Chapter 4
In the end, Mave, a trainee knight of the Gallian Royal Knights, was the one who returned with the flag. After handing it to the instructor, she left the forest.
Instructor Zach, head of the Swordsmanship Department, looked over the academy cadets and grinned fiercely. His expression was like that of a starving bear.
“Well then, from now on, you have three days of fun camping, don't you?”
“?!”
“?!”
“?!”
And…
Hell began for the remaining 29 Swordsmanship Department cadets.
Training assistants who had been hiding among the forest's shadows appeared. They barked orders at the 29 cadets and led them to a broad clearing in the forest.
“Everyone, run in a single file!”
“Run! I said run!”
“Keep in line and run—!”
Along with the assistants' shouts as they ran alongside them,
the academy freshmen ran until they were exhausted.
“Hah…! Hah!”
“Ugh, hah…!”
The ordeal was nothing short of grueling. As they raced frantically up slopes and hills in the forest, the cadets' uniforms were covered in dirt and dust.
But whenever a cadet strayed from the line, the assistants would appear like ghosts and kick or yell at them.
In the end, one of the female cadets blurted out in a fit of hysteria.
“Stop, stop! Damn it, this place is insane! I'm done!”
“Refusing to attend class without permission is grounds for expulsion from the academy. You know that, right?”
“Yeah! Just watch me never come back! I'm going back to the Republic—!”
Incredibly, a cadet had voluntarily withdrawn just thirty minutes into class. The other cadets' eyes wavered. They sensed that something had gone badly wrong.
They thought.
‘If I go back without accomplishing anything, I'll be laughed at back home. And my pride will take a hit in front of commoners….’
‘I can't fall behind those feeble nobles…! I'll survive here and make something of myself…!’
“….”
Arti thought, ‘This is still manageable.’
Then he turned around. Though covered in dust in the dim forest, one person stood out plainly.
It was Princess Lydia.
Her body in the training uniform was the most delicate among the Swordsmanship Department cadets. Even so, she quietly followed at the very back without faltering.
Arti tilted his head.
“…?”
‘Does Her Highness have more stamina than I thought…?’
But the other cadets, half out of their minds from the relentless shocks they'd suffered, didn't notice anything strange.
So Arti alone came to a conclusion.
‘As expected… she’s royalty of Gallia, praised as the kingdom of knights among the kingdoms of the Southern Continent.’
Regardless, the assistants continued their merciless training of the remaining cadets.
“I said run from where you are!”
“Why aren't you moving faster?”
“Gah?! Y-you dare kick me…? D-do you even know who I am?! I came here to learn swordsmanship, not play in the dirt!”
One cadet, his pride wounded, shouted.
But the assistants, former elite soldiers who had served for decades in the northern patrol force of the Kingdom of Gallia, were not to be trifled with.
The assistant who had kicked the cadet came over. A killing intent born of fighting countless Imperial soldiers radiated from his eyes.
He said in a growling voice.
“You can't even run, and you think you can wield a sword?”
“….”
“Do you want to die?”
“….”
“…Run.”
“…”
“It's quiet in this forest. Can't you hear me?”
“…I-I'll run.”
In the end, with one cadet left behind,
the 28 cadets who safely reached the forest clearing were greeted by physical training that lasted from morning until night.
*
That night.
Arti moved his tired legs.
His breath was nearly spent. But compared to the rural life he'd lived until now, this much was bearable.
‘…I can't believe there's more after the physical training.’
The assistants had briefly taught the cadets about ‘edible food’ in the forest and ‘how to camp out,’ then disappeared into the shadows once again.
-Did you think we’d let you sleep in your dorm beds like this?
-Pair up. Then feed yourselves and survive in the forest. That’s all.
“….”
He hadn't expected them to be this brutal.
‘How are the others doing? We have to repeat this training for three days? Can nobles really handle this kind of training without batting an eye?’
Arti looked around, entertaining such naive thoughts. Then he realized he was wrong.
“…Hmm.”
The dim forest.
Several noble cadets sat beneath trees, heads bowed and trembling. They had abandoned their pride and were sobbing.
“Sniff… sob….”
“…Damn it.”
