Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 17
>Chapter Title: The Status Window Opened on the First Day of School (1)
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6. The Status Window Opened on the First Day of School. (1)
*
Late February. The streets near Saint Yansk University were teeming with people.
The premier educational institution of the post-war era, established by order of the late king, was finally holding its entrance ceremony. For those who had taken the entrance exam last November, it had been a long wait indeed.
It was a time of rampant scheming by the Frichenkaya merchants, eager to empty the pockets of the new students and their families who had come from faraway lands, and a time when various "traditional pastimes," including pickpocketing, were rife.
Freshmen, unable to hide their excitement and happiness despite the biting early spring morning chill, filed past the gates of Yansk University, trailed by undergraduates who watched them with pitying eyes.
"What is that?"
That was how it was, at least, until someone pointed at the sky with a bewildered cry.
One by one, the number of strange people pointing at the sky grew.
Soon, a long shadow fell over the Yansk University campus, obscuring the morning glow.
"A ship...?"
>"An air... battleship...?"
>"Holy crap!! That, that's the Kallion national emblem, isn't it?!"
The crowd gathered before the campus erupted into a panic.
"Y-Your Excellency! A Kallion warship is currently over Frichenkaya...!"
>"I have eyes, Sir."
A silver-haired Lord Chamberlain tore at his hair and ground his teeth.
"...Wasn't Elfihera supposed to be coming overland via Tilles?"
>"Well... ahaha! You're right! And they even used a cloaking screen above the clouds, so..."
>"Right. The weather has been foul lately. So we couldn't determine whether Kallion's esteemed guest was coming by land or crossing our airspace in an armed vessel. Makes sense."
>"No, Senior. Realistically, how could we plant agents in Kallion! That place is..."
...the land of the elves... How are we supposed to... plant people there... They'd be discovered immediately....
A counter-intelligence officer, breaking out in a cold sweat, muttered to himself, "I'm so screwed when I get back to headquarters."
In such an era, where peace had become a vulgar joke.
A warship was descending from the sky.
It was early spring.
ep 6. The Status Window Opened on the First Day of School.
I hope Elizaveta doesn't end up killing an elf.
Ivan thought to himself as he walked on, ignoring the people still lost in confusion.
The elves' intentions were probably obvious.
-Hey, from the looks of it, only the kids from the Hero's Party are being targeted by terrorists, aren't they?
>-Just how pathetic is your border security for us to have to do this?
>-Elfihera is the treasure of our archipelago. How could we possibly entrust her to you? We'll protect our own from now on. Thanks for your efforts. And we expect your full cooperation, yes?
It was hard to argue with. Isabelle and Esidis had been caught in a train derailment, and it was nothing short of a miracle that they had all survived.
Elizaveta had even received a prior warning from Ivan. But who would dare provoke Krasilov at a time like this?
Krasilov, in the midst of chaos, where the princess and the crown prince were fiercely at each other's throats, a conflict that had ironically preserved most of the nation's military strength even after the war. A foreign power would dare?
Not unless they had a death wish.
Elizaveta must have felt it was unfair. She likely never imagined such lunatics actually existed. In any case, this incident would most likely be passed off as a minor happening. The elves of Kallion wouldn't commit a diplomatic breach beyond a mere 'show of force'.
'She'd be devastated if I told her there would be countless more terrorist attacks on the academy from now on.'
The thought of seeing the Iron-Blooded Liza cry again was rather tempting, but he decided to hold his tongue to avoid further insubordination.
Besides, he had no desire to face Elizaveta in the first place. Theirs was, after all, a rather awkward relationship.
'Hmm.'
Elizaveta had written letters quite often, and Ivan had neatly returned every single one. The primary reason was his unwillingness to converse with a superior officer for personal reasons, and the secondary reason was his desire to avoid any entanglement with royalty.
If he had known she would be appointed as his superior officer a few years later, he would have been more careful. It was something to reflect on.
She had been only fourteen when she first wrote to him. How could he have predicted she would be commissioned as an officer in the Annihilation Squad in just five years? Moreover, back then, he had been in the late king's Royal Guard.
That meant being seen exchanging private words with the princess could have instantly embroiled him in a political offensive.
He had to avoid the misunderstanding that the great late king had secretly sent someone to support Elizaveta...
"Huh? Mister?"
>"...Hm?"
As he walked, lost in thought, a familiar voice suddenly reached him.
Immediately after, someone scampered over and tried to slap his shoulder. Ivan sidestepped lightly, his hand moving to his hip. It found nothing.
>Only then did he remember he had left his axe in the headmaster's office.
"Whoa, what's with the killing intent! Can't even say hello, I'm too scared to live!"
>"The way they greet people in Tilles seems to have changed quite a bit."
>"I saw your hand go to your hip! Is the proper response to a greeting in Krasilov a swing of an axe? Huh? Is this how you treat a comrade who's faced life and death with you?"
It was Isabelle. She approached him without her attendants, a broad smile on her face.
"You don't look like you're heading to class. Are you an instructor? A professor? Not the Knight Division, right? You don't look the part. Ah, don't tell me. Let me guess."
>"I don't recall you having this kind of personality."
>"Didn't you tell me to live with a smile?"
Isabelle beamed brightly.
Her expression so closely resembled her father's that Ivan couldn't help but smile back.
"I stiiiill can't stand Lord August, and I absolutely despise those phonies with their fake smiles. But. Hmm. Well, I guess I can just be phony too, right?"
>"Excellent."
Ivan genuinely thought so. This girl had always been like an unsocialized puppy.
The type to bark at anyone and bare her teeth at the slightest fear.
