Ch.113Summer Vacation Preparations (5)

# Academy Outskirts, Wide Field

Ruide walked forward to stand before the well-organized group of gathered students.

‘This is burdensome.’

Irene, as well as Amelia and Charlotte, were in attendance as observers.

Ruide already felt sick to his stomach.

‘Let’s finish quickly and go to sleep.’

With only that thought in mind, he opened his mouth.

“When vacation starts, we’ll be dispatched to the First Defense Line. Since there’s not much time left, let’s focus on coordinating with the Swordsmanship Club rather than improving individual skills.”

The plan Ella had prepared was already in his head.

There were less than two weeks left until vacation, but still.

It was so perfect that his first thought upon seeing it was, “Oh, this could work.”

“First of all…”

Just as Ruide was about to explain what they needed to do first.

“I don’t think this is right.”

Catherine stood up from her seat.

‘Here we go again! The rebellious nature of commoners.’

But had Catherine grown as well?

Rather than making unreasonable demands like before, she appealed to logic.

“Professor Ruide forced us to take this class. You didn’t give the students any choice. In this situation, I don’t think we’ll cooperate with the class willingly.”

“I admit I was a bit rough.”

Ruide replied calmly.

“But Catherine, you’re overlooking something. My class is a major course.”

The Imperial Academy’s curriculum was similar to that of a modern university.

There were classes that everyone had to take.

Of course, Catherine wouldn’t accept this.

“T-that’s absurd. How can a major course suddenly appear two weeks before vacation?”

“Nowhere in the Academy regulations does it say you can’t establish a major course two weeks before vacation.”

“…!”

Even Ruide would face significant opposition if he went against the ‘will of the First Emperor.’

But conversely, as long as he didn’t violate the First Emperor’s will, he could do almost anything.

“So, I’ll be teaching you for two weeks, and you’ll take the exam during vacation. No problem with that, right?”

“Excuse me!”

Hannah raised her hand.

Ruide nodded.

Hannah stood up and spoke.

“If it’s a required course as you say, I think it’s discrimination to give this opportunity to only a select few.”

“Hey, why don’t you stop?”

One of the nobles clicked his tongue and spoke.

His voice was filled with deep contempt.

“Commoner. Can’t you see what a great opportunity this is?”

“If it’s such a great opportunity, everyone should—”

“W-wait a moment…”

Ruide was fidgeting uncomfortably.

It was because of Irene, who was smiling behind him.

“I think it would be better to stop…”

Ruide glanced nervously at Irene, breaking into a cold sweat.

“This is why I can’t associate with commoners!”

“That was a discriminatory remark! I’ll report this to the Chancellor!”

But his words fell on deaf ears as they had already escalated into a heated emotional argument.

“I think I understand now.”

Irene slowly walked forward.

She stood in front of Hannah, who was arguing with veins popping on her forehead.

“…You are.”

“The Academy hasn’t changed.”

Irene’s upturned lips gradually turned downward.

“Still, disgusting.”

“…!”

Irene punched Hannah in the stomach.

“Kuhk!”

As Hannah collapsed clutching her stomach,

Catherine shouted in surprise.

“W-what is this…!”

Irene delivered a roundhouse kick to Catherine’s side.

Crash!

Catherine’s barrier shattered cleanly as she went flying.

Ruide barely caught her with magic.

“Catherine!”

Justin’s eyes widened as he tried to stand up, but Irene was already in front of him.

Irene grabbed Justin by the collar and slammed him to the ground.

Kwang!

A crater formed in the ground with a thunderous sound.

Irene stood up, quietly smiling.

There wasn’t even a small wrinkle on her clothes.

The students stared blankly.

Irene spoke to Ruide.

“Now, it seems these children have developed the proper mindset to listen. Please continue.”

“……”

Ruide sighed.

Indeed, she wasn’t an Academy dropout for nothing.

If Damon was spicy flavor…

Irene was volcano flavor.

“Um, Professor.”

Isabella swallowed hard and asked.

“Who is this person…?”

“…Sorry for the late introduction. This is Irene Windsor, heir to the Windsor Duchy. She’s my older sister and the instructor who will help with the training.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Irene placed her hand on her chest and bowed her head very slightly.

