Accidents Always Happen When You Least Expect Them (1)
“Huh? Wh-what…?”
Lia, her face as white as a sheet of paper, stammered out the reply.
I looked at her and asked again.
“You said you knew Bern was the Empire’s Second Prince because you saw him somewhere. Where exactly did you see him?”
“……Di-did I say that?”
“Yes. You definitely did.”
Lia’s eyes shook violently. Her gaze wouldn’t settle anywhere, darting this way and that.
She was trying her best to look composed, but she simply couldn’t hide how flustered she was.
I looked around to make sure no one was listening, then confirmed there was no one nearby. After that, I stared at Lia, whose lips were still opening and closing soundlessly.
“Lady Lia, could it be…?”
“Th-then what about you, Cain?”
“Pardon?”
“How did you know Bern was the Empire’s Second Prince?”
If I honestly told her, “Because that’s how it was described in the original story,” she would probably ask what I meant by the original story.
And if I explained the meaning of the original story, she’d likely start treating me like a madman, or someone with a serious mental illness.
Since I absolutely couldn’t let that happen, I thought for a moment, then decided to reuse the excuse I’d already used before.
“How we dig up people’s secrets is a family business secret.”
“……Then mine’s a secret too.”
“A secret?”
“Mm-hm, a secret. You didn’t tell me how you found out either, did you? So I’m keeping mine secret too. It feels unfair if I’m the only one handing over information.”
“……”
She was so right I had nothing to say.
That was how things worked among nobles: give and take was basic common sense. If you wanted to pry into someone else’s secret, it was only fair to reveal one of your own. Maybe it was the same everywhere, but if you took only what you wanted and then slipped away, people would call you shameless.
Still, our Lia—seven years ago, if I asked her anything, she’d answer everything so innocently. Now that she’d grown up, she’d gotten a little harder to read.
I briefly considered whether I should be happy about my lady’s inner growth or sad about it, but Lia turned her head away, her cheeks reddening.
“Th-that settles it, then. No complaints, right, Cain?”
I was very curious how Lia had found out Bern was the Second Prince, but not enough to pry it out of her at the cost of my own secrets.
For my own sake, too, it would be best to end things here. I nodded easily.
“Yes, understood. Then shall we go?”
“Hm? Where?”
“We told Bern we’d stop by the student council room before coming back, so wouldn’t it be better to swing by for a moment, if only to maintain a solid alibi?”
“Well, yes, but I doubt anyone’s there right now. The second- and third-year officers are all busy helping with today’s practical class for the first-years, so they’re probably running around like crazy.”
“If no one’s in that big room, isn’t that even better? We can eat snacks without worrying about prying eyes.”
“……Ah, right? Then should we stay just for a little while?”
“Yes. Let me escort you.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The outline of today’s practical training—the event I had privately dubbed the “Saintess Awakening”—was simple.
Starting from the outdoor training grounds a little ways from Bern Academy’s campus, we were to hunt down as many monsters as possible within a three-kilometer radius, according to our own abilities.
In this case, “monsters” didn’t mean real ones. They were fictional creatures created through illusion magic. Still, because they were modeled after real monsters, their behavior and habits were almost identical to the actual thing. And in the case of some specimens, they even possessed physical substance, allowing them to attack students.
In other words, if you let your guard down just because they were monsters made from illusion magic, you could lose flesh and bleed for real.
Maybe that was why, even though it was a training exercise, the tension was severe. Not only the kids in my class, but even Lia beside me were making a huge fuss about what would happen if they encountered a monster with a physical body.
“Cain, this is weirdly nerve-wracking. Right?”
“Yes, well….”
For me, the tension came less from the monsters themselves and more from everything else. This practical training was important because it would affect the ranking changes later on.
It was unlikely, but if someone managed to exterminate more monsters than Lia and me as a pair and ended up with a higher score, then depending on the written exam results, we might have to give up the positions of top and second place.
Since we were first-years, if we wanted to keep serving as student council officers, we had to hold on to those top two ranks. Something like that couldn’t be allowed to happen.
So even if the other side was just a bunch of kids, I had no intention of holding back. I would go all out from the start and crush them into an overwhelming first place.
