Chapter 82

Chapter 82. I Am a Knight Department Student Starting Today (2)

On the way back to the academy, riding alone in the carriage.

I took out the dagger and examined it.

When we parted at the royal palace, the princess had returned the dagger reluctantly, as if regretful.

The atmosphere made it seem as though she would have taken it if I had simply told her to keep it, but I had absolutely no intention of giving it away either.

‘On top of that, even the count covets it.’

Since it had given me an ability as well, I knew it was no ordinary object, but I had not expected it to have an effect on the princess too.

“But I should have nothing to do with the count’s house, so is it not hereditary?”

I examined the dagger.

The dagger engraved with a bird pattern merely scattered a sharp gleam, unchanged from before.

“Come to think of it, it spoke inside my head too.”

As I felt as though the words I had heard then were coming back to me, I hurriedly shook my head.

[Do you desire…….]

Fortunately, it disappeared from my mind.

It was a useful object, but it was also something with many secrets.

“There are truly too many things I do not know.”

There was a dagger that fixed awakening toward a specific ability, a group that forcibly awakened commoners, and necklaces that amplified mana and made people explode.

It felt as though the things I did not know only kept increasing as time passed.

However, fortunately, I had a great deal of time that others did not know about.

I believed that as long as I endured long enough, I would be able to unravel all those secrets.

I put the dagger back into my clothes and leaned back against the seat.

The carriage headed quickly toward the academy.

---

The next day, another commotion arose in the academy.

That was because someone who should not have been there came during the Knight Department’s major class.

“You all know who this is, but please introduce yourself.”

At Katrine’s words, she came forward and greeted everyone.

“Hello. I am Aisha de Carlos. Starting today, I will be participating in the knight classes. I ask for your guidance.”

Princess Aisha shouted to the gathered people in a firm voice.

“What is going on?”

“Exactly. Why did the princess come to the Knight Department? Is she auditing?”

“She said starting today. That means she transferred departments completely.”

“That makes no sense. Why would the princess……?”

“Could there have been some problem at yesterday’s Awakening Ceremony?”

“Ah, yesterday was the Awakening Ceremony.”

“Right. I heard the news. It seems the princess did not obtain the royal house’s ability at the Awakening Ceremony.”

“Really?”

The students’ whispers struck my ears.

A sigh escaped me on its own.

Those whispers would surely spread throughout the entire academy by tomorrow, and throughout the entire capital by the day after.

The princess must have seen the students whispering, but she did not look disappointed.

After finishing her self-introduction, the princess came to her seat, namely the seat behind mine.

The students quietly glanced at her from the corners of their eyes, and I asked her in a small voice,

“Will you be all right?”

“Yes. I will be all right.”

The young girl answered in a resolute voice.

Even so, she had only just turned ten.

She already seemed like an adult.

As the Queen had said yesterday, it seemed royals truly led difficult lives.

“Now, as you all know, field training is not far away. And after that, the Knight Department and the Inherited Ability Department will have practical combat lessons. You all know very well that your grades are important, correct? These are dangerous classes, so you must prepare properly from now on.”

Professor Katrine spoke to the students. Her voice was small, but because it carried mana, it sounded as if she were speaking right beside us.

More importantly, the academy’s real classes were now right before us.

I heard the other years had started sooner than us, but it seemed our schedule had been pushed back because of the princess’s Awakening Ceremony.

“In that sense, today will be one-on-one sparring. Pair up among yourselves.”

Today, the knights did not act as assistant instructors. Well, the knights were also high-level personnel.

Even for the Royal Academy, it would be difficult to use such personnel as class assistants every time.

At the word sparring, the students’ expressions changed in various ways.

“Ah, I hate sparring.”

“Do you like anything else? Sparring is better.”

“Is that so? Well, it might be better than running endlessly until class ends.”

Endless running, moving mana, strength training, and so on.

Aside from sparring, the knight classes also carried out training meant to create knights.

All of it was training I had done back in the territory, so I did not particularly find it difficult, but it seemed the other students were different.

“But Professor Katrine has eyes that are too sharp. It is hard to spar half-heartedly.”

“Then just choose someone you can beat easily.”

“Is that so? Then I can spar with you.”

“Ha, me? Fine. I will make you come to your senses.”

The students began deciding their sparring partners.

There was also someone who asked me to spar.

‘Her name was…… Bria, was it?’

She was an ordinary-looking female student.

She was one of the two geniuses of the Knight Department, alongside Count Piruna’s second son, who was over there arrogantly preparing for his spar.

If I, who was publicly excluded from the rankings, was left out, she could be called the student acknowledged as the second strongest.

I had heard she was a noble, but unlike the other students, whenever sparring time came, she approached me to spar.

Since I had no one suitable to spar with either, I sparred with her.

Thanks to that, she had come to know a little of my ability when I did not use the dagger.

Perhaps that was why she wanted to spar with me even more.

However, today, there was someone who had arrived first.

“I asked Young Master Alex first.”

“Ah……. Princess.”

She immediately backed down.

Whether she was young, whether she had failed to obtain the royal house’s ability, or whether she attended the Knight Department, she was still the princess of this nation.

Naturally, Bria had no choice but to withdraw.

I slightly lowered my head and made an apologetic expression.

She was someone who had gone out of her way to approach me, an illegitimate son. In a situation where even one such person was precious, I could not allow my relationship with her to become awkward because of the princess.

