“Is everyone ready?”

“Yes!”

Gartel smiled kindly as he watched the cadets raise their heads from the water to answer.

‘Now I’ll be able to see.’

He looked down at the beach from the cliff where he could see all the cadets’ movements at once. He didn’t know how long he had waited. Finally, an opportunity to confirm Yena’s skills.

‘Her father was a magic officer, wasn’t he.’

If so, her other skills should be as impressive as the movements she showed during the duel.

“Ready!”

Gartel slowly raised his hand with anticipation. The cadets floating around the buoys one by one adjusted their postures to start.

Would the first place be among Yena, Wolf, and Rina as expected, or would another unexpected event occur?

“Start!”

Gartel shouted vigorously to signal the start of the training.

Splash!

“Hm?”

But he stiffened his expression at the unexpected situation that occurred soon after.

“…Yena Freud!”

Yena, who had been sprinting smoothly on the surface, disappeared underwater before even reaching halfway, as if someone had pulled her from below.

It was strange for her to have dived voluntarily. Even when most of the cadets had reached the turning point and were coming back, she was nowhere to be seen.

This meant that there was a problem with the equipment Yena was wearing now, or a crisis of similar magnitude had struck.

“Damn it!”

Gartel threw off his coat. Without even thinking of putting on goggles, he ran so roughly that the chair next to him was pushed back, and jumped into the water below the cliff.

---

“Hng, hngh…!”

My breath was completely cut off. The hose connected to my mouth from the oxygen tank had broken, and seawater was constantly pouring into my lungs.

Crack, crackle!

The turbine under my feet was smashed. The engine noise that had been ringing in my ears and the bubbles rising around were no longer visible. I was just slowly sinking into the deep sea.

“Hoop!”

While a normal person would have already collapsed mentally in this situation, I struggled to hold onto consciousness while holding my breath.

What’s going on?

The engine isn’t responding to mana. Feeling around my soles, the mana stone that should have been in place was broken into pieces and scattering around with the current.

The huge steel structure that had covered my ankles and helped with swimming had now become a mere chunk of scrap metal.

Did the diving equipment malfunction?

But it was strange. How could Astrakhan, which could be called the Empire’s best military academy, fail to inspect the equipment?

Rip, crack!

There were many strange points, but shouldn’t I survive first before doing anything else? I immediately gathered mana at my fingertips and tore apart the steel plate rumored to be hard.

In the dark underwater, I didn’t have to worry about anyone’s gaze. So I brought out my original strength.

“Urgh…”

Perhaps because I used force so urgently, my palms were torn and I felt pain, but I didn’t mind. My only thought now was to get out.

Whoosh!

As my two feet became free, I raised my head towards the water surface shimmering with sunlight. Then I drew out all the mana I had been hiding.

Shiver!

I layered mana over and over again. My body still couldn’t handle it, goosebumps rose on my skin and my whole body convulsed, but even so, I didn’t stop and covered my entire body with mana.

I couldn’t control my strength due to unbearable anger.

No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t make sense that the military academy failed to inspect the equipment. In the end, it means someone tampered with it, right?

Murderous intent surged.

I absolutely can’t let this slide.

“Gurgle…”

I will definitely find the one who brought this humiliation as soon as I get out, I thought as I pointed my palm downwards, with mana waves rippling around it like some hero from a movie.

Crack, boom!

I burst through the water currents with the power I had gathered like that.

“Ugh, urgh.”

My cheeks were pushed back by the rapid speed. The path I had passed froze white due to the effect of ice magic. From afar, it would look like I was emitting jet streams around my hands.

Gurgle!

How long had I been rising while turning seawater into solid ice? Finally, I approached the sea surface glowing pale blue.

“…!”

And matching that, something narrowed the distance at a chilling speed.

Is it a person? I stopped using magic at the unexpected silhouette and narrowed my eyes to look at the rippling black thing.

Judging from the shape of the shadow glimpsed, it was clearly a person. But I’m still in the deep sea where the water pressure is strongly pressing down, yet they’re approaching this fast?

There was only one person with such ability.

“Yena Freud─!”

Instructor Gartel embraced me and rose to the surface.

“Get a hold of yourself!”

When I opened my eyes, able to breathe, I was greeted by dazzling light and fluffy clouds. Gartel had already reached the sandy beach and was shaking my shoulders.

“Instructor.”

“Are, are you alright?”

Thanks to him, I was spared the trouble of having to reach the surface myself. I took a few deep breaths and gently met Gartel’s eyes.

“…I’m fine.”

