Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: End Time Scenario (5)
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To be honest, I had long anticipated that my training with the kids would attract the attention of the other cadets.
A one-versus-many spar. It was deserving of condemnation.
I even thought we might be interrupted mid-spar.
It wouldn’t have been strange if someone had emerged to strongly criticize our training methods for violating the one-on-one principle dictated by chivalry.
Someone could have stepped forward, outraged, believing it was a case of the many persecuting the one.
To those who revered chivalry, a spar where many ganged up on one was that unconventional and, at the same time, that worthy of censure.
But contrary to my expectations, no one came to interfere with our training.
There wasn’t even anyone who criticized our unknightly methods.
“…”
They just silently watched us, again and again.
“Tch.”
Unable to bear the heavy silence and stares, Udo took a step forward.
He was probably about to explain the purpose and justification for this training.
“…”
A look of bewilderment crossed the face of Udo, who had stepped forward so boldly to say something.
It was only natural.
I hadn’t told the kids the purpose of this training.
So even if he tried to justify it, there was nothing he could possibly say.
A flustered Udo sent me a pleading look.
The other kids were the same.
They were all waiting for me to step up and explain the situation to the other cadets.
However.
“What are you doing, not getting up? Should we stop here?”
Instead of stepping forward to explain the training’s justification, I urged the kids still sprawled on the ground to get up.
No matter what I said, I couldn’t make them understand anyway.
Wasting my energy trying to explain myself wasn’t my style, and besides, I didn’t feel the need to.
“Yan…!”
Lian stopped Udo, who was stomping toward me.
“Hmph!”
Seeing Lian’s slight nod, Udo couldn’t contain his temper and kicked the ground.
“…I’ll go next.”
In the meantime, Dario stepped forward.
“Wait.”
I stopped the kids as they got back into their stances.
“I was wrong.”
“Are you kidding me? Do you know what kind of mindset we had to follow you? Don’t tell me you’re saying you were wrong so we should just forget about it? You’d better answer me straight.”
“That’s not it. I just think we need to break it down into stages.”
I shook my head.
With even Lian, the strongest in Squad 3, getting knocked down without lasting past the first exchange, continuing the training in its current form wasn’t very wise.
“From now on, we’ll split the squad into two.”
Lian, Dario, Boen, and Peter in one group.
Udo, Emma, Selma, and Pon in the other.
“Let’s start with one-on-three for now.”
*If you were going to do that, you should have done it from the start,* Lian grumbled, which was unlike him.
It seemed the earlier incident had bothered him quite a bit.
“Alright, begin.”
Regardless, I focused solely on my task.
Right now, fixing the values and mindsets they had acquired while growing up was more important than soothing the feelings of some coddled young master from a prestigious family.
After all, the world knights would have to live in from now on wasn’t going to be as romantic as it had been.
“You’re getting in each other’s way because you’re all just rushing in blindly!”
“What do you all think you’re doing! If you’re going to be like that, you might as well line up, take a number, and wait your turn!”
“Udo! You idiot! Is a horizontal slash the only thing you know how to do? You’re hogging all the space, so the others can’t get in!”
As my rebukes grew harsher, a glint of defiance began to appear in the kids’ eyes.
“Why are you only yelling at me!”
As always, I ignored Udo’s protest.
This was definitely not some kind of payback for Udo being at my throat every time he saw me.
“Udo, you moron!”
It really wasn’t.
***
Lately, the cadets had been buzzing about the eccentricities of the Silver Eagle class.
To be precise, the bizarre training of Squad 3 was the hot topic.
A one-versus-many spar.
An unconventional training that completely ignored the ironclad rule of single combat: not to oppress an opponent by exploiting numerical superiority.
“I heard the Mage Slayer was the one who first proposed it.”
“And it’s the Mage Slayer who’s leading that bizarre training.”
The Mage Slayer, who had shaken the Cradle just a short while ago, was once again on every cadet’s lips.
“I had a high opinion of him for his noble spirit, risking his own life for his peer, but this is a disappointment.”
“See, what did I tell you? He’s just a guy who’s crazy about women.”
The righteous cadet who had dedicated himself to his peer was no more.
“He looked quite used to it. Whether he was the one or part of the many, it wasn’t the work of a novice.”
“Perhaps he built his entire record that way. If you think about it like that, his unbelievable record actually makes sense.”
“Do the Silver Eagle cadets have no pride? If it were me, I wouldn’t be groveling like that to a fellow cadet who isn’t even an instructor.”
Among the cadets who had witnessed the one-versus-many spar, the Mage Slayer’s reputation plummeted.
“Tsk. And here I thought we had a decent freshman for once.”
“Some proud junior he turned out to be.”
