Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: End-Time Scenario (6)
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Time flew by, and a month had already passed since the Silver Eagles' first descent training.
In that time, much had happened at the Cradle.
An article written by an unidentified individual appeared on the anonymous message board, causing a tremendous stir among the cadets and faculty.
The *Apocalypse Record*.
It was so vivid that one could believe someone had witnessed the end of the world and written it down.
Even the most steadfast cadets couldn't hide their agitation, and the more fainthearted ones suffered nervous breakdowns.
Anxiety spread throughout the Cradle, and fear was rampant.
The faculty worked desperately to quell the cadets' unrest.
But their efforts had little effect.
The upperclassmen, unable to shake off their anxiety, pushed themselves too hard in training and frequently sustained injuries, while the freshmen collectively engaged in irrational training methods.
If one were to pick the worst period in the Cradle's history, it would undoubtedly be the present.
Amidst the chaos, an incident occurred where the vast data on the terminals, including the Starstream message board, was completely wiped.
The faculty, who had been rushing around day and night to care for the cadets, were left dumbfounded.
The loss of the Cradle's long and storied history filled them with a terrible sense of loss.
The one silver lining was that the message board's reset had a surprisingly positive effect on the cadets.
The cadets were considerably relieved that the Apocalypse Record had been deleted.
Just as the tense atmosphere in the Cradle had begun to subside, albeit slightly, and return to normal.
Someone raised a question about the incident during the last descent training.
The question was about the possibility that the accident was not a coincidence, but rather the work of malicious individuals targeting the Cradle.
The Cradle did not issue any statement in response to the cadets' questions.
It neither denied nor confirmed anything, merely maintaining its silence.
The Cradle finally broke its silence when the theory that the incident was not a mere accident but an intentional act was solidifying into accepted fact among the cadets.
“A 5th-grade Mage, six 4th-grade wizards, and twenty-three 3rd-grade wizards—all the enemies who threatened the Cradle have been annihilated. The cadets may rest easy.”
News reached the cadets that the investigation team, which had secretly left the Cradle, had hunted down and exterminated all the gray wizards involved in the attack.
Thirty gray wizards, including a Mage.
The cadets were shocked that a force powerful enough to form a small mage tower had targeted the Cradle, and they were even more astonished by the Cradle's might in completely eradicating such a force in less than a month.
And as their astonishment subsided, pride filled its place.
The fact that they were members of the Cradle, an institution that had wiped out a force equivalent to a medium-sized mage tower in just one short month, was incredibly reassuring.
It was a moment when the anxiety and fear that had been weighing on their hearts vanished as if by magic.
As long as the Cradle stood, the terrible future described in the Apocalypse Record would not come to pass.
Everyone believed this to be true.
“Things have finally been sorted out, more or less.”
The Knight of the Gale, the Director of the Cradle and a member of the Zodiac Knights, let out a sigh of relief.
But the relief was only momentary.
“We still have to undergo a royal inspection and find the author of the Apocalypse Record. Not to mention, we need to dig up records from the archives that haven't been touched in at least five hundred years to restore even a fraction of the lost data. But, well, if you say it's sorted out, Director, I suppose it is.”
He grimaced as the Vice Director ticked off the mountain of problems one by one.
“I meant we’ve put out the most urgent fire. You know, you always have to be such a wet blanket.”
“We may have put out the urgent fire, but the biggest one is still burning.”
He knew exactly what the Vice Director meant by 'the biggest fire'.
The turbulent era described in the Apocalypse Record was the great fire they had to extinguish.
Over the past month, they had mobilized all available secret channels to verify the credibility of the Apocalypse Record.
“While it may be an extreme hypothesis based on a worst-case scenario, now that the internal problems and corrupt practices of the families mentioned have been confirmed as fact, we can no longer completely rule out the possibility of the catastrophes described in the Apocalypse Record.”
And they had come to realize that the Apocalypse Record was not some plausible-sounding nonsense written as a prank.
“Who the hell knows so much about the secrets each family has tucked away?”
“It’s not the amount of information that’s important, but the depth.”
The Vice Director clicked his tongue, saying they were intimate details that would have been impossible to grasp without approaching them through verifying facts based on a pre-existing hypothesis.
“In any case, considering the circumstances, it's reasonable to assume the author of the Apocalypse Record is not an individual, but a group.”
Even to the Knight of the Gale, that deduction sounded far more persuasive.
The sheer volume and quality of the information were too great for a single individual to have uncovered.
It would be impossible without an organization backing them.
No, it wasn't entirely impossible.
“Unless they were born with a blessing that lets them see the future.”
Stars with the power of foresight did exist in this world.
But even those stars did not reveal the future in such detail.
The prophecies they showed were generally fragmented and abstract.
“So the conclusion is that someone backed by an unknown power has infiltrated the Cradle. It’s a relief they don’t seem to have malicious intentions.”
“We’ll have to wait and see. We don’t know if a warning was their true purpose, or if they have another objective.”
The Vice Director repeatedly stressed.
That they needed to act with even greater caution at a time like this.
After a moment of thought, the Knight of the Gale asked.
“Of the events written in there, which one is the soonest?”
“In six months, starting in the east.”
“Send all available secret channels to the east and have them monitor the situation.”
“Yes, sir.”
