You Guys, Let's Train Again
Celia's face twisted into a look of pure bewilderment.
What was she so shocked about? Wasn't this the most natural thing in the world?
"Don't tell me you're stuck in there again?"
"Yep. But I'll take you on a date later as payback."
"Understood."
That level of deal ought to be enough.
The combat nuns would be arriving soon enough anyway. If I burned through about a week's worth of Habel's Hourglass, crushing those anti-imperialists shouldn't be too hard, right?
"Wait a moment. How exactly will this training proceed?"
"For the method, just look this way."
Was there really any need to divide up separate training grounds?
It was simple. The dormitories here already had a training hall attached, and it was plenty spacious.
"Oh dear. What a clumsy mistake!"
Thud!
I slammed Celia's head into the training hall wall.
Then I smeared the impact site thoroughly with mana, sealing her in place.
This time she had been ready for it, so she didn't even complain.
"All right, everyone? We have a pitiful mage stuck in the wall over here. So what should we do about a mage in such dire straits?"
"Uh... we should save her?"
Croissant at least knew that much.
Not every noble was pure garbage, apparently.
No—wait. They usually did the saving just to keep up appearances, didn't they?
"Exactly. We save her. But oh my, what a dilemma. Purely by chance, some beautifully refined mana has been spread evenly over the spot where she's embedded. You'll have to melt that away first, won't you?"
I figured that much would get the point across.
When I swept my gaze over the students, about half of their faces contorted.
They understood what I meant, all right.
"Hold on—we have to do that too?"
"Of course. If you can't even handle this, what business do you have being in the practical department?"
The open contempt made their faces crumple further.
If you wanted to get nobles moving, you had to jab their pride.
"Ah. Understood."
"We only need to manipulate mana, right?"
"Yes. Precisely."
The magic-track kids seemed to have a few more brains among them.
"All right. Extracting this mage is the homework I've assigned you."
"Homework? What the hell is this? You want us to waste our strength right before the exams?"
One student spat out the complaint.
Sure. Wasting strength. That was a fair point. I'd already considered it thoroughly.
Burning energy before a test was never ideal.
"Don't worry."
I pulled out the hourglass.
No need to say it twice—Habel's Hourglass.
"Oh Goddess, have mercy."
"No way. Don't tell me that hourglass—!"
"This is Habel's Hourglass."
About a week should do it.
If I minimized rest and ground them for a full week of training, they ought to reach at least knight-level skill.
Just loop twenty-four hours seven times.
"Wait. You're not making us do the same thing we already did, are you?"
"We already went through that last time!"
"Of course not. Students who participated before, gather over here separately."
I had different work lined up for them.
The dorms were wide enough, so I cleared every unnecessary object out of the training hall first.
That way it would look more like they were just messing around.
And preferably, none of what happened here would be visible from the outside.
"Then what is it?"
"We're only at about half strength. Ah—perfect timing."
"You summoned us, Saintess."
Kaisey, Marie, and Eri had arrived.
These nuns were about to thrash the students within an inch of their lives.
"These are the combat nuns our church is so proud of."
"Combat nuns?"
"Yes."
They had probably never heard the term before.
Combat nuns were basically something I had invented, after all.
"Why does the church even have such a chaotic existence?"
"First, about three of you from the magic track will help extract Celia. The rest of you will fight these nuns."
Training under the nuns would be best for subjects like archery or swordsmanship.
For the magic students, I would have them assist the ones already on Celia's stage-one trial while studying mana manipulation.
"Why do we have to fight?"
"To raise your combat power. Or what—do you want to die to the anti-imperialists?"
Better to train until you nearly died than actually die at the hands of anti-imperialists, right?
"Aren't those nuns more dangerous?"
"If you fight these nuns, at least you won't die."
I needed their combat strength skyrocketing. I had no intention of killing anyone, of course.
Just beat them to the edge of death, then heal them up. That was all.
I had brought nuns trained in miracles precisely for moments like this.
"All right. We start immediately. Close the doors."
"Yes, ma'am."
I had the nuns shut the training hall doors.
From this moment on, no one left until their skills improved.
"Wait—you're telling us to just fight randomly in here? No rules at all?"
"Correct. In real combat, rules never existed to begin with. Forget status and just fight those nuns with everything you've got."
They would learn by fighting.
Getting pounded built toughness. You learned how to dodge. You conquered fear.
Even if you couldn't fight at first, standing your ground eventually taught you how to land real hits. Somehow, you figured out how to strike back.
At least the dozens standing in front of me needed that much.
"Still, though..."
Men and women alike wore faces full of complaints.
These idiots still hadn't woken up?
Had they already forgotten what happened just a few months ago?
"Still, though? The current state of Attelina is that you all got wrecked by a mere succubus not long ago. And with that track record, you think you're in any position to pick and choose?"
"Hey, you don't have to single that out so bluntly..."
They wanted me to protect their pride, is that it?
"Anyway, there are no rules. I grew up that way myself. If you can't fight, then just take the beating. You'll figure it out while getting hit. Or would you rather die by my hand instead?"
"Ah. Yes, ma'am."
And so the battle began.
More accurately, it was a one-sided beatdown by the nuns.
"Hey—Princess Ashutar! What the hell is this?!"
A professor appeared.
"Professor Galedo. Leave this one to me."