This tendency was especially strong among the upperclassmen.
Having forged their beliefs as prospective knights day and night since entering the Cradle, they found the Mage Slayer’s methods utterly unacceptable.
“The discipline of the recent freshmen is a mess.”
“If we leave them be, engaging in acts that no one who reveres chivalry should, the very principles of the Cradle will be tarnished.”
It reached a point where they even suggested during meetings with the instructors that the cadets participating in the bizarre training should be disciplined.
However, the Cradle’s instructors neither stopped the Silver Eagle class’s deviation nor endorsed their training methods.
They simply and quietly placated the cadets.
The faculty judged all of this to be mass hysteria stemming from the ‘Book of the End Times’ that had shaken the Cradle, and they believed it to be a temporary phenomenon.
They believed that with time, everyone would return to their original places.
It was a misjudgment.
Unbeknownst to them, a change was occurring in the Cradle.
It had started with the nine cadets of Squad 3.
But the change was not limited to just those nine.
Cadets from minor martial families, those from unremarkable backgrounds.
The lower-ranking cadets who had been struggling, unable to find an opportunity to distinguish themselves since enrollment.
For them, who had been secretly fretting, the Book of the End Times was a catalyst that amplified their anxiety.
“There’s a limit to what we can achieve with just the guided spars that happen during a limited time. Of course, I’m not blaming the professors. They’re busy.”
“Training just among ourselves isn’t enough. At this rate, we’ll fall behind that guy from the lower world.”
Until now, they had simply trusted the Cradle’s reputation and waited.
They believed that as long as they followed the Cradle’s curriculum, they would one day become fine knights, and the name of the Cradle would serve as a strong background for them.
But the Book of the End Times directly refuted such hopes.
The Book of the End Times said this:
With mediocre talent and resolve, you could never survive the chaotic era that was soon to come.
Of course, they didn’t believe the Book of the End Times was entirely true.
But one thing was clear.
The Cradle was not everything.
The real test began after leaving the Cradle.
The moment they realized that fact, they were engulfed by an unbearable sense of anxiety and fear.
They couldn’t just stand still.
If they didn’t do something, they felt like they would be consumed by fear.
“Gah!”
That was when Squad 3 came into view.
“From the top! You have to see the space! The space! Even new recruits who just picked up a spear wouldn’t be as clumsy as you!”
“Shouldn’t you try to understand our side too? We’ve never learned or even thought of anything like this!”
“Sure. Go ahead and say the same thing when you meet an enemy outside the Cradle. ‘I’ve only ever learned how to fight one-on-one, so please go easy on me.’”
As the Mage Slayer verbally abused them, as they were beaten by their many peers and sent tumbling to the ground, they stubbornly got back up.
The cadets who saw this were shocked.
With the exception of their leader, Lian Kart, Squad 3 was an underachieving squad made up of problem children, each with their own disqualifying issues.
If anyone should have been shocked by the Book of the End Times, it should have been them, even more so than the others. If anyone should have worried about being left behind, they should have worried twice as much.
But they were different.
There was no fear of a terrible future that might one day arrive, no anxiety stemming from their mediocre talents, nothing of the sort.
“Ugh. Next time, I’ll definitely…”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re already a corpse. Can’t hear dead guys talking.”
Their eyes, as they exchanged bitter remarks, were shining brightly(?).
Their bodies were covered in dirt and their clothes were in tatters from rolling on the ground countless times, but they didn’t look pathetic in the slightest.
“Good. Selma, Emma. You have a knack for this. You two are the best so far.”
“That’s it, Lian. You’re finally starting to see the space.”
“Pon, that last strike was good.”
At the center of it all was the Mage Slayer.
It was a very unfamiliar sight.
Did being an underachieving cadet mean they had no pride, no self-respect?
Though they were relatively inferior, they were still talented individuals who had passed the entrance exam and rightfully entered the Cradle.
“Don’t let your eyes get fixated on the guy in front of you! If you’re not confident you can disable him in one blow, give up and move! You get surrounded because you just stand there like an idiot!”
“Ah, got it!”
And yet, they were following the instructions of a fellow cadet, not an instructor, without a single complaint.
Enduring all sorts of verbal abuse and insults.
“There’s still hesitation in your sword! Don’t tell me you still haven’t shaken off your reservations!”
They were only fourteen.
A cadet with hardly any experience was skillfully berating other cadets, yet there was no awkwardness to be seen.
As if he had been doing it for a long time, the Mage Slayer gave orders.
“We’re trying our best right now!”
“We’re giving it our all!”
And the cadets of Squad 3 did their utmost to carry out those orders.
The Silver Eagle class watched the scene, mesmerized.