Unlike his usual lax attitude, his face showed no trace of leisure as he issued the orders.
It was only natural.
They had to overhaul the cadets' entire training curriculum based on the Apocalypse Record, and beyond that, there was a mountain of work to be done.
If he acted as leisurely as usual, it could lead to eternal regret.
“Damn it. The good old days are over.”
After letting out a curse, he rose from his seat.
“Where are you going?”
the Vice Director asked, and the Knight of the Gale replied.
“There’s a kid who’s been on my mind.”
With those words, the Knight of the Gale vanished like the wind, true to his name.
“What’s on his mind now… wait a minute.”
The Vice Director, who had been tilting his head as he watched the man's retreating back, suddenly scowled.
“That man just dumped all his work on me and ran away again!”
***
I was so busy that a month passed in the blink of an eye.
I had no regrets.
Even if I could go back a month, I doubted I could have spent the time as productively as I did.
I had worked the cadets like a madman.
Perhaps because of that, the results of their training were becoming visible.
The brats, who had initially done nothing but charge in recklessly, were now coordinating their attacks in a way that actually resembled a joint assault.
It was still at a rudimentary level—each taking a position and attacking in sequence—but compared to the first day, when they were crashing into each other and making a mess, it was a giant leap forward.
Among them, the progress of the sisters, Selma and Emma, was particularly noticeable.
“They say twins have a special connection.”
I thought it was just a baseless rumor.
Their coordination was so precise it couldn't be explained by anything other than the special bond that only twins share.
The cadets from other groups who had belatedly joined Group 3's training were also slowly learning how to counter a joint assault.
But that didn't change the fact that they were getting beaten to a pulp every time.
The problem was that Group 3 was getting better at coordinated attacks faster than the others were improving.
Unlike the others, who participated in the training in shifts, the brats from Group 3 spent all day beating up cadets without any rotations, so it was a natural outcome.
Of course, there were exceptions.
Hummel of the sleeping Hildegard family was one of them.
In his first one-versus-many spar, he performed the feat of lasting several exchanges.
It didn't seem like he had any special countermeasures for joint assaults or had received separate training for it.
From what I could see, Hummel's strong performance was clearly due to his innate senses.
Though even those impressive senses were no match for the twin sisters.
“Are the others still not here yet?”
Unfortunately, Hummel was the only one from a prestigious family to join Group 3's training.
Cadets from prominent backgrounds, including Bern of Vigete, a member of the same Eight Families, and Amelia of the prestigious Judgment Knights, never joined.
I, too, found the day too short to chase after unmotivated brats and urge them to participate in the training.
After working the brats all day, I would immerse myself in my personal training once the sun set.
“Come out. Geomyeong. Hya.”
The goal was to reproduce Geomyeong.
“Sing. Training sword. Hyahya.”
But no matter how hard I tried, the sword remained silent.
“Why isn't it working, Geomyeong?”
It sang just fine when I wasn't consciously trying.
“Is the sword just crappy?”
I blamed the innocent training sword out of frustration, but I knew the truth.
This wasn't a problem with the quality of the sword.
The conditions were the same when I fought Professor Navian.
In the first place, it was ridiculous for a mere squire who hadn't even taken the Oath to manifest Geomyeong.
It was clear the short-sighted brats had mistaken it for something else.
Even if that weren't the case, I had done it once, so it was bound to happen again eventually.
There was no need to be impatient.
Besides, it wasn't as if I had gained nothing over the past month.
My ki sense had been growing sharper day by day since then.
“I’m about to finish up and head in. Are you going to stay there?”
Sharp enough to notice the faint presence behind the large tree thirty paces away.
“Tsk. Still such a boring brat.”
The face of the man who appeared, smacking his lips, was familiar.
He was the one who had suddenly intruded on the virtual battlefield—the Rose Garden of Worms or something, I couldn't even remember the name now—and pestered me for a duel.
“Impressive that you noticed my presence.”
The man expressed a small note of admiration.
“A mere cadet detecting the presence of someone concealed at least thirty paces away?”
“…It didn't seem like you were trying very hard to hide, though.”
I shrugged and got straight to the point.
“Ah, right. My business. I have some.”
He acted as if he were about to state his business, but what came out of his mouth was something completely different.
“Were you chasing the sound of the sword?”
The man said, putting on a solemn expression.
“Raise your sword.”
I obeyed without a word.
From the moment he promised me absurd privileges like overnight leaves and vacations, I had guessed he was no ordinary professor.
Since he was offering to teach me himself, there was no reason for me to refuse.
This was an opportunity.
“Do you know what Geomyeong is? Right. You wouldn't. It's not a state so shallow that a brat like you could understand it.”
My conviction wavered for a moment as the man lorded over me with an incredibly arrogant expression, but in the end, not refusing his lesson was the right call.
“Geomyeong is the resonance of will.”
The moment I heard 'resonance of will', it was like lightning struck inside my head.
As if possessed, I focused on my sword.
And then.
*Vwoooom.*
The sword answered my call.
“Your will, and the will of the sword, meet… That's it. Just like that.”
Seeing my sword's faint hum, the man nodded repeatedly before freezing.
“Huh…?”
The man's eyes, fixed on me, began to widen,
“Huh… huh…?”
until they were stretched wide as if they would tear.
“Huh… huh… huh…?”