“All right, it looks like everyone’s paired up, so I’ll announce it once more. The monster extermination battle for today’s practical training will begin in five minutes and last for two hours! It starts at 10:00 a.m. and ends the moment it reaches 12:00. For reference, even if you exterminate monsters after 12:00, they won’t count toward your score, so keep that in mind.”
The instructor in charge of this practical training, Hugo, whose sharply angled eyebrows left a strong impression, spoke up.
“I have a question, Instructor.”
“Go ahead. What is it?”
“If the monsters exterminated aren’t one individual but multiple, how are the points calculated?”
Bern raised a hand and asked.
Hugo stroked his thickly furred chin with his right hand.
“Good question. As Bern pointed out, monsters that move in packs are worth more points than those that act alone. But in the end, your final score is assigned in proportion to the difficulty of exterminating the monster, so if you want a high score, it would be more advantageous to hunt strong individuals, regardless of how many there are.”
Hugo looked at Bern as if to say, There. Satisfied?
Bern nodded.
“Yes, thank you. So to put it simply, you’re telling us not to try any cheap tricks.”
“Hm, you have an excellent talent for summarizing a long explanation in a short one.”
At Hugo’s half-joking remark, snickers rippled through the area.
Hugo clapped his hands loudly, the sound like the lid of a cauldron, and drew everyone’s attention.
“All right, two minutes left. Everyone, move to your assigned positions!”
—Positions!
We crossed the starting line and checked our equipment.
Sword, check.
Emergency communication artifact, check.
Lia wasn’t exactly equipment, but she was right there stuck to my side anyway.
“One minute until start. Get ready!”
“Lady Lia.”
“Mm? What is it?”
“Do you remember what I told you earlier in the student council room?”
“Mm… oh, the part where you said the apple pie was sweet because it resembled you?”
“……When did I ever say that?”
This woman was brazenly fabricating things right to my face.
“Not that. I mean the strategy for taking first place in this training session. Surely you haven’t forgotten already?”
“Ah, come on. It was just a joke—why so serious? Of course I remember. You said we should run straight to that cave far away as soon as the training began, right?”
Lia muttered under her breath, then gestured toward the mouth of the cave about two kilometers away.
“Yes, that’s right. By my estimation, they probably placed a strong monster in that cave.”
“I think so too. I can feel a strong flow of mana from inside.”
Just as in the original story, and as Lia herself had confirmed through her ability to sense mana, the strongest monster in this training session—the Rock Golem—was deep inside that cave.
According to the original description, the entire body of the rock golem was made of stone, and the hardness of its surface far, far exceeded ordinary rock.
So for a first-year student who had only just entered the academy, it was absolutely impossible to defeat. In other words, think of it as the thirtieth problem on the mathematics section of the college entrance exam.
“Thirty seconds left!”
For us, though, the story was a little different.
For the instructors, it was probably just a killer question they’d thrown in to make sure no one got full marks.
But with my swordsmanship and Lia’s support, it was more than manageable.
I glanced at the instructor counting down and took Lia’s hand.
“Lady Lia, the moment we start, I’m going to run, so you absolutely must not let go of my hand. Understand?”
“Mm, got it. I’ll hold on tight and follow you.”
“Five, four, three, two, one. —Start!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Five minutes after the practical training began.
Hugo, who was watching the combat scenes of the top-ranked and second-ranked pair in real time through the monitoring artifacts placed throughout the outdoor training grounds, let out a low groan.
……Hah.
The moment the training began, they ran straight into the cave, which was practically a trap, and every illusion-made monster they encountered was cut down in a single stroke.
With no exchange of blows, no probing movements, nothing but an immediate strike aimed directly at the weak point, the swordsmanship was stripped of all unnecessary motion.
Watching Cain’s sword path as he cleanly severed the middle head of a hellhound—an opponent he’d judged too difficult for freshly enrolled first-years to handle—Hugo found himself letting out an involuntary exclamation.
“Heh….”
Although the monsters in this area were fake, created by illusion magic, the toughness of their bodies was comparable to real monsters. Which meant there was no way you could casually cut off their necks as though slicing through water with a sword.
[Lia, enhancement magic!]
[Yes, got it!]
Cain Reinhardt was making it happen in reality. And he was doing it with such grace that anyone watching would find the swordsmanship almost beautiful.
If you covered his face, showed only his sword skill, and then said, “This is a first-year student at Bern Academy,” no one would believe it.
