Outdoor Practical Training
Izna Hella had been born with a perspective unlike that of ordinary people. Her eyes could see the true essence of others—the identity, ego, and accumulated deeds that formed the core of a person. It was what the ancient Greek philosophers had called the Idea. Because of this, she had lived her life shrinking away from others since childhood. To her eyes, the world was filled with things far too dangerous for a young girl to face alone.
Even after she grew somewhat accustomed to the sensation, there were still beings whose mere presence filled her with dread. Aura Masters who had reached great heights, serial killers who had slaughtered countless people, veteran knights who had survived long years on the battlefield. Those who had lived by taking lives carried an aura so horrifying that it was overwhelming to behold. Yes, just like the man standing before her now—Kyle.
‘……How on earth is someone like that at the Academy?’
Izna trembled as she stared at the shape overlapping Kyle’s form. Her eyes, which had learned over the years to put words to what she saw, now laid bare the information about him.
The information regarding Kyle Meyer was as follows: Aura Master, Sword Saint, courageous knight, hero. Yet the shadow layered over him sent completely contradictory information. Human Slayer. War Maniac. Sword Demon. Psychopath. A merciless demon king with no blood or tears.
‘I’ve never seen anything like that before.’
Each of those titles alone would have been enough to mark someone as a legendary murderer in history, yet Kyle bore several of them at once. Izna shook violently. The thought that he would kill her the moment their eyes met flooded her mind. Since her predictions based on seeing essence were usually accurate, the delusion that Kyle would kill her would surely become reality.
Thud. Footsteps approached. Her body, infected with fear, had grown far too sensitive, and Kyle’s steps sounded like thunder in her ears.
“Kyaaaaah—!”
The moment she screamed, light footsteps echoed from all directions. Maids who had come running from afar quickly surrounded her, carefully lifting her up. Only after being carried away in their arms did Izna finally relax enough to faint.
‘……That girl’s at it again.’
Watching Izna disappear while screaming, Kyle let out a wry laugh. She had been the same at the last party, but he never expected her to scream and faint inside her own mansion too. As he stood there chuckling, a maid of the mansion approached him.
“I’m terribly sorry, honored guest. The young lady occasionally suffers from fits like this……”
“I can’t meet her alone, can I?”
“I’m sorry. There is no way to arrange that……”
“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be proper for an unmarried lady to meet a man in private anyway.”
Kyle scratched the back of his head and nodded at the maid. In truth, he was just relieved that no one was accusing him of doing something to Izna. If she didn’t faint like this on a regular basis, he might have been interrogated by the maids right now and possibly accused of harming the duke’s daughter. Though he was the heir to Count Meyer, known as the Sword of the Empire, his opponent was a duke. Even the title “Sword of the Empire” had to yield to that.
“Please tell the young lady to take care of herself.”
“Understood.”
With those words, Kyle left the mansion. He regretted not being able to ask Izna about his status window, but he had achieved his goal of meeting her, so it was fine. Having accomplished what he came for, Kyle decided to sleep at his own mansion since he was already out and headed there. Not long after, Yuri arrived at the mansion and immediately began interrogating him about why he had visited the Hella princess’s residence alone.
“Kyle Meyer. You truly are something else.”
“Hahaha.”
Professor Wolfgang of the Strategy and Tactics class smiled at Kyle sitting before him. Kyle returned an awkward smile, then quickly realized the grin had vanished from his own face and pressed his lips together.
“I must have explained this several times already. You can’t move like that here.”
“But…… it looked like it would work.”
“Strategy isn’t something you do by feel! There are rules that must be followed depending on the situation!”
While it was true that generals with exceptional mercenary skills and tactics could sometimes turn the tide of battle, that only happened when the capabilities or forces of both sides were unequal. When two armies were assumed to have completely equal strength, strategy followed certain formulas. A smaller force would always lose to a larger one, or besieging a castle required three times the defending force, and so on.
Watching Kyle make moves that seemed to defy these formulas in his very first class, Wolfgang had thought he was a tactical genius. He was a genius, all right—just not the kind Wolfgang had imagined.
“It’s a mistake to think every soldier can act like you! A grave mistake! If they did, they’d all die!”
