A Perfectly Calculated Blow
Deceiving Elia had bought him time — that much was certain. Until the tournament, she would think of nothing but growing stronger so she could defeat X.
I've bought myself some time, at least...
That was a separate matter from what he had come to understand with complete certainty. Elia's mental state was extremely unstable.
Well, her Intelligence stat is only 0.5.
The lowest Intelligence among the students was 0.9. Elia's was 0.5 — lower still. He couldn't even begin to guess how far down her intellectual capacity actually ran.
To put it in perspective...
"If you're just going to watch me, can't you do it from a little farther away?"
"Why? Watching from up close is better!"
Even after everything that had just happened, Elia followed him around as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She called it surveillance, but in truth it was closer to dependence.
"You're at the Academy. You should try making some friends while you're here..."
"Friends?"
Elia answered as if something inside her had briefly short-circuited.
"Lady Elysia never said anything about that."
The idea of interacting with other people simply did not exist in Elia's mind. In her world, there was no one except Elysia and X. And since even Elysia had gone silent, that effectively meant there was only X.
Which, for X, was a good thing. If she wanted help, he would give it. Stack enough of those favors, and it would go a long way toward shaking her convictions.
Still, just in case, he had prepared a minimum of backup.
"...I'll introduce you to Miss Lola. Try to get along with her."
"Miss Lola?"
After that, X forcibly arranged a meeting between Lola and Elia. It was an extremely awkward encounter, but it wasn't meaningless. If X couldn't attend class, Lola would at least look after Elia during magic lessons.
"Anyway..."
On his way to an elective, he sensed something off and looked back.
"What class are you taking?"
"All of them!"
"All of them...?"
"I signed up for every class you did, Mr. X! If I'm going to watch you, I have to stick as close as possible!"
He later confirmed that the professors had accepted every one of her applications simply because she had come from Roxwell's class. They had a track record with X, after all.
"Ugh, this is driving me insane."
He had not seen this coming at all.
He had figured she might peel off once some time had passed, but two days later Elia was still stuck to him with the same stubborn persistence.
"Commoner, wake me up when class is over..."
"Mr. X, what are these? Mana particles? Formations? What do they mean?"
I'm not even sure this counts as surveillance anymore.
It felt like he had acquired a second Lola who latched onto him in every class. Her level of knowledge was so abysmal that she asked about everything she heard, no matter what it was.
"Mana particles are the basic building blocks of mana. When those particles gather, that's called mana, and the form you construct from it to actualize a spell is called a formation."
"Magic? Actualize? Can you do this, Mr. X?"
"I'm a mage, so I should be able to..."
"That's amazing!"
"You two there. That's enough chatter."
It wasn't the first or second time they had been called out like this. Magic classes, which demanded intelligence and comprehension, were especially brutal.
In the martial classes, on the other hand, a genius had descended upon the earth.
"H-how did you copy that perfectly after watching it a few times...!"
"I just followed along!"
Hans, the professor of Protego Sword Art, shed tears of awe at this miraculous girl's talent. The fact that a genius had finally appeared among his students filled him with a joy so intense it bordered on madness.
"Ohh, O Goddess! Thank you!! X! What the hell are you doing! I said more precise, and faster!"
"I do believe I'm on the faster side, though..."
"Compared to Elia, you're a complete clod!"
Elia's arrival shook the Academy in a single wave. The prevailing assessment was that she was stupid and her personality was strange, but her nature was kind and her swordsmanship was outstanding.
But where there is light, there is darkness.
"What's with that lunatic? Should I tell my brother?"
"Her intelligence looks like it's about at a five-year-old's."
"Why's she latched onto the Weed? Weird taste? Pfft..."
Excessive talent had a way of drawing envy and jealousy. The martial track was full of students who had slammed into the Wall and come out twisted. The Wall was not something that broke through effort alone. Even the most diligent needed a catalyst to shatter it. Those who never found that catalyst simply rotted in silence beneath it — and those whose hearts had rotted naturally gravitated toward cheap, visceral pleasures.
"Yo, you're pretty cute. Let's hang out."
"Weed. Get lost. We've got business with her."
Like so.
I won't forget your sacrifice, nameless thugs.
X stepped back without a word. He had already prepared to run if it came to that. A person dying was a sad thing — but if those two delinquents died, the Elia problem would be solved as well.
Of course, the world did not turn that easily.
"I know what this is! Street thugs? This is a trial!"
The two delinquents who picked a fight without a shred of fear barely clung to life, their entire bodies half-crushed. They were the sort whose reputations were already rotten, so the matter was quietly dropped. Their sacrifice had been in vain.
What she said after half-pulping the two of them left a deep impression.
"Professor Roxwell said I'm not allowed to kill people carelessly!"
