This Is What an Academy Is
As if they had all agreed on it beforehand, everyone drew their weapons. Into the midst of that tense formation stepped the flag, and Luicia took a single step forward, drawing every gaze to herself.
“As I explained earlier, we will form three rotating shifts: a flag-defense team, a hunting team, and a scouting team.”
Whether it was the natural charisma of a high-house scion, the kind that excelled at commanding people, no one openly rebelled. Still, more than a few quietly gravitated toward the hunting team.
By overall ratio it came out to defense two, hunting five, scouting three. The temporary overseer, Luicia, was the one left clutching her head at the overwhelming size of the hunting contingent.
With no idea how the enemy might appear, the smart play was to put weight on defense and scouting rather than hunting. Watching them stampede after rewards with their eyes glazed over was never going to sit well with her.
Worse, they all knew it was wrong, yet pride kept them merely eyeing one another instead of speaking up. It was pathetic.
I took one step forward and flicked a finger charged with mana.
“Hive. Growl.”
Snap!
“Caw!!”
“Grr!”
The sudden appearance of the two made everyone tense and grip their weapons tighter—until the pair settled neatly at my side. Then came the sighs and the pointed glares. These idiots still hadn’t learned.
If we were going to do this, we would do it thoroughly. Perfectly.
“Hey.”
“Huh? Me?”
“Yeah.”
I singled out one of the guys standing at the very front of the hunting group. Healthy bronze skin, white hair cropped short in a sporty cut—that was his look. Even without Ban Taewung around he had always been the class mood-maker, the friendly type who got along with everyone. Classic approachable-character energy.
His name was Shirogane Tohru, right?
“And you, you, and you.”
I pointed out the ones next to him in turn. The four of them always stuck together unless something special came up. Once I had them gathered, I jerked my chin toward the defense team.
“Over there.”
“Ha—wait, who the hell do you think you are, ordering us around?”
The one who pushed back wasn’t Shirogane Tohru or any of the ones I’d picked. It was someone standing off to the side. I looked at him. Dull gold hair and eyes the color of tarnished brass. Anger and unease both sat in those eyes as he glared at me.
“You go too.”
Worried he might get shoved out of the hunting team the same way, so he was throwing a preemptive check? Fine. I personally assigned him to defense.
“Hey!! Can’t you hear me?!”
“Uh? Dude, cut it out…”
As if rebelling against the tyranny, the brass-haired guy lunged forward and planted himself right in front of me. He even poured mana into the pressure he was throwing. Shirogane Tohru, the first one I’d named, looked flustered and tried to hold him back.
“Let go of me!! Why the hell should I take orders from a guy like him?! You all think the same, right?!”
The restraint only made him louder. So he was the type who doubled down when someone tried to stop him. And he even knew the basic rabble-rousing trick of dressing up his own opinion as everyone’s. Truly annoying.
Which made him perfect as an example. You picked the wrong fight, brat.
“Grrrr…”
“…”
Hive and Growl reacted instantly to my hostility. The murderous atmosphere made Shirogane, who had been approaching to calm the brass-haired idiot, swallow hard and backpedal.
I’d already guessed he was sharp from how quickly he read the room, but he was smarter than expected. If he had kept coming to stop the guy, he would have gotten dragged in too.
Boom!
I took another step toward him and reversed the mana he was pushing at me, crushing it back down onto him.
He had spread it wide just to make the volume look bigger, so it was all bluster and no substance. Pinning him was easy.
“Ghk…! Ghk…”
I zeroed in on his vitals and clamped down on his mana flow. He started choking, unable to breathe properly. We were only getting started; if I went soft now it would all be wasted.
Mana pressure alone was already severe pain. It was like the blood circulating through your body had been stopped by outside force. Imagine stuffing your entire body into a blood-pressure cuff and you get the idea.
To an Awakened it was only a faint ache, nothing unbearable—until my skills Sadism and Torture amplified it. Then it became something else entirely.
He dropped to his knees, clutching his throat and gasping desperately for air. I didn’t withdraw the mana; I radiated it outward and activated the skill Charisma.
