Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Dogs and Wolves (5)
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A piece of loot I happened upon while wandering through that dreadful forest.
Without this little guy, I wouldn't have escaped that bizarre space I last encountered so easily.
The thought made me feel incredibly fond of it.
I gently stroked my chest.
*Flash.*
As soon as I touched it, the blessing of 「Pathological Curiosity」 activated once more.
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【Mandragora Seedling (☆☆)】
*A young mandragora that has just begun to sprout.
*After the Ring of the Tree left the hands of the dwarf Alberich, the mandragora field, left without anyone to tend it, completely withered, leaving only a single young seedling.
*Having grown in an artificially established colony, it is not ferocious like its wild counterparts and is extremely gentle.
*Due to not receiving the necessary nutrients in time, it grew differently from a normal mandragora.
*Its mouth has not yet opened, so it cannot "scream." For now, it can only manage small, whimpering cries.
*It's cute, if you look closely.
*If planted in a pot and provided with sufficient nutrients, it will grow up strong.
*As a seedling without wild instincts, it generally likes people, but if neglected for too long, it might run away on its two feet.
*A fully grown mandragora is a universal antidote and an essential ingredient for special elixirs and potions.
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I had heard of mandragoras before.
Even in an age where most mystical herbs were cultivated to some extent, this one was a precious entity that could only be found in the wild.
And that's what this was.
A rare mystical herb I had only ever heard of, even in my past life, was now in my hands.
I’d heard that a single, fully grown mandragora root was worth more than enough to arm ten knights.
It was an enormous side profit for a brief detour during the exam.
“Ahem.”
Just then, Angelo cleared his throat and nudged me.
Looking ahead, I saw a scrawny examiner who looked more like a civil official than a knight standing on the platform.
“Times have changed. Knights must now shed the outdated prejudice of being nothing more than ignorant swordsmen...”
“What is needed for this is a humanistic education. But this cannot be cultivated overnight. You must start now, during your time as squires, before it is too...”
The examiner, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, droned on endlessly, but I could barely hear him.
After a while, it all just became a muffled drone.
“Do you under...?”
“Not only as squires, but...”
“...something you must possess for the rest of your lives...”
The examiner didn't seem to care whether the candidates could hear him or not.
“Now, then, we will begin the fourth test.”
He simply tossed us each a piece of paper and a pen.
I furrowed my brow.
I had the paper, but I hadn't heard what I was supposed to write.
*Tap.*
Someone tapped my shoulder.
I turned my head to see Angelo moving his lips.
Lip-reading was one of the basic skills of a squire.
Understanding the shape of his mouth wasn't difficult.
Self-introduction.
No wonder he knew all sorts of information; his hearing must be abnormally sharp.
Among all the kids here, Angelo was the only one who had clearly heard the examiner's explanation from beginning to end.
I gave him a rough nod of thanks and plopped down onto the floor.
*Scritch, scritch.*
I began to fill the paper in one go.
***
The Cradle's entrance exam lasts anywhere from two to five days.
And of those, the first day had just ended.
Normally, the Knight of the Tempest would have only half-heartedly received the report as a formality, but today was different.
“So far, four basic skill evaluations and two individual evaluations have been comple...”
Before the Vice Director could finish, the Knight of the Tempest stood up and snatched the documents.
“Tsk. If you're that curious, you should have just gone to see for yourself.”
“You told me not to meddle and to stay put right here.”
“Since when have you ever listened to me?”
He gave a vague reply to the Vice Director's jab and immediately checked the papers.
*Shhhlick.*
His hand, which had been flipping rapidly through the pages, stopped at the very last one.
It was the report on candidate number 99, the boy named Yan.
“...?”
He frowned.
The boy had submitted a letter of recommendation filled with incredible achievements before the exam, so his expectations were high.
And indeed, the scores recorded in the interim evaluation report were in the outstanding category.
However.
“Why are these evaluations like this?”
It was different from what he had expected.
Things like single-handedly slaughtering a sorcerer, or making a great contribution to repelling a mage.
With all the talk, he had expected the boy to be the type who focused on the sword rather than on a squire's skills.
It was a rash assumption.
“Aren't the scores for basic skills and individual evaluation switched?”
It was common for those with recognized talent to polish their individual abilities rather than waste time on menial tasks like cleaning up after others or useful but trivial skills like weapon maintenance.
He didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing.
It was just that the prevailing perception was that for talented individuals, being a squire was merely a stepping stone to knighthood, so teaching them trivial skills was a waste.
He had naturally assumed the boy named Yan would be the same.
But when he actually looked into it, that wasn't the case at all.
[Weapon Maintenance (Top) / Warhorse Management (Top) / Pathfinding (Top) / Composition (High)]
[Stamina (Mid) / Weapon Skill (Mid-High)]
Setting aside the highly subjective and difficult-to-understand personal opinions of the examiners, a glance at the evaluation scores alone showed that his basic skills were overwhelmingly higher than his individual abilities.
He couldn't quite understand that part.
Wondering if the methods for training knights had changed while he was cooped up in the Cradle, he checked the evaluations of other candidates.
They hadn't.
He could tell just by looking at the evaluation for the girl named Amelia from the Trial Knights.
Her basic skill evaluations, including weapon maintenance, were barely passing, and she made up for the low scores with her individual evaluation.
“If she's from the Trial Knights, I thought she would have received a high grade or better in warhorse management...”
“That's because those kids specialize in riding horses and taking heads. That's not the important part.”
