False Master (1)
False Master (1)
I raised my hand to object.
"Wait, hold on a second... Argh!"
Thwack!
Even though I had raised my hand, Katrin's sword didn't stop. The flat of her blade slammed into me, and I rolled across the ground.
"Ah, sorry. I was so focused that I didn't see you raise your hand."
Katrin apologized, looking remorseful.
Could an ability user of her caliber really have failed to notice me move?
The corners of her lips are definitely twitching upward right now!
But this was a sparring match with everyone watching. I couldn't throw a tantrum at her.
As I staggered back to my feet, she asked me:
"Why did you stop? Though I suppose it was about time to wrap things up anyway."
"No, it's just that no matter how I think about it, this doesn't feel like a proper spar. Fighting based on sword aura when we aren't even using mana doesn't make any sense, does it?"
"Ah, true. That really makes no sense."
She nodded at my words. It seemed she'd realized it too.
"Well, anyway, it was good enough to verify your skill."
Still, I couldn't help sighing at her next words.
In the end, it was far from a proper spar; I had to accept it as nothing more than a brisk workout.
On top of that, when I looked around after the spar, it seemed everyone had misunderstood things in their own way.
Ugh. I'd tried to show enough skill that they wouldn't look down on me, but don't tell me this is turning into one of those web novel clichés from my past life.
"Everyone understands their own capabilities now, right? You should hold on to your pride as awakened nobles only after your skills have risen to match the prestige of your names!"
Katrin stepped back onto the podium and shouted a rebuke at the students.
"We nobles are recognized by the people not because we're a privileged class with inherited abilities, but because we've used those abilities to fend off monsters and foreign enemies—and continue to do so. Those who look down on knights or others despite having no real skill of their own—prepare yourselves, because I will personally forge your skills through sparring."
The sight of Katrin standing on the podium, leaning on her sword and shouting, was so intensely cool and impressive that I almost wanted to give her a round of applause.
The problem was that there was no way those nobles and wannabe nobles sprawled on the ground would actually understand what she meant.
It had been hundreds of years since the Great War and the founding of the Kingdom.
Duty was becoming a mere formality, while rights had long since solidified into absolute privilege.
Since social class was determined by actual abilities, there was zero chance of a revolution.
In the end, this place had no choice but to keep rotting away under its rigid class system.
Well, whatever. That really had nothing to do with me. I had way too much on my own plate to worry about such grand schemes.
And just like that, the afternoon class came to an end.
First day of class.
0 friends. 0 people to talk to.
It looked like my status as an outcast was officially set in stone.
Carrying home these disheartening results, I returned to my dormitory room.
My roommate hadn't come back yet.
It seemed I'd have to eat dinner alone after all. Or rather... even if my roommate were here, would I still be eating alone?
Shaking off my gloomy thoughts, I quickly finished my meal.
After doing my homework half-heartedly, bedtime rolled around.
Which meant the dormitory curfew had arrived.
Piar still hadn't returned. Was he planning to skip the night without permission?
Staying out overnight without even telling me... In that case, I had no reason to cover for him.
I headed straight down to the dormitory office on the first floor.
"My roommate isn't back yet."
"Ah, Student Piar had a visitor and is on a one-day leave."
"Ah, is that so?"
Geez, he could've let me know in advance. Or rather, should Piar have told me himself? Either way, it was a wasted trip.
Shaking my head, I turned to go back upstairs, when a sudden thought flashed through my mind.
I turned around and asked the dormitory staff member again.
"Is Piar the only one staying out overnight? What about his older cousin, Mirisa?"
"Ah, Mirisa is also staying out overnight... Oh dear, I'm not supposed to disclose information about female students. Please pretend you didn't hear that."
Leaving the embarrassed staff member behind, I headed back up to my room.
They got visitors and both stayed out overnight, huh.
Their domain isn't close to the capital, and if their family were coming, they'd just be the family of a village chief from the countryside. Would their family really travel all the way here to take both of them out for an overnight stay in the capital?
It seemed I might be able to wrap this matter up sooner than expected.
Returning to my room, I quickly changed clothes and opened my bag.
Then I pulled out the dagger I'd hidden deep inside.
Although I had a greatsword propped against the wall, Katrin's dagger was by far the best fit for a night outing.
Holding the dagger after so long, I felt a prickling sensation, like an electric current, surge through my palm.
Ever since it first spoke to me, the dagger had been silent.
Hoping it would speak to me again someday, I sheathed it at my waist.
Finally, after throwing on the cloak that had served me so well at the Marquisate...
I turned off the room lights, arranged the pillows and blanket to make it look as though someone were sleeping in bed, and opened the window.
I drew up my mana.
Woong. Woong. Woong.
A pleasant energy wrapped around my entire body.
From far away, I could feel the energy I'd planted.
The whole reason I'd bothered taking him as a roommate in the first place was to plant my energy on Piar. Although it took a bit of time to pinpoint the trace, fortunately I was able to tell which direction he was in.
As expected, it was in an unexpected direction.
I slipped out the window, closed it behind me, and leaped down into the dark.
A night thick with clouds.
A young ability user dressed in black dashed across the Academy grounds.
Mana: the very force that allows inherited abilities to be used and enables knights to wield their blades through Mana Breathing Techniques.
