Ch.99Chapter 99: What Business Do You Have?

And then, as the day of rest ended and classes resumed.

Unlike usual, Valt’s group had gathered at the training ground to begin practice, and Valt was also participating, training with his friends.

Valt and his companions were now sparring with each other to gain practical experience, sharing what they had learned, competing, and building their skills.

If the Emperor had been present, he might have rejoiced, saying, “This is exactly the sight I wished to see.”

Because they trained together through daily sparring, they could recognize changes in each other better than anyone else.

Moreover, with not only the disciples of the Seven Heroes but also the second-generation representatives of each non-human race staying there, people were saying that Valt’s party was practically the strongest group in Growunt Academy.

To reiterate, Growunt Academy is a practice-oriented institution with four years of education.

While there were clearly defined curricula for each year, since the student body consisted of people over 20 years old, there were certainly individuals whose abilities exceeded what the academy expected, and these people could potentially graduate early after their second year.

However, because the professors at Growunt Academy were so exceptional, it was common practice for students not to graduate early even if their skills exceeded requirements, unless there were special circumstances.

Even if there were Master-level talents among the students, it made sense that they would have much to learn from the professors who possessed even greater skills, and even from those professors who might be less skilled but specialized in teaching.

And these young adults who had just come of age had much to gain from growing alongside others.

That’s why Growunt Academy had not produced a single early graduate since its establishment.

Grace Oscar.

She was one such case.

Interestingly, she came from the Oscar Kingdom of the Eastern Alliance, a nation where the legitimate right of succession to the throne belonged to women before men.

This was because the Oscar Kingdom itself was founded by a woman.

The first monarch, Evelyn Oscar, a woman of extraordinary valor, was a powerful warrior who led the charge against the demon invasion and became a legendary figure who protected humanity and the continent alongside her followers.

In particular, the Battle of Oscar, where the current capital of Oscar stands, became widely remembered as a famous battle where she and two companions held off one of the demon realm’s commanders.

At that time, she was known as a Grand Master-level Aura user who had reached the 9th layer.

Unfortunately, since then, not a single Master had emerged among the queens of the Oscar Kingdom.

But after a long time, with the appearance of Grace Oscar, a genius of the century, the Oscar Kingdom was anticipating the birth of another practitioner who could aspire to become a Grand Master, and indeed, Grace’s skill level was at the beginning of the 8th layer.

As a fourth-year student, she was considered one of the strongest forces among the academy students, an assessment that she herself seemed to acknowledge.

However, something happened that deeply wounded her pride.

It was the operation to eliminate the criminal organization in the Imperial capital in which Valt had participated.

Grace had taken her close followers to eliminate the criminal organization, and naturally, given her skills, she firmly believed she would cut down the criminals like scarecrows and achieve another milestone in the academy’s history.

But that was Grace’s misconception.

A barbarian from the barren south, a place she had never even visited, had completely destroyed the criminal organization she had targeted, leaving Grace caught in the middle with nothing to show for it.

Since the handling of the criminal organization was confidential, ordinary people didn’t know who had dealt with it, but for Grace, who was a Master with connections everywhere, it wasn’t difficult to find out who had accomplished such a feat.

Thump, thump-

Training Ground No. 11, which had seemingly become the exclusive training ground for Valt’s group.

Since there were many other training grounds, others didn’t particularly seek out this one.

It was probably because the distance between them and the non-human races wasn’t yet very close.

But now, a group that wasn’t Valt’s appeared at Training Ground No. 11.

A mixed group of six, men and women.

It was Grace Oscar and her followers.

As this was the first visit by outsiders during their training, Valt’s group’s attention was focused on them, and Lisa, who handled the affairs of Valt’s group, quickly stepped forward to stand before Grace Oscar.

“Um… may I ask what brings you here?”

Seeing the tiny red-haired girl blocking her way, Grace’s stiff expression softened, and she spoke gently to Lisa.

“I’ve come to see the barbarian named Valt Gerungtu.”

The already focused attention intensified as Valt’s name was mentioned, and people’s gazes shifted back to Grace.

And among Valt’s companions, several recognized her.

Especially Shukbil Laurent, the disciple of the Spear Saint, who had somehow joined Valt’s group for training.

“Oh? Oscar! The genius spear artist from the Oscar family, right?”

