Second Practical Class (2)
Second Practical Class (2)
Perhaps because of Count Chaipree and his order of knights, we ended up being teleported to the exact same location as during the ruins exploration.
This time, however, no one was participating in the ruins exploration, and the students had no idea that Count Chaipree and his knights were conducting one of their own.
Except for me, that is.
Instead, we formed up into battle formation to face the monsters, just as originally planned.
The Knight Faculty was divided into squads of ten, with first-, second-, and third-years mixed together, while the Inherited Ability Faculty was grouped into squads based on similar abilities.
It wasn't the entire body of both faculties arriving at once, but rather half of their total numbers, arriving first as Group 1. Even so, Group 1 alone numbered over a hundred people.
The Knight Faculty was split into five squads of ten, and I ended up assigned to Squad 1 alongside the Princess.
The leader of Squad 1 was a third-year senior who had been the very first to die during the ruins exploration before my regression.
He was the top student among the Knight Faculty third-years, widely recognized as the prime candidate to become the next head of the Royal Guard, and his personality seemed decent enough.
"Nice to meet you all. I'm Havier, assigned as the squad leader for this practical class. Intense combat will continue throughout this session, so second- and third-years, please assist the first-years, and first-years, follow your seniors' instructions closely."
With that, he set the squad in motion.
The other squads also assumed formation and began to move. After checking on the marching members, Squad Leader Havier approached the Princess.
"I will be in charge of protecting you, Princess. You just need to stay right beside me throughout the practical class."
He came up beside her and spoke with a slightly annoyed expression.
The Princess looked puzzled by his words, but I understood where he was coming from.
A 'practical class' involving a large-scale battle against monsters carried a risk of injury or death far beyond that of a mere 'field trip.'
Of course, the academy wasn't about to just throw the Princess into that kind of danger unprotected.
Just as the royal side had assigned me as her bodyguard, the academy had assigned its top student among all the cadets to her side.
But the Princess had no intention of following his orders.
"Young Lord Alex is here with me, so you should focus on managing the entire squad, Squad Leader."
When she said that, Squad Leader Havier's face grew awkward.
It seemed the Princess trusted me far more than I had thought.
She shouldn't have had any memory of the time we spent together in the underground ruins.
It seemed that what she had witnessed during the 'field trip'—along with me saving Katrin—had earned me a solid degree of her trust.
Havier glanced at me as I walked beside her, then looked back at the Princess and scratched his head.
"That puts me in a really tough spot, Princess. Your name is Alex... right? I've heard rumors about Cadet Alex, but this isn't something I can decide on my own."
Indeed, he couldn't arbitrarily alter orders handed down from above. But at the same time, he couldn't just ignore the Princess's words, either.
"Sigh, what a dilemma."
As he stood there flustered, I offered a helping hand.
"I think it's best to follow the squad leader's words for now. Since we don't know each other's full capabilities yet, we can adjust things as we move together."
I gave the Princess a subtle glance as I spoke.
Fortunately, she realized her mistake right away.
"Ah, I stepped over your authority as squad leader, didn't I? I'm sorry. I will follow your directions, Squad Leader."
When the Princess apologized, the squad leader stared at her in shock.
"Ah, n-no, there's no need to apologize. Ah, no, it's fine! Thank you for your consideration."
He was genuinely taken aback, stumbling over his words and unable to reply properly.
It was only natural. Though still young, the Princess who had just apologized to him was royalty—third in line to the Kingdom's throne.
No one could help but be shocked to see someone of such high status offer a sincere apology.
And naturally, he would come to see the Princess in a new light.
Even afterward, Squad Leader Havier kept stealing glances at her, his face flushed.
If this had been my previous life, that look on his face would have landed him straight in handcuffs. Thankfully, no one here misinterpreted it that way.
Once Squad Leader Havier moved off, I whispered to the Princess.
"Well done."
The Princess looked up at me with a fascinated expression.
Fortunately, closing the distance between us proved easier than expected.
It was thanks to the experience of staying together in the underground ruins.
Although I was the only one who remembered what had happened in the underground ruins, those memories still helped bridge the gap between us like this.
We advanced through the forest, maintaining distance between the squad formations.
Even with a hundred people moving through the woods, not many monsters approached us yet.
Any monster that drew near was instantly sliced down by the lead Knight Faculty squad, while the rest of the squads kept walking as if taking a stroll.
'Can a large-scale battle training even take place in a setting like this?'
The training we had received so far focused on a hundred students locking into a tight formation to engage mass swarms of monsters.
But where we were currently walking was a dense forest thick with trees and vines.
Monsters weren't swarming us yet, but in a place like this, it was difficult even to gather by squad, let alone maintain a large-scale battle formation.
If a swarm rushed in now, instead of a coordinated battle exercise, we'd end up picked off one by one.
As I walked through the forest, troubled by these concerns, an unexpected sight came into view.
In the middle of the forest lay a vast open clearing—no, a wide, sprawling plain.
Seeing a sizeable river flowing straight through the center, it was clear the river itself had created this field.
Thankfully, the professors preparing this class weren't fools.
A plain of this size looked spacious enough not just for a practical class, but for a full-scale pitched battle.