Even taking into account that he had the support magic of Lia, the first-year top student and his pair partner, Cain’s swordsmanship had already surpassed the average level of first-year students by a ridiculous margin.
“Hah, what the hell is this…?”
“Instructor Hugo, are you sick? Why do you keep making weird noises?”
As Hugo stood there, awed speechless by a combat display that was impossible to believe belonged to a student who had only just turned seventeen, a woman with flowing blond hair approached him.
Her name was Lacey. Unlike Hugo, she was in charge of the second years, but on days when practical training was held, they needed a lot of manpower, so the distinction between assigned years blurred.
“Ah, Instructor Lacey, perfect timing. Would you look at this with me?”
“What is it? Did you find something interesting?”
Lacey sat down beside Hugo.
She cast a casual look at the monitoring artifact’s display, watching Cain and Lia’s performance for about five seconds.
“……Huh? W-what is this? Instructor Hugo! What’s going on here?!”
Before she knew it, she’d let out a dazed cry and grabbed Hugo by the shoulder, shaking him.
Hugo caught her wrist, lowered her hand, and chuckled.
“What do you think? Incredible, isn’t it? That’s the swordsmanship of this year’s second-place first-year.”
“Wait, second place? Then the first-place first-year is even stronger than this guy?”
“Well. I can’t say for certain yet. But if we look only at the entrance exam results, the practical portion favored second place, while the written portion favored first place.”
“Ah, so the top student is the brains and second place is the muscle?”
“No, that’s only when comparing the top two students to each other.”
“Oh, so that means…?”
At Lacey’s question, Hugo rubbed his dark stubble.
“Compared to the students ranked third and below, those two are on a completely different level.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Thirty minutes into the training.
Cutting down every monster in sight as we advanced, we were finally nearing the end of the cave. If we passed through this dark tunnel and entered the space beyond the wall where a faint light was leaking through, we’d finally see the rock golem, the cave’s master.
“Phew.”
Still, maybe because we’d been moving so much in such a short span of time, sweat was dripping down from beneath my chin even after receiving Lia’s enhancement magic. I raised the back of my hand to wipe it away.
Then, suddenly, Lia grabbed my wrist. When I looked at her, she shook her head and used her handkerchief to wipe away my sweat for me.
“Ah, I’m fine. This much happens all the time….”
“No. If you use your hand, your face will get dirty. Stay still.”
Lia firmly stopped me, gently wiping my chin, cheeks, and forehead. Then she folded the handkerchief stained with sweat neatly and put it into her own pocket.
“Thank you. But could you give me that handkerchief? I’ll wash it clean and return it to you.”
“Mm-mm, no. This handkerchief is expensive, so you can’t just wash it any old way. It has to go to a specialist.”
“Ah, is that so….”
There were specialists just for washing handkerchiefs? I blinked and muttered the thought aloud, and Lia looked up at me, then smiled softly.
“Cain, do you know something? Sometimes, when I look at you, you don’t seem like you’re seventeen.”
“Yes, well. I do sometimes get told I seem like an old soul. My elder brother and my teacher both said that too.”
“No, I don’t mean you seem like an old soul. I mean you look younger. Not always, just sometimes. Around fourteen, thirteen… maybe like that.”
“……When, exactly?”
“Mm, well, like just now?”
I was about to ask in detail what, exactly, “just now” meant when—
—Kugugung!
The ground suddenly shook. No, the entire area shook. Dust and dirt rained down from the cave ceiling overhead, showering the space where Lia and I stood.
Moving almost on instinct, I wrapped an arm around Lia’s waist and sprang backward. Because my reaction had been so fast, neither Lia nor I was injured. But this was no time to calmly exchange pleasantries.
—Thud, thud, thud!
“Lady Lia.”
“Mm, Cain.”
The instant Lia answered, a thunderous roar split the heavens and the earth.
Then the cave wall before us split apart to both sides and collapsed like soft limestone, and there it was at last—the thirtieth problem on the college entrance exam that Lia and I had longed for.
“It’s here.”
—Thud, thud, crash!
—Kugugugugung!
—GROOOOOOOOAAAAAH!
In other words, the rock golem, the monster that would bring us our perfect score, appeared by literally tearing the cave apart.