“W-wow.”

The students applauded, somewhat forcibly.

Ruide, having anticipated this situation, spoke to Lydia whom he had called in advance.

“Lydia. Some healing, please.”

Lydia nodded and gazed intently at the unconscious students.

White light flowed toward them, and they gradually regained consciousness.

Those who came to their senses were about to protest but turned to stone upon seeing Irene’s face.

‘Well, thanks to Sister Irene, they’ll listen to me now.’

Ruide continued with the class.

“First, we’ll form teams. This composition won’t change unless absolutely necessary, and it will remain valid at the First Defense Line, so choose carefully.”

Ella distributed papers with the number of people written on them.

“The composition is a typical formation. Two Littons, two Knights, and one Pure.”

Littons were like battle mages, mixing combat techniques and magic.

Pures were literally pure mages.

Usually, there were more Littons and fewer Pures. But it was impossible to say which was superior.

Littons had shorter incantations and better physical abilities, allowing them to fight longer, while Pures had stronger pure attack power but very long incantations and could only use magic a few times a day.

Typically, Knights took the front, Littons the middle, and Pures the rear.

Representative Littons included Hersy, Catherine, and Justin.

As for Pures, there was Damon, but…

‘That’s the setting, but in reality, he seems closer to a Litton.’

These days, he tended to move around directly using a spear.

For reference, Ruide was the purest of Pures. He hated moving more than anything in the world.

The students checked the groups written on the papers.

Ruide was observing the students when his gaze stopped at Irina.

He had assigned her to Justin’s group.

He deliberately grouped the main characters from the original work together.

Ruide secretly named this group the “Original Fam.”

They were naturally under special surveillance.

Just then, his eyes met Irina’s.

“Rui…”

Irina was about to speak casually as usual but changed her words, sensing it wasn’t the right atmosphere.

“Professor Ruide. I’m the only Knight in our group. Is that okay?”

“The ratios aren’t perfect, so we had to pull from other positions. Justin will fight from the Knight position.”

‘So I’ll get to see Justin’s abilities too.’

He didn’t know how Justin fought now because he had never been interested.

What was certain was that Justin’s true value emerged when fighting in close combat.

He might be called a mage, but he actually felt more like a knight.

Once everyone seemed to have checked their groups, Ruide spoke.

“We had a bit of a disturbance, so we’re behind schedule. Let’s get started. First, I’ll tell you the most important thing. The name of this lecture is…”

‘I really hate this.’

Ruide already felt tired thinking about what he had to do.

His eyes met Irene’s.

She was smiling brightly.

Not just raising the corners of her mouth as usual, but a genuine smile.

‘Does she enjoy tormenting her brother? What a bad taste.’

“Training Like Real Combat.”

“Real combat…?”

The students’ eyes widened.

“Yes. There’s nothing better than real combat when it comes to learning how to fight.”

Ella’s training curriculum, Lesson 1.

Real combat.

There was no faster way to learn than by getting hit.

Ruide agreed. That’s why he had initially thought of using “Miho” as the opponent for the students to fight.

…After all, a talking fox was the closest thing to a magical beast.

But Irene had stepped in.

-Rui should do it himself.

Of course, Ruide had refused, but…

-If you keep ignoring your sister’s opinion, I’ll kidnap you and lock you up in Windsor Castle.

He had no choice but to accept.

“Group 7, step forward. And everyone else, sit where you can watch comfortably.”

The students moved at Ruide’s words.

Group 7, led by Justin, came forward.

Justin, Catherine, Irina, Sophia, and Hannah.

‘So Sophia was the Pure there.’

Ruide yawned and rubbed his eyes.

“Human-type magical beasts are called Mains. They’re the representative magical beasts of the North.”

The difficulty of the defense line was determined by the level of Mains.

The periodic invasions of magical beasts were because of these Mains.

Mains had the ability to control magical beasts. This allowed them to make magical beasts that normally don’t live in groups attack collectively.

“There are mainly two types of Mains: those with self-awareness and those without. The Mains at the First Defense Line don’t have self-awareness, so you can rest easy.”

