Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 37
>Chapter Title: An Ambush Always Happens During the Academy's Field Trip (1)
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*
"May is so green, and we all keep growing..."
"Kids these days don't know that song, you know."
"Look who's pretending to be a 'kid these days.' Ivan is the youngest among us, you know? He was the youngest when he was possessed."
"...?!"
In the clubroom of this bizarre society of the possessed, which still lacked a proper name, pain and sorrow drifted through the heavy, sunken air.
The three of them lay sprawled amidst piles of books, their faces utterly dazed.
"I'm in the Knight Division, so why the hell do I have written exams..."
"I have a status window, but it doesn't have a memo function..."
"I hate magic..."
In this pre-modern fantasy world, May was not the Month of Family. But if there was one thing Earth and this world had in common, it was the existence of university exams.
"I'm so jealous of you, Ivan. You're a rich adult with no homework and no exams."
"If you say that to him, you might be found dead the next day, Miss Yuri."
"A good chance to go be with my parents."
"Wow, now you're making your own morbid family jokes. I don't even know how to respond to that."
"No, I meant returning to Earth."
Sadly, Saint Yansk University was a prestigious institution. Prestigious enough to shatter the common-sense notion that a freshman's first midterms were for drinking and having fun.
Faced with a murderous exam scope and a horrifying pile of assignments, the possessed were becoming exhausted.
At this very moment, as all the possessed students in the university trembled at the harshness of pre-modern society, Ivan was...
"Gyaaaaaah!!"
"Shh, quiet."
...pouring a healing potion onto a student's wound.
"Sa-save me...! Guuuh!!"
"That's not what you're supposed to be saying."
"I-I am... of a viscount's family...!"
"Shh. Choose your next words carefully."
He sat beside the student, who was foaming at the mouth and sobbing, and spoke calmly.
"Speak."
"I will never... never again throw... a cigarette butt on the ground...!"
"And?"
"I will not... damage the street trees...!"
"Excellent."
Before a gardener, the act of tossing a cigarette butt under a street tree is a heinous crime, comparable to a capital offense under international law.
Taking into account that his opponents were still young students, Ivan was conducting a free smoking cessation clinic for a total of thirteen of them.
ep9. An Ambush Always Happens During the Academy's Field Trip.
"Oh! Mister!!"
This happened after Ivan had finished destroying the thirteen environmental vandals.
On the campus where peace had been restored, Ivan was closing the cap on a healing potion.
Turning his head toward the sound, he saw Isabelle waving and running towards him from a distance.
"Mm."
"Greetings are usually made up of words like hello, good morning, have you eaten, or how have you been lately!"
Isabelle approached with a cheerful smile and looked around. She glanced once at the blood-and-potion-splattered shrubbery and made a sour face.
"Uh... was there a demon attack?"
"Something like that."
"You must have had a rough time! I heard someone screaming during exam season and came over, wondering if you'd killed someone again!"
"Your perception of me is quite concerning."
Isabelle laughed, "Ahaha," and tilted her head slightly. That was answer enough.
"Oh, right, please help me! I need your help with something..."
"Help?"
"Well, there's this practical evaluation, and it's so difficult. I mean, is it really okay for a first-semester midterm practical to be this hard?"
"Hmm."
Ivan wondered what he could possibly do for a Knight Division midterm exam.
They wouldn't be teaching things like prisoner interrogation, information concealment, or sabotage.
Ah, perhaps it was related to military strategy? Fortunately, he had experience as a field commander, so he could probably offer some advice on that front.
As Ivan was lost in thought, Isabelle said with a smile.
"Countering ambushes!"
"...Hmm."
A rather... special subject to be teaching first-year university students.
Ivan reconsidered the usefulness of this university. Was such a school really necessary?
In any case, it was within the scope of what he could help with. Both ambushes and countering them were part of his military specialty.
"It must be Enrique's class, right?"
"Yes. Goodness, what do they even plan to use that for."
"I wonder about that myself."
Ivan readily nodded and led the way.
*
Frichenkaya was one of the most developed metropolises in the United Kingdom. And in this barbaric, pre-modern era, a metropolis was a word that encompassed a vast metropolitan area.
This meant that essential resources like farmland, plains, forests, and rivers had to be readily available nearby. Frichenkaya was no exception.
The forest stretched out to the east, just outside Frichenkaya's outer walls. Ivan arrived at the entrance of the forest with Isabelle and did some light stretching.
"Being here reminds me of that time. Wow, I really thought I was going to die that day."
"Mm."
The triangle of conscience in Ivan's mind pricked him slightly. He had, in fact, used Isabelle for an experiment.
The kind that tested whether a protagonist would die in the tutorial.
It had been a necessary evil, to be sure, but Ivan was an honest man, so he felt a pang of guilt.
"You're making a really smug face right now, mister."
"I was born with a smiling face."
"I really want to punch you."
Isabelle narrowed her eyes and grumbled.
