Inevitability Disguised as Coincidence
The Academy freshmen’s academic field trip was heading south of the Empire—better known as the otherworld MT.
Thanks to that, Kyle suddenly found himself with far too much to handle before departure.
“Do you really have to go? I’ll take care of things somehow.”
The biggest problem was, of course, the Fifth Princess Yulika fretting over what she would do while he was gone.
Once every three days she would drop by without fail—either to spar or to propose marriage. One or the other was guaranteed. So the news that Kyle would be leaving left her completely at a loss.
Her reaction was pretty funny, actually. She looked exactly like a dog left alone at home after its owner heads off on a business trip.
…Hmm. On second thought, calling her an ordinary dog didn’t quite fit.
Something fiercer. The kind of terrifying dog that also caused a lot of trouble.
But the academic field trip was mandatory for every freshman. Unlike last time, this wasn’t a matter of national importance that could be dodged with an imperial decree.
If a princess truly insisted on throwing her authority around, something might still be arranged.
Yet Kyle had every intention of attending no matter how hard she tried to stop him.
He wasn’t thinking only of the field trip itself. He had other targets in mind.
“Please don’t drag the imperial family into something like this, Your Highness. Just wait quietly.”
“But—!”
“When I get back, I’ll even make up for the spars we missed.”
“Have a good trip.”
Honestly, he had hoped she would cling a little longer. Instead Yulika simply waved him off and told him to go well.
Watching a statuesque beauty whine for him not to leave had been oddly pleasant, but oh well.
Kyle clicked his tongue, set the regret aside, and moved on to the next arrangements.
“Saintess. You understand, right? When I return, we’re moving beyond bodyweight work and into free weights.”
“Do you think I’ll be able to manage?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right there with you.”
Worrying about exercise in front of a John Nassen? Preposterous.
So Kyle thumped his chest with confident authority and told her to leave it to him. Somehow the Saintess seemed to take that reassurance in a completely different—and rather suggestive—direction.
“…Yes, Brother Kyle. I’ll trust only in you.”
“Excellent. Then keep working through everything I taught you, as much as you can…”
Her set counts might still fall short, but the Saintess’s form was already perfect. He instructed her to continue bodyweight training without overdoing it.
He had absolute faith that a Saintess would never slack off and would train diligently.
With that, the arrangements for both the princess and the Saintess were finished.
Everyone else—Tisha and Elga, Ian and Leto, and even Nell—were all freshmen themselves, so they would be joining the field trip anyway.
Whether there would be time or space to train once they arrived was another question.
If things got truly desperate he would simply have to carve hours out of mealtimes or sleep. He didn’t expect complaints. After all, they were the ones who had requested personal training in the first place.
Now the only thing left is preparing for my own side of things.
How was he supposed to train once he got there? He could hardly haul plates and dumbbells all the way south.
Just thinking about two whole weeks of potential muscle loss was a nightmare among nightmares. Damn it.
Under normal circumstances he would have been grumbling exactly like that while packing. Not this time. This time there was no room for anything else.
Kyle carefully layered outfits into his bag, each assigned a specific purpose.
This one for running, this one for swimming, and a waterproof set in case blood gets on it—can’t have that looking messy.
Whether by coincidence or fate, the field trip had been scheduled for the south.
He briefly wondered whether the imperial family had intervened to change the destination.
He could have investigated if he wanted to. He chose not to.
Since things had already turned out this way, it would be cleaner if he simply handled the matter himself.
Back home everyone would be busy with the hunting festival… no, correction: thanks to the hunting festival they would be having the time of their lives.
He had no desire to dump unpleasant news on them and force them to travel all this way again.
They’d just show up whining about how much muscle they lost on the road. Guaranteed.
Better to leave them laughing and training happily in their hometown.
Something like this was a job for the youngest son to take care of on his own.
The Emperor seems to be watching the south carefully anyway, so he’ll probably cover for me.
Just clear out a few islands. That should be enough, Kyle thought.
This field trip is heading south of the Empire…
Staring at the notice pinned to the board, Tisha absently touched her lips.
She already knew the general outline of the academic field trip; seniors from the Shamanism Club had mentioned it more than once. Officially it was academic during the day, but eventually—as these things always went—the parties became the main event.
Her senior had gone east and didn’t know much about the south. Still, there had been an enormous lake out that way, and they had gone swimming in it.
That single detail made the most important point of this trip flash through Tisha’s mind.
The south! And the ocean! Yes—that’s it!
