Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Students Feeling a Sense of Crisis
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Around the time when the undead pirate admiral and Ballack were meeting on some island.
Two groups from the academy's first-year class had quickly headed toward the sea, based on various pieces of information.
"Wow~"
"I-Is this what it feels like for birds to fly in the sky?!"
"Hehe... Lesser wind spirits are so cute..."
After riding hang gliders guided by lesser wind spirits and traveling nonstop, the students arrived at the starting island on the sea side.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
Just as white seagulls began circling around the island.
The students checked on their groups.
"Yup! Crane, looks like everyone's here."
"Then let's take a look around right away."
"So~ what's around here?"
First, there was the group of commoners led by Crane, the temporary top student of the first-years.
"Lady Elessa! Everyone seems to have arrived!"
"Is there anyone having issues?"
"There's one complaining of acrophobia."
The rest were the group of nobles led by Elessa Blackheart, the temporary second-place student of the first-years.
But as you can see from their names and rankings, it was exactly as expected, right?
They had even thought the same thing, so they had moved to the sea almost simultaneously.
Soon after, Elessa approached Crane and declared,
"Crane, you got lucky and took the top spot in the last exam, but this time will be different."
"Yes, um..."
Normally, students were supposed to treat each other equally without formal speech.
But they wouldn't be in the academy forever.
And these were the empire's top talents, after all.
So the commoner students with any sense of propriety used formal speech with the noble students.
But was Crane, who had claimed first place, being too subservient to Elessa?
"Crane, you need to be more confident! Didn't you beat me fair and square?"
"Ahahahaha..."
"Tsk, dodging it like that again. That's just how you are..."
After that, as they bickered like they did back at the academy, the gazes of the students watching the two young ones turned quite peculiar.
Crane was already a refreshingly handsome and capable guy from the magic department.
And Elessa was a highborn from a marquis family in the knight department, but she was a true noble who earned respect from commoners.
On top of that, these days, almost all the heads of ducal or marquis families in the empire were women.
Not only had they married the men they truly loved during the Great War, but they also looked remarkably young, like the empire's sun...
"Is our Crane aiming for a promotion through her?"
"No way Lady Elessa has fallen for that commoner..."
They had no intention of getting between the two.
The first-years were simply consumed by "what if" thoughts.
*******************
After Elessa's nagging ended, the two groups, deciding on friendly competition, stuck together instead of splitting up.
"Lady Elessa, do you know anything about what kind of place this is?"
"They say it's quite an interesting spot. For now..."
"Come to think of it, I heard rumors that dwarves outside were recruiting sailors..."
As the students shared the information they knew.
They arrived at a place with pristine white sands.
But something felt off.
"Uh... Lady Elessa, is the sea side always like this?"
"No, it's not..."
In the students' eyes, they saw various beings playing in the water atop the white sands.
There were even escorts, and from their clothing, they looked quite luxurious, so most seemed to be nobles.
"It's summer right now, isn't it? The climate here is much better than outside, so more nobles have been coming for tourism."
"I-I see... But how did they build up that kind of infrastructure?"
"That's a mystery to me too."
Not far from the beach, there were stylishly built structures.
There were even street vendors selling all sorts of food.
While the students were looking around the beach.
A huge crowd gathered in one spot, and a loud voice rang out.
"The 17th Grand Grotesque-Making Contest!! Will now~!! Beginnnn!!!"
""""Waaaaaaaaah!!!!""""
Currently, on this island, various block-shaped cubes appeared automatically.
By pressing them against other cubes, they stuck together perfectly thanks to the island's unique gimmick, and a contest to make all sorts of grotesques was underway.
The students, seeing this for the first time, were dumbfounded, but when they asked the organizers, they got a pretty intriguing response.
"We can join too?"
"It's just for fun."
"Of course, there's no prize for winning. Instead, at the end, we all burn or smash the grotesques together, so join freely without worry."
""""Oh.""""
It looked insanely fun.
But since it was exam period, wasting time here felt wrong.
The students just watched the contest for a bit or moved to make a small creation.
Meanwhile, a dwarf on one side was raising his voice in anger.
"No, you maniacs!! Stop pulling aggro already!!"