"Ahem. Anyway, the exam location itself hasn't been announced yet. Like where or what we'll be doing... is there a specific reason we came here?"
"Because Enrique lacks imagination."
"...Huh?"
"If Enrique were to conduct ambush training, it would be one of two places. The Frichenkaya underground sewers, or this forest. If she had to choose the more difficult of the two, she would choose here."
Enrique was an incredibly rigid, dogmatic lunatic. Ivan recalled the Enrique of old and nodded.
Like many elderly people who have lived long lives, Enrique was not free from her own prejudices.
Therefore, Ivan was certain. If she were to set an exam on 'countering ambushes,' her personality made it highly likely that it would take place throughout the entire forest.
"Isn't understanding the examiner's intent a basic skill for any student?"
"Wow, were you a good student, mister?"
"I wasn't bad."
The students of this fantasy world could never imagine it, but the students of the Republic of Korea received twelve years of compulsory education starting from the age of seven.
"I'm pretty good with the written parts, too. I'm confident I can get an A in almost all the practicals, but for some reason, Professor Enrique's class is just so hard. She's so ruthless, even during our regular practical evaluations."
"Enrique was always like that."
"Wow, were you a student at Saint Yansk University too, mister? A senior?"
"No, I didn't go to university."
Kim Seon-woo hadn't managed to get his university diploma either. After being discharged from the military, he had entered this other world in his third year and spent another twenty-odd years in military service.
For a moment, the Kim Seon-woo within him coughed up blood and screamed. Ivan walked on in silence.
"Anyway! Right, um... well. I guess if you learned something from Professor Enrique, you're a senior. Right? Mhmm..."
"You don't need to console me."
How dare this pre-modern native.
"Yeees... the uneducated mister who's good at studying. So, how do we start preparing for Professor Enrique's exam?"
"Start?"
Ivan smirked and reached into his coat. His fingers closed around a small steel ball.
He took it out, rolled it onto the ground, and spoke.
"We've already started."
"Huh? Wha-?"
-Fwoom!
The steel ball immediately exploded, unleashing a cloud of thick smoke.
Isabelle hastily backed away, coughing. A smoke bomb...? No, this is...!
"You crazy mister! You set off a chemical bomb on a student!!"
Ivan didn't answer, instead crouching low within the smoke. *Tap, tap.* With a couple of steps, he leaped up into a tree and melted into the forest's shadows.
From behind the shadows, he whispered.
"I'll match your level."
"You're so dead when I catch you. I'm shaving off your mustache."
"...I will train you as if this were a real battle."
The field training of an Annihilation Squad officer begins!
*
Ivan dashed through the forest, occasionally firing his gun at Isabelle to maintain distance.
There was no need to use his full strength. Since her ability to detect lines of fire was almost fully developed, a single warning shot was enough to make her flinch.
Therefore, he used live ammunition. Directly threatening her life was the most effective way to fully awaken her danger sense.
"You're crazy! Are you really insane, mister!? Sh-shooting a gun!!"
-Bang—!
Every time she screamed, he would aim squarely between her eyes, fire, and then retreat.
She would have learned a lesson from this. That when you're the target of an ambush, you must move more stealthily than your opponent.
An ambush is fundamentally like a hunt. Both hunter and prey need to blend into their surroundings to avoid each other's gaze.
Therefore, Isabelle, dressed in her ridiculously frilly outfit, deserved to fail from the very start of the test.
Ivan smeared mud under his eyes to cut the reflection and nodded.
*Click, bang.*
He fired a split second later to disorient Isabelle's gaze, then changed his position.
'Still, an off-campus field exercise.'
Ivan scanned his surroundings with sharp eyes. This forest, as he had recalled before, was close to the barracks of the Frichenkaya Capital Defense Force.
In other words, it was a secure area with a very high security level. That must be why Enrique could use it as an exam site without much worry.
But Ivan knew.
'It's 'common sense' for an enemy attack to occur during an off-campus field exercise...'
Being a man of great common sense, Ivan decided to conduct Isabelle's training and search for signs of an ambush concurrently.
*
Isabelle clutched the torn hem of her skirt, trembling with rage.
"What is this... really...!!"
Why is he so serious! I mean, isn't it common sense to think of a picnic when a girl ten years younger than you asks for some light training in the woods?
Even if it wasn't a date... even if it wasn't about affection or liking him... it was just to say thank you for saving me back then. To express my gratitude.
With that blunt and grotesque personality of his, he obviously didn't have any friends. So, I was planning to be his friend, just for a little while.
Staring blankly at the picnic basket, ravaged by the chemical bomb and dirt, Isabelle saw the ruined sandwiches through the open lid and trembled.
"Mister."
She tied her disheveled hair back tightly and smirked.
"I'm seriously going to kill you."
To teach that insane secret agent, who lacked any shred of 'common sense,' a lesson.
The Hero awakens.