The effect of Charisma was extremely simple.
It left a powerful impression on the target. As a side benefit, you could temporarily heighten your presence through mana.
That sudden, overwhelming presence carried something that crushed the target. Like suddenly running into a bear in the woods. Your heart pounded and your body tensed whether you wanted it to or not.
The impression it left rooted itself deep in the target’s memory—good or bad.
“Have you ever seen a soldier or a hunter on the battlefield refuse orders just because he didn’t like his superior?”
“I—I’ll… cough…!”
Crunch!
“Of course you haven’t. Those bastards die at the hands of their own people before they ever reach the front.”
“Ghhhk…!”
I stomped on the left hand of the guy sprawled on the ground. He had reached out with his right first, so he was probably right-handed. Even if he wasn’t, a healer could fix it later.
I ground the protruding bones of the back of his hand under my heel like I was rolling marbles. Each twist made his crumpled body jerk and spasm.
“You accepted it at the start. You acknowledged me as your superior. So what’s the idea, refusing orders now? Is this fight a joke to you? Does this look like some kids’ game of house? Can’t you see you’re wasting everyone else’s time? How do you plan to make up for that loss? Do you even have the power to?”
He shook his head with everything he had left, denying it. Tears and snot were flowing more freely than screams now. No one stepped in to stop me.
Most of the people here would become hunters who challenged dungeons someday, and beyond that they would be thrown onto real battlefields. They understood the weight of what I was saying better than anyone.
That was why Shirogane Tohru had tried to stop him in the first place.
“Sinwoo. That’s enough.”
In the end Ban Taewung stepped forward and halted me. I could have ignored him and crippled the guy completely, but that would have been second-best.
By backing down here I would burn into their minds that Ban Taewung was the only one who could rein me in. That would make them think twice before treating him lightly.
“Tch.”
“Guhhhk…!”
I clicked my tongue and withdrew the mana. At the same time I looked down at the guy sucking in air like a drowning man. The Barrier Cell gauge sat at 98 percent. In practice I had driven him this far with nothing but the effects of Torture and Sadism.
Even though the pain had lasted only a moment, the Pain Tokens from Sadism were already half full.
The exchange rate was overwhelmingly better than when I used it on monsters. Stabbing with a blade and crushing underfoot weren’t the same, of course, but the feel itself was different.
Maybe it was that the total amount of pain a person could accept was different?
Even half-intelligent beings had a firmer sense of self, so they understood pain and fear more clearly—and therefore suffered more.
Better experimental results than I’d expected. From now on, if I wanted to farm Pain Tokens fast, I should start by beating the weak, smart ones half to death.
“Hey.”
“Y-yes, sniff… yes.”
“Do better. From the start. Got it?”
“Hic, yessir…!!”
Even while snot and tears poured freely, his answers were crisp. Felt like he’d been chewed out this way plenty of times before. And yet he still acted out like this—maybe people really couldn’t be fixed.
Hell, even in Pok*mon you released the wild ones unless they were 6IV or shiny. What could you expect from a weakling whose only strong points were pride and a big mouth?
“Take him.”
“Y-yeah… no, yes sir!!”
I pointed at Shirogane Tohru with my eyes. He and the rest of the group, who had been waiting behind him while cold sweat ran down their backs, hoisted the sobbing guy like a sack of rice and hauled him over to the defense team.
Once I confirmed they were moving, I turned my head back toward the hunting group.
“Anyone else who can’t keep their opinions to themselves, raise your hand.”
Of course no one did. The moment their eyes met mine they flinched and looked away. A few watched with open interest, but I ignored them.
I rode the momentum and finished the assignments cleanly. Hong Su-ah’s teaching method really was solid. Using the preferred positions and specialties I’d half-listened to earlier, I sorted them into combinations. They looked puzzled at first, then one by one started nodding in understanding.
In the end we landed on the ideal split: defense three, hunting three, scouting four. It had taken five whole minutes. Without the interruption it would have been done in three. Pure waste of time.
Finally I appointed team leaders: Ban Taewung for scouting, Luicia for hunting, and myself plus Riri for defense.
