Dormitory Scramble (1)
Is that some kind of test too?
Better to act like nothing’s wrong for now.
I’d put the fog matter on hold. If anything serious had been going on, the professors would already have handled it. I’d keep a close watch and deal with whatever came up if it did.
In the meantime, I decided to ask Sera about something that had been bugging me.
“...By the way, where’s the headmaster? Why is the chairman the one giving the speech?”
“He’s out on assignment!”
“Where to?”
“The Western Kingdom! Assassinating a key target.”
“The headmaster sure lives a tiring life. I thought he’d already retired.”
Right then a soft ssssk came through the mana microphone as it powered down.
“...That concludes my remarks. Ahem... Welcome, all cadets who have enrolled in the Thief Academy.”
The chairman’s endless speech finally ended.
“Next, the pride of our Thief Academy—the Dormitory Scramble—will be explained by Professor Lena. Pay close attention...”
From behind the podium strode a woman in an imperial uniform, her bright red hair tied back in a ponytail.
“Welcome, cadets! Before we begin, let me say how glad I am that you’ve come to our Thief Academy! I am Lena Croix, and I will be guiding you.”
Lena Croix—Third Seat of the Imperial Round Table, one of the Empire’s Three Swords. Her commanding presence drew gasps of admiration from the cadets.
“That’s the pressure of the Central Guild’s Third Seat for you... Just hearing her voice makes it hard to keep my head up.”
“Incredible presence.”
“She came from a knight academy and still works as a thief? Total broken character!”
Lena clashed the two daggers floating in the air against each other.
CLANG!
A sharp shockwave of sound raced outward, washing over the students in an instant. True to a professor of the Thief Academy, she radiated an aura that completely dominated the hall.
“Quiet!”
The cadets fell silent and listened.
“From this moment on, you will seize your dormitories from the upperclassmen!”
“...”
“See how far you can go without being discovered by the seniors! The closer you get to a dormitory hall, the closer you are to the dormitory you’ll be living in.”
Lena pointed with a dagger at the enormous map floating in the air.
“The moment you capture a flag, the scramble for that dormitory wing ends!”
Red dotted arrows appeared across the map.
“But it won’t be easy! Your seniors will be guarding every single path!”
At the tips of those arrows, stick-figure upperclassmen with angry eyes were being drawn.
“Try getting past those seniors—who are absolutely seething with malice—without getting the stuffing beaten out of you!”
She briefly ran through the detailed rules and regulations.
Ethan cast his gaze past the podium toward the dormitory buildings beyond.
“Tch.”
He clicked his tongue.
This reminds me of the KCTC exercises I did back in the military.
As Ethan, he couldn’t help thinking of his previous life.
I was on the infiltration team and crawled all the way into their rear base... Ended up getting a week’s leave as a reward. Neither the opposing battalion commander nor any of the company commanders ever spotted me.
He seemed unable to focus on the scramble briefing at all, his eyes still fixed on whatever lay behind Professor Lena.
They build the dormitories like some Notne World magic castle, then dump the whole thing into an underground cavern like this... Why?
While Ethan’s mind wandered, the explanation finished.
“That’s all! Any questions?”
As expected, discontent erupted among the cadets.
“Um... Professor. How are we supposed to beat seniors who have at least a full year more experience than us?”
“This is ridiculous. The time allowed is way too short for the size of the dormitories we have to take.”
“It’s completely unfair!”
Lena crossed her arms, red hair swaying.
“It is not unfair.”
She pointed behind her and continued.
“In real combat and on the battlefield, things you cadets have never even imagined will happen. The weak defeating the strong is hardly rare.”
“...”
“That means you, too, can face the upperclassmen and seize victory.”
Her voice was high and full of conviction. She slashed the floating map open with a dagger like a drum.
“How the weak can defeat the strong! That is what you learn at this Thief Academy.”
“...”
“Before you receive a thief’s education, you need to experience it for yourselves! What a thief is! Why you came to this school!”
Lena stamped her foot.
“Without even this much fighting spirit, you won’t make it into the Imperial Black Unit—hell, you won’t even make junior ninth-rank in the Imperial Intelligence Bureau!”
Her uniform flared as she turned her back.
“Spend the next four days figuring out how you’re going to beat seniors with years more experience than you! I wish you luck.”
A powerful voice soon rang through the cavern.
“As of this moment, the Dormitory Scramble begins! We will gather in this same place at this same time four days from now.”
Lena gave a short nod.
“Dismissed!”
She vanished into the shadows.
The cadets stared at one another, blinking.
“...Wait, it already started?”
“So we just go in over there?”
“What are we even supposed to do first?”
While everyone milled about uncertainly, Dormitory Warden Dermond emerged from one side of the hall.
“Take one of these.”
“What’s this?”
“An exterior map of the dormitories.”
Each map assigned a dormitory wing that the temporary lodging group had to capture. The lodging members were divided into teams of five—Team A, Team B, Team C, and Team D. Whoever received a map became the team leader and had to recruit their members.
“Looks like we’re Team A.”
“Heh, that’s a good thing, right?”
“At least it feels good.”
The cadets took their maps and returned to the temporary lodgings.
