A Brief Class (1)
Dietrich Valdrain.
It was no longer a secret that the Second Imperial Prince was parched for talent.
Dietrich had eased the near-fatal illness of the Empress, securing the Emperor's newfound confidence in the process. Soon after, he had represented the imperial family at an event as significant as the Sword School's Exchange Event at Edelbein Academy. It was undeniable proof of his standing in the court—and all the justification he needed to make bold moves of his own.
Hmm. An elective instructor in the Sword School... Exceptional, certainly. But to this extent?
Agent 8 stopped his thoughts right there. Orders were orders. Personal opinions carried no weight. His job was simply to observe, so observe he would.
Looks like they're about ready.
Just then, Squad 2 crossed the threshold of the ruins. Agent 8 slipped inside ahead of them through another entrance, vanishing into the shadows.
Not bad, Squad 2.
"A Stone Crook! Just like Squad 1 said!"
"Spears to the front! Pin its arms and legs like we planned, then smash it with the hammers!"
Armed with the forewarning from Squad 1, Squad 2 countered the Stone Crook with remarkable ease. Above all, the swift sword style of their leader, Celia, demanded attention.
Fast. House Rihardt's greatest prospect doesn't carry that name for nothing.
Her thrusts struck with blinding speed and needle-point accuracy—a rhythm other students couldn't begin to fathom. While she didn't neglect slashing cuts entirely, in narrow stone corridors with walls closing in on both sides, tight linear thrusts were overwhelmingly effective. In the span of a single breath, she pierced the Stone Crook five times, sending it crashing down.
"Celia, that was awesome!"
"I couldn't even see your blade!"
Bathed in the cheers of her squad, Celia's thoughts flew straight to Deleb. That is what real fast swordsmanship looks like! You seeing this?
Regrettably, Deleb was outside the ruins.
After bringing down the Stone Crook, Squad 2 reached the far end of the ruins and clocked a time of forty minutes, nearly matching Squad 1.
"Hey, Deleb! Beat you by a minute!"
"Squad 1 cleared the path and handed you all the intel. What are you bragging about?"
"A win is a win, whatever you say!"
Watching the two bicker back and forth, Lydia Rohas leaned toward Anne and asked in a low whisper, "Do they hate each other?"
"Huh? No, they get along great."
"Wait, really?"
"They do that every single day. Literally every day."
Squad 5, Squad 3, and Squad 4 followed in turn.
Squad 5, led by Maris, performed solidly throughout.
I heard he was a problem student, but he's far better than advertised.
While not on par with the first two squads, Maris possessed sharp situational judgment. He didn't panic when the Stone Crook lumbered out; instead, he methodically sprang pre-laid traps—
Crack!
Much like Deleb, he hurled an explosive object to tear open an opening, taking the creature down in the resulting gap.
What on earth is that tool? Agent 8 had been burning with curiosity since earlier. From the looks of it, they were tearing some thin sheet and tossing it forward.
Squad 3 and Squad 4 proceeded without incident as well. Among them, one particular student caught Agent 8's eye: Yulio Harmatan.
Yulio Harmatan. If I recall, he entered the academy with the lowest score in his class.
Deleb's crushing heavy swordsmanship. Celia's blinding swift sword style. Yulio's blade balanced right between the two, displaying a poised, composed form that left a deep impression.
If his house hadn't fallen on such hard times, his talent might have shone even brighter.
With that, the practical evaluation drew toward its close. For Agent 8, it had been a surprisingly enjoyable assignment. This was the first time in history that first-years had been sent on a field practical. He had expected to spend the day cleaning up after bumbling novices rather than recording grades, but reality had turned out to be the exact opposite.
Unless something happens on the return march, these first-years are looking at top marks across the board.
To sum it up: Squads 1 and 2 had yielded results through an unorthodox approach no one could have anticipated. Being the vanguards made their task especially grueling, yet they had pulled through cleanly. The squads that followed had cleared the ruins smoothly and safely. Observers might debate which style held more value, but the undeniable fact remained that the entire ruins exercise had wrapped up without a single notable injury.
Even second- or third-years would have struggled to make it through that clean.
The first-year class of the Sword School. He saw them in a new light now. Xiel Steelheart wasn't the only one who warranted close observation.
The future of this empire.
These first-years right here! The talents who would carry the realm tomorrow. Curiously, that was how they appeared to him.
Yet even then, Agent 8 remained blissfully unaware of one small detail.
Squad 4's marks are looking solid, too.
Every single time Agent 8 lowered his head to tally up the scores, Xiel had crept close to peek over his shoulder. Right now, without sensing anything amiss, the imperial operative slipped his pen into his breast pocket with a satisfied nod.
Wait, where did Instructor Xiel... Ah, there he is.
