Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 39
>Chapter Title: An Attack Always Occurs During an Academy Field Trip (3)
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*
There's a saying, "To hide a leaf, hide it in the forest." It's a time-honored maxim about the art of concealment. (Not really.)
Therefore, the Annihilation Squad members who infiltrate forests become masters of setting traps using leaves. The method of installation changes with the season, but since Krasilov basically only has summer and winter, it's a bit easier.
-Twing—
"Agh!"
The moment Isabelle heard the sharp sound of a snapping wire, she covered her head and rolled. Soon after, *BOOM.* A familiar explosion erupted right where she had been standing.
"Seriously! This is enough to kill someone!"
"Weren't you the one who asked to be trained as if it were real combat?"
"Even so, there's a limit! To things! You know!"
Isabelle shot to her feet and immediately swung her sword in the direction the voice had come from.
-CLANG!
"Control your emotions."
"It's making me want to kill you!"
Her record so far: seventeen matches, zero wins, seventeen losses. Isabelle ground her teeth and swung her sword.
*Clang, CLANG.* Sparks flew as an axe blade glinted in the shadows. By now, it had become a sort of routine.
A booby trap in her evasion path right after a shot, and if she avoided the trap, a surprise attack in that new direction.
Ivan's patterns were nothing short of vicious. It was a clean skill that guided her evasion path into a continuous series of traps.
A moment's hesitation would result in death or serious injury; his traps were that severe.
After five days of this, Isabelle had reached a point where she could time her attacks even with her eyes closed.
"Excellent."
Ivan smirked, retracting his axe and stepping back. A cool forest breeze tickled Isabelle's bangs.
"People really do get tougher the more you beat them."
"I think your idea of 'people' and my idea of 'people' are slightly different."
"At least you're not one of them. You've followed well."
Ivan was not a man stingy with praise. He was someone who had faced the Hero's Party directly. This naturally meant his standards were impossibly high, but for that very reason, his standards for 'trainees' were extremely low.
Because it was impossible for them to move like the Hero, and because besides the truly strong, everyone else was more or less the same.
Being slightly better than the average mutt was enough. In the first place, he was more accustomed to training soldiers than teaching heroes.
A soldier is sufficient as long as they can perform at an average level. As long as they don't hinder the execution of a mission, that is enough.
But not anymore. Ivan raised his axe and took a stance.
He had taught her all the basic techniques needed to respond to an ambush. From here on, it was a matter of instinct and mastery.
So, for the remaining time.
"Raise your sword."
He would teach her the realm of superhumans.
Ivan's eyes deepened. Mana swirled around him, his beard fluttering gently.
Because the truly strong, the powerful who step onto the battlefield of superhumans, are on a different 'level.'
He would teach her, even if it meant beating it into her head, so she could one day reach that place she was destined for.
‘The academy is dangerous.’
One might wonder how dangerous a university could be, but at least, not *the* 'Academy.' The Academy was, quite literally, no different from the front lines.
That was 'common sense.'
"Thrust your sword."
"Huh? Ah, yes."
Isabelle extended her sword straight. Her form was flawless. From her grip on the sword to her footing, her abdominal pressure, and the balance from her shoulder to her wrist—it was near perfect.
As expected of the Hero's daughter. Her talent for using her body was complete on an instinctual level.
So, all she needed was learning and experience.
"Brace yourself."
"...Pardon?"
Just as she was about to laugh and joke, *That's a very reassuring thing to say.*
-Kiiiing—!
Ivan's arm blurred, and in the next instant, her blade was split in two.
Even though he had cleaved her sword with his axe, she felt no impact. The axe had cut through the blade as if it were tofu.
"What in the world was that..."
Isabelle let out an empty laugh. She stared blankly at the bisected sword and chuckled.
"This was really expensive... no, but how..."
"Did you see it?"
"See what? My sword turning into a 'was-a-sword'...?"
"The peeling of time."
Ivan twirled his axe and settled into a stance.
"A person's auditory nerves react in 0.1 seconds, tactile nerves in 0.25. It's an area with clear limits to how much you can train."
That was a limitation of the human body's structure. Nerve response speed was an electrical impulse transmitted from sensory organs through receptors to the brain, so it was bound to have a physical speed limit.
In this pre-modern fantasy world, anatomy hadn't developed to that extent, but surprisingly, this world had something called mana.
This all-purpose resource, which could be anything you wanted it to be, could directly interfere with the human nervous system, pushing its transmission speed to the absolute limit.
To put it simply, the peeling of time.
"There is a world that unfolds when you enhance your nerves with mana. Isabelle. There is a realm you reach when what you see, what you feel, and how you move surpasses all limits."
That was the battlefield of superhumans.
Those who could reach that place were extremely limited, but with sufficient talent and experience, it was a destination one would eventually arrive at.