“Hive.”
“Caw!”
Next I released the shadow crows and had them slip into the students’ shadows. The sudden flock of crows merging with their shadows drew mixed reactions and a brief uproar.
Ban Taewung poked at his shadow with his foot like it was fascinating. Luicia eyed hers with open distaste. The others weren’t much different—more of them looked creeped out than curious.
“If you’re in danger, tap your shadow three times. The nearest crow will guide you. Fake signals still get reported to me and the crow still gets sent, so don’t bother testing it.”
They nodded as if impressed.
Devices would have been fine, but mana interference tended to scramble or cut the signal, so this was necessary.
“Hey. Can you raise walls?”
I poked the white-haired head of the girl who was still dozing off, nodding even through the commotion, and woke her.
“Yaaawn~… yeah.”
Riri stretched, rubbed her eyes once, then plunged a hand into empty air and pulled out a book so massive she could lean against it. She climbed onto it, and enormous mana began to swirl around her.
Snow-white masses of mana twisted and locked together into a gigantic magic circle, then sank into the ground.
Rumble…
“Ugh, what?”
“Earthquake?!”
The sudden shaking of the earth and the surge of mana left more than a few people rattled.
“Stay still.”
“Everyone remain calm and hold your positions.”
I translated Riri’s words for the group. The ones who had been flinching settled and prepared to keep their balance.
Grrrrumble!!! Thud!
Stone walls shot up in an instant, forming a solid fortification. It looked far too complete to be a temporary structure; gasps of admiration slipped out on their own.
By lowering the surrounding terrain and raising ours, she had limited the approach routes to the “castle.” Raising the flag’s position as well meant that unless you broke through this place, you could never reach it.
“Done. Riri, totally awesome. Clap clap.”
She had clearly burned a lot of mana, yet her expression never changed. She praised herself in a deadpan voice, then immediately pulled a lollipop from her pocket and stuck it in her mouth.
“Thanks, Riri. You just cut the time we needed to build a base.”
“Ehehe.”
Ban Taewung’s praise and the feel of his hand ruffling her hair must have felt good; she grinned and narrowed her eyes. Then she suddenly popped them wide open, huffed through her nose, and marched over to me, thrusting her head forward.
“What.”
“Praise!”
“…”
The pure childlike demand left me staring in silence. She started butting her head against me. It didn’t hurt, but it was incredibly annoying. I sighed and roughly tousled her hair anyway.
Every time I did, a weird little mewling sound like a baby kitten came out of her. I ignored it.
“Get ready. We made this much of a show, so they’ll be here any second.”
“…Yeah. Got it.”
Clap clap!
I clapped with mana behind it, gathering every eye, then looked at Ban Taewung and Luicia. They each nodded in acknowledgment.
“Hunting team, over here. We’ll split the high-mobility people from the low-mobility ones first. We need to take down as many monsters as possible and secure items.”
“Scouting team, move with me! First priority is gathering intel. We have to know the enemy’s positions if we want to fight on favorable terms. Engagement comes after that. One mistake and everyone could be in danger, so move carefully.”
Each of them took control in their own style with practiced ease. Watching them follow what I’d taught so well actually made me proud.
Once the busy groups filed out, the defense team’s eyes naturally gathered on me. I looked them over quietly, then spoke.
“From this moment we subdivide. Anyone with even a little siege experience, move to the right. No experience, left. From there form four lines: melee, ranged, support, and other specialties. If you’re unsure, go specialty for now. I’ll make the final call.”
““Yes sir!!””
They snapped to attention without being told. Roughly three experienced to seven inexperienced. Expected. Honestly I was more surprised there were three with experience at all.
“You, you, you, and you are Team A starting now. Brief each other fast, pick a leader, and start syncing up so you can move as one.”
I mixed three inexperienced with one experienced into new four-person teams. Teams A through C were balanced melee-melee-ranged-support combos meant to hold the front line. Teams D through F were melee-ranged-ranged-support, built to intercept approaching enemies early and whittle them down.
