Chapter 112

The first-year Royal Class, split into three groups.

Among them, the third group seemed to lack any sense of unity.

Everyone was scattered, absorbed in their own activities.

One was pulling out grass.

Another was playing with stones.

One was staring blankly at the sky, praying to God.

There was even one who climbed a tree, hanging their legs and snoring away.

“They are unbelievably relaxed.”

Half-elf Lucia sometimes doubted whether her peers were mentally stable.

Well, it was those kinds of people who confidently voted to fight freely.

Of course, she had voted for that too, so she had no right to complain.

“What are you doing just sitting there?”

Lucia asked, looking at Slane who was perched on a rock.

Slane grinned, showing his teeth.

“Thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Where to go.”

“You still haven’t decided?”

“No, I just decided.”

Slane pulled out a silver coin worth one silver from his pocket and flicked it.

The coin spun on the ground before losing its momentum and stopping.

“What are you doing?”

“Point to where the number 1 is facing.”

“…You’re not serious, are you?”

Despite her disbelief, Lucia pointed forward with her finger.

Northeast.

“Alright, there it is.”

Slane jumped off the rock and landed on the ground.

“Let’s go.”

“You’re really just playing it by ear.”

Lucia shook her head.

“That’s what makes it fun.”

Slane said with a sly smile as he started walking.

“What about them?”

Lucia pointed behind them.

“They’ll handle themselves. We’re all about freedom, aren’t we?”

“We’re really picking the worst tactics in mercenary warfare.”

“So what? The opponent is weak anyway.”

Slane’s words were spot on.

If the opponent were strong, even those guys wouldn’t be so relaxed.

Victory was already a given, and they believed they could earn the necessary points whenever they wanted, so they could afford to be relaxed.

“Still, three are following us.”

Lucia said, glancing at the peers who had joined them.

“Yeah, let’s go have some fun.”

A red madness flickered in Slane’s eyes.

And so, they headed northeast.

That direction was precisely where the second-year Common Class was located.

* * *

“Did you talk to them?”

Alfred, the ‘Masked Duke’ and representative of the Kingdom faction, asked Leon.

“They still have no intention of changing their minds.”

“Foolish beings.”

Alfred sneered.

Originally, the Nobles had shown a willingness to cooperate with the Royals first.

The Kingdom faction wouldn’t have pushed for a joint front with the Nobles without confirming that willingness.

But the situation changed.

Due to the tied vote, the Royals split into three.

As soon as they learned this, the Nobles completely changed their stance.

Alfred had proposed cooperation to form a joint front with just the Kingdom faction, but they started making various excuses to refuse.

The reason was obvious.

When the Royals were a single powerful force, they had offered to cooperate to avoid being completely overshadowed and to pick up any scraps.

But with the Royals divided, they gained confidence that they could earn enough points independently and started refusing outright.

In the end, they even rejected Alfred’s final proposal.

“I gave those ungrateful fools one last chance, but they were blinded by greed.”

“That’s human nature.”

Leon said.

“Foolish human nature.”

Alfred added.

Humans can be categorized simply.

Smart humans, foolish humans, and those in between.

The unfortunate thing for humanity is that there are too many foolish humans.

“By the way, wasn’t your brother one of those?”

“…”

Leon’s face hardened at Alfred’s words.

“Why? Isn’t he someone you have to step over anyway?”

“Well.”

“I acknowledge you. So make sure to take over the Benesse family. I need you as the head of the Benesse family, not just as the second son, Leon.”

“I’ll live up to your expectations.”

“Good.”

Alfred chuckled and stood up.

Then he continued.

“I’ve decided. This time, the operation will be called Hyena.”

“Hyena?”

“A predator that moves in packs and steals others’ prey, don’t you know?”

“I know, but what do you mean by that?”

“Haha, what else could it mean?”

Alfred laughed and spoke again.

“We’ll follow the Nobles and steal their prey.”

He had given them their last chance, and now mercy was over.

It was time for them to pay the price for their refusal.

* * *

The leader of the first-year Royals, Grey.

He had a rather unique background.

His father was from the Empire, his mother from the Kingdom.

And he himself was born in the Holy City and held its citizenship.

He had a foot in all three major powers.

Thanks to this neutral background, Grey was chosen as the leader over even Princess Oscar and Alfred.

He benefited from the Empire and Kingdom factions checking each other.

Now, Grey wore a troubled expression.

“Princess, shouldn’t we start moving soon? It’s been a while since the opening bell rang…”

Grey said, scratching his grey hair that matched his name.

Princess Oscar blinked.

“Oh my, isn’t that something the leader, Grey, should decide?”

“What a joke… What power do I have?”

Grey’s words weren’t just complaints.

They were true.

He was a nominal leader with no real power.

A puppet leader.

Instead, he lived freely.

When there was an issue, he just chose a side that suited him and stuck with it.

That’s why he earned the nickname ‘Bat Leader’.

This time, he had chosen the Empire side.

“Hmm… If you say so.”

Princess Oscar stood up.

“Shall we go right away?”

“Huh? Without any reconnaissance?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Why not?”

“The second years won’t move.”

Princess Oscar spoke with confident eyes.

The calculations seemed to be already done.

Grey knew.

Princess Oscar’s confident words had never been wrong.

“Ah, yes. If you say so…”

As Grey agreed, Princess Oscar spoke again.

“Did you confirm that there’s a fortress built on the other side during the preliminary inspection?”

“Yes, of course.”

“That’s where the second-year Royal Class will be.”

“What?”

“They’ll choose defense, so they’ll occupy the most advantageous terrain for defense.”

“…I see.”

“Then did you confirm the second most advantageous terrain for defense?”

“Well… I can think of a few places…”

“There’s another hill due north. A place that can fully utilize the high ground advantage. The second-year Noble Class will be there.”

