episode_0056

The weather was so cold that it was snowing, but those gathered at the training ground were so passionate about training that they forgot the cold. Cosette, who continued to run around the training ground with smoke rising from her heated body, was no exception.

“Cosette. A day wasted by a knight requires two or more training sessions to get it back.”

“..It’s noisy.”

When I gave Cosette some practical advice as she passed by, Cosette’s reaction was cold. However, seeing that she followed the training schedule I gave her without question, I could tell that she had enough will to train. I’m glad that I have a good friend who motivates me like I do.

I tilted my teacup. The tea had already cooled down due to the chilly weather, but even cold tea had its own flavor. Ignoring Agnes, who was looking at me with strange eyes, I cut a small piece of cake with my fork and put it in my mouth. I felt a violent sweetness that made my mouth numb. It felt like my brain was melting.

Most desserts in this world were like this. It was like a world-class sugar-using competition. If you think about it, the noble ladies of this world eating this every day, it must be a big deal. I only eat a little bit every now and then, so it’s like “It’s so sweet~”, but if you eat this often, it must be a big deal to maintain your figure.

The cake that Aylan and Agnes had seen in passing was almost completely round. Only Mathias was eating it and saying it was delicious. Ayla said, turning the fork in her hand.

“By the way, princess, did you hear that?”

“I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think you heard it.”

“Well, the princess has no friends and isn’t interested in rumors.”

Ayla suddenly said something very rude. Agnes nodded timidly. He decided to scold her later and urged Ayla to continue talking with his eyes.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but it looks like all the Academy events this year have been canceled.”

“All events? That includes other grades?”

“I guess so.”

“Does that make sense? What the hell happened?”

Agnes shouted with wide eyes. I was quite surprised. If it was an event for five, no, four grades excluding the first grade, then hundreds or thousands of people would be involved, so it was hard to believe that all of them were canceled.

“If the event is canceled, you’re just not doing anything?”

“Well.. I guess I’ll just take classes like a first year student.”

“No, where on earth did we spend all that expensive tuition that we can’t even afford it?”

Agnes was furious and ran around, but it was a justified anger. The tuition for the academy was not cheap for a commoner, and in this academy, which was already a mess in many ways, the feeling would be even worse.

Aila, of course, didn’t know the exact reason, so she shrugged and took a small piece of cake and put it in her mouth, shivering from the violent sweetness.

“..Everyone looks so happy except me?”

Cosette arrived, steam rising from her body. It was quite a funny sight, but my poker face, trained over many years, barely wavered. I stood up, picking up the whip I had broken in advance.

“Now, Cosette. It’s time for a fun duel. As I said before, Cosette needs more intense training to catch up on the months of wasted competition, so hurry up and take up your sword.”

“..sigh.”

Cosette sighed deeply, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and picked up her training sword. I held the whip and slowly approached Cosette.

Cosette took a very basic stance, raising her sword parallel to her body. I followed suit and took the same stance. When a master and a beginner take the same stance, it is easy for both to feel each other’s skills more clearly.

I approached briskly. Cosette was already overwhelmed by me and her momentum was clearly suppressed. When I showed my intention to attack from above, Cosette flinched. It seemed that she had sensed what was called a murderous intent, a certain intention and energy that the prosecutor had.

Of course, it was impossible to knock someone out by spewing out life energy like in a novel, but it was possible for the opponent to figure out the intention just by repeatedly thinking ‘stab right’ in his head.

I don’t know if the magic power in the air or inside the body moves unconsciously according to the examiner’s thoughts and intentions, or if the concept of living really exists, but Anderson, who taught me, always said that I should use it properly.

I walked slowly and slashed the entire body of the imaginary Cosette. Cosette’s face turned pale and she backed away, trying to put some distance between herself and me.

In an instant, I swung my whip from left to right, hitting the ground. It was a textbook horizontal slash. It wasn’t very fast, so Cosette would have been able to react quickly, but Cosette was startled and defended not at her midsection but at her upper body. It was clearly intended to strike down.

-Ouch!

“Keukk!”

Even above the Academy uniform, Cosette’s scream, which seemed somewhat faint, echoed with a rather loud sound. Cosette looked like she didn’t know what was going on.

