05. Hahaha, There's No Way an Active Knight Would Be a Student, Isn't It Embarrassing?
05. Hahaha, There's No Way an Active Knight Would Be a Student, Isn't It Embarrassing?
In the VIP room on the upper floor of the exam hall, which was shaped like a circular arena, the faculty had gathered to grade the students.
It was a grading session, but it wasn't a bloody affair like last year's entrance exam.
Because from the moment they had received a recommendation letter and arrived at the academy, there was no such outcome as a failing grade.
They were simply watching the students with the feeling of having come to see a talent show put on against golems.
With maids even serving drinks, it might as well have been called a standing party.
"Hehe, destroying a golem—there are many excellent students again this year."
Seeing Lucia Russell destroy a practice golem in a single strike, an old man at the center of the faculty stroked his long beard and laughed.
The old man wore a cape so garishly colorful it was unpleasantly so, but no one frowned at the cape born from such poor taste.
"Isn't this all thanks to Headmaster-nim's discerning eye."
"Wow, the students who came with recommendation letters are fierce too. That was the successor of House Russell who just destroyed the golem, wasn't it? That count was always going around complaining and dissatisfied, but it seems he was raising him diligently after all."
"Recommendation letters are only delivered to individuals verified by Headmaster-nim's standards. Low-class people who can't even receive one call it a privilege, but the children of prestigious families are mostly those who would pass the test without trouble anyway."
On the contrary, the professors, who were renowned experts in the Empire, were all busy smiling in unison and speaking pleasant words to curry favor with the old man.
Because that old man was none other than the academy's Headmaster, Morgan.
Among the faculty who were laughing and chatting away in a fully relaxed mood, there was one person breaking out in a cold sweat.
"Haaah... Nothing will go wrong, right..."
The handsome man, who was sweeping his pride—his blond hair—back and wiping the beads of sweat forming on his forehead with a handkerchief, was definitely good-looking, but perhaps due to his posture, he exuded an air of being somehow unreliable.
The blond man, Andy Robinson, was a new instructor who had retired from the Imperial Knights and gotten a job at the academy.
This semester was his first one to take charge of.
"Instructor-nim?"
"Yes.. Yes!"
"Haha, this is not the Knight Order. It's your first year, so you seem very tense; relax. Here, have this."
A professor, his face deeply lined with wrinkles, approached Andy, who was sweating profusely, and handed him a drink in a pewter cup.
"You served in the Imperial Knights, didn't you? I see the new environment is making you tense. Oh, what a relief. I heard everyone in the Imperial Knights is iron-blooded, so I was tense myself!!"
"Haha... Thank you."
Contrary to Andy's tension, everyone was treating him well, the reason being that he was the first knight from the Empire's most powerful military force, the Imperial Knights, to come to the academy as an instructor.
The fact that a knight from the Imperial Knights, who never retired until dead or incapacitated, was now an instructor meant that one more flowery phrase could adorn the academy. To the professors and the Headmaster, Andy looked like a shiny signboard.
"A.. Aah!! It's a disaster, Headmaster-nim!!"
"What is it?"
A woman with her face smudged in soot, wearing a dirty but sturdy-looking grey robe, entered the VIP room.
It was Professor Lena of the Magical Engineering Department, who had been controlling the golems for this exam.
"Among the golems, there was one I was in the middle of tuning! It seems it got taken along when they were fetching the practice golems!!"
"Tsk... take better care of them. What did you tune it for that you're making such a fuss?"
The Headmaster scolded her with an indifferent expression, but from the moment she, one of the chief supervisors of this exam, had come running in breathlessly, he intuitively sensed that something had gone wrong.
"It's a golem I separately inputted live-combat data into for my thesis topic... if it's destroyed, my three-year thesis will be blown away!!!"
"Let's quickly search for it; leaving aside your thesis, it's a big problem if the students get hurt. Fortunately, there's no sign of that yet..."
"No, Headmaster-nim, why is my thesis second priority, huh?!!"
"Tsk tsk, if it was so important, you should have kept a better watch on it..."
Hearing the two of them, Andy was also startled.
The fact that it was tuned for live combat meant it had the same power as a golem actually deployed in battle.
He couldn't tell to what degree of power it had been tuned, but a well-made golem boasted at least Sword Expert-level combat power or higher. If it was thrown among these rookies, a massive accident was clearly going to occur.
"Should we stop the exam?"
"Hehe... even if it's a superficial formality, we can't waste time. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be among the practice golems currently in use, so hurry and find it while we're talking."
