08. The Five Pillars

The sun was bright.

The air was crisp.

As if blessing the new semester at the academy, today's weather was exceptionally fine.

But I wanted to sleep.

By force of habit, I woke up early every morning without anyone waking me, but the moment my eyes opened, my first thought was always that I wanted to sleep more.

Even as I grumbled, I was already in light workout clothes, drenched in sweat in a clearing near the dormitory.

It was a daily routine I'd kept up for over ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ten years now.

I naturally woke up before dawn, got ready, and prepared for the day by loosening up.

There were plenty of times I really didn't want to get up, but once I got my body moving properly, washed up, and stepped out, I was in good condition to face the day.

It was like warming up an engine.

After moving frantically for about an hour and a half, I turned to head back to the dormitory and sensed someone's presence.

"You..."

I locked eyes with Liber Simore, who was also wearing workout clothes like me.

He was panting heavily, as if he had been running until just moments ago, his flushed face framed by a few strands of golden, thread-like hair plastered to his skin with sweat.

"You came out for morning exercise too?"

"Yeah, but I'm done now, so I'm heading back."

Running into him like this felt a bit awkward, so I tried to make a quick exit.

"Wait a sec. You were going pretty hard out there for so early in the morning... do you do this every day?"

How long had he been watching?

I'd been so absorbed, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings.

"I do this much every day."

"I see... Where did you learn the sword, anyway?"

Wow, he even saw the blade work.... So he'd been watching for at least thirty minutes...

Given how covered in sweat he was, he'd clearly been exercising until just now—but had he been doing it while watching me?

"I learned by getting beaten senseless by my tiger-like parents. Why do you ask?"

"Your fundamentals are extremely solid. With skills like that, it's only natural to be curious where you learned them."

It was hard to tell exactly when he'd started watching, but thankfully I'd only been doing light warm-up drills in the morning.

If I had gone into full-fledged training, my real skills would have been exposed to Liber even before the semester started.

For the time being, it was best to appear no more than just barely at the entry level of Sword Expert.

But that 'barely the entry level of Sword Expert' just so happened to be Liber's current realm.

As I turned to head back to the dormitory, Liber grabbed my hand.

"I'm Liber. Liber Simore."

A faint smile crossed Liber's face as he introduced himself.

He'd been so sharp with me yesterday, but it seemed that seeing me up early to exercise had improved his impression of me again.

"Tell me your name. We've known each other since yesterday and it looks like we'll be seeing each other often, so it's fine to at least know each other's names, right?"

"Well, I suppose so... I'm Atlas Nemea."

"Atlas Nemea..."

Liber repeated my name once under his breath, then seemed to resolve something before speaking.

"Can you spar with me? Just once?"

"No ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thanks."

He was saying such strange things, so I hastily retreated back to the dormitory.

The moment he heard my name, he wanted to start swinging blades around—what was wrong with kids these days?

Starting tomorrow, I'd need to find a different spot.

Besides, I couldn't focus when someone was watching me train.

——————————-

It was the day the new semester officially began.

What did a proper school life mean, anyway? Making friends, doing stupid things and laughing your head off, piling up good experiences worth remembering.

I felt like I hadn't really had a proper school life in this lifetime.

Because it was a bit of a stretch to call my apprenticeship years a proper school life.

I'd spent my teens surrounded by the stench of blood and sweat in the Knights Order, and now I was in my twenties... if you counted up to before the possession, my mental age was already in my forties...

Let's not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠think like an old man. What's important is the physical age.

I was still a fresh, youthful early twenty-something.

Since a rare opportunity had come my way, I should try to enjoy a fun school life.

Thinking that, I headed toward the academy and soon heard people murmuring from somewhere.

"Oooh... it's the Five Pillars..."

"Those people are...?"

"It's my first time seeing the Five Pillars..."

The crowd parted, just like Moses parting the Red Sea, as five students, all wearing the freshman brooch just like me, walked forward under everyone's attention.

The Five Pillars were the pinnacle of the Empire's nobility, composed of five houses: the Flame's Lemnos, the Rock's Russell, the Rain's Albion, the Forest's Perda, and the Golden Phrygia.

Whether they were meritorious founding families from the Empire's birth, or masters of walking the political tightrope, doing only enough pointless nonsense not to offend the Imperial eye, they continued to enjoy immense power to this day.

The academy was a microcosm of society, and the kids who already had any sense would do anything to catch the eye of the Five Pillars.

Because entering the faction of such meritorious families meant you had caught the current.

'They're the first ones on the demons' hit list.'

And so, the Empire described in the novel where all of them died off was a crucible of chaos.