And without Agent 8 or any of the students noticing, Xiel drifted silently back to his original position.
"Found it! The marker!"
With Squad 4 retrieving the marker at the deepest end of the ruins, the exercise was officially concluded.
Time to head back, then.
The morning beast hunt. The afternoon ruins exploration. The core schedule of the field training had finally wrapped up.
Of course, the practical wouldn't officially conclude until tomorrow. They still had to return to camp, pass the night, and reach the assembly grounds by morning to close the books. Thus, Xiel turned to Lydia with his usual flat expression.
"Student Lydia Rohas. Check your squad's condition. We're heading back."
"Yes, Instructor!"
Lydia caught herself staring at his face. Does he ever show emotion?
Always that completely blank look. His voice stayed completely flat whether he was praising someone or pointing out a flaw. Her classmates who had trained under him from the very start said he had always been that way.
He really is something else.
At first, she had wondered what kind of person he could possibly be. But now, that very demeanor made him all the more dependable. An absolute conviction that this man would never waver, no matter what happened—that was how Xiel commanded the trust of his students. Even if the man himself had never harbored any such grand intention.
I should have signed up for his class. A pang of regret flickered within her. Once they advanced to second year, she might lose the chance altogether—assuming he stayed on as a first-year elective instructor, that is.
As the members of Squad 4 emerged into the sunlight, cheers erupted through the clearing.
"The exam is over!"
"We're heading back to camp now, right?"
"When we get back, should we pile up firewood and light a massive blaze? What do you call that again? A heavy fire?"
"A campfire, you idiot!"
Beast subjugation. Ruins exploration. Having cleared both major milestones of the day, their excitement was only natural. But Xiel cut in immediately to cool their tempers.
"This forest is monster territory. Keep your voices down."
"Aw, but Instructor, we're happy!"
"If you keep shouting like that, something very unhappy will happen, Student Quantus Hophel."
"Ah."
"Prepare to march. Erase all traces of our presence, and recover every trap and device laid near the perimeter. As soon as the cleanup is complete, we return to camp."
Following his instructions, the students set about cleaning the area around the ruins' entrance. Lydia leaned over to Anne.
"Instructor Xiel is truly by the book. Not an inch of slack anywhere. You guys took his class right from the start, right? How did you survive at first?"
"Our academy doesn't allow course drops, you know."
"Oh."
"It was pure hell in the beginning."
Yet here they were, having endured it all.
"Still, going through it taught us so much. You can feel your own skills leaping forward, plain as day."
"I'm so jealous, honestly. If only I'd enrolled sooner..."
"You've got real talent, Lydia. You're the only squad leader here who didn't learn under him from day one. Have some confidence."
"...I suppose. I should, shouldn't I?"
Anne tilted her head. "Something on your mind?"
"Well, it's just..."
Right then, Anne froze mid-motion while retrieving a tripwire. Her hand dropped, shoving down on Lydia's shoulder.
"Get down."
"What's wrong?"
"Look ahead. Monsters."
Lydia looked, and the breath caught in her throat.
A pack of Tepics.
She swallowed dryly. There were so many. Not just a few—dozens of them, easily.
"Didn't we already clear them out on the way here?"
"We only killed a handful. Did the rest circle back? Well, at least it's only—"
Anne's relief was brutally short-lived.
Rumble...
The ground shuddered beneath their boots.
Peckworms. And not just one or two.
Screeech!
Then came the piercing shriek of a Swordbird cutting through the canopy above. Several silhouettes wheeled among the branches.
"How is this even happening?"
Neither girl could make sense of it. The subjugation was supposed to be finished. At most, a stray Tepic pack might have wandered back into their old territory. No, running into more beasts isn't impossible, but... this many?
They had thought the path back was clear.
"Anne, I think we should leave the traps right where they are."
"My thoughts exactly. Lydia, run and tell the instructor. I'll keep watch here."
Lydia sprinted over to report. Xiel listened, his face remaining entirely devoid of panic, and gave a simple nod.
"Leave the traps for later. Form up in battle array. Squad leaders, get ready."
Dozens of Tepics, backed by burrowing worms and diving raptors—easily topping a hundred beasts in total. Yet Xiel didn't so much as blink.
Everyone is exhausted. Can we really fight this off? Or did he have some clever trick up his sleeve to slip away unnoticed?
Watching from his perch, Agent 8 found himself harboring similar doubts. Another battle? Hmm. I won't be able to award top marks if they get bogged down here.
The students were running on fumes. Other options crossed Agent 8's mind. Holding position on high alert through the night, or shooting a distress flare to forfeit... both would be reasonable choices here.
Yet Xiel seemed intent on marching straight ahead. What was his plan? Would he stick to the same unorthodox tactics he used on the way in, even amid such an unexpected swarm?
