Chapter 62
Five days later, Building E.
The building where the cadets from the academy's lowest-ranked class lived.
From the nearby training grounds, cries of agony had been ringing out since early dawn.
“Hah, hah···!”
“Ghk, ghhaa···.”
“Ugh···!”
The Class E students were drenched in sweat without exception.
It seemed as though they had spent the night at the training grounds; every one of them looked utterly haggard.
In the dawn air, before the sunlight had appeared, only the chilly dew cooled their burning body heat.
“I'm gonna die for real if this keeps up···.”
“Cough, I can't breathe···.”
They had been training for eight hours already, with no thought of resting.
The cadets could barely speak properly, managing only to spit out dry coughs.
They were all training in the same space, but the details of their training differed from person to person.
“Hup···!”
“Swing harder! Your strikes have gotten pathetic!”
“Damn it! It's not like I don't know that—I can't put any strength into it···!”
“Enough complaining. Do it again!”
“Hah, hah··· Hup!”
Clang! Clang—!
On one side, the children continued sparring as their weapons clashed.
On the other, the children cast magic, causing all sorts of explosions beneath the ceiling.
A few others were simply building up their stamina and strength, or meditating.
“Fuck, how many laps have I run around the training grounds today···!”
“You've still got a long way to go! You need to be able to run ten laps!”
“I'm already at death's door!”
“Big Brother told you, didn't he? Once you build up your stamina, it'll synergize much better with your magic!”
“I am! I said I am! I'm still running, aren't I?! Damn it, I can't ignore Big Brother's words···!”
The nighttime training continued as they criticized and encouraged one another.
It was nothing short of a page from the blazing book of youth.
Each student held a booklet in their hands.
“Whew··· What was I supposed to do here again?”
“Here, it says to do it like this, relying on your instincts rather than calculations···.”
“Mine says I should mix in a little martial arts. Is it telling me to develop into a battle mage?”
“It says to reverse-engineer the magic entirely···.”
“It says a bow suits me better than a sword. So I've been trying out a new main weapon since yesterday.”
“It's incredibly detailed. The contents and methods are all different depending on the person.”
“When did Big Brother prepare all this···?”
“I heard he wrote it for us by cutting into his sleep every night······.”
It was feedback.
I had written it out for each student, one painstaking stroke at a time.
I had pointed out their shortcomings and written out their methods of improvement at length.
‘Because there are so many of them.’
My goal was to help every student in Class E grow.
But with so many heads to deal with, personally giving each one full care was impossible.
Instead, I came up with this method.
I would organize everything they needed and hand it to each of them like a secret manual.
To prepare it, I would often lie sprawled on my bed, idly scribbling with a pen.
‘It took··· almost a month, I think.’
I had started preparing it immediately after receiving the quest.
That was why I had been spending so much time in bed.
“Training methods and diets are the basics, and it even covers each person's weaknesses···.”
“The volume is incredible. Did Big Brother really prepare all of this alone?”
“As expected of Big Brother···.”
“I almost feel sorry for being looked after this much.”
The secret manual was remarkably thorough.
From the middle onward, I had started writing all sorts of things simply because I was enjoying myself.
Once I got into it, writing it like a strategy guide in my previous life, the pages filled up in a flash.
In the end, I handed each person a thick volume of more than two hundred pages, and the children were moved by it on their own.
A few of them even had tears welling up in their eyes.
‘Recommended training routines, suitable combat styles, points to improve, potions worth taking··· I included every last miscellaneous detail I could think of.’
I hadn't forgotten to give them a few words of encouragement before training began.
-I want to be with all of you.
-Rather than stopping at Class E, let's all climb higher together.
-I'll help you run toward higher classes and higher realms.
-If you trust me and follow me, I won't give up on you either. I'll help you all the way to the end.
After I tossed out those few simple words, everyone's eyes changed, and they threw themselves into training.
Despite the rather intense training, not a single student had fallen behind yet.
Perhaps it was because they had always been fiercely competitive, ambitious, and envious.
Once I showed them the path, they seemed to run along it with desperate determination.
Thanks to that, even in the short span of five days, some of the students were beginning to show results from their training.
“What the hell··· Didn't you originally use a sword? You seem much better with a bow.”
“Big Brother wrote that my shamanism would suit a bow better.”
“The power is ridiculous. Seriously, what principle makes it work like that···?”
“Of course, my proficiency is still lacking. The power is strong, but the accuracy has fallen quite a bit······.”
The remaining students were inspired by those examples and also threw themselves into training.
There was a reason none of them complained, even though I called them out to train at dawn every morning.
They were all grateful to me.