It was the first step in the struggle of those with 'class.' If one couldn't reach this place, they could never be more than a common soldier.
But Isabelle was no side character. She was clearly one of the protagonists of this world. Therefore, she had to be prepared. This was a state that was more advantageous the faster one reached it.
If he couldn't always be there to protect her, the best Ivan could do was this. To give her a push.
"Even if you tell me to do that all of a sudden....."
"You will."
"Yes, of course, I'll do my best if you teach me."
"You'll learn by experiencing it until you do."
"Huh?"
Ivan raised his axe and held it upside down. With the blunt back of the blade, not the edge, as if it were completely non-threatening. With a harmless expression on his face.
"Survival instincts are the foundation of growth."
"You say the craziest things so naturally..."
Isabelle cursed her past self for asking this madman for training and raised her broken sword.
That was the last thing she saw.
-BOOM!
*
"Bella, Bella? Bella!!"
"Huh?! Yes?"
Isabelle jerked her head up in surprise. Before her, Esidis was looking at her with a worried expression.
On a warm spring day on campus, Esidis and Isabelle were spending their lunch break eating packed lunches together.
Ah, what a relief. It was all a dream. (It wasn't.)
Feeling a shiver run down her spine, Isabelle rubbed her arms before looking up.
"You've been acting weird lately. Is something wrong?"
"Something wrong... haha. It's just exam preparations."
"What kind of studying are you doing... Hmm... Is it because you're in the Knight Division? You seem to have a lot more bruises."
As the Hero's daughter, Isabelle enjoyed all sorts of special privileges. For example, a priest assigned exclusively to her by the Tyles monarchy.
This was why she could return nearly shattered every night and still show up for school the next day looking perfectly fine.
But the human body wasn't made that way. Sadly, injuries and fatigue accumulate. The dark circles under Isabelle's eyes were proof of that.
"And you've been a little suspicious lately. Are you seeing someone?"
"Seeing someone? Who would I be seeing!"
Perhaps because she was formerly a noble of the Tyles court, Isabelle's clothes and accessories were, of course, all top-of-the-line, but still. It seemed like she was putting in more effort than usual....
Esidis wondered if there was a decent guy in the Knight Division, then scowled as she remembered her uncle.
The Knight Division was a terrible place.
"Yuri, do you know anything? Like a boy Bella is close to."
"Isabelle is kind to everyone. Hmm. Lately, I'm not sure. Everyone's busy preparing for exams. If I had to pick someone, maybe Oskar?"
"Oh my gosh! Oskar!?"
Esidis grinned and poked Isabelle in the side.
"You and Oskar, is something going on?"
"Essie. There's a time and place for jokes. Honestly, Oskar is too... what's the word. A bit greasy, don't you think?"
"Why? He's popular."
"I like someone dependable and quiet... um. A bit like a bear...? That kind of thing? Someone reliable. He's too slender."
Slender...? Was Oskar slender? Esidis tilted her head. She had never paid much attention, but wasn't he someone who had been training as a knight since childhood?
Leaving the confused Esidis behind, Isabelle stood up and stretched.
"Well, I'm going to go train some more!"
"Are you trying to steal the scholarship from me too!"
"You think I'd let you be first forever!"
Isabelle chuckled and walked away lightly.
*
"Mister!"
"Hmph."
"Haha... I wonder when you'll ever say 'Hello!' to me."
Ivan, holding a pair of pruning shears, turned his head toward Isabelle as she came running over.
"Let's go train today too! The exam is tomorrow!"
"No."
"Eh?"
Ivan looked Isabelle up and down. The fatigue from six days of training was clearly visible. She seemed to have been treated, but she was by no means in perfect condition.
"Rest today. You need to prepare for tomorrow."
"Umm... then... um..."
Isabelle nervously fiddled with the ends of her hair, conflicted. She glanced around slightly and bit her lip.
"Have you eaten yet...? Um. Or... if you have time today..."
"I'm busy."
"Ack."
Ivan was an efficient person and did not repeat himself.
He gave a single glance to the dumbfounded Isabelle and strode away.
Tomorrow was the field exercise. An exam held outside the university. Naturally, unknown enemies were scheduled to launch a surprise attack, so he too had much to prepare in advance.
It was common sense that an attack would occur during an academy field exercise.
Ivan was a man of common sense. And the common sense of the Annihilation Squad was that if you anticipated an enemy attack, you prepared for it by eliminating the target before the attack could happen.
"I think I'm really going crazy..."
Isabelle watched Ivan's retreating back, lowered her head, and muttered.
*
"No way..."
From a distance, Yuri and Esidis watched the scene, coffee dripping from their lips.
"The guy is... a gardener...?"
"The guy is... a crazy, axe-wielding, bearded John Wick...?"
"Who's that?"
"He's... just someone..."
*