Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Radical or Unconventional (3)
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Despite his flippant tone, the man's sword was anything but light or clumsy.
A thrust as swift as the wind itself.
By the time I realized what was happening, I was already stumbling back in a frenzy.
“Hooah.”
I finally managed to stop and flicked my sword once.
Ziiiing... Only then did the blade, which had been ringing incessantly, fall silent.
“Ah?”
Fifteen paces.
I had been pushed back a full fifteen paces from where I'd started.
As expected of a Cradle examiner.
Even a strike made in jest packed that much power.
“You deflected that?”
The examiner stared at me in disbelief.
“I’d hardly call it deflecting when I was pushed back this far...”
“I’m saying you got away with just a retreat when your wrist should have been broken.”
“...Are you allowed to be that rough?”
“What does it matter? Everything resets after the mock battle ends anyway.”
“So you admit you’re the one running this mock battle.”
“...Oops!”
Unlike his sharp swordsmanship, the man himself seemed rather careless.
“Is this also an extension of the mock battle?”
“The mock battle ended a while ago.”
“Then what is this?”
“Personal curiosity.”
I relaxed my stance.
“...?”
He gave me a look that said, *What are you doing?* I answered nonchalantly.
“You said the mock battle was over.”
*Shink.*
I sheathed my sword.
It was a declaration that I had no intention of indulging his personal curiosity now that the test was over, and a silent protest demanding to be let out of the rose garden.
“...I’ll guarantee you an unconditional pass, regardless of your test score.”
“Can’t accept what I’ve already earned.”
“...Earned what?”
“A candidate who captures the commander of Burgund automatically passes, regardless of their test scores. For things to be fair, the same benefit should apply to the reverse scenario. Don't you agree?”
It wasn’t for nothing that I had been so diligent in the mock battle.
Even though I knew I could have just held out inside the castle, I deliberately opened the gates and mercilessly crushed the brats to ensure no one could raise any objections later.
It was absolutely not because ‘I was resolving the sense of deprivation I felt in the past by crushing these kids who were starting their squire lives on a path of roses, unlike my past self,’ or ‘I was showing off against kids who had never even been near a battlefield,’ or ‘I got drunk on the scent of the battlefield, which I hadn’t felt in a long time, and lost my mind.’ Thoughts like that had never even crossed my mind.
...
...
Anyway, it wasn't like that.
“...”
The speechless man could only scowl in displeasure.
He looked like he wanted to argue but couldn't find the words.
“...I'll grant you three visitations with outsiders.”
Finally, after a long moment, what came out of his mouth was an attempt at persuasion.
“I don't have anyone to visit me.”
From my perspective, it wasn’t a particularly tempting offer.
“...Then how about leave passes? You might not know now, but you'll be desperate for them later.”
“If I have no one to visit, do you think I have a place to stay if I leave?”
“...I'll give you access to the armory, which is normally restricted to third-years.”
“I’ll just wait.”
“Access to the special archives, which only instructors can enter...”
“Hah. I'm not going to push myself just to read a few books.”
As the cards he confidently played failed to work, a look of bewilderment appeared on the examiner's face.
He must have thought I would snatch at the bait.
But not a chance.
“...If you get into trouble, I'll cover for you once.”
“Can’t I just not cause trouble?”
He continued to try and sweet-talk me with all sorts of offers.
Of course, I didn't accept any of them.
“Thirty meal tickets for the staff-exclusive dining hall. It's incredibly delicious, by the way.”
His offers grew increasingly trivial as he ran out of ideas.
I took a step back, signaling my desire to be let go.
“Ugh. You’re one difficult brat.”
The examiner shook his head and asked me a question.
He told me to name my price.
“Let me have a room to myself.”
So I did.
“What? A private room?”
“I have some nasty sleeping habits. I grind my teeth and talk in my sleep.”
It was common for squires to share living quarters.
Under the pretext of cultivating camaraderie and a sense of belonging, they forced communal living. This tendency was far stronger among knightly orders than it was for families bound by blood.
It was obvious the Cradle would be no different.
“That’s going to be called favoritism...”
“Then I guess it can’t be helped. We’ll end the test here. I’m not keen on getting caught up in rumors over something I didn’t even want to do.”
“Hey! Wait a minute. When did I say no? I just meant I need to think about how to handle it smoothly so it doesn’t cause a fuss. Just wait.”
After being lost in thought for a long while, the examiner exclaimed, “Agh!”
“Fine, you can have the private room! It’s not like it’s completely without precedent. How much trouble could I possibly get for this?”
The last part sounded more like he was talking to himself than to me.
“Visitations and leave passes, access to the armory and archives, meal tickets, and you'll even cover for me if I get in trouble. On top of all that, a private room. I can't possibly refuse. You win. I accept your offer.”
“...What?”
“Why? You don’t like it?”
I made a motion to turn away, and he grabbed my arm.
“Hey now, you weren’t like this in the mock battle. Such an impatient personality. Who said I didn’t like it?”
Just the reaction I expected.
People always want something more when it’s taken away.
Human nature is the same everywhere.
“But let’s change the conditions a bit.”
“How so?”
“If I give you that many benefits just for clashing swords a few times, it could cause trouble later.”
“That’s not my problem...”
“I’m not talking about me. I’m saying *you* could run into trouble.”
His eyes told me he wasn’t just bluffing.
