Starting Today, I'm a Knight Faculty Student (2)
Starting Today, I'm a Knight Faculty Student (2)
On my way back to the Academy alone in a carriage,
I pulled out the dagger and examined it.
When we parted at the royal palace, the Princess had reluctantly returned the dagger, looking disappointed.
The atmosphere suggested she would have kept it if I'd told her to, but I had absolutely no intention of giving it away.
'On top of that, even the Count had been eyeing it greedily.'
I already knew it was no ordinary item, since it had granted me an ability, but I hadn't expected it to work on the Princess, too.
"Wait, I shouldn't have any connection to the Count's family, so does that mean it's not hereditary?"
I examined the dagger.
The bird-engraved dagger merely gleamed sharply, as always.
"Come to think of it, it even spoke inside my head."
As the words I'd heard back then seemed to resurface, I hurriedly shook my head.
[Power...]
Fortunately, the words vanished from my mind.
It had plenty of uses, but it was certainly an item steeped in secrets.
"There really are far too many things I don't know."
A dagger that locked awakening into a specific ability, a group that forcibly awakened commoners, and a necklace that amplified mana until it exploded.
It felt as though the list of things I didn't know kept growing as time went on.
Fortunately, though, I had a vast amount of time that others were unaware of.
I believed that as long as I held out, I would eventually be able to unravel all those secrets.
After tucking the dagger back into my coat, I leaned back against the seat.
The carriage sped toward the Academy.
The next day, another commotion broke out at the Academy.
It was because someone who shouldn't have been there had shown up during the Knight Faculty class.
"I'm sure everyone knows who she is, but please introduce yourself."
At Katrin's words, she stepped forward and bowed.
"Hello. I am Aisha de Carlos. Starting today, I will be attending the knight classes. It is a pleasure to meet you."
Princess Aisha addressed the gathered crowd in a resolute voice.
"What's going on?"
"Yeah. Why did the Princess come to the Knight Faculty? Is she just auditing the class?"
"She said starting today. Doesn't that mean she transferred majors entirely?"
"No way. Why would the Princess...?"
"Could there have been a problem at yesterday's Awakening Ceremony?"
"Ah, yesterday was the Awakening Ceremony."
"Right. I heard the news that Her Highness failed to obtain the royal family's ability during the Awakening Ceremony."
"Is that true?"
The students' whispers pierced my ears.
A sigh escaped my lips involuntarily.
Those spreading rumors were sure to carry them across the entire Academy by tomorrow, and across the whole capital by the day after.
She must have seen the students murmuring, but the Princess didn't look disappointed.
Having finished her introduction, the Princess walked over to her assigned seat—which happened to be right behind mine.
As the students surreptitiously glanced at her, I asked her quietly.
"Will you be all right?"
"Yes. I'm all right."
The still-young girl replied in a firm, sensible tone.
Even so, she was only ten years old.
She already seemed like an adult.
Just as the Queen had said yesterday, royalty really did lead exhausting lives.
"All right, as you all know, the field trip is just around the corner. And the Knight Faculty, along with the Inherited Ability Faculty, will have practical combat classes right after. You all know very well how important your grades are, right? These are dangerous classes, so you must prepare properly starting right now."
Professor Katrin addressed the students. Though her voice was soft, she infused it with mana, making it sound as if she were speaking right beside each person's ear.
More importantly, the real Academy classes were right around the corner now.
I heard the other grades started earlier than us, but our classes seemed to have been delayed because of the Princess's Awakening Ceremony.
"With that in mind, today we'll be doing one-on-one sparring. Pair up among yourselves."
Today, the knights were not serving as teaching assistants. Then again, knights were elite personnel. Even for the Royal Academy, it would be difficult to deploy that kind of manpower as class TAs every time.
At the mention of sparring, the students' expressions shifted in different ways.
"Ugh, I hate sparring."
"As if you like the other stuff? Sparring is way better."
"Is that so? Well, I guess it might be better than doing endless running until the class ends."
Endless running, mana circulation, strength training, and so on.
Aside from sparring, the Knight Faculty classes involved various drills aimed at forging true knights.
Since all of these were training routines I'd undergone back in the domain, I didn't find them particularly tough, but the other students didn't seem to feel the same way.
"But Professor Katrin has eyes like a hawk. It's impossible to fake your way through sparring."
"Just pick someone you can beat easily."
"Is that right? Then I'll pair up with you."
"Ha! Me? Fine. I'll knock some sense into you."
The students began choosing their sparring partners.
Someone came to challenge me to a duel, too.
'Her name was... Bria, was it?'
She was an ordinary-looking female student.
She was a genius of the Knight Faculty, a rival to Count Piruna's second son, who was over there showing off as he prepared for his match.
Aside from me—who was openly excluded from the rankings—she could be considered the second-strongest student.
I heard she was a noble, but unlike the other students, whenever it came time for sparring, she approached me wanting to spar.
Since I didn't have anyone suitable to pair up with, either, I usually sparred with her.
Thanks to that, she had come to understand a little of my skill when I wasn't using my dagger.
Perhaps that was why she kept wanting to spar with me.
But today there was an earlier visitor.
"I have already challenged Young Lord Alex first."
"Ah... Your Highness."
She stepped back immediately.
Regardless of her youth, the fact that she hadn't obtained the royal bloodline's ability, or that she was attending the Knight Faculty, she was still the Princess of this kingdom.
Bria had no choice but to back off.
I bowed my head slightly, putting on an apologetic expression.
She was someone who had approached me despite my being an illegitimate son. When I couldn't afford to alienate a single ally, I couldn't let things grow awkward between us just because of the Princess.
