Settling an Old Conflict

Bang, boom, bang─!

“Artistic.”

Sitting on the railing, savoring the leftover buckwheat bread as popcorn, I looked out at the outside shrouded in black smoke.

Carelessness has brought about trouble.

His downfall could be said to be thinking that I wouldn’t be able to counter his strategy and fall for it, and wandering around trusting only the tracker’s signal without any judgment of his own.

By now, he must be in excruciating pain due to several grenades exploding simultaneously and hitting his ankle directly.

“Eek! Ye-Yena, what’s going on!”

As I was about to go out to check what happened to him, I encountered Erika running over with a half-asleep face.

“I just heard a loud explosion… Th-There’s smoke!”

She was startled by the smoke coming through the window. Her gestures were quite comical as she rubbed her swollen eyes, her face still half-immersed in sleep.

It must have been quite loud indeed.

In the silent night when even gunshots shake the earth, how much more so several grenades?

As evidenced by Erika waking up, who usually sleeps deeply without waking in the middle, at least the cadets in this area must have been greatly surprised by the recent roar.

Thud─!

Then it’s best to check if Wolf has been taken care of as soon as possible.

Normally, no one would come here risking death, but if by chance we encounter an unusual child who likes to satisfy their curiosity, it might become troublesome.

“Ye-Yena, it’s dangerous to go outside now!”

“I’ll be back in a moment. Erika, please pack up our things here.”

“But…”

“I made that explosion. I’d like to explain the situation here, but it’s urgent. Please understand for a moment, okay?”

I came down from the window sill, and sincerely asked Erika, who was holding onto the end of my coat and not letting go,

“Can I come with you…?”

“This is something I need to resolve alone. Friends trust each other, right? I won’t disappoint you, Erika.”

“…Don’t get hurt, okay?”

“Okay.”

Thud, rustle!

I headed towards the abandoned house now covered in black scorch marks and mounds of dirt scattered in all directions from the explosion.

It’s even more spectacular up close.

The concrete, rumored to be solid, was partially damaged, so I could gauge the power. It made me wonder if Wolf had survived.

“Cough, cough!”

But when you have such doubts, they always come back as unexpected events,

“Ugh, urgh. You bastard…”

“You’re alive?”

I frowned one eyebrow as I looked down at Wolf crawling out of the darkness without fainting.

Is this the limit of training equipment?

If we had met on the battlefield, he should have died instantly with his internal organs and muscles exposed. But this is a training ground established for the purpose of verifying the abilities of cadets.

Just like the simulation bullets we’ve been using all along, the grenades are also ‘for stunning’ rather than ‘for killing’.

Still, it’s strange that his mind is intact. Shouldn’t he have been injured? Even if it was made for non-lethal purposes, he was hit at close range.

“Kuhehe, did you think I’d end here?”

“…”

“I don’t know what tricks you used to figure out the tracker, but nothing changes. Anyway, you’re going to”

Crack, crackle!

“die here.”

Wolf shook off the ashes piled on his head, cracked his neck left and right, and approached.

At a glance, he looked perfectly fine without a single wound. No, rather, compared to his level during the previous duel, an even more intense pressure flowed out.

“You.”

Although it’s for training, he’s fine after an explosion that woke up the whole area, and an unsuitable dignity flows from him?

There was only one thing this could mean.

“You removed the suppression device, didn’t you?”

“…”

Thud─

I was sure when I saw him pause as he approached triumphantly.

Assuming he neutralized the mana suppression function built into the protective gear, it explained why an abnormal energy flowed from around him and why he was fine after an unimaginable explosion.

He must have drawn out his mana. He enhanced his physical abilities. That’s why he doesn’t even get a scratch from training weapons.

“You’ll surely be expelled if caught, so why do such a reckless thing?”

However, this is clearly a violation of school rules at the military academy, and a serious crime that can lead to expulsion and trial.

“Just because of me?”

I looked at Wolf standing blankly with a questioning gaze.

