The Freshman Is Too Strong, Part 1
After I finished speaking, I slowly swept my gaze over everyone gathered here.
The instructors and staff of Bern Academy, the outsiders who had come for the entrance ceremony, and the first-years who had no idea why I was saying any of this were all looking bewildered. The small number of second- and third-years who knew the full story were watching me with interest, while most of the upperclassmen were furious, hurling every insult they could think of.
Which was only natural.
Most of the clubs and organizations within Bern Academy had been padding their budgets with fake accounting statements and siphoning absurd amounts of blind funding from the student council for their own private use. And now a green first-year like me had just declared that I was going to audit their books.
Of course the many second- and third-years with something to hide would be enraged. Still, I met every one of their eyes without flinching. And among the second- and third-years, I singled out a few faces that looked especially rabid.
Right now, hidden among the upperclassmen glaring at me and losing their minds, there was definitely a believer in the Order. After all, my announcement had disrupted the believers’ plan to divert Bern Academy’s enormous budget and use it to fund the Order’s operations.
-Hey, you bastard! Who the hell do you think you are? What gives a damn freshman the right to say he’s going to investigate his seniors?
-You arrogant little shit, get down here right now!
“Hmm.”
I let the abuse go in one ear and out the other while casually counting heads. There were roughly six hundred second- and third-years furious over my promise to rigorously audit the budget execution.
Twice the number on the “list of Order believers inside Bern Academy” that I had compiled. I had expected about nine hundred, so this was a relief, actually. Narrowing it down to six hundred would make cross-checking a little easier.
While idly thinking that, I glanced at Lia. The moment our eyes met, she shot to her feet and walked slowly over to stand beside me.
“Lia. Do you see anyone suspicious?”
“Yeah, I do. But there isn’t just one or two—it’s too many, all mixed together, so it’s hard to separate their mana waves. I think we’ll have to compare them one by one, just like we planned at first.”
“Understood. Then let’s move on to the second plan.”
After whispering to her, I looked back over the crowd. More than three thousand people were staring at only Lia and me standing on the platform.
I opened my mouth in a calm, unhurried voice.
“Everyone, do you hate it when I make a scene?”
If my previous words had been a declaration of war, this one was an outright provocation. Some of the second- and third-years seemed to realize that, because they answered with looks and jeers even uglier than before.
……Well, that too had been expected.
I rolled my neck from side to side and started the second plan.
“Do you not like the fact that a freshly enrolled first-year student is spouting off without knowing his place?”
The second plan was simple: a wide-area provocation.
I’d concluded that there simply wasn’t enough time to go hunting down every student suspected of being a believer in the Order and investigate them individually. So I’d spent a month tearing my hair out over how to overturn that conclusion, and this was the result.
“Then challenge me to a duel. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a mage or a swordsman. I’ll fight with nothing but one sword.”
Why should we go out of our way to chase them, when all we really had to do was flip the problem around? It was a brilliant plan based on precisely that reversal.
“Anyone will do. If one of you defeats me in a duel—”
In other words, instead of us going to the suspicious students, we would make the suspicious students come to us and save time.
“—then Lia von Elleves and I will renounce our positions as student council officers, hand those posts over to the victor, and return to being ordinary students.”
-……!
-Hey, wait, that….
The murmuring from the students swelled louder. That was only natural too. Student council officers at Bern Academy were effectively untouchable, granted extraterritorial privileges in all but name; staking that title on a single duel was absurd.
But I’d staked it anyway. The reason was simple. If the honey was this sweet, and the reward this tempting, then believers in the Order would surely start coming to us in far greater numbers.
Of course, plenty of little flies hungry for the student council’s prestige would swarm in as well. But I was confident.
Confident in what?
Confident that I wouldn’t lose to anyone.
“Everyone.”
So.
“If you don’t like me, try to beat me with skill.”
If I annoy you, then come at me.
“I don’t listen to anyone weaker than I am.”
You weaklings.
* * *
The freshman entrance ceremony that had heated Bern Academy to a fever pitch came to an end.
Since today was the first day, the morning schedule had ended quickly, and the current time was around one in the afternoon, right at lunch.
Lia and I, both in Class A of the first year, stopped by the dining hall to eat together. We took a reasonable portion from the buffet-style kitchen and sat down at a quiet corner table.
“By the way, Cain, what was the atmosphere like near the swordsmanship lecture hall?”
“In more ways than one, it was unexpected. I’d thrown out all those provocations, so I thought it would be vicious, but it was surprisingly mild. Not a single student openly acted hostile.”
“Mm-hmm, I see. It was pretty much the same on the magic lecture hall side. There were a lot of girls asking what kind of relationship you and I have, but not a single person brought up duels.”
“Oh, really? ……Why do you think that was?”
Not a single person had asked me any personal questions like that. Where was this difference coming from?
“Hmm, I think maybe because it was a class only for first-years? Most of the people you targeted with your provocation were second- and third-year seniors.”
Slurp. Lia scooped a spoonful of soup and offered her opinion.
That wasn’t the question I’d asked, but it was plausible enough that I nodded and swallowed a piece of steak.
“I suppose so. There’s no reason for first-years to get angry at me for saying I was going to root out the rotten powers. If they did get angry, that would also be evidence they had some connection to those rotten powers.”