"Aw~ We just rotated shifts, so it's fine."
"Those empty-headed humans already turned this into a tourist spot!! Now they're holding this crazy contest—if that boss shows up here, what then?!"
"Then we'll just deal with it."
"Arrrghhh!!"
The dwarf was on the verge of exploding in frustration at the contest organizers casually pulling a "if it comes, we'll just kill it~" move.
Curious, Crane approached the dwarf.
"Excuse me... is something wrong?"
"Who're you lot? And that outfit..."
"Ah, well, we're..."
And so Crane met Blunt Valehammer, the head technician of the dwarves.
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Having heard that the Imperial Academy was holding practical exams here, Blunt let out a deep sigh.
"Academy, huh... This place really has all sorts of nonsense happening..."
"But is it a problem if that boss comes here?"
"Of course it is!"
Blunt explained that a bunch of dwarves had gathered and built a battleship.
"You built a battleship?!"
"Yeah, practically a moving fortress. But those idiots are gonna ruin months of our work!"
"But can't you just set sail?"
"Sigh... We're short on combatants."
They had already recruited most of the sailors needed to operate the battleship the dwarves built.
They planned to do sea trials, cruising around not far from the starting island for 2-3 days.
But they couldn't depart due to a lack of additional combatants.
"If we just have sailors who can handle sea battles, you mean fighters?"
"Ah, you're new here, right? Let me give you the rundown on this place."
Currently, on the sea side, they avoided ghost ships to farm crates floating in the ocean.
And from those crates, using maps that appeared...
"You go into an island crawling with mindless undead and grab the treasure chests."
"Treasure chests?!"
"Yeah! Real treasure chests!"
Blunt told Crane about how some bold adventurer had wandered the seas alone before, snagged a treasure chest, and gotten rich.
Blunt even already had a map to an island marked with treasure chests.
"So we were recruiting fighters, but that damn insane contest started, and no one else wants to join!"
"Ah..."
Suddenly, a flash of insight hit Crane.
Those combatants.
Why not us?
"Huh? Take you guys along?"
"The students of the Imperial Academy have proven combat prowess. And since it's just sea trials, how about it?"
"Tch... Fine, bring some decent fighters then. Gotta see if your friends are any good besides you."
"Wait just a moment!!"
Crane already knew exactly who to recruit.
"Lady Elessa!!"
"Hm?"
Crane went to Elessa, who was making a creation at the contest, and told her everything.
"I-Is that for real?!"
"What do you think, Lady Elessa?"
"We have to go!"
After that, Crane introduced Elessa to Blunt.
Satisfied with the lineup, Blunt allowed the academy students aboard the ship they had built.
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A little while later.
Thanks to Crane, the students faced a massive battleship.
"Wow.... It's huge..."
"Y-You built this in three months?"
"Thanks to this island's power, we barely needed processing, so it only took this short. Building something this size outside would take years."
Soon, Blunt introduced the academy students to the sailors and other dwarves.
Everyone gave the students high marks.
"Students from the Imperial Academy? We can trust them."
"Would be great if our kingdom had talents like that pouring out..."
"That island nation got talents? Anyway, hey~ Blunt! Supplies are loaded—setting sail right away?"
"The vibe here's off.... Let's get off this island quick."
"Then all hands, prepare to depart!!"
"""""Yes sir!!"""""
With everything truly ready, as soon as the students boarded, the massive battleship set off along the vast horizon.
Basking in the refreshing sea breeze as it pushed forward, the ship began moving at quite a fast speed.
Watching the island shrink to a dot already, the students were amazed.
"No way... ships can move this fast?"
"It's not just wind-powered."
"We were shocked too when we saw the battleship the dwarves built. But lately, reading the papers about magitech and all, I figured ships like this could be built now."
Magitech.
The hottest field in the outside human world right now, seen as the singularity opening a new era.
The academy students were quite interested in magitech too.
But since the field was brand new, you had to research it yourself to learn.
But if magitech's product was a ship like this...
"Aren't we standing at a historic turning point?"
"The era really is changing..."
"Gonna have to study this even after graduation?"
"Sigh..."
And so, as the Sun of the Empire intended, the academy students felt a sense of crisis.
They gave magitech another serious thought.