“So, let’s do this. If you succeed in landing a single blow on me, I’ll give you everything you want. I need at least that much to have a pretext to shut down anyone who complains later.”
“Hah. You should’ve just said from the start that the private room was a difficult request. Is that even possible?”
“Whether it’s the hem of my clothes or a strand of hair, if you just touch it, I’ll count it as a successful attack.”
“Even so, how could a mere squire...”
“No divine protection, no knightly abilities. Purely with swordsmanship.”
“Hmm...”
“I’ll only use my right hand.”
After getting him to concede this much, it would be rude to refuse.
“Very well.”
As I accepted the offer as if I’d been waiting for it, the examiner narrowed his eyes and studied my face.
“I feel like I’ve been had. Don’t tell me you were aiming for this situation from the start...”
“What does that matter now?”
A man becomes petty if he obsesses over trivial things that are already past.
I changed the subject to prevent the examiner before me from becoming petty.
“By the way, are there any rules for this?”
“None. Use any means necessary to touch my body with your sword or whatever. Simple, right?”
Good. That’s what I was waiting to hear.
I smiled in satisfaction and increased the distance between us.
He simply stood there, watching me back away.
He was confident he could close a gap like this in an instant.
I guarantee it.
He was going to regret that decision.
“Come at me whenever you’re ready. It wouldn’t look good for a knight to make the first move.”
I didn’t hesitate and raised my bow.
“...?”
“You said to use any means necessary. I plan to follow that to the letter.”
Is there a problem?
At my words, he let out a dry laugh.
He seemed flustered, but he didn't look like he would impose restrictions on weapons now.
Of course, a primitive longbow like this, not even a composite bow, was hardly a threat to him.
I knew that too.
Even with his knightly powers sealed, a bow like this was only good for buying a little time.
Yes. A little time was all I needed.
*Twang.*
I loosed the string and tossed the longbow aside.
Then, without a backward glance, I ran.
I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“All forces, attack!”
Loud enough for ‘my soldiers’, who were scattered and resting without any specific orders, to hear.
* * *
“What is the Director doing now?”
The Vice Director frowned at the examiners’ words.
His superior, after launching a sudden strike, had been talking animatedly.
The problem was that he had intentionally blocked the sound from carrying outside, so they had no idea what was being said.
If they could see his lips clearly, they might be able to guess, but even that was difficult.
“...A private room?”
The third examiner, who was skilled in lip-reading, barely managed to make out a single word.
“Do you think he’s giving him a punishment for the radical tactics he displayed in the mock battle?”
“That’s plausible. In extreme terms, such tactics could tarnish the reputation of the knight he serves.”
“It certainly is closer to a mercenary’s way than a knightly order’s.”
The Vice Director shook his head at the examiners’ speculation.
Considering his performance so far, Number 99’s acceptance was all but guaranteed.
But that was for the future; right now, Number 99 was just a candidate, not a student of the Cradle.
It was impossible to discipline a candidate who wasn't even an official student.
Of course, his superior wasn't the type to care about such trivial(?) matters.
But he was even less the type to hand out a punishment like solitary confinement for nitpicking such things.
“What is it? What in the world is he doing?”
The Vice Director chewed on his lip.
An ominous feeling crept over him.
The fact that he had blocked the sound meant he was up to something for sure.
But he couldn't figure out what his purpose was.
“Huh? He’s suddenly smiling?”
On the tapestry, his superior was smiling brightly.
At that moment, a conversation he’d had with his superior a while ago flashed through the Vice Director’s mind.
‘Think about it. There must be something suitable. You know, something more realistic, that feels like a real war, something that can test tactical skills and dueling at the same time.’
‘Something that can test tactical skills and dueling at the same time...’
The reason he had suddenly intruded on the mock battle lay in that conversation.
‘Tactical skills and dueling...’
‘Dueling...’
The Vice Director shook his head.
No matter how half-mad his superior was, this didn't make sense.
Publicly, he was the Director of the Empire’s greatest academy. Privately, he was one of the twelve knights who represented the Empire, a Zodiac Knight.
There was no way he would crawl in there and cross swords with a mere candidate just to satisfy his curiosity.
“No, wait. Why not?”
Come to think of it, he had already thrown a strike. There was no reason to hesitate now.
“Good heavens. I knew he was thoughtless, but this is just...”
The Vice Director was internally listing about thirty different insults for his superior when...
“What the. Wasn’t the mock battle over?”
The situation inside the tapestry changed.
The Burgundian troops, who had been on standby after their victory without any specific orders, all began to attack his superior at once.
After a moment of hesitation, the Director boldly raised his sword.
But that was only for a moment.
[...]
The Director shouted something, his face a mask of alarm, before he was swallowed by a wave of soldiers and disappeared from view.
“Son of a bi—?”
The third examiner, who was skilled in lip-reading, flinched and clamped his mouth shut.
The Vice Director's face turned beet red, and his body began to tremble.
As if on cue, the examiners all turned their heads away.
They did not look in the Vice Director's direction again.
Not even when his eccentric superior, relying on nothing but a single sword without any sign of divine protection, finally cut down hundreds of soldiers, only to have a few strands of his hair severed by the sword of Number 99, who had been disguised as a soldier.
“...”
They did not so much as turn their heads toward the Vice Director.
They merely clenched their jaws, their lips twitching.