In other words, she would do anything short of killing them.
I could end up like that before the tournament.
He decided to watch his behavior from then on.
And so, while he was gradually adapting to Elia, the time came to throw out the bait that would hook Andras.
...Andras was growing desperate. Because of an unidentified freshman interfering, he could not freely establish contact.
His judgment should be slipping by now.
From Andras's point of view, Elia would look like an obstacle who had no intention of ever peeling off. Spending more time on this would have been ideal, but he didn't have much to spare.
Elia's rampage should start drawing reactions around now, too.
Hostile gazes from the surrounding students had turned their way — most of them aimed at Elia. He had been gauging the timing by watching that ratio. And now, the time had come.
Wednesday afternoon elective: Practical Mercenary Tactics. One of the few unpopular courses among the martial-track electives. This was where the dregs of the martial track gathered.
About time they started clustering together.
X looked at a group in the back of the classroom. They were infamous delinquents that everyone else went out of their way to avoid. Clenching tobacco pipes and making a racket, they were an ugly sight. Elia was the only one who was noticing their existence for the first time.
"Mr. X, who are those people?"
"A delinquent circle called Sword Rang."
"A delinquent circle? Are they bad people?"
"Well... they intimidate weaker nobles and commoner students, deal in illegal goods and drugs, and I've even heard rumors they worship a heretical cult to gain power. So yes. Extremely bad."
In the original novel, Sword Rang was the student-villain faction of the early arcs — disposable villains used for a side scenario.
"Then it's a trial! I'll go and—"
"Wait, wait, hold on. Not this time."
He stopped her with everything he had. If Elia clashed with Sword Rang, the entire plan would fall apart. He hurriedly found the words to persuade her.
"Sword Rang is a group with a complicated web of interests. They're the type that always retaliates through their internal crews."
"A complicated web of interests?"
X continued with their background.
"Sword Rang originally started as a high-society club for the sons of martial nobles. One of this Academy's functions is networking among the aristocracy, after all."
"So they're good people?"
"It was run properly at first. But people are the kind of creatures that go off the rails and rot the moment they get a taste of power. Sword Rang followed that exact same path."
"Corruption! So they are bad people!"
"...Over time, more and more martial nobles joined Sword Rang. Some of them were high nobles of count rank or above. For the lower nobles, it became a given that if they just networked well, entering politics would be easy."
The rest was a familiar story. Time passed, and high nobles of the worst sort became officers. Bribes changed hands for admission, of course, and they began launching group attacks on hostile students inside the Academy, or trying to ruin them through diplomatic channels.
Cunning as nobles were, they never carelessly touched anything that was diplomatically or politically dangerous. That was why, no matter how much they disliked him, they never laid a hand on Hero Leon.
Naturally, more and more rotten students gathered, and Sword Rang became the Academy's representative delinquent circle.
That's the lore, anyway.
Elia, having listened to the end, had a gleam in her eyes.
"The more dangerous it is, the more I have to do it! A stronger trial will make me even stronger!"
"And at the end of those trials you'd have to become a 'hero,' right? But those guys are dangerous. They're not just strong. If you attack Sword Rang out of nowhere, you'll be the one who ends up branded."
"Branded...! I can't have that!"
"For the record, some of the thugs you pulped were Sword Rang. They're definitely preparing a reprisal."
Hostile gazes aimed at Elia were visible even now. The only reason they hadn't moved yet was that no order had come down from an officer.
Having finished his explanation of Sword Rang, X glanced at another group.
"How's it feel to awaken as a Hero? Power overflowing?"
"Leon, this is a specialty our house produces..."
"Can you give me some advice on how you broke the Wall?"
Students had surrounded someone and were pelting him with questions. At the center of it all was Leon.
"Haha... everyone, calm down for a second. Just because the Goddess chose me doesn't mean I'm the Hero yet. The Holy Sword still has to choose, doesn't it?"
Leon wandered through the situation, clearly at a loss. Watching him, X felt a measure of relief.
No difference from the original...
The rest of the Hero party was the same. All of them were living their Academy lives without departing from the original story.
Circe's the only one who still bothers me a little.
Ever since that day, whenever he ran into Circe, he walked past her as if they were strangers. She seemed to be getting along with the Hero party anyway. There was nothing left to worry about.
Every situation was normal.
But not anymore.
"We will begin class. Please take your seats."
Class started, and the professor of Practical Mercenary Tactics entered the classroom with a limp. He was a middle-aged man with faded brown, disheveled hair. His left eye was covered by a patch, and in place of a shoe, a wooden prosthetic was fitted to his right foot. It was a wretched appearance, almost impossible to reconcile with that of a warrior.
"I am Vincent, professor of Practical Mercenary Tactics. It is an honor to see you distinguished young ladies and gentlemen again today. Shall we proceed with today's lesson?"
