Chapter 12 : Racist.

Haiz, the academy’s swordsmanship instructor, was a human male with a bright demeanor.

When asked how he managed to secure the position of swordsmanship professor at the academy at

such a young age, he always answered that experience and practical combat were the reasons.

Sufficient practice was important, but he believed that the enlightenment gained from life-and-death

moments where swords clashed was truly helpful.

Most of his classes focused on sparring and practical exercises, making it one of the subjects with the

most injuries at the academy.

Many students were dissatisfied with him, but since he became a professor, the number of talented

swordsmen produced by the academy had noticeably increased.

Therefore, the academy didn’t interfere much with his classes.

“Okay, then. Pair up with a close friend.”

He was a unique character who spoke politely to everyone.

Judging from the fact that he used a sword and his eyes were squinted, he had all the characteristics

of a so-called ‘squint-eye character.’

He was actually strong too.

I didn’t know, but Haiz’s first class was notoriously known from the start.

A class where innocent students who knew nothing were paired up and made to spar with each other.

Therefore, half of the students left injured on the first day.

Of course, what I was worried about wasn’t such a trivial thing.

‘A close friend…!’

There were far more male students than female students in swordsmanship class.

It’s not that I’m a sexist.

Men have more muscles than women due to their physical structure.

Swordsmanship class was a subject that most excluded unless they were women who had trained to

some extent, and the number of female students was significantly smaller than in other subjects.

The important point here is that if strangers were to pair up, it was generally common for them to pair

up with the same gender.

It’s much more comfortable to clash swords with an unknown male than with an unknown female.

Even more so for a woman who looks like a young lady of a duke’s family like me.

I hurriedly looked around.

Ah, there were quite a few familiar faces.

Characters whose names I had heard in the novel.

‘Princess Knight, Ruelle.’

A student from the southern kingdom far away.

‘Princess’ and ‘Knight.’ Two troublesome titles from the start.

I think she came to the academy to learn swordsmanship?

I’m confident I can defeat her in 10 seconds if I meet her as a swordsmanship opponent.

‘Half-elf Bandar.’

I’ve seen elves often, even if I haven’t seen dark elves.

Even though elves are rare, they’re not that hard to see since they’re a race that lives in the sun.

Most of them have excellent physical abilities.

Wouldn’t it be okay since elves have gentle personalities?

I don’t think half-elves have bad personalities.

“Ruelle, would you like to spar with me?”

“…I’ll take you up on that.”

Well, as befitting a gentle and sociable elf, she’s already paired up.

I didn’t expect it anyway.

-Hey, would you like to pair up with me…?

-Sure, please take care of me.

Everyone except me was gradually pairing up.

No, when did they make so many friends?

It’s only been a week since they entered the academy.

Professor Haiz yawned and said.

“Since we don’t have much time, I’ll randomly pair up the remaining people.”

He gathered the remaining people and paired up people who were close to each other without even

looking at their faces.

Shouldn’t you usually pair people with similar skills for this kind of thing?

“Excuse me, Professor. Isn’t it common to pair people with similar skills for this kind of thing?”

A male student asked what I wanted to ask instead. Thank you!

Haiz chuckled at the question and dismissed it, saying that it’s not like the opponent would go easy on

you just because you lacked skill in a real battle.

As expected, you shouldn’t stand out.

It’s so important to be in the middle without standing out.

The female student who paired up with me was a wolf beastman named Amiter.

I didn’t know if she was a wolf beastman or a dog beastman, but she had ears on her head and a tail in

the back.

She looked familiar, but I remembered seeing her when I did the aptitude test on the first day.

I think what she picked was… a sword.

A golden dagger that is said to be picked by those with talent in swordsmanship.

Yeah, it was definitely a sword.

Sh*t.

Fortunately, she looked like a loner like me.

First of all, there was no one around her talking to her, and she was always sleeping.

She had long hair and a scar on her face, giving her a fierce impression.

‘Animal ears.’

Her ears were raised like those of a wolf, but one end was slightly cut off.

She had scars all over her face and body, as if she had lived a rough life.

I was curiously glancing at it, and she turned her head and stared at me.

“What, never seen a beastman before?”

Amiter frowned and looked down at me.

She was very tall, so she always looked down on me.

Anyway, her tone was very hostile.

