First Class (5): Edward Libertis Loves the Talented
Edward Libertis loved the talented.
He knew he had been born into a blessed environment. The sole heir to the vast Libertan Empire that ruled the continent. A respected father and a gentle mother. Loyal subjects.
And on top of all that, the talent that had allowed him to reach 3-Circle in wind, lightning, and fire before he had even enrolled in the academy. Everyone called him a genius.
But only Edward knew he was not a true genius. He had been granted the ability to learn and master anything quickly, yet he could never reach the absolute pinnacle in any one thing.
That was why Edward loved the talented. Humans always yearned for what they themselves had not been given.
That was also why he had approached Iolet Dranice. The Witch of the Dranice Ducal family who had shaken the entire empire even before entering the academy.
And sure enough, the rumors had not been wrong. No—the rumors had not even come close to the tip of her talent.
The moment he saw her, he could feel it. This woman is the real thing.
She possessed such vast mana that it made him question whether she was even the same species as him. And despite carrying that absurd amount of power, she had displayed precise control that instantly pushed away everyone else’s mana during the earlier clash in the classroom.
Edward showing interest in someone with such overwhelming talent had been, in a way, inevitable.
…Even if Iolet herself apparently had no idea who he was.
And the sight she had shown in the test moments ago had cemented that conviction perfectly in Edward’s mind.
Once Iolet finished the test and returned to her seat, Edward began inching closer again, hoping to forge some kind of connection with her.
But the look in Iolet’s eyes as she came back was anything but ordinary. The instant she spotted Edward standing beside her servant Gladia, her gaze sharpened into something feral.
It was certainly not the kind of look one should direct at the heir to the empire.
Iolet Dranice seems to cherish this maid quite a lot.
Edward reached that conclusion inwardly. Still, his only interest lay in Iolet’s talent; the maid who had tagged along was completely outside his concern.
Just as he was about to take another step toward Iolet, brushing off Gladia’s presence as insignificant—
A shiver ran through him.
A vicious killing intent, like a cold blade suddenly thrust under his chin, slammed into Edward.
“…!”
His body froze solid, as if he had been dropped into ice water. In the grip of a terror that made even breathing difficult, Gladia indifferently brushed past the rigid Edward and walked toward Iolet.
Only then did Edward realize exactly whose killing intent had been strangling his windpipe.
In the middle of a training ground packed with so many students, a precise, hair-raising bloodlust delivered solely to him.
…Birds of a feather, huh. That maid isn’t ordinary either.
As if the sight of Edward standing there, drenched in cold sweat and frozen stiff, no longer existed in their world, Gladia and Iolet began chatting and giggling between themselves.
Watching himself being treated like a complete ghost, Edward understood it was a silent command for him to leave.
If he approached any further without reading the room, he had no idea what kind of fate those two— the beast-like young noblewoman and the unidentified maid—might inflict on him. In the end, Edward had no choice but to quietly withdraw.
Yet a faint smile lingered on his lips.
He was a man who genuinely loved and respected the talented. If people possessing such overwhelming, awe-inspiring talent did not wish for interaction right now, he had no intention of forcing the issue and crossing the line.
Well, there’s no need to rush. Academy life is long.
Today was not the only day. There would be plenty of chances to build connections with those captivating talents in the future.
Swallowing the curiosity and regret boiling inside him, Edward turned and quietly left the area.
Even after my lady renewed the highest score, the tests continued.
Ah, for the record, I chased off that 65 guy the moment my lady returned to her seat. I could tell he was going to keep hovering around and bothering her with more explanations, and I wasn’t about to let some pervert-like creep tire her out or leave a bad influence. My lady was already exhausted from using so much power. No way was I letting that happen.
Anyway, that guy sure talked a lot, so it was a relief when he disappeared. My ears could finally breathe again.
Why doesn’t he just go play with the people following him around? Why does he have to latch onto us? I genuinely don’t get it.
But when the hell is it my turn?
Most of the students seem to have finished their tests, yet my name still hasn’t been called. No matter how much the professor gets to decide the order, isn’t this too late? Am I going to turn into a grandma before I even get a chance?
My lady has already slumped so far she’s practically becoming one with the floor. No, my lady—even if you’re tired, you’re still the daughter of a ducal house. Lying on the ground is a bit much…
I had no choice but to offer her my lap as a pillow for dozens of minutes.
“Next. Gladia.”
Finally, my turn!
They really saved me for absolute last.
I helped my lady to her feet and stood in front of the training dummy.
“……That maid barely gives off any mana?”
“She’s the one always sticking next to Dranice, right? Did she just give up on the test?”
“She looks blind too. How did someone like her even get into Stella Academy?”
At the same time, every gaze in the area turned toward me. The eyes of the students filling the training ground were mixed with bewilderment and doubt.
Well, that made sense. While the Trial of the World was active, my mana was suppressed to the extreme, so from their perspective I probably looked endlessly ordinary—at best, pathetically weak.
The male student with the current lowest score was staring at me with eyes full of hope. Since he’d have to go home if the lowest score didn’t come from someone else, I must have looked like his last ray of hope.
Of course, things weren’t going to go the way he wanted.
Srung.
Sword Saint
The Trial of the World has been nullified.
I opened my closed eyes and looked forward. The moment my eyelids lifted, the entire world etched itself into my vision with painful clarity.
