chapter_0238

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
238

Mesugaki Tank Enters the Academy –
238

When Cecil woke up from his
deep sleep, the outside world was already brightly lit.

He frowned at the sunlight
streaming through the window and realised his body was in a mess.

‘What on earth happened?’

Holding his forehead, he tried
to recall and succeeded in remembering what had transpired yesterday.

Entering the dungeon to
conquer it.

Coming back out and falling
for Lucy Allen’s provocation.

Consumed by rage, he forgot
about honour and duties, driven solely by the thought of defeating
Lucy Allen.

And then, being humiliated so
thoroughly. To the point of losing himself.

“Prince Cecil.”

Turning his head towards the
voice beside him, he recognized an elderly gentleman.

A man who had drilled the
basics of martial arts into Cecil when he was young and who now
handles many unsavoury tasks for the Duke Family of Bedfor.

“Nabil.”

The gentleman, who went by
many names but was called Nabil by Cecil, placed his bowler hat over
his chest and gave a polite greeting.

“What brings you here?”

“The Queen sent me. There’s
a message she wants to convey.”

The moment Cecil saw Nabil’s
relaxed smile, he roughly guessed the content of the message to
follow.

“Shall I deliver it now?”

“Yes.”

As Cecil nodded, Nabil began
to speak.

What came from his mouth was
no longer the dignified voice of an old man that had filled the room
until a moment ago.

The sharp, almost tearing
voice of a woman was one Cecil had heard every day since childhood—it
was the voice of his mother, the Second Queen.

“You foolish, dull-witted
Prince. You’ve messed things up again, haven’t you?”

Foolish and dull-witted. Nabil
had softened her words.

Her real words were probably
harsher.

“Not only did you fail to
make a good impression on the Lady of the Allen Family, but you also
picked a fight, used dirty tactics, and, after all that, you lost
completely and resorted to a sneak attack.

How can someone be so
incompetent? It would have been better to have a doll in your place.”

Nabil continued to criticise
Cecil, just as he had since Cecil was a child.

As usual, Cecil silently
listened but noticed something strange. Despite the harsh criticisms,
he felt remarkably indifferent.

It was true that Cecil was
accustomed to such venomous words, but his mother’s criticism usually
imprinted sorrow and anger deeply into his heart.

Today, however, was different.
His heart remained calm amidst the scolding.

“I watched over you to see
what kind of nonsense you would pull off, and this is the result. The
only fitting title left for you is the Idiot Prince.

That’s enough. Just give up
now. You and your even more foolish entourage. Leave everything to
me. I will handle it from here.”

‘Have my emotions
disappeared?

No.

I reacted to Lucy Allen’s
provocation last evening.

The fiery anger from that time
was undeniably real.

Even now, just recalling that
moment makes my blood boil, so my emotions haven’t vanished. Then
why?

…Could it be?

Could it be that Mother’s
sarcasm is nothing compared to her taunts? Has my mind and my heart
come to that conclusion?’

As Cecil entertained this
thought, he let out a bitter laugh, finding the idea absurd.

“Do you understand,
Prince? Other than wielding a sword, you possess no talent. Polish
your sword in silence, for that is your sole purpose.”

With these words, Nabil
cleared his throat and returned to his usual voice.

“It has come to this. For
the time being, focus on your training.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“This is just my personal
opinion, but I found it quite astonishing. That you succeeded in
imbuing your aura with ego.”

Nabil’s words were sincere.

While it was true that Cecil
possessed remarkable martial skills, imbuing aura with ego surpassed
mere talent.

It was enough to make the
Second Queen, who only ever delivered harsh criticisms, acknowledge
Cecil’s martial prowess.

Cecil was well aware of the
achievements he had made in his state of extreme focus. How could he
not recognize the significance of this feat, having lived as a
warrior his entire life from a certain point onward?

Nevertheless, Cecil’s lukewarm
reaction stemmed from the fact that his miraculous efforts ultimately
resulted in defeat.

Lucy Allen—descendant of the
hero Benedict Allen, the monster who had risen to the ranks of the
strongest youth on the Continent within the past six months—had
easily blocked Cecil’s miracle with her shield.

“It was just that I had a
bad matchup.”

“Indeed.”

Cecil knew. If his opponent
hadn’t been Lucy Allen, they wouldn’t have been able to withstand
that attack.

But so what? In the end,
Cecil’s miracle had only served to validate the worth of Lucy
Allen’s brilliance.

“Nabil, I have something
I want to ask.”

“Yes, Prince.”

“If I had been in perfect
condition, could I have won that duel against Lucy Allen?”

Nabil remained silent for a
moment before answering.

“I am sorry. I was not
able to witness the duel with my own eyes.”

“I see. That’s right.”

Seeing Nabil’s apologetic
expression, Cecil merely responded lightly. He had already reached
his own conclusion internally.

‘Even in peak condition, I
would have been defeated by Lucy Allen.’

Despite creating a miracle of
his own, his condition didn’t actually matter. Notwithstanding the
fact that she didn’t even use her mace throughout the whole fight.

