Chapter 71
Chapter 71
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: An Unremarkable Cadet (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Vice Director Henkel Heinz suffered from a headache that grew worse by the day.
The atmosphere in the Cradle had been unsettling lately.
There had always been attempts to poach information and talent.
But recently, it had grown far more severe.
“We already have a withdrawal application from one of the White Phosphorus Riders?”
The Vice Director’s face twisted as he reviewed the document.
Ordinarily, cadets who graduated from the Cradle were required to serve the Imperial family for a set period.
It was the bare minimum measure to prevent the talent cultivated with an enormous budget from falling directly into the hands of the Eight Families and other powerful houses.
But this very measure was the problem.
In the past, the mandatory service period hadn't been an issue.
When persuading talent from the Cradle, each family had prioritized their relationship with the Imperial family, refraining from contacting graduates before their mandatory service was complete.
It was an unspoken custom, a consideration for their relationship with the Imperial family.
That unspoken custom was now being openly violated.
Families were frequently attempting to persuade currently enrolled cadets, and a steady stream of them were falling for it.
The result of that was the withdrawal application right in front of his eyes.
It was a scheme that exploited the loophole that the mandatory service period only applied to those who fully completed their education at the Cradle.
“Ha. Are they targeting fourth-years now?”
Among the last class, the number of students who completed their education to the end was barely over seventy percent of the usual.
Injuries, personal reasons, family matters, and so on.
The reasons varied, but what remained consistent was that shortly after the dropouts descended to the world below, they began their lives as knights in a specific family.
The second-ranked of the Empire’s Eight Families.
Haime of the Twin Stars.
The Haime family was blatantly poaching talent, acting as if their relationship with the Imperial family was of no concern.
Normally, the Imperial family should have stepped in and imposed sanctions by now.
No matter how great the Eight Families were, they couldn't surpass the ruler of an Empire that governed half the continent.
But the Imperial family remained silent.
The Haime family was the maternal family of the princes, the family of the current Empress.
It was an open secret that the Empress was backing the Second Prince as the next heir to the throne, not the current Crown Prince.
To sum it up, in the struggle between whales—the fight for the throne—it was the innocent shrimp, the Cradle, that was being crushed in the middle.
Compared to these problems, a thoughtless superior was hardly a nuisance.
“…Or maybe not.”
On second thought, both were a headache.
The image of his superior abandoning his work and dashing off to greet the new professor from the Gaznae family was still fresh in his mind.
“Just how boisterous was their greeting to break the Cradle’s shock absorption system?”
The aftermath of that encounter had overloaded the Cradle’s defense system, causing the already precarious main power unit to fail along with it.
They took swift action and barely managed to prevent the main power unit from shutting down completely, but he had to break a sweat calming the panicked cadets and professors afterward.
It was an act of irresponsibility, a thoughtless action that could have ended their long friendship.
But the Vice Director couldn't bring himself to end their long-standing relationship, nor could he question his superior who had forgotten his duty as Director.
“S-sorry.”
“…A sudden apology?”
The man, who normally lived a life devoid of apologies, had offered one out of the blue. Because of that, he had missed the timing to question him.
He had looked completely out of it.
That dazed look resembled the stunned despair of a defeated man.
It was an absurd thought, a delusion that could never happen.
The possibility of a member of the Zodiac Knights, a master of the eighth star, losing to a mere knight was slim to none.
Even if the opponent was a member of the renowned Gaznae family’s Black Moon Knights.
In any case, his thoughtless superior wasn't the problem right now.
“Let’s see… Today is Group 3’s celestial observation.”
Celestial observation.
It is the first of the four stages of the Starseeking ritual: Observation, Communion, Selection, and Oath.
Through this process, cadets confirm if any stars are watching over them, and professors determine the cadets’ inclinations and how to guide them.
But that was a thing of the past.
The celestial observation class had long since become a talent showcase where professors co-opted by the Eight Families scouted for potential recruits.
