Surviving Knight Academy (1)
I cut him down….
I had cut him down.
There was no taking it back now.
I had stopped the massacre that was supposed to unfold on this train, and in doing so I had twisted the original story completely out of shape.
I pressed a hand to my chest.
Given the situation, my heart should have been thrashing wildly — yet its beat remained perfectly steady, almost unnervingly calm.
So my unique ability affects my emotions too, huh.
I set the question aside.
My gaze drifted back to the severed head of the demon Orankel.
Confusion still filled his face. His mouth worked as if trying to speak, but with no throat left, no sound came out.
Then, with a soft hiss, the demon Orankel crumbled into purple mana ash and evaporated.
That was how demons always met their end.
And then — ding.
A notification window appeared.
My eyes went wide.
Right — this was it. I'd built my whole strategy around this.
Even with the unique ability Soul of the Swordmaster, clearing the story in the weakest body imaginable should have been impossible.
The only reason my build had any shot at all was this special achievement.
In the original game, you unlocked it late and used it as a final-stretch boost. But with my route, I could snag it right from the start and crack open my growth potential early.
A series of booms and crashes thundered outside. Mana-charged attacks were still raining down on the wolf monsters in a relentless barrage.
That defensive battle was only meant to shape the relationships between the protagonist and the main cast — and it would end without a single casualty.
Sure, if I pitched in, it would wrap up even faster… but no.
Not a chance. Not unless I have a death wish.
If I flaunted this conditional power in front of everyone, the enemy faction Orankel had belonged to would come hunting for me without a doubt.
I swept the area with razor-honed senses. No one was looking my way.
I quietly lowered myself against the train wall and peered through the window. The students' eyes were all fixed on the wolf monsters outside the opposite side.
I slipped back inside through the window with ninja-like speed and returned to the exact spot where I'd been hiding before.
In my normal body, I almost certainly would have been caught. But my flesh and mana were still operating at the level of a Swordmaster, so it felt almost trivial.
The joint efforts of the knights and the academy students brought the train defense to a clean close.
Afterward, the knights pushed into the dungeon itself and cleared it all the way through the boss.
Faster than I expected.
It had gone the same way in Elwi, though. This dungeon was never much of a challenge for actual knights.
Defeating the boss yielded a key that could open an exit gate.
"Boss eliminated. We've secured the exit gate key as well."
"Good. Let's get out of here."
"Where should we open the exit?"
"Same place we came in."
A knight stood before the train and turned a key glowing with a soft green light in the empty air.
With a rush of light, a massive green gate formed dead ahead.
"Finally, we can leave this miserable place…."
"Will you be all right, Instructor Rachel? We'll need to move the train."
"I'll manage. I conserved plenty of mana while resting. I can get us as far as the tracks."
A vast wave of telekinetic force enveloped the train. It lifted into the air and glided smoothly through the green gate.
After passing through a tunnel of unknown green mana-light, the train settled back onto the very rails where it had first entered the dungeon.
With painstaking care — cold sweat beading on her brow — Instructor Rachel lowered the train onto the tracks. The moment the wheels fully seated against the rails, she released her telekinesis and let out a long breath of relief.
Dizzy, she pressed a hand to her forehead and sank into a seat.
Fair enough. Settling a train this size precisely onto the rails couldn't have been easy.
She's incredible. …Huh?
While I was still quietly impressed, the mana that had been flooding my body suddenly vanished.
Unique ability's worn off.
Was the human body always this heavy?
The reverse whiplash was no joke.
"Ah… ugh. Hrk…."
Maybe it was because the Swordmaster state had lifted. Every stray thought I'd been holding back came surging up at once, hammering against my chest.
My eyes squeezed shut on their own. Something was screaming inside my skull.
Hey! You completely wrecked the story! What now, Ron?!
Hey! The enemies are going to lose their minds trying to kill you! What now, Ron?!
What am I supposed to do about it….
I hadn't had a choice.
Even so — no matter how much I tried to rationalize that my actions had been the best possible call — the anxiety refused to settle.
And she must have noticed that the demon died, too.
There was exactly one person on this train who could sense Magi: a dark mage. Evading her detection was impossible.
The demon had come here because of her in the first place.
I'd have to wait and see what she decided to do.
There was definitely a demon here….
The train was rolling along the tracks once more.
The passengers had relaxed, each of them chattering about the dungeon they'd just escaped.
Meanwhile, one girl sat with her head bowed low, fidgeting as she pressed her fingertips together.
