Chapter 44
The Ember Knights’ academy hideout.
Instructor Zach sat on a wooden chair, wearing a conflicted expression, half troubled and half dejected. Beside him, Mirian chuckled softly.
“Zach, are you worried about our princess?”
“No. Just….”
Zach awkwardly scratched his head.
As expected,
Mirian was sharp-eyed.
‘She’s always been able to see right through people….’
…That was why he’d fallen for her.
In the end, he sighed.
“It’s just a lot to wrap my head around, having to grade a Sword Master’s swordsmanship on the Department of Swordsmanship’s final exam. It’s a realm I haven’t even seen yet…. Somehow, it feels embarrassing.”
“Hehe, there’s no need to overthink it. I’m proud to be that girl’s teacher, you know? So you should grade her with pride, too. Lydia will be happy.”
“Hmm.”
Instead of answering,
Zach gulped down the beer in his wooden mug.
“…I see. This is the academy, and I’m an instructor. All I have to do is fulfill my duty. I guess as you get older, you sometimes forget even the obvious.”
“Yes, exactly. And that’s enough day drinking. It doesn’t look good for a man to walk around red-faced and smelling of alcohol in broad daylight.”
“….”
Mirian chuckled and took away the wooden mug.
Zach seemed about to say something, but folded his arms with a groan. Then he lumbered out of the hideout, his huge body like a bear’s.
“….”
He was about to leave….
“….”
Zach couldn’t help stopping just before he left. He felt an urge to point out Beatrice’s figure lingering at the edge of his vision.
“….”
“….”
In the end, he looked back.
A beautiful woman in her thirties, wearing rabbit ears and a provocative outfit, smiled seductively. The curves of her pale limbs were on full display, and they were perfect.
An outfit that exposed most of her body.
There was even a white rabbit tail on her backside.
It was an outfit that blatantly screamed seduction.
Zach’s expression twisted in dismay.
“What is that?”
“It’s the latest fashion in Saintroix’s shopping district.”
“That?”
“Yeah. The men there go crazy when they see this, you know?”
“You’re insane. You’re not even young anymore, and you’re acting so shameless.”
Beatrice licked her red lips.
“Why? Tempted?”
“….”
“Hmm, I’m very expensive. Doing this in front of Sister Mirian, how bold of you.”
“….”
Zach’s expression twisted,
while Mirian could only smile wryly.
He said firmly,
“I don’t need it.”
“What? Ahaha! You’re shy!”
“You’re insane.”
“Ahaha, haha…?”
Beatrice suddenly stopped laughing with an “Ah!” She covered her mouth with a pale hand and looked apologetic.
“Wait, don’t tell me… old man, do you really… have trouble performing at night?”
“There you go again. Forget it. I’m leaving.”
“Ahahahahaha—!”
Amid the clear, ringing laughter,
Zach shook his head and left the hideout.
Mirian said with a gentle smile,
“He talks like that, but he’s just worried about you. No matter how strong Beatrice is, wandering around dressed like that seems dangerous.”
“What? Me? He’s worried about me?”
“Of course.”
Beatrice’s eyes widened in surprise. Then she grabbed her slim waist and burst out laughing.
“Ahaha! I guess our old man still sees me as a pure teenage girl, even after all my rolling around in Saintroix’s back alleys? That’s hilarious.”
“I suppose he does.”
Mirian said in a warm voice,
“Whether you’re a Sword Master, a back-alley woman, or a blood-soaked soldier…. In his eyes, everyone is someone he wants to protect.”
“Ah, this is so funny. He looks like a bear, but he’s a real knight.”
“Hehe, that’s what makes him cute.”
“But hey, sis.”
“?”
Beatrice made a mischievous face, like a little rascal plotting something.
“Can I make the princess try this outfit on?”
“No.”
It was an immediate answer.
She smiled, but was stern.
“Why? Our princess has a big chest, a slim waist, ooh—! And those hips too… ngh! She’d look incredibly alluring….”
“No.”
“Come on, you think I’m crazy enough to take the princess into the back alleys? I’ll just show her myself….”
“No.”
“….”
“No.”
Mirian’s smile did not change.
But with every answer,
she calmly took one step closer.
The wooden floorboards creaked.
“No.”
“….”
Beatrice felt an unspoken boundary.
A conviction she must never cross.
Like a mother’s.
“…Tch.”
Fiddling with her own rabbit ears for no reason,
Beatrice muttered under her breath.
“I really think she’d look pretty.”
“No.”
“Fine! I won’t do it, so stop coming closer!”
“No.”
“O-okay, I get it~!”
Mirian’s face was right in front of hers. Her smile had stiffened like a mask, making her a little scary.
Beatrice gently pushed her away.
“….”
Even so,
she made a plan in her head.
‘…Maybe if the princess comes outside the academy, I can coax her into trying it on? And some other outfits, too….’
The princess’s offhand words,
which Beatrice had heard once.
-I don’t care about how revealing clothes are. If it’s something one can normally show, what’s the big deal about showing a little leg?
“Hehe…!”
Just you wait.
*
The day of the final exam arrived.
The freshmen of the Department of Swordsmanship gathered at the training grounds.
Instructor Zach looked at the freshmen lined up in a row. Unlike at the beginning of the semester, when some had even dropped out, they now wore mature expressions, accustomed to fighting and cursing….
He addressed them.
“From now on, each of you will take a wooden sword and come at me! You pass if you can last twenty exchanges or more!”
“Yes!”
Instructor Zach’s wooden sword clashed with the freshmen’s countless times. They had enough basic stamina and fighting spirit.