“Yeah, and the fact that you’re a student council officer probably helped too. We went straight into class with the badges that only student council officers wear, right after the entrance ceremony. They probably felt a little intimidated.”
Lia tapped the badge pinned near her chest as she took another two spoonfuls of soup.
The badge, a little larger than a five-hundred-won coin, had the emblem of a double-headed eagle engraved in the center, symbolizing a student council officer. It was a brand-new piece, warm from having been handed to us by the student council president less than half a day ago.
“Yes, well. Still, Lia, what’s on the schedule after this?”
Since it was the first day, there were no afternoon classes. We could wander around the academy and look around, or go watch the club recruitment procession being run by the second- and third-year seniors. I was planning to follow whichever option Lia wanted.
“I’m still deciding…. What about you, Cain? What are you going to do?”
“I’m your escort knight, so I’ll follow your lead.”
“Nope. Don’t you know that once you pass through the academy gates, everyone becomes equal regardless of status? Inside here, you and I are on the same level. So call me Lia, not Lia-nim.”
“That may be the wording, but in practice it’s a dead letter of a rule.”
There was a school regulation saying that once you entered Bern Academy, royalty and nobles were not to be treated differently. But no one sane actually went around spewing casual insults just because of that rule. Did they think there’d be no private retaliation?
If you were going to live in the academy forever, that might be one thing. But you had to leave after three years. If you acted arrogantly, there’d be hell to pay afterward.
“Come on, but it’s still a rule, isn’t it? Shouldn’t the student council officer who ought to obey the rules better than anyone be the last person to break them on the very first day?”
“What? No….”
If you come at me with logic like that, what am I supposed to say? I fumbled for an excuse, lips opening and closing uselessly, and Lia leaned her upper body closer.
“You should follow the rules, right? So hurry up and call me Lia. I want to hear Cain talk down to me.”
“I can’t. How could an escort knight speak casually to the young lady he serves? It’s against etiquette.”
“Oh, Cain! That’s all written in the school rules too, you know? Bern Academy Rule, Article 1, Clause 1: inside the academy, all students are equal regardless of rank! I’m not being unreasonable—the rules say so. The rules!”
“…….”
She’d only had the student handbook for half a day, and she’d already memorized which article and clause contained which rule?
I was inwardly admiring Lia’s memory again when she dipped her chopsticks into a side dish and held it toward me.
“Here, I’ll give you a tasty dumpling, so call me Lia!”
“……What am I, a dog?”
“Yeah, didn’t you know? Cain kind of looks like a big dog. Like, what was it again? Oh, right—Gin….”
──Thud!
Just as Lia was about to say something, a loud crash suddenly rang out beside us and the table jerked. Startled by the sudden movement, Lia dropped her chopsticks, and just as they were about to hit the floor, I swiftly moved my hand and snatched them out of the air.
I caught them, all right, but they slipped downward and I ended up grabbing them with the tips pointed straight at the floor, so the dumpling fell onto the dining hall tiles instead. It was a shame to see the side dish Lia had given me drop like that, and I clicked my tongue as I looked down before turning my head to the side.
“Hey, red-eyes. Are you that Cain guy, the arrogant freshman?”
Some hulking brute—no, a second-year student—had come up leading several other students from the same year and was now threatening me.
The way I knew they were upperclassmen was their tie color. First-years wore red ties, second-years wore blue, and third-years wore black. This guy had a blue tie.
“Yes, that’s right. And you are?”
“What? That’s right? Look at this bastard, his manners are completely rotten.”
I had been trying to keep the conversation gentlemanly, especially with Lia sitting right there, but the unnamed second-year male mocked my words and the crowd behind him began laughing along with him.
-What, is a fight starting?
-Who’s that? He looks kind of familiar—second-year?
-The one sitting down looks like a first-year.
-Oh, isn’t that him? The handsome guy who caused a scene at the entrance ceremony!
Probably because of the loud noise, the students nearby were now watching us with curious eyes. Some of them recognized me, and some recognized the second-year male.
From what I was hearing, this guy seemed to be a pretty notorious second-year.
──Thud.
“I’ll keep this short. Are you going to hand over that badge quietly, or do you want to be humiliated in front of your girlfriend and hand it over that way?”
“…….”
Hmm. Even so, this was an academy mostly attended by nobles. I hadn’t expected them to use such a cliché tactic—showing up with a gang and trying to intimidate people in broad daylight. Then again, I supposed human beings were more or less the same everywhere.
Before answering, I glanced at Lia. It was a silent question: could she sense something evil, or something special, in the flow of mana coming from this thug-like second-year? Lia shook her head from side to side.
In other words, this guy wasn’t a believer in the Order or anything of the sort. Just a punk.
Having come to that conclusion, I slowly stood up.
The second-year sneered when he saw the chopsticks in my right hand.
“What, why? Planning to poke my eyes out with that?”
“No, it’s just that this seems sufficient to deal with a senior.”
“……What the fuck did you say?”
“Ah, no, that’s not it.”
I twirled the chopsticks in my grip and corrected myself.
“Actually, the chopsticks are overkill, but unfortunately I don’t own a sword shorter than chopsticks.”
Snap. I pointed the chopsticks forward.
“So I’ll be using these to fight you.”
Then I crooked my left index finger, beckoning him forward.
“I’ll even let you have the first strike, so come on in comfortably.”
“……You son of a bitch, what a fucking piece of shit!”
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