If so, he was foolish to the point of stupidity. Ah, or maybe he did such actions because he was stupid from the beginning.

“Haha… just because of you?”

He kept his mouth shut for a moment, then raised his lowered head and spoke in a trembling voice.

“A commoner bastard like you wouldn’t understand.”

“…”

“The feeling of having noble honor tarnished. And the humiliation of a tower built over years crumbling because of one commoner.”

Click─!

“Whew, don’t try to understand. Just as oil and water can’t mix, you and I are beings that can’t comprehend each other.”

He grabbed the fallen gun with the stock forward, tilted his head to the left, and smiled.

“Heh, the security at the military academy was more lax than I thought. Don’t worry about being detected, everything will be resolved if you just die here.”

“…”

“I’ll be able to spend happy times alone with Rina again, and control the candidates without any problems. If only you disappear from this world, I’ll be happy!”

Wolf really intended to kill me. Not just a figurative expression, but he seriously planned to ‘murder’ me here.

“Pfuhu, I wanted to see that expression!”

As I frowned with one side of my lip curled up and stared at him like looking at a bug with wrinkles in my cheeks, Wolf expressed even more joy and approached with big strides.

He’s completely insane.

Just because of noble pride, he plotted such a conspiracy out of an inferiority complex that he’s lacking compared to me…

“How stupid.”

“What?”

It was arrogant and ridiculous. Setting aside the delusion that he could succeed, he proved that those who can’t overcome their own anger don’t succeed.

Despite becoming a proper candidate, his past tendency to remain in the upper class came back as a boomerang.

He was an inferior guy compared to Rina.

“What did you just say…”

“If you’re going to kill me, do it quickly, don’t just stretch out your words.”

Then I have no reason to go easy on him either.

“Ha! I’ll make you beg for your life.”

Once he showed direct killing intent towards me, he was no longer a student of Astrakhan Military Academy. Just an enemy to be taken down.

Bang──!

I wonder how much he prepared. I smiled gently as I watched Wolf running towards me with his body full of mana.

---

“Here’s the signal device. If there’s an emergency situation, you can press this button. The cadets’ locations will be transmitted to the panel by identifying their unique mana…”

Near the entrance of the individual duel training ground, Gartel prepared to enter the city while equipping the gear handed over by the Imperial officer one by one.

“You can use the passage used by the agents handling dropouts. Still, if cadets mistakenly fire…”

“Thank you for the advice, but I think I can handle that much on my own. When I arrest Wolf, I’ll notify you immediately, so please inform Commander Lustet.”

“Ye-Yes! Understood.”

It was unprecedented for an instructor who hadn’t received prior permission to intervene in the training, but given the nature of the situation, he’s starting the mission after getting permission from the research director.

‘Even the director was interested in Yena, thanks to that it didn’t take long.’

Serti Gottraf, was it? Gartel recalled the memory of meeting the director when he visited with Lustet.

‘He was very favorable, saying we should punish the manager immediately, that he would provide full support, and so on.’

Even though he’s from the Federation. In the end, doesn’t that mean that man also treats Yena as an important cadet?

“Heh heh.”

As an instructor, and while needing his permission, it’s welcome news, but on the other hand, it felt like a treasure he alone knew was being shown to others, making his stomach hurt.

‘Well, this must have been the treatment Yena rightfully deserved.’

Click, clatter─!

Gartel finished putting on protective gear in case of any unforeseen situations, and checked his movement by lifting both legs.

“It’s fine.”

“That’s good.”

There were no issues. All functions were working normally.

Zzzzing─!

Even the ‘restraints for awakened ones’ that consume the caster’s mana to bind the opponent while neutralizing their abilities worked without problems. This should be enough to catch Wolf.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Yes, good luck!”

He patted the officer’s shoulder, then without delay, dashed into the ruined city.

‘Please be safe.’

While looking at the device in his hand where two blinking lights were stuck together as if Yena Freud and Wolf von Stremann had met each other.

Beep, beep, beep──!