Chapter 96

Chapter 96. Practical Combat Lesson (1)

The incident that occurred during the new students’ first field training threw the academy into an uproar for a short while.

The countess, Ride’s mother, who had gone missing, rushed to the academy and caused a commotion in the headmaster’s office, and funerals were held for the knights who had not returned.

Professor Katrine took responsibility for the accident with a three-month salary reduction, and the students who had returned safely proudly bragged about their experience to their friends.

And I became famous in various ways.

Whenever I entered a lecture hall for class or passed through the corridors, students who had deliberately ignored me before would look at me and whisper.

Some students approached me for no reason because they wanted to hear the story, and because I had become famous, even more students began to hate me.

During a joint lecture between the Knight Department and the Inherited Ability Department.

“There is a student glaring at you over there, Young Master Alex. It seems you have gained another enemy.”

Beside me, Valea covered her mouth and whispered quietly.

At her words, I saw Bria, who was standing in front of me, hold back a laugh.

Students had begun treating me differently from before, but of course, there were also students who treated me no differently than before.

After thanking me that day, Piar had begun slowly avoiding me again, and Bria requested spars exactly as she had before.

In a manner unlike a child, the princess once again maintained a strange distance from me, and my older brother Manuel went around with the children of great nobles as if nothing had happened.

And Valea stuck beside me and toyed with me through words here and there.

It seemed I had made the contract incorrectly. To think I left out a contract to shut that mouth of hers.

With the other students, she did a perfectly good job of acting like a sociable friend, yet only with me did she show a side that came and went across the line of her true nature.

I could not understand what she was thinking at all. Was it because there was no need to hide it? Was it because I was her father’s enemy? Or was it because the contract annoyed her?

The problem was that she understood very well the limit I could not tolerate, so she made sure to stay just barely on this side of that line.

On top of that, she was actually useful to me, so for now, I had no choice but to endure her mouth.

The first-year Knight Department and Inherited Ability Department had gathered at the largest training ground in the academy and were taking a class together.

Since it was a joint lecture, several professors were standing at the front.

Professor Katrine was also standing on one side with the other Knight Department professors, and the professor currently speaking at the front was Professor Niel, who had been in charge of our group during field training.

“Today is a joint lecture to prepare for the practical combat lesson that is approaching.”

Professor Niel was showing a completely different appearance from the one I had seen in the sealed grounds.

Right now, she did not seem like a biased and distorted educator for the princess, but like a cool-headed, charismatic, and splendid professor.

“All of you should have experienced the field training in the sealed grounds. You felt the heavy mana of the sealed grounds, fought monsters, and the group that became stranded had to remain there for a week and struggle for survival.”

At her words, the students standing in formation on the training ground glanced at the stranded students and at me.

Fewer gazes were gathering than when we had just returned, but it seemed impossible for things to go back to how they had been.

“All of you may think of it as a remarkable experience, but in truth, that class was only ‘field training.’”

At Professor Niel’s following words, the stranded students and a few other students wore dissatisfied expressions.

That was because it felt as though she was dismissing the hardship they had endured.

“It was a kind of trip to the sealed grounds, taken together even with the Administration Department students, to learn what kind of place the sealed grounds were and what it was like to face monsters.”

However, the professor merely continued speaking in greater detail with a calm face.

“What our kingdom and our academy want from the students of the Inherited Ability Department and the Knight Department is not travelers like that, but combat ability users who can actually fight monsters.”

She stopped speaking and snapped her fingers toward the front.

Bang!

The air burst above the students’ heads.

“In a few weeks, there will be the ‘practical combat lesson,’ where you will be able to experience that very large-scale battle. You will fight a large-scale battle against monsters in the sealed grounds together with your second- and third-year upperclassmen.”

I had known it would be real combat alongside upperclassmen, but thinking about how I would be harassed again for being an illegitimate son made a sigh escape on its own.

“It is neither a trip nor a lecture. It is ‘practical combat.’ Several students will be injured or killed.”

Professor Niel thoroughly frightened the students.

“Starting today and continuing until the ‘practical combat lesson,’ the classes of the Knight Department and the Inherited Ability Department will prepare you for actual combat as much as possible.”

The joint lecture between the Knight Department and Inherited Ability Department showed me how large-scale battles in this world were actually conducted.

And I came to understand why awakened inherited ability users had become nobles, and why knights had come to serve such nobles.

Just as the Knight Department students had blocked monsters from the front during field training, from the first day onward, all the Knight Department students spread out in formation at the front, while behind the Knight Department, the Inherited Ability Department students gathered by their respective fields and trained to attack the enemy.

Once their numbers increased, the difference between knights and ability users became clear.

Knights, who faced enemies one-on-one at close range, could not dare compare their abilities to inherited ability users, who unleashed wide-area attacks and various abilities from a distance.

Of course, unlike ordinary knights, the students of the academy’s Knight Department were awakened inherited ability users, but they still had to face monsters one-on-one from the front with swords or other close-range weapons.

Since their role was to block monsters from the front until the other inherited ability users dealt with the monsters, their abilities were inevitably overshadowed compared to those of the Inherited Ability Department, just like ordinary knights.

Perhaps because of that, once class ended, the students of the Inherited Ability Department were extremely triumphant, while the Knight Department students left silently with gloomy faces.

I found that atmosphere rather welcome.

The gazes directed at me decreased so sharply that I could see it happen.

On top of that, I did not see anyone approaching Piar, and the princess’s side was quiet as well.

Thanks to the gold coins I had obtained in the sealed grounds, I was now living comfortably, and I became increasingly satisfied with academy life.

