Chapter 17
“Everyone──!!”
A voice suddenly echoed throughout the entire building.
Hearing the faintly repeating echo, Rex muttered inwardly.
‘That’s Haru’s voice.’
“Haru?”
At his words, Ayla tilted her head and asked in return.
“If you mean Haru, I believe Haru was assigned as the new instructor in charge of Practical Class E.”
“Class E?”
Karen tilted her head and asked in return.
“Oh, that barely-made-the-cut class?”
“That idiot who lost to the transfer student at the bottom of that barely-made-the-cut class sure talks big.”
“Shut up!”
Easily dodging Karen as she charged at him, Igor asked Maximilian.
“Come to think of it, Your Highness, was the reason you told us to cover our ears earlier…”
“Just before the roar rang out, I sensed a large amount of mana from the direction the voice came from.”
Maximilian answered, absentmindedly picking at his ear.
“Haru probably used some sort of sound-wave amplification magic… To expend this much mana simply to get their attention, Haru either has an absurd amount of mana, or the situation was that urgent.”
“Well then, it seems Haru was having quite a time controlling the kids on the first day.”
Karen snorted and muttered.
“True. There’s the troublemaker who spent two whole years starting fights, a transfer student who rolled in from some backwater village in the East with no pedigree, a mediocrity who can’t even come within half of Grandfather’s ability, and on top of that, an embarrassing younger cousin from a collateral branch….”
“Karen.”
Maximilian said quietly.
“I imagine you know better than anyone who got beaten up by that ‘transfer student who rolled in from some backwater village in the East with no pedigree’.”
“…Ugh.”
“You were already given a scolding by Igor. You should know when to rein yourself in.”
Watching Maximilian admonish Karen calmly—though ‘gently’ might not be the right word—Rex thought,
‘How should I put it? His choice of words is oddly cheap.’
Apparently, His Majesty had a remarkably open-minded educational philosophy. Rex muttered inwardly, then turned to the students and said,
“All right, everyone, pay attention.”
Perhaps they really were elites. The students, who had been arguing and chatting energetically, immediately fell silent at a single word from Rex and obediently took their seats.
“Though everyone is free to say what they want, I’d prefer it if you didn’t excessively belittle another class or anything of the sort.”
“…Yes.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to get along with the other classes as well? After all, we’re all in Practical Class.”
In truth, he was more motivated by his personal desire to avoid friction between the students in Haru’s class and his own as much as possible. Still, he thought it was something he ought to say as an instructor, so Rex decided to point it out right away.
Perhaps realizing that it was about her, Karen answered with her spirits dampened.
Still, if she had understood, that was enough. Rex met Karen’s eyes briefly, then immediately continued.
“Now, then. Starting next week, you’ll be receiving assignments as apprentice knights, but before that, I’d like to assess your abilities.”
“Our abilities?”
Karen tilted her head and muttered. Rex nodded and continued.
“Yes. You’ve known one another since the middle-school division, so I imagine you know each other well… but I’m a new instructor, and this is my first time meeting you. Therefore, I think you understand that I don’t know enough about you yet.”
“I see.”
Igor muttered, nodding as though he understood.
“You mean you’d like to check our level.”
“Is it like a pop quiz?”
Karen raised her hand high and asked. Rex gave a tentative nod, trailing off at the end of his response.
“Well, it’s something like that.”
Igor, who had been quietly glaring at the back of her head, let out a hollow laugh.
“Pfft, a pop quiz? That’s a cheap analogy, just like you.”
“Grr….”
To draw the attention of the two who were growling at each other again, Rex lightly clapped his hands and said,
“All right, then. Everyone, assemble on the parade ground….”
-Boom…!!
At that moment, the five of them, Rex included, simultaneously turned toward the window at the distant roar echoing from outside.
“…This mana…”
Maximilian’s eyes widened, and he sprang from his seat and ran toward the window.
A step behind him, Rex ran to the window, where he saw scarlet mana surging like waves.
‘Haru? Is Haru’s opponent… a student?’
The student was difficult to identify at once because the school uniform had been thrown on carelessly and haphazardly. But Haru’s sparring opponent was definitely a student of Manus Academy.
‘The student doesn’t stand a chance.’
Rex briefly assessed the course of the spar. The unknown student was being thoroughly toyed with by Haru. With their field of vision narrowed, they seemed not to realize that Haru had already completely overwhelmed them through the flow of mana.
“Oh, that bastard!”
At that moment, Karen shrieked in a sharp voice.
“That damn Eastern bumpkin!”
“Is that the transfer student everyone’s been talking about?”
Hearing her, Igor muttered with interest, casually needling Karen.
“So you lost to someone like that.”
“Who are you calling a pathetic, miserable loser!”
“I didn’t go that far.”
