Field Trip (3): The Eve of the Storm
The school trip lasted only three days and two nights.
But in that short span, a surprising number of things happened.
The first day was the calm before the storm. We had to follow the academy’s schedule the moment we arrived, so there wasn’t much to see. The real events would explode on the second and third days.
Day two is where the talent comes in. That’s when Haidel launches his confession attack, and the conflict between the male leads circling Maria finally surfaces.
It was the beginning of the catfight.
Day three was the terrorist attack… and they targeted the airship with the clear intent of massacring the students.
Since this was Avon’s arc, the first person to discover the plot was Avon himself.
Avon Ragnarok would stop the terrorists and, with help from Haidel and Maria, restore everything to normal.
The academy even awarded commendations to the three of them—Avon, Maria, and Haidel.
Anyway, today was still the calm before the storm. There wasn’t much to do.
“All right, I’ll distribute the room keys now, so please wait. The Southern Admiral will also be giving an address, so after you drop your luggage at your lodgings, return and line up at the beachfront immediately.”
“Aaaah…”
The students standing in formation along the beach let out disappointed groans.
They had come all the way on a school trip, and now they had to sit through a speech?
Still, in noble society, these formalities carried weight.
When you considered that the lord of this territory—the Southern Admiral—had spent months building accommodations and cleaning streets just to host the academy’s trip, listening to a short address was the least they could do.
The students dropped off their luggage and quickly regrouped at the beach. No one disobeyed despite the complaints. After all, they were nobles; causing trouble was beneath them.
“Is everyone gathered?”
“Yes. You may speak freely now.”
The Southern Admiral had an incredibly imposing presence.
His tiger-like eyes and sharp features gave the impression of a man who would defend the sea with a do-or-die spirit.
Yet his voice was surprisingly gentle, and most of his speech focused on safety.
“Please don’t get too excited. If you stay on the designated routes, you’ll be able to explore safely. However, if you wander outside the permitted zones, you may encounter monsters. Safety must come first, so I hope you all enjoy your school trip without incident and return home safely.”
His address was short and clean.
Essentially: don’t go too far, and be careful because the South had more monsters than the capital.
Even that wasn’t particularly worrying. No matter how many monsters lived in the South, they were child’s play compared to the Lotus borderlands.
The Lotus territory, located at the empire’s outermost edge, was practically a jungle. Stone golems appeared there whenever they felt like it.
Once the speech ended, we were given a brief window of free time.
Of course, this was still a school trip, so we weren’t here purely for leisure. A separate schedule had already been prepared.
“Everyone, you have free time until 2 p.m. If I were you, I’d take this chance to explore the surrounding area and memorize the layout. Dismissed. We’ll regroup here at two o’clock.”
The moment free time was announced, the students scattered with excitement.
Some walked along the beach with friends or lovers, while others followed their professor’s advice and took walks to learn the local geography.
Quite a few simply sat on benches to rest or returned to their rooms.
The atmosphere is nice.
Yeah. The atmosphere really was good.
Good enough that Haidel would choose this place to launch his confession attack…
For now, I decided to look around the area myself. I had only read about it in text before, so seeing it in person felt entirely different.
“Ah… Sir Kael!”
“What do you want? It’s the friendless Hestia, isn’t it?”
“D-don’t tease me!”
“You didn’t have any money, yet you still came on the school trip?”
“Well… I did have the money for the trip… But I’ll have to save from now on…”
As I walked, Hestia naturally fell in step beside me.
Perfect timing. Since we were in the South, it only made sense to visit the local adventurer’s guild.
I might as well bring Hestia along as my errand runner again. She couldn’t resist money.
“Since we’re here, I’m thinking of earning some pocket money.”
“Pocket… money?”
“Adventurer’s guilds are everywhere. Besides, I wanted to experience the southern monsters firsthand.”
It wasn’t as if I worked all the time. If I only monitored the original characters and hunted spies, I’d probably lose my mind.
I needed some personal leisure time too. In that sense, I figured I’d do my only real hobby: monster hunting.
The monsters here would either be sea-dwellers or species adapted to the southern environment, unlike those in the Lotus territory.