But he couldn't just sit down and rest.
After a full day of training, he was starving. The cadets who still had energy left searched the area for something to eat.
“Hey! Those wild berries are mine.”
“Shut up, I found them first.”
“You commoner bastard…!”
“Do whatever you want. Out here, there's no crime of insulting a noble, no matter what I say. I can tell them later, ‘I got beaten up at the academy.’”
“Tch…!”
Commoners and nobles alike were rolling around in the dirt. What a beautiful sight at the academy.
Arti sighed.
‘…I was thinking of roasting some mushrooms, but there'll be a fight if I stay around here.’
He glanced toward the deep forest behind the clearing.
“….”
He'd noticed it earlier, but…
There were no traces of wild beasts like wolves, nor the sour smell peculiar to goblin urine in this forest. It lacked the strong, wild scent common to countryside woods.
‘…They must have maintained it carefully to keep the academy cadets safe.’
The other cadets had probably been too overwhelmed by the situation to observe their surroundings.
“….”
Certain that it was safe, Arti quietly entered the deep forest.
Whether or not a commoner with no backing disappeared… the cadets in the clearing didn't care.
But they hadn't realized one thing.
There was one more cadet who had disappeared there.
*
Arti hastily gathered the dry leaves and bark he had prepared beforehand. Then he breathed gently on the spark he'd made with flint, coaxing the fire to life.
Over the fire, he started roasting mushrooms and hard berries skewered on twigs.
“Phew… Good thing I always carry flint.”
He enjoyed the moment with a contented smile.
Soon, a savory aroma wafted up.
“!”
Arti's hungry stomach growled.
Just as he reached for a skewer with trembling hands…
A gust of wind suddenly blew from somewhere.
Whoosh—!
And in an instant, the small campfire went out.
“?!”
Arti scrambled to his feet. He looked around in every direction.
‘Was it a training assistant?! Or could it be a wild animal?’
But his eyes, not yet accustomed to the darkness, couldn't detect anything unusual.
At that moment.
A clear, melodious woman's voice rang out.
“…You fool, lighting a fire at night. What if your enemies spotted you? Even if there are no enemies, you should approach your training with that mindset.”
“Who are you?!”
“If you shout like that, I'm sure your enemies will gladly reveal their identities.”
Lydia emerged from the darkness. Her golden hair glimmered faintly in the hazy moonlight.
“…It is I.”
“…?!”
Arti was startled out of his wits and bowed low.
“P-Princess—?! I’ve committed a grave offense. P-please show mercy…!”
“Hmm, I forgive you.”
“!”
Arti felt relieved inside.
The scene from earlier, when nobles and commoners had fought over wild berries, had long since vanished from Arti's mind. Lydia's arrival had made that powerful an impression.
‘…No, somehow this feels like… an oppressive presence…?’
Just as Arti began looking at her with an increasingly strange expression,
Lydia spoke.
“And while we're at the academy, we're nothing but equal cadets. …Call me ‘Lydia.’”
“W-wouldn't that be disrespectful?!”
“It's an order. And tell me your name.”
“Y-yes, ma'am…. I'm Arti, a commoner.”
“I see.”
It was strange.
He couldn't tell whether she wanted him to show deference or act casually.
“….”
But Arti had no choice but to obey.
Every word Lydia uttered carried a force that made it difficult to defy her. She seemed to possess the air of an ‘absolute ruler.’
He broke into a cold sweat.
‘Is this… the majesty of royalty?’
At that moment.
Lydia threw something from the darkness. It looked like a small bracelet.
“Catch.”
“?!”
When Arti hurriedly caught it, something strange happened. The small bracelet in his hand glowed blue.
Flash!
Then it scattered into dust motes of light.
“Wha—?!”
“What you just received is a ‘sword.’”
“Y-yes…?”
“Picture a fine sword with a blue blade.”
“W-what do you mean…?”
But when someone said ‘goblin,’ a goblin naturally came to mind. From Arti’s subconscious, the image of a fine sword glowing blue emerged.
Flash—!
“…?!”
Then…
A sword appeared in his hand amid a faint glow.
It was the blue of a lake,
a faintly glowing and elegant sword.