I’ve really never seen a beastman before.

There are beastmen in this world, but they are a discriminated race.

There aren’s many of them, so I haven’t had a chance to see them in my life so far.

“I’ve never seen one before.”

“…Yeah, I guess nobles like you wouldn’t care about us. You haven’t achieved anything with your own

hands.”

Noble bastard? That was a very aggressive tone.

It was a word that could be a crime to say in the capital.

If it was a main character in a novel like Teperi, she would have shut her mouth or looked back on

what she had done wrong.

And later, some incident would be resolved, misunderstandings would be cleared up, and they would

become friends.

Unfortunately, I’m not the main character in a novel, and I’m a villainous young lady with no

patience.

And I’ve learned that you shouldn’t put up with insults.

“I have a question.”

She was looking at the ground without giving me a glance, as if she wasn’t interested in me.

I said subtly to Amiter.

“If you’re a beastman, does that mean you’re born from a person doing that with an animal? Ugh.”

“…You.”

Her eyes flashed for a moment.

I felt a tingling in my back, so it seemed like this was the beastman’s unique bloodlust.

I was a little scared, but I didn’t show it on the outside and smiled.

“Just kidding, just kidding.”

Actually, it wasn’t a joke at all.

I think they said that that was a word that shouldn’t be said to beastmen?

In my original world, it was like calling a black person black.

Of course, it wasn’t because she called me a noble bastard.

I didn’t care if nobles were cursed or slapped.

The reason I was angry was the next word.

‘Haven’t achieved anything with your own hands? Ha.’

That was the word I hated the most.

Just as she discriminated against me by seeing me as a typical noble, I just did the same to her.

“Alright, everyone! From now on! We’re going to have mock duels with the people you’ve paired up

with!”

Professor Haiz clapped his hands at the right time as the atmosphere turned cold.

Behind him, dueling arenas for sparring rose from the ground.

‘Amazing.’

It looked like a dueling arena from a cartoon.

It looked like a Pokemon battle arena, and it looked like a small colosseum.

It looked ordinary on the outside, but it contained all sorts of magical devices inside.

“Then, I need two people to do a demonstration match…”

He said subtly and looked around the students.

Of course, no one raised their hand because it was obvious that you would become a spectacle if you

came forward at a time like this.

Except for one person.

“I’ll do it.”

I looked to see who the idiot who raised his hand was, and it was my next-door neighbor?

Amiter said in a low, husky voice and glared at me.

“Come up.”

It was a voice like a wolf growling lowly.

But if I was going to be intimidated by that, I wouldn’t have even started.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Amiter didn’t answer and went up to the dueling arena.

I also got up from the lawn.

Many children were looking up at me.

Some students were looking at me with pity, and some were looking at me with playful eyes as if they

were going to see a spectacle.

I felt a little embarrassed by this attention.

“Please choose a sword here.”

In front of the sparring arena, there were many practice swords lined up.

They were all well-made and high-quality, but the blades were blunt so they couldn’t take lives.

“I don’t need a sword.”

“Me neither.”

We said that while glaring at each other.

Haiz scratched the back of his head as if he was embarrassed.

“Hey, it’s a swordsmanship class, so you have to fight with weapons.”

At his words, Aiter chose two small daggers.

I also picked up a very large greatsword.

“…You’re choosing something that doesn’t suit you. Can you even swing it?”

“Mind your own business. You son of a b*tch.”

We cheerfully cursed each other so that other people couldn’t hear us.

Later, I found out that calling a wolf beastman a son of a b*tch was a considerable insult.

Of course, I didn’t care about it right now.

“Okay, widen your feet to shoulder width, and look at your opponent’s face while holding the sword.

That’s the ready stance for sparring.”

We stood in the middle of the dueling arena with the professor’s guidance and stepped back twenty

steps each.

The other students were listening to his explanation, but we were just glaring at each other.

“It’s basic etiquette to greet each other before sparring.”

Aiter stood stiffly, but I bowed exaggeratedly.

I whispered so that only she could hear me.

“Why, are you scared?”

“…I’ll kill you.”

“You can start when my handkerchief falls. Got it?”

No one answered, and Professor Haiz threw the handkerchief into the air without saying anything.

The moment the handkerchief fell to the ground, we both threw our swords away and charged at each

other at the same time.