Then I raised my drooping arm, gave a thumbs up, and smiled faintly.

---

“I think it’s okay to get up now…”

“No! The instructor said not to move.”

I tried to get up, but sat back down when I saw the clear dew in Erika’s eyes. Even when I tried to look for an opportunity, she stayed persistently by my side.

This is the first time I’ve seen her refuse so firmly.

Considering Erika’s usually shy personality, this was a new side of her. She must be that worried.

Rustle─

When I raised my arm, my palm, which had been torn while breaking the steel structure earlier, was wrapped in bandages. In addition, gauze or cotton covered wounds all over my body.

And all of these were treatments Erika had taken charge of.

“Wh-What should we do, instructor!”

“First, stop the bleeding. Bring the bag!”

“Y-Yes!”

She had rushed over, abandoning her training, as soon as Gartel pulled me out of the water. The memory was still vivid.

That’s why she’s so anxious. Among the cadets, Erika was the one who saw up close what terrible condition I was in, and directly treated those injuries.

“Don’t look at me with those eyes. It’s not allowed. Rest today. Yena, your body is already too strained for training.”

So even when I tried to get permission directly from Gartel, who was sitting in a chair on the left watching the cadets train, he still wouldn’t let me go.

“Is the bleeding on your palm okay?”

“Yes, I am an Astrakhan candidate after all.”

“Sigh…”

Well, it’s understandable because my current appearance was not just unsightly, but ominous.

The diving suit that protected my body was torn in places as if my body had been wounded. Not to mention my thighs, even the bare skin above my chest was visible.

“Your uniform will be brought soon, so wear this coat for now. You wouldn’t want your colleagues to see you like this, right?”

At least Gartel handed me his coat so I could hide my body. Because of our significant size difference, one coat was enough to wrap my entire body.

“…I’ll wear it gratefully.”

Well, I guess it can’t be helped. In the end, I gave up and hugged the coat like wrapping a doll, partly to ward off the cold.

“So what exactly happened?”

“That’s right, Yena. Why did you suddenly sink down?”

And after some time had passed, Erika and Gartel, who had only been worrying, simultaneously threw questions at me.

The difference in their tones was that Erika asked with concern, her two hands pressed to her lips, while Gartel had a cold look in his eyes.

While it might not matter to Erika, who was just a simple cadet, for Gartel, who performed the duties of an instructor, it was a serious matter.

After all, the equipment had malfunctioned ‘during training’.

Starting with the manufacturer, equipment managers, inspectors, and many others would be subject to investigation because of this incident. Everything depended on my answer.

“I’m not sure.”

“…I see. Is there nothing at all that comes to mind?”

“No, I was in a daze.”

And so the answer I gave was that I didn’t know anything.

It was a decision made after deep consideration. In fact, I could have said that someone had instigated it, but I didn’t.

It’s like bait thrown for a big fish.

Someone who would pull such a prank at the Sevirpol training grounds, under the simultaneous surveillance of the Federation and the Empire, wouldn’t be an ordinary person. So telling the instructor now wouldn’t yield any results.

They would slip through the investigation net like a loach. Or there was a high chance of catching only the tail and missing the important body.

“Tch, I understand for now. I’ll finish the class first, so go wait in that open space ahead, you too, Erika.”

I had no intention of allowing that.

“Yes! Yena, let’s go!”

“Okay.”

Like the value of returning a hundred times the humiliation tasted, I had to catch the person who did this kind of thing, mistaking me for an ordinary cadet, by any means necessary and bring them to justice.

I planned to investigate various information secretly from Gartel to uncover the truth.

Some might say something like this in response to such an assertion. How could you, a commoner with poor grades and no connections, find the culprit who’s likely in a high position?

Normally, I would have agreed with such a statement. No matter how good at fighting, connections were more important than strength in this kind of matter.

But hey, there’s someone useful right there, isn’t there?

“There were various events today, and there was an unfortunate incident in the middle, but don’t worry unnecessarily and rest well until tomorrow. Good work everyone.”

“Thank you!”

While responding with a salute to Gartel, who was finishing the class, I curved the corners of my eyes, feeling the faint flow of mana coming from behind a rock near the sandy beach.

A lady-in-waiting serving the imperial princess should be quite useful. I decided to use her, who was just tailing from afar.

“Yena, shouldn’t you go to the infirmary?”

I have to pay back the karma of annoying me every single day in full.

“Let’s put on clothes first.”

“Ah, I see.”

I carefully buttoned up the coat to cover the bare skin occasionally visible between the hem and took careful steps forward.