Chapter 5
The entrance ceremony and a shocking first lesson.
Two weeks had passed since then.
The freshmen in Aruen Academy’s three departments—the Swordsmanship Department, the Divine Studies Department, and the Magic Department—had more or less managed to adapt. Those who couldn’t had already been driven out by the harshness of the very first class.
-How could I have gotten a letter of recommendation and come all this way, only to quit…!
-Now that I’ve made it this far, I’ll stick it out to the end…!
Once the grueling “adjustment period” was over,
the freshmen, brimming with spite, began their real lives at the academy. The upperclassmen, too, approached the juniors who remained after the “deadwood” had been weeded out and began building relationships with them.
And so, another morning of the new academy term dawned.
*
Early morning.
Lydia was lost in thought as she rode on Arti’s back while he did push-ups. She had been in a pretty good mood lately.
“….”
“Two hundred twenty-four! Two hundred twenty-five! Two hundred—ugh?!”
Arti’s arms wavered. Even for someone from the countryside, training after running all the way up a mountain alongside Lydia at dawn was exhausting.
Lydia spoke in a low voice.
“…Arti, focus. When you feel like you’re about to collapse, where did I tell you to put your strength?”
“….”
“Arti? Can’t you hear me? Are you making a silent protest because you think I’m too heavy to bear?”
“….”
Arti, shirtless and dripping with sweat, had gone red in the face, too. But he eventually answered Lydia.
“…M-my hole.”
“Where?”
“M-my asshole….”
“That’s right. Do it. Focus on the hole below your waist, the place where the filthiest impurities inside your body are expelled. It is one of your new hearts. Make it beat.”
“Hup…!”
At that moment, a faint blue aura hissed out like steam from Arti’s body, which had been on the verge of giving out. At the same time, his expression relaxed a little.
Arti resumed his push-ups with difficulty.
“T-two hundred twenty-six…! Two hundred twenty-seven…!”
“….”
It was the Sacred Sword Dannan’s basic passive skill, “Accelerated Healing.”
His body, pushed to its limits, was adapting on its own to the energy inside the Sacred Sword. And his latent mana was beginning to activate by force, drawn out by Dannan’s power.
To put it in terms of the original game,
he was learning skills while his HP pool increased, too.
“Hmm.”
Lydia was satisfied as she watched.
‘That Arti fellow is growing at a pretty good pace. In the game, this is when the forced tutorial schedule would finally be ending, but he’s already learned all the Sacred Sword’s basic passive skills….’
Accelerated Healing.
Sacred Sword Maintenance.
And “Aura of Purification”…
He would have had to raise his “stamina” stat by slogging through the early dungeons before he could train in any of them. That would have taken at least two months of game time.
‘To meet the heroines, he has to visit the other departments and get acquainted with them… That early-game growth curve was what used to hold players back.’
Now that problem was solved, he could spend the next two months leisurely farming and focusing on heroine events.
“Th-three… hun… dred…!”
“!”
When Arti staggered for the last time, Lydia got off his back. Then she caught him by the shoulders before he could fall face-first onto the ground.
“Whoa—?!”
“Careful. The ground is soaked with morning dew. Even if you are a commoner, you mustn’t abandon your pride and plant your face in the dirt.”
“….”
Drained of strength, Arti sank naturally to his knees. Before him, Lydia stood with the morning sun at her back, smiling stiffly but kindly.
“…Well done. You held out splendidly today, too.”
“…!”
Still kneeling, Arti fidgeted for a moment before speaking.
“Your Highness.”
“Lydia.”
“…Lydia.”
“Why do you call me?”
“There’s something I want to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Why are you teaching me? Isn’t this mana training part of the process of becoming a knight?”
“….”
Arti spoke in a slightly trembling voice.
“E-even though I’m a commoner, I understand what it means to be taught something outside a temple, where they teach you numbers and letters. Apprentices who learn a craft from a blacksmith get punched, and those who learn to make money from a merchant get beaten with a rod.”
“…Are you asking for punishment because you feel uncomfortable?”
“N-no! That’s not it! I… I just….”
Arti lowered his head.
“I don’t understand. If you simply needed a soldier, you could have made me carry things around the academy. But I don’t understand why you found the Sacred Sword for me, told me the truth, and showed me how to grow stronger.”
“…The reason, you mean?”
“…Yes.”
“….”
Lydia glanced around for a moment.
The clearing was quiet in the soft glow of the rising morning sun.
“….”
And there was a faint, delicate presence that had been watching them for a while. She was hiding behind a rock in the distance, but her silver hair fluttered into view.
…How clumsy.
‘So Saintess Aria is here, too. Normally, Arti would first meet her in a Divine Studies class, but something must have changed from the game.’
The changes didn’t frighten her, but they did make her a little curious.
A minor change in Aria.
If it meant Aria had fallen in love with Arti at first sight, or felt a sense of duty as the saintess who guided the Sacred Sword, Lydia welcomed it. If Aria wanted to join her on this path, Lydia planned to make her a subordinate.
‘Better yet, it would be nice if Arti and Aria fell deeply in love right now and quickly realized they were destined to fight the demon worshippers ahead.’
That was why Lydia spoke.
So both Aria and Arti could hear her.
In great detail.
“I need subordinates.”
“….”
“But I don’t need slaves.”
“…!”
