Hell Training (1)
For the past week, I had lived through hell. The first week after enrollment was nothing but departmental classes, which meant wearing a gravity bracelet for more than half of every day—and from the second day on, the training had been cranked up another notch.
"Students. Today we'll do thirty push-ups, thirty sit-ups, and thirty squats. And just so you know, if your form is off, the eagle robot will be issuing a warning."
"Kieeek!"
Even the dead last among the Swordsmanship Department's freshmen had already awakened their mana. In other words, they had spent half their lives with bodies far beyond those of ordinary people. Strap on a gravity bracelet, though, and you got to sample a constitution frailer than a normal human's. Strength training in that state? It was no different from being told to drop dead.
"Aigoo, I'm dying..."
By a mercy I could hardly believe, DF Class only had to wear the bracelets during class. Breaks and lunch were ours to rest through in peace. The S Class kids, I'd heard, wore bracelets ten times stronger than ours around the clock. I was starting to seriously doubt those people were even human.
"Great work, everyone~ Please return your bracelets, and I'll see you tomorrow."
"......"
Anyway, once we had been ground down like that until five in the afternoon, class was over. The other students began shambling toward the dorms with the lifeless gait of soldiers who had lost a war. Watching them, I deliberated for about five seconds. A transmigrator in a novel would have summoned transcendent willpower and piled on extra training besides. Should I head to the training hall and practice sword manipulation too?
Yeah, no. Eat shit~
Sadly, I was no protagonist. I was Extra No. 1 at best. My willpower wasn't exactly weak, but it was nowhere near anything you could call a will of steel. I immediately fell in with the routed-soldier procession (not that I was one) and took the train back to the dorms.
"Now I can finally live."
The moment I got into my room and collapsed onto the bed, my whole body screamed with joy. The plush mattress cradled me, and if I pulled the blanket up I was confident I'd be asleep in five seconds. And yet, for some reason, I had the feeling I shouldn't just lie there and pass out.
The first main story is about to start.
Once the hellish first week and the restful second week were over, the main story began at once. It was still early in the semester, so no one was going to die and the mood wouldn't turn grim, but there were pieces of information and a few hidden pieces I needed to secure as it unfolded. While I was at it, there were people I had to get acquainted with.
The problem is whether I can actually do anything while the story's moving.
Let's not kid ourselves. I was still absolute fodder. I hadn't even been able to practice sword manipulation, and even if I raised my physical ability to D-, that would only just scrape the lower-rank average at the Academy. In this state, forget shining in the main story—I was far more likely to be dead weight. Then the information and the hidden pieces would slip out of reach, the snowball would start rolling, and later on there would be one goddamn enormous problem.
I am not letting Lucy die. You son-of-a-bitch developer!!!
One of the sub-endings flashed through my head. The thought of it wrung tears of blood out of me, and I shot upright out of bed. I had zero motivation to move for the sake of my own growth, but when it came to protecting my favorite, I had more than enough drive to power through a little fatigue.
"...I'll swing by the Divinity Department, grab a buff, and then go."
Even so, jumping straight into sword manipulation like this felt like a bit much. On the way to the training hall, I'd stop by the Divinity Department and pick up a stamina buff first.
Arbel Academy was the finest academy on the continent, and the benefits granted to its students were plentiful. One of them was that healing and buffs were free if you stopped by the Divinity Department.
It was so the Divinity students could raise their miracle proficiency, wasn't it?
Students from other departments got free treatment and buffs, and Divinity students got to raise their miracle proficiency. It was a win-win, which was why the policy had been maintained since the Academy's earliest days.
"Ugh... I think I'm gonna die..."
"My arm! There's a thorn this big stuck in my arm!"
"Mirinae, if you're free, want to grab dinner after your shift?"
A quick look around the clinic run by the Divinity Department showed students of every sort, from kids who had turned ghoul-like from overwork to students injured in class. Someone had clearly come with slightly different intentions, but the paladin upperclassmen dragged him out in short order. I had come for an ordinary reason, so I had nothing to worry about on that front.