Clack—!
“Haaap—!”
“Your upper guard is open!”
“!”
Zach’s counterattack,
but the freshman blocked it fluidly.
“Hup!”
Clack!
Though startled, the freshman responded brilliantly.
“….”
Instructor Zach felt proud.
Every freshman this year had sharp instincts for real combat. They could rival elite active-duty soldiers. There were even some who would reach the Flow stage without trouble in a few months.
‘Maybe it’s only natural after everything they’ve been through. They were all fired up and never stopped sparring among themselves.’
Instructor Zach swept the freshman’s leg, sending him tumbling, and declared,
“Pass!”
“Huh—?!”
The declarations of “pass” continued without end.
Pass.
Pass.
Pass.
The guy who’d appeared as a Hero for the first time in 500 years, and the one who’d been the top prospect before the newcomer showed up, passed as well.
“Pass!”
As they stepped back, they said to each other,
-Heh heh, country bumpkin! Did you see my swordsmanship? Situations you can’t even handle are a piece of cake for me—! One day, as a knight of the royal family…!
-Shut up. I was just taken by surprise for a moment.
And then….
At last, the elegant golden-haired girl stepped forward.
“!”
Lydia raised her wooden sword without expression. Then she bowed and spoke in a calm voice.
“…I’ll be counting on you.”
“Mm.”
Shk!
The most textbook-perfect swordsmanship stance.
Yet for some reason, her aura was still.
Not even a trace of mana could be seen.
Like the silence before a storm.
Like boiling lava.
It was still.
“…!”
-W-what is this aura…?
-As expected, she’s at the Flow stage!
The freshmen gathered around swallowed hard. They could instinctively sense an aura from a realm they couldn’t understand.
But they couldn’t tell that it was a higher realm.
“….”
“….”
Even so, Zach knew.
From that aura alone, he had already lost. He could tell that her disciplined wooden sword would carve a wave-like path and press forward without pause.
“….”
‘And since this isn’t the time to show off that swordsmanship, she’ll just hold out for all twenty exchanges.’
But he didn’t feel defeated.
If anything, he almost smiled.
‘That little girl… has become such a dignified swordswoman.’
Zach faced her with equal dignity. Though her skill surpassed his, this was the moment to assess her abilities.
“Come.”
“!”
Lydia grinned at that pure pride. Then she charged at her most reliable companion and teacher.
Clack!
*
The final exam for the freshmen in the Department of Swordsmanship was over.
The final exam their seniors had warned them would be difficult, and the trial they’d said would get them expelled if they failed more than twice, had ended with…
“We all passed.”
Dominic, the problem student, said indifferently.
“Hmph, were the seniors of the nobles’ faction just playing tricks when they said it’d be hard? For me, a proud knight of House Montreang, that exam was far too easy.”
“Guys! Dominic says the exam was way too easy!”
-Tell him to stop talking nonsense.
-He almost collapsed around the sixteenth exchange.
-He just leached off the others during the dungeon expedition, too.
“….”
That scene.
Lydia’s group watched it at ease.
Arti said with a troubled expression,
“This is… way too easy, isn’t it? I was so nervous because it was supposed to be Arhen Academy’s infamous exam. Lift some rocks, clear a dungeon, practice a few exchanges, then spar…?”
He tilted his head.
“I-is this really an exam that’s useful in actual combat?”
“….”
Lydia smiled quietly.
‘Looks like Arti’s sense of reality is completely broken after spending the first semester going through all the hardships that weren’t supposed to happen until almost a year later in the original story—and getting stronger.’
Then she said,
“This is comparable to the training of the Kingdom’s elite soldiers. You’ve already reached a level similar to the elite soldiers on each front, despite being freshmen.”
“T-these easy exams?”
“Think of it the other way around. You’ve become too strong. You’ve reached a level that talented people only attain by the time they graduate.”
“I-I… as strong as a graduate, a Kingdom elite soldier…!”
To the trembling Arti,
Mave said triumphantly,
“Though you still lose to me in swordsmanship.”
“Shut up.”
“Hehe, it’s funny to see someone who says he’ll become a Sword Master getting surprised by something like this. Hahaha!”
“Grr…! You stupid bear…!”
“That’s enough, both of you. This is a fine day, isn’t it?”
Lydia soothed the scrapping pups. Then she looked around and thought,
“….”
Things have changed.
In so many ways.
-The idiot Dominic’s running away!
-Shut up! I had a date today!
-That commoner girl from before?
-Are you insulting a lady of the Republic?!
Perhaps it was because they’d faced a crisis and fought back once? The class and factional tension that had been rampant at the beginning of the semester had eased considerably.
“….”
Lydia felt this was a positive change.
‘It seems that since all sorts of events were brought forward by more than a year, the changes have accelerated dramatically, too.’
In that case.
What she needed to do now was head outside.
Lydia quietly spoke.
“Do either of you have plans to go home during the break?”
“Huh? No…. I was just going to stay at the academy.”
“No. I don’t have anything to do even if I return to the order….”
‘Morgan and Aria said they were free, too.’
Just as she thought.
The protagonist and heroines had time on their hands.
Lydia said,
“Then, would you two like to come outside with me during the break? I’ll bring Aria and Morgan, too.”
“Outside?”
“Where are we going?”
“….”
The Saintroix shopping district.
It was where items and weapons that would appear later were waiting to be found.
‘Normally, I’d have to wait until they appeared in the shops. But if I raid the place and loot them ahead of time, our combat strength will rise noticeably.’