“Watching the fight with Mathias, I thought I had a feel for it, but seeing him get fooled so easily, I think I still have a long way to go.”

“..It was definitely a strike down?”

I was slowly increasing the intensity of my murderous intent while keeping Cosette in check. Cosette, who was frightened by my increasingly blatant intentions, ended up blocking a strange spot because she was mistaken in thinking that I was swinging my sword at her, due to the murderous intent that she had unleashed as I approached.

“As I always say, the ultimate in swordsmanship begins with not dying. No matter how the opponent tricks or deceives me, I should not be fooled by it. Let’s focus on this today. Come here, Mathias.”

Mathias, who had been calmly eating the cake, seemed startled. Did he think he could play?

.

.

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“Okay, that’s it, Cosette. It’s easy once you get the hang of it, right?”

“It was really easy, except that my whole body was so hot I thought I was going to die.”

When Cosette spoke with her mouth pouting, I felt annoyed and swung my whip at her head again, but unfortunately she blocked it.

“It seems like Mathias needs to work a little harder.. This includes Aila, but have you continued your magic training since then? Have there been any significant results?”

I asked with anticipation, but unfortunately no one answered. I was a little disappointed.

“Okay, then from now on, I want to say that it’s magical power induction training… but no matter what, it’ll be a little difficult, so let’s take a rest today.”

“Oh my gosh… I’m really going to die.”

As soon as I threw the whip, Cosette fell down on the table as if she was flying. This is a serious joke. When I was young, this level of training was not even considered difficult, but these days, kids really don’t have patience. Even though we’re the same age.

Cosette was stuffing the sweet cake into her mouth like crazy. It was strange, but since Cosette was a person who ate everything well, I thought it was understandable. While I was passing the time chatting about trivial things, someone approached me. It was a face I had never seen before.

“Hey ladies.. If you don’t mind, can I ask what grade you are in?”

“..You’re a third year student now, what’s going on?”

Ayla asked, not hiding her wariness. The man raised both hands to show that he had no hostility and answered.

“Oh, you’re a year younger than me. It’s nothing much, I’m just working in an organization that’s trying to make this academy better.”

“You’re my senior. What kind of effort do you make?”

“It’s simple. If you’ve been in this academy, you’d know that… Don’t you think it’s very common for people to look down on, oppress, or ignore each other because they come from different backgrounds?”

“Well, that’s a bit harsh.”

Agnes, who was listening to the conversation, muttered softly. I can’t say directly who or where I am, but most of the students have a rough idea of each other’s origins, that is, their class rather than their region, so it’s natural that both commoners and nobles despise each other.

“I think this Academy trend needs to change. To do that, I think the ‘number 1s’ who make up the majority of the Academy members need to come together. If the majority creates public opinion, wouldn’t the rest follow suit?”

Number 1 was a slang term for lower-ranking nobles. Since it was usually associated with 0 and referred to commoners, it was often simply said that the higher the rank, the higher the number. Ayla said with a sullen face.

“Sorry, but most of us are number 0 and this is not number 1.”

“Haha, you can figure that out if you look at it roughly. But you guys are talking really friendly. If there are more people like you who are good friends regardless of their backgrounds in our group, wouldn’t our words have more credibility?”

“Um..”

Ayla hesitated as if she had lost her words. It was because she felt that the man was not flirting or had any ulterior motives, but was sincerely trying to make the Academy a more comfortable and better society. I, who had been watching, spoke up on his behalf.

“Your intentions are great, but I think it would be difficult to work together.”

“..Yeah. It’s a shame, but there’s nothing I can do. It’s meaningless if I force them to do it.”

The man disappeared, telling me to come back when he changed his mind. But what if he left without telling me his name or the name of his group? He seemed like a nice person, but he seemed to have a bit of a blind side.

“What do you think, princess? About that story just now.”

“Well.. It would be nice if everyone could live without discrimination, but that’s not possible when people from the same background fight and ostracize each other.”

“That’s right..”

This is nothing more than an idealism. Even if the number of lower-class nobles were the greatest, and even if they gathered together in such numbers, there is no way they could achieve something similar to world peace.

I heard it somewhere. What should we do to achieve peace for humanity? The answer was simple. All of humanity should disappear.

Well… that story has nothing to do with the current situation.

I took a sip of the cold tea.