Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: A Cadet of No Consequence (2)
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The first to be enveloped in light was the leader of Squad 3, Lian.
It was only natural, if one thought about it.
“He's a direct descendant of the Kart family, after all.”
“The Ascended Noble Houses aren't called that for nothing.”
A prestigious Ascended Noble House was bound to have a star or two that had watched over the family for generations.
It wasn't strange for a star to have its eye on a direct descendant of the Kart family from an early age.
Though envious, no one questioned the light surrounding Lian.
They didn't have the presence of mind for it in the first place.
*Flash, flash, flash!*
The members of Squad 3 were mesmerized as they were enveloped by starlight that poured down with a slight delay.
“Ooh!”
“Oh, stars!”
Cheers erupted, slightly delayed, for the stars that had taken notice of them.
“Long live the Cradle! Long live the stars!”
“Father, Mother. A star has...!”
The endless cheers began to slowly die down.
And then, they stopped completely.
“Huh...?”
As if on cue, all the members of Squad 3 were staring at one spot.
The coward who had tried to run away, abandoning his peers to save his own skin.
The weakling who always got scared and fell over during guided spars with his supervising professor.
The shame of Squad 3 was there.
“......!”
Something was strange.
The light surrounding Cadet Yan was alien.
*Fwoooosh!*
A brilliant halo of light, incomparable to the gentle starlight descending upon the other squad members.
It was as if a pillar made of light had shot up from the ground.
With his eyes gently closed, Cadet Yan looked serene, as if lost in deep thought.
The sight was so impressive.
“Whoa...”
“Ah...!”
The members of Squad 3 forgot their negative feelings toward him and let out cries of admiration.
The cadets of Squad 3 were captivated by the wondrous sight.
*Bob, bob.*
Then, enveloped in light, Cadet Yan's feet began to float.
And little by little, he drifted away from the ground.
“......”
His face remained serene, as if lost in thought with his eyes closed.
The cadets of Squad 3 felt a sense of unease.
He felt strangely distant.
It was like looking at the bottom of a deep lake reflected on a calm surface.
It seemed reachable if you just dipped your hand in, but in reality, you couldn't reach it even if you threw your whole body in.
That kind of strange distance.
Just then, Cadet Yan's closed eyes flew open.
Emotion spread across his serene face.
It was bewilderment.
*Flail, flail.*
The movements that followed were desperate, like those of a drowning person.
His moving lips endlessly repeated the same words.
-Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me.
-Help me, you idiots!
One of the Squad 3 cadets, staring blankly, urgently looked for the professor.
“Professor...!”
As if waiting for it, the professor's shout erupted.
“Everyone, step back!”
At that moment.
“Gasp!”
The cadets' minds, which had been wandering in a daze, were violently thrown back to reality.
*Swoosh.*
A flash of a sword glinted before the startled cadets' eyes.
The sword flash cut through the upper part of the pillar.
But the pillar of light remained intact.
*Flail, flail.*
Cadet Yan was already that high up.
At this rate, even if the pillar of light disappeared, it would be difficult to avoid a fall.
“Dammit! Why did an accident like this have to happen in my class...!”
The professor twisted his waist, preparing to strike with his sword again.
But before he could complete his prepared strike.
*Crash!*
A noise like something shattering erupted.
*Slice.*
Almost simultaneously, a black line cut through the pillar of light.
The pillar of light that had risen in the center of the hall scattered like a mirage.
Cadet Yan, who was inside it, began to plummet toward the floor.
He was about to fall headfirst.
*Flutter.*
Just as the sound of rustling clothes was heard, someone appeared in mid-air.
“Professor Navie!”
It was Squad 3's supervising professor, Navie.
Professor Navie didn't even glance at the Squad 3 members who were happily crying out her name.
Her eyes were fixed only on the limp, ash-haired cadet in her arms.
Even while unconscious, the cadet's lips were moving ceaselessly.
“Grabbing me whenever you get the chance? Is this a habit now?”
Professor Navie tilted her head at the incomprehensible words.
But the endlessly moving lips soon stopped, and the cadet, his head lolling, moved no more.
Professor Navie's eyes curved softly as she adjusted her hold on the boy, treating him as if he were made of precious gold or jade.
“...How interesting.”
Like rain seeping into dry ground, emotion surfaced on her impassive face.
It was an emotion so intense that it captivated the gazes of all who watched, men and women alike.
No one could rashly judge whether to call it affection, attachment, or simple interest.
Whatever it was, the colorful emotion that appeared on her expressionless face was certainly impressive.
“I'm glad I followed.”
Regardless, Professor Navie simply left behind those cryptic words and disappeared somewhere.
“Th-this way...!”
The Vice Director volunteered to guide her.
The way he scurried ahead looked like that of a personal servant.