"Hello. What brings you to the clinic today?"
"I came for a stamina recovery buff."
"Understood~ The third room down the corridor on the right~"
I followed the directions of the priest at the desk and stepped into the room—and, to my surprise, came face-to-face with someone I was glad to see.
"Lucy?"
"Yes? Who are you, and how do you know my name?"
Lucy was sitting in the small examination room, a white priest's cloak thrown carelessly over her uniform. The dark circles under her eyes were deep. She was clearly surviving the same hellish week I was.
"How about now? Ring any bells?"
"Ah! Philip! You passed!"
I'd nearly taken emotional damage from her not recognizing me—then I remembered I was wearing the Outsider's Glasses. The moment I took them off, she knew me at once. She beamed, caught my hand, and swung it back and forth, and the sight was unbearably cute.
"I was worried you might have failed. Seeing that you passed puts my mind at ease."
"You passed too, Miss Lucy. That's impressive."
"Ahem! I kind of bombed the written exam, but I did well enough on the practical to get in!"
"You too? Same here."
Lucy and I sat in the examination chairs and traded a bit of small talk. It was utterly trivial, and yet I felt deeply satisfied. She was so bright and lively that her energy spilled over onto me.
"By the way, we're... friends, right? This is already our second time meeting, and we seem to get along."
"Friends with you, Miss Lucy? Of course I'd like that."
"Then let's be friends! I'm counting on you from now on, Philip!"
"Haha. Same here, Lucy."
As we chatted, things between us advanced a little. We became friends and dropped the formalities. Best of all, we exchanged addresses. Now we could write whenever we wanted.
"Oh, right—why'd you come to the clinic?"
"Classes have been brutal lately. I came to get a stamina recovery buff."
"Figures. Got it—I'll cast it right now!"
And just like that, I got the stamina recovery buff from Lucy. True to the future Saint, hers was a good one and a half times stronger than an ordinary priest's. The fatigue eased, and the aches in every muscle seemed to let up with it.
"I'll come again tomorrow."
"I'll tell the sister ahead of time, so come back to this room!"
I said goodbye to Lucy and left the clinic. From now on I could get a buff from her every day, so it wouldn't hurt to push my body a little harder.
"All right. Straight to the training hall, then."
I headed for the station and took the train to the nearest training hall. The building was identical to Training Hall 2, which I had seen during the entrance exam, so there was nothing new to take in.
"Where am I supposed to go?"
The hall was divided into four areas: a sparring ground where students could duel, a training space for strength work, an open practice yard with nothing but sky on every side, and, last, private training rooms where you could practice alone. Of those, a private room was what I wanted.
That's the only way I can practice sword manipulation without anyone seeing.
If I had my way, I would have trained comfortably out in the yard. But then the other students there would see me, and given the Academy's uncanny talent for spreading rumors at lightning speed, word about me would get around in no time. They'd call me the lunatic who throws his sword, the sword-manipulation pervert, that sort of thing.
Sylvia couldn't care less about rumors, but Estelle would catch on immediately.
And then it would be game, set. I would pay the karmic price for deceiving Estelle, and my life at the Academy would enter ultra-ultra hard mode. I had to avoid that no matter what.
"...Why is every single one in use?"
I reached the private rooms, only to run into a problem. There were no openings. When someone was inside, the light outside turned red, and every one of the twenty-odd lights was red. What now? Wait until someone came out? That felt like a waste, after I'd gone and gotten a buff.
"Oh."
Right as the thought crossed my mind, a chime sounded and one of the lights flipped to green. Afraid another student would beat me to it, I scurried into the room—and, absurdly enough, came face-to-face with yet another familiar face.
"Hah? What are you?"
"...."
What the hell was Sylvia doing here? I was one good jump away from completely losing my mind.