The difficulty also varied depending on whether they had weapons or not, and the intellectual level of self-aware Mains, but he decided not to explain that far.

“The magical beasts that Mains without self-awareness can control are weak. So, if you can handle these Mains, it means you can handle all the magical beasts at the First Defense Line.”

This was another characteristic of Mains. They could only control magical beasts weaker than themselves.

“From now on, you’ll fight against me. I’ll adjust my balance to match a Main from the First Defense Line. If you can make my barrier appear by any means, it’s your victory.”

“Yes.”

“Under…stood.”

Ruide had three layers of barriers overlapping his body.

The first layer was 1cm from his body.

The second layer was on his body itself.

The third layer was on vital points like major organs.

All three were set to activate automatically when sensing danger.

It was a feature he had carefully developed since his Academy days.

Safety comes first, after all.

Moreover—

‘I’m actually curious. How strong has Justin become? At the original growth rate, he should be able to barely defeat magical beasts at the First Defense Line.’

Ruide rotated his shoulders to loosen up.

“Then let’s begin.”

Ruide kicked off the ground and lunged at Justin, who had a blank expression.

Time to taste a mana-infused punch.

**

Hersy couldn’t hide her astonishment.

Ruide’s movements were extraordinary.

He would disappear from the right and appear on the left.

It was the power of physical enhancement and spatial evasion magic, but using them well was impossible without regular physical practice.

However, Ruide’s movements were incredibly natural.

As if he had done it many times.

“I-I’ve never seen Ruide use his body like this before. And he’s fighting so well.”

“Isn’t he cute? Isn’t he cute?”

Charlotte smiled contentedly.

“…I thought he was a typical Pure.”

“He is a Pure.”

Amelia said, unable to take her eyes off Ruide.

“But with Ruide’s skills, such distinctions are meaningless.”

Kwang!

Justin folded in half from Ruide’s punch.

The other members were all lying on the ground.

This happened just 10 seconds after the battle began.

The problem was that due to Ruide’s short stature, the punch had landed in a rather unfortunate spot.

“He’s going to die.”

Lydia lazily extended her hand.

“Stop, wench.”

At that moment, Damon lowered Lydia’s arm.

‘…Wench? I’m an adult, at least.’

Lydia experienced a deep moment of reflection.

Of course, Damon didn’t know Lydia was a Saintess—

Even if he did know, his manner of speaking wouldn’t change.

Damon arrogantly pointed at Justin.

“Watch carefully.”

“Huh?”

Justin stood up again after taking Ruide’s attack.

He staggered slightly, but there seemed to be no threat to his life.

“Wow! That guy’s pretty good?! He’s fine after taking our young master’s punch.”

“D-does Ruide punch people often?”

Curious about Charlotte’s familiar attitude, Hersy asked.

Irene answered.

“Yes. Rui often played like that with magical beasts in the North. I miss those times.”

Irene spoke quietly, touching the corner of her eye.

Amelia said with half-closed eyes.

“…Sister. That was just a few months ago.”

“Ria doesn’t understand. The four months in the North without Rui felt like 40 years. Well, I suppose it’s natural since you spent happy times with Rui.”

At the subtly pointed remark, Amelia gazed into the distance.

“…Strange.”

Damon stroked his chin.

“That commoner shouldn’t have such resilience.”

Having interacted with Justin a few times, Damon knew his abilities.

Even though Ruide had controlled his strength, Justin shouldn’t have been able to withstand that attack.

At that moment, Lydia, who had intended to just observe quietly, spoke in a small voice.

“…His internal organs are ruptured. He’ll die within 30 seconds at this rate.”

“Then heal him, wench.”

Damon glared at her.

“No.”

Lydia replied indifferently.

The Saintess, unexpectedly called a wench, had no intention of healing him.

“Hmm.”

Watching this, Irene smiled enigmatically.

“Rui’s first murder, is it? To celebrate him becoming an adult, I should prepare a party tonight.”

“Sister!”

“G-Great Heal!”

Fortunately, thanks to Hersy’s healing, Ruide could remain a child at heart.