Plan
Plan
As the real action got underway, Wade Palmahon, who had shown his face during the Gwilb incident, began the speech.
Seeing Jideulli and the other professors related to practical combat lined up behind him, I finally understood what the overall head of the Combat Department had meant.
"I am Wade Palmahon, the professor in charge of the Combat Department and responsible for overseeing the academy's practical-combat classes. It is a great honor to arrange this occasion for the delegates from our allied nations."
After opening with a thoroughly formal and ceremonial introduction, Wade went on to explain the precautions and team assignments.
Upon entering the dungeon, each team would be teleported to a random location.
That there would be no interference from any illusion magic, so if it felt dangerous, we were to immediately use the return scroll that had been handed out.
That the return scroll must always be worn at the waist. This was because, in the event of a fight between participants, the goal would be to forcibly return an opponent by tearing their scroll, and any disadvantage resulting from violating this rule would be one's own to bear.
Though it was said to showcase the Hero's achievements, they had no intention of holding an event solely for display, so those who managed to win by surpassing the Hero would be promised a suitable reward.
Wade then spent a very long time explaining that the first team to seize the marker at the center of the horizontal dungeon would win. Only after the professors began organizing the teams according to his instructions did the ceremony finally end, giving me room to look around.
"Yoo! Kingdom Knight! Long time no see!"
And in the meantime, I spotted Ethenera, who hadn't been able to contain his friendliness since the very first day.
"It's only been five days, but doesn't it feel like we're seeing each other after a month?"
"That's what I'm saying. It's really surprising how our classes never overlap."
"Hahaha. That's because you and the Margrave are observing all the academy classes. Of course, even so, it had been maddeningly out of sync."
We might have run into each other at least once while walking, but after coming to the Empire, it felt like not a day passed without getting tangled in some other problem, so I couldn't. He was a friend I quite liked because of his overflowing friendliness, so it was a shame in many ways.
"I see you're participating in the field exercise?"
"Don't let this fool you, I can hold my own. If we meet in the dungeon, you'd better be ready."
His lighthearted banter was full of pleasant mischief, so I just laughed it off and let it pass.
Considering that the people who appeared to be in his team were all ones who had shown outstanding skill during Jideulli's class, it wasn't hard to guess that Ethenera's skills wouldn't be inferior to theirs either—the only reason the later lesson had been canceled was because of the sparring between me and Zeke.
Since we couldn't talk for long, we parted and I looked over the others. I didn't recognize anyone in the other academy parties, and for some reason every party made up of foreign delegates had a rough-looking bunch.
One of them was even a woman, but she had a fierce look in her eyes that was more menacing than most men's. The delegate party already seemed to have gathered around her and started a strategy meeting.
In the end, without having found anyone engaging in noticeably suspicious behavior, we gathered as our team and began a brief self-introduction session. That was when I had to despair, feeling like the world was going dark before my eyes in a different sense than that morning.
"Greetings, Hero Siegfried! Your mighty presence has reached even our Mountain Kingdom of Maldgen..."
"I can feel the goddess's grace shining like a halo! I am from the Kingdom of Pheneshmilla..."
"Glory to the great Empire and to the Hero! I am..."
The three party members, without any care for who went first, all began spouting flattery at the Hero and entering full sycophant mode.
It was not hard to tell that these people, who looked like they had nothing to do with combat just from their appearances and didn't even seem like mages, were here only because they saw this as a golden opportunity to meet the Hero in person.
If Zeke hadn't grabbed his stomach and laughed at the sight of them jostling each other, with no manners whatsoever, and competing to speak, they would have kept yapping.
"Heh heh. Looks like these bastards haven't heard the rumors about me yet."
Honestly, in any other situation I would have stopped him, but now that we were saddled with three ticking bombs, I was too dumbfounded to do anything but stand there.
The three fools, who had no way of knowing that, naturally wore dumbfounded expressions and couldn't respond properly.
"Y-yes? What do you mean..."
"Shut the hell up and just follow nicely before I break all your fucking legs right here. This occasion was set up for you to see my performance with your own eyes and then go report back to your damn kingdoms—not for you to wag your tails behind the imperial family's back."