Considering the recent severe drain of cadets, he couldn't afford to stand back.
“If I go there… he’ll be there too, right?”
“Who? That Mage Slayer kid? Of course, he will be. He’s in Group 3.”
“Oh? Oh. Right. That guy. But I’m not going today. You keep a good eye on things for me.”
The superior’s pale face as he refused to observe was strange, but he thought nothing of it.
His superior’s whims were nothing new.
“Hmm.”
Having settled into the waiting room built for class observation early on, the Vice Director gazed through the specially made window, lost in thought.
This year’s Silver Eagles were a special class.
Right off the bat, a third of the cadets were from prestigious families.
Among them were even direct descendants of the Eight Families and a promising prospect from the Judgement Knights.
On top of that, there was a cadet with a flashy history as a Mage Slayer and what not.
It was no exaggeration to call them a golden generation.
Naturally, the faculty’s interest in the Silver Eagles was immense.
Group 3 was also a subject of the professors’ interest.
But of a slightly different kind.
The members of Group 3 were those among the so-called golden generation who were judged to be relatively lacking in knightly qualities or had been identified as having temperamental issues.
To put it nicely, they were eccentrics; to be blunt, they were underachievers.
The Mage Slayer was one of them.
His excessively aggressive and unconventional tendencies during the entrance exam were seen as a serious disqualifying factor by some examiners, and regardless of his surprising scores in certain areas or the expectations of some professors, his admission had been uncertain.
‘I still want to watch him a little longer.’
If not for the opinion of the old knight, August, who had been in charge of the final evaluation, the Mage Slayer would never have set foot in the Cradle, regardless of his flashy history or evaluations.
The other members of Group 3 were similar.
The only cadet among them with no disqualifying factors was the group leader, Lian Kart.
Therefore, the Vice Director had naturally expected that not many professors would observe Group 3’s class.
“For that, there sure are a lot of them here.”
The Vice Director let out a dry laugh as he looked at the waiting room, which had somehow filled up.
At this point, it was safe to say that all the professors co-opted by the Eight Families had gathered.
In addition, a considerable number of neutral professors had also shown up.
It was unprecedented for so many professors to attend the celestial observation class of the underachievers’ group.
No matter how he thought about it, there was only one reason he could think of that would move the usually sedentary professors.
First, it wasn't Lian Kart, the only member of Group 3 without any disqualifying factors.
He was an attractive prospect, but the problem was his origin from the formidable family known as Kart of the Iron Wall.
Why would someone from a prestigious family be tempted by recruitment?
That left only one person.
The freshman whose unbelievable history had been the subject of much talk even before his admission.
The cadet who had shown an unconventional side even during the entrance exam.
The Mage Slayer was reason enough to make the prideful professors come all this way, despite his serious disqualifying factors.
Perhaps those very disqualifying factors were what appealed to them.
He must have appeared as a typical pragmatist, uninterested in chivalry and solely focused on winning.
It wouldn't be strange if they judged him as an easy target for persuasion.
“Is that really it?”
The Vice Director couldn't easily judge.
Wasn't this the cadet that even the seasoned old knight had chosen to reserve judgment on and observe further?
For now, he would just watch.
But the person in question hadn't shown up.
The class was about to start any moment.
Displeasure flickered across the faces of the professors peering through the one-way window.
*Creak.*
The waiting room door opened.
A woman with long, flowing black hair.
A person who was currently the subject of as many rumors in the Cradle as the Mage Slayer.
The new professor sent from the Gaznae family, Navian.
For someone who had a “violent greeting” with his superior the day before, she looked perfectly fine.
The Vice Director frowned.
Could it be that man really lost…
The absurd thought resurfaced, and the Vice Director shook his head.
His superior was thoughtless, not weak.
*Thud.*
While he was lost in thought, Professor Navian sat down in the seat next to him.
She acted as if she couldn't care less about the numerous gazes directed at her.