“Can’t they just move on their own?”
“Are you an Aura Master or something? No, even an Aura Master wouldn’t be enough. Do you think you’re some legendary Grand Master who can split mountains and part seas with a single swing?”
“Not quite……”
“Then please move according to what you’ve been taught!”
As a knight—as a single combat unit—Kyle was an exceptionally powerful fighter. Even Wolfgang, who didn’t know Kyle was a Master, could see that. But when it came to warfare on a larger scale, someone like Kyle would eventually be overwhelmed by sheer numbers and proper strategy. Wolfgang didn’t know what Kyle would become in the future, but since he was in the Knight Department, he would most likely become a knight. There would come a time when he would have to lead his own vassals into battle against knights from other territories. If he kept acting based solely on his own standards then, countless soldiers would die.
“If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to give you a failing grade!”
“Ah, that’s a bit……”
“If you don’t want makeup classes, then do it properly!”
“I’ll try harder next time.”
Kyle said this and returned to his seat. He grumbled inwardly, but he knew Wolfgang wasn’t wrong and that the professor was only looking out for him, so he kept his mouth shut. There was nothing incorrect about what had been said. While he was a student at the Academy, he wouldn’t have much use for mercenary tactics or strategy. But once all this was over and he returned to his territory as a knight? Then strategy would become necessary. Right now, it was simply easier and more efficient to handle things with his body alone, so he wasn’t bothering with it. He wouldn’t be able to move personally forever as he got older.
‘If I’m not careful, I might end up cursed like Sir Gawain.’
With that thought, Kyle tried to focus on the lesson, but roughly three minutes and fifty-four seconds later, he found his head planted on his desk.
“Ah.”
Kyle looked down at the desk that had sucked him in like a black hole and even manipulated time itself, then slowly raised his head when he noticed Arthur watching him. Before he knew it, class had ended and lunchtime had arrived. He should have rushed to the cafeteria long ago, yet for some reason Arthur hadn’t woken him.
“What? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“You were sleeping so soundly. I figured I’d watch for a bit.”
“What’s the point of staring at a guy’s sleeping face……”
Letting out a sigh, Kyle headed to the cafeteria with her. As he ate his usual set meal, he began to feel bored with this familiar school life. Whenever he started feeling this way, something always happened.
“Who can tell me what the role of a knight is? Explain.”
“—Yes. A knight is a superhuman who surpasses ordinary soldiers…… They handle troop deployment, neutralize enemy commanders, subdue enemy leaders, eliminate monsters, and so on……”
Knights were superhumans. They were so powerful that ordinary soldiers could never hope to match them, and there were certain special missions that only knights could undertake. Among them, monster hunting was a task more commonly taken on by mercenaries and adventurers than by knights. Knights learned how to fight people, not monsters.
“That used to be the case. Not anymore.”
However, as times changed and an era of peace arrived…… the occasions where knights had to fight other people grew fewer and fewer. These days, knights didn’t fight people. They fought monsters more often. Kyle, who had fought people far more than monsters, couldn’t relate at all, but since the era had become what it was, the Academy had adjusted its curriculum accordingly.
“Starting tomorrow, for one week, you will leave the Academy grounds and go on a monster hunt.”
“……What kind of monsters will we be hunting?”
“It depends on where you go, but mostly—”
Gawain began explaining the monsters the students would face. Most of them were creatures that Aura Users could handle without issue. However, as Kyle listened, he tilted his head in confusion. The monsters Gawain described were the kind that would never even show their faces if a hundred students charged at them together.
It seemed he wasn’t the only one with this question. Another student asked exactly what Kyle had been thinking. Gawain chuckled at the question.
“Good question. For this practical exercise, the instructors won’t be supervising you.”
“……What do you mean?”
“You’ll be hunting monsters together with the seniors who will be paired with you.”
The students began murmuring among themselves. Hunting monsters with just the students? But hearing this, Kyle had a feeling he would run into a very familiar face.
“Hmm…… Kyle Meyer?”
“It’s been a while, senior.”
“Ahaha, it has……”
His premonition had been correct. On the day of the practical exercise, Senior Ruby smiled awkwardly upon seeing him.