Field Trip (13)
"Carl. Your young lady carries the blood of House Aln without a doubt."
Watching Lucy Aln shout at a crowd of nearly a hundred students to charge at her rather than retreat, Anton let out a wry laugh.
Who would imagine such audacity from someone who hadn't even been at the Academy half a year?
Even among active knights and adventurers, one would be hard-pressed to find a soul with that kind of guts.
What was more astonishing, though, was the fact that Lucy was holding her own against a hundred-strong horde.
It had all started when she hoisted Lady Meril of House Baines—the first to charge her—into the air with a single hand and hurled her aside. From there, a flurry of coordinated attacks descended, and Lucy revealed exactly what she was capable of.
Miraculous shieldwork that turned away the vast majority of the countless blows raining down on her.
Strength that casually shook off four or five boys her own age clinging to her at once.
And through it all, a wide field of vision and razor-quick judgment that kept her from ever being fully surrounded.
"Pathetic losers♡ That's all you've got?♡ Flailing around because you can't catch one girl♡ You're killing me♡"
Even in a situation where a single mistake would see her swarmed and crushed, she never lost her composure.
Lucy Aln carried the blood of House Aln, beyond question. The blood of a knightly house with an ancient, unbroken tradition.
Anton had expected a flurry of flustered fussing to erupt beside him after he let slip those words of praise—but remarkably, Carl said nothing at all.
What was this? Knowing the man's personality, he should have been answering something like 'Naturally. She is our lady. This much is nothing at all!'
Turning his head with that thought, Anton found Carl looking down at the fray with an uncharacteristically grave expression.
"Carl?"
"...Ah. Yes, Professor Anton."
"What's the matter with you?"
"My lady has grown faster than I ever imagined... It caught me off guard."
Carl did his utmost to keep every one of Lucy's movements in his sight, but even that had limits.
Nominally or not, he still bore the title of professor. He could not simply cast everything aside and remain at her side.
If only so that he could rush to her the instant Lucy needed him, he had no choice but to give his own duties his all.
And so Carl hadn't known precisely how strong Lucy had become. All the more so lately, since Lady Kent of House Kent had taken over the role of sparring partner.
That was why, in this very moment, watching Lucy grow far beyond anything he had anticipated, Carl felt a shudder run through him.
So this is my lady's full strength. That's what it was. In sparring class, too. When she cleared the Academy's dungeons as well. My lady was holding back the entire time.
Because there had never been a need to give everything she had.
And I, blind fool, kept trying to fit my lady inside the box of common sense! While she was shattering that box and writing her own history! As a knight, what could be more irreverent than this?
Ahh. Once today's work is done, I must report to the Lord of the house. When he hears how much my lady has grown, he will surely shed tears of joy.
And while I'm at it, I ought to tell him how warmly she has grown close to the people around her, too.
"You two! Is now really the time to stand around spectating?!"
While Anton and Carl lingered up in the tree enjoying a leisurely view of the melee, an Academy professor sidled up beside them.
Professor Jesl, who taught Monster Hunting Studies, made no attempt whatsoever to hide her look of utter disgust.
"Is something the matter, Professor Jesl?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Is there a problem?! Of course there is! Just look at the formation of this brawl! It's utter chaos!"
Not all melees are created equal, whatever the name might suggest.
Some maintain a proper chain of command even amid the pandemonium, coordinating their attacks. Others are nothing but every soul present abandoning reason and running wild.
The brawl unfolding here was unmistakably the latter.
"One wrong move, and this turns into a serious accident!"
Friendly fire occurring at every turn. Countless students trampling comrades already sprawled on the ground. Students rushing in to attack Lucy and instead tangling with someone else and going down in a heap.
At this point, it would not have been the least bit strange for disaster to strike at any moment.
For those charged with the students' safety, this situation was nothing short of the worst.
"There's barely any time left before the Field Trip ends anyway! I believe we should use our professorial authority to end the Field Trip here and now, and look after the students' safety!"
Hearing Jesl's impassioned argument, Anton considered it for a moment, then nodded.
"Professor Jesl speaks correctly. And the other professors?"
"They've all agreed. We need only your approval, Professor Anton!"
"Is that so? Then I shall take the lead."
With that, Anton dropped from the branch to the ground.
He touched down impossibly lightly for a man of his bulk, surveyed the crowd of dazed students, and worked the muscles of his neck. A mere warning wouldn't stop this mob.
Having concluded there was no other way, Anton opened his mouth wide and drew in a breath. His chest began to swell at a frightening pace.
By the time his lungs looked ready to burst from the outside, Anton opened his mouth.
"EVERY~ONE, CEASE AT ONCE!!!!"
A volume several times greater than even Lucy's amplification magic had produced moments ago rolled across the clearing and washed over the entire forest.
The very students who had been throwing themselves at Lucy only seconds before were forced to clutch their ears and collapse to the ground.
Anything else, and their eardrums would have burst.
Gyahhh. My ears. My ears hurt! Did my eardrums just tear?!
The thought had me casting Touch of Armadi on myself, but the pain refused to fade. Apparently there was nothing wrong with my eardrums after all.
In the game, I'd always figured a human voice could only get so loud—but taking one head-on, I understood the sentiment instinctively.