"Haha, Hero. That's not what we meant to..."
Among the three, the scrawny one with thick curly hair pushed aside the dazed one and tried to speak with a practiced smile, but Zeke waved his hand dismissively and cut him off as well.
"Fuck. There's no need for words in a dungeon field exercise. You, waving your hand just now—it didn't look like you had a single callus on your palm. Are you a mage?"
"Huh?"
"Judging by the way you answered, I guess not. What about you two over there?"
The two he pointed at with his chin also hemmed and hawed, having nothing to confidently assert, but the last one, who had hesitated less, suddenly stiffened and raised his voice.
"That's far too rude! We are here as delegates from our respective kingdoms to attend..."
"Ah, if you're delegates, then just spectate! Why the hell do you butt into the field exercise and bother people!!"
As Zeke yelled at them with a sudden outburst of anger, the three stepped back. Even to me, it was a perfectly justified and reasonable outburst.
Considering this was a gathering of prominent people from powerful nations, it was still a pretty sensible choice.
Participating in a field exercise knowing how to fight, and declaring your intention to participate despite not knowing how, were two different things. Rather, with so many eyes watching, it was a matter tied to national prestige.
Needless to say, they had probably joined while spouting false claims about being fully capable. Since this was an occasion to observe the Hero's performance, they had likely even calculated that the Hero would handle everything without them needing to step up, and that their own skills wouldn't matter.
In ordinary times, I would have joined in and sworn at them for such a mindset, but absurdly enough, they almost felt like gentlemen right now.
At least they had faith that the Hero could do that much, right? One of them even mentioned the goddess, so at least they weren't the type to deny or doubt the Hero's very existence. That alone made them not the worst, just the lesser evil.
It really made me wonder if this made any sense, but that was the reality.
"I'm telling you in advance: don't assume I'll clean up every mess you make and carry you forward. The academy didn't give each of you one of those absurdly expensive escape scrolls for nothing. If you're unable to fight, or you think you're in danger, tear it immediately. I'm not taking responsibility if you die."
"Y-you are the Hero, aren't you? How can you make such irresponsible statements?"
The especially big-nosed man who'd said he was from the Mountain Kingdom shouted with an aggrieved expression, and Zeke answered calmly with his arms crossed.
"Even if you're a Hero, do you think you can slice away a threat to an entire kingdom with one swing of a sword? No matter how hard you try, there will always be people you can't save out there somewhere. I have no intention of being tied down by that and dragging hundreds more to their deaths."
"I-is that the kind of thing a Hero, who is supposed to save those suffering under the Demonfolk, should say? Have you no shame?!"
"Whoa, whoa. Watch your words. The Margrave's attendant from Itisel, where the truly suffering people live, is right here, you know."
I had been keeping quiet in a corner, hoping this farce would end quickly. When Zeke jerked his chin toward me, the three men's expressions began to twist. They looked as though they genuinely hadn't expected someone like me to be here, which only made it more absurd.
"Before you start yapping about the suffering, why don't you tell this friend here what your countries have ever done for Itisel. Or has some other country joined the front lines against the Demonfolk without me knowing?"
"...I will definitely lodge a formal protest over this."
"What a joke. Siegfried will remember this too, you bastards. I'm the Hero—are you?"
Zeke shook his head as if there was nothing more to say and turned to me.
"Eldmia. You said you did some adventurer work, right? What was your main role?"
The fact that he didn't call me 'little brother' like usual was probably because he was mindful of our surroundings. His demeanor was also a bit more businesslike than usual.
"Scouting and combat. That's about all that'll be of help today."
"That's enough. Looking at them, it's obvious they'll be no help at all. Let's suffer through this together."
I wanted to say that the Hero would be the one doing all the suffering, but I decided to play along and nodded.
What an utterly delightful start. The delegates didn't seem like pushovers either, and with the students added to the people we had to contend with, we were carrying three dead weights on top of it.
The balance was almost malicious... I was becoming increasingly curious about what exactly the Empire and Esmue were aiming for.