Even those not from prestigious families, if they had a decent amount of talent, were all the same.
“What about the examiners' personal opinions?”
As if waiting for the question, the Vice Director relayed the examiners' comments.
“The first examiner said he's talented enough to be entrusted with his favorite sword.”
“The second examiner just cursed him out, calling him a horse thief.”
“The third examiner said that if you just give him some proper equipment, you could throw him into the Great Forest and he'd come back alive on his own.”
“The fourth examiner reported that he's more like a scribe than someone from a noble house, and that if you ask him to write a report, he'll produce it flawlessly.”
There was no higher praise.
“The fifth examiner said he has physical disadvantages but gave him extra points for his tenacity. The sixth examiner, who was in charge of the weapon skills evaluation, had a similar opinion. His understanding of weapons themselves is high, but he says it's difficult for him to completely overcome his current physical limitations.”
But the evaluation of his individual abilities was relatively harsh.
“Wait a minute.”
“...?”
“Physically disadvantaged? So much so that it's hard to overcome?”
Based on the recommendation letter, he had assumed the boy would be a natural warrior who had trained his body to a considerable level at an early age.
That, too, was a rash assumption.
“Well, he's a bit different from what you were thinking, Director.”
“How so?”
“For one, he's small. About this tall? No, I think he's even smaller.”
The Vice Director pointed to his own chest.
“Anyway, even compared to the smallest candidate, he's a lot smaller.”
So, in short, the candidate who had single-handedly taken down a sorcerer, driven off a mage, and defeated dozens of bandits was, in fact, just a little kid.
“Hahaha.”
The Knight of the Tempest laughed.
Out of sheer disbelief.
“Do you think that makes any sense?”
His laughter ceased abruptly as he slammed his hand on the desk.
“It doesn't.”
“Right? Even you think it doesn't make sense, right?”
“Then could the recommendation letter have been fabricated?”
“Or there could be a problem with our evaluation methods.”
He stroked his chin.
It was a habit he had whenever he was deep in thought.
“What's the first evaluation subject tomorrow?”
“Let's see, let's see. Hmm. It's the mock battle.”
“The mock battle... you mean the variant chess?”
He nodded and spoke in a low tone.
“It would be better to try a different method this time.”
“Is there anything suitable besides variant chess? That evaluation uses an artifact, you know.”
“No, no. Think carefully. There has to be something suitable. You know, something more realistic, that feels like a real war, where we can check both their tactical skills and their combat abilities at the same time.”
“Come on, where would we find something like that? It's not like we're going to start a real war...”
The Vice Director flinched and looked at his superior.
“No, right? The idea that just popped into my head, it's not that, is it?”
“...”
“This is just a needless worry, right?”
The Vice Director asked several times, his face stiff, but...
“...”
he never answered.
***
After spending a night in the lodging provided by the Cradle, I headed back to the examination site.
It was the same empty clearing as the day before.
The only difference was the twelve flags surrounding it.
The emblems emblazoned on the flags were all unfamiliar.
It wasn't just that I was seeing them for the first time.
The emblems of the Empire, strictly managed by the heralds, followed their own set of rules and restrictions.
But the emblems on the flags fluttering in the clearing were completely free of such rules and restrictions.
That meant none of the twelve flags belonged to the Empire.
They weren't even ordinary items.
To my surprise, the twelve flags were all part of a single set of artifacts.
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【Flags of the 12 Great Warriors of Burgund (☆☆☆☆☆)】
*A sacred treasure symbolizing the 12 Great Warriors of the Kingdom of Burgund, once a rival of the Empire.
*Each flag records one of the twelve fiercest battlefields from the long history of war between the two nations.
*By arranging the flags according to a specific, unerring pattern, a very special space called the "Rose Garden of Worms" can be summoned.
*The summoner of the Rose Garden can have up to one hundred people participate in a past battlefield and can arbitrarily adjust the conditions of the battlefield and the situation of each side as needed.
*An excellent teaching tool that allows one to experience command and combat in a way that is close to reality.
*Despite its many advantages, it is not used often due to several issues, such as the difficulty of its activation conditions, the burden placed on the caster, and the extremely rare risk of accidents involving participants.
*In some cases, injuries sustained on the battlefield can affect reality.
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*Sniff, sniff.*
Come to think of it, the scent of flowers was wafting from all directions.
The scent of roses was so strong I wondered how I hadn't noticed it until now.
“Candidates! Welcome to the 'Rose Garden of Worms.'”
A voice that was trying its best to sound deep and imposing, yet somehow came off as frivolous.
“Now, without further ado, let us begin.”
I turned my head to find the source of the voice.
*Whoooosh!*
Suddenly, the world before my eyes changed.
“Waaaaaaaaaah!”
I found myself standing on a castle wall overlooking a battlefield.
“Oh!”
It was fascinating.
On the other hand, it was also perplexing.
*Dum, dum, dum!*
Because the flags fluttering behind the approaching enemies, who were beating their drums, looked familiar.
“Why is that over there...”
It was the flag of our Empire.
Just then, the same frivolous voice from before echoed out.
[This test is a mock battle.]
[By any means necessary, bring down the final bastion of Burgund.]
[For your information, the candidate who defeats the fortress commander will automatically pass.]
It seemed the setting was that this castle I was standing on was the final bastion of Burgund.
“...!”
That alone was enough to make me lose my mind.
“Commander! Your orders!”
And apparently, I was the fortress commander.
In other words, I was the passing trophy that all those kids would be desperately searching for with bloodshot eyes.
This is insane.