The instant the blade was fully released, mana surged through my entire body like an electric current, bringing with it an omnipotent feeling that said I could cut anything.
As I regained my complete light, the languid air surrounding me flipped in an instant. The mana that had been practically nonexistent exploded endlessly, pounding violently from my core.
At the same time, the training dummy in front of me came into far sharper detail. The waves emitted from the dragon scales wrapped around it like layered armor, and within that armor I could clearly see the dummy’s core pulsing in real time, the paths of circulating mana laid completely bare before me.
But no matter how sturdy the armor, there is always a gap.
Through the senses of Mind’s Eye and the vision granted by Sword Saint, the countless threads of mana were revealed transparently. Within those flows, I caught the single knot where every strand converged.
I slowly raised my sword.
I didn’t explode my mana in a flashy display like the others, nor did I crush it with ignorant mass like my lady. I simply—
I will cut.
The moment that will took form, the world slowed down and blue lines filled my vision.
A silence as if I alone moved in a world where time had stopped. I followed the lines that seemed to beg me to cut along them, swinging my blade along the path that led to the dummy’s core.
An extremely precise slash that utilized both Mind’s Eye and Sword Saint.
If I were to give it a name… yes.
Heart Sever.
Swish—
A quiet slash that didn’t even disturb the air gently brushed across the dummy’s waist. Even after the blade tip passed, a bizarre silence hung over the training ground.
The surrounding students stared at one another in confusion at the seemingly powerless swing I had just shown them.
Right at the moment when the male student in last place—who had been secretly drinking kimchi soup at the thought of avoiding expulsion—began to smirk—
Thud.
“…Huh?”
With someone’s short groan, the dummy’s perfectly upright upper body slid smoothly off.
The cut surface was as smooth as a mirror.
Every student in the training ground froze like stone.
Amid them, my lady stood with her arms crossed and a smile on her face, as if this result was only natural. I returned a small smile of my own.
Srung. Clack.
Within that stunned silence, I promptly slid the sword back into its cane sheath. Leaving it out too long would be bad. I needed to conserve it.
As the blade settled smoothly into place, the complete light that had filled the area instantly went dark. The familiar, terrible darkness swallowed my vision once more, but a satisfied smile remained on my lips.
At that moment, acrid smoke began rising from the severed upper half of the dummy that had tumbled to the floor. Then, from the dummy’s mouth buried in the ground, a final mechanical sound leaked out like a dying gasp.
“…….”
Silence.
A terrible silence so heavy that every student in the training ground seemed to have forgotten how to breathe pressed down on the area.
The knees of the male student whose last ray of hope had been shining so brightly buckled in despair, and that was how the first class of Stella Academy came to an end.
“Today’s class ends here. The one in last place can return to the dormitory and pack their bags immediately.”
Elaheem coldly shook off the male student clinging to her and dismissed the class. She remained completely still in that spot until every student had left the training ground.
Once the heat of all those geniuses had completely drained away, only a strange chill lingered across the empty field.
Tap. Tap.
The lone Elaheem slowly walked forward. She stopped at the spot where Gladia had stood. Before her lay the remains of the training dummy, its upper and lower halves perfectly severed and pathetically scattered.
Elaheem bent at the waist and picked up the cleanly bisected cross-section of the dummy.
“…As expected.”
Her eyes, as her gloved fingers traced the mirror-smooth cut, sparkled with excitement.
A special magic tool crafted by Lustil from processed dragon scales. To the level of the students it might be an iron wall, and even someone of Elaheem’s caliber could destroy it if she truly tried, but…
“I couldn’t do it like this.”
Elaheem murmured quietly.
If she had pushed with raw power, smashing the dummy into scrap would have been child’s play. She could have simply detonated her mana and evaporated it entirely, or crushed it under overwhelming mass.
The attack Iolet Dranice displayed earlier had been along those same lines. But the slash Gladia had left behind existed in an entirely different realm.
“There is zero waste of power.”
The cross-section her fingertips touched was so smooth it was eerie. It was as if the blade had simply slid along the natural grain from the very beginning. Even the core inside the magic tool had been split in a perfectly straight line with not a single millimeter of error.
In truth, this year’s new students were on a level that could be called unprecedented. The test was originally one where surpassing fifty points was difficult for first-years.
It had only been meant to crush the freshmen’s spirits a little, yet Iolet’s 98 points aside, there had been plenty of geniuses showing off rather sharp talent.
Watching them, Elaheem had inwardly thought that this year had brought in quite a few usable toys and that they truly deserved to be called the golden generation.
But this was on another level.
Gladia.
She had assumed the girl was nothing more than a pathetic fool whose mana could barely be sensed. To think she had been hiding something so terrifying. The chilling sharpness Elaheem had felt in that brief instant when the sword was swung made goosebumps rise across her skin.
How many people had noticed the weight contained in that slash? It had been enough to make even Elaheem—who had crossed countless lines of death—tense up for a moment, even though the blade had not been aimed at her.
So that was why that monstrous old woman had told her to watch carefully.
“This batch is going to be far crazier than I expected.”
Thud.
Elaheem tossed the dummy’s remains onto the floor. A dull sound echoed across the quiet training ground.
…Later, Elaheem received a three-month pay cut for destroying a special magic tool while trying to mess with the freshmen.
Served her right. Well done.