The signature weapon of the Grace family was the spear.

The first queen, Evelyn Oscar, believed that for women, who were physically disadvantaged compared to men, the spear was a more suitable weapon than the sword to overpower men, and accordingly, the Oscar family grew to become a house renowned for spear techniques.

If it was said that the swordsmanship of the Caldrian family was comparable to that of the Sword Saint, one of the Seven Heroes…

Then no one would dispute that the spear techniques of the Oscar family were comparable to those of the Spear Saint, another of the Seven Heroes.

In fact, there were records that during the demon invasion, the Spear Saint of that time had been defeated by Evelyn Grace in a duel.

However, now the Oscar family’s reputation had somewhat declined due to their failure to produce talented individuals.

Hearing Shukbil’s muttering, Victor, who had been sparring with him, wiped the beads of sweat from his muscles and asked.

“Who? Oscar?”

Shukbil spoke as if scolding Victor for not knowing.

“How can you not know! She’s the princess of the Oscar Kingdom in the East, from the famous house of spear techniques!”

Victor, who was only interested in muscles and martial arts, showed little interest in the slightly slender Grace Oscar.

“So what? You might care because you’re a spear user, but I’m not particularly interested…”

But Victor’s words turned to curiosity with Shukbil’s next statement.

“You don’t know anything! That woman is a once-in-a-generation genius who reached Master level at the age of 25!”

“What!? Well, that’s different then!”

For warriors who use Aura, those who have reached the realm of Master are objects of reverence.

In reality, it’s not easy to see someone who has reached the level of Master.

For ordinary commoners, seeing a Master might be a once-in-a-lifetime event, if at all.

“But why is someone like her looking for our big bro?”

“Isn’t it obvious! She must have come to challenge him to a fight? Big bro Valt is incredibly strong!”

Shukbil, who had started calling Valt “big bro” after hanging around Victor, chimed in.

Robin, who had been training at a distance, also joined the conversation.

“Oh… this should be interesting! A Master has appeared!”

Lisa also recognized Grace Oscar’s identity as soon as she appeared.

If it had been some random person, even Lisa, with her information network, might not have known them, but Grace Oscar was one of the strongest individuals at the academy, so it was impossible for Lisa not to know.

“You’re looking for Valt? May I ask what business you have with him?”

The other party was a princess with the primary right of succession from another country, so it was natural for Lisa to speak more formally.

But there were many people here who didn’t care about such things at all.

“If you’ve come to propose marriage, get lost quickly. There’s no place for you in line.”

The voice belonged to Solpin. Solpin didn’t usually frequent this training ground, but as days passed and she felt that more and more women were gathering around Valt, she now showed up every day without fail.

Moreover, until now, there hadn’t been many people besides Valt or Airin who could match her, but the mage named Lilith was quite capable of facing Solpin, making sparring with her an enjoyable pastime for Solpin.

It was to the point where Solpin had told Lilith she would acknowledge her position as a concubine.

“How dare you speak such nonsense!! Her Highness didn’t come here for such trivial matters…!”

Twitch-

Solpin’s horns moved slightly at the words of the man standing next to Grace, and she looked at Grace with amusement.

“Kuk kuk, princess? What good is that here? I’m a princess too, you bastard. Who are you to butt in, looking like leftover lizard roast?”

As the face of Grace’s follower turned red with anger at this unprecedented insult and the atmosphere grew tense…

Grace opened her mouth to mediate.

“I didn’t come to pick a fight. I came to talk with Valt Gerungtu.”

But no one there believed her words.

“Huh? That’s ridiculous. Valt went to the bathroom. How about it? Want to try me first?”

As Solpin subtly raised her aura, Grace, who had been concealing her strength until then, calmly raised her energy to match Solpin’s presence.

Seeing this, Solpin’s eyes widened, and she laughed heartily, showing her white teeth.

“Ho!? Kuk, kuhahaha!! Look at this!? Someone with such skill claims to have come for a talk!? Nobody step in! I’m first!”

Boom-

Solpin’s aura rose further, spreading waves of energy around her, while Grace simply stared at her with an impassive gaze.

“A Master! A Master indeed!! There’s always something interesting going on here!”

Just as it seemed a duel between Solpin and Grace was about to take place…

“I believe that’s my guest, Solpin.”

Valt’s voice was heard as he returned from the bathroom.