But the remaining cadets had no time to dwell on such an absurd thought.
“Why are all the professors here...?”
“D-don't tell me they saw everything from the beginning?”
The professors revealed themselves beyond the shattered glass window.
“Perhaps it was a malfunction of the celestial observation equipment...”
“If we look through past records, we might find an answer...”
“Whatever it was, it's clearly worth paying attention to...”
The professors were debating heatedly, as if the dumbfounded members of Squad 3 staring at them weren't even there.
“To me, it looked like the light of Ascension...?”
“Nonsense! A Jongja who hasn't even received a rank ascending?”
“Then what do you think it was?”
“That's something we'll have to find out over time!”
The members of Squad 3 frowned.
Everyone here had just confirmed they had a star watching over them.
“There were a lot of rumors about him being a Mage Slayer or whatnot before he even enrolled. What a noisy fellow. Whether in a good way or a bad way.”
“There's no doubt that an interesting one has joined us after a long time.”
The professors were only talking about one person.
“I'm thinking of applying for the supervising professor position for the Silver Eagle class next year...”
“Our new professor seems to have already grown quite fond of him, taking care of him to an unusual degree. I wonder if it'll be that easy?”
“If necessary, I'm willing to compete for it.”
They even started competitively discussing the next year's supervising professor position, and there was no one present who didn't know who they had in mind.
Feeling a subtle sense of deprivation, the members of Squad 3 bit their lips.
* * *
“He's just asleep.”
The teaching assistant for the Medical Support course, who was manning the infirmary, confirmed the cadet's condition several times.
“Are you sure he's just asleep?”
But the Vice Director, unable to feel relieved, kept asking.
“I told you, he's just asleep. So please stop bothering our poor TA and leave.”
Yuria, the head of the Medical Support course who arrived late after hearing the commotion, pushed the Vice Director's back.
“Goodness. You should be looking after the Director instead. I don't know where he was yesterday, but he came back a total wreck. He looked less like the Knight of the Gale and more like a mad dog that had been beaten to a pulp... Oh? You didn't know? My mistake. I assumed you did.”
The Vice Director flinched and stiffened at Yuria's words.
But he tried his best to act nonchalant and checked the cadet's condition again.
“You're not usually like this, what's with you today? Please leave. You being here isn't helping his recovery one bit. The patient needs absolute rest, don't you know?”
“I'm not doing this for no reason.”
“We'll send him back when he wakes up. Anyway, get out!”
Pushed out, the Vice Director stared at the firmly closed infirmary door and made a belated excuse in his mind.
That if something happened to that cadet, something terrible would befall the Cradle.
But he couldn't bring himself to say the words out loud.
Because the very person who would bring about that 'terrible thing to befall the Cradle' was staring right at him.
“The abilities of the White Knights are on par with the high-ranking holy knights of the monastic orders. One could even say they are superior in aspects other than combat. The head of Medical Support, Professor Yuria, is a particularly high-ranking individual among the White Knights.”
The Vice Director felt a sense of self-loathing at the sight of himself, frozen stiff and babbling as if reporting to a superior, but he didn't let it show.
“For your reference, Professor Yuria is a member of the same Eight Families as Professor Nav...ie, from the 'Yurendel of Revival'.”
“Ah. Yurendel of Revival.”
“You know of them?”
“I had an experience with them a very long time ago.”
“...Then you must also know of their abilities...”
“I heard their blessing was useful, so I once captured a fellow named Yurek and had him tend to the knights' injuries for a while. He could reattach two severed arms by the next day, good as new. It was quite useful.”
Yurek was the name of the previous head of the Yurendel family.
It wasn't a name to be mentioned so casually, as if talking about a neighbor's dog.
The Vice Director gritted his teeth and pretended not to hear, feigning ignorance.
In his mind, an unrealistic assumption that had been tormenting him since yesterday resurfaced.
Something had seemed suspicious ever since his superior—who had almost suffered for acting thoughtlessly even before the Emperor—was trembling in fear.
The single sword strike she had shown when intervening in the 'accident' during the celestial observation class.
And on top of that, Yuria's testimony about his superior being beaten to a pulp.
At this point, you'd have to be an idiot not to realize.
The person before him was definitely not just a Black Moon Knight.
“Still, you're better than your superior, who hasn't got a lick of sense.”
Navie—no, Navian, the head of Gaznae—patted the Vice Director's shoulder and smiled.
“Let's do well from now on.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
What exactly they were supposed to do well didn't matter.
The Vice Director simply bowed deeply, seeing off the big shot as she walked away.
He only straightened his back long after she had disappeared.
“That bastard, keeping such important information to himself...!”
The Vice Director headed straight for the Director's office.
“I heard there was an accident in class today, how on earth...?”
The Director shamelessly asked about the class's progress.