"Squad leaders will encircle the perimeter at regular intervals."
Since the squad leaders were the strongest combatants, was he stationing them as a vanguard to spearhead a breakthrough?
"Then, open the pouches holding the Peckworm scent glands we collected earlier."
What? Open the scent glands?
Ah! Agent 8 smacked his forehead. He had seen them put those very glands to work back at the ruins.
"A-Are you serious, Instructor?"
"If you do not open them, you will have to fight. Would you prefer that?"
"..."
Anne's face crumpled in despair. They had used the glands earlier, yes, but it was an ordeal she never wished to relive. Even with the pouches tied tight, the stench leaked out. Enduring that was torture enough on its own...
"...No choice. Open them up."
Deleb took the plunge and unfastened his pouch first.
"M-My nose is rotting off!"
"Gaaah, blergh!"
"I'm never eating again..."
Chaos swept through the ranks. But there was no alternative. It was virtually the only way to bypass the horde without drawing steel.
There was, however, one small detail none of the students realized.
This is rather unpleasant.
Years of assassin training had subjected Xiel to relentless sensory-enhancement regimens. Because his five senses were heightened far beyond ordinary human thresholds... he was currently enduring absolute agony. He could have severed his sense of smell entirely if he wished, but in an environment like this, dulling his senses was out of the question. He had to stay primed for any potential threat.
Not easy.
Suppressing the grimace threatening to break his deadpan facade, Xiel issued a calm command. "March."
Sure enough, things played out just as Xiel had anticipated.
Kieeehk!
Kraaawk!
The beasts that had coiled to block the first-years' retreat suddenly recoiled.
"A-Are they coming?"
"They can't get close!"
"It actually works!"
Choked by the repulsive odor drifting from the scent glands, the monsters refused to close the distance. While each beast possessed different traits, Tepics, Peckworms, and Swordbirds all shared razor-sharp olfactory senses. The violently pungent musk pouring from the glands proved unbearable. Even the Peckworms seemed entirely unwilling to approach the concentrated scent of their own kind.
"W-We can just keep walking like this, right?"
"Ugh, the squad leaders aren't sleeping tonight. Are they going to carry those things the whole way back?"
"Seriously, the smell is just... hurk."
A few grumbles drifted through the ranks, but on the whole, the mood tilted toward sheer relief.
"If the instructor hadn't made us collect those scent glands, we'd be fighting for our lives right now!"
"Incredible... How did he even know to do that?"
"It worked like a charm in the ruins, too!"
Xiel's sheer foresight was staggering.
I can give them top marks straight to the end, Agent 8 thought, pinching his own nose shut. The stench was foul enough to make a man want to carve his own nostrils off.
Yet in the middle of his relief, a nagging question surfaced.
Wait. Why are there so many monsters here in the first place?
Tepics made sense; they were relentless trackers. The Swordbirds had merely been scattered rather than slain, so their return wasn't entirely abnormal either. But the Peckworms were a different story. The first-years had wiped out every single Peckworm they encountered on the way in.
The imperial coordinators shouldn't have assigned any more than that to this sector.
For the duration of the practical exam, the number of lured monsters in each zone was strictly capped. The quota for Peckworms hadn't exceeded ten. Yet counting the ones killed earlier alongside the ones blocking their path now, there were easily twenty.
Did these spill over from the Arcane School's first-year sector in District 8?
It was entirely plausible. Going by the report slip sent by Agent 9, the first-years of the Arcane School had barely managed to clear any monsters at all.
I'll have to reflect that in their evaluation.
The Arcane School's incompetence had nearly endangered the Sword School's first-years, but ironically, it had provided an opportunity to award the martial students bonus marks.
They should make it back to camp without further incident.
The distance between the students and the beasts gradually widened. Repulsed by the foul musk, even the most aggressive predators turned their heads away. Peckworms, possessing no natural immunity to their own scent glands, shrank back in disgust—or perhaps mistook the concentrated odor for a territorial warning from a monstrously large kin. Either way, the outcome was the same.
The first-years were on the verge of escaping the danger entirely.
Then, another thought struck Agent 8.
Come to think of it... what about those monster tracks reported near Points 33 and 34?
Agent 9 had been too swamped by the Arcane School's mess to investigate those tracks. Stray footprints near District 9 were one thing. But Points 33 and 34 were fitted with mana frequency devices specifically engineered to repel monsters entirely. That meant whatever left those tracks had nothing to do with the ordinary beasts the Sword School had just repelled.
Did the barrier device break down?
Just as the thought crossed his mind—
Thud.
Thud.
A heavy vibration trembled beneath their boots.
Boom...!
Rumble...!
A deep tremor rolled through the earth.
Agent 8 froze stiff.