“…”

Her continued confidence.

Grey was curious about Princess Oscar’s mind.

How she combined such information to draw confident conclusions.

And they were plausible conclusions.

“We’ll head to the hill due north.”

Where the second-year Noble Class was.

Grey looked surprised.

He thought the competitive Princess Oscar would first try to crush the head of the enemy, the Royal Class.

Reading Grey’s expression, Princess Oscar smiled brightly and said.

“A good hunter doesn’t just hunt. They first weaken their prey. We don’t have to do that role, right? We’ll comfortably hunt the middle prey and wait for the right time.”

Hearing that, Grey realized.

Princess Oscar, hidden beneath her softness, was colder and more composed than anyone.

‘A worthy candidate for the throne…’

Grey thought.

He might be spending his school days with a future empress who would be remembered in history.

* * *

“Camian.”

“Yeah.”

“What are we doing?”

“Beats me.”

Camian and Annette.

The two of them were sitting idly where the Kingdom faction had left.

They had voted in favor of the Kingdom faction’s opinion.

They thought cooperating with the Nobles and fighting together was in line with the spirit of the mock battle.

However, the tie vote nullified their plan, and to make matters worse, the Nobles refused to cooperate solely with the Kingdom faction.

As a result, Alfred suddenly started talking about a Hyena operation and led the Kingdom faction to secretly follow the Nobles.

Anyone could see it was an attempt to mess with the Nobles.

Camian was speechless with disbelief.

The Masked Duke, Alfred.

While his abilities and background might be solid, his lack of leniency and immediate retribution for grudges showed he was not a forgiving man.

Camian, for one, couldn’t stand such people.

Naturally, he didn’t participate in Alfred’s actions.

So he stayed behind with Annette.

“This is a mess.”

Camian muttered, looking into the empty air.

Annette, unable to disagree, just gave a wry smile.

“Is this okay?”

Camian blurted out.

“Huh?”

“I’m wondering if this so-called golden generation is really okay like this.”

“Well… it doesn’t seem ideal.”

“Not that we can do anything about it.”

Camian said self-deprecatingly as he stood up.

“Let’s move too.”

“What are we going to do?”

Annette asked.

“Fight. No matter what, this is a mock battle between the first and second years, right? We should do what we have to do.”

“That’s true.”

Annette smiled as she stood up.

It didn’t matter if it was just the two of them.

Because the person she was with was Camian.

And so, the two of them headed towards the front of the battlefield.

* * *

In the long reed field swaying in the wind, three of us, including myself, were lying lazily.

“They’re late.”

Allen said.

“We just got here early.”

“Oh, right.”

“Keep your voice down.”

I cautioned.

There was still time before the first years would appear, but we didn’t know how far our voices might carry.

“S-Sorry.”

Allen quickly lowered his voice.

At that moment, someone slid in behind us, landing in the reed field where we were hiding.

“…I’m not late, am I?”

Of course, it was Elaine.

“No, you’re just on time.”

I chuckled.

After checking my watch, I spoke again.

“You all know the next point is ‘Sa1,’ right?”

This was ‘Sa0.’

And from ‘Sa0’ to ‘Sa1.’

The points were numbered in the order we would move.

“Yeah.”

“Got it.”

“Understood, leader.”

All three answered simultaneously.

I spoke again.

“Before that, a Noble scout will come here. Let’s take them down and move right away.”

My words were almost a certainty.

But these guys thought it was a prediction based on gathered information.

Because I had laid the groundwork well in advance.

So they looked at me with eyes full of trust.

“Let’s do it this way.”

I quickly and briefly explained.

Then I pulled out my bow.

A simple wooden bow.

The arrows had no tips.

But they could still deliver a significant impact to the protective gear, enough to count as a casualty.

Allen also grabbed his wooden spear.

A weapon matched to the length of his usual spear to avoid awkwardness.

Elaine and Riviera prepared their magic.

Even if they couldn’t use high-level spells due to the mana restriction, the magic of these two genius mages would be a great help.

I checked the time again.

About a minute passed.

Finally, we heard movement ahead.

Soon, two figures appeared.

First-year uniforms with the Noble emblem.

They seemed completely unaware of our presence.

Despite being scouts, their relaxed expressions showed they were underestimating the second-year ‘bad harvest generation.’

I quietly nocked an arrow.

Allen gripped his spear tightly.

Now.

Ping!

I fired the arrow to signal the start.

Thunk!

“Ugh?!”

Before they could react, my arrow struck one of them in the chest.

Then.

Beep beep!

An alarm sounded.

The warning alarm indicating a casualty.

The guy fell down, knowing he had no choice.

Otherwise, he would incur a penalty.

Meanwhile.

Whoosh!

Allen flew.

Riviera had just showcased low-altitude flight.

She used it again.

A perfect surprise attack.

Moreover.

“Ugh?”

Elaine cast a binding spell on the remaining guy’s legs.

Already struggling to react to the ambush, the guy couldn’t move his body properly with his legs bound.

Thud!

Allen’s spear struck the guy’s torso with a resounding impact.

“Grr…”

The guy groaned in frustration.

Beep beep!

Soon, he fell to the ground following his comrade.

He seemed to want to say something to us with a shocked expression but couldn’t open his mouth.

If he did, the strict penalty would immediately affect the first-year’s overall score.

It was a good system.

Individual mistakes became the group’s responsibility, so they couldn’t make a sound and had to lie there like corpses.

They couldn’t bear the resentment of their peers otherwise.

So the process went smoothly.

“Great, two down. Everyone did well.”

I said with a smile.

A perfect start for our commando unit.

Not just me, everyone had a bright expression from the fresh start.

“Let’s move to the next point.”

And so, our serious movement began.