Subjugation Test (2)
In Instructor Rachel's mind, Ron's evaluation shot upward.
The insight to pinpoint where a golem's core was hidden certainly deserved high marks. Still, that alone wasn't enough to rule out plain luck.
But what he had just shown was different.
The instructors' experience and eyes were not so dull that they would fail to recognize a clear fragment of talent.
Even so.
Well then. What now, Ron Hazley?
He had only scraped past the immediate crisis. The match wasn't over.
The golem had merely toppled for a moment — it was otherwise unharmed.
What would he show next? How would he overcome this obstacle?
Just as Instructor Rachel waited with anticipation, and just as the fallen golem began to push itself upright—
"Now."
Thud-thud-thud!
Ron bolted at full speed.
It was a lightning-fast sprint.
"……."
"……."
Silence settled over the instructors.
Then Instructor Logan barked out a hollow laugh — "Hah!" — while Instructor Rachel—
"Pfft — pffhahaha…! Ah, you've got to be kidding me…!"
—laughed until her stomach hurt.
Elise Lorendia wore her usual magenta hair in a half-up style, but for combat she tied it into a ponytail.
With a sunshine-bright smile on her face and not a hint of fatigue, she swung her blade again and again, and every time she did, a savage wind of flower petals and sword strikes slaughtered the golems.
She had already cut down more than enough of them, and the test was winding toward its end — yet Elise's feet never stopped.
I still haven't run into that golem they said was so strong.
She wanted to face the specimen that had been singled out as especially powerful in this test.
So she spread a magical flower-wind through the area, searching her surroundings.
Then she sensed a golem that looked stronger than any she had felled so far.
Found y—!
Elise sprinted toward it, and—
KAAANG!
—she saw him.
"Huh?"
The light-brown-haired weakest student. Ron Hazley.
He was channeling mana through his sword, letting a golem's blade slide off and bounce away.
Light Wing Sword — Opening Wing.
It was clumsy compared to the demonstration the instructor had given, but Ron had unmistakably pulled it off.
How… did he do that…?
It was a technique she herself still couldn't manage.
Among first-years barely a month into enrollment, no one should have been able to execute that move already… right?
Elise's eyes narrowed.
She knew who Ron was. Dead last on the entrance exam. Dead last in mana capacity. The one who had barely scraped past expulsion by sheer luck in the previous test.
A top student, maybe — but for someone like him to display that high-level swordsmanship created the most jarring disconnect imaginable.
Without meaning to, Elise stopped in her tracks.
Had that student, Ron, been hiding his true skill all along?
Curiosity sparked, and she watched to see what he would do next.
Thud-thud-thud!
"……?"
Ron… fled at full speed.
She wondered if he was ducking somewhere to set up an ambush, but Elise's flower-wind magic told her he was simply running for his life.
What is with that guy?
Bewilderment cracked into a dry laugh.
Kuuung.
The toppled golem heaved its massive body upright with difficulty.
For now…
She decided to set aside her questions about Ron.
One thing was certain: he had given up on fighting that golem.
Elise narrowed her eyes into a sultry slit, smiled sweetly, and began to walk forward at a leisurely pace.
Whooooosh!!
Shaaaaa!!
From Elise's blade, a wind of mana-petals unfurled and scattered. The golem's gaze swung toward her.
"Ron Hazley. If you're not going to eat it…"
Then I'll savor it myself.
"I will now call the numbers of students who failed to meet the minimum standard! Those whose numbers are called will be processed for expulsion in the near future!"
Among the numbers of impending expellees that Instructor Logan rattled off, my number — seventeen — was not included.
I'm alive…!
After running from the C-rank golem, I had managed to find one remaining golem and take it down.
Thanks to that, I filled my quota of ten. I had scraped past expulsion by a hair.
I was sitting and catching my breath, flooded with fierce relief, when—
"Thank goodness…"
"Hm?"
A familiar voice made me turn my head.
Deep violet hair cascading like waves, a skull-shaped hairpin, one side of her bangs covering one eye — a female student.
Violet came into view.
The moment our eyes met, Violet gasped — "Hup." — and looked away in embarrassment.
I had already noticed the deeply relieved expression she'd been wearing while looking my way just a second ago.
Was she happy I didn't flunk out?
This sweet kid.
She'd already grown attached to me. I was touched.
"Violet!"
"Hup!? H-Hazley…!?"
How could I pretend not to notice when she cared this much?
I beamed and walked straight over, dropping into the seat beside her.
Violet tensed the knees she'd been hugging with awkward force. She fidgeted, fingertips pressed together.
Her eyes darted every which way, unable to settle.
"Man, that was filthy hard…. You did great."
"Y-yes…. You worked hard too, Hazley. Ehehe."
But she didn't place in the top ten, huh? Same with Turak.
The two people I'd built a connection with so far.
Violet the necromancer and Turak the barbarian were both incredibly strong, yet neither had posted excellent results.
I could chalk the barbarian up to intelligence issues, but why Violet? I wasn't sure.
"Haa…."
Violet kept her eyes lowered, but the corners of her mouth were turned up.
She was rocking her body ever so slightly forward and back — she looked genuinely happy.
Well… in Elwi, she'd been a total outsider without a single friend.
