The Night After the Attack
The night of the field training incident, after Medeia had been attacked.
Zeron let out a heavy sigh as he downed another drink. When he glanced down, the ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts. Empty bottles rolled around beneath the bed as well. Unable to hide the complicated feelings in his heart, he picked up his communication device. After a brief ring, David’s voice came through.
“Hey… you bastard…”
David cackled as he teased him, but Zeron couldn’t bring himself to snap back. Because yeah, he had fucked up. A colossal, mother-fucking disaster of a fuck-up.
“…Shut the hell up. What would you do if I told you the kid got herself a boyfriend…?”
It sounded like he was already planning to send someone to bury the guy in secret. Zeron let out a deep sigh and continued.
“The guy’s twelve years older than your daughter.”
“Well, his skills aren’t bad. A Master wouldn’t exactly be looked down on across the continent, right?”
A brief silence. He could hear David taking a deep breath on the other end of the communication device. Zeron waited for the inevitable stream of curses, but what came back was an eerily calm voice instead.
No, that wasn’t calm. That was the voice of someone about to explode. Zeron sighed again and took another swig.
“Like hell I did.”
“Nothing happened, you idiot. She just… came out and said it.”
A long, deep sigh came through. From the sound of it, David had already suspected something. Of course he had. She hadn’t exactly been subtle about it. When she was little, everyone had just laughed it off as a child saying she’d marry her dad someday. But if that same feeling continued into adulthood, it started to feel… strange.
Of course, Medeia was still young. It could be nothing more than a childish crush. Or maybe she was simply intoxicated by her own long-lasting one-sided love. Or perhaps she was simply confusing admiration and familiarity for something deeper. But even so… it still felt off.
“What?”
Zeron’s brow furrowed. He opened his mouth to say something, then simply let out another sigh.
“I’m hanging up.”
Click. The line went dead.
Zeron clicked his tongue and paced around the room for no particular reason. Whenever a sigh slipped out, he leaned against the windowsill and lit a cigarette.
Elena. Her daughter. His friend’s daughter. Age difference aside, she was a child he had watched grow up since she was a newborn. Was there any other reason? A strange sense of resistance he couldn’t even explain to himself rose inside him.
“Fuck. My head hurts.”
Zeron ruffled his hair roughly. That aside, why had the kid suddenly said something like that? Had something happened that made her feel rushed?
“Haa…”
Even when he tried to cut off the thoughts, they kept multiplying. He already knew the answer for times like this.
Just sleep.
Zeron collapsed onto the bed and closed his eyes. Sleep didn’t come easily.
*
One day passed. Then another. It was Wednesday.
Zeron packed his bags with a strangely uneasy feeling. The field training would last roughly a week starting today. He wasn’t sure whether that was fortunate or not. His mind was too cluttered, so he shook his head violently.
He recalled yesterday’s class. It was the practical swordsmanship lecture held every Thursday. The kid hadn’t done anything particularly strange. She had simply called him “Oppa, oppa,” and clung to him a little more than usual. But even that was enough to make things feel very different from before. Enough that the people around them had started to suspect something between the two of them.
It was a small change if you looked at it one way, yet at the same time, an incredibly big one. Especially that look in the eyes of that stuck-up young lady. It was the kind of gaze a child might have after learning the shocking truth that her father had actually been a woman.
Just thinking about it pissed him off.
Zeron clicked his tongue and left the room. Lunalind was waiting in front of the door.
“Are you leaving?”
“Yeah.”
“Please be careful. In many ways.”
“You heard about it too?”
“If it’s about that person named Medeia from last time, yes. I heard.”
“Goddamn it.”
How the hell did rumors spread this fast? Lover, secret child, rape—every kind of disgusting rumor imaginable had already circulated. Maybe it was because the kid was already famous in Class A for all sorts of reasons. The speed at which the rumors spread was unnaturally quick.
Should he just go rip all their heads off?
“Anyway, I’m going. Don’t believe that kind of bullshit rumor.”
“Of course not.”
“That’s surprising.”
Lunalind smiled faintly. What did that mean? Whatever. He waved his hand lightly and left the dormitory.
As he walked down the path with a cigarette in his mouth, he saw that the entire Class A had gathered on the training grounds. The students, Pinkfang, and four other assistants. Including Zeron, that made six supervisors. Since each of them was at least an Expert, there probably wouldn’t be any serious danger. The nobles had their own escorts as well.
Of course, that didn’t mean accidents never happened. He had heard that one or two students died every now and then. Apparently, students had to agree to those risks when they enrolled in the academy. That was also why noble families usually didn’t send their heirs.
“Ah! Zero-long! Hurry up!”