He continued the momentum from opening the door and lunged forward.
“Oof!”
The Director, who had been sitting at his desk, cried out as he was struck in the jaw by the sudden attack.
Regardless.
“You crazy bastard! A Black Knight is in the Cradle and you kept it to yourself!”
“Ah, aah. That's...!”
“I heard from Professor Yuria that it was a complete disaster. I get that you were embarrassed, but still, there are some things you just don't hide!”
The Vice Director vented his fury, stomping on his superior repeatedly.
The insubordination only ended a long while later.
“Phew. Anyway, this could be a good thing for us.”
The Vice Director said, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“A Black Knight is a card that can not only keep the troublemakers in check but shake up the entire game...”
“Henkel.”
The Director shook his head, looking at him speaking with shining eyes.
“Don't drag her into your petty games.”
His face was devoid of its usual playfulness.
“If you do, the game won't just be shaken up; the entire board could disappear.”
His superior warned him again with an unprecedentedly serious face.
“Never drag her into our affairs. In any way.”
“Since when did our Knight of the Gale become so weak?”
“Gale? If I'm a gale, Professor Navie is a typhoon.”
A disaster that leaves nothing in its wake. That's what a Black Knight is.
“So leave her be. Let her take what she wants. We can just pick up the scraps that fall along the way. That should be enough to shake things up.”
At his superior's warning, the Vice Director had no choice but to back down.
But in his mind, countless plans to shake up the game with the Black Knight card were still appearing and disappearing.
The Director sighed as he watched him.
* * *
The first time I noticed something was wrong was when the ground beneath my feet disappeared.
A sudden feeling of floating.
I was startled.
It was just like that day I ate the Gaecheondan and was forcibly brought to the brink of Ascension.
The only difference from back then was the presence of onlookers staring at me in awe.
Other than that, everything was the same.
*Sigh. This outer rim duty is so boring. It's always the same guys on watch.*
*No, you contractor punk. I told you not to do it like that!*
*Nom nom nom. Meat really tastes best when grilled with a branch from the World Tree.*
*Let's settle the score we couldn't finish in the lower world today!*
*Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!*
*Who's screaming on the public channel! Where are your manners!*
At least, until voices from who knows where started pouring into my head.
*Huh? Wait a sec.*
*Everyone, quiet!*
*Don't you feel this?*
The random monologues, chattering without any consistent topic, began to subside.
And soon, it became a discussion on a single topic.
*What? Some guy descended to the lower world?*
*Whoever it is, they've got guts. The guys on the top floor are on high alert because the orbital elevator got smashed.*
*Come to think of it, they didn't catch that guy last time, right? Or did they?*
*Are the top-floor guys playing poker somewhere? They're not doing their jobs right.*
*More importantly, this is a new energy I'm feeling. Why is it so pathetic?*
*Hey guys, is the orbital elevator fixed yet?*
*I wanna go down too! Some people can, some people can't, this is so unfair!*
The moment I saw the familiar yet unfamiliar words, my mind snapped to attention.
*The Empire's side? Strange. I can't get a precise location.*
*Looks like it's not just one guy, but a whole crew. They're deliberately jamming the location tracking.*
*Wow, I heard there were brokers who arrange descents to the lower world. Is it that crew?*
*I'm tracking now.*
*Me too.*
*Look at them getting cranky 'cause they can't go down. You gotta admit, those stratosphere guys are twisted.*
*So you're not tracking?*
*I've been on it for a while.*
*Let's catch 'em. Catch 'em. Catch 'em. Catch 'em and hang 'em.*
A somewhat creepy conversation was taking place.
I felt like I had committed some great sin without even knowing it.
No, that wasn't the problem right now.
At this rate, I was going to get dragged up again before I could even live out my eventful life.
But as they say, even if the sky falls, there's a way out.
*Snip.*
I heard the sound of something being cut, and the chatter of the stars echoing in my head abruptly stopped.
At the same time, my consciousness began to fade.
I closed my eyes.
The conversation in the outer cluster channel was updating rapidly.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Good work, everyone.
[Elegant Left-Hander] You worked hard too, Your Majesty.
[Curious Sloth] But it'll be tough next time~~?
[Elegant Left-Hander] Agreed. We got really lucky this time.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] For the public channel relay to break at this exact moment. What a coincidence.
[Curious Sloth] Maybe~~ we have another helper~~~?
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Anyway, that's enough chatter. We'll get tracked.
[Curious Sloth] Let's all leave and rejoin the channel~~~
Watching the flood of conversation, I.
“Gack.”
Lost consciousness just like that.
I think a strong arm wrapped around me at the last moment.
* * *
After losing consciousness and waking up, I had to hear something that felt like a bolt from the blue.
“No, Professor! What do you mean I have a body that can't be a Starseeker!”