Internal strife erupted within the factions as everyone tried to seize power for themselves, and the demons used that infighting to begin tearing the Empire apart in earnest.

They just gave the suppressed nobles' desires a little push, and they self-destructed on their own.

At the head was the most arrogant-looking one, a muscular man with reddish-brown hair, Edgar Lemnos, followed by a cold-faced man with long blue hair and another with deep green hair—Zeke Albion and Nivas Perda.

And fitting her family's alias, Shara Phrygia followed, flaunting her long, golden, silk-like hair.

They all carried themselves with an air of confidence, as if it were only natural that people revered them, but there was one among them who looked extremely uncomfortable.

It was Lucia Russell.

'Lucia... must have only just met those guys for the first time yesterday or today.'

She appeared to be simply expressionless, saying nothing at all, but I could feel that she was deeply uncomfortable.

Lucia's past had similarities to Atlas's past.

She, too, hadn't been allowed to leave the house when she was younger, forced to do nothing but train.

In my case, I had eventually run away from home, joined the Imperial Knights, and experienced a different communal life, but Lucia hadn't.

For Lucia, who had been confined at home, the academy would be an incredibly bewildering place.

A clear sign that she wasn't adapting properly, even among the Five Pillars, was that right now, Lucia was trailing at the very rear of the group.

The Russell family, famed for wielding the heaviest sword in the Empire, was a prestigious house that originally rivaled the Lemnos for the top rank, so normally she would have been standing right at the front with Lemnos—but look at her, standing awkwardly at the back, not even making eye contact.

I wanted to get to class quickly, but the crowd was parted down the middle and I couldn't get through properly, and in that situation, my eyes met Lucia's.

'She's staring hard...'

She was staring so intently this way I almost wondered if she might bore a hole right through me.

"HEY!!!"

Just then, a ringing voice that carried from far away pierced my ears.

Was that directed at me, by any chance? I turned around and saw Liber, wearing the same expression as when we first met yesterday—no, far angrier—running toward me, huffing and puffing.

"You... why are you running away?!"

"Then why are you chasing me?!"

When I came to my senses, I, too, was running frantically to avoid getting caught by Liber.

Ah, so that's how it was. I'm sorry, Andy sunbae. When someone just charges at you, you end up running away without even realizing it.

We ran a bit more, and only when we reached a spot where no freshmen could see us did our chase come to a halt.

Because at some point, the thought of 'why were we running like this?' had occurred to both of us.

"Hah... you're really fast... C'mon, just spar with me once, will you?"

"Hah... Why should I do that? We'll probably get a chance or two to cross blades as classes go on anyway, so don't waste your energy for nothing and let's do it then."

"What kind of deflating thing is that to say when you train like that every morning?"

Liber didn't give up easily.

He probably hadn't seen the whole spectacle of me swinging a wooden ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sword every morning, so what on earth had he seen to ask for a sparring match so persistently?

But for my part, I had absolutely no intention of granting Liber's request.

"You learned your family's swordsmanship too, didn't you? Is sparring once really that difficult? Or do you actually have some kind of problem with me?"

"...I didn't learn anything so grand."

Telling the truth was a bit problematic.

I wanted to live like an ordinary student for a while, but that meant I'd have to deliberately throw a match by a narrow margin in things like sparring.

But I had no desire to lose on purpose.

How could I say that I was sorry because I might wreck him for nothing and put a scratch on his pride?

It was better not to do it at all.

——————————

The freshmen were divided into five classes.

Looking at the roster, it seemed they had balanced things out by inserting one of the Five Pillars into each class.

The class I was in had... Lucia Russell.

Emy and Liber were in the same class, too.

'The sunbae worked hard, I see.'

Just as I had told Andy yesterday, the class assignments had been set.

I'd told him in advance because it'd be hard to keep a focused watch if we were put in different classes, so it was a good thing.

Ending up in the same class as Lucia was all according to plan.

Among the Five Pillars, Lucia was at least the one with the most decent personality.

Every single one of the Five Pillars had a defective personality... but take a bunch of armband-wearing fanatics, a lone-wolf know-it-all, a honey-tongued backstabber, and a psychopath, and stick someone with a communication disorder in the middle, and that person ends up being the most endearing of the bunch.

The moment I entered the classroom, a flash of red hair caught my eye.

"Emy, we're in the same class! I look forward to working with you."

"Y... yes..."

Emy received my greeting, then sat down nearby with a hesitant posture.

She didn't sit right next to me, but two seats away.

Did something happen?

I thought we'd closed the distance quite a bit at the café yesterday, but her reaction felt like the distance had returned.