Vincent offered a greeting so deferential it bordered on groveling. The students were already used to it.
"Hello!"
Elia was the only one who returned Vincent's greeting with bright enthusiasm.
"O-oh. So you must be the young lady everyone's been talking about. The one they call a genius..."
"Genius? I don't really know about that!"
"This year's class is truly something. A Hero and a genius... a clod like myself can hardly dare to lift his head. Haha..."
Vincent smiled servilely and continued the lesson.
"Then let us begin."
Practical Mercenary Tactics was a class that emphasized survival across a variety of environments, which made it rather tedious for martial artists. In practice, this kind of knowledge was rarely ever used.
"...And so, in a low-mana coniferous forest biome, securing food and drinking water must be the first priority. In particular, if obtaining drinking water proves difficult..."
"Hey, Professor. Cut the crap and tell us something interesting."
That was what caused the problem. X looked at the student's face and placed him at once.
Daniel lu Dremore. The wastrel of Count Dremore's house.
Daniel, a Sword Rang member and a delinquent through and through, had cut the lecture short. He was, at a glance, every inch a thug. Paying no mind to the surrounding stares, he sneered and drawled on.
"How much longer do I have to listen to this shit from a cripple with a bum leg and a bum eye? Professor, you were a mercenary, right? Which of the women you raped was the best lay? Or was it a guy?"
"Heh heh..."
"Khi-hih..."
The only ones laughing at that vile joke were Sword Rang. The other students merely frowned. But no one had any intention of talking back — except for a few.
"Hey, that's enough...!"
"Leon, let it go... it'll just be a hassle..."
Someone beside him held Leon back before he could say more. Leon glared at Daniel for a long moment, then swallowed his anger.
This is playing out according to the original, too.
X watched Vincent. Even as the insults landed, the man kept his head bowed in servility.
"I was never interested in that sort of thing, so I doubt I can provide the stories you wish to hear."
"What? Not interested? You a eunuch, you bastard? Got yourself cut from a filthy job like mercenary work, huh? Then again, you already got your leg cut off, so I guess that's not surprising."
"Puhaha...! We've been taking lessons from a dickless bastard!"
"Heh... hey, knock it off. Keep it up and you'll get cut off too."
Even then, Vincent simply kept his head down and stayed still. His station was low; that was the best he could do. Of course, the other party did not take kindly to that response.
"What? You ignoring me? A mercenary mutt, ignoring me?"
Daniel dragged himself roughly toward Vincent. The situation was a hair trigger away from exploding. And in the middle of it, Vincent's response was breathtaking.
"Please quell your wrath. It is entirely because I am lacking."
Vincent dropped to his knees and prostrated himself. There was a gap between commoner and noble, yes — but a professor had just knelt before a student. The shocking sight left Daniel and the rest of the class stunned.
The only one watching the situation with cold clarity was X.
The look in his eye isn't dead.
Even in that groveling, kneeling posture, the one eye he had left was cold and sharp.
But not yet.
X watched a little longer. Daniel could not calm down even at Vincent's groveling. If anything, he drove his foot into Vincent's head as he kept talking.
"You lowborn maggot bastards all make the same mistake. You think ducking your damn heads solves everything. You think those necks of yours are that expensive?"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"What I wanted wasn't this boring-as-hell apology. And I sure as hell don't want to sit through a class so tedious I could die!"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
"If you're a mercenary, then talk like one! Tell us about how you used to go around screwing beggars! That's what you people are good at!"
At those words, Vincent's pupil shifted — a minute movement no other student would have caught. X had been watching the entire time, so he saw it.
Killing intent, thin as a thread, but sharper and harder than steel. It flickered through Vincent's eye and was gone.
Now.
X stood, speaking to Elia as he did.
"For the next class, go find Miss Lola. I won't be there."
"What?"
In the original story, Leon would be unable to hold back. He would challenge Daniel to a duel, and that would mark the start of a full-scale war between Sword Rang and Leon. At first, Leon would struggle and win. Then Sword Rang's ranked members would appear, and he would fall into crisis — only to be saved by Vincent, the hidden ally, and claim victory. That had been the side scenario.
"Hey, brat."
"The hell? What lunatic—"
When Daniel turned toward the voice that had called him—
CRACK—!!
For the first time in his life, he understood what it meant to be broken.
A splitting sound rang through his temple. His nasal bone and cheekbone shifted out of place. His jaw dislocated for a brief, nauseating instant. His vision swam, and his body slipped out of his control.
But he was still conscious. And he could feel every bit of the pain.
He would have been better off blacking out. That was how perfectly calculated the blow had been.
Of course it was.
X had just smashed his temple in one clean, satisfying blow.