Rex turned his gaze away from them as they started bickering again, seemingly never tiring of it. As Rex continued watching out the window, Ayla whispered awkwardly behind him,
“…Instructor. Going outside right now might be a little…”
“Yes, we’ll head down after that spar is over.”
Still unable to take his eyes off the scene outside, Rex said quietly,
“I’ve just had an idea.”
=
“…Joint training?”
At Rex’s immediate proposal, I asked back in bewilderment.
“A friendly spar between Classes A and E. Rather than having them simply pummel each other, I thought they could learn something by watching their fellow students spar from the sidelines.”
“….”
At Rex’s words, I fell silent and began to think.
Setting aside for the moment the fact that Rex still made me uncomfortable, his proposal was certainly not bad. No, it was actually quite excellent.
When you cross swords with someone, your field of vision inevitably narrows. That happened even to me on the battlefield, and unless you go through something truly major, it is practically a chronic condition that is difficult to correct.
Even after the spar is over, all that remains is the thought that you won because you tried hard or lost because your skill was lacking. Specific feedback, such as what might have happened if you had done something differently, is difficult for the participants themselves to produce.
But things are different when you watch a spar from a third party’s perspective. Being able to hear an objective assessment that a one-on-one spar cannot provide would surely be a considerable help to their future growth.
And above all, helping the students was more important than any personal issue between Rex and me.
“…That’s not a bad proposal.”
I answered with a brief bow.
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
“What, what? Are we fighting them?”
From behind me came Miriam’s voice as she hopped excitedly. But an even louder, shrill shout immediately drowned her out.
“Hey!! You, Eastern bumpkin over there!!”
“….”
At those words, Kariya, who had been standing there with a sullen expression, twitched an eyebrow.
From Class A’s side, a female student with bright red hair tied into twin tails below her ears strode over and shouted.
“It’s a rematch.”
“…Hmph.”
“Don’t think you can shamelessly back out after winning.”
Kariya stared her down, silently raising the corners of his mouth.
I opened my mouth in bewilderment.
“U-um, wait. We haven’t decided the order yet….”
“Hey, by-the-book. Is she the one you were talking about earlier?”
“…Yes.”
Charlotte answered Miriam.
“Karen Gatling. She’s the Class A student who clashed with Kariya over personal circumstances and lost. She’s also the current head’s second daughter and a direct-line candidate to succeed as head of the Gatling family.”
“I see.”
Having heard Charlotte’s words, Miriam glanced at Karen and muttered in a voice clearly meant for her to hear,
“So she’s weak.”
“Hey!!”
There was no way Karen hadn’t heard, and the girl whirled around and shouted at us.
“I heard that! What the hell did you just—”
“Hey.”
Kariya said quietly to her as she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“You should decide clearly who you’re going to challenge first.”
“…Fine.”
At that, Karen turned toward Kariya, narrowing her eyes as she growled.
“Obviously, that guy comes after you.”
“Not sure there’ll be an ‘after,’ though.”
Kariya muttered with a snicker.
“It looks like the first match has been decided.”
Rex, who had been quietly observing the entire situation, muttered calmly.
Or was he talking to me?
“…If the two students want to fight each other, then, sure.”
Well, if they wanted to fight, forbidding them seemed a bit much. I threw my plan to pair them off according to the rankings into the trash.
“Instructor Haru.”
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice reached my ear as I was lost in thought.
When I looked up, a male student who appeared even taller than me was looking down at me from close by.
Number one in the third-year rankings at Manus Academy. The crown prince of the Magic Kingdom and the eldest legitimate son of the current king, Marcud III. Maximilian Marcud.
‘When did he get this close?’
Before I had time to wonder how, he abruptly spoke to me.
“I wish to spar with you.”
“…Pardon?”
At his out-of-the-blue statement, I merely blinked.
“I’ll be blunt. The others are not up to my standards.”
“W-what do you mean, they’re not up to your standards?”
“To put it plainly, they all seem more or less the same. That said, I cannot draw my sword against my dedicated instructor, so I request a spar with you instead.”
Maximilian said with an unruffled expression, using a strangely cheap-sounding manner of speech.
It was an unbelievably arrogant thing to say, but at the same time, I felt I could understand why he had no choice but to put it that way.
‘He’s strong.’
I could tell the moment I laid eyes on him. Even while standing still, the sheer quantity of natural mana spilling out of him was on an entirely different level.
He had long since surpassed the level of an ordinary student, at the very least. He wasn’t merely beyond the level of the practical classes; even within Class A, he was in a league of his own.
At this level, he was already on a level comparable to active magic knights. No matter which of our students I put against him, they obviously wouldn’t be able to put up a proper fight….
“Hold it right there!!”
Before I could finish thinking it through, a familiar shout rang in my ears.
Miriam, who had suddenly slipped between Maximilian and me, shouted while pointing emphatically at herself.
“If you want to fight Teacher Haru, you’ll have to beat me first!”