As he approached while thinking those thoughts, Pinkfang greeted him enthusiastically. He ignored her and scanned the students. About fifty of them. That was quite a lot.
“Everyone ready? We’re heading out now!”
“Yeah, sure. There’s nothing for me to do, right?”
“Nope! Not until we arrive!”
Pinkfang smiled brightly and led the students. A bus was parked right in front of the academy’s main gate. She herded the students inside, and the vehicle began to move.
“A bus, huh…”
Cars powered by mana rather than horses were a privilege reserved for nobles. No matter how rich David was, he wasn’t a noble, so this was Zeron’s first time riding in one.
“Hehe, is it amazing? It’s actually nothing special once you get used to it!”
“I guess. I’ve seen them break when you hit them.”
He hadn’t ridden one before, but he had seen them get smashed.
“Yeah! Exactly! That’s true!”
Pinkfang agreed cheerfully.
*
The regressor—no, Ed—watched Iris talking with Zeron. He had to stay alert. Iris was unpredictable. She was just as troublesome as Zeron, or perhaps even more so in some ways. But now wasn’t the time to worry about that.
The timing was still far too early anyway. He could put those concerns off until later. What he needed to focus on right now was his own growth. He already knew the path to Master, and he had to gather everything he needed to accelerate that progress. Everything he knew the location of, or at least suspected.
He had already taken everything the academy could offer at this point. The hidden minor opportunities, connections with talented individuals, mastering the subjects he had neglected in previous rounds—everything. He was hiding his power to avoid standing out too much, but his current level was already Expert. Even though it was only the beginning stage, for a first-year student to have reached Expert was quite shocking even on a kingdom-wide scale. Especially considering he was only seventeen and had only been holding a sword for a few years after being born to ordinary farmers.
And the thing that could accelerate that growth even further was…
This training.
Ed’s eyes darkened. It was an opportunity he absolutely could not miss. If he let it slip by, he would have to consider giving up on this round entirely.
This time, without fail.
Peace for the world. And a happy ending.
That was what the regressor wished for.
*
Traveling by bus meant they arrived much faster than expected. It hadn’t been very fast inside the crowded capital, but once they left the city, it moved at a speed no horse-drawn carriage could ever match.
“It really is nice.”
“Really? Want me to get you one?”
“Even if you gave me one, I couldn’t drive it.”
“Then Zero-mi-long just needs to become a noble!”
“Setting the method aside, that fucking name keeps getting worse.”
Zeron clicked his tongue and looked around. A vast forest stretched out beneath the darkening sky. A modest village sat at the edge of that forest. The fact that there was a lodging far too luxurious for the village’s size was probably because it was frequently used as a field training site for the academy.
“The method isn’t that hard! You just have to marry me! You’ll become Zeron de Polhuian!”
“Yeah, fuck off.”
“Aww, too bad.”
As he pushed away the clinging Pinkfang and kept walking, the kid who had been talking with her friend a short distance away slowly approached. She grabbed the hem of his clothes tightly, glanced around nervously, and asked.
“Oppa, you’re not, right?”
“Not what?”
“You’re not going to get married, right?”
“I probably will someday.”
“With who…?”
“How the hell should I know, kid?”
After shaking the kid off, Pinkfang crept closer this time.
“What? What?! Don’t tell me! A forbidden love between teacher and student…!”
“Ugh, for fuck’s sake.”
A sudden wave of exhaustion hit him, so he lengthened his stride. He planned to grab a room and rest. The rest could figure things out themselves. The only thing Zeron had to do was act as their escort.
*
A day passed, and as the sun began to rise, the students gathered in front of the lodging.
Even in front of the students, Pinkfang didn’t bother hiding her regret as she began her explanation.
“In this place, Lempit, there aren’t any extremely dangerous monsters! At least not in the shallower areas! We cleared it out pretty thoroughly not long ago! Still, you should be careful, right? People die surprisingly quickly!”
The students’ faces stiffened at her words. Zeron also looked at her with a strange expression. The last sentence had carried the scent of blood. It seemed like personal experience. And for some reason, hearing those words made him feel like a major accident was going to happen during this trip.
“But as long as you don’t stray too far from the supervisors, you should be fine!”
With those words, it was basically confirmed.
“Oh, right. I mentioned before why we don’t use the forest inside the academy, didn’t I? It’s to build your ability to adapt to unfamiliar lands and environments! So don’t let your guard down too much, okay?”
Well, there’s also the annoying adult reason that the monster population in the academy forest can’t be allowed to drop too much!
Pinkfang added with a bright smile and threw both arms into the air.
“Alright! Everyone please gather with your pre-assigned groups! From now on, you’ll be acting in teams!”
The field training begins now!