To have changed her personality in just one night, Ivan rated himself as having more talent as an educator than he'd thought. (This was a rather bewildering assessment for Isabelle, who, during that one night, had witnessed the massacre of some eighty civilians and fought a life-or-death battle against demons to save the ten-odd survivors.)
"Anyway! Mister, no. Um. A man of your skill must be a professor, right? Right? What department? Physical education. Definitely P.E. Not the Knight Division, and hmm... Does Yansk University have an assassination curriculum?"
>"I'd like you to consider if an educational institution that teaches such things would have any use in this world."
>"It's good to learn anything! Except for magic. That stuff is just way too hard."
>"It's a bit of a problem if the Hero can't use magic."
>"Ahaha, I told you I'm in the Knight Division!"
Ivan walked on, watching the chattering Isabelle for a while. As she babbled on, another group of people approached from the distance.
"Young Lady!"
>"Eek."
Isabelle's expression hardened for a moment before she instantly schooled her features.
*Ahem*, she cleared her throat, glanced at Ivan, and painstakingly composed herself before replying in a lively tone.
"Oh my, Young Lord! Fancy seeing you here!"
>"I've told you to speak comfortably, Young Lady. Please, call me Oskar."
>"Yes, next time!"
Oskar.
Ivan's eyes narrowed.
A remarkably handsome, blond young man, surrounded by a group of female students, approached with a wide smile.
Good heavens. He's the spitting image of his father. This one.
Ivan was impressed. It wasn't just his looks; even that self-satisfied expression was the same. The only difference, perhaps, was the crowd around him.
Gilles Vert had always been very neat in his affairs with women.
In fact, back in those days, it wasn't easy to meet women anywhere.
The only women in the party were the Saintess and the thief, but Patricia was just a kid of fifteen, and Enrique was a vampire over a hundred years old.
"Hm. A pleasure to meet you. I am Oskar de Sation of Tilles. And you are?"
>"Ivan Petrovich."
>"Forgive my asking, but what is your relationship with the Young Lady...? Ah, my apologies. You may not know, but the Young Lady is a state guest of our country, so I must be somewhat impertinent."
Anyone seeing a suspicious bearded weirdo walking with the Hero's daughter would inevitably think the same thing.
Ivan wouldn't agree with the assessment, but from Oskar's perspective, it was true. This man was suspicious. And recalling the time of the train terror attack on Isabelle, it was even more so.
Oskar had departed three days after Isabelle. That was because Isabelle had been adamant about not wanting to travel with him.
And when the news of Isabelle's accident reached Tilles.
-Advance! To Frichenkaya!
>-Let's tear the paws off the Krasilov bears!
>-A nation that forgets its history has no future! Do not forget the Hero's sacred deeds, people of Tilles!
The streets of Saint Mathilenne were filled with citizens holding such placards. What was the problem? The Hero's daughter was missing abroad, not from an accident, but from a terrorist attack.
Fortunately, an urgent dispatch arrived announcing Isabelle's safe return without any injuries, and the protestors dispersed. But it was inevitable that Tilles's vigilance and distrust had skyrocketed.
On top of that, he had received a stern lecture from his father, the Lord Protector Gilles Vert.
'Once you're enrolled, you are to protect Isabelle so that not a single hair on her head is harmed, no matter what.'
>'Even if it costs me my life?'
>'No matter how I think about it, her life is more precious than yours.'
>'You're really something else. Why didn't you just trade me for her? You were friends with the Hero, weren't you?'
>'If I could have, I would have made the trade twenty years ago, my son. Yulia and I wanted a daughter.'
>'Wow, that's just staggering.'
Oskar's face contorted as he recalled the solemn admonition of the great Lord Protector Gilles Vert, the model for all knights of Tilles, before he forced his expression back into order.
"I'm a staff member at Yansk University."
>"My sincerest apologies. There have been many unfortunate incidents lately. I ask for your generous understanding of my rudeness."
>"Mm."
>"May I ask which department you are in charge of...? I don't recall seeing your name on the faculty list."
At this, Isabelle's ears perked up. He wasn't a professor?
"I'm a gardener."
>"What."
>"...Hmm...?"
With that level of skill? A gardener?
>Isabelle stared at him in astonishment.
Those deep eyes, still impossible to read, and that shaggy beard that hid any hint of an expression.
I really want to shave that thing off, she thought, before a realization struck her.
"...Aha?"
She then let out a strange laugh and jabbed Ivan in the side. Ivan instinctively reached for his hip, then remembered his axe was gone and nonchalantly lowered his hand.
'You're a government agent, right? Right? A secret agent or something? Wow, university life is going to be so exciting. What on earth are they hiding that they need to plant government agents here?'
Isabelle whispered, then cleared her throat and composed her face.
'This is a secret between us. Got it? You can't go telling anyone else, okay?'
>'If it's a secret between us, I think we need to be more worried about your mouth.'
>'What are you talking about? I'm the Hero's daughter. Solemnity, Secrecy, Justice.'
>'Is that what the Hero said?'
As the two continued their whispering, Oskar's expression grew strange.
"Young Lady?"
>"Ah, yes, Young Lord. Ahem. Mister Petrovich? Thank you for guiding me. Wow~ the campus is so big, I nearly got lost! Goodbye now!"
Did the Yansk University Faculty of Arts have a drama department? Ivan seriously considered recommending an acting class as an elective for Isabelle as he walked away.
*
At that moment, in the grand auditorium where preparations for the Yansk University entrance ceremony were in full swing, a person was staring blankly into the air.
"What is this? A status... window?"
[Congratulations!]
*