"But one was broken and replaced just now; do you think it's okay?"
"We prepared 100 spare units; surely the one that was replaced wasn't it. Hey, Albert, is there any distinguishing feature?"
"There's an additional component in the head, so it's conical; you should be able to find it quickly by looking at the head."
"I'll go help too; as for grading, the golem's data should be enough."
"Pr... Headmaster-nim, you don't need to... Ugh.. Thank you..!! Let's go find it quickly!!"
While everyone was going outside to search for the golem, the next student in line and a new practice golem entered the exam hall.
Andy also needed to hurry and find the mixed-up golem, but the sight of the student who entered the exam hall captured his vision.
"That student...?"
It was a male student with similar blond hair, carrying a longsword.
The biggest difference, if any, was perhaps that his frame was so small the longsword was nearly as tall as he was.
However, his proportions were good, so from a distance, it wasn't easy to tell unless there was something next to him for comparison.
Somehow, he was familiar.
It was an impression as if he had seen him often in the past.
Looking closely, not just the student, but the golem was peculiar too.
'That golem's head looks conical, doesn't it?'
Could it be that the golem that just came in was the one tuned for live combat.....
"Huh?"
Suddenly, the exam hall flashed with light, and the newly replaced test golem burst apart.
"Uh.. just now.. uh..?"
It happened so instantaneously.
In a clean strike, with no loud noise, the golem lay collapsed in the exam hall as if it had been divided in two from the start.
Just as Lucia Russell had done, a golem was destroyed again, but this time no one was reacting.
It seemed everyone was going outside and missed seeing the exam hall.
But I saw it.
The golem's head had fired an attack spell of at least 6th Circle-level, and I witnessed the student cleave both that spell and the golem in half simultaneously with a single strike.
That golem must have been the one Professor Lena was talking about, the one tuned with live-combat data. To cleave something like that in one blow... that was unconditionally someone at Expert-level or higher.
As he stared blankly at the student, the student, who had been standing dazedly watching the golem, raised his head and their eyes met.
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine.
And from that gaze, he recalled the 'someone' he most wanted to forget.
"I... I just remembered there's something I have to do... I'll call it a day here."
"Instructor-nim?"
By the time he came to his senses, he was already out of the VIP room and running frantically down the corridor.
'Uh... why is that thing at the academy?'
No.
There's no way that bastard is at the academy.
Unlike himself, who was ultimately broken by the horrors of the front lines and retired from the knight order at a young age, that bastard was a genuine lunatic.
The possibility that he saw wrong or was mistaken from unnecessary tension was high.
He thought that with his head, but Andy couldn't stop his legs.
But what if it's really him?
He had to get out of here fast.
-Dak-dak-dak-dak
He heard the sound of regular footsteps.
It was the sound of footsteps chasing him.
It was clear that the student really was chasing after him.
If that student wasn't that bastard, why was he chasing him?
Why was he running away in the first place?
If it wasn't him, couldn't he just turn around and face him head-on?
The footsteps were heard from afar, then vanished.
He had experienced this strange phenomenon once before.
'Is it really that bastard..!!'
With that nightmare-like precursor, the thought that it might not be him completely vanished.
If the footsteps became inaudible, it meant he 'flew'.
He threw his body to the right immediately to dodge the follow-up attack, but
"Keuheok..!!"
Before he could react, as soon as the footsteps disappeared, a strong impact struck his back, and Andy tumbled forward.
Though it was carpeted, falling face-first onto the hard stone floor, he tasted iron in his mouth.
Even in the confusion, thinking he had to correct his posture, he tried to stand up, but something pressed down on his head.
It can't be him. It can't be him. It can't be him. It can't be him. It can't be him. It can't be him.
This is just a student who's good with a sword.
"You... urrrgh..!! Who are you..!! Do you know who I am....!!!!!"
As an instructor from the Imperial Knights, I must not be looked down upon by a student.
Brainwashing himself, Andy raised his voice.
But what returned from the student pinning him down was a clear nightmare.
"Shut up."
-Kwajik!!!
"Hiiiiik?!!"
The longsword impaled the ground right next to his face.
Lifting his head, he could finally see his face.
"Sunbae, why are you running away? Did you do something wrong to me?"
"You... it's you, Atlas..."
It really was that bastard.
Why is that son of a bitch, who should be in the Imperial Knights, taking an entrance exam among rookies? Aren't you fucking embarrassed?