The Lord School Faction War (Part 4)
He smashed the branch of that ancient tree with just one arm...?
When it had struck her earlier, its density felt hard enough to require hacking dozens of times with a blade—no, an axe. Yet he had shattered it just like that?
He must have used magic. Yes, that had to be it. He was technically someone from Lebrant Academy, after all. If being ranked eleventh in Class E was a lie, then that would explain everything. He was probably just another one of those gifted bastards endowed with magical talent. Lana bit her lower lip, grinding her teeth in frustration.
Yet Junon steadily shattered her preconceptions.
"Just remember three things. That's the only way you'll ever get readmitted to Lebrant Academy."
"What...?"
"First: don't act rashly, and stay alert at all times."
At that very instant, the Stump's remaining branch-whip came tearing through the air. Junon swept Lana up in his arms, stepping back to open the distance between them. The whip whistled furiously through the empty air right before their eyes, failing to touch either of them. His spacing was absolute perfection.
"Second: accurately assess where your target's weakness—"
Craaash!
"—actually lies!"
The second branch-whip shattered to splinters right before her eyes, replicating the previous strike in plain view. Looking at the fractured cross-section, some parts were dense wood, while others were hollow pockets. Junon had pinpointed that structural flaw and struck it dead-on after identifying the weakness.
Lana blinked, still wondering if he had relied on some subtle magic, but regardless of how he had done it, the two branch-whips acting as the monster's arms were completely destroyed. And what came next was obvious to anyone: the enemy's sole means of attack was gone. This opening was, by any standard, the perfect moment to strike.
Junon had already lunged forward.
Its trunk is wide open...
It was a golden chance. All he had to do was pour all his strength into a strike with a sword or whatever he had, and finish it off. Yet the moment that thought crossed her mind, the Stump chewed through two nearby boughs, rapidly absorbing them to regenerate its arms. It seemed the magical beast known as a Stump possessed the trait to regenerate by consuming surrounding wood.
Still... couldn't he just smash them again like before?
As if to reject Lana's train of thought, Junon held his strike for another tempo. Instead of destroying the Stump's freshly grown arms, he was weaving around them, closing the distance while evading.
"That's crazy... How does he plan to deal with it without breaking them?!"
He was clearly within its striking range. At that distance, it was far easier for the Stump's attacks to land. Even so, Junon kept pressing forward, closing the gap with hairsbreadth dodges that sent a chill down the spine of anyone watching.
Yet, watching closely from afar, something seemed off.
Wait... now that he's stepped in close, its movements look duller?
Though the whips whooshed violently through the air, a whip could only deliver an effective strike when its midsection or tip made impact. Even though Junon had stepped deep into its reach—where hitting him should have been easier—the Stump couldn't land a clean blow. Why do its attacks look so heavy and slow? Right as the question surfaced, Lana finally found her answer.
"The trunk and... the arms are different colors...?"
By the time she caught on, Junon had already slipped right into the Stump's core. Only then did he shatter the two arms he had deliberately left intact.
The Stump could do nothing. With its arms broken, regenerating them required chewing on other branches and stitching new limbs together. And what kind of idiot would stand by and let it do that? A mana-infused punch slammed directly into the ancient wood, crushing its core into splinters and reducing the beast to mere firewood.
Having dispatched the Stump with effortless grace, Junon walked back to Lana and spoke evenly.
"Third: exercise patience until you've seen every card in the enemy's hand. Master these three principles, and getting readmitted will be light work."
A branch dropped from his hand. He was holding it out for Lana to see. It hadn't belonged to the Stump, but to another tree nearby. It was a branch from a bramble, bristling with razor-sharp thorns.
It wasn't just regenerating its arms... It was borrowing the inherent properties and powers of whichever tree it consumed. Then if the Stump had borrowed the power of this bramble, the moment he slipped inside...
He could have been impaled on those thorns and turned the tables on himself. If she had been in the same situation, she would have made the fatal mistake of breaking the two whips right away, and her breath would have already been cut short. If that was the real reason he hadn't launched an attack until closing the gap, just how far ahead was this man calculating? There was no other way to explain this outcome except that he had calculated everything in that split second before moving.
And the truly astounding thing was that he hadn't used a shred of magic. He had gathered intel on the enemy, processed the calculations in his head, and brought down a Stump—a beast notorious even around these parts—solely through physical movement. Single-handedly.
How in the world could this man be Class E...?
Lana lifted her gaze once more, taking him in. No matter how she looked at him, he was anything but Class E. As Lana stood there with her mouth agape, clutching the thorned branch, Junon tossed out a remark.
"I'm a half-baked fighter who can't even cast a single spell. When it comes to magic, I might even fall behind you. But even someone like me can take one down, right?"
He didn't need to say more; she knew what he was getting at. He was trying to tell her: You can do what I did.
"...Really?"
"Hm?"
"Can someone like me really become like you?"
Junon let out a heavy breath, murmuring a thoughtful "Hmm..." before hesitating to answer.
"Of course not."