They all wanted to become stronger.
I had merely quenched their thirst.
‘It is a little burdensome that their loyalty seems to be getting excessively high···.’
Still, a good thing was a good thing.
If I cultivated such loyal followers, I could respond flexibly no matter what incident occurred at the academy in the future.
At the very least, I had to build enough trust that they would jump into danger without question when I told them to.
In that sense, they still had a long way to go.
‘Not that I have the slightest intention of ordering them to jump into danger or anything···.’
The point was to max out their favorability.
After all, these children would eventually participate in a war over the fate of the world.
In the latter part of the original story, Grandia Academy collapsed, and the surviving students joined the Continental Allied Forces to fight the Calamities.
‘If I raise all of them to B rank, I can gain an enormous advantage in the final battle.’
Of course, the bar was high.
Overall stats at B rank meant a level roughly equivalent to the upper ranks of Class A within the academy.
Most people with overall stats of A+ rank or higher were professors or powerful figures scattered across the continent, so it was a considerable level of strength.
In truth, unless a character had an exceptionally high ceiling, B rank felt like the limit for stats a student could reach while still enrolled.
‘Of course··· there is one student who is A- rank even at this point.’
The overall top student of the first year.
Rin Glacia.
She was an entirely different breed, so I decided to leave her out of consideration.
By the time she reached the third-year graduating class, she would become an insane monster capable of dueling Jaber one-on-one.
‘Though by then, it will be after Jaber's suicide.’
I would think about the two of them later.
For now, I had more immediate matters to deal with.
“Ahem.”
The Class E students under my care.
Among them, the one I had supervised most intensively was, naturally, Alice.
“Shall we begin?”
“Ah··· Y-yes!”
Alice had been standing nervously, but she startled and nodded.
Her blue eyes shook wildly, as though she were anxious.
That was understandable, considering her ability was practically a trauma in itself.
The girl bit down hard on her lips.
“T-then··· I'll try!”
Alice closed her eyes.
Before long, a pitch-black aura began battering the surroundings around her.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
“······.”
Just as when she had been swallowed by a nightmare and gone berserk during the practical exam.
Ominous energy churned around the girl.
A dark crimson fog began to seep out.
“Phew···.”
A long, drawn-out exhale.
Before long, a black crown had appeared above Alice's head.
However, its form was considerably downgraded compared to the one I had encountered before.
If what she had shown during her rampage was the completed version, then the crown she was using now did not seem to possess even a tenth of that power.
“Good. Slowly, just like that.”
“Huff, huff···.”
She took several deep breaths in succession.
If she recklessly manifested a nightmare, she could suffer mental damage.
Therefore, my instruction was for her to first grow accustomed to nightmares at a low level.
Alice continued concentrating with her eyelids shut.
Flap—.
Before long, a black cloak wrapped around her slender back.
The girl recreated the appearance of the [Black Queen], albeit clumsily.
“······Awaken.”
Her black hair whipped in the headwind.
Amid that turbulent scene, the queen's lips moved.
Creak—!
Immediately afterward, a shape flickered within the dense fog.
Soldiers in the form of trump cards, with thin arms and legs attached to them, giving them a rather cute appearance.
Those soldiers appeared one after another and lined up before the queen in neat rows.
“Mm···!”
Exactly six of them.
Alice shouted at the trump soldiers.
“A-attack···!”
Creak, creak—!
At her shout, the nightmares began to move.
The designated target was a tree thirty meters away.
The trump soldiers all swung their weapons at the tree at once.
Crack! Crash—!
The target was smashed to pieces in an instant.
Even though they were the weakest entities she could summon, every one of them seemed capable of becoming a two-star monster.
Moreover, they were subject to the bizarre classification of [Dream], meaning ordinary strategies could not damage them.
The only method, if one could be found, would be to subdue the caster.
“Next attack! N-next attack···!”
Alice continued issuing commands as she gradually increased the number of entities.
There were already nine trump soldiers.
I signaled for her to continue.
“Good. It's stable up to this point.”
“Y-yes! Then next···.”
But the problem occurred after that.
It was precisely when the number of trump cards reached ten.
Twitch.
<[······.]>
The soldiers broke free of Alice's control and came to a standstill.
The trump cards were soon dyed in pitch-black light and began to convulse.
Human limbs burst out of them, while entrails and blood began to flow.
The cards mutated into grotesque forms in an instant.
<[♣♣♣♣♣]>
<[♠♠♠♠]>
They trembled violently, then attacked in every direction as though going berserk.
Alice backed away in apparent panic.
Her commands did not seem to work.
“Ngh, ugh···!”
Only then did I intervene.