Her arrogant attitude was so typical of someone from the Gaznae family that the Vice Director found himself nodding unconsciously.
[Tch. That was a waste of time.]
[Why bother with a guy like that…]
At that moment, the cadets' voices flowed through the speakers.
The professors, whose attention had been momentarily diverted, looked back through the window.
A gray-haired cadet who hadn't been there moments before was now visible.
It was the Mage Slayer.
[I have no intention of treating a coward as a group member.]
[As soon as we win the first group competition, you're out.]
The sharp voices that followed through the speakers explained the entire situation.
The Mage Slayer was clearly being ostracized by the other cadets.
He would have to wait and see whether it was simple rivalry, ostracism born of jealousy, or a justified exclusion.
Hearing the word ‘coward,’ it seemed like a justified exclusion.
“……?”
The Vice Director, who was observing the atmosphere beyond the window, stiffened.
A sudden chill ran down his spine.
*Shudder.*
Goosebumps rose on his arms.
Searching for the source of the inexplicable chill, the Vice Director turned his head back and forth.
Then he saw Professor Navian.
With her eyes curved into a pleasant crescent, she was smiling.
In a way, it looked like she found the cadets in their prime adorable, and in another, it seemed as if she found them pathetic.
That was what her expression suggested.
But the Vice Director thought of another possibility.
Could she be angry?
Was the sight of cadets ostracizing a group member unpleasant for her?
Considering the Gaznae family’s extreme aversion to politics and scheming, it was possible.
As he was about to dismiss the situation with that thought, the Vice Director was startled by a sense of unease.
For him, sitting right next to her, to feel a chill, she must have been openly releasing her aura.
Yet, no one else seemed to have noticed.
Not even in a room full of the Cradle’s professors, whose senses were highly developed.
“The Cradle… it’s quite an interesting place.”
I should have come sooner.
Professor Navian tossed out a casual remark.
To the Vice Director, it sounded strangely like a threat.
Dozens of ways to mediate the ostracism within Group 3 flashed through his mind.
First, identify the cause, and then…
As he continued his train of thought, he stiffened.
He couldn't understand why he was trying to read Professor Navian’s mood.
Her eyes met his, and she patted his shoulder.
It was a natural gesture, as if she were dealing with a subordinate.
The delusion he had thought absolutely impossible surfaced in his mind once more.
“By any chance, yesterday…”
The Vice Director barely managed to swallow the question that had risen to the tip of his tongue.
No matter how he thought about it, it was an impossible scenario.
[See the small marks here? Everyone stand on one. What? Where should you stand? Just stand somewhere. There are twelve spots anyway, so even if you stand anywhere, two will be left over.]
Just then, Professor Dieter Rizner’s voice came through, and the Vice Director turned his head.
[If everyone’s in position, we’ll begin.]
With the help of the professor and his assistant, the members of Group 3 stood on the marks of the Twelve Palaces of the Ecliptic. The remaining two spots were filled by the professor and the assistant.
*Whoosh.*
In that instant, the world beyond the window turned pitch black.
And upon that blackened world, starlight poured down.
Upon the heads of the cadets, each occupying a position in the Twelve Palaces of the Ecliptic.
The only places that didn't shine were the two empty spots where the professor and his assistant stood.
“Hoh. All ten of them?”
“For the most inferior group to be at this level…!”
“Indeed, a golden generation.”
The professors exclaimed in admiration.
The Vice Director, who had been admiring along with them, suddenly felt a sense of unease.
A star expresses its interest with light.
From top to bottom. From the heavens to the earth.
There was no case of light shooting up from below, in reverse.
That was as absurd as a waterfall flowing upwards.
That was common sense. It certainly was. It had been.
“……?”
Before his eyes, a scene that defied that common sense was unfolding.
Light, swirling around a cadet's body, was flowing up towards the sky.
The Vice Director let out a dry laugh.
“…It’s him again?”
Of all people, the protagonist of this strange phenomenon had to be the person of interest.