Cadets scattered to their respective lodgings. Ethan was unpacking on the first floor of his.
“Ethan! But...”
The moment Sera spoke to him—
“Oh, Ethan, where have you been!”
“We were looking everywhere and you were right next to us?”
“Ethan, listen to me firs—”
—the other cadets from the same lodging finally started talking to him.
“I was right here the whole time.”
From among the cadets stepped a sharp-featured boy with black hair and gray eyes.
“Eek!”
“Out of the way, you filthy dark elf.”
“Uuu...”
Sera nearly toppled after being shoved by Caion. Ethan caught her by the arm and pulled her up.
“You all right, Sera?”
“I-I’m fine...”
Seeing Ethan’s face suddenly so close, Sera blinked rapidly.
“Tch.”
Caion glanced at Sera once, then turned away. He flashed a grin at Ethan.
“My apologies for only recognizing you now. Allow me to apologize properly.”
The hand he offered was covered in sword scars—clearly from a famed sword lineage.
So he’s the son of the Northern Grand Duke.
Ethan stared Caion down and took the outstretched hand.
“...Ethan Cass.”
“I know. I’m Caion Valterr. Pleasure.”
“Valterr—that’s the northern house of the Empire?”
“Haha. Status means nothing in a place like this, doesn’t it?”
“Shoving a fellow lodging mate. Is that what northern manners look like?”
“Hey, don’t start so sharp right out of the gate. It was an accident. And I’m in Lodging Four, anyway.”
While Caion and Ethan exchanged their crackling greetings, the other cadets began speaking up one by one.
“Whoa, Ethan! I saw you shine at the entrance ceremony. And that motivational speech you gave back at the lodging earlier—super inspiring!”
“So you’re Ethan. This time I’ll specially follow your orders for the missio—”
They started stepping forward, then—
“Ahem.”
—Caion cleared his throat, and they carefully retreated.
“Ethan, why not join forces with us?”
Ethan cut the scouting offer dead.
“No. I’ve already found my teammates.”
“That’s right, you royal pain! Ethan already has teammates!”
Sera chimed in.
Caion tilted his head, then pointed past Ethan toward Sera and Iska standing behind him.
“A team needs at least four people. You’re only three, aren’t you?”
“Four.”
“What do you mean—”
Sera’s voice came from behind.
“Ethan, we’re three?”
“We’re four.”
Ethan kept insisting on a number that simply wasn’t there. Caion’s temper visibly rose.
So he doesn’t even want to be on the same team badly enough that he’ll openly lie about the headcount?
He smiled thinly and squeezed the hand he was still shaking.
Crunch.
“The only ones who’ve ever looked down on the North were monsters and barbarians.”
“...”
“And every last person who insulted my house lost their head to my sword.”
Ow, you bastard.
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
“What do you think you’re doing, Caion Valterr?”
“Ah. My strength must have been a little too much and hurt your hand. My apologies.”
Caion tried to snatch his hand back, but Ethan clamped down again.
“...Huh?”
You think you’re the only one who trained hard? I earned Special Forces qualification, you bastard.
Ethan squeezed right back with full force.
Crack.
Caion’s brow furrowed hard in that instant.
“Urgh!”
He wrenched his hand free and spun away.
“You’ll regret not taking our hand, Ethan Cass.”
The hangers-on trailing behind him tossed in their own remarks.
“Ugh, commoner stench... This is why you don’t mix with the lower sorts.”
“Spit! A low-rank noble dares refuse Lord Caion?”
“Leave them. They clearly plan to live in this dump forever.”
Caion kicked over a trash bin as he left the lodging.
Crash!
“Whoops. Accident.”
“...”
Most of the cadets in this lodging came from merchant guilds or commoner stock. Even in a Thief Academy that supposedly ignored status, they weren’t about to talk back. They were still too green as freshmen for that.
“You...!”
“Leave it, Sera.”
Sera stepped forward anyway.
“Want to settle it right now, dark elf?”
Caion flared his aura.
“...Ugh.”
Sera instinctively backed up. No matter how roughly she had lived in the wilds as a dark elf, beating Caion—who had cut down barbarians and monsters in the North—was like trying to pluck a star from the sky.
“Nothing but cowards in this room.”
Sera fired a fist-potato at Caion’s retreating back.
“Hmph! Hah! Look at him! Ugh, what a jerk.”
“Excessive anger becomes a weakness, Sera Barakin.”
“But it’s true! Guys who strut around just because they’re pretty are the worst. Hmph.”
Ethan thought to himself.
Still, that was way too much of an attitude.
Northerners usually went to knight academies, not thief schools. Coming all the way down south like this probably meant he was low in the succession or had been pushed out.
Some washout from his own house swaggering around on Daddy’s name... I’ll have to give him a proper education during this Dormitory Scramble.
Before long, a pitch-dark night had fallen.
“You lot don’t have time to lounge around.”
A creak sounded at the door. The old hag nodded from outside the lodging.
“Follow me. We’re moving to the dormitory wings.”
The cadets followed Dormitory Warden Dermond’s lead. They walked for a long time along a night path without a single speck of light.