The Deception Begins
Is it a week? Or has it been about ten days?
The academy’s daily life can be described as sweet and mellow.
From the energetic students in their prime, voices full of vitality always ring out.
Lifeforce that rivals that on the battlefield blooms everywhere, at any time.
The life of youth is hot and lively.
But unlike the battlefield, there is no pain or chaos mixed into those voices.
Students are enjoying their hot, youthful days in an environment that is still unfamiliar but thrilling.
…This too, as one lives, I’ve adapted to it.
Moreover, humans are creatures that always adapt.
Noisy peace didn’t suit me.
On the day of the entrance ceremony, sweat had been pouring down, a chill had settled in my body, and even a chilling sensation had swirled around my body.
But after about ten days, even the chill hadn’t come.
The chilling sensation had almost disappeared.
I often felt a cool sensation, and the emptiness when I didn’t have a sword in my hand.
But compared to the chill coming, it was better.
It would slowly ease, too.
Also, at first, listening to the leisurely classes had been so frustrating that I could have died from it, because every minute and second on the battlefield had been imprinted on my head.
Now, however, I could listen while my one leg was shaking lightly.
Isn’t this a huge leap for a student?
“Lir-nim, would you like to go get some coffee?”
Serpin Altamet approached me and spoke to me in a friendly way.
Her slightly languid tone when speaking to me had, until now, been the friend she shared classes with at the academy.
“What kind of coffee should I drink today…?”
We were walking along the well-maintained roads of Farnike Academy.
Along the roadside, there was a row of streetlights made of expensive magic stones so that one could walk around even at night.
One or two things had surprised me internally after entering this academy.
Extravagance, luxury, waste.
Those three words represented the academy from my perspective.
…Is it not waste? After all, if the people who receive the support and cultivation from money poured into this academy achieve that much success, then it isn’t waste.
Anyway, the academy with the highest status in the capital had facilities prepared that far exceeded my imagination.
It was natural to support students with enough living expenses and maintenance costs so that no one would have difficulty living.
Only for the academy, the famous and verified blacksmiths and alchemists employed were continuously producing weapons and potions.
But the ultimate in luxury was the extraordinary treatment given to Class A.
Only five people.
A gymnasium and sports hall were prepared only for them.
Of course, later the number of students in Class A might increase as their levels improved…
Inside there were weapons that could be called masterpieces by the famous blacksmith, and various drinks were provided.
…Honestly, I thought it was a waste of money.
‘If I took a little from this budget and gave it to the knight order…’
At the knight order, I had crouched in a ditch eating mud-covered bread scraps.
Well, that was a common disaster caused by supply being cut off by monsters, not a budget issue.
But when comparing the daily life then with the current daily life…
I should have hit them long ago.
What was so funny about rolling in the mud with the knights eating bread?
“Lir-nim, Lir-nim?”
“Ah, ah?! Uh? Serpin.”
Serpin was calling me right in front of me.
I must have been thinking too deeply.
Even when called right in front of me, I couldn’t hear it.
I accepted the coffee Serpin offered and took a sip.
“Huhu, were you thinking deeply?”
“I was thinking about old times… It’s not that good.”
Should I ask for another shot?
I sipped the coffee in my hand and found it too bland, so I tilted my head.
“…How is it?”
Serpin saw my dissatisfied expression and asked, so I offered her my coffee.
“Cough, cough! It, it, it’s bitter…?!”
“Is that so?”
I saw Serpin’s always smiling face wrinkle for a moment.
Serpin swallowed with difficulty and, wiping the coffee that had slightly flowed to the corner of her mouth, looked at me as if looking at an oddity.
Is this bitter…? Compared to the sweet drink she was drinking, of course it is, but…
Isn’t that too sweet? The coffee I’ve been drinking until now wasn’t this pure.
Well, this time I had ordered it without knowing properly, so I couldn’t help it.
Next time, I should make it a little more bitter.
When I left the cafe, a subtly cool wind was stirring the plane tree leaves, creating the atmosphere of autumn.