She had a plain face and was the daughter of an obscure noble house no one had heard of. She didn't seem to be the heir, either, and she had excellent skills as a knight. If I played my cards right, she might become a comrade or a lover someday.
Hmm, maybe even marriage?
For a brief moment, a whole lifetime spent with her flashed through my mind.
Hmm, was this what they'd called in my past life, 'dreaming all the way to divorce after just holding hands'?
What a silly thought. Marriage? I was only fifteen.
Although the marrying age for noble children here was in their late teens to early twenties, there was still plenty of time left.
Honestly, I didn't even know if I'd ever be able to marry anyway.
Clearing the useless thoughts from my mind, I began sparring with the Princess.
Mana shimmered faintly over her sword. The others hadn't noticed it at all.
I also raised my blunted iron sword and pointed it at her.
"Let us begin."
"Yes!"
Though her power was still weak, if my weapon touched that shimmering energy, a sword like mine would undoubtedly be sliced clean in two.
But the Princess was still just a ten-year-old girl. She had never properly learned swordsmanship or undergone physical training, so her body lacked muscle.
Having awakened and gained her power, she possessed strength entirely different from an ordinary person, but I could easily defeat someone of her level without even using a sword.
The Princess swung her sword and charged at me, and I lightly shifted my body to trip her.
"Aaah!"
With a scream, the Princess tumbled to the ground, and everyone's eyes turned toward us all at once.
'I figured this would happen.'
But I had never learned how to train someone gently. A person simply teaches as they were taught.
Though I wasn't quite sure whether sparring qualified as proper education.
"Get up. We haven't even started yet."
"Ugh."
At my cold voice, the Princess gritted her teeth and pushed herself up.
Katrin and the other students widened their eyes, looking back and forth between the Princess and me.
It seemed likely that all sorts of wild rumors would circulate once this class ended.
Yet I wasn't particularly worried about such rumors.
Right now, I was more curious about how a mere ten-year-old kid, despite her status as a princess, could possess such a tenacious, stubborn spirit.
The Princess glared at me with burning eyes.
"Let's do it again."
"Understood."
Is this how Knight Miguel felt when he was teaching me?
Sparring with the Princess actually felt somewhat entertaining.
It seemed that once we became a bit closer, I ought to hear what she was truly thinking.
Time passed like that.
The Princess trained intensely, unbefitting her young age, and her skills grew by leaps and bounds.
She only properly displayed those skills in front of me and Katrin.
Honestly, even I didn't fully understand 'Mana Resonance,' the royal bloodline ability.
Her other capabilities and the royal Mana Cultivation Technique she had learned back at the palace developed remarkably day by day.
A few weeks later, all of us freshmen headed to a building in the center of the Academy instead of attending our usual classes.
It was a stone building that looked stupidly sturdy.
Normally, its doors were firmly shut, with numerous knights and soldiers standing guard out front.
In front of the door stood the elderly man we had seen during the entrance ceremony.
It was none other than the Headmaster of the Royal Academy.
During the entrance ceremony, he had looked like a bureaucrat who'd landed his position through connections, but now he seemed entirely different.
"Welcome, everyone. This year's freshmen are a bit late."
The Headmaster welcomed us with a pleased expression.
At the Headmaster's signal, the building's tightly closed doors began to open.
"Today is the field trip, right?"
"Yes!"
At the students' resounding answer, the Headmaster smiled warmly.
"Since this will be your first teleportation, I'm sure you already know, but I'll explain it once more."
He guided us through the open doors.
The interior of the building was just as stark as it appeared from the outside.
The walls and floors were made of stone. There were no special decorations, with only massive pillars supporting the ceiling.
It felt similar to a walled Greek temple I had seen in my past life.
The only difference was the colossal crest engraved in the center.
"Is that the teleportation array?"
"That's right."
Though I whispered softly, the Headmaster caught it immediately.
"That magic circle is precisely the teleportation array created by the Old Empire. And I, the Headmaster, am this generation's spatial movement ability user."
As it turned out, the position of Headmaster of the Royal Academy was always occupied by a noble who possessed teleportation abilities.
Fascinatingly, a spatial movement ability user appeared only once per generation, and the position of Academy Headmaster had been passed down safely for a long time.
"As you all know, a spatial movement ability user can only teleport one or two people across short distances. At most, just enough to step outside the capital."
The Headmaster led us forward and stood before the magic circle.
"With my ability alone, I cannot teleport all of you all the way to the distant Demon King's Seal Grounds."
He pointed his hand at the magic circle drawn on the floor.
"This magic circle amplifies my power to teleport all of you at once. This, too, is one of the mysteries of the ancient kingdom."
Both the magic circle before our eyes and the building we had entered were relics and ruins of the Old Empire.
The Royal Academy had been built around these very ruins.
And this magic circle was connected to the Seal Grounds where the Demon King was sealed.
That was why its doors were always firmly locked and guarded by knights.
That was also why a spatial movement ability user served as the Headmaster.
The destination for the field trip was, of course, the Seal Grounds where the Demon King was said to be sealed.
"Now then, just in case, please gather into your assigned teams."
The freshmen grouped up according to the teams previously arranged.
People gathered around me as well.
I let out a sigh as I looked at the people gathered around me.
How did it end up like this?
My half-brother stood to one side, seething with irritation, while Balea stayed close by my side.
The Princess stood before me with a tense expression.
A short distance away, Piar stood with a bewildered expression.
It was an utterly mismatched group.
Yet this party was our roster for our very first field trip.