Maybe just having someone she was even a little close with, and having him sit beside her, was enough to make her glad.
…Hm?
Then I felt another gaze.
More precisely, someone's face flickered at the edge of my vision, glancing my way.
I turned my head and saw a female student with magenta hair.
Elise Lorendia.
The protagonist of For Elise, and the top scorer on the entrance exam.
Even while chatting with her petite friend Lara, Elise had been quietly watching me, and when our eyes met—
"Hmm?"
—far from looking away, she narrowed her eyes into thin slits and sent me a blatantly inquisitive stare.
The corners of her mouth curved up ever so slightly, as if she were openly asking, I'm curious about you — so what do you think about that?
It was the expression Elise often wore in Elwi whenever she suspected someone or wanted to size them up.
So she did see it after all.
When I fled from the C-rank golem, I'd spotted that flower-wind magic.
Meaning Elise had almost certainly witnessed me using Opening Wing from the Light Wing Sword style.
And afterward, she would have finished off that strong golem I'd given up on fighting.
The dead-last student used a technique that even she, the top student, couldn't pull off yet? If I'd been Elise, I'd have the same questions.
Suspicion at that level… well, it shouldn't matter much.
I hadn't been in Swordmaster mode, and the technique had been incomplete anyway.
Something like that wouldn't be enough to dig out the truth — that I was the one helping Elise from behind the scenes.
So what was the natural reaction here?
Swoosh.
I whipped my head away as if our eyes had met by pure chance.
Nice. That looked natural.
"That concludes the subjugation test! Well done, everyone! Rest up thoroughly for tomorrow!"
And so I survived.
And maybe it was thanks to all the effort I'd put into this exam.
Your stats have increased.
Physical Grade: 「D-」 → 「D」
Oh.
My stats went up too.
"I looked into Cadet Ron Hazley a bit."
A few days later, in the instructors' lounge at the knight academy.
The red-haired woman in the pointed hat — Rachel — sucked on a lollipop as she spoke to the black-haired man, Logan.
"Snooping around on a student, are we? Even my wife doesn't do that."
"You wanna die? I just checked the academic records, okay? Basic personal info on the cadets is easy enough to pull up."
Logan grinned slyly. He'd clearly been teasing her on purpose.
Rachel narrowed her eyes and glared at him, then turned her head away.
"He's an orphan from the back alleys. Brenvel's back alleys, no less."
"Brenvel…."
"I stopped through there once on a mission. Real charming custom they had — everyone carries a dagger tucked somewhere on them."
Rachel went on.
"The streets were a mess, and you saw lepers and muggers all the time. Sounds like Cadet Ron lived there before joining a mercenary company. Mostly did odd jobs — cleaning, laundry, oiling equipment. Used the money he scraped together to take lessons at some shabby swordsmanship school, somehow awakened his mana along the way…. And that's how he ended up here."
Looking back, the way Ron had performed in both tests made sense now.
Throwing away his pride to find any path to survival. Prioritizing analysis of an opponent's weaknesses. Trying to fight the battle with the highest odds of winning even with his meager strength.
All of it must have been the way of life Ron had lived by.
Rachel shrugged.
"Anyway, the point is — when a kid never had the environment to support him, it's not strange if his talent wakes up late."
That was the core of why she'd brought this up.
"He's worth keeping an eye on. I can't say how far that talent will go, and if he washes out someday, well, that's that."
Carefully assessing the cadets, drawing out their potential, and raising them into steadfast knights who would protect the empire.
That was the role of this knight academy — and the duty of those who served as its instructors.
Originally, Ron had been written off as a weakling who'd be expelled any day, so the instructors had largely ignored him.
But after surviving two rounds of weeding out the chaff and showing glimpses of striking talent….
It was only natural that he would now fall under some of the instructors' attention.
Logan let out a chuckle.
"You've gotten pretty interested, haven't you? In Cadet Seventeen."
"I won't deny it. But you're the same way."
"I've got nothing to hide!"
Rachel shot a sour look at Logan's hearty grin.
Evening, with the sunset light settling low — at one of the outdoor training grounds of the Griffin Knight Academy.
"Again!"
Whoosh!
Klang!
"Argh!"
The magenta-haired female student, Elise Lorendia, was walking with her friend Lara when a sudden scream rang out. She turned her head toward the sound.
The light-brown-haired weakest student, Ron, and the short gray-brown-haired barbarian, Turak, were trading blows with practice swords.
Ron went flying helplessly, but he scrambled right back up and took his stance. His whole body was soaked through with sweat.
"Again."
The barbarian Turak chewed on a strip of jerky as he settled into position as well. He seemed to be helping Ron train.
Elise stared fixedly at Ron for a long moment.
"What's up? You got business with those guys?"
"No, I was just looking. Shall we go?"
Elise answered Lara with a bright little smile.
The two of them started walking toward the dormitory again.
Along the way, Lara snuck a sidelong glance toward Ron.
Elise had always looked upward, always shown her drive to improve.
For someone like her to take an interest in a male student stuck at the very bottom was a thoroughly unfamiliar situation to Lara.
Hm?
Then, the unintended realization that Ron's looks were actually pretty decent hit her, and Lara's eyes narrowed.
No way…
An embarrassingly sappy suspicion began to sprout in Lara's mind.