Opening of the Semester (5)
Shwaaak! Schluss Heinkel's form shot forward like a bolt of lightning, hurtling straight ahead. The training golem reacted instantly, swinging its fist. Its speed was in no way inferior to Schluss's charge. Kwaaaang! A diagonal slash came down from above. The moment Schluss brought the iron pipe crashing down, the golem's fist shattered into pieces.
"What... what was that?"
"I don't know. I couldn't see a thing......"
Even as stone fragments flew in every direction and deafening booms echoed through the room, the students couldn't even register what was happening. Both the golem's movements and Schluss's had already far surpassed their ability to perceive.
"Huu......"
The golem swiftly prepared to throw a left punch, but Schluss gave it no opening and pressed in even deeper. Next came the leg. In one fluid, connected motion, Schluss delivered a horizontal cut. The golem's leg snapped helplessly, tilting its stance. Schluss took one step back and waited for the creature's body to lean forward. The instant the golem toppled...
He sliced upward from below, smashing the golem's head to pieces.
Kuuuung......
The golem collapsed powerlessly and never rose again. Its core had been destroyed.
Silence fell over the classroom. Beyond the acrid cloud of dust, Schluss stood motionless, catching his ragged breath. The golem had already been neutralized, yet no one dared speak first.
"I'll return this. Sorry for the damage."
"Uh, no need. It's just an iron pipe, after all......"
Sergei accepted the pipe with an awkward laugh. It had been bent and twisted in every direction, completely losing its original shape.
"I expected you to handle it with magic, but I never imagined you'd just smash it apart with brute force. Hahat."
The golem had been built for magic training from the start. It was enchanted with magic resistance, making it nearly impossible to destroy with spells, but it was infinitely vulnerable to physical force. Of course, "vulnerable" was only in comparison to magic. The strength required to shatter stone was no ordinary power.
Perhaps it possesses quite a refined internal circuit.
Sergei found himself thinking that Schluss might have more talent as a knight than as a mage.
What the... hell...
Trie's pupils trembled. Schluss's movements could hardly be called perfect, yet they were complete enough to deserve the word. Classic swordsmanship adapted to his own physique and traits, paired with clean, seamless transitions. It was a realm impossible to reach without profound contemplation, relentless research, and truly blood-drenched effort.
It was believable as the technique of a low-ranking knight attempting the advanced knight examination.
"Wow. But this is really... What am I supposed to do now?"
Sergei scratched his head and chuckled wryly. There had only been one training golem prepared. He examined it to see if repairs were possible, but the core formula had been destroyed. Without knowing the original design, even Sergei would struggle to restore it.
"Hehehe! It looks like you need my help, Professor Sergei!"
"Chairwoman?"
The classroom door opened, and Alexia strode in with her hands on her hips.
"I'll fix it for you!"
"Do you understand its structure, Chairwoman?"
"Nope! Not at all!"
"Then how in the world..."
Alexia walked over boldly and placed her hand on the golem. The formulas engraved within were damaged far more severely than its broken limbs and head. Still, Alexia was confident she could restore it.
"I just need to go back to the past!"
"Back to the past? What do you mean by that..."
"I never forget anything I've seen once! Of course I remember the entire process of the golem breaking! There's a specific mana wavelength released when the formula is destroyed! Analyzing that will tell me exactly where and how it was damaged!"
"......?"
Sergei tilted his head, still unable to fully grasp the explanation. She hadn't peered through the golem to examine the formulas directly. Restoring the original from wavelengths emitted during its destruction? It wasn't theoretically impossible, but it was like trying to reconstruct how a carriage had shattered just by listening to the sounds at an accident scene.
"Hmmm...!"
Alexia began repairing the formula. The erased inscriptions reappeared, and the scattered stone fragments gathered once more to reform the golem's limbs. By the time she withdrew her hand, the golem stood tall in exactly the same state as when they had first seen it.
The students stared with mouths agape, unable to look away. They were overwhelmed by the presence of the highest rank—an Elste Class mage.
"That should do it! I repaired the external damage too!"
"Uhahaha! As expected of the chairwoman! It's been fully restored!"
"Hehe! You may praise me more if you'd like!"
"But when you said you saw the entire process of the golem breaking... does that mean you were observing the class? Where exactly were you—"
"Aaaah! I just remembered something I forgot! I really must be going!"