The students stirred in alarm.
"Did you feel that? What is that?"
"An earthquake?"
"Did someone from the Arcane School cast a massive spell?"
The marching column ground to an abrupt halt.
Thud!
Thud!
The tremors grew steadily louder, rumbling upward through their heels. A growing sound meant one thing: something massive was closing in.
Thud! Thud!
"O-Over there..."
Dusk was settling over the woods, painting the canopy in long shadows, yet the shape tearing through the trees was impossible to miss. Towering trunks swayed and snapped. Leaves rained down in frantic sheets.
"W-What is that?"
It was as if the entire forest were being torn apart at the seams.
"A-A monster?"
"It's impossibly huge..."
Crashing through the timber, the beast revealed itself. It stood nearly five meters tall, its skin thick and gnarled like petrified bark. Crimson light flared within its sunken eye sockets. Behind peeled lips sat a double row of over a hundred serrated teeth. Its arms hung unnaturally long, tipped with claws that looked capable of tearing through solid iron.
"W-What is that thing?"
"Is that... is that even a monster?"
Then came the sound.
"ROOOOOAAAR!"
A deafening bellow ripped through the forest, the concussive force rattling their ribcages. The first-years froze in absolute terror.
This is insane. We're finished, Agent 8 thought, his blood running cold.
Why was that monster here? That creature was...
It was supposed to be the final exam for the fifth-year knight candidates tonight. Even for the graduating class, it was a lethal, savage beast requiring multiple layers of safety barriers and containment spells! In terms of threat rating, it sat squarely at the top grade. One or two Great Knights would barely stand a chance; tackling it safely required a disciplined formation of five seasoned knights operating in perfect unison.
Then the breakdown on the Arcane School's side was caused by...
A chill shot straight down Agent 8's spine. Monster tracks had been spotted at Points 33 and 34, where no beast should ever have set foot. That meant the defensive barrier had failed—and the thing that shattered it was...
"I-Instructor, what do we do?"
While the students panicked around him, Xiel stood staring at the colossal beast, his expression entirely devoid of emotion.
"A Ruinbark."
The name slipped from his lips in a flat, even tone. Yet he wasn't merely standing idle. At some point, he had positioned himself with his back to the students, facing the towering Ruinbark head-on as it lumbered forward.
So that was the sound I picked up earlier. He had sensed something distant, and now the picture was complete.
Still, Xiel didn't budge. Had their instructor frozen in fear, too? Dread gnawed at the students' chests.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Ruinbark bore down on them, closing the distance with every stride.
"GRAAAAWWWR!"
Another roar shook the earth, and the students shrank back, trembling under a wave of suffocating terror.
Damn it! What do I do? Agent 8 gripped his throwing daggers and stiletto. The Ruinbark's weak point was the nape of its neck. If I can drive venom straight into that joint, it'll go down.
If that beast slammed into the ranks, students would die. No, they would be massacred. As Agent 8 drew his blade—
Huh?
Something felt horribly wrong with his body. An overwhelming drowsiness suddenly dragged his eyelids down.
Damn it... so suddenly...
Agent 8 collapsed into the underbrush, unconscious before he even hit the dirt.
Checking that the evaluator was out cold, Xiel gave a faint inward nod. A rare opportunity was almost wasted.
Xiel had known all along that the field evaluators were dispatched from an outside agency. While their imperial affiliation had been an educated guess, their scent gave them away instantly. It was the distinct mark of the Imperial Intelligence Department—the very operatives he had crossed paths with on several occasions during his years as an assassin.
Of course, knocking him out had nothing to do with that. Deceiving an intelligence operative was child's play if he put his mind to it. The real issue was far simpler.
This is an exceptional teaching opportunity.
A chance like this was too precious to pass up. He didn't have the time to talk the evaluator into standing down, so putting him to sleep before he even realized what happened was by far the most efficient route.
He won't even know how he fell asleep.
The sleeping needle left no mark behind. It was an exclusive tool developed by Black Sky; barely a handful of living souls even knew of its existence.
Xiel turned back to face his students.
"Listen closely, everyone."
Shing.
"Watch carefully from now on."
He drew the blade at his hip. It was the heirloom sword entrusted to him by Yulio's father, Langle Harmattan.
"Student Yulio Harmatan, excuse me for a moment."
For the entire duration of the practical exam, this was the very first time Xiel had drawn his sword. As Yulio stood there, blinking in stunned silence at the mention of his name, Xiel's voice cut through the quiet forest.
"We will hold a brief makeup class."
Beneath the pale glow of the rising moon, Xiel addressed the trembling students.
"I will demonstrate how to handle a giant monster."
For a fleeting second, it almost looked as if the corners of Xiel's lips had curled up—as if he were genuinely pleased by the opportunity.