.

Of course, since they had awakened, they would eventually occupy a higher position than the knights, but royal knights could ignore them to a certain extent.

And the knights did not treat the few students they could not ignore recklessly either.

CLANG!

“Ugh!”

“You blocked that well.”

Iker, the second son of Count Piruna, barely blocked the knight’s sword, but he smiled at the words the knight spoke next.

That was because he had already seen the student before him and the surrounding students sent flying, and he was still seeing it now.

He himself was also being pushed back slightly by the knight, but he had only awakened five years ago.

On top of that, for a fifteen-year-old boy who had not yet received proper training to block the sword of a fully matured knight was already impressive enough in itself.

Unlike lower nobles who had never even faced a knight, he had sparred with the knights of his territory before, so he could view the difference between his own skill and the knights’ skill with sufficient objectivity.

Of course, the knight before him seemed stronger than the knights of his territory, but at this level, he did not think he would bring shame to his house.

“This seems sufficient to confirm your ability.”

After exchanging blades a few more times, the knight stepped back.

Iker drew rough breaths as he exchanged greetings with the knight.

His mana was almost empty, and his inherited ability had been on the verge of cutting out, so it was fortunate.

He looked around.

There were only a few people standing.

Most of the students were lying or sprawled on the ground, and the only person still standing was one female student who was still continuing her spar with a knight.

Surprised by the unexpected sight, he checked who that female student was.

She was a slender girl with brown hair.

She was not a familiar face. She was neither the child of a great noble nor someone with a strikingly beautiful face, so he had not remembered her.

Since this was the Knight Department, he might have paid attention to her if she had at least possessed a sturdy body.

She was a student he had paid no attention to at all, yet now she was fighting evenly with a knight.

‘Is he going easy on her because she is a girl?’

That thought briefly crossed his mind, but just by looking at their current fight, the speed of the two people sparring seemed faster than his own.

‘A speed-enhancement type?’

Judging from her build, she did not seem to be a power type, so although she was not from a great noble house, it seemed she had received a better inherited ability than he had expected.

However, with an ability focused on speed, it would be difficult to deal with monsters……. Well, it was not as though fighting monsters was the only thing knights did.

‘Surely the knight on my side was not going easy on me too?’

After briefly looking at the knight who had sparred with him, he shook his head.

There was no way the difference in ability between a royal knight and the knights of a count’s house was that large. Unless the knights of his territory had always been going easy on him.

In any case, thinking that it was fortunate there was at least one female student who seemed evenly matched, he looked to the other side and furrowed his brow.

WHOOSH! SWISH!

Aside from the knights, himself, and the female student still sparring, there were two more people standing.

Professor Katrine and the illegitimate son of the ducal house of Gresia.

They had clearly started at the same time as the students who had sparred first, yet their spar was still continuing.

The illegitimate son of the ducal house held a sword, while Professor Katrine, unusually, held both a sword and a shield.

“What are they doing?”

“Are they dancing?”

“I heard a rumor that the illegitimate son has some connection to the princess. Are they fooling around to make his skill look good?”

“Surely they would not go that far.”

“Then what is that?”

“Still, his movements are good. It looks like he was trained properly.”

The students who had not been seriously injured and were sitting on the ground to rest whispered as they watched the spar between Professor Katrine and the illegitimate son of the ducal house.

That was understandable, because the two of them were subtly evading with their bodies without letting either swords or shield clash, thrusting their swords into empty air and avoiding each other.

It almost looked like a play in which they had agreed on the sequence and were acting out a swordsmanship performance.

Though they did not whisper like the students did, the knights were also tilting their heads as they watched the two spar.

Iker was also bewildered as he watched the spar, but soon, one memory came to mind.

‘Surely not.’

He had once seen a battle similar to that spar. A fight where the swords did not touch each other. However, it had been a battle far more advanced and terrifying than one where swords clashed.

He had seen a battle between ability users where their swords did not touch, but the light surging from their blades cut down their opponents.

‘No, it cannot be.’

Even if he had learned a proper mana training art, there was no way he could already emit mana outside his sword.

On top of that, that illegitimate son clearly had a physical enhancement-type inherited ability.

‘If he had inherited the ducal house’s mana training art, there is no way he would have come to this department.’

Even the heir of the ducal house had gone to the Inherited Ability Department, not the Knight Department.

Well, if he had inherited the mana training art, he would not have been able to come to the capital like this in the first place.

If an illegitimate son had inherited the house’s inherited ability, there was no way the ducal house would simply leave him alone.

They would either hide him away and use him later, or break him completely.

---

‘Aaaah! Please go easy on me!’

I screamed inwardly as I dodged.

Even if I had not dodged, the sword itself would not have touched my body. However, the image of her real sword had mana extending far from it, cutting toward my body.

If I had not moved my body to the side, I would have been split in half.

I swung my sword in the same way, but Katrine blocked my sword simply by subtly placing her shield in the way.

The shield she had brought was the one we had found in the ruins, the shield that expanded with mana.

Although it did not even touch the sword, if one included the area expanded by mana, my sword could only be deflected.

‘Damn it, with that shield too, the difference in skill is so great that I cannot do this!’

I was suffering pointlessly because I had suggested that we spar properly.

A proper spar meant that both sides used proper weapons.

However, we could not actually emit mana. Unlike the others who could not emit mana, if we infused mana into our sword and shield, there was a high chance of causing damage to the surroundings.

Instead, we began the spar after making an unspoken agreement to visualize the length of the sword extended by mana and, likewise, the expansion of the shield in our minds. Since we had seen each other’s abilities enough, it was easy to form the images.

However, without loading mana into our weapons, our movements inevitably became painfully slow.

Thanks to my training so far, I could move at a knightly level to some extent, but since I could not make use of mana, I had no choice but to throw my body around in a desperate mess.

‘No, wait. I cannot use mana, so I am moving with my bare body, but I am visualizing the length of sword aura while accounting for a dedicated weapon?’

Wait. Something about this seemed wrong.

This was clearly inconsistent.