No, if anything, had his
condition been better, the miracle might not have happened, and he
might have been toyed with until the end. She would have crushed him
amidst her giggling laughter.

‘…Sigh.
In the end, thanks to Lucy Allen’s nasty personality, I was able to
gain some insight, but I can’t feel thankful at all.

As a warrior, I know I should
be grateful, but just the thought of her arrogant smile makes my
blood boil.’

‘Not bad, she said. Damn
woman.

One day, for sure, I will make
her cry out from that mouth of hers.’

Cecil got out of bed with a
grumble and dismissed Nabil.

He needed to get a feel for
the aura he used the previous night to surpass Lucy Allen.

Already, the thought of the
First Prince had vanished from his mind as he forced his heavy body
to move.

The day after the duel with
the Second Prince, I was testing the performance of the new skill
[Impact Conversion] that I gained from completing the quest
yesterday, after receiving an adequate trial from Luca and stepping
outside the Academy.

[Impact Conversion] is a
passive skill considered crucial for tanky frontline jobs. Especially
for a Paladin like me, it’s almost a necessity.

Fighting at the forefront,
taking damage > Divine energy recovers > Use that divine energy
to restore health > Take damage again > Divine energy
recovers…

A routine like that can be
established, you see.

Of course, this routine isn’t
infinite. The efficiency of [Impact Conversion] isn’t particularly
high, so there’s a limit.

However, it clearly helps in
significantly increasing the sustainability of the front line, making
it highly beneficial to me at the moment.

Reality, though, was cruel.

After entering a dungeon
outside the Academy, I had been moving around for quite some time to
test the performance of the skill, but the feeling was off.

It wasn’t that the divine
energy wasn’t recovering, but the amount was just too
insignificant.

No matter how newly learned
the skill was and how low my proficiency might be, this was too
extreme. The efficiency was far worse than what I knew.

Just as I was racking my brain
over what might be wrong, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Though it seemed unlikely, I
still needed to check it out.

“Afraid of a little girl?♡
Why not crawl on the ground and beg to be accepted as livestock?♡
Ah. No place will accept a disgusting coward of an Orc baby like you,
right?♡”

I invited an Orc to help with
my experiment, using provocation. I lowered my shield and took its
punch straight to my face.

Thud!

As the sound reverberated, I
could feel the divine energy recovering. Despite the clear disparity
in our specs, the pain wasn’t as severe.

Ah.

Damn it.

So in reality, [Impact
Conversion] only works with direct blows to the body?

Blocking with a shield doesn’t
count as taking damage?

It was different in the game.
In the game, a shield was just another piece of armour. Unless it was
perfect [Parrying], it would only reduce the damage to a certain
extent.

Thus, HP would clearly
decrease, triggering [Impact Conversion].

But reality is different.

If I block a sword with a
shield, the damage to my body is negligible. There might be a slight
impact, but that’s all.

The same goes for other
attacks. Unless they physically touch my body, the damage transmitted
to me is minimal, and so is the recovery amount.

In summary, unless I’m in a
situation where my defence is completely breached, [Impact
Conversion] doesn’t have much significance, does it?

What kind of madness is this!
If my defence is breached, it means my life is in danger! What good
is [Impact Conversion] if I could die from a single blow!

…Ah, of course. I should
have known a Sloppy Petty God would only hand out a skill like this
for defeating someone like the Second Prince.

I thought he might have made a
mistake in giving such a great skill for an easy task, but no. He
gave it because it was an adequate reward for the task.

Damn it. The skill I thought
was amazing turned out to be worthless. Frustrated by this, I smashed
the head of the Orc that was about to throw another punch with my
mace.

But that wasn’t enough to
quell my anger. My fury could not be resolved with just one Orc.

Orcs of this dungeon, blame
the Sloppy Petty God. If he hadn’t raised my expectations, this
massacre wouldn’t be happening!

Perhaps because I cleared the
dungeon with ease, the reward given by the Sloppy God for completing
this trial was nothing special.

My stamina, strength, and
wisdom only increased slightly.

Strength and stamina increases
are fine, but wisdom? Doesn’t that seem suspiciously mocking?

It feels like he’s taunting
me, saying; You realised you got fooled, right? Well done!

How dare he do this to his own
Apostle! Maintain some dignity, damn it!

Cursing the Sloppy Petty God
in my mind, I headed back to the Academy and made my way towards the
dormitory.

I planned to test [Impact
Conversion] further with Grandpa in Practice Mode.

But my intention was thwarted.
As I walked through the plaza, one of Alsatine’s men, who had been
waiting there, approached me.

Pretending to bump into me, he
slipped a piece of paper into my hand.

It was a note from Karia.

-Employer! You were already
quite popular, but this incident has skyrocketed your reputation!

Has my reputation increased?

Is that true?

Although I don’t understand
why, the Academy kids would flee in terror at the sight of me even
more now.

No joke, is this a case of
being feared into a higher status?

-Because of this, it seems the
Second Queen’s people want to meet with you, Lady. Come to the shop
when you have time.

…Oh.

Already?

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