"Kid. Even so—"
"If the exam is about catching anti-imperialists, isn't this method not half bad?"
Thanks to me, the academy's overall level was about to climb. I wasn't about to let that opportunity slip.
"Oh-ho? That kind of method, huh?"
"Yes. It shouldn't be bad at all, right?"
"If things go wrong, our side could get hurt."
That wasn't my problem.
Even if one or two nobles died, it wasn't like I was the one dying.
And they weren't going to die in the first place.
"But you're interested too, aren't you, Professor? Don't you want to give it a try?"
"Well... true enough."
"Doesn't that adventurer spirit just surge up?"
Galedo ought to be the type to go crazy for this. He wasn't like those noble-born professors fussing over face and etiquette. He was former adventurer stock.
Most adventurers were battle-hungry. From Galedo's perspective, Attelina's current students were probably pathetic.
He would prefer the kind of forced pushing I was doing right now.
"But time is the issue, isn't it? Of course, with the Lily incident last time, we can coordinate with the headmaster to some extent and shift the schedule..."
No need to adjust any schedules.
I had Habel's Hourglass, after all.
Besides, if the timing got messed up, the nobles would pitch a fit.
"That won't work. Nobles love their vacations way too much. Especially at this age—they need break time to hang out with their fiancés and build connections."
During Attelina vacations, especially for the upperclassmen, it was all about balls and noble social life.
The students themselves weren't the real problem. The family heads were.
Even if the Ashutar family was riding high, if the other houses' patriarchs started throwing tantrums and isolating Ashutar, it would get annoying fast.
"True. That is a point."
"So let's just try it."
I only needed to convince this one man.
"Wait, for real? Kid. I can't handle the fallout. I quit adventuring to take this professor post. Getting kicked out would be a problem, you know?"
Yeah. It would be a problem.
But that was only true if I weren't here.
Who was I? Heiress of this nation's greatest house. The one who had, just recently, avenged the previous generation after forty years, succeeded in the Demon Realm expedition, and expanded the board. The young lady of Ashutar.
Even if I stripped off the Saintess title, that alone was enough to live on forever.
So I asked Galedo:
"Who am I?"
"Saintess and Taesa."
Right. I was the Saintess and the Taesa. But was that all?
"And what is my house?"
"Ashutar."
Did I need to explain any further?
I smirked, and Galedo gave a slow nod.
"With someone like me watching your back, do you really think it's that dangerous?"
"Then what are you planning to do in the meantime?"
"Play around, of course."
"Hey. Saintess."
What? You got a problem?
"Kidding. For now, I don't think anything major will happen in the Plant family's territory. The Plant house prepared thoroughly and cooperated well."
There had been traces of spatial transfer deep inside that dungeon, so we just needed to filter out whatever bastard was still in there separately.
"Hmm. That so?"
"And right now I'm structuring the kids' growth into roughly three stages. Stage one is mana manipulation. Stage two is fighting the nuns."
"Stage three?"
I shot Galedo a sidelong glance.
"That would be you, Professor Galedo."
"Hmm. Not bad."
"I'll expand Habel's Hourglass and grind them here for a full week."
I planned to place the entire Attelina student dormitory—the old knight training grounds—completely inside the hourglass's domain.
"So time won't pass outside?"
"I can adjust it so it doesn't. From the outside, it'll just feel like the kids' atmosphere suddenly changed overnight, something like that."
Time was no issue.
If anything, this was the perfect chance to tear these brats' attitudes apart and rebuild them.
"You're one hell of a kid."
"I hear that a lot."
From Galedo's reaction, it seemed to be landing well enough.
He needed to give permission before I could really do anything.
"Hmm. Not bad. Let's do it."
"I'll be counting on you."
I had to keep the hourglass with me to maintain it anyway.
I could leave, technically, but then regulating the time became a hassle on my end. A little inconvenient.
"Khh—stop! Do you even know who I am?!"
"I'm telling Father about this! He'll punish the lot of you!"
"Kyaa! My face!"
I had expected them to react exactly like that.
The commoners just took their beatings well enough. These ones were desperately trying every trick to avoid getting hit.
Watching them leverage their status just because they hated the pain was almost pathetic.
"We only follow the Saintess's orders."
Right. Just keep thrashing them like that.
But how were these idiots still unable to properly fight back? Every time a fist swung, they just got clobbered.
A little more time passed.
Those dense fools got thoroughly pounded.
I stared at the students sprawled in front of me and felt genuine horror.
Sitting in a chair watching the entire spectacle, I was utterly speechless.
"You've got to be kidding me. How do you only know how to take hits?"
No matter how I looked at it, it made no sense. How could students of the practical department get wrecked this thoroughly by a handful of nuns?
They had fought just fine in the dungeon last time. But the moment the opponents were combat nuns, they got completely dismantled? Was that even possible?
"Even so, isn't this going too far?"
"That's right! Young Lady Olivia! This is too much no matter how you look at it!"
Oh? Look at these ones still lifting their heads.
Calling me excessive, were they?
They still hadn't woken up. I needed to say something a little harsher to snap them out of it.
"Too much? That's my line, you incomplete little halfwits."
"What? Half—halfwits?"
And just like that, they were already glaring at me with eyes wide open again.
These kids were absolutely hilarious.