She had an ordinary face and was the daughter of a noble no one had ever heard of. She clearly did not seem to be an heir either. On top of that, she possessed excellent ability as a knight, so if I coaxed her well, she might become a comrade or lover later.

Mm, would marriage be possible too?

For a moment, a life spent with her flowed through my mind.

Mm, was this what I had read about in my previous life as “holding hands and imagining everything up to divorce”?

It was a foolish thought. Marriage? I was only fifteen now.

The proper marriage age for noble children here was from the late teens to early twenties, but there was still plenty of time left.

To be honest, I did not even know whether I would be able to marry.

I erased those useless thoughts from my head and began sparring with the princess.

Faintly rippling mana flowed over her sword. The others had not noticed it at all.

I also raised the blunted steel sword and pointed it at her.

“Please begin.”

“Yes!”

It was still a weak ability, but if it touched that rippling energy, my sword would surely be cut cleanly apart.

However, the princess was still only a ten-year-old girl. She had never properly learned the sword, and she had not trained her body either, so she had no muscle.

Of course, she had awakened and obtained the royal house’s ability as well, so she possessed strength completely different from that of an ordinary person, but I could knock her down without even using a sword.

The princess charged at me while swinging her sword, and I subtly moved my body and tripped her.

“Eek!”

With a scream, the princess tumbled across the ground, and everyone’s gazes gathered on us at once.

‘I thought this might happen.’

However, I had never learned how to train someone gently. People taught as they had been taught.

Though I did not know whether sparring could be called education.

“Please stand. We have not even begun yet.”

“Ugh.”

At my cold voice, the princess clenched her teeth and rose.

Katrine and the other students stared wide-eyed, looking back and forth between the princess and me.

It seemed all sorts of rumors would spread after this class ended.

However, I was not particularly worried about those rumors.

Right now, I was more curious about how a mere ten-year-old child could have such a stubborn expression despite being a princess.

The princess looked at me with blazing eyes.

“Again.”

“Understood.”

Was this how Sir Miguel had felt when he taught me?

Sparring with the princess felt slightly amusing.

It seemed that once we became a little closer, I would have to hear what the princess truly thought.

Time passed like that.

The princess trained earnestly, in a way unbecoming of her age, and her ability grew rapidly.

Of course, she properly showed that ability only to Katrine and me.

To be honest, I did not properly understand the royal ability, [Mana Sensitivity], either.

However, her other ability, and the mana circulation art she had learned from the royal family, were growing day by day.

---

Several weeks later, all of us new students headed toward the building in the center of the academy instead of going to class.

It was an absurdly sturdy-looking stone building.

Normally, its doors were firmly closed, and many knights and soldiers guarded the front of the building.

Standing in front of the door was the older middle-aged man I had seen during the entrance ceremony.

He was none other than the headmaster of the Royal Academy.

During the entrance ceremony, he had looked like a bureaucrat who had been parachuted into his position, but now he was completely different.

“Welcome, everyone. This year’s new students are a little late.”

The headmaster welcomed us with a pleased expression.

At the headmaster’s signal, the firmly closed doors of the building began to open.

“Today is field training, correct?”

“Yes!”

At the students’ resounding answer, the headmaster smiled.

“This will be your first transfer, so although all of you should know, I will explain once more.”

He guided us through the open door.

The inside of the building was extremely austere, just as it had looked from the outside.

Walls and floors made of stone. There were no special decorations, and only large pillars supported the ceiling.

It was something like a Greek temple with walls that I had seen in my previous life.

However, the difference was the enormous pattern engraved at the center.

“Is that the teleportation array?”

“That is correct.”

I had whispered quietly, but the headmaster understood immediately.

“That magic circle is the teleportation magic circle created by the Old Empire. And I, the headmaster, am the teleportation ability user of this generation.”

As it turned out, the position of headmaster of the Royal Academy was always occupied by a noble with teleportation ability.

Strangely, there was one teleportation ability user in each generation, and the position of academy headmaster had been passed down safely for a long time.

“As all of you know, a teleportation ability user has the ability to move one or two people to a place not very far away. At most, it is enough to leave the capital.”

The headmaster led us and stood before the magic circle.

“Naturally, with my ability alone, I cannot move all of you to the distant Demon King’s sealed grounds.”

He pointed to the magic circle drawn on the floor with his hand.

“This magic circle can strengthen my ability and move all of you at once. This is also one of the mysteries of the ancient kingdom.”

The magic circle before my eyes and the building we had entered were both relics and ruins of the Old Empire.

The Royal Academy had been built around this very ruin.

And this magic circle was connected to the sealed grounds where the Demon King was said to have been sealed.

That was why the doors were always firmly closed, and why knights guarded the front of the building.

It was also why the teleportation ability user served as the headmaster.

Naturally, the destination for field training was the sealed grounds where the Demon King was said to have been sealed.

“Now, just in case, please gather by your groups.”

The new students gathered with the groups that had been arranged in advance.

People gathered around me as well.

I looked at the people gathered around me and sighed.

Why did it turn out like this?

My half-brother, with irritation stuck all over his face, stood on one side, and Valea was pressed close beside me.

The princess stood in front of me with a tense expression.

A little farther away, Piar stood with a bewildered face.

It was a combination that did not suit one another at all.

However, this party was the group for our first field training.