“I want my “swords” to think for themselves, grow stronger, and take pride in who they are. That’s why I’m training you to become one of my swords.”
“…A sword?”
“That’s right.”
Lydia spoke as she looked at the rising sun.
“I intend to use you as a sword. I need the power of the Sacred Sword you can wield. …For the path ahead, where countless trials and hardships await.”
“….”
“But whether you follow me is your choice.”
Arti was taken aback.
“You mean…?”
“If you’re disappointed in me at this very moment, you may leave. I won’t stop you.”
“….”
“But….”
“?”
Lydia spoke with confidence.
“I swear on my name. If you pledge your loyalty to me, you won’t regret it. The path I, Lydia de Gallia, intend to take may be dark, but it is not a narrow one.”
“…Phew.”
“Have you decided?”
“I don’t know. The academy, the Sacred Sword—everything has happened so suddenly.”
“You may follow me and take your time deciding. If you do, I won’t cast you aside.”
“…Understood.”
Arti got to his feet.
Seeing him, Lydia asked,
“Will you run with me again?”
“…Yes! Lydia!”
The two of them began running once more toward the mountain where the sun was rising.
*
That morning,
the academy students’ dormitory cafeteria was bustling.
It was a chance for the true juniors and upperclassmen to mingle, rather than the “deadwood” who had dropped out after the first class.
-That’s right! As long as I take my academy diploma back to the Republic, I can get right into the Alchemy Guild’s main branch. A senior I know did the same thing.
-Hey, what’s your name? You look pretty sturdy. Want to train with us?
But that wasn’t true for commoners without any connections.
Arti dragged his tired body to a seat in the corner. Then he ate the breakfast on his tray.
“….”
It was soft bread, all right,
but somehow it was harder to swallow than the turnips he used to eat in the countryside.
Arti chewed with difficulty as he thought.
“….”
‘A sword… What kind of path is Her Highness planning to take? And what exactly is the Sacred Sword for? The Sacred Sword guides fate?’
But.
If he had encountered “fate” at this academy,
he couldn’t help thinking it might be right now.
Perhaps…
It was the girl who had smiled with the sun at her back—
“….”
The cafeteria had gone quiet,
and his thoughts continued to spiral.
‘Why did the cafeteria suddenly get so quiet?’
“…?”
Arti raised his head.
And then he saw her.
A silver-haired girl
standing right before him with a look of desperate longing in her eyes.
Everyone around them was staring at the scene in disbelief…!
-S-Saintess?
-Why is the oracle’s representative from the Holy Theocracy…?
-She’s approaching a commoner…?
The silver-haired girl whispered softly to Arti.
“Hero…!”
“…?!”
‘Huh…?! How does she know that…?!’
At that moment,
the girl took his hand.
“Uh, uhh?!”
Arti was startled by the soft, warm touch. It was different from the princess’s rough, hot hands—delicate and gentle.
“What…?!”
“You must be having a hard time, right?”
“W-wait. Who are you?!”
“That’s right. I understand everything. To think the oracle I delivered would bring someone who lived in a peaceful village all the way here…!”
“A-an oracle?”
“But don’t worry. I, Aria, will always be on your side. I’ll help you so you won’t be pushed around by the princess any longer.”
“Y-yes…?”
“I’ll stay by your side. Until the day I can formally announce you as the hero with the cardinal.”
Aria held the hero’s hand tightly and made up her mind.
She would protect this earnest boy
so that the cruel princess wouldn’t push him around.
When Lydia and Arti had been talking, Aria, whose physical abilities were ordinary, had only been able to make out one sentence from far away.
-I intend to use you as a sword.
“!”
‘Could it be that the princess is such a cruel person that she sees people as nothing but swords? She might try to train such a kind person into her sword and make him do terrible things.’
Maybe… she’ll even try to train the hero into her own pet sword (?)!
‘If I don’t stay by his side to protect him…!’
Aria truly believed this.
It was a misunderstanding born of Aria’s different understanding of metaphors, since she had spent her life within the Theocracy, sharing its faith and delivering oracles.
And Lydia, passing by the cafeteria, was pleased to see Aria and Arti holding hands and showering each other with affection.
“!”
‘…An event already? That was fast. Looks like the main heroine has already been decided.’
As expected, since she was raising him early,
the romance events seemed to be happening earlier, too.
Lydia truly believed that as well.
*
The next day.
Instructor Zach of the Swordsmanship Department shouted.
“You slugs held out through your little picnic pretty well! From now on, you’re playing a digging game for two days and one night—!”
It was a dungeon practicum.
And this time, there was something unusual about it. For the first time, the class would be conducted in parties with students from other departments.
Specifically…
students from the Divine Studies Department.
“….”
Arti’s face was pale.
Around him, he could hear people whispering, “A commoner holding hands with the Saintess…?” and “What an insolent brat…!” Of course, the other ordinary cadets didn’t dare approach him, either.
Only two girls had come forward, willing to form a party with Arti.
“It can’t be helped, Arti. I’ll help you, since I’m your mentor.”
“I came to help, too! Hurry and take my hand…!”
“….”
This is driving me crazy.
Regardless of how Arti felt,
Lydia was making her own plans.
‘…This dungeon was right at the very beginning, but it was full of affection-raising items Witch Morgan wanted. I should gather a ton while training Arti and bring them back.’