Inevitably a few leftovers remained. They would wait in the rear as flexible fillers who could plug any hole. Mostly low-mobility healers or non-combat production types.
Among them, a few special cases always stood out.
A healer girl wearing plate armor and carrying a mace that would put a paladin to shame. A blacksmith who, instead of a hammer, had strapped two small shields to his arms and a large one to his back—three shields total. A narrow-eyed butler type who adjusted a monocle with white-gloved hands and smiled softly. And a mage who had fused cowboy gear straight out of a western into his student uniform, then compromised by equipping a mana gun—the pinnacle of magecraft—so that only his outfit was anachronistic.
True to a class gathered from all over the world, every oddball seemed to have ended up here. Put this many strong personalities together and of course fights broke out every other day.
I looked them over and had to swallow the sigh that rose on its own. Still, we had to try.
“Production types, start building the defensive line. Anyone with free hands, help them. Focus traps on the non-path areas. Cover the inside of the castle thoroughly too. Next is weapons. Turrets, crossbows—anything usable, get it moving.”
Thud!
I stamped my foot with mana. Similar to the method Hong Su-ah used, except mine didn’t just spread—it carried my voice at the same time.
A kind of mana megaphone. Because my mana was mixed in, the skill Charisma layered on top and maximized the effect.
“This is a competition before it’s a class, and an exam at the same time! The days of your parents spoon-feeding you are over. Dig out your own worth. Prove yourselves. If you don’t, you’re the ones who get left behind!!”
“…”
“Do not forget that even at this very moment the teachers and instructors are watching from outside and scoring you. That is all! Move out!”
““Yes sir!!!””
Their reply came back even louder. I turned and rubbed my throat. Raising my voice like that was so unlike me that my neck was already throbbing. Doing this after so long made my body reject it.
Mana reinforcement had limits, especially when you forced volume. Back at the lab when I was running the kids I never pushed this hard… and it wasn’t even making me money. What kind of bullshit labor was this?
I wanted nothing more than to bury myself against Growl and rest, but if I slacked now the ironclad image I’d just built would collapse into “the old man who works everyone else to death while doing nothing himself.”
Jobs like this required the person giving orders to move personally. That way you had grounds later to chew out anyone who tried to coast.
Think of it like a general who stands at the front of the army. Leading from the front boosted ally morale and, at the same time, applied the mental pressure of “I’m going out there—what the hell are you doing?” It eliminated the option of “just enough” before it ever appeared.
“Hive. Pull those out.”
“Caw!”
He shoved his beak into the shadow and dragged out a bag. The scales I’d collected from Kallion yesterday. Combining Hive’s trait Crow Flock with the skill Jack of All Trades let me leave them with the crow merchant inside the shadows.
It wasn’t as all-purpose as the name suggested. Only things I could lift in one go could be traded, and taking them in or out burned a huge amount of mana. Luckily I could cover it without much strain.
Like Kallion’s Demi-Breath, it was a skill Hive couldn’t use with his own mana alone.
Used properly, these scale fragments would make some pretty sharp stone spears that conducted mana.
“What’re you doing?”
Riri, half-sprawled on her book with only her head peeking out, spoke up. She had already finished the candy; she was just chewing on the stick. I glanced at her and answered.
“Making materials. Hey, grow some trees for me.”
“Eeeh~ there’s nothing here, it’s hard…”
“Eat this and get to work.”
I wasn’t about to let her rest while I worked. I had Hive pull out a CalorieMate-type bar like the one I’d eaten that morning and handed it over. Riri watched the whole process with sparkling eyes, then tilted her head and looked outside.
“Huh?”
“What.”
“…Something’s coming.”
I couldn’t sense a thing, but I moved anyway. A mage had detected it—no one else. I couldn’t brush that off.
I immediately sent the shadow crows racing outward. In the distance I spotted a carriage wreathed in flames charging straight at us at high speed.
“Tch.”
They were in a hurry. I wrapped my throat in mana again and shouted.
“Enemy attack!! All hands to combat formation! Non-combatants, hurry with the traps and interception towers!!”