"...Excuse me?"
The answer that came after his moment of contemplation was anything but encouraging.
Still, I judged that giving Lana a realistic answer was the best approach. Even if I searched deep down, there was simply no way around it. I mean, think about it.
Applying the way I trained to you would be completely useless.
It was basic common sense. Leaving aside differences in physical constitution, mana capacity, height, and weight, there was the fundamental physical difference between a man and a woman. As long as there was no way for two individuals to be completely identical, Lana and I could never be the same person. It was simple logic. So why was she looking at me with such a crestfallen face?
Did I say something wrong?
Racking my brain, I couldn't think of anything remotely offensive.
Then Lana burst out at the top of her lungs.
"Damn it...! So in the end, it's all the same!"
"Uh, hey... Lana?"
Why was she crying all of a sudden? This was driving me insane!
"In your eyes, I'm just another hopeless failure who could never get back into the Academy, aren't I?! Then why the hell did you even bother giving me all that advice?!"
"Wait, that's not—"
"Forget it! I know my place now! I'll stay in my lane and keep quiet from now on. Happy?!"
Lana sniffled furiously, dragging her sleeve across her face to wipe away the tears. Seriously, did I say something so terrible? All I did was state that what's impossible is impossible. Why was she making such a fuss? I scratched the back of my head in agitation, trying to smooth things over.
"Um, listen..."
"Don't talk to me!"
...Wow. She was completely sulking. With the Faction War right around the corner, I needed to train at least one student to scrape together some points, and now this was happening. I had come running to help Lana because she had seemed the most motivated out of everyone in that classroom. If even she threw in the towel, I was genuinely screwed! If I failed to score any points in the Faction War, I'd be dumped straight into Class E. I needed to prove that I had properly coached at least one student! There was no way in hell I was sharing a classroom with those arrogant nobles again!
...What to do?
"Ah, is it all taken care of? Seeing you two walk back together, it looks like it."
"Uh... yeah, well..."
"It doesn't look like things ended on a great note, though... does it?"
Adele glanced at the sniffling Lana and immediately caught on that the conclusion hadn't been particularly pleasant. She stepped up beside me and whispered quietly.
"I'll talk to her. Could you go on ahead so the two of us can speak alone?"
"Will you be alright?"
"Yes. That's why I came here in the first place."
Why she came here? Come to think of it, I had no clue why Adele had followed us out here at all.
"Go on. Hurry."
"Uh, right. Sure..."
I didn't know what had brought Adele out here, but there was nothing more I could do for now. For the moment, I had to trust Adele to comfort Lana. I just hoped things worked out smoothly. Leaving the two of them alone to talk freely, I headed back toward Sirach Lord School.
About ten minutes later, I arrived at the school grounds. However, the atmosphere here felt distinctly foul as well.
"Aaaagh..."
Why was someone groaning in agony? And who was making that sound? Even at a casual glance, this clearly wasn't a normal situation. I dashed straight toward the source of the clamor.
This is...
Kiiiing—!
A piercing, high-pitched screech assaulted my ears, accompanied by an unfolding surge of magical power. There was no trace of a Betrine Line—only raw power strictly confined to offense and binding. I didn't even need to dissect the spell formula to recognize it. Only telekinesis possessed that specific signature.
"What do you think you're doing right now?"
Directing that telekinesis at innocent students was utterly inexcusable. The man who turned around at the sound of my voice was none other than the professor whose collar I had grabbed earlier.
"What does it look like? The Faction War came up, so I'm teaching my students as their professor. Do I need to spell it out with words like 'class' or 'lecture' for you to understand?"
That absolute bastard. In what universe was this teaching? This wasn't instruction. What this lunatic old man was doing was nothing short of one-sided assault, crushing everyone against the floor so they couldn't even twitch.
Right after Junon left, Adele was left alone with Lana. The sniffling didn't stop. Though Adele didn't know exactly what had transpired out where Junon had gone to rescue her, she had to resolve this situation. Adele was, after all, an auditor dispatched from Lebrant Academy to oversee a class at Sirach Lord School for the Faction War.
"Would it be alright if I asked why you came all the way out here by yourself?"
"..."
Instead of answering, Lana jerked her head away in silence. Right now, bringing up anything related to the Faction War would fall on deaf ears. Even so, Adele had a good idea of what Lana had been trying to do.
A sword... She came out here all alone to hunt magical beasts.
Lord Schools were typically where students who had been expelled or had dropped out of Lebrant Academy ended up. All clinging to the faint hope of continuing their magic studies even in a place like this. Lana's circumstances probably weren't much different, but Sirach Lord School was in a far worse state than the other three institutions. Aside from being situated in a remote, backwater province like Shirakh, everything from the terrible transportation to the crumbling facilities was in shambles.
Running off alone to hunt magical beasts in such a place was reckless beyond measure—reckless enough to cost someone their life. That was why Adele was certain.
"Did you hate yourself that much?"
Underneath an act like this, a deep self-loathing had undoubtedly driven her.