That voice is no joke. There's a small satisfaction in having experienced in the flesh an event I'd only ever watched in the game, but the pain outweighs it by a mile.
If even I, with my absurdly inflated physical stats, ended up like this, what must the other students be feeling? Most of them were already sitting on the ground groaning in agony.
"As of this moment! By the judgment of the professors, the first semester Field Trip is concluded! Well done, all of you!"
And in the thick of it, Anton announced the end of the Field Trip in his booming baritone.
Excuse me, Professor Anton. Ending the Field Trip is all well and good, but take a look around you right now, would you?
How many people here do you think are capable of hearing a word you're saying? Shouldn't you give the students a moment to collect themselves first?
As I was watching Anton and mulling this over, another professor popped up and began saying something to him.
See? I'm the sensible one and that man's the crazy one, right? Watching this actually puts me at ease.
<Everything has gone according to plan, then.>
'That's right.'
My plan had been to bring about the end of the Field Trip from the very start.
Naturally so—carefully subduing a hundred students without letting any of them get seriously hurt was simply impossible.
If I hadn't cared one whit what happened to them, I could think of a few ways to flatten the lot. But I had no intention of committing murder just yet.
Not to mention the professors would never sanction anything that dangerous.
Knowing all of this, I had never considered winning the melee in the first place. Instead, what I wanted was for the brawl to spiral beyond any hope of turning back.
I wanted the professors to believe that if the melee continued any longer, the Academy's students might be seriously hurt.
Why? Because that's the only way to weave an ending where everyone comes out happy.
Let's see. According to plan, Frey should have taken Joy and hooked up with Arthur's side by now.
I stole a glance in Arthur's direction—sure enough, Arthur and Joy were talking. Good. Perfect.
<Then let us go finish tying up the plan, shall we?>
I stepped past the students sprawled across the ground and approached the professors.
Anton, midway through getting an earful from Jesl, brightened the moment he spotted me. He must have thought I was the savior who'd rescue him from the scolding.
When in fact I was the one carrying a far thornier problem.
'Excuse me, professors.'
"Hey there, you pathetic excuse-for-professors♡. What's this about ending the Field Trip? There are still hours left before it's supposed to be over. You're the kind of idiots who can't even remember your own words?"
"We are of course aware of that, but the faculty has judged that it must end now. We ask for your understanding."
The one who answered my sharpened question was Jesl. Her tone was courteous yet firm as she requested my understanding.
Ending it had been the best call available to the faculty given the situation just now, she explained, laying out one rationale after another. Her argument was genuinely persuasive.
Persuasive enough that, were I a rational person, I would have nodded along without complaint.
Unfortunately for her, I had no intention of being rational.
Well, obviously—I'm a snotty little brat, aren't I? Reason? Logic? Never heard of them! Mesugaki do whatever they want!
"Yap yap yap, so noisy, ma'am♡. I'm asking why you people decided to end my fight on a whim♡"
"As I explained just now..."
"Ahh~♡ Shut up♡ If the fight had kept going, I would've beaten those pathetic♡ trash♡ losers, right? And then the loot those idiots♡ barely deserved would've been mine. I'm asking how you plan to take responsibility for stealing that from me, got it?♡ Hm?♡ Is your IQ too low to follow?♡"
"That part is regrettable, I admit. However—"
"Ma'am♡ planning on throwing a tantrum?♡ It's not my fault nobody likes you because you've got zero charm♡, you know?♡"
With each fresh provocation, cracks spread across Jesl's face.
Ooh. Those are some murderous eyes. I can tell she's dying to beat some manners into me.
Knowing Jesl's skill and nature better than anyone, I'm a little worried about the payback—but what can you do? There's no taking it back once you've come this far.
"Take responsibility♡, you spinster professor♡"
"If I may say so—was it truly possible for Lady Aln to be certain of victory? Might it not be the case that we saved her from a crisis in which she would have been defeated and her spoils stripped from her? Now that the melee has been halted midway, no one can know the outcome."
Ahahaha. She took the bait. Professor Jesl. The rational you would never have said something like that.
Thank you. For saying exactly the words I wanted to hear.
"Me?♡ Beaten by those losers?♡ Ha♡. The spinster professor doesn't know the first thing about a good joke, does she?♡"
"I won't deny your abilities, my lady. But considering the special circumstances of the Field Trip and the chaos of the ongoing melee, I cannot say there was no possibility of your defeat."
"Pardon me for a moment."
The instant Jesl spoke as if she could pronounce judgment on everything that had just happened, Arthur cut in beside her.
He looked at me with eyes impossible to read, then quickly turned his gaze back to Jesl.
"If I take your words at face value, Professor Jesl, you are saying that the spoils Lucy Aln holds might well have been divided among everyone, are you not?"
Only after hearing Arthur speak did Jesl come back to her senses.
Took you long enough to notice, Jesl.
That what you just said was a remark with far bigger fallout than you imagined?
Ending the Field Trip for the students' safety? Fine, wonderful.
But do you think the students who'll fail this Field Trip because of the professors' judgment care about that?
They might have earned a good grade by taking me down, and the professors stripped them of that chance by force.
What happens if that kind of sentiment takes hold?
I couldn't say for certain, but wouldn't it become an enormous headache for someone? Hm, Professor Jesl?