Long, deep-violet hair cascaded down her back in soft waves, pinned with a skull-shaped hair clip. Her bangs covered her right eye; the left one, fully visible, trembled.
She was Violet — a first-year at the Griffin Knight Academy.
A dangerous demon came looking for me… I'm sure of it.
When they'd entered the dungeon earlier, the demon had projected its voice directly into Violet's mind through magic.
I've… come… for you…
The voice had been chilling. Violet had felt genuine fear.
Demons are said to favor dark mages….
She was a dark mage.
She'd read in a dark grimoire that demons loved the mana of dark mages.
So even as she shook with terror, Violet had drawn up her mana and steeled herself for a fight.
But then…
Someone killed it. And that person is on this train right now.
The demon's Magi had evaporated in an instant. She could tell easily enough that it was dead.
Who had done it?
If they'd fled into the barren dungeon outside the train, someone would have spotted them. If they'd left any traces, the knights who'd surveyed the area afterward would have found them.
Which meant the unknown powerhouse had to still be aboard the train. That was Violet's conclusion.
I can't even report this… People would find out I can sense Magi….
Her fidgeting fingers moved faster.
— Violet. You must never tell anyone that you can sense Magi. The world isn't ready to accept someone like that. Do you understand?
— Yes, Mother….
Her mother's warning from childhood flickered through Violet's mind.
The ability to sense Magi was considered a cursed gift. Those who possessed it were treated as demons, heretics, or witches.
And for good reason — historically, no one who wasn't one of those things had ever been able to sense Magi. Even if exceptions had existed, they would already have vanished as dew on the executioner's block.
What kind of person are they? Someone who protected the people on this train doesn't seem like a bad person… No. Am I just rationalizing whatever's convenient for me…?
One worry led to another.
Risking the exposure of her secret just to report this felt like going too far.
But ignoring the existence of a hidden powerhouse whose motives she couldn't read — when she was the only one who knew — sat wrong with her conscience.
Besides, whether they'd meant to or not, this person had saved her. If they were a good person, she ought to repay the debt.
And so Violet arrived at a new conclusion.
I'll find out for myself. What kind of person they are.
Her trembling eyes suddenly filled with resolve.
The train incident was reported to the Griffin Knight Academy, and the entrance ceremony was postponed.
No one had been seriously hurt. For apprentice knights, a train rolling over once wasn't enough to cause major injuries — if anything, it would have been harder to get badly hurt.
The students caught up in the incident each received a checkup at the infirmary.
I got a clean bill of health and made my way to the dormitory.
"Oh, holy…."
It was a modest private room, but to me it looked impossibly clean and luxurious.
I flopped onto the bed.
Since being reborn in this world, I had never experienced a mattress this soft.
Ahhh. I could cry….
Memories of sleeping on stable straw just to save every last coin came flooding back.
I'd made it! I was at the knight academy! I was an apprentice knight now!
…This wasn't the time for pure, uncomplicated joy.
What do I do now….
Maybe it was because my thoughts had been so cleanly sorted while I was in Swordmaster mode, but the chaos had already settled. I could think about the future with a clear head.
Hard difficulty in For Elise. The third playthrough's story.
That miserable, soul-crushing plot — designed to drown the protagonist in helplessness and despair — marched cheerfully toward the destruction of the world.
Even the normal endings had the protagonist resigning himself to the apocalypse and living a quiet life in the ruins, or looping back to the past with a cheerful "Our adventure starts now!"
The bad endings, needless to say, ended with the world in pieces.
There's no way I'd survive any of those.
In the end, the only option was the true ending.
The one where the protagonist's party saves the world, and the protagonist graduates from the knight academy in one piece.
Play like a veteran — minimize casualties, block every bad-ending trigger — and you could reach it.
Which meant…
I'll have to support the protagonist.
I had an ability that turned me into a Swordmaster under the right conditions, and events were already unfolding according to the build I'd planned.
The satisfying feel of cutting down that demon came back to me, and confidence swelled in my chest.
Yeah. This was doable.
Hey, protagonist! I've got your back, you bastard.
Just trust me!
"Cadet Number Seventeen, Ron Hazley! At that pace, do you really think you'll become a knight who protects the Empire?!"
"Hah… hah… hahh…!"
"Run faster! Keep that speed up and expulsion is guaranteed!"
As I pounded through a long-distance run at full tilt alongside my classmates, one thought filled my head.
Aaaagh…! I'm gonna die…!
Can I really pull this off…?