Swamp crocodiles, swarm slimes, goblins—that sort of thing.
“The adventurer’s guild…”
“Don’t worry. The adventurers here won’t be as rotten as the ones in the capital. The capital’s guild makes them deal with gangsters instead of monsters, so their personalities are foul.”
When I thought about the adventurer’s guild back in the Lotus territory, the danger level was far higher than the capital’s, yet the adventurers there often helped one another and showed kindness.
It wasn’t really about the danger. Dealing with people for too long just naturally ruined your personality.
Here the beasts were monsters, but in the capital, the people were the real monsters.
“There you are. Kael Lotus.”
Just as I was about to head to the southern adventurer’s guild with Hestia, someone called my name and blocked my path.
“I’ve been looking for you. We rarely get a chance to talk.”
“Avon Ragnarok.”
“We still have time until two. Let’s walk and talk.”
A freshman in the magic department and the commoner male protagonist—Avon Ragnarok.
He had suddenly stopped me. What did he want?
Hestia knew him too, of course. Even though he belonged to the magic department, he also attended classes in political science, swordsmanship, and the arts.
“I’d rather not.”
“What…?”
I had my own schedule to keep.
I grabbed Hestia’s shoulder and kept walking.
“Time’s tighter than I thought.”
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“The adventurer’s guild.”
“Perfect. I was actually heading there myself.”
It looked like Avon planned to follow me all the way.
How persistent.
Well, there was no real reason to avoid him, so I let out a deep sigh and answered.
“What do you want to say? Spit it out.”
“You’re fast. I want to have a match with you.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m asking for a friendly spar, not a duel. During the monster escape incident last time, I saw your sword work. It was quite impressive, Kael Lotus.”
“Ah… that?”
Now that he mentioned it, Avon Ragnarok did have this kind of setting.
He was the type who trained relentlessly to grow stronger. Whenever he met someone stronger than himself, he would immediately request a friendly match.
First it had been Haidel. Haidel was also a prodigy in the swordsmanship department, after all.
After defeating Haidel, the next targets were Kael and then Crown Prince Lucas.
A commoner requesting friendly matches from noble sons didn’t look good on the surface, which was why he earned the label of troublemaker in early social circles.
Of course, since he wasn’t a noble, he couldn’t even participate in high society.
And the ones he actually defeated—Haidel and the original Kael—never made an issue of it.
He never managed to beat Lucas, though.
But… why now?
Requesting a spar from Haidel was supposed to happen after the school trip. It was an event that occurred toward the end of Avon’s arc.
“Just count it as your win.”
“What?”
“It’s annoying. What would I even gain from beating you?”
But that was the original story.
I had no reason to accept his request for a friendly spar.
Avon’s face crumpled at my refusal. Hestia, caught in the middle, broke out in a cold sweat as she glanced back and forth between us.
“Are you looking down on me right now?”
“You’re the one looking down on me. Offer a prize or something. Give me a reason to accept.”
“That’s…”
“From your perspective, fighting a strong opponent is valuable experience, so your motivation makes sense. But that’s your perspective.”
When I kindly explained—unlike my usual self—Avon finally nodded in understanding.
When I thought about it, he was right. In the original work, he never offered compensation when requesting friendly matches.
Haidel accepted because he was kind. The original Kael accepted because he already disliked Avon. Lucas accepted out of competitive spirit while fighting over Maria.
But unlike them, I had zero reason to accept.
Therefore, he needed to bring something that could at least serve as motivation.
“Is there something you want?”
“Something I want…”
My eyes suddenly landed on Hestia.
She was already my subordinate thanks to the contract we made at the adventurer’s guild.
How about increasing my subordinates by one?
When I thought about it, during the war with the kingdom, Avon hadn’t been particularly helpful.
The reason was that he couldn’t bring himself to truly kill people. Above all, he wasn’t even a citizen of the empire.
But…
“Hey. I’m planning to establish a knight order. If you lose, join under my command later.”
Avon. This guy had terrible luck anyway. If war broke out, I could just throw him into the middle of the enemy camp and let him die. That alone would be useful.