“…!”
Arti shuddered.
His fingertips tingled where he held the sword.
As though bound to it by fate…
He couldn't help but feel that thrill.
*
Lydia was satisfied.
‘I skipped that drawn-out tutorial event where Arti gets chased by a monster on the last day of training, picks up the Sacred Sword in a desperate situation, and awakens.’
Of course, Lydia had dealt with the monster in question. Since the scene had been depicted in one of the few high-quality animations, it wasn't hard to find a similar location and monster.
At that moment.
Arti's plaintive voice sounded out. The blue sword in his hand had vanished like a dandelion seed.
“Huh?! The sword…!”
“….”
“H-how could this be…?!”
“….”
Arti's face twisted in despair.
Lydia silently watched him.
‘…He looks as heartbroken as someone who lost the lover he spent his first night with. Well, he hasn't even met the other heroines yet, so I suppose Sacred Sword Dannan does count as a heroine.’
So he wouldn't misunderstand any further, she explained in a calm voice.
“Don't misunderstand, Arti. That sword is an artifact. It disappeared naturally as your concentration ran out.”
“I-is that really true?”
“It is. From now on, that sword will grow alongside you. The stronger you become, the longer the sword will remain manifested in this world.”
“…Oh, what a wondrous sword.”
“Indeed. It is the Sacred Sword Dannan, wielded by the hero who saved the Kingdom of Gallia.”
“….”
Arti tilted his head. Anyone who knew ‘the legend of the hero’ who saved the Kingdom of Gallia—or rather, the Southern Continent—would react this way.
“…?”
Then he cautiously asked again.
“Y-Your Highness.”
“Lydia.”
“L-Lydia… I think you said this sword was the ‘Sacred Sword Dannan’…”
“That's right.”
“…I-is that really true? I heard the Sacred Sword had returned to the sun god.”
“That was a lie told by the Holy Theocracy, which wanted to identify the hero through an oracle and bolster its own authority. The sun god has ‘not yet’ taken the Sacred Sword. The sword was hidden by fate in the last land the hero ‘Aruen’ surveyed… ‘Aruen Academy.’ It was waiting for the hero's rightful wielder to be born.”
“Wha…?! Then, am I a descendant of the hero Aruen—?!”
“Don't go around openly talking about this story. Otherwise, you'll be attacked by the Holy Knights and the other fanatics of the One God Church who worship the sun god.”
“….”
Arti broke into a cold sweat.
“H-how did you even get something like this?”
“I picked it up on my way here.”
“…Then why give it to me?”
“Because I can't use it. And because I thought you might be able to.”
“….”
Her answer was so straightforward he had nothing to say.
Arti murmured, his expression a little dazed.
“What… what should I do now?”
“You need to grow stronger. The Sacred Sword has already headed toward you along the course it chose for itself. That's your inescapable fate. In that case, you need to become strong enough to protect yourself from that fate.”
“…How? What do I have to do to get stronger?”
“Hmm, do you want to know?”
“…Yes!”
“Good. Then follow me.”
“Yes, understood!”
Arti answered resolutely.
With that answer,
he skipped at least two or three weeks' worth of events from the original.
Lydia sighed inwardly.
What an innocent boy.
‘Still, I thought he would at least ask why I planned to take him under my wing… I suppose the original's naivety isn't always a good thing.’
That's why he got NTR'd every time he took a wrong turn on a heroine's route….
*
A few days later.
Saintess Aria abruptly stood up during a prayer service.
“!”
She could feel it.
The Sacred Sword
had been guided to the hero.
And he was nearby.
‘You did it… Hero!’
With her heart pounding, Aria ran toward the place where she sensed the guidance. In the early morning, the academy grounds seemed to be blessing her.
‘I wonder what the hero is like…?’
And what Aria finally witnessed was…
A boy doing push-ups
with the princess riding on his back.
“You're weak. So weak. Arti, is that really all you can do?”
“Graaah! Your Highness! Please!”
“Oh my, didn't you tell me to call you Lydia? That's 100 more.”
“Gyaaa—!”
Aria froze at the sight.
‘Why… why is the princess… doing that to the hero…?’