“It would have been truly wonderful if only the map and signet ring had become useful too…….”

I had searched through the Royal Academy library, which was said to possess the largest number of books in the kingdom, and had also made discreet inquiries without being discovered, but I had not yet found the exact location of the ruin marked on the map, nor the effect of the signet ring.

House Chaifri, the original owner of the map and signet ring, surely knew the approximate location of the ruin and the use of the signet ring.

However, it seemed impossible to uncover those secrets without being discovered as the person who possessed the two objects.

“Well, if I just abandon my greed, it is not a problem at all.”

If I wanted to spend a peaceful and safe academy life, perhaps it was better for the two objects to remain asleep inside the pouch without my knowing their use.

Thus, the chaotic days of preparing for the ‘practical combat lesson’ passed, and before I knew it, the day to leave for the sealed grounds again had drawn right before us.

---

At the same time, there were people inside the royal palace discussing the Royal Academy’s ‘practical combat lesson.’

Two people stood on a terrace where the entire capital could be seen at a glance and conversed.

They were the First Prince and the Second Prince, who were opposed to each other over the next throne.

The reason the two met here was because the Second Prince had called his older brother, saying he had something important to discuss.

Although it had been a long time since the two had met alone, their conversation did not feel like one between brothers, but like one between enemies who would soon fight.

“What did you want to say?”

“Yesterday, someone from a count’s house came to see me.”

“A count?”

“Count Chaifri came personally.”

At his younger brother’s words, the First Prince growled.

“Did you call me here to boast that Count Chaifri has attached himself to your side?”

Seeing the First Prince immediately lose his temper, the Second Prince let out a sigh.

Because of that personality alone, he absolutely had to become the next king. If his older brother, who had a fiery temper and never considered what came before or after, became king, the nation would certainly collapse within a few years.

“It is boasting, if you want to call it that, but that is not why I called you, Brother.”

The Second Prince did not have a particularly good personality either.

At his younger brother’s sarcastic words, the First Prince’s anger surged again, but since there was another reason, he decided to endure it for now.

“Apparently, there is a ruin that House Chaifri has been searching for over several hundred years. It is a ruin drawn on a map that an ancestor of the house brought back from the sealed grounds.”

“What! A ruin?”

At the words “a ruin they had been searching for over several hundred years,” the First Prince’s boiling anger immediately subsided.

The Second Prince relayed the story Count Chaifri had come and told him.

The story included how they had lost the map in the sealed grounds fifty years ago, and how the son who had recently found the knight’s corpse had gone missing.

“He said that fifty years ago, they had determined the ruin’s location to some extent, but after losing the map and losing family members twice, the house has now nearly given up on searching for the ruin.”

He said his son had gone missing during ‘field training,’ but since such incidents were common, the Second Prince had not even known such a thing had happened until Count Chaifri told him.

“So he brought you information about the ruin?”

“He says he is offering it for the kingdom, but of course, it is not really for the kingdom.”

For the kingdom. The Second Prince was confident he could scoff at those words.

“If Father were not nearing his death, he would never have brought it. In the end, it is a gift meant to establish ties with you, is it not?”

“That is what it amounts to. However, since the ruin is in the sealed grounds, it is difficult for me to do anything alone.”

If the Second Prince could, he wanted to devour it all by himself. However, he did not yet possess enough power for that.

“The fact that you are telling me means you want me to pressure the academy.”

“As you know, to move to the sealed grounds, we must use the academy’s magic circle. If we led a knight order to the sealed grounds directly, we would obviously end up fighting another country first.”

“Pressure, you say……. As expected, you cannot do it, can you?”

The First Prince looked down on the Second Prince and sneered.

“His Majesty has not yet passed away. To give orders to the academy, we need your orders as the current Crown Prince.”

“Indeed. That is only natural. Count Chaifri used his head in his own way. Since the story would come to me anyway, did he not end up placing half a foot on both sides?”

At the First Prince’s words, the Second Prince shrugged. He knew that perfectly well too.

However, since Count Chaifri had not gone to the First Prince first, he had ultimately lined up on the Second Prince’s side.

“Is the academy still before the ‘practical combat lesson’?”

“Yes. We should proceed in accordance with this practical combat lesson.”

“And you will have the nobles on your side participate.”

“You may have yours participate as well, Brother. We can jointly manage the ruin and let whichever side finds relics first take them.”

At the Second Prince’s words, the First Prince thought for a moment, then shook his head.

“……No. I will send the royal knight order. If it is for the kingdom, it should belong to the royal family.”

In any case, the First Prince was not a fool either. If it was made to belong to the royal family, it would certainly be advantageous to him as the Crown Prince.

However, it was also difficult for the Second Prince to oppose that here.

“Haah, if that is what you wish, Brother, then do so.”

Even so, the Second Prince was confident.

Fortunately, since he had not revealed everything, as long as the matter proceeded well, he could conclude it in a way favorable to himself.

Once the conclusion was roughly reached, the First Prince thought of his younger sister.

“Right. Aisha is at the academy too, is she not?”

“She entered this year as a new student.”

“Then she will participate in the practical combat lesson too.”

“I suppose so. But why do you ask about Aisha? She obtained the Queen’s side’s ability, so she must be having a hard time right now.”

At the Second Prince’s words, the First Prince let out a hollow laugh.

“Ridiculous. Are you the sort of person who thinks about such things? You are full of thoughts of playing tricks behind the scenes. In any case, since Aisha is there too, it seems many interesting things will happen.”

“Then I will understand it that way and prepare.”

After finishing their conversation, the two brothers immediately turned their backs on each other.