This world I reincarnated into was built upon the foundation of mana.
Before the Great War, even the Old Empire was governed by magicians and knights who used mana to rule a vast realm.
Though knights lost their absolute status and magic fell into ruin after the Great War, the inherited abilities that emerged during that war were also rooted in this very mana.
Although inherited abilities suppressed knights' mana with their overwhelming firepower, unfortunately, they lacked the versatile utility of magic or a knight's swordsmanship.
If knights and magicians were like regular infantry, each inherited ability was like a specialized heavy weapon—a cannon or a fighter jet.
I had read in books that, back in the days of the Old Empire, some magicians could unleash spellcraft with terrifying power on par with inherited abilities, but since that knowledge was lost around the time of the Great War, it was pointless to dwell on.
For that reason, because I possessed both a Physical Enhancement Type inherited ability and a knight's mana, I could use both powers simultaneously.
Combined with a mana-sensing ability far superior to others, that meant I could plant my own energy on someone else and track them from afar like this.
Even so, tracking was impossible if the target strayed too far, but fortunately, mine wasn't all that far from the Academy.
After running for a long while and vaulting over a spiked perimeter fence, I caught sight of the target just ahead.
The place where I sensed the target was a commercial district just a short distance from the Academy's main gate.
It was a street lined with shops catering to visitors and Royal Academy students alike.
All kinds of restaurants, souvenir shops, and lodging facilities.
It reminded me of the commercial streets in front of universities or military base leave zones that I'd seen in my past life.
Perhaps because of that, much like the commercial streets of my previous life, most of the shops were dark now that night had fallen.
Still, probably because it was in front of the Academy, a few streetlamps were lit, so it wasn't so dark as to be impassable.
'It's not an inn?'
Avoiding the streetlamps' light while carefully tracking the scent of mana, I arrived at a destination that, contrary to my expectations, was an ordinary store.
It was hard to tell for sure with it locked up, but it looked like a store selling souvenirs and trinkets.
"It's not even an inn, yet suspicious energy is oozing out in waves."
A decent-sized building, with a shop on the first floor and what appeared to be living quarters on the second.
The scent of the mana I'd planted wafted from the second floor, where the lights were still on.
"Now, what should I do?"
I fell into deep thought as I stared at the second-floor window.
Inside the lit room on the second floor, three people were conversing.
"...And so, everyone was completely surprised."
"Oho."
"Still, they didn't really look down on us as much as I expected. Well, I suppose it's closer to say they didn't even pay any attention to us."
The girl rattled on excitedly about what had happened, while the man nodded along.
"Who would care about people like us? There's a duke's son, an earl's heir, and even a princess."
"Ah, I did hear that Princess Aisha enrolled."
"Exactly. As long as we don't stick our necks out, no one cares about commoners like us."
At the boy's words, the man chimed in agreement.
"It's thanks to you, Master, that we didn't make a mess of things. We didn't know a single thing about noble etiquette. If we hadn't listened to Master before coming, we would have caused trouble multiple times."
"Mirisa is right."
The boy Piar and his cousin looked happily at the master who had guided them all the way here.
They had been startled when told late in the afternoon that someone had come to visit, but to think it was their Master...
Piar and Mirisa had rushed out to the main gate's visitor room in shock.
From there, the two had accompanied their Master's attendant to this shop, which served as temporary lodging, and had been chatting ever since.
The master of the two, who bore the common name Rui, was a thin man who appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties.
Although he had a somewhat cold air about him, he was always warm toward Piar and Mirisa.
He was a master they'd parted ways with in their village long before coming to the capital, so having him show up out of nowhere made the two immensely glad to see him.
And their master comforted the two children.
"I'm glad to see you're holding up well."
"Master gave us our abilities and sent us all the way here. Something like this is nothing."
Their master also asked in a worried tone.
"No one's giving you trouble because both of you possess inherited abilities?"
"There seem to be a few people who find it intriguing, but they're just curious, that's all."
"Ah, that's right. The guy sharing my room asked about it too..."
"Who?"
At Piar's words, Mirisa quickly realized who he meant.
"Ah, you mean that illegitimate son of Duke Gracia? People were whispering about him a lot."
"Well, he's not really that strange of a guy. Or wait... maybe he's not exactly ordinary either..."
At Piar's words, the master's expression stiffened slightly.
"A duke's illegitimate son... What did he ask?"
Piar merely shrugged and answered casually.
"It was nothing much. He just asked where I came from, what ability I have, things like that. Standard stuff you'd ask a roommate."
"That makes sense."
"A child of a ducal family asking a commoner, huh..."
"That's why it felt a bit unusual. Maybe it's because he's an illegitimate child..."
"Ah, an illegitimate son..."
At Piar's comment, both Mirisa and the master nodded.
For the son of a high noble to pay attention to a commoner was quite exceptional, but if he was an illegitimate child, that was a different story.
"Still, I heard he's fairly well-regarded in his own right..."
"Pardon?"
Mirisa asked at the master's murmur, but he shook his head.
"More importantly, could you tell me a bit more? How was it during the entrance ceremony?"
"Well, you see... On that day..."
After listening to their story for a long while, he stood up from his seat.