"......"
Alexia avoided Sergei's gaze and fled in a hurry. If she wanted to observe, she could have done so openly. She was the chairwoman, after all. Sergei simply could not understand what Alexia was thinking.
"Right then, let's resume the test!"
Putting the commotion behind them, Sergei clapped his hands.
Mana -1
"This fuck—"
Blood streamed from his nose. He quickly wiped it away with the handkerchief he had brought for exactly this situation. His whole body felt heavy and exhausted... It seemed the Mana Energy poisoning was quite severe.
He had dropped exactly one. Mana: one. Was it because his mana adaptation stat was low? Less than ten percent of the generated mana energy had converted into usable mana.
With that, he had only managed about three seconds of superhuman strength, but that had been more than enough. After all, the training golem had already collapsed and begun crawling across the ground in just two seconds.
He hadn't planned to destroy the head—where the core, the formula, was located—but perhaps because he had grown rather excited, his hand had moved on its own.
Maybe after peering into Schluss's memories, an obsession had taken root: that he must completely cut off his enemy's breath. Thanks to that, he had completed the quest, so he had no real complaints.
That aside, judging from this fellow's memories, he was no ordinary person. What kind of commoner fought a giant monster alone in the snowy mountains? The fact that Schluss was here now meant the man had survived, but had he truly defeated it by himself?
No way. Someone must have come to help him.
It was a shame he hadn't been able to view the memories all the way to the end while dealing with the golem.
"Hmm......"
That aside, Trie kept stealing glances in his direction. She seemed to think she was being subtle, but it was painfully obvious. Was this how the setting of Trie having a slightly clumsy side revealed itself?
If he had drawn even a sliver of Trie's attention, that alone was achievement enough for today. After all, that was why he had gone through all that trouble swinging an iron pipe.
"Next. Edengard Trie von dem Schulzenburg."
"Yes!"
At Sergei's call, Trie shot to her feet.
Finally, it was Trie's turn.
The other students had all attempted to defeat the golem with magic. But Trie, stimulated by his performance, would surely use her sword—the beloved blade she always carried at her waist.
"Huh?"
Instead, Trie unbuckled her belt and set the sheathed sword down in her seat. I watched in a daze as she approached the training golem empty-handed. The stance she took was not for hand-to-hand combat, either.
"Then I'll begin."
It was an utterly ordinary posture—one used to steady one's breathing before casting magic.
I felt completely deflated.
Throughout the test, Trie had cast flame magic, gale magic, and more... but she failed to inflict any meaningful damage on the golem. Of course, I had been the only one to actually destroy it.
Still, if she had drawn her sword, she could have finished it off even faster than I had. To say I wasn't disappointed would be a lie.
"That's it. You may return to your seat."
"Yes."
Trie bowed her head and returned. A faint shadow darkened her expression as she caught her breath.
I need to move the plan forward.
It was time for a strategy change. He would have to accelerate turning Trie into a knight a little sooner. Watching such supreme talent being wasted on magic was more frustrating than he had imagined.
Just how had the original protagonist watched this for over a year...? He would persuade Trie as quickly as possible and forge her into a sword that fought for him. That was his immediate goal regarding Trie.
"Next. Eins von Wittgenstein."
"Heh heh. Watch closely, Schluss. I'll smash the golem too."
"Ah. Uh. Yeah."
Eins strode out confidently, but Schluss answered rather half-heartedly. Eins was firing off flashy spells with plenty of noise and light, but he wasn't particularly interested. He was too busy watching Trie, who sat with a grave expression and her head lowered.
***
"The test is over. Results will be reflected in future lessons. Class dismissed!"
As class ended, the students poured out in a rush. Even while chatting in groups of three or five, they couldn't help stealing glances at one person.
Schluss Heinkel.
The only student who had damaged the training golem during the test.
Simply entering the Imperial Academy meant these students were already half-formed mages. Yet none of their spells had left so much as a scratch on the golem. Among them, only Eins had managed to raise the golem's level to nine, but that was all.
Watching the golem remain unscathed despite explosions that shook the entire classroom, Eins could only smile bitterly.
Because of this, Eins was now certain. Following Schluss would never be boring.
"Lord Eins. Shall we play tennis—"
"You all go on without me. I have something else to attend to."
"Huh? Lord Eins?"
Of course, Eins knew his friends would disapprove. Their deep-rooted discrimination against commoners ran too deep for them to ever grow close to Schluss. Eins himself did not completely reject discrimination, but the idea of showing flexibility based on ability was completely foreign to them.
Schluss, who would undoubtedly shake the empire—no, the entire continent. And these unremarkable noble brats. It was obvious which to discard and which to choose.
Eins spotted the back of Schluss's head, waved, and approached—but—
"Hey! Schluss! That test was incredible. Can you teach me how you're so strong—"
"Sorry. I'm rather busy today. Let's talk another time."
"......"
With just a few words, Schluss brushed him off and left coldly. Eins stood frozen in place, mouth agape.
*
......
On the way home, Trie's elegant steps suddenly halted. The path was usually deserted, yet someone was sitting on the bench ahead. And that person was...
Schluss Heinkel.
The commoner who had taken the top spot and become the center of attention. Of course, Schluss had deliberately taken a shortcut and rushed ahead to encounter her, but Trie had no way of knowing that.
Should I speak to him? Or not?
Trie began fidgeting with her lips, deep in thought. The swordsmanship he had displayed during the test had clearly been longsword technique. And not a mere imitation—it looked quite polished. A commoner would rarely even touch a longsword, let alone learn its techniques. That was why she had grown curious about the circumstances under which Schluss had learned it.
And once Trie grew curious about something, she could never let it go.
"Schluss Heinkel."
"Ah. If it isn't Lady Edengard Trie von dem Schulzenburg."
"......Just call me Trie."
"Understood, Trie."
"Huh?"
"What's the problem? You were the one who spoke casually first."
Trie was considerably flustered. She hadn't expected him to use such informal speech... Part of her wanted to correct his tone, but she decided to let it pass. The Schulzenburg family had never placed much importance on etiquette or formality.
Display your prestige through skill and strength. The other party would naturally treat you accordingly. It was the teaching of her father, Gawain von Schulzenburg—a powerhouse whose name would echo through history.
"Any complaints?"
"Ah, no. I was just surprised......"
His tone seemed to be growing increasingly disrespectful, but she decided to overlook that as well. After all, she had been the one to approach him out of curiosity.
"You did well on the test. It looked like you had experience with the sword?"
"Only a little, a long time ago."
Schluss opened and closed his hands. His palms were covered in calluses.
"Could you tell me who taught you?"
"My father. He was a guard in the northern region, I believe."
A guard? A mere guard had learned longsword technique rather than spearmanship? It seemed odd, but she decided to accept it for now. It wasn't entirely unheard of for a commoner soldier to rise and become a skilled knight.
"Is that all you wanted to ask?"
"Yeah. That's enough."
"Then may I ask you one thing as well?"
"What is it?"
"You learned swordsmanship too, didn't you?"
"......!"
Trie's eyes widened. Schluss's lifeless gaze seemed to pierce through her entirely.
"No. It's a misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding? Your footwork, your breathing, and those calluses on your hands make it obvious. You've reached a considerable level before, haven't you?"
"Ah, no."
"Is there any need to hide it?"
"Haa...... Fine. You're right."
Trie sighed and had no choice but to admit it. The more she denied it, the more confidently Schluss seemed to mock her.
"But calling it a 'considerable level' is definitely a misunderstanding. I'm still far behind real knights."
"You're definitely stronger than me."
"I only saw your swordsmanship for a brief moment. That's not enough to judge."
"You can be honest. You think you're stronger than me, don't you? Or am I wrong?"
"......"
Trie's mouth shut tight. How could every word this man spoke be so definitive and full of certainty? What annoyed her most was that everything he said was true. Schluss's swordsmanship had certainly been excellent—good enough to rival active low-ranking knights. But it still had rough edges, so she had indeed thought it would be difficult for him to defeat her.
"That's right. But why are you asking?"
"It would be good if you taught me."
"What?"
"I'm asking you to teach me swordsmanship."
Schluss stared at Trie with those dead eyes as he spoke. His disrespectful tone remained, but the faint smile that had lingered on his face until now had completely vanished. He was clearly serious.
Teach me swordsmanship.
It was a request she had never received before, and Trie felt her heart begin to race. After abandoning chivalry to become a mage, her heart—which had stopped—began beating once more.
After a moment of careful deliberation, Trie slowly parted her lips.
"No."