She didn’t know Kyle’s tastes in perfect detail. One thing, however, she knew with absolute certainty: he gave high marks to anything healthy.
And nothing displayed healthy beauty better than the ocean and a swimsuit!
Fortunately Tisha had confidence in her own firm, well-trained body. For the sake of shamanism she had been half-forced to hike mountains collecting herbs. Occasionally she even ran into small monsters and needed the physical ability to drive them off.
As a result she possessed exactly the kind of healthy physique Kyle appreciated.
To collapse that ‘friends-or-lovers’ line even faster… this really is the best approach.
Being a practitioner of shamanism didn’t mean her life was nothing but books and desks. Sometimes bold decisions and physical action were required.
As a commoner she cared little for other people’s opinions. She knew when to press forward—and once she decided, she never hesitated.
A meaningful light began to gleam in the witch’s eyes.
While Tisha slowly began to reveal her witch-like side, the young lady of the Grand Duchy, Elga, had discovered her own method of closing the distance with Kyle.
Heading south? This is an opportunity heaven itself has given me. I’m certain of it!
Some time ago she had cultivated a friendly relationship with a guest from one of the southern independent lords who visited the Grand Duchy. Even while her brother and others ignored them, she had carefully maintained that goodwill.
As a result she now received extremely detailed intelligence about the south.
“We recovered a drifting ship a short while ago. There were castaways aboard, and according to the rumors they aren’t southerners—they come from somewhere else.”
The south contained countless islands and the vast sea surrounding them. Besides the independent lords there were dozens of imperial cities in the region; the castaways could easily have come from one of those.
Elga, however, focused on another possibility. Kyle’s earlier story had been decisive.
She immediately sent a letter asking who had taken the castaways in, and she even included an open request for a swift reply.
Fortunately the goodwill she had built paid off. Before long an answer arrived from the south.
“The lord of Pardal Island.”
The moment Elga read the letter she cried out inwardly. Found them!
She wanted to rush the news to Kyle at once. He would be delighted—anyone who so much as mentioned the amplifiers made him seethe. And now he would hear the whereabouts of those drugs and the people involved from her, not from the imperial family!
Yet she restrained herself. For now she would wait.
Even gifts, she had been told, should be given at the decisive moment rather than at random.
She would place this gift in Kyle’s hands at exactly that moment, Elga decided.
This is the perfect chance for someone who’s fallen behind to leap ahead in a single bound.
Gratitude was a kind of magic that made everything look favorable. First she would turn Kyle’s gaze toward her in a positive light. After that, little by little, she and Kyle could grow closer—not as the daughter of the Litorio Grand Duke and a son of the John Nassen family, but simply as Elga and Kyle.
Besides those two young women, the reactions of the others waiting for the field trip were just as varied.
Ian, for example, was seriously pondering how he should train once they arrived. He had only just developed a taste for exercise; even a single day without touching the equipment left him restless. The indoor training hall was under expansion, and now they would be away from the Academy for more than two weeks.
After long deliberation he sought out Leto. They had once been complete strangers, but by now a solid friendship had formed—born of the shared suffering of being tormented together by Kyle.
“Here’s the plan. Leto, you pack the bar. I’ll pack the plates.”
“We’re only bringing a barbell?”
“Hmm… I’ll try to squeeze the dumbbells in somehow.”
“Weight shouldn’t be an issue. They said transportation magic will be provided.”
“A silver lining, I suppose.”
Having been drilled—and quietly brainwashed into the John Nassen way of thinking—while suffering under Kyle, the two of them were already worrying about how to keep training even on the trip.
Nell shared the same concern, but unfortunately she had no one with whom to share the burden the way Ian and Leto did. In the end she committed the outrageous act of packing the bar, the plates, and the dumbbells.
It’s heavy, but if I just treat the whole thing as part of training… I’m sure Kyle will praise me for doing well!
Had any Academy professors or upperclassmen witnessed the scene, they would probably have screamed. Officially it was an academic field trip, but in reality it was a kind of journey meant to bring the freshmen closer together. And yet the thing they planned to do once they arrived was exercise—while hauling the equipment with them!
What kind of absurd, deranged nonsense was that?
Thus one person packed swimsuits, another prepared a gift, and still others prepared for training. Amid all those strange schemes, Kyle remained the champion of strangeness.
Better to visit during the day. Showing up at night might get me mistaken for launching a surprise attack.
If the Minister of War had overheard that thought, he might well have shrieked in disbelief. But to Kyle it was a matter of the utmost importance. A surprise attack was something a John Nassen could never allow!