We traversed the plain and moved toward the riverbank.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to dip my feet in the water.
Instead, we set up our practiced battle formation with our backs to the river.
"Squads, get into position!"
"Ranged units, do not leave the center!"
"Physical enhancement types, check your effective ranges!"
Third-year squad leaders, professors, and accompanying knights shouted commands, keeping the students under control.
Perhaps the prior training had paid off, as the students quickly fell into position.
'So Squad 1 is in the second line.'
It was a layout where Squads 2, 3, and 4 of the Knight Faculty took the front line to hold off the enemy, while Squads 1 and 5 formed the rear guard to protect the Inherited Ability Faculty.
Seeing Squads 2, 3, and 4 stationed up front, it seemed this formation had also been arranged with some consideration for the Princess's safety.
The Princess appeared to notice this as well, but this time she bit her tongue and said nothing.
As I examined the formation, I tilted my head.
The river was right behind us.
And from the front, a tide of monsters would come charging in.
'Wait... isn't this literally setting up a fight with our backs to the river?'
An extreme tactic designed to prevent desertion and force the troops to fight to the last, even if it meant annihilation.
Surely they didn't think it was acceptable for everyone to die if things went wrong, right?
Baffled, I checked toward the riverbank, and thankfully, it didn't seem like they were asking us to lay down our lives.
A few students, Katrin, and several professors were standing by the riverbank.
While I didn't recognize everyone, there was one professor whose ability I knew.
He was a professor from the Administration Faculty who possessed a freezing ability.
I had heard it wasn't suited for combat because it was hard to deal direct damage to monsters, but it seemed more than powerful enough to freeze the river solid.
If trouble arose, we could escape across the river, and they could sever the ice bridge before the monsters crossed over.
Having used inherited abilities for a long time, they seemed far better at clever applications like this than I was.
"Everyone, hold! The monsters will be swarming soon, so prepare yourselves!"
Once preparations were roughly complete, Knight Miro shouted at the top of his lungs.
Nervous coughs echoed here and there, and I could hear someone swallowing hard right beside me.
The Princess seemed tense as well.
I calmly circulated my mana to relieve the tension.
This was my first time experiencing a large-scale battle.
I had seen them in movies during my past life, but I had never seen numbers like this actually clash in real life.
Though I had built up confidence in my own skills, in a chaotic brawl with this many combatants, there was no telling when a stray attack might strike from nowhere.
As time passed, the distant woods began to wail.
The monsters were drawing near.
Amid the students' mounting tension, a quiet whisper came from beside me.
"Aren't you scared, Young Lord Alex?"
It was Princess Aisha.
I turned to look at the Princess.
On the surface, she looked no different than usual. Her expression was calm, and she wasn't cowering.
But her face was deathly pale, and the hand gripping her sword was trembling.
'She's much more frightened than she lets on.'
There were plenty of terrified students, especially among the freshmen.
Despite her composed front, she too was just a frightened freshman.
Reaching out with my free hand, I gently placed it on her shoulder.
Then, I channeled mana into her.
The Princess flinched in surprise.
Color returned to her pale cheeks.
The trembling in her hand subsided, and she looked up at me with a bewildered expression.
I shrugged my shoulders.
If our mana types had clashed, it would have been uncomfortable, but her mana—and her inherited ability—wasn't all that different from mine.
I turned away from her bewildered gaze and watched the swaying forest.
The sheer number of approaching monsters seemed immense.
I could see the squirming mass of mana drawing near, along with the trees shuddering in the distance.
Then, knights burst out from between the trees.
They were the knights sent out to lure the monsters.
Some knights sprinted without their armor, while others ran back wounded.
Watching the knights sprint back, a brief stray thought crossed my mind.
Even knights were used as mere bait. Come to think of it, human life seemed to be valued far too cheaply in this world.
If nobles and knights were treated so disposably, it was hard even to fathom how commoners were regarded.
Though I wasn't even a proper noble, I might have neglected the commoners too much.
Strictly speaking, as an illegitimate son, I should probably be closer to commoners than to nobles.
When I return to the domain later, I should at least check on how they live.
While I was lost in thought, the fleeing knights sprinted through the gaps in the students' formation.
Raaah!
Immediately afterward, monsters poured out of the forest.
One, ten, twenty, thirty...
A count too vast to track came charging straight at us.
Their species were varied as well.
I saw the Tail-feather Lizards I had encountered before, alongside monkey-like monsters. There were insectoid creatures I had never seen before, and others flapping their wings as they flew low to the ground.
"Engage!"
Knight Miro's roar rang out once more, and standing right beside the Princess, I gathered my mana to its peak.
Boom!
The monsters crashed into the wall formed by the students.
The vanguard squads braced themselves and held against the horde, but they couldn't stop every single monster.
A swarm of monsters slipped past the front line and closed in on us, prompting our squad to raise our swords to meet them.
A monster lunged right in front of me.
I watched its claws swipe down toward me.
I swung my greatsword with all my strength.
At that exact moment, the world slowed down, and the blade I unleashed sliced through the decelerated realm.
Slash!
The monster was cleaved clean in half, and I took another step forward.
And within that slowed-down world, I could feel the astonished eyes of the students fixed on me.