At some point, they even forgot to swing their own swords, their gazes stolen by Squad 3’s training.
But there were too many things holding them back from stepping forward to join.
They had heard firsthand how the upperclassmen, who had now completely stopped coming to this training ground, evaluated Squad 3.
Rogues without a shred of pride.
The shame of the Cradle.
They didn’t dare face such contempt and criticism.
Even setting that aside, the chivalry that had naturally become a part of them as they grew up made it impossible to accept a training method where the many attacked the one.
As if reading their minds, the Mage Slayer spoke, loud enough for them to hear.
“Idiots. Think of it simply. This isn’t about learning how to gang up on someone. It’s the process of learning how to survive against multiple enemies. Right now, you’re helping your peers avoid a violent death.”
It was a sort of pretext.
Even if it was just turning a blind eye, it was the minimum justification needed to momentarily look away from the things they held as beliefs.
“Someday, when you’re sent to the battlefield, you’ll remember today and be grateful. ‘I survived thanks to them.’”
But that justification alone wasn’t enough for them to readily move. The fortress of chivalry, built on conviction, was too strong.
“Everywhere else is like a funeral, but it’s a party over here.”
Just then, someone stepped forward.
“You guys look like you’re having fun.”
The eccentric who always seemed to be napping in a sunny spot.
The problem child who listlessly wandered between the school grounds and the dorms.
“Let me join in.”
Hummel of the Hildegard family, fifth in the ranking of the Empire’s Eight Great Families, said with a nonchalant air.
“Still, as a member of one of the Eight Families, it’s a bit much to join the many. Let’s do it like this. You guys attack, and I’ll block.”
Unexpectedly, Hummel Hildegard, who had shown no presence despite his family’s prestige, proposed a new way.
“It’s not too difficult a request for you all, who have already broken the rule, is it?”
The moment they heard those words, the cadets’ minds cleared.
Squad 3 was being condemned solely for the shameless act of the many attacking the one.
Conversely, that meant that as long as they didn’t join the side of the many attacking the one, there was no reason to be condemned.
“Could I, too? Of course, only on the defending side…”
“Me too, me too…”
The cadets rushed toward the members of Squad 3.
***
To summarize Hummel’s words, it meant this:
*You’re already dirty, so what’s a little more filth?*
The other cadets who followed must have been making similar calculations.
It was shallow.
“So you don’t want to get your own hands dirty, is that it?”
The calculation was so obvious that even the simple-minded Udo could see through it.
“Is your honor the only honor that matters!”
“If you’re going to do it, you should do both sides! Who do you think you are, trying to be so slick!”
Naturally, my kids blew up.
If Lian hadn’t stepped in to calm them down, a brawl might have broken out between Squad 3 and the others.
The kids’ hostility was that fierce.
“Let’s just do as they wish for now.”
Lian pulled the kids aside and whispered.
“Udo, wait a second. Just listen to me first. I have a plan.”
Lian’s expression as he laid out his spontaneously conceived plan was somehow sinister.
And the plan was even more sinister than his expression.
“What did you all think while doing this training?”
“I was pissed. I wanted to land at least one hit back.”
“And did you?”
“No. With my current skills, it was impossible.”
“Then you must be feeling terrible right now?”
“Not really, because I found a way to let it out.”
“How?”
“Well, obviously, by being on the attacking side… Ah!”
The kids let out a cry of realization after hearing Lian’s explanation.
In short, if you get beaten up one-sidedly, you’re bound to want to get payback, and if that desire grows stronger, you’ll start to think of other methods(?).
“So, does that mean we just have to beat the crap out of them with all our might?”
“No. We have to control the intensity. If we overdo it, they might just give up on revenge or anything else.”
After finishing, Lian and the other kids exchanged sinister smiles.
Watching them, I was quietly impressed.
*This kid is serious.*
Lian’s dedication to corrupting the other kids was so passionate it seemed almost obsessive.
“Alright. We’ll take on the role of the villains.”
Watching Lian give a respectable smile to the other cadets, I smiled contentedly.
*This little bastard is a devil in disguise.*
A question suddenly crossed my mind.
Had I awakened a demon, or was a demon using me?
There was no way to know.
Of course, it wasn’t a particularly important question.
“I know it must have sounded shameless, but thank you for readily accepting.”
For now, I was just happy that the prey I had to put on the back burner due to circumstances had come to me voluntarily.
“Don’t mention it. We’re all peers, we should help each other out.”
The devil smiled respectably.
He seemed quite satisfied with his plan.
But Lian needed to know.
He wasn’t the only one who had come up with a plan on the spot.
“Since it’s come to this…”
Sorry, kids. From now on, Squad 3 is going to specialize in joint combat techniques.