The warmly shining sunlight made my body feel lazy.
Haam, I covered my mouth and sighed, and asked Serpin beside me.
“…What was the next class?”
“Basic Magic and Knight Sign class.”
Ah, that red-haired magician… was the professor?
Until the last class, it had been simple preparation and theory, right? Then today, proper class would begin.
There were still about forty minutes until class time.
So inside the academy, students were bustling to fill the free time however they could.
It had only been ten days since the term began.
Those with talent in dealing with people would form groups and go around, but
Many still had trouble adapting to the unfamiliar environment and didn’t know how to spend this free time.
…Some would probably end up not adapting at all and being loners.
If it had been the knight order, and especially a unit I led, I wouldn’t have allowed such things.
After a few march drills, both the familiar and unfamiliar would be exhausted and comradeship would bloom.
What a shame, how sad.
Of course, that didn’t apply in an academy with students…
Thinking about it, isn’t the academy also a semi-military organization?
Whether in the knight faculty or mage faculty, half of them would go to the battlefield later.
Even if they didn’t, the focus of learning at the academy was to raise individual combat power anyway.
Since it was essentially a semi-military organization, it would have been better if they had gathered better within faculties and unified.
Well.
Well, it’s none of my business.
There are those who are comfortable being alone, and anyway, it’s not the knight order where you have to stick together no matter what.
“Are you going to the training grounds after finishing your work today as well, Lir-nim?”
“I think I probably will. There are still many things lacking. Serpin, are you going?”
“…Um. Yes, I’ve received the benefits, but not using them is also like that.”
I was walking towards the lecture hall to find a suitable seat, but
A voice that made me doubt my ears came carried by the wind to my ear.
“Is it right to invest so much in the knights?”
Instantly, among the sound of the wind and countless voices, I accurately caught that word.
And when I looked for the source of the voice heard by my ear, I saw two people facing each other and talking on the adjacent road.
On the first day of admission, those two were the ones I clashed with.
“If you think realistically, mages have a higher survival rate and knights have a lower one. Honestly, even if it’s A class, I don’t understand investing so much in the students below.”
I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh at those words.
They still haven’t recovered their spirits, those bastards.
“Lir-nim? Why are you like that?”
“…Ha, no. Just a moment, can you stay here? Because I have to educate some people.”
I swallowed the curse rising to my throat, but the hot fire attached to my chest didn’t go out.
So, without distinguishing right or wrong, I stood in front of those guys who were muttering whatever they wanted.
“…Rather, by increasing support for the mage faculty, the number of mages…”
The guys who were laughing as they said that soon noticed me.
Then their bodies shrank.
Fear was in their eyes, and their protruding lips trembled.
With cold eyes and a voice colder than I had seen before, I opened my mouth.
“Keep talking.”
“……”
“Talk more. You bastards who can’t do anything without mana.”
Those with broken minds need to change that mind.
If such a mind doesn’t change and they grow and are sent to the battlefield, that would be the disaster of the battlefield.
For a while, between me and the two of them, there was no word spoken.
I closed my mouth shut like a mute, and I had no choice but to speak.
“Why are you wearing clothes? The original purpose of clothes is to protect the body from danger, right?”
“What does that mean…”
Whoosh!
Without changing, I poured the coffee I was holding in my hand straight onto the two silent ones in front of me, cup in hand.
It splashed, the black liquid came forward.
I intended to let them feel with their own bodies why clothes were necessary to protect the body, why people invested so much money in protective gear.
Thud.
But the black liquid didn’t come forward.
A large hand was blocking the top of the coffee cup.
At the same time, my arm was caught by the large hand and couldn’t be extended forward anymore.
‘What?’
I instinctively frowned.
And immediately looked at the face of the person who had stopped my movement right next to me.
Green hair, thick features.
Even if not as tall as Helahem, he was much larger than me and had a bigger